 Welcome to Pitch Brand Top where insights meet innovation in the world of brands. Today, we're thrilled to host Ms. Kushnima Kapadia, Vice President of Marketing, South Asia for Marriott International, a brand in the hospitality sector committed to improve the glides of the communities they serve and open doors to new opportunities. Welcome, Kushnima. It's a pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you, Rukita. You're welcome. Marriott has recently, for their Bonvoy property, they have partnered with Ed Sheeran's Mathematics India tour. So, I mean, that's a big one being their loyalty partner. So, congratulations on that one. And I also sort of want to understand, you know, this partnership with Ed Sheeran is exciting, of course, but then how is the tour the best fit for Marriott Bonvoy? And how do you sort of plan to leverage this high-profile collaboration and sort of enhancing, not only member experiences, but also amplifying the brand visibility? So, let me first start with amplifying the brand visibility because obviously, that is the most obvious, you know, goal for any brand, right? Because we obviously want to position ourselves in a way that we continuously become top of mind recall amongst everything, amongst all the categories that we are positioning our different products. And loyalty programs are just one such category where we believe strongly that it's still not, it's still underused, to be honest, especially in the hospitality space. And the field is really large, the field is really wide for all players to really capture the share of the pie. And this is really our critical objective and our vision. And it's a global objective and vision. We just recently signed up a 200 millionth member globally. And it's massive because what loyalty programs really project is the fact that, you know, you are really the top of mind and the most preferred product that your guests and your customers want to engage with and want to show their loyalty to. And from a business perspective, that is very, very critical to us, especially as the canvas of competition keeps getting wider and wider, right? So we do believe that loyalty programs is the way to go in terms of growing our business as well. And in terms of everything that we have to offer in terms of our facilities and our amenities within the hardware of our hotels. Right. Why Ed Sheeran, to be really honest with you, is that it's a huge platform. Typically, we also partnered with Mumbai Indians two years back. And India is a very peculiar country in terms of what is it that clicks with the audience if you want to achieve large scale visibility. So there is cricket, there is Bollywood. And now, of course, there's this whole world of entertainment when it comes to music. And we believe that by partnering with such large scale, large decibel events, so we are also able to provide moments that money can't buy, which is really the ethos of what Marriott Bonn was all about. And so we recently partnered with Taylor Swift for the Eras Tour as well. And it was a phenomenal success because a lot of people realized that as a brand, we are really alternating away from hospitality into very, very virgin spaces to really connect and engage with our audiences and providing them with access that would otherwise be very far. And which is the same philosophy for India as well. While you can buy tickets and you can be in a general access area, but if you become a Marriott Bonn boy member and you engage with us on our sleepsticks, you get access to a private VIP lounge. And who wouldn't want to be part of an experience that one is very new into the country. I mean, I think Ed Sheeran is performing for the first time in India, especially on this scale. And then to watch it within the confines of a VIP lounge as well as to have high networked individuals around you. So it also provides you with a networking space. So really for us, our big, big ticket is enrollments. Our big ticket is having people redeem their points into the program. And by and large, giving the brand that level of mammoth publicity, which can only happen if you're partnering on this kind of a scale. And honestly, the philosophies of marketing are also typically changing, right? We all realize that India is a billion population country and you want to get the major share of that buy, you need to make sure that you are partnering with people who have an equally big muscle. And hence book my show came into the picture because they have a very, very wide reach and we're trying to go into tier two, tier three markets for whom the audience finds events like this in a bombay city, very aspirational. So it kind of hits at all our objectives and our goals. And that was actually the idea of putting our muscle behind Ed Sheeran. Right. And very rightly said, and you also talked about how loyalty programs is really underutilized in India. But globally, it's a really big thing. So could you shed some light on sort of the growth trajectory of how loyalty programs is involved in India market and any notable trends or factors that is driving this evolution? Yeah, so actually, like I said, what was loyalty programs within the travel space, right? The most popular one was the one that Jet Airways used to, you know, drop a gig to be honest, until they of course, unfortunately shut down. And we realized that a lot of people would travel Jet Airways only because they knew they could get points and they knew they could get free tickets. And this was in an era where travel was not even so much in the front end center. Today post the pandemic, we all realize and I say this on many, many forums that travel has become the new, it's not a cost anymore for a family, it's an investment. People want to invest in memories. People want to invest lesser and lesser in material acquisitions than more and more into garnering experiences for themselves. And which is where we come into the picture with our loyalty program because what you get with this loyalty program is unbelievable benefits, unbelievable number of room nights that you can avail of once you've on points. Today once upon a time the myth was you can only avail of points when you stay with us. But now you can avail of points even when you eat with us, even a cup of coffee will give you points, right? And so also typically we've seen and this is very anecdotal so I'm not really sure, it's not necessarily backed by very heavy data analysis or statistics but India is a point junkie market. We like to earn points on everything. You are rewarded for shopping or spending on money. Absolutely. And it's also a very good mindset to be honest with you. So you want to earn points but you don't want to necessarily part with them because you feel, oh my God, let me just collect more and more and more and you want to change that mindset. We want to make sure that we tell our people that you can earn as well as you can redeem. And these are some of the ways that we are kind of changing the mindset shift of how people are consuming us as well and how people need to consume loyalty programs because it's not just about acquisition. You need to constantly keep engaging in the cycle by relieving. That's the only way you will be able to benefit from a loyalty program of such a stature of such a brand and look at what it can give you when you are traveling. It's an immense amount of benefit. So also another thing we need to understand is the fact that now hotels are penetrating into smaller and smaller and smaller tertiary markets as well and I mean this kind of reach, this kind of a program in a market that has no exposure at all to what a loyalty program is, is massive and we believe we can cash in on that as a first move on. Right. So just to add a little bit more on this, I mean you go to a tier two market and all the individuals who live in urban setups believe they are all tier two markets won't know about or what do they know about a net share or what do they know but it's unbelievable how aspirational it is and how evolved and how well-traveled people who reside in these markets are and we actually want to make sure we are reaching them with our loyalty program. Absolutely and you rightly pointed out I mean personally I observe this trend where the Gen Z in specifics if we talk is really obsessed with say a Taylor Swift or a Rihanna for that matter and it goes beyond the demographics of say a tier one and tier two so I mean you're Rihanna has now become the new icon of India with the fact that you know of course the Ammanis used up for the genre but you know extravaganza so clearly now if you realize she's been put on the I wouldn't say on the international I mean she's obviously very popular but she's literally on the national landscape now you know so somebody sitting in a small little town is going to know who Rihanna is so let's not underestimate how much people are now getting onto the bandwagon of international stars as well and do you want to be able to provide those kind of experiences and those kind of moments for our guests without any sort of discrimination. Right right of course and with new and young consumers coming into the picture I mean your target audience is also expanding by the day so it's it's important for you to also sort of get the next generation of travellers on board with the idiot. So what are the strategies in place for you know resonating with the younger audiences considering their expectations and consumer consumption patterns and behaviours are continuously evolving. Yeah so Ritika you know we've been working with the millennial mindset for a very very long period of time I mean I remember four or five years not even four or five years back six seven years back it was literally on our strategy map because individuals who were in the you know in the Gen Z right in the Gen Z you know category of individuals we knew they were going to now they were going to soon become the customers who had that kind of financial propensity and the discerning power to spend at our hotels and so we wanted to speak their language and any kind of strategy if you want to bring it to fruition you've got to be very forward thinking it's not like today I think of this strategy and tomorrow I'm going to be able to execute it and I'm going to see those levels of success you need to have the oversight to be able to put things into motion and into a certain wheel churn from certain period of time that you see that you know it's a long-term play let's just put it that way in a nutshell and so we've been working with that mindset right from data analysis to insights to what is it that is going to trigger or something inside these this new generation to want to stay with us and to want to travel with us and to want to stay with us and and then we engineered our product accordingly we engineered our marketing strategy accordingly we're very very heavily invested in the digital space we have an entirely curated evolved digital arm that is constantly evolving with technology with newer ways to function in a room you know no longer are we constantly living in the arcade ways of you know even our room product because your room product also has to appeal to a new gen right a new these these young kids are not going to go finding a switch they are not going to be able they are not they don't have the bandwidth or the patience for that so you've got to be everything accessible at the tip of your at the tip of their finger you've got to make sure social media is accessible you've got to make sure otp platforms are accessible within the confines of their state so even the food even the food that you curate in our restaurant now needs to be different it needs to be appealing it's not just about putting a chicken tikka on a plate it's about how you present that chicken tikka so you don't ever forget the core basics of hospitality because that's those tenants will never change but you've got to make sure that your strategy evolves around a way that it's changing what the times and that it is very very heavily invested in that right right of course these power marketing partnerships are a way and a means of doing that we've recently tied up with hdfc to come out with the co-branded or you know travel card which is a first credit card travel credit card in in India and it's a fantastic tool for young girl for young kids because not for young kids for young adults because they have this credit card and you know you can use this credit card anywhere you don't have to use it just within marriott you can use it anywhere and earn points and so you're creating an entire generation of responsible travelers right i'm sure i'm sure it takes a lot of hard work to make everything palatable for the young adults but apart from that you spoke about it's not just palatable it's making sure that they are hooked onto you otherwise they can move they can move to the next best best thing very very fast right it's a fickle mindset let's be honest absolutely you really spoke about the you know experiential part of things and how it's really important for people today to invest in experiences so i'm sure this collaboration is one part of it there must be other you know experiential offerings from you also that you sort of leverage so then one could you talk about that a little and also what type of specific experiences resonate most with the consumers of today so it's a plethora of things to be honest i think the most is now Ritika very it's long gone i mean nobody's nobody's loyal to one experience right because obviously social media has created an entire gamut of a mindset where you want to be with it right you want to be you want to be sure that if you're experiencing something then i'm going to join that bandagon as well and just in the language of the millennial right you feel the former correct so um i don't think there's one thing that can really hook you on it's you've got to experiment and you've got to be everywhere so we've done we've also partnered with the australia tennis open that relationship has been extremely successful successful one for the last three years you know and we've seen some phenomenal results in terms of redemption and in terms of partners and in terms of endorsements from the tennis stars and so that's the world of sports we've been where we're partnering with Manchester united we also did itl which is cricket is the real cricket is religion in in india so it's not just music we've actually gone across the board last year we had a massive shadi by marriott event which was anchored by karan joe world so we are not restricting ourselves only to you know one avenue music it's in india i mean it's relevant in india bollywood sports i mean we were also in i think if i'm not mistaken and one year we also partnered with the oscars you know so my point is globally we are present in large-scale you know events which give us that kind of bump up in our brand visibility right right uh you talked about your partnership with mumbai indians in the past then we also talked about the global partnership with taylor swift yeah since taylor swift is in the same music category as ed sheeran so were there any specific learnings globally that you would like to put into india market to you know sort of push the envelope when it comes to this tour and catering to the audiences oh launis i think it's uh that would be a little tough to answer to be honest because honestly um these partnerships are by and large pretty successful you know in the way they are designed and in the way they are engineered you know to kind of customize itself to the interest levels but probably the only learning i would say is that you know taylor swift was performing in different parts of asia so obviously there is that feeling of you know she's not performing in india correct so unfortunately so the mindset is that let us promote her yours so that in case somebody wants to travel because we're looking at individuals who travel across continents right but i do feel that when you partner in a setup which is happening in the country and where people get the touch feel and sample those are definitely more successful than just trying to promote something that is not necessarily happening within your ambit of influence so i think from a learnings perspective that would be one of the biggest learnings i think the second biggest learning is you know it's it's incredibly hard to manage the whole process of celebrities right so you've got to make sure that as far as your strategy is concerned you've got all your ducks in a row before you put your finger in this pie because it's a complicated and complex process so i can i may want to give the world of an experience to my customer but if it doesn't resonate with the singer or it doesn't resonate with you know with the star then that becomes a very tricky situation because you're caught between between the customer who you want to provide everything to and within the limitations of what your partnership can help you provide so the process is very tedious and very laborious i think the contracting processes are very complex so that takes up a huge chunk of your time but other than that i think it only drives benefit right right yeah i picked up on a line where you said that we have had the millennial mindset for a very long time so how do you see when i talk about the marketing strategy for marriott as a whole how do you see the marketing strategy evolving in the future and how far has it has evolved in the last few years so the last few years was really a 50-50 balance between around 50-50 i think that would be premature it was a 60-40 balance between doing a lot of offline visa we have a lot of online strategies when it came to our marketing mix i think that entire dynamic that entire dynamic has completely changed it's completely become you know sort of lopsided in a way that now digital has become huge it's become massive right so all sorts of digital strategies are now getting incorporated and we believe that the world is that is the way to go that is how the world is going to consume brands that is that is the way the world is going to consume information so today look at newspapers how many people are picking up on newspaper visa we reading news online so my point is that that has completely changed the dynamics of the way we do marketing and i totally believe that if you are not on the digital bandwagon you may as well get out of the get out of the race because clearly technology is the future and social media and the usage of influencers and how you can make them work by your category not just going on mass but making influencers entrenched into your brand so that you get that social media endorsement from you know from major influencers is really the key to how you really need to engineer your marketing strategies right right and any future strategies that marriott have been has in place for further member acquisition and engagement in the future yes we do want to explore the credit card space a lot more we do want to make sure that we are you know we partnered with a lot of celebrity chefs in the past for our food and beverage options so we want to see how we can you know sort of dynamically amplify that and make our you know partnerships a lot more interesting and a lot more palatable and a lot more large in the way we present our format because today nothing in small measures work you know you either go the whole I think I think we've seen that the nobody's doing anything in small measures anymore including weddings so my point is that well clearly that is the way you know today brands can cut from the cut through the clutter and kind of stand out so obviously these are going to be involved in these you know in these allied partnerships rather than just traditional partnerships of hospitality right so go big or go home basically yeah it is I think it is that I mean it's go big or go home really right anything else that you'd like to add no not at all I just think thank you so much and I just like to really urge you know everyone who's uh seeing this uh and listening to this that they really need to if they really want to engage with marriage then they need to sign up and you know they need to become married born more members and this is not a marketing pitch but clearly you know it's it's it's a fantastic loyalty program to be part of thank you so much for doing this today I really appreciate it thank you so much thanks a lot see you bye bye