Lights, crackers, sweets and shopping….the festivities bring the much needed excitement to our everyday lives. While Durga Puja and Dussehra have just passed, Diwali is around the corner.
The festival of lights has been associated with shopping for a long time now and promotional offers become flavor of the season.
The festive season induces a desire to spend without restraint among consumers. And companies welcome the opportunity with arms open. Besides lights and fireworks, the markets are flooded with banners of sale and offers on products.
And during the shopping bonanza time handset manufactures expect sales to shoot up. Therefore, their marketing budgets are strengthened as well, and mobile phone handset schemes abound in the market.
Global players:To spice up the activities, handset manufacturers display a range of options for consumers to buy along with discounts and other schemes.
Viral Oza, head of activation, media and online marketing at Nokia India, says, “We understand that festivals are an important part of the Indian consumer’s life. We therefore bring out special offers to make festivals a truly memorable experience for our consumers.”
The country head of HTC India Ajay Sharma says, “We have in the past witnessed a distinct spurt and a substantial increase in sales during the festive season, whereby sales of HTC devices have grown by at least 50 per cent over the average sales per month. We expect this season too to be no different and are hoping for a similar growth figure of a 50 per cent increase over the average sales per month.”
The Taiwanese handset manufacturer will shortly announce some special offers on select HTC models.
Meanwhile, LG Mobile plans to launch 30 new handsets this festive season which include LG T300 Cookie Chat, LG GM360i Cookie Snap and LG GM 350i Cookie Glide.
Moon B Shin, managing director at LG Electronics India says his company is looking forward to the festive season and that, ” It’s again that time of the year when we provide our consumers with special offerings to further strengthen our relationship. We are targeting a turnover of Rs 560 crore.”
The other South Korean manufacturer Samsung Mobiles has come up with a promotional offer in collaboration with Aircel. As per the offer, new Aircel SIM activation with a Samsung dual SIM phone gets a customer six minutes of free Talk time per day for 365 days.
Users will also get lifetime validity for the Aircel SIM card and 100 SMSs free for any three SMSs sent. This offer is valid on all purchases during October and December this year.
The company is also looking at capturing another 6-7 percent of the market this festive quarter.
Ranjit Yadav, director, mobile and IT business, Samsung says, “Samsung currently holds a 17 per cent market share in the India mobile market and aims to add another 6 -7 per cent to its current market share by end of 2010.”
Another exciting offer for consumers has been launched by Sony Ericsson, which gives users a chance to win Rs 5 lakh worth of shopping with Kareena Kapoor.
Anurag Kontu, head of marketing for Sony Ericsson India, says, “The ‘Shopping with Kareena’ campaign has been created keeping in mind the festive fervor when consumers have shopping at the top of their to-do list!”
In a press statement issued earlier the manufacturer stated, “This festive season, Sony Ericsson is also extending its Xperia range with the introduction of Xperia X8.”
Indian manufacturers:Even Indian handset manufacturers are not far behind. They too are expecting an increase in sales and plan to launch devices to attract users.
Some companies are expected to go on a launching spree as Rahul Goel, chief operating officer, Videocon Mobile, says, “This festive season for us is about launching exciting phones. At this point we have launched five new phones.”
He further adds, “This Diwali is very special for us because of our entry into the Android and 3G space, and thus places us better amongst the leading Indian players. We are keen to enhance our penetration across the markets.”
On the other hand, Wynn Telecom is expecting an increase of about 30 per cent in sales. Naveen Kapoor, assistant vice president of sales and operations at Wynn Telecom, says, “We are expecting approximately 30 per cent increase in our sales. Also, during this period consumers tend to buy new products. Hence, we have launched Y-90 and Y99, and have plans to launch a touchscreen phone as well.”
Interestingly, Wynn Telecom has come up with a different sales strategy. It has launched promotional offers which include ‘buy ten get one free’ – kind of schemes for their channel partners.
Kapoor says, “We have come up with some promotional offers for our channel partners. This will motivate them to enhance sales of Wynncom phones during the festive season.”
Vinayak Kumar Lal, general manager of marketing at Intex Technologies says his company expects to almost double the rise in sales this month, as compared to the previous month. “Festivals have always been a great opportunity to be innovative and come up with useful and interesting offers, ” he adds.
“These gestures go a long way and are really helpful in building brand loyalty and equity.”
Zen Mobiles plans to launch its 3G device close to Diwali. The company currently controls around 2 per cent of the handset market and expects its share to double by the year end.
Smarth Bansal, national marketing head, Zen Mobiles, says, “This being the festive season, we expect to garner 4-5 per cent of the market share by this year end.”
With so much on the anvil, this Diwali, not just consumers but also manufacturers will have a blast! While manufacturers expect sales and revenues to shoot up, consumers can expect full value of their money.