‘Customer experiences & human conversations define brands’

Consumer experiences provide value and help in creating an emotional relationship with the brand and also tackle competitive pressure. To delve deeper into this, the Pitch Brand Talk summit saw a panel discussion on the topic – Winning Through Consumer Experiences.

Puneet Avasthi, Director - Specialist, Businesses, Insights Division, Kantar, kicked off the session by setting the context on various perceptions and views on relevant consumer experiences, as marketers intend to drive loyalty in the long run. He started by asking the experts on the definition of consumer experiences.
Kunal Sharma, Head Of Marketing, KRBL Limited, defined consumer experiences as the perception of the brand built by multiple interactions that the consumer has with the brand.

As the auto industry is a high-involvement purchase category, Ram Suresh Akella, Executive Director - Marketing (India), Maruti Suzuki, states that the consumer journey here is a long and complicated one... "Customer experiences and human conversations at various touchpoints define your brand and differentiate it from others", he adds.
Gaurav Dhawan, Chief Revenue Officer, Times Network, believes that the consumer experience begins before the actual experience goes out... He stresses having the definition of this experience sharp and clear beforehand, so then it's easier to deliver.

Vinit Kapahi, Head of Marketing, Aviva India, states life insurance is a complex category and it is difficult to define the human life value, unlike the cost of a commodity... Therefore, he emphasizes providing the best consumer experiences not only at transactional points... but whenever they have concerns or need support.

Meaningful Differentiation

Avasthi states, "The experience starts before I have even tangibly touched the product." So how do the brands set themselves apart and stand out in the category?

Akella mentioned consumer experiences that create meaningful differentiation between the brand and the category are important and highlighted the importance of creating that experience in an area where it's relevant. He shared the example of creating AR experiences at dealership stores to display over 800 variants of cars in combinations of different colours and features, to enable the consumers to see and experience any car of their choice.

Consumers have a pre-defined set of parameters that they judge a product upon, but Sharma talks about creating experiences that make them aware of more quality parameters. For instance, people buy rice on the basis of grain length and price, but the brand underlined the trait of versatility of rice to be prepared in a specific style, according to the region.

Kapahi stated that the brand does not talk about selling life insurance but choosing prevention over protection... He shares that the brand creates differentiation by setting up mental and financial expectations and building a prevention outlook.

Dhawan stated that at Times Network it is all about harnessing data effectively to understand consumer inclinations and create experiences based on that. "We want the consumers to have a relationship for a longer period of time, and add context to their daily conversations, that's the value you provide," he added.

Sharma concluded by saying it's important to provide a positive experience each time as "one poor experience puts off the consumer for a period of time".