Festive spirit is in the air and marketers seem to be the first ones to take a whiff.
Armed with tactical marketing tools, brands are busy doling out combo offers, freebies, flagging new television commercials and cherry topping their selling propositions with easy finance options.
Panasonic India will run its nationwide campaign, ‘Celebrations for life’ this Diwali.
The company is pumping in Rs 100 crore for marketing and branding, during the festive run, targeting sales of Rs 1,200 crore.
LG India too has big plans in the offing. The company has a budget of Rs 150 crore for festival promotions. “We expect 25-30 per cent sales growth this festive season.
We will unleash our global marketing initiative — “World Record Campaign” which will coincide with the festive season, as well as celebrate LG’s focus on product excellence and innovation over the past 54 years,” L. K, Gupta, Vice-President, Marketing, LG India, said.
It is offering a zero per cent finance scheme on selected products, combo offers and 10-year warranty on the compressor of select models of refrigerators and washing machines.
Voltas, too would dole out freebies on the purchase of room air conditioners.
“We have planned a two-pronged marketing campaign during this festive season. While on television, we will launch the second phase of our ‘all-weather’ brand campaign, on print we will promote our special festival offer for consumers,” says Pradeep Bakshi, COO, Voltas Unitary Products Business Group (UPBG).
Samsung’s consumer promotion for the season “Smart home celebrations” entails attractive gifts on purchase of products, ranging from tablets to mobiles to movie titles.
For air conditioners, it will provide free installations on purchase of its 2-5 star rated models. “We are looking at a 25 per cent jump in sales during the festive season,” says Mahesh Krishnan, Vice-President, Consumer Electronics Business, Samsung.
Cashing on the festive sentiment, Whirlpool of India would also launch a promotion campaign. “Whirlpool’s consumer promotion for this festive season would be ‘A kitchen in your honour’.
We are targeting a growth of around 20 per cent over last year, aiming for sales of around Rs 900 crore during this festive season,” says Shantanu Dasgupta, Vice-President, Corporate Affairs & Strategy, Whirlpool of India.
The total advertising and marketing spend earmarked by the company this Diwali is Rs 10-12 crore.
Ramesh Chembath, Assistant Vice-President (Marketing), Godrej Appliances, said, “Total marketing spend planned for festive season is around Rs 15-20 crore.
We are targeting an increase in sales by 30 per cent over last year.” The consumer durables category will also see a slew of launches from companies such as Whirlpool, Godrej Appliances and Sansui.