In 2023, brands will become more conscious of their marketing kitty: Prateek Malpani

The year 2023 has started on a rollercoaster note, with an accelerated adoption of generative AI, AI chatbots, and digital innovations. This is bringing in new operational efficiencies, stronger strategies, a far greater emphasis on building deep bonds with various stakeholders and consumers. In keeping with the current market ecosystem, technology and a human approach are seen as going hand in hand.

As part of our annual TRENDING NOW series, Adgully has been approaching key industry leaders to Crystal Gaze into 2023 to highlight the major trends and developments that they see dominating the industry in the year ahead.

In conversation with Adgully, Prateek Malpani, Head of Brand,Wakefit.co , speaks generative AI and AI-powered marketing becoming a daily part of the new age marketers’ life in 2023, focus on Omnichannel strategy and localised marketing, and more.

Key trends dominating Marketing in 2023

Rationalised, conscious marketing with a touch of personalisation and hyper targeting: In 2023, brands will become more conscious of their marketing kitty and have an additional layer of sharp targeting, localised communication, personalised intervention to create an impact rather than playing the spray and pray game. Brands will leverage a lot of 1P data to understand their consumers better, create personalised experiences across all journey touchpoints. With this, the immediate impact would be on overall budgets available, but we also see better conversion rates and deeper brand and consumer relationships leading to increased loyalty and preference if done right.

Generative AI and AI-powered marketing: With the popularity and power of tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney increasing by the day, these tools will become a daily part of the new age marketers’ life. While these will not be the be all and end all of all marketing problems, they will become more like virtual team members and brainstorming partners. The tools are still far away from giving read to implement solutions and hence human interventions like making the AI learn, giving quality prompts and altering to give the right output will be instrumental.

Major expectations from 2023

The year when online finally meets offline: The furniture and home solutions sector that Wakefit.co operates in will see a larger and more relevant use case of omnichannel presence. The marketing, media and experience will have to be optimised for every channel where the category is being researched and shopped for.

Emphasis on customisation, personalisation and consumer experience: Especially in high involvement categories like furniture and home solutions there will be a larger need for consultative white glove experience solutions. Consumers will seek unique experiences personalized as per their preferences that allow them to tailor as per their home environments.

Key focus areas for Wakefit in 2023

Meaningful brand awareness: Through consistent brand and media efforts across channels with a relevant message, the focus will be to further improve the health of the brand bringing in efficiencies lower the funnel. Whether it is strengthening the core imagery and perception of Wakefit.co or building brand love and engagement, this year the major focus will be to increase the depth of awareness and meaningful differentiation.

Omnichannel strategy and localised marketing: Wakefit.co plans to get to 100 stores across 20+ cities and hence, this year will also be about city level targeted penetration rather than national level. We will be identifying core pockets that align with our store opening strategy and bring local flavour in our marketing communications to drive footfalls and increase overall brand awareness in those regions for the true ROI of omnichannel to kick in.

Customer experience: Being predictable, delivering a consistent WOW experience and standardising it will be the core of our focus this year. We will also be investing in creating engaging and informative product content and seamless experience management for the customers, both online and in-store. This will also include launching more consumer focused benefits such as the 100-day free trial period.