The innovative marketing strategies that keep brands ahead in a competitive landscape

CMOs’ Charcha – Bengaluru Chapter 2024, held on Wednesday, September 25, centered around the theme of ‘Revolutionising Marketing: The Fusion of Data, Creativity, and Technology’. This summit witnessed leading marketing professionals in Bengaluru explore how the integration of data analytics, creative innovation, and advanced technology is reshaping the marketing landscape.

The event saw an insightful panel discussion on ‘Innovative Marketing Strategies - Staying Ahead in a Competitive Landscape’. The session was chaired by Aparajita Biswas, Head of Marketing, The Hindu Group, and the distinguished panel members included:

Dr Ashish Bajaj, Group Chief Marketing Officer, Narayana Health

Nandita Dayananda Kamath, Chief Marketing Officer, Britannia Bel Foods

Ram Vinayak Deshpande, Chief Marketing Officer, Lendingkart

Shawn Chandy, Chief Marketing Officer, Paragon Footwear

Vanda Ferrao, Chief Marketing Officer, Wow Skin Science

Aparajita Biswas commenced the discussions by introducing the panellists in an interesting manner, saying, “I hope that none of you have to ever get admitted to a hospital. But if you do, then choose a good one - Narayana Health is here - and once you come out of the hospital, ensure that you eat well. Eat a lot of Britannia Peri Cheese, go for a long walk using Paragon footwear, and get glowing skin using Wow Skin Science and ensure that you have enough financial resources and if you don’t then Lendingkart is here. Today, we have a diverse panel of people from various industries. These industries face multiple challenges and opportunities. We are going to discuss how these marketers leverage technology, various creative ideas, and various contemporary marketing methods to stay ahead of the competition and uniquely engage with consumers.”

At the outset, she asked the panellists to share an example of an innovative marketing strategy that they have implemented or invented recently.

Ashish Bajaj responded by saying, “We recently launched a docu-drama series, based on true emergency cases, and we did it pan India, launching 10 episodes, where we showcased what happens behind the doors in terms of taking care of the emergency cases for particular patients and also what goes through the minds of the patient’s caregivers, the family members. We never thought that we would start doing so well that people would start recognizing us as the go-to place for emergencies in the places we are in. So, all content transformed into transactions, which is quite unknown with not many examples and it worked very well for us, be it brand search queries, call volumes at call centers, and finally transactions. We don’t want anyone to fall ill or be in an emergency, but our initiative worked out well for us.”

Nandita Dayananda Kamath added here, “As a challenger brand in a very competitive and also very nascent category, which is cheese, we needed to adopt a content strategy that is not limited to traditional ads. To build brand awareness and recognition, we had to be present where the consumer was actively seeking information. Therefore, four months ago in partnership with Mindshare and Times News Network, we launched a website – a cheese content destination that we call ‘Cheese It Up.in’. It was the first of its kind within the category, and the thought was to be discoverable at high-intent customer touchpoints and, in the process, deliver real value to the consumer. We know that there are a large number of users actively searching for recipes and within that cheese recipe specifically. So, how do we ensure that we are discoverable when they are looking up for this content and be able to offer value in an engaging and immersive manner? We have been promoting this website through various digital media channels, and we have employed data analytics tools to constantly monitor the quality of traffic, the profile of consumers who are coming on the website and how do we identify those customer cohorts that are seen relevant in what we have to offer and how do we build a lot more engagement. We are looking at integrating a lot more immersive experiences, a GenAI based integration into the website as well. So, it’s all about building engagement and a strong connection with the consumer.”

Speaking on how his company caters to regional preferences, especially trends and footwear in terms of regional choices, Shawn Chandy said, “With footwear, there are a lot of regional nuances that come into play. Very basic thing is that in the North, they use a very closed footwear because a lot of the footwear choices depend on the weather and the place you are in, the geography you are in. We have people on the ground, merchandisers, local sales team who go to various markets and understand the regional nuances of what kind of footwear work. Footwear is a subset of fashion. In fashion, colours and designs vary from region to region. So, these people who are our eyes and ears on the ground, they understand customer preferences and come back and give their feedback, keeping in mind what competition is offering in those markets. And then our design team develops the designs on the basis of the inputs that we get from them, developing various materials and footwear options, which are then supplied to various parts of the country. Because we do have a large distribution set-up, so we reach out to every nook and corner. That’s what we keep in mind in terms of the product. And that’s how we reach out to consumers through the product. Since we are an ultra mass brand, we use a lot of regional content and influencers, but stay away from English speaking urban influencers and content creators. We prefer to go with people who can speak the local language, I almost insist on it. We were doing something in West Bengal for Durga Puja, we told the influencers to speak in their own language and the language that the audience understands as we don’t need to be elitist.”

Speaking on the innovative strategies that his company is developing to cater to rural consumers, Ram Vinayak Deshpande said, “A lot of times we get to hear that there are around 30 million audience cohorts spending in India, but the largest group spending in India is the rural consumer. We deal with MSMEs, businesses across the country. If you go anywhere in India, you will not find big factories or showrooms, but will certainly find small shops, small designers, small factories. For us, it is very important to be accessible to them, because the biggest problem for these businesses is credit access. If you go to a small village, there are barely one or two banks, maybe a cooperative bank. If they say no to them, they have nowhere to go. So, having that access is the biggest thing that we are enabling for them. The simple thing that we do is making them aware that something like this exists. The pandemic sort of helped in that the digital revolution made people think that we can take a loan online instead of having to stand in a queue or go to the neighborhood money lender. So, we created our businesses around these problems that the rural MSMes face. I will not say that they are rural in their mindset, as in terms of access to information, tools, and everything that they have now is at par with the rest of India. Only thing is that they don’t have access to a financial institution like a bank in their neighborhood. That just goes away, once they start using their phone or any app. Everyone is using QR based payment, UPI. For us, communicating with them is simply about letting them know. Instagram is working very well for us in Tier 3-4 towns. Initially we thought Instagram was about putting beautiful pictures, but when we started communicating about what is possible for a small business, we started seeing results. Having to take loan is not something that people are very proud of. People can talk about buying a Laughing Cow cheese, or a Wow Skin Science product, but nobody will say that they have taken a loan. But now, we do find people who are ready to talk about it and we create videos with them as their ads. We will make a video telling people about how capital infusion into their business helps them grow and how somebody else should get in touch with them.”

Speaking about Wow Skin Science’s success, Vanda Ferrao called the leading D2C brand an “insurgent brand”. Elaborating on this, she said, “It is because we have broken all the rules that legacy brands have done and have seen great success. Having worked in legacy organizations and handled their marketing, what we have done is we have taken the best of both the worlds. So, at one end of the spectrum you have to build a brand and be consistent over a period of time by proposition, position, etc. The other one is quickly gaining the attention of consumers. We are very aware that our consumers are Gen Zs and later millennials. What really works is virality. I know I’ve used the term, which is really the talk of the town and everyone wants to do it. So, we balance both the spectrums to be able to be innovative in terms of marketing. We are playful with our brand and we try to do interesting things. While you set the proposition, brand attributes also have a little bit of fun.”

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