 Moving forward, I will be talking about this new and next speaker, the keynote session on how marketing and communication channels have evolved. It's become new in this age during the COVID times and what lies ahead. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Mr. Karthik Singhal, founder of O2 Cure or Zero2 Cure. A very warm welcome to you. Well, to start with, I'll jump into because I have only 20 minutes. So, well, we all know coronavirus is by far one of the biggest challenges that our generation has faced and its impacts are going to last for years. And with the pandemic hitting the economy in a way that the implications are going to go beyond the 2008 recession, I would say. And it's very critical to understand the way of communication and use of data in this generation in order to market the brand and the company. So, yes, I am Karthik Singhal, director with Zico Aircon Limited and founder of O2 Cure, which is a bespoke air purification solution provider. And I'm here to give my views on the importance of data communication, especially during the COVID era. So, going forward, we all know that the pandemic situation has put a tremendous pressure on enterprises for sustaining the trust of the consumers specifically. The changing consumer behavior is contributing enormously to build this pressure. And there is a shift in management focus towards, well, survival over the growth. And we all know this whole year and the years to come is all about survival and, well, not about growth. Now, we have seen a shift in the behavior of the consumer. People do not like going to the retail market. So, definitely not expecting the same for about a year to come that people would not like to go to the market. They would be at home and would want to order things. Well, that is a major shift which we need to recognize. And, well, industries such as aviation, hospitality, travel, oil and gas, restaurants and retail sectors have been hit badly. And we all know that it will be a V-shape recovery, to be honest. But how much time it is going to take? And in the V-shape recovery, well, the industry that is at the bottom of the V, how are they going to recover? And what are these strategies that they should adapt to in order to market their brand to give a sense of security? Now, what I feel is there are four to five points that need to be addressed by the brand and the marketing teams in the COVID era, the first being anticipating the consumer needs. Now, we all know that we all have been at home for about more than six to eight months and still a lot of people are at home. The consumer needs have changed. So, it is very important to recognize if your brand or the product that you do falls under the category of essential needs and how we can correlate this so that it becomes the need of the person sitting at home and just googling and going through the phones and ordering stuff. So, such an example for this is a service provided by Amazon which is called Audible, which provides free streaming of stories to parents and children. Like we all know children and the schools are shut, so children are at home and it's getting very difficult for parents to entertain them as well as the children. So, this I feel the service provided by Amazon is a good way of branding a sense of security that it provides to a sense of belief and safety that it provides to the parents. So, that is a good way of addressing. So, this is one point. Second, I would say is the use of technology. Yes, it is a big factor in today's world, the use of technology. It is important to address individuals than masses. Everyone today is ordering online. We are gathering data, we are gathering data through technology and if we get the right data and the technology, we know the buying habits of the consumer, we know what all the consumer is interested in and if we actually gather all that data and put it in the right way, we will be able to achieve independent individual goals and we can use that data in giving a personalized you know brand promotion benefit which a person can relate to. So, that I feel is a big thing and the use of technology has been on the digital platform. So, again, I would take an example of Amazon or the online platforms. Cash on delivery has been removed. So, people are using the digital platform as a part of Digital India as well to make payments in a way that they feel secure. So, that is I would say the second point here which needs to be addressed. That is another way a brand can market itself. Third would be, well, yes, there is a big shift. So, being present in the digital world, there is a big shift from the conventional way of marketing to digital way of marketing and this is very important to be present in the digital world as people have started watching entertainment series on OTT platforms. So, with lesser number of viewers on TV, with the lesser number of people actually going to your cinemas and offering to go to cinemas, it is better to be present online and use the ad spend that they have for physical marketing to, I would say, a digital marketing platform which is more cost-effective. So, companies like McDonald's have stopped using their dine-in and promoting their dine-in but they are promoting more of takeaways and more concentrating on the quality. So, yes, a lot of big conglomerates have shifted there or reduced their ad spends which were pretty expensive earlier on and shifted to or tweaked it to a digital platform. So, that I feel is where it is very important to be present in the digital world because everyone today is using their mobile phones in the digital era and not actually going to the retail store to understand products and markets better. Fourth and the most important thing that I believe for a brand in terms of marketing would be to bring the image of a warm and caring brand. A person staying at home for six months is mentally sick in a way. They are not really entertained. They are not meeting new people. So, it is very care to the end consumer how we can relate to that and pretty examples are, if you look at Amul, Amul coming back with the same ad that they had about 15 years back with the little girl. That is a way of security and a revival of the brand in the mind of the people that we still hear with you like we were 15 years back. Second is, I would say Zomato. Zomato is giving push notifications to customers for safety of their food by sanitization of the delivery guys and keeping updated on the COVID era and the problems. Then I would say another is Lin Long of official updates. Now, these are ways to push or pull your customers towards your platform and that is where I feel to the customer. Some of you have a sense of security and a sense of awareness that this is the right platform which will give me the right content and that brand needs sitting at home. So, whatever it is broadcasted, whatever it is in terms of advertisement is given on this platform. I feel that that is something I can believe in. That is the trust that brands need to build in the consumer again. Otherwise, like Amit said in the last panel discussion, if we don't change our way of marketing and advertising, well we might just wipe out from this whole situation or some brands do. Fifth I would say is and the last and the most important for Indian brands would be aligning with the government strategies. Well, we all know government has made it clear about making in India and at Manilvar Bharat and I like the way Micromax has come back. If you look at the CEO of Micromax in the video that he has released, he is trying to connect with the Indians. He has tried to connect with people out there that yes, we are an Indian brand and we were replaced by different Chinese brands but now that the government has supported the agenda of make in India and at Manilvar Bharat, we will be back with you serving you for our country in our country and everything will be made in India. So those are some steps that can be taken if you are a manufacturer which makes products in India. It is definitely going to be survival of the fittest in the next one year. I would say the brands are spending time building end to end personalized digital strategies which are going to be a huge let's say live event strategies. I would say the most important four points here would be to understand, anticipate and go above and beyond fulfilling customer needs. The needs that he has right now, well the brands are really going to flourish. Second would be leverage the right technology in order to stay ahead of the challenge. We can spend loads and loads of money on technology in terms of digital marketing but we have to select the right would be, well yes we have to be agile and wise with our marketing and advertising spend. Fourth would be focus on helping customers and consumers behavior has shared solution. They want care. They want if there is a replacement of a product, things that you know get into a customer's mind and once they are with the brand, they will be with the brand forever. Give a view on how I use these data metrics and data you know the importance of it. So the parent company is eco aircon limited. We are manufacturers of central air conditioners and air purification systems in India. It's totally a research driven company providing different bespoke air purification solutions. Now what I did was I was basically in US studying on the virology and virus labs and everything and we were going to deep into a study of COVID and SARS-CoV-2. I would say severe acute respiratory syndrome. Colleges which was already proven a patented technology bias which was already proven for COVID sorry not COVID but SARS-CoV-1 outbreak in 2003. We are very confident that this technology virus out SARS-CoV-2 which is causing the coating our products with ICMR and with the US government can mutate sorry how we can kill the mutated version of virus but a 99.9% reduction from air as well as surfaces within three feet or is now well marketing something that is not allowed to market even market it was very difficult for us. So we started a two years back which was providing which was into providing residential solutions and commercial air purification solutions people with different different problems people going through swanks. Now again like I said it was very difficult for us to mark as COVID or SARS-CoV-2. We made a strategy wherein our campaigns were cooperates we targeted multinationals we targeted the industries which are at the bottom of the first in fact the this was started in November the hashtag installations in India the recent one being one of the most you know affected industries which is hospitality and we placed about our air condition sorry air purification COVID neutralizing units in all ITC hotels making them a cross-contamination free zone and that is how ITC can market now that you know our hotel has yes you need masks you need sanitizers for sure but you also need a COVID neutralizer because you don't know if a person next to you sneezes even with a mask even with your sanitizer you can get that effect. So that is how we took this as a stand that we will yes mark help our customers marketed so for example our customer today is Google all over the world now Google so we are helping them get their people back to work we are helping HCL we are helping IBM we are helping PBRs we were helping Inox people get back to their experience what they are really missing then some of our other customers from different industries that we have which are majorly majorly affected we are again getting India back to work getting helping them get back to work recently what we did was we partnered with a with a celebrity Mr. Sunil Shetty for our again air purification products but our agenda was only education because we know that this is a very delicate market right now people can believe in whatever people see so initially in COVID days I realized that people are going ahead with sanitization of products buying UV sterilization cells for their houses well yes it's a good way of sterilizing your products but is it the best way or are you buying the best product you know every UV has a certain intensity I can give you the same product for about a thousand rupees with with the minimum intensity but that will do nothing to your COVID or your SARS-CoV-2 so that is where I think there is a major lack of awareness and you know education to the end consumer which is exploited by certain companies I would say also while getting into this residential air purification brand I got to know that the companies which are manufacturing home appliances are actually marketing their air purifiers as you know Siri enabled or Wi-Fi enabled and these features and people are you know going bonkers over it I'm going and buying it because of the aesthetic look but that's where the education and the information lies that you know it's very important to buy a product for what you're buying the product for like I'm buying an air purifier for purifying yeah I'm not buying it for you know for my lifestyle for for the look of it or for the features it provides so that is where I feel there was a big lack of awareness and the second campaign that we ran or we're apparently running is about education and only education we have free consultation that we provide to people which is a part of in a way branding only then the third thing that we did was we've we recognize that there is a big I would say people rely more on recommendations coming from the experts so on our panel we we in panel micro biologists we in panel the AIMS doctors we in panel the IIT professors we in panel who's and who's of India so that we can get that push and recommendations because they have actually tested and verify the technology so now then when people started looking at you know testimonials of these doctors and institutes that's where the credibility added so this was the third campaign that we ran our recommendations fourthly I would want to mention is that after looking at all the points that I mentioned about branding your product and your you know brand in this era it is very important to look at the law aspect of it before mentioning anything on any advertisement it is very important to take a guidance from your law experts as you know it could go either ways positive or negative also it is very important to highlight the the fake products available in the market as it's like I said it's a very delicate market right now people believe in whatever they see that's why I had to have a celebrity on board because they believe in more what you know the celebrities say even if it's true or false that is up to the consumer to decide but well I would say that has been my journey and that is how I have used data analytics and data matrix in order to brand in order to use this COVID era to market the product in the right segment using the handful of money that I have currently and making a big impact on my people and citizens of India so like I said we've done more than 10,000 installations getting 10,000 people back to work helping and growing the economy badly so yes so that is about it from my side thank you so much for hearing me out and thank you so much for attending the session it was it was a pleasure presenting it thank you so much Mr. Singh it was a pleasure having you here and sharing your insights thank you for your time thank you so much