MxMIndia

Tag: Salesforce India

  • 'Data and AI hold the promise of helping marketers reach customers'

    Salesforce Research: 79% of marketers have fully implemented AI into their workflows

    Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, today released the new State of Marketing report, sharing insights from over 4,800 marketing leaders across 29 countries — including 250 from India .

    The report covers the latest trends on how marketers are evaluating and implementing AI into their operations; approaching data acquisition, maintenance, and application strategies; and ensuring customer trust and security as vulnerabilities increase. Generative AI may be relatively new, but marketers have been quick to add it to their arsenal. Globally, over half of marketers say they currently use predictive and generative AI — and nearly all marketers plan to use both types within the next 18 months.

    Key insights from the research include:

    Priorities for a new marketing era. Marketers are evolving their practices in a highly competitive landscape. They’re looking to AI — both generative and predictive — to help personalize at scale and boost efficiency.

    Implementing / leveraging AI is marketers’ #1 priority on a global scale, as well as their biggest challenge.

    Locally, improving use of tools and technologies is India marketers’ No. 1 priority, while building/retaining trust with customers is their No. 1 challenge.

    Marketers shore up their data foundations. Businesses have long struggled to connect disparate data points to create consistent, personalized experiences across customer journeys. Yet as third-party cookies are depreciated and AI proliferates, that quest is only becoming more critical — and challenging.

    28% of marketers in India are fully satisfied with their ability to unify customer data sources.

    66% of marketers in India have access to real-time data to execute a campaign. 59% need the IT department’s help to do so.

    Marketers in India use an average of 9 different tactics to collect data, with customer service data being the most common.

    Marketers embrace AI with an eye on trust. Marketers are intent on successfully applying AI in their operations with the right data, but are concerned about security.

    o   79% of marketers in India are already experimenting with or have fully implemented AI into their workflows.

    o   AI implementation is also a point of differentiation: high performing marketing teams are 3.1x more likely than underperformers to have fully implemented AI within their operations.

    o   The three most popular AI use cases among marketers in India are: Getting performance analytics, generate content, Programmatic advertising and media buying.

    Full personalization remains a work in progress. To meet rising customer expectations around personalization, marketers are graduating beyond broad audience segmentations, like location or age, to more specific identifiers like individual preferences or past interactions.  There’s also a difference between how the highest- and lowest-performing marketing teams adapt.

    High performers in India fully personalize across an average of 6.0 channels, compared with others who fully personalized across 5.0.

    Marketers seek unified analytics. There is no shortage of data sources, but putting that data to work is a challenge — especially when it demands a holistic or long-term view of data.

    58% of marketers in India track customer lifetime value (CTV).

    92% of marketers in India say they have a clear view into marketing’s impact on revenue.

    Deeper relationships emerge with account-based marketing (ABM) and loyalty programs. Companies are increasingly turning to strategies like ABM and loyalty programs for better acquisition and retention. Yet many of these programs’ information sources remain disjointed, as does the customer experience.

    Only 58% of marketers in India say loyalty data is fully integrated across all touchpoints.

    50% of marketers in India say loyalty program functionalities are accessible across all touchpoints.

    B2B marketers in India use ABM for customer acquisition, but less than half use it for upselling and cross-selling, 38% and 49%, respectively.

    Said Nishant Kalra, VP – Digital, Salesforce India: “Today, Data and AI hold the promise of helping marketers reach customers in new, more engaging ways, but they are far from reaching their potential. Eager to make the most of every customer engagement, marketers deploy a wide variety of tactics to collect clues for better audience understanding. Today it is evident, Sales and Marketing can no longer be viewed as just another function, they are the very engines and drivers of growth for any business.  As marketers in India are prioritizing AI and Data capabilities, building and retaining customer privacy and trust poses a significant challenge. Insights from the report are valuable to marketers across the country to help them outdo their competition by embracing AI and Data, to drive loyal customers, while mitigating trust, privacy and security challenges.”

  • Business Today holds Most Powerful Women in Business awards for 2023

    By A Correspondent

     

    Prabha Narasimhan, MD & CEO, Colgate-Palmolive India, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson & CEO, Salesforce India, Falguni Nayar, Founder & CEO, Nykaa, Nandini Piramal, Chairperson, Piramal Pharma Ltd, Vibha Padalkar, MD & CEO, HDFC Life Insurance, and Zoya Akhtar, Director & Co-Founder, Tiger Baby, were among the women achievers awarded by Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch at the 20th edition of Business Today’s Most Powerful Women in Business event in Mumbai on Friday.

     

    Six women, who are seven-time winners entered Business Today’s MPW Hall of Fame, making way for new entrants to come in next year. The list of achievers has seven debutantes, four comebacks, and 40 repeat winners from last year. This year’s list also has five global winners – Indians who have made the country proud with their achievements on the world stage.

     

    A special issue of Business Today magazine was unveiled  at the event. Speaking on the occasion, Buch, the first woman chairperson of SEBI, said simply parachuting someone at the top and doing nothing at the bottom will not to work for India. “Don’t do tokenism by putting more women on the board. Let’s see the disclosure on what percentage of your manpower cost goes to women. It will take care of everything,” she said about Indian organisations.

     

    While delivering the vote of thanks, Kalli Purie, Vice-Chairperson, India Today Group, said: “The rise of women power is not just in urban centres and in gatherings such as this, but it has percolated down to rural areas. To me, this churn is the most exciting and interesting that these women are independent, fierce and ambitious. I am really excited at the juncture of history we are in at the moment. What better place to discuss this than at the 20th edition of Business Today’s Most Powerful Women in Business list which honours 56 leaders from across so many fields.”

     

    The evening started with a panel discussion titled ‘A View From The Corner Office’ comprising Ameera Shah, MD, Metropolis Healthcare, Upasana Taku, Co-Founder & COO, MobiKwik, Vinati Saraf Mutreja, MD & CEO, Vinati Organics Ltd, Prabha Narasimhan, MD & CEO, Colgate Palmolive India, and Devita Saraf, Chairperson & CEO, Vu Group. They discussed the challenges and opportunities for women in the world of work.

     

    It continued with  discussions with Ashima Goyal, Member, RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee, Padmaja Chunduru, MD & CEO, National Securities Depository Ltd, Rekha M. Menon, Former Chairperson & Senior Managing Director, Accenture in India, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson & CEO, Salesforce India, Zia Mody, Co–Founder & Managing Partner, AZB & Partners and Kalpana Morparia, Former Chairman, J. P. Morgan, South and Southeast Asia, and other senior business leaders. Nandini Piramal, Chairperson, Piramal Pharma, spoke on ‘Journey Through Leadership & Innovation’, and Zoya Akhtar, filmmaker & co-founder, Tiger Baby, spoke on ‘Creativity Through The Female Lens’.

     

     

  • Research finds marketers optimistic despite headwinds

    Salesforce releases its eighth annual State of Marketing report

    By Our Staff

     

    Salesforce, an American cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) applications released its eighth annual State of Marketing report. In the report, Indian marketers say their work provides increasing value despite macroeconomic and labour headwinds. The report also reveals how marketers in the countries surveyed are adapting to changes in privacy regulations – all while managing more data sources than ever before.

     

    Ninety one percent of Indian marketers say their work provides greater value than it did a year ago – a 12% point increase from last year. However, they face an uphill battle in an uncertain economy: 42% of Indian marketers cited budgetary constraints and 75% of Indian marketers agreed that customer expectations are more difficult to meet than they were a year ago.

     

    To help meet the moment, marketers are focusing on:

    :: Balancing personalization with customer comfort levels

    :: Modernizing tools and technologies

     

    Arun Kumar Parameswaran, Senior VP, and MD – Sales, Salesforce India, said: “Digital transformation is critical to navigating the growing headwinds we are experiencing today. Marketers remain determined about their contributions to the success of their businesses. With automation, intelligence, and real-time data, personalization and investing in the right tools to collaborate, they are able to capture and act on insights across channels, thereby deliver exceptional experience to their customers and deliver business impact.”

     

    The trends revealed in the State of Marketing report were collected from a survey of 6,000 marketing leaders across 35 countries and six continents, including 250 from India. Insights include the following:

    :: The march toward digitally-led engagement treads new and familiar paths. Marketers are investing in a combination of channels and technologies to reach audiences in new places and build lasting relationships. TV/OTT, Digital Content and Video have seen the largest increase in usage in the last year by Indian marketers. However, email marketing remains dominant, accounting for over 80% of all outbound marketing messages, according to trillions of message sends from Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

    :: Marketers navigate a complex technology and regulatory landscape. Marketers are adapting to changes in privacy regulations and calls for data transparency.  Seventy Four percent (74%) of Indian marketers still invest in third-party data, 81% say they have a fully defined strategy to shift from third-party data.

    :: KPIs shift as marketers pursue real-time intelligence. Across every stage of the funnel, marketers are tracking more metrics year over year than ever before. Speed to insight remains a competitive advantage. Ninety percent (90%) of Indian marketing organizations engage customers in real time across one or more marketing channels.

    :: Distributed teams unite with collaboration technology. Recognizing that remote and distributed work is here to stay, leaders are making investments into new collaboration tools. Seventy Two percent (72%) of Indian marketers say it’s harder to collaborate now than pre-pandemic and are turning to an average of 4.48 collaboration tools to help.

     

  • Nearly 90% marketers have changed digital engagement strategy since pandemic

    Indian marketers embrace change and prioritise customer: Salesforce Research

    By Our Staff

     

    Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, has released the seventh edition of its ‘State of Marketing’ report based on a survey of over 8,200 marketing leaders worldwide. The report is focused on understanding the shifts in marketing strategies, priorities, challenges and the trajectory of marketing’s digital transformation future with the recent economic and social changes.

     

    Said Yashdeep Vaishnav, RVP, Digital Experience, Salesforce India: “Over the course of a little more than a year, marketers in India have navigated changes in customer behaviour that normally occur over years. The insights in this year’s State of Marketing report provide a good benchmark for what’s changed, what’s consistent, and where the art and science of marketing goes from here.”

     

  • According to marketing leaders in India, expanded online populations are expected to have the greatest impact on their work over the next 10 years

    Innovation & Data will drive Marketing Agendas in Uncertain Times

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    CRM leader Salesforce has released the sixth edition of its State of Marketing report which revealed that as technology drives customer expectations to new heights, Indian marketers have emerged as not just messengers, but engagers who foster meaningful customer relationships well beyond the first purchase. The research also found that standards of customer engagement are shifting again, and Indian marketers are prioritising innovation in a radically altered landscape.

     

    For the 6th edition of the State of Marketing report, Salesforce collected data from nearly 7,000 marketing leaders across the globe, spanning six continents, just as the Covid-19 crisis emerged. After carefully dissecting the survey results, Salesforce Research deemed that the insights in this report provided significant relevance, value and a helpful guide to marketers as they navigate through these uncertain times.

     

    Said Sunil Jose, SVP, Salesforce India: “The COVID-19 crisis is forcing marketers in India to rethink every aspect of their business – from strategic priorities and challenges, to the technological and team skills they will need — as they navigate getting back to work during a global crisis, and then continuing to transform the customer experience to be best positioned for success in the years ahead. The insights in this year’s State of Marketing report are a helpful guide for marketers as they journey to recover and transform their business.”

     

    The trends revealed in the State of Marketing report were collected from marketing leaders from B2B, B2C and B2B2C companies across 30 countries, including 300 respondents from India, which showed the following:

     

    :: Marketing Transformation Takes On New Urgency: The expectations and behaviors of consumers, businesses, and society at large are shifting with unprecedented speed and magnitude. Marketers are at the forefront having been increasingly tasked to take a leadership role, with 87% in India leading customer experience initiatives across their companies. This involves a combination of both technological and organizational innovation. In India, innovating is the top priority for marketing leaders, while insufficient organizational structure and processes is their top challenge.

     

    :: Customer Data Sets the Stage for Empathetic Marketing: As customers navigate a series of “new normals,” personalized, empathetic engagement has never been more important. Delivering messages and offers that resonate with an individual’s unique needs and expectations requires deep insights. Marketers are shifting how they source and manage customer data and ramping up use of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) that help them make the most of it. In India, marketers are expected to go from 20 data sources in 2019 to 25 projected data sources in 2021 and report a 118% increase in AI adoption since 2018.

     

    :: Marketers Double Down on Business Value: As businesses shift from crisis triage to recovery and adaptation, marketers have a unique opportunity to turn trusted customer relationships into business value. Marketers increasingly track metrics like customer satisfaction, digital engagement, and lifetime customer value to gain a holistic picture of what’s working and what isn’t across the customer journey. B2B marketers have a particularly strong role in business growth through account-based marketing (ABM). In India, 65% ofmarketers track customer lifetime value (LTV) to measure success.

     

    For full report, visit: https://www-stg.salesforce.com/form/pdf/6th-state-of-marketing/