This Diwali will be a ‘Digital Diwali’: Amit Tiwari, Havells 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.

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

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. 

In conversation with Adgully, Amit Tiwari, Vice President, Marketing Communication, Havells India, highlights how most integrations for this festive season will be around digital and content related platforms. 

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?

Consumer behaviour across the nation has settled into the new normal significantly. There has been a tremendous shift to mindful shopping, the lines between what were hitherto essential and non-essential and discretionary items are blurring. Currently, we are seeing an uptake of domestic appliances such as air fryers, mixers, juicers, blenders as these seem to invade the essentials category. Apart from this, grooming products are high on demand, there has been a 5x spike in the sale of beard trimmers. This is because spas and salon have been shut for long and as they open, people may not be willing to go into these facilities immediately. In the forthcoming time, it is expected that consumers are going to increasingly look at buying safe and quality products, which offer a superior after-sales service.

As for other businesses, the economic impact of the pandemic situation was quite denting. The business started to rebound from May, with a significant contribution coming from smaller towns and semi-urban geographies leading the rebound. Urban centers like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata will take a while to get back on track. This is quite consistent with what we are seeing in the industry at large. The pandemic completely washed off the summer sale in the beginning of the year. However, with the marketplace opening, we are optimistic that this festive season will be critical to mitigate the adverse economic impact.

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?

Most of the integrations for this festive season will be around digital and content related platforms. More focus and direct resultant would be on lead generation for better efficiencies and effectiveness. Also, the cross medium usage will be a key differentiator.

Content creation and assimilation will form a new trend and will create a special niche across multiple platforms. This Diwali will be a ‘Digital Diwali’, where most of the brand attributions will be around customisation, convenience, compatibility and conversations.

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?

With consumers avoiding shops and retail outlets, there has been a tremendous shift towards digital platforms for various purchases. This fleeting consumer behaviour to prefer online shopping over offline shopping gives an edge to a digital business model, wherein consumers can order products from the comfort of their home.

Witnessing the trends, Havells introduced its ‘Online to Offline program’, designed keeping consumers and offline channel partners at the center of all activities. The new business model provides a solution to both, in terms of finding the products and paying online from the comfort of their home and hyperlocal commerce, that is, execution/ delivery at an unbelievable fast pace by local channels partners at the consumer’s place of choice.

Over 20 per cent of dealers/ distributors have already been registered for the program. Since the beta version of the program started, a sizeable number of queries and online orders have been received and the average monthly revenue generated from the e-store has surged by 4 times. Looking at the response, the program was rolled out across the country in June 2020, except for in Kolkata and Maharashtra, considering the lockdown guidelines in the states. At the backend, we have also invested in a dedicated app for retailers to place an order that is automatically relayed to the dealer network and the billing processes.

Marketing
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment