"Trust is built and lost every day in a digital world"

Sonal Desai

In an era where virtual communities can make or break a brand, enterprises are looking at developing innovative digital marketing initiatives to capture the trust of these communities in an evolving digital world.

This is a world where the number of mobile devices has surpassed the number of human beings, and organizations are thinking of innovative ways to develop a mobile first strategy. Consider this: More than 60 percent of purchases in India are made over mobile today.

Hyer-localized business communities:

“Business has become hyper-localized, and there is a lot of peer-to-peer connects over the Internet. This has changed the buyer-seller relationship. Any post about a bad experience with a brand can generate huge outburst from the special interest communities on social networking sites. Trust is built and destroyed in a day in this digital world,” cautions D Shivakumar, CEO and Chairman, PepsiCo, while delivering a keynote at the Gartner Summit in Mumbai this morning.

According to him the world has moved beyond the processed information feeds from organizations, purchase decisions that are influenced by word-by-mouth and online reviews. “The information you give is not enough. Consumers depend on word-by-mouth and special interest communities before making a buying decision.”

Providing important insight to an organizations’ digital and mobile strategy, he recommends a change in the culture. He states, “You have to start asking questions like how we are managing company information and confidentiality? Do we have data scientists to mine information for marketing? Are we prepared for changes in reverse auctions? Leaders who grew up and are still stuck in vertical fashion will be challenged, especially since the online representation of enterprises depends on the content they generate and consume.” 

Focus on the consumer:

Consumer is the king, s/he has a voice and now s/he is a part of common interest groups or communities. This has led to a significant increase in hyper local enterprises. Therefore, we have seen a rise in the need for local and relevant content, which is easy to understand and comprehend.

Focus on rural India:

Shivakumar also urged the enterprises, especially the e-commerce marketplaces to tap the large potential of rural India.

According to him, rural India is a huge untapped potential, which is still not buying online. Urging e-commerce marketplaces to explore the segment, he urged them to first identify the challenges, develop solutions and then pen a marketing strategy.

Trust is one of the major factors, rural India does not buy online, and he told the audience. “They don’t trust you because they don’t know you. They don’t know you because they don’t have access to the Internet, and therefore, they cannot access your website or mobile app, and are therefore, unsure of the product quality. They are worried about poor after sales services, and payments.”

Shivakumar asserts that the rural youth wants to buy online. The reason being that they also have access to the smart phones and apps that their urban counterparts download. He urges the enterprises to create awareness among the rural Indians about the usage of the app or the website.

“Create customized apps and products that will cater to their needs, and introduce the same reward and easy return policy to them; make it simpler for them, and they would certainly form a bulk of your customer base,” he shares. 

Impact:

There are too many numbers now, but the co-relationship of those to business impact is still at a nascent stage. There is a scale, precision, but no tool for measurement. Impact is still a far cry. Take for instance e-commerce; there is a vast gap between consumers who will buy online and what they will buy, and consumers who have an intent to buy online.