GCPL’s Harsh Deep Chhabra warns FMCG brands against blind bets on first-party data

New Delhi: As FMCG players rush to build massive first-party data pools, Harsh Deep Chhabra, Global Media Lead at Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL), has cautioned that the economics simply don’t add up for low-ticket categories. Instead, he sees it as a structural risk many brands are carrying today.

“We operate at MRPs of Rs 10, Rs 45, Rs 99. It’s not viable for us to build first-party data pools at a cost that makes sense. Unless your average order value is Rs 500–600, your CACs, cost of deployment, and logistics will never justify the game,” Chhabra told BestMediaInfo.com in BestMediaInfo.com podcast. 

He added that the entire data ecosystem is evolving in ways that could render current investments obsolete. “We believe the world will move from first-party and second-party data to every-party data. At that point, the amount of effort and money going into building these so-called exclusive first-party data pools may not hold up,” he said.

For Chhabra, another structural challenge is brands’ distance from the consumer. “The minute you get away from your consumer, or you start imagining that the consumer is your version of what the consumer is. As long as you're genuinely spending time with the consumer, you’re pretty safe as a marketer,” he emphasised.

He believes the marketers who succeed are the ones who stay close to the ground. “The folks who stay close to the consumer are doing it right. The people who think medium-first may or may not be doing it right,” he said.

That grounding in reality, Chhabra added, is vital in a market like India where 160 million households continue to watch linear television. “If you see some FMCG media plans, it looks like brands have gone completely off television. It feels like we’re preparing for the future but also executing the future today, which can be risky,” he said.

Watch the full podcast here: