How to get 175% returns on your brands Marketers taken on a illuminating journey to engage better with Bottom of the Pyramid to unearth value and reset business post pandemic

Dispelling the doubt most marketers have about social impact and profits not seeing eye to eye, specially when business is trying to adjust in a never normal world, Prof. Amitava Chattopadhyay of INSEAD demonstrated the impact a change in engagement brought about. He put forward examples from industries both in the Business to Business and Business to Customer environment where a focus at the Bottom of the Pyramid transformed the entire value chain unearthing substantial, sustainable profits. Delivering the key note address at the 5th Marketing Leadership Summit organized by CII Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence for Leadership on the theme of "The Great Marketing Reset", he shared the case of an edible oil company from Switzerland engaging with women farmers in Western Africa through innovating pre-financing schemes, delayering supply chains resulting significant bottom line impact. He mentioned that these had enormous impact on grower community releasing them from the clutches of destitution with more than 21% of the group graduating to greater empowerment. He shared research findings that established that with the increasing participation of millennials, sustainability focus of business is going to gain more currency. The cascading effect of other stakeholders collaborating the mission added to the returns generated from the initiative.

The Business to Customer the story was even more fascinating. A brewery in Kenya took on the challenge of combating the menace of illicit liquor. They not only fought on the price front but innovated on how it was distributed and metamorphosed the entire user experience, linking children' education with responsible behavior. This caught the attention of the government who offered tangible business benefits extending the coverage of the scheme all across. It brought better brand recognition and improved the value of the company. Prof. Chattopadhyay summarized his address with six key insights for marketers to keep in mind, while designing their reset strategy for growing their business they include thinking beyond CSR making it an integral part of business, the effort needs to be top driven, develop deeper understanding of beneficiaries, engage with the entire community, be visible, communicate with customers and broader stakeholders. His equivocal message to participants that comprised of senior leadership from the marketing, branding, PR fraternity was that impact and profit were completely intertwined if innovated right, a priority in the post pandemic world.

The next session highlighted how winning brands pivot and out manoeuvre crises brought forward significant Insights from the C-Suite. While Mr. Girish Agarwal, Director Dainik Bhaskar Group shared anecdotes on how they went back to basics to emerge stronger from the pandemic. Mr. Sadashiv Nayak Chief Executive Officer Future Retail summarized their pivots into three areas like deepening trust, enhancing experience and engagement leading to better value discovery experienced by Big Bazar. Mr. Kalpesh Parmar Country General Manager Mars Wrigley India had a straightforward prescription of disrupting formats before someone else does it. He put forth their experience of raising communication leading to stronger bonds with customer. Mr. Jayant Khosla Group MD & Chief Executive Officer VLCC presented how they transformed their touch points and delivery formats to increase the bottom line by over 15%.

The flagship event held over the digital platform, attracted top minds, cutting across businesses creating a confluence of mind of marketing leaders for a cross pollination of ideas and exchange on how business could accelerate building on their learnings from the pandemic.

23 September 2021