Envisaging the "New-Normal" par COVID-19 has disrupted the economic and social structure globally and as a result the "old normal" has disappeared. Obviously there are efforts to envisage the "new normal". #ResetIndia2020, a webinar organized by the Marketing and Brand Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 14th May 2020, was an effort to brainstorm with the industry leaders in search of the "new normal".

Mr. Nazeeb Arif, Executive Vice President, Corporate Communications, ITC Limited, moderated the webinar. He spoke about three broad issues and dealt with three basic distinct areas, which are survive-revive-thrive. 'Survive' is very much related to impact on health care sector, livelihood, reverse migration etc. 'Revival' deals with issues like how to economy going to start again, where would the money come from and where would the money spent to and so on. The most crucial is 'Thrive' when people would leverage the opportunity out of the crisis. The growth in short, medium and long term would depend on the investments Government would do. Now the question is where the industry leaders want the Government stimuli to be spent? Mr Arif said it would be interesting to watch the consumer behaviour in the 'new-normal'. He commented that despite disruptions basic consumer behaviours generally did not change much. According to Mr Arif collaboration and compassion would play major roles in the changed scenario. He mentioned that he experienced tremendous collaborations throughout the value-chain in production during the period of crisis.

Mr. Jayen Mehta, Senior General Manager (Planning & Marketing) at Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul) has shared their experience how Amul has been trying to leverage opportunity out of the crisis. The biggest challenge for them was to prevent the disruption in their value chain from cow to consumer. From the very beginning they targeted to reap the opportunity out of the crisis and communication with all stakeholders was their biggest key to the success. They continued to collect milk from 36 lakhs farmers across the country twice a day without any disruption and maintaining social distancing norms. Amul has also launched a variety of products like haldi dudh, tulsi dudh, ginger milk and they caught the buyers eyes immediately. Continuous communication with the customers was also another key of success for Amul. They launched at least six new campaigns during the crisis time to connect with their consumers for their range of new products, said, Mr Mehta.

Mr. Abhijit Roy, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Berger Paints India Ltd dealt mostly with consumers. aspects. At the very beginning Mr Roy said that the construction and renovation sector was one of the worst hit sectors. He presented Berger Paints policy to turnaround from that situation. Seeing the nature of spread of pandemic Beger Paints realized that the rural areas are less affected by COVID-19. According to Mr Roy there would be behavioral change among Indians after COVID-19 pandemic. People will be living a much cleaner life where hygiene will be the focus of the households. So as a result, the demands for products related to hygiene would increase to a great extent. Keeping that is mind the company has come up with a whole new range of products which are related to clean living and maintaining hygiene. The company has launched a 'breathe easy' platform which is a kit of home sanitizer, hand sanitizer and floor sanitizer and the products are antibacterial, antiviral and antipollutant. A series of campaign has been launched to introduce customers with the new range of products. Mr Roy added that by launching a whole new lot of products his company has been trying to explore the opportunities created out of the crisis. To address the worry of the customers the company has launched 'express painting' where painters are extremely well trained and conduct all the work with the help of different machines. He said that the company is working on a mobile app where each of its 20,000 paint workforce's details could be viewed by consumers. All painters would be provided with safety kits and they would use germ-killing paints with a focus on the customer's safety. All the painters have downloaded 'Arogya Setu' app so that they can be traced before and after the painting sanitization of the house is done. Keeping the fact in mind that rural market is less affected by COVID-19 the company has reallocated their resources believing that there is a huge opportunity to expand new networks in rural India. The company has also reduced non-essential cost by 20% to combat the situation. Resetting supply chain was another area where the company focused a lot.

Mr. Rohit Ohri, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, India & South Asia, FCB Ulka spoke on change in consumer behavior during the post COVID scenario and how consumers will behave in 'new normal' situation. He said that some changes in consumers. behavior will stay even after COVID and some behavioral changes would vanish with the disappearance of the virus. He mentioned that health and wellness would move to priority from periphery. Every category of product would have to keep this in mind. Mr Ohri mentioned this change in consumer behavior would bring opportunities out of the crisis. The other thing which would experience rise according to Mr Ohri is automation. Mass adoption of automation would be experienced in travel and airline industry. Conscious consumption would be another major behavioral change which would be seen. Consumers have become extremely careful about which products to buy. Home has become 'new outdoor'. People have find a new comfort in staying with family and that has created a whole new set of connections and bonds. All these are going to impact consumers' behavior.

Mr. B B Chatterjee, President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry, gave the final closing address and said that once the lockdown is over, individually all would start refurbishing, replacing, changing old with new.