After facing one of the worst festive seasons in 2013, consumer durable firms are bullish on the upcoming festive season and targeting strong double digit growth.

Companies are also set to make an advertising blitzkrieg to make most of the positive consumer sentiment during the time, which is traditionally considered to be the biggest buying season, if their advertisement budget is any indicator.

Thanks to the extension of excise duty sops to consumer durable firms till the year end, prices of consumer durable products have also been largely stable and companies have not been taking any steep hikes in the recent past.

For instance, LG India, which is targeting to achieve a 35 per cent growth in sales over last year, has launched an aggressive new festive season campaign.

Sanjeev Agarwal, VP sales, LG India said, “Last year consumer sentiment was a concern. But, we are witnessing a boost in consumer’s confidence driving on hope of an economic recovery this year. The consumer sentiment is picking up and we are very upbeat about this. We have seen good growth and spike in Onam sales too.”

Most consumer durable companies are offering free gifts, along with benefits like instant cash back offers, extended warranty and various combination offers this festive season. Home appliances and home entertainment are among the key categories that the companies are expected to see an uptick.

Misc factors

Manish Sharma, Managing Director, Panasonic India, said, “We believe factors such as high consumer confidence, stable rupee and the new Government, will lead to an upsurge in sales this season. We are aiming a revenue growth in excess of 25 per cent from last year’s revenues during the festive season and have allocated about ₹85 crore for the marketing initiatives during this period.” He added that the company is expecting a surge in demand for its high-end products.

Shantanu Dasgupta, VP and Corporate Affairs & Strategy, Whirlpool India, said that the company is aiming for a 20 per cent growth during the festive season. He said that the industry will start witnessing high volume sales, only when the first time buyers start making purchases, which the industry is hoping to woo this festive season.

Added Sunil Nayyar, Head, Sales, Sony India, “We have received strong consumer response to our festive promotion offers. For the overall festive season, we are confident of achieving our sales target of ₹5,100 crore (August to November 2014), a growth of 25 per cent over corresponding period last year. Specific to Onam, we are aiming for sales of ₹200 crore in Kerala, a growth of 48 per cent over corresponding period last year.”

Though analysts say that the consumer durable sector might now see the high growth that they witnessed during the boom time around 2009-11, but consumers who have been postponing their buying decisions, are expected to start making purchases.

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