Ingram Micro prioritises marketing strategies to establish timelines and assess the strategy's efficacy to determine ROI

"Ingram Micro uses visual representation in order to get involved with its customers and capture their attention. The main focus of the company is on touchpoints. The company wants to take complete advantage of the marketing tools and aims to prepare plans based on ROI which is the ultimate thing of marketing strategies"

A right marketing strategy can help an organization to grow. Marketing is all about understanding the customer needs so that the right solution can be offered. These days for a successful marketing strategy companies are relying more on data to reinforce its decision. For that companies are adopting business intelligence solutions to predict future trends and take actions. In a market like India which is the fastest growing economy in the world, the Digital-first strategy is the only way of survival. Digital-first means integrating technology into every aspect of a business.

Ingram Micro, one of the top notch distributor companies in India and also globally, is of the opinion that a strong digital marketing strategy helps in achieving specific goals. Ingram Micro uses visual representation in order to get involved with its customers and capture their attention. The main focus of the company is on touchpoints. The company wants to take complete advantage of the marketing tools and aims to prepare plans based on ROI which is the ultimate thing of marketing strategies.   

In a chat with VARINDIA, Naved Chaudhary, Head of Marketing, Ingram Micro India discusses about digital marketing strategies, effective future marketing approaches, data driven strategies helping businesses to grow and much more

What marketing strategy would you use in India, a country with a much diversified market, to reach your predetermined goals?

India's economy is among the fastest growing in the world, and it has a lot of untapped markets and potential. Data-backed research and consumer data that can be gathered at every stage of the buying process are what drive marketing today. We implement business intelligence tools to assist users in drawing conclusions, and predictive analytics to find trends, anticipate future patterns, and take actionable steps.

Businesses may be transformed in a variety of ways and propelled toward the all-digital future that is clearly on the horizon of the economy with the aid of a digital-first strategy. A digital transformation plan is needed for marketing growth in order to be flexible and responsive to this new consumer. It requires integrating technology into every aspect of the business model, including the services provided, the way in which consumers are interacted with and the way in which it functions on a PAN India basis by regionally tailoring marketing campaigns. While adopting a digital-first strategy allows us to meet our goals, different media vehicles do act differently.

What type of Digital Marketing Strategy is best for your organization?

Understanding the consumer buying patterns and preparing marketing plans accordingly helps our go-to-market which closely surrounds our four main transformation pillars: IT, Security, Digital, and Workforce. It is also our mission to provide support to our partners as solution aggregators to join us in this journey. We aim to be at the forefront of technology evolution, where we continuously innovate the services, customise, and expand into adjacencies.

A strong digital marketing strategy helps our business achieve specific goals. At Ingram Micro, we use visual representation support to engage with customers and capture their attention in a world that is highly saturated with digital content. This helps consumers acclimatise to this new normal. With the introduction of digital marketing and new measuring tools, the effectiveness of the marketing spectrum considerably increases. The primary focus is on touchpoints. Making the most of marketing vehicles requires a comprehensive approach. The aim is to develop plans based on ROI, which form the basis of marketing strategies.

What approaches do you believe will be effective in the future considering the changes in customer buying behaviour?

Marketing campaigns have a big impact on consumer choices. They may even influence customers to switch brands or choose more expensive alternatives if carried out properly, consistently, and with the correct marketing message.

A well-developed marketing strategy helps us realize our business' goals and focus on the actions required to reach the right customers. 

At Ingram Micro, we prioritise marketing strategies in order to establish timelines and assess the strategy's efficacy to determine its return on investment (ROI). We also put a lot of effort into providing personalized marketing communication to partners and customers. 

How data-driven strategies help businesses to grow?

Today, businesses are adopting data-backed strategies to strengthen their decisions. The adoption of business intelligence solutions helps to forecast future trends and take actions that sound plausible. The following are some key recommendations that put the company at the forefront using data-driven strategies:

•    Embrace Marketing Automation: To provide a better personalized customer experience, data analysis can be very useful. It can be used to anticipate their needs, wants, and future actions. Such insight supports the development of personalized marketing strategies for the maximum ROI (ROI).

•    Enables personalized campaigns and content: Automated data collection and analysis, as well as deep knowledge of customer needs, behaviours, and purchasing patterns, are all made possible by data-driven marketing. This paves the way for the development of highly customized products, marketing campaigns, and content.

•    Enhances strategic decisions: The detailed insights backed by data-driven marketing helps to make effective strategic decisions.

 
What is the impact of hybrid working models on marketing?

The hybrid working model is now being practiced by most of the businesses, the resulting factor of this model on marketing is significant and few of them are highlighted below:

•    Developing marketing campaigns and working on marketing strategies involve relevant hours spent on meetings and conferences which is an inescapable part of marketing. The traditional way of meetings is no more followed nowadays where we no longer require an in-person meet with 2-3 days of pre-planning for a physical venue. Flexible virtual meetings have changed the scenario and efforts of a physical commute and saves a significant amount of traveling time and cost. Considering that it is still important sometimes to meet in-person but the majority of those can be replaced with virtual meetings and only the most important ones can be scheduled in-person.

•    Shortening the terms of campaigns turnaround: The hybrid model helps to reduce the time spent on campaigns process shorter. Usually, different marketing departments that work on the campaign have the same working hours. Today, thanks to the hybrid system, the process can be accelerated by adopting different work schedules.