March 6th, 2008
Indian CEOs/ CMOs Still Don’t Understand Consumer Engagement in a Networked World
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Quick Summary: At the Effective Consumer Engagement conference organized in Mumbai by the World Federation of Advertisers, I realized that Indian CEOs/ CMOs still don’t understand consumer engagement in a networked world.
I had great fun yesterday live-tweeting the Effective Consumer Engagement conference organized in Mumbai by the World Federation of Advertisers (tweet). I must have received 20+ reactions to my WFA conference tweets yesterday (tweet) and we would have had some great conversations if my mobile phone had tabbed browsing: one for typing tweets on Twitter, the other for tracking @gauravonomics replies on Terraminds (tweet). My friends Ashish also live-tweeted the conference, making it probably a first for a mainstream non-tech event in India (tweet).
As WFA has its Executive Committee, AGM, and Board meetings in Mumbai today, more than half the speakers and delegates at the conference were from outside India. This provided me an opportunity to experience first hand if CEOs/ CMOs in India approach consumer engagement differently from their international counterparts. It turned out that they do.
The international speakers talked about using the tools provided by new/ social media to build consumer engagement in a networked economy. The Indian speakers talked about consumer engagement in the perspective of in terms of hands-on touch-the-consumer insights (tweet) and corporate social responsibility (tweet).
My hypothesis is that most Indian marketers, especially CEOs/ CMOs, don’t quite understand consumer engagement in a networked economy. The concept of “touching” the consumer in the digital/ networked/ social media world (as opposed to the physical world) isn’t yet intuitive for Indian CEOs/ CMOs (tweet). Indian CEOs/ CMOs intuitively understand the idea of engaging with communities, but they still can’t visualize virtual/ networked communities (tweet). This provides a great opportunity for someone like me to act as a bridge between the “real” world (which corporate India is squarely focused on) and the “virtual” tomorrow (which the real world will soon transition to).
Here is a summary of the key points that were discussed in yesterday’s conference –
“Role of Intuition in Consumer Engagement”
R Gopalkrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons
- The value being added by marketers in the organizations is increasingly being questioned (tweet) because marketers with Western Anglo-Saxon educations have started relying on data at the cost of a hands-on intuitive understanding of the consumer (tweet).
- The key to building an intuitive understanding of consumers is by immersion followed by reflection (tweet). He gave really funny examples of how a non-intuitive analytical understanding of consumers can lead to misguided marketing initiatives (tweet). He played a fascinating spoof video play-acted by the top management of Tanishq that showed how marketers have an almost narcissistic tendency to focus on marketing to the consumer at the cost of really understanding the consumer (tweet). Also, when I meet you next, do remind me to tell you the story of the knotted underwears and the failed detergent launch in Goa (tweet).
“The Changing Face of Consumer Expectations” (PPT)
Keith Pardy, Senior VP Nokia Strategic Marketing
- Humans think in terms to straight lines but nature thinks in terms of networks (tweet). The networked world means the end of demographics (tweet). The networked world is about transparency and trust, but trust is at its lowest level ever (tweet). This provides a great opportunity to differentiate on the basis of trust.
- Corporations broadcast and consumers connect. Nokia want to change that and co-create with its consumers (tweet). This is because brands that do not work on improving the world and our lives will be ‘edited out’ of our lives (tweet).
- Mobile phones are the seventh mass medium, after print, recordings, radio, cinema, TV and the computer. More people today will, in fact, do without a TV than a phone (tweet).
- Social marketing intelligence will be the black hole of the twenty first century. There will be too much data and the key will be to make sense of it (tweet).
“Creating a Culture of Brand Engagement” (PPT)
Grace Molenaar. Global Brand Engagement, Vodafone
- Vodafone puts the brand at the centre of the consumer experience. The brand is the central organising principle that drives performance, culture, experience and action across all stakeholders, including consumers, channel partners and employees.
- “A brand is what a brand does.” - Arun Sarin, CEO Vodafone
“Awards and Business Building Advertising - hand in hand”
Prasoon Joshi, Chairman and Regional Creative Director, South & South Asia, McCann Erickson
“Engaging the Consumer 360°” (PPT)
Jon Wilkins, Co-Founder, Naked Communications
- Brands need to treat people as partners not as targets (tweet).
- Instead of spreading your communication thin based on “moments planning”, you need to find a center of gravity for your campaign (tweet).
- W.r.t. the analog vs. digital debate, digital is not a channel, to which a budget needs to be allocated, it’s a way to behave and consume and share (tweet).
- The agency of the future will be built around specialists collaborating on the fly (tweet).
“Engagement Driven By Consumer Insight… and Beyond”
Gunjan Srivastava, Sr Director - Marketing, Philips Consumer Lifestyle
“Consumer-Centric Holistic Measurement” (PPT)
Stephan Loerke, Managing Director, World Federation of Advertisers
- Mass media has become increasingly fragmented and viewers’ engagement levels have decreased. Only 5% of the viewers watch TV ads and 30% of the viewers watch TV while reading the newspaper (tweet).
- The idea is not to replace traditional media with digital media. The idea is to measure communication across a number of media vehicles, both analog and digital, to see what works and what doesn’t (tweet). The Apollo project in the USA (tweet), the Touchpoints project in the UK (tweet) and the Mediametrie project in France are examples of such a consumer centric holistic measurement approach.
“Measuring Marketing ROI” (PPT)
Steve Simpson, Head, Group M Business Science
- While marketing spend as a percentage of sales has increased over the last three decades, most of the increase in marketing spends has gone into short term trade promotions, as trade promotions are measurable (tweet). Now, similar accountability is being demanded from marketing spend focused on long term brand building.
- Marketers require marketing effectiveness frameworks that deliver speed of insight, a 360 view of business, ongoing RoI capability and actionability. A well-designed Marketing Console allows marketers to track performance against all objectives and KPIs in real time, understand business drivers, their importance and profitability in the short and long term and simulate, and optimize, the business outcome of alternative spending scenarios.
“With Engagement Comes Responsibility” (PPT)
Julie Howden, Nutrition and Public Affairs Senior Advisor, Kellogg Asia
- Brands need to earn the right to engage with consumers. Packaged food brands are doing this by re-engineering their products to improve their nutritional value, educating consumers about fitness and nutrition, and desisting from targeting ads at young children.
“Synergising Rational and Emotional Consumer Brand Benefit with Social Benefit” (PPT)
Doug Baillie, CEO, Hindustan Unilever Ltd.
- Earlier, brand building used to be about product, promise and value. Now, apart from being relevant, affordable and accessible, brands also need to stand for values, provide meaning and benefit the society.
- Brands and companies need to synergise rational and emotional benefits with social benefits. Hindustan Unilever Limited does this through their rural micro-credit program called Shakti and their rural personal hygiene education program called Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetana (tweet).
Also see: Agencyfaqs 1, Agencyfaqs 2, Agencyfaqs 3, The Financial Express, The Hindu Business Line, Exchange4Media 1, Exchange4Media 2.
