Marketing has been going through several different phases since the beginning of the early trading systems. From the production concept to the early remediation of the social marketing concepts the concepts and theories of how products should be marketed to the customer had been mostly developed in the 19th and 20th centuries.
But modern problems call for modern solutions. Gone are the days of traditional marketing methods. Within the past few years, the concept of customer experience (CX) has been gaining traction. Customers can easily switch from brands, products, and sites with the click of a button. During an interview with Jason Gaikowski- VMLY&R Executive Director, Customer Experience & Global Lead, Human-Centered Design and Saurabh Mathur- Business Head, Platforms, Experiences & Technology, VMLY&R India, they were questioned on what are the trends accelerated by COVID-19 in customer experience and how Indian campaigns in that context have evolved.
When asked about the experience of building capabilities for brands during the fast-changing environment brought by the COVID crisis. Jason said that Covid-19 hasn’t introduced new capabilities so much as accelerated their development across its client brand landscape. He also mentioned that the company feels privileged to form the backbone modern brands need to succeed in a post-COVID world. When asked about any trends or changes fueled by the pandemic in the CX space, he said that the most interesting changes include the massive race among established brands to rebuild themselves in the image of digitally native brands. He mentioned that companies have recognized the advantages of first-party data, distribution, and customer relationships, and they were effectively seeing brands across all categories adopt more of a direct customer (D2C) approach.
When Saurabh was asked how he views CX and any CX campaigns that stood out to him, he said that India has incredible opportunities for CX thinking and innovation. He also said that brands who want to improve on their CX should implement a customer-first approach and focus on their emotions. When asked What were the top industries that have witnessed taking a lead on CX during these times, he replayed that the Banking, Auto and Retail sectors were leading this charge.
