| The city was alive and bubbling. But another sight that couldn't be missed was the presence of numerous "balloonwallahs" (balloon sellers) outside the churches with their multi-shaped multi-coloured balloons smartly cashing in on the "festive" mood and the presence of children within the crowd of churchgoers. |
| This is a sight repeated time and again during every festival. The local vendors""whether the "vada-pav-wallah" (the seller of the Indian burger) or the "chai-wallah" (the ubiquitous tea seller)""pop up at all places of community congregation to make that extra buck during high traffic periods and upbeat mood moments in consumers' lives. |
| They are present at the real moment of truth of the consumer to make the sale. |
| Is there something that the instinctive, local entrepreneur has his pulse on which mass marketers tend to miss? |
| Do formal management education and formal strategic planning in big offices take away from the marketing process the earthy feel that can provide insights into better leveraging consumer mind states and extracting better value for a brand? |
| India is a country of festivals. By being a secular, democratic republic, the government and we have formally recognised that multiple religions will co-exist. |
| India is made of 82 per cent Hindus, 14 per cent Muslims, 2 per cent Christians, and 2 per cent Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Parsis. What's more interesting is that the spread of these people varies across the country. |
| Kerala has a good mix of Hindus, Christians and Muslims while Orissa is predominantly Hindu. So clearly every day somebody somewhere is celebrating a festival. And each provides some opportunity to a prospective marketer. |
| There is a psychology of festivals, which is worth examining and understanding. There are four pillars to the festival mindset. |
| Festivals are about rituals. Most festivals are based on historical myths and manifested in traditional rituals. These have evolved over time moving from indoors""at home and in places of worship""to outdoors into a series of activities. |
| Many festivals in India have taken on a spectacle scale and are today software for local television channels. (In Mumbai, Ganesh Visarjan""the immersion of the idol""and the Ras Garba""all night dancing""at Dussehera time are events promoted by event managers and telecast live. |
| The same is true about Ram Lila in Delhi!) Rituals by definition mean high involvement. |
| Festivals are about community activity. Historically, festivals were about families getting together and having a great time. That has now evolved into community activities. |
| The spectacle events have provided consumers with legitimate platforms to come together and interact with each other. Interestingly, despite the multi-religion composition of the Indian population, these activities actually encourage people of different faiths to bond and forget their religious differences. |
| They are true periods of brotherhood. This also takes the form of giving. And over time gifting has moved from being expressions of bonding to being statements of status. |
| Festivals are about indulgence. The general environment of good cheer creates a buoyant mood of optimism. There is a willingness to loosen purse strings and spend to enjoy some of the better things in life. |
| Smartly, local restaurants add a little extra goody to their normal offerings, and charge a premium during a festival period. |
| Festivals are about renewal. It's an age-old practice that people repaint their houses, buy and wear new clothes and consider a festival an auspicious time to start something new. |
| Clearly deeper down, this reflects a mind making a new beginning and adopting little symbols that make one feel that there is newness in life. |
| These present many opportunities for brands to get extra value from existing consumers, get consumers to spend more, and own some of the consumer experiences to forge stronger bonds with current and prospective consumers. |
| Are marketers doing enough currently to tap into the festival mindset and make the most of it? |
| Many festival initiatives are clearance sales and free offers. So they end up being "promotional" in nature""a battle for market share through brand switches""thus actually extracting less value for consumer purchases. |
| In a world where brands have to move from products to experiences, festival rituals provide a "sitting duck" opportunity for brands to own experiences and thus forge stronger bonds with consumers. Asian Paints has been a pioneer in this through its "Sharad Samman Puraskar" initiative in Kolkata. |
| Every year, the best Durga Puja pandals are awarded a special prize by a panel sponsored by the brand, the brand thus owning a very significant event in the city. |
| Ganesha pandals in Mumbai have strong "viewership" value, especially among children. There is an opportunity for a "kids" brand to actually sponsor guided tours around the city to see the various "Ganeshas" in various sizes. |
| Community gatherings at such spectacle events provide brands with captive audiences. It is an opportunity to be present and convert presence to trials and sales. |
| While brands seem to use the formal organised events (more due to the persistent efforts of the organisers to gather funds rather than the "saviness" of marketers), there is an opportunity of being present at the more informal places. |
| Note how roadside vendors pop up whenever, wherever there is a "community" and making the most of it. (The recent Reliance AGM was a business opportunity for "sandwichwallahs" and "chaiwallahs", who made a killing selling to the waiting media people outside Maker Tower IV). Packaged water, tea, biscuits and a number of other products could leverage this. It's just a case of taking the brand, its distribution and its visibility to those moments of truth when their relevance and need are high. |
| Consumer indulgence provides a chance for FMCG marketers to create special upgraded products and sell them at a premium. Consumers are willing to pay a little more for better things during that period. Brand loyalists can be made to extend themselves; non-users can be triggered to try a new product and future attempted thereafter. |
| Festivals as a time of renewal offer opportunities for marketers to leverage the need for something new into the home to trigger purchase. |
| Asian Paints has successfully ridden this through the 90s by associating itself with key occasions, nationally and regionally. |
| Consumer durable brands can use this to motivate prospects to upgrade or bring in something new every season as part of the auspicious renewal process. |
| Finally, brands can actually create festive occasions and spread cheer to drive sales. In the mid-90s, Valentine's Day as a concept was an alien concept restricted to select "upmarket" English colleges. |
| Hallmark and Archies pioneered this in their own way making it mainstream and today it's a "festival" that many gifting brands ride on and cash in on. |
| As the world moves into micro-marketing, great opportunities lie in getting closer to the consumer and exploiting, from the ground level to mass media, moments when she is most willing to spend. |
| Festivals in India offer an all-the-year-round opportunity for marketers willing to do marketing and communication differently. |
| Something worth thinking about. |
| (The author is with Discovery, Ogilvy and Mather India. The views here are personal) |
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