Nowadays, the markets of Durable and Household products offer a wide product range. May it be better clarity, Flat screen Television sets; Microwaves, which facilitate better and faster cooking; Small yet powerful Air Conditioners or Refrigerators keeping the food fresh for a longer period. We at AdEx India have observed the trend of the Refrigerator category from over the last three years on Print Advertising. It is quiet amazing to see this trend cooling off over the years.

For the Above graph, the spends on Print, for the various years have been indexed to those of the year 2000. Even though AdEx India has expanded its monitoring base, the advertising trend of the refrigerator amazingly falls down over the three years by around 35 %. One of the reasons for this downfall could be, that before three to four years, Refrigerators were considered a luxury item. However over the passing years it has become a thing of necessity rather than luxury.

Another Analysis done on the seasonality of this category is also interesting.
The graph below shows us a clearer picture.

The similar trends exhibited for each year in the graph instantly confirms that advertising in this category is quite seasonal in nature. The advertisers naturally put in most of their advertising budget during the summer quarter when the Sun is shining brightest. However the trend tends to rise just a wee bit at the end of the year in the fourth quarter as festivals rule the heart of the consumers. Except for the year 2000, the Spends on the refrigerator category in Print is on a downside across the next two years. But this fall is overcome by a huge amount of Spends on the Print Medium by the advertisers in the First quarter of the year 2004. There is an amazing growth in this quarter as it almost catches up with that of the peak of advertising for the year 2003. The trend of the first quarter promises a potential peaking of advertising in the second quarter, which is by far the strongest quarter of refrigerator advertising.

Let's now take a look at the Brand and Sales Promotions in this category in 2003.

As we can see from the above graph, 63% of Refrigerator Advertising on Print is Sales Promotional in nature. Advertisers lure the customers by using Contest promotion and Exchange Promotion as bait on an equal basis (20%). Multiple promotion themes too do not lag far behind (16%). This in a way indicates that this household category has to be combined with various promotions to make it more attractable.

Keep watching this space for more.