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The second day of the AAAI Diamond Jubilee Symposium launched itself with Arvind Sharma (CEO, Leo Burnett India) introducing inspirational marketing guru and author, Stefan Engeseth. With a background in economics and having been a professional dancer ("60-kilos ago", as he puts it), Engeseth is a brand consultant for several International Fortune 500 Companies, including Coke-Cola, CNN, and Erickson. Up at the lectern, he shared with the audience his marketing philosophies of "One — a Consumer Revolution for Business" — also the name of his latest book. "People are tired of advertising and too much information," he said, "You need to go through consumer engagement." That there has been a drastic change on the consumer front, we all know, and in the 'old days' we just had the company and the consumer, with just one message being delivered from the former to the latter.
Engeseth quoted A. G. Lafley (CEO Procter & Gamble) "It's a consumer revolution — a demanding but liberating shift. The rise of this demanding consumer boss marks one of the most important milestones in the history of branding." He stressed on how today the only way to go is by taking in the consumer and making him a part of the organisation. "It's like martial arts," he said, "You need to win over a heavier person than you. And how do you do that? You need to change the way you work. There's a big opportunity for advertising agencies here to take a big leap."
P&G's belief that 'Consumer is King' has never rung truer than it rings today. With the Internet and the power of blogging, any company that's dodgy or doesn't live up to its promise doesn't stand a chance. Look at how a lone blogger got King Jobs down on his knees. Enough said. The fact is that the consumer cannot be dictated to anymore. The day of that is 6-feet under and Engeseth talked about the rampant, steadily increasing brand-bashing, anti-brand movement which is becoming a lifestyle statement in itself. He talked about books like 'Branded' and 'No Logo' which literally got more than a few giant corporations' panties in a twist. Movies like 'Supersize Me' and McDonalds and Microsoft anti-art are but small examples of the damage that most large corporations have set themselves up for.
"It's an interesting time to be in advertising right now because you can't lie anymore," twinkled Engeseth. "Consumer power has never before been this strong. If your company is a mirror, you should be able to look at it and see yourself as a part of the culture; if you don't feel that, neither will the consumer. If people see themselves in the product, they'll use it. If you've established that they have a strong connection with your brand, you can use that in the communication. Give consumers the opportunity to be a part of the advertising," said Engeseth, regaling the audience with the fine example of Budweiser's 'Wassup?' campaign.
Today, the consumer train is going beyond the speed of light; faster and more powerful and Engeseth urged marketers to get aboard the consumer train and listen to what they were saying. "People love people, but who loves your brand? You need to listen to the consumer if you want to connect better, and if you do, they'll want to adapt to the brand. The shorter the distance, the greater the familiarity. Nowadays, young people want to interact; get them to be a part of the brand. In the old days, advertisers had a monologue with the consumers; today, you need to open up a dialogue and that way you create a living product, not something in a box," said Engeseth, giving Levi's as an example. "The customer is in the centre and you need to walk around him for a while, so they know your image, values and what your social responsibilities are; and you walk around and around ill you get closer. Instead of saying 'You should buy my product', you need to say 'This is who we are. This is what we stand for.' Companies should not behave like sharks and eat the consumer up; they need to mingle with them and get them to buy into their values."
Some of the points Engeseth kept returning to — were involvement and transparency. "Involve them, sit with them talk with them. People want to share knowledge. Have a fan!" One of the companies that Engeseth believes has a very good, open, corporate culture is Google. And he talked about how anyone at all can go and spend as much time in their office; saying of their competitor, "I don't think Microsoft will survive in the future if they don't open up. They're already getting kicked out of countries; I don't think they'll survive."
Engeseth also urged companies to not only look at the messages they were sending out, but the products themselves. "I think most products are quite boring" he said, "They're all the same (I can't recognise my car in a car-park). And there are lots of cases like this — like Apple and Nokia. Sometimes they just don't listen to what they have to deliver.
They need to open up the door so that people can walk in and share." He talked about how sometimes in an agency, he feels bad because the product is just not good enough "Ask people if they think a product is good enough to advertise," he said, "You need to know what people think of you. Get out of the office and connect with your customers. Have a product that doesn't look like anyone else's and listen to your consumers; they're the ones who will tell you what to develop or change. Don't be the victim of the blind spot; you need the knowledge — or the un-knowledge — to see the blind spot," Engeseth concludes.
Next up, replacing designated speaker — R. Ramaraj (CEO Sify) — was George Zacharias (President and COO, Sify) on the subject: 'In a Technology-driven Environment, is there a role for brands?' "Brands are vital for consumers and for the normal functioning of market-places," he began; talking about how the number of choices out there today is phenomenal and any brand has a trust-factor attached to it, making it easier for consumers to settle on a choice. "Brands are evocative and connect emotionally as well as functionally with consumers," he continued, "Brands provide a North-Star for attributes; a star you can set your sights on. Brands will survive."
That the Internet has changed everything and that the pace of technology is moving at an alarming rate, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know. Zacharias expounded on how the new media of the future will all be not only digital, but completely cross-linked; with much more choice segmentation, distribution channels, more media-on-the-go, more views and far more fragmentation. There will be far more digital databases and everything will be networked he explained, giving the example of Google Print and Yahoo! Books as an example of more and more things being digitised. Come to think of it, books are probably the last for of entertainment to be digitised. What can't you get online? You've already got newspapers, television, radio and music; and now books.
The power of the Digital Age truly is magnificent. TiVo allows you to watch what you want, when you want it — to the extent of yesterday's programme 10 days from now. The rise of blogging and other forms of online publishing have given us all a platform to voice our views.
To read the entire story, buy a copy of Impact Advertising and Marketing magazine dated November 21-27