Dr. D. K. Srivastava, Director, LBSIM delivered the welcome address wherein he iterated that this Marketing Summit was organized in concordance with Industry 4.0, the current trend of automation and huge data exchange. He highlighted the three most important factors relevant to all aspects of business today i.e. cost effectiveness, time, and quality and talked about his expectations from the summit. Next, the theme of the summit and its relevance in today's world was explained by Dr. S. P. Ketkar, Professor and Convener, Marketing Area. He shed light on the new realities in the domain of marketing, and four major transformative forces, namely - technology, globalization, social responsibility, and customer concerns about sustainability - that impact marketing.
This was followed by the inaugural address of the Chief Guest Mr. Pradeep Kapoor (General Manager, Siemens Ltd.). Globalization has helped to enhance the global volume of the trade with technology being the facilitator. He focused on the global megatrends that impact the business landscape coupled with sustainability which include e-mobility and automation, renewable energy, retail and consumerism shifts, social action and circular economy. He talked about the threats and challenges to issues like data privacy and intellectual property rights. He shared his insights on the changing synergies in the organizations due to impact of social media, no matter how meagre it is, and the importance of making sustainable decisions quickly. With the advent of chatpods and Artificial Intelligence, the economy would experience a shift in consumer loyalty from brands to AI platforms.
Mr. Abhijit Ghosh, Chief Executive Officer, Wellogo Services Pvt. Ltd., emphasized on marketing elements which were cornerstones in the journey of globalization, and the change in the marketing arena in pre and post 1990s. He shared with the audience the main features of “The Indian Journey of Advertising”, “The Payments Journey” and “The Wellness Journey”. In USA, 2.1% contribution to GDP is due to philanthropic activities. People have started to give back to the society focusing on their societal responsiveness. In India, the individual philanthropic activities have increased by 70%. He concluded the session by stressing on the importance of mindfulness and emotion well-being.
Mr. Soumyo Ghosh, Chief Executive Officer, Jamboree Education, elaborated how should prepare themselves for the future so as to adjust with the new realities and excel in their chosen fields. He curtained the importance of marketing in business and talked about the effect of AI on marketing in terms of
1. Marketing communication
2. Data analytics
Data overload would turn out to be a crucial problem because of huge chunks of data floating around. He also stressed on the importance to have a mentor since majority of the students are not aware of their passion and lack the willingness to achieve the same.
The Technical Session was addressed by various eminent speakers from the industry with diverse backgrounds and experiences. The session started by presenting bouquets to the guests as a mark of gratitude followed by the speakers sharing their valuable insights.
Dr. Harsh V Verma (Professor, Marketing Management, FMS, Delhi) started his power-packed session by a mini-interactive conversation and stated examples of brand leaders like Nike. As a marketer, he talked about the evolution of the enhanced importance of the relationships dethroning the cognitive skills. He poured his insights on, “If you make the customer sovereign by providing more, is the customer really sovereign?” The way ahead is morality where a business must analyze the basic key
elements crucial to the organization and arrive at the new definitions of marketing and business.
Ms. Nitu Jaiswal (Head Sales & BD, Orient Electric Limited) started off by stating that the traditional marketing was led by communication, however, today due to globalization and technology disruption - consumers have become even more intelligent and mere communication won’t suffice in the long run, making the task of a marketer a tough job. Internet penetration has affected lives - both in rural and urban areas. Most brands today use social media as a primary source of promotion. Traditional media was a one-way communication, but digital media has made it a two-way exchange of information- Digital technology helps you get the instant feedback. Channels of communication are evolving manifolds like there is a vast increase in video consumption - Live shoots, live campaigns, live chats, to name a few. Also, we need to remember that sustainability in business will ensure that we and the planet live together but sustainability in relationships make life worth living.
Dr. Sheetal Jain (Founder & CEO, Luxe Analytics) started the session by addressing the complexities of the VUCA world and stating that the luxury industry is no exception. With globalization, luxury sector is also growing with the Indian luxury market being the most growing industry that will value $180 billion by 2025. Luxury market is not just limited to fashion but we also have luxury automobile, food, furniture, wine and art. Today marketers in luxury industry are facing tremendous pressure due to the growing trends and varying demands. The shift from offline to online market (the increasing trust of GenY to look out for products across the web), the shift from possessions to experience (for instance, spending money on a concert is more valuable than spending money on a car), the shift from ownership to sharing economies (companies like Uber are working towards sharing economies.
Therefore, a lot of luxury companies are incorporating the concept of reuse and rent), the shift from self-orientation to sustainable orientation (new age consumers are moving towards looking up to the brands who are considerate about people and planet, and not just profits. Around 80% consumers under the age of 35 years prefer sustainable options) and the shift from sales assistance to virtual assistance (AI and augmented reality have a key role in future luxury sector - using personalized consulting applications and virtual trail rooms and employing automation to get away with the mundane tasks) are some of the few upcoming challenges that she talked about.
Mr. Vikas Guru (CEO’S Office, Government e-Marketing) too left the audience reverberated with his experiences talking about localization strategies of global giants. Even Amazon and Netflix are differentiating in terms of targeting the local customers. He elaborated on the importance of networking across domains and standing apart, at least in a single, unique specialized area. Marketing is evolving towards murmuration, where, we need not tag the leader rather we should focus on creating an atmosphere such that the team works in the best way, irrespective of who the leader is. Wikipedia is the most renowned example of murmuration that works for the best of the society, as a whole. He stated practical instances of how organizations are employing techniques of murmuration to spread the positivity and engage in marketing through mere word of mouth.
Mr. Pradeep Shukla, Director & CEO, Primo Integrated Services Pvt. Ltd. gave the inaugural address of the technical session by talking about the real life implementation of the supply chain and the changes that have occurred over time, especially in the e-commerce industry. He talked about the shift in the supply chain from the cost-model to the profit-model and the advent of technology in the e-commerce industry. He shared the concept of the Fulfillment Centre coming into existence and the technologies such as RFID, SAP, etc being used. He gave his insights on the increasing relationship between the Supply Chain and the ecological sustainability. He stressed on the new technologies entering the market, such as drones, that are currently being used by some companies and will increase their market penetration in the coming years. Mr. Pradeep ended his speech by presenting a video on the operations of the Automatic Warehouse. It started in 1999 and had to be shut down in the year 2002, thus, stating that products too good to be true eventually cease to be true.
Mr. Kapil Sarin, Industry Marketing Manager (Asia Pacific), IBM Limited, talked about the content marketing and how technology helps marketers increase efficiency. He said that the digital technology is creating a huge amount of content while invading into our daily lives and “More content is the more power to the customers". Mr. Kapil engaged the students on what marketing is all about and the most significant aspects of marketing being reaching the customers at the right place and at the right time. He gave his insights on how Digital Marketing has changed the customer journey from Television advertisement of the Bajaj to “The Epic Split”, the digital advertisement of Volvo. Mr. Kapil ended his address by stressing on "Content is the new currency".
Mr. Sunil George Mathew, Research Scholar at MDI, Gurgaon, talked about how the research papers are published and peers reviewed. He represented various interesting
facts on how Technology, Globalization and Sustainability have increased the growth of the research articles in the last few years. He talked about the most profitable company of the world, Elsevier that provides a collection of various research papers. He also stated the Theodore Levitt’s view on the globalization and the difference between multinational and global corporations. He also told the students about the Big Mac Index becoming a global standard and the WEIRD Research (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic societies) that represents 80% of the study participants. Mr. Sunil concluded his speech by suggesting the students not to restrict themselves to the available resources and use effective and innovative strategies for every situation.
Ms. Anubha Sinha, Country Head, Sales & BD, The UnCube, started her address by telling the students that the marketing is all about "Jo Dikhta Hai Vo Bikta Hai" and about creating customer awareness. She shared her experiences as a co-founder of her first co-venture and stated the importance of targeting the right set of customers to sustain. Ms. Anubha shared some astounding strategies that she implemented to increase the revenue and reach maximum people such as targeting the households in the societies and, eventually, capturing the housewives and homemakers as the customers. She shared her experiences and innovative ideas on the tools of marketing and being a value-addition to the organization. She concluded by suggesting the students to always follow their heart and implement new ideas because “If you do not, someone else will”.
The session ended by thanking all the esteemed dignitaries for their presence and sharing their insightful experiences with the students. The guests were presented with a Vote of Thanks and a memento by Prof. D.K. Srivastava, Director, LBSIM and Prof. G.L. Sharma, Chairman, Placements, LBSIM.
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