In the recent years, sales promotions have gained the reputation more of a strategic weapon in the armory of marketers than a mere promotional tool. The statistics of various marketing companies' promotion expenditure reflects the unprecedented growth of sales promotion in recent years. In the past, the ratio of advertising to sales promotions used to be 60:40 but the ratio is now completely turned on its head and reads 25:75 (Belch and Belch 2004) There are a few reasons advanced for this dramatic shift. The desire on the part of many organizations for a quick bolstering of sales is the paramount among these. The growing desire among consumer groups for increased value in the products they buy is addressed with various sales promotion offers. In today's value-conscious environment, marketers must stress the overall value of their products (Blackwell, Miniard and Engel 2001). In India, sales promotion expenditure by various marketing companies is estimated to be thousands of crore and the emphasis on sales promotion activities by the Indian industry has increased by 500% to 600% during the last 3 to 5 years. In the year 2004, there were as many as 2,050 promotional schemes in the Rs 80,000 crore, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Industry (Dang et al., 2005). In Consumer durable industry, the promotions are mainly revolving around the occasion based promotional strategies during festivals. An article written by Writankar Mukherjee in Economic Times (2012) points out that the consumer durable industry starts building their product pipeline and increase production well in advance for the festive season, which starts with Onam in Kerala in August and continues till Diwali in November and the festive season contributes for almost 45-50% of the consumer durable industry sales. Almost every retail shop in consumer durable segment is offering different types of sales promotional schemes to attract customers during festival seasons. Shopping malls and companies marketing durable products offer heavy discounts during the festive season.( Ramanuj Majumdar 2010). Festivals constitute the main buying period across India. The study is focused mainly on the demographic analysis of sales promotion impact on buying behavior of customers of consumer durable segment during festival season.

Sales promotion generally works on a direct behavioral basis rather than effecting awareness or attitude. Also, promotions induce consumers to buy more and consume faster (Ailawadi and Neslin, 1998). Consumer behavior focuses on how consumers decide what to buy, why to buy, when to buy, where to buy and how often they buy, how frequently they use it, “how they evaluate it after the purchase and the impact of such evaluations on future purchases, and how they dispose it off” (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). Although each type of consumer-oriented sales promotion has particular benefits and effects on consumer behavior, there is no empirical evidence on how customers groups respond to different sales promotions during festivals. One exception is the heavy targeting of children with contests, fun point-of-purchase incentives, on-line games, collectibles, and clubs designed specifically with that demographic in mind (Dotson and Hyatt 2000). In this paper, they investigated the varying reactions to and attitudes of different demographic segments to the various sales promotion techniques being used increasingly by marketers.

1.1 Objectives of the Study

Every consumer durable retailer and manufacturer wants to attract more customers during festival seasons through a variety of marketing activities like sales promotion. Almost every consumer durable retail shop is offering some sales promotional schemes during the festival season. Majority of the consumer durable manufacturers and retailers are aiming to cash-in on the celebratory mood of the consumers. Although each type of consumer-oriented sales promotion has its own impacts and effects on consumer behavior, there is no empirical evidence on how different demographic groups respond to different sales promotion tactics. Generalizations about the shopping tendencies and preferences of different age, ethnic and lifestyle groups can be found in the popular press and in marketing textbooks, with broad strategy implications for effective market segmentation, but without specific segmentation guidelines in the use of particular sales promotions with particular target segments.

Some of the specific questions that arise here include the following:

• To have a demographic analysis of sales promotion impact on consumer behavior of consumer durable goods during festivals.
• To understand Demographic impact on Customer preference of various sales promotion schemes during festival seasons.

Through this study, our endeavor is to throw more light on the above questions so as to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of consumer decision making during festival season on consumer durable segment. We believe the answers for these questions would be important both from a managerial as well as theoretical perspective.

1.2 Review of Literature

Companies need to realize that their customers are not only different from each other, but are also different from themselves at different times. People have different needs when they are at work and when they are at home or socializing. They act differently during holiday seasons and at regular days. National as well as International brands have been trying to have a fair share of this market. Many marketers believe that behavioral variables – occasions, benefits, user status, usage rate, loyalty status, buyer readiness stage, and attitude- are the best starting points for constructing market segments. Philip Kotler, Keller, Koshy and Jha, (2007). Buyers can be distinguished according to the occasions they develop a need, purchase a product or use a product. (Philip Kotler, (2002). Occasion based segmentation, assumes that an individual may have differing motivations for selecting a product to be used under differing circumstances."That is not to deny the presence of some stable personal needs that may apply across situations." Albert Goldman,(1979). According to Philip Kotler (2007), the marketer does not create the segments; the marketer's task is to identify the segments and decide which one(s) to target. Segment marketing offers key benefits over mass marketing. The company can presumably better design, price, disclose, and deliver the product or service to the target market. The company also can fine tune the marketing program and activities to better reflect competitor's marketing. Philip Kotler, Keller, Koshy and Jha, (2007).

Sales promotions have become increasingly important over the years. One of the reasons cited by managers for the increased usage of sales promotions is the increased promotional sensitivity of customers (Belch and Belch, 2004). Sales promotions are well-suited to accomplish various marketing objectives, such as stimulating sale force enthusiasm, invigorating sales for a mature brand, facilitating the introduction of new products, increasing on- and off-shelf merchandising space, encouraging repeat purchases, and reinforcing advertising (Shimp 2000). Sales promotions are direct inducements that offer an extra value or incentive for the product to the sales force, distributors or the ultimate customer with the primary objective of creating an immediate sale (Belch and Belch, 2004). Promotions include price reductions, coupons, samples, games and sweepstakes. Promotions significantly increase sales and that advertised promotions increase store traffic (Blattberg, Briesch and Fox, 1995). Also, promotions induce consumers to buy more and consume faster (Ailawadi and Neslin, 1998). Most of the research on sales promotion focuses on the strategic uses of various promotion techniques and the desired behavioral responses, with little tie-in to segmentation theory. That is, there is an assumption that consumers across groups have a relatively uniform response to the various sales promotion incentives. Sales promotions are action-focused marketing events whose purpose is to have a direct impact on the behavior of the firm's consumers.

There are three major types of sales promotions: consumer promotions, retailer promotions and trade promotions. Consumer promotions are promotions offered by manufacturers directly to consumers. Retailer promotions are promotions offered by retailers to consumers. Trade promotions are promotions offered by manufacturers to retailers or other trade entities (Blattberg RC, Scott A. and Neslin, 1990). The importance of sales promotion has increased since the 1960's and also the sophistication of methods used. Brassington and Pettitt (2000) provide a revised definition for sales promotions:'… a range of marketing techniques designed within a strategic marketing framework to add extra value to a product or service over and above the “normal” offering in order to achieve specific sales and marketing objectives. This extra value may be a short-term tactical nature or it may be part of a longer-term franchisebuilding program.' This Study strives to understand the impact of sales promotions on consumer's behavior during festival season and how important they are.

Primary data are collected from retailers and their customers based upon snow ball sampling stages. A snowball sample is a non-probability sampling technique that is appropriate to use in research when the members of a population are difficult to locate. A snowball sample is one in which the researcher collects data on the few members of the target population he or she can locate, then asks those individuals to provide information needed to locate other members of that population whom they know. Snowball sampling is hardly likely to lead a representative sample, but there are times when it may be the best or only method available. In the first stage, advertisements during festival seasons by consumer durable retailers in Kerala is identified by a content analysis of print advertisements by consumer durable industry released through three leading news papers starting from January 2011 to December 2011 by the researcher. Based upon that in stage two, eight major retail chains in consumer durable segment were identified. In the third stage, from the response given by the retailers, 100 customers were identified. The demographic characteristics of the participants are as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of the Participants

2.1 Demographic Characteristics of the participants

This study attempts to explore the demographic impact of sales promotion on buyer behavior during festival season. The objectively collected data has been suitably classified and arranged in tables. The ratio's and percentages are calculated where ever it is appropriate. In the case of the ranking questions we adopted the weighted average techniques with values starting from the highest possible rank to the lowest and weight as the number of respondents. The weighted mean is calculated for each category and ranks are assigned on the basis of the values of the weighted mean.

The data were analyzed via SPSS 17.0 for Windows Descriptive statistics were used to describe and summarize the properties of the mass of data collected from the respondents.

3.1 Demographic analysis of amount of purchase due to the sales promotion schemes during festivals

Age group and amount of purchase due to the sales promotion schemes during festivals

Customers were asked about the influence of sales promotion schemes on their amount of purchase of consumer durable goods during festivals.

The Chi square analysis shows that a significant relationship was found between age and amount of purchase due to the sales promotion schemes of consumer durable goods during festivals, and thus rejecting the null hypothesis. The Pearson Chi-Square coefficient was found to be 0.033, which shows a significant relation at 95% confidence level. (Table 2)

Table 2. Age group and amount of purchase

Gender and amount of purchase due to the sales promotion schemes during festivals

Test showed that the Pearson Chi-Square Coefficient is 0.447, which is insignificant at 95 percent level of confidence (Table 3). Thus we are unable to reject the null hypothesis and came to the conclusion that gender has sales promotion of consumer durable goods, during festivals.

Table 3. Gender and amount of purchase

Occupation and amount of purchase due to the sales promotion schemes during festivals

As test showed the Pearson Chi-Square Coefficient is 0.407, which is insignificant at 95 percent level of confidence. Thus we are unable to reject the null hypothesis and came to the conclusion that occupation has no significant influence on amount of purchase due to sales promotion schemes of consumer durable goods, during festivals (Table 4).

Table 4. Occupation and amount of purchase

3.2 Demographic Impact on customer behavior of waiting till festival season for sales promotion schemes to purchase consumer durable goods

Age and customer behavior of waiting till festival season for sales promotion schemes

H0:	Age has no significant influence on customer behavior of waiting till festival season for sales promotion schemes.
H1:	Age has significant influence on customer behavior of waiting till festival season for sales promotion schemes.

The Chi square analysis shows there is no significant relationship between age and customer behavior of waiting till festival season for sales promotion schemes to purchase consumer durable, and thus accepting the null hypothesis. The Pearson Chi-Square coefficient found to be 0.999, shows there is no significant relation at 95% confidence level (Table 5).

Table 5. Age and customer behavior

Gender and customer behavior of waiting till festival season for sales promotion schemes

As test showed the Pearson Chi-Square Coefficient is 0.759, which is insignificant at 95 percent level of confidence. Thus we are unable to reject the null hypothesis and came to the conclusion that gender has no significant influence on customer behavior of waiting till festival season for sales promotion schemes for buying consumer durable goods (Table 6).

Table 6. Gender and customer behavior

Occupation and customer behavior of waiting till festival season for sales promotion schemes

The Chi square analysis shows that a significant relationship was found between occupation and customer behavior of waiting till festival season for sales promotion schemes for buying consumer durable goods and thus rejects the null hypothesis. The Pearson Chi- Square coefficient is found to be 0.015, which shows a significant relation at 95% confidence level (Table 7).

Table 7. Occupation and customer behavior

3.3 Demographic impact on Customer preference of various sales promotion schemes during festival seasons

In order to have a deeper understanding about the influence of demographic factors on customer inclinations towards different types of sales promotion schemes, three demographic factors, viz age, income and gender, have been considered and cross tabulation performed.

3.3.1 Age

Consumer tastes, preferences, wants and abilities change with age. Therefore, age is an important variable which can influence the buying decisions of the customer. This study attempts to find out the influence of customer age on the preference of different sales promotion schemes. The cross tabulation of Table 8 shows that customers from all age groups prefer direct price discounts as the most accepted sales promotion tool. Free gifts are second most preferred sales promotion tool during festival seasons among the age groups of 26-45, 46-60 and above 60. And the third most preferred sales promotion tool among age group of 26-45 and the choice of customers above 60 is product warranty. However it is exchange offer for the customers of the age group of 46-60. It is clear that the most accepted sales promotion tool is direct price discounts, but the second and third preferences vary between different age groups.

Table 8. Cross tabulation of customers from all age groups

3.3.2 Income

.Income determines the ability of consumers to participate in the market exchange and hence it is a basic demographic variable. This study attempts to find out the influence of customer income on the preference of different sales promotion schemes. The cross tabulation of Table 9 below shows that customers from all income groups also prefer direct price discounts as the most accepted sales promotion tool.

Table 9. Cross tabulation of customers from all income groups

Free gifts are second most preferred sales promotion tool during festival seasons among the groups of income less than Rs, 10000/- and income between 10000 and 25000 per month. But it is the exchange offer which is preferred by the group with income more than 25000 as their second choice. The third most preferred sales promotion tool among the income groups with less than 10000 and between 10000 to 25000 are product warranties.

3.3.3 Gender

Men and women tend to have different attitudinal and behavioral orientations, based partly on genetic makeup and partly on socialization. Shopping behavior of men and women also vary (Philip Kotler, Keller, Koshy and Jha, (2007).

This study attempts to find out the influence of gender of customer on the preference of different sales promotion schemes. The cross tabulation of Table 10 above shows that both male and female customers prefer direct price discounts as the most accepted sales promotion tool. However female customers prefer combo offers as their second most preferred sales promotion item during festivals. Male customers prefer free gifts as their second most preferred sales promotion item during festivals. Both male and female customers accepted exchange offer as their third choice of sales promotional tool.

Table 10. Cross tabulation of customers across gender

The questions are asked to the customers on whether they would visit the same retailer if it launches same/similar kind of promotion scheme again in other occasions in future. The questions are asked on five point Likert Scale from Strongly likely to strongly unlikely. The analysis of collected data is shown in Table 11. The results shows that 14 percent of the customers opted for strongly likely, 54 percent for somewhat likely, 11 percen for neither likely nor unlikely, 19 percent somewhat unlikely and 2% strongly unlikely. From the result it is clear that if the customer gets the same promotional incentives in the future, they might come back to purchase. We can conclude that the sales promotion incentives in festival season play a limited role in ensuring repeat visits of the customers to the store.

Table 11. Five point Likert Scale for repeat visits

The consumers were asked whether they would wait till festival season for a sales promotional scheme to purchase consumer durable goods or not on five different statements and the analysis of collected data shown in Table 12. The results shows that 21 percent of the customers said they would definitely wait till festival season for purchase of consumer durable goods and 42 percent would probably wait. 12 percent said they probably would and probably not wait till festival season and 22% may not wait and 3% of the respondents would definitely not wait for festival season for the purchase of consumer durable goods. The result clearly reveals that 63% of the customers would wait till festivals for the purchase of a consumer durable product. The retailers of consumer durables should plan for appropriate promotional campaigns to for the purchase.

Table 12. Sales Promotional Scheme to purchase consumer durable goods

The study reveals that the consumer's age factor has significant impact on the amount of purchase due to the sales promotion schemes during festival season of consumer durable products and other variables like gender and income has no considerable impact on the amount of purchase. As the age increases the influence of sales promotion on the amount of purchase also was increasing during festival season. This may be due to the willingness to put forth the effort necessary to make use of sales promotions by the older generation during festivals with regard to consumer durable purchases. The indication is that, the sales promotion is having more influence on the quantity of purchase of the age group of 46-60 and above in consumer durable segment.

The study also shows that the demographic factor, occupation has significant influence on customers waiting till festival season for sales promotion schemes to purchase consumer durables and the factors like age and gender does not have much impact. The salaried and self employed groups of consumers are showing more willingness to wait till festival season for the purchase of consumer durables. This may be due to the discretionary income available during festivals for the salaried people in terms of bonus and festival allowances. For self employed customers, manufacturers and retailers of the consumer durable segment are offering various sales promotion schemes during festivals, which give customers a better value for their money.

Across different demographic segments studied, the direct price discount is the most accepted sale promotion scheme in consumer durable segment during festival season. This indicates the high level of priceconsciousness and concern with getting good value for money of customers. However their second and third choices are quite different which requires deeper study. Sales promotion incentives play a very limited role in ensuring repeat visits of the customers to the store. Customers are always in search for better deals and schemes, and if the marketers could offer better promotional incentives in the future, they might come back to purchase.

In summary, it appears that the sales promotion schemes have a positive influence among the customers. It is interesting for the retailers to know that most of the customers would wait till festivals for the purchase of a consumer durable product. Considering the rapid growth in the use of sales promotion versus traditional advertising, more effective targeting of disparate demographic segments represents a logical next step. This study has limitations, too. This study is limited to the state of Kerala and to consumer durable retailing during festival seasons.