From Internet of Things to the Internet of Me, what according to you is the big thing that will define IT marketing in 2016?
Digital disruption paved the way for 2015 and disruptive content is what will define the future. One can create the smartest piece of thought leadership, post it on their website, email it, but if nobody reads it – the value is lost. The volatile and dynamic ecosystem demands motion with promotion. Go digital on social platforms in Omni format ways. Create snackable versions of the content. There’s also a strong movement to better storytelling – The industry discourse has shifted away from “how-to” models to “how to do it right.” Infographics have become a key format of the larger conversation: visual storytelling is the key.
Social media has been slow to adopt GIFs, with Facebook taking on the truncated clips only this year. The average human attention span in 2015 is 8.25 seconds, so these bite-sized animations have perfectly replaced the traditional idea of storytelling. There is a paradign shift in the way we consume content – thanks rise of live feed social platforms like Periscope and Meerkat – live blogging is new kid on the block.
The journey is more omnichannel now than ever.
Two ways in which the digital lives of people, things and organization is impacting the way companies are marketing to them?
The answer is – Access and Connectivity. Both access and connectivity are married to form what is defining the new age digital citizen. Be it smart cities, driverless cars or connected healthcare – the ‘internet of everything’ is the real game changer.
Gartner predicts that by the end of this year over 6.4 billion web-enabled devices will be connected as part of the Internet of Things, an increase of 30% on 2015.
More and more tech savvy marketers are adopting the sophisticated application of big data to understand the lives of their customers. For instance, with enough data, a hardware store should know when you’re ready to remodel your kitchen before you know. After all, they sold you your washer/dryer and replaced your disposal bin— they should be able to predict and sell you that new kitchen.
Profound consumer insights can be exceedingly powerful tools for marketers and they will change the dynamics between the brand and the consumer. Infact, if brands use Big Data to define each stage of a customer’s life and effectively pre-identify demand, the same insight can also be used to redefine a new cost and time effective business model.
How has sales function transformed in the changing times wrt to changing consumers and organizations?
Most sales teams embracing social feel that social media is just about being social. Today it’s about “social selling.” The sales teams need to acknowledge that conventional lead generation and product narratives don’t work. They are based on having an established view of the problem and of the competitive set.
More and more customers are now turning to marketers as consultants and thought leaders for their brands. Managers in disrupted businesses are craving for charters that can help them diagnose their new situation, visualize an innovative solution, and engage with peers to discuss their ideas. Similarly, Proof-of-Concepts are necessary but not sufficient. Team that have not embraced social transformation and are used to selling into non-disrupted markets POCs is like turning back in time, but they are key for disrupted industries where the problem diagnosis nor the solution prescription is well established.
How do you see the role of IT marketer changing in the coming year and what has been the transition that you are already witnessing?
Connectedness in today’s and tomorrow’s hyper connected world is paramount. So is the ability to fuse ideas to challenge the status quo amid business disruptions. We are in the business of creating new ideas and implementing them to a logical conclusion but it is the journey is about transferring the experience, which matters the most to us.
Profile: Indraneel Ganguli is Senior Vice President & Global Head – Brand, Marketing & Communication at Tech Mahindra
He is also a speaker at Great Indian IT Marketing Summit & Awards 2016.
IG as he is popularly known in the industry has been an integral part of the marketing ideas at Tech Mahindra since the year 2008. He represents the league of new age marketers and exemplifies deft amalgamation of learning, both in traditional and new media. He is adept in creating and synergizing the brand across geographies and leveraging cross market learning. It is owing to these attributes, that he is a key member of marketing strategy not just within Tech Mahindra but also at Group Mahindra, where is a part of the Group’s Brand council. The genesis of his career has been in B2C domain and over the years he has had robust interaction in B2B environment. He therefore renders a 360 degree view on the pulse of the market and comes with a deep understanding of what works where. He has ingrained sensitivity towards crisis communication and was the focal on marketing communications in the post crisis environment and thus creating the most effective brand turnaround of our times.
Prior to Tech Mahindra he has worked with several brands of international repute such as Tata Technologies, Bharti Telecom and had a stint in advertising working on brands such as Coca Cola, ITC, Philips, Siemens to name a few. He was awarded Corporate Communications Professional of the Year by INDY’s and DNA, in a survey across Indian corporates, in January 2007 and is among the Top 50 Most Talented Brand Leaders, conferred upon him by the CMO Council & Bloomberg Television in 2013. An ardent follower of cricket, world cuisine and films, he likes to spend his free time either reading, cooking or watching movies. He lives with his family at Hyderabad, India.
