Holding over 13 years of extensive experience in corporate communications, Suparna has been at the forefront of the communication functions for reputed companies, consistently delivering thought leadership and strong messaging, based on business acumen & human insights.

As long as brands keep fitting into customer’s shoes from behind the 17th floor glass door, there is going to be a perpetual gap between what customers’ actual want and what we think they expect. The real question, we need to ask ourselves today is, are we doing enough to even hear out the customers? Our customers have opinions, queries and voices, the real question is, are we listening?

With digital technologies rapidly moving away from text-heavy formats, to more video and other visualization techniques will put text at a disadvantage in other domains, as people get used to video as a suitable substitute for text.

Today, digital technologies operate instantaneously. So, people are losing patience with anything that operates more slowly. The meaning of ‘real-time’ is now on a technology scale, not a human scale. Expectations arise from these forms of empowerment, and these expectations affect everything else. But the question remains still the same, are we listening?

The biggest impact of technology is the change it creates in people’s perceptions. Certainly, technology expands access, speed and productivity, but it has much more far-reaching effects. People used to take it for granted that there was no tête-à-tête with ads. But now, the presumption of dialogue created by digital technologies goes beyond the technologies themselves. With this, yes we are gradually attempting to listen and to be listened.

Today, people consume content on multiple screens. Their priority is accessing stories when they want them, not where and how, and that’s what I call the power of meaningful and compact brand story-telling. It was very much present a decade back – more narrative, more visually attractive. But, with the changing pace and consumer’s adaptability to less time consuming mediums, branding and awareness goals have shifted beyond traditional mediums like tv, radio or even newspapers. It is more interactive, rather extensively talkative I should say.

With the changing pace and consumer’s adaptability to less time consuming mediums, branding and awareness goals have shifted beyond traditional mediums like tv, radio or even newspapers

Well, this reminds me of an interesting story line. Niraj Gemawat, Founder & Board of Director of The Gateway Group once asked me an interesting thing, “Suparna, what attracts you to Branding & PR”, and I remember I told him, “I was in perhaps fifth or sixth standard when I first saw Uncle Chip’s and Liril soap’s TV commercial and it triggered me so desperately that I was keen to understand the science of how a product becomes a brand”.

My hunt took me to study media science, I got exposed to this ecosystem of product management through PR and branding. But I should say, digital medium was not as profound that time as it is now, as now consumers lack time and zeal to adapt conventional branding mediums. Narrative structure, audience engagement, character development, these terms once lived solely in the arts, in the films & plays we watched, and the books we read. But today, in a changing world where marketing channels have become much more dynamic and the consumer is seeking relevant content in all marketing touchpoints, the landscape needs to build new skills within marketing teams and strategically craft the story-telling structure of the brands.

However, brands today are more focused on enhancing customer engagement. Many marketers today are taking cognizance of the presence and ability of social media in engaging customers and other promotional activities. Next generation brands, I call them Game changers - capture their big ideas in more inspiring ways that resonate with their target audiences at the right time & place, enabled by data and technology, but most of all by rich human experiences.

People trust the best brands more than any traditional institution, more than governments, lawyers, sometimes even more than religion. Brands connect with them, shape their attitudes and aspirations, connect them with people like them, to give them a platform to achieve more together. Ultimately, brands have the power to change the world, not just to sell products and make profits, but to make life better.