Why Today's Consumer Takes Forever to Say "Yes"

What will India's internet economy look like in 2030? A trillion-dollar juggernaut, according to a recent report by Temasek, Google, and Bain & Company. But the real intrigue lies beyond the headline number. This report unveils the hidden connections and surprising trends that will shape this growth, impacting everything from your favorite online store to your neighborhood kirana. Ready to peek into the future?

Let's explore the report together...

So let’s start with the headline where it says that Indian internet economy will move from current 5% to 13% in India’s GDP contribution by 2030 reaching $1Tn.

Now there are hundreds are reports projecting exponential growth of India by 2030. But I found this interesting because it carefully looks at the correlation and halo effect of this growth on key contributors in the industry. It also looks at the potential symmetry of this with the segmented income growth in Indian households.

Here is why I am recommending this report to you?

What I observed is that the bigger the collaboration in writing a report, the wider perspective and access of datapoints they get to sample and write insights.

In this report the collaboration of Temasek, Google and Bain & company resulted zoomed-out view on emerging industries, socio-economic structures and its impact on something I am deeply invested into - Marketing and Advertising.

That’s the precisely the reason I am sharing this report and some of its insights from my recent get-together at “Google Leadership Meet”.

1.  Ecommerce B2B/B2C is poised to grow the most with 14x and 6x respectively: Here is why the growth of ecommerce industry is interesting, It has a HALO effect on other industries. When Ecommerce industry grows, it significantly impacts other industries like logistics & supply chain, marketing, customer service, sales, operations , manufacturing and everything in between.

2.  Information overload and paradox of choices: There is too much information and as the cumulative volume of real vs synthetic content is growing, it will be very hard for consumers to trust a brand. Your customers are likely to follow complex purchase journeys and this is going to demand god level creativity and empathy across the marketing communication, brand perception and sustenance of the trust.

3. Trust forms the backbone of the consumers journey – If the consumer journey will be complex, you need to implement the ”trust levels” across the possible touchpoints. Remember, in a world of too much information, looking at these metrics are critical for the “Trust Influence”:

   a. Highly trusted brands are 7x more likely to be purchased

   b. 25% more money spent on trusted brands than brands they trust less

   c. 87% of those who experience trusted connections with the brand are more likely to be returning customers

   

   But looking at this macro trend and potential impact of Ai across the business, I think it’s high time for brands to leverage the potential of Ai to address the complex decision making process layered into an already complex ecosystem with multiple marketing channels and devices.

   Have fairly open mind to explore and experiment with various Ai tools and it’s impact across the decision making journey of the consumer. It’s high time to ensure the brand presence across time and moment, reaching millions of consumer journeys at speed and scale.

   Here are the three suggested principles to help implement Ai in your overall marketing and business functions:

   a. Marketing and Business Alignment: Learn to drive strong alignment between marketing and overall business goals. It’s not just a separate function of a business, it’s the core of it.

   b. Marketing Agility: This is most difficult to implement because it calls for change in the mindset.  Every single activity should be aligned with the larger goals and you need people who are driven by agility and growth.

   c. Identifying and retaining most valuable consumers:  You need to build the pool of most trusted, valuable and high paying customers and turn them brand advocates. High time for marketers to focus on value based business, LTV and products, think like and investor across all marketing initiatives and campaigns.

Forming a power couple between the CMO and CFO of the business: Focus on building stronger alignment and realization of common business goals.  Remember, think like an investor 😀