We are currently living in the digital age where technology impacts us in ways that we can’t imagine life without it. From hailing taxis from the side of the footpath to letting an app do the same for us, there is an app for almost everything. The digital transformation adds value to your business by engaging talented employees, improving customer experience, and driving profitable business models.
And that’s not all that has changed, there is a lot that has changed when it comes to operating a business and marketing the products and services. Back then, businesses turned to newspapers and television to market their products but now they’ve switched to social media and WhatsApp. All this because the generation of now has become aware of their wants, leading them to easily connect with the brand’s story which makes all the difference. So, now when someone says hotel, your mind immediately says Trivago or when you’re craving for a dessert in the middle of the night, go ahead Swiggy karo, phir jo chahe karo!
With businesses competing against each other to stay on top, it is imperative they go digital if they want to serve no less than a million customers a day. It also helps that they come up with roof- shattering deals and iconic branding strategies that allow them to make a drift in the current segment of e-commerce and offline sales. Even India’s top two e-commerce marketplaces, Amazon and Flipkart, are competing for head to head – The Great Indian Festival and The Big Billion Sale.
Various game-changers like Nike, Burger King, McDonald’s, Apple, Nissan have had their social media and digital media strategy on point, and they ensured they reached the right audience in the right time frame. Whether it’s Adidas with the Kardashian-Jenner partnership giving their brand an edge or Nike ads that are designed to inspire, the thing that works is how much the brand is being talked about.
But what more can businesses do to stay relevant? By making sure that the brand becomes
‘available’ for consumers when most needed, they can smartly connect with the audience. There is already a level of saturation in this form of marketing and novel things are required every now and then. Remember how Uber offered discounted rides to the IPL matches and other events by partnering with BookMyShow. Or when they tied up with PayTM to integrate their payment system through the wallet. Well, the tie-up – or shall we call it a well-planned strategic move – seemed to work out for PayTM, considering they boast of 10 million downloads on Google Playstore alone.
We’ve all played KBC on our smartphones sitting at home along with the contestant sitting on the hot seat by downloading the SonyLIV app. With daily prizes up for grabs at the end of the episode, viewers not only experience the thrill of participating but also the opportunity of matching their knowledge, boosting engagement at the same time. Similarly, PinkVilla and other brands have opted for live FB quizzes for launching their current campaign/company. It has become viably important to have a strong social media strategy in place and of course a chic website to keep reaching out to people and increasing brand awareness.
From this, we can see that businesses should focus on building strategies. Especially since most businesses are start-ups, they need to have a strong ROI-driven approach and ensure novelty each time. All of this needs to be done in order to garner fresh customers as well as grow their base of brand-loyal people. A start-up’s ever-growing reputation is, after all, built on the basis of smart communication and the quality of services (or products) they offer to their customers.
