Uber Yourself Or Get Kodaked.

Uber Yourself Or Get Kodaked…

Apple easy, Google fast: The experience management culture

Technology has taken centre stage in the success of companies today. With the likes of Uber, Amazon, and Deliveroo changing the way we live, shop, work and consume content, innovation is happening faster than ever before. In light of economic uncertainty, it’s become even more vital for businesses to deploy cutting-edge technology to maintain competitiveness.

Over the course of the next year, board-level conversations will be dominated by ways to ensure a seamless customer experience, formulating tactics to embrace disruptive technologies, as well as grappling with the implications of the future workplace. 

Digital disruption is affecting nearly all businesses:
Consumers can now order a meal, book a taxi and do their shopping with a few clicks of a button, without even leaving their living rooms. As a result, customers are increasingly expecting services to be ‘Apple Easy’ and ‘Google Fast’ in all aspects of their lives, demanding quick and seamless experiences across the board.

Customer experience management will continue to be a driver of success across all sectors in 2020. For many organizations, this means going back to the drawing board and incorporating customer-centricity at the core of their business models. As digitally native brands take a data-driven approach to provide frictionless experiences, customers will no longer tolerate dated technology with legacy systems and antiquated processes.

In the retail sector for instance, roughly 93 percent of UK internet users are expected to do online shopping by 2021, the highest online shopping penetration rate in Europe. However, as the e-commerce market becomes increasingly saturated, and the high street continues to decline, customer experience will be the central factor to help incumbent brands cut through the noise in the market.

Experience management extends beyond the end user to include other important stakeholders such as suppliers, partners and employees. Over the next 12 months, companies will increasingly need to acknowledge the need for a close link between good employee experience and exceptional customer service.

Engaging and retaining employees requires a big shift in company culture. A data scientist might choose to work in Silicon Valley not just for the financial benefits but for the culture of innovation it fosters and the opportunities to grow.

This results in companies such as Facebook and Uber – already excelling at customer experience – attracting the best talent. To avoid this brain drain, companies must look to emulate this culture and provide similar opportunities on this side of the pond, creating a superior experience for their employees.
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Source:  Marcell Vollmer

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Zoom Meeting – How To Keep Restaurant/QSR Business (SMBs) Going During Lockdown?

This zoom meeting is to discuss and address small business challenges of managing through current global economy crisis.

[Trupti] : Today’s question is from one of my friend who is a small restaurant owner. He has just started at the beginning of this year with the current situation all restaurants or dining areas are closed, not even at some deliveries are allowed or not allowed. So he had a question that, moving ahead in this current situation, how do go ahead about the business?

[Trupti] : In the first I’ve advised him to go

1. Online if he has not created his digital presence on social media. Reconnect with customers on social media or WhatsApp.

2. Create content, about the current situation about the food hygiene, what are the food habits in terms of diet? What are his restaurant specialties? Start rolling out on social media platforms.

3. Then create polls, surveys to start interaction with the customer.

[Amod] : That’s interesting Trupti. But since you have said he’s just started. I think his penetration in the market will be pretty low at the moment. So the kind of reconnect that probably what you’re suggesting may not be very effective at the moment. Because he’s looking for new markets. He’s looking for new customers to walk-in. And if he’s a small-time restaurant and probably he may not have adequate measures to capture customer information who had walk-in the first couple of months.

[Trupti] : He said that he had this suggestion book being kept and asking, whoever walk-ins.

[Amod] : So in that regard, he can definitely reconnect. But I guess if it’s a new business, I think it’s a very capital intensive business. He will definitely be wanting to look at returns coming out of it. Right? Hence, I think business also becomes the critical aspect now for him.

1. The first thing that probably can look at is local deliveries. Start promoting his business to the local nearby areas.

2. The second way would be to tie up with the Zomato, Swiggy those kind of things. Promotion through them, they already have their channels, so orders coming in from them will be a good one.

3. The third option get into agreements with industry canteens running now under the essentials act to run their canteens. Those will be the areas where immediate revenue and business generation can happen.

[Trupti] : Need to address one fear that post lock-down , the no.of customers walk-ins happening may not be same, because people are now more concern about hygiene.

[Amod] : It will not happen. It’s 100% sure that it’s not going to happen in atleast in the near future. So that model is as good as I won’t say dead, but it’s on its last legs this is what I can say, because there is going to be lot of fear. And even after the overall crisis ends, there are going to be new regulations. And the fear that has an now creeping into the minds of the common public to go to public places is going to be very high. Therefore, expecting walk-ins and business out of that kind of a model is definitely going to be a risk proposition. Therefore, he’ll have to create models where he’s reaching the customers. And these are some of the examples or suggestions that we have given him in this video for him to try. – Need to look at local deliveries, contracting with cafeteria of industries which are active. – Tie up with a Swiggy, Zomato organizations who have the authority and scale, to run businesses even in this crisis situations, is where he will have to work on for business, not just during lock-downs, but even beyond the lock-downs. Very paradigm shift happening there across a lot of businesses for sure. This is exactly where we are saying digital is the way to go ahead, and that’s where businesses need to now connect with their customers digitally for promotion and reach out and then enable it with local deliveries, create those local ecosystems where they can deliver their products or services into their neighborhoods.

[Amod] : Can he get into food supply? I mean, this is where you need to be radical in thought. Because I heard of a case one of our clients that he had a very thriving restaurant in downtown Pune and since the lock down and lot of capital investment he decided to convert it into a grocery store, grocery store been essential service in the current situation. So this is how businesses will have to realign. Just don’t try to realign the models little bit, models have to be realigned drastically. Please go digital, keep that connect with customers, build your customer base online and then enable your local deliveries to reach out and deliver your services or products to them.

Zoom Meeting – Is This Crisis Or Opportunity For Manufacturing SMEs?


This zoom meeting is to discuss and address small business challenges of managing through current global economy crisis.

[Trupti] : Talking about the manufacturing industry already we are seeing the market was slow. And currently we get to hear that with the zero GDP and with more than four weeks of lock down there has come a big slowdown in the manufacturing industry. Question : So how can SMBs, especially in the manufacturing industry can turn around this situation?

[Amod] : I mean, the situation seems to be really grim as projected, but I think this could actually be a very good blessing in disguise for our industries. Because the first and foremost thing that is to be looked at is the China factor. Our biggest threat was China and China was absolutely dominating the manufacturing domain. But with this current situation, with corona virus coming out of China, there is a a lot of negative sentiment about China. And I guess the global business community has really understood and identified that focusing only in one market, or depending totally on one market for manufacturing is going to be a big risk, as we have all found out. Yeah. Hence the global community is definitely now going to look at other options to invest or set their basis. This exactly becomes the huge opportunity for India. If we really are able to create that kind of infrastructure, ease of doing business and enable our businesses to function smoothly with manutention and those things team, then this can really be the biggest push that our industry needed. And therefore, instead of looking at this as a painful situation, you should be looking forward to the possibilities that can arise out of this. Again if you are ready.

[Trupti] : Yes Question : How can manufacturing business transform themselves to digital to turn around this situation?

[Amod] : Now moving from these lock-downs then there will be partial lock downs and then there will be a release and this is going to take time, right? So then in such cases, what needs to be done, most businesses will actually look at the digital ways of transforming their businesses in any case, because there are going to be a lot of labor laws coming in. Then lot of position of labor is going to happen. Traveling of labor from one place to another. There will lot of regulations there. This would be a disruption for something there. So for businesses to function smoothly. If they are very labor dependent they are going to face further problems. Therefore with digitization what business can really achieve is a smooth functioning with all the regulations in place, smooth functioning of businesses can happen to digitization.

General trends for manufacturing industry moving ahead:
– IOT and AI – for manufacturing processes, production and performance
– Digital Automation
– for independence and effectiveness
– Digital modelling
– 3d, AR/VR presentations for marketing
– Digital marketing solutions
– O2O, Account Based Marketing, integrated CRMs
– Remote guided operations.

This is how business can really look at the transforming themselves digitally. It’s a investment upfront, but this investment will definitely pay in the long term. Especially with manufacturing industries in India, which are more labor intensive and with localization of most businesses happening now. That seems to be the way forward to go.

Zoom Meeting- Staying Relevant and Connected With Customers During Disruption

This zoom meeting is to discuss and address small business challenges of managing through current global economy crisis.

[Trupti] : Almost 9 /10 marketers, feel that marketing campaigns to be delayed since the demand for their brand products or services is falling due to the current COVID-19 crisis situation. So is this advisable?

[Amod] : It’s an interesting one because I feel a drop in demand is basically out of fear and uncertainties rather than real problem. To tell you, we have actually increased our advertising budget by 20 percent.

[Amod] : And there’s a reason for that. But we’ll come to that later. But the real drop in demand seems to be in terms of the fear and uncertainty in the market.

[Trupti] : But in the current situation, few businesses, like deal emergency needs are the must needs like food and medicines these business are still able to sustain. But what about , yesterday one of my friend who’s has an apparel business. And he was saying that it’s almost six weeks, the lock down is continued and it is much affecting his business in the current situation and even post COVID he is having that fear. So you have anything for such businesses? Got it.

[Amod] : So I assume his is a apparel store. Yeah. Walking store, right? And therefore, the footfall has gone to nil. And even beyond lock downs there are going to be lot of restrictions being put up by the government or any public places. Right?

[Amod] : So footfall will be an issue for businesses like these. Oh, yes. I mean, it is it is kind of concerning there. But again, the point is if your business model is relevant, you do not worry. And it’s exactly what we had said in our previous videos, that if your vision is right and if your model is fundamentally very relevant, then this small period of small window where everyone is going to face a bit of a problem, has to be dealt with carefully and then beyond that, success will be there. If we are ready to take certain measures. Right? OK, so I see lot of opportunities for this business in this period. So does he have online store as well?

[Trupti] : Online store not as such, but he is listed on the online shopping portals.

[Amod] : And how’s the business from there? Is there anything happening?

[Trupti] : No. Currently not, since the delivery issues our stop for these goods.

[Amod] : So with that kind of scenario, one of the best thing would now in this part of the period should be BRAND focus on how well he can engage his audience and his customers. This becomes more important and instead of thinking of business in this phase. You should really look at BRANDING in this phase.

[Amod] : Can he come up with some new boutique wear or some new range of clothes, which he can showcase to his customers because everybody’s is online, everybody is on social media today. This is actually a good time to get into the eyes of the customers. So that’s the way you can keep people engaged.

[Amod] : He can probably connect with the customer and people and ask them what they’re looking for? What kind of services? What kind of clothes they will be looking for? Because now people are wearing the same clothes again. And people will be wanting to try new ones. So the idea will be to create that interest on what they would like to wear post lock down.

[Amod] : That would give his business ideas into what people coming up with ones, the lock downs and all those restrictions go away. So it will give his business a bit of an insight. Right now, the time to engage with his audience.

[Amod] : Rather than really focusing on the business part. He can look at engaging his audience. Another aspect to figure out is Can he create a pre-ordering model?

[Trupti] : Possible.

[Amod] : For example, he can create those the new design wear, show it to the audience and the audience can pre-book it at a lower price and they’ll be delivered later to them once the lock downs go. This could be another model that could be worked out for his business. And the idea would be to make sure that the eyeballs are there on the business. And that’s why that engagement part is going to be very, very crucial.

[Amod] : To summarize key points to remember with your marketing (for the current scenario) – Your entry point in the market is relatively easier – Ads and services will be cheaper – Increased viewership will ensure more eye-balls – Sharing new ideas with customers, exploring customer demands and changed requirements. And the best mode at this point is DIGITAL. I think if the steps have not been taken so far to digitize your brand, it’s the best time to start. If you’ve already done some digitization of your business, it’s time to expand.

[Amod] : So footfall will be an issue for businesses like these. Oh, yes. I mean, it is it is kind of concerning there. But again, the point is if your business model is relevant, you do not worry. And it’s exactly what we had said in our previous videos, that if your vision is right and if your model is fundamentally very relevant, then this small period of small window where everyone is going to face a bit of a problem, has to be dealt with carefully and then beyond that, success will be there. If we are ready to take certain measures. Right? OK, so I see lot of opportunities for this business in this period. So does he have online store as well?

[Trupti] : Online store not as such, but he is listed on the online shopping portals.

[Amod] : And how’s the business from there? Is there anything happening?

[Trupti] : No. Currently not, since the delivery issues our stop for these goods.

[Amod] : So with that kind of scenario, one of the best thing would now in this part of the period should be BRAND focus on how well he can engage his audience and his customers. This becomes more important and instead of thinking of business in this phase. You should really look at BRANDING in this phase.

[Amod] : Can he come up with some new boutique wear or some new range of clothes, which he can showcase to his customers because everybody’s is online, everybody is on social media today. This is actually a good time to get into the eyes of the customers. So that’s the way you can keep people engaged.

[Amod] : He can probably connect with the customer and people and ask them what they’re looking for? What kind of services? What kind of clothes they will be looking for? Because now people are wearing the same clothes again. And people will be wanting to try new ones. So the idea will be to create that interest on what they would like to wear post lock down.

[Amod] : That would give his business ideas into what people coming up with ones, the lock downs and all those restrictions go away. So it will give his business a bit of an insight. Right now, the time to engage with his audience.

[Amod] : Rather than really focusing on the business part. He can look at engaging his audience. Another aspect to figure out is Can he create a pre-ordering model?

[Trupti] : Possible.

[Amod] : For example, he can create those the new design wear, show it to the audience and the audience can pre-book it at a lower price and they’ll be delivered later to them once the lock downs go. This could be another model that could be worked out for his business. And the idea would be to make sure that the eyeballs are there on the business. And that’s why that engagement part is going to be very, very crucial.

[Amod] : To summarize key points to remember with your marketing (for the current scenario) – Your entry point in the market is relatively easier – Ads and services will be cheaper – Increased viewership will ensure more eye-balls – Sharing new ideas with customers, exploring customer demands and changed requirements. And the best mode at this point is DIGITAL. I think if the steps have not been taken so far to digitize your brand, it’s the best time to start. If you’ve already done some digitization of your business, it’s time to expand.

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Digital Transformation Or Disruption?

Digital Transformation Or Disruption?

The past decade has been a decade of dynamic disruption where a number of technologies came forward and took the center stage. Several organizations also adopted new age mechanisms to kick start their transformative journey. In the last few years, digital transformation has become the core for almost all tech-based and some not too tech-savvy organizations as well. In this digital race, to stay ahead, they are incorporating numerous tricks and techniques not just to outdo their contemporaries but to surpass their traditional and uninteresting mode of business.

As we have entered into a new decade, industry along with industry experts have started predicting how digital transformation will cause disruption in 2020 and beyond. Here is the list of top digital transformation trends that are more likely to shine this year.

• Consumer Experience
Analytics: A Competitive Edge
AI at the Forefront of Digital Transformation
Growing Importance of Mergers and Acquisition Activities
Relevance of APIs in Business Performance

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Source: Smriti Srivastava

Disruption leading to O2O

Disruption leading to O2O

Today’s marketing teams have to be technologically literate, data savvy, and agile
Fast moving technology and changing business models have played a part in disrupting every industry from farming to pharma, but it’s easy to overlook their impact on marketing and communications. How has the profession evolved in the face of potential disruption?

We spoke to Barbara Bates, global CEO of international communications agency Hotwire, to find out.

After growing up in Silicon Valley, working as a television reporter, and then starting a technology PR agency from scratch, Bates is not your average marketer. For 25 years, she ran PR agency, Eastwick until it was acquired by Hotwire in 2016. Following the acquisition, Bates was asked to become the global CEO. Now, she runs the company’s operations across Australia, the US, Europe, and Asia.

“We used to talk about ourselves as a technology communications firm, working with tech companies, but now we work with all different types of companies… Every company wants to be a technology company, or leverage innovation to build value around their brand. That’s something we’re really good at.”

Automating marketing
Technology is oiling the wheels of marketing, and according to Bates, most marketers now recognise that disruptive technology will help rather than replace them.

“We’re at a point where people are trying to be smart about leveraging technology that will either automate, or make more efficient, some of the more commoditised parts of our business around data like gathering research and coverage tracking,” she explains. “When it comes to AI, I think people assume that it means replacing humans. Most marketers with any experience realise it’s about augmenting what humans do. It’s a way of making communications more authentic, to automate and get data from AI.”

In many ways, digitalisation has aided in building trust. And, contrary to popular belief, the influx of technology has also catalysed a movement back to the human element.

“One of the observations I’ve made is that with digital transformation and technology, the pendulum swings very far in one direction. We sort of lost the human element, especially when it comes to marketing. I definitely see a big push back towards that. You see brands talking about being more human, and how better to engage. We’re seeing them do that by building an online and offline presence.”

As an example, Bates recalls a magazine pop up event in New York where, instead of handing out purely physical or digital copies, the brand asked authors to present their articles to live audiences. Connecting offline and online experiences in this way has become a valuable tool for building genuine relationships with clients.

Shifting the operating model
Marketing teams have also been affected by changing business models. One particularly important shift has been the abandonment of the agency of record (AOR) model, in which businesses rely on a single agency to handle all of their projects, PR, and marketing needs.

“Over the last five years, the big global AOR model has started to fall away,” says Bates. “Brands now purposefully want to work with a variety of agencies. Adobe, for example, works with three different communications firms that might bring different skill sets and creativity. It also means that companies are not locked into one agency and can offer project opportunities to different agencies to see different types of work.”

The willingness of big businesses to dish out project work is one of the reasons for Hotwire’s notable organic growth. Diverse competition helps smaller firms to make a bigger impact, which threatens the multinational agencies used to one-on-one contracts. Projects such as customer events, rebrands, or training programmes aren’t part of Hotwire’s regular work, but they do present an opportunity. Applying a flexible, nimble, mindset to projects enables Hotwire to work with renowned companies, and compete in a more varied market.

New challenges
Bates explains, the complexity of the job today…

“To be a marketer today, you have to be really well versed in finance, data, technology, and a wide variety of disciplines. Just look at what percentage of global buying technology budget is now decided by the CMO verses the CIO or CTO. CMOs have bigger budgets than ever before. That’s one of the challenges, not just for marketers, but for agencies. You have to learn new skills as you move up in your career, and even if you’re staying at the same level, the disciplines and skill set required is expanding incredibly.”

On top of the difficult task of creating compelling, meaningful narratives, digitalisation has brought a host of new challenges. For Bates, a major problem for CMOs is the onslaught of cyber crime.

“It is the CMO’s job to protect their company’s image. If there’s a data breach, or phishing – which is a huge issue – you have to deal with that. If you’re a retail bank, let’s say, and all of a sudden your customers are getting false emails from someone who’s phishing, that has a direct impact on the bank’s brand even though they’ve done nothing wrong. That’s why marketers care a lot about cybersecurity because, more and more, it’s easy to steal a brand.”

Cybersecurity also requires marketers to invest in more training and security, which takes time and costs money. Just as CMOs have a responsibility to support cybersecurity initiatives, they have to encourage clean data culture. Suffering a cyber breach is damaging enough, but actively failing to protect client data is entirely the fault of the brand. Another challenge is hiring and retaining the right talent.

“One of the things that I spend a lot of time on is building Hotwire into the best agency you’ll ever work with, and that’s not just for clients, but for employees too. What they want is really challenging creative work, and flexibility. Everyone appreciates flexibility, not just the millennials. If you’re a working mum with an hour and a half commute, then I’d much rather you spend that hour and a half doing great client work.”

Success is simple
Agencies and their employees have to contend with more data, more project work, and more competition than ever before. In the face of these demands, Bates’ key piece of advice to the marketing and communications team within any organisation is to simplify.

“There is so much noise and complication in communication and in every consumer buying decision. When you look at the companies who have really done well with their brands, they have a very simple message. I think this is a huge challenge for technology companies who still talk about lots of features and benefits.”

The first example that comes to Bates’ mind is Apple. However, she explains that a lot of the companies that have quickly gone from being little known to well known – think Deliveroo, Slack, and Uber – came up with a simple message that they told consumers over and over again.

“I know a lot of amazing companies with amazing products that just couldn’t launch because they couldn’t create their story in a way that was simple enough to capture people,” she says. “Make it simple, and learn the power of story, because that’s the way people connect.”

This message is part of Hotwire’s own brand, building the capacity to work collaboratively instead of competitively, and with flexibility rather than rigid rules, is what makes small to medium agencies stand out from the crowd.

“We’re trying to set ourselves apart by doing the best thing for the client,” says Bates. “It’s about being fluid. We’ve come from organic growth, for the most part, and Eastwick worked with a lot of startups, so we have a bit of a scrappy persona. Companies are more likely to work with mid sized agencies who have that global reach but are nimble.”

Source Laura Cox

Auto Industry Disruption And Digital Marketing

Auto Industry Disruption And Digital Marketing

There are structural changes and disruption that the auto industry is going through not only in India, but globally and eventually this will impact the turns marketing will take, and also enter some new lanes marketing has not ventured into earlier.
There are three tectonic forces hitting the auto industry simultaneously, and even one of them would be powerful enough to disrupt the entire industry. This powerful trifecta of forces is fleets represented by app-based Cabs -on-demand like Uber/Ola, electric vehicles EV replacing IC engines, and finally, autonomous or driverless cars. A lot is written and said about the first two – the shared economy phenomenon, and the advent of electric. Not much attention, however, is paid to the third major disruption – driverless or autonomous cars. Most of us tend to believe that this is something that will never happen in India or will take a huge amount of time.

Autonomous cars will become a new marketing medium. In some sense, the car will become the new living room, with the lounging space and a host of entertainment options, and multimedia screens dotting every available surface inside the car. This will give a range of cross-channel opportunities for digital marketers,that could combine the offline and online mediums. There could be seamless advertising across car screens and billboards that the cars pass by. As the car nears a retail outlet, the two could communicate with each other to alert the passenger of discounts and offers. Your phone, the car, and physical outlets would work with each other seamlessly and present great marketing opportunities using connected IoT devices. Targeted advertising could mean something totally new, as the vehicle itself could be ordered (with consent, of course) to take the passenger directly to a new restaurant or outlet for introduction offers. Business development could itself develop.

For marketers, thus, there will be three huge challenges and opportunities:
• Precise location-based targeting: it will become very critical to integrate both physical and digital across cars, devices and the outside physical environment (billboards, retail outlets, fuel stations, restaurants) on the move, and build effective and powerful cross-channel communication and promotions
• Hyper – personalisation: Data from ultra-intelligent autonomous vehicles will afford even greater personalization opportunities. Ads could be served very effectively based on even physical purchase/visit history, not only the digital one, for example. Entertainment options could be very precisely tailored.
• Real-time marketing: Alerts, ads, and messages will be based on where the customer is and what her destination is. Content can be dynamic and contextual to the location and intent
Technology tends to greatly influence how customers think and behave, and disrupt businesses. This happened with cars, with television, the PC and mobile phones. A similar, massive disruption will happen again, with autonomous cars. Good marketers have looked upon each disruption as an opportunity and innovated and not just adapted but leapfrogged using such shifts. Happy not-driving.

• Hyper – personalisation: Data from ultra-intelligent autonomous vehicles will afford even greater personalization opportunities. Ads could be served very effectively based on even physical purchase/visit history, not only the digital one, for example. Entertainment options could be very precisely tailored.
• Real-time marketing: Alerts, ads, andmessages will be based on where the customer is and what her destination is. Content can be dynamic and contextual to the location and intent
Technology tends to greatly influence how customers think and behave, and disrupt businesses. This happened with cars, with television, the PC and mobile phones. A similar, massive disruption will happen again, with autonomous cars. Good marketers have looked upon each disruption as an opportunity and innovated and not just adapted but leapfrogged using such shifts. Happy not-driving.
Source:Devendra Chawla and Jaspreet Bindra