Traditionally, marketing has been a relatively easier task. The brand manager makes an insightful TVC, adapts it to print, outdoor, radio and he is home. The brand manager deals with the mainline creative agency, media and research agency and is in complete control. So is the client servicing person at the agency end.

Now comes the digital era which the erstwhile brand manager is blissfully unaware of. So is the client-servicing lead. The newly formed .ORG structure has a digital department filled with techies who take over the objective of building the brand in the rapidly growing internet space.

Suddenly the brand manager tries to adapt to this new medium where now the customer is communicating with the brand.

With multiple platforms on digital and numerous agencies bringing their individual expertise, the erstwhile brand manager’s life gets complicated like never before.

The client servicing person is in a worse situation with the brand’s demands of social content, viral videos and such, and does not know whom to go to for delivery.

In this new brand order, to add to the complexity, neither the digital team nor their agencies understand the brand building process which till even today has remained the stronghold of the creative agencies.

This is the biggest challenge facing brands today – ownership within the organisation and agencies.

At both ends the ownership has become fragmented and diluted. There is no singular brand today.

The key lies in how all the sub-functions within marketing and various agencies can work together towards creating and executing the brand idea, have some common brand KRAs (key result areas) so that they all work towards achieving them and take collective ownership for the brand’s success and failure.

Anisha Motwani, Director & Chief Marketing Officer, Max Life Insurance

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