 The Brand Equity Compass 2010 was held in Mumbai on 8th February, 2010. Focusing on the Theme ‘Marketing 3.0: One to One and One to a Billion,’ the summit invited the leaders in the marketing world to speak about the six key factors that will change the face of marketing in the next decade. Dr. Bhaskar Das, Executive President, The Times of India Group, welcomed the speakers and delegates and set the tone for Compass 2010 and for the marketing fraternity by outlining market expectations in the coming decade. Describing consumers as the new devil, Dr. Das said that the role of marketers in the next decade would expand from marketing to strategy, ambition, and structure.
 Delivering the theme address, Mr. Shivakumar, Vice President and Managing Director of Nokia India Pvt. Ltd., who was the chairperson at the Summit, described the road ahead for marketers in the next decade. The coming 10 years will be the best for India, which will be the 7th or 8th largest consumer in the world by 2020. Marketers will focus on pricing and offering greater value to consumers. Innovation cycles will get faster for brands, which will need to seek the concept of dependent growth to grow in the future. However, pressures on profits will pose greater challenge.
 In his keynote address, Mr. Nick Emery, Chief Strategy Officer, Mindshare Worldwide, spoke about the new world of addressable communications and the opportunity for marketers. He spoke about the four themes—chart advocacy real-time management, chart four Ps, chart paid earned, and owned, and chart BRIICS—that will define the
path of Marketing 3.0 and the art of effectively marketing one to one and one to a billion in the coming decade.
 Ms. Vinita Bali, Managing Director, Britannia Ltd. moderated the first panel on Building consumption: Crafting a desire in you with Mr. Ashish Singh, Managing Director, Bain and Company India Ltd.; Mr. Ashutosh Srivastava, Chief Executive Officer, Mindshare Asia Pacific; Mr. Vishal Gondal, Chief Executive Officer, Indiagames; and Mr. Madhukar Sabnavis, Country Head - Discovery and Planning, Ogilvy and Mather as the key panelists. Consumption can be defined as ABCD: Availability, Accessibility, and Affordability, Brand, Consumption, and Development.
The focus for marketers in the coming years will be on getting people to consume more. The need will on driving consumption and getting consumers to spend more from their wallet on your category compared to something else, all the time ensuring that consumption is about profitable growth. Changing consumer behavior will pose a tough challenge; considering that driving consumption requires a fundamental change in behavior. It will also become imperative for marketers in future to think hard about the problems they face and stop taking the easy way out. The key will be to start with tactics that are in line with a strategy, which in turn, leads back to tactics.
The next session, “Did you hear that”: Word-of-mouth marketing as successful communication tool, was addressed by Mr. Sameer Suneja, Marketing Head, Perfetti Van Melle India; Mr. Gautham Mukkavilli, President, PepsiCo, India Region, & Chief Executive Officer – Foods Division, FritoLay India; and Mr. Chetan Bhagat, Author, guided by session moderator Mr. Vineet Taneja, Marketing Head, Nokia India.
The verdict was unanimous: Consumers are taking control, so marketers need to back off. They cannot be in control. Internet is at the top end, and the people at the top end are very important in order to create the effect on the rest of the audience. And as marketers increase focus on viral marketing techniques, it is important to remember that the route cannot be used to manipulate people on the social media. The key will be to first earn trust for your brand and then create talkability. Talkability is achieved if you keep your brand ‘awesome’ and ‘fresh’. However, it will also be important to break away from the trend of leaving the innovative plans behind in the board room and finally always going back the same media plan format.
 The panel comprising Mr. Govind Shrikhande, President & CEO, Shoppers’ Stop; Mr. Ajit Joshi, Chief Executive Officer, Infinity Retail; Mr. Vikram Sakhuja, Chief Executive Officer, GroupM South Asia; and Mr. Ankush Arora, Vice President, General Motors India; discussed Total brand experience: The ’wow’ feeling as an important factor in Marketing 3.0. Moderated by Mr. Alok Gupta, Director, Café Coffee Day, the session put forth case studies that demonstrated the power of creating an experience around a brand and enabling consumers to understand how brands talk.
 The fourth panel discussion talked about the critical topic Marketing in compressed consumer time. Reiterating that consumers do not give you a 2nd chance, the panel comprising Mr. Rajesh Kamat, Chief Executive Officer, COLORS; Mr. Prashant Panday, Chief Executive Officer, Radio Mirchi; and Mr. Dhruv Shringi, Chief Executive Officer,Yatra.Com spoke about the importance of making the most of the first experience.
Moderated by Ms. Sonali Krishna, Senior Editor, ET Now, the panel spoke about share of attention and share of lifestyle as important concepts.
 Discussing on The culture of innovation in marketing, the next panel of Mr. V. S. Sitaram, Executive Director, Consumer Care Division, Dabur India; Ms. Punita Lal, Executive Director, Marketing, PepsiCo India; and Mr. Saugata Gupta, Chief Executive Officer – Consumer Products Business, Marico Industries and moderated by Mr. Sonny Iqbal, Egon Zehnder International, Mumbai said that innovation cycle times have changed significantly and therefore it is important to always surprise the consumers. However, it is important to understand to keep the fundamentals of marketing the same.
The last panel deliberated on the new age marketing tool called Ecosystem marketing, which is the key for developing unparalleled innovation. Convergence leads to collaboration. If the runway of growth has been exhausted, partner effectively in the ecosystem to get more growth. ‘Connect and develop,’ a terminology coined at P&G has dramatically changed the way the company has thought of growth and helps frogleap traditional thinking. Although the model is in its infancy, it has legs and in order to be able to adopt it well, the marketers need to have an orientation to explore.
 The panel comprised Mr. Pradeep Shrivastava, Chief Marketing Officer, IDEA Cellular; Mr. Nikhil Mathur, Head-Strategy, Planning, Nokia India; Mr. Prakash Bagri, Director – Marketing, Intel South Asia; and Mr. Sumeet Vohra, Marketing Director, P&G India. Mr. Neeraj Agarwal, Partner & Director, BCG was the moderator of the session.
Summarizing the day’s proceedings, Mr. Shivakumar said that strategy in marketing 3.0 is just as critical as tactics. It is very important to have strong business models and perform all activities around the business model. Consumers buy brands; they do not buy supply chains, and therefore at the heart of great marketing is great brands. The market and situation has changed drastically since a year ago where everybody was discussing what’s going to happen to brands in the recession. One year down, we find that brands are alive, kicking, and waiting for their growth to be rejuvenated.
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