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TRANSFORMATION IS
Column THE NAME OF THE GAME

something good and crispy to their mates.
That is the world of a potential consumer who “Testing and trial of products before was
survived the COVID. Anywhere, anytime, done through activation, now it is done
anything for anyone. digitally like Unilever has a software called
The splurge of ecommerce sites is showing
people varieties of brand and services. They Smart Pick”
have become smart and continuously changing, Rifaqaat Rashid – Manager Unilever
expanding, refining their interests, mindset and “OMTM- One Metric that matters is important
purchase action, so any brand needs to
maneuver themselves accordingly. for sales driven campaigns in digital”
On the other hand the traditional mindset of Ariful Bashar, Head of Digital, Grey Bangladesh
people who still feel comfortable to walk in a
bank and do financial transactions or do wet we did them in restaurants to ensure a convivial and open
markets grocery shopping are now forced to discussion. In 2021 we run them as webinars and our partner
adapt to technology based solutions for the delivers food and beverages to each guest as the show begins
sake of health and hygiene. And the challenge to enhance our shared experience.
still laugh and react to clever graffiti, to the marketer is to give everyone the
or the way some have turned their experience they want. Better, faster, easier but 7) Shift in Media Spending
face mask in to a place to use to also seamless from the past. In previous There was always a belief that seasoned organizations focused
deliver a message). But digital social generations innovation meant disruption … more in “Up to Down” (Brand Awareness to Sales Conversion)
media now dominates so much of our now it means just better (don’t believe the media spending strategies but with the exponential growth of
lives and of course the pandemic has disruption myth … people do not want the start-ups and investment in new mediums exploding, with
Anis A Khan put it well when he reminded us that only sped that up. disruption, they just want what they want, huge growths in employment and participation marketers are
seemingly everything is available to everyone: The above picture tells us that human behavior has always even if they don’t know how it will be delivered) looking and trying to structure a reverse strategy of bottom to
“The transformation has led to global been the same, it’s the mindset and medium of communication So in order to connect to consumers of today up (Sales Conversion to Brand Awareness) media spending
connectivity, where today any one can learn which has changed over the period of time. What a good and tomorrow, micro moments and intent tactics. Which means that brand story telling needs to be more
graphic designing, content writing and produce marketer has to do is to be flexible in capturing the use of the driven decision making is the key thing, where structured than ever, the strategy of brand development clearer
their own content and creative pieces” medium of the times. context will also play a key role for the success than ever and the use of media to build the content of those
So here are 8 hot lessons we learnt from our Lead 3) Need for SPEED…. of any brand. stories both more complex and more opportune than ever.
Talk that will be imperative for every marketer Near two years of the pandemic have just confirmed something 5) Products need to be like Chameleons 8) Agency the Right Partner for Marketing
willing to evolve and transform to reap the best we have all said all our lives: the fundamentals of marketing This new world is also demanding product An ideal agency should be one step ahead of clients in this
outcome of the ‘new normal’: are moreover the same, what has changed is basically variations in terms of their placement, flexible transformation process as clients always moves in a
1) We always forget Marketing is much speeding up of things. What we expected about the pricing, product content variations. Choice or at methodical manner whereas agency needs to be dynamic to
o doubt the world has changed since the We heard in mid-2020 a lot of references to “the new more than Marketing Communication e-commerce culture to happen in 5-10 years has happened in least the illusion of choice is becoming more give fresh ideas and taking risks to make a client’s life easier
first time you heard that now dreaded word normal” and how life will change completely forever. Marketing is a much bigger subject where 12 months. Research and data were always there but now important day by day in a world where we have while providing structure. Planning is more important than
COVID. Some would argue there have been But our view at Marketing Futures has always been elements like product format, price elasticity, through technology marketers these days have volumes of spent too much time in lockdown. All that time ever. Too many marketers have and continue to make the
“paradigm shifts” happening in all sectors that what we are seeing is not so much wholesale distribution and display consideration are information which is aiding them to make faster and accurate browsing to fill in time means surprise is more mistake of “trial and error” and therefore getting lost.
the human endeavor. We would rather say change and rather a speeding up of trends we have perhaps more important to get right before decisions by targeting the right consumers with the right valued than ever. For example, different Agencies should be their guide.
that things have just “sped up”. been predicting for a long time. WFH might be a new thinking about “content”, “social”, “digital”, campaign at the right time with (if they are clever) constantly e-commerce sites has different tones and style Today’s agency should be able to connect the dots.
Sure there are anomalies of things we could acronym but the idea that we would shift to work “promotion”, “influencer”, “advertising” and other updated messages. Reaction is the new rule. Brands and brand so positioning a particular product in different Understanding the client’s needs and creating the marketing
never imagine happening. Imagine walking from home has been talked about by market trend communication tactics. The fundamentals of good story telling are as important as ever, but they need to be able platforms might be the name of the game. campaign in line with that need and ensuring fine
in to a bank with a mask on in 2019. You forecasters for a hundred years. The shifts to mobile marketing do not change: create a single strategy to tell those stories in every dynamic formats and variations. 6) Products are Delivered, execution-all are very important.
would probably have been flattened by a commerce, payment, socializing were already on based on what people want and how your offer 4) The Flexible Consumer is now on the Block not Picked Up The changes are evident to almost everyone but the complexity
security guy or worse. And who would their way. helps them achieve that need, desire, hope or Just think about a situation where there is a very intense A huge number of people order food from home of such high-speed transformation is sure to perplex many. To
have guessed that we would spend so much However, we all have to agree that the allay a fear. What has transformed is being on top football match going on at 2:00am in the morning and a bunch every day now which was impossible to navigate through the murky water marketing in the
time talking about toilet paper shortages or transformations that have been taking place and are of what people want (doing constant better of friends watching together, suddenly they feel hungry and imagine even two years ago. post-pandemic work, the job market will demand skills sets
trying to have a tête-à-tête with the food underway have caught us with their speed and research), marketers need to put together stronger they get into their mobiles to shop around best possible food Food/entertainment/experiences that were only which the colleges and universities needs to ensure by
delivery person, just to have some different therefore the need for marketers and business people plans around strategies that are able to react to service solutions on offer at this weird hour and grab the best a short time ago “destinations” in a real sense producing flexible thinkers, where employers need to have
human interaction. in general to get “with the future now” cannot be opportunities. offer. Or they are watching each from their own bed, but in a are now virtual destinations that are delivered their staff in “constant retraining” mode and marketers will
ignored, lest they want to be be left behind. 2) Social Media is 1000s of year old but more group chat and all want to share the same treat or deliver to your door or screen. And researchers are look for partners to understand what people want and how to
In order to help our partners and friends keep up and dynamic than ever predicting growth will be 10x in the next 3 be flexible in delivery.
with the help of ICE Business Times we have been continuing our Lead Talk series to The biggest change of marketing in this era is the years’ time for home deliveries. Or more. And not the least whenever we speak about marketing, people
better understand how the transformations are taking place. We brought together evolution of digital formats. And their adaption Remember in 2019 we thought 2020 might see is the word which is always and should be constant. Yes, they
small panels of a range of experts and practitioners along with some distinguished for providing social interaction. “Social Media” is rises of 20, 30, 50% in some categories of may be consumers, customers, clients. But first and always
business leaders like Anis Khan, Former Chairman Association of Bankers the most talked about channel where brands and delivery that ended up growing by multiples in they are PEOPLE so we as marketers should try to understand
Bangladesh, and Rahel Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer of Nagad. products wants to see themselves. Of course most a year. So there has been a significant shift in their emotions and desires to connect better with our brands
What we learnt was that the real transformation was less about “everything is actually mean “digital social media”. Non digital the supply chain process. products. And keep transforming how we learn about them
different” and more about “fast adapting to new ways of marketing”. End to end social is as old as mankind and to do this day With this insight there has been a change in the and serve them.
digitalization culture is the mantra for anyone who needs to grow. Internally within there are many very powerful social mediums activation process in everything we do. Take the *Lead Talk is an initiative of Marketing Futures where we bring together small
an organization first then externally with the stakeholders and comes the end (just ask the biggest gossip in your apartment example: our food partner WOW MOMO Foods. groups of marketing and business leaders to discuss the key issues in live
consumers. building or have a look at the way people wills When we used to run live Lead Talks in 2019 webinars

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