Festive Marketing: Consumer electronics to see growth of 10-12%

Along with FMCG, electronics is a sector that looks to ramping up its sales and revenues in a major way during the festive season. Market sentiment is expected to be buoyant during the festive season this year following a good monsoon. Brands are all armed with their advertising campaigns, marketing strategies, deals & discounts and innovative on-ground and on-air activations. 

Positive Sentiment 

Sanjay Kalirona

While stating that customer expectations are at an all-time high during the festive season, Sanjay Kalirona, CEO & Director, Comio Smartphones, remarked that marketers must work harder than ever to deliver bottom-line cheer to them. Retailers Association of India (RAI) commissioned Litmus World to conduct a customer sentiment index for the festive season and found that majority of the respondents said that they looked forward to shop during the festive season. There’s upbeat consumer sentiment, GST reduction for white goods and rationalisation is likely to play the catalyst. So, companies have more reasons to look forward to the festive season. 

“With last year being full of intermittent announcements on the financial front by the Government of India and with the GDP growth that is forecast, the overall sentiments this festive season are looking buoyant and poised for growth,” observed Amit Gujral, CMO, LG India. 

“With renewed interest from all consumer sets across platforms, we expect this festive season to be very strong compared to the last,” said Pratyush Chinmoy, Head of Marketing, Mirc Electronics Ltd (Onida). He added, “With each passing year, the disposable income of the consumer set has increased and if we look at the IIP data, the industries are also doing well. The companies understanding their customers the best, with best deals will win.” 

Festive Plans 

Elaborating on Onida’s festive marketing plans, Chinmoy said, “We are looking forward to being present across mediums on our leading product(s). We have worked on our channels, our product offerings and the media to be touched upon. Our best efforts would be to have maximum reach and exposure to Brand Onida and existing product ranges as well.” 

Comio’s Kalinora added here that the mobile phone brand will be customising its offers around the festivals prominent in each region. “Take the example of Kerala, we launched our festive offer around of the most important festivals of the state, Onam, wherein consumers could win a watch and umbrella on the purchase of the X1 Note handset. Since Diwali is celebrated pan-India, we are planning to launch new devices around that time combined with interesting offers,” he added. 

“At LG, we are celebrating our 21st Anniversary this year and what better occasion to multiply the joy than the festival season. LG has been part of Indian consumers’ lifestyle since the last 21 years and almost in every Indian home,” said Gujral. 

He further added, “We are celebrating this all round occasion with our consumer by bringing them the newest technology called ‘Artificial Intelligence’ via LG’s proprietary platform called ‘ThinQ’ across our range of products and also making it attractive for our consumers by providing many products at down payment of Rs 1,999 and rest in equal instalments of Rs 1,999 topped with 10 per cent cashback from leading banks on debit and credit cards, plus lot of complimenting bundles with our variety of products in categories of Home Appliances and Home Electronics.” 

Ad Spends 

Amit Gujral

For LG’s Gujral, spends are spread across marketing, advertising, experiential connect programmes for consumers, finance offers, cashback offers, product bundles, etc. “I don't want to put a bracket on spends, rather would like to state that we are happy spending on these customer beneficiary programmes and would not limit ourselves,” he added. 

Chinmoy, too, elucidated that advertising spends across media would be different, with maximum focus around the leading products. Growth in media consumption due to cheap data usages, increasing access to media by consumers by ever increasing touchpoints, aggressive campaigns by all industry players, increasing financing options, shift towards organised retail and e-commerce are few drivers toward the upcoming grand festive season. 

According to Comio’s Kalirona, the festive season contributes a large chunk to advertising expenditure every year. After two subdued festive seasons on account of demonetisation, followed by the implementation of the goods and services tax, this year consumer spending has gone up and is expected to witness an overall growth. 

Growth Expectations 

Pratyush Chinmoy

Consumer spends in Diwali is perceived to be more towards the TV and washing machine categories, noted said Chinmoy. However, different consumer sets with different socio-economic background will have different needs. “Categories such as TV have experienced growths of over 16-17 per cent and form a huge pie of the entire electronics categories. Spends from the consumer end is also on similar lines,” he added. 

For Gujral, the growth is expected to grow roughly between 10 per cent and 12 per cent. 

Kalinora, too, pointed out that revenues in the consumer electronics segment would amount to Rs 31,654,878,049 in 2018 and is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2018-2022) of 18.2 per cent. “This year on year growth is a clear indication that the overall electronics category is only growing and will definitely see a peak during the festive season,” he concluded.