
Marketing heads of India’s leading brands and agencies answered this complex question at the
Deepak Jolly, vice-president, Public Affairs & Communication,
He also stressed on the importance of having social media conversations and the impact they can have in a poetic style. About conversations, he said, “Baat nikelgi to dur talak jayegi...so the conversations will go on. What is important for the brands is to look at the kind of conversations that are happening, analyze how they fit in to it, engage with the consumers, and then think of ways to surprise them.”
Vikas Mehta, CMO, Lowe Lintas & Partners and ED, LinInteractive also echoed the same thoughts. To explain his viewpoint he said, “The fundamental change we have observed over past half a decade almost on steroids is brands no longer have the authority to engineer the conversation...because now the conversations are happening with or without the brands. This fundamental shift has changed the way of brand building. So, now the onus is on us as brand builders to have the ability to see where we can, as a brand, fit into people’s lives, rather than tell them a story and want them to come in our lives.”
But is this all that brands can do when it comes to adding value to their conversations? “The answer is: no, brands can do a lot more only if they pick up an insight which is relevant for their brand, and start conversations around them, they will realize they are being able to create more value for themselves as well as the consumers,” said Vivek Nayer, CMO, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
He further shared an interesting example, “Five years back, we saw that people’s lifestyle were changing and they were getting more interested in weekend trips, off-roading, road trips etc.— and that is when we started Mahindra Adventure and conversations around our off-roading adventures, expeditions to India to Nepal and Bhutan, Leh Ladakh...We invited people who participated in our events to come and share their experiences, and then amplified these conversations to reach out to the masses. It did work for us.”
But not every brand can follow Mahindra & Mahindra’s suite. Each brand needs to find a relevant topic where they can fit into the conversations. They shouldn’t force fit themselves into a conversation just because it is trending at that point of time. Join a conversation, which fits well into your brand’s ideology or else steer clear of this route.
Or as Jolly puts it, “When you talk about something, then ensure that it is something that your consumers would like to talk about. For building conversations: it is important to know, that conversations have to be around your product and the relevance they add to the consumers life. The theme you choose for your brand conversation should be in line with your brand’s ideology.”
When session moderator
George surely has a valid point. Content is really important for everything that brands do. When brands create content that is real, engaging and relevant, then conversations start pouring in from everywhere—you get amazing user generated content, which becomes an interesting story to share with people. The onus is not just with the brand for content creation but with users, who are actually consuming the content.
Anita beautifully summed up the entire conversation in just one line, “Baat niklegi to dur tak jayegi...as long as you are saying the right baat.”
(Image: www.elifestyleworld.com)