Today brands have the ability to redefine and stretch boundaries: Experts at Goafest 2024
At Goafest 2024, panellists dived deep into why there was a distinction between traditional and new-age marketing and how adaptability was key for growth in an ever-evolving market landscape
Adapting to new age marketing tools and using artificial intelligence for faster results to blending them with traditional time-tested marketing approaches is the key to building a brand and staying ahead of the curve, was the unanimous view of marketing experts at Day 2 of the Goafest 2024.
During the knowledge seminar presented by News18 Network, titled Marketing Adaptability: Blending Traditional and New-Age Marketing for Brand Success, a panel of industry specialists discussed how leveraging digital platforms and harnessing the power of storytelling are vital for getting desired results.
Among the speakers were Chandan Mukherjee, Director & Executive Vice President at Nestle; Shubhranshu Singh, Chief Marketing Officer of Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles; Sukhleen Aneja, Chief Executive Officer of The Good Glamm Group; Sandeep Karwa, Vice President, Monetization at Flipkart; and Zairus Master, Chief Business Officer at Honasa Consumer Ltd. The discussion was moderated by Delshad Irani, Editor of Storyboard 18.
With a focus on adaptability in an ever-evolving market landscape, the speakers shared their insights on blending time-tested marketing approaches with innovative techniques to stay ahead of the curve.
Zairus Master, through this conversation, addressed the prevalent issue of emerging brands being overly fixated on short-term goals, long-term goals and the apparent divide, stressing the importance of balancing short-term and long-term objectives.
He emphasised the overarching goal of building brands and the necessity of acting swiftly to achieve business growth.
"There is only one objective and action which is to create business," he affirmed.
Nestle’s Chandan Mukherjee underscored the importance of fundamental principles, such as understanding consumers and the brand and utilising various integrations to achieve objectives.
He noted the evolving nature of brands in today's dynamic landscape, highlighting their ability to redefine and stretch boundaries.
“India is a large nation with a huge population. There are many different elements out there, whether you want to segment on culture or socio-cultural regions or languages or states. So, adaptability is all about also developing the right kind of propositions for them, using the right kind of vehicles to reach them,” he said.
On adaptability, Sukhleen Aneja, said “Fundamentally, if we have to grow, we have to keep adapting and manage the pace of change, while keeping our humility in check.”
“I would simply say that I think fundamentally, if we have to grow, we have to continuously keep adapting. Whether it's in business or in the way we work. If we are humble enough to just recognize the fact that the pace of change will always outclass humans, we are all fundamentally evolving.
“As long as we are learning and we are humble enough to continuously learn and deploy, I don't think any of us will ever be redundant. Human intelligence will always trump artificial intelligence,” she said.
The panel also touched upon the topic of AI penetration in the industry and how it is changing the old ways of working.
“With AI, the pace of change will accelerate faster than ever before. If the motive is to reduce reliance on people, then it may be kicking and alive in the West. I don’t think in a market like India, AI is going to lead to a wave of redundancy,” said Shubranshu.
Sharing his view on the same, Sandeep said, “In my view, it's actually a very big thing. In my view, the kind of data processing tools or the capabilities today are making it special. Because the jobs are getting enhanced, the jobs are getting bigger, the jobs, the pace at which things will change is also getting bigger. But the enhancement in the job quality is what is happening.
He said due to AI, there was a possibility that if “Everyone in this room opening Flipkart app, could have very different prompts, different communication, different colour theme and call to action for the same Nestle banner which is out there.
“I could be interested in discounts and hence my Nestle banner talks about 5% off or something. And someone else's banner could be talking about the US fees. Today building those creatives manually is probably not possible so that's why I say that it's going to enhance our lives in a big way. It's going to bring out whatever was impossible a few months back, all of that is going to become possible,” he said.
