Accelerating Marketing Transformation: Winning in an evolving consumer environment

CMOs’ Charcha – Delhi Chapter 2024, organised by Adgully on January 23, was a successful and insightful event, particularly focusing on the theme of ‘Future roadmap for pursuing growth in new ways’.

The event saw an interesting panel discussion on ‘Accelerating Marketing Transformation: How To Win in Today’s Evolving Consumer Environment’, which brought together prominent industry leaders to share their perspectives. Chaired by Mansi Bhatia, Chief Business Officer, Shoogloo, the eminent panelists included Charu Malhotra, Chief Brand Officer, APL Apollo Steel Tubes; Kush Aggarwal, Marketing Head, Bikano, Bikanervala Foods; Satish Shukla, Co-Founder and CMO, Addverb; and Satyabrata Das, Chief Alliance Officer, Laqshya Media, who provided a diverse range of perspectives.

Mansi Bhatia set the tone by highlighting the dynamic nature of marketing and the continuous evolution of consumer expectations and the business landscape. Her statement about marketing being on an accelerating mode reflects the fast-paced changes in the industry. She emphasised on the importance of adapting to the new trends and staying abreast of the evolving consumer landscape.

Charu Malhotra noted, “Today, consumers are overwhelmed with the information overload all around them. The consumer funnel has evolved. Earlier, the consumer had a long process to come down and select a product, but now with the availability of so many apps, websites, conventional marketing and communication, the consumer follows no set pattern. Now, it is more important for brands and marketers to set up the right interventions to guide the consumers.”

Malhotra emphasised on the brand’s role in handholding the consumers to the right product. According to her, brands not only should suggest about the products, but also give their consumers tailormade customised communication plans. There has to be a right mix of technological as well as conventional interventions. Talking about the steel tubular construction industry, she said: “Steel earlier was a commodity that was non-branded. But now, in the digital era, marketers have changed their perception. Earlier, it was only on TV, but now we have added customised and digital means. We are exploring VR tools to give real life simulation to our consumers.”

Kush Aggarwal added here, “Steel as a product will be used for years and years by consumers. However, my product is eaten and forgotten in a minute. Moreover, with so many competitors in the market, my products have to be different. With such a large portfolio of 50 to 60 traditional snacks, 20-30 western snacks and around 1,000 SKUs, Bikano is in the market.”

Aggarwal pointed out that in India, along with the consumers’ mindset, the dialect also changes every 5 km. “The changing dialect refers to the change in the tastes of consumers. In Jaipur, Bikano Bhujia is a hot-selling product, whereas in Telangana or Hyderabad, no one knows the taste of Bhujia. So, when we set up a factory in Hyderabad, I had to know what people can relish there,” he added.

Speaking about Addverb and what it does, Satish Shukla said, “Addverb is a warehouse automation and robotix company. It is an intra-logistics automation solution provider. It builds robotics and automation solutions for factories and warehouses. The idea is to automate laborious tasks related to the storage and movement of goods in controlled environments.”

Being from the B2B industry, he further said, “As a B2B start-up which started in 2016, we have done well. We got business of Rs 480 crore last year. We have raised funding from Reliance Industries as well.” He further noted that in the multichannel world, the attention span of consumers has reduced. Citing the example of Asian Paints, he said that it became a brand after a guy shared a beautiful story about it. The mind of consumers might change, but their expectations of hearing a good story have not changed. He noted, “It is a multichannel world. Consumers’ love for stories will not change, what had changed is the medium.”

Sharing his experience, Satyabrata Das said, “I have seen the whole evolution of the process – from print, to television to digital to hyper digital. India as a nation has seen many technological advancements. New platforms are coming up. There is a huge digital tsunami in the country. In this kind of a landscape, it becomes difficult for any marketer to plan. However, along with the technological advancements, the CMOs are also getting smarter. They have started to think differently.”

While agreeing with the other panelists on the drastic reduction in consumers’ attention spans, Das stressed that it is very important for a brand custodian to understand what is happening in the minds of the customers due to technology. “The consumers are changing rapidly, so the brand custodian also has to be smart, he has to understand, get transformed and plan accordingly,” he added.

These are edited excerpts. For the complete panel discussion at CMOs’ Charcha, watch below: