"You need to be available to consumer"

Ravneet Singh Phokela, Chief Business Officer, Ather Energy has recently joined Ather Energy-a Bengaluru based start-up, promised to bring smart electric scooter. Prior to Ather, Ravneet was with Flipkart as Vice President and Practice Head of their Strategic Brands Group where he led many consumer centric strategic decisions. He speaks to Retailer; about the smart strategy today, brands need to embrace in order to offer extra-ordinary consumer experience.

What made you to join a start-up company leaving behind a popular brand?

Different kinds of organisations offer different challenges, and it depends on what you are looking for. The skills and the joy of managing mature brands is very different from that of creating something afresh. My journey with large, global brands has been very rewarding, and has taught me a lot. What excited me about this role was the opportunity to bring that diverse experience together to build something from scratch.

You have immense experience in brand building and customer acquisition. From your experience please suggests how to bond with today’s customers?

The fundamental rules of bonding with consumers don’t change. However, we need to be able to recognise the environmental change that is impacting consumers’ lives, and the influence is has on how they interact with, and expect from brands. Technology and social media has driven rapid change in last few years, which has had a profound impact on how brands need to interact with consumers. We now live in an always-on world, with shorter attention spans, and more media promiscuity. Consumers have become less forgiving when it comes to brands, and because of social media, they now also have the ability to influence others based on their personal experience with these brands.

Brands have lost their ability to dictate when and how consumers interact with them, and that leads to less control over the conversation. Brands need to be able to recognise this significant shift and find ways and means to adapt themselves to this reality. You need to be available to consumer, as and when they wish to interact you; you need to be able to present yourself in the media that they wish to interact with you in; real honesty in communication is critical – the days of technically correct but misleading headlines, with critical details in fine print are gone; brands need to see themselves as people talking to people, and not organisations talking to their consumers -  which means admitting when they are wrong and not trying to defend unnecessarily. This essentially means having an outside-in view in the organisation – keeping consumers as the focal point and finding ways & means to slip into their ever-changing world, with minimal friction, and at the time and place where they wish to interact with you. This, by the way, has always been the essence of brand building.

How to create experience for young customers?

In retail, good overall customer experience is a big driver of loyalty. There are some basics that are critical for good experience across all segments, and then there are some additional considerations that are specific to young customers. A well thought through layout; inviting store design; minimising friction across the entire transaction; the brand’s philosophy reflected across all elements – design, merchandise, selection of store staff and so on; robust service recovery processes etc. Perhaps one of the more important elements that influence the experience is the store staff. The degree of empathy they demonstrate, depth of knowledge about products, politeness of interaction, empowerment to solve problems and earnestness to genuinely serve the customer are critical to deliver a good experience.

Two things that are different about younger customers are their technology engagement and the fact that they have more time relative to the older audience. Retail stores can leverage technology to make the buying process smoother and more efficient. Geo-targeting, technology-led product discovery through tablets and kiosks, mobile wallet integration at check-out, self-service check-outetc are some examples. Since they have the luxury of a bit more time than their older counterparts, younger consumer are more open to in-store initiatives, and therefore deliver better ROI. These initiatives could serve a variety of objectives - product trials, experiential programs to bring specific brand attributes to life, product demonstrations etc.

Do you think customer loyalty is alive in this age?

Yes, it is, and will always be, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to earn it. If a consumer has reason to be loyal to a brand, it takes away his need to fish around when he has to make a purchase decision. This reduces complexity in the buying process. Therefore, consumers subliminally seek brands that they can be loyal to. Let’s take an example. If I know that at Big Bazaar, I will always get the things that I need, at the best price possible, and of the quality that I need – it would eliminatemy need to think of where I should buy my groceries, every time I need them. This making life simpler, and who doesn’t want to make life simple.I am not even talking about the emotional loyalty of being associated with brands that make a statement about who you are or what being associated with the brand makes you feel.

The key to earning and retaining customer loyalty is to be able to understand what is relevant to the consumer at an emotional as well as a rational level, and deliver against that. Sounds simple but very difficult in real life. Consumer needs are a moving target, and trick lies in not following the change, but anticipating it and being there when the change happens. There is no other way to do this than to have a maniacal obsession with understanding your consumers and institutionalising processes that enable you to acquire a multi-dimensional view about them. The science of collecting this structured and unstructured data is equally important as the art of making sense of it.The inability to keep pace with changing consumer needs is the biggest impediment in earning and sustaining customer loyalty.

According to you what could be a good marketing strategy to acquire customers across segments and specifically in retail?

There are two drivers of customer acquisition. One is to understand what is it that consumers are looking for. When we look at needs, we need to look at rational as well as emotional drivers. The second is to understand who out there is currently addressing needs of these consumers and can we serve them better. It’s important to understand who your competition really is, and many times we take a myopic view of the competitive landscape. An oft-quoted example from the beverage industry is that water and nimbu-pani are as much competition for cola drinks, as are other cola drinks. For retail, completion is coming from different sources, and each source has its inherent benefits. Local Kirana stores offer an arms-length access, and a more personal interaction. Online players offer wide selection, convenience and perception of low prices. Other brick & mortar retail would offer their own set of benefits. For a retail business to drive acquisition, it’s important for them to define what their source of business is. Who is it that they are looking at acquiring customers from, or who is it that they are in danger of losing customers to. The acquisition strategy would depend on that. Do you want to get new customers on the promise of wide selection, or every-day-low-prices, or exceptional customer service, or an accelerated rewards programs, or complementary alliances etc. All these are viable routes, but the ones to choose would depend on what you define as your source of business.