Brands of Bharat- Captivating consumers: Building narratives to strike a chord (Episode 5)
The fifth episode of Agency Reporter’s virtual panel discussion series ‘Brands of Bharat’, powered by Nukkad by STAGE, went live on March 18th, 2021. The latest episode is centered around the topic- Captivating consumers: Building narratives to strike a chord.
The topic of this episode is in line with the overtly-competitive and crowded world, wherein consumers have an array of choices for just about everything. Capturing the distracted consumer’s attention, retaining it, and striking a chord with them is nothing short of an art. Especially when emotions and narratives come into the picture, which marks the beginning of a meaningful connection, and allows the brand to engage with its target audience on a much deeper level.
The panel for this episode includes Pooja Baid, Director-Personal Care, Philip; Shefali Khalsa, Head-Brand & Communications, SBI General Insurance; Rohan Mehta, CEO, Kinnect; Rohit Dhawan, Principal Partner, Mindshare Content Plus and Debashish Bhattacharjee, Co-founder & CMO, Pocket52. The discussion was moderated by Runa Sinha, Revenue Head, Nukkad by STAGE, and Rahul Puri, Editor, Agency Reporter.
The discussion began with Pooja Baid and Shefali Khalsa sharing their insights on how marketing and advertising have a constantly mutating DNA which leads to a lot of flexibility to adapt to different situations that marketers face.
Rohit Dhawan further talked about how narrative building helped brands in staying afloat during the testing times of the pandemic and shared examples of brands that managed to come up with relatable campaigns in order to instill the ‘We can and we will’ spirit amongst their audiences, instead of instilling fear.
Rohan Mehta shed light on the host of mediums and multiple ways through which a brand can build narratives as consumers increasingly become more attracted towards brands where they have a deeper emotional connection.
On being asked about how can brands connect to the new-age audience through narratives, Debashish Bhattacharjee shared the challenges that the online gaming industry, which is relatively new, has faced during the pandemic. Pooja Baid took the conversation forward by discussing how small businesses suffered during the pandemic and how brands like Philips and Cadbury came up with campaigns based on responsible narratives to help small traders.
The discussion then steered towards the use of data for building narratives wherein Rohit Dhawan and Shefali Khalsa discussed the key role of data in knowing what would really connect with the consumer and understanding the gaps in narratives.
The last bits of the discussion revolved around the upcoming trends that marketers expect to witness. Shefali Khalsa discussed how trends and formats like customer testimonials, user-generated stories, data-driven stories, and the recent mini-advertisements are expected to see a massive rise in this sphere. Debashish Bhattacharjee also discussed how building a personal connection with the consumers through in-person activities and experiences has helped Pocket52 in taking their efforts a notch further.
Watch here-