 Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is time for yet another engaging panel discussion, which will talk about health as a sellable asset for marketers and brands where we learn the use of empathy, emotional approach, strategies to market health, as well as wellness to the masses, also, which means to sell your product, service to the consumer driven Indian market. With this, may I please now invite, on the screen, Abhishek Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, Edelweiss Tokyo Life Insurance, Venkat Eppena, Vice President, Marketing Fast Enough, Samkar Dutta, General Manager of Marketing, Sood Healthcare, Samyukta Ayur, Vice President and Head of Marketing, Khaya Limited, and the session chair being Rashmi Thosar, the Founder, CEO of Brandcare. Well, with this, I'd like to humbly welcome all our esteemed panelists on the screen. Thank you so much for your valuable time with this. The screen is all yours. Rashmi, it is over to you to take it forth with your exciting panel and it's great to see so much energy and exuberance on the screen. We're looking forward to your panel now. Over to you. Thank you so much, Bhavna. Thanks a lot. Nice to see everybody. Good afternoon to everybody. This is Rashmi Thosar and your session source. Welcome to this wonderful session of Health as a Sellable Asset for Marketers and Brands. This COVID period will go down in history as a period of shift. The significant among these shifts was the health care shift. All the HIK shops lived in unity, ventilators, PPKs, boxy meters became like this table cap. And I'm sure you've all been a part of it. The health frenzy was so unimaginable and we've been it to it all and we've survived and come on to the other side, somewhat unpacked, I would say. While this unimaginable frenzy was there, we saw in the beginning of 2020, the first four months was so hectic. Everybody was jumping into onto this brand. There were about 650 million health apps which were downloaded globally. The dietary supplements and nutrition market, it just kind of exploded. Insurance devices, people were just looking up for everything which they could find to keep themselves safe and to find themselves in good health. And whenever there are vacuum marketers aboard vacuums and then they tend to flood in. So overall, while this is a blue ocean, there is also, typing in this has never been very easy to all come out and list how they have done it in one at all. Let me introduce, I appreciate Gupta chief marketing officer, Ed Weiss took your life. So Bishik, has he joined in? Bishik? Yes, I'm here. I am audible and visible. Yes, yes, very much so. Hi there. I was just saying that these are times of extreme variability and during this time trust takes a downturn. How do you think pandemic has impacted communication? You're very right, Rashmi. During this time, especially when everybody's feeling so vulnerable, the trust actually takes a little backseat, not in terms of backseat, in terms of its importance, but backseat in terms of the trust levels going down. So during this time, according to me, the most critical from a communication perspective or an advertising perspective or from a brand perspective is empathy. Yeah, you know, this is the time to probably tone down. This is a time to tone down all the tall claims that probably you've been making earlier or being a little over the top. It is a time where you have to realize that people are going through a major problem and they are looking for a solution to that problem. If you think that you have a product which offers a solution to this problem that people are facing, you need to talk about it, but you need to talk about it in extremely empathetic ways. That is one part, especially for intellectuals in the life insurance industry, which is heavily, heavily dependent on third party distributors or what we normally call as insurance agents. You have to actually, while one part of your TG is the consumers who will end up buying life insurance. As a brand marketer, as a communications professional, you often have to realize that there's another set of TG are these people who are actually going out there and trying to convince customers to buy your products. It's time to show empathy towards them as well. It's time to ensure that they are well equipped to handle the change which is happening. Don't just look at only your end consumers, look at intermediaries also. For industries like us, where activities play a huge role, I think take a backseat and go and understand their problems as well. Sure. I think that's very important. What do you think? It's balancing you very rightly said balancing sales and communications is a very important thing. The pressure is to sell to your clients while also developing long-term relations with them. For health insurance professionals, it's a kind of a tightrope walk where consumers are expecting agents to be their trusted advisor to tell them about health plans. But you're not just there to educate your clients. You have sales goals to meet and stay in business. How do you maintain this balance of empathy? It's quite difficult. On one side, you have to be looking at how you're going to make the business and on the other side, you have to also be their advisor, find that very critical element of trust. So while Rashmi, this question is not only valid during a pandemic or any crisis, it is always there. Yes. How do you balance what kind of initiatives or communication do you balance? And probably I'm going to say something which is going to be hugely unpopular or probably goes against the conventional marketing wisdom. During times of crisis, during times of crisis, you need to first speak to the people who are close to you, which are your intermediaries. So my priority, my balance would go tilt in favor of them during this crisis, because these are the people. Please understand the mindset of an insurance professional. This guy has been selling or this guy is only I'm using as a metaphor. It is not gender specific. This person has been selling life insurance for ages and ages and ages by meeting face to face. And that's the only way this person knows how to sell insurance. If there is no meeting, this person cannot sell because insurance takes time to convince customers and therefore you need to meet customers. Suddenly in the pandemic, that thing is out gone. You can't meet the customers. However, you still have a house to run. You still answerable to the commitments of the business. So at that point of time, this is how you make a shift. This is how you start selling in a mix of video based, plus text based, plus WhatsApp based, plus if possible, go and meet the customer under safe conditions. But this is how you do it. And it is very important for handhold this person. So yes, at this point of time, what we did, we actually focused in terms of the balance more towards the distributor than less towards the consumers. When I say less towards the consumer, it doesn't mean that we are completely neglecting the consumers, but in terms of the effort. However, yes, consumers also need to be told that here also my focus was more on my existing customers telling them that I am there. In case something happens, you have placed trust in us when you bought a product from us. And what we had given you at that time was just a promise and not anything else. It was a piece of paper and a promise. So I am here to honor that promise today. Should you need help? So my focus was first on my existing customers. And at that point of time, you also realize that since consumers are feeling vulnerable, whenever the vulnerability increases, the demand for our product increases. That is very clear. When you start realizing, something can go wrong with me, that's when you start looking at products which hedge the risk. And therefore insurance demand goes up. So yes, it's a time that we also need to ensure that consumers who are looking for insurance are getting the best product according to their need. But if I have to ask in terms of the order, first is my intermediaries, then is my existing customers, then is my prospective customers in terms of crisis. I think that's a very, very valid point you have made, Abhishek, that especially when you're selling at the point of vulnerability, it's very important to say that I'm there for you. And that I think is a takeaway from here. Just being able to say that I'm there for you. Yes. Are you able to hear me somehow? My connection today is not too great. All right. Okay. Thank you. But thank you, Abhishek. We'll come back to you. Venkat, if I may ask you, tell us a little bit more about the philosophy of fast and up. Okay. So I think when it comes to fast and up, it is a five-year-old brand in Indian market. So we are basically into active and sports nutrition. So I would say I think today, if you take three out of four sports candidates, I think they use fast and up products. Either you take Indian cricket team, you take 90% of the runners use this product. So I think we have built a lot of trust around these products. I think we brought in new technology into the market where I think fast and up is the first brand to bring in FOS and technology into India with all the products. Like let's say, for example, if you take many brands are in liquid form, powder form, but we are the one who brought in FOS and we trusted in it. We brought into Indian market. And today, as I mentioned, I think out of every four sports persons, I think two to three sports persons are using our products. So I think the major value we created is I think starting from manufacturing factories, the way products labeled the way products delivered everywhere we tried to maintain authenticity. We tried to evolve as the market started building. Also, we made sure that more than pushing product into the market, we tried to pull audience by having very strong communication, which gives more information around aspects like for example, effervescent is new to India five years back. Today, being a number one brand in effervescent, I think we can I can say that within the mix of products like let's say in sports nutrition or nutraceuticals, I think we have three different formats. I think fastest growing format is effervescent. So I think we were able to build that line being very strong on authenticity side as well as I can say customer orientation service everything. Yeah. So our value is being very authentic and having very high quality production in place. And as we are the first one to bring in effervescent, I think we are the one even today we are the number one in manufacturing as well as on sales friend on effervescent side. So our core value is highest highest quality and customer service. Yeah, because every day there are about within India itself, there are about 27 to 30 new brands of health and nutrition supplements being launched. And they are in several, several different categories. How important is it that you know, you stay very true to your niche? How important is that? Yeah, so let me start with our own example. Today, I think when we started our first cohort was runners in India. So we want to activate that category, and we want to fuel all those runs happening across India. I think even today 90% of the runners use our product to fuel their run. So I think being any technology that we are building or any new product that we are launching or even the service that we are bringing in, I think if you define your own niche, your own cohort very clearly, I think servicing that cohort and niche at top notch level is very important. I know that every brand since the opportunities ample around, I think getting into various categories like entering into new markets, entering into new TGE, I think especially in last four, five years, I think health and wellness industry became a blue ocean. So I think the opportunity is ample. So I think even though I think you have a different business-flying plan or you want to enter into a new market or you want to launch a new product, I think the core aspect of the core niche that you're targeting, our core niche is sports. So I think the either market research or like, let's say building products, launching new products, everything should, the core focus should be around your niche. So even today, we stand, if we take a call, I think our inclination is always towards sports. So any nutritional product that we launch into the market, I think the first priority goes to sports sites. So that's one important factor. As I mentioned again, I think as Abhishek was saying, I think the core value that you create for your brand, that authenticity that you create for your brand use that value. For example, on insurance side, if you promise something and next, you don't deliver that, for sure, I think that customer goes to another brand. So I think authenticity is the utmost important thing for any brand to have your own niche, where your own niche will build your revenues. I think in fact, I think the chasing new customer versus focusing on your own niche and is going to be building better revenues, qualified revenues, which will sustain. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that, Venkat. I also had a small question here. Do you think you've been using random message versus one on and there should be how much do you think they play? They play a role in being very focused to your own niche. Do they add a great value? Do they bring with them followers? Do they really raise your perception within this niche? How important are they and what value do they bring in? Yeah. So I think the way even, I think we can call it as, we can call them celebrities or influencers or whatever. I think today, I think the way influencers, I think the word used, I think that is shaping up really in a different line where previously it's more of selling products through influencers. I think today influencer or celebrity is used to create a tone for your brand. Like let's say, if you take Varun Dhawan or Shilpa Shetty, they are more into fitness, more into, I think, they are more towards active lifestyle. So I think we picked those two celebrities to create a certain tone for our brand. Again, for example, they are popular in certain states. So we want to make sure that our product is toned or the product is the image of the product, image of our brand is created in a way. So that's the reason we picked those two celebrities and that helped us a lot in the last two years. I think either you take it as a brand visibility, brand existence or brand growth, I think all three friends, I think those two celebrities helped us a lot. In fact, since they are into fitness and active lifestyle, and many followers follow them for those two reasons because they are active and they are fit. So I think that they were able to add that value to our brand for sure. Yeah, I read somewhere you've been calling them good vibes officer. I think that's a very interesting term, which is, I think a little bit more than a celebrity or just an influencer. They just create their good vibes. It's a very nice term. And yeah, I think it's a start. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. And Samta, are you there? I'm not able to hear her. Can you hear me? Yes, now I can. And I can see you also. I think I missed your introduction. Samta Dutta. Would you like to, you know, give us a little introduction about what is the philosophy of soothe health care. And then we will get on to discussing how exactly are you trying to get closer to its consumers, a small bit of an introduction first to soothe health care, maybe. So I think I think like, like most of the panelists here or some of the panelists here, we are a young brand, we're a young Indian brand, exorbitant brands, we are into feminine hygiene, creating solutions for young Indian women, homegrown solutions. So we are into sanitary, menstruation cups to diapers, to adult diapers, that's the category we operate in. We fundamentally believe that Indian women and Indian intimate hygiene has been ignored and dominated by global players for the longest time. And while we have a lot of ample solutions in the market, the category has has been dominated by the culture of silence. So we are here to actually offer our products and also in somewhat fashion sort of push them on the level of the culture of silence. Yeah, nice. Which is very valid. And I wanted to discuss that with you that this is typically an area which has been dominated so much by Procter and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, and multinational players have been at it and they've done it for so very long. How does a local brand, your flagship brand like Puri, how does it get close to consumers? You know, interestingly enough, Rashmi, we launched, we are a GT presence launched in in early in late 2018, early 19 and bang after that, you know, the pandemic really hit us. And I like Vishay was saying, you know, how he has to sort of prioritize all his, you know, consumer and customer base. We had a tougher thing. We were here trying to introduce ourselves and any which was to a category where not many people are willing to hear us. So, you know, the one thing is that we're a young brand and the consumer does not talk about this product to the retailer. So that becomes a very big challenge, you know, when a girl goes to buy a sanitary pad, the minimum there is a minimum amount of conversation that happens between her and the seller. So she's like, Whisper, Dana, or whatever her brand is, Dana, you know, with that said, a new brand entering a mass as a mass teach player in the market is a huge, huge challenge that we took upon ourselves. And, you know, that's something that we are building and fighting each day on. Is it difficult? It is supremely challenging, I would say. And that's what makes it super fun. In the past couple of years, we have in terms of GT, you know, increased our distribution, you know, started with India two, and now sort of going to India one and providing solutions. So that is what we are doing in terms of brand-building in terms of being present. And in terms of actually talking to the consumer, there are so many things that we are doing in today's consumer that so many level one is, of course, the advertising. And as, you know, Venkat was saying, having a good vibe ambassador, social influencer, all of that is a very, very norm thing. But I think also today's consumer is very comes across as very conscientious. And we want to tap into that ideology of theirs as we speak to them. So our product line, our product philosophy, as well as how we communicate and go back to them, is all about that. We have, you know, we have somebody like Janvi Kapoor right in the front of the back, you know, communicating as well as we have Dr. Kiran baby and, you know, Indian police officer endorsing the brand on World Menstruation Day. So there are, you know, we like to talk, you know, not in a very insular way, but very inclusive way for the brand. But yes, like you said, it is a huge challenge because, you know, to match up the equity and budgets of a proctor or a Johnson is for a young brand of stuff. But I think today's time with the new marketplace, I think it's a very, very, it's a very, very interesting challenge to have on. Definitely. So definitely. And I'm sure I think you have manufacturing facilities, I'm sure right from the product itself, you've been putting the consumer based thinking into making of the product as well. Does anything happen there from the time that you're conceptualizing the product has anything happened, which is very local, which is very India centric and which might give you an edge over the multi nationals. That's the basic product itself. You have products across I think women's health and also I think kids health and adult health. So in each of these segments does the thinking of going local start from the time that the product is being conceptualized that the product is being thought thank you Russian that's a very, very important and valid question as we own up in the category. One of the things that we are on an ongoing basis study about the category, especially the dominated leaders in the market is that while they are there in your supply chain cannot be matched by the marketing but it's cannot be matched. I think in terms of product definitely I think the innovation panel has been very, very limited if I may say so. The women health and hygiene intimate hygiene has been so ignored because firstly it's not talked about. So the ignorance come from it's not being in the center stage in the first go right. So we are using products and the competition is using products which are so bad for your intimate hygiene because you know like every other area of your body the while you're menstruating you know you need everything that you do need to be readable you know and it has to ensure that you know you are yes you are covered you are your leakage fee and all of that but at the same time you need to be readable. Right you need to be able you need to be having or you know you need to be open right in that sense. So in in those terms we realize that and that came from empathy as a product as a product philosophy that you know we have to come up with products that actually can really tally to that. One of our premium product offering which is Prima is a breathable bag you know that ensures that you know during even your heavy flow days even as a heavy we are a leakage champion even on those days you are breathable down there and you are not suppocated with a plastic sheet that is definitely leakage proof but you're not good for your intimate health. So those are the points you know on a regular basis that we keep in mind especially because today's women are going out there doing so much much i'm doing much more on my period that my mother was right i'm going out i'm going in i'm wearing a pant i'm changing in i'm going so all of those you know with the for the modern Indian women need to be kept in mind as you create offerings and as we go forward that has been a very very strong leg of our thinking and our philosophy. Thank you, thank you Smuta that was really very interesting to understand how it's possible just with the local thinking to take multi-nationals head on by getting very close to the consumers building in the consumer thinking right from the product stage or just at the marketing stage very interesting thank you for that thank you some of the highs i have a question for you and i'm sure Chi is a case study and everybody would like to know what's been done right from the services model i think a lot of introduction of product all products have also happened now this is a brand which is being designed and driven by by dermatology dermatologists how do you maintain this balance of you know science and emotion it's a very deep question actually Rashmi thanks for that i'm sure it got all of us thinking um i think this is very famous code by Dignad Han and basically it's a very simple philosophy but it really runs very deep speaks about saying that keeping your body healthy is an expression of you know gratitude to the whole cosmos and i think a lot of it is also you know very again i think it's very karmic because it's very linked to what Samta was also talking about literally like you know 10 seconds ago because it's a very simple scientific truth really right like beauty in most cases is a reflection of good health right um again i think that's very linked to what Venkat was also talking about because he spoke a lot about authenticity and you know uh you know getting things right from the consumer perspective um i'll give you a simple example um when your hair is healthy your hair looks beautiful when your skin is healthy your skin looks beautiful right um so what happens is that largely beauty becomes a by-product of good health um i think you started off your conversation you know you spoke about the pandemic you spoke about um i think Abhishek spoke a lot about people's realization and i think for everyone it's it's hit home very hard for each one of us but i think health suddenly became a prerogative in everybody's life even if it weren't wasn't before i think that became very important you spoke about the number of launches that happen in india you know 25 30 is a huge number of launches that are happening every day um and it's actually an age old secret right like if i'm healthy i will look beautiful uh so skin health suddenly became something to achieve hair health became something to you know actually focus on so when you look at a very clear dermatology kind of an approach you know bringing it back to kaya uh we focus on health from with the right we cure we treat we better because they're all md highly md qualified doctors they're looking at your skin they're looking at your hair they're looking at body health and the minute for example you have any kind of say acne or you have say hair fall or dandruff it could be an issue with your skin or or skin or hair um the minute they're going deep within doing the right kind of treatments customized to what that person needs um in the absence of say acne scars your skin starts glowing because everything is suddenly clear in the absence of hair falls and you have a head full of hair it's it's really shining from within automatically you end up looking beautiful and because science has been used you know from within to kind of you know treat everything from the outside and it looks beautiful uh the emotion that manifests because of this is an emotion of happiness there's an emotion of freedom there's an emotion of i think sometimes spoke about independence just spoke about inclusivity because it's very inclusive right it's about every person's journey even with health is so different from the other person's journey of health and that's really where we are it's literally like saying you look good you feel good and automatically there's a there's this entire you know verge of happiness that's kind of caught around and the pandemic has taught us a very health first approach again bringing it back i think lungs is something i don't know if i don't think anyone of us was focusing so much on the importance of you know building lung capacity working out all of that started happening again the byproduct of that is that people automatically started looking good it's a different story that from a health benefit perspective your body could then combat any illness that hit your way but the minute you started looking good so it's really very rational right and i think people it's a very simple insight i think as marketers and advertisers across the world they're always looking for that simple human truth and i think that's what kaya has also kind of always been in this space because we are a 19 year old brand we've been in India for a very long time um and it's a very simple approach if i am healthy i end up looking good by default and i end up looking good i end up feeling good i end up feeling good so i'm happy so it's a very simple mantra um to answer your question the science is the how to it helps you achieve that beauty becomes the outcome and i think emotion is just a manifestation a very fyi manifestation if i were to call it that thank you thank you so much thank you very much for that um i think we are just about warming up and we can just go on forever with this discussion maybe we should take it offline sometime when we meet again um thank you so much everybody and it was really my pleasure um posting this thanks thank you all thank you so much thank you thank you so much well um with these ladies in general no thank you thank you thank you sometimes thank you so thank you so much thank you so much