 Ladies and gentlemen, for next session, I now invite Mr. Sartak Sait, CMO Panasonic to talk about the importance of branding in rising consumerism. Sartak Sait is currently heading the vertical for brand and marketing communications at Panasonic India, or looking the operations across India and South Asia along leading the Sanyo business vertical as its business head. With over 15 years of industry experience at its disposal, he specializes in brand strategy, consumer insights, visibility strategies, and he has been instrumental in conceiving, designing and implementing product and marketing initiatives. Mr. Sait is an alumnus of UCLA Anderson School of Management, NUS Business School, and holds an MBA in Marketing and Finance. In 2013, he received Young Achiever of the Year at the 4th CMO Asia in Singapore and has also been felicitated by some of the leading bodies in the field of brand and marketing, including International Advertising Associations, IAAA, WOW Awards, and EMA to name a few. In 2015, he was inducted in the list of top 100 marketing leaders issued by World Brand Congress. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together, welcome on stage, Sartak Sait. Well, very good evening everybody. Firstly, thanks for such a lovely introduction, I would say that. I believe I'm pretty audible. So, okay guys, some of you are still outside and one of the better things what this gentleman said before, I was just like most of you were outside was, get some extra samosas also for yourself. I don't know whether it was that am I going to bore you or was it from the perspective that I'm going to make it more interesting for you so that you don't leave this room. So, getting on to the topic, what I'm actually going to speak with all of you today is, I would say it's like rising consumerism, that is something what we had been talking about also from the perspective of brand building. But I thought, let me just twist it a bit and say from the perspective of we think that brand building, staying ahead in changing times. Now, obviously, rising consumerism is there, changing times are there, but probably this is our consumer, I would say, and a consumer needs the product. So, this is a basic fact for all of us. The companies wants the consumers. So, in this entire game of consumers and companies or products, at the end of the day, a consumer actually buys a brand. So, it is not a consumer is not only looking for a product, but consumer is actually looking for a brand. And that is something what all of us have gathered over here in this evening talking about brand, what what brands actually need to do about the experience and everything over here. But in this paradox of choices, it's like you've got choices, choices after choices, but again, the thing is more is less, more is less. I still remember a ad from Amazon, which is like Ordikha, Ordikha, probably one of my favorite ads. So, it's it's very right. And if I have to put it across, consumers do have choices and their choices have choices. So, definitely it's like if so many choices are there, the bigger question arises is, why should they listen to a brand like me, like you, like anybody else? And a consumer can rightly say that, okay, I am not interested. I had been hearing so many things about you, about him, about somebody else, but he has always got the choices. So, from a brand perspective, what things we really need to do right, that is one of the most important things for each of us as marketers as well. And I would say, let's be honest, the times have changed, the things have changed. And a very small example of how things have changed, I would say brand funnel, which probably all the marketers would have studied, spoken, we speak in our daily lives. This was the initial one, which is like a very typical funnel, which is awareness, interest, desire, purchase, familiarity, all these things. But with the changing tide, there's one most important element which has actually come in, which is called the advocacy. Now, advocacy is something which is, today when you talk from even a CX point of perspective also, you really have to focus on advocacy going forward because it is the consumer who really defines the tone for any brand. And when I say advocacy, it's not only about you, it's not only about me, it is actually about you, me and the many in between. So, it is how the advocacy has been playing its role. It is like, if I have to just read it, couple of these for you, it's like 90% consumers who trust peer recommendations posted on social media. 70% consumers are using social media to listen and learn about their consumer experiences. So, you can see that how advocacy really helps a brand, where exactly the consumer is today, what exactly the consumer feels about a brand and everybody is sharing with each other. And another important thing is the touch points, it's like they've come in multi-folds now. So, earlier we used to have very limited touch points. Today, with the advent of internet, social, digital, everything whatsoever we say, the touch points really have changed. And one of the things over here, I would say it's like social media probably you can say into a pre-purchase, exist during your purchase, not so much, but again at the post-purchase also. So, this is something which is like a brand experiences carried across. So, from a brand perspective, we really need to think that, okay, how we can really give consumer a good experience across each of these touch points. And the bigger ones you see, the bigger pies today, word of mouth, social media, e-commerce, web, I would say newsletters again, which is more from a perspective of digital. So, this is how the things have actually changed. This is how the entire gamut of, I would say the entire advocacy thing would also be coming into this particular piece when I speak forward. And this is something what we have already realized. It is like the moment of truth has actually changed. So, this was something which was very typical that, okay, if I really wanted to buy a product almost like 15 years down the line, 15 years back, my first moment of truth was whenever I was actually buying a product at the shop floor, what the dealer is telling me or what the trade partner is telling me, and second moment of truth when I'm actually using the product in my house. But today, this is what it is. So, somebody's second moment of truth that is his experience with the product is now a zero moment of truth for the next consumer. So, you really have to see that, okay, how a brand has been spoken about, how the experience with brand is there with the consumer, because it is over here that how a consumer writes about your brand actually becomes a zero moment of truth, wherein you know that, okay, before even a consumer is thinking about your brand, he's reading about it, and suddenly you are getting into that consideration of the consumer itself. But what is the driving force of brands today? It is, I would say we have seen these great brands and just like I would say a small disclaimer over here, so it's like some of the examples what I'm going to use over here during this forum, it's like probably I might have perceived from some other perspectives the brand ethos might be a bit different from there, but no offense to any of the brands, it is just how we look on to these brands from the outside world, because I have not worked with any of these brands directly. But if just going back, these brands, Apple and Nike Google Coke, but is it that Apple is only bought because it's just a great product, or a Nike because they really make great shoes, or Google, was it the first search engine we remember? Was there somebody before Google or Coke? Is it the best tasting drink because the taste varies from a consumer to consumer? But the most important thing is it's not what actually drives these brands, it is how that these brands and it is not what they do or how they do it, but the most important thing for any of the brand today is that why they do it. So if you really have to look into, there are beautiful articles which are actually written about the power of why I would say that, and you should actually be reading some of those from the internet as well, especially from the marketing context perspective, but again, why the brands actually do it? So if I just decode it from a why perspective, so actually Apple talks about breaking the traditions, it is celebrated over there, breaking the traditions is celebrated. Nike actually inspires you, I would say that Google, it is again inspiring moments of optimism and happiness. So if I have to actually put it in a very simple perspective, this is the why of the brand which explains the reason and purpose your brand exists and how it motivates your tribe. When I say your tribe, it is about your consumer, which is the direct consumer whom you want to speak to and even the influencing consumer, probably who can be your next consumer down the line. But we have spoken about so many truths, it is like there are so many things when you talk about brands, but there are some of the, I would say the five pervasive truths which I have just picked up for this particular session over here, I would say most important things today for a brand and which is actually going to help create a meaningful and lasting connection with the consumer, these are the five most important things which is transparency, aspiration, positive impact, tolerance and empowerment. So a brand who is actually indulging in doing some of these activities around any of these truths, really there's a big, big consumer connect. So just to give you some of the examples of each of these truths, I would say a transparency, it is about how transparently you are actually talking to your consumer. A consumer today knows that, okay, is a brand really being transparent with me or not? Is the brand really talking the truth to me or not? So it's like we see these examples of south-west airlines which is like no fears, nothing to hide, that's transparency. They're very, very upfront, they're very, very clear. So a consumer who is there, who wants a brand like south-west, he knows that, okay, what's the brand is actually talking to me? McDonald's. This was one of my most favorite ones, I would say, addressing rumors by sharing facts. So it is like putting the facts in front of the consumer, telling the consumer that, okay, this is the fact and there is no shame in terms of sharing any of the facts of the consumers because at the end of the day, if a consumer is endorsing you, you have to be true to the consumer. Aspiration, another important proof today. It's like Mercedes, for example, is always and always a class ahead. So it's like it is driving that aspirational quotient into the end consumer. How am I addressing my consumer? Where exactly? I really want to take my consumer towards. How this brand, Mercedes, is really driving the aspirational value of a consumer, he wants to own a Mercedes. Every lane, which is like truly as you are. So it is again aspirational that, okay, from a perspective of aspiration, I would say, the brand really has to look forward to a consumer saying that, okay, why should I want it? That's the most important thing from an aspiration perspective. Positive impact. Another truth, which is there. This is how the brand actually needs to communicate. The real beauty is you, when you are yourself. So there's nothing hiding about it, but this is the ethos of the brand which is actually coming across. I would say, you buy one, we give one. Which is again, it's like something positive talking to a consumer. I would say that. Tolerance. So it's a very recent example. Probably we'll be seeing this quote, which is like 811 is there for everyone. It is totally about that, okay, India is invited with the 811. It is putting people together at one platform. We accept everyone is accepted over here. So this is how I would say the brands have actually been communicating to the end or audiences. A brand would definitely be remembered if a brand is really talking something from these perspectives of being a tolerance or a positive impact or empowerment over here, which is like a beaver, which says about break the norms, be who you are. So it is all about empowering the individuals. Obviously there are lots and lots of examples. It's like almost everybody over here is associated with one brand or another. And we are having our own brand ethos. But these are some of the finest examples of what I would have gathered in this smaller bit of time. See the United by Half UCB, which is again a good example of empowerment. So this is how the brand is actually communicating to its end audiences and consumers. So when I say that it's like moving a step ahead, so it is not only about what is the brand message, what we are actually wanting to communicate. And the only reason I changed it in the last bit was moving ahead was also how we are actually delivering this message to the end consumer. That is also very, very important. So earlier we used to just have one thing over here which used to be called traditional marketing. Today it's like we used to have direct marketing also, probably some door-to-door marketing. The earlier days of Eureka force, I would say that. That's the most recent examples of my earlier days I can actually give you. But again today it's like social marketing, cause marketing, proximity marketing, mobile marketing, influencer marketing. So each of these play a very, very distinct role within itself. And the things have actually evolved over here when I look on to it. So as a brand we really need to create a favorable impression. And with each of these things I would say the most important thing is in today's when I speak about social media marketing, the new word of mouth is social media itself. So if I have to take you a little back, most of you probably would be understanding Hindi. It's like almost 15 years back we used to ask within our relatives of friend circles, my father's brother's aunt bought this for example. So because they have bought this, that is why I am buying this. So that was the word of mouth which was there. So today are you really referring to any of your relatives while buying anything? Or any of your close friends while buying anything? Or are you really getting onto a mobile just checking out what people have actually written about your brand, what people have written about your product, or what has been their experience. So today's word of mouth is actually social media I would say that. The new advocacy, its influencer marketing which is there. So it is not the influencer marketing is not only about okay I have got a celebrity, if the celebrity is saying something it is going to be a fact, no. So within each of the products it's like you have got so many influencers for each of your products. So you are identifying those influencers and today people really who are endorsing your products, they really have to stand by it. So influencer marketing is very, very important going forward now. We had been like seeing all these things like stories are the best ways to connect with the audience. This is something which has been an age old fact. But today how it has changed? Now we have given a new word which is called content marketing to it. So again content is like how you are able to create that content, how you are able to create that relate, relativity with the end audience from your content. So that is very, very important because people still remember the stories. Doing good is not just a statement. Cause marketing I think we have seen best of the examples of cause marketing today. So but cause marketing is something which really stands out in today's day and age. Again direct marketing which is, I would say the rules of direct marketing have changed a bit. So today it is more from a mobile marketing perspective. It is more from a geo-tagging perspective. But these are some of the very important things what a brand really needs to consider while doing any of its imperatives. The most important thing today is how we are able to make that consumer connection. And whatever I would say it's like a complete brand experience is important. And any of the ideas whatsoever you are looking from brand perspective, they have to be media agnostic. So when I talk from media agnostic perspective, it is like your main idea has to be the core idea. But again how you are able to relate it with each of the different medias that are available. So that is also very, very important. Whether it is, whether if I am doing a big television commercial, but how I am able to create that content, relative content and doing a content marketing piece over there. Or how I am actually taking my main, I would say the entire campaign thought and multiplying it with other mediums as well. So it's like it has to be on the website, in store. This is again very, very important for a brand. So you just cannot, it's like, okay, probably a television I would say or a holding for that matter is like a 60 feet distance and store is only a 3 feet distance. So even your main idea really needs to drive from the perspective that okay, how your message has been communicated to the end audience. That is something which is very important. And believe me, it is like the thing which has not really changed today is like consistency. So whatever brand message, whatever we are delivering, whatever we are trying to deliver, the message has to be consistent. A lot of times we try to experiment and we say that, okay, for this audience I might do something else, for this audience I might do something else. But again, we really have to find a connect between each of the messages what we are actually giving to our audience. And this is how we are actually going to win the game. Okay, a very small thing I would ask the audience over here, just for my reference perspective, how many brands do you think you would interact in a normal course of a day? Just 5, 6, okay. Anybody from that side? 20, 10, okay. So when I am saying how many brands you are interacting from the time you get up in the morning till the time you are sleeping at night. Okay, so we are going up now. Anybody else? So that's the highest figure which we have actually got here from the lady which is called 100. It's not about communication. Communication, I'll come somewhere else. It's about the products what you are using. So whatever product you are actually using, a toothpaste, a toothbrush, anything, a comb. So these are the products, these are the brands which you are actually interacting with. So how many numbers do you believe you will actually be interacting in a day? An average human being, you sure? So also see one more thing. It's like you might be seeing some of the brands only through a naked eye, but there might be 5 different brands who would have actually made that product. So it's like if I am going to have a very good experience about this product, but is it this brand only which is actually making the product or there are 5 different brands which are actually given the components of that product? So just to make it simpler and in interest of time, it is 700 plus brands what a consumer actually interacts in a day. So just imagine that if one has to stand out, why consistency is so very important when I say that consistency in terms of your brand versus delivery and also the media vehicles what you are actually choosing? Because how can I stand out with these 700 plus brands what somebody is interacting? And it's not only about the B2C brands. It is also from a perspective of B2B because branding is also very important in B2B era as well. So it is not something that B2C is something what I am seeing, but B2B is a lot of other things what a B2B brand is also doing. And 60% of the people that they actually expect consistent experiences when dealing with brands whether it is online, in stores or on the phone. So just imagine that if you are consistent with your messaging, how I would say how good things for a brand can really happen. That's the core message I would say is there. So just to summarize because we actually had only about half an hour where we were in like about five to seven minutes in terms of discussions also. So I would say it's like one really has to be true to their beliefs. A brand needs to be really true. A brand really needs to evolve with the changing times. When I say brand has to evolve with the changing times, again obviously the set of audiences are changing. But how you are addressing those audiences, how you are upscaling yourself as a brand is also very, very important. You really need to create that connect with the end consumer. So if I am as a brand, if I am not able to create a connect with my consumer, how do I even expect a consumer to actually buy me? It is not just for the sake of creating a product. I have created a product and somebody will come and pick my product. No. I really have to create that connect with the end consumer. That is most important. And again the thing consistent, you really have to really work hard in terms of being very, very consistent in terms of message delivery or whatsoever you are actually wanting to establish as a brand. So being from a technology company, I would say this is the tech behind a brand and today we are into that digital age and era. So this is what I have to actually present over here because the most important thing is, again coming back, consistency needs to be the key and believe me it is the most important and the most difficult thing which is there to find its common sense also. So whatever we are doing, we really have to do it with our common sense as well. So thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Seth. Please stand and stay back. Those are very pertinent points. Ladies and gentlemen, and I invite Mr. Satya Pratadas, Head of Strategic Alliances and Corporate Communication, Lakshya Media Group, powering knowledge for a chat with Mr. Seth. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together. Welcome on stage. I think we are good. Can I use that? No, get it better. Well, the time they put this, first of all I would like to say that Sneha has put up an amazing show, Sneha Wherever You Are. Fantastic show, yeah. And secondly, Josna, I don't know if she is here. So we all work with Josna in various places. She does all the pitch CMA summits. She does it the best. Big round of applause for Josna, wherever she is, and the entire team of E4M. And just before I came in, I was just having a chat with Satya. We'll do a little bit more. Yeah, please. It's okay. So how's been the day gone so far? Is it good? Yeah. So before they settle out, do you have any questions for him? Immediately, yeah? Shalini. Thank you, Satya. Hi, I'm Shalini from Lakshya. I've been, you know, listening to very interesting conversation. Most of your marketing tips or whatever you're telling were mostly for the online clients. Is Indian market at present? We have very less percentage of share that we are doing online sales. And do you think the brand shouldn't be strong offline too? We are actually, I think, neglecting a very major portion of brand. So what is your view about strengthening brand offline? So probably if given another opportunity, I can definitely take another session on how to strengthen the brand offline. Believe it because I just, in the initial phase, I said changing times. So that is where how the shift is actually happening from offline to online. But coming back to your question, I would say it is very, very important to be really very strong offline. So because it's like, if I have to just give you a small figure, probably till date also what is the percentage of budgets, what actually the corporates are investing as far as online is concerned, I would say put together not more than 10% right now. So most of the brands are still investing 90% of the budgets offline. Secondly, it's like online is getting its presence. Yes, for sure the penetration is increasing day by day. E-commerce for that matter, if I speak about my industry, for example, if I just pick up televisions. So to say today it's like contributing only to 10% of the overall sales, which I would say over the next three years would go up to 35 odd percent or a 40 odd percent. If you've got some more disruptions out there in that particular space. So offline is very, very important. India being such a big country at large. So it's like if I have to count, probably there are like 490 odd towns which VVR sales as a brand really look forward in terms of reaching out right now. That is something which has got a population of more than 10 lakhs plus. So definitely you just cannot do away with offline. But because the topic was here from a changing times, so that is why I just focused a bit as far as online was concerned. I hope it answers. Thank you, please, please. First of all, thank you very much for inviting us. Lakshya is in the forefront of driving knowledge. And we'll ensure that going forward also we do keep on doing driving knowledge, doing new scientific things in the ecosystem that we work. Satya, an amazing session. I think a quickly couple of things that's warning me and the entire marketing community currently is the attention span. So this new age hyper millenials, the millenials, I am observing because we all have been in the industry for so long, the attention span is really reducing. And it's getting to something like I was speaking to the CMO of Flipkart, they're giving you 6%, 7%, 10%, seconds. So those days of the 30, 40, 50 seconds are gone. So how panis being in a brand market here like you, how are you trying to address that particular thing? It's the biggest question mark now. Okay, so it's like today if we see it's like thanks to platforms like Snapchat, I would say it's like today the age or rather life of a content is not more than 10 seconds, I would say that. And also talking from a perspective of commercials like what you have spoken, I would say 10 second master is the new norm, even as marketers we are also looking forward to that because it's not that gone are the days when you are actually creating masters for 60 seconds or 90 seconds because still when you actually create those, only like 10 to 15% of a budget actually goes into playing those masters unless you have got huge budgets and then this is being very, very candid with you. So I would say 10 second as a master as I thought really needs to be there and just to give you an example, yesterday we were doing a commercial and that was a very clear cut brief to the agency that okay, we really need to look forward to a 10 second as a master, a 20 second also as a master. So it is like each of these commercials can be treated differently. It should not happen that okay, created a 45 second also and these have to be the offshoots, no. So everything has to be independent I would say in today's day and age. Okay, so I mean, what's your take taken from that? What's your take on the new digital things that people talk about? I mean KPMG gave a report, Deloitte Gibson giving a report, that's the kind of growth they're talking about, however it's not showing, you know, on the results it's not showing and people are like a lot of question marks and digital spends and I'll just share with you, we did a launch for the channel called Republic, with only an auto-formant digital and that became the number one channel. So do you think the entire media mix, you've spoken about marketers being media agnostic that I was saying, so how do a brand marketer plan in that entire media mix? See, firstly it's like one of the things that's like digital is something what you cannot do away with. So obviously it's like the way you've said, you've launched a brand with auto-form, probably some other mediums to it. So it is also about where exactly you want to reach. So what is my target area where exactly I want to reach? So today you say that I'm only focused towards the city or this city it's like if I have to dissect it saying that top 10 metros in India would actually bring about 70% of my sales for example. So there you actually need to plan it, but again digital can also be planned that way. So you can club a digital and auto-form together because again with digital you can do a lot of geo-targeting, you know that you are going to reach to your key audiences over there or the P1 audiences over there. But one thing I have to actually address over here to the audience also, it's like people actually really take digital in a wrong fashion also at times wherein they just think that okay digital is just going to help me in terms of creating those numbers or doing sales. So it's not only that digital also needs to be looked from a perspective, it's like a brand building platform because when you talk from being consistent you really need to be consistent over here on digital also. So next time if I'll get a chance, if they'll be like giving me a chance, I would probably take out some data which would say that okay how many websites or how many pages individual is actually visiting on a digital. So today if I know that on television I might do, I might take a GEC channel and a specific serial, what sort of audiences I can reach or what sort of numbers I can reach, but digital cannot really amplify that in that way. So digital is not so very cheap as well, but yes with digital you can do a lot of geotargeting. Perfect. Okay. So morning Karthik was there. He made a very pertinent point in terms of how the consumer are becoming really polygamist in terms of they don't have any brand loyalty now. I mean you might buy a car now, next time you want to buy a different car and this new 25 years old are extremely vulnerable. So how is the brand market here you're trying to, so I read something about Panasonic where they're trying to do something about this hyper millenials and stuff. So I'm going to address that kind of consumer that they come back to your product. So it is all about like in my presentation what I said was, it's all about the advocacy side of things. So as a brand what is more important is that okay, what a consumer is actually writing about you. Today ORM is really very very important which is like, if one consumer's moment of truth is actually happening, my zero moment of truth, what exactly is that consumer writing about me? So as a brand I really need to see that okay, my messaging needs to be consistent. Secondly, if there are anything which have been written about me as a brand I really need to respond back fast to the consumer. What is my response time, what is how I'm actually managing my online relationship management. So these are very very important things for a brand. So these are some of the areas what we really focus on. Brilliant, brilliant. Other thing which I quite liked in your presentation was you know the power of why and the power of truth. I mean as a brand, there will be a lot of brand marketers here and people who are coming and meeting the brand marketers, I mean how do you do the balance between these two? You know, it was a very very important slide which came up. Can you just explain a little better for my understanding? It is about, I would say the power of why, it's not only from a brand perspective, it is also us as individuals as well. It is like how our existence has been over there. So I would actually take a step backwards and say that okay, if we start questioning the whys, so definitely there are a lot of answers what we get ourselves. And for the brand also it is very important that okay, what is my source, why I'm there, why I'm wanting to sell this particular product, or why I'm actually reaching out to this end consumer. So if we are able to answer all these questions, definitely the brand would really come up with a statement itself saying that okay this is the reason why I exist. So that's the most important thing. Brilliant. I'll end up by asking this, that you said that I think we close, reach out to close 700 brands a day, we come across that. So it's quite crazy how does consumers, I never realized that we come across that kind of brand. So how do you map it? I mean how do you, you know, it's quite crazy that kind of number. So definitely it's like, and just to add up on to this, somebody was talking about advertising how many ads I would see. So just there is a study which says that in U.S. a consumer is actually exposed to more than 5,000 ads in a day. So, so can you imagine the sort of content which has been bombarded to a consumer and how he would actually recall you as a brand. And that is why everything revolves around one thing that, okay as a brand what, what is the message I'm delivering to my end consumer at each and every touch point. If I'm consistent with the messaging, definitely at some point in time he's going to register me. He's going to remember me that okay this is the brand which speaks this language. So for sure it is in my positive note. So, so this is, I would say you just have to be consistent for everything whatever you do. I think I think there will be a lot of people who would like to reach out to Panasonic. As, as, as Panasonic as a company what are the things they are going to do? What are you expecting from people like, you know, who are coming to approach to you in terms of, you know, giving you brand solutions. You know, what kind of people you're looking at who will come to you to give brand solutions. Okay. It's like we would be more than happy in terms of if anybody can bring up a breakthrough idea to me in terms of whatever we had been doing if there is something else because it's like every time when I interact with individuals. I think it's been an amazing session. I think we have a positive time and thank you very much. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you gentlemen. A big round of applause for both of them. Request Ms. Shilpi Arora, Vice President, National Sales Heads, Nine X Jalva to hand over a token of appreciation to Mr. Seth and Mr. Satya Pratadas. Going to hear a big round of applause. Thank you.