Festival celebrations are woven into our country’s fabric. Both businesses and consumers look forward to availing of mutual benefits. With the start of the New Year 2023, Pongal lies near the top of the list and comes forward with great fervor. It is a multi-day Hindu harvest festival that attracts people from different religions for celebrations in different forms. Pongal, which is highly celebrated by Tamils in India, actually corresponds to Makar Sankranti or Uttarayana in other parts of the country.
Since the festivities around Pongal involve decorating homes and temples, and buying new clothes, and delicacies, it comes with a lot of opportunities for business owners. Brands like yours can connect with your existing and potential customers to begin the new year with higher sales and profits.
The festive season of 2022 has left a bigger footprint of unprecedented shopping – $11.8 billion in online sales and Rs. 1.75 lakh crore in offline sales (Projection 1 & 2).
But before you plan for any strategy to drive more sales to your business during Makar Sankranti, you should also know this –
Around every new year, the floodgates seem to open for brands, with countless businesses bombarding their marketing campaigns almost everywhere without warning. Through emails, social media posts, and TV ads around Pongal, brands aim to cash in on a spending frenzy. But a significant part of these marketing efforts ultimately go in vain and become a part of holiday marketing noise.
Instead of adding to the marketing noise around Pongal, you should actually plan for ways to delight customers through your offerings. Whether you sell offline, online, or in both ways, you need to strike the right chords to sell more during Pongal this year.
Wondering how to plan for the same? Follow the actionable tips given below to grow your sales numbers around Pongal:
Encompass the Pongal essence in your marketing campaigns
Diwali is about lights. Holi is about colors. What is Pongal all about? The answer is – Harvests.
If you do not know this, the chances are you will market more of what you offer than what your target customers are actually looking for. Every festival has a certain core idea – an essence, around which all the celebrations are planned. When you are planning to sell more around Makar Sankranti or Pongal, your brand marketing plan should capture this essence.
To be in front of your customers during Pongal, your brand should dress like it is a part of the celebrations. It should follow Pongal’s theme that connects your offerings to the festive spirit. For example, if you sell apparel for both men and women, highlight traditional outfits more through your website and marketing campaigns as a way for your customers to harvest happiness. If you are an online broker, you can focus on harvesting the reward of investments as a part of Pongal celebrations.
In simple words, that link to the Pongal festivities with your brand DNA is quite important.
Go local to deliver an omnichannel experience
Knowing the ground realities around a festival is yet another aspect you need to consider before planning for business growth. The same holds true for Pongal or Uttarayana.
In South India, Pongal is celebrated as a four-day festival in which people worship deities, decorate their homes, and prepare distinct eatables or dishes. In North India, Makar Sankranti – the synonym for Pongal, allows communities to come together and enjoy the festive occasion by flying kites along with other activities.
Since it is also celebrated in parks, streets, and neighborhoods in different ways, you can tie up with local communities to pitch in your products, organize events, and add more zeal to the celebrations. If you only sell online, festivals like these can be considered a way to explore offline sales channels and grow more into an omnichannel brand over time.
As actionable stuff, you can join hands with local groups, offline retailers, and resellers, to build your brand’s on-ground presence. You can send invites for celebrations, ask people to mention your brand in their social stories around celebrations, and give discounts on offerings.
Interesting Read: Why Omnichannel Is The New Normal For Consumers?
Promote products/services through contests and discounts
Festivals like Pongal or Makar Sankranti are a great time for you to offer discounts on festival-oriented products/services and launch contests with exciting prizes. It is because these festivals come with the excitement to shop for more stuff for most consumers. With attractive discounts and the right type of contests, you can encourage prospects to buy from you.
Whether it is apparel, home appliances, or electronics, people wait for festive deals from brands to make purchases. Getting an exciting prize for winning an occasion-related contest around Kolam drawing, a questionnaire related to Pongal, etc. would be another attractive element.
This will require devising a Pongal marketing strategy around your business objectives related to growth in sales, new customers, and similar others. Here, timing the strategy can make a lot of difference as the zeal around these festivals eventually fade away when the main day comes and from then onwards.
Leverage social media channels to convey the festive spirit
You have thought of growing sales during Pongal. You have a basic Pongal marketing plan in place. You have thought of the discounts and deals you can offer. Now what?
The next big thing is to make your target audience aware of your plans around Pongal. With an expected 755.47 million social network users in India, it makes sense to spread the word about your Pongal offers, deals, discounts, events, and contests through social media.
For instance, plan for social media posts around Pongal well in advance to convey the festive spirit and your brand’s offerings. You can also create and promote unique hashtags for such campaigns. Depending on your budget and expected sales, you can spend your marketing budget to advertise via social media with the aim to increase both brand and product discoverability.
Streamline the overall payment experience for your customers
Irrespective of the channel(s) you select to grow sales or market your offerings, the ultimate goal is to make buyers pay you for their purchases. With the rise of digital payments and availability of multiple payment methods, it is quite important to understand the payment behavior of your customers.
For instance, if you have plans to organize offline events around Pongal celebrations and sell your products, it makes sense to accept payments in cash or cards and even online via QR codes, payment links, or a trusted payment gateway. A successful marketing strategy never leaves things to chance. Ultimately, the buying experience of your customers is a factor that determines their retention rate and referrals.
If you are still looking for a better ‘Why’ to set yourself up for action on these tips, continue reading.
Interesting Read: Why You Need an Omnichannel Strategy in 2023?
Business Growth Around Pongal – Why Should You Consider These Tips?
Growing a business is about identifying, creating, and sustaining the demand for your products/services. In this context, having the Pongal festival lined up at the beginning of every new year is a good omen for your business. It also tends to inject much-needed enthusiasm among consumers, making the time conducive to creating demand.
In fact, Pongal is the time when a specific segment of consumers look forward to brand discounts, offers, and extended benefits. The excitement that builds up makes the demand for certain products soar, thereby allowing the sales figures to go sky-high. But that is only possible when you are prepared for the same. In these times, creating demand becomes easier as consumers are willing to listen.
At its core, the need to celebrate Pongal or Makar Sankranti is ingrained in buying something auspicious and/or useful for home, wearing something new, and celebrating the time with loved ones. If you feel that your brand’s offerings are coherent with the Pongal vibes, it makes sense to work on a plan for business growth.
FAQs
How to streamline marketing campaigns around Pongal?
Every marketing campaign built around a festive celebration captures the essence of the festival. For Pongal or Makar Sankranti, this essence is all about harvests. For example, you can make your brand website or even offline stores reflect the festive spirit in the form of banners, festive product collections or bundles, and discounts to make buyers connect between your brand and festival.
Is it easy to deliver an omnichannel buying experience around Pongal?
Delivering an omnichannel experience to customers is more about making your brand available in different shopping modes – both online and offline. If you want to pair it up with Pongal festive spirit, you can plan collaborating with local groups for the celebrations, offer discounts on product ranges, and sponsor local events to ensure that people get to see and recognize your brand with the festival.
How can I leverage social media for brand promotions during Pongal?
You can pre-plan and share social media posts and offers via different channels to target different types of customers. Similarly, you can invest in paid social media promotions to sell more during the festive period.
