Brand Side of the Story: Peshwa Acharya, VP & head of marketing & consumer experience, Reliance Retail

Peshwa Acharya has over 19 years of marketing experience working across sectors like fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), consumer durables, telecom and retail. Presently, as the vice president and head of marketing and consumer experience, Reliance Retail, Acharya plays the pivotal role in driving the marketing and trade plan for around 1000 stores for the company across different formats. In an exclusive interview with AlooTechie, Acharya shares his viewpoints on digital media and how he sees Reliance Retail’s marketing objectives aligning with what the medium offers.

What is Reliance Retail’s perception and idea about launching brand campaigns on internet? What are some of the most exciting online campaigns that the company has initiated so far?

For us at Reliance Retail, marketing depends on a very simple idea. We want to be present everywhere where the target group (TG) match happens. We have several brands in our kitty including Reliance Fresh, Reliance Mart, iStore, Reliance Footprint, Reliance Jewels, Reliance TimeOut and others but we can’t do digital campaigns for each and every brand. In our perspective, online would make sense for some of our formats like that of iStore (Apple store) and Reliance Digital [specialty electronics and CDIT (consumer durables and information technology) store] because a lot of our premium audience is online.

We initiated a social networking based campaign for Reliance iStore to convert leads for our products. And the response from the campaign was very good. Our brand generated good word among the Apple audience, who are online and technology savvy people.

What percentage of the total advertising budget does Reliance Retail spend on the digital medium?

The percentage share is not fixed as it depends on what sort of business we are going to use the medium for. So, we cannot reveal an exact figure.

What are the issues and challenges that you have faced so far while promoting your brands on internet?

As far as my experience goes with the medium, reach clearly is a problem. And the problem would persist unless and until the penetration levels increase in the country. Till then, advertising on this medium will have to be limited to some specific product categories and not as standalone for large mass brands.

Another problem that I have faced is that the measurement system is not up to the mark. There are a lot of metrics present in the market but no one seems to reach a consensus while delivering results. This only proves that the measurement system of an online campaign needs to be worked upon more.

And thirdly, there is a huge lack of innovation in the internet medium. One can’t keep on doing the same stuff over and over again across all kinds of brands. Every brand has a

unique feature and this needs to be attributed through innovative marketing initiatives. Unless the people working in this medium can innovate, spends will not grow on internet.

What answers do you seek from your digital advertising agencies and digital media partners while promoting your brands on internet?

The primary question that I seek is to how I can get my brand message across to the TG in an effective and measurable manner. What I would also like to see is more innovation and that too in an effective way which can help in building business of my brand and format.

There is a perception that people research and compare products online and buy them offline. Why do you think it is like that?

Presently, this is true in the case of electronics products but the perception is changing fast. There are some categories where online buying works best. Sectors like insurance payment, travel and ticketing work best for online buying. Even in the electronics category there is a huge possibility of driving shopping online, especially of accessories and small volume items.

Online retailers have to provide some sort of incentive to the consumers so that they opt for buying online. For example, my car insurance is on ICICI Lombard and every year I used to call up the insurance person in my home and make the payments through him. One day, he asked me why I don’t opt for online payments as this would not only save up my time, but also charge me less. And I actually saw that making a payment through this medium not only made me save time, but also cost me less. Hence, the incentive needs to be there for a person to make a purchase online.

As the TG becomes more time-starved, internet will serve as the appropriate medium for their social interaction, information search, connectivity and shopping. Moreover, online buying will make more sense as the credibility of the online retailer is more established. For instance, if I know about a brand well, I will not need to have a touch and feel factor before buying the product and hence can initiate the buying process on internet. But if I am not sure about how reliable the retailer is, I might opt out of the transaction. So, every online retailer first needs to establish a trust in the mind of the consumer.

How do you see the importance of social media for promoting your brands online?

Social media is very important and with the emergence of sites like Facebook and Twitter, it has become much more important for brand marketers to be present on this medium. A lot of our TG is actually using social media and we saw that as we had a great response with our lead generation exercise for iStore launch.

People are speaking high about mobile being a great medium for brand communication, but still, very less amounts are spent on this medium. What’s your take on this?

The scene in mobile marketing is changing very fast. With mobile phones growing at a rate of 20 million per month, this would be the medium of internet connectivity and would far surpass the PC penetration in the country. When this happens, spends will also increase.

How do you see your marketing objectives aligning with what the digital medium offers two years down the line?

Actually the online behaviours of consumers are changing faster than we marketers and business owners would realise. Especially if you appreciate the fact that India is a demographically young and tech savvy nation, we must understand and be present in the medium. For me, brands like electronics, leisure, books, music and toys would better reap the benefits of the medium.

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