India is the land of festivals, making it a land of immense opportunities for brands and businesses to leverage these occasions, use curated festive season rewards strategies, and make a great impact on their audience.
The festive season in India begins with the occasion of Navratri, with consumer demand peaking ahead of the landmark occasion of Diwali, and ending with the season with Christmas.
What are consumers looking for this festive season?
According to a report by TOI, 60% of households in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in India are ready to heavily loosen purse strings during the festive season, driven by the abating thread of COVID-19, ensuring that this festive season will be spent outdoors as well as at home. The report also showed that 49% of households will only shop where they get value.
This being said, while India’s consumer base is value-driven, experts forecast a bevy of ‘revenge-spending’, especially when it comes to travel & hospitality, thereby proving that consumers are once again ready to experience and explore new things with their loved ones.
Brands focus on strategizing Rewards for Festivals
The festive season is a great opportunity for brands to not only drive sales but also to create buzz and engagement around their brands by finding the right emotional or value-based chord.
Through their promotional campaigns, most brands intend to offer customer rewards that create a value-add, drive motivation among new & existing customers to try their products/services, and make customers feel that they are cared for.
Rewarding the right way!
Given that the festive season brings increased cut-throat competition from bigger sellers, brands really need to go the extra mile to cut through the noise. Marketers look forward to festivals to grab the most of consumer attention and offer the best value-added rewards for their consumers.
So how can a brand differentiate its promotional activity from the rest and add quality over quantity?
Let’s look at some of the best festive season rewards strategies for successful promotional campaigns.
1. An Affinity-based Reward Strategy
Affinity-based reward strategies like sweepstakes and mega reward programs where customers are gratified with high perceived value rewards like car, bike, etc. work well during the festive season. Again, when mixed with premium experiences, these makes great festive season rewards to boost sales.
For example, experiences like a stay at a premium hotel, domestic and international travel vouchers, retail store vouchers, or an alliance offer booklet comprising of health, fashion, jewelry-based redemptions, etc. are well suited for brands. This also creates an attachment between the brand and its customers.
2. An Experience-based Reward Strategy
When a brand gratifies its customers with experiences, it creates connectivity and attachment because that moment in the consumer’s life will forever be synonymous with the brand. Festivities evoke people’s emotions and gifting them with experiential rewards like movie tickets, coffee cards, and exclusive salon services can be an extremely good strategy for brands who are looking to evoke an emotional response and create evangelists.
3. Demographic-based Reward Strategy
According to a Salesforce report, 75% of millennials are willing to pay more for great customer experiences compared to 69% of Gen Z. Understanding the spending behavior of the target audience for rewarding right and relevant is an important factor that brands must acknowledge.
For example, festive season rewards for a millennial like a free movie voucher, a complimentary dining reward for two, or salon vouchers might create a buzz that otherwise might be less interesting for a Gen Z target group. The latter group would be more gratified with free shipping, food & commute vouchers, etc.
4. Loyalty-based Reward Strategy
The festive season offers the best time to introduce or revamp a brand’s loyalty program. Creating a customer's willingness to repeatedly return to the same brand to conduct business is beneficial in generating sales. For example, creating a tailored-loyalty app by BigCity bound by tactical schemes and engagement-led rewards like using a spend-based rewards strategy or offering annual reward cards.
Building unique experiences like offering gift cards during the festive season or creating a full-fledged festive loyalty campaign could woo customers to not only redeem points but also earn more points that could be utilized even after the occasions. Using gamification elements like creating a festive season wish list leader board in a brand’s loyalty app could also result in higher customer engagement.
Go big this Festive Season with BigCity
BigCity has worked closely with numerous brands to create technology-led and engagement-based consumer and channel-based promotions. Be it FMCG, Consumer Durables, BFSI, Automotive, or the Retail sector, we have curated rewards that are perfect for the festive season.
Ensuring seamless execution of promotional activities, BigCity has handled campaigns integrated with a host of other rewards along with innovative festive campaign structures like contests and sweepstakes, spin the wheel, and more.
By tying relevant rewards and vouchers during seasonal festivals, brands create a tangible relationship with their consumers. With insights derived from working with brands for over 15 years, BigCity has conceptualized customized offers and promotions as per national and regional festivals.
Get in touch with us at marketing@bigcity.in today, so that we can create a tailored promotional strategy for your next festive promotion.
