Major Indian retailers are eliminating underperforming brands and replacing them with cheaper store brands due to consumers demanding simpler options with fewer product lines. As consumers have more information available and easier purchasing, they are becoming less loyal. Marketers are challenged to shift from a product-focused approach to being customer-centric by implementing changes like appointing a Chief Customer Officer role to ensure the customer perspective is represented at high levels and driving a culture change within organizations to prioritize customers. Making this transition will be difficult but is critical for future competitiveness.

1. Rethinking Marketing

2. Retailers are eliminating brands
• The India's biggest retailers are wrestling with having too many types
of brand-namev products. At the same time, shoppers are buying less
and looking for bargains.
• Unless a particular brand is a top seller in its category, it's getting
knocked off the shelf -- and sometimes getting replaced by a cheaper
store brand.
• Market research firm expects, BiG Bazar and other sellers will trim
several name-brands across categories in coming months, or negotiate
deals to get better pricing.
Consumers’ Demand of Change

3. Too many brands & too many line
extensions
• The feeling is that as these companies keep extending their [product] lines, it's only
causing confusion for shoppers and not really driving them to buy more products.
Consumers’ Demand of Change

4. Consumers are saying
“enough is enough”
As a consumer, "Do I really need to decide between 15 different types
of detergent when I go to a store?"
Easy access to information and friction- free purchasing is making
consumers ever more agile—and less loyal.
Consumers’ Demand of Change

5. The new consumer buzzwords
“functional & simple”
• Captures the phenomenon of simple, small and/or cheap
products and services;
• Smaller and/or limited number of features, to keep prices
low.
• Simpler, or easier to use, for inexperienced consumers.
• Energy efficient (or not using any traditional energies at all)
and/or easy to repair and/or waste-reducing.
• Robust, as some of them are used in rugged conditions.
• Well-designed.
Consumers’ Demand of Change

6. II. Traditional Vs New Rules of Marketing
Engagement

7. Marketers are wondering
Traditional Vs New Rules of Marketing Engagement
What do we do now?

8. Yet some brands are doing very well
Traditional Vs New Rules of Marketing Engagement

9. Because they focus on the customer
Traditional Vs New Rules of Marketing Engagement

10. While others only focus on price
Traditional Vs New Rules of Marketing Engagement

11. Which in turn decreases the value of
the brand
Traditional Vs New Rules of Marketing Engagement

12. So today, what’s more important ?
Traditional Vs New Rules of Marketing Engagement
ProfitabilityMarket Share

13. Old metrics are being replaced
Traditional Vs New Rules of Marketing Engagement
ProfitabilityMarket Share

14. III. The Transition and Expected Challenges

15. The Transition
The Transition and Expected Challenges
Product Driven to Customer Driven
Product Manager Driven
Brand
Customer Driven Brand
Transition

16. The Transition
…And the Customer driven organization
Customer
CRM
Market
Research
R&D
Customer
Service
The Transition and Expected Challenges

17. The Transition
And all this is spearheaded by the……
Customer
CRM
Market
Research
R&D
Customer
Service
The Transition and Expected Challenges
Chief Customer Officer

18. Chief Customer Officer
An Executive that provides the comprehensive and authoritative view of the customer
and creates corporate and customer strategy at the highest levels of the company to
maximize customer acquisition, retention, and profitability.”
Responsibilities include:
• Drive profitable customer behavior
• Create a customer-centric culture
• Delivering and demonstrating value to the CEO, the Board, peers, and employees.
The Transition and Expected Challenges

19. Expected Challenges
LIKE any other organizational transformation, making a product-focused company fully
customer centric will be difficult.
•People Change Management:
• IT group will want to hang on to CRM.
• R&D is going to fight hard to keep its relative autonomy.
• Traditional marketers will battle for their jobs.
The changes requires overcoming entrenched interests, it won’t
happen organically. Transformation must be driven from the top
down. But however daunting, the shift is inevitable. It will soon
be the only competitive way to serve customer.
The Transition and Expected Challenges

20. Conclusion – A Glimpse of Future
Organization
The changes requires overcoming entrenched interests, it won’t happen organically.
Transformation must be driven from the top down. But however daunting, the shift is
inevitable. It will soon be the only competitive way to serve customer.
The Transition and Expected Challenges
The best marketing in the world is not going to save your company or
brand if you can’t execute and put the customer at the center of
everything you do.
Peter Drucker was right “The aim of marketing is to know and
understand the customer so well the product or service fits him
and sells itself”