 Welcome to this webinar series by Exchange for Media. And in today's webinar, the topic is preparing brands for the COVID downturn. This is unprecedented time for all of us. The brand marketeers, the brands themselves are facing a very tough time. So there are some categories that can maybe make most of this time, but a whole lot of other categories are facing challenges. So today with me, let me introduce, I have Mr. Deepak Sinha, VP Marketing, Mira91, and I have Mira IRCMO Medlife. And we'll be talking about what is next for brands, how do brands prepare and deal with this crisis? So I'll start with you, Mira. Tell me, this is unprecedented. At the start of this year, we never thought that we'd be faced with this kind of a situation. Tell me for marketeers and brands, what does this health-care mean? How are you preparing? How are you preparing to tide over this time, this unprecedented period? By the way, unprecedented is one of the largest search results right now on Google. That's why I smile when you said that. I just got that tidbit from the Google team yesterday. So unprecedented times has pretty much taken over in terms of the favorite word described COVID and yes it is. I belong to the health-care industry and as part of the health-care industry for us right now, there is a massive, in fact, absolutely unplanned search in terms of demand. People want to hoard up, people don't want to miss out on any kind of medications obviously because it impacts life. What I think is really critical at this time is to be able to actually function normally and that is where customer experience is taking a hit because of all the issues on-ground, whether it is unavailability of personnel or it is about restriction in movement interstate within India because borders are sealed etc. So I think it is a time where for brands like ours, which are fundamentally in health-care, it is witnessing a huge amount of increase in terms of traffic orders etc. But the downturn is the fact that we aren't able to quite get out of it as effectively and as well as we would like to. It is a time for people to stay home and the commerce companies like us help people do that, every delivery we make prevents one visit outside for the customer. Having said that, all the issues that we are facing are making a terrible customer experience out of it with a lot of orders having to be modified, cancelled, delayed etc. and that's what we are grappling with right now. Be good for your category for example, which depends a lot on experiential and we have brought this social distance. How about marketers in your category dealing with this challenge? Yeah, so first I'll say that it is interesting that you put Meera and I together, the commerce industry and beer. I think it will really make for an inter- Somebody on the lighter note said Dawa and Dauru in the same category. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so I think we rely heavily on experiential and activations and types of concerts and festivals and so on. It's very much a part of the consumer experience for us and with social distancing, although that goes up for a toss, right? And we rely on these events for two main reasons. One is to continue to build our community, engage our existing consumers in a very fun and playful way, give them a memorable experience and also it gives us a great way of sampling our consumers on our existing products or maybe new products. So what is it that you do when all of that goes up for a toss, right? And even post lockdown as you mentioned, social distancing will not necessarily just go away. I think some of it will continue to live on and it will become a part of a new norm for us. So I think there's a couple of trends that will come out of this. One, you're going to have the consumer that has a really bad case of cabin fever that is going to go out and continue to socialize and maybe start to travel and maybe be more likely to attend these types of events. But I think what's more likely is that you'll have consumers who will then decide to avoid large gatherings and spend more time with their trusted circle. So spend more time at home. And it's important for brands like ours and industry like ours to really get with the new times and adjust the new norm, which is going to be a combination of making sure that we give consumers the experience that they're looking for now at home. So focusing on the retail shops, focusing on getting our brands more in their living rooms as opposed to in person events. But then also making sure that, you know, the experience continues to live on in the digital space through virtual experiences as well. So I think those are the two ways we're going to have this new normal for us. Meena, I have to ask you. So most of the brands, they have shifted into protection or survival. While as your brand has this advantage that you can still reach out to customers, there's a few kind of relevance that your brand has. But overall, I'm just talking generally about cross brands. How important is it to maintain that customer connect during these times? And what can be done to maintain the brand connect to be on top of the customers? You can't directly sell it to them. Market products, but how do you stay in touch with brands with your customers? Sure. So there are two kinds of services, right? Services like ours and groceries, et cetera, which are essential and are still moving about. And within groceries itself, you have a large gamut of products. So one of the campaigns, for example, that I totally adore right now is the one that surface that is doing a brand that I was associated with in my past while I was at Univer. So they are really taking the real insights of, you know, children having to stay home in this lockdown. And they've said that we dug. So they are still encouraging children and they have modified their site to basically allow digitally help parents to basically engage their children. So I think for brands and for product and services that are relevant right now and are continuing to basically grow, it is about modifying it to the current consumer insight that you are, you know, you are seeing in terms of customer behavior. But for brands that are really facing a backlash in terms of, let's say, you have a whole lot of entertainment, you have hospitality, you have travel, you have even segments like Vera and other, as industry, these, I think you don't want to lose spontaneous recall and consideration in your customers ever. So, you know, it is true for not just a kind like this, but, you know, if it were only about those specific buying occasions for even buy goods as an industry where you don't tend to buy every year or every month, it is something that happens, you know, once in several years. They still continue to basically, you know, fight for that money space in your head and fight for, you know, consideration when it comes to purchase. So obviously, corona is not going to be infinite. It is not an indefinite lockdown when things open up again. You pretty much want to be top of mind for a customer when they come back to your category. So it is important for marketers at this time to work towards that. However, at a time where revenues are different, it is important to conserve cash. It is important not to spend in a way that basically jeopardizes your business and business outcomes and PNL. So therefore, brands have to find, you know, find ways to do more with less in terms of monies and revenues. And that is where creativity comes into play. That is where you start leveraging a lot of things that are happening right now, including, you know, digital specifically to build your brand and ensure that when time comes for your revival, you're still there in terms of top of mind and consideration for your customers. Niba, what do you have to say about staying in touch with your customers during these times? Yeah, I think Mira made a lot of great points. It's about doing what's right for your brand and so staying top of mind in a cost-effective way. I think we all are in different places in terms of the capabilities right now, in terms of our willingness to spend, but also in terms of what are our objectives for our brand. So there might be brands that have strong brand equity right now and maybe that's not the focus. They will decide to preserve cash and maybe save that for a stronger supply chain revival. And maybe once we decide, okay, it will make sense for us to engage with the consumers and maybe invest more into our brand equity. So for us, you know, I think it's a combination of things and we all had a moment of, you know, what do we do? What do we say? How often do we say it? And what we realized was in the end that consumers just want to hear from you as a brand and they want you to talk to them. I think they would like for the brands to keep a very real conversation, of course, not take advantage of the situation. And, you know, it's okay to not know how to start a conversation, but it's also important not to go dark. So for us, we noticed a couple of different things. We noticed right away there was a spike in our UGC. Consumers were working from home. They were posting pictures with our brands. And we really appreciated the love that we were getting from the consumers and to show our appreciation. We decided that we would repost a lot of this because we wanted to give the love right back and again share it with our community. So that was the first thing that we started to do. Second was we created a couple of different playlists on Spotify, work from home playlist, a quarantine and chill playlist, and so on. And then we invited our customers or our community to come and collaborate on those playlists with us. And then finally, something else that we actually just launched last week was we did a live session with Thomas Hartman, our brewer. And this is something that we've been wanting to do for some time. And now with this sort of increased bandwidth on our social media and a very captive audience, we had an opportunity to do that. So Thomas went live on Instagram. He spoke about our beers. He taught the viewers on how to properly taste a beer, how to pair beers with different foods. And then he opened it up to a very fun Q&A session. And I was really impressed with the questions that were coming in from the people watching. They were genuinely excited about our products. But more importantly, I think is that they were just generally excited to talk about beer and any beer for that matter. So we plan on doing more events like that with Thomas and with other people in the company. And also important to note, this is very cost effective ways of engaging our consumers. We didn't spend a tremendous amount of money. And again, I think it's just a matter of keeping the open dialogue. So we are also witnessing a lot of construction happening in the television, especially the news. And also digital. And also entertainment, online. Yeah. What do, how do marketers see this shift at the moment that is happening? And my second question is related to that. Is this behavior shift? Will it be irreversible or will it stay somehow as we move? If I have to actually wear the Sootsayals hat, my own prediction is that there are some things that are going to change. And they are going to change pretty conclusively in the post COVID scenario as well. I think movement to digital and digital buying in gender are going to witness an increase and keep growing. Because it is safer that we put it as bluntly as that. But in terms of media consumption, real media consumption has increased on television. It has increased on digital. And in both places, you're obviously, you know, lamenting that, you know, now unfortunately it's not the time to burn a lot of marketing dollars when either organically demand is crazily high in businesses like ours. Or sadly, because of, you know, not being able to function in Deepak's case, you cannot possibly sell at this time. So bad time to be actually pumping in a lot of marketing dollars behind it. But Deepak is right. You have fantastic options now with so many people coming online and so many people being engaged and wanting something or the other. And this is where if your brand can differentiate and do something, it will not cost you much. And yet you will leave behind a very good impact with a lot of your customers both existing as well as a lot of prospective one for it is time to get back. So my sense is in terms of consumption once COVID lockdown is over. I think television will go back to what it was digital while in terms of consumption will again go back to normal levels the activity on the other side. So my prediction is it will go up. E health in fact is something that will possibly become the norm rather than being something which is, you know, sub 5% kind of share the overall farm retail industry today. That that's what I think is going to happen to customer behavior and the search that you're seeing is a little more temporary. You know, let's face it once life is back to normal and people start traveling and community again those minutes that you're seeing in terms of increase will obviously get shaped off and go towards the other activities that people have to get back. Do you think? Yeah, I agree a lot with what Mira said that we are seeing a surge I think your team has reported a lot of those numbers as well web browsing is up social media engagements of e-commerce everything is up across the board right now. And, you know, brands are deciding to participate in this new virtual experience economy right the engagement is up you have a very captive audience. And, you know, I can give you a couple of personal sort of the examples you know all of the photos that have been sitting in the photo library now I have an opportunity to post all of the friends that you haven't engaged with. You know, in some time you have an opportunity to engage with as well. And I think what's really interesting is all the content that's being created right now across the board. So, I joke around, because my wife and I get called out on these tiktok challenges and we have yet to actually film a tiktok challenge, because by the time we get around to filming a tiktok challenge a new one is replaced the old one it's already old news. You know, when you think about the, the engagement and all the content that's being created right now the time that's being spent on screen, the amount of learnings that we're going to get out of this period are going to be tremendous. And I haven't even mentioned apps like, you know, zoom and house party, all of these apps I was reading something. A stat on zoom that there were 40 million downloads last month, or meaning up until the end of March so what's also interesting and those are longer format in terms of engagement. And we're going to learn our consumers a lot better after this period's over, and consumers are going to learn us a lot more, or a lot better as well post COVID. Again, if I can add over here, I think if you're a mustier, the best thing for you to do right now is really try to find ways in which your brand and be true to your brand first is able to do something meaningful in people's lives during this lockdown. I already gave you the example of suffix and doing, you know, wonderful thing in terms of helping parents manage their children and the children's time effectively. Similarly, you know, if you want to look at other brands at this moment, they have to really think about saying the corona and I just saw a comment corona is top of mind and all content around is about corona yes it is. But equally, the content that has done brilliantly for us so far in these last 20 days from an engagement perspective on various social handles that we have as well as in our customer communication has really been about how can people continue to stay fit and stay invested in their health and a lot of our customers tend to be chronic disease customers like diabetes or heart etc. So content that has really revolved around their fitness levels and how do you basically make most out of a lockdown and within home also make fitness count are some of the content that I've done brilliantly. So you have to look at how can you make a meaningful difference to your customers' lives during this lockdown and it has to be true to your brand. So we are about improving health outcomes it fits in seamlessly for us. So if you can do something like that and yes indeed for Bira people are dead bored. I can tell you I am bored. I am kind of ready to basically get out. So what can you possibly do to make my life that much livelier? What can possibly be the fun that you add to me? That is the space that your brand is in. If your brand is in a space that can make a difference please by all means go ahead and customers will actually lap it up because they are right now hungry. They are just looking to just participate and be part of something bigger and larger as compared to what this lockdown has actually put us on to. Tell me for a brand like yours Meera, this is online, this is pure online brands. How have they dealt with this sudden surge in digital transactions or going online? I mean they were not prepared. Are they, was their capacity building? What are the learnings for online brands here? They are of course getting a lot of traction but what are the learnings for them? Because they never thought that this kind of traction would ever happen on their platforms. You are right. So Rohil, business as usual has taken a complete halt and what we at MedLife are now organized as are seven almost war room formats each focusing on a different aspect of business. Each one of us from the leadership team is anchoring a particular part of it. So we are literally on a war room footing because every day, even without us spending a single paisa, we are facing double the demand that we were pre COVID lockdown. And on the ground, we still have only about 60% attendance on the off side. So how do you really make things match? How do you make a difference? How do you ensure that healthcare and health coming home doesn't get hampered at this time is what the business has completely reorganized itself into? And one key part of it, and this is where I think from an online business perspective, more than marketing for the traditional metrics like awareness and consideration, etc. Our focus and my focus particularly because I lead that entire piece is completely towards customer communication. If you have 500,000 people coming on to your platform each day and each one buying to basically order and wanting medicines delivered home, you can't do that. I am in no position to do that. And I have to manage at this time with stress levels already being so high, the customer sentiment for both those who are coming onto the platform as well as those who are placing an order and for whatever reasons on ground, if it is delayed or if it is partially delivered, etc. So customer communication therefore has taken up much bigger focus on the e-commerce platforms that are still continuing to operate, wherein one, we have to show enough empathy for people who are coming onto the platform and ordering with us. Second, we have to be transparent and we have to be transparent so that we don't over promise and under deliver. We are better off doing it the other way. And third, we have to basically continuously engage with them. And at this point in time, there is nothing called over communication. You communicate and communicate and that's how you will continue to maintain the relationships that you have. And even at this time where customer experience is taking a hit unfortunately, you will maintain your relationships and manage to hold your customers on. So I think for e-commerce companies that is really the key. Deepak, for brands that used to beg on offline experience, what are the learnings for those brands? Yeah, I think the learning is a couple of the sort of conclusions I think that we will have is that people, as I mentioned earlier, will adjust to this new normal, especially with social distancing and concern, even when businesses resume here of being around large groups of audiences and so on or large groups of people. So I think, yes, we do rely heavily offline. I think our business will then shift even more so in focusing on the at home experience, focusing on getting the retail shops stopped up with our products. And also then I mentioned getting the experience online in addition to in-person. So I think we'll have to cater to this new trend. And I shouldn't call it a new trend because I think naturally just millennials and all these new consumers have been referring to stay more at home anyway. I think it's just going to be a little bit more accelerated and you'll be with smaller, more intimate groups. So I think it's just prioritizing your business and adjusting here. Meena, if I have to ask you, what would be the three big points that you would like to share with market heroes about reaching out to the customer base? Do you quickly answer this earlier also, but just one or two big points during this pandemic? What are the three big advice points? My first point is nothing different from what I would talk about marketing if it was business as usual and not a COVID lockdown. What you do as a brand has to be true to two things. One is your brand itself and the brand DNA and two is your customer and customer insight. Please find meaningful ways to actually be a part of your customer life. Don't try to be faffy. If it is faffy, it will fall flat. So if you have a meaningful way to actually solve for something that you're a problem or a need that your customer is facing, that is where and that is how you actually build brand and brand love. That is the first one. So please have that clarity in your head before you start doing anything. Don't do things for the sake of doing things. Please do it when you see a perfect fit between your brand and your customer's needs and concerns at this moment. The second one is if there was a time that this is the time to actually go over some Medicaid and not actually hold check. Your customers, you know, you don't want to basically disappear and be out of sight and out of mind, despite the fact that you might be in a business that currently is severely hampered because of the lockdown. So this is a time to be there, be out of the open, communicate and even possibly over communicate. Thirdly, I think it is critical at this time that every brand definitely has some empathy towards its customers. This empathy is something that will anyways come out through your communication, but without that, you will end up being very superficial and really not touch the customers the way you want to for building long-term associations. And yes, lastly, I know it's a fourth point, but do not spend an overspend. I know there are some comments would say that, you know, marketing is the first target for cutting down budgets at this time. And being a CMO and having been in marketing for a long enough time, sorry to hurt some sentiments, but that's precisely the call that I would take because every pop that you spend needs to give you ROI, right? At a time where it is not going to give you that ROI, buy, burn it, use lower cost options, conserve cash at this moment, but stay relevant. And then when the time comes, by all means, go and spend. So my advice to brand marketers is use this time to really think about everything that is happening or has happened in your organization. Challenge the status quo, anything that you've been getting repeat on. Really challenge to see if it's working and use this time to understand your consumers on a much deeper level through engagement online, through consumer insights, as Mira mentioned, understand new ways of getting to those consumers and get all of your plans in execution mode and don't overcomplicate things right now as you have this opportunity to think. When it comes specifically to our industry, you know, we always say that there hasn't been a playbook handed down to us when it comes to beer in India, unlike markets like the US or Belgium where this is handed down, you know, a generation by generation, it's a very traditional industry. So we're all creating the path as we go along. So it gives us an opportunity to really be able to dive deep. So that is one, two, I think, you know, as a brand marketer, of course, your first job at hand is to excite consumers and create consumer demand. I think that's a textbook answer when it comes to what a marketer does, but I think what's equally important and probably more important in today's time, especially post COVID is to make sure you excite the organization, especially if you're a sales organization like like mine, because the sales teams and everyone else is looking towards marketing to get them energized and excited about the different programs and different things in terms of maybe brands and so on, that you are working with, right? And we have to be real because it is going to be a dogfight when the markets open up and the bars open up and the retail shops open up. So it's incumbent upon us as marketers to make sure we keep our sales guys and gals, you know, keep their head in the game, keep them excited and make sure that the tools that we're giving them are tools that are effective tools to help them immediately. And we need to just cut all of the fluff right now and focus on getting them exactly what they need. And I think the third piece, which I'm very passionate about is getting out. I think as brand marketers and anyone in the head office at some point or at multiple times throughout the year, you said, you know what, I need to get out in the field more often. And I need to learn the market a little better. I need to see my brands and so on. I think now is the time where you have to get out in the field, roll up your sleeves, get in the trenches with your sales teams and show them the support, standing shoulder to shoulder with them, as a matter of your CEOs, CMO, supply chain, HR admin, everyone needs to get out there and support the team. And also, you know, we don't have the luxury right now to wait for information. We need to make real time decisions when we're out there. So the teams need us, they need us to keep them energized and keep their heads in the game, and also just have fun. I think that goes without saying, make sure that you're having fun and you're keeping a positive energy because as leaders, it's again important for us to be able to deliver that energy to the power organization. I actually really find that Deepak made the second one is there are two customers at this time to hand. One is the external customers that you have to buy your products and services. The second and equally important customers that you have to really take care of and ensure that they are equally motivated and engaged are your own employees. Right. And every company I think is having a tough time, not being able to see people and you know, it's not business as usual. And that equally is a marketing opportunity and that is actually the marketing team's job in my opinion. So at this time, you know, effectively market your own internal employee organization and keep them completely motivated and inspired. I do more questions and then we have a lot of questions from the viewers, we are live on Facebook. And for our Twitter, those who are on Twitter, they can find us in the hashtag before and rather now they can keep live with us, they can keep the question. So I have this question that we have seen you have some of the brands that try to sell during this. What will happen to brands that use this situation to sell. I mean, I mean, what is your, how do you see that people say that it's not the right thing to do. How do you see, what do you have to tell those brands that try to make most see that this as an opportunity to kind of grow and what do you have to tell them. I don't think, you know, public memory is short, but not that short. So thankfully I haven't seen any brand, particular brand per se trying to make a quick buck over here. In fact, I've seen most people behave very maturely during this time. But, but it would, it would really reflect on you, your organization and your brand as someone who doesn't quite care about customers and is only behind profits. I don't think that that would be a right behavior at all. And God forbid that someone take this kind of stupid decision, then only live to regret it much later. Even good thoughts. I would agree. I think consumers, if you're using this time to turn a quick buck and take advantage of the situation, and you're grossly underestimating today's consumer. There's just way too much information out there and they might, depending on what you're selling purchase whatever you're selling today depending on if it's a commodity or not but they will not forget that so I don't think we should underestimate the consumer and if you are to make a quick buck then make as much as money as you can today. And it is, it is an age where I don't think there is any information asymmetry anymore, right? You're going to democratize the information bird and therefore this is something that's going to keep coming back to haunt you if you're ever, you know, dare to do something like this. So now that the lockdown has been extended, there's a burn of the name and what is the road to recovery like? How do you see the road to recovery? Of course, it is going to take some time, but how would it pan out? Oh, sorry. No, you go first. All right. I thought you said that. No, this time you take it first. Sure, we'll have the two different answers here. Maybe similar answers, but no good. Sorry. All right. So my personal opinion is that the road to recovery is going to be a little tough. This is not a financial crisis. It's a health crisis. And given that it's a health crisis for which we still don't have any cure or vaccine, it is not likely to go away soon. A lot of things are going to be restricted even post lockdown is slowly eased away. And what will happen also macroeconomics is obviously going to take over and people see signs of recession coming in immediately after this. Therefore, I don't see recovery being a very smooth road. It's in fact going to be super rocky. And it is at this time that and that's why against stress that conserving cash at this time and not overspending will actually help brands to be able to advertise at the time where they are able to properly assure supplies to customers. And, you know, they are able to actually take advantage of whatever spends that they're going to do. So my sense is that the ad the addicts industry is going to be a little muted even in the coming quarters. It is going to be very difficult for a lot of people to bounce back and bounce back quickly because cash flows will be constrained. People will have problems over there and I do see an overall tip continuing for at least a quarter more in terms of overall at expenditure. Yeah, so I agree. I think the road to recovery is going to be very challenging, especially in certain industries like the alcohol industry. And I think the best way we can prepare for those challenges is what we're doing and I'm sure many other companies are doing right now is just preparing for all of these different scenarios. We have a great team over at beer and I call them the data warriors and they've been working at figuring out all of these different scenarios, what is the best of the worst case scenario worse of the worst case scenario. And, and then making sure that, you know, all the departments and aligned to these different scenarios so I think being prepared for the worst and hoping for the best I think is a saying that is very much relevant right now for all of us because there are so many variables that we're still having to deal with. Again, as you mentioned the lockdown being extended today, who knows what's going to happen in terms of businesses opening up and who gets prioritized or not. So I think as brand marketers, the road to recovery will be tough and we need to align as closely as the sales more than ever than before. And, you know, as I mentioned, make sure that we're a good partner to them, and give them clear focus on putting the right brands in the right places what are those configurations how do we get the back end the line to those configurations and and then making sure that we keep the morale on the team up. And when business resumes and those bands are lifted that we get out there and support them any which way we can so I think it's a tough task ahead of us. But I am also very impressed with all of the camaraderie and the unity has which has come together not just within our organization but I think for humanity. Overall, and you see that through I'm sure all of your WhatsApp group chats. Everyone's like rolling up their sleeve willing to pitch in and help out wherever they can so I think this experience has taught us to be more human and I think that will translate into the workspace as well. We'll do it together. So we have a lot of questions coming from yours and I have some of them with me so I'll ask we can answer the one by one deeper. Let me pick up one question is by Rajeev dash his question is that how are you going to plan the social media at this point of time social media going to be very critical in terms of digital plan going forward. So if you look at the stats, the percentage of time being spent on social media has gone up. So yes, you have if you want to engage customers that is one place to actually engage them. And it's always so you just follow your customers. So if your customers are there on social media and large numbers and if you have something that can really engage and interest them at this time. I will not give you specific in terms of how much budget to park here and there, etc. But it is really about what's the objective that you're going with me, for example, contrary to what contrary to the data, I'm actually spending less on social media today, because there is so much of organic little demand and so much of customer base itself that is coming to the platform and using more CRM and CRM platforms and marketing automation rather than social media. But social media is a great place to be if you as a brand just want to remain top of mind and build consideration at this time for your future demand. Deepak, your thoughts. Yeah, I think with social media, you can't plan too far out right now and you have to plan on a week by week basis and it's also has to strike a balance between what are your objectives and and managing the sensitivity of the audience right now. So I think for us what we've have done is we are keeping a check on the tone that we use we're posting events like we're doing throwback posts where we're reminding consumers of the good times and keeping them optimistic that normal or life will resume again when it comes to not just our brands but being out and about and being social. So I think when it comes to planning, you have to do it on a week by week basis like many other things in any organization right now and I would agree with Mira you know not to over invest right now in social media just don't try to fit into conversations that as a brand you just don't genuinely fit into again consumers are very smart and you may be taking advantage of a situation and just trying too hard. So keep it real, keep the very honest tone and do whatever you can in terms of planning. Does it question for you Deepak? This is from Amit Kala. He says post COVID will be the look how will be the look at packaging and distribution innovation. I mean, is there a barrier in supply with any kind of barrier in supply chain post COVID how could you address those issues? So is there a barrier in supply chain? Yeah, there's one really big barrier. I won't mention who the barrier is right now, but the barrier of course are all the bands right now, but I think in terms of when let's say business resumes and the outlets start to open up again and our breweries are allowed to function again the barrier is going to be the just complexity of supply chain logistics in India and I think what's important for us to deal with that challenge is making sure that the front end when it comes to our sales teams have very specific targets and focuses. So again, having the right brand in the right place not trying to sell all of our eight brands everywhere. And once we have that clarity then the supply chain will also have a lot of efficiency. So I think in order for us to overcome that barrier, simplify everything, make sure you prioritize which brands need to go where and get the inventory in stock as soon as possible for all of our customers. So our viewers can read the hashtag. Next question is for both of you, which is from partner Sati Natarajan. He is asking what how do you keep your internal customers, employees and dealers engaged in this crisis and some examples. Very good question for which I actually want to talk to people. So we were also completely struggling with this initially because our focus was entirely on ensuring operations resumes. Pretty much everybody in the organization was geared towards that but here are some things that I think will help. One, I think you have a lot of apps these days including WhatsApp itself as groups and if your organization has something like Microsoft team or it has stack then it obviously makes it easier for people to interact across not just within teams but even across teams. What I am doing personally is and this is the fun aspect of it. Every evening 5.30 to 6 in fact after this call we have something called coffee chat and this is mandatory half hour that everybody joins in over Zoom or Hangout and the one thing that you are forbidden to talk about is work. So half an hour of banter, half an hour of absolutely chilling off and trying to make up for some of the time pass that you will normally do in office on a normal day when you are working rather than conversations and meetings just being to the point. So we do this within departments very effectively and it is indeed so refreshing. People are coming out with so much creativity, so much innovation. They are playing quizzes, they are quizzing each other. There is DJ. People have come up with DJ mixes and records that they play and you have others generally shaking their head and grooving to it and you have untaxary and groups being made over there. People are sharing the kind of things that they are doing. They are challenging each other to stuff. People who are avid gamers are saying, oh you are on this game. Let's play and there are two sides egging them on. So half an hour in a day to organize it as a formal calendar invite that people can basically use to come and just do anything and everything other than work is something that we are doing at BedLife and it has so far been very effective. People are loving it. They actually look forward to it. Secondly, I think it is equally important to engage people on the ground as much as you have corporate employees on the ground also those are the people who are really my health warriors and for them what we are doing is one calling them out and recognizing them. It is amazing that when so many people are scared and shut there are still so many of them in BedLife who are still braving it out there going there. Some walking as much as 6 and 10 km by foot because public transport is not there. So to recognize these people, to call them out. We even have a personal call by one of us in the leadership team is something that we are doing to encourage them and really make them feel good. We are also ensuring that we make sure that customers that they have delivered to and when they are giving them a word of appreciation. We are actually sending it out to them and telling them that what they are doing is so important not just for BedLife but also for India and thereby keeping that constant stream of engagement going for even the ground people. Anand Harcio has been very proactive. He is literally releasing one minute, one and a half minute kind of videos of him talking to different departments every other day. And that is his way of ensuring that he is able to actually be there at least in video and spirit if not in person with all these people at this time. So I think there are tons of things that you can do and it is really about giving employees and it is not a very great period. I am telling you personally I am bored but equally it is also a little frustrating. So you have to help your people come out of that. You have to create positivity and therefore our evening banter groups are a great way that we are able to do that and we are maintaining it. Similarly a whole lot of other initiatives which really inspires and motivates us. We are at it every day and it is working so far. Deepak, how are you keeping your internals stakeholders in case of emergency? Sameer had a lot of great examples that I am going to now implement. I like a lot of ideas that you shared and on our side we have a learning and development portal that our HR team has put together with many different sessions and everything from learning more about beer, learning more about our business, different modules and so on. So we really wrapped up the seminars and content on the L and D portal. So all of the organization has access to that. As I mentioned Thomas has held a couple of sessions internally and also for our consumers. So I think we are all using this time to keep everyone engaged in many different ways that touches our business and making sure that every individual has a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging even if all of the outlets are shut and you are getting bored at home and so on at least you have some way of continuously improving yourself. So that comes a very good platform for us is this learning and development tool we call it the B school. So that is one and then also when it comes to our retailers and the different bars and restaurants and so on. So our sales teams have been staying in touch with them giving them updates and also just again keeping an open dialogue. Maybe too often you get caught up in like not knowing what to say and maybe we'll shy away from communicating overall but just keep an open dialogue. I think it's an unprecedented time for all of us and just staying in touch is very important. That should be the baseline of all of your relationships right now and figure it out from there. So those are a couple of ways that are keeping all of our stakeholders engaged. This is a question for you Deepak. This is from Shiba Bhudani and her question is that as you mentioned that experiences will move to living rooms and trusted circles. Given the lack of place a huge role in socializing and repression, do we see this category seeing an upswing post for it? The category of entertaining at home? Yeah, I think absolutely we're going to see an upswing of people spending more time at home. For the reasons I mentioned earlier where a lot of people are still going to be reluctant to be in large places. So maybe if you were walking into a bar a couple of months ago and it was busy and you were looking to socialize and it would be a great scene to see a very busy bar. Like look at all these people and I'll get to meet new people and talk to different people and maybe now the sentiment is a little different. This bar is a little crowded for me and maybe I don't want to be around so many people or attend a festival and concert. So I think we will see an upswing in people wanting to spend time at home. I think that also is something that's supported with the trend of the social taboos of alcohol easing up across India. And you know we're seeing of course more people becoming of drinking age. So all of that I think is leading to this big cultural shift and this COVID quarantine situation is going to send more people in their living rooms drinking beer. In more trusted environments than potentially going out as much as they used to. Of course we'll still have it the group of people that will go out and want to just get out of the house and have a beer anywhere. Whether it's at a bar or picking up a beer from a retail shop and spending some time elsewhere. There's another question from Julian Karathil. I hope I got the name right. The question to you Veera is will there be a trust deficit in brands post COVID-19 days? Will there be any trust deficit where brands are concerned? Trust deficit happens either when you screw up customer experience or you basically get embroiled in some kind of controversy that comes and affects you. Or there is something seriously called out in terms of your overall quality. So if you are not going to falter on any of these items I don't see why there should be a trust deficit. In fact brands that manage to pull it off in terms of being able to serve people at this time will only see increased trust in them rather than decreased trust. So unless you basically say that you are going to fall on your own feet. So unless it is going to be that kind of a case I don't think there is any need for trust deficit to suddenly surface up. Right. For you Deepak I have this question that this will be for both of you. I'll start with you Deepak. What about sponsorships for outdoor events? How do you see events in the industry in the near future? Yeah so I think those sponsorships are going to be affected across the board, across our entire industry. But what is really reassuring is how these platforms and these different organizations are moving the experiences online. So I think maybe yes the media thought is that those will be affected. But I think overall everyone is adjusting and they are adjusting very quickly. And you see brands doing anything from like live DJ sets to full-on concerts are artists going online and just wanting to connect with their consumers in so many different intelligent ways. So overall things will, there's really bad things. Very good. Sorry. So you have to really overall all of the industries. This is my last question. We are almost done with time. Quick 30 second answer. This is from, he has not mentioned his name but they want to see how do we see BTL you know what would happen to BTL post COVID 19? BTL is going to, I think it's happening because of the link back. BTL is again going to take a hit. Digital is the one that will really meet the benefits of this entire post COVID lockdown for some time. After that I think you know given that as people we really resent being locked down like this for a long time. When it does open up I think it might have more avenues for BTL. Deepak your thoughts? Yes I think the question was how is BTL going to be affected and I think for us BTL is going to be more important than ever. And making sure again we're supporting the sales teams where they need it the most and we're cutting a lot of the sort of nice to have from our marketing focusing on those tactical programs getting out in the field and giving them the tools that they need today and not maybe tomorrow. I think that we'll have to get phased out to maybe later in the year once we can get our distribution in place and correct things at the point of purchase for our sales teams first. I think that's it for today and thank you so much for your time, great valuable insights shared here and thanks for all the engagement and great questions coming from the audience viewers there. Thank you and see you soon. Thank you. Thanks.