What Geetu Bhatnagar teaches about B2B marketing

There is a lot of influencers that we have through our customers as well. They become the best influencers. There are analysts, you know, there are various research organizations which talk about personalization of data and content. Hi, Itu. How has B2B marketing evolved over the last few years, especially with the digital medium becoming far more significant? So B2B marketing is very, very critical in the digital space now, you know, because the traditional medias, as I said earlier, of radio, of TV, of outdoor, of print have kind of become outdated.

Right. Because with B2B, you know exactly where the customer is. You know what the customer wants. You need a very targeted approach for that. So, you know, a very account-based marketing, in fact, is evolving because with the digital media, you can actually carve out, you can do social listening, you can carve out what the person is actually talking about in various social media platforms. Where is he looking for his content? How is he consuming his content? So that kind of data makes it very relevant for us to carve out in the digital space.

You know, B2B brands tend to focus on performance campaigns. How can brand building and storytelling play a role here? So you're very right. B2B, you know, the ROI is very, very important. For every dollar spent, what is the kind of pipe that you're creating in the system? But as I've seen it as well with Oracle as well, in fact, we're going through our own Oracle brand transformation, where that brand build and storytelling has become a very core to building the brand ethos or the soul of the brand, bring it out.

So lately, in fact, you know, last October, we had a launch of our data center. Now, data center talking about all the product portfolios that will be live in a secure environment, you know, with compliance within the country, in the geographical boundaries of the country. A very product-driven technology decision. But how we decided to launch it was talking about stories from the customers. And not just the customer stories. These were customers' customer stories of how their lives are getting impacted by technology. So, to give you an example,

we had Save the Children, which is an NGO. Save the Children uses Oracle technologies to keep a track of all the street kids, their health, their nutrition, and all other components. And we had a little child called Manisha Kamli, who's become a TEDx speaker, who stood on stage in front of 1,000 customers and told a story that how her life has been impacted. So, storytelling has become the core. You know, there is data. And we are working in an experience economy. So, a data experience with a connected experience through media mixes

gives exactly that connected experience which is needed today. Is there room for influencer-driven marketing in the B2B space? Well, yes. So, the traditional broad influencer media that we see today in the B2C space, you know, we have influencers across Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter. Do we influence in that particular way? Not truly. But there is a lot of influencers that we have through our customers as well. They become the best influencers. There are analysts, you know, there are various research organizations

which talk about personalization of data and content. So, that is the kind of strategy. And our partners, I think, they are the greatest influencers as well. So, those are the mediums that we mix in our influencer strategy rather than individuals at this point in time. Mass media versus niche outreach. What works for the enterprise technology space? I think there are different tactics for different ways, I would say. Let's say there is a mass media outreach that we do when we do our global platforms like the Oracle Open World which happens in the US.

We have brought those Oracle Open World CDs to India, to London, Dubai, Singapore, or, you know, so the outreach then we use outdoor advertising, we use TV in some cases, we use blogs, we use infographics, we use direct mailers, we use multiple mixes to actually get the right audience into these forums. But when you look at the digital way, the niche outreach we find clearly is through a very targeted approach. You know, because in our enterprise B2B space, you can actually figure out a person, let's say, sitting in a CMO's organization in an enterprise.

So we can actually target him by industry, by the cluster, by the product, by the messaging and deliver to him personally. Last question. Tell us a bit about Geetu outside of the workplace. What is your inspiration? So Geetu is a multifaceted personality. She's a wife, mother, daughter, sister, multiple roles that I play. So my employee role is very core to me. But is that my life? No. Work is a very integral part of my life. But the multiple roles that I play in this society are very core to me. My mantra in life is that I am a human being

having a spiritual experience. So the spiritual me defines me. And I think that is the role I want to play.