Consumer sentiments are slowly improving with time: Vijay Kumar Mikkilineni, TCL India

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.

Continuing with the series, in conversation with Adgully, Vijay Kumar Mikkilineni, Senior Marketing Manager, TCL India, speaks about how his company is geared for the festive season, consumer sentiments and more.

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 consumer sentiments are slowly improving with time. Festive season has fortunately come post lockdown, hence, not much dip can be seen. However, we do have presence on e-commerce platform and with our new range launch of QLED, we are actually gaining lot of stimulus.

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?

We are doing marketing mix of both offline and online. We have decided to understand what ads – be it on digital or on print – act the best as per region wise. Strategy is to make sure that all the offer information and product details are reaching out to the right audience. Digitalisation has become an integral part when it comes to sales as well. So, we do have plans and we regularly use our social media platforms and PR activities to engage our customers.

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?

As I mentioned earlier, we already have our products present on e-commerce platforms, however in Tier 2 cities people still prefer going to physical stores and then buy; reliability is still a big factor for purchasing. We are ensuring that all necessary sanitisation process are followed at stores.