Weâ€™ll see the convergence of a â€˜CTO, CFO and CMOâ€™ mindset in 2021: Ajay Kakar

Shrugging off the disruptions of the year gone by, businesses and agencies are looking for a strong revival in 2021. Over the next few weeks, Adgully – as part of its annual TRENDING NOW endeavour – will be presenting the strategies and views of a cross-section of industry leaders as they go about reclaiming lost time and market opportunities and build for a stronger future, armed with the lessons of 2020.

Ajay Kakar, Chief Marketing Officer, Aditya Birla Capital, in a short and crisp way, highlights the trends that will dominate in 2021. He also points out the uncertainties that will continue in the year ahead, such as the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19, recovery of the economy as well as an undecided consumer.

Outlook for 2021

Convergence of a ‘CTO, CFO and CMO’ mindset

Make every rupee invested or spent, accountable for a business or brand outcome
Not online versus offline. Leave the choice of journey to the customer
Either way, keep the journeys simple, seamless and consistent

Agility and Speed

Ability to develop digital products and services and going to market with them, with never before agility and speed

Empathy

Staying extremely empathetic to the consumers, more so their changing needs in this critical environment
Anticipating, rather than merely reacting

Tech and Digital Partnerships

Don’t compare and compete against players within your category
Do so against the best of class from any category/ geography
Where you don’t have core competence, in house, partner the best/ experts

Leveraging Big-Data

To get a single unified view of each customer
To personalise the customer experience, using transactional data, engagement data, behavioural data, customer segments and customer’s journey

Using AI for Omni-channel Marketing

To recommend the right product, through the right channel, using the right communication, at the right time

Great expectations

Uncertainty, continued

Covid 2.0?
Economic cycle?
An undecided customer, who may prefer to go back to his mode of comfort, rather than where Covid has currently brought him!

Key learnings from 2020

Need for speed and agility

Transition from retail/ showroom marketing to home marketing

Online versus Offline

Online AND offline

The importance of the right positioning

If positioned with the right “what’s in it for me”, an entire category can transform from a Push category to Pull, within weeks