This episode of Flipcast features Varun Duggirala in discussion with Paramjeet Singh Mehta, the Marketing Head for Consumer PC and Gaming at Asus India.
Paramjeet shares his experiences working with brands like Tata and Panasonic and leading Asus India's marketing to achieve significant growth. He discusses the importance of innovation in marketing and fostering deep consumer understanding. He also highlights Asus India's journey and strategies including focusing on customer experience, consumer engagement, and product development.
Furthermore, Paramjeet shares insights on the gaming industry in India, his views on the impact of emerging technology trends, and the importance of leveraging AI and machine learning to enhance user experiences.
If you like the episode, share it with others and remember to leave us a 5-star rating.
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Varun Duggirala: Hey, guys, welcome to flip cast. In this episode, we're
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Varun Duggirala: chatting with Paramjit Singh Mehta. He's the marketing head for
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Varun Duggirala: consumer PC and gaming at Asus India.
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Varun Duggirala: Paramjeet has been in the marketing space over 10 odd years.
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Varun Duggirala: He's worked for brands like Tata and Panasonic. He's also
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Varun Duggirala: led Asus India, in the marketing to get three X
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Varun Duggirala: growth in their market share. Now he's passionate about marketing,
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Varun Duggirala: or what I feel is more passionate about is driving
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Varun Duggirala: innovation into marketing and using marketing to achieve all the
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Varun Duggirala: business goals that they have, but also build deep consumer
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Varun Duggirala: love and understanding. Welcome to the show.
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Paramjeet Mehta: Thanks, Varun. Thanks for inviting and giving this opportunity to me.
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Paramjeet Mehta: Thank you so much
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Varun Duggirala: when you look at as in the market, Um, you're
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Varun Duggirala: number two in the space of consumer notebooks. Um, But
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Varun Duggirala: what I actually want to ask you is that
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Varun Duggirala: how do you see the journey of coming to this point? Um, because,
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Varun Duggirala: you know, we often don't talk about consumer, not books.
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Varun Duggirala: As much as you talk about all the other stuff
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Varun Duggirala: happening around the ecosystem. I don't want to start off
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Varun Duggirala: with that,
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Paramjeet Mehta: Uh, but so we, uh we started here in India
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Paramjeet Mehta: 15 years. Uh, I think, uh, it's been, uh, four
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Paramjeet Mehta: years of orbit shift journey for us where we started, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: with a lot of, uh I think, um, changes in
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Paramjeet Mehta: the
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Paramjeet Mehta: the backend backend when I say it's the product development site.
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Paramjeet Mehta: And I still remember 2018, we had this product, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: Zen book duo with a dual screen coming in. And
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Paramjeet Mehta: it was the world's first dual screen laptop. And we had, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: Gal Gadot as our brand investor.
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Paramjeet Mehta: And we started with the, you know, some of the
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Paramjeet Mehta: key aspects. The first one was the, uh, consistency in
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Paramjeet Mehta: communicating that, uh, we are delivering meaningful innovations to our
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Paramjeet Mehta: end customers. And it's not easy. It's like, uh uh, translating.
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Paramjeet Mehta: Uh
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Paramjeet Mehta: um, uh, complex technology feature set to a very simple
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Paramjeet Mehta: benefit statement to the end customers. And we did this, and, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: what happened is that around 2018, we were a value brand,
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Paramjeet Mehta: and now we are a young brand that is in
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Paramjeet Mehta: search of incredible. So we've, uh this is the orbit
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Paramjeet Mehta: of journey for us. The second thing was that, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: we focused on
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Paramjeet Mehta: the consumer experience. And, uh, for example, let me quote
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Paramjeet Mehta: two examples here, one from the offline business side and
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Paramjeet Mehta: one from the online business site offline. We, for example,
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Paramjeet Mehta: the customer searches brand stores, right? So they are available
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Paramjeet Mehta: on Google. My business. They can search, uh, they can
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Paramjeet Mehta: also come to our website and on our way to buy.
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Paramjeet Mehta: One can also check which product is available at what
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Paramjeet Mehta: store
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Paramjeet Mehta: at a particular moment before, let's say, finding the direction
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Paramjeet Mehta: to the store. So this we enabled. And this requires
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Paramjeet Mehta: a lot of, uh um, you know, integrations
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Paramjeet Mehta: in the back end. And when it comes to, let's say,
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Paramjeet Mehta: the online business. Uh, we work with Flipkart, where we
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Paramjeet Mehta: worked on very small
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Paramjeet Mehta: quick 1, 1.5 minute videos where the original product is
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Paramjeet Mehta: showcased by a technical product team in a way that
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Paramjeet Mehta: you know, what are the ports available? Whether there's an
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Paramjeet Mehta: it's a let's say, one centimetre thin device or does
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Paramjeet Mehta: it have a SDM I port? So those information,
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Paramjeet Mehta: uh, you know, details are given in that short video
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Paramjeet Mehta: to the end customer and that device that it's a
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Paramjeet Mehta: grey device or it's a silver device, all of green. Whatever.
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Paramjeet Mehta: So it's the same device, so we've done that. So
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Paramjeet Mehta: these things we have enabled, I think the, um last
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Paramjeet Mehta: one here would be that consistency was the 1st. 2nd
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Paramjeet Mehta: was that we worked on consumer experience, and third was,
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Paramjeet Mehta: uh that we have enabled a deep consumer engagement, worked
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Paramjeet Mehta: on communities,
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Paramjeet Mehta: and, uh, we work with tech groups and all those
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Paramjeet Mehta: people who enabled, uh, you know, this complex feature set,
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Paramjeet Mehta: uh, explanation to our end customers. So we worked with them,
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Paramjeet Mehta: and it was mostly most of it was organic because
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Paramjeet Mehta: what we did, uh, that because of our product development,
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Paramjeet Mehta: they had this curiosity to get hands on to the product.
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Paramjeet Mehta: And we utilised that. And with that what, uh, you know,
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Paramjeet Mehta: as we speak right now, 70% of, uh, tech gurus
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Paramjeet Mehta: talking about IT hardware products. We occupy that space
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Varun Duggirala: as you were talking about.
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Varun Duggirala: All the all the things you can have done through
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Varun Duggirala: this process makes me to think about the fact that
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Varun Duggirala: even if you went like 57 years before, this level
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Varun Duggirala: of customization for a consumer wouldn't have even been possible,
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Varun Duggirala: and they've actually been able to drill it down that
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Varun Duggirala: I actually want to take a step back and ask
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Varun Duggirala: you think through your journey as a marketer how you
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Varun Duggirala: seen or how you added these aspects as you've evolved
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Varun Duggirala: in your own professional journey because
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Varun Duggirala: learning how this kind of learning how this can actually
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Varun Duggirala: work for you to connect to the consumer, to be
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Varun Duggirala: able to sell to them, to be able to customise
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Varun Duggirala: and build that relationship requires some level of internal rewiring
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Varun Duggirala: as well. Um, how have you progress within your own
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Varun Duggirala: journey to kind of come to
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Paramjeet Mehta: this point? OK, so what don't we be focused on first?
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Paramjeet Mehta: I think, uh, what has changed is, uh, people is
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Paramjeet Mehta: the most important aspect of whatever we are doing as
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Paramjeet Mehta: a business here in India.
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Paramjeet Mehta: And when we talk about, let's say people, then, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: there are a lot of skills which have also evolved, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: during this process, uh, skills when it comes to, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: marketing as well. So there are, uh, uh, modern marketing skills,
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Paramjeet Mehta: which are there. For example. Digital is a complete paradigm shift,
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Paramjeet Mehta: so the skills required, um to enable digital strategy. Let's
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Paramjeet Mehta: say you know, put in additional strategy has also changed,
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Paramjeet Mehta: uh, for us as well. So we worked, Uh, let's
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Paramjeet Mehta: say with baby steps as well. And for example, let's
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Paramjeet Mehta: say one of the most important factor for us was
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Paramjeet Mehta: that how do we get to all the placement channels
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Paramjeet Mehta: here in India? So, um, if I divide the overall
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Paramjeet Mehta: IT hardware industry and the channel placement channels, then, um,
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Paramjeet Mehta: there is around 30% goes to the branded stores. Another 30%
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Paramjeet Mehta: goes to the multi branded outlets.
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Paramjeet Mehta: Then there is, uh, 35 to, uh, the online or
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Paramjeet Mehta: E-COMMERCE Partners. So, uh, way back in 2018 when, uh uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: you know, ecommerce giants like that already cemented their position. And, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: you know, let's say there was a case study that
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Paramjeet Mehta: the way they sell smartphones was exemplary, right?
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Paramjeet Mehta: And, uh, for example, flipkart big billion days. So the
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Paramjeet Mehta: number of smartphones they used to sell at that time
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Paramjeet Mehta: as well was a completely different scale.
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Paramjeet Mehta: So what it got to most of the, uh, sectors,
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Paramjeet Mehta: you know, still registered themselves because still, let's say 60
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Paramjeet Mehta: or 70% placement channel was general trade or organised retail
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Paramjeet Mehta: So they were hiccups to join E-commerce. Right? However we
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Paramjeet Mehta: started earlier. So we started in 2018 because we wanted,
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Paramjeet Mehta: uh, to grow ourselves and also test ourselves whether the
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Paramjeet Mehta: early adopters Because, uh, the, um shoppers are all around India. However, um,
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Paramjeet Mehta: the ecommerce or retailers giants pulled in the early adopters right?
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Paramjeet Mehta: And they also sort of, uh, conditioned them and gave
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Paramjeet Mehta: them an experience that, uh, made shopping easy. Right, So
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Paramjeet Mehta: that was also done. So we started way back in 2018, 2019.
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Paramjeet Mehta: I still remember it was big billion days and, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: we invested, um in flipkart ads and we emerged out
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Paramjeet Mehta: as the, um, biggest player, uh, in the online market share,
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Paramjeet Mehta: then way back in 2080. And after that,
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Paramjeet Mehta: we consistently maintaining a position as the biggest player. And,
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Paramjeet Mehta: uh uh, first it was, let's say, the pin codes
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Paramjeet Mehta: level targeting. Then it was intent based, uh, targeting or,
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Paramjeet Mehta: you know, getting to high intent customers. And now, even, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: with the use of technology, because at the end, flipkart
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Paramjeet Mehta: is also a technology brand. So, uh, they have pulled
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Paramjeet Mehta: in the,
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Paramjeet Mehta: uh let's say buyer persona as well, right? And that
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Paramjeet Mehta: can also be. Or, let's say, a buyer group can
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Paramjeet Mehta: also be targeted. So it opened up a lot of
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Paramjeet Mehta: So this was also one of the steps that we
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Paramjeet Mehta: took that time. That was the right step. And we
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Paramjeet Mehta: moved from just four person market share overall to 18% now,
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Paramjeet Mehta: right? So it it is a huge journey. What
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Varun Duggirala: is this? Growth also made you realise about the consumer themselves, right?
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Varun Duggirala: Because we always have a perception of a consumer which
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Varun Duggirala: might not necessarily be what the reality is in this strategy,
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Varun Duggirala: the returns is kind of shown. What does that taught
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Varun Duggirala: you about how the Indian consumer, especially in this category
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Varun Duggirala: as the world? Uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: yes, there is, uh, a lot of change now, So
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Paramjeet Mehta: consumers earlier preferred, uh uh, desktop machines.
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Paramjeet Mehta: And, uh, they were bulkier devices, and we were the
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Paramjeet Mehta: first mover. We brought in a lot of, uh, thin
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Paramjeet Mehta: and light devices. We brought in dual screens, foldable screens, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: multiple screens and, uh, convertible devices. Right. And also, we
00:10:09
Paramjeet Mehta: did one of the biggest change in the industry that
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Paramjeet Mehta: was bringing in,
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Paramjeet Mehta: uh, the feature set which is we call it. Let's
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Paramjeet Mehta: say we sell at the same price, but we give
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Paramjeet Mehta: additional advantage to the customer. Right. So let's say the
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Paramjeet Mehta: leadership pricing is around ₹50. At that price segment, we
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Paramjeet Mehta: offer an ole display as well. Right? So this we
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Paramjeet Mehta: started doing and, uh
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Paramjeet Mehta: uh, with that, what we achieved is that we created, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: an understanding with the customers that Asus is a young
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Paramjeet Mehta: brand because we were ready to experiment, right? We were
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Paramjeet Mehta: ready to, uh, you know, uh, sell online,
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Paramjeet Mehta: right? And also offer customers different type of devices and
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Paramjeet Mehta: use cases. So one of the biggest thing that we
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Paramjeet Mehta: thought was coming up here in India and when we
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Paramjeet Mehta: talk about the changing customer usage behaviour, uh, it was
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Paramjeet Mehta: one the gaming community was emerging here in India. And
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Paramjeet Mehta: if I quote, uh, 2000, uh, 1718 it was 100
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Paramjeet Mehta: K
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Paramjeet Mehta: as the overall total dec market here in India. And
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Paramjeet Mehta: now it's, uh, 10 lakhs. 1 million, 10 times in
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Paramjeet Mehta: just four years.
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Paramjeet Mehta: Uh, it has completely changed, right? The second thing was
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Paramjeet Mehta: that because of this, uh
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Paramjeet Mehta: uh, the social thing which was changing the uh, lifestyle
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Paramjeet Mehta: as well of the consumption side and also the influencer side. Right.
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Paramjeet Mehta: So this also emerged during that period. And what happened
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Paramjeet Mehta: is that this creator community also evolved. And let me
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Paramjeet Mehta: also give you one another understanding, which is that the
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Paramjeet Mehta: India is
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Paramjeet Mehta: going to be the biggest outsourcing market for 3D animation
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Paramjeet Mehta: game development, uh, coding and whatnot. So all these services
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Paramjeet Mehta: which require, um, a skilled computing understanding
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Paramjeet Mehta: is going to be outsourced to India, which means that
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Paramjeet Mehta: the greater community will be the biggest here in India.
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Paramjeet Mehta: And it is already one of the biggest and community
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Paramjeet Mehta: here in India.
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Varun Duggirala: I think just to
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Varun Duggirala: pick up one point from what you said, What I
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Varun Duggirala: think this also leads towards is
00:12:35
Varun Duggirala: how your devices also played a strong game in in
00:12:38
Varun Duggirala: just how the gaming ecosystem is important because you talk
00:12:41
Varun Duggirala: to or you meet any gamer out there. Um, I
00:12:44
Varun Duggirala: would say in most cases they will be using a
00:12:46
Varun Duggirala: device made by you. Um,
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Varun Duggirala: can we talk about gaming, take a wider lens and
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Varun Duggirala: look at the gaming space in India and what have
00:12:55
Varun Duggirala: you seen is almost misconceptions that most people have bought it.
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Varun Duggirala: But actually, how is how is the landscape for anyone
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Varun Duggirala: who has no idea about it in the space?
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Paramjeet Mehta: So gaming is an is an ecosystem where,
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Paramjeet Mehta: um it's, uh, dependent completely on,
00:13:09
Paramjeet Mehta: um, the lifestyle. Right.
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Paramjeet Mehta: And it's a lifestyle business. And what we see, uh,
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Paramjeet Mehta: in gaming is that, uh, you have to be first.
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Paramjeet Mehta: You know, uh, highly skilled in terms of, uh, let's
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Paramjeet Mehta: say your, uh, IQ, right. Your reflection right at such, uh, normally, uh,
00:13:32
Paramjeet Mehta: a gamer starts at a young age of 1314. So
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Paramjeet Mehta: these reflexes are very good,
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Paramjeet Mehta: and they remain good up to, let's say, 25 years
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Paramjeet Mehta: of age. And that's the, uh, space Where, uh, people.
00:13:47
Paramjeet Mehta: Or let's say, uh, there's a higher engagement with the
00:13:51
Paramjeet Mehta: game as well. And also, there is a rush of
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Paramjeet Mehta: garden at that time as well, uh, in that age group, right.
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Paramjeet Mehta: However, when we look at, uh, gaming, it enhances a
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Paramjeet Mehta: lot of skills, Right? Uh, it enhances your, uh, um uh,
00:14:06
Paramjeet Mehta: for example, the IQ to make decisions inside the game
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Paramjeet Mehta: as well. And also, uh, to be patient enough because, uh,
00:14:14
Paramjeet Mehta: you know, there are strategy games. It's not just, you know,
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Paramjeet Mehta: first person shooter games only. So there are strategy games. Uh,
00:14:22
Paramjeet Mehta: there are games that required to play in groups
00:14:26
Paramjeet Mehta: with teams, So it also builds in a lot of
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Paramjeet Mehta: camaraderie and also an understanding at the same time that yes,
00:14:33
Paramjeet Mehta: if someone has better skills and you didn't practise much,
00:14:37
Paramjeet Mehta: then you are going to fall prey to their skills, right?
00:14:41
Paramjeet Mehta: It's something like cricket here in India. So when we
00:14:45
Paramjeet Mehta: talk about this ecosystem so there are publishers at the start,
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Paramjeet Mehta: they develop develop games, and in the end, we have
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Paramjeet Mehta: the gamers, right,
00:14:53
Paramjeet Mehta: a casual gamer to, uh, e-sports competitive player. So in
00:14:59
Paramjeet Mehta: this complete ecosystem, we are also there. We are IT
00:15:03
Paramjeet Mehta: hardware Company. We develop devices that can, uh, pull out
00:15:08
Paramjeet Mehta: the performance required to play that particular game, which is
00:15:14
Paramjeet Mehta: often called AAA, which means the best
00:15:17
Paramjeet Mehta: game, which requires high performance integrations. And also, when you
00:15:22
Paramjeet Mehta: put in a lot of high performance feature set into
00:15:26
Paramjeet Mehta: a device right in a small form factor, then it
00:15:30
Paramjeet Mehta: heats up, right, Where would the energy go? So, uh,
00:15:34
Paramjeet Mehta: we are the best in industry when it comes to
00:15:37
Paramjeet Mehta: intelligent cooling mechanisms. right, right from the you know, the
00:15:41
Paramjeet Mehta: way we design the blades of fans to adding, uh,
00:15:45
Paramjeet Mehta: you know,
00:15:46
Paramjeet Mehta: cooling material inside the device. So we've done all these things, uh,
00:15:50
Paramjeet Mehta: I think in the past, complete decade. And now because, uh,
00:15:54
Paramjeet Mehta: on account of that, we are world's number one, gaming
00:15:57
Paramjeet Mehta: laptop organisation. Uh, republic of gamers is the brand, which
00:16:01
Paramjeet Mehta: is a sort to brand by Gen Z, even millennials
00:16:05
Paramjeet Mehta: like you and me. Uh, because we played free fighters earlier, right?
00:16:08
Paramjeet Mehta: Capcom is the publisher here,
00:16:11
Paramjeet Mehta: And, uh um, popularly known as ROG as well. So
00:16:15
Paramjeet Mehta: we have ROG devices which are, um, uh, equivalent to
00:16:19
Paramjeet Mehta: the top premium or luxury devices or luxury cars as
00:16:22
Paramjeet Mehta: well across the world as well. So that's how we
00:16:25
Paramjeet Mehta: have created, uh, this that the,
00:16:28
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, the power in a device is added to enable gaming, uh,
00:16:33
Paramjeet Mehta: level for the E sports or gaming enthusiast that we've done.
00:16:39
Varun Duggirala: And the reason I want to go deeper into gaming
00:16:42
Varun Duggirala: also is because I feel that there's a broader cultural
00:16:45
Varun Duggirala: shift that you have consumers who are, you know, at
00:16:48
Varun Duggirala: a young age, gaming is such a part of their
00:16:50
Varun Duggirala: day to day life that
00:16:52
Varun Duggirala: then that directs the kind of, you know, let's say
00:16:54
Varun Duggirala: PC they're purchasing or the device they're purchasing. And as
00:16:57
Varun Duggirala: they get older, they transition from that to being lifestyle gamers.
00:17:00
Varun Duggirala: But whatever profession they might choose beyond that, if if
00:17:03
Varun Duggirala: if they're not just gaming and that makes a broader
00:17:06
Varun Duggirala: pattern of of what they gravitate towards do you feel
00:17:10
Varun Duggirala: a lot of your customer customizations that you've been able
00:17:13
Varun Duggirala: to provide being very customer centric? You're looking at this
00:17:15
Varun Duggirala: as in the long term thing. These are consumers with
00:17:17
Varun Duggirala: us for life. Is that how you kind of build
00:17:19
Varun Duggirala: a connection with
00:17:20
Paramjeet Mehta: them? Yes.
00:17:22
Paramjeet Mehta: So, um, uh, to give you an understanding how we
00:17:25
Paramjeet Mehta: connect with the community here is that, uh, we provide, uh,
00:17:30
Paramjeet Mehta: you know, the high end gaming devices or creative devices
00:17:33
Paramjeet Mehta: at the same time, we involve, uh, inside the community
00:17:38
Paramjeet Mehta: and build engagements. So, uh, uh, for example, to quote,
00:17:42
Paramjeet Mehta: we have one of the programmes called RG Academy. Uh,
00:17:46
Paramjeet Mehta: because India is still let's say we have 1 million,
00:17:49
Paramjeet Mehta: um customers every year. However, the E-SPORTS is still, uh,
00:17:55
Paramjeet Mehta: a lot behind than US and China here in India.
00:17:58
Paramjeet Mehta: So active gamers are around 47 million. Whereas if you
00:18:01
Paramjeet Mehta: look at the overall digital, uh, population here in India,
00:18:06
Paramjeet Mehta: it's more than 500 million. Right? Uh, even on YouTube,
00:18:09
Paramjeet Mehta: we have more than 2. 50 million active, uh, subscribers.
00:18:14
Paramjeet Mehta: So, uh, in that programme, we have this incubation programme where, right,
00:18:20
Paramjeet Mehta: from the understanding of what E sports is to making
00:18:25
Paramjeet Mehta: you a professional player,
00:18:27
Paramjeet Mehta: um, up, uh, with giving you the right equipment
00:18:31
Paramjeet Mehta: training you for six months under, uh, uh, thoughtfully designed
00:18:36
Paramjeet Mehta: curriculum
00:18:37
Paramjeet Mehta: with the coach, um, from outside India.
00:18:42
Paramjeet Mehta: And, uh, normally, we, uh, invite applications for that. There
00:18:46
Paramjeet Mehta: is a complete selection process, which is around one month long,
00:18:51
Paramjeet Mehta: so we receive around 2000 applications, out of which we
00:18:53
Paramjeet Mehta: select six team members. So normally, uh, the games we've selected, uh,
00:18:58
Paramjeet Mehta: for example, the popular one CS go all relevant. So, uh,
00:19:02
Paramjeet Mehta: these are five by five games. And, uh, we have, uh,
00:19:06
Paramjeet Mehta: the six person as well, because we in the six
00:19:09
Paramjeet Mehta: months period, we also give them an opportunity
00:19:12
Paramjeet Mehta: to go and play in, uh uh, championships as well.
00:19:16
Paramjeet Mehta: And what has happened is that, uh, in other times
00:19:20
Paramjeet Mehta: they have won the championship. And, uh, most of the
00:19:23
Paramjeet Mehta: players have joined the, uh, es sports
00:19:28
Paramjeet Mehta: formally as well. Yeah. So how is it helping the, uh,
00:19:32
Paramjeet Mehta: overall ecosystem is that there are right now more than
00:19:36
Paramjeet Mehta: 700 companies working in the gaming industries here in India,
00:19:41
Paramjeet Mehta: right from development of games to, uh, agencies that, uh,
00:19:46
Paramjeet Mehta: do the events as well. So we are also inside
00:19:50
Paramjeet Mehta: the community helping the gamers to also evolve. So we
00:19:53
Paramjeet Mehta: also do, uh, gaming events,
00:19:55
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, at our stores as well at, uh, various evenings
00:19:58
Paramjeet Mehta: as well. So we are also helping.
00:20:02
Varun Duggirala: And
00:20:03
Varun Duggirala: if you look at the gaming space in India, there's
00:20:05
Varun Duggirala: obviously there's the There's the entire PC part and there's
00:20:08
Varun Duggirala: a bunch of them who do it on smartphones, which
00:20:10
Varun Duggirala: is obviously an entire different set there.
00:20:12
Varun Duggirala: And there's always been this question about saying one second
00:20:14
Varun Duggirala: you have both these almost and this consoles, which is,
00:20:17
Varun Duggirala: I think, placed somewhere around these. But is there a
00:20:21
Varun Duggirala: way to kind of intersect all of these because, you know,
00:20:23
Varun Duggirala: it's you there are for any game, or there are
00:20:25
Varun Duggirala: things you enjoy, things you don't enjoy with each of them.
00:20:27
Varun Duggirala: How do you bring these worlds together? Has there been
00:20:30
Varun Duggirala: a thought process as a company to say? How do
00:20:32
Varun Duggirala: we kind of connect the dots So that today if
00:20:35
Varun Duggirala: I'm a gaming consumer, I get all the stuff I
00:20:37
Varun Duggirala: want in one device?
00:20:39
Paramjeet Mehta: Um, so it's difficult. Uh, however, as we look at
00:20:44
Paramjeet Mehta: the data right now, uh, smartphone has penetrated heavily and, uh,
00:20:50
Paramjeet Mehta: close to 90% penetration. Whereas PC is around 9 to 10%
00:20:55
Paramjeet Mehta: and gaming consoles are only 4%. It gives a relatively
00:20:59
Paramjeet Mehta: fair idea that, uh, smartphone is the first thing that
00:21:03
Paramjeet Mehta: the gamer, you know gets an access to.
00:21:06
Paramjeet Mehta: So with this smartphone, A gamers, Uh, uh, sort of
00:21:10
Paramjeet Mehta: a gaming,
00:21:11
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, life starts, right,
00:21:13
Paramjeet Mehta: and, uh, they start playing on smartphones. They get an
00:21:17
Paramjeet Mehta: idea of the rich con content and engagement with the game.
00:21:22
Paramjeet Mehta: And once they have,
00:21:24
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, you know, completed a skill level, which is obviously smartphone.
00:21:29
Paramjeet Mehta: The next skill level is, uh, PC. Right? So there
00:21:32
Paramjeet Mehta: is a transition. And as for many reports, we've seen that, um,
00:21:37
Paramjeet Mehta: 24 months is a time period where a smartphone gamer
00:21:42
Paramjeet Mehta: finally moves to a PC gaming because of the skill
00:21:47
Paramjeet Mehta: level change. So PC gaming requires a different skill level.
00:21:51
Paramjeet Mehta: And also, uh, the games which are developed,
00:21:54
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, on PC started earlier. So, for example, if we
00:21:59
Paramjeet Mehta: look at CS go or GT A So all these
00:22:05
Paramjeet Mehta: versions are like, uh, 10 or 15 years old, right
00:22:10
Paramjeet Mehta: in the ecosystem, And gamers are playing right one generation
00:22:14
Paramjeet Mehta: to other to another generation. So this is happening in PC,
00:22:18
Paramjeet Mehta: where in smartphones it is just right
00:22:21
Paramjeet Mehta: and with the capabilities increasing its smartphones, especially the uh,
00:22:25
Paramjeet Mehta: refresh rate, which is, I think, uh, 90 hertz is
00:22:28
Paramjeet Mehta: something which is which is required to play, uh, to
00:22:31
Paramjeet Mehta: get a better experience, uh, was made available just two
00:22:34
Paramjeet Mehta: years back.
00:22:36
Paramjeet Mehta: Right? So, uh, the overall ecosystem understands that if you
00:22:39
Paramjeet Mehta: have to get into serious gaming, then PC is the
00:22:43
Paramjeet Mehta: place to go
00:22:45
Varun Duggirala: When you kind of look at this aspect of it
00:22:47
Varun Duggirala: as well, Do you kind of also see the fact
00:22:49
Varun Duggirala: that as a category, how you market technology
00:22:53
Varun Duggirala: is evolving a lot, and I think there's a lot
00:22:56
Varun Duggirala: to learn from the gaming space. But in general, if
00:22:58
Varun Duggirala: you look at this category, do you see that there's
00:23:00
Varun Duggirala: a trend that is almost directing how the rest of
00:23:03
Varun Duggirala: the marketing space markets to their consumers.
00:23:07
Paramjeet Mehta: Uh, yes, there is a a slight difference. Uh, however,
00:23:11
Paramjeet Mehta: that difference is, uh, very important for the industrial sector.
00:23:15
Paramjeet Mehta: The difference is that the product marketing piece, which is, uh,
00:23:19
Paramjeet Mehta: the complex feature set, uh, converted into or translated into
00:23:25
Paramjeet Mehta: a very simple
00:23:27
Paramjeet Mehta: usage benefit to the end customer is important. So I
00:23:30
Paramjeet Mehta: quote an example here.
00:23:32
Paramjeet Mehta: So, um,
00:23:33
Paramjeet Mehta: let's say we have
00:23:36
Paramjeet Mehta: a laptop, right?
00:23:37
Paramjeet Mehta: So laptop may have multiple features, right?
00:23:41
Paramjeet Mehta: Uh, one of the features that we exclusively had for
00:23:45
Paramjeet Mehta: around two years was, uh we came up with OLED
00:23:50
Paramjeet Mehta: display in our devices, right. So OLED is a feature,
00:23:53
Paramjeet Mehta: then it may have multiple attributes It may have. Let's say, uh, low, uh,
00:23:58
Paramjeet Mehta: blue colour emission from the screen or the display, which
00:24:04
Paramjeet Mehta: is very harmful for the eyes. Right, then, uh, the
00:24:08
Paramjeet Mehta: contrast ratio or, uh, the response time.
00:24:13
Paramjeet Mehta: So let's say there are, like, these 67 attributes finally
00:24:20
Paramjeet Mehta: What? Uh, you know, from our industry perspective, let's say
00:24:24
Paramjeet Mehta: if I'm going to,
00:24:25
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, position this device to students, right? Young students, so
00:24:31
Paramjeet Mehta: young student is the user. However, I have to build
00:24:36
Paramjeet Mehta: a communication for the, uh for, uh let's say millennial
00:24:41
Paramjeet Mehta: couple right
00:24:43
Paramjeet Mehta: to make the couple understand that if you buy O
00:24:48
Paramjeet Mehta: a device versus the other device,
00:24:51
Paramjeet Mehta: we will ensure one thing that the harmful rays emitting
00:24:56
Paramjeet Mehta: out of the display
00:24:58
Paramjeet Mehta: will not be there. Right. So our positioning will be
00:25:02
Paramjeet Mehta: that this device come with OLED display, and it reduces.
00:25:06
Paramjeet Mehta: It has 70% reduced, you know, uh, harmful race that
00:25:11
Paramjeet Mehta: can
00:25:12
Paramjeet Mehta: so that your child can, uh, you know, invest more
00:25:16
Paramjeet Mehta: hours longer time on
00:25:18
Paramjeet Mehta: its project, right? So it changes. So there are multiple
00:25:23
Paramjeet Mehta: features when it comes to gamer, then obviously performance Or
00:25:27
Paramjeet Mehta: let's say the cooling side. Or let's say, the way
00:25:30
Paramjeet Mehta: we integrate, uh, gaming understanding inside the device has to
00:25:36
Paramjeet Mehta: be positioned or has to be explained.
00:25:39
Paramjeet Mehta: So at the same time, all the laptops look the same.
00:25:43
Paramjeet Mehta: It might have a pro. It will have a processor.
00:25:45
Paramjeet Mehta: It will have a graphic card, integrated or otherwise. Some
00:25:49
Paramjeet Mehta: display features some other hardware features right. At the end
00:25:53
Paramjeet Mehta: of the day, the product marketing becomes central. What benefit
00:25:57
Paramjeet Mehta: has to be communicated to which
00:25:59
Paramjeet Mehta: segment, Right, so this is important in a category. You
00:26:03
Varun Duggirala: on a very, um, one of the things that fascinates
00:26:06
Varun Duggirala: me the most is the number of cohorts consumers are
00:26:09
Varun Duggirala: broken into in today's world. Right. Um, there was a
00:26:11
Varun Duggirala: time when those cohorts are much shorter, much smaller, because
00:26:14
Varun Duggirala: only that far is where you could reach them. You know,
00:26:18
Varun Duggirala: you broke it down so much more.
00:26:20
Varun Duggirala: How do you look at your entire cohort set and say, OK,
00:26:24
Varun Duggirala: this is like you give a few examples, but when
00:26:27
Varun Duggirala: you make the master and then you're pushing it down
00:26:29
Varun Duggirala: to everyone, how do you look at that process of
00:26:31
Varun Duggirala: saying this is the core creative? But this is how
00:26:34
Varun Duggirala: we kind of pushing it across to different cohorts.
00:26:37
Paramjeet Mehta: Uh, again, um, you know, it becomes complex because what
00:26:40
Paramjeet Mehta: is happening? Um, while we are, uh, you know, creating devices,
00:26:45
Paramjeet Mehta: meaningful innovations. The ecosystem is also coming up with, uh,
00:26:50
Paramjeet Mehta: different innovations. When I see, uh, ecosystem, it's, let's say, uh, Intel, NVIDIA, Microsoft.
00:27:00
Paramjeet Mehta: These are also working at the same time on, uh,
00:27:03
Paramjeet Mehta: creating meaningful innovations.
00:27:06
Paramjeet Mehta: So as as as we are a technology brand, what
00:27:09
Paramjeet Mehta: we ensure at first is that we communicate that we
00:27:12
Paramjeet Mehta: are a technology brand number one, and obviously we are
00:27:16
Paramjeet Mehta: a young brand, right? So we need to communicate these
00:27:18
Paramjeet Mehta: two first and then, uh, whatever segment we,
00:27:23
Paramjeet Mehta: uh or let's say whatever, uh,
00:27:26
Paramjeet Mehta: people said I should say because, uh uh, when we
00:27:29
Paramjeet Mehta: say target audience and these, you know, it creates a
00:27:32
Paramjeet Mehta: complex understanding between a brand and A and our customer, right?
00:27:39
Paramjeet Mehta: So those humans who are there, right in different sets,
00:27:44
Paramjeet Mehta: we have defined those sets. But at the end of
00:27:46
Paramjeet Mehta: the day, there has to be something on top, as
00:27:48
Paramjeet Mehta: you rightly mentioned. And on top, we think from only
00:27:51
Paramjeet Mehta: one lens that how can we be meaningful
00:27:55
Paramjeet Mehta: with our, you know, even, let's say, slight changes to
00:27:58
Paramjeet Mehta: the device or major changes to the device. For example,
00:28:01
Paramjeet Mehta: we made a foldable device. How is it meaningful to
00:28:04
Paramjeet Mehta: the end customers? So on the top, uh, let's say
00:28:07
Paramjeet Mehta: from a communication perspective, we ensure that
00:28:11
Paramjeet Mehta: we talk about, uh, meaningful innovation as umbrella. And then
00:28:16
Paramjeet Mehta: when we come to go to a particular consumer set,
00:28:19
Paramjeet Mehta: then we from their interest point of view, we talk
00:28:23
Paramjeet Mehta: about what we are presenting them, for example, to creators.
00:28:26
Paramjeet Mehta: We say that when you use our, uh, studio devices,
00:28:31
Paramjeet Mehta: it will
00:28:32
Paramjeet Mehta: be, uh, running an adobe suit. Better, let's say 45% better, 50%
00:28:39
Paramjeet Mehta: better because of these reasons. Or we've added a physical
00:28:42
Paramjeet Mehta: dial with which you can control functions
00:28:46
Paramjeet Mehta: under your, uh, uh, um design or creator application. It
00:28:51
Paramjeet Mehta: could be autocad. It could be adobe. It could be luian.
00:28:56
Paramjeet Mehta: It could be multiple other software which are in use
00:28:59
Paramjeet Mehta: right now.
00:28:59
Varun Duggirala: How does this differ from, Let's say, the core cities
00:29:03
Varun Duggirala: or metros versus non metros? Because, um, as much as
00:29:07
Varun Duggirala: there is the India and bath conversation, there's also a
00:29:10
Varun Duggirala: bit of a discussion in terms of how does the
00:29:13
Varun Duggirala: core metro audience and how does the non metro audiences
00:29:15
Varun Duggirala: really function?
00:29:16
Varun Duggirala: And how do you treat them as consumers?
00:29:18
Paramjeet Mehta: Um, yes, Uh, it's very important here in India because
00:29:22
Paramjeet Mehta: there is one, you know, major understanding globally that, uh,
00:29:26
Paramjeet Mehta: India is one of the biggest, um, you know, English
00:29:29
Paramjeet Mehta: speaking population. Right. And it would be fairly easy to just, uh,
00:29:35
Paramjeet Mehta: you know, uh,
00:29:37
Paramjeet Mehta: put across what has been said elsewhere in India. as well. However,
00:29:42
Paramjeet Mehta: it doesn't work that way.
00:29:43
Paramjeet Mehta: So when I say it doesn't work, it doesn't work
00:29:47
Paramjeet Mehta: because we have, um, cultural nuances, different aspects to it.
00:29:52
Paramjeet Mehta: We have, uh, uh, regional, uh, regional, uh, understandings, Let's say,
00:29:58
Paramjeet Mehta: from a north, north to south region, completely different east
00:30:01
Paramjeet Mehta: to west region completely different. And, uh, then there are, uh,
00:30:05
Paramjeet Mehta: buying patterns inside the country as well. For example, uh,
00:30:10
Paramjeet Mehta: own only occupies, for example, Kerala. It occupies 35% of
00:30:14
Paramjeet Mehta: sales in Kerala, Right. You do whatever you do in Diwali,
00:30:18
Paramjeet Mehta: nothing will happen in Kerala.
00:30:20
Paramjeet Mehta: So, uh, uh, from communication perspective, what happens is that
00:30:25
Paramjeet Mehta: we have to design a communication in in a way
00:30:28
Paramjeet Mehta: and also our complete go to market in a way
00:30:31
Paramjeet Mehta: that it suits the cultural nuances. Number one, let's say
00:30:34
Paramjeet Mehta: the language
00:30:36
Paramjeet Mehta: and, uh, the consumption as well. For example, the tier
00:30:40
Paramjeet Mehta: two cities that you rightly mentioned. And, uh, there's a
00:30:43
Paramjeet Mehta: there's a misconception as well. For example, we thought that
00:30:47
Paramjeet Mehta: gaming would work better in Mumbai, how it works better
00:30:50
Paramjeet Mehta: in Gangtok,
00:30:52
Paramjeet Mehta: Right? So we have, uh, more customers in, uh, Northeast
00:30:56
Paramjeet Mehta: and Ahmedabad than in Mumbai. So, uh, there's a complete
00:31:01
Paramjeet Mehta: different understanding of customers here in India. And you don't
00:31:05
Paramjeet Mehta: know that what you would get when you enter into
00:31:07
Paramjeet Mehta: a particular, uh, let's say tier of India or, let's say,
00:31:11
Paramjeet Mehta: region of India completely different. So what has to be
00:31:14
Paramjeet Mehta: planned has to be planned from, uh, let's say different aspects.
00:31:19
Paramjeet Mehta: One of the aspects I've already given you the Kerala case, right?
00:31:22
Paramjeet Mehta: So you plan something in on where at a July period,
00:31:26
Paramjeet Mehta: nothing happens elsewhere.
00:31:30
Varun Duggirala: That is so true because you also look at that nuance.
00:31:32
Varun Duggirala: But you're also looking at just access it. Um, I
00:31:35
Varun Duggirala: think if you're in a city you obviously are seeing
00:31:37
Varun Duggirala: more options. You have the ability to maybe visit more stores.
00:31:41
Varun Duggirala: Once you kind of go towards a Nome region. The
00:31:44
Varun Duggirala: access of what is available might also be something to
00:31:47
Varun Duggirala: kind of look into, right?
00:31:49
Paramjeet Mehta: Uh, yes. And, uh, the biggest factor here in India.
00:31:51
Paramjeet Mehta: We are a, uh what do we call it? A
00:31:53
Paramjeet Mehta: shoppers community and, um,
00:31:58
Paramjeet Mehta: all all family members, Even if I talk about my family,
00:32:03
Paramjeet Mehta: all family members love their own shopping, right? Some shop
00:32:08
Paramjeet Mehta: gra some some like, you know, household items right. Some
00:32:13
Paramjeet Mehta: like fashion, Right? But there is a shopping,
00:32:16
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, sort of a, um, choppers mentality within us, right?
00:32:23
Paramjeet Mehta: And, uh, to give you an understanding,
00:32:26
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, these when we talk about the next level of
00:32:29
Paramjeet Mehta: cities because you cannot open branch stores everywhere, and one
00:32:33
Paramjeet Mehta: cannot also, um, go and ask a third party a
00:32:38
Paramjeet Mehta: franchisee to help you do that. Not possible. So, uh, with, uh,
00:32:44
Paramjeet Mehta: you know, incoming of e-commerce and especially, uh, retailers. And, uh,
00:32:50
Paramjeet Mehta: if we talk about the biggest one here in India uh,
00:32:53
Paramjeet Mehta: flip cart, they have done an amazing job. When,
00:32:56
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, you know, building an experience and also understanding, uh, to,
00:33:02
Paramjeet Mehta: uh these, uh I should say not the early adopters,
00:33:06
Paramjeet Mehta: but let's say finding the early adopter in that smaller
00:33:09
Paramjeet Mehta: city as well and also building an ecosystem which also delivers.
00:33:14
Paramjeet Mehta: And also you have to have the vendor ecosystem as
00:33:17
Paramjeet Mehta: well the supplier ecosystem. So they have that as well. And,
00:33:21
Paramjeet Mehta: uh uh, as for flip card as well,
00:33:24
Paramjeet Mehta: in last big billion days, which is again one of
00:33:28
Paramjeet Mehta: the biggest live event happening in India. A shopping event,
00:33:32
Paramjeet Mehta: I should say, uh, 15 lacs is something per second, um,
00:33:39
Paramjeet Mehta: customers coming onto their platform every second day 15 lac customers,
00:33:43
Paramjeet Mehta: Which means that they have already penetrated here to market.
00:33:49
Paramjeet Mehta: And when it comes to a marketer and a global
00:33:51
Paramjeet Mehta: brand coming in, uh, then there is an opportunity to, uh,
00:33:54
Paramjeet Mehta: directly enter into 30 to 40% of the early adopters
00:33:59
Paramjeet Mehta: of those smaller cities as well
00:34:01
Paramjeet Mehta: with the help of a flip card. So Flipkart ensures that, uh,
00:34:06
Paramjeet Mehta: you know, the right product and the customer you know,
00:34:11
Paramjeet Mehta: the join hands is another point to add to it. Uh, yeah,
00:34:15
Paramjeet Mehta: one important aspect that I would like to share about how, uh,
00:34:21
Paramjeet Mehta: global, Uh, I was talking about global brands entering, um India.
00:34:27
Paramjeet Mehta: And with the help of E tailer as a placement channel,
00:34:32
Paramjeet Mehta: they can very quickly succeed. The reason is that let's say,
00:34:36
Paramjeet Mehta: if I am into right now, um, let's say I
00:34:39
Paramjeet Mehta: start a campaign, right.
00:34:41
Paramjeet Mehta: So most of the platform, which are right now, uh, available, uh,
00:34:46
Paramjeet Mehta: to a marketer. Even in the modern marketing, uh, ecosystem
00:34:50
Paramjeet Mehta: as well,
00:34:53
Paramjeet Mehta: there is a slight, uh, different proposition that it has
00:34:56
Paramjeet Mehta: bring to the table.
00:34:58
Paramjeet Mehta: So that proposition is that most of the data is
00:35:01
Paramjeet Mehta: probabilistic when it comes to other platforms.
00:35:05
Paramjeet Mehta: So the platform might know that this, uh, let's say
00:35:10
Paramjeet Mehta: the anonymous data.
00:35:12
Paramjeet Mehta: The profile is this. However, when it comes to e-commerce
00:35:16
Paramjeet Mehta: partners like Flipkart,
00:35:18
Paramjeet Mehta: they even know the, uh, you know, deep understanding on
00:35:22
Paramjeet Mehta: the buying profile and also buying behaviour of the customer
00:35:27
Paramjeet Mehta: as well, Right?
00:35:28
Paramjeet Mehta: So with the use of technology, they present an opportunity
00:35:34
Paramjeet Mehta: to the, uh, brand and a marketer as well that
00:35:39
Paramjeet Mehta: you go talk to the high intent customer
00:35:43
Paramjeet Mehta: and establish your brand in no time, I should say
00:35:47
Paramjeet Mehta: I've seen a lot of, uh, homegrown brands.
00:35:51
Paramjeet Mehta: Um, thanks to these, uh, uh, ecommerce Giants. And now
00:35:55
Paramjeet Mehta: these homegrown brands have become on the global level. Even,
00:36:00
Paramjeet Mehta: let's say number two brands globally as well Number one
00:36:03
Paramjeet Mehta: brand globally as well in certain segments. And, uh, this
00:36:08
Paramjeet Mehta: wouldn't have been possible
00:36:10
Paramjeet Mehta: if you know, the eCommerce Giants didn't invest in technology, right?
00:36:17
Paramjeet Mehta: Creating that experience on online we all had, you know,
00:36:22
Paramjeet Mehta: these websites, right, all brands had but the Ecommerce website
00:36:26
Paramjeet Mehta: that they have envisioned and obviously execution is the most
00:36:32
Paramjeet Mehta: important part. So they've done that as well and they've
00:36:35
Paramjeet Mehta: also created an ecosystem around that,
00:36:38
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, website or application or, uh, uh, consumer app
00:36:43
Paramjeet Mehta: that delivers a different experience. Better experience in certain cases
00:36:48
Paramjeet Mehta: than even the offline channel as well. Right. So one
00:36:52
Paramjeet Mehta: of the better experiences is that you check the device.
00:36:57
Paramjeet Mehta: If you don't like it, you return the device so elsewhere.
00:37:00
Paramjeet Mehta: It's not available.
00:37:02
Varun Duggirala: Checking the device brings me to
00:37:04
Varun Duggirala: a a point about this category, right? Is that it's
00:37:08
Varun Duggirala: always been considered a touch and feel category. And you
00:37:11
Varun Duggirala: buy a PC. You want to go to the store,
00:37:13
Varun Duggirala: you kind of feel it. You want to look at
00:37:14
Varun Duggirala: how it is, You want to check the features you
00:37:17
Varun Duggirala: want to check if it's everything is working fine. And
00:37:19
Varun Duggirala: then you get it. Um, how do you transition that
00:37:22
Varun Duggirala: experience to Ecommerce?
00:37:25
Varun Duggirala: OK, And you rather,
00:37:26
Paramjeet Mehta: uh though it's difficult from our side. Uh, yes. Um ecommerce, um,
00:37:32
Paramjeet Mehta: players are doing a lot on that they are working on,
00:37:35
Paramjeet Mehta: uh
00:37:36
Paramjeet Mehta: um,
00:37:37
Paramjeet Mehta: adding, uh
00:37:39
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, the, uh, artificial intelligence of let's say, using virtual
00:37:43
Paramjeet Mehta: reality to give that experiences. I've also, um, shared with
00:37:48
Paramjeet Mehta: you that how we are also, um, developing content with
00:37:53
Paramjeet Mehta: which we can explain the product to the end customers
00:37:54
Paramjeet Mehta: in a video format. Uh, then there are, uh, influences
00:38:00
Paramjeet Mehta: on the platform explaining the products as well. That is
00:38:02
Paramjeet Mehta: also in, uh, you know, we call it live commerce
00:38:05
Paramjeet Mehta: as well. Um, nowadays. So that is also happening, and
00:38:09
Paramjeet Mehta: it is also evolving. However, the main point is that,
00:38:12
Paramjeet Mehta: um um,
00:38:15
Paramjeet Mehta: both, let's say, the offline channel, whereas the online channel
00:38:19
Paramjeet Mehta: both have their own good parts. So, for example, what
00:38:23
Paramjeet Mehta: has happened? Post pandemic especially,
00:38:26
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, customer goes to,
00:38:28
Paramjeet Mehta: you know, do the research and product discovery and all
00:38:33
Paramjeet Mehta: the let's say research work on to the E commerce platforms,
00:38:37
Paramjeet Mehta: comes to our store,
00:38:39
Paramjeet Mehta: get hands on, sometimes buys from directly from the stores
00:38:44
Paramjeet Mehta: and
00:38:46
Paramjeet Mehta: goes back to ecommerce and also purchases there. So right now,
00:38:50
Paramjeet Mehta: if you look at the Indian market, then we have,
00:38:54
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, large format retailers that focus on, um, try concept, right,
00:39:00
Paramjeet Mehta: touch and feel. Then we have brand stores where we
00:39:03
Paramjeet Mehta: give the overall brand experience to the customers. Then there
00:39:07
Paramjeet Mehta: are multi branded outlets that, uh, you know, enable a
00:39:10
Paramjeet Mehta: different set of, uh, servicing to the end customer, and
00:39:14
Paramjeet Mehta: then we have regional, uh, organised retail as well. Uh,
00:39:18
Paramjeet Mehta: mostly operating in southern region of India
00:39:21
Paramjeet Mehta: That, uh, placement channel is also available to the end
00:39:23
Paramjeet Mehta: customers at the same time because commerce is also available. Right?
00:39:28
Paramjeet Mehta: So when it comes to, uh uh, uh the touch
00:39:31
Paramjeet Mehta: and feel Yes. Um, with the use of technology, uh,
00:39:36
Paramjeet Mehta: it's under the evolution period right now, Evolution phase right now,
00:39:40
Paramjeet Mehta: and very soon it will be, I think the way, uh,
00:39:43
Paramjeet Mehta: a I is, uh, getting into, uh, even the nerve
00:39:46
Paramjeet Mehta: nerves of, uh, marketers as well. So we are facing challenges.
00:39:52
Paramjeet Mehta: For example, Uh uh,
00:39:55
Paramjeet Mehta: this will keep on evolving. And right now, as a marketer,
00:39:59
Paramjeet Mehta: my objective is to give a immersive experience experience to
00:40:04
Paramjeet Mehta: the end customer. That's why when it comes to explaining
00:40:07
Paramjeet Mehta: the products,
00:40:08
Paramjeet Mehta: I would certainly use a flip card as a medium
00:40:12
Paramjeet Mehta: to give out the knowledge to the end customer because now,
00:40:16
Paramjeet Mehta: after pandemic, everything has changed. So people don't search product
00:40:20
Paramjeet Mehta: directly on the browser. They come directly to flipkart or
00:40:24
Paramjeet Mehta: or other ecommerce websites or applications. So this is changed completely.
00:40:29
Paramjeet Mehta: So now they occupy the e-commerce players occupy the major
00:40:33
Paramjeet Mehta: share in terms of product search is happening.
00:40:36
Paramjeet Mehta: Right? So that shift as a marketer, I need to,
00:40:40
Paramjeet Mehta: you know, use to my advantage. And obviously, you know, uh,
00:40:44
Paramjeet Mehta: to the to my customer, uh, I need to give
00:40:48
Paramjeet Mehta: them the right information,
00:40:51
Paramjeet Mehta: detailed information, specific information of their benefit usage on flipkart
00:40:56
Paramjeet Mehta: as well, or ecommerce as well. Yeah,
00:40:59
Varun Duggirala: you mentioned influencers. I think that's a great way to
00:41:03
Varun Duggirala: build that feeling of touch and feel. Because you look
00:41:05
Varun Duggirala: at another human, you who you build a certain trust
00:41:08
Varun Duggirala: with because a lot of them have trust there. Um,
00:41:12
Varun Duggirala: you know, with their audience, Um, would you have any
00:41:14
Varun Duggirala: examples of how that's kind of, you know, build a
00:41:17
Varun Duggirala: stronger consumer connection for you? Um, with your consumer. By
00:41:21
Varun Duggirala: using influences?
00:41:23
Paramjeet Mehta: Yes. So, um,
00:41:25
Paramjeet Mehta: how we look as a young brand to our customers,
00:41:28
Paramjeet Mehta: we are already into, let's say, 30 years into this business,
00:41:32
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, from a leader in motherboards to a leader in
00:41:36
Paramjeet Mehta: gaming laptops
00:41:38
Paramjeet Mehta: and, uh, or create a laptop. This is our journey. Right?
00:41:41
Paramjeet Mehta: And 30 years is a good amount of time
00:41:45
Paramjeet Mehta: in the ecosystem. Still, we look young. The reason is that, uh,
00:41:49
Paramjeet Mehta: as a brand we were the first. I think a
00:41:51
Paramjeet Mehta: decade ago started working, uh, inside the communities and along
00:41:57
Paramjeet Mehta: with the opinion leaders inside the community.
00:42:01
Paramjeet Mehta: So this was started way back a decade ago. And
00:42:04
Paramjeet Mehta: now Right now, uh uh, we give priority to this, uh, subject, uh, inside, Uh,
00:42:10
Paramjeet Mehta: when we come to marketing media to be taken, let's
00:42:14
Paramjeet Mehta: say which medium we should use to say what Right.
00:42:19
Paramjeet Mehta: So influencer is an important aspect to us, so we
00:42:23
Paramjeet Mehta: used to call it KOLS. Right now, the term influences
00:42:27
Paramjeet Mehta: as overpowered KOLS or key opinion leaders.
00:42:30
Paramjeet Mehta: So when we work with the winning leaders, uh, the
00:42:33
Paramjeet Mehta: most important aspect is that we look towards their personality
00:42:36
Paramjeet Mehta: number one. And what is their personality trait? Second is, uh,
00:42:40
Paramjeet Mehta: what is their audience set? Third is the, uh, content
00:42:44
Paramjeet Mehta: that they publish or, uh, share on which they gather engagement.
00:42:50
Paramjeet Mehta: And the first important aspect is that whether uh, uh,
00:42:56
Paramjeet Mehta: the influencer,
00:42:59
Paramjeet Mehta: um, you know, matches to the brand. Why? Let's say
00:43:03
Paramjeet Mehta: we are into in search of incredible life and incredible
00:43:06
Paramjeet Mehta: comes from within, right? All those influencers who have worked
00:43:10
Paramjeet Mehta: their way out,
00:43:11
Paramjeet Mehta: Uh, you know, getting to the influencer level, Let's say
00:43:14
Paramjeet Mehta: micro or mega whatever level of influencer they are. So
00:43:19
Paramjeet Mehta: that story has to be interesting to, you know, have
00:43:22
Paramjeet Mehta: our interest in them. So one of the examples I'll
00:43:25
Paramjeet Mehta: share with you is, uh, comes from the recent one
00:43:29
Paramjeet Mehta: we did for RG. I, um So we had the
00:43:33
Paramjeet Mehta: campaign as play all your games because of the devices capability.
00:43:38
Paramjeet Mehta: And, uh, the influencer that we, uh, went for was
00:43:43
Paramjeet Mehta: Surya Maria Sky, right, the Indian cricketer and the topmost, uh,
00:43:48
Paramjeet Mehta: worldwide T 20 player.
00:43:50
Paramjeet Mehta: So why we chose Surya Kumara? Because he also can bat,
00:43:57
Paramjeet Mehta: you know, 3, 60 degrees. He can also play shots
00:44:01
Paramjeet Mehta: behind the stumps as well. Even hit a six, right?
00:44:04
Paramjeet Mehta: Not an easy task, right? Not a normal cry.
00:44:08
Paramjeet Mehta: He is a different player. So the device we've launched
00:44:12
Paramjeet Mehta: RG I
00:44:14
Paramjeet Mehta: it's a different device. It can play all your games, right?
00:44:18
Paramjeet Mehta: So the connection at the first level at let's say,
00:44:21
Paramjeet Mehta: even thinking of who should who would fit in?
00:44:25
Paramjeet Mehta: So we thought Yes, let's utilise uh, Auri Kumara, though.
00:44:31
Paramjeet Mehta: And what happened is that, uh, we did this, uh,
00:44:36
Paramjeet Mehta: video with Suri Marad and he talked about Let's say, Um,
00:44:42
Paramjeet Mehta: how can we do? Let's say, uh, the team asked him,
00:44:47
Paramjeet Mehta: or the members asked him whether we should go for a, uh,
00:44:51
Paramjeet Mehta: chicken chilli or whether we should go for some, uh, dosa.
00:44:55
Paramjeet Mehta: He said, Why? Why shouldn't we do both right? Because
00:44:58
Paramjeet Mehta: he is guy, right? He plays different shots
00:45:02
Paramjeet Mehta: with that video. A normal video that performs in a
00:45:05
Paramjeet Mehta: collaboration with Suri Kumar Yadav generates around 4 million views.
00:45:10
Paramjeet Mehta: We generated around more than 11 million views with more
00:45:14
Paramjeet Mehta: than 5% engagement. Uh, and
00:45:18
Paramjeet Mehta: we showcase that this device and suru Kumar Yadav are same,
00:45:24
Paramjeet Mehta: right? And when Suruma was saying that this device is also, uh,
00:45:30
Paramjeet Mehta: you know different, like the way I am in TV
00:45:34
Paramjeet Mehta: in cricket. So people
00:45:36
Varun Duggirala: will believe that looking at the broader set of influencers, right? Um,
00:45:39
Varun Duggirala: you know, there are many of them who are consumers
00:45:42
Varun Duggirala: of your products, some of them who look at their aspiration,
00:45:44
Varun Duggirala: but also as they've grown their own social influence and
00:45:47
Varun Duggirala: they're moving into the space,
00:45:49
Varun Duggirala: um, they might want to say OK, how do I
00:45:51
Varun Duggirala: work with a brand like it? So, what do you
00:45:53
Varun Duggirala: look for
00:45:54
Varun Duggirala: any of the influencers you work with, um, when you
00:45:57
Varun Duggirala: putting them plugging them into a campaign of yours?
00:46:00
Paramjeet Mehta: Uh, the most important aspect is, uh uh, obviously, uh,
00:46:06
Paramjeet Mehta: there are mega influences available with which, uh, if a
00:46:10
Paramjeet Mehta: brand works, obviously they can create an impact.
00:46:13
Paramjeet Mehta: However, it is also important that, uh, the brand touches
00:46:18
Paramjeet Mehta: upon
00:46:19
Paramjeet Mehta: the niche segments inside its own category. For example. For us,
00:46:23
Paramjeet Mehta: it would be gamers and creators. When we talk about creators,
00:46:28
Paramjeet Mehta: it's one of the most difficult set of influences to find.
00:46:32
Paramjeet Mehta: Creator Creator, right. So, for example, if I want to
00:46:36
Paramjeet Mehta: have someone who is done really well in, uh, interior
00:46:40
Paramjeet Mehta: designing right, someone who uses, uh, an auto cat aluminium, right,
00:46:47
Paramjeet Mehta: that's an application which is in use by most of
00:46:51
Paramjeet Mehta: the interior designers, architects, a lot of other Softwares as well.
00:46:56
Paramjeet Mehta: So where is that influencer? Right.
00:46:59
Paramjeet Mehta: And if that influences influencer has achieved even, let's say,
00:47:03
Paramjeet Mehta: 100 K, subscription. So I know that those 100 K
00:47:08
Paramjeet Mehta: subscribers are all either amateur, uh, interior designers or they
00:47:15
Paramjeet Mehta: look forward to that influencer to learn right? The skill
00:47:20
Paramjeet Mehta: what it means to me as a brand is that
00:47:23
Paramjeet Mehta: if I If I want to sell my creator laptops
00:47:27
Paramjeet Mehta: to the future master creator.
00:47:30
Paramjeet Mehta: Then I have to catch
00:47:32
Paramjeet Mehta: the, uh, the creator, which looks amateur online. Right now,
00:47:36
Paramjeet Mehta: that's 100 K. Or let's say even 1 million on
00:47:38
Paramjeet Mehta: certain platforms is, uh is a micro level influencer. But
00:47:43
Paramjeet Mehta: when it comes to a very particular specific skill,
00:47:49
Paramjeet Mehta: then that influencer also becomes important to the brand.
00:47:54
Paramjeet Mehta: So, uh, I will also quote from another industry. For example,
00:47:58
Paramjeet Mehta: I'm a marathon runner, right?
00:48:02
Paramjeet Mehta: I'm a marathon runner. I run a different type of marathon,
00:48:06
Paramjeet Mehta: which is I go to, uh uh, we call this
00:48:10
Paramjeet Mehta: mountain sort of trail running right.
00:48:15
Paramjeet Mehta: So if that's the influencer, right, So, uh, footwear brand
00:48:20
Paramjeet Mehta: that is into that particular niche segment right now, you know,
00:48:24
Paramjeet Mehta: there are subsegment segments and multiple segments, right? Even in running,
00:48:28
Paramjeet Mehta: you have from, you know, marathon, uh, you know, road running,
00:48:32
Paramjeet Mehta: or like a turf running or hike. Whatever. So that
00:48:36
Paramjeet Mehta: brand would be interested in that particular, uh uh, influencer
00:48:41
Paramjeet Mehta: to partner with that influencer. For a long term,
00:48:44
Paramjeet Mehta: you find gin,
00:48:45
Paramjeet Mehta: right? Or if I'm, uh, let's say Nike, so I
00:48:49
Paramjeet Mehta: would be interested in getting to that influencer. So it
00:48:52
Paramjeet Mehta: depends on, uh um uh, I think, uh, the skill
00:48:57
Paramjeet Mehta: that is also important. And then, uh, the more the
00:49:01
Paramjeet Mehta: difficult the skill or the next segment you're operating in,
00:49:05
Paramjeet Mehta: the better are the chances of becoming a brand. Uh,
00:49:10
Paramjeet Mehta: let's say you get the interest from
00:49:12
Varun Duggirala: the bank getting the right context of the looking at
00:49:15
Varun Duggirala: everything that's been changing in the marketing space, right? Especially
00:49:18
Varun Duggirala: over the last many years. What would your advice be
00:49:22
Varun Duggirala: for someone to say one second? This is all the
00:49:24
Varun Duggirala: change that has happened, but I foresee a lot more
00:49:26
Varun Duggirala: change kind of coming. What would your advice be?
00:49:31
Paramjeet Mehta: Uh, the biggest thing that happened is, um, the earlier
00:49:34
Paramjeet Mehta: four PS and the new four P. So, um, um,
00:49:38
Paramjeet Mehta: when I go to different, uh uh uh you know, uh,
00:49:42
Paramjeet Mehta: B schools, Uh, in my discussions with the students, I
00:49:46
Paramjeet Mehta: tell them that they say, um, you attended this, um,
00:49:50
Paramjeet Mehta: B school. And I know that you would get an opportunity, uh,
00:49:54
Paramjeet Mehta: outside India as well. But still, I would advise that
00:49:57
Paramjeet Mehta: you start with India.
00:49:58
Paramjeet Mehta: This is the first one, right? So there is a
00:50:00
Paramjeet Mehta: playground for marketers right. You get all the different aspects,
00:50:04
Paramjeet Mehta: then when it comes to four pieces So earlier four piece.
00:50:07
Paramjeet Mehta: And we all know product price, uh, placement and promotion.
00:50:11
Paramjeet Mehta: Right now, these come under only one which is project
00:50:14
Paramjeet Mehta: management or programme management.
00:50:16
Paramjeet Mehta: So every GTM has these four factors, right? Every new
00:50:20
Paramjeet Mehta: product launch any brand coming to India or elsewhere launching
00:50:24
Paramjeet Mehta: their product would have this project with them.
00:50:28
Paramjeet Mehta: Now, the new three piece the first one is people.
00:50:32
Paramjeet Mehta: The second is process and third is performance. So when
00:50:35
Paramjeet Mehta: we talk about people so now the people play has increased.
00:50:39
Paramjeet Mehta: When I say people,
00:50:41
Paramjeet Mehta: it's the internal and external as well. When we, uh
00:50:43
Paramjeet Mehta: I think we were discussing this as well that now
00:50:46
Paramjeet Mehta: the marketers look towards, Let's say, uh, this is a
00:50:49
Paramjeet Mehta: niche segment. This is a subsegment. This is a different
00:50:53
Paramjeet Mehta: target audience. This is a similar look like audience, right?
00:50:57
Paramjeet Mehta: These subjects are coming in so people is important. The
00:51:01
Paramjeet Mehta: second is process. Right now, the operations are such complex
00:51:05
Paramjeet Mehta: as I have discussed with you the different placement channels
00:51:08
Paramjeet Mehta: here in India.
00:51:09
Paramjeet Mehta: So when you go live with a campaign right and
00:51:11
Paramjeet Mehta: you have multiple options. You still have outdoors. Still have
00:51:15
Paramjeet Mehta: TV C, right? Right. World Cup coming in all gearing in,
00:51:18
Paramjeet Mehta: right for to get the India Pakistan match. Right? So
00:51:24
Paramjeet Mehta: that will still be there from the old marketers Thought
00:51:27
Paramjeet Mehta: process cracking up. You know, uh, interesting concert will still
00:51:32
Paramjeet Mehta: be there, but the process is completely different now. So
00:51:35
Paramjeet Mehta: if you,
00:51:36
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, don't focus on the overall process that you put
00:51:39
Paramjeet Mehta: across in delivering the go to market, then the execution
00:51:43
Paramjeet Mehta: will not be there because the scale is different. It's
00:51:46
Paramjeet Mehta: in there, right? So, uh, or elsewhere as well. The
00:51:49
Paramjeet Mehta: scale in terms of the resources available
00:51:53
Paramjeet Mehta: or let's say the detail available is different. So there
00:51:56
Paramjeet Mehta: has to be process behind it and the last one performance.
00:52:00
Paramjeet Mehta: So even now we look at, let's say,
00:52:03
Paramjeet Mehta: mm, even the earlier mediums, right, that we use right.
00:52:10
Paramjeet Mehta: For example, TV.
00:52:11
Paramjeet Mehta: So now a performance players come in that as well
00:52:16
Paramjeet Mehta: after this will come in.
00:52:18
Paramjeet Mehta: So, uh, whatever we do, for example, even we send
00:52:21
Paramjeet Mehta: a product catalogue to the store, right? So a marketer
00:52:26
Paramjeet Mehta: would be interested to understand how many end customers are
00:52:30
Paramjeet Mehta: actually taking that home.
00:52:34
Paramjeet Mehta: I have invested so much time in, You know, um,
00:52:37
Paramjeet Mehta: creating this catalogue, right? It talks about the complete brand.
00:52:41
Paramjeet Mehta: How many are taking that back? So we have to
00:52:44
Paramjeet Mehta: add some. Let's say it's not dial. You add a
00:52:46
Paramjeet Mehta: UTM code, it will come to you.
00:52:48
Paramjeet Mehta: It is physical. How do you check that? How many
00:52:51
Paramjeet Mehta: people have actually taken that? So performance marketing has taken
00:52:55
Paramjeet Mehta: a
00:52:55
Paramjeet Mehta: different understanding now. And when it comes to giving a
00:52:59
Paramjeet Mehta: recommendation to the young marketer, so three things are very important.
00:53:03
Paramjeet Mehta: The first one is consistency.
00:53:06
Paramjeet Mehta: So, uh, uh, uh,
00:53:08
Paramjeet Mehta: one has to be patient enough, and the long term
00:53:12
Paramjeet Mehta: sightedness should be there and whatever. Uh, the brand starts right.
00:53:16
Paramjeet Mehta: It has to be consistently done for a longer period,
00:53:21
Paramjeet Mehta: like the global. The giant site Nike. It has done, uh,
00:53:25
Paramjeet Mehta: the Nike way for, let's say, four or five decades, right?
00:53:30
Paramjeet Mehta: Intel has done that for for five decades. That's why
00:53:32
Paramjeet Mehta: they are Nike and Intel.
00:53:34
Paramjeet Mehta: So a consistency has to be there. The second part is,
00:53:39
Paramjeet Mehta: um, content is king. Right? However, uh, context is got
00:53:44
Paramjeet Mehta: So I quote an example here, for example, uh, the
00:53:47
Paramjeet Mehta: modern day platform YouTube right. So YouTube is a digital library,
00:53:53
Paramjeet Mehta: right? So the context is if it's a DI library,
00:53:56
Paramjeet Mehta: then I can go with a detailed product understanding given
00:54:01
Paramjeet Mehta: to my customers
00:54:03
Paramjeet Mehta: or probable customers via that platform. So I should not use,
00:54:07
Paramjeet Mehta: you know,
00:54:09
Paramjeet Mehta: YouTube only for, you know, promoting videos I should use
00:54:13
Paramjeet Mehta: also so that a customer can
00:54:16
Paramjeet Mehta: go on to YouTube, refer to one of the videos
00:54:19
Paramjeet Mehta: and make a choice. Right? So it's a digital library,
00:54:22
Paramjeet Mehta: so the context is important. Then your content, uh, play
00:54:25
Paramjeet Mehta: will come in. So if your context is, let's say
00:54:27
Paramjeet Mehta: I have to create a digital library of my product
00:54:29
Paramjeet Mehta: understanding brand understanding on YouTube. Then the content will be similar, right?
00:54:35
Paramjeet Mehta: So this is context is good, right? Content content is smaller,
00:54:40
Paramjeet Mehta: and the third one is one. Design doesn't fit all.
00:54:43
Paramjeet Mehta: For example, I've seen a lot of brands, uh, get
00:54:45
Paramjeet Mehta: into this
00:54:46
Paramjeet Mehta: and also young marketers getting into me marketing, right.
00:54:50
Paramjeet Mehta: So the brand's persona or the brand arch type right?
00:54:55
Paramjeet Mehta: It's an adventure brand go getter brand, or it's a
00:55:01
Paramjeet Mehta: saint type brand, right? And the aura of a saint, right?
00:55:05
Paramjeet Mehta: So one has to think through that whether a saint can, uh,
00:55:09
Paramjeet Mehta: get into means on social
00:55:13
Paramjeet Mehta: or someone a brand that is young puppy can get
00:55:17
Paramjeet Mehta: into a main marketing. So one design doesn't fit all so, yes,
00:55:21
Paramjeet Mehta: that has to be taken care of.
00:55:23
Varun Duggirala: You just mentioned first party data, right? It's like, you know,
00:55:25
Varun Duggirala: your own direct connection with the consumer for you to,
00:55:28
Varun Duggirala: as a brand have that data to be able to
00:55:31
Varun Duggirala: build that relationship with them. Have you seen any interesting
00:55:34
Varun Duggirala: examples of usage of first party data that, you know
00:55:36
Varun Duggirala: people can learn from?
00:55:38
Paramjeet Mehta: Uh, yes, uh, one of the, uh, you know, interest.
00:55:42
Paramjeet Mehta: Interesting interactions. Even. I have, uh, for example, these food
00:55:45
Paramjeet Mehta: delivery apps.
00:55:47
Paramjeet Mehta: So there is this, uh, you know, buying here where
00:55:50
Paramjeet Mehta: I have Let's say I will, uh, uh, one particular
00:55:54
Paramjeet Mehta: day I will order. Right. So that can be mapped.
00:55:58
Paramjeet Mehta: Let's say I order on weekends, or if I go
00:56:02
Paramjeet Mehta: to my office right, then I order maybe I am
00:56:06
Paramjeet Mehta: a single person,
00:56:07
Paramjeet Mehta: and, uh, I don't cook, so I order my meal
00:56:10
Paramjeet Mehta: in the afternoons. Whereas I have, uh, you know, some
00:56:14
Paramjeet Mehta: arrangement with which I have the meal available. Otherwise, right?
00:56:18
Paramjeet Mehta: So these patterns are first party data, which are data
00:56:23
Paramjeet Mehta: sets which are available with various organisations which are dealing
00:56:26
Paramjeet Mehta: with customers, uh, primarily in the ecommerce space. And, uh
00:56:32
Paramjeet Mehta: uh
00:56:33
Paramjeet Mehta: uh. One can, uh, you know, even
00:56:37
Paramjeet Mehta: picture, uh, let's say, uh, sketch the customer profile shopping
00:56:43
Paramjeet Mehta: profile and also whether this customer would, uh, go for deals,
00:56:48
Paramjeet Mehta: go for a premium device
00:56:51
Paramjeet Mehta: wooden, lego or wooden nego right. Will buy at a
00:56:54
Paramjeet Mehta: festive period or buy otherwise. So, uh, these details,
00:56:59
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, you know, when, uh, mapped with
00:57:03
Paramjeet Mehta: a business objective, I say, for example, for a food
00:57:07
Paramjeet Mehta: delivery app, it would be, let's say, how to get
00:57:10
Paramjeet Mehta: more surplus out of that particular individual or a family, right?
00:57:15
Paramjeet Mehta: So that is important. And, for example, I order some, uh,
00:57:18
Paramjeet Mehta: food for my kids. Obviously, I won't eat that right.
00:57:22
Paramjeet Mehta: So food for my kids. And, uh, there are data
00:57:25
Paramjeet Mehta: sets available with which I can map that
00:57:28
Paramjeet Mehta: as a first party. So I'll offer them that it's
00:57:31
Paramjeet Mehta: time for a long weekend and lets kids enjoy let
00:57:36
Paramjeet Mehta: your kids enjoy,
00:57:38
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, their favourite food. Something like this, a notification going
00:57:42
Paramjeet Mehta: in so this will enrich
00:57:45
Paramjeet Mehta: the engagement and also conversations between something which is a
00:57:51
Paramjeet Mehta: long term relation. For example, e-commerce. Obviously, it's a long
00:57:55
Paramjeet Mehta: term relation. You start onto an Ecommerce platform, you are
00:57:58
Paramjeet Mehta: there for on the Ecommerce platform, unless and until there
00:58:02
Paramjeet Mehta: is a better proposition coming in, you stay there forever, right?
00:58:05
Paramjeet Mehta: So this happens, right?
00:58:07
Paramjeet Mehta: So that relation at that continuum
00:58:11
Paramjeet Mehta: can only be enabled with the proper use of that
00:58:15
Paramjeet Mehta: particular data and deep diving into that data,
00:58:18
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, building, uh, you know, different. Taking out different dimensions
00:58:23
Paramjeet Mehta: from that data.
00:58:24
Varun Duggirala: So we have some quick fire questions for you. I've
00:58:26
Varun Duggirala: been told to tell you that you have to. You
00:58:28
Varun Duggirala: only have one or two lines to answer every question.
00:58:30
Varun Duggirala: Here's the first one. what are the emerging technology trends
00:58:34
Varun Duggirala: that you see having the most significant impact? Let's say
00:58:37
Varun Duggirala: the next five years,
00:58:38
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, the biggest one would be, uh,
00:58:41
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, the use of artificial intelligence. Um, on the, uh,
00:58:46
Paramjeet Mehta: first party data, that would be the biggest one. And, uh,
00:58:50
Paramjeet Mehta: there will be a lot of customizations offered and experiences
00:58:54
Paramjeet Mehta: offered on, uh, you know, based out on that data set.
00:59:00
Varun Duggirala: Um, when you look at the evolving landscape. Right? Um,
00:59:04
Varun Duggirala: how does Asus How do you foster innovation internally? So
00:59:08
Varun Duggirala: you're staying on track and ahead of the trends in
00:59:10
Paramjeet Mehta: industry. Um, um, the biggest part here is that, uh,
00:59:16
Paramjeet Mehta: allow, uh, ideas to be heard. So once idea is heard,
00:59:21
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, then, uh, I think, uh, if idea has merit,
00:59:25
Paramjeet Mehta: it will certainly get to the, uh, execution, uh, stage
00:59:29
Paramjeet Mehta: as well. So idea has to be heard.
00:59:32
Varun Duggirala: Can you share some insights into your vision for the
00:59:34
Varun Duggirala: future of technology and and how do you plan to
00:59:36
Varun Duggirala: contribute to that vision?
00:59:38
Paramjeet Mehta: Uh, the biggest part would be to, uh,
00:59:43
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, provide, uh,
00:59:45
Paramjeet Mehta: let's say, uh, the education autonomy
00:59:48
Paramjeet Mehta: to, uh, masses. And, uh, we are right there with
00:59:52
Paramjeet Mehta: the IT hardware industry. We will be able to do that. And, uh,
00:59:56
Paramjeet Mehta: when I talk about education, it's not, Let's say the, uh,
00:59:59
Paramjeet Mehta: normal education. It is like skilled education. It would certainly help, uh,
01:00:03
Paramjeet Mehta: developing economies like India. So this is the most important
01:00:06
Paramjeet Mehta: aspect that we will be driving, uh, with the technology.
01:00:11
Varun Duggirala: As consumers shift towards sustainability as a core focus, right.
01:00:15
Varun Duggirala: They also have ethical considerations in terms of they look
01:00:17
Varun Duggirala: at it. Um,
01:00:19
Varun Duggirala: how do you as a kind of integrate these values? Um,
01:00:22
Varun Duggirala: across your tech products, marketing strategies, etcetera.
01:00:25
Paramjeet Mehta: So big, uh, fortunes. Uh uh, most admired band, Uh,
01:00:29
Paramjeet Mehta: from the past, Uh, I think 67 years,
01:00:32
Paramjeet Mehta: Uh, we have, I think, a couple of years back
01:00:36
Paramjeet Mehta: started working on, uh, the sustainable, uh, side of our
01:00:41
Paramjeet Mehta: business as well. And right now, as we speak, even the, uh,
01:00:45
Paramjeet Mehta: CU boxes or the packaging boxes come from, uh, material
01:00:49
Paramjeet Mehta: that is recycled or even in the devices we use the, uh,
01:00:54
Paramjeet Mehta: material that can be recycled or has come from, uh,
01:00:59
Paramjeet Mehta: you know, effort
01:01:01
Paramjeet Mehta: from an organisation that is giving us the, uh, um
01:01:06
Paramjeet Mehta: you know, uh, recycled material so that we already started
01:01:10
Paramjeet Mehta: as an organisation.
01:01:12
Varun Duggirala: You mentioned a i earlier.
01:01:15
Varun Duggirala: How is how are you as a company, leveraging technologies
01:01:18
Varun Duggirala: like a i machine learning into enhancing, let's say, user
01:01:20
Varun Duggirala: experiences or staying competitive in the market?
01:01:23
Paramjeet Mehta: What we've done here is that we, uh we work
01:01:26
Paramjeet Mehta: with the technology giants that work on the let's say,
01:01:31
Paramjeet Mehta: the lower layer of technology. Uh, for example, uh, to
01:01:35
Paramjeet Mehta: quote here, we work with NVIDIA and NVIDIA. in their, uh, uh,
01:01:40
Paramjeet Mehta: graphic cards or India solutions. They have come up with
01:01:43
Paramjeet Mehta: the technologies like DLSS, which are, uh, a I Friendly. And, uh,
01:01:49
Paramjeet Mehta: from a game developer
01:01:52
Paramjeet Mehta: to let's say, someone who wants to, uh, work on
01:01:56
Paramjeet Mehta: the deepest and the, uh uh, you know, Ms Subjects
01:02:01
Paramjeet Mehta: of a I can work upon. So we work along
01:02:03
Paramjeet Mehta: with them to give the right, uh, device integrations so
01:02:08
Paramjeet Mehta: that that DLS is a subject you know, is delivered
01:02:11
Paramjeet Mehta: on screen as well
01:02:12
Paramjeet Mehta: or in the computing
01:02:13
Varun Duggirala: as well. Thank you so much. Thank you so much
01:02:15
Varun Duggirala: for coming on flip casts and for sharing all that
01:02:17
Varun Duggirala: you've shared. I think all of us have so many
01:02:19
Varun Duggirala: insights in terms of not just this category, but into
01:02:22
Varun Duggirala: gaming and everything else around it. So thank you so
01:02:24
Varun Duggirala: much for coming and sharing. And,
01:02:26
Paramjeet Mehta: uh, thank you so much for inviting me here, and
01:02:28
Paramjeet Mehta: it was pleasant talking to you. Thank you so much.
01:02:30
Varun Duggirala: Thank you for tuning into another episode of flip cars.
01:02:33
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