HP India marketing head on the new rules of customer engagement
The combination of economic uncertainty, changing consumer expectations, the rise of AI and a return to timeless brand management skills are ensuring 2023 will be another big year in marketing, according to Prashant Jain, marketing head of HP India.
The evolving landscape of consumer marketing
The creative rules
2022 was a year when the balance in the ‘distinctiveness versus memorability’ debate in creativity tilted towards the latter. New brands primarily led this change in their search to cut through the advertising clutter. These brands aimed to create new categories or gain ‘top of mind’ versus competitors, driving a higher share of app installs/app opens. The fact is that we cannot do without either of them. Practitioners in 2023 will use both with aplomb at different stages of the brand lifecycle.
However, many more brands, even in mature categories, will also get on the memorability bandwagon, taking imaginary risks with the equity they have built. The truth is that customers, now, are reappraising brands more than ever with changed dimensions of accessibility and affordability. Customers’ minds are often thick with unfinished tasks, or their attention is scattered thinly with short-form media. Brands and advertising that provide comic relief may engage them better, generating chances of re-appraisal from the old and consideration from the new customer.
Influencer marketing came into its own in 2022. From being an unstructured environment in the mid-2010s, it is arguably the fastest-ever preference-building media to find its place in the marketing playbook. However, it continues to be plagued by high onboarding, agency costs and non-transparent metrics. 2023 will be the year for this tool to become marketer-friendly while retaining its customer-first nature.
The experiential marketing rules
2022 was when some of the oldest playbook tools returned to vogue for B2B marketing after a two-year hiatus. Practitioners rediscovered experiential marketing as physical events became a possibility. Events continue to have a degree of inefficiency, and, going forward, face-to-face events in B2B marketing will transform significantly.
Content has become ubiquitous; marketers will continue to be pressed to give customers better reasons to attend and create memorable experiences. The focus will go from creating 'brand-to-customer' connections to brand-enabled 'customer-to-customer connections.' Brands have an opportunity to develop meaningful interactions. Doing for small communities, which struggle to get meaningful learning from virtual networks, can be an irreplaceable role brand play in customers' lives.
The content rules
The idea of every brand becoming a media house took root a decade ago, with pioneers like Pulizzi postulating the murder of conventional advertising. This mega-trend has continued, moving fast in some categories, and slow in others. It is still seen as a reserve for brands with deep pockets in most consumer goods categories.
While there was not much action seen in 2022, on this front, in the future, it will change. Some of these barriers will be broken with disruptions like conversational AI models. Brands will participate in publishing, some starting with micro-content, others taking the plunge and investing in brand-led publishing at scale. What role will conversational AI play in the discovery of this content? That's probably a post for 2024!
New lessons for marketing
One big change that has been witnessed is a welcome focus by marketers, like other functions, on building skill upgrades into their routines. Within this shift, timeless skills like brand management and insights will replace fads. This is because too many marketers have transitioned too soon to ‘growth marketing’, lacking a critical understanding of how brands become powerful forces through human interactions.
In addition, marketers will lean towards structured experiments on the job as a source of learning versus knowledge acquisition. Classroom-acquired skills only become a skillset once they are put into practice!
In the post-pandemic world, the debates between ‘targeted vs. sophisticated mass marketing’ and ‘reach vs. attention’ have been getting even sharper.
These important debates allow us to be tough on ourselves as practitioners – whichever side wins will be a win for marketing as a practice. Marketers should avoid taking sides – as this is likely to bias our everyday decisions.
Predictions on the world economy foretell that 2023 may be difficult for customers on many fronts. Shrinking disposable income will force them to titrate their choices, and marketers need to respond with foresight. It would be a tough time for marketers filled with surprises and turns.
Prashant Jain is the marketing head of HP India.