Shubhranshu Singh on customer experience and sustainability

Shibaranchi, brilliant to have you back on Trailblazers. Now, we're going to talk about the experience economy again, right? But as a starting point, when I think about your vast commercial vehicles division, all product, all engineering, all spec, it's hard to make the leap into the experience economy. Help us make that leap. So I think it's a misconception that commercial vehicles owners are not interested in experience or that their due diligence is somehow not tuned to the experiential aspects. Because every commercial vehicles buyer is actually running a business on wheels, their need to be convinced to compare is far higher than many of the individual purchaser type roles or categories.

And so I think they want to be sure that they're making the right decision. And digital access gives us the opportunity to get them onto our web assets. We have commissioned a very large program of content creators and influencers. In the present year, we've got nearly 15 crore views on a variety of content, largely advocacy programs about how we design better, how we make better, inviting these content creators into our plants, our service centers, our retail establishments. So as to be able to give them the intentors, vicarious experience, they're able to experience what it is even before they get into the physical journey or brick and mortar journey for purchasing, which also happens. This is very interesting.

So when you choose these influencers, who are they? Where are you choosing them from? And why does the… I like what you said about your consumers actually being a total business, but why is this consumer persuaded by that influencer? So the influencers are by and large people who have just made a beginning because commercial vehicles, there was a lot of amateur interest, there was a lot of content creation because it's relatively easy to do it now, but there was far greater presence of influencers in the passenger vehicle space, in two-wheelers, et cetera, not as much in commercial vehicles. So we have created a cadre of about 300 at various tiers. There are a few national influencers. We have about 100 odd who are regional or statewide influencers

and another about 150 to 200 who are actually micro-influencers at a district level. And I find uniformly that the micro-influencers are able to give us the highest levels of engagement because people context is king in marketing. They're able to relate better. So if I'm selling a pickup to a shrimp farmer in coastal Andhra Pradesh, he wants to hear from somebody who is a shrimp farmer in coastal Andhra Pradesh. So if the influencer is able to go there and give them a sense of reality, it is that much more convincing. And so… That's really fascinating. So more economical at the local level, but more effective as well, right? Yes, and we find that it's a virtuous loop. So the more they see, the more they get.

And the more they understand, the more they see. And influencer and influence, you know, it's a commodity at the end of the day, influence. But you cannot be influential unless you start that content work. So you have to start somewhere and hopefully if you're persistent, you grow in terms of your following, you grow in terms of your repertoire of content. That's what we find without any exceptions. But of course, we choose them programmatically. And if there is a long tail and they're not really able to… We're not mutually supporting each other and it's not much joy, then we, you know, they fade out and we get new people on board. So Shibhansha, you're busting the myth that commercial vehicles can't be experiential. But where's all of this going?

The pace of change is so rapid. You may not even be selling vehicles in the future. Give us a bit of a crystal ball on where you think your industry is going, particularly from a brand and marketing perspective. I think both in terms of headroom and its corresponding relationship to the underlying economy, I think the sky is the limit, you know. I mean, I think it's the lower limit, in fact, because infrastructure is booming. There is a lot of interest from a diverse array of businesses in mobility solutions. The certainties of, you know, depending on third parties going away, we find last mile greening is desired. So we are seeing new fuel options, whether it is electric vehicles or in the future hydrogen ice, etc.

There are a variety of ways in which the category itself is transforming. And we are, as always, pioneers and we're trying to create that change meaningfully. And you remain as excited as you've ever been as a veteran marketeer? Yes, I am. In fact, it's been two years and a couple of months and it's vast, the category. It's complex, but not complicated. The number of types of applications, the number of types of variants, the end uses are just spectacular in terms of its diversity. And every bit of India's economy is touched by commercial vehicles. Because we're sitting here, I can bet you the sofa, the breakfast we just ate, much of the electrical equipment, even the material with which the studio was built,

everything would have come on commercial wheels. So we find ourselves directly contributing to the national growth and agenda. That's a fascinating insight, Shubhanshi. Shashank, I want to bring you in slightly on this because you focus mainly on sustainability. But are you seeing the same shift in Maruti Suzuki to the consumer, to the experience economy? Yeah, absolutely. And I mentioned that. And in fact, I told you that it's not just about vehicle, also not just about consumer angle to it. It's also about ultimately what you contribute to the economy. And this economy is now largely based, it's about sustainability to a very, because for the long term, unless you get into the sustainability, it's difficult for any business to survive.

And therefore, I really wanted to tell that in our company, we're also looking at the manufacturing process itself. Like localization is very important. Localization prevents you importing a lot of stuff, not just for it's more, it's better for the economy of the country, but also because it prevents logistics cost, which reduces carbon footprint. So there are so many places where you can actually have, if you are mindful of this sustainability angle, you can actually look at almost all aspects of business, where you will have to take measures by which you reduce. Just for your information, we transport vehicles by rail as a preference. That also saves a huge amount of carbon emissions.

Yeah, there's no, there's no between your sustainability mandate, Shashank, and your experience economy mandate, Shabranchi. I don't think you guys are going to hang up your spurs anytime soon. Shabranchi, thank you so much for coming on the show. We're delighted to have you. Lovely to be here.