 What are your thoughts on television as a medium and television advertising and It's powered to build brands and businesses and rock firstly, I always start with a confession when I'm in a room with People like Sam Balsara, but not the Sam Balsara, but you know, I think there's more marketing and brand experience in this room I'm not a pedigreed marketing person. I'm from a business background And when I say that I use that you know while I spend 10 years or 13 years in media and all four years Running a consumer company. I think I use that distance or not being a brand person to my advantage And when I say that what I mean is I try to bring a business lens to all of these media marketing kind of decisions and question the obvious and ask stupid questions You know that not convinced by what I'm told but I need to see the data So first let me tell you I'm not sold on TV to me It's this data that has to speak and you know, I was seeing the Agenda I think Sam you're gonna talk about the power of big screen. You spoke about some of these things I just want to put out what I see as TV have four powers the four big piece that I see Which is a power of reach by far. It's the largest reach medium again Sam will tell you numbers, but it's a medium that teaches 800 million people. I don't think you have another Does that you have the power of video again? You know advertising you're trying to tell a story and the video form is the best form to tell a story Right a print a static creative cannot you know think of right from the times of the nirma girl in the little girl in the You know Cadres, etc. You can't tell a story without a video form. So the power of video third is the power of big screen You know telling a story on that small device if you're a brand manager It's never going to convey things with impact like telling a story in a big screen and last which are most important Which is when numbers come into play is the power of efficiency when I say power of efficiency Just run the Excel you run the you know spot rate you run the you know audience you run the RF on that you run the measurement Which is third-party independent measurement? So I think these big four P's are big four powers. It's clearly loaded in front of Let me also ask you a notch because you have a large balance sheet and a large company to run How do you see the next three to six months in terms of overall consumer of take then we'll come to the consumer there Turables business. So, you know, I Always try to differentiate the short term from the long term and the tactical from the strategic I think we are in a tough market. It is not an easy economy I think consumer sentiment has been difficult for a few quarters and maybe the next two quarters will be the same But when you're in the brand business, you have to therefore not lose sight for strategic thing You have a relationship with the consumer that a relationship cannot be restricted to the point of time when they're purchasing That relationship has to sustain. I can't call you up only when I have work from you I have to talk to you even when I don't have work from and that's a relationship between us as a brand and the consumers So I think the base level advertising communication brand messaging has to continue all through that said You know, you will vary the budgets a little bit. You will tactically alternate or you know What should I say change your plans a little bit your sales conversion may be low, etc So those are tactical changes that you make but I don't think as a brand manager brand owner, you know running a consumer relationship You should really change things because if you have a soft market, okay, I know I'm sure all the wise Entrepreneurs who run large companies believe in that. Let me give you an example in COVID a company called Amul Updump it spends across mediums and of course a live share of that into television Opportunity where there is softening of markets. Is this an opportunity to get better advertising deals better TV advertising Reels and hence be able to get better market share. Absolutely. So now I'm Born contrarian when I say that you know to this one I would say you don't talk when everybody shouting because you will not be heard So you talk in a silent room and everybody will listen to you So I think I would completely agree your brand your communication when it was a not a crowded space You know when the inventory was going empty code, etc for a long-term brand relationship and you're getting the best deals So you're getting the best deals lowest portraits. No clutter of advertising, etc. Why would you miss that option should do that, right? That goes back to a point. I made that, you know Strategically, that's the best time to do it. Of course tactically, you're not selling enough So you may not mount a campaign you may not have a specific, you know sales pitch at that point of time So you will you know manage your budgets. You do have Budgets to manage as a PNL manager. You have to look at a bottom line But these are just rare windows of opportunity. You must take advantage Seasons and festivals in India are a huge part of the demand and off-take of all kinds of products Especially in the consumer durable industry. You have products for every season, so to say broadly How do you see the upcoming summer season? Where are the fag end of Jan? Winter is not yet gone, but maybe in 30 days it'll be gone I'm sure you're preparing for the summer season. What are your thoughts? About the impending summer season. Are you going to invest a lot in IPL? give us a sense of broadly what you're thinking in terms of how to leverage the environment and the TV opportunities TV advertising opportunities to help sell and build the brands so you know I'll answer this from the lens of our view right or our lens We are a multi-category company. We do have seasonal products. We have heating products, which work well in Winter and we have cooling products which work well in summer And just before this when we're talking the side room and rock comes from Delhi even I think Sam asked him You know, how's the weather and is it bad and and rock said it's cold And I said cold does not mean bad because it sells more heaters for us, right? So we want people lots of liquor. Yeah, I'm not in the liquor business, but I do want Yeah, I would rather you warm yourself with the heater than with something else No, so I think you know we do want you know good winters. We do want good summers summers are very important season for us Two of our largest categories are the fans in room coolers So you know it is a key season for us the planning for that starts much in advance We have a campaigns but campaigns around products So we have specific products that launch at that period of time and therefore the main campaigns around that And we have to make a noise at that point of time and therefore we have to make a noise We have to cover the media that said I feel non IPL is to me Like I said, you know, it's Excel decision and when I say it's an Excel decision It takes the burden off our media planning or buying team from coming from the CEO says I tell creden that Distorts the decision-making so I think decision-making needs to be done rationally on numbers on Excel Of course, we'll have a conversation with sports 18 whoever else is trying to pitch that star. Sorry. I should mention star sports since They are one of the sponsors, but those you know at that level. We are very very hard-nosed on our decision-making Now I know since last 10 to 14 years. You've been actively involved in decent making terms of media brand building apart from overall being in charge of the business Especially post-covid what has changed in your conversations with your own brand managers with your agency partners and the ecosystem that helps you build brands So let me answer this slightly differently. Okay, I think we are living in a very complex world The world is becoming more and more complex if we look at in terms of just not the economic and geopolitics around us But in terms, this is a whole consumer marketplace the competition in the noise factor all around, you know the things that are Cluttering us all around and therefore also as a marketer advertising this becoming more complex this media buying what do you buy or buying for tension? etc and You know, let me throw another saying that in a complex world simplicity wins And if you can you know learn to distance yourself from all of this complexity We have so much data inputs coming at you and so many claims coming at you You need to be able to shut your eyes and just go back to what I call the first principles And that's the way I try to you know do my decision making that and it's too complex No, you're not going to make any sensible decision ratio. It's gonna be very muddled So go ask yourself a very basic simple questions Right and the very simple basic question is and I'm caught now putting this in the context of us a marketer or advertiser What are you trying to do? It's very two simple things You are trying to get your message across the right message to right audience and you are trying to buy the media in an Efficient way as to where to get the message So getting the message across is a creative call, right? What are you saying? How are we gonna say the content piece again? Make that I simple I used to brand examples, right? Very simple uncluttered You know what they stand for one is Nike just do it and look at the campaign so clean It's Nike. It's just do it everybody understands that and they will take that across whichever form in They don't have to say too much right and take the second example shredding an Indian brand Febe call Majboot jor they've established that positioning source rock solid so simple and that reflects in every campaign that they do every creative The story can keep varying but it's very simple what they want to say Most brands try to say too much. They're so confused in their head They're trying to say this touch point that consumers for you be kega us go over there. I'll be digital take a night It is not so difficult The consumer is a human. He needs a simple message figure what your messages be very sharp on that and then bring all the Complexity of influencer lying a like it, but be very clear on the message The second part is come on now get your media right the media part doesn't come from all this abstract creative thinking it comes from hard Nose numbers you know show me the numbers because the infosys The nine would be saying that in God we trust the rest bring numbers to the table so media is simply what's your job as media? You have a certain marketing budget as you know as a brand or as a company We have three brands Pajaj Mofi Richards and Nilep each of them have a defined budget as percent of sales Now the job of the media buying and planning team is simply that's the money you have hundred bucks Spend it in the most efficient way reach the maximum eyeballs take this message to as many people with impact And they have to work a lot more logically rather than be confused by all of this complexity round So I'm coming back to a different way to answer question that we are in an increasingly complex world That requires us not to confuse ourselves more but actually become simple in a complex world simplicity Anuj We are in the era of connected TVs today almost all the new purchases in a certain Audience profile are connected TVs. What is your view on the era of connected TVs? Is it becoming substantial? Addressable market as a medium to look at how does it change the way you interact with your consumers? So I'll build on what I'm saying right TV, which is I'm seeing the non-connected general TV remains by far The largest lead reach number, you know platform right again Some of the other speakers will talk about it But top of my head 210 million you know TV households 800 plus million viewers if you break that down to you know You're not buying 200 million houses or buying a channel or a service, right? If you take any of the leading GCs They'll be in a particular week. I think some 20 odd million, you know Reach except that they have So that's what you're buying that said I think connected TV is a reality while TV may be the largest reach Increasingly there are mutually exclusive audiences including some people in this room will probably never switch on a conventional television set So you do have to reach them either they on connected TV or another platforms So you can't ignore them. So while I said everything I said bulk of our budgets will go on conventional TV You do have to cover these guys, but that's what I call the top up and therefore we'll top that up top that up We do connected TV since the last few months, which we do not in the past, etc That said the other challenge is measurement For good or bad TV has a third-party independent measurement that may have a margin of error But it's somewhat there gives you good trends all of these other platforms We don't have a measurement system that you can rely on and if I'm paying money I would party aggregators or not bringing all the data of connected TV on single platform So I think it will be available in the near short term But you do have to cover them in your plan. It's just you know I think the tipping point when that takes over from TV is far away There's a whole saying it's a cliche when the going gets tough the tough get going the festive season for consumer variables I'm not talking of just your business or about your brands or your businesses But when I talked to a lot of my friends in the consumer variables across brands Indian brands MNC brands some Chinese brands It was new it didn't go as expected and with the impending softening With the inflation being what it is the cost of supply chain and materials going high What do you see happening in the near short top and as a business leader? What are you doing to be able to? deal with it That's a lot of questions packed into One I think every day your firefighting every day of dealing with different challenges You never have the tailwinds. It's always against headwinds, but I think that's the job description I do think festive period, you know has been a tougher festive period post-festival. So you see in a big drop this year That said, you know again Like I said, I differentiate between a long-term and short-term a strategic and tactical I differentiate between the job of marketing and selling My brand is not built in the festive period. My sales do happen in the festive period The fact is for our category consumer appliances durable You have a lot a lot of purchase that is concentrated at point of time So you cannot afford to not talk to the consumers at that point of time You have to drive sales at that point of time But that's not the time to build a brand that is just a focused period of window for sales conversion But I'll go back to what I said that, you know, you don't talk when everybody shouting you will not be heard So that's the time everybody shouting you're not gonna be heard at best to put out some campaigns Etc to drive the conversion and the trade and everybody needs that But if you know build a brand so more of the money's is parked outside of that But because we have to sell, you know, we have to be there when the consumers are purchasing we do In the last three years direct to consumer digital to consumer Has seen a lot of new brands or 30,000 brands about 800 to 1000 brands that have done really well and Traditional businesses big brands like yours have also started to leverage the power of D2C How's being your journey when I say you're I mean your business and brand journey with respect to D2C So I will tell you, you know, I think as Bajaj Electricals be one of the earlier movers on to e-commerce online selling today about 12 to 13 percent of our sales comes from Online that are few hundred crores and therefore if you compare that to any of the pure D2C brands in our sector While it's only 10-12 percent of our sales in absolute numbers. That's probably as bigger bigger than any of the D2C brands It remains a very very high focused strategic, you know Channel for us What's also special about the channel is it's a two-way channel when I say two way That's a channel when you get direct and immediate and a response feedback data on what not just what consumers are buying or not buying But also what they're saying in terms of reviews, etc, etc So your ability to engage with them and get feedback is much better there. So it is an important part that said scale in India will not Be achieved by D2C, which is what you referred to also. That's why only channel. Yes That's why the retails even D2C brands are now partnering with Existing FMCG companies or consumer durables companies or they know flip ITC just bought yoga bar because if yoga bar wants to become big It has to become mainstream mainstream is you know all channels So I agree with you my last question to you I know before we get one or two now as a business leader What are the three trends that you see becoming bigger in the near short term? I wouldn't say what are your predictions, but what are the three things that? You can share with this audience that will help this audience So the stop of my head. I haven't thought this through I think what I started with saying on complexity the world will keep getting more and more complex when I say complex Consumers will be spoiled for more choices. You know reaching out to them will be tougher Competition will keep getting tougher business models will keep getting tough complexity is a way of life It'll just keep getting more and more answer to that is to actually not do what everybody does focus on the basics Yeah, focus on the basics and I simply a hookah. We've been using the world It's a 10x hookah now, right? It's a m hookah to power of x etc. I think second aspect is, you know It's gonna be tougher and tougher to make money And when I say that you know you have this inflation you have commodity you have climate change You have all kinds of challenges. So I think financial complexity. I don't want to use the word complexity again But I just think it will become tougher and tougher to make money I will talk about our company itself You know we got away with doing a lot of things or not doing a lot of things in the last 20 years and You know if to be honest, we are a slow company, you know, if I say between the year 2020 today if we are not changing fast enough, we'd be dead So it you know, it's gonna be tougher and tougher to make money It's gonna be tougher and tougher to survive so the need for not just agility and speed But the need for frugality is going to be extremely high and I call it frugality Look at what's happening in the startup ecosystem at all cash burn all of this stuff at some point truth is going to catch up with you And you know the best time to be frugal is not in tough times The best time to be frugal is in good times because that's when you lose control So if you're making lots of money and this is a legacy from a judge auto, right? They are the most profitable two wheeler company in the world and they're absolutely frugal on every decision making and that's not being penny-pinching That's just being ensuring sustainability. So, you know, second trend really is gonna be tougher and tougher to make money Third, I don't know if it's a trend, but some of the people part that I'll touch. I think This is probably What should I say oxymoron we are finding it tougher and tougher to get good talent of the type we want and to retain talent I think sorry. I think a lot of youngsters in the room, you know, their Aspirations are very high which is good, but sometimes not mirrored or grounded in reality And therefore you see a lot of job churn every three years four years. I don't think at least maybe I'm old I don't think that's how you build a long-term career, etc. So which our ability to get and retain quality talent is becoming very difficult on the flip side I think the job market is going to keep shrinking Everybody to be employed Tech guys are getting 600% raise yeah last year today. They're being laid off. So clearly, you know, there is a correction in the You know, I think so I think this third trend I put in the bucket of people you are gonna have a fundamental misfit on Fitting good people and all of them finding good jobs And how do you solve for that both as as individual professionals and as companies? I think