The year of the empowered consumer

Legacy politics made way for fresh blood: This could very well find place among the best marketing case studies for 2013. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) mobilised the disillusioned Indian voters, especially the middle-class, and significantly, first-time youth voters. Grassroots politics acquired a new definition. But reactionary politics is one thing and consistently developing proactive long-term sustainable strategies is another. How this succeeds as it evolves in the next few quarters may go a long way in redefining politics in India.

The arrival of ‘purpose’-based marketing: The trend of ‘purpose’ vs pure ingredient-based campaigns that started as a trickle with ‘ Daag achche hain ’ found itself reflected in a slew of brands that have taken up issues such as progressive parenting (Bournvita), widow remarriage (Tanishq) and barriers between India and Pakistan (Google). More and more brands have been able to make the bold departure from the conventional.

Consumers became deeply involved with negative economic sentiment: The current state of the economy - high inflation, rising fuel prices and interest rates had their impact on the end consumer. Never before had the lay consumer followed GDP and inflation rates so closely. The conventional symbol of India’s appetite for consumption, car sales, took a hit for the first time in 11 years

Digital garnered a larger piece of the pie: More and more marketers increased their digital spends and actively experimented, and rightfully so, with digital marketing. From creating content, to launching communication on digital first, from contests on social media to using the medium to track and target prospects better, marketers occupied themselves more with this medium than ever before. The trend is only going to strengthen next year with more digital specialists becoming a permanent part of the marketing team.

Mobile got a shot in the arm: Growing four times faster than the global average, India overtook Japan as the third largest smartphone market in the world. The ‘Google-Airtel’ free zone, a service that allows you to access Google mobile services on the go at absolutely no cost for data is an early indicator of marketers picking up on this. The consumer is showing a mirror. It’s now for marketers to interpret this effectively and design relevant and effective solutions and apps for their categories.

Men emerged as a significant shopper base: Gone are the days when we could confidently say that men hate shopping. They are actively buying and consuming a whole lot of brands/products - from deodorants to fairness face washes, from clothes to shoes, from gadgets to lending a helping hand in monthly grocery/household purchases. Marketers would be better placed to learn their unique shopping patterns, subliminal selection techniques, and their aspirations to extract more value from this consumer base.

Uncontrollable and empowered consumers: Time and again, a lesson that marketers realised was that today they cannot control their consumer no matter how powerful their message may be. Social media emerged as a strong medium to raise one’s voice, dissent, complain about brands and gather momentum with fellow friends and friends of friends to publicly mock brands that made mistakes/did wrong. It is a clear lesson for brands to think twice before launching an initiative and to handle tactfully and ‘quickly’ any faux pas they make. While many a brand would have experienced this, a societal manifestation of this in the Indian context was the common citizen’s furore on the Nirbhaya episode that shook the conscience of the whole nation in 2013.

Fewer product innovations: The year 2013 saw most innovation and action take place in the field of service delivery and not in new disruptive products. The world did not get to see much that could deserve the status of the next smartphone, the next iPad or the iPhone. More and more work happened in incremental innovation in new customer interaction channels, a distribution system or a technological concept or a combination of all of these. The incremental innovation by Flipkart and possibly some other e-tailers of sending step-by-step shipment status updates to customers after payment goes a long way in assuaging any apprehensions they would have on merchandise delivery very relevant keeping in mind the disintermediated nature of their purchase.

(Anisha Motwani is Director & Chief Marketing Officer and heads direct sales and e-commerce at Max New York Life Insurance. She spent 15 years in advertising, in agencies such as Leo Burnett, Mudra, McCann Erickson and Euro RSCG before moving on to roles in the corporate world. She worked at General Motors before taking on her current responsibilities at Max New York Life in 2007. These are her observations on the takeaways from marketing in 2013)