How did you enter the world of marketing? The challenges you faced? The accolades you received?
Sanjay Tripathi: Advertising and advertisements always fascinated me in my growing up years, due to their widespread influence on the consumer behaviour. In my college days, advertising was pretty much synonymous with marketing, and so rather than going for the standard Engineering or Medical degrees, I enrolled in a management course at IRMA. As a part of the curriculum, we learnt about real life cases. The case studies spoke about how marketing and advertising campaigns built popular brands like Nirma, Bombay Dyeing, Amul and Tata Steel. The stories of brands that left an indelible mark in the advertising landscape by truly connecting with the people struck a chord and opened my eyes to the world of marketing.
The one challenge we marketers always face is the inflexible mindset of the Indian consumer. This was true then and this is true now. Launching a campaign usually means changing the buying behavior of an individual and in India, when people get comfortable with a brand they tend to stick to it for years; they are not fans of experimentation. So, as a marketer, to not only launch, but also bring about a transformation in people’s mindset is usually the challenge and the ultimate goal.
When it comes to accolades, I feel I am blessed. I have been honoured with the ‘Marketer of the Year award’ for two years in a row in the Insurance category by the International Advertising Association (IAA) in their flagship Leadership Awards in 2014 and in 2015. I was featured in Campaign India’s ‘The A list’ of most influential people in Media, Marketing and Advertising for more than 5 continuous years, apart from winning several other individual awards like the CMO Asia Awards. But my real pride and joy lies in the awards my campaigns win. Most recently, the Memories for Life Campaign was shortlisted in two categories at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and won at Effies & Spikes Asia.
What are the unique aspects of your marketing and branding strategy?
Life insurance is a complex category. With no product differentiation and low involvement, HDFC Life faced a huge challenge in breaking the clutter in the early 2000s. At a time when insurance advertising revolved around fear, HDFC Life reinvented the core category proposition with ‘Sar utha ke jiyo’ –self-respect in refusal of financial help. Respect is at the core of everything we do; including the way we conduct our business.
Since then, HDFC Life has reinterpreted ‘Sar utha ke jiyo’ to make it relevant to the continuously evolving audience. ‘Sar utha ke jiyo’ has now come to stand for financial and emotional independence. This has strongly resonated with our audience across generations and has created a strong niche for the brand.
The characteristics of a strong brand? Your advice on how to build a strong brand?
Strong brands have a few things in common. Uniqueness is critical. In a category sold on fear, HDFC Life came to stand for ‘pride’ in financial independence which broke the clutter and immediately stood out. Delivery value to the customer’s life is essential. HDFC Life has constantly innovated with the evolving market, be it harnessing the digital power or product innovations like Cancer Care or the ‘Click 2’ series. And lastly, driving consistency; good branding is ubiquitous and as a brand we have strived to create unique value propositions for our customers.
Brands need to evolve with changing times and find new ways to remain relevant to the customer’s lives. It could be with new product offerings, service or creating fresh propositions.
Has the age of the Internet changed the way we build brands?
The Internet has revolutionized the entire marketplace today. The way brands conduct business has undergone a radical transformation. Brands are working with real time input which is making immediate course correction possible.
In such a scenario, HDFC Life recognized the power of digital very early on and harnessed it effectively to achieve the leadership stance it has today. Today’s DIY customers look to solve their own problems on the digital media and so we regularly engage with them via different social media channels. Our website offers educative insights and various tools for people to calibrate their financial needs and choose a suitable product accordingly. With a strong and dynamic online sales channel, HDFC Life formulates customized online products for each customer. We strive to ensure a strong online servicing network that ensures the online customer stays online.
Has the Internet changed consumers? Made them more price sensitive, less loyal, more demanding?
With shorter attention spans, increased competition and dynamic market, engaging with todays customer is even more challenging. Customers today are constantly connected to the outside world with their smartphones. Yesterday’s nice-to-haves are today’s necessities for them. They expect brands to have a nuanced understanding of their needs and introduce innovative solutions accordingly. Hence, agility and continuous engagement with these customers is essential for brands to stay relevant.
How challenging is it to build a brand in the very diverse Indian market place?
If you have the right understanding and intention, it is not challenging at all. India is a unique market with several cultures and sub-cultures. In this amalgamation of different religions, languages, regions, classes and diverse traditions, HDFC Life understood one universal human emotion- Pride. The premise of ‘Sar utha ke jiyo’ is pride in financial and emotional independence and standing on your own two feet. So while the brand operates across India and uses cultural nuances to formulate marketing strategies, the emotion of ‘Pride’ is the overarching trope that is widely recognized and distinguished in the market.
Brands you admire and why?
I respect brands that have broken convention to get people talking. A great brand is built not by one person, but by the cumulative effort and creativity of an entire team – a group of people. I believe consumers will neither pay attention nor care about your communication unless and until they have recently contemplated the need for your product. Amongst all the noise that they are exposed to, how do you stand out? The answer is innovation! I tip my hat to brands like Apple, Disney and Nike for their innovations in media, insights and execution.
Complete the sentence “The future belongs to ……………”
Big data and its subsequent analysis. We already use a lot of behavioral information to generate predictive models that tell us about future financial buying patterns of our customers. It is something revolutionary in the field of insurance and I believe, it will continue to pay off. But we have to be extremely careful with the data, to prevent consumer push-back.
With the ever-growing mobile market, and the widespread availability of cheap and free data, it has become imperative for marketers to have a mobile-first strategy and optimize content and user interfaces, for the mobile platform. It has become the key communication requirement that reaches even the most remote part of the country.
Video content promises to become bigger and better, especially with the explosion of live streaming media. With the promise of merging with Virtual Reality, it could soon be possible for the consumer to have a first-person experience in real time.
