As 2021 draws to a close, Outside In curates notes from multiple brand, marketing and customer experience forums for key observations, insights and learnings about consumer marketing and customer experience with a series of articles ‘2021 Reflections’ starting with this one
We study the evolution of consumer marketing in this Part 1 article and followed by Part 2 next week. Here goes…
A) Consumer Marketing Focus
In the interest of our business, how do we want our customers to behave? And that's ultimately what marketing is all about – Rory Sutherland, Ogilvy, Brand World Summit 2021
Examples (of Deep Consumer-focused Marketing leading to Business Growth):
In the 1940s, the Hawaiian shirt industry encouraged Hawaii to adopt Hawaiian shirt wear on Fridays to work – government as well as private sector – because the more opportunities people had to wear their products, the more products they could sell
At Ford Motors, Henry Ford is believed to have introduced a 2-day weekend to encourage his workers to buy a car and travel on the weekend – a trend which may thereby start spreading to the rest of America
B) Brands Have to Evolve
Just because brands are going to stay around for the function they (currently) provide doesn’t mean they don’t have to change; they always have to change. It’s up to the brands to make sure they’re doing the right things to differentiate themselves and stay relevant with consumers – to stay ahead of the competition – Kevin Keller, Tuck School of Business, Brand World Summit 2021
Evolution Areas:
Consumer Experiences
Integrated Communications, spanning the Consumer Decision Journey
Brand Intangibles (Stories about Origin, Purpose, Growth and Destiny)
Emotional & Experiential Interactions driven by Authenticity, Credibility and Community
Personalization, because every Consumer is Different
Example: SBI Mutual Funds – Srinivas Jain, ED & Strategy Head –
During the pandemic, the company moved from the concept of aspiration to assurance. Rather than limiting the reach to 30-second brand ads, they took help of long-format videos to educate people on the subject, and help simplify a jargon-filled business – thereby even addressing consumers beyond the top-30 markets that the industry usually focused on
The messaging was conversational in nature and devoid of preaching. It spoke about building digital assets for the future – thereby reinforcing the importance of brand building, since Savings is a trust-based business
C) Choosing the Medium – Digital
The core role of marketers is to acquire customers for their channels through storytelling, through positioning or through branding. If the customer switches to digital, the marketer must follow him there
Aalok Bhan, CMO, Max Insurance Company: Traditional TV channel was the best medium to improve reach. Mobile was the best way to get to the consumers. Being on digital without being mobile savvy or without enhancing access to websites – was a waste
Sujatha Kumar, Head Marketing, Visa: It is necessary to try and align with what was working. Also, whether one was watching TV, laptop or mobile ‘screens’, it is important to know that consumer preferences are shifting between different screens at the same time
Indrajit Ghosh, Global Head of Marketing, Rebel Foods: They credit digital for their company’s success in reaching kitchens in every nook and corner of India. “When we advertised on TV, it used to be such a huge media spillage. No matter how much reach we would get, half of our reach would never convert to new customers. I think more than digital, what we have come to realize is that food is equal to consumption, which is equal to content”
D) Blend Data and Creative
Jaya Jamrani, VP – Marketing, Castrol: There is a science to marketing, which is data and numbers, and there is an art to marketing, which is the gut. I think the success of marketing lies in how brands blend these two
Sandeep Anand, CMO, Dominos: Data is important for understanding the behaviour which the consumer has to say, but motivator is important to come up with campaigns which touch at a deeper level than at a superficial level
Anshuman Gupta, VP – Data & Analytics, MiQ Digital: Only when you look for a historical purchase behaviour data and user journey of a particular client, you can create impactful outcomes for digital campaigns
Rajan Amba, VP – Tata Motors: There is no replacement of actually going out into the field and actually talking to consumers, understanding the pattern of behaviour and questioning
E) Takeaways from Mamaearth’s Journey – Varun Alagh, Co-founder & CEO
The brand has come a long way in 5 years by riding the digital wave and different factors have contributed to their growth story
The first contribution factor (and a macro trend) which is shaping the consumer landscape is the whole trend of ‘individualization’
The second trend is premiumization – as people are becoming financially strong, their brand preferences are also changing
More women are joining the workforce
Underlining democratization of media availability as a large change – there is more bite-sized media available now than earlier and it is possible to decide the strategy accordingly. “Earlier when a brand needed to market, they would need to take only certain traditional modes of marketing which have a much wider reach, than what a niche brand could probably need”
(Traditional) distribution is getting massively challenged by E-commerce – which is not just meeting aspirations of India but of Bharat as well
Increased adoption of data by brands – which is become heart of any organization
Emergence of a shared economy ecosystem which is helping new businesses grow fast and expand rapidly across geographies
Access to different forms of capital
What the brand has achieved in 5 years would have taken ten years – in the absence of a digital medium. The key challenge for them now is take the brand today and showing that it has a much bigger status and credibility – which is where traditional media comes into play. The affinity and trust on traditional media is much higher and because the access to that is only for a few brands, which are willing to have that large ticket size spend on it. They are looking aggressively at that media space now
In Conclusion
Consumers don’t fall into one box at the end of the day and personalization is the essence of service, according to Siddharth Butalia (CMO, Air Asia). The challenge is to deliver consumer marketing which not only delivers an impact on consumers, but also delivers business value
Consumers are searching for purpose, within themselves. They are thinking about relationships and well being. Consumer habits have changed, the world has turned upside down. The question (for brands) is whether the map to growth is still accurate, according to Deepender Rana, EMD, South Asia, Kantar. In the rush to return to normal, brands need to use this time to consider which part of the normal is worth returning to
Part 2 continues Next Week…
References and Sources:
1. Notes from ET Brand World Summit 2021
2. Rory Sutherland Insights: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/brand-world-summit-2021-keynote-address-by-rory-sutherland-vice-chairman-ogilvy-uk/86640978
3. Ford: Who Invented Weekends? https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/who-invented-weekends
4. Kevin Keller Insights: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/brand-world-summit-2021-the-art-and-science-of-branding-by-kevin-keller/86633975
5. Outstream Video Ads: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7665144?hl=en
6. Outstream Video Ad Example – One Plus Series 9 Launch by Indrani Khanvilkar, mCanvas: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/brand-world-summit-2021-how-do-video-ads-fare-outside-of-ott-platforms/86644985
7. mCanvas Oneplus Case Study: https://www.mcanvas.com/case-studies/2021/see-how-oneplus-reached-12-million-users-in-75-minutes-with-mcanvas-live-streaming-video-format-to-launch-its-new-onePlus-9-series.php
8. MOAT Video Score KPI: https://www.inmobi.com/blog/2017/09/19/metrics-that-matter-the-new-viewability-standards-for-mobile-video
9. GCPL Personalized Communication and Inmobi Case Study: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/brand-world-summit-2021-driving-personalised-communication-at-scale/86642122; https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/gcpl-to-scale-partnership-with-inmobi-11631604743832.html; https://go.inmobi.com/gcpl-digital-transformation-with-inmobi/
10. Blend Data and Creative: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/brand-world-summit-2021-data-a-decision-maker-or-support-system/86649247
11. SBI Mutual Funds Example: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/brand-world-summit-2021-brand-marketing-for-a-recovering-economy/86637944
12. Choosing the Medium – Digital: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/brand-world-summit-2021-digital-medium-a-two-headed-sword-with-performance-and-branding/86638076
13. Xiaomi Brand Ambassadors: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/brand-world-summit-2021-building-brands-reimagined-by-manu-kumar-jain-md-xiaomi-india/86643604
14. Changing Consumer Habits: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/brand-world-summit-2021-the-consumers-have-changed-but-have-brands-kept-pace/86642594
15. Twitter Insights, Brand Conversations: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/brand-world-summit-2021-role-of-conversations-in-brand-building/86640222
16. Mamaearth Journey: https://www.forbesindia.com/article/onlinefirst-brands/mamaearth-a-baby-care-brand-grows-up/61303/1
17. Mamaearth Learnings: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/brand-world-summit-2021-varun-alagh-from-mamaearth-on-growth-and-adoption-of-digital-media/86644606
18. OTT as TV Advertising: https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-of-brands/brand-world-summit-2021-how-connected-tv-and-ott-is-complementing-tv-advertising-in-a-performance-driven-world/86641185