Season Brings Festive Fervor Back For FMCG Firms For companies such as PepsiCo, Parle Agro, Mondelez India, the season has already kicked off on a positive note

During festivals, celebrations transcend boundaries and FMCG companies are inundated with demand. Brands already experienced a significant spike in sales during the recent Raksha Bandhan and Ganesh Chaturthi holidays, which illustrates consumer excitement about celebrating their first unrestricted festive season in two years.

"Every year, all our brands experience a huge surge in demand during the festive season. We expect this demand to continue during the ongoing festive period with a 20-25 per cent increase this year compared with pre-pandemic times," siad Nadia Chauhan, joint managing director and CMO, Parle Agro.

For Mondelez India, the season has already kicked off on a positive note. "With our Rakhi campaign performing well and securing double-digit growth for the brand, our company is really enthusiastic about the growth," said Desmond D'souza, senior director sales, Mondelez India.

Special packs

Festivals often push companies to come up with special packs.

"We have been doing this for the last 20 years and the tradition will continue this year as well. We were the first ones to introduce beverages in festive packs in India which have become a staple purchase for consumers during the festive season every year. We have aggressive plans for the launch of new campaigns and robust promotions of our festive packs," added Chauhan of Parle Agro.

With at home and out-of-home consumers seeking convenience and value, companies are trying to meet specific needs. "We are trying to meet convenience through our on-the-go packs on Tropicana or large packs on brands such as Pepsi, 7Up, Lay's and Doritos, among others. As a consumer-centric organization, we are also dedicated to make experiences memorable with our unique offerings, which heightens during the festive period," said a PepsiCo India spokesperson.

Mondelez India considers gifting to be a key growth driver. "We will be leveraging our full portfolio since we expect gifting will act as a catalyst for people to rejoice and reconnect," said D'souza.

New launches

PepsiCo India has diversified product range with recent launches such as Lay's Gourmet, Kurkure Chatpata Cheese, Pepsi Black, Quaker Oats Multigrain and Quaker Oats Muesli etc.

To make the moments even more delightful the company is planning to bring unique digital-forward and value-for-money offerings through celebratory packaging. "Furthermore, we continue to strengthen our distribution both through traditional and e-commerce channels to be able to cater to consumers across urban and rural geographies to make these festive occasions all the more memorable," added the PepsiCo spokesperson.

Going beyond chocolates, Mondelez India sees great opportunity with OREO, its biscuit brand. "We will definitely carry the baton of our successful Diwali campaign this year as well and we will come up with more interesting narratives on other occasions that will drive the festive growth aggressively," added D'souza.

Parle Agro introduced a flavored milk beverage at a price of INR 10 for an 85 ml pack. The price and pack size of this product has enabled strong distribution for the brand. "This is the first festive season for Smoodh and we have special packs comprising an assortment of all Smoodh variants which we will be promoting aggressively this season," added Chauhan of Parle Agro.

Consumer sentiment

Consumer sentiment has improved across geographies. From a trade perspective, Mondelez India's sentiment remains positive as most retailers experienced encouraging offtakes during Rakhi. "Post festive season, the aim is to invest and produce in line with the demand and continue satiating the varied snacking needs of the consumers," said D'souza.

The last two years witnessed a dull festive show. This year, with their guards down, consumers are keen on celebrating with complete freedom.

"With improved consumer sentiment and increase in mobility, we expect the festive demand this year to be even higher than pre-Covid-19 times. We are already experiencing a huge surge in demand as shared in quarter one and are projecting even stronger demand for our products in the coming few months," said Chauhan of Parle Agro.

The shift in consumer sentiments can be attributed to rise in disposable income, premiumization and growing health consciousness. "Consumer preferences are shifting because of disposable income, premiumization and growing health consciousness, especially during festival season," said Rajat Wahi, partner, Deloitte India.