Who are millennial customers? Are they generic? Have they changed the definition of modern day marketing? How are marketers evolving themselves to deal with the new generation of hyper-connected consumers? Have they redefined the tasks of CMOs altogether? All these issues were discussed at length at "Eye Opener," the 10th edition of BCC&I Marketing and Brand Conclave on 23rd August, 2019 in ITC Sonar. The conclave was attended by esteemed personalities from the world of branding and marketing.

Mr. Indrajit Sen, the President of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry while delivering the welcome address said that The Annual Marketing and Brand Conclave has been a signature event of the Chamber since the last 10 years and it brings an opportunity to make the members of the Chamber as well as the Marketing and Branding community of Kolkata more aware of the phenomenal opportunity that the world of branding presents today.

Mr. Anoop Hoon, Chairperson, Marketing and Brand Committee of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce set the tone of the conclave. He said that with the advent of Google and now with the arrival of millennial consumers with huge appetite for technology, marketers have experienced the paradigm shift in their turf. He raised the concern on whether the marketing and branding companies were ready to deal the millennial consumers or the Generation 'Z'.

The keynote address by Mr. Jayen Mehta, Senior General Manager (Planning & Marketing} of Amul (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd} on 'Millennial Consumer and Iconic Brand' was an astounding presentation on story-telling of a cooperative of 36 lakhs farmers' organization which Amul is. The nineth largest dairy company of the world, Amul, handles 23 million litre of milk daily. Mr. Mehta added that they have a huge number of millennial suppliers too. He emphasized on the fact that 'Amul is a listening organization.' which has been using technology extensively to deal with the new generation consumers. Mr. Mehta revealed that Amul's advertising budget is less than one percent of the company's turn-over. It uses the social media to address the millennial consumers; it is probably the only Indian brand which has a whatsapp number. Mr. Mehta feels that the 77% of the population which is below 49 years of age will shape the market in 2030 and by then Generation 'Z' along with millennial consumers will become a major concern. He also said that the eye-catching topical campaign by Amul through Amul Girl has been a humongous task for the company.

The first Panel Discussion was on 'Millennial Consumer and Forever Brands.' The session was moderated by Mr. Kiran Khalap, Founder, Chlorophyll Brand Consultancy. Ms. Suparna Mitra, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer-Watches & Accessories, Titan Industries, showed through a series of audio-visual ad campaigns on how the brand Fast Track has changed their campaign style keeping pace with the generation. "Keeping track with the new age population and their preference has been a challenge,' said Ms. Mitra. Mr. Sarvesh Kumar, Chief Marketing, BPRS-B2C, TATA Steel said that the task was even more difficult for a brand like TATA Steel as for TATA Steel it had been a transformation from a product brand to a service brand. He illustrated TATA Steel's journey from the age of "We also make steel" slogan to "We also make tomorrow." Mr. Ajay Kakar, CMO, Aditya Birla Capital, said that while marketing a financial product they made sure to address the fact that every millennial required finance to achieve their dreams. Mr. Abhijit Bhattacharya, General Manager& Category Head, CEAT Ltd. said that they have designed their communication focusing on causes since their market research have proved that causes are important for millennial consumers.

The second panel discussion was on 'Millennial Consumer and New Age Brands.' It was also moderated by Mr. Kiran Khalap. The discussion was started by Mr. Anupam Bokey, VP- Marketing, Guiltfree Industries Ltd- Too Yum. Mr. Bokey said that Too Yum has focused on the snacking necessity of the millennial along with the fact that they are extremely health conscious. The audio-visual campaigns showed that Too Yum focuses on four basic interest areas of millennial consumers which are humor, music, sports and travel. Mr. Mithun Sundar, Head Revenue, Strategy & Analytics, Myntra said that the millennial consumers could not be generalized but there were some commonalities like constant spirit of exploration, opinionated and hyper-connection. Mr. Rahul Pansare, Head- Marketing & PR, FCA India Automobiles presented some very interesting statistics about the millennial consumers in India. 34% of the Indian population are millennial, 84% of the millennial have smart phone, 28% buy products following social media recommendation, 66% of the millennial are in tier two or tier three cities. So according to Mr. Pansare, millennial consumers cannot be homogenous. Mr. Rohit Kapoor, CEO, New Real Estate Business, OYO spoke on how aspiration and decision making ability of the young generation has changed with digital revolution and presence of social media.

The last session was on 'Future CMOs and Structure of Marketing Teams in Organizations.' The session was moderated by Mr. Piyush Pandey, Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide and Executive Chairman India, Ogilvy & Mathur Pvt. Ltd. While commencing the session Mr. Pandey focused on the need of the future CMOs to lead the millennial consumers instead of just following them. Mr. Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever Limited, President, Unilever South Asia, emphasized the importance of human interaction over data analysis. He recalled how his company had acquired a Kerala based hair oil brand after he personally interacted with users of the product. Mr. Bharat Puri, Managing Director, Pidilite Industries, compared the evolution of market with cricket focusing on the fact that marketing has now become more dynamic and competitive.

In his closing address Mr. Deb A Mukherjee, Senior Vice President of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the conclave was hugely knowledge enhancing and was indeed a great opportunity to hear brainstorming discussions of esteemed personalities from the marketing and branding industry.