Festive boost: Eureka Forbes eyes 25% of annual sales via omnichannel

As the festive season approaches in India, brands across all categories are ramping up their marketing efforts to capitalise on the surge in consumer spending. From e-commerce giants to FMCG companies, automotive manufacturers to electronics retailers, businesses are rolling out aggressive campaigns, enticing offers, and innovative product launches to capture the attention of festive shoppers. This period, typically spanning from October to December, is crucial for many companies, often accounting for a significant portion of their annual sales.

The home appliances sector, in particular, tends to witness a notable spike in sales during this time. Eureka Forbes, an Indian multinational home appliances company, is no exception. The company offers a wide range of products, including water purifiers, air purifiers, security systems, air conditioners, and vacuum cleaners.

Eureka Forbes was the first to introduce water purifiers in India in the 1980s, revolutionising the concept of clean drinking water in Indian households. Today, the brand competes with major players like Kent RO, Livpure, and HUL's Pureit in the water purifier segment, while facing competition from Dyson, Philips, and other international brands in the vacuum cleaner market.

Anurag Kumar, chief growth officer at Eureka Forbes, outlines the company's multifaceted marketing strategy for the upcoming festive season. The consumer durables giant, renowned for its water purifiers and vacuum cleaners, plans to leverage an omnichannel approach to capitalise on the seasonal surge in consumer spending.

Kumar emphasises the company's category-specific strategies, including its flagship water purifier brand, Aquaguard. "We've identified three core tasks for our water purifier segment," Kumar explains. "Firstly, we're focusing on increasing category penetration, which currently stands at a mere 6% nationally and 12% in urban India. Secondly, we're targeting the replacement market with innovative features. Lastly, we're encouraging the use of genuine filters for annual replacements."

The company's recent Aquaguard campaign exemplifies this strategy, introducing features like instant hot water to motivate consumers in the replacement market to upgrade their purifiers. Targeted marketing efforts across various channels complement this product innovation-driven approach.

Kumar details the company's comprehensive performance marketing strategy, especially tailored for the festive season. "We've implemented an omnichannel marketing plan that covers all consumer touchpoints," he states. "This includes digital channels like Google Search and e-commerce platforms, influencer marketing with celebrities like Karishma Tanna, retail merchandising with floor-standing units and promoters, direct sales through home demonstrations, and e-commerce through our website."

The media strategy

The media mix for these campaigns reveals a balanced approach between traditional and digital media. Kumar discloses, "Our media mix typically allocates 60-65% for awareness marketing or branding and 35-40% for performance marketing, both offline and online." Within the awareness marketing budget, television remains dominant, accounting for about 60%, followed by digital media, with print and radio playing smaller roles.

Interestingly, the festive season, which Eureka Forbes considers a 60-day period, sees a significant spike in both sales and marketing spend. "We see about 25% of our annual sales during this period," Kumar reveals. "Our media spending mirrors or slightly exceeds this proportion, accounting for about 25-35% of our annual budget."

The company's strategy also includes hyperlocal and regional campaigns. Kumar cites an example: "In Kerala, where the major festival occurs earlier with Onam, we collaborate with leading regional publications for a campaign combining advertising and consumer offers." He also mentions ongoing activations in residential societies, particularly in North India, and in-store activations involving festive schemes.

Influencers and celebrity endorsements

Influencer marketing is playing an increasingly significant role in Eureka Forbes' strategy. While the company has previously used brand ambassadors like Madhuri Dixit for Aquaguard, it is now scaling up its influencer marketing efforts. Kumar explains the brand's two-pronged approach: "We use top-of-funnel marketing with mega-celebrities to increase brand awareness and niche influencers, including product reviewers, to reach consumers during their product research phase."

The company's target audience strategy is equally sophisticated, varying by marketing task and product category. "For our hot and ambient water Aquaguard campaign, we're targeting a premium demographic of existing water purifier users likely to upgrade," Kumar elaborates. "Our penetration-focused campaigns, on the other hand, target those who don't currently own water purifiers." For vacuum cleaners, the target audience includes working couples, families with young children, and pet owners in larger cities seeking convenient cleaning solutions.

Expansion plans

Despite having key markets across all zones of the country, Eureka Forbes sees room for expansion. Kumar notes, "We're relatively stronger in the South and West compared to the North and East. We see an opportunity to grow our market share in the North, which is why we're conducting more activations there during the festive season." He also highlights rural areas as a significant future opportunity, albeit one that will require developing a service network in these regions.

The company's retail strategy in India is robustly omnichannel, encompassing direct sales, retail channels (both modern and general trade), e-commerce platforms, its own website, a service network, and even a presence in armed forces canteen stores. E-commerce is a significant contributor, accounting for 25-28% of the company's turnover.

When questioned about quick commerce, Kumar adopts a cautious stance. "Most electronic sales we've observed in quick commerce are for items priced below 3,000 rupees," he states. "As most of our products are priced higher and may require installation, we haven't seen significant traction in quick commerce yet. However, it's a rapidly evolving space, and we continue to explore opportunities there."