• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Hopes to tap FMCG growth in the festive season

Mumbai , Sept. 25

ACNielsen has announced the introduction of ACNielsen Utsav Express — a weekly service for monitoring the distribution and sales build-up of key gift products.

With ACNielsen Utsav Express, marketers can ascertain whether their product is placed in stores that attract the right consumer. Besides, it can track popular gifting price point across regions as well as monitor the retail sales build up for their gifting item and explore the presence of point of purchase displays for the items.

Speaking at the introduction of the service, Ms Sapna Shetty, Associate Director Client Service ACNielsen, said, "As the time comes for consumers to celebrate, opportunities abound for marketers to capture consumers' attention and share of wallet with their promotional initiatives. For this time of the year in particular, it is essentially one big festival time leading up to the end of the year."

Spending habits

ACNielsen data reveals that the spending habits of urban consumers on foods and non-foods were about the same while in rural areas people purchased more of non-food items such as home and personal care products. People indulged more on cooking and personal grooming products in this season, which accounted for 29 per cent and 31 per cent of total incremental sales compared to the previous quarter.

"As the findings reveal, the spirit of celebration is not limited to urban dwellers; in rural India we have witnessed the same enthusiasm which has contributed to the upward sales trend for the FMCG sector," added Ms Shetty. "The challenge now for marketers to keep ahead of competition is not only to catch the attention of people in urban India but also to penetrate deep into the rural zones."

Traditionally, the FMCG categories that drive the last quarter sales have been edible oil, chocolates, skin creams and lipsticks. Chocolates, the all-time favourite gifting product, have seen a 16 per cent increase in sales at an all India level in the festive months of October to December 2005 as compared to the previous quarter. Besides, in the top five gifting markets, Chocolates worth approximately Rs 19 crore were sold every month during this season with as much as Rs 12 crore coming from festive packs alone.

Salty snacks, biscuits are the other popular food categories where sales peak up during festive season, predominantly during the Diwali period as Utsav Express showed last year.

More Stories on : Retailing | Marketing Research

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Sivasakthi plans global footprint for Nitraa furniture brand

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line