Consumer behaviour, trends, and the modern marketer's toolbox

The third panel discussion at The Marketing Pulse Summit titled ‘Modern Marketer’s Toolbox: The Marketing Stack you need to win!’ featured an intriguing discussion from the perspective of modern marketers on navigating the current landscape. 

Moderator: Himanshu Arora, Co-Founder, Social Panga

Panelists:

Krithika Sriram, Chief Growth Officer at PLIX

Abhishek Shetty, Marketing Lead,  Swiggy Instamart & Pvt Brands

Himanshu Arora began the discussion by raising a question on the customer journey. He pointed out that advertising is no longer about funnels; it's about multiple touchpoints. 

Sharing her thoughts, Krithika Sriram remarked that nowadays, customer funnel is non-existent, at least not in the traditional way. “The overall customer journey exists, but it’s no longer linear. It’s not the same journey from awareness to consideration to trial to purchase. The journey is now completely non-linear. A customer could jump from a friend's recommendation to a social media review to an influencer they follow, and then to an Instagram ad. The journey is all over the place now,” she added. 

Sriram mentioned that what remains important for marketers is to identify various touchpoints where the consumer might be. “Anticipate each of those points and create native experiences. If your customer is on Instagram or a Google review or following certain influencers, you need to be there and build delightful experiences for them. Covering all these touchpoints is very different than traditional media,” she noted. 

Elaborating on how the situation of funnels has changed, Abhishek Shetty explained, “The traditional funnel used to be awareness, interest, desire, action—a very old-school approach. People had limited access to information. They heard about a product, went into a store, listened to the sales executives, and bought it. Now, people have a lot of information at their fingertips. They can research a product, read reviews, decide not to buy, come across a new brand, and still decide to go to a physical store to buy it. The funnel exists in a certain sense, but many layers have been added.”

“Gone are the days when you could shepherd consumers with an information overload. Consumers today have access to many platforms. As marketers, it's about the right exposure,” Shetty emphasised.  

The first step is identifying who your consumer is and who you need to talk to. The funnel starts there. Earlier, it was about bringing more consumers into the funnel. Now, it’s evolving rapidly. - Abhishek Shetty. 

Shetty said that at the bottom of the funnel, it's about retention and delighting the consumer. The funnel is evolving rapidly. A traditional funnel might start with awareness and end with action, but now it's more like a circle—a flywheel. It’s about attracting consumers, retaining them, and delighting them so they tell others about your brand.

Illustrating his point with an example, Shetty shared that with Swiggy Instamart, they have two work streams. One focuses on attracting consumers into the funnel. The other constantly asks how we can delight a particular consumer and reduce friction points, not just with purchases but in their day-to-day lives.

“For instance, we realised that homemakers often don't know what's in which bottle in the kitchen. So, we sent them stickers for labelling, free of cost with our orders. The response was amazing. People loved it and spoke about it. This organic feedback was invaluable. It’s about solving pain points for consumers, which no amount of traditional marketing can achieve,” Shetty added. 

On the same train of thought, Arora mentioned that even with competition, like Zepto, people talked about it on LinkedIn—a platform not typically used for B2C marketing. He said that you need to keep your eyes and ears open and make sure you're aware of all touchpoints.

Adding to Arora’s points, Sriram said that it’s challenging because there are so many platforms where customers might discover your product. “Brands need to understand all these points and listen to customers. Methods like social listening help streamline online feedback, bringing it to a single point for action. For example, at Plix, we use an NPS system to understand customer recommendations and challenges, then take action to make their journey smooth and friction-free,” she added. 

Emphasising on social listening, Shetty remarked, “The consumer world is evolving rapidly with access to good data and feedback. Social listening is crucial. We’re bringing together CRM and other consumer communication under one roof with a CDP (Customer Data Platform). Consumer intimacy is our goal. We started a consumer intimacy program to ensure everyone in the organisation understands the consumer, not just the marketing team. This leads to cross-functional learnings that can be leveraged to enhance the consumer experience.”

For a master app like Swiggy, Shetty shared that it has multiple touchpoints—food, groceries, dine-out, etc. and consequently, there’s a huge opportunity for growth. He said that the challenge is how to leverage the ecosystem to get people to shop more on Swiggy Instamart. “It’s about unifying data from different tools and using it effectively for analytics and decision-making,” he added.

Taking the conversation ahead, Arora asked the experts on the conundrum of having too much data and how a brand can navigate that to target the correct set of data. 

“We’re drowning in data, but the objective should always be to make the customer's life better. Start with customer needs, and then use data to personalise communication and offers. Tailor solutions based on customer behaviour and preferences,” opined Krithika Sriram. 

Shetty shared that one way to do it is keeping the data limited to the end consumer. “Personalization is key. For example, for customers who buy late-night snacks, it makes sense to show them ice cream and indulgences at that time. Identifying consumer personas and leveraging personalization capabilities can have an immediate impact on business and customer perception. It’s not about adopting every new technology but about being consumer and business backward,” he illustrated. 

“Identifying consumer personas is the biggest task for marketers today.” - Abhishek Shetty. 

Sharing an insight on consumer retention, Sriram said, “Creating delightful moments for customers can lower acquisition costs and enhance retention. For example, content marketing that goes beyond just promoting the product to offering value through informative and educational content can drive engagement. Regular check-ins with customers to understand their journey and address any issues also help improve retention.”

Speaking on the trends in quick commerce, Shetty mentioned that quick commerce is primarily impulse-driven. Hence, the order return rate for quick commerce is close to zero as opposed to conventional e-commerce where it is around 30%. 

From a brand perspective, Sriram shared that consumer behaviour on quick commerce has changed. She said that people now want everything instantly, as opposed to conventional e-commerce that delivers products in approximately a day or two’s time. She mentioned that consumers are prioritising the time of delivery and the convenience of getting something instantly. 

“Every 5-6 years, the way you buy stuff keeps changing.” - Himanshu Arora.

From a product standpoint, both experts highlighted that the incorporation of voice search is going to be a monumental factor going forward.