Interview with Anjali Malhotra

Interview with Anjali Malhotra – Executive VP, Marketing – Dish TV

PW: As a marketer what would you say are your current priorities?

AM: For every marketer, customer acquisition and retention are both equally important. In addition, ours being a subscription led business, the relationship continues month-on-month, thereby necessitating constant interaction and management of information flow, payment cycles, retention etc.. Thus data analytics and targeted communication are a priority towards customer profiling, segmentation, behavioral studies and so on. In addition, product engagement and revenue enhancement, be it through new product innovations and/or existing basket sales, are also critical parameters.

 PW: At Dish TV, how has technology played a role in customer acquisition or retention?

AM: Technology plays a very critical role at every step. Towards acquisition, use of MIS based geographical segmentation, analytics based market prioritization and GPS based mapping of customer/ trade presence. In keeping with today’s digital generation, new product enhancements like web stores, mobile apps for product engagement and customer convenience.

On the retention side, CRM tools, predictive modeling and forecasting techniques, trigger based automated marketing systems, customer segmentation lige cycle management, loyalty programs and targeted marketing. We do deploy advanced tools for MIS/ data analytics and campaign design/management. In addition, newer vehicles for customer communication with large capacity and automated delivery including specially developed on-tv tools, too. Use of digital and social media and ORM techniques for customer feedback management with real-time resolution/ close-looping etc.

PW: How has technology played a role in new product development, market expansion or other areas?

AM: Primarily through the use of GPS and geographic mapping tools for customer and retail mapping/ alignment, customer contact data cleansing and augmentation, special self-help tools for dealers for respective subscriber data mapping for augmenting recharge business, development of mobile apps and WAP website and so on. Moreover, development of new technology for product delivery thru advanced set-top-boxes with added features like recording, return-path and their marriage with other connected devices ( laptops/ mobiles) or VOD, catch-up Tv to constantly upgrade the consumers’ TV viewing experience.

 PW: Do you have a separate budget for the IT component of marketing? And how aligned are the marketing and IT functions in the organization?

AM: The two functions work very closely indeed. From conceptualization of new products, their back-end and seamless delivery, to  MIS/ analytics and customer life-cycle management. Their are designated budgets planned for acquisition/ development of newer tools for meeting the stated objectives, from time to time.