Millennials are on the go, they have low attention spans

This week, we are inconversation with KashyapVadapalli, Chief Marketing Officer and Business Head, Pepperfry.com . Kashyap is an MBA from IIM Calcutta and holds aB.E. from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. He started his career in Salesand Marketing with Cadbury Indiaand has handled roles in Marketing and Business Development in Tata InteractiveSystems USA and Google India.

Have millennials and GenZ transformed the waybusinesses approach marketing?

I think the bigdifference in the way millennials and GenZ operate is in terms of how theyconsume information, how they take their decisions. And how it is differentfrom the previous marketing groups, is the fact that they are very data-driven.They get their information from digital channels, from the internet – they havemultiple sources of information. So, when you're talking to them, you need toensure that you're using the media that they're familiar with – the varioussocial networks, news apps or anything that is there on digital. The momentsomething is on digital, attention spans are smaller, and people tend toconsume selective information. If you're talking to millennials, you can't havethis large story that you're telling in a large format. Earlier generationswere relaxed, and they would consume that kind of content. Millennials are onthe go, they have low attention spans, they want content that is highlyrelevant to them. So, highly personalised, bite-sized information is what youneed to put out there to capture their attention.

W hatare the best ways to connect with and sell to this audience?

Millennials and GenZhave grown up in an era where there has been an information asymmetry that hashappened in the favour of consumers. They have a lot of knowledge becausethey're consuming global content; everybody's out there publishing stuff. So,they have lots of access to sources of truth. When you talk to them, you haveto talk to them like an equal, you can't preach down to them saying, “Hey, youknow, I'm the brand, I'm the manufacturer, I know what is good for you, so,take my product.” You have to, have a very different tone and voice. 

It needs to beinteresting and engaging. That is a nuance, that is extremely important when itcomes to millennials. Also, you need to integrate it into what they're alreadywatching. For example, a lot of our push, over the last 18 months, has beentowards content marketing, where we are working with established contentplatforms, content formats, like web series, and small video formats. And we'reintegrating Pepperfry into those formats, rather than, trying to treat it likea piece of marketing communication. We're trying to weave into the stories thatthey're already interested in.

What are the specific technologies that havedriven these changes?

The ability tomicro-target consumers that all the large digital marketing platforms give us. 

For example, we knowthe age of the people who are going to watch a certain piece of content, andwhere they're located. We also know, based on their shopping trends, the kindsof products that they're interested in. When you have access not at a personal,individual level but an anonymised level, you have access to the details ofwhat the person likes and sees, we are able to micro-target. The biggestadvantage is the fact that (and it is a double-edged sword) we are able totrack users and their behaviour across the internet and that will give us awealth of information on creating the consumer profiles and personas. Based onthat, we are able to target them with the right message at the right time. 

Obviously, one has tobe careful not to be intrusive, in terms of not accessing personal information.But I think as long as you're on the right side of that, the ability to trackusers and micro-target them is the big technological advantage that is there.

What do you need to win in the marketplace - better technology or better ideas?  

You don't really havea choice. Technology is available for everybody to access, somebody mightaccess it today, and somebody might access it five days from now. Technology isa level playing field now. So, for your brand and offer to stand out, and for theconsumer to appreciate your offering better, you need to have that unique idea,which will stand out in their perspective. But they both go hand-in-hand –technology and the idea. You can't have a great idea and not adopt technology.If you try to have a great idea and you just stick to traditional media, youwon't be able to target them smarter, in a smarter fashion. So, you need tohave both of them going hand-in-hand.

What makes customer experiences thedifferentiator of the future?

Earlier, consumerswould be satisfied getting a product. They almost would feel grateful that theyhave access to this product. Since the markets were not well-developed, theydidn't have many choices. Today, people have a lot of choices. Whether it is furniture,automobiles, mobile phones, I can buy from multiple players. The products havealso become highly democratised, the features have become largely equal. So,how does a consumer choose when there is access to multiple brands? Theconsumer will choose on the basis of how you make them feel. Are you a brandwith a purpose, and therefore the consumers feel good about buying yourproducts? Or are you a brand with a conscience, and therefore, make theconsumers feel better? Or are you a brand that cares not just about theproduct, but the entire experience around it? In terms of how do you find it,what is the moment of truth interaction? 

For us, we realisedthat when furniture is delivered, it is the small things that count. Once youinstall a piece of furniture, there is obviously going to be a lot of debrisfrom the packaging material, etc. cleaning it away, borrowing cleaning toolsfrom the house and leaving a clean space is such an important part of theexperience. How you make the consumer feel is going to be more important,because a lot of product parity is being established in the market.

How do you bridge the gap betweenexpectation and experience? 

It is extremelyimportant that you're setting the right expectations upfront. And often,especially in a highly complex category, let's say like furniture, often therewill be a mismatch. You can promise, hundred per cent on-time deliveries withnot a single scratch on the piece of product when it is delivered. But it won'thappen every time. In those situations, you have to be genuine, you have toaccept your error, you have to go back and try to fix it for the consumer. Tellthe truth upfront, you will make mistakes; sometimes the experience and theexpectation won't match. We might fall short. But our attitude should be ofhonesty to go out and fix it. And, I think, consumers will recognise it.

What does it take for brands to staycompetitive in today's dynamic economy and market?

One of the things thatremain extremely important is that a brand can't be static. If you define yourbrand as standing for something, you need to keep evolving very quickly. Andtoday, that cycle is two to three years. I don't think you can really get thebenefits of a brand's positioning for more than 2-3 years, because newcustomers are entering the fold. Consumers mentally tend to shift because theirexperiences are changing so often. The media that they consume, the travel thatthey do, nobody is the same person they were two or three years ago. If youswitch back a generation, people were similar from the age of 31 to 39, buttoday it is not that brands need to keep evolving, they need to move with thetimes in terms of keeping up with expectations. A conscious focus on keepingtrack, of where the consumer is, what the new expectations are, and being ableto deliver to that is what will help brands stay relevant.

What are the three secrets to successfulbranding?

For me, the startingpoint of a successful brand is basically figuring out the customers’ biggestpain point, or the biggest opportunity for joy. In any product that somebody isbuying, there will be multiple reasons they're buying the product, but therewill be one important reason. Identifying that and figuring out how your brandfulfils that is number one. For us, we can sell furniture on the basis offantastic designs, variety, value or service. Once you buy it, if there are aset of promises made in terms of delivery timelines, assembly timelines andquality of assembly, we meet those. 

Second is creating adistinctive brand asset. Brand asset can be a very stylish logo, or it could bea tagline. 'Happy furniture to you' is a tagline that is very memorable. Ithink people register it right upfront because it is such a common line 'Happybirthday to you'. And even Pepperfry, as a name is very distinctive. When youare able to create a distinctive brand asset, like a distinctive brand name anda tagline, and you bring them together, you're bringing up the opportunity forboth noticeability and memorability. 

Third that is mostimportant is identifying the right media. A lot of questions are around how totake the brand to market. The real solution lies in, where is your audience?And does your media follow your audience? 

Can a one-size-fits-all approach workin a differentiated market such as India?

Obviously not, whichis why we are a platform today. We are a marketplace offering, where smallmanufacturers doing art-oriented products sell handicraft on the site. At thesame time, we have mass manufacturers who are doing fairly standard stuff at anextremely low cost. So, we're dealing with both the high end of the market andthe mass. We have hundreds of thousands of merchants who are selling on oursite. The reason we have that set-up is because, from an offering perspective,it is impossible to create one offering that will serve a large market like India. Everymerchant is an offering for us. And every merchant brings his unique designsand price points. Therefore, you need to have that wide perspective.

Even in terms of go-tomarket, for example, there are huge nuances in terms of how different parts of India react interms of the type of designs that they are looking for.  And, therefore,you need to adapt your offering to each of the geographical areas. So, aone-size-fits-all works only if you're targeting a very narrow geography orconsumer segment. But if you want to capture a larger share of the pie, like wedo, you need to have an approach both from a product and service perspective,which is much wider.

Why and how should brands think local?

Every region has itsown nuances in terms of how they approach any product or service. And there aredecision points that are more important for some versus others. There arecertain areas where it is extremely important that the furniture is veryunderstated and the important thing about it is the durability. In some otherareas of the country, it is important that the furniture is a little bitflashier. The important thing there is the amount of flash that it brings tothe table. They're willing to change it after three to five years. So, they'renot really concerned about durability, but the trendiness or the design becomesmore important. For us, it has been a discovery process in terms of understandingwhich market reacts differently and then fine-tune our services. But given thatwe are an online company, primarily, we're able to show everybody everything. 

It is not only aboutyour advertisements, creating an ad in Hindi and dubbing it into Telugu orTamil. It is about understanding if those markets require a different product.

How does your brand approach theSouthern market when it comes to branding and consumer engagement?

Bengaluru is ourlargest market. Hyderabadand Chennai are markets number four and five for us. So, among the top fivemarkets, three are from the South. It is primarily because of the nature inwhich the Southern market, especially Bengaluru, Hyderabad and parts of Chennai, have evolvedin terms of technology-savvy consumers. Consumers, who potentially have had alot of global exposure because of their jobs, primarily in the technologyfield. They're much more comfortable with online buying. They're comfortablewith receiving an online service. So, for us, South is an extremely importantmarket for these reasons. 

What is unique about the South Indianmarket? Do you see any difference in consumer behaviour from the North in yourcategory? 

They are a muchquicker and faster adopter of technology. We also get much better ROI from theSouth, digital marketing efforts and from digital branding efforts in theSouth. So, that is really the big difference that is there.

This article is part of a brandinitiative by The Hindu BusinessLine to profile marketing professionals fromacross India.

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