Raviteja Dodda
As the festive season in India approaches, it becomes a critical time for brands to capitalise on the increased consumer spending. The period, marked by major festivals such as Dussehra, Dhanteras, and Diwali, offers a golden opportunity for brands to enhance engagement, increase sales, and build lasting customer relationships.
Understanding the personas of festive shoppers is the first step in crafting a strategy that resonates with them. Here’s a breakdown of these personas and how Indian brands can tailor their approaches to win big this festive season.
Unlocking the Festive Shopper Personas:
- Bargain Hunters are value-conscious shoppers who are always on the lookout for the best deals. To attract them, brands should offer discounted bundles, match competitor prices, and provide time-sensitive discounts or giveaways. The festive season, with its inherent spirit of gifting and shopping, is the perfect time to target Bargain Hunters with strategic discounts.
- Exclusivity Seekers: Drawn to uniqueness, these shoppers seek products that offer exclusivity and prestige. Brands can capture their attention by highlighting the elegance and uniqueness of their products, creating exclusive content, and backing it up with social proof on product pages.
- The Researchers: These shoppers invest time in ensuring they get the most value for their money regarding product choice. Brands can win them over by showcasing product value, leveraging reviews, and offering chat support on product pages to assist in their research.
- Impulse Shoppers: Driven by instant gratification, novelty, and convenience, these shoppers respond well to flash sales, limited-time discounts, and novelty items. The festive season’s excitement amplifies these shoppers’ impulsiveness, making it an ideal time to engage them with compelling offers.
- Brand Loyalists: These shoppers have a strong affinity for certain brands and are less likely to switch to competitors. Loyalty programs that offer exclusive discounts, personalized recommendations, and real-time customer support can strengthen their loyalty further.
This deep level of understanding of customer behaviour can only be gathered from an agile, AI-powered Martech platform. Therefore, choosing the engagement partner is critical in clocking these personas and engaging meaningfully with them.
Tactics to Implement This Festive Season
In today’s fast-paced digital marketplace, Indian brands are gearing up for the highly anticipated festive season—a critical period that can significantly impact annual revenue. A recent festive report reveals a remarkable trend – a whopping 65.5% of consumers are planning to spend more than ever before, demonstrating the immense potential for brands to tap into this surge of retail therapy. This is a clear indicator that consumers are looking to indulge heavily this festive season.
To capitalise on this opportunity, it’s essential to understand and leverage consumer behaviours and preferences. The key lies in personalisation and strategic engagement, ensuring that marketing efforts resonate with the festive spirit of the target audience.
Below are some innovative tactics designed that will help brands maximise their festive season strategies. From engaging customers with enticing offers to re-engaging them at every possible touchpoint, these insights aim to drive conversions, increase customer loyalty, and boost overall sales during this pivotal time of the year.
- Engage with Festive Offers: Use in-app or website pop-up notifications to highlight festive offers and deals, tapping into shoppers’ celebratory moods.
- Re-engage at Every Stage: Now in case a shopper drops-off without engaging with the brand communications, implement trigger communication relevant to the stage of their journey and use that relevancy to bring them back into the funnel.
- Create FOMO: To build urgency, send limited-time deals through push notifications, email, and WhatsApp. This is particularly effective in a festive context, where the fear of missing out can drive quicker conversions.
- Maintain Momentum: Identify customers’ propensity for future engagement and suggest products relevant to their interests or those on their wishlist. Continuously engaging customers even after the festive season can help in building long-term relationships, but the key here again is “relevancy”
- Drive Repeat Purchases: Use personalised offers and deals on higher-value products to increase the cart value. Additionally, drive communication based on behavioral insights and RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value) segmentation to increase purchase frequency.
Work Smart To Bring in the Big Bucks This Festive Season
The festive season in India is not just a period of cultural significance; it’s also a time when consumer spending is at its peak. For brands, it offers a unique opportunity to connect with their audience in a meaningful way.
Brands can maximise their success during this period by understanding the diverse personas of festive shoppers and tailoring strategies to meet their needs. In conclusion, the key to driving success this festive season lies in personalisation, timely engagement, and understanding the nuanced needs of different shopper personas. With an insight-led engagement platform by their side, brands that can navigate these aspects effectively will not only see a boost in their festive sales but also lay the groundwork for sustained growth in the future.
The author is CEO and co-founder at MoEngage. (Views expressed are the author’s own and not necessarily those of financialexpress.com)