This is Diwali week, when shoppers naturally go berserk across India. High streets and malls will be packed with people buying clothes, television sets, jewellery, sweets, dry fruits, wrist watches, iPhones, washing machines, cars…well, virtually everything.

Brightly lit shops will put their best products forward, and millions of wallets will be pulled out happily to pay for these purchases.

We often think of this as a homogenous tidal wave of festive shopping, triggered by a uniform urge to celebrate with abandon.

However, on closer examination, it is interesting to note that there are very different drivers of consumer behaviour during Diwali, which converge to make this a splendid shopping season.

This article studies some of these diverse purchase motivators, which vary widely across categories, and can be leveraged sharply by marketers.

Celebration

Celebration is of course one of the foremost reasons for consumer purchase during Diwali. This is the foremost festival season in India, traditionally a time for families to celebrate and indulge together. What better way to celebrate than to buy, share and devour goodies in the family? Indian sweets and savouries are top-of-mind categories bought for this purpose, since no celebration is complete without them.

In modern affluent households, handmade chocolates, scotch or wine, and Diwali feasts in five-star hotels and clubs have been added to this growing list.

Exchanging gifts is yet another key trigger for Diwali purchases. This is the season when we exchange gifts with our loved ones, relatives, business associates, friends; and also to postmen, handymen and household maids. Every society has its gifting week, and ours is Diwali.

Not merely are gifts the custom; they are expected and eagerly awaited, and their absence or inadequacy often leads to unbearable disappointment. Therefore, apart from the warm emotions associated with gifting, there is clear performance pressure on consumers who have to choose the right gifts for all key members of their personal ecosystem well in time. New clothes, wrist watches, perfumes and boxes of dry fruits are typically categories bought for gifting during this period.

Many big purchases are deferred to the Diwali period because this is the time when people receive their annual bonuses from their employers, hence have wads of disposable cash to spend.

Also, consumers tend to spend their bonuses far more readily, whereas they tend to save higher proportions of their regular monthly earnings. This is perhaps because many of us are conditioned to regard a festive bonus as “extra cash” meant to be freely used during the festive season. Deferred purchases are most applicable to expensive consumer durables such as television sets, music systems and cars.

Auspicious reasons

Purchase of some products is considered auspicious during Diwali, and particularly on specific days of the season.

For instance, buying of gold or other metals on the day of Dhanteras, which is normally the day before Diwali, is believed to bring wealth to the person throughout the year ahead. Such a promise of year-long prosperity is irresistible, and leads to millions of people flocking to jewellery stores on this single day.

Similarly, a muhurat purchase of stocks during the Diwali trading session is considered particularly auspicious by investors and stock brokers across the country. Many of these beliefs derive from the fact that this is a period when the Goddess of Wealth is worshipped, hence it is a good omen to bring Her into our homes on these days.

Increasingly, many purchases are made during this season on pure impulse. Consumers are driven to such impulse purchases by two factors.

First, the attractive limited-period Diwali offers and discounts announced by brands, which hold strong lure.

Look around your city, and you will find hundreds of such attractive offers, ranging from simple discounts, to gifts with purchase, to mega contests. Second, the consumer is also seduced by the mood of active shopping which prevails all around.

Even if he or she is not planning a purchase, the scent of shopping wafts all around and tends to sweep you away. Organised retailers, shopping streets and malls have perfected this art.

Many of us buy during Diwali just to relax and feel good about ourselves. We have read about how shopping is such a relaxing pastime, especially for women.

But the happiness factor also comes from knowing that we have finally indulged ourselves during a well-deserved holiday season, particularly after a busy and relentless year where we have run hard on the treadmill of life. Diwali shopping, like a visit to a spa, leaves us refreshed and sparkling for the year ahead.

(The author is Chief Operating Officer – Watches & Accessories, Titan Industries Ltd. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in )

comment COMMENT NOW