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Ep 10. Prachi Mohapatra, FBB
160 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, we sit down with Prachi Mohapatra of FBB as she spills the beans on how FBB (the fashion arm of the ubiquitous Future Group) literally created a new category, purely on the back of a great marketing campaign!
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, this is the Marketing Connect Podcast. Hi, this is the Marketing Connect Podcast. Hi, this is the Marketing Connect Podcast. Hi, this is the Marketing Connect Podcast, a show where we get up close and personal with some of the most celebrated marketeers in the country. We talk to them and discover the art and science of marketing. After all, we are a show for marketeers by marketeers. Listen in.
Guest Introduction: Prachi from FBB
00:00:27
Speaker
In this episode, we have with us Prachi from FBB, the fashion business of Future Group. On the podcast, we understand from her how does one sell something as personal as fashion to a country as diverse as India. Listen on. Hi everybody, this is Prachi here. I work with Future Group, specifically at FBB, which is the fashion arm of Future Group.
00:00:51
Speaker
And I currently work with the marketing, experiential designing, analytics, and the CRM team. So yeah, that's me. It's been approximately four years with Future Group currently and enjoying the stint. Amazing, Kraci. Welcome to the podcast. It is so amazing to have you here. Thank you so much, Saurav. Okay. So Kraci, give me a quick background of yours, let's say from your B school or from your
00:01:20
Speaker
of course graduation and what are the roles that you played since then till you reached here?
Early Career and Education
00:01:25
Speaker
Okay, so my journey started with very humble beginning so when I started I remember I'll start I'll not start from when I what I passed out in fact I realized during the summers that in summer training there were no final placements.
00:01:45
Speaker
Which college did you go to? I was in the Deccan education IMDR Pune. So I remember it's one of the first MDI institutes in India and I still remember they had this self-learning
00:02:01
Speaker
process, which I, because I come from a small town, I didn't understand. For me, teachers teach you everything and hold you and teach you everything. So the self-learning development system was definitely very new to me. And I still remember it because primarily I never had this friend-like relations with a teacher. For me, basically, Guru Appu sakshikhaate hai.
00:02:27
Speaker
Guru can never be a friend, Guru can never sit next to you and have a glass of beer. So those were things which were blasphemous for me. And thanks to my small town beginnings and all, I think I just worked in my favor because I was absolutely open to what I was seeing. Yes, I was definitely getting stressed at looking around people saying, you know,
00:02:52
Speaker
hanging around with teachers, hanging around with them, having conversation, arguing with them. This was very, very new to me. This is very new to me. And when you are a topper throughout your college and all, this becomes very different how teachers look at you. Teachers definitely want you to score highest all the time. So the pressure of studying was always on me. And my father is himself a professor.
00:03:16
Speaker
So I can just say that it was very new to me. So what I realized during my summers, most of my peers had some other kind of experience. I never realized that
00:03:33
Speaker
I was a fresh out of college degree and I just realized that, oh my God, they are speaking out of their experiences. Maybe they know far more than what I will know ever. So there will never be an opportunity to learn anything and no chance I'm getting placed anywhere.
00:03:59
Speaker
So that's something that I realized. And my summers was for 90 days. I did it with the erstwhile parries coffee bite, one of my favorite Toffees brands to work with. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I remember the jingle of parries. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. And that's something that attracted me to parries in the coffee bite in the first place. And I was so happy. I was so glad that I was working for parries coffee bite on a brand like coffee bite.
00:04:27
Speaker
And yeah, more than anything else, I saw my friends having the gala time during summers and here I was talking like properly door to door, going from shop to shops, doing sale per day, covering approximately 60 stores following the executive, sales executive of my school team. But you know what? I was in Pune. I was in Pune. Pune.
00:04:53
Speaker
Yeah, it was. So basically, Pune summers can be really harsh, 40 to 45 degrees. And I remember I turned four shades darker, but I turned four shades wiser as well.
Transition to Beauty and Personal Care
00:05:07
Speaker
So yes, exactly. I had a blast. And by the time I came back and ready for my second year of college, I think I was way, way, way ahead of whatever my fellow peers knew about real life sale and marketing by the time.
00:05:25
Speaker
And I remember I had a blast. I was studying a subject which I really wanted to study. And second, I really was ready for what was in store.
00:05:41
Speaker
So yes, that was me. And from there, the journey started. I never looked back. I remember joining Kiloskar again. Kiloskar was a place where my heart was not set primarily again. I could know why I left my engineering seat at the beginning of my graduation. A 16-year-old me was far wiser than a 22-year-old me.
00:06:05
Speaker
But at that point of time, I just joined Kiloskar baby. Under the pressure of getting a job, I joined Kiloskar by my heart was never set on it. So I fast came back to FMCG food was my preferred choice of
00:06:21
Speaker
occupation and at that point of time I came back to a brand called Rasui Magic which was at that point of time run by Jodias. I remember my parents getting really amazed that I had left something like a four and a half thousand crore company and joined a 50 crore company.
00:06:40
Speaker
but my heart was set and then from there I've really enjoyed working in the field as I said I always believe that you really have to pull up your socks and actually in this case you have to just pull up your sleeves and get into the mud and learn.
00:06:56
Speaker
That's how you learn. You can get four shades darker. Yeah, I didn't get four shades darker. That's how it worked. That's how it worked. No, no, no. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I never really cared about how I really, my shade of skill looked. So I think it just was easy for me to just get out, hop on to a scooty or just walk back, walk from shop to shop. And I really enjoyed it.
00:07:22
Speaker
I thoroughly enjoyed it. People complained about it. So I really thoroughly enjoyed it and those were the...
00:07:32
Speaker
I think those were the days which set up the tone for the rest of my career. These humble beginnings actually teach you a lot. These beginnings actually taught you a lot about what happens right at the grassroots level. And there is a stock which is completely
00:07:52
Speaker
which is expired,
FBB Journey: Challenges and Growth
00:07:54
Speaker
how they speak to you, to how they manage the FIFO, to how you have to push your brand, to how those good old days of posters, so these are things which teach you a lot about actually grounding.
00:08:14
Speaker
and finally actually seeing it in a store makes a lot of difference. So yes these are things I think which I can learn and moving from there yeah from the food industry to the beauty and personal care industry a much change decidedly a huge change in my life from being a grassroots level person to coming to a space wherein
00:08:39
Speaker
looking good and looking beautiful was a huge part of how you actually sell the product. So you have to think very differently when you get a product like this.
00:08:51
Speaker
And that too, with a brand like Merike, which is worldwide globally, it's one of the leading cosmetics brands. And in India, we were just starting up. It was a startup for that, for us. So having to work with a premium price brand as a startup gives you a very huge, in-depth kind of a different kind of knowledge. Where is the warehouse? Where does the package come from? Right to operations, learning from operations, hands-on learning.
00:09:20
Speaker
and to launching new products to actually doing the marketing of it. So yes, these are things which I learned a lot in with Medicare, the startup culture, and then moving to more the care and then finally to Oriflame where actually I spread my wings as
00:09:39
Speaker
as a category head, as a brand head. I really came into my being in the beauty and personal care industry with Oriflame. Huge exposure from being a category head, from being recruited to actually start the category team in India.
00:09:59
Speaker
to having a nice stint in Europe wherein you get to see a lot of things right from production, to meeting vendors, to really getting the maximum exposure. I have in Ori Flame being able to handle a lot of different roles, don a lot of different avatars.
00:10:21
Speaker
And it actually made me a very confident individual from what I started. So from learning something from the grassroots to actually being stationed at a dark place like Stockholm and seeing the dark of the winters where you see three hours a day of sunlight, you really, really learn to appreciate a lot of things like sunlight. Like I used to mark my calendars those days last Akribar Sankab de Khata.
00:10:51
Speaker
So these are things, these are things which you generally start like at the in this situation when we are actually learning to say thanks to the environment in a lot of other ways. I think I started thanking our son God, Surya Deva, thanks for this time. So these are these are small things which actually put you into into the four. Yes.
00:11:14
Speaker
A lot of success as a professional between Mary Kay and Auri Flame, I had a huge successful Strinton Modi Care also with the Modi Group and then moved to Auri Flame. A huge successful Strinton Auri Flame, I still hold it as a feather in my cap having started the category, having started the global products with my team and
00:11:35
Speaker
surpassing all the targets that were given to us by 5x, 6x level. So these were things which actually built up a lot of my confidence in building up a P&L, setting up a mid-sized business properly within an established business. So these are things which definitely moved me up.
00:11:54
Speaker
to right now in FBB. I think when I joined FBB to where it has been today, approximately 100% jump in for the past four years.
00:12:07
Speaker
Right from how a customer saw FBB in 2016 when I joined the brand to 2020, I think we have come a huge way. I can't take all the credit for myself. I think the ball was had already started rolling when I joined.
00:12:26
Speaker
I was very surprised to be very thankful that I was given this role to head a team of such young people. When I did not come from a retail background, neither I was from a fashion background. Beauty and personal care industry and retail industry is very different. When you actually start working in it, you understand the nuances of the difference. I think beauty and personal care and fashion are integrated. Of course, they are integrated.
00:12:54
Speaker
Like every cog in a machinery is integrated at some point of time. But I had no background in retail industry. I had no background in fashion industry. And I remember having a very interesting conversation with Mr. Biani in my last round of interview. And I remember when I came out, I thought that I should just take the flight back to Delhi. And I never got the job. But surprisingly, when I came out, the HR
00:13:23
Speaker
head followed me back and said that okay you know what um you're in and I was like oh oh really I exactly I was like really I thought that was a really really uh bad interview bad conversation and I I don't think I should be uh I should be even the uh I think I was just I should just people on my flight and go back to Delhi as fast as possible so yeah um uh but here I am four years down the line and um
00:13:52
Speaker
I think I had a fabulous journey with ABB. Now, when I say fabulous, it's not smooth fabulous. It's a journey which has been through a lot of rocking and a path, which definitely has not been easy. But it has taught me a lot about, definitely about the industry, about the
00:14:13
Speaker
about the category, about how this entire business operates also. As an individual, I think I learned a lot from where I was as a professional to where I am today. And a lot of thanks to my team who I really cherish and really believe in at this point of time. From where we started off to where we are today, I think I share a fabulous, fabulous relationship with the team.
00:14:40
Speaker
And I have I have at least 100 questions to ask you because to be honest, I'm not a consumer of FBB per se, but while I was researching about the kind of work you've done, I was really, really amazed that a lot of work is happening and people like me are not even aware.
00:14:59
Speaker
and call myself a marketeer, so I have like a thousand questions. Absolutely. Which I will come to, but so I am going to ask a tough question, right? Okay. So Apne Bolaki, this journey was very ambichic for you, right? And both in good ways and bad ways at FBV. So are you okay in talking about one of the biggest blunders that you would have made in the journey?
00:15:22
Speaker
Absolutely. Why not? In fact, in fact, at the beginning, right at the beginning, in fact, there are so many, there's so many blunders that you do here. And there are so many things that you learn from these blunders that it puts you in a space and they think that, okay, achawah, easy, clear. Obviously clear. Exactly. Exactly. Because, you know, when you're joining a new industry and
00:15:51
Speaker
We're still trying to make a football. You're still, in a crude way, trying to impress your boss. That's not a right space to make plunders. I remember it was one of my first campaigns. And I remember suddenly, and we were shooting it with Varun. Varun Dhawan, who's our brand ambassador. And we were all set. We're absolutely set for a shoot. We're absolutely going. And here we were.
00:16:19
Speaker
Krabi in Bangkok and we were going gaga about how beautifully the script was written and how Varun had arrived and on time and we were all set to shoot super, I think, super teen bhajigakal time. And just Varun say milk ke nikle te uske kamre se rathko kuch around 9, 8.39 or a single time or other.
00:16:44
Speaker
And suddenly we realized that what we had not taken into cognizance, there was a huge communication gap between us as clients and the production house and the director. So while the script was beautifully floating around and everything, suddenly all of us realized that this shooting of this entire content is going to take way longer than Varun's actual working hours.
00:17:13
Speaker
But which is, which is not in the celebrity speak, not a very good speak. And literally should be sleeping and be all fresh to report for the shoot.
00:17:36
Speaker
It's not one of the wisest thing to do and we actually almost came into a gridlock with such huge takes. In fact, it was three months into my joining the organization and we were almost in a gridlock at five hours before we go live for the shoot.
00:17:56
Speaker
And in a different location. Absolutely. You don't have access to anything, but actually have an access to a boss who's not in a very nice mood. And I don't know how Varun's team is, but at least in my experience, the managers tend to be a little more tough than the
00:18:16
Speaker
you know, stars themselves. Well, going back, my experience with Varun and his team, they have been a breeze.
Marketing Challenges and Lessons Learned
00:18:23
Speaker
He's one of the best ambassadors you can actually ask for. And I'm not saying this because this is going on recording. I think I would just speak about it very openly. He's one of the best brand ambassadors you can actually ask for, a very invested brand ambassador by any means and an amazing individual to work with, very chilled out and all.
00:18:44
Speaker
But yeah, there are lines which the team will draw. It's not about money only, it's about the talent being exploited. As for the next time, the natural, it's one of the most, just five hours before you go live. So yeah, we all understood that there has been a huge communication gap.
00:19:08
Speaker
But whoever was at fault was at fault. Maybe it's not one single person fault. When you are working on a project this big for two days of shoot, I think there are points where definitely there will be cogs which will definitely be loosened. There will be loosens. And there will be, there are at least 50 of us. So it can be anybody's fault. But the fact is how you actually tied over this entire situation is going to be
00:19:38
Speaker
at that point of time, it's going to be the only question. But what I learned from this experience is when you have a production size of this, when you have a campaign this big, the biggest mistake that happened as a team leader at that point of time, I realized that when you have so many people working on it, I think the flow of information has to be absolutely like a
00:20:03
Speaker
Like a layman. Even if it should not be asked, I think it has to be asked. Like, for example, what time will my car arrive? If it looks as lame as that, please ask it. Please make sure that you ask it. Yeah, exactly. It just has to be as simple as dumb as that. But all the dumb question has to be asked right from the pre-production stage.
00:20:29
Speaker
so that there is no surprises like this and I think this kudos to the entire team, kudos to Varun who was an absolute sport. I remember I arrived at the, we all were at loggerheads till like 2am, we didn't catch any sleep, we had all travelled the previous night to Krabi and we had not had a previous night's sleep also but two days without sleep and here was a buffalo campaign which
00:20:57
Speaker
At this point of time, I can proudly say that after three years of being, Buffalo was like at 100% growth at this point of time. So, you know, kudos to the entire team for being such a sport. And yes, from this mistake, it could have been such a grave mistake. It could have gone towards such a huge toss and such huge stakes at that point of time, such huge production costs.
00:21:25
Speaker
Yeah, two days below the line, we were actually celebrating with Varun. Actually, we were looking for 11-12 hours for the next two days and along with Varun, most of us were working like 16 days. So yes, this is one of the primary mistakes that happened and it could have gone the other way. But yes, it was a huge, huge, huge pullback.
00:21:48
Speaker
about this. If I told you, you have to do something else, whatever, even more to a different company, start a business of your own, whatever, but you have to find a replacement for you at this organization could be an internal candidate could be an external candidate, but somebody else has to replace you.
00:22:06
Speaker
So what tenets would you look for in that person? Soft skills and hard skills and so on and so forth. So we'll start with the soft skills first. I think it is a huge impact. I think I believe in soft skills far more than hard skills. Hard skills can be learned later if your attitude is absolutely correct.
00:22:28
Speaker
See, soft skills, the first thing I would like to know about a person is how comfortable he or she is working with a huge team like this. So at this point of time, I work with four teams. I work with the visual merchandising team, which is called experiential designing. This is a photographer, this is a graphic designer.
00:22:51
Speaker
I work with a marketing team with an age as varied as a 23 year old to a 43 year old. I work with a CRM team, an analytics team. So this more than anything else, it's human beings you're interacting with. And when you have a team this varied this size, I think a huge amount of pressure comes around to how do you interact with the team? What is it that they give you without being asked?
00:23:21
Speaker
What is it that you can take out of this team and make them perform in ways in which they don't even know about themselves? I would like to take this example of...
00:23:36
Speaker
Someone in my team who I joined was literally on the verge of being chucked out of when I joined. And I remember this person had been rated a rating of one or two, which is like, this person surprised me the maximum. When I joined and I had only the marketing team, a marketing team with 12 people, 13 people at that point of time,
00:24:06
Speaker
and I remember she was the only one who got a promotion that year and she surprised me in ways that nobody else surprised me. You just cannot make a fish climber tree. That's the only thing you have to give people what they love.
00:24:25
Speaker
skills they will learn and the only thing I will look forward in a leader I will hand over this mantle if I have any kind of influence in making a choice in the leader that I'm going to pass the baton to is to learn how to make the
00:24:42
Speaker
is to make them see the skills of a person. And when I say skills, I am not saying the hard skills that a person already has, but skills and interest of a person what she or he wants to do. That's one thing that definitely I would want to spot in a leader.
00:24:58
Speaker
Second thing is I definitely want to spot in somebody, in a leader that what is it he or she is wanting to do more than what is written on the board. That's something I think is a given. I would not have been working with four teams right now if I would not have been putting up my hand time and again saying that I want to do that, I want to do that.
00:25:22
Speaker
I had no experience in visual merchandising. As I had no experience in retail industry, I had no experience in visual merchandising of a retail market ever. But I remember putting up my hand saying that, give it to me for six months. If I fail, take it from me. So it's just that put up your hand from whatever is written more than what is written for you in your JD.
00:25:45
Speaker
So if a person like this, I see a person like this, it just warms the cockles of my heart saying that, OK, you know what, I will dig this out. I'll learn this hard skills. It just boils me down to things like what has happened to me. I don't believe in industry specific marketing at all. People will learn if they know the core of marketing, people will learn any kind of marketing. I truly believe in that.
00:26:15
Speaker
Anything else apart from these two? No, not really. I think hard skills are, as I said, hard skills. I don't want to really focus on what a marketing head or a leader, marketing leaders hard skills will be. But I think it's pretty simple to know that keep your customer at heart and know your numbers right. That's the two things I really sum up. And any business leader, be it marketing or operations, doesn't matter. That's it.
00:26:42
Speaker
Got this. So you mentioned that you work with four different teams at the same time.
Leadership and Work-Life Balance
00:26:49
Speaker
So just want to understand what is a typical day in office for a top marketeer, right? I mean, from the time, let's say you start working.
00:26:57
Speaker
at 8, 9, I don't know what time you start working, but what is a typical day like for you? Day starts for me really early, so pre-COVID days and post-COVID days are different, but a pre-COVID office going day would generally begin at 6.15am in the morning wherein I definitely
00:27:18
Speaker
Definitely. And I'm no early person. Trust me, sort of. I'm no early person. This is something that... Do you need your coffee or time? I need my one hour of my time with my exercising. So that's something that I definitely invest my time on. And I really wake up early during weekdays to
00:27:38
Speaker
make sure that I'm a little ahead of the curve rather than playing catch-up throughout the day. Because I've realized this that if you don't complete your personal requirements that you need from the day, then you keep on playing catch-up throughout the day. I don't like the feeling of playing catch-up. So that's what I
00:28:05
Speaker
I really wake up early in the morning. The office going days started somewhere around 6.15 an hour or an hour and a half of my time with me, be it yoga, be it dance, whatever. I really like that one and a half hours of me time. Generally,
00:28:25
Speaker
catch up on all my emails and all my WhatsApps post that 8 o'clock post, 8 o'clock, 7.38 is the time that I start. My work day starts with my professional life starts. So generally my emails will be out or my WhatsApp spendings will be out. You will not be able to reach me before 8 a.m. in the morning on a work day. That's for sure.
00:28:51
Speaker
I don't think I would work with such people who want to reach to reach me. Yeah, exactly. But that's true for me as well. As I said, I'm no early person and I really value my time. My me time is very, very sacrosanct for me.
00:29:06
Speaker
So eight is the time wherein I start catching up and releasing all the messages and emails before I start my day. Generally, I'm in the office by around sometimes within 9.30 or 10 o'clock. And then my day starts. And generally, the first part of the day is absolutely an hour of the day is for the team.
00:29:32
Speaker
That's when I actually like to catch up on anything that is on table, any update, anything that is a new project also I like to start talking about with the team. This is my time with my team. And since it's a fairly large team and there are cross-functional people, I really like to get them into a room.
00:29:54
Speaker
because then people learn a lot from each other. And that one hour becomes very sacrosanct for people to learn, people to know what they're wanting to do. There is somebody in visual merchandising who might be wanting to work in marketing someday. So this is the time he or she actually can judge herself or insulting that exciting lagrai or darabna lagrai. So that's how this works. You have to feel five shades down on him alone.
00:30:24
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I'm a content environment. So yeah, that's the space wherein my team is there with me. So that's their time with me. Generally, all the Q4 or Q3 firefighting jobs are handled post that one hour.
00:30:43
Speaker
And then the day begins with an update with the CEO also. I also belong to somebody's team and I really get to take an update. I generally walk up to my boss and give him an update or whatever pending work is there. I definitely try to keep him an update.
00:30:59
Speaker
And then the cross-functional team roles start. If it is category or operations, that's how the day starts. That's how the day begins. I don't like checking up on my emails time and again. As soon as it comes, you don't need to respond. I think there are better ways to reach a person now.
00:31:17
Speaker
If there is anything urgent and firefighting, then definitely there is always the phone to pick up and speak to. I keep buckets to check my emails. That's something that I learned really the harder way. Emails just take away your attention from what you're trying to do.
00:31:34
Speaker
So, generally after a catch up with my boss, which is in a day or two, I want to do it once. I keep time to myself with there are some projects, strategic projects that has to be done, some work that has to be done. Emails are for specific buckets in about once in about two hours or so. So, it finds time once early in the morning, once in the first half of the day and then once in the second half of the day.
00:31:59
Speaker
So unless and until there's a burning issue, I really don't want to check up on my emails and waste my time on it. It takes the attention away from what you are trying to do. And as I said, I'm always reachable on phone. If it's a burning issue, please reach me on phone. I'm easily available that way.
00:32:17
Speaker
So yeah, that's how the day looks like. And second half of the day generally, again, goes into cross-functional meetings or any strategic work if it requires my attention. And yeah, I tend to wrap up my days, say around 6 o'clock in the office. So 6, 6.30 is when I make an exit from the office and then evenings are for an hour of run or walk, whatever I'm feeling like doing that day.
00:32:46
Speaker
And then the day ends with my time, me time. And it's generally catching up with phone calls with my family nephew and niece. And that's how the day ends. Yeah, generally with a nice dinner.
00:33:02
Speaker
So easy question. A lot of people that listen to this podcast, they tell us that marketeer for them is somebody who makes fancy TV season has fun along with it. They often do not realize that at your level, Prachi, you also have people to report to. And you mentioned it a couple of times in this last answer. So just tell us our listeners that, you know, as the head of marketing, who all do you interact with? Not the teams that report to you, but the ones that you are
00:33:30
Speaker
I mean you are also part of the top management and the exec committee or whatever you call it at NDB. So just talk to our listeners about what you are supposed to report to, who you are supposed to report to. So on a daily basis, not on a daily basis, but on... Not daily, but just the hierarchy, right? Yeah, exactly. On a frequent basis, I am answerable to the CEO.
00:33:53
Speaker
I'm answerable to the CEO of the company, a CEO of FBB. I'm answerable to the promoters. I'm answerable to the biennies of the world for sure. And definitely I have a very regular interaction with the CFOs who definitely play a
00:34:16
Speaker
huge role in passing our budgets and definitely keeping an eye on the P&L. So they are the ones who definitely play a huge role in our budgets or the fancy stuff that you keep on seeing and seeing.
00:34:32
Speaker
I think there is a lot of attraction which happens with the retail heads and the zonal CEOs as well. So these are people you definitely keep on interacting because these are the ones who at the back end work on the product, the cat heads and the buyers and the retail heads and the front end, the zonal CEOs who almost handle a 5,000 crore business at any level by themselves at any point of time.
00:35:00
Speaker
So these are people who definitely you interact with and you keep working with on a very regular basis to keep them updated on everything.
00:35:19
Speaker
That's the line of people that you generally speak to and work with at any given point of time as a marketing lead. And it's quite exciting. You get to work with the operations head, you get to work with the CEOs, the CFOs, the promoters at every level. So these are exciting spaces to work with because at every point of time, I think you get to learn a lot from them.
00:35:46
Speaker
you absorb and you throw your ideas back and there is quite a bit of interaction which generally enriches you by the end of
Diverse Customer Preferences in India
00:35:55
Speaker
the day. For you at FBB, a large part of your customers are in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in the country and that is where we are seeing probably a larger consumption pie compared to a tier 1 location. So, let's say there is a girl called Rita in Ranji who's
00:36:14
Speaker
your target customer and there is a girl called Rina in Delhi. How are these two retas and retas different to each other? When the retas and retas have a very different choice of what they actually buy. So you'll be surprised to know that the Rita in Rachi is actually willing to try on a pair of dead ends far more than the Rina in Delhi who is wanting to buy a patiala and a kurti.
00:36:39
Speaker
So the choice is very, very specific to the aspiration that they have, the kind of information that they're exposed to. At any given point of time, our employing of communication becomes very, very specific to the area that we're operating at.
00:37:01
Speaker
So a Ranchi Rita will be definitely going to cost me more on a digital platform, but very less on an ATL platform. So to find the balance as to how I approach Rita in Rachi is going to be a mix of a lot of data that is thrown at me in the terms of figures, in the terms of what is going to be the cost of conversion of Rita in Rachi.
00:37:31
Speaker
versus what is going to be a cost of conversion of Rina in Delhi and what is it that she is going to buy.
00:37:37
Speaker
And as I said, the cost definitely matters a lot in both the spaces. And the conversion costs might be very different depending on the kind of product that they're going to buy. The voice is going to be very what space they are in, what location they are in, what is the cohort that I'm trying to speak to. Age doesn't matter. The kind of exposure that they have is definitely the kind of
00:38:05
Speaker
speak that they are having the kind of interaction that they're having on different platforms, on social media, on the kind of brands that they're interacting with, apart from my brand, is going to have a lot of voice speak when I'm trying to speak to each one of them. So if I'm trying to speak to Rita in Ranchi saying that style, bihari, sappebhari, then
00:38:33
Speaker
then the Delhi girl will definitely hear Kurti is the best friend of your life kind of speak as well. So this is how the voice differs and it's very exciting to work on such different space with both the girls. While we are personalizing them,
00:38:55
Speaker
In fact, the personification of a human being is so different and while we are speaking to them in marketing parlance, it means a lot of different voices and that's what we are working today. Rather than a spray and pray approach, a personalization has taken a lot of value in our life.
00:39:14
Speaker
In that, that brings me to the next question that I have, right? I was looking at that entire campaign wherein you went hyper-local with, you know, communication for, I think it was for the shirts category, if I'm not sure. That's right. Oh, you're right. Absolutely correct. Yeah. So maybe you want to talk about that because I found that very, very fascinating that, you know, at a scale at VGO operate, right, across the country, so many stores, et cetera, et cetera, you still went to the pains of, you know, hyper-localizing the content and communication.
00:39:41
Speaker
So do you want to talk about that? Absolutely. So we know it very, very frequently. It's a huge turnover of business. But a huge turnover of business comes into setting the smaller pegs in place. That's what we believe in. And that's something that we have. So that's something that all of us believe in. So before coming to FutureGuru,
00:40:05
Speaker
Trust me, I was very unaware of a lot of different small festivals that were celebrated all across India. And I take pride in saying that I come from the eastern part of India. I've stayed in Bombay for such a, so I've stayed in the western part of India for such a long time. I have stayed in Delhi for eight or nine years of my life, so I know northern part of India a lot. So for me, a person like me who has actually traveled all across and stayed all across in each zone of India,
00:40:35
Speaker
getting surprises is definitely not a very common place. Exactly. So I was surprised at the speed that the consumer heard from us as a brand. And trust me, it was a huge eye opener for me to see that
00:40:55
Speaker
how a festival like Dashera is celebrated in each part of India and how we are able to segregate Dashera and how it is celebrated even in South. AP celebrates it a separate way, different way than Kilangana celebrates it.
00:41:12
Speaker
Karnataka celebrates it in a different way than how Tamil Nadu celebrates it. And we actually have a speak which is very, very particular and personalized to each of the customer that is there in each of the different states. And we operate at that level on hyper-localization because I think it is required for us to be able to
00:41:33
Speaker
see the nuances that a customer feels about when you see a campaign being personalized for you. And when it is, see, personalization in digital marketing is very achievable. Personalization in ATL medium is very, very difficult when you have such a huge pay and pay approach. When you are giving out a communication which is there in holdings, it might be very different. When I'm in Cochin, when I travel to Trivandrum, it might be very different.
00:42:03
Speaker
So in ATL, it's very difficult to achieve a personalization. And that's the kind of space that we operate in. So speaking about this particular campaign of Shorts campaign,
00:42:17
Speaker
What we started noticing was when we were looking at a specific market like Kerala where our fashion growth was huge, but we were not growing in categories which were actually nascent or native to the location, which is, if you see 60 to 70% of men in Kerala wear shorts over t-shirts.
00:42:40
Speaker
So this is something that we realized. And then secondly, most of the local brands were doing very well over there. Where is the price that we operate at or the quality of the product that we give is very at par with any of the, any of the mustache or prestige brands that we operate in that you'll find. So we took this campaign as an example, saying that, OK, let's speak to the customer in their language.
00:43:09
Speaker
So there was this campaign which we created saying that shorts for every Chetan, Allian and Machan. Now, if you see this campaign in what is Chetan, Allian and Machan is, it's basically saying bro in various languages. So it was as simple as that. And for the first time, we actually
00:43:28
Speaker
interacted with an agency who was a Malayali agency. So this is the first time we actually thought that, OK, let's give it. And it was a fair pitch while we have a creative agency and on board with us. It was a fair pitch we took out, saying that, OK, let's speak to an agency which is a localized agency. I don't think any agency would, anybody else will understand and want says any better than a local agency.
00:43:58
Speaker
There are a scale of operation which comes when you work with a brand like us, but that can be achieved by a lot of support that we can give as a brand. But the thought, the sentiments can be cracked only by somebody who believes in it, who understands the nuances. I don't think anybody else could have come back with saying that
00:44:23
Speaker
a Chetan, an Alian and Machan is a bro or a broke code in the local parlance. Well as the agency that you have has right, has khati planners on the account for you from each region. Exactly, from one from each state. You will never get that kind of enrichment ever. Which is I think, which is why we love working with smaller agency.
00:44:46
Speaker
Let me not say a smaller agency. We love working with varied agencies from various parts of the country. And this is what they cracked for us and what a campaign. What we did was we followed it up with a huge amount of precision on data, how we want to go ahead.
00:45:03
Speaker
What is it that we want to go ahead and have as a speak on, we crawl the digital space by geofencing it for Kerala specifically, specifically for markets like Cochin and Trivandrum where we have huge number of stores.
00:45:19
Speaker
We absolutely targeted those campaigns and what a huge week on week achievement we had. It was a campaign which actually showed us that when you go as much hyper local, we had actually interacted with micro and nano influencers from Kerala, from Cochin and Trivandrum, which gave us a huge speak on what the nuances of the location was.
00:45:49
Speaker
So, yes, apart from, you know, apart from numbers on the actual campaign objective, what it gave us was a huge brand speak. What it meant for the Malayali customer was we actually understand them, which is a huge plus for us, which I think were more than the numbers, which, of course, all of us are on hot seat for. It was a huge campaign success for the brand.
00:46:18
Speaker
So let me just continue the same question. You spoke about beta and about listening religiously on digital platforms by geofencing. The other thing that I found really, really fascinating when I did the research was your entire take on how Instagram is actually playing a pivotal role in your success as a brand in terms of both traffic and let's say the content that you guys create on that.
Impact of Instagram on FBB
00:46:41
Speaker
So I remember reading something wherein you said that you actually went down to the level of re-working on the stores and made them look better so that people can
00:46:53
Speaker
So just talk to me about that piece and how did that insight came out and how did you work on that? See, as a fashion brand, Instagram is a space for us wherein we understand that a lot of our customers are active on. When we started going Instagram first, we thought that
00:47:20
Speaker
we thought that actually we should be targeting women who are extremely active on Instagram. But what was a fascinating thing to see was, it didn't matter that we were targeting a specific cohort saying that, okay, women in this age group should be interested. What it did for us came out as a brand, which is very
00:47:42
Speaker
fashion forward and which was very digital forward. It gave us a completely different brand avatar totally. We are not a digital native brand. What we do is we operate out of brick and mortar space which in all
00:48:00
Speaker
millennial or zenzi parlance is not a very savvy space to shop at. What Instagram did for us is the more number of interaction, the more interactive we made our platform, our brand, the more interactive we made our campaigns, what it did for us in more than numbers, as I said, it gave us that kind of
00:48:24
Speaker
a young brand, which we're always striving for. We are a young brand. We are hardly 12 years old. And the kind of product, when you walk into an FPP and see how different they are or how different they look from any other brand, you'll find that it caters to a lot of youngsters. But we're never able to speak out loud.
00:48:49
Speaker
Once we had Instagram in place and once we had fabulous campaigns like the virtual trial room, like the Pujo campaign last year, I think it gave us an edge over our other competitors saying that we are an Instagram first brand and we definitely operate at a space which makes us look younger.
00:49:10
Speaker
Second, yes, of course, when we work on any of the online space, what we definitely want is number of footfalls that should go into a store. So our every campaign of ours, not again, this is not the space wherein we are looking for footfalls inside the store, but every campaign of ours was built in such a way that we wanted to move a lot of
00:49:32
Speaker
footfalls into the store. It should get us footfalls into the store. Honestly, it did not make any business sense for me. So O2O was a huge space for me to operate at. So you can't just click on me and shop online at FBB online and be done with. I'm not going to be a satisfied brand if I don't get my customer to the store visiting my stores.
00:49:57
Speaker
And what it did was, since the youngsters started thronging the stores, we definitely, from what fashion looked like inside a big bazaar to what it looks like currently, and also the Ebbibian Standard store, you will find a lot of young vibes. You will not find those vibes like a brand, which is an Instagrammer's brand, but what you will find is,
00:50:25
Speaker
the vibes, the lighting, the way you browse the products, it's a very young brand. But you will not get intimidated by how the entire space looks like. So when there is a tier two, tier three customer walking in, he or she should not feel that, okay, I might not be wanting to shop in this space because the space looks way too advanced for me.
00:50:48
Speaker
No, it doesn't look like it should not be intimidating. Fashion should never be intimidating. It should not be should not put you in a space which says that, OK, you are not fashionable. Come, I'll make you fashionable. That's not the space like me would like to speak. I would like to say that other than that, think that whatever fashion sense you have come, let's just look good with me.
00:51:08
Speaker
Prachi, next question I have is around, again, something that my research threw at me that you said that you've launched a category, the sleeper category, right? I mean, you did a lot of work on it before you launched it. And it is now amongst the biggest successes for you guys as a, you know, a product category. So talk to me about how did the entire thing came out, you know, from the time you
00:51:30
Speaker
thought about it through the time you launched it, through the time now. So how did it happen? Well, it so happened that the category team just surprised us saying that, you know, what this time we have bought a lot of sleepwear. Help us do something about it. It pretty much starts like that.
00:51:48
Speaker
unless or until you are a European company like Oriflame who puts like three years of research behind it, you will get a surprise. And since I have been on the category side and handle P&L for such a long time, I exactly knew what I felt when I ordered as a typical grand person. I was like, okay, let's do it. But the good part of it was when we saw. So what generally happens is in a typical
00:52:17
Speaker
working environment, how we get involved in how the products are built over ages, over years what we have done is we generally get involved in seeing what the products are coming at least eight to nine months in advance.
00:52:33
Speaker
but somehow these were the early part of when I had joined and I remember we got it as a surprise saying the six months or five months in advancing that there is a huge order of sleepwear that we are coming up with and this is something that we would like to launch and speak about. But what happened was when we looked through the products and what we realized was we can say so much about this category which has never been spoken about in a
00:53:00
Speaker
huge loud voice ever. So when we launched Shyla as a category, Shyla is the sleeper brand that we have with us. And it's one of those products that had never been spoken about. This brand has a lot of products that generally a woman spends her day, the entire day. If you generally see a housewife at home,
00:53:30
Speaker
She would be in her loungewear or lounging wear, in fact not loungewear, she would be in her lounging wear or a pajama or a gown. Like my mum says, comfortable clothes. Absolutely.
00:53:52
Speaker
And they wear and tear so much. But nobody speaks about it. The only space where people used to buy a gown or a pajama is open market, is unorganized market. So while the organized space had some kind of products, but nobody spoke about it. So we said, OK, open space for us to go and have a communication about this brand. And we just simply put out the conversation saying that we have this brand.
00:54:20
Speaker
like stay pretty throughout the day and you can you'll just be comfortable around this brand and the moment people saw that okay they can buy sleepwear comfortable sleepwear in a in a such a content environment in a AC environment as you say it just went out as a surprise to them we didn't even have to push that communication for more than two weeks and for eight weeks we saw a straight growth
00:54:48
Speaker
week on week, week on week, week on week growth. Generally a campaign, when we go live with a campaign, it will see a peak, then it will plateau. And generally, it will plateau within four weeks, five weeks, because the kind of conversation we used to put out for not more than two weeks, three weeks, and generally for four weeks, five weeks, it will plateau. But for this category, we saw eight weeks straight week on week growth, which was by any parlance a huge success.
00:55:17
Speaker
We went, ran out of stocks. It's a retailer's dream to run out of stock within halfway through the season, we ran out through the stocks. And that was something that they have bought extra. Absolutely. Absolutely. It was a surprise category for us to be speaking about in
Consumer Insights and Digital Shift
00:55:39
Speaker
huge terms. And it was amazing to see as a marketer. I think it's a huge feather on the team's cap saying that, OK,
00:55:46
Speaker
You know, we achieved such a huge speak on a category that is sleepwear. About this. And what eight times growth in the last whatever five, six years? Yeah, absolutely. Amazing. Cool. So tell me there must be times like, for example, your team came back to you and said, we don't know what to do. So when you get when you get these kind of problems and you can't discuss it with your team, let's say, I mean, it's a thing that you don't want to discuss with your team.
00:56:15
Speaker
Who do you go out to jam on marketing problems?
00:56:20
Speaker
Generally, I reach out to friends and peers. When you get to hear a lot of varied versions, they might not have a complete answer to the problem that you are going through. But what they throw at you is a lot of use case, as we say, a lot of case studies as they would have gone through. So hearing them speak about certain or
00:56:46
Speaker
certain odd issues that they have been, it throws gives you a lot of ideas. So generally I try to speak to a lot of friends and peers around the industry and they may not be necessarily from marketing. They may be from any other operating field that they are.
00:57:05
Speaker
but it just gives you a lot of ideas, it throws at you a lot of business speak, it throws at you a lot of consumer speak and then it makes a lot of sense for you to approach a problem from a completely different avatar. So hence I try to detach myself from the immediate warm coterie and go to people who have a very different view to what you're going through.
00:57:32
Speaker
Got it. So bring me to the next question. What are some unconventional ways in which you learn about, say, consumer behavior? Like one of the marketers I was talking to, he manages one of the QSR brands, and he said that he goes and stands at the floor of the restaurant when kids come in and eat their burgers and fries. So what will you do to learn about consumer insight?
00:57:57
Speaker
And your friend is absolutely right the quality of information that you get on a shop floor is I think it doesn't it supersedes any any information that you will get so most of the time I love traveling
00:58:12
Speaker
and I would definitely make it a point to travel to various big bazaars and FDPs across the country to get a first-hand information of how consumers are reacting to certain, generally to stand there and look at customers. For example, I remember standing in Trivandrum in one of my earliest visit and I remember
00:58:42
Speaker
Somebody asked me, so somebody was checking and saying that, you know, you know, women's shorts, women's shorts are really good. So I still remember, I turned around and asked the EDSS manager.
00:59:06
Speaker
I'm just trying to make my head spin around it saying that a college going world might not be... the more I'm seeing your city and Trivandrum is a space where I had already visited like six or seven times already and I was just thinking about it.
00:59:25
Speaker
a girl's dress. This is supposed to be a young girl's apparel. The way girls are dressing up here, I'm just thinking, why am I wearing a panty?
00:59:42
Speaker
What is the point of having this SKU lying over here in this in such huge numbers rather have it in small numbers and let it flow by whatever whatever numbers it floats out and if you run out of stock then we will arrange for an interstore transfer or we will arrange for products from their house but rather than keeping it on the floor in such huge numbers and it is mocking at you just get it off.
01:00:06
Speaker
It's something that's going to be much more relevant. So these are things you catch. When you're traveling to a place like Guwahati, you realize individuals are so daintily built. So you should have much more of a small size or a medium size over there rather than large.
01:00:28
Speaker
which in a place like Punjab or Rajasthan, you actually put up the large sizes rather than a Guwahati store, rather than a Dimapur store. Already people are so daintily built. So these are local nuances which works. A store in Dimapur would open up at 8 am in the morning because Dimapur opens wakes up early.
01:00:58
Speaker
We don't have daylight savings. So you would you know this that they should open up at 8 8 30 in the morning and wrap up by 5 5 30 in the evening because that's how people shop. That's how people operate. So these are things and nuances you will catch only once you go there. So these are things which
01:01:19
Speaker
which makes you see a very different kind of how any kind of product, it's not only fashion or any kind of product is getting consumed. Yeah, so these are things which actually gives you a view to how any kind of product is consumed at any part of India. So yes, the biggest learning experience is to stand in the shop floor. And I love going to open markets, whichever
01:01:45
Speaker
zone I am visiting apart from my stores or the in normal parlance sub-market here a brand manager's but thank you how many competition customer visit gather which open markets on as other challenge that you can open market me up who boss are in once is but out yeah
01:02:02
Speaker
I remember going to Manipur not through a future group but I remember going to Manipur and there is a market called Ima Market which is absolutely run by women. The market is only women. It is completely
01:02:21
Speaker
figuratively manned by women. Sorry, you can't do that. So, from a different perspective, I think that flower vally shop is a women's degree, veggie shop is a women's degree or a parallel shop is a women's degree.
01:02:40
Speaker
So these are things I think you catch only when you travel and interact. And I don't know when will it start in such good times, but I'm hoping it starts very soon. So coming to the good times and bad times question, COVID-19, tell me as a marketeer A and B as a person, the impact that you think COVID would have on the professional marketing?
01:03:11
Speaker
positive, very positive, because I'll tell you what. From my experience, what I've seen is marketers have been very decidedly keeping a digital marketing as a side support marketing till now. If you are not a digital native, then definitely a focus on your digital spends or digital marketing initiatives are very restricted.
01:03:40
Speaker
What this situation has done is it has forced all the marketers to whatever digital maturity organization might be or you might be as a professional, it has forced everybody to look at a communication which goes beyond the spray and pray approach.
01:03:57
Speaker
and which has given you a push into saying that you know what now take it a notch above or a few notches above because there is no other way out. So I think it's a very positive push. It has been a push wherein I think all of us including me and my agency have been actually pushed to learn something completely new.
01:04:21
Speaker
Whatever stages we are in, somebody who does not, didn't do performance marketing, actually pushed themselves to learn performance marketing. Somebody who wanted to find out more about AIML and always had an excuse of saying that, okay, I don't know much more about AIML has actually pushed themselves to learn much more and learn far more integrated approach of knowing the next step in marketing.
01:04:46
Speaker
Good for us. I think it's a space where I'm seeing professional skills being sharpened and being implemented at the same time. There is no other way out, no? Yeah, that's more important. Yeah, exactly. So, absolutely. At this point of time, the production capabilities are less.
01:05:07
Speaker
Because what it has done is not, what it has beautifully done is basically not every brand jumped into the moment marketing brand speak. And because of restricted production capabilities, the bandwagon has not jumped. The moment marketing has jumped.
01:05:25
Speaker
No, that's not how it is going to work. Your production capabilities are restricted. Bunnies are restricted. The only way you can do your marketing is to have a very rough and raw marketing. And that you can do only when you know something inherently and actually know how to reach out to your customers. So I think it has really, really professionally pushed us all to innovate. So tell me where have you pushed your team
01:05:58
Speaker
Okay, so what we me and my team are completely upskilling at this point of time is people see that everybody in the team is not at the same level of skills or at similar level of skills or at
01:06:19
Speaker
or at a similar level of experience. Somebody who is far more experienced at this point of time in a number of years might not have the capability and the inclination to
01:06:36
Speaker
learn digital marketing or e-com. But what this situation is doing, since e-com is doing a lot of lockdown, lockdown is doing a lot of e-coms. So something that I wanted to tell at this platform is, we have never stopped working. Like fashion might not be selling, but Big Bazaar was always open. And within 14 days, I think our e-com site was up and running. So
01:07:02
Speaker
Unless or until you want to be completely out of the loop and after the lockdown opens, I think things are changing by the minute. Unless or until you want to be a completely obsolete marketeer, you have to get down and learn again things. This time not four shades darker but four shades wiser for sure.
01:07:21
Speaker
So learn about Ecom. This is something that a brick and mortar brand will never be able to give you. So what you will have as an edge over a digital native is something that you specifically are an expert in a brick and mortar space. But at this point of time, since there is no other option than Ecom going live, you also have a plus plus on doing an Ecom business. So this is at this point of time my entry.
01:07:46
Speaker
entire team has been learning live e-com. And I am extremely proud of what they have done to themselves in the past three months. All of them have actually come notches above what they were before going into lockdown. Before going into lockdown, they had a reason. They don't have any reason also not to learn it.
01:08:12
Speaker
They are being, I think initial first two, three weeks were forced upon them saying that, suddenly when you push them, we were always, we always had an e-comm platform at bbonline.com, but it is not in, but it was, it was never their primary responsibility, but now with reduced manpower, with reduced speak of marketing, they don't have any other option
01:08:40
Speaker
So Ecom, learning Ecom is not a choice for them anymore. So all of them have now become expert and right from operation back in the operation to warehousing to the front-end marketing and front-end Ecom operations. So at this point of time, I think the way my team has really upskilled themselves, I'm really hopeful that they have turned around this situation into something very positive for them.
01:09:05
Speaker
though with a lot of push-pull in some spaces, but I think people all come out thankful and humbled out after this experience. Tell me if I told you that Apco, you have to start a business at this hour, at this time.
COVID-19: New Opportunities and Challenges
01:09:23
Speaker
What opportunities do you see existing in the market right now to become an entrepreneur?
01:09:28
Speaker
Oh, lots. I think lots, lots, lots. I see a lot of speak in which there is a lot of, see, when we work from home, most of us like professionals, I am working in one room, my husband is working in the other.
01:09:48
Speaker
I'm still completely doing end-to-end Kharka Kaam, end-to-end Jhaadu, Upocha, Bhartan, everybody, both of us are completely embroidered. At this point of time, if somebody says, I'm going to provide you home-cooked food, I'm going to kiss her hands.
01:10:05
Speaker
This is one thing I think is going to blow up. This working from home specifically is going to blow up a lot of opportunities for women who actually stay at home and have absolutely been looking for opportunities to go up and start something of their own. Such great times to start something, such great time. In my entire community, I think the major
01:10:32
Speaker
speak for women has been roti banani hai yaar. Chawal chahadiya kuchti hai roti banani hai. Such a major ask for rotis. So I think there is a huge opportunities for home cooked meals. There is a huge opportunities if I go to tier two and tier three and I'm
01:10:48
Speaker
I see this happening with a lot of my friends who are still residing in tier 2, tier 3 towns. They are opening up newer businesses from their perspective. I think businesses which deal in direct selling in hygiene
01:11:05
Speaker
In new products, in natural products, in immunity building products, these are going to the next level. And even if it stays true for the next one year or so, as UK says, they have found some solution to this virus. But for the next one year, we are going to be fearful of who we come in contact with. I think by this time, by that time, we have huge opportunities for such
01:11:33
Speaker
natural immunity building boosters for work from home, for working from home, women who actually can build up a business on their own. These are only a few spaces that I can see is going to build up from here on. And I'm seeing this because I think a smaller business will mushroom faster, smaller business will do and flourish also.
01:11:59
Speaker
Got this. And how is the expectation of consumers changing from you as a marketeer in the post COVID world? Okay, so safety is going to be a safety and hygiene is definitely not a not a it's not a good to have anymore. It's a must have. I think any customer is going to be a think about you, you have never walked into an FPP. If you walk into an FPP or a big bazaar,
01:12:28
Speaker
You will be a fearful individual. You will be a fearful individual. You will be a fearful individual. You will be a fearful individual. You will be a fearful individual. You will be a fearful individual. You will be a fearful individual. You will be a fearful individual. You will be a fearful individual. You will be a fearful individual.
01:12:57
Speaker
So these are things which we definitely are going to be very aware of. The person who is standing on the floor is manning the
01:13:07
Speaker
customer or not proper, customer at a proper social distancing or not. He or she himself is a properly distant at a distance place or not.
01:13:27
Speaker
If the trial room is allowed to be allowed to use or not. Try not to touch as many products as possible.
01:13:45
Speaker
These are things which I think you as a customer see as I keep on telling it in every forum before marketers all of our customers how we would like to be dealt with a brand we are interacting with that the same way we should be dealing with any of our customers is walking in.
01:14:07
Speaker
before I go into a trial room, even if the trial room is sanitised, I should be sanitising it in front of the customer because the virus is there in the surface as much as there it is there in your head. You will always be fearful of water you are touching. So these are things which are
01:14:28
Speaker
which are going to be mandatory for all of us as brands to be able to be taken care of. And I think as customers of any brand, I think we will expect the same level of hygiene and safety. And safety is going to be forefront.
01:14:45
Speaker
Second thing is stock. Since I don't want to be flirting around with a lot of space in open markets or I don't want to stay around in open space for a long time, what I would want to do is I would like to pick up the maximum requirement from a contained environment and walk back home.
01:15:08
Speaker
So, stocking up is essential. Mirpa's saapchi stock up at one point, under one roof mess, up goes saap kush de pong. So, for example, if I am looking for a
01:15:20
Speaker
for something for my kid. If you walk into a big bazaar, I should be able to give you a laptop. I should be able to give you a fashion, a kid's undergarments, a kid's t-shirt, a kid's shorts. I should be able to give you stationary. I should be able to give you your toys so that when you walk out of a big bazaar, you're completely set. You are sorted. You don't want anything else for your kid. So that's the way we are speaking to our customers, saying that come, we're safe, and we're stocked up.
01:15:49
Speaker
and one stop destination for all your needs that would have happened. But it's cool. So tell me what is the most cringe worthy marketing jargon you've ever heard in your career of let's say 15, 16, 20 years. Target customer.
01:16:15
Speaker
It's so misused. It's so misused that I know I have been pulled on this word
01:16:23
Speaker
So many times that I can't even start to say, as marketers, I don't really think we always know who our TG is, who our target group is. But this is such a misused word, such a misused word. Really, I see a 20-year-old also walking around in that same apparel.
01:16:50
Speaker
And you're expecting 50 or a percent to be on Instagram also. Exactly. Absolutely. So this is something that I can say as much. What I need to be really ready as a marketer is that these lines are going to be blurred. These lines are definitely merging somewhere and also starting somewhere. So these lines are going to be always in grey. It's never black and white.
01:17:17
Speaker
the cohorts that you speak to are definitely merging into one another. So there is no hard lines or TG that you are always defining as.
The Importance of Curiosity and Networking
01:17:31
Speaker
So these are things that... So as a marketeer, how important is technology to you to keep you aware of what is happening in the world? What tools, what devices, what apps do you use to stay
01:17:48
Speaker
If you talk about gadgets, gadgets, I think the phone has everything to you at this point of time. I don't think you need anything more than a phone if you have a phone which works fine with you, if you have a smartphone with you.
01:18:04
Speaker
What is it that I generally use? Yes, I can't take credit that I'm a WhatsApp University graduate, but WhatsApp has become a really huge business enabler for us. I think if any business
01:18:21
Speaker
professional is saying otherwise is lying on face. I think most of us have started relying on these groups, these communication platforms as a daily business. As I said, I generally wake up to my business and my team at 8 a.m. and WhatsApp is the first app that I check. Even before I check my mails.
01:18:49
Speaker
That's the first thing that I checked. And I think it's true for most of us that it's something that we operate out of. Apart from that, how do I keep myself updated? Generally, if I say that, OK, I really keep my network alive, it would be absolutely true for me. Because I think the more number of people you speak to, the more
01:19:18
Speaker
more varied information comes through might not be relevant for you, but you exactly know what is irrelevant for you at some point of time. So it's just you sieve and you filter. If something stays with you, I remember I reached out to some professional last week and saying that I really want to speak to you primarily because I think
01:19:43
Speaker
there is somebody I would definitely want to discuss at a mentor level and that's something I definitely want you to be at this point of time. I don't think a lot of us go ahead and seek out mentorship actively and that's something
01:20:04
Speaker
I think I've learned this from my team, a lot of youngsters in my team that they don't hesitate to ask. And this is something that I believe that I have learned from them that if there is a need for me to learn, if there is a need for me when I feel that I need to be guided, I should be able to speak to people who I can look up to and say that please mentor me.
01:20:29
Speaker
So these are things I do actively. I keep my network alive. I used to go to a lot of conferences because not because of something that gives you a space to say hi to a lot of people. It just is a space wherein you will learn across industry what are the new things which are coming up, what are the new things which are being utilized in other space. Who knew that at
01:20:58
Speaker
at this point of time, my husband is a CTO. And I remember this conversation, me having this conversation with him saying that, you know, there is a huge space when people are saying that a CMO, CTO and CDOs role are so interchangeable at this point of time. I have my opinion on it.
01:21:15
Speaker
But however, at this point, at any point of time, who knew that I would have an active interest in my husband's profile at any point of time. Seriously, when I got married 13 years back, I really used to feel that IT is one of the most boring spaces to talk about.
01:21:30
Speaker
But at this point of time, I keep on eating his head every single day saying that help me understand this, help me understand this technology. I don't understand this. I don't understand this language. Even if it is a technical language, it's being thrown around as jargon in the digital marketing space. You will have to decode it for me to be able to decode marketing far more better.
01:21:53
Speaker
So these are things I think seeking out information is one of the things I actively have started actively doing.
Marketing Challenge: Selling Unneeded Products
01:22:04
Speaker
I believe that I have been a very curious kind of a person since the beginning of my life, I think. I always
01:22:14
Speaker
have thought, when my parents used to say that, okay, she's extremely curious, I actually always, it always used to follow with a back at that point of time. But at this point of time, I think that it has helped me as an individual, that being curious has always been curious and being able to ask questions.
01:22:37
Speaker
The fact is what I was trying to say is being curious is something that we need to keep alive. And with experience, I think we lose the ability to ask questions. I think you really have to be a little shameless in things you don't know. You have to reach out to people you don't know. You have to reach out to young people if you don't know answers. You have to reach out to experienced people if you don't know answers.
01:23:03
Speaker
These are things which has kept something alive in me which I think gives me a lot of experience. The second thing which I think is inherently built in me is to question norms, question rules.
01:23:19
Speaker
I generally don't like, see generally I don't like sitting in office for a long time or generally I don't like traveling for a long time. So I think I keep on looking for different varied kind of experience which keeps my soul nurtured, which keeps this entire wanderlust alive within me.
01:23:43
Speaker
So I think that just helps me that why I follow a set of norms. I'm not a rebel, but I definitely like to question a set of rules, which I think has helped me. The other thing I think that works in your favor, though, Prachi, sorry, I'm being shibless here, is that once you know that you're a coach, you want to chase people up instead of waiting for them.
01:24:07
Speaker
Well, thank you for saying that. No, I tell you why because I remember after the first chat which was almost a month and a half ago.
01:24:16
Speaker
You were the one who chased me for questions. You were the one who chased my team for a time for the interview. And today also, you were the one who's chasing us. Yeah, because the only thing is if I've set some time apart and got get involved in something, I think you see to it the end. If you don't want to see to the end, why start it? Got this. So last two questions. Tell me the toughest question anybody ever asked
01:24:47
Speaker
conversation. What was the question and what was your answer? I think it was a conversation with Mr. Byani which I had and I remember he asked me
01:25:08
Speaker
What do you mean by TG? And second, when I was asked that, what is it that as a professional, as a personal ability you think you'd like to have?
01:25:26
Speaker
This is something which I had not prepped for. With how much preparation you go into an interview, what is it that the one thing you'd like to have is an ability which helps you in a personal and professional domain? I don't think I had ever thought about it as a question.
01:25:47
Speaker
I never like hobbies and all everything is good. These are things which you get asked and what is it that you learn to have as a skill to go to your next level? What is your dream for two years, five years, six years, ten years? Understand you prepare for this and you have a you have a goal in your life which you're prepared for.
01:26:07
Speaker
but you don't understand what is it suddenly when you get asked that what is one ability that you think will help you professionally or and personally as well to move ahead in life not to achieve any goal just to move ahead in life. So this was one thing which I definitely paused and thought about.
01:26:26
Speaker
when I was asked this question. So yeah, this is one question. It still is fresh in my memory, which is why I think it was a different question. Got it. Super. And if you were to ask me a question, what would that
01:26:47
Speaker
Well, why are you so interested in collecting all this information from such varied people? I understand maybe you're wanting to know a little bit more about how people function, what is the next step in life and I understand, but what made you move to such a different kind of a space? The podcasting thing started before I realized the advantages.
01:27:15
Speaker
Now Prachi, imagine, I'm being super honest with you, right? If I called you and said, somehow I found your number and called you and said, I want to pitch for work at SBB. You will probably not even talk to me, right? Will you talk to me? I don't think so because tons of agencies will talk to you every day. You will ask me to send credentials. You will make me meet your juniors and so on and so forth. Before I reach you.
01:27:37
Speaker
you know, on the other hand, if I get to talk to you, and let's say, by talking to you, I realize that, you know, FPV does this kind of work, and I realize that it becomes a crazy term. So it shortens my BD cycle, A. B, it allows me to create relationships with people who are really, really up there doing interesting work like you. And C, it helps me figuring out the opportunities that I can seek tomorrow. Like, for example, one of the questions I asked you is, he
01:28:04
Speaker
You told me a lot about working from home and women who can work on food. So this just gives me an interesting perspective. And super honest, and the last thing is that, you know, push them to shove the inside of a pick from you. They could be useful to me when I start working again on a larger project, whenever that is. I don't know when that would be, but this just helps me learn more things. And like you are a cutest kid.
01:28:35
Speaker
I was known as a guy who had a question mark on my forehead all the time. Like I would ask questions to everybody and anybody and people would hate me for that. Luckily that is coming in handy now because I can now at least chat with strangers and then ask them those questions which make them uncomfortable. So yeah, so that's the honest answer. No, but that's a very, that's a, for lack of, no, for the lack of any material, actually that's a very honest answer.
01:29:00
Speaker
Okay, last question Prachi, if I told you that you have to throw open a challenge to my listeners, a marketing challenge, what would that be?
01:29:10
Speaker
I wanted to actually ask people, this is something that was thrown at me. I have very dark black hair, long black hair. And I remember being asked in one of the interviews that, how are you going to sell hair color to yourself? And this is something, trust me, it was asked to me, I think 13 years back in one of the interviews.
01:29:36
Speaker
And I am yet to figure out a perfect answer for that. So if I were to say something like that to your listeners saying that, what is it that you don't need at all? And you think that you never need and try selling that to yourself. What would you say? What would you do?
01:29:57
Speaker
like I am at this point of time still figuring out an answer saying that how will I sell a hair color to myself so that's precisely I would like to ask to your listeners saying that what is it that you never need in your life now or ever in your future as you think how will you sell it for yourself
01:30:29
Speaker
So that was Plachi from FBB. Hope you had as much fun listening to it as we had when we recorded it. Please do tell us what did you think of it and please tell me who would you want as the next guest on the show.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:30:43
Speaker
You have heard the latest episode of the Marketing Connect podcast, a show for marketeers by marketeers. The show was brought to you by C-Puri and the podium.