Sanjay Tripathy is the Co-Founder and CEO of Agilio Labs and a member of our esteemed jury for the Brand Summit & Hot Brands 2019.
- What do you think is the key difference between a hot and not so hot brand?
In the cut-throat, customer-centric world today, it isn’t adequate or enticing, to solely focus on what consumers need right now. Marketers must also be able to predict the future; focusing on what the consumer is going to want in the near future. It is important for brands to consistently stay ahead of the curve. Today’s branding landscape can change almost as quickly as the technology that powers it.
In this scenario, a hot brand is one which rethinks its approach and communication based on trends and yet remains true to its core values. Today, innovative communication is critical to a brand if it wants to remain hot in the minds of the customer. Hot brands hence have a forward-thinking approach that gives them the ability to meet consumers’ future needs while still meeting the current ones. This needs an atmosphere that promotes democracy, innovation, and the freedom to fail, which may go against an organization’s natural inclination towards perfection and fail-safe strategies. Hence reiterating a brand’s core values while keeping it relevant is what I believe keeps a brand hot.
- What is the role of marketing in making a brand “hot’”?
The core role of marketing today is to keep the brand hot is to keep it differentiated & relevant to the constantly evolving world of the consumer.
- How has technology transformed the marketing landscape?
Marketers today, spend a fair amount of their time at the intersection between marketing function and the technology that powers it. Advances in technologies have automated marketing process and improved effectiveness. Over 7,000 technology companies are powering the marketing organizations through advancements in areas like programmatic, artificial intelligence and machine learning. As firms realize the value of these capabilities, more power is gradually being owned by marketers within their organizations. As the technology landscape evolves rapidly, these developments will continue to reshape the way marketing is conducted. As we have seen in the news lately with Cambridge Analytics, personalized content to influence user behavior is indeed very powerful. Hence marketers need to be careful to use that data within the limits promised to their consumers and keep the content pure to its message to truly resonate with the audience.
- With the number of brands entering the market today, what should brands do to stay competitive?
Consumers today are more confident in their opinions and are not easily pleased. They often collect information from multiple sources including social referrals. Hence, brands need to continuously question – where the potential consumers spend their time, what they do in their spare time, what is their preferred mode of engagement, and what they find most appealing about the segment or the brand. Social Media and Search Engines are all-pervasive, making these platforms the best bet today to capture past, potential and current customers’ attention. The more you know about your customer and the more detailed your study of their behavior, opinions and preferences, the higher your chances of staying competitive.
