In an interaction with NCN Magazine, Mr. Naved Chaudhary, Head of Marketing, Ingram Micro India, shares about their market focus, customer orientation and business strategy for the Indian market.
Ingram Micro India Pvt Ltd (IMIL), a subsidiary of Ingram Micro Inc, USA, today is one of the top IT Distribution companies in India with a nationwide presence at nearly 40+ locations. Ingram Micro Inc (the parent company of IMIL) is the world’s largest technology distributor, providing sales, marketing and logistics services for the IT industry worldwide. Ingram Micro helps businesses fully realize the promise of technology helping them maximize the value of the technology that they make, sell or use. With its vast global infrastructure and focus on cloud, mobility, technology lifecycle, supply chain and technology solutions, Ingram Micro enables business partners to operate more efficiently and successfully in the markets they serve.
How does the data-driven approach help marketing?
To be competitive in the evolving digital economy, businesses must generate insights that are forward-thinking and innovative. Data allows organizations to visualize relationships between what is happening in different locations, departments and systems while looking at these data points side-by-side allows us to develop more accurate theories and put into place more effective solutions. It enables organizations to evolve and improve over time, adapt to changes and allow contribution from all levels of the organization.
Today, marketing is driven by data-backed research and customer information that can be captured at every stage in the buying process. Today, companies adopting business intelligence solutions help users draw conclusions into insights and put predictive analytics to discover patterns forecast future patterns and take plausible action. The following are some key pointers that help your business at the forefront through data-driven strategies:
- Personalize Your Campaigns
- Optimize Multiple Marketing Channels
- Data enables better decisions
- Improved risk analysis
- More effective threat identification
- Increase Customer Engagement
- Embrace Marketing Automation
- Better handle on compliance.
How is the new way of hybrid working impacting marketing and other operations?
The pandemic has undoubtedly altered many elements of our lives. The post-pandemic scenario introduced us to the hybrid working model which most companies are trying to adopt. Marketing and other operations are also impacted by the hybrid work culture, and a few of them are highlighted below.
- Shortening campaign turnaround times: The hybrid schedule has helped to reduce the amount of time spent on the campaign process. Different marketing teams that work on a campaign usually work the same hours. Adopting diverse work schedules using a hybrid schedule helps speed up the process.
- Flexibility boosts productivity: People with flexible schedules have a better life-work balance. The home office allows for less commuting hours, which reduces stress and saves cost and time. The hybrid model still allows employees to meet at the office and collaborate in teams to support healthy work culture and inclusion thus making your work efficiency much more productive than usual.
- Flexible online meetings and conferences: Meeting with co-workers and clients is an inescapable part of marketing. Previously, some of the meetings were organized very traditionally: the parties would have to plan the time and place. The pandemic forced organizations to conduct virtual meetings which now have become a norm. Flexible virtual meetings save physical commute and a lot of time.
What are your attitude and initiatives in the direction of the digital-first approach?
A Digital-First Strategy helps to transform businesses in many ways and drive them forward into the all-digital future that is clearly on the economic horizon. For effective digital marketing, it’s not enough to boost some plans to a general audience and hope for the best; we need to get it right from the start and achieve great things. The tactics we choose for branding, marketing messages, communication style and much more will flow from our digital marketing strategy. It will assist us in defining our digital presence, where we’re headed, our objectives, and the most efficient way to achieve them.
As a technology distribution company, we adopt digital-first approach to deliver technology to improve business performance. Today, technology has integrated with business to become something more than hardware or software. As digital technology becomes more pervasive, we move further in the journey of digital transformation by truly embedded in the digital world, created for digital channels.
Is video-based communication an effective model in this digital age? Please explain?
As we have all witnessed, video properties are the next big thing and helps generate leads and awareness being an audio-visual medium. More and more brands are using video-first approach for all their campaigns. Large format TVCs are getting replaced with social media led videos which are cost-effective and also need lesser lead time. Product-centric communication or avatar-based videos are in demand, and is the best way to communication to the audience.
How has the pandemic impacted the way you draft marketing plans?
A marketing plan consists of various elements if a company wants to launch a campaign or an ad. But these plans don’t consider the uncertainties until a pandemic-like thing occurs. The pandemic disrupted the overall marketing infrastructure, disturbing the marketing plans which obviously cost a lot and the companies during the pandemic had to bear all these imbalances.
The pandemic has taught us to spare a second thought to the year-on-year marketing plans and give weightage to these uncertainties. So, the companies are at least ready with a Plan B if A fails due to such natural occurrences. The global Covid pandemic has resulted in changes to advertising, marketing, promotional and media spending. The focus is more on digital and ROI-based marketing and the campaigns are designed accordingly.
How has the digital transformation affected marketing management?
The digital age has marked the most significant change in the realm of marketing that we’ve ever seen. We have instant access to a larger number of people than ever before. Marketing is improved by digital transformation in harnessing the digital enterprise. It entails incorporating technology into every area of the company model, including what it delivers, how it interacts with customers, and how it operates.
In order to be agile and responsive to this new consumer, a digital transformation strategy is required for marketing growth. Today’s customer is becoming increasingly discerning, seeking not only high-quality goods and services but also distinctive and personalized purchasing experiences.
- Improving sales through personalized offers based on data
- Increasing audience engagement with more innovative and interactive content
- Cost reduction via campaign automation and optimization
- Increase customer loyalty by predicting customer behaviour
It’s clear that digital transformation is here to stay, and it’s just going to get bigger. As a result, new technologies will continue to challenge enterprises while also empowering customers. To develop long-term and loyal customers, marketers must embrace these changes, leverage the amount of data accessible to create analytics and adapt the strategies.
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