MMA-GroupM report offers post-Covid market reckoner

MMA in association with GroupM released its latest report ‘Modern Marketer Reckoner’ – a detailed report that is based on the business situation of 2020.

Given the various shifts that have happened in 2020 and the digital way of life that has almost become a norm, this year’s report focuses on two major perspectives – the consumer lens and the marketer lens. The consumer lens focuses on the theme ‘Nothing Is Certain’ and captures the uncertainty and changes that have happened in 2020 at various levels from a consumer’s point of view. The second half focuses on providing a modern marketing reckoner to marketers on the key strategic tentpoles they should look at and is themed ‘Everything is Possible’.

Key highlights from the report: 

• · 54% of businesses have been impacted by Covid in India, of which retail, travel and tourism have been hardest hit
• · 34% of business respondents have increased digital media budgets while 23% have focused more on eCommerce selling
• · Almost 90% of people agree that they are more careful about how they are spending their money
• · 50% of people have delayed big purchases and almost 38% have cut down on day-to-day expenses
• · Hardest hit are the discretionary categories – 77% have reduced eating at restaurants. 55% have reduced buying clothing and fashion accessories and 48% have reduced spending on consumer electronics. What has seen a positive impact are the areas related to health and hygiene – 29% are exercising more at home, 24% are consuming more vitamins and supplements, 23% are spending more on groceries.
• · Among the digital-first timers – 45% streamed movies, 43% got WFH software, 33% used an e-learning app, 28% purchased grocery online and 22% consulted a doctor online.

Speaking on the report, Prasanth Kumar, CEO, GroupM South Asia said, “The advertising and marketing industry has been encountering some fast changes in the past few years with the advancement in innovation and technology. The pandemic has triggered a definite shift in the consumer and the business landscape but if we display rigour and foresight and use effective advertising and modern marketing models, we can help businesses stay on top.”

“The reckoner underlines the marketing industry’s certainty when it comes to the rapidly expanding mobile channel,” said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director at MMA Asia Pacific. Tushar Vyas, President, GroupM South Asia commented, “One of the biggest areas of impact that has emerged is the digital ecosystem. It plays a huge part in the way the business landscape of today has unfolded. We believe that modern marketers will have an advantage if they can apply deep insights to understand the changing landscape. With this report, we wanted to address the huge changes in the industry and talk about the new ways to embed data into every part of the business and decode them to get powerful insights which in turn can help brands communicate better.” 

Rajesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Perfetti Van Melle India, added, “We have seen unprecedented changes in 2020. Yet, even as many things change, some things remain constant- for brands to stick to their fundamentals. This report, as always is basis extensive research and nicely encapsulates the changing landscape and the key considerations that Marketers need to keep in mind as they navigate through 2021 and beyond.”

Sandeep Bhushan, Director & Head of GMS India, Facebook commented, “We are experiencing unprecedented shifts in consumer attitudes and behaviours due to the pandemic. A significant digital acceleration has happened on the back of social media, and with over 400 million Indians connected on the Facebook family of apps in India, mobile is now central to media consumption and business impact. To build on the opportunity, businesses need to adopt the immersive tools on the platform, pivot the media-mix and measure true incremental business outcomes.”

 Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India said, “This report is an extremely holistic and robust report and has been written basis intensive research across multiple industry studies and reports, a lot of primary research which has been conducted in the past few months both by MMA and GroupM, POVs and contributions from multiple industry experts across multiple areas and verticals, POVs and contributions from GroupM leadership, GroupM subject matter experts and MMA board members.”