DEAL WITH CHANGING ASSUMPTIONS ALL THE TIME
Ujaya Shakya
Founder, Outreach/ Author, Brandsutra/ First Vice President, Advertising Association of Nepal/ Entrepreneur/ Transforming MarCom Ecosystem in Nepal/ Open to New Ideas
When I was recently called for the guest session in the key B-school (of course, virtually), I started thinking, what should I speak that will be the most relevant for these students. I did introspection with my own career (& also remember my student days n how we were excited about interacting with working professionals) and realized that the most important thing for us to keep growing in our working life is to learn to deal with the changing new assumptions all the time. We live in the fast pace world that has further expedite by digital revolutions.
When I started my career, the whole assumption of the large FMCG brands (always excited to be part of them) were how to control the shelf spaces at the retail outlets and their most important strategic tools were to create mechanism to control these shelf spaces. As marketeers, our business model was to control shelf spaces, do R&D to get marginally better product in the category and run a TV advertisement to dominate the mind space and that always worked perfectly well.
But in the near future, ecommerce is already changing the game (even true in this part of the world further expedite by pandemic). The new assumption of ecommerce is there are no shelf space any more. If somebody is planning to buy any product category, they will either search with that category name or a specific brand name in that category. That means, the recollections of specific brand name has become most important than the recognition of that brand (which used to be the assumption earlier). Which means, the future advertising strategy will be very different from what we are practicing now and these students need to update their skills in the similar line.
The key question is: Are they getting these knowledges at schools to be more competent in their working life? Everything we are doing around the business are changing new assumptions and it will be lot different while they get into the decision-making roles. For example: you probably will have to work on fewer brand extension n make more investments in making the brand recalls higher or at the same time deal with competitors that are super niche focus because internet has democratized and enable these niche players in the unbelievable way.
#Brandsutra
Executive Assistant to Founder at Outreach Nepal. Talent Acquisition to create New Industry Benchmark.
3 年Always good to interact with young minds.
Managing Director at Ravadi Marketing Pvt. Ltd.
3 年Going digital smartly is the new normal and now the key to growth mastering algorithm to be relevant in the marketplace. Great thoughts on changing dynamics of new.marketing dimension.
"Pioneering a Unique Category in Liquor: Introducing Korean San Soju Crafted in Nepal!"
3 年Grateful for your presence at SOMTU Ujaya sir.Got too many insights about how advertising plays a crucial role on a brand performance and how it will shape the future. Inspired and followed by your brand sutra. Thanks for sharing your valuable time with us.
?ntegrated Creative Leader | Problem Solver | Storyteller | International Experience | Kristal Elma 2024 Juror
3 年Change is the only constant. Advertising and communication is ever evolving, just like any other vertical in life. Especially with the advent of digital, change is happening at much rapid pace. So, it's imperative for the brands to keep shifting their gears accordingly.
Director at Samsung Nepal
3 年Certainly, the pandemic has expedited the pace of transition from traditional to digital media. This has also provided more avenues on how we plan consumer experience journey. Marketing as a function has become extremely dynamic and one has to have eagerness to go through the constant process of learn, unlearn and learn every single day. The only constant here is change. In the context of Nepal, shift from offline to online channel has been extremely slow unlike in the case of our big neighbours. Hence, shelf space and point of sales management is still very much pertinent and I believe it will remain so. Even more pertinent for FMCG industry where consumer off take is highly impulse driven.