Marketers are increasingly using the festive season to connect with consumers with clever marketing and promotional tactics.
Tradition and relationships have played a big role in Indian families, which marketers are using to their benefit to connect with consumers.
Our childhood memories are etched with family and friends celebrating festivals and events that were most often religious in nature. Looking back, I realise the importance of these events in not just religious and spiritual aspects, but by the way they brought us together. Festivals are important to Indians, be they religious like Diwali, Eid or Christmas, or cultural, such as Rakhi or even Valentine’s Day. They make us forget our regional and religious differences. We share traditions and values when we come together and bask in the festivities.
Earlier, when one lived in a joint family where everyone knew everyone else, festivals meant a platform for the people to congregate, exchange wishes, seek blessings, and celebrate with sweets and traditional culinary treats. With nuclear families becoming the norm now, there is also a cultural shift among a generation of people who don’t necessarily live in their home towns or states. However, traditional festivals have spread geographically and it is now common to come across Ganapati Puja in Gurgaon as much as in, say, Pune. And with marriages outside of one’s religion or community becoming common, festivals have taken a different meaning with more people discovering traditional festivals.
Celebrations is the root of all festivals and it is to do with the festival itself. Take Eid for example, which culminates after 30 days of fasting, or Dusshera, which symbolises the victory of good over evil. These are valid causes to rejoice and have a good time. This has led people to splurge during festivals, to the extent that many will save through the year only to spend during the festive period. I’ve come across many people who buy jewellery and gold when it is Akshay Tritiya or Dhanteras. No festival is complete without new clothes and some festivals are linked to auspicious big-ticket spends, such as buying a car or a house during the Navratras.
Marketers have been quick to realise the business prospects that festivals bring. In fact, the way Archies created cards for known and not-so-well-known occasions has made marketers focus on brand communication around festivals. Many festivals revolve around families. Making the most of it, the Cabury advertisement that was on air just before Rakhi imbibed family traditions, yet was contemporary enough to subtly substitute chocolates with sweets for the occasion. The brand managed to connect because in a festive mood, people are more receptive to messages that reflect the emotional aspects of family ties and bonds.
While many marketers continue to offer discounts and exchange offers around festivals, the smarter ones have gone beyond the transaction-driven promotion and are working hard to build strong brand associations that last a lifetime. They target every member in the family, from kids to grandparents, and strike a chord by associating with community festivals. Activities centered on congregation sites like Diwali melas, Garbha mandals and Ganesh and Durga Puja pandals are the flavour of the season for marketers. Banners and hoardings at pandals and stalls help the brands build a direct emotional rapport with their consumers, which may be a better strategy than using conventional branding and advertising media. The advertising has one common theme — involve every member of the family.
The current month marks the festive season for marketers, including us in the insurance business, because some of the festivals consider financial exchange as auspicious and part of tradition. I’m not referring to the card parties that many people enjoy during Diwali; but things like buying a new car or a home and making new investments that are part of the Dusshera-Diwali-Muhurat trading season. For us the association with festivals helps immensely. For instance, a stall that we put up during Durga Puja attracted many young couples because it offered advice on personal finance and they were the right target. For a brand such as ours, it is crucial to bond with our target audience so that it remains etched in their memories and we can form a connect.
In the past, insurance advertising always tended to be morbid, but with time people have realised the benefits of focusing on the various occasions when the family is together. Communication now focuses more on the role of the financial product during one’s lifetime than after it. Family values during festivals form a great opportunity for us to stress the importance of insurance.
As long as the festivals are there, marketers will use every opportunity to tap into the emotional chord of Indians to emphasise the virtues of their products and services.
The author is director & chief marketing officer, Max New York Life Insurance
