Is personal connect still relevant for brands in the digital age?

The Life Insurance Corporation of India, the largest insurer of the country, has about 1400000 agents selling LIC products manually, even as I type. Even when Insurance products can be purchased at the click of a button, LIC swears by its agent based distribution model.

You may argue that LIC is a quasi-government legacy company that has not yet understood how to leverage the digital revolution. But then, the same kind of counterintuitive game is being played by the digital first consumer brand Nykaa, the owners of Sharekhan App, Angel One Broking, and scores of other brands. Moreover, why did the big daddy of e-commerce, Amazon, covet the hyper-retail stores of Big Bazaar when it practically invented the digital shopping phenomenon for mass consumers?

Angel One Broking has more than 1000 agents per nodal city where they have a physical footprint, Nykaa has retail stores, Tanishq and Amrapali jewelers are gearing up to get invited into their customer’s home for an exclusive physical display of their selections.

What is happening here? When a whole lot of established brands are seeking human connection with their customers in this digital age, the move cannot be dismissed as a quirky strategy adopted just to stand out. Maybe, these brands are on to something that their competitors are yet to realise.

The death of Spray & Pray model of digital marketing

There are two social dynamics at play that explain brands’ motivation to get up-close and personal with the customers.

1-     Only 30% of India, the affluent class, is driving the growth of all consumer businesses, from automobile to education, BFSI, white goods, to travel, FMCG, and more.

2-     With even street-vendors and secondary-school students having access to smart-phones and their profiles on social media, the Digital space has crowded up, leaving media planners at their wits end to get their campaign targeting right at low cost.

When it comes to catering to the premium customers, mass media does very little more than creating brand awareness. This is why the Digital media, with very little scope for refined targeting enables brands to create mass awareness, but their conversion funnels are getting costlier by the day. Performance Marketing, as we know it today, is working on ‘spray and pray’ model- Spread your message as far and wide as you can and hopefully some audience would respond!

While a few years back the low costs of digital media made ‘Performance Marketing’ a must have in a planner’s toolkit, at present the sheer number of brands eyeing the digital pie coupled with the hoards of masses on the medium is pushing costs higher and making targeting harder. Performance Marketing may be the next TV advertisement in the sense that TV ads are a must have for top-notch brand awareness but one cannot bet on them to move sales without burning a hole in a brand’s pockets first.

On the other hand, getting up-close and personal with the customers was always a costly affair. However, the rising cost of digital is making those costs seem competitive, especially, when the return on investments in terms of sales conversions are better and the chances of up-selling are higher.

Referrals: Personal connect empowered by the digital medium

Referrals are the most effective means to create personal connections with the customers, but finding the right referral at the right time has been a pain for both offline and digital marketing. Even with the plethora of social platforms and the ever-connected populace, brands have not been able to connect relevant referrals and trustworthy recommendations with prospective buyers right at the time when their purchase intent is at its peak.

Vouch is creating a sweet-spot for the marketers who seek an alternative to the Spray & Pray model of Performance Marketing but believe in the power of the digital medium to deliver efficient and cost-effective marketing solutions.

With Vouch, technology has enabled brands to connect their prospects with trustworthy referrals at the click of a button!

It is time to move on from ‘Spray & Pray’ to the ‘Target & Hit’ model of digital marketing.

Curious to know how?