Consumer durable firms focus on non-metros

Consumer durable companies are travelling beyond the metros this festive season. From Whirlpool's Bijoy Utsav to Samsung's dream home roadshow, Tier-2 cities are getting marketing attention like never before, reports CNBC-TV18.

Sholapur to Siliguri, Jhansi to Jalgaon, Samsung has conducted road shows in 100 such non-metro cities. Apart from building brand equity, this dream home road show showcases Samsung's range of high tech products. Samsung, will be spending 50 per cent of its advertising budget on below the line activities. These Mobile vans parked at central city locations, show off live product demonstrations and drive footfalls into the Dream home show.

These road shows have been adding Rs35 crore to Samsung's balance sheet in just six months and will be continued in the coming year.

Ravinder Zutshi, deputy MD, Samsung India, said, "We will definitely have a plan in place by end November, to draw a similar strategy, to take this to another 100 cities to continue this mechanism of dream home show."

Samsung has invested Rs7 crore towards this road show, and is looking at 10 per cent increase in revenue contribution from semi-urban areas this year.

Whirlpool, which invests about 30 per cent of its marketing budget in Tier-2 cities, has seen them contributing 30 per cent to their topline. In fact, it has just concluded its month long marketing drive in markets like Raipur, Surat and Agra. Events included recipe shows, couple contests and entertainment evenings, in sync with its homemaker positioning.

Anup Jain, GM, brand marketing, Whirlpool, said, "We have seen between a 10-per cent and 30-per cent increase in brand preference amongst intending buyers of home appliances due to these events."

Colour televisions and direct cool refrigerators are the two leading categories in the Tier-2 markets.

Where LG leads in the television segment, Whirlpool takes a lead in the entry-level refrigerators. LG gets almost 60 per cent of its business from the non metro markets and spends around 50 per cent of its marketing budget in these regions. With a double-digit growth coming from Tier-2 markets, and low penetration for most categories, this festive season is all about cashing in on rising aspirational and income levels.