Rise Of Responsible Marketing

While marketing has become more targeted with the use of data and AI, it has also become more responsible in many ways.

Rajat Abbi, Vice President, Global Marketing, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater India, Schneider Electric, swears by the power of sustainability in marketing and is leading many initiatives at the company to set an example of responsible marketing at play.

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You joined Schneider Electric almost a year back, have you undertaken any bigger shifts in your marketing approach?

At Schneider Electric, our core philosophy is to really drive sustainability and digitisation with our customers, with our partners and in the broader ecosystem.

So one clear transformation which we are seeing is happening in India and across the world is rapid urbanisation, rapid digitisation and more sense of urgency being created around how do you fight climate change. So, at Schneider, our purpose is to empower all, to make the most of your energy and resources by being your digital partner for sustainability and efficiency. So the biggest shift is our consumers, our customers, our partners.

Customers are now seeing sustainability not just as a fad, but a real call of duty. Over the last twelve months there is a lot of focus on responsible marketing.

They are talking about their sustainability journeys, how they are becoming more energy efficient, eco conscious and how the world of marketing itself is becoming a catalyst in driving change, helping organisations become sustainable, communicate to consumers and customers about the sustainability journey and playing a bigger role in helping India and the world.

You raised a very important word, responsible marketing. How do you put that in practice?

Sustainability for Schneider Electric is not just a word for us. It is something which we live every day. I have been a marketer and I have been into sales, and I have been into various other roles in my journey over the last several years. One of the fundamental differences which I see at Schneider Electric is everything which we do in this organisation starts with sustainability.

If I engage with my partners, can I be focusing more on using digital marketing and those tools which are more sustainable versus some of the other marketing tactics which were used in the previous years, which were not sustainable. This is the approach we follow to put responsible marketing into practice.

Let me give you an example of responsible marketing, in 2021 we rolled out an initiative called Green Yodha.

Green Yodha is a call by Schneider Electric to bring consumers, organisations, corporate policymakers on one platform and make them understand that the actions which must be taken internally around sustainability have to be taken now! It's a call of duty to create a sense of urgency. And over the last one year we have been able to reach over 10 million consumers through that initiative.

At Schneider Electric we have been able to play the role of a catalyst by launching this initiative, bringing it to life.

Has today’s marketing become more sustainable?

I think gone are the days when marketing used to be a very internal kind of a function. Today, Marketeers need to understand what is happening outside, what are the things consumers and customers want.

Nowadays, with almost 30 per cent to 40 per cent of India's population being a very young population, they want to associate with brands and organisations which are sustainable, which are responsible.

Now, it is not about what a marketer or what a business person wants. It's very frankly what a consumer and a customer want. Customers and consumers are willing to try and use products of those brands and companies which are more responsible, which are not only talking about sustainability, but literally they are walking the talk.

So, I'm seeing a very positive momentum happening over the last twelve to 16 months, where more and more marketeers are coming forward and they want to share their own stories, how they are making marketing more

responsible, more sustainable, and creating a deep impact on their customers and consumers.

You spoke about the Green Yodha initiatives. Are you planning anything on the similar lines? Do we see more of such things?

So, as I mentioned, Green Yodha, we started the journey in 2021 and we have a long way to go. India is a country of 140 crore people. We recently became the most populous country in the world.

Now, we would want to accelerate this initiative because the journey has just started. Our ambition is not only to connect with different kinds of audiences, which are primarily, let's say, customers, policymakers, partners, we also want to make Green Yodha a national movement.

Marketers have to make sense of complex things and yet be effective. What is effective marketing for you?

Fundamentally, I believe that marketing has three goals. First, to understand what a consumer or a customer needs. Second, to connect that need to the value proposition which your organisation has and third is to convert.

So, marketing, according to me, and that is my fundamental belief, has to speak the language of a consumer or a customer and it has to be simple. Gone are the days when you used to do complex things. In the worlds of Chat GPT and Google everything is available free of cost.

In most cases, complex things generally don't fly. So as a marketeer, when I start working on any initiative, it is very critical for me to understand what a consumer or a customer is looking for. But the marketing strategy or a plan which we sort of formulate and eventually execute must be very simple.