Empathy & thoughtfulness will be key to every marketing decision in 2021: Sarika Naik

Capgemini is a global leader in consulting, digital transformation, technology, and engineering services. The Group is at the forefront of innovation to address the entire breadth of clients’ opportunities in the evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms. Building on its strong 50-year heritage and deep industry-specific expertise, Capgemini enables organisations to realise their business ambitions through an array of services from strategy to operations. A responsible and multicultural company of 265,000 people in nearly 50 countries, Capgemini’s purpose is to unleash human energy through technology for an inclusive and sustainable future.

The world has witnessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. To withstand any such Black Swan event in future, organisations need to be driven by a sense of purpose to win and thrive. In the Next Normal, brands will assume a greater citizen-conscious role. Brands that respect the environment, care for their employees and help their communities and match their words with action will stand out.

In conversation with Adgully, Sarika Naik, Chief Marketing Officer – India, Capgemini, speaks at length about the various strategies adopted to meet the challenges of COVID-19 disruptions, as well as the future trends that will shape the economy as we move into the Next Normal. 

The year 2020 was very unprecedented due to the pandemic. All predictions and projections went haywire. How are you geared for 2021 and what kind of trends do you foresee from a marketing point in the coming year to stay engaged with your audience?

COVID-19 has compelled organisations to reassess and relook their business models. Marketing has emerged as a focal point to reinvent the way businesses – whether B2B or B2C – engage with their clients.

As every communication and consumer touchpoint moves to digital, we will see a greater need for bite-sized, sharp and focused content in the coming years to get the right message across. Aided by authenticity and transparency in communication, brands will connect to their target audiences better.

Customer relationship has acquired a new meaning in these unprecedented times. In the coming year, we will see brands supporting customers in a holistic way through their entire growth journey. Deeper customer engagement by being trusted advisors and delivering real impact will be more imperative than ever before. At Capgemini, we serve some of the largest clients across the globe. Our focus has always been to look at the entire customer experience rather than one deal or one offering. From our initial days we have always looked at the overall client journey and therefore we enjoy some of the best and longest relationships with our client.

The world has witnessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. To withstand any such Black Swan event in the future, organisations need to be driven by a sense of purpose to win and thrive. In the Next Normal, brands will assume a greater citizen-conscious role. Brands that respect the environment, care for their employees and help their communities and match their words with action will stand out. In short, empathy and thoughtfulness will be key to every marketing decision in 2021. At Capgemini, our new purpose statement, “Unleashing human energy through technology for an inclusive and sustainable future” embodies this message. At Capgemini, we believe that digital transformation should benefit all of humanity and technological innovations should ultimately lead to an inclusive and sustainable future for all.

At Capgemini, our annual hackathon event, Tech Challenge, echoes this purpose of sustainability and inclusivity. At Tech Challenge, every year we invite tech enthusiast from across the country to use new-age skills to address the present challenges and come up with innovative solutions for an inclusive and sustainable future. This year, Tech Challenge 2020 saw a record number of registrations, which was over 240,000. 

We are already living in a new normal. Any distinct trend you will notice in the new year for the IT industry in terms of performance and challenges? How is your company planning to address the new normal in the new year?

COVID-19 has tested the resilience of the IT services industry like never before. The coming year will see organisations reimagining their businesses and build back better to have a sustainable and resilient recovery. Organisations will take a more agile approach to strategy planning in order to match new and changing realties and customer expectations. Larger investments will take place in new age technologies as businesses scale up their digital transformation journey. Share of wallet in cloud and data analytics will continue to grow as businesses rapidly move to cloud. The Future of Work will see an enhanced focus on employee wellbeing, employee engagements, more emphasis on training and reskilling in the coming year.

While technology will be at the heart of every decision making, organisations will leverage technology in a sustainable way to benefit clients, employees and the society at large. In 2021, we will see an increased and concerted effort from corporates to integrate their business priorities with sustainability priorities. Sustainability focused on multiple stakeholders from employees, clients to communities will be the core purpose for organisations going forward. 

With the pandemic, digital acceleration has boosted digital payments and e-commerce in a big way. Will that trend continue, and will companies and organisations rely more on technology support to run their organisation?

COVID-19 led digital acceleration has unlocked opportunities for retailers particularly in e-commerce. Consumers have adopted digital payment methods at a much faster pace now than ever before. Appetite for online transactions and convenience will continue to accelerate even in the coming year. With consumers becoming more concerned about health and wellness, they will expect safer in-store and last-mile practices from consumer product and retail organisations. Consumer product and retail organisations that embody a sense of purpose and strong sustainability credentials will see greater consumer engagement.

In the current scenario, with the increase in preferences for non-touch practices and growth of online retail, technology acts as a new growth driver for Indian retail. India is making positive strides in their digital journey. There are several players in the digital fintech space, there are tech start-ups that offer plug and play digital solutions from supply chain to catalogue management. Indian consumers’ ‘mobile-first’ preference for e-commerce is also a key driver.

The pandemic has cemented technology’s role at the heart of transformation, driving new ways of interaction, sharing, engaging and decision making. This determination to focus on technology and digitisation is reflected in organisations’ priorities and their investment plans.

According to our CRI report, ‘AI in CX’, AI capabilities have been evolving, but COVID-19 has accelerated adoption of these tools and made intelligent machines part of our new normal lives, both now and in the future. More than half of customers (54%) surveyed use AI daily compared to just 21% in 2018. Over three-quarters (77%) expect to increase the use of touchless interfaces – such as voice assistants and facial recognition – to avoid direct interactions with humans or touchscreens during COVID-19, and 62% will continue to do so post-COVID. In 2-3 years, 80% of organisations will have most of their customer interactions enabled by AI. 

The year 2020 saw most of the companies adopting a Work From Home policy. Some of the global tech giants have already extended this to 2021. What’s your take on this and will this trend continue for some time and what is Capgemini planning on that front?

At Capgemini, our large global footprint and robust early warning system enabled us to move rapidly to work from home model even before the lockdown. 95% of our employees started working from home and it continues to remain the same. As businesses are coming out of the effects of the pandemic and planning to welcome employees back to offices while maintaining safety protocols, the workspace of the future will see some major transformations. While remote working is here to stay, physical engagements with managers and peers cannot be completely ruled out. The industry will most likely see a more hybrid model with a combination of remote working and physical engagement. 

Marketeers today are very keen to collaborate with technology to bring in effectiveness and cost control in their marketing efforts. How is Capgemini planning to leverage Martech for more effective and focussed marketing efforts?

Marketing automation is primarily driven by the rise in demand for digital marketing during these times as organisations have adopted digital means of communication. As a result, businesses are being driven to tailor every customer experience to their channel of preference and to where they are in the buying cycle.

In the coming years, we will see greater investments in MarTech tools, with data and analytics being key to engaging client. Marketers will use artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation to design smarter marketing campaigns.

In this data-driven world, consumers expect highly personalised experiences exclusively for them. B2B personalisation is the art of taking advertising, offers, and communication efforts to fit the needs of each customer.

At Capgemini, for client engagements we develop creatively designed customised pre-reads and short solution specific videos targeting specific channel. For an immersive experience, we use MS Teams in an extremely creative way as a media to connect with the client and keep them riveted. We combine this digital experience with physical experience by deploying strategies such as streaming from the project floors, campus and target zones. We have introduced a 360-degree view of our campus and project floors as well as special labs that can transport the client to the place of delivery. We have also deployed data analysis to look at past experiences, their response to agenda topics, feedback during that time and incorporate such learnings as recorded in a system of archiving such data for repeat connects.

Similarly, B2C companies gain more from marketing automation as they can reach more customers with personalised messages. B2C companies benefit greatly with marketing automation due to its ability to engage with customers contextually on a highly personalised level. It helps create an intimate profile of customers based on their demographic and behavioural data and it facilitates one-on-one communication with your customers with personalised and relevant content. For example, H&M uses automation derived from user behaviour data for push notifications as part of repeat purchase campaign. Some B2C companies also use a retention rate calculator, especially those that struggle to retain users and keep them engaged with their product. Some e-commerce companies use push notification and an SMS prompting the user to clear their abandoned cart. 

What are the future trends in technology one can look forward in managing customer data? What are news trends we are going to see in artificial intelligence and machine learning to build customer loyalty and enhance their experience?

Data is Power for businesses and data analytics is an essential tool for marketers. Our CRI report, ‘Data Powered Enterprise’ states that 50% of organisations surveyed put data at the heart of their decision making. The data-driven capability has never been more important than today, where businesses need forward-looking insight to steer through the uncharted waters of a pandemic environment. Moving forward in future, filtering the data as per requirement, ensuring its high quality and knowing which platforms it exists in will give businesses more structured insights into the customer’s journey.

Technologies like virtual reality, cloud computing, big data, live video connectivity and ‘intelligent’ chatbots are redefining the way businesses connect with their customers in present times.

Marketers will continue to adopt new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), virtual assistants, and digital events platforms as clients shift their engagement preferences to digital channels. B2B marketers will turn to AI to offer personalised customer experiences at scale and across the entire customer lifecycle.

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