A positive mention by a customer to a sales colleague will help you understand whether your marketing activity and message was a Great one or a Good one.
I joke about this quite a bit that what Covid 19 has done to move the needle on Digital & Marketing transformation in 12 months is what the CMOs/CDOs have been trying for the last decade.
Tell us about your upbringing, and early career days.
I was brought up in Delhi where I attended Springdales School, Pusa Road. I was always more interested in extracurricular activities & thus was a House Captian, Basket Ball Team Captain, VP of the Interact Club (Rotary Club) & part of the Theater group.
My mom is an educationist and my father a creative director who ran, and still does, his own corporate films production studio. It was during my early days I was first exposed to the art of storytelling, which I believe is one of the most important ingredient of not only a successful marketer but also a successful business executive. I grew up seeing my father convert corporate jargons and missions to films which instilled a sense of belonging, pride and motivation among corporate organizations. My mother on the other hand used storytelling to teach preschoolers their education curriculum and important lessons of life.
My early days was working with my father and directing films. I have had the honor of working on films which showcased the loyalty, valor, discipline and passion of Indian Army regiments like Assam Rifles, Dogra Regiment, Corps of EME & Indian Peacekeeping Forces.
It was during my Post-Graduation in Communications at The Delhi School of Communication (DSC) that I was exposed to the world of marketing and went on to specialize in marketing & advertising.
Working with large corporates like India Today Group & Pearson I learnt the ropes of marketing in complex organizations. Whereas with startups such as ibibo.com & meritnation.com I understood the agility & speed required to pivot.
I took a break after 8 years of working to pursue my MBA from Indian School of Business (ISB) before continuing my journey with BlueStone.com and now with Schneider Electric.
How did you rise to the highest echelons in your career and what advice do you have for our readers?
By no means have I reached the highest echelons and believe that there is a lot more to achieve and reach it. My humble advise would be to define and focus on your Principles. Like Ray Dalio says “Principles are fundamental truths that serve as the foundations for behavior that gets you what you want out of life. They can be applied again and again in similar situations to help you achieve your goals.”
Some of my Principles which I have learnt from my teachers and bosses are as follows:
- Success is based on Potential & Performance. Devote time in upgrading your Potential which will show results in your Performance.
- People, Processes & Results is what drives Growth. Invest in your People, while helping defining simple & scalable Processes which will help you achieve Business Results.
- Humility is one of the most desirable characteristic. Own it.
- Help first, question later and work towards making others successful. This giving attitude will attract more people who would want to collaborate and work with you.
- Good work, Gets you more work. Accept it.
How do you analyse whether your marketing activities reached your intended TG and communicated the right messages?
Before one reaches the analysis stage it very important for marketers to understand the consumer persona, his/her journey, how they interact with your product/category and what inspires/motivates them.
I say that because without this information our analysis would always be around whether we have reached the right audience and communicated the right message and not around business results and customer satisfaction.
For me any marketing activity success should be define around 3 parameters:
- Customer Satisfaction & Engagement
- Business Results
- Feedback from Sales
The last one becomes very important because our sales colleagues are the ones who are directly and always in contact with our customers and I am a strong believer that what ever marketing does needs to help them sell more while keeping customer satisfaction at the highest levels.
A positive mention by a customer to a sales colleague will help you understand whether your marketing activity and message was a Great one or a Good one.
How do you think marketing will evolve in the future and how are you preparing for that leap?
Covid 19 has been an accelerant. I joke about this quite a bit that what Covid 19 has done to move the needle on Digital & Marketing transformation in 12 months is what the CMOs/CDOs have been trying for the last decade.
I believe that the future marketing evolution will happen on 5 pillars and this will help us get back to the basics of marketing.
- Seamless & Personalized Experiences – Users are more and more valuing experiences rather than product features and thus companies will need to invest to elevate their customer experiences especially digital CX while ensuring that the journeys are seamless & personalized.
- Focus on Privacy – Data privacy is becoming a reality and we as marketers should champion the protection of our customers privacy. With the cookie less world coming we need to start going back to understanding customer intent and use ‘acceptable’ methods like contextual targeting & permission marketing to communicate to customers
- Marketing as Revenue Generator, Not a Cost Centre – CMOs will more and more need to reposition them selves as business value creators and own new business models which donot leverage the traditional organization. Looking at marketing spends as an investment rather than a cost has to become the first priority for all marketing executives.
- Agile Thinking – With the uncertainty that drives the world marketers need to shift from being complex megaliths to lean teams who are agile and ready to pivot. The marketing organization needs to become the first responders of the corporate world where they are first at the scene to evaluate, respond & define the course of action.
- Focus on Purpose - Customers and Employees are becoming more aware of their civic duties as part of this society and environment. This evolution of their outlook is also drastically influencing their choices of what they want to buy, who they want to be associated with and where do they want to work. Thus marketing needs to look deep and push organizations to commit on missions of sustainability, inclusiveness & resilience.
What would be that one thing that you would do differently now than before?
Personally – spending time on self is definitely something which I am doing more. The last 12 months have been, to say the least, different. Our always on routine, connected world & uncertainty is not only affecting us physically but also mentally. A clear routine for both mental and physical fitness is something which I have and will incorporate more as part of my daily routine.
Professionally – in the last 12 months, the factor of trust has increased significantly. Managers now have no choice but to trust their teams and colleagues and I believe this has unlocked economic value and potential of companies which has helped us sail and continue to sail through these unprecedented times. Going forward how can we, as leaders, build on this trust and empower more and more teams to perform effectively while providing a safe environment to debate & challenge is something which I want to focus on.
What are your future plans?
Continue to work with companies which are helping move the needle to make our world a more sustainable place to live in.
I believe that every human has to have two fundamentals – Access to Education & Access to Energy/Digital.
With Schneider I am privileged to work for a company whose Purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all.
Sometime in the future I want to get back to teaching and share with our future leaders at schools whatever I have learnt.
What are your thoughts for sponsoring ads during IPL? How do brands measure ROI?
PL provides a great platform for the brands who want to reach out to a large number of audience with their messages. For me it is one of the only true mass advertising platforms which is around and successful. In my view IPL is fast taking the seat of becoming the Super Bowl for Indian advertisers.
Even more relevant an exciting is the digital play of IPL which I believe has just started. Going forward more and more advertisers will want to leverage this digital play so that their investments in IPL are not only measured from an awareness point of view but also from an engagement & revenue impact.
Which is your favourite book and why?
I enjoy reading quite a bit. As a matter of fact – last year I took the #50BooksChallenge and completed 43 books.
I don’t have one favorite book, thoughts Life & Work Principals by Ray Dalio comes pretty close.
Apart from that I really enjoy the books by Adam Grant & Simon Sinek.
I would also highly recommend – Innovator’s Method by Nathan Furr & Leading Digital by Didier Bonnet
Vice President Marketing
Schneider Electric
Atin Chhabra is a versatile digital and marketing leader with deep experience in Brand & Digital Marketing, P&L Management and Customer Experience. He has worked across fast paced environments and in industries like Media, E-commerce, Internet, Education, Energy Management & Services.
During his career Atin has been successful in creating strong brands, driving digital transformation, leading high performing teams and adding significant economic value at seasoned and young companies.
An Indian School of Business (ISB) & Delhi School of Communication (DSC) alumni, in his current role at Schneider Electric, Atin is the Global Vice President – Marketing. As part of the Brand & Marketing Engagement (BME) & Digital Customer Experience (DCX) leadership teams, he has been instrumental in devising data driven marketing and digital strategies that have resulted in significant business wins and delivered superior customer experience.
In his previous assignments, Atin has been part of BlueStone.com, Pearson, Meritnation.com (Naukri Group), ibibo.com and India Today Group in business, marketing and leadership roles.
An Industry speaker and key panelist on the topics of Digital Customer Experience and Martech, Atin is based out of Bangalore, India.
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