 The theme reflecting the current trends and challenges facing the Marketing managers was: “Consumers in Digital Age - Leveraging Greater Access to Information”” The following dignitaries participated in the Operations Continuum 2015 on August 1st, 2015 at SJMSOM, IIT Bombay: In a world where customer needs & wants are rapidly evolving, Marketers have to constantly adapt & be flexible to the changes in order to match the customer’s expectations. The growing consumer power in the digital age which predates the turn of the century has been fueled by the rise of the Internet, and reignited by social media. In the midst of rapidly evolving technologies and the rise and fall of competing brands, one factor remains constant – Consumers. Consumers have been empowered as never before due to the digital revolution, with access to information and to one another - anywhere, anytime. New technology has fueled disruptive innovation, even as an explosion of media has provided new opportunities for companies to reach global consumers. These changes are a challenging prospect for many companies as they must adapt to increasingly powerful consumers in global, unpredictable markets.
Marketing Continuum 2015 The Marketing Continuum 2015 had the following sub-themes: Digital v/s Traditional Marketing In today's dynamic media landscape, products are reviewed by consumers in social media and reported by journalists in traditional media. Communication through multiple media is known to produce the “synergy effect” in which one media activity enhances the effect of another. In the past, experts used traditional marketing techniques, such as all of the advertisements you typically think of, including ads in newspapers or magazines, TV commercials, billboards, business cards, and radio. Today, there is a growing transition to digital marketing, and this instead focuses on the Internet in particular to advertise and sell a product. However, a lot of complexities have also arisen in today’s age. According to Mr. Vikas Mehta, Mullen Lowe Lintas Group, user should be at the center of brand strategy and stop worrying about Traditional or Digital marketing.
Mass Customization - A Growing Neccesity Today, consumers expect it their way. “One size fits all” is no longer true. Individuals have long expressed themselves through various forms of media such as the clothing they wear, the car they drive, and the food they eat. With the advent of social media services, it has become easier to for people to effortlessly express themselves through user generated content. User generated products are quickly becoming the next mode of self-expression. In the era of Facebook stalking and self-aggrandizement, consumers view products as another form of expressing their uniqueness and are willing to pay for it. The heterogeneity of consumer needs has expanded and offers the brands a tremendous opportunity - every customer is their own market and brands need to be ready to profit from it. In this scenario, there also lies the trap of failing to define clearly the dimensions along which the companies are prepared to allow their customers to individualize their purchase. If this happens, the companies will be stuck in a whirlpool of unnecessary cost and complexity and businesses need to be mindful of it. However according to Mr. Mandar Narvekar, Rediff.com, As Internet was the best position to access the information, the aligning of products in physical market is soon to be depleted and replaced by Online Market. Mobile Advertising & Native Advertising on Mobile Mobile marketing is massive already and forecast to exceed desktop Internet access in many developing countries. So every marketer needs to keep tabs on the opportunities of reaching their audiences via mobile and how to make their mobile sites and presences visible and accessible. The imperative that business owner embrace mobile marketing is far more evident when statistics are considered.The benefit of mobile marketing goes far beyond an increase in social media engagement. Mobile marketing lends itself to large number of integrated marketing campaigns.These connections between mobile devices and various forms of marketing are more than just fun facts to bring up on a date (just kidding, email marketing is rarely good dinner conversation); it's information that business owners can act on. For example, if a business is advertising an online special on social media or through email marketing, the link needs to be optimized for mobile devices. This goes beyond just making sure it works, it must be convenient and easy to use for mobile users without sacrificing quality. Mr. Nirmal Shah, Network18, that we are in a mobile world and the increased usage of technology in our everyday lives is evident from the fact that we are surrounded by technologies in every walk of life. Digital Marketing and Customer Prioritization In business practice, it seems to be commonsense that firms should focus their marketing efforts on the most important customers to increase profits. Marketing efforts are supposed to become more effective and efficient when concentrated on the top-tier customers. However, such a prioritization of customers might have substantial negative effects on the relationships with customers treated at a low priority level. In particular, these bottom-tier customers might be substantially dissatisfied, spread negative word of mouth, and finally defect. Thus, it is not necessarily the case that customer prioritization automatically leads to higher firm profits. Moreover, although customer prioritization is strongly present in firms’ marketing strategies, many firms fail to implement such a strategy and thus fail to actually treat customers differently in their daily business. According to Mr. Vivekanandhan Somalingam, Cochlear, the vision behind digital marketing at Cochlear are search, branded content, mobile marketing, and social media marketing. Marketing in IT Services – Its perception & reality For many IT professionals, the idea of marketing the services they provide every day might seem like a useless luxury. But many companies would say marketing IT internally has never been more necessary, particularly to avoid what they call the double-edged sword of cutting IT services to lower costs. n today's high tech selling market, the key for most IT and professional services salespeople is not just finding prospects to talk with, but also finding prospects that will buy. George S. Patton once said, "If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking." So, assuming that a prospect is in a buying cycle because they will talk with you is an incorrect assumption on your part. To sell more IT and services, as salespeople we need to value our time more than the prospect does. According to Ms. Deepali Sangamnerkar, Fujitsu Consulting, the business to business companies spread awareness via television commercials and confirmed that it was to establish a brand in the minds of people, to attract talent. Some of the key activities that they focus on are greener technology and educating the lesser privileged children. Rise of Content Marketing For years we’ve been treated to the mantra, “Content is King!” and if we listen to all the predictions, it seems 2015 is to be the year of content marketing. Odd, considering content has been “king” for so many years already. Yet, as many other online marketing strategies are falling out of fad or losing value, the migration toward content to fill in the gaps continues to increase. Although marketers have been practicing content marketing for decades, digital marketing coupled with a new, buyer 2.0 environment, has created a whole new set of opportunities and challenges in the content marketing realm. Content marketing is now more focused on the earlier stages of the customer creation process; but an especially interesting finding from this study is the proof that content marketing greatly impacts demand generation as well, deeper down in the funnel. Mr. Manish Advani, Mahindra SSG, opined that a company should not shy away from accepting a mistake, learn from it and should move forward was his mantra to success. |
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