Communities are the future of brands and the Internet: Naiyya Saggi

These are volatile and uncertain times today, and it has become all the more challenging to stay on top of one’s game, especially for marketing heads. CMOs today have to adopt numerous strategies to stay on top of the constant evolution in the marketing space.

The 2023 edition of CMOs’ Charcha – Delhi Chapter was held yesterday (February 10, 2023). The march of AI, especially generative AI, has accelerated in the past few months; there are major changes that are taking place in the field in data privacy and user centricity; Augmented and Virtual realities are becoming part and parcel of generating unique and memorable experiences and engagement opportunities for consumers by brands; there is an increased push for hyper-personalisation at scale; there is disruption happening in the way brands are strategising to gain their audiences’ attention, and much more.

CMOS’ Charcha 2023 reflects all the inflexion points facing marketing and marketing heads today and is poised to identify the path into the future knocking at our doors.

Delivering a keynote address at the 4th edition of CMOs’ Charcha, Naiyya Saggi, Co-founder, Good Glamm Group, shared her views on brand building and brand communities in today’s world. Saggi began her address by introducing what Good Glamm Group is all about.

“Every marketer dreams of building an amazing community around our brand. But very few brands have been able to crack it. When you look forward, the communities become even more critical. Digital ad spends are going up; influencer marketing is a superb channel, but there are very few credible and trustworthy influencers out there. So, all these waves are coming in front of us and telling us that communities are the future of the Internet and communities are the future of brands. And if we don’t play with the communities today, we will be late,” she emphasised.

Highlighting the achievements of Good Glamm so far, Saggi said, “There are three co-founders – Darpan Sanghvi, Priyanka Gill and me. All three of us came together and decided to make something big, massive in the whole beauty and personal care space. Through a series of acquisitions, we have acquired a bunch of beauty and personal care brands. We had My Glamm to start with, we also have St Botanica, Organic Harvest, Baby Chakra, The Moms Co, Sirona. We have also acquired some media assets such as ScoopWhoop, POP XO, Miss Malini, Tweak. Through brands and media, we are reaching 200 million people monthly. We are South Asia’s largest content to commerce FMCG conglomerate.”

She also spoke about Good Creators Co, an influencer marketing company, which, with its base of one and a half million influencers, is creating a science behind influencer marketing. “We also have this amazing tech stake that was developed by the acquisition of BulBul, Vidooly and Winki. So, it gives us access to a lot of data on influencers across multiple platforms,” she added.

Saggi shared the three crucial factors that Good Glamm uses to build its community. “You already have your social network or your communities 1.0, 2.0, which are all relationship based, network graph based. There is a very big unmet need on three things: first, deep interest-based communities – likeminded people who are the hallmark of becoming community members. Second, to be hyper-personalised. Everyone has different needs and, therefore, making a community which has meaning to you has to be personalised. Personalisation depends upon interests, locality, language, life stage etc. Third, we are building a community with peers and experts. We have a community of 10,000 doctors. We have make-up artists, nutritionists, mental health therapists that is a whole universe of experts integrated into our community,” she added.

Speaking on how MyGlamm is creating personalised communities, Saggi said, “It’s not just about celebrities, it is about real people coming together and discussing real issues with each other based on the common interests of the people. And that over time links back to the brand mission, brand proposition – not directly, but indirectly. In fact, we have named our communities differently. It is not the MyGlamm Community, it’s called Glamm Fam. You are not a MyGlamm member, you are a Glamm Star. These are aligned, but not fully with the brand. The Baby Chakra and Moms Co community is called Moms Star community. Organic Harvest is called Organic Squad community,” she added.

Click here for Naiyya Saggi’s complete keynote address.