Marketing 2020: Here's how you can make your brand heard in the new decade

With the rapidly changing marketing dynamics, it is very important for any brand to know their consumers and what they want. Brands should always be a step ahead when it comes to adapting fast-paced marketing dynamics or otherwise they’ll lose their consumer base.

The consumers on social media are much more aware and evolved. Brands also get real time feedback and inbound from them.

As social media and consumer behaviour are changing the dynamics of marketing faster than ever, brands must keep themselves ready for more disruption.

This year will define marketing the way 2010 did in the last decade.

BestMediaInfo.com compiles a few tips on 'how to make your brand heard in the new decade'.

Driving topical conversations with customers

In today’s digital era, it is essential for brands to continuously engage with their customer base on varied social channels, which must move beyond new campaigns and product launches.

Kashyap Vadapalli

“Brands must look to continuously engage their customers by responding to their queries at regular intervals and driving topical conversations. This will help brands to understand better the dynamism of consumer behaviour and the ever-evolving consumer trends. These efforts will additionally help raise the overall positive brand sentiment,” said Kashyap Vadapalli, CMO of Pepperfry.

As David Ogilvy once said, ‘The customer is not a moron, she’s your wife’, the quote is more relevant today than ever before. The customers brands want to engage with are intelligent and responsible. Brands that do not dial up the relevance quotient and empathy, do not survive the test of customer loyalty.

Mayur Kaku

“Going forward, brands that make direct relevant conversations with customers will get a patient hearing from them. Don’t post on social media for the sake of it. Lesser but relevant posts make the best strategy. Treat each social medium for its merit, rather than adapting same creative for five different platforms,” said Mayur Kaku, Assistant Vice-President, Branding and Communication, Aegon Life Insurance.

Analysing customer feedbacks and comments

Brands should constantly try to collect customer’s feedback and views on social media. Analyse the information collected and churn it into useful insights. Brands can stay ahead of the curve by listening to the customers, being open to opinions and accepting criticism.

Nibhrant Shah

Accumulation of all such market research, feedback, analysis and experience allow us to keep abreast with the quick changes, said Nibhrant Shah, Founder and CEO, Isprava and Lohono Stays.

Vivek Chaturvedi

“To be on top of your game, it is imperative to be honest and active in your communication with various stakeholder groups. The most interesting feature of social media marketing is real-time monitoring, which helps seek consumer feedback that can help you course-correct your communication,” said Vivek Chaturvedi, Associate Director, Brand Marketing, Tupperware India.

Sunit Warraich

Other than this, Sunit Warraich, Managing Director, Rummy Baazi, said the profiling of the customer is extremely important to analyse what will click, keeping current trends in mind. Trends change in an instant. Knowing how your customers respond to changing trends will help brands to make those quick adjustments.

Stay true to the brand’s voice

Minal Srivastava

“Just stay true to your brand’s ethos. As long as you have clearly ear-marked the direction that you want your brand to take, you will manage to handpick the execution that will give you what you desire. The challenge usually is to assess the multiple options that land in front of you and your ability to say ‘No’ frequently and staying focused on your planned path,” said Minal Srivastava, Vice-President, Growth, Strategy and Marketing, Shalimar Paints.

Every year, marketing gets more complex with an increasing number of platforms, fragmented consumer segments, and large volumes of data around all elements. However, brands still need to address the basics first, figuring out the voice, create content that is honest, unique and true to the business it is building — and the year 2020 will not be any different, say experts. There will be chaos but brands just need to sift through the noise and focus on the very few essentials.

A few other marketing trends to watch out for

The world is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Brands and organisations that periodically invest in experimentation will emerge victorious while chasing the customer engagement metric.

And for the same, Kaku said, brands need to figure out the difference between more videos versus right videos, which requires a lot more innovation and push for creativity.

Ramakant Khandelwal

As consumer habits and consumption undergoes increasing shifts, so do the goal posts for marketing. In order to keep pace with technological advancements and drive enhanced business growth, Ramakant Khandelwal, CMO, Payback India listed a few trends:

Adoption of data-driven marketing with hyper-personalisation will be a key to change consumers’ affinity to brands. 

Automation/AI: AI technology and automation will help take the effort out of marketing so that brands can concentrate on strategy and crafting more engaging customer experiences.

Media channels and form factors will further evolve: Video feeds will move towards live video, voice searches will gather more momentum, more brands will see the need to engage on platforms like TikTok as audiences shift their consumption patterns, media streaming platforms will see more players as well as consumers joining the platforms, thus paving way for brands to engage through content integrations. Influencer marketing will see a shift and brands will need to be more mindful of their associations in terms of quality over quantity.

Data privacy and security will become a key focus area and brands with more transparent processes will win over consumer trust and this will be vital to build long-term relationships. 

Vivek Tiwari

Vivek Tiwari, Founder and CEO, MedikaBazaar, said, “Targeted marketing is the keyword in 2020, as companies can comply with budgets by targeting only those customers from whom the potential of a conversion is high rather than shooting an arrow in the dark like traditional ATL techniques. ROI is one of the key elements of the results which are seen and discussed, and personalised marketing is the best way to achieve optimum ROI in 2020.”

“We live in a digital age and while it is a very challenging time, it is equally interesting for marketers. Grabbing consumer attention, holding it to narrate your story and selling the concept, service or product in today’s cluttered market when time is at premium is a herculean task. No brand can make an impact on consumers without engaging with them on real-time basis, said Chaturvedi.

The digitally dominated marketing world is slowly shifting towards experiential marketing. In this age of technology, consumers are craving for that personal touch; face-to-face interaction and one-on-one attention showcases how much the brand actually cares about them. No one wants to be just a face in the crowd and companies are increasingly feeling this now.

Shah added, “Brands are now focusing on delivering a great product along with an extremely thought through pre- and post-sales service. Everyone wants their brand to be promoted organically and spend the least marketing dollars possible, and the best way to do this is by creating something that is beautiful, combined with excellent customer service.”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com