At-home consumption will peak during the festive season: Sidhant Bhutani, Simba

The great Indian Festive season has started amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We all know what kind of a washout the first half of 2020 has been when it comes to businesses and even personal lives being completely disrupted. Given the strict Government directives on maintaining social distancing, the huge crowds of shoppers that usually throng the markets during this time might be a lot less this year.

In normal circumstances, brands look at the festive season as an opportunity to gain maximum ROI, leveraging the consumer sentiments during this time. However, the unprecedented conditions have dampened the economy so far. While some are sceptical about businesses picking up during the rest of the year, we are also seeing a general mood of optimism.

Amid such a scenario, Adgully has reached out to marketers and publishers across India to gauge the sentiments during the festive season this year as part of our special series on ‘Festive Mood’. Over the next few weeks, we will be bringing the views and insights from various markets on how marketers and publishers are endeavouring to trigger a revival and give a boost to festive sentiments.

Sidhant Bhutani, Head of Marketing, Simba, is optimistic about a business and sales picking up for the alco-bev industry as India Unlocks. In this interaction with Adgully, Bhutani talks about his companies plans this festive season.

How do you see the consumer sentiments across the nation this year? Which markets are seen as leading the rebound and how? What factors will drive growth this festive season? How much do you see festive sales getting impacted due to COVID-19 this year?

The current health crisis has impacted consumers across industries and alco-bev industry is no exception to the impact. The pandemic panic and looming uncertainty are prevalent and have forced people to stay at home, impacting businesses and sales for the alco-bev industry. However, the government’s ease on restriction and clarity on movement have started to move things in a positive direction. As restaurants and bars begin to open up slowly and with the ease of restriction on serving liquor, people are finally mustering up the courage to slowly step out with increased safety and security.

Consumers are adapting to the new normal by integrating technology and online space into their lives at every step, one can see the rise of revenge consumption and festive season will be the perfect opportunity for consumers to return to their original buying behaviour. While earlier consumers were apprehensive of buying from online portals, the lockdown has definitely bridged that gap, even for liquor industry with the onset of online and home delivery.

This festive season will act as a good occasion for people to get together and spend time with their families and friends in smaller groups. It will be a period of indulgence post the lockdown, acting as a springboard for alco-bev and F&B industry. For the upcoming festive season, Simba will be introducing a slew of merchandise such as playing cards and chocolates with Paul and Mike, to offer our consumers something innovative and new. We will also continue our Roar from Home series – these cool virtual gigs with independent music artistes, giving people at home a reason to party and enjoy the festive season from the comfort of their homes. 

What kind of integrated marketing activities are you planning for the festive season? On which platforms will you be investing your ad spends more and Why? What kind of digital push are you looking at?

Being a new-age brand, Simba has believed in and relied on the strength, impact and reach of digital media, especially social media to reach our target audience. As one of the leading craft beer brands in India, Simba is keeping a close watch on emerging consumer trends and their buying behaviour. Aligned with this, we are meeting our audiences where they are today, using multiple digital tools and speaking their language. As a responsible brand, we are also leveraging our owned assets to spread awareness, in light of the current health crisis.

The pandemic presented us with an opportunity to relook at and realign our existing strategies and norms to conceptualise creative ways of connecting with people and deliver enhanced consumer experience in the new normal. This led to the inception of Roar from Home – where we took our IP Simba Uproar to our consumers, while encouraging upcoming artistes from around the country to showcase their musical talent. We have planned a series of Roar from Home gigs with multiple artistes for the upcoming festive season.

We anticipate at-home consumption will peak during the festive season as people will continue to meet at each other’s houses. This will give a boost to sales as people will bulk buy for at-home gatherings.

To add to the festive cheer, this year Simba has forayed into a new segment and launched limited edition beer based chocolates in collaboration with another homegrown brand, Paul and Mike – country’s finest farm to bar chocolate makers. 

Do you see retail footfalls increasing during the festive season, given that people are still not venturing out for shopping in a big way? What alternate routes are you looking at to shore up sales – such as e-commerce, online purchases, D2C initiatives?

Retail sales during festive season are looking up, considering it’s been a tough year. Given the current scenario, we have noticed consumers are bulk buying stock for the festive season to host people at home. Moreover, home delivery of alcohol as an alternative has given people the option to celebrate without stepping out of their houses. While restaurants and bars are slowly reopening across the country, retail will also begin to witness footfall with consumers taking necessary precautions.

At Simba, we have an array of interesting and cool merchandise for our consumers available on our own website. Aligned with the trend of online buying we are planning to expand our digital footprint and make our merchandise available on other e-commerce websites to ensure easy access.