'Consumer' Is The King!

In today's tech aided digital world the buck stops with the consumers. The 2-way communication process has certainly evolved the relationship between a consumer & a brand. With digitization causing a huge overhaul & changing the way customers consume, companies are trying to keep up with the pace of change by leveraging technology that is turn helping them bring creative ideas to life each day. Today, each brand narrates a story that resonates with its audience.
 
Speaking on the same lines at the Times Network present BW Businessworld Marketing Whitebook Summit 2018 powered by Adobe, Raj Rishi Singh, Director, Marketing, Pepsi, PepsiCo India said, "The key today is to spot and understand the trends before they actually become one. In such a scenario digital helps us to understand our customers real-time and deliver accordingly. But then, with large trends transforming into small moments it is also crucial to apprehend how to deliver micro-trends and build a long-term sustainable rapport with your client."
 
Commenting on how digitization has changed the world, Sukhleen Aneja, Marketing Director, South Asia, RB Hygiene Home said, "Democratization of content is the biggest bone we have seen so-far with digital coming forward. However, with technology penetrating deep into our systems, today every one at home owns a personal device to have access to. The biggest challenge for a marketer is the reduced attention span of its audience. With several apps on our mobiles these days, information on any subject is readily available. Hence, with consumers having so many options to choose from the trends keep changing and to keep pace with it becomes a real challenge for us."

The session was moderated by Anita Nayyar, CEO, India & South Asia, Havas.
 
Advanced technology today has made it easier for companies to provide consumers with an end-to-end digital journey with many memories to cherish. Narrating how these facilities helped PepsiCo India grow, Singh said, "The main element of machine learning is one-to-one personalization. This helps us understand our consumer and deliver better. For an impulse brand like us it really helps us define our context to our consumers in a much efficient manner." Working closely with Google, Singh said that, this time around they provided Google with 100 creative ads on Pepsi instead of 1, ensuring that they delivered the right contextual creative for each piece to their consumers.

On the other hand, defining the role of machine learning in today's society Aneja said that, as marketers any technology that has utility and brings in productivity has the chances of being adopted rapidly. Citing the example of chatbots she said, "If a learning can be replicated through machine learning which in turn makes a task efficient it will certainly own a value in the market."
 
While tech & digital may walk hand in hand for marketers to build a 'market in the moment' concept, innovation & creativity can't be left far behind. Novelty indeed is the need of the hour. Discussing how companies invest in being creative Singh said, "While being creative is the key to instilling brand love, technology is the medium to achieve it. To keep pace with the attention span of customers these days, technology without the right creative bent behind it is of no good." "Wooing customers needs creativity and while being creative needs imagination technology acts as an enabler. The need to contextualize and conceptualize is where it makes a difference," claims Aneja.
 
But then again while engaging with consumers maintaining that thin line between personalizing a customer's experience & intruding into her privacy is of paramount importance. "If a consumer permits you must personalize but breach of privacy is absolutely unacceptable. Hence, in order to construct brand love, one must earn a user's trust. For marketers like us how to reach consumers and when to reach them with due respect to their privacy is what matters", said Sukhleen Aneja.