The desire for value is becoming critical: Prabha Narasimhan
The e4m Screenage Conference saw some enlightening conversations but one of the highlights of the night was a fireside chat between Prabha Narasimhan, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Colgate Palmolive, and Nawal Ahuja, Co-Founder, exchange4media. They decoded the trends for 2030 and dived deep into various aspects of cross-platform marketing. The chat began with how the world of consumer marketing has undergone a drastic change in the last few years due to the influence of tech and the pandemic. Taking a slightly different direction, Narasimhan pointed at something that hasn’t changed despite the world undergoing a transformation. “What hasn’t changed is that brands that win, serve a true purpose in consumers’ lives,” she said. Narasimhan shared that if brands serve a purpose, serve it well and serve it with value, they will win for sure. She also touched upon the pandemic-induced changes and how they have been key in increasing the focus on technology. “The other thing that is getting heightened is the desire for value,” Narasimhan added. “It was always there, but as things are getting more and more expensive and more things are competing for consumer wallets, the desire for value is increasing.” Citing an article she read recently, Narasimhan shared FMCG was now competing with gaming companies for a share of the consumer wallet. “There are several choices for consumers to make and there are more things fighting for the consumer wallet, and so the desire for value is becoming more critical,” she added. Addressing how brands should stick to their core brand purpose, in a world driven by social media noise, Narasimhan advised that it was important to be clear on what the core brand purpose is. Sharing the example of Colgate Palmolive, she said having been in the country for 86 years, the core purpose of the company has been to improve the oral health of India. The conversation also looked at the changes that the CMO role has undergone, in general. Sharing the qualities she would seek in a CMO, Narasimhan mentioned that agility and the ability to absorb information were important. “Another quality is having curiosity to see what other people are doing and how they are doing it. And the third one is the idea of integrity.” Speaking of her learnings around reaching out to consumers via different content formats, Narasimhan said that one needs to be clear about what was the medium and how the content was playing through that medium. She elaborated that earlier there used to be a 45-sec commercial, which became a 30-sec piece and now it could be just a 20-seconder. “Everything used to leapfrog from that one piece of creative, but now it is quite different - where you have that one big brand idea and that then gets created for the medium,” she added. Another learning Narasimhan shared was that while there are moments where following the consumers and personalising communication is really important, there are also moments where it is just the marketers succumbing to their vanity that they can do it. The topic of personalisation begs one to bring in the marketers’ favourite buzzword – data. Narasimhan shared that one of the key joys of working with a legacy brand is that the consumers do not need to be reminded of a brand’s existence. “For one to own that space in the mindset, is a massive advantage. The signals that we then get in terms of how we can continue to build that system on thinking, is really how we use the data.” Sending out a plea to agency partners, Narasimhan said, “As any agency that works with a brand, keep the brand and the consumer at the heart of what you do. Sometimes it is almost as if the tech supersedes the brand and the consumer, but it needs to start with how can the tech be at the service of this combination of brand and consumer.” She further shared that brands are like living people. “You have to get to know them, understand them. Data will tell you a lot, but data is not everything. So, getting to know the brand closely is my second plea to the agencies.” Narasimhan mentioned that an idea requires different expressions for different media and different consumers across different touch points. “But the ethos and centrality of that has to be authentic and has to be singular,” she added. On how to navigate the increasingly complex media landscape, Narasimhan said: “I think the greater the complexities, the more important become the first principles. Eventually, the job of media for most FMCG companies is to deliver reach at a certain frequency at a certain cost. You now have some fantastic models to optimise your media spends.” Narasimhan noted that a lot of new and different things were happening in this space. “You ask here - then how we can run experiments, for us to learn. There is always an opportunity to learn,” she concluded.