India shops by season: ACs for summer, air purifiers for winter

If searing heat is an annual feature of the Indian summer, air pollution is fast settling into a permanent fixture of winter.

- Soumya Gupta

For companies that sell both air conditioners (ACs) and air purifiers, sales and marketing now fall into two neatly distinct seasons—summer for ACs and winter for air purifiers, a much smaller category. Given this sharp seasonality, how do marketing heads manage their business when demand peaks so unevenly through the year? Girish Hingorani, vice-president of marketing at Blue Star, tells Mint it is all about planning the year carefully and efficiently. Edited excerpts:

Much like air conditioners, air purifiers seem to be a seasonal business. But with more air pollution for longer periods, is that changing?

We find air purifiers to be a 15-20 day market, when there is smog and high AQI (air quality index) concerns, and then things get better. There are a lot of media reports during this period, but once the government takes action and the AQI gets better, then come January, people forget about this.