Brands of Bharat- Capitalizing on awareness: How narratives impact brand awareness & increase customer engagement (Episode 11)
Creating brand awareness in today’s time is no easy feat! And with new brands coming up every single day, the already overcrowded market makes it even more difficult for marketers to increase brand awareness and attain high customer engagement rates.
To understand how brands are cutting through the noise with the help of powerful narratives, Agency Reporter hosted the eleventh episode of its virtual panel discussion series- Brands of Bharat, powered by Nukkad by STAGE.
Nukkad by STAGE is a Premium and Sensible Content Company for Bharat with a 125M+ monthly reach among Hindi audiences. They produce and deliver informative & empowering content with humor and satire through the fictional characters who are derived from the real world. Their main shows are focused on Finance, Trends, Tech, Game, Entertainment, Current Affairs, Family, Health, etc categories. They have also established a video content lab where they make research-based content with a data-driven approach to brands for different purposes.
The episode went live on 2nd February 2022 and is centered around the topic- Capitalizing on awareness: How narratives impact brand awareness & increase customer engagement.
The aim of this episode was to understand how brands are utilizing narratives to set themselves apart from their competitors while keeping authenticity at the forefront. The panel comprised of eminent experts across various industries to ensure diverse insights could be gathered. The episode features Shashishekhar Mukherjee, Head of Digital Marketing & Media, Reckitt; Ankit Khirwal, Head of Marketing, upGrad; Amlan Pati, Head of Marketing- Ecomm & Digital, Cavinkare, and Jigar Sheth, Chief Revenue Officer, Nodwin Gaming.
The discussion was moderated by Runa Sinha, Vice President, Nukkad by STAGE, and Rahul Puri, Editor, Agency Reporter.
The discussion began with Jigar Sheth discussing why creating a narrative is essential for building strong brand awareness and how a powerful narrative can influence customer engagement in today’s over-competitive market. He discussed that the competition is extremely stiff with over 20 players in each category trying to catch the eyeballs. This is why creating a narrative is very important for brands to sustain growth for a longer period of time.
Further, Shashishekhar Mukherjee explained that storytelling is an essential part of the customer engagement process as it helps in delivering knowledge, learnings, and wisdom. He suggested marketers must make use of storytelling in the retention of the Bharat audience. People are more likely to engage when the stories are more resonating with them at all levels. The basic tenets of storytelling for the Indian audience and the Bharat audience are the same. What differs is the topic of interest, tonality, language, formats, and sometimes platforms.
In their desire to align with their consumers, brands often stray from their purpose and lose authenticity. Amlan Pati shed light on how brands should work on the narrative building while keeping their authenticity at the core of their marketing strategies. He discussed that in line with how media consumption has evolved, brands have to be authentic. It is very important for brands to create their own niche. Many times, brands get lured by new ways of connecting with audiences but they must think twice before putting it into action. He advises that a brand’s tenets should be simple and there should be an identity that its audiences can connect with.
Furthermore, Ankit Khirwal talked about how using customers’ stories in the narrative building process can enable brands in generating major ROI. He explained that brands must move on from just selling in order to connect with their audiences. If marketers choose the right influencers who promote their brand in a sustained manner or if they integrate with their audiences meaningfully and not with an aim to sell their product, the brand will definitely see an uptake.
The discussion then steered towards Shashishekhar on how Reckitt focuses on capitalizing on awareness to drive deeper connections with its audience. He shared it is important for brands to understand their consumers and their choices. Brands should know how they can leverage the power and vitality of their audiences and create the right message that normalizes the conversation around the product. This is how Reckitt uses insights and creates a powerful brand story.
Jigar further elaborated on why gaming firms must pay equal attention to narrative building and how Nodwin Gaming looks at the narrative building to drive a deeper and ever-lasting relationship with gamers.
The discussion was taken forward by Amlan and Ankit when they shared their insights on why a better understanding of behavior patterns of Bharat audience helps brands in enhancing consumers’ brand’s experience and why is it necessary for brands to consider customer data while building a strong narrative.
Ankit explained that using data or data-driven marketing is not an option today, it is a necessity. Marketers are required to ensure that our communication is on point. Earlier brands had to wait for months to get insights on consumers or how your campaign has performed but today the data is real-time.
The discussion came to an end with panelists’ bringing into the spotlight the success stories of their brand awareness campaigns that have driven a change in the industry.
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