‘If as a brand you don’t have a viewpoint, consumers won’t connect with you’

Customers are the backbone of every business. That’s why it’s crucial for brands to gain their trust and consider their choices in everything they do. But as we know, in the present fast-paced world, technology is ubiquitous and this presents both pros and cons for present-age brands. These days, customers are not just interested in the products; they also value the brand's identity and whether it aligns with their values. At the Pitch CMO Summit 2024, six phenomenal marketing leaders came together to discuss the buzzing topic of Consumer Loyalty 2.0 – Strategies for the Tech-Driven Era.

The panelists were V G Senthilkumar, Head - Marketing & Branding, Bank of Baroda, Kishan Panpalia, Founding Team, pepper content, Sridhar Hariharasubramanian, Senior Director, Salesforce, Bhavik Bhandari, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Sheth, Abhishek Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance, along with panel moderator, Siddharth Dabhade, Global Commercial Board Member & Managing Director, MiQ.

The panel moderator, Siddharth Dabhade, initiated the discussion by asking all the panelists about which brands are they loyal to and why.

To which, V G Senthilkumar answered, “If I talk about the financial sector, my personal favorite is any public sector brand as the trust factor is there.”

Moving forward, Kishan Panpalia shared, “I think being a new-age customer, I have a lot of loyalty towards Zomato.”

Then, Sridhar Hariharasubramanian mentioned, “The brand I do like and find myself going back to is Decathlon.” He also appreciated the brand's efforts in building a clear identity, brand recall, great experience at the store, presence of knowledgeable associates, and the option for the consumers to try a product out and so many other great things.

Sharing the reason for his loyalty towards his favorite brand Tanishq, Bhavik Bhandari shared, “As a customer, the kind of experience and transparency you can gain in the Tanishq showroom with the warmth of the TATA brand is amazing. That’s why I love being loyal to Tanishq.”

Next, Abhishek Gupta shared, “In true spirit, the brand I keep going back to again and again is the One Plus brand.”

Further in the conversation, Abhishek shared that technology plays a huge role in the life insurance industry as people take insurance when their lifespan changes. So, depending on data, when the life stage of a consumer is changing, we go to the customer and approach them as per their specific needs.” 

To this, Bhavik presented a slightly different perspective and added, “We use technology at every single sphere of a person's touchpoint when he is a customer of ours. We then track him and identify the cohorts that we could create out of it. And based on it, we intelligently propose our product.” 

Kishan highlighted a phenomenal point of building consumer loyalty by stating, “Support v/s success is the entire key of how loyalty is built through!”

Discussing the role of technology, Abhishek presented a contradictory thought, “We are forgetting how the interaction between humans can create wonders. Tech can always be an enabler; it can always be a backbone but it cannot be everything”. 

He added that brands should endeavor to build the data layer, analytics layer, and technology layer around human connections and not try to replace one with another. 

Concluding the discussion, Bhavik shared the importance of having an emotional viewpoint and standing true to it for brands. He shared, “As per the recent McKinsey report, the average age of India is 29. It means that this is the population which will become 30-40 in the coming years. So, if as a brand you don’t have a viewpoint, consumers won’t connect with you and you won’t be able to make a difference in the consumer loyalty”.