Data most important ingredient in digital sphere: Sanjiv Mehta, CEO & MD, HUL (watch the video)
Mehta spoke about ‘The Changing Role of Marketing In Achieving Business Objectives ’ at exchange4media’s TechManch, held in Mumbai
Sanjiv Mehta, CEO and MD, Hindustan Unilever Limited and EVP, Unilever, SouthAsia, believes that in the sphere of digital and marketing, it's not just that the former is going to influence only the marketing ecosystem as a whole but also the entire connected world will be significantly influenced by the fourth industrial revolution. Hence it's very important for us to take cognizance that marketing is the key function and that it's going to be certainly impacted but so will all the industries and the entire value chain as we go forward.
Watch his full session here:
In his valedictory address, Mehta spoke on, ‘The Changing Role of Marketing In Achieving Business Objectives ’ at exchange4media Group’s TechManch, held in Mumbai.
Mehta reminisced about the media landscape a decade ago when no one owned a smartphone, Twitter was an English word, we didn't know Facebook and we shopped exclusively in brick and mortar shops. “That was the kind of context in which all of us grew up learning marketing. Now that world has changed significantly and dramatically but we certainly believe that the change we have seen in the past will really put to the shame the change that will come in the future. Important trends are shaping up in India, including mobile in a big way, the other important bit is urbanisation and the empowerment of the rural consumer.”
Taking into account the undeniable hegemony of regional nuances in India, he added, “In India, unlike China, urbanisation has yet to take place. We are still talking about 67 per cent of country living in rural areas but these consumers would be empowered like never seen before. Now another is the part of vernacular content. When Google started it's vernacular services, the search spiked up by 60 per cent in the very first week. That's the power of vernacular. Other is how voice is going to change the world and the role that influencers play in making consumers pick up the choices.”
Mehta feels that the future of the industry is already here but that the technology is also developing at exponential pace. “What was best-in-class and next-generation practice last year has already become outdated today. That's the shape of the change that is taking place across the world. I come from a FMCG background. In FMCG, over the years the business model was built around scale, where branding was key to the consumers' choice. If you look at the classical business model we had to do consumer research in a very traditional way. Today technology is going reshape every aspect.”
Pointing out the importance of PRM (Partner Relationship Management), he said, “When you have PRM base like we do and PBC that we have, then you are able to convert voice into text. One doesn’t need a classical research to find out trends. When we develop prototypes today we don't need to do real prototypes because we do all the simulation on computers. There was a time when the market mix modelling of which levers need to play in the market would take you months to come out with the results. Today, technology allows us to customise the offering to each outlet. The entire business model of FMCG is up for grabs and whoever can reinvent it will be able to get the lion's share of the profit that would come from the new business model.”
Emphasising on consumer journey, he explained that earlier it was very simple. But today’s consumer journey has become extremely complicated and that's where brands need to get a deeper understanding of what they need to do and how they intervene in the consumer journey to make a difference to their brand and to convert consumer to intent and then purchase.
Talking about the new ABC i.e Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Big Data and Analytics and Content that are reshaping marketing, Mehta said, “Data underpins new age marketing. We have a massive amount of data available both online and offline. It is all about storing data, ensuring the safety of data and using data in the most meaningful way. It is no longer about raw data but increasingly it is becoming intelligent data that will be used in the future. So data becomes the most important ingredient in this entire digital landscape and that is the reason people talk about data being the new oil.”
Mehta shed light on Hindustan Unilever's 5C framework that is centered around the Consumer. "The consumers will always be there irrespective of whether you are online or offline, at the end of the day you are looking at the needs, wants and desire of the consumers and doing your best to meet them. The other four Cs are content, connect, community and commerce."
Explaining all the five 5Cs, he said, “Consumers are our true North. From triggers to influence to action, the important bit is in your quest towards technology, if you lose the sense of consumers then you miss the game altogether.”
Coming to content that consumers love, Mehta informed, “At Unilever, we want to be the Wikipedia of personal care. That's a very clear stated intent. Unilever has created a studio so that we don't have to go outside to create meaningful content hence we have started creating it ourselves because today the time lag to put up the content for consumers has become very small. If you will not react with speed you will miss the boat.”
Elaborating on the other C, he said, “Commerce is not just about selling a product it's the entire experience that consumers go through. If you are looking at just transaction then it's short-lived. Then you are not developing a relationship with your consumer. When you provide experiences, that is when the relationship gets strengthened.”
Calling personalisation as the future of marketing, Mehta said that even while marketing in the connected world, something that does not change is the the art of storytelling. Mehta also stressed on brands with purpose being able to impact society in a meaningful manner and most importantly, them trying to reduce environmental footprint.
Watch his full session here:
In his valedictory address, Mehta spoke on, ‘The Changing Role of Marketing In Achieving Business Objectives ’ at exchange4media Group’s TechManch, held in Mumbai.
Mehta reminisced about the media landscape a decade ago when no one owned a smartphone, Twitter was an English word, we didn't know Facebook and we shopped exclusively in brick and mortar shops. “That was the kind of context in which all of us grew up learning marketing. Now that world has changed significantly and dramatically but we certainly believe that the change we have seen in the past will really put to the shame the change that will come in the future. Important trends are shaping up in India, including mobile in a big way, the other important bit is urbanisation and the empowerment of the rural consumer.”
Taking into account the undeniable hegemony of regional nuances in India, he added, “In India, unlike China, urbanisation has yet to take place. We are still talking about 67 per cent of country living in rural areas but these consumers would be empowered like never seen before. Now another is the part of vernacular content. When Google started it's vernacular services, the search spiked up by 60 per cent in the very first week. That's the power of vernacular. Other is how voice is going to change the world and the role that influencers play in making consumers pick up the choices.”
Mehta feels that the future of the industry is already here but that the technology is also developing at exponential pace. “What was best-in-class and next-generation practice last year has already become outdated today. That's the shape of the change that is taking place across the world. I come from a FMCG background. In FMCG, over the years the business model was built around scale, where branding was key to the consumers' choice. If you look at the classical business model we had to do consumer research in a very traditional way. Today technology is going reshape every aspect.”
Pointing out the importance of PRM (Partner Relationship Management), he said, “When you have PRM base like we do and PBC that we have, then you are able to convert voice into text. One doesn’t need a classical research to find out trends. When we develop prototypes today we don't need to do real prototypes because we do all the simulation on computers. There was a time when the market mix modelling of which levers need to play in the market would take you months to come out with the results. Today, technology allows us to customise the offering to each outlet. The entire business model of FMCG is up for grabs and whoever can reinvent it will be able to get the lion's share of the profit that would come from the new business model.”
Emphasising on consumer journey, he explained that earlier it was very simple. But today’s consumer journey has become extremely complicated and that's where brands need to get a deeper understanding of what they need to do and how they intervene in the consumer journey to make a difference to their brand and to convert consumer to intent and then purchase.
Talking about the new ABC i.e Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Big Data and Analytics and Content that are reshaping marketing, Mehta said, “Data underpins new age marketing. We have a massive amount of data available both online and offline. It is all about storing data, ensuring the safety of data and using data in the most meaningful way. It is no longer about raw data but increasingly it is becoming intelligent data that will be used in the future. So data becomes the most important ingredient in this entire digital landscape and that is the reason people talk about data being the new oil.”
Mehta shed light on Hindustan Unilever's 5C framework that is centered around the Consumer. "The consumers will always be there irrespective of whether you are online or offline, at the end of the day you are looking at the needs, wants and desire of the consumers and doing your best to meet them. The other four Cs are content, connect, community and commerce."
Explaining all the five 5Cs, he said, “Consumers are our true North. From triggers to influence to action, the important bit is in your quest towards technology, if you lose the sense of consumers then you miss the game altogether.”
Coming to content that consumers love, Mehta informed, “At Unilever, we want to be the Wikipedia of personal care. That's a very clear stated intent. Unilever has created a studio so that we don't have to go outside to create meaningful content hence we have started creating it ourselves because today the time lag to put up the content for consumers has become very small. If you will not react with speed you will miss the boat.”Elaborating on the other C, he said, “Commerce is not just about selling a product it's the entire experience that consumers go through. If you are looking at just transaction then it's short-lived. Then you are not developing a relationship with your consumer. When you provide experiences, that is when the relationship gets strengthened.”
Calling personalisation as the future of marketing, Mehta said that even while marketing in the connected world, something that does not change is the the art of storytelling. Mehta also stressed on brands with purpose being able to impact society in a meaningful manner and most importantly, them trying to reduce environmental footprint.
