Sudhanshu Tripathi

Exploring AI and Marketing: A Chat with Sudhanshu Tripathi

Sudhanshu Tripathi is a veteran who holds the position of Chief of Marketing & Communications at Quick Heal. In his role, Sudhanshu is responsible for driving the P&L from D2C and e-commerce channels, as well as supporting revenue from traditional channels. He is also in charge of establishing and scaling new-age channels for the brand, including D2C, e-commerce, affiliate, and referral programs. He plays a crucial role in strengthening the brand's omnichannel experience through ATL and BTL efforts on a global scale. He is also in charge of defining the policy advocacy roadmap for the organization.

In addition to his marketing and communication responsibilities, Sudhanshu is instrumental in shaping the organization's Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy. He drives ESG integration and leads ESG communication efforts. This includes Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) and sustainability reports. With his extensive experience, Sudhanshu is a valuable asset to any organization looking to excel in today's competitive business landscape.

In today's fast-changing marketing world, staying ahead of the curve is key for businesses. As marketers, we must adapt, learn from leaders, and explore new tech to keep our edge. With this in mind, we talked with Sudhanshu Tripathi, a skilled marketing pro with a strong record in the field. As the Head of Marketing for a top brand, Sudhanshu offers a lot of knowledge and skill.

1. How do "presumers" impact the buying choices of their communities? What role do they play in brand marketing?

Presumers are key people in a community that others turn to for advice and ideas. Influencer strategies have been around in different forms and keep working. This extends even beyond brands. One example is local tutors attracting top students, who then get their friends to join their classes. They would offer incentives for bright students to join. They would perhaps subsidize their fees or give them other perks. The closer and more trustworthy the influencer, the more impact their ideas will have. Over time, influencers have changed with the rise of digital channels and social media, growing their reach and influence.

2. Brands need to rely on a lot of data points and insights to make a personal experience for customers. What should a good marketing stack look like?

Every other day, a new tool comes to the market. Each one is better than the previous ones in terms of value. We need tools that can talk to each other. They should make sense of data sitting in different systems. A good marketing tech stack should have many parts. First, a CRM for storing customer data, and tracking behavior, and intent. Just having the data will not work. You need to make that data work for you. That is where you need marketing automation tools to manage campaigns, do tasks, and boost ROI. Analytics and reporting software is needed to measure campaign results and find useful insights. Depending on the maturity of the brand, a content management system is needed to store and share content, while social media management and SEO tools help with online visibility and audience interaction. Finally, ad-tech platforms help brands grow their reach and connect with new customers. By putting these parts together, marketers can create a truly personal experience for customers.

3. What is your view on ChatGPT? Do you think AI will make life more productive or automate things for marketers? Have you had a chance to try it in your field?

I have used chat GPT for a while and enjoyed its benefits. I don't see the world in black and white, so there is a middle ground. AI is not new; it has changed and will keep changing. AI already has a big impact on marketing and will keep benefiting the field. Trends like personalization will be better because of AI, as it can analyze lots of data, make personas, and map customer likes to make customer experiences very personal. Now, we can ask the right questions and generate the right insights. These customer insights will become richer. Not only will we be able to correlate past data but we may also make predictive tools with AI's help. This might surprise a lot of customers. These are two aspects that will be heavily impacted by AI. Content creation will also change, as GPT can make content writers and copywriters more efficient without fully replacing them. If technology could replace people, I don't think I would be talking to you. Search engines would have been doing all the sales then. Technology and humans will keep working together, and tools like GPT in chatbots can make more human-like interactions. The chats would definitely stop being mundane. The ability of AI to serve customers will improve. Even when it comes to the ad space, AI would disrupt that space. AI sits at both ends: the ad platform as well as the brands. AI will change the marketing world and let businesses create more personalized, relevant, engaging, and optimized performances. Owing to the presence of tools like ChatGPT, the writer's bloc would go away.

I don't think AI will replace content creation from a writer's point of view, but it will make them super efficient.

5. The context (under which a brand should market) keeps changing for a customer. What pain points do your marketing teams face now?

As a marketer, there are many challenges. Data management is a big issue. We collect many data points greedily. However, we may not be able to use all the data well. We may not be able to leverage this data properly. This, I think, is almost criminal. This can be wasteful, especially when budgets are tight. Another challenge is tech integration. There will be so many platforms claiming to change the world. They just end up adding another variable to the equation. With so many platforms and tools, getting a full view of data is a big challenge. Data is stored at different places in different forms. They do have some interaction but still, it is a big challenge. This also limits our ROI measurement abilities, as data is split across different areas and systems. If ROI can't be measured well, getting the needed budgets is always a challenge. For example, managing a B2B brand has a different journey from a B2C brand. So, the nature of investment is also different. The input ratios from a budget standpoint are different. All of this needs constant justification from a brand perspective. The budget has always been a constraint. This is nothing new. Still, it becomes challenging for a marketer. There are so many systems in place with so much data and so many types of data being captured. Splitting them across the different focus areas becomes another big headache. If ROIs cannot be measured properly and with conviction across these focus areas, it becomes a constant challenge. Even from a budget perspective, asking your CFO for the required amount is another challenge. Also, the ad stack has challenges, as it's hard to know who is seeing ads and if the money spent is reaching the right audience. There are bots and other elements that require you to be extra careful. If our actual TG is not able to see what we want to show them, our assumptions, segmentations, and persona-building exercises are wasted. This becomes an ongoing challenge as well.

Data management is a big challenge, as we collect numerous data points but may not effectively use all the data.