Voltas will continue to drive the highest ToM results: Deba Ghoshal

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.

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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, Deba Ghoshal, Vice President, Marketing & Key Accounts, Voltas, shares why he remains optimistic of a revival in consumer and market sentiments during the festive season amid pandemic condition. 

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?

While there has been a substantial change in consumer behaviour, the white goods market is witnessing a slow yet steady return towards normalcy. There is a clear demand for need based products as consumers seek products to ease their daily lives in the new normal. We expect replacement demand to be high, since there has been a gap in consumption during peak lockdown. Earlier, we anticipated a phase-wise revival of different product categories, beginning with ACs and Air Coolers, followed by Washing Machines in monsoons, Refrigerators, Dishwashers and other Home Appliances, before the festival period. Thankfully, almost all the product categories are already gaining momentum as people continue to spend on these functional and necessary products, which are essential in the post-COVID world. While we are confident about the festive season, we need to be cautious about the temporary market lockdowns in new locations, which are continuously shifting due to the development of new COVID-19 hotspots.

In the new normal, there is one category which is getting created from a consumer demand perspective, which is Dishwashers. Though on a relatively smaller base, we are witnessing an exponential growth in this category since March 2020, especially in the urban markets. For the festival season this year, we also expect more traction for Home Appliances, like Washing Machines & Refrigerators. 

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 digitising a lot of our marketing efforts due to COVID-19 induced restrictions. We started ushering in the festive season amid the social distancing restrictions by announcing our Onam Celebration Offer for customers in Kerala through a digital meet. This digital Onam meet was actually a highly successful on-ground event till last year. As a part of our festival offer, consumers will have the opportunity to win benefits of up to Rs 20,000 on purchase of Voltas and Voltas Beko products, among other benefits. For Ganesh Chaturthi, we have rolled out a similar offer for our consumers in Maharashtra. Keeping in mind that these campaigns have been successful every year, as they raise consumer interest, we have planned similar offers for Dussehra, Durga Puja, Diwali and Christmas.

With social distancing bound to remain as the new norm, digital spends will go up as more people end up searching online and making purchases online. There are multiple ways in which we are trying to innovate and re-look at marketing in the post-COVID era, which is primarily driven by digital. 

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?

Despite the increasing focus on going digital, the offline experience continues to be an important factor in decision making when it comes to Consumer Durables. Our Distribution, Organised Trade and Retail partners are already operational and are following social distancing guidelines to serve our customers. Our dealers are slowly witnessing a spike in footfalls for a variety of products.

To address the needs of our customers who are still unsure of visiting the stores, we have sufficient product information in forms of product demo videos, feature specifications, etc., on our website and digital platforms, in the form of e-catalogs. We have also made this information accessible to our audience through our media partners. You will also see us digitally enabling the after-sales service initiatives through online content.

There were several pull backs on all marketing investments in the industry due to the lockdown in the last quarter. Owing to signs of recovery and the upcoming festival season, we will focus on promoting tactical consumer offers for generating secondary sales. We are promoting these offers through online Digital initiatives and Activation initiatives in the field. We will also invest in Search, which will continue to be one of our focus areas. Over the past decade, Voltas has established a strong brand equity, which will help us ride through this pandemic. As a brand, Voltas always had the highest SOV as well as SoE, and we will continue to drive the highest ToM results.