A key element in the strategy to grow brands is a brand’s ability to continuously reach out to all possible consumers/customers of the category. We also need to make it easy for customers to both experience and buy the brand. Additionally, creating brand assets that are unique and distinctive is also critically important. This entire exercise was done earlier and will continue to be done tomorrow but the question is, how does one do it day in and day out without burning a massive hole in their pockets?

The answer to all of the above does seem to lie somehow in a small, blinking light of a device that we seem to be so enamoured with — the ubiquitous world of the mobile device and its ability to create a democratic world order.

With over 200 million users of mobile data in India alone, this omnipresent device is bridging boundaries and making relationships between brands (products, services and people) and its users far more intimate and allows both to peep into each other’s world. Slightly voyeuristic and intrusive, in a way. But then I guess that’s the reason why Facebook works — it allows us to peep into the lives of people who are outside our direct circle but people whose lives we wish to sort of peep into.

I have to say that one of the biggest changes that has enabled marketers to know their consumers as well as to connect on a sustained basis is the advent and meteoric growth of social media.

Today, the reach of social media seems to be getting all-pervasive as it continues to evolve every day.

Power to the people When we got on to Facebook, little did we know that a few years down the line, our parents would be sending us friend requests and that it would reach a base of 125 million active users every month. The amazing part is that it is that small (sometimes large) device in our pockets that seems to have made it all possible. The power truly is shifting to the people.

Like it or hate it, marketers cannot ignore it and it does seem that marketers around the world and in India are deeply in love with the phenomenon which some call new media, some call digital marketing and some believe it to be a platform for direct customer engagement — that is what digital offers on an ongoing basis. Did I just get the first point ticked in the strategy of growing brands? Oh yes, ladies and gents, the era of “Always On” in brand-customer relationship is here. How does it change my approach, you ask? It is going to make us all see the mirror, because a brand is what a customer makes it out to be today.

Let me relate a small story about one of the largest telecom brands in the country. Innumerable calls to the call centre over three days and zero help in terms of solving the consumer problem. You know why? It was a private conversation, which the world was not privy to. One tweet and it started a deluge of retweets and further replies which forced the brand to respond. Thirty minutes later, the roles reverse and the problem is solved immediately. To cut a long story short, a tweet did in 30 minutes what many calls and wasted time could not do in three days. Isn’t that what democracy feels like if you are a customer who gets enough voices on your side?

This is a new world order for brands as the power equation is shifting from the hands of marketers to consumers, from advertising to storytelling, constant engagement and user generated content.

Look around you. News is now driven by hashtags (#) and twitter trends which determine what will become the next big news item. Brands (people, products and services) are live tweeting from events and sharing videos via Vine and Periscope. No event seems to happen without a hashtag or a handle associated with it and without multiple people using it either. So, even before the news item appears in print next day, consumers are already experiencing it on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Vine and Periscope and Snapchat and YouTube and more such networks.

Time for a story Brands are being created (and destroyed) on social media and better still, product launches are happening on e-commerce sites. Ah, do I miss product launch events and press conferences?

Maybe some of us do but do consumers miss them? Not really. For they have seen live videos from the event and read tweets and blogs even before reading about the product the next day in print. What’s more, it has created more bloggers, and that, to me, is a good thing. This signals that storytelling is back in vogue and big massive spends on the more traditional TV, print, radio, and outdoor media are not the only way to engage with consumers. Have a story to tell? Organise an interesting event offline, call in bloggers and consumers to come and share their experience with a hashtag across social media and you will have the reach that was a dream a few years ago with the same spends.

This also means that the offline world is merging with the virtual and that the brands that create synergy between their offline actions and their online presence across all digital assets will be the ones who shall truly create memorable brand assets that people shall engage with and remember. That reminds me of our own general elections just over a year ago. The battle was fought not just through speeches and advertising on TV and print — it was also fought on social media and Whatsapp. Those who leveraged the synergies between offline and online better truly captured the nation’s imagination.

Blending marketing, technology It is no surprise that the boundaries between the marketing and technology roles in companies are getting blurred. Technology is the tool that marketers are feeding off and hence Chief Marketing Officers (including yours truly) are looking into new technology and data analytics a lot more than they ever did — a domain that seemed to belong solely to the CTO not too many years ago.

From a consumer perspective, is the CMO taking over or blending into a CTO? Probably. We are all busy exploring how to reach and engage consumers as well as make our sales teams more productive and efficient, and since mobile technology seems pervasive and most effective, it is no surprise that we are gravitating towards being part CMO and CTO, all at the same time. From creating the most consumer-friendly (and Google-friendly) websites to creating engaging digital assets, to evaluating CRM technologies to leveraging mobile field force management technology to implementing new analytics solutions, CMOs are doing it all. The technologies allow for more engagements and the analytics layer enables them to answer the CFO’s questions of productivity and ROIs better.

Marketers yet again are beginning to contribute to more than just advertising and marketing communication. They are innovating by leveraging consumer understanding and communication technology to create and tell stories and constantly evaluate them and retell stories better than last time and every single time thereafter. They are getting back in the saddle to drive change.

To me this is the rebirth of marketing.

Is it good for brands and for companies? Yes, it is. It allows smaller companies and brands to compete as a strong idea and even smaller brands can make it big today. While millions of dollars are good to have, you don’t need them that desperately to reach out to your customers. A compelling story, told in an engaging manner, will do the job. The only caution — stay alert, stay nimble and always ensure that the gap between brand promise and brand delivery is removed. I for one am happy that this is happening. Great brands are built on ideas and great marketers turn ideas into memorable stories that people remember.

The world of marketing truly is becoming for the people, of the people and by the people. The internet revolution driven via the mobile device is the harbinger of true democracy — for everything that we know of.

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