Times Network - Businessworld Marketing Whitebook Summit 2018
Hotel Crowne Plaza, Gurugram
27th July 2018
Times Network and Businessworld in association with Adobe organized the Marketing Whitebook Summit 2018 on 27th July 2018 at Hotel Crowne Plaza, Gurugram.
Mrs. Honey Gupta Asst. Professor - Department of Management Studies at Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida along with 2nd Year MBA students Faiz, Mazhar, Shahbaz and Ranjeet Singh attended the summit.
The Summit was addressed by many renowned business personalities including :
- Dr. Annurag Batra, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief - BW Businessworld
- Preeti Reddy, CEO - South Asia, Kantar
- Vivek Srivastava, EVP & Head - Entertainment Cluster, TIMES NETWORK
- Kulmeet Bawa, Managing Director, Adobe South Asia
- Raj Rishi Singh, Director - Marketing, Pepsi, PepsiCo India
- Sukhleen Aneja, Marketing Director - South Asia, RB Hygiene Home
- Anita Nayyar, CEO, India and South Asia, Havas
- Anshuman Verma, Chief Marketing & Digital Officer, DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance
- Rabindra Narayan, MD & President, PTC Punjabi
- Sai Narayan, Associate Director & Head - Marketing, Policy Bazaar
- Sanjeev Shukla, Chief Marketing Officer, Muthoot Pappachan Group
- Yeshwanth Nag Mocherla, Founder, The ThickShake Factory
- Satyabrata Das, Head Strategic Alliances & Corporate Communications, Laqshya Media
- Deepak Iyer , Managing Director, Mondelez India
- Devendra Chawla, EVP & Chief Operating Officer, Walmart India
Dr. Annurag Batra, in his welcome address drew attention to leadership with a very strong statement iterating the point of gender equality in the market space today. He said that leadership has changed today and it cannot be characterized to any gender. Leadership is about taking the right decisions at the right time, as the role of a decision maker is to make a brand successful taking advantage of today's available digital data and technology.
Addressing over 350 delegates at Summit, comprising decision makers from India's media, marketing and advertising fraternity, Deepak Iyer reminded that he inherited a portfolio of very strong brands. "Our most modest brand, Gems, is stronger than the strongest brands of some of our competitors," he said. Iyer urged companies to be real about their place in a world of new forms of technology, where words and phrases such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of things, augmented reality, virtual reality, big data and blockchain among several others, are common play.
Mr. Devendra Chawla spoke about the future trends that will define the retail landscape. He also said that innovation was happening at a breakneck speed whether it was offline or online retail and in future the merger of these channels was imminent.
Mr. Rabindra Narayan spoke on how liberalization post 1991 evolved consumer behaviour. He explained how marketing today digitally influenced consumers as compared to earlier times.
Speaking about the time when a mass behaviour change in consumers was noticed Mr. Anshuman Verma said that India has gradually moved on from a demand constraint economy to a supply abundance one.
Mr. Yeshwanth Nag Mocherla narrated how getting the right consumer insight was crucial for the growth of their firm.
Discussing if India was ready for a $4 trillion economy, whether the marketers were well prepared to meet the expectations of their growing consumers, Sai Narayan, said that earlier the brand-consumer relationship was a monologue which has now transformed into a dialogue with the customers not only having an opinion on the products they use but also they possess the power of expressing their views on several social media platforms.
Commenting on how consumers made a noticeable shift in their purchasing style, from making a family purchase to being individual customers carrying a different set of expectations from brands Mr. Sanjeev Shukla said that in today's fierce competition brands need to align the values of the entire family together in order to keep each member of the family happy with their service.
The summit concluded with Fireside Chat on "Business Is Marketing & Marketing Is Business" by Dr. Ashok Kumar Gupta, Chairman, Zirca Digital Solutions & Aidem Ventures. Expressing his views, he said that we need a skillset in all sectors but more than that it is important that we are open to imbibing the new technologies and analyzing its impact on the market and the customer, so the flexibility in approach is ideal to bring in change, that is irrespective of any age or technical background of a marketer."