A Clarion Call For Change

For decades, FMCG companies have created value through a marketing model built around scale. But Sanjiv Mehta, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever Limited, says the entire business model must be re-invented in today’s digital landscape, with data and technology shaping precision marketing. Delivering the valedictory address at the exchange4media Group’s 9th Indian Digital Marketing Awards in Mumbai last week, Mehta highlighted the need for speed in communication with consumers, while decoding the power of vernacular content and voice.

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Digital is not going to influence only marketing, but the entire connected world. Marketing is one of the key functions, and it’s going to be impacted, but all industries and the entire value chain would be impacted in a significant way as we go forward. Just a decade ago, no one owned a smartphone, Twitter was an English word, we didn’t know Facebook and we shopped exclusively in real shops. That was the kind of context in which all of us grew up learning marketing. Now, that world has changed significantly and dramatically, and the change that we have seen in the past will really be put to shame by change which is going to come in the future.

Now, of the important factors that are shaping India, one is mobile. The other important ones are urbanization and the empowerment of rural consumers. In India, unlike China, urbanization is yet to take place. We are still talking about 67% of our country living in rural areas, but these consumers would be empowered like we have never seen before. Another trend is the power of vernacular content. When Google started its vernacular services, the search spiked up by 60% in the very first week. That’s the kind of power of vernacular. And, of course, another factor is how voice is going to change the world, and the role that influencers play in making consumers pick up their choice.

Now, the future of the industry is already here. But, the key aspect is what technology exists today will get reshaped tomorrow. And what was best in class or a Next Gen practice last year has already become outdated today.

CHANGING MODEL OF THE FMCG SECTOR