Festive season fuels brand innovation and emotional connection, say FMCG leaders

India’s festive season continues to be the most important period for consumer brands, driving both emotional connection and innovation across categories.

Industry leaders say the weeks around Diwali offer companies a unique opportunity to deepen their relationship with consumers while experimenting with new products and gifting ideas.

K Ramakrishnan, Managing Director for South Asia at Worldpanel by Numerator, said that brands that maintain constant consumer visibility perform better during the festive months. “The most chosen brands are selected based on a certain set of parameters, which we call consumer reach points — a function of frequency of purchase and the extent to which they are penetrated,” he said. “The only way to spike any one of them is to be always on, mentally or physically. Festive season happens to be a time when they take advantage of this continuous presence.”

For FMCG majors, the festive period is also when consumer aspirations expand, cutting across income segments. Kavita Chaturvedi, Business Unit Chief Executive for Biscuits and Confections at ITC Limited, said festivals in India go beyond economics. “In India, festivals are a mood or an emotion, and they affect everybody equally, irrespective of social strata or region. During this time, everybody tries to do a little better than usual,” she said.

Chaturvedi added that gifting has become a key expression of identity, especially among affluent urban consumers. “For India Alpha One — around 15 lakh homes — gifting is an important marker of identity. They don’t want to repeat gifts from last year; they want something not off-the-shelf and personalised,” she said. ITC has been tapping into this sentiment with its luxury chocolate brand, Fabelle, which offers handcrafted gifting options through its online platform.

Mayank Shah, Vice President of Parle Products, said consumer behaviour across urban and rural India is converging. “Festive aspirations are largely converging. Earlier, rural aspirations differed significantly from urban, but now they are more or less similar,” he said. While spending power varies, expectations from products and brands are increasingly aligned.

Shah also pointed out that the festive season serves as a launchpad for innovation. “Festive time is a good opportunity to introduce innovations. Consumers are more willing to try new things during this period,” he said, adding that several products introduced during the season continue to perform well beyond it.

As India’s festive economy grows stronger each year, FMCG players are adapting their strategies to capture both the emotional and experiential sides of consumer spending. From premium chocolates to traditional favourites, brands are innovating not just to sell more, but to stay meaningfully present in the lives of their consumers — a reflection of how India’s festivals are as much about emotion as they are about consumption.

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