NEW DELHI: India’s lockdown saw consumers turn to several do-it-yourself routines at home. Grooming, cooking and health were key among them. Philips India that sells a range of grooming products along with kitchen and home appliances such as juicers, air fryers, vacuum cleaners, rice cookers etc said demand for these saw an uptick and continues to remain strong. There is a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour that is driving more experimentation in these categories at home, said Gulbahar Taurani, vice-president, personal health, Philips Indian Subcontinent, Philips India. As the country enters peak festival season, Taurani said the company has increased its marketing budgets by at least 20-30% compared to the year ago period. Edited excerpts from an interview:
What kind of demand are you anticipating this festival season?
We are very positive about the festival season. In fact, we have done all the preparations. We are aligning supplies accordingly, have a big campaign in the works, along with attractive consumer offers like every year. We believe the space in which we operate, the demand is going to be strong this festival season. And on some of the categories (grooming and kitchen appliances), we will see better growth than previous festival seasons. From our side, the focus will be on every category whether that is grooming, kitchen appliances or air purification.
Will your marketing spends remain intact or go up?
They are going to be up, for sure. We have already started investing in Indian Premier League, that we do every year. But overall since we see a positive momentum coming, and as a market leader, we also have the responsibility of growing the categories.
So, we will spend more this year to ensure that there is buzz and the consumers get to know what are the offerings that we have for the festival season. While I can't share the value—I can share this with you that we are planning to invest around 20-30% more than last year.
As India emerged from the lockdown, is demand for some of your categories still intact?
We have to look at two things. One, of course, our grooming products’ demand has picked up not only after the lockdown started opening up but after that also because there is a basic change in consumer behaviour.
Pre-covid, consumers were becoming more confident exploring and experimenting with different styles. Now covid has accelerated that phenomenon. And that's why when the lockdown started easing up, we saw a pent-up demand for these products. But, you know, along with that pent-up demand, there was also a change in the consumer behaviour, which is actually working in the favour of these categories. And the demand is very much sustained and it will only grow stronger from here.
What are these changes in consumer behaviour?
As a result of covid, we have started spending more time at home. So, we want to make our homes a better place for ourselves. It also means having gadgets to style, experiment and groom yourself at home, such as electrical epilators which have seen increased demand. Being home, people are cooking more frequently. We are seeing a surge in our kitchen appliances (business). India as a market is used to having household helps, and during covid-19 lockdown that was also not possible. That is why this whole space around the vacuum cleaners has also emerged as one of the strong categories. Finally, if you see this whole concern and awareness around safety—that is why our purification products are also a demand. Consumers are identifying the needs which were already there—they have only accelerated. I believe this growth is going to sustain because these are the needs which are not going to go anywhere.
Will you roll out more promotions and consumer offers given that consumer wallets are stretched?
Consumer offers and promotions will be in line with what we to do in any festive season.
Will this festival season be an offline or an online play?
The consumer is asking for experience and availability at every touchpoint. And we go with that phenomenon—that wherever the consumer is visiting, we should be able to provide them the right experience. So, whether that's online—they should have the right content, and information to make their decision. Similarly, offline, they should be able to see product, touch and feel, have the right demonstration. I don't see a change in this phenomenon as such. We should leave that choice to the consumers from there they want to buy.
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