Festival time lifts spirits as consumers soak up the festivities, virtually

Navratri, Durga Puja, Eid and now Diwali – with so many festivals back-to-back, Utsavnama, the Ipsos Festival Tracker shows, the festival season has melted a lot of the pandemic led gloom and lifted the spirits of consumers. The mood is festive; and they are dressing up and celebrating the festivals virtually with family and friends.

 “Festival season has heralded joy and infused cheer among consumers who were hitherto anxious and sad with all the pandemic related morbidity. They are dressing up and in the celebratory mode with family and friends, though virtually,” says Sakina Pittalwala, Executive Director, Ipsos UU, India.

The tracker shows some interesting trends:

ü  Consumers said they played virtual garba. And yes, they followed the Navratri nine-day colour coding, at home – wore outfits in the colour prescribed by the Navratri festival.

ü  How about personal grooming? Did they make a mad scramble for the beauty salons? 

Most of the consumers polled said they ditched the beauty salons and tried home remedies. Interestingly, the key ingredients used included aloe vera and honey.

• 4 in 10 said they have started eating out – but the rest are largely treading on caution, shows the tracker, and avoiding eating out, amid the pandemic.
• Festival time has made the consumers euphoric and like a magic potion, it has melted the gloom.
• New definition of festival time: it is not about scouring the markets for festival shopping, going out for parties and meeting friends and family, this year. This year consumers are happy being at home, bonding with family. Cooking together. Chatting together.
• How about spending this festival season? Big city consumers will curtail spending. And small city consumers will be loosening the purse strings more.

 “The pandemic has not dampened the spirits of consumers during the festival time. Consumers are leveraging all the positive elements of the festival to suffuse their lives with much cheer, to set aside all the gloom and sadness of the pandemic. Within the confines and restraints, they are celebrating. Marketers should reach them digitally to grab a pie of their spends. Catch them, before someone else snags them,” says Anthony Dsouza, executive director, Ipsos Innovation, India.

 Utsavnama is the month-long festival tracker – an interactive Ipsos community which is capturing consumer attitude, behavior and choices, this festival season via chats, videos, and pictures, to provide marketers with interesting insights for their future planning, during the pandemic.