Trends 2020: What to expect in marketing this year - Rajesh Uttamchandani

Rajesh Uttamchandani, Director, SYSKA Group, highlights the key marketing trends in 2020 and how they will impact various sectors. 

What sort of media mix delivered for Brand Syska in 2019?
As a thought leader brand, Syska is known to address the fundamental need of educating customers about the very benefit of LED adoption. In 2019, our brand has used a strategic mix of television, OOH, Digital, etc., to create the desired equity and convey the proposition for both offline and online customers. It is only because of these sustained marketing efforts that Syska has successfully brought the retail revolution in the otherwise institutional category. 

What are the key marketing trends that you foresee in 2020?
We have witnessed several marketing trends evolving in 2019 and with the advent of the Internet and smartphones, new and innovative ways of advertising trends have evolved. People are seen spending most of their time surfing the Internet, thus making digital marketing one of the most important platforms for marketing and advertising. The key digital marketing trends we see for 2020 include: 

Audio and Video Advertising is one of the key trends in the year 2020. Voice search technology is being adopted rapidly and is changing the way consumers interact with the world around them. Earlier, it was television that got maximum attention. However, today people are switching to online streaming platforms for advertisers. 

Social media marketing is on the rise. Social media platforms are constantly evolving as they grow and adapt to consumer behaviour and incorporate new technologies. Advertisers need to leverage platforms where their customers are, which is why social media channels are often the best way to reach your target audience. 

Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing. People with high influence on a topic endorse the products of brands to their target audience. This form of advertising has seen significant growth in the past few years and will be one of the advertising trends of 2020. 

Written content in the form of conversational scripts is the primary input to chatbots, which are expected to see an increased usage trend in 2020 and beyond. Any business with a website and visitor traffic can benefit from using a simple chatbot that answers common visitor questions and helps convert visitors into leads. 

Which marketing trend shows most promise to deliver for your brand?
Syska as a brand recognised the potential of the B2C space for its innovative product offering and has since brought about a retail revolution in the country. This exceptional feat was achieved by incorporating aggressive marketing programs along with establishing a strong base of more than 2 lakh retailers across the length and breadth of the country. This is to make our products available to millions of customers who embraced the fundamental benefit of energy-saving through the sustained use of LED products. 

Also, in 2020 we plan to focus more on social media, which has become an important platform for brands to advertise their products and solutions. Today, consumers are present on multiple social media platforms – whether it is Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. They are at the receiving end of information from multiple companies and brands and are constantly getting to learn new things via these platforms. Hence, it is imperative that brands such as Syska tap into the enormous opportunity that exists and reach out to their customers through these channels. 

What would be the impact of the economic slowdown on marketing efforts going into 2020?
While the industry is changing at a rapid pace, we have not seen the slowdown affecting our business in any way. Syska has been growing consistently year-on-year along with the rest of the FMEG industry. Like every year, Syska will work with 3-4 per cent as marketing budgets, which will optimally be used to achieve the functional objectives across different segments like LED, personal care appliance, wires and cables, mobile accessories, etc., and catering to pan India consumers. 

Our focus will be to achieve better ROIs on the marketing spends in the coming FY. Additionally, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has undertaken a slew of measures to boost the economy, such as setting up a task force to ensure that infrastructure projects can be funded quickly. This will help in increasing capital marketing expenditure that will aid in the promotion of energy-efficient solutions such as LED lighting.

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