Cracker manufacturers and dealers faced a peculiar problem of brand loyalty this Diwali season, which culminated in piling up of cracker stock. And the culprits are the Maharashtra and Gujarat state governments which apparently banned the use of the pictures of gods and goddesses on fire crackers.

According to major distributors of crackers for companies like Standard Fireworks and IN Fireworks in the city, cracker dealers from the state of Maharashtra and Gujarat had informed them of this directive by the state government and had asked for the crackers in question (Lakshmi, Krishna and Ganesh crackers) to be re-packaged. This happened a few weeks before Diwali.

The manufacturers hastily complied with the request and re-packaged the crackers with different pictures and sent the stock. But,unfortunately for them, the brand equity for the banned crackers was so strong that many were not willing to buy the substitute crackers in spite of being repeatedly assured by the sellers that the cracker was the same except for the cover.

A senior official with Standard Fireworks confirmed that the directive had indeed been communicated to them by the Maharashtra dealers and that the crackers had been repackaged for the state. But he said that there had been no difference in the sale levels for the crackers.

Dealers however dispute that statement strongly. According to them, about 70 per cent of the crackers sent to the two states were returned unsold.

According to one dealer, ``The return rate was high for both Lakshmi and Ganesh crackers which have had a high profile run and have been in the market for a long time. With the new package designs carrying pictures of popular stars and other animals instead of the usual Lakshmi and Ganesha figures put off a lot of people, in spite of the fact that eventhe re-packaging was done with `popular taste' in mind.''

There were some sales of the banned crackers in Mumbai and Baroda, but they are unconfirmed. Reports from other cracker manufacturers also confirm that there was a steep dip in the offtake of the particular re-packaged segment, but refused to divulge any figures. Dealers though willing to state the return in stock levels were close-mouthed when it came to the actual figures of lost sales.

The manufacturers maintain that re-packaging itself is not very expensive and hence there were no losses booked either.

This year, there was a total dip in the total cracker output which hit the market. This was due to a lack of production in the last two months of 1997 following heavy rains in the state.

The companies also say that there was a fall in the volume of sound crackers segment, following a decibel limit imposed in Calcutta and a similar proposal in other metropolian cities like Delhi and Mumbai.