BANGALORE: A marketing strategy allows an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and its competitive advantage. Often companies will spend a ton of money on promotional activities that don't get results. Instead take a closer look at your product, packaging and pricing; your customer; and what makes your company stand out. When you are clear and confident on your offerings, you can spend less on your marketing strategy and achieve better results. The Strategic Marketing Summit, Bangalore saw a 360 degree view from Marketing professionals, diversified by their sectors, products and consumers but linked by one single thread: Passion to reach out and satisfy their END consumers!
The Keynote session was initiated by Harish Bijoor, Brand Expert & CEO, Harish Bijoor consults He said" Marketing is on the morph. As we enter the tumultuous months of uncertainty in the International financial order, we need to appreciate changed realities that impact marketing today.
I have isolated a total of 47 key issues, of which I have spoken about 5. We have just emerged forma massive study of the e-commerce habit, as it is emerging in India today, and data-points that emerge are eye-popping. In order to capitalize upon this opportunity, we need to adopt a clear and keen path of insight-led marketing."
Jessie Paul, Managing Director, Paul Writer said some of the "Tips & Tricks: Effective branding in 2012" which was really a very informative and interesting session.
For the first panel "Key perspectives from the advertising ecosystem, based around the theme: How will advertising remain relevant?" the panelists are Ajay Kaul, Executive Director Global Brand Communications from Lenovo speaking on Brand Perspective, Vijay Gopal VV, President - South & East from RK Swamy BBDO spoke regarding Agency prospective, The Technology Perspective Jagannath A L, Director Marketing, VMware India , N Sekar, VP Marketing, Jagran Prakashan clearly described the marketing in Media Owner prospective. Sekar says that
Print media will still be relevant for quite some time to come,
Only Real Money can buy Real Marketing,
Though every marketer needs to be present in new media, caution should be exercised. It should not be done for the sake of it.
Branding is an important aspect.
Some of the key take away pointers which Ajay Kaul from Lenovo shared during the panel discussion are:
There are no shortcuts to building a world class brand ... it requires a clear strategy and flawless execution. All touch points in the customer brand experience must be optimized and complement each other.
Viral marketing on YouTube.. One has to be careful about viral marketing. While there are one offs that become successful, a majority of the videos that marketers put out there do not often add up to their brand equity and one might argue takes away from it. Producing good advertising videos that add positively for your brand is best left in the hands of professionals and does not always come cheap.
There is a tectonic shift happening in term of the shifting of advertising spend towards the digital medium. However, the role of traditional media channels like TV, print and outdoors is still significant and very important for companies for driving brand consideration and awareness.
Social media is a great channel for building trust and customer intimacy. However it is crucial for brands to have a well thought out social media strategy and get it right. Responding to social conversations related to your brand in a quick and truthful manner is really important.
"Tips & Tricks: Successful Ecommerce marketing" the second session was addressed by Valerie R. Wagoner, Founder & CEO from ZipDial.
For the second panel "Using social media to engage and inform" Creating added value for your customer and brand" Viswa Prathap Desu, Vice President - Sales & Marketing, Brigade Enterprises says "Social Media is about conversations, so marketing in that medium is all about starting conversations and not about pushing a product or a service".
He also mentioned "Before launching into social media marketing, the marketing planners should have a clear objective in terms of either hits/clicks or leads to be generated".
Session on "Content-based Marketing for Rapidly Growing Companies" Peter Yorke, CEO, Yorke Communications.
Raghu B Viswanath, Founder & Managing Director from Verterbrand addressed the topic "WHAT'S AILING RETAIL TODAY?"
Avery interactive and informative Panel "Innovative Marketing Programs at low budget" the panelist were Sandeep Verma Marketing Director from Unilever, Stanley Rao Founder and CEO from Champions Group, Jaideep Singh, Vice President fromViacom18 and Amit Tyagi, Marketing Head APAC at Intel.
The last panel "Marketing Strategy: How it Fits with Business Strategy" Rameet Arora, Senior Director " Marketing from McDonald's India, Balaji Kesavaraj Director - Marketing from Microsoft Corporation and Sanjay Seth VP Marketing and Communications from Mahindra Satyam
For the Closing Note "Common sense branding" we had Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-Comm said "Branding is simple but managers tend to complicate it. Brand Managers and CEOs are too close to their brands as a result of which they are unable to think about them objectively".
He also said "Managing brands is going to be more about trying to manage everything that your company does .Companies forget that their employees are their brand and every company needs Brand Champions. Who is your company's Brand Champion?"
At the summit, highly successful Marketing professionals from various industries shared their knowledge, experiences and insights to flourish your business by choosing best Marketing planning processes and marketing/business challenges to achieve an organization's overall mission and vision.
Over all the Strategic Marketing Summit Bangalore was entirely a new platform for the budding Marketers to bring their diverse thoughts, different experiences, thought provoking new ideas. Different industries have valuable lessons to offer to others on what they do very well. The event was sponsored byStrategic out sourcing services, Submit In Me, Apna Circle.com and Tata MacGrawHill.
