Consumers think rationally during downturn: Salgia
| Date :29-Jun-2020 |
Deepesh Salgia, Director, Shapoorji Pallonji, expressing his views at the VIA webinar.
Business Bureau :
The marketing forum of Vidarbha Industries Association (VIA) conducted a webinar “Let’s Revive” recently. The objective of the event based on the current pandemic situation which has disturbed all businesses was to give some model and strategy to revive the businesses. At the outset, Mili Juneja, Convener, Marketing Forum of VIA, welcomed the speaker Deepesh Salgia, Director, Shapoorji Pallonji and the participants. Anuja Sharma, Chairperson, Marketing Forum of VIA said, “last three months we have been going through fear and uncertainty and we are trying to get normal with the current situation.
People don’t know how to start and how long this situation will continue and because of this people have started losing patience,” she said. Suresh Rathi, President, VIA said, the coronavirus has brought down our lives, businesses and our economy. Deepesh Salgia, Director, Shapoorji Pallonji, shared his views over rationale for revival and also tactical and strategic thought process to work for revival. Further he said, “we observe that cash liquidity is not in the market, but the real situation is banks are not lending money and people are not spending because of uncertainty. It is very difficult for marketing people as the consumers have realized what are the things they can live without.”
Further he spoke on the importance of survival. Salgia suggested that business people should follow a different rule book considering the current situation of pandemic and business people must know how to see cooperation from different sources. Business people must consider selling intangibles. “Consumers always think rationally during a downturn, so making them understand their requirements will increase the demand for the product. We can learn a strategy from the freedom movement of Mahatma Gandhi,” he said Mahatma Gandhi had created demand for freedom and it was a great idea which was marketed during the time of crises, said adding that if one creates demand then he can sell intangible items to poor people as well.
Further he said that it is a great opportunity for the MSME segment. “Seating in home, business people can have 24 hours global operations so the opportunities are huge for growth. This situation of Corona is a very suitable time to experiment with new and niche products,” he observed. Kaushal Mohta said indeed it was a great session to understand the insights of revival for our businesses. He summed up the session by expressing gratitude towards the speaker and participants. Dr Suhas Buddhe, Atul Pande, Ashit Sinha, Anita Rao, Reeta Lanjewar were among the prominent persons who attended the webinar.