World Marketing Day is a key day for the marketing industry to understand how marketing has evolved over time. While some of the fundamentals of the four Ps might still be somewhat relevant in today’s day and age, there’s been such a seismic shift in the way we consume media and the way we consume everything around us, says Karandeep Singh Kapany, Regional Marketing Director, Duolingo.
On the occasion of World Marketing Day, Storyboard18 reached out to Karandeep Singh Kapany, Regional Marketing Director, Duolingo to understand the definition of the four Ps of marketing today, best and worst marketing trends, whether AI will replace marketing jobs, compensation of CMOs and more.
Edited excerpts
If you had to redefine marketing today, how would you redefine the four Ps?
I have never been a big fan of the four Ps. I feel marketing at its core is about trying to understand where your audience is, what they really want and then being able to give them that in a way which makes sense to them. What makes sense to you, might not make sense to me. Therefore, it is up to the marketer to be able to deliver that.
It’s far more individualized and more personalized today than when the four Ps were initially probably thought about by Mr Kotler. While some of the fundamentals of the four Ps might still be somewhat relevant in today’s day and age, there’s been such a seismic shift in the way we consume media and the way we consume everything around us.
According to you, what has been the best marketing trend in the recent past?
I feel like one to one marketing /tribe marketing or rather fandom marketing is one such trend which has stood out for me. I think that’s a very big shift, which has happened where brands have pioneered the concept of marketing to tribes or fandoms, catering to certain niche groups with unique interests and unique identities. This trend emphasizes the importance of understanding, engaging with very diverse consumer communities, each of which are very different from the other.
What is one of the most overused or worst marketing trends in the recent past?
Lazy marketing gets on my nerves sometimes. When brands don’t have a very unique voice, they resort to very uninspired, repetitive marketing strategies. I feel like this approach lacks ambition and lacks creativity. It makes it very difficult to effectively connect with consumers. You may be able to communicate with them, but you’re not able to connect with them and so you also end up wasting a lot of time, effort, resources, and a lot of marketing money. It’s never going to be a dialogue. It’s always a monologue and not a very effective monologue at that.
Would you say marketing jobs are at risk because of AI?
AI is a tool which we all use to increase productivity and efficiency. Honestly, I feel that rather than fearing AI marketers should embrace it. It’s not a replacement for human creativity and intuition but it is a very powerful way to enhance it. AI can automate certain tasks but very few jobs are entirely replaceable. There is always going to be a blend of human understanding, creative thinking, strategic thinking, insight mining that AI might not be able to replicate completely.
Can you share one unconventional marketing trend which proved to be a success for you?
Our brand mascot Duo is known for very unhinged behavior. Duo has become a cult across the globe; people joke that if you don’t do your lessons, Duo will kidnap your family!
This kind of marketing is very disruptive as it’s not something a brand would normally indulge in. From a product perspective, if you ever go through Duolingo lessons, you’ll see a lot of funny and quirky sentences pop up from time to time; however there’s a logic behind it. We’ve seen that learning is best when you’re having fun.
Our social media page is full of really wacky and quirky content pieces that we put out and are loved by people. We don’t spend any money on promotion but very routinely we put out content which goes viral and hits millions of views. This is all organic and a testament to how people embrace the quirkiness of Duolingo.
We recently did an ‘Anti-Valentine’s’ campaign with another character in the Duolingo universe called Lily and she’s got a very ‘I don’t give a F’ kind of a personality. We decided to do an anti Valentines Day campaign as we wanted to deliver the message that self love is the best kind of love.
We gatecrashed Lakme Fashion Week! There were these models on the runway and then suddenly Duo is seen standing over there and trying to make sure that you do your lessons. Being present at some of these moments in the life of our learners serve a very good reminder to do one’s lessons and ensures that instead of being put on a big pedestal the brand is owned by the customer.
A lot of the times people comment something funny , and then we’re like, we have to kind of talk about that and we reply with something else. And it’s like a full blown dialogue with a lot of people entering into the conversation. And oftentimes that’s a lot more interesting than the actual content piece, and people come to our content page just for the comments at times. They have written this, they’ve actually shared this that just came here for the comments. That for us is again something which is unconventional, but also comes from a place of understanding the place that Duo has and understanding of the brand door of Duo.
We frequently see the salary of a CEO being highlighted all over media. The salaries of CMOs are rarely highlighted. Could you share some insights on this?
Each role within every organization carries its own set of objectives, goals, responsibilities. Everybody’s doing their own job. The synergy between CEO, CFO, CMO is vital for ensuring sustained success in the long term for any organization and when everybody’s working in tandem, they can leverage their respective strengths and you just get work done faster and more effectively. Every role is critical. Both roles receive compensation which is reflecting their contribution.