the month of lent is upon us and february 28 2014 went by quietly it just happened to be maha shivratri shiva devotees kept allnight vigil shiva temples stayed open through the night being the holiest of holy days to worship lord shiva the most powerful of all hindu deities but brands were sleeping when devotees were awake why did brands fail to latch on to this phenomenon why was there no special midnight sale of special goods in big bazaar why was there no midnight screening of a special movie at your nearest pvrinox car dealers and jewellers too shut shop at the appointed hour and did not try to ride the shiva wave lord shiva became a cool god with the immense popularity of amish tripathis shiva trilogy books that were followed by the mahadev television serial so riding on the shiva boom was something there to be taken but brand marketers seem to have missed it at least this year in fact it is true that indian marketers are quickly adapting modern marketing techniques to suit the tradition and religious practices of indian consumers lets look at festivals akshaya tritiya which till a decade ago was an unknown festival has been transformed into a shopping bonanza from flat screen tv sets to cars to even apartments all of them tell us that akshaya tritiya is a holy day to pull out the walletcheque book its another matter that hindu religious experts call that day the day of penance and giving interestingly marketing and consumer behaviour scholars in the us had not looked at religion as an area of study till 1982 as pointed out by prof hirshmann in her seminal study of religious factors in novelty seeking behaviour in consumers but why american researchers were wary of asking religious questions to consumers since it was seen as invasion of privacy given this aversion most books on consumer behaviour devote at best a page to religion and this is often tucked away into the section on cultures and subcultures in reality religion as a force multiplier is growing around the world global research done by organisations like pew show that there is no decrease in religiosity except for a few countries of northern europe studies show that indians are among the most religious consumers in the world more than 90 claim to be visiting temples or places of worship every week and 95 believe in god and all around us in india we are seeing how religion is affecting the way indians consume products and services take for instance tourism it has been reported that well over 50 of all holiday travel is really religious tourism and this is not restricted to the millions who go to the kumbh mela and such large gatherings in fact tour operators and hotels are rapidly scaling up their religious offerings aimed at the richest of the rich or take music if you exclude bollywood film songs the biggest segment