Mastering The Evolving Game Of Marketing

In its 12th edition, BW Businessworld Marketing Whitebook took a closer look at ‘The Game Changers of Marketing’. The book that has now become an essential handbook for marketers was presented by Times Network, in association with Nielsen. The launch — in Delhi on 21 July and in Mumbai on 27 July — was attended by more than 600 delegates comprising senior decision makers of the marketing industry

Some concerns will always unite the most influential marketing decision makers in India. Irrespective of the sector, the age, the stage in the overall business cycle or the challenges a company faces, marketers’ agenda is the same: addressing concerns of consumers.

Reiterating this, Saugata Gupta, managing director and CEO, Marico, stresses, “In any consumer packaged goods company, the consumer is central to everything. The biggest growth driver is innovation and distribution. It is useless to chase profits. If you do the right thing, profit will come.” Adding to that, he says the change in landscape in terms of digital growth has opened up many opportunities.

A point that Mainak Dhar, managing director, General Mills agrees with. Dhar states, “Technology has helped in bringing the consumers to the boardroom and getting the boardroom into the markets. It is allowing interesting conversations, and is transcending geographical barriers. People in my boardroom can actually sit and chat with consumers and have a better understanding of what consumers want.”

Consumer first
As chief marketing officers worry about results, there are many factors that guide marketing strategies in the ‘consumer first’ world. The starting point is to understand that each consumer is different. “Involvement of the consumer is very important for a brand proposition,” says Debabrata Mukherjee, vice-president, Marketing and Commercial, Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia, adding that, “The need of the hour is to break the mould and create a brand experience that goes beyond just a message. Coke Studio is a classic example of that.”

The importance of technology plays an important role in breaking the mould. Sundar Mahalingam, chief strategy officer at HCL and Shiv Nadar Foundation, points out that marketers are using the best possible technology to gain momentum. “They have to make the brand relevant and more interesting by leveraging technology.

Customers want to feel the product and because of that, the engagement level and relevance has become much more important for the brand proposition.”

Technology has also led to the creation of new markets. In the banking sector, for instance, it has reached out to the ‘unbanked’. Rajat Mehta, president and country head, Brand, Digital and Retail Marketing, YES Bank, says, “With the collaboration of wallets and payment banks, we could bring the unbanked into financial inclusion and give them the benefits from it.”

Medium meets message
One important outcome of the new world is the change in the purchase funnel itself, where a consumer has the ability to buy from the medium on which he consumes the message. Debojo Maharshi, chief marketing officer, SpiceJet, explains that the convergence due to the advent of the Internet, social media and apps has altered marketing. Clarifying that SpiceJet is revenue driven, he says, “At the same time though, user-generated content and brand advocacy play a very vital role.”

Even in case of high purchase categories, such as automobiles, digital has changed the game. Rahul Gautam, vice president, Marketing, Ford India, says, “Almost 70 per cent of the customers before buying a car do some kind of online research. This represents the level of engagement that the online medium provides by enabling customers to research products online.”

The shift has led to an increase in digital, albeit with caution. Shubhodip Pal, chief operating officer of Yu Televentures at Micromax, asserts that online is relevant, but companies simply can’t go online. John Burbank, president, Strategic Initiatives, Nielsen, believes the reason is that the advertisers lack confidence in digital spending. “To build confidence, reach is important, followed by precedence. Would an ad on digital media move purchasing like a television ad does? We have to build a measure in relative that values in terms of precedence. As better measures come into the ecosystem, advertisers are going to push money into digital.”

Digital spending rises
Making a case for digital, Siddharth Banerjee, senior vice president, Marketing, Vodafone India, reiterates that ad expenditure on digital for the first time has reached double digits (12.5 per cent). In India, where digital takes the shape of a mobile phone as more people get immersed in the digital world, marketers will spend more on digital. “Consumers are leading the marketers in adopting the digital medium. Many marketers have made huge strides in catching up, but is 12.5 per cent good enough? The answer is no, because there is so much more headroom. It will increase to 20-30 per cent. A lot of brands are doing exciting things depending on target audiences but there is a lot more that can be done,” he says.

Technology sophistication is also seen in print and television today. Digital is complementing legacy media as it can be used for activation models to find out the nature of reach and how it is changing. Making this point Bhaskar Choudhuri, director, Marketing, Lenovo, says that immense sophistication is also coming from the creative side.

Television and digital may be seen at loggerheads, but technology is bridging this gap. As everything goes digital, brands need constantly-evolving drivers to stay in pace with consumers.