CII - Confederation of Indian Industry : Companies Must Build Businesses Keeping Downturn In Mind: Rahul Bajaj / From being sporadic, functional and episodic, marketing has to evolve to a disciplined process that''s recurring, integrated and continuous: Vinita Bali

Indian market surging ahead despite global slowdown

The Indian market is surging ahead, riding high growth rates despite challenges like the slowdown of global markets. This is the unanimous view of the captains of the Indian industry who shared the dais on Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) flagship event, the 'Marketing Summit 2012'.

Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Auto Ltd & Past President - CII,put the India growth story into perspective when he said, "India is today a nation in transition. From license raj to competition, from commodity to brands, from domestic to global markets, we are expanding. Our marketing strategies have to grasp with our own realities. At the same time Indian companies today also have to focus on foreign markets. Today you cannot have a large national company without an international footprint. To prosper you have to compete in the global market space. You have to become a global company."

He added, "Success today hinges on the ability to anticipate or better still to create a future, and who better to influence that than marketing people who are closest to the market place." Mr. Bajaj believes that change is what drives the economy and companies should continuously see how to realign to or drive the change. "In dealing with change I find few ideas useful. First you must be great at anticipation. Secondly you must be clued in to the present and be ready to hear the future. Often managers have too much invested in the present and this destroys their future. Thirdly, we must check our assumption because often they become invalid. Many assume their growth and market size. But when this does not materialise and if the company has invested in growth with borrowed funds, it leads to great difficulties. In such a situation, building in a possibility of downturn is a sensible thing to do," Mr. Bajaj said.

Ms. Vinita Bali, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Britannia Industries Ltd, drew from her many years of branding and marketing experience to give some important pointers. She began by saying that, "Brand is the business. You can have a brand without profitable business, but it is impossible to have a profitable business without a brand. Having a brand without a business is also useless."

Highlighting what makes a brand great, she said, "First is relevance and differentiation in the market. Then come pricing and staying power. Thirdly great brands own the issue and dimentionalize their idea. And finally great brands energise people, galvanise action and become icons in categories they operate in."

She compared the old incumbent and the new insurgent way of branding and marketing. "The insurgent way look at an opportunity very differently and creates new business models as compared to the incumbent model. Incumbents miss opportunities that insurgents see; insurgents play to win, change the rules and represent choice and change; insurgents set an example of bold initiative, target the opportunity - they take control of the dialogue and end up creating a basis for action."

She said that marketing is changing from being sporadic, functional and episodic to becoming a disciplined process that is recurring, integrated, continuous and enduring. She said that the view of marketing to build brand equity is the old way because equity serves no purpose unless it can be converted into sale. "Marketing is about how you mange the marketplace, how you go to market and how smartly you craft a business model that supports the brand and the business," she said.

Mr. Bajaj and Ms. Bali released a CII Nielsen Study "Emerging Consumer Demand: Rise of the SmallTown Indian". The study cogently captures the Growth of smaller Tier 2 & Tier 3 towns and how they are driving the Indian market today. The report states that consumer demand is growing steadily in small town urban India across categories. This study is of great value to marketers as they work towards expanding their respective businesses and look for the best emerging opportunities.

A seminal report by The Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council for Eurasia and Africa CCRRC on Eurasia & Africa titled "Understanding Shopper Loyalty within Different Retail Formats" was also released at the summit. The study determines the triggers for shopper loyalty to different retailing formats, and analyses how shoppers arbitrate their choice in two significant points of change in the retail landscape: Where new trade formats emerge in areas served by traditional retailing and where the modern trade momentum is well-established and different formats of modern trade emerge. This report covers India in great detail and holds immense value for food & grocery manufacturers and retailers.

Thomas Varghese, Chairman CII National Committee on Marketing & CEO Aditya Birla Group ( Textiles )said that, "A great piece of seminal Retail Research has been carried out by CCRRC in Eurasia & Africa. Besides understanding the triggers for shopper's loyalty it has researched reasons for why shoppers select both channels as well as retailers. The Forecast by Format up to 2020 is probably one of the most interesting parts of this study in the context of India and other countries in EAG. New insights on how consumers shop based on time of month and day and what decides their shopping choice are going to be critical for retailers who want to succeed."

He further said that though economies across the world are slowing down, and mounting economic pressures on both governments and corporate entities, India has a unique advantage. These he said were, "Relatively High GDP growth compared to global growth  leading to increase in disposable income; demographic dividend to help fuel consumption with the average age in India that will be only 29 years in 2020 compared to 37 in China and United States, 45 in western Europe, and 48 in Japan; one of the lowest dependency ratio in history leading to less saving and more consumption; increasing aspiration of globally thinking, aspirational Indian consumer cutting across the board from luxury to mass market and increasing urbanization leading to nuclear families and working women that is changing the habits of consumption for a large number of families."

Mr. Varghese also pointed out that CII, which has always advocated creating responsible marketing as an important element in Indian business, is working on a white paper on self regulation. To be released in the next two months, it will highlight important changes required to aid self-regulation and achieve the markets objective of responsible marketing which is better than some sort of regulation enforced by the government.

The two day summit is aimed at focusing on issues relating to the needs and importance of consumers, the manner in which demand is picking up and the importance of marketing strategies that respond to the changing and dynamic consumer demands unique to India. The various sessions under discussion include: a special plenary session on CCRRC Report, Marketing in turbulent times, Marketing and Sales or Marketing vs Sales: Driving to Alignment, Delivering the R in the ROI, Neuro Marketing: Marketing India - The Good and The Bad, Leveraging New Media - Online, Social, Digital, Mobile and Augmented Reality, Future of Advertising-Managing Customer Experience and will conclude with a CEO Power Panel on 'Made in India, Marketed Worldwide'.

The well attended summit has attracted national and international speakers and delegates. The industry leaders in the marketing, advertising and media space are addressing this summit including Mr Justin Sargent, Managing Director-India Region, The Nielsen Company; Mr Carlos Olmos, Eurasia and Africa Group Director The Coca-Cola Company; Ms Mini Menon, Executive Editor, Bloomberg TV India; Mr Hemant Bakshi, Executive Director, Home & Personal Care, Hindustan Unilever Ltd.; Ms Anupama Ahluwalia, Vice President - Marketing, Coca Cola India; Mr Prahlad Kakar, Advertising Film Director, Genesis Film Production Pvt. Ltd.; Ms Sukanya Kripalu, Chief Executive Officer, Sukanya Consulting; Mr Adesh Gupta, CEO, Liberty Shoes Ltd.; Mr Dinesh Dayal, Chief Operating Officer, Loreal India Pvt Ltd.; Mr Sam Balsara ,Chairman & Managing Director, Madison Communications Pvt Ltd.; Mr Graham Kelly, Executive Creative Director, OgilvyOne Worldwide India; Mr Vidur Vyas, Marketing Director- India Foods, Pepsico India; Mr Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman and Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather South Asia; Mr Prakash Nedungadi, Group Head - Consumer Insights and Brand, Aditya Birla Group; MrRakesh Biyani, Joint Managing Director, Pantaloon Retail India Ltd.; Mr Neeraj Chandra, VP and Chief Operating Officer, Britannia Industries Ltd.; Mr A Mahendran, Managing Director, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. among many others.

Mumbai