Mindshare Brand Equity Compass 2010: Decoding future Marketing 3.0

While Compass 2009 revolved around the hot topic of that year, "Recession', the theme for Compass 2010 was "Marketing 3.0: One to one and One to a Billion'. The theme focused on the coming change of decade and with that the change in the marketing approach, so "Marketing 3.0'.

The forum started with inaugural session where speakers like Dr. Bhaskar Das, Executive President, The Times of India, D. Shivakumar, VP and MD, Nokia India who was also the chairperson for the conference and Nick Emery, Chief Strategy Officer, Mindshare Worldwide shared their "Thoughts for marketing 3.0 Journey'. This was followed by 6 sessions of panel discussion on diverse topics where influential people from different industry came and shared their views and different case studies.

Buliding consumption: Crafting a desire in you, was the subject for the first panel discussion which was Moderated by Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia Ltd. The panelist included Ashish Singh, MD, Bain and Company, Ashutosh Srivastava, CEO, Mindshare Asia Pacific, Vishal Gondal, CEO, India Games and Madhukar Sabnavis, Country Head-Discovery and Planning, O&M India. The key learning from the discussion was to shift from Tactical to Strategic planning, educating the people where the product is relevant to them, creating new needs.

Session two of the panel discussion was based on "Did you hear that": Word-of-mouth marketing as successful communication tool. This session's moderator was Vineet Taneja, Marketing Head, Nokia India and the panelists were Sameer Suneja, CEO, Perfetti Van Melle India, Gautham Mukkavilli, President Pepsico India and CEO, Foods Division, FritoLay India and last but not the least Chetan Bhagat, Author. The key learning in the session were, consumer taking control, Internet still for the top end, but they matter, do not manipulate if want trust, and the product should be regularly awesome and fresh. In a not shell a happy customer is the best wird-of-mouth.

Panel discussion of the third round focused on Total brand experience: The "wow' feeling. Alok Gupta, Director, Café Coffee Day moderated this discussion which had panelists like Govind Shrikhande, President and CEO, Shoper's Stop, Vikram Sakhuja, CEO GropuM South Asia, Ankush Arora, VP, General Motors and Prasad Narasimhan, CMO, Virgin Mobile. The panelists discussed their own brand experiences and the key point that came through this was, there are many point experience physical and virtual, one should not just sell they must help customers buy, there are three form of media those are owned, paid and earned media.

Fourth discussion had the topic, Marketing in compressed consumer time. Moderator for this was Sonali Krishna Editor, ET Now and the Panelists were Rajesh Kamat, CEO Colors, Prashant Panday, CEO, Radio Mirchi and Dhruv Shringi, CEO Yatra.Com. The best take away from this discussion was, follow your audience wherever they are, there is no second chance for any brand and surprise the consumer.

The culture of innovation in marketing was the topic for fifth board discussion which was moderated by Sonny Iqbal, Egon Zenhnder International. The board members were V S Sitaram, COO-Consumer Business, Dabur India, Punita Lal, Executive Director, Pepsico India, and Saugata Gupta, CEO-Consumer Products Business, Marico Industries. The key points were, in addition to the knowledge of where to play brands should also know how to win, innovation should be all round and India being the land of diverse culture needs diversity in innovation.

The last panel discussion of the summit was based on Ecosystem marketing. While Neeraj Agarwal, Partner and Director, Boston Consulting Group moderated it panelist like Pradeep Shirvastava, CMO, IDEA Cellular, Nikhil Mathur, Head Strategy, Planning, Nokia India, Prakash Bagri, Director-Marketing, Intel South Asia and Sumeet Vohra, Marketing Director, Procter & Gamble India gave their views. The bullet points in this discussion were, ecosystem is applicable to all businesses, it allows innovation, one should try and bring difference to life of consumer and the most importantly convergence leads to collaboration.