Every organisation needs to be a digital organisation

This week, we have in the spotlight, Srihari Palangala, Senior Director, Marketing,Dell Technologies India . An engineer by profession, he has a passion fortechnology and has spent around 17 years working with technology products invarious roles, including business development, consulting and marketing acrossthe US, India and Asia Pacific.

B2B marketing strategies have evolved a lot lately – can you outline innovations in this space?

Every organisation, big or small, isactively making technology purchases today. The buying process spans complexsolutions to transactional purchases. Against this backdrop, never before hasthe balance of ‘Art’ and ‘Science’ been more perfect in B2B marketing. Marketersneed to maintain that balance across the marketing spectrum of messaging (ofvision, product, solutions - art), optimised delivery of message acrossmultiple channels driving reach/frequency (art/science) and analytics tomeasure performance (science). As teams raise the bar on each of theseelements, innovations and improvements in campaigns are constantly happening.

With the emerging technologies makingtheir way into every sector, the opportunities for B2B marketers in the digitalarena continue to grow. The new tools and channels present us with new ways toreach the target audiences. The main objective of B2B marketing strategy is tocustomise each campaign for the audience and position itself distinctively inthe industry.

Digital transformation is an emerging opportunity. How is Dell addressing this? 

Today, everyorganisation needs to be a digital organisation, powered by data, running in amulti-cloud world, ready to take on anything. At Dell Technologies, we have abroad product/solution portfolio addressing needs from the edge to the core tothe cloud; and across the stack, from infrastructure to applications. Wesupport data-driven transformation journeys of our customers across IT,workforce, security and application as part of the digital transformation.

Dell Technologies’ success in India and thepromise that the market holds for us is immense. Our focus is on opportunitiesin BFSI and Government and we are in partnership with many marquee clientsacross various verticals, like manufacturing, BFSI, cyber security, smartcities, education and healthcare. 

For us, Digital Transformation entailsfour pillars of transformation – IT, workforce, security and application. Ourroadmap on this front is to establish our presence as a solution-provider fordigital transformation. Driving innovation is a key priority across all of ourR&D set-ups in Indiaand is at the heart of Dell’s transformation journey fuelling global growth.

Slowdowns are challenging periods for marketers. However, they give rise to innovations, e.g. we are seeing a subscription model in auto. Has Dell any special strategies for downturns?

Slowdowns bring the focus andimportance back on driving demand. At Dell Technologies, we are fortunate tohave a broad portfolio that can engage with a prospect on most aspects of theirdigital journey. It is, however, important to double down on execution basics,from (micro/sub) targeting, to apt messages in the buying cycle to tactics indriving conversion. We also couple this closely with listening to the market,which is enabling us to take the right offers and product bundles to customers.As messages resonate with prospects, we look to scale those that are working.

Marketers are moving from separate strategies for product marketing and services marketing to a more converged approach. Your take on this?

This is absolutely true. At DellTechnologies, we see our services and support offerings as a key differentiatoramongst customers and they complement our products nicely. We take anintegrated message for the market, for example, our Unified Workspace solutionwith support/manageability and that as deployment delivers customised PCsystems, which are shipped directly from Dell’s factory to employees. This isan example of our best-of-breed end-point products coupled with the rightservices messaging.

What are the trends you are witnessing in loyalty marketing? How useful a tool is this?

The biggest players are making hugechanges in their strategies to attract new loyalty entrants, by creatingexciting experiences. While technology will be the enabler, it will becreativity that drives loyalty into the next phase.

Our products and technology, coupledwith the services and support, drive innate loyalty among our customer base.Those who buy from us repeatedly, form an important base who transact with us asthey look to refresh, upgrade or make cross-purchases. We constantly aim todrive ease and convenience for our customers as they look to make repeatpurchases from us. 

What are some of the best ways to connect with and sell complex solutions in an age of ever-decreasing attention spans?

Customers look for proof-points inmarket, either from reference solutions, through other similar implementationsor third-party points of view. These build a strong background and bolsterconfidence in the solutions and investments being made by customers. The otherelement is around how customers look to make a business case for technologyinvestments in their organisations. These are good opportunities for vendorslike Dell to connect with customers, offering a consultative approach in thecustomer’s digital transformation journey.

Are millennials and GenZ forcing brands to be more purposeful?

Technology needs to work forindividuals and businesses and to that extent, it needs to constantly adapt,innovate and offer choices. The innovation drives product improvements thattake it constantly closer to the end user. For example, in our client portfolioof products, we look at our technology being offered to various personas,including new-age workers. Today, ‘work’ is not a place you go to, but insteadincreasingly millennials are choosing to work from any location. Technologyneeds to recognise this and offer product capabilities that support such usecases.

With millennials becoming part of thelarger workforce and spending spectrum, the industry can notice their thoughtspropel the brands to take a more purposeful marketing approach. Purpose-driven branding is on the rise, as brands are beginning to take standson topics and causes, by effectively creating tactics to embed themselves inthe brand’s strategic vision.

As employees, millennials are rewardinghigher-purpose businesses with their unpredictable loyalty. They are part ofthe increasingly large component of the workforce, on their way to 75% of theglobal workforce by 2025. 

What are the things a brand should do right now to stay competitive?

Today, there is constant change andmultiple alternatives/choices for customers for every product, and brands needto double down on clear communication. This needs to be coupled with the rightfrequency to achieve breakthrough. Communications need to be consistent and assimple as possible, focusing on the core message. Staying on target onmessaging helps brands differentiate from competition.

As a marketer, driving consistency iskey and this consistency needs to reflect in our campaigns and messaging aswell. While we drive consistent and repeated external messages through ourdirect outreach tactics, it is also important to ensure our message isdelivered not just through marketing but by broader functions engaging with thecustomer. 

Marketing constantly drives the thrustto ensure our value proposition is reflected in our company. This meansadequate enablement for people and teams and also providing the right platformsfor the message to be delivered, which are championed by marketing. Ensuringconsistent external messaging across the board is a key element in drivingtransformation for the business and brand.

Marketingleaders are required to constantly scan and look for opportunities that enablebusiness growth and better customer experience. In order to pursue theopportunity brought in, it is also necessary to bring the right talents, skillsand minds together. Carrying out projects successfully requires marketing headsto be influencers in the organisations that rally people and teams to performto the best of their abilities. We are responsible for both short-term tacticalplanning and long-term strategic planning, thus impacting the businessdirectly. 

Marketingleaders are expected to work and collaborate across business functions – and indoing so, can jointly steer and execute the strategies to the best of theexperiences.

How different is addressing customer complaints with them now having a multitude of forums to express their grievances?

It is passé to say that brands need tobe ‘always on’, keeping two-way channels with customers open at all times. Itis now important to recognise that this is owned by everyone in theorganisation, since multiple teams come together delivering an end-to-endexperience for a customer. Hence, close internal collaboration andcommunication is key, to ensure that complaints are identified and addressedquickly. Being aligned and fully integrated on core company values is importantto ensure that errors are minimised and when they do occur are addressedquickly and properly.

Customer complaints are timeless, nomatter the size, nature or success of a business. There will always be acertain percentage of people who aren’t happy with the product or service. Inthis fast-paced technology era, a customer does not think twice before pickingup the phone to type their complaints and making it public. We all can seevarious online forums and discussion boards, which are available publiclywithout constraints.

Unlike in the olden days, wherecustomers were loyal to particular brands and businesses, today the customersare aware about the competition. They simply switch to another brand even afterjust a single negative experience. 

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