Salil Sadanandan , VP, Marketing, Timex Watches Ltd

Some say the millennials do not have the genes for brand loyalty, and it is in vain to cultivate loyalty in their minds. Recently, Pitch BrandTalk 2019 was held in Gurugram on ‘Building Brand Loyalty with Millennials’. The panel was chaired by Ashwin Padmanabhan, Head- Trading and Partnerships, GroupM India.

The panel comprised industry honchos from across sectors namely Ankit Paul, Country Lead - Monetization Strategy and Programmatic, Alibaba UC; Karan Shroff, Head -Brand Marketing, Xiaomi; Naresh Krishnaswamy, Head - Growth & Marketing, Cure.fit; RahulDeorah, VP-Marketing, UrbanClap; Somasree Bose, Head Marketing (Personal Care), Godrej Consumer Product; and Bharat Rajamani, Partner - Advisory Services, KPMG India.

The millennials, also known as Gen Y, refer to a group of people who were born in years from 1982 to 2000, and now are aged 19 to 37. They are undergoing a series of important changes in their lives, including graduation, employment, family set-up, and income increasing, during which their consumption habits and minds are changing significantly.

As they have been on the stage of history as the main working population and consumers, interpreting them will be helpful to capture the main consumer group.

Indian Millennial - the Largest Millennial Population around the World

India has millennials of 450 million, accounting for 34% of India’s population and being the world’s largest Gen Y. They account for 47% of India’s working population and their household incomes account for 70% of India’s total household income. (Source: Morgan Stanley)

India’s millennials have a weaker tendency to saving than that of the previous generation. They deposit 10% of their income, boosting the growth in consumption. Most of their expenditures go to daily necessities, education, and public spending, while the remaining disposable income is spent on entertainment and eating out (32.7%), accessories (21.4%) and electronic products (11.2%) (source: Deloitte India and Retailers Association of India)

Gen Y is experiencing the explosive development of the Internet, with the rapid penetration of Western values and lifestyles. Meanwhile, Internet and emerging industries have driven economic development and provided more employment opportunities as well.

However, India is a country with extreme social differentiation, where a small number of millennials have the access to advanced education and more job offers, while a larger number of them live in rural or other remote areas with limited educational resources and employment opportunities.

Millennials Attach significance to Social Influence, Holding Conflicting Attitudes toward Social Media

The survey on the youth of 40 countries by Deloitte, finds that India’s Gen Y and Gen Z are the most optimistic among the 40 countries.

India’s millennials attach more importance to social influence and the possibility of realizing their social values, with traditional achievements such as higher incomes and family ownership aside.

Their relationship with brands is often related to the societal impact and ethics. 42% of respondents said they would start/deepen a relationship with a business when its products/services positively impact the environment/society. Oppositely, 38% said they might stop/lessen a relationship when it has negative impact to environment/society.

Other factors that influence millennials’ attitudes towards brand are also interesting. The top three factors that keep them away from brands come as the ethical behavior of the business (37%), the amount of data it requests (31%), and the behavior or comments of a company leader (29%).

The millennials spend an average of 17 hours a week on the Internet, showing an awkward attitude toward social media. 55% of the respondents suggested that social media does more harm than good, and 60% implied they would be happier spending less time on social media. However, 44% argued they would be anxious if they stay away from social media for a day or two.

(Source: Trend-setting Millennials: Redefining the Consumer Story, jointly released by Deloitte and Retailers Association of India (RAI))

The UC Media Lab data discover that India’s millennials have an obvious demands for pan-entertainment content. Entertainment-related content is the favorite of the millennials, followed by sport and lifestyle. Paul shared how UC browser is changing, helping and making life easier for the millennials of the world. “UC Browser has made life easier for many. You just have to navigate. As soon as you scroll down, you have the news feed starts coming in. So you have a plethora of information on entertainment, politics, and other news. Everything is at one place, you don't have to go anywhere outside.”

How Brands Connect with Millennials

The millennials play as the main targeted group of many retail brands. Retail brands such as electronics, fashion and apparel have launched targeted series and taken marketing measures, and other sectors such as automobiles, real estate, telecommunications, and finance are also releasing products targeted at the millennials.

The millennials attach more importance to the social image of brands. When making product marketing, a brand needs to actively establish a positive public image to have a positive improving the level of education and literacy of the Indian people by means of reading. This is the first online and offline integrated educational public welfare event in India. Users can get points by reading the contents on UC, and they can initiate a book donation when they have accumulated some points. The event has attracted 800,000 users within two months, benefiting 50,000 students.

Another example is Tom’s, a famous shoe brand which makes contributions to public welfare every time when it sells a product. (Their slogan is: Improving lives. One for One.) These are examples of creating a good social image, leaving the consumers with a better impression.

Bose shared at the panel that millennials are generation of digital know-it-all. “In 2012, we realised that with these millennials, you can't just be selling a product. You have to make them live and experience.” The millennials want more interaction with brands at the time of their shopping, so that they have fun buying, trying, and sharing. As they spend 17 hours a week on their phones, online interaction is essential. What a brand needs to do is to interact with consumers, turn shopping into something they can experience, show the charm of the product during games or challenges, and develop the consumers into fans of the product.

Efforts should be paid to avoid excessive advertising, build trust and draw connection. In addition to brand exposure via advertising, we need to construct trust with consumers and draw their attention. Influencers can be a bridge between brands and customers. Superstars can get your brand noticed all at once, while influencer recommendations and friends’ comments enable consumers to have a deeper understanding of your products.

We all have to admit that the world belongs to the millennials. They are obviously the main force, both in terms of consumption and the right of discourse. Brands need to make efforts to interpret them and understand them.

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India's retail market is expected to reach USD 1.1 trillion by 2020 with an annual growth rate of 12%, according to IBEF Report 2018, driven by rapid income growth, growing urbanization, younger consumer groups, and rising middle class. With improved business environment and positive prospects, local brands and international brands enjoy the rapid development and to see the fierce competitions in Indian market. As labor and real estate costs increase and growth slows, the competitions become more intense on Tier-1 markets, the battle field is extending to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.  

In recent years, increased income and accelerated development of mobile Internet made a huge difference to the lives in lower tier cities and rural places. Retail brands of household appliance, fashion and FMCG began their pursuit for growth in T2 and T3 cities and towns. According to IBEF report, traditional offline retail sees 10% annual growth rate, while online retail and assisted online retail sees 20%.

As retail growth in T1 cities slows down, T2 and T3 cities become engines of growth
       
The 8 T1 cities, including Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad, top the class based on better standards of living, higher incomes, and well-established business circle. These are the prioritized destinations for brands, to open offline stores in an effort to win city customers with certain spending power. The Indian retail industry still expects new stores to open in T1 cities. However, since both brands and stores have reached a certain penetration in T1 cities, the space for growth is limited. At least one third of new stores will open in T2 or T3 cities and towns instead, bringing along the advanced business systems, job opportunities and retail environment to these emerging markets. 
       
Brand managers noticed that consumers in lower tier cities and towns are showing increasing interests in fashion. It’s predicted that 50%-60% fashion brands have plan to expand sales in T2 and T3 cities, adding 35%-40% growth to overall fashion sales. Given business cost in smaller markets are about 30%-40% lower than that in T1 cities, fashion brands may get lucrative return with such a move.

Judging from online sales data, it is clear that e-commerce sales can be an important driving force for T2 and T3 market sales growth. RedSeer report shows e-commerce sales reached USD 53 billion in 2018. Non-metro customers constituted 42% of online shoppers in 2016, and this figure is expected to rise to 55% by 2020. 
 

After a few years of aggressive user acquisition, Flipkart, Amazon and PayTm Mall have pretty high penetration rate in T1 cities internet users. They are aware that the next wave of growth comes from new mobile Internet users in lower tier cities. Amit Agarwal, SVP and country head, Amazon India, once revealed in an interview after festival sales in 2018 that, more than 82% of its new customers were from T2 cities or below.  Amazon is taking ecommerce to India’s heartland with Project Udaan, now called Amazon Easy. It has established partnerships with StoreKing and Vakrangee, enabling customers in smaller markets to get access to the convenience of online shopping. It aims to help break down various transaction barriers for first-time online shoppers like trust, lack of Internet access, language and as well as digital payments, to embrace e-commerce. It has covered 14,000 stores in 21 states. Paytm Mall and Shopclues also adopted similar methods. Flipkart offers EMI on debit cards, allowing shoppers to buy those expensive products with monthly installment. To meet the needs of customers in small towns, Flipkart launched affordable made-for-India brand Billion.

In addition to e-commerce giants, e-retail start-ups also turn their eyes toward markets in smaller cities, and began to provide various localized service to gain market share. Club Factory, a cross-border e-commerce platform, seeks deep penetration into small cities and attracts young customers with fashionable products at a cheap price.

It is worth noting that international luxury brands achieved a 26% increase in total sales in 2018, contributed by young purchasers and rich families in T2 and T3 cities. (Data source: Assocham)

Consumer Behaviors in T2 and T3 Market

Offering desired products at an affordable price based on the needs of customers is the one and only way to enter into these emerging markets. Such customers are basically The Next Billion. It’s a vast customer base, four times the size in T1 cities and their markets are uncharted with large potential.
       
India's small towns have distinct languages, custom and cultures. One thing in common for these towns is growing demands for digital devices and emerging aspiration for fashion. However, customers in smaller markets have little access to brands, with limited amount of brands among many fields. Many products are not even available there. Consumption habit of customers there is not yet tied with large brands, given low and unattached brand awareness.
       
With ever popular access to Internet, lives in small towns has seen significant changes. Aided by available devices and mobile Internet, people are connected to the online world. Small towns customers tend to use vernacular languages, while Internet content, appears mostly in English and little in Hindi. Thanks to the rising of Internet companies, as well as development of lower tier users targeted mobile apps, a new world with more diversified online vernacular languages content opens to these next billion customers.

The widely used apps - short videos apps and live video apps, connect people in small towns with the outside world, introduce the concept of fashion and trends, and plant a seed for fashion enthusiasm. Internet content also help cultivate the concept of brand awareness among young people in small towns, who begin to pursue better brand experience. Users in T2 and T3 cities and towns have limited brand options in physical stores, the rise of e-commerce satisfy their increasing needs.
     
However, their spending power is limited by income. Fashion products priced between 300-1,000 rupees can be more easily accepted by people in smaller markets. So, low-priced products should be selected or customized by brands for these markets.

Targeting Lower Tier Markets, How to do local marketing?

Focus on aspiration of young people in small towns: E-commerce platform Myntra puts on a series of advertisements - Unforgettable, telling stories of consumers in small places. There is one girl growing up in a rural place. She lacks of confidence because of her plain-looking. Then she changes from outside to inside after having access to fashion clothes on Mymtra. The marketing campaign centers on young people in small towns, capturing their longings and aspiration for a fresh life. The resonance of targeted customers to the landmarks and life experience is reflected in comments on YouTube. 

Focus on digital marketing channels: As new users on mobile Internet, their major source of information is mobile internet. Therefore, marketing campaigns on mobile media should be given more attention. Digital social and content platforms enable brands reach and communicate with customers at a larger scale. UC Browser, as a vernacular-content-based platform, is one of the touch points to these customers.

Localized Marketing Strategies. As the culture vary a lot among different destinations, down-to-earth marketing campaigns are much needed to engage local customers. For example, Consumers in small towns have their own languages, and they would search and select products in vernaculars instead of English. Therefore, vernacular marketing contents, or local influencers who speak their own languages, could help achieve a more engaging branding effect. 
 
In addition to vernacular content-based marketing campaigns, product information and description should be also given in local languages. Now, the production of vernacular content on Internet is still at a preliminary stage, let alone vernacular-based brand information which are difficult to be found on Internet. Catering to the needs of users using Hindi and to lead the competition, Amazon launched its website in Hindi last year, which allows users to pull down the list and check on products information in Hindi. This move brought a significant increase in traffic. Having squeezed the last drops from the country's English speakers, e-commerce outfits in India now pay more attention to Indian language users who will provide the bulk of the boom that is yet to come.

With a focus on word-of-mouth, entertaining and interactive marketing contents receive more attention. In smaller markets, word-of-mouth, can produce more effect. Friends and relatives' reviews about and interactions with brand products can exert a tremendous influence among social circles of acquaintances. Advertisements should focus on building word-of-mouth on social networks and other acquaintance circles. Besides, we found that users in T2 and T3 cities spent more time on entertainment content, especially on videos. It may be a good idea to create next Billion through entertainment content.

UC Ads, is an innovative mobile marketing platform under Alibaba UC. Leveraging 130 million MAU on UC Browser and 200 million global MAU on 9 Apps, UC Ads connects advertisers with their right audience at the right time. For more information, please visit ucads.ucweb.com or contact via UC-Ads@service.alibaba.com

UC Browser, an Alibaba digital media and entertainment group company, has roped in cricket veterans Irfan Pathan, Michael Clarke and Kevin Pietersen as part of its wide-ranging cricket coverage to the most awaited international championship of ODI cricket. Sports enthusiast and cricket lovers can now access world-class cricket content including short videos, GIFs and memes and more on UC Browser.
 

As a market leader in the technology space, UC Browser has always made stride towards empowering ingenious content consumers. In another step to benefit cricket fans, UC Browser is yet again offering its users a chance to earn prizes worth 1 crore rupees by participating in an exciting Quiz as well as Play & Win Game on the browser. The three former cricketers will run through exciting interactive activities and will share match predictions through-out the league. Users can also guess the right answers for every match and win UCoins, which can be exchanged for Paytm Cash.

In a bid to benefit maximum users and provide localised services, UC Cricket, UC Browser's in-app channel for cricket content aggregation is geared up to present live ball to ball match commentary in eight local languages, covering Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam and Punjabi. Besides this, for all-in-one live cricket content, including live scores, news, videos, photos and more, UC Cricket will be supported by seven local languages, covering Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada and Malayalam.

The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup is the 12th edition of the Cricket World Cup, scheduled to be hosted by England and Wales from 30 May to 14 July 2019. The 2019 World Cup will feature 10 teams including India, England, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

UC Ads, is an innovative mobile marketing platform under Alibaba UC. Leveraging 130 million MAU on UC Browser and 200 million global MAU on 9 Apps, UC Ads connects advertisers with their right audience at the right time. For more information, please visit ucads.ucweb.com or contact via UC-Ads@service.alibaba.com

Morden Chen, General Manager of Alibaba UC Ads Marketing was in a talk with Comexposium Journalist, sharing his ideas regarding the trends in content on Mobile, the ROI of creativity, influencer marketing and the growth of programmatic buying in India.

With the explosion of content on the internet, thanks to OTT platforms, and other technology services, what trends do you see around content consumption on mobile?

Mobile provides multi-touch points to users, which encourages various formats of content. With mobiles and ever affordable data, it allows users access to omni-channels every day, from news, broadcast, OTT, to live video, etc. Content, accordingly, is adapted into various formats, from article, audio, live streaming, short form video to long ones. Even gaming and emoji can be popular formats of content to the Gen Z. We can say that, along with the technology development, more formats of content are being created and tested.

The demands rise for personalization and interactivity. Thanks to data technology and algorithm, platforms are able to understand users’ interests and try to provide the content they like. Except for personalized content recommendation, content personalization and interactivity is much talked about. Top content provider Netflix launched an interactive Black Mirror episode last year, viewers can choose and personalize storylines. The techniques are yet to be widely used, but the needs for personalization and interactivity are noticed.

‘snippet’ content to cater to micro-moments. User behavior are mostly changed on mobile from TV or print media. Content consumption scatter during all the micro-moments, sporadic and decentralized. Snackable and short form video content becomes even more adaptive to these time fragments.

In India, vernacular content will become major driver for mobile content consumption in the next 3 years. Only 12% of India speaks English, and the fact is people tend to watch and read contents in their mother tongue. According to research, the vernacular content user base in India is estimated to grow to over 540 million by 2021, which would comprise 75% of Internet users at the time. We believe many of these new internet users are going to use mobile phones to access these content and continue spending more time on their phones which provides a great opportunity for content providers and influencers to shape their own personal channel and brand. And this is what UC has been doing, to empower thousands to millions of content providers and connect them to the right audiences.

While brands are instinctively driven towards content and creativity for their new campaigns & products, what accordingly to you are some of the key points they need to bear in mind, so that they get ROI out of these campaigns?

Brand managers have to decide the overall objectives to an integrated campaign, be it voice of brand, sales growth or something else. That’s the final destination to bear in mind. Break down the objectives to each segment according to the action and media nature. Make sure there are clear key goals to every individual campaign and all of them lead to your final destination.

Content view or share might just be numbers to report, the challenge for marketers is that whether the overall objective is broken down in a right way – if all those numbers in detail help to make the final goal happen.

As the market for influencer marketing matures, with even micro influencers holding considerable sway, how to see this market developing over the coming year?

The whole industrial keeps developing in an industrial way. Take China market as an example, which is definitely a booming market for influencer marketing. When content creators were able to monetize their content back in 2016, the industry began to thrive. In the years followed, it’s been witnessed the appearances of professional players among every circle, including influencer incubators, influencer-led creative studios, influencer marketing platforms, etc. It’s been a prosperous and crowded industry, and every player found it profitable.

Statistic tools and platforms, which empower content creators and marketers in both ways. The tools enable creators detect trendy topics, keywords, hence, content creation become less of art and more of science of words. With multiple dimensions of data, it helps marketers further track conversion and analyze the results of content marketing campaigns, and evaluate the performance in a practical way.

As programmatic advertising scales to create better ROI for advertisers, what advice would you have for publishers who look forward to creating the maximum revenue from their inventory?

Before programmatic buying getting popular, we have been using different ways to maximize revenue for decades – on print, on TV, on Radio. So let’s see what we’ve done. We packaged different inventories for different campaign purposes, for targeting different audience segments, and sold for different price so that different advertisers can take the right “piece” depending on their affordability and goals. For example, we often get automobile aftersales service ads on radio during morning and afternoon commuting traffic hours, while we see skin care ads on vogue, the reason behind is to fit our marketing goal with the right media. So what I can say is there’s something unchanged and something change by time. We should first think about to understand your user base and traffic, as well as the value to your potential customers, to design pricing strategies accordingly, these will never go wrong and won’t change by time.

What to be changed and we better embrace as a publisher is your programmatic readiness. By saying so, it includes both demand side and supply side, so get ready to prepare and train your sales team to be able to sell programmatic – such as to work closely with agency trading desk to generate new revenue from PMP (preferred marketplace) and programmatic guaranteed deal, to train them to understand the programmatic ecosystem and R&R of DSPs, SSPs, DMPs, ADXs; and get ready to prepare and train your traffic optimization team to use a solid SSP (supply side platform) for yield management, to run more A/B testing within your ad placements to understand which are best for direct response ads and which are good for branding purpose, to start use data more for your user profiling, use multiple data that can only be given by mobile usage scenarios such as location, language, interest, phone types, etc so that you know better about your unique value. There’s a long way to go, but we got to start from now.

UC Ads, is an innovative mobile marketing platform under Alibaba UC. Leveraging 130 million MAU on UC Browser and 200 million global MAU on 9 Apps, UC Ads connects advertisers with their right audience at the right time. For more information, please visit ucads.ucweb.com or contact via UC-Ads@service.alibaba.com

How to fully communicate with consumers in the market, where new products are piling up, and launch a marvelous go-to-market campaign? After exploring and practicing, UC Ads has mastered the secret of new product marketing - The New Product Quartet- which is designed to help brands communicate with consumers in a more fun and interactive way. Let's take Huawei Mate 20 Pro India release, which has won praise and popularity, as an example to see the marketing approaches of new product release.

The communication cycle of new products goes through three stages: pre-launch, outburst and post-launch sale, and each stage should follow a certain dissemination rhythm. Of course, we also need some small surprises from time to time to enhance the favorable impression.

Pre-Launch Buzz: Highlight the core features for initial attraction, turn indifference into interest

We often compare marketing to the establishment of an intimate relationship between a brand and its consumers, so the main goal of the pre-launch period is to raise interest and attraction for your soon-to-be-launched product, turning visitors into an audience, then into loyal customers. Only by showing its dazzling core points can the product attract consumers and make them want to learn more about it. In the stage of introducing new products, marketers need to tap into the products’ core value, use their eye-catching characteristics, make it appeal to consumers and, create expectations for consumers by adding the time when the product to be launched. At the same time, some data can be collected at this stage as seeded users to make preparation for the next stage.

In the early stage of the release of Huawei Mate20 Pro, through a series of Roadblock exposures, the new phone showed the elegant full screen and ultra Leica triple cameras to subdue local consumers. UC, with the large user base, enabled Huawei covering customers from first-tier cities to emerging cities, the yet-to-be-launched product mastered in attracting a crowd of expectant consumers and the event is ready to begin.

Product launch is like a confession to customers: Full display of charm, making AH-HA Moments

The role of warm-up period is to create expectations among consumers, while the launching event serves as an outburst when the charm of new products is shown and their service commitments depicted. It is like a well-prepared confession, where you make your advantages known and the thoughtful and supportive services you’d provide. This is an important time node to shape consumers' minds and opinion of new products.
There are more and more ways to present a launching event with fun and engagement. A variety of vehicles, such as live streaming, the behind-the-scenes shows and influencers’ commentary, that can help a product extend offline launch event into the online world.

Huawei Mate20 Pro's India releasing, held on November 27, was broadcast live on UC. The official launch would certainly strike a magnificent and classy impression, fully introduced the amazing operation speed, Leica triple lens, and fast charging features, etc. At the same time, tech influencer leads the way to play a complementary role. Rajiv Makhni, a popular techy celebrity from UC Influencers Network, was chosen by Huawei and led the followers into the scene of the event with short videos to enjoy the photography shot by Huawei Mate20 Pro, participate in product presentation in real time, and experience the unboxing session seamlessly. 
 

Rajiv successfully led more followers to actively participate in the launch event, during which a large number of them watched live streaming and raise interests to the new product.

Drive sales after product launch: Buzzing Marketing to Upgrade WoM and Boost Conversion

Many brands attach great importance to the marketing plan before release and launch of products in a very ceremonious way. However, they often take the marketing after releasing lightly. A desirable lover often has many choices, so how to continue your popularity after confession and let her choose you instead of others?
Consumers have many choices too. At this stage, the brand needs to actively apply to experiential marketing, helping customers experience the product and create emotional attachment. In the meantime, creating a good product words of mouth and letting the big names and even friends of consumers to speak well for you will play a very positive role in converting them into purchase.
UC Ads organises techy celebrities to start with various features of the new phone, record and present, in various forms, the in-depth review of the phone’s hands-on experience and use scenario to consumers. The content was delivered to the right customers via interests targeting on UC Ads Platform. The positive reputation of the product was spread through UC, NDTV, and other popular platforms.
 

Day-to-Day interaction: Continuous creative interaction deepens perception

In addition to putting releasing and marketing campaign in a rhythmic way, new products also need to interact with consumers from time to time, seeking all-time sense of presence to deepen consumers' impression and realize a growing attachment. Huawei, working with UC Ads, created innovative snackable content and play with users on local fun platforms.

On Hot Short Video App - Organic Videos with Customized Emoji
“Feeling bad for battery dying? Recover right away using Huawei fast charging!
On Fun Memes Creator - HUAWEI vs IPHONE? 
Users Create and download Huawei funny viral memes from Memes Creator and share among friend!
 

After a series of smooth marketing activities, Huawei Mate 20 Pro has been out of stock! A well-participated Go-To-Market Marketing Solutions is inevitably include product exposure, product engagement, buzz marketing and innovative social marketing. 

UC Ads, is an innovative mobile marketing platform under Alibaba UC. Leveraging 130 million MAU on UC Browser and 200 million global MAU on 9 Apps, UC Ads connects advertisers with their right audience at the right time. For more information, please visit ucads.ucweb.com or contact via UC-Ads@service.alibaba.com

Using the power of the internet to deliver products and services and connecting with customers in the most direct way possible is a key part of Dell’s heritage. Using social or digital media at Dell is rooted in listening and crafting an engagement with customers first and foremost. Social brings new dynamics to continue to grow the intersection between business value and customer value, to create a connect between Dell and its valued customers.

P Krishnakumar, also known as KK, is Executive Director, Marketing for Dell India. His previous roles during his five years at Dell include Executive Director, Marketing for the Consumer, Small and Medium business segments and APJ, SMB Product and Solutions Director for Commercial Business. Krishnakumar has over 18 years of experience in the IT and consumer industry and has served in various sales and marketing positions, beginning his career with Wipro in its consumer division and spending four years with Pepsico in its sales organisation. Prior to Dell, Krishnakumar was Country Manager, Consumer Desktops in the personal solutions group of HP India.

“Our products are our heroes,” says Krishnakumar in conversation with Priyanka Mehra as he talks about Dell’s focus on empowering consumers with the ‘power to do more’ and treating them as the best brand ambassadors

Q. Though Dell was a brand well known in the overseas market, it had to establish itself in India. Today, it has become a trusted brand. Please share with us some key marketing insights of the brand-building journey. Globally, Dell has undertaken a significant transformation – to become an end-to-end IT solutions player by leveraging its leadership position in the hardware business. One of the most important things for Dell is customer-centricity – listening to what customers are saying. Dell has a deep, unique customer insight, which is the result of over two billion customer interactions each year. It has an unwavering focus on providing customers the tools and capabilities they need to succeed, the ‘The power to do more’.

We have followed the same customer-centric focus in India delivering enhanced consumer experience, designing SMB-catered products and services for the large enterprise.

Q. What are the challenges faced by the brand? Over the last few years, Dell has been focused on three strategic areas of change in an effort to ensure that the brand remains relevant to customers, employees and stakeholders long into the future:

Ensuring that the world sees one, consistent Dell brand Putting customers and their ‘outcome’ from technology at the core of the Dell promise Leveraging Dell’s unique differences Today, Dell is at an inflection point that is being driven by a convergence of macro-economic, business and technology trends that we call the Virtual Era. In the Virtual Era, consumerisation is fundamentally altering how people use technology at work and at home and how social/ digital marketing is blurring and redefining lines of personal, social and work behaviour. Virtualisation and cloud computing are redefining the economics of enterprise computing and the demand for secure anytime/anywhere access to data is changing how we treat our information. Dell’s core strategy is to help its customers capitalise on the Virtual Era by offering end-to-end solutions that provide them with the power to do more.

Q. Dell is a brand well known for service as its USP, with competitors such as Lenovo and Sony Vaio aggressive in the marketing space and using Bollywood stars as brand ambassadors. What are your marketing plans? We at Dell believe that our products are our heroes. It is with this insight that we launched one of our most powerful brand campaigns ever – Take your own path. We made our customers our ambassadors to showcase the way they used technology to scale their business. We believe that the emotional connect with our customers is established by staying true to our solutions promise.

Q. What is the one tip you have for upcoming marketing managers? It is imperative that you listen to your customers. There is no better way to get customer insights than talking and listening. This will help a marketer understand customer pain points and help better position the company’s products and solutions.

Q. How are you using digital media to build your brand and connect with the youth? Using the power of the internet to deliver products and services and connecting with customers in the most direct way possible is a key part of Dell’s heritage. Using social or digital media at Dell is rooted in listening and crafting an engagement with customers first and foremost. Social brings new dynamics to continue to grow the intersection between business value and customer value, to create a connect between Dell and its valued customers. It is a tool that has been leveraged across the fabric of the company employing different functions, uses and values; from impacting the course of product development to sales and marketing communications, all in order to understand the customer and be able to deliver customer service and value to them.

Dell has been actively engaged in embracing social media since 2006. We do this by leveraging platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, our Direct2Dell blog, our product ratings and reviews written by customers and embedded within the purchase experience across www.dell.com, and our Social Media Listening Programme where we directly correspond with individuals who may be reaching out for help or offering advice. There is a human element that social media brings to conversations, which makes the relationship between customer and the company stronger. It is a culture, based right from the beginning on an unwavering drive to provide practical solutions that solve real problems, a promise fulfilled by listening and applying our team’s knowledge, creativity and winning spirit to develop innovative solutions that help customers succeed. We rely on millions of daily interactions with customers around the world to develop deep, insightful relationships that lead to innovative technology, rewarding customer experiences and superior long-term value.

Q. How does Dell as a brand position itself? Our purpose is to enable people to grow and thrive using technology. At Dell, we believe that we’re in the business of productivity and hence we build technology that will equip people with the ‘Power to do more’. The last few years have seen Dell undergo a serious transformation, from a pure hardware company to a technology solutions provider. From a customer point of view, we’re now able to provide end-to-end technology solutions and that is how we’re positioning ourselves.

With broadband penetration crossing a hundred million, there are early adopters of the online travel category. With our new campaign we are trying to get a larger mindshare and want to become a dominant online travel agency brand in the consumer space.

Pratik Mazumder, Head of Marketing and Strategic Alliance, Yatra has more than 18 years of experience in marketing with special emphasis on brand and product management, marketing communications including advertising, celebrity management, events, sales, direct messaging, content resource management, public relations, outdoor, research, retail merchandising, trade engagement and consumer brand experience.

He has wide experience in the services sector including telecom, travel and tourism, financial services and real estate. He possesses a deep understanding of the e-commerce business.

His forte has been in areas of strategic brand planning and brand architecture mapping, consumer segmentation, relationship marketing, and consumer brand experience. Prior to joining Yatra, Mazumder has been associated with prominent brands such as Bharti Airtel and OgilvyOne Worldwide.

For Mazumder, the task ahead at Yatra is to create a distinct identity for the brand keeping in mind its ideology of happy travelers.

Here are excerpts from Dipali Banka’s conversation with him:

Q. What are the challenges you are trying to address with your recent campaign with Salman Khan?

The fact we are trying to establish is that right now, with broadband penetration crossing a hundred million, there are early adopters of the online travel category. We are trying to get a larger mindshare and want to become a dominant online travel agency (OTA) brand in the consumer space. We have used this campaign to try increase top of mind recall and saliency for the brand.

This is a highly fragmented market in which the top four to five brands in the holiday section of the business control less than 10 per cent marketshare. So, it is primarily an unorganised retail trade. We want to become the number one brand that customers think of when booking a domestic or an international flight ticket. We signed on Salman Khan because he is the only celebrity who cuts across both masses and the classes, in metros as well as in tier I and tier II towns.

Q. Are you saying that because Salman Khan has bought a stake in Yatra?

The relationship with Salman Khan is multilevel. There are three dimensions to it. One dimension is that he has come on board as a shareholder of Yatra. The second is that he is going to be the brand ambassador, spokesperson and the face of Yatra. In a sense, he epitomises ‘Mr. Yatra’. He is the guy who goes out getting the best deals and will do anything for his customers. Thirdly, we’ve associated with his charitable trust, ‘Being Human Foundation’. For every ticket or holiday that we sell, we will make a contribution to his foundation. That is going to be the cornerstone of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity.

Q. What is the total spend of the campaign? What kind of growth are you expecting?

We are undertaking a 360-degree marketing campaign. The campaign spend is around Rs 30 crore, a large share of which will be spent on television. Other than television, our media mix includes outdoor, print, radio and digital.

We are looking at doubling our business in the next two years.

Q. The campaign talks about meeting the commitment of one particular deal of providing 50 per cent off on an airline ticket. From a consumer’s point of view, it is a bit unrealistic. Through this campaign, are you trying to say that you are going to offer unrealistic deals at Yatra?

That is a creative exaggeration. That is like saying that someone picks up a cola and jumps off a mountain.

Q. Yes, but that creative exaggeration does not include numbers. Over here, people will come expecting 50 per cent off on every deal; and if they do not get it, they might be put off.

By the way, there are 50 per cent off on a few products on our website depending on sales, destinations, products and the inventory that we may have pre-bought. But if the residual message to the consumer is that Yatra provides the best deals, at least the consumer will check our deals before making a travel decision. And if that happens, the campaign would have done justice.

Q. McCann Erickson, Delhi is the creative agency for this campaign. But in 2010 your agency was TBWA, in 2009 it was Rediffusion DY&R, in 2007 it was Leo Burnett and in 2006 it was Everest Brand Solutions. There have been five different creative agencies in the last six years. What led to so many agency changes?

I cannot comment about what happened before late 2009 as I came in around that time. Back then, we had Rediffusion on board. We moved to TBWA through a competitive pitch. But I think it would have been more to do with the lack of meeting of minds and the juncture at which the brand was. About 2006-07…we had just started and had decided to trust a particular agency. As it didn’t deliver, we had to take steps. When you have business requirements to grow exponentially and if there isn’t meeting of minds, then it is better to part ways. In 2008-09, there was huge recession and the travel industry went through a bad time. So it would have been the financials that didn’t work out.

Right now, TBWA has been brought on to help us plan the creative strategy, the brand positioning and growth for the next few years.

There are agencies that have nurtured brands and helped them grow over a period of 10-15 years. This is an ideal situation but sometimes agency relations are all people-dependent and if there isn’t a meeting of minds, then it is better to part ways.

Q. On the media side too, you had Motivator some time back. And now it is ZenithOptimedia. Please comment.

Yes, Motivator was the agency for three odd years. The reasons for this change would also be similar. We are growing exponentially and over the last few years, our media investments have quadrupled. Motivator was a very small agency. When we did the pitch process, we did look at Maxus, another GroupM agency, Madison and Lodestar. We found that Zenith’s understanding and its completely RoI-driven model was suitable.