Growth Vaccine for 2021

“The year 2020 has been a watershed year for most marketers and our resilience has been tested. Many individuals perhaps started the year by questioning if having a strategy is even relevant in the VUCA world that we live in? (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) Yet most of us concluded that what such times teach us is having a strategy is perhaps the most important thing.

The top 3 learnings for me during this chaotic time were as follows:

1. There is no greater way to react to a crisis than keeping ones ears on the ground. Many leaders have commented on how sticking to the basics has been the best way to navigate this crisis. Companies that adapted quickly by calling retailers to gauge the situation on the ground, those that integrated with their field force with empathy and built a system of work from home thrived and were able to make the most during the crisis.

2. The second most important learning is that even in times of crisis, the consumer resists any major change in their lifestyle. Despite a year of living at the helm, a consumer still consumed chocolates, candy and chips. They just shifted from glass bottles to home packs and moved their occasions of consumption from out-of-home to those at-home. Unable to access restaurant food, cooking at home saw a resurgence. Modes changed but not the habits.

3. Lastly, technology emerged as a saviour and its adoption grew by leaps and bounds. While we always knew that the markets would move towards e-commerce and digital engagement, these trends only accelerated during these unprecedented times. So, in times of crisis, we see that forward looking trends accelerate rather than halt.

All in all, we learnt the importance of being grounded, adapting to the needs of the consumer and using technology to bridge the experience sought by the consumer”, Saurabh says.

“The coming year would be tough for multiple reasons. The first being that we have not gotten used to a

period of accelerated change and it will be difficult to predict whether those changes will continue to accelerate or start regressing. Categories that suffered during the pandemic would be under pressure to bounce back and those that gained would be under pressure to retain the momentum. Either ways, managing expectations would be a challenge. And hence to manage these challenges the following steps would be critical for every marketer.

1. Communicate transparently and be open to the fact that times are uncertain and it would be critical to build uncertainty into our plans. This will be a time of experimentation and betting on new initiatives.

2. There would be a need to invest to bring back those categories that dropped in relevance during the pandemic like on the go snacks, aerated beverages & sugar boiled candies as well as to leverage the new behaviours that have been seeded like consumption of better for you products like breakfast cereal, Greek yogurts etc.

3. Finally, the massive growth of digital services, OTT platforms, new age media like Spotify, e-payments offer new tools that are critical to integrate into the play book of a competitive marketer,” he adds pinpointing at the things to keep in mind this year.

“As the FMCG category entered the pandemic, companies saw an explosive growth in demand and hence the most agile companies prioritized the top 20% of the portfolio which contributes to 80% of business to ensure the consumers get easy access to the main Brands that they consume. Through the pandemic, majors realized that with restaurants being shut, a demand for new food categories like breakfast cereals, salsa & hummus, etc. started appearing in new outlets & towns. Hence it was then a time of enhancing distribution. Further the massive growth in e-commerce has led to manufacturers becoming even more sensitive about providing better delivery to such platforms and leverage them for growth.

The ‘growth vaccine for 2021’, in the post pandemic world may vary across business and categories. However in my opinion the broad principles that will cut across categories include:

1. Invest in & leverage growth categories that have benefitted by the pandemic such as home furnishing, digital devices, new age foods etc.

2. Foster a culture of experimentation & innovation to uncover new product & communication opportunities that the pandemic has created a need for.

3. Invest in scaling up organizational capabilities for e-commerce & digital platforms to leverage the changing business landscape.

4. Proactively build capabilities to leverage new tools & techniques that have emerged & garnered scale through the pandemic including marketing on digital platforms, OTT, digital payments etc.

5. Inspire creative agency partners to leverage new consumer passion points like online education, entertainment at home, safety & hygiene to create greater engagement and relevance with consumers.

Above all like the saying goes, ‘Never waste a good crisis!’ No doubt that the pandemic has hurt many industries but it has also created new capabilities for agile marketers to leverage. It’s the time to strengthen our competitiveness to drive growth in the new normal” he sums up.

Staying prepared