Original Source: exchange4media.com
Buying something ‘new’ is considered auspicious in every Indian household. It’s something every family member looks forward to. It could be a new phone for a sibling during Raksha Bandhan or a new car for the family during Dhanteras.
The festive season is a sea of opportunities for brands to have a greater connection with their customers at a personal level. Big brands provide custom offers for each occasion to enhance their audience engagement. For instance – Lifebuoy, during Durga Puja, connected with their customers through ‘Aasche bochor aabar hobe’, which helped them garner a lot of attention and brand recall.
We see a stark difference in the buying patterns of the customers during the festive season versus the off-season. This is because an occasion brings with it the motivation to purchase. That’s why we see a surge in sales during these festive periods. According to an article by one of the leading financial publications, e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart sold goods worth Rs 32,000 crore during festive sales in 2021.
However, this is the case not only for the traditional festivals. In India, a nation that is crazy for cricket and where the sport is revered as a religion, IPL is enjoyed as a festival as it brings a rave of excitement that takes the country by storm. Every brand tries to jump on the ‘brandwagon’ and associate themselves with IPL, which proves to be fruitful for their business. This is so because die-hard fans appreciate brands taking the effort to relate to their audience. During the IPL season, we have seen some of the most creative campaigns brought to life. For instance, the ‘Play It Different’ campaign by CRED garnered a lot of attention from cricket fans.
Coming back to festivals, according to a report by CIRC (Central Indian Regional Council of ICAI), 71% businesses report increases in sales during the festive season as compared to off-season. Even after the pandemic, nearly three in five Indians were excited about the upcoming festival season sales with nine out of every 10, planning to make a purchase during that time. This feeling of wanting to purchase during the sale is what brands have managed to utilize and live up to the expectations of their customers with their attractive offers.
This can also be seen in CARS24’s Driving Change Report, which highlights the various purchasing patterns of their customers during the various auspicious festive seasons. It threw light on the fact that not only new cars, but people were happily scouting for used cars during the festive season. According to the report, August registered the highest sale in 2021 by onset of festivals and discounts. This is interesting as it is expected that the pre-owned market will grow to $50 billion by 2025. This has also opened avenues for first-time car buyers, as the report states that 40% of the sales were contributed by Gen Z and Gen X and that the women buyers grew by 80% and further the total amount of loan disbursements in 2022 is expected to grow three times.
It’s a win-win for brands and customers alike. To add to the magic of the festive fervour, brands provide irresistible offers, which enables consumers to buy more and enjoy stupendous value proposition. To tap into their customers psyche, brands also use a narrative to relate to the general public, which is further amplified during the festive periods.
