Big Challenge for brands to be meaningful to customers

Market research expert Hernán Sanchez Neira was in New Delhi on business this week. As the chief executive of Havas Media Intelligence, a unit of global advertising and marketing agency Havas Media, he travels across the globe to review the operations of the company in different markets. Once a student of economics, Neira is now developing insights into and understanding of consumer behaviour to create effective communication strategies for brands. Media environment and the consumer, both have become complex, he said in an interview. Edited excerpts: In an increasingly complex media environment, what should companies and brands bet on: social networks, new or traditional media?

The challenge in terms of using media is to first classify the communications channels. Ear- lier, it was all about carpet bombing of messages to people.
So we call them the “talk” channels or traditional media, the platform from where brands talk to people. We are going to use them for a very long time.

The second group of communication channels is “think” channels. We call it “think” because to have a conversation you need to think. These channels are call centres, websites of companies, stores, sales representatives, every aspect of the company which is really in touch with people. This channel plays a very important role in communication because what you are promising in talk channels is materializing through think channels.

Then there are the “trust” channels where people talk about the brand and have open brand-related conversations.
Trust channels in the past were the traditional media, the influencers. People believed in them. Today, social media is part of the trust channel where you have peer-to-peer conversation, people who are able to influence the opinion of others.

Social media is taking a very big role. To articulate communications solutions you need to have a vision on how talk, think and trust channels can work together.

If you combine good messaging in the talk channel right experience in think, you'll get the trust channel working positively with you for value creation.

Isn't it difficult for brands to control what is said about them on social networking sites or trust channels?

There is always a danger, but there are also ways of control- ling that. There are ways of using ambassadors that give credibility to be a part of trust channels.

It's hard for brands to just put banners and be part of the conversation. To be part of the conversation, content is key and in many cases content is not a creative piece, it's something you are doing with people who are reliable and people in social media trust and allow you to be part of that.

How has the consumer changed since you started working with brands?

When I started working, corporations and brands had all the power over consumers.
There was a big asymmetry in the information between brands and corporations and consumers.

Consumers knew very little about the brands. They knew what was said in advertising and what they experienced in terms of prices and promotions That was it.

Now consumers know much more about the brand and categories in which the brand compete than the brand itself They know that because the are more educated, they have technology in their hands so they can search for information and share it. So there's a collective intelligence that puts them in a superior position vis-a-vi brands. This is a revolutionary change in the relationship. The power is shifting.

The key is for brands and agencies to be on top of under standing how consumers be have, feel and relate to brands.

Market research is going to become an essential part of everything that marketers or communicators are going to be do ing in the future. We believe that the agencies in the future will have to not just send messages but also help clients to listen real time what's happening in the market place with the brands. How do you view the India market?

Consumers in emerging economies, India, China, Mexico and Brazil, care a lot about the relationship with brands.

They expect more than just a product and service. This is good for India because the Indian marketer will be able to start dealing with sophisticated consumers.
s In the next two years, technology will be key given the fact y that India has deployment of technology on a very large scale. We believe the country is well-positioned to build brands - for the future by combining technology platform and consumer needs.

How much time and money are companies investing in brand building?

In the past, building a brand - was like creating a wine. It was - something that took 10, 12, 15 years. The brands of the future are now created in months and - deliver the services in seconds.
- Successful advertisers keep - on investing and their budgets are growing. They're investing not just on advertising, but in - digital media, websites, e-commerce and in building applications. All this is not being r caught by the advertising bud- get.

(Source-:mintlive)