Consumer durable cos go all out to woo buyers

Yogima Seth
Posted: Monday, Mar 17, 2008 at 2336 hrs IST
Updated: Sunday, Mar 16, 2008 at 2357 hrs IST

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New Delhi, Mar 16: Consumer durable manufacturers are now going out in a big way to woo customers, instead of expecting them to walk into their traditional stores.

Be it participation in shopping festivals or conducting road shows, which means high expenditure on below-the-line activities, manufacturers are now reaching out to the masses to increase the level of penetration.

This comes at a time when consumer buying has dipped to 1.7% rate of growth in the index of industrial production (IIP) in January 2008, in comparison with a growth of 10.9% the previous year.

While, LG Electronics has for the first time participated in the Delhi Shopping Festival in an effort to enhance the brand visibility, Samsung India and Videocon Industries are conducting road shows to showcase their new technology products, which the companies feel will help create awareness about the products.

“Shopping festivals are times when people are in a mood to check out new thing and splurge on latest products. Hence, it is an ideal opportunity to enhance visibility of the brand and integrate new products,” says V Ramachandran, director (sales and marketing), LG Electronics.

All this comes at a price, which is as high as 45-50% of the total marketing expenditure planned by leading players in the industry. While, LG has set aside 40% of Rs 360 crore marketing expenditure for such kind of activities, Samsung will be shelling out as high as 55% of its around Rs 350 crore marketing budget. Videocon will be spending 2% of Rs 150 crore that it has set aside for marketing this year.

“Below-the-line activities create some buzz and helps to draw the attention of customers in malls, multiplexes or rural areas for that matter,” says Jyoti Shekhar, vice president, Videocon Industries Ltd. The company would be starting consumer connect programmes in multiplexes and road shows as well as free services camps in rural areas by the end of March.

“Activities like road shows might not always add to your sales in a big way at that time but it help in terms of increasing the brand recall when the customer goes to buy a product next time,” says R Zutshi, deputy managing director, Samsung India. Last year, the company had conducted such shows across 150 locations and going by the kind of impact that it had, it now plans to take it across over 200 locations, 80% of which would be in non-metros.

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