The Adobe Summit 2017 kicked off with over 12,000 delegates from all over the world making their way to The Venetian Las Vegas. The single objective - get a sense of where digital marketing trends are headed and what can companies do to stay relevant in the new reality.
The Adobe story itself is very interesting on that front. Today, it is recognised as the leader in digital marketing across a plethora of analyst reports, including 17 in 2016. It processes 100 trillion data transactions per year, and has over 3800 partners. It has a market capitalisation of USD 61 billion. As Adobe's global CEO Shantanu Narayen addressed the audiences, and later the press, at the Summit, he reflected on the Adobe journey and the time when it had to revisit its own growth strategy.
Adobe knew it had to transform if it had to grow and stay relevant and it managed it. When a company that has a success story to share, advises on what the future will be about, the wise will pay heed. In this year, all Adobe actions and conversations were centered around customer experience and experience businesses.
At some point, one may argue - where is the experience in buying egg and breads - really just want the product. Or some may say that there is still time before concepts such as these become important for a larger mass of companies and consumers in markets like India.
The problem is that either of the contention points would not be very intelligent, especially given the pace of change and the role that India is playing in pushing forth a digital economy.
Digital India, launch of Jio and its impact on telecom, demonetization - a perfect storm is brewing in India. A reason why digital has been dubbed a revolution is because it transforms everything it touches. It opens up opportunities, it creates jobs, it makes entrepreneurs, it contributes to economy, it allows transparency, it sophisticates a consumer and it impacts demand.
The experience business is as relevant to India as it is to any other market. Customer experience is the battleground that companies need to gear up for. Those who do not, will not be equipped to catch up with competition in time. The experience economy will bring many new opportunities but it will also come with a set of challenges. Companies that begin to transform, by putting customer experience at the centre of their offer, are laying the foundation of staying relevant in a tough reality.
