Lessons for marketers from India’s Union budget 2021
The Drum speaks to marketing experts to unravel the Indian Union Budget and what it could mean to the marketing and advertising industry.
India’s Union budget 2021
India's annual Union Budget for 2021 was presented by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier this week. The definitive financial and business planning document has many firsts to its credit - it is the first budget presented since the pandemic hit last year, it is the first-ever 'digital' Union Budget and also the first budget to bring a sharp focus on pillars like health and wellbeing, physical and financial capital, among others.
Arun Sharma, vice president - brand strategy, Pramerica (Prudential of America)
Post the digital census an era of data democratisation is likely. Imagine the robustness of census data completely available to media planners and market strategists. They will build modelling for better TG sizing in population, economic behaviour patterns leading to highly effective strategies.
A push towards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India) could see top class MNC talent bring their crazy ideas out in the real world, which they have always wanted to; but the orthodoxy of plush MNCs wouldn’t entertain liberated minds. These executives are going to burst their comfort bubbles, exit the jobs and collide head-on with the kinds of organisations they are serving today, to create businesses which the street relates with. After all, India is more India on its streets. I believe Adam Morgan should open an India office for ‘Eat Big Fish’ consulting. The moment for Indian challenger brands is here. This is how the government seems to be unboxing growth - by pushing out the lid a little. The rest will be done by our new start-up yuppies.
Sunder Madakshira, head - marketing, Adobe India
In the wake of the pandemic, the sentiment of this year’s budget underscores a commitment to building a system of self-reliance in the areas of healthcare, infrastructure, and business. What drew interest is the boost given to individuals and the focus on maximising governance. With the expected infusion of new businesses under the announcements geared towards one-person companies, what will emerge is a drive on marketing and advertising from and to those organisations.
In addition, there will be a growing demand for cloud-based services to empower individuals and businesses in the digital-first economy. We will continue to see movement towards digital, and it was good to note the likelihood of the forthcoming Census being India’s first digital Census! In an era of true integration of technology, people and processes, businesses will rely on intelligent data and insights to fuel real-time personalisation at scale to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
Amid monumental change, and with further adjustments coming to the way businesses operate post-pandemic, agility will be the key to any team, with marketing agility becoming critical as the function remains on the front lines of experience delivery. In a fast-approaching world without third party cookies, virtually every marketing org will need to plan for the new reality of doing business.
Harish Bijoor, brand consultant
- As we emerge from the fear economy of Covid to a more consuming-oriented economy, there is a hope that revenge buying, revenge consumption and revenge entertaining, and revenge dressing will be back. And that should be good for the economy.
- Budget 2021 is refreshing. It has no new taxes in it and depends on its inflows on government borrowings and disinvestment targets to be met. This in itself is an incentive to the advertising and marketing industry. No new taxes hopefully mean more money in the hands of consumers.
The new religion in our lives is digitalism. Every business needs to have a digital and a physical avatar. This in itself is a huge opportunity for the marketing and advertising industry. Many more digital avenues to make the moolah. Indianisation, indigenisation and everything Indian will be the theme for the years ahead, something that is relevant for the advertising and marketing industry.
I see this Budget, not as a ‘budget vaccine’, instead I see it as a Budget ‘booster shot’. I love the language, tone, tenor and decibel of the budget. One that will spur manufacturing activity. One that will get jobs in the sector going. One that will also possibly cascade consumption eventually, when the rubber hits the road.
Kapil Arora, CEO and co-chairman, 82.5 Communications (part of Ogilvy Group)
- It was nice to see the budget being presented off a ‘Made in India’ tablet (Lava brand) as against deploying physical reams of paper.
- No additional taxes (sometimes no news is good news), an increased focus on renewable energy and the proposal to provide social security to the gig economy workers were some of the big standout wins.
The market certainly seems to have taken positively to the budget, with a 3000-point rally at the BSE Sensex, since its announcement. For most sectors as well, specific measures have been neutral to positive - be it the raising of FDI limits in insurance, the proposal for a unified securities code to safeguard consumer interests, raising of import duties to encourage local industry, furthering tax holiday on affordable housing, no additional sin taxes or even continued infrastructure spending. At an immediate level, this should have a buoyant impact on company sentiment and coupled with the rapid rollout of the vaccine program, I would expect reinvigoration of significant energy (and investment) across brands and sectors.