NEWS of Columbia Pacific Communities

Dementia is a syndrome in which there is deterioration in memory, thinking, behaviour, language,judgment and the ability to perform everyday activities. It is a chronic and progressive syndrome (a collection of symptoms) that usually brings about a deterioration of cognitive and emotional abilities, beyond what is expected of normal ageing. Even though dementia is more common among older people, it is not a normal part of the process of ageing. It is a syndrome that instils us with fear, worry, apprehension and sometimes, panic. It makes us ask difficult questions — will it be me or a loved one? Will I be the caregiver for a loved one? When will it happen? What shall I do? These questions remain unanswered for over 115 years, since dementia was first diagnosed. Sadly, the disease physically, psychologically, socially and economically, impacts not only the people who develop it, but also their caregivers, family, and society at large. Over 50 million people have dementia globally, and the number seems to be going up by 10 million every year. While we do not yet know the percentage of seniors affected by dementia in India (somewhere in the bracket of 1% to 5% of our population), it would be safe to conclude that with increased longevity, the number of cases is also likely to go up. This, in turn, indicates that dementia is likely to become one of the major causes of disability and dependency among the older age group. Clinically, there are around 400 different types of dementia.The commonest, however, is Alzheimer’s (around 60% to 70%), followed by vascular and early onset (frontotemporal) dementia. A group of diseases including Down’s Syndrome, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s HIV, traumatic brain injury, immune system disorders and metabolic diseases also contribute to dementia. The boundaries between the different forms of dementia are indistinct, and the mixed forms predominate the clinical findings. Dementia progresses over three broadly categorised stages. However, they merge and shift into each other constantly and often, seamlessly. Consequently, the approach for care has to be ever-changing and dynamic. Early stage The early stage of dementia is often overlooked because the onset is gradual. The symptoms are noticed by the spouse or near family members but are so embedded in the normal behaviour of the individual that it is difficult to pinpoint when it all started. There may be forgetfulness, losing track of time, feeling lost in familiar places and sudden bouts of anger. Middle stage As dementia progresses to the middle stage, the signs and symptoms become more apparent and restricting. These include forgetting recent events, names, feeling lost at home, wandering aimlessly, having increasing difficulty with communication, repeating tasks, questions and statements, with signs of aggression and docility at random intervals. Older adults may start needing help with personal care during this stage. Late stage The late stage of dementia involves total dependence and inactivity. Memory disturbances are serious, and the physical signs and symptoms become quite obvious. The patient becomes unaware of time and place, experiences, and shows signs of increasing cognitive deficits, needs assistance for self-care, mobility, and frequent behavioural changes take place. Tips for caregivers Always remember that if you are caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia, your role in managing their daily tasks will increase as the disease progresses. It helps to remember that you are dealing with the physical, biological, neurological and psychological aspects of a human being, not just a disease. Remember that you can slow down the momentum by taking care of the risk factors or underlying disease with a healthy diet and exercise. Keep in mind that dementia has multiple symptoms, with no prognostic comparisons and similar illness trajectories. Know that patients living in a community can thrive and live longer if Practical tips Reduce frustration and agitation in the patient by: Establishing a routine for all daily functions with flexibility for spontaneous activities on difficult days. Anticipating the time taken for tasks, which may increase or decrease on different days. Engaging with the person by giving simple instructions and encouraging them to be independent. Planning and asking them to help you with your tasks to give them a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Letting them make simple choices such as what they would like to wear, eat, or which exercise they wish to take up. Limiting their napping time and reducing distractions while giving instructions. Helping them (especially during the sundowning) by being calm, gentle and supportive. Be flexible: As one stage progresses into another over time, a person with dementia will become more dependent. To reduce their frustration, stay flexible and adapt your routine and expectations as per their requirement. Create a safe environment for the patient as their risk of injury increases, along with their impaired judgment and diminished problem-solving skills. Avoid using slippery rugs, and be wary of extension cords and any clutter that could cause falls. Install handrails or grab bars in critical areas. Lock cabinets that contain anything potentially dangerous, such as medicine, alcohol, toxic cleaning substances, and dangerous equipment. Monitor the temperature of their bathing water to avoid injuries; keep an eye on matches (especially if the patient is a smoker) to minimise kitchen fires or any other potential fire hazards. Focus on individual care: Each person with dementia will experience its symptoms and progression differently. Tailor these practical tips to your patients’ individual needs. Nurture the motor skills of the patient by involving them in activities such as knitting, gardening, woodwork, painting and playing a musical instrument. These soothe the patient and are the last physical abilities to diminish. Working on the patient’s motor skills also keeps them active for a longer period. Apps and wearable devices are available to monitor the medication and safety of seniors. Caregiver’s mental and physical health: As your patient’s condition deteriorates slowly but surely, take care of your overall health. Take time to reflect, eat well, exercise, meditate or do relaxation exercises regularly. Find a buddy so you can share your feelings and emotions with them. Be kind to yourself. It is common for caregivers to feel guilt, talk to your buddy about it. Talk to your family and the patient’s family regularly. Do the best you can.

New Delhi: The senior population in the world is the fastest growing segment with 60+ population touching 11.5% of world population. As per estimates, by 2050, the 60+ population will increase at 22% and outnumber the population below 15 years of age. The rapidly changing global demographics has resulted in a sharp rise in the demand for senior care services. The fast growing elderly population, for a developing country like India, may pose mounting pressures on various socio-economic fronts including pension outlays, health care expenditures, fiscal discipline, saving levels. This segment of the population faces multiple medical and psychological problems and therefore has become a major concern for policy makers over the last two decades. Against this backdrop, CII organized the 3rd Annual Senior Care Conclave, where these concerns of the changing demographic, financing and improving liquidity, raising the voices and concerns of the elderly and convergence within the industry were discussed. We need to promote the silver economy and bring them to the mainstream stated Mr. Rajit Mehta Chairman, CII Senior Care Taskforce CEO & MD Antara Senior Living. Senior care services in India are at a nascent stage, there do not currently exist any defined norms or incentive models to push this sector. Mr. Mathew Cherian, Advisor, Helpage addressed the two areas that need urgent attention. With increased longevity, we need to look at the problems arising out of financial security in old age and health and well-being in old age. It is imperative that we focus on different avenues to provide financial security such as alternative pension schemes or taxation waivers. Unorganized workers, who earn minimal amounts would also require an alternative scheme to address these concerns of financial security. Urbanization in India is increasing at a rapid pace and we now have a large section of the rural senior population living in urban areas stated Col A Sridharan Managing, Director, Covai Property Centre (India) Pvt Ltd. It is necessary that care should not differentiate between standard of life or between urban and rural areas. It should be uniform across regions. PPP models are essential for creating houses, day care centres and night shelters where our senior citizens can be taken care of. Mr. Saumyajit Roy, CEO & Co-Founder, Emoha Elder Care expressed the importance of collaboration. COVID has helped converge and bring members together and the power to showcase India is now ready. We have the right examples, models, case studies and people. This needs to be tabled with the right kind of perspective. PPP models are the way forward and there is a large amount of capital underutilized under the government corpus that needs to be made available for the segment. We are at a point where inertia for experimentation should be adopted stated Mr. Rohit Bhayana, Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Lumis Partners. The country population is growing at a pace of 17% per decade whereas the ageing population is growing at 35% per decade. The demographic dividend present in form of the senior population needs to be harvested. Mr. Venkatesh Srinivasan ,Assistant Representative, UNFPA added that the Government, private sector and CII should come together and collaborate for making India the centre for senior care products and services for the world. Also, seed money needs to be provided to start-ups to design new products or a new format to provide services to help this segment thrive. Mr. Adarsh Narahari Managing Director Mantri Primus Lifespaces Pvt. Ltd stated that for senior care services to reach underdeveloped areas, the government will be required to step in and provide funding. Mr. Asheesh Gupta Founder & Chief Care Officer, Samarth expressed the extent of the opportunity that is currently present in the silver economy. The consumption and production by seniors is increasing. There are interesting trends in this sector and a broad over look states that despite of local nuances, there are broad convergences seen within sector to sector from country to country. For businesses to succeed in this segment, it is necessary that they add value stated Mr. Mohit Nirula, CEO, Columbia Pacific Communities. To succeed, you need to offer great value to attract and retain the customers and residents you are serving. Minimum standards are a must and we need to have accreditation of these standards to protect the citizens. Dr Atul Kochar, CEO, NABH expressed a one size fits all strategy does not work with diverse geographies and diverse economic challenges as seen in India. Accreditation, certification or following Standard operating procedures is a very important factor and indispensable.

The first edition of the e4m Content 40 Under 40 list that recognizes leaders in the fast-growing content domain was unveiled on Thursday. The list features exceptionally talented individuals, who either personally or as part of a team, helped to advance an advertiser (brand), advertising or media agency, content marketing planning, buying and executing agency, or another entity in a demonstrable way. The list was shortlisted by Jury chaired by Abhishek Ganguly, General Manager, PUMA India and Southeast Asia. The other Jury members were: Aditi Shrivastava, CFA – Co-Founder, PocketAces Ajay Gupte, CEO, South Asia, Wavemaker Ajay Mehta, SVP, Mindshare Amit Doshi, Chief Marketing Officer (India and South Asia), Lenovo Anand Pathak, Director Sales & Marketing, Netmeds Ankit Mehrotra, CEO & Co-founder, Dineout Anuraag Srivastava, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, Rainshine Entertainment, Chief Executive Officer, Lightstream Jay Gotecha, Marketing – Emmay Entertainment & Motion Pictures Karan Shroff, Chief Marketing Officer, Unacademy Kainaz Karmakar, Chief Creative Officer Ogilvy & Mather – West Navin Shenoy, Head Marketing- Youth, Music and English Entertainment, Viacom18 Nikhil Mirchandani, Founder & CEO, Hoop Entertainment Rohit Ohri, Group Chairman & CEO, FCB India Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD- South Asia, Isobar Sunita Rajan,  Senior Vice President Advertising Sales, CNN Tanmay Mohanty, CEO of Zenith India and Head Of Global Partnerships for Publicis Media India Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO Media & OOH Please find the full list below:

The first edition of the e4m Content 40 Under 40 list that recognizes leaders in the fast-growing content domain was unveiled on Thursday. The list features exceptionally talented individuals, who either personally or as part of a team, helped to advance an advertiser (brand), advertising or media agency, content marketing planning, buying and executing agency, or another entity in a demonstrable way. The list was shortlisted by Jury chaired by Abhishek Ganguly, General Manager, PUMA India and Southeast Asia. The other Jury members were: Aditi Shrivastava, CFA – Co-Founder, PocketAces Ajay Gupte, CEO, South Asia, Wavemaker Ajay Mehta, SVP, Mindshare Amit Doshi, Chief Marketing Officer (India and South Asia), Lenovo Anand Pathak, Director Sales & Marketing, Netmeds Ankit Mehrotra, CEO & Co-founder, Dineout Anuraag Srivastava, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, Rainshine Entertainment, Chief Executive Officer, Lightstream Jay Gotecha, Marketing – Emmay Entertainment & Motion Pictures Karan Shroff, Chief Marketing Officer, Unacademy Kainaz Karmakar, Chief Creative Officer Ogilvy & Mather – West Navin Shenoy, Head Marketing- Youth, Music and English Entertainment, Viacom18 Nikhil Mirchandani, Founder & CEO, Hoop Entertainment Rohit Ohri, Group Chairman & CEO, FCB India Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD- South Asia, Isobar Sunita Rajan,  Senior Vice President Advertising Sales, CNN Tanmay Mohanty, CEO of Zenith India and Head Of Global Partnerships for Publicis Media India Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO Media & OOH Please find the full list below:

Kailash Gupta has just put a small glass jar of freshly made ginger pickle out in her balcony. The morning sunlight provides the right warmth for the bacteria to ferment, she explains over a WhatsApp video call at 8am. “That’s my achaar (pickle) spot,” says Gupta, 75, pointing towards an area next to a line of three overgrown tulsi plants. This is her second batch of the month. Gupta has been making four kinds of pickle on a rotating basis—carrot, mango, ginger and radish, all her late husband’s favourites—every third week since April. “My husband hardly ever ate a meal without achaar. I started making it during lockdown in his memory. Eating it makes me feel less lonely.” She has been living alone in her two-bedroom north Delhi apartment since 2015, the year her husband lost a long battle with cancer. Before the novel coronavirus hit the world, Gupta was too busy to feel lonely—her day would start with a 30-minute walk in a park nearby, followed by a gossip session there with five retired colony friends that often culminated in a round of chai and plans to meet again in the afternoon or evening to go to the cinema hall, the supermarket, the Sai Baba temple nearby, or just to have golgappas. The lockdown in late March stripped Gupta and her friends of their freedom, disrupting a routine that had animated their retired lives. Covid-19 has been punishing, especially for the elderly with weak immune systems. Of the 110,586 deaths recorded till 13 October, 53% were of those aged over 60, according to data from the Union health ministry. It’s a terrible irony: As cities reopen and people step out, the elderly are still inside their homes, protecting themselves from the virus while battling the isolation that comes with its own devastating effects—heart disease, depression, cognitive decline. With no end in sight to the pandemic, some of those aged above 60, who are alone at home and still not confident enough to step out even as lockdown restrictions ease, are using technology to build a sense of community and resilience, and keep social isolation at bay. “I know we still can’t step out because the virus will kill us but it’s like being stuck in a prison with no release date,” complains Gupta, a former post office employee. She hasn’t met her two sons, who live seven blocks away, since March because they don’t want to risk exposing her to the virus, especially since they have restarted work. “They are so busy. I do talk to them regularly but I can feel they are bored of listening to me. I just hope my friends don’t get bored of me.” She has found some “peace and happiness” in making pickles, looking after her 23 plants, reading the Gita and listening to bhajans. She hosts a monthly kirtan over Zoom that is attended by her friends and their friends. “We have never had fewer than 60 people. We sing, we laugh, we cry, all in God’s name. We might have become invisible to the world. But our God sees us.” Time for a laugh In early May, B.B. Sahni, a former director of the Delhi Stock Exchange, received distressing survey findings as a WhatsApp forward. It was an April study of 5,000 older adults (above 65) across India by Delhi-based non-profit Agewell Foundation that gave an idea of how early the feeling of isolation had sneaked in. It said 65% of those surveyed felt isolated and discouraged, and feared dying alone. “It was something I was feeling myself but I was too embarrassed to share,” says the septuagenarian, who is president of the decade-old Senior Citizens and Pensioners’ Welfare Association in Delhi. The same afternoon, he did a group call with some of the 100-odd association members, all above 65, and realized most were “tired of sitting at home, listening to their children’s orders”. It gave him an idea: to move their once-daily laughing sessions during evening gatherings from the pre-covid era to an online platform. “Till then, we were just thinking about our physical safety. That survey was a wake-up call,” he says. Since mid-May, every day for 20 minutes, all the association members come together over Zoom and laugh. “Those 20 minutes, I forget about the virus. I forget I haven’t stepped out of my house for seven months. I forget about my fear that I might never be able to step out freely ever again,” says Savita Talwar, 76, a regular who calls the sessions a “blessing”. The only other highlight in Talwar’s life these days are the weekend cooking sessions with her husband, a ritual they created post-lockdown. The Sunday we spoke, she had baked a mawa cake, and her husband, a pizza. “I will tell you how it was if I survive,” laughs Talwar, when I ask about the pizza. “You know, sometimes I wonder, maybe this lockdown was needed to bring people closer,” she adds. “But not so close that you start getting bored of seeing them every day,” her husband, Rajesh, interjects. In the Shetty household in Mumbai, weekend afternoons are reserved for singing. Ragini and her husband Sumit, both in their 80s and retired bank employees, log into their Teams account and spend almost three hours playing antakshiri with their former colleagues, who have become more like family over the years. “We got tired of talking about covid after a point. And later we got tired of asking each other ‘aaj kya banaya hai (what have you made today?)’ or ‘tum kya kar rahe ho (what are you up to?)’. So we came up with the antakshiri sessions,” says Ragini, whose children stay in the US. They say these also keep their minds off the constant flow of bad news on TV. They sit with two bags of chips, namkeen and soft drinks while they play. Sumit says, “It’s our weekly picnic, only it’s not in the (Sanjay Gandhi) National Park. But the singing makes us forget all of that.” That is also why Navi Mumbai’s D.K. Sharma, 67, a retired automation engineer, participates regularly in the online singing shows organized by My Retired Life Foundation, a trust for retirees and pensioners that he is part of. Before the lockdown, Sharma used to perform regularly at corporate parties and social gatherings, along with the Happy Singers Group he founded 10 years ago. “Singing is how I express myself. I couldn’t pursue it seriously for long because of work, but after retirement I dedicated my life to it. When we couldn’t perform initially (around April), I used to get a little anxious but now I try to participate in online shows as much as possible,” says Sharma, who offers online classes to 90 aspiring singers. He also takes part in webinars on health awareness, painting sessions and live streamings of theatre plays, all organized by My Retired Life Foundation. “The lockdown has made people more introverted, so we try to include activities that help them stay engaged and active,” explains Saurav Das, co-founder of the foundation, which has about 300 members. “It also helps in giving them a sense of a tight-knit community while they are away from each other physically.” Mumbai’s Jyoti Mohan says she is lucky to have moved into a home for the retired in Bengaluru two years ago. The covid-19 outbreak hasn’t had much impact on her life in the Columbia Pacific Communities’ gated Serene Urbana community for retirees, except for the need to maintain safe distance when stepping outside the apartment. “We can go to the park, play badminton, make art, and meet people here, but with distance,” says Mohan, 65, a Bharatanatyam teacher. If anything, she adds, the virus has brought people closer. “We have online or safely distanced in-person painting and handicrafts competitions and dance shows to keep us all engaged. Who would have thought I would be teaching women as old as 90 Bharatanatyam?” Kailash Gupta too had never thought she would become a “pickle person”. “The lockdown has changed me,” she says. “Every day I wake up wondering how long all this will last…maybe I will forget myself by the end of it.” For now, she knows what her next pickle is going to be. “Mooli.”

The world, as we know, has entirely changed since last Dussehra. The pandemic has changed the way we live, think, and even celebrate. And, the brands and marketing leaders are hyper-aware of this seismic change. Hence, festive campaigns this year are bound to reflect this change. The tone, tenor, and storytelling will be different, keeping in mind the general mood of the nation. It must be said that the festive season brings with it a whole lot of positivity, cheer, and merriment with it. And is a definite tailwind as far as trade and business in the country are concerned. Despite the current mood, after a prolonged economic slump, sectors such as retail, F&B, and even travel to some extent are reviving, all thanks to the festive season. In fact, according to a recent survey, 54% of Indians are very positive and hopeful of the economy recovering completely by 2022. Hence, on one hand, brands have to ensure that they make the most of the festive induced upturn in the economy. While on the other hand, they have a moral responsibility to ensure that they craft communication that is sensitive, appropriate, and purposeful during these times. According to the Pitch Madison Advertising Mid-Year Report (PMAR) 2020, AdEx will recover by 60-72% in the second half of the year compared to the first half. The IPL has already resulted in a massive boost to TV advertising, as brands consume TV spots with festive centered communication. And given the usual clutter during the festive season, creating communication that would be truly memorable is the real task. Categories such as fashion and lifestyle typically see a higher purchase intent during the festival period, which starts with Raksha Bandhan and ends with Christmas and New Year in India. The four-month period sees fashion brands acquire new customers while wooing their existing customer base with seasonal deals and offers and new product launches. This year, the approach is pretty much the same, but the communication a little different. The Vighnaharta campaign done by Tanishq during Ganesh Chaturthi was a great example of a jewellery brand creating mood appropriate communication, very much in line with the brand’s communication strategy of evoking emotions. Through a compelling narrative, the brand told the story of a young woman who looked after senior citizens during the pandemic and was gifted a Ganesha pendant by them as a token of gratitude. Highly contextual and equally high on EQ, this campaign managed to break away from the festive clutter. Fashion etailers and brands such as Ajio and Myntra have taken the celebrity route this festive season with Durga Puja centric campaigns featuring actress Aditi Rao Hydari (Ajio) and sibling duo of Saif Ali and Soha Ali Khan for Myntra. Appealing to the Bengali sentiment with a smattering of Bangla, these ads manage to spread a little festive joy and positivity – the two emotions that the audience is currently the most starved of. Pantaloons’ Pujo Begins with You campaign is all about bringing Durga Pujo to your doorstep this year and rising to the occasion. It imparts an important message of staying indoors and prioritising safety while not compromising on the festive revelry. However, the brand that truly made a mark with their brilliantly well-timed messaging this Dussehra is Welspun with their campaign #ChaloPaltai. A product as commonplace as a reversible bedsheet was integrated beautifully into a narrative that made a pertinent observation about the many rituals of Durga Puja – the complete absence of women. From the dhakis (drummers) to the idol makers and even purohits, there is no place for women in these professions that eventually work towards worshipping a female force – the Goddess Durga. Through this campaign, Welspun imparted the message of gender equality and changing mindsets. In his, address to the nation on October 20, 2020, the Prime Minister cautioned the nation against reckless behaviour during the festive season and urged citizens to be responsible towards themselves, their families, and communities as the festive season ensue. Columbia Pacific Communities’ 9-day campaign #GoodOverCOVID, which was initiated on October 17 across our social media channels as a public interest campaign, echoes the same message. The message is simple – let goodness and good sense prevail and let that help us battle the virus this year. Through simple pearls of wisdom, it attempts to give people wise advice on how to soak in the festivities while maintaining COVID-19 protocols. The wisdom comes from our senior residents who are the most vulnerable demographic in the pandemic. Whether it’s an initiative such as the one taken by Welspun or a more straight jacket product-centric communication, for brands this festive season, it’s all about staying contextual and sensitive, spreading a sense of hope, joy, and happiness, and attempting to revive some of the lost vigour. About the Author Piali Dasgupta is the Senior Vice President, Marketing at Columbia Pacific Communities. She is Multi-award winning marketing and communication leader with over 13 years of cross-category experience across e-commerce, retail and real estate.

Dussehra is known to be an Indian festival that celebrates the triumph of good over evil and the prevalence of good over bad. Indians all over the world celebrate the festival with great enthusiasm and fanfare. However, the celebrations are going to be different this year, due to the pandemic. With 7.31 million COVID cases already in the country and the number of cases rising every day, it’s important to prioritize safety over anything else this year, and with that as the key message, Columbia Pacific Communities, a senior living operator, has launched a 10-day Dussehra campaign titled Dussehra Wisdom. The wisdom comes from residents of Columbia Pacific Communities, who attempt to highlight the importance of following COVID-19 protocol such as staying indoors, maintaining social distancing, continue to build your immunity, and most importantly, wearing a mask. India has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases, after USA, and has already surpassed Brazil. However, with the economy opening up, people have become less cautious of the virus, leading to rising cases across states. Conceptualised and created in house, this campaign is an attempt to remind people that the war against COVID-19 is far from over. And we should be socially responsible and particularly think of the most vulnerable demographics to the virus – infants and seniors, even while we embrace the festive spirit. Speaking about the campaign, Piali Dasgupta, Senior Vice President – Marketing, Columbia Pacific Communities, says, “The seniors in our communities are a source of infinite wisdom. The pearls of wisdom disseminated through the nine days of Navratri come from them. And it is their humble appeal to everyone to stay protected and maintain COVID-19 protocols during the festive season to ensure infection levels are in check. This year, the evil is the virus. And the only thing that will help us win the fight against it is good sense of people. Through shareworthy posts on digital media, we want to spread this important message of public health.”  

Every year on 16th October millions of people around the world will gather at marathons, exhibitions, concerts and marches to observe World Food Day. This year gatherings would be different due to coronavirus but we should remember the cause of World Food Day. Initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) it is one of the most celebrated days of the UN calendar. More than just casual arrangements of celebrations, World Food Day is organized to bring awareness to how our changing planet influences food creation and distribution. Related events explore several topics such as examining how agriculture needs to adapt due to climate change or how migration affects food security. The objective of these meetings is to define objectives that will inevitably prompt structure a Zero Hunger Generation. On a clearer level, World Food Day activities give instructions to people on ways they can change basic day to day habits and choices to make any difference. Related activities assist people with understanding the significant worldwide issues, for example, poverty, and climate change that impact the world’s food supply and distribution. More than 150 nations participate in this event, facilitating numerous events to celebrate and promote World Food Day. Food is our basic necessity and everyone should value food. If we eat healthy and avoid wasting food then most of the problems will get solved. As a human being, we should be thankful for our each and every meal. World Food Day – Encouraging Healthy Diets According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, now there are more obese people present in world than malnourished. The biggest risk factor for disability and death worldwide is unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyles. Food diversity is reducing, which means that the food supply is more vulnerable to climate change, and environmental damage from farming animals for meat and dairy is increasing. For World Food Day 2019, the FAO is calling on everyone to eat a healthy and sustainable diet. However, many people lack the knowledge, resources or motivation to eat healthy diets. To mark World Food Day, let’s take a look at some of the opinions from experts and try to learn from them. Patrick San Francesco, A world-renowned energy healer and internationally recognized humanitarian, philosopher, teacher and inventor from Goa, India “The most important need of humanity is food and water. Instead of devoting one day in the year to “World Food Day”, EVERY day and EVERY mealtime should be devoted to food for humanity. Keep this in mind as you sit down to your next meal.” Mohit Nirula, CEO, Columbia Pacific Communities   “A lot can happen over coffee” is the brand tagline of the country’s largest coffee chain. Espousing the values of a social get together, the Spanish philosopher, Bernard-Paul Heroux said, “There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea”. Meals and mealtimes have, besides nourishing the body, played the additional and equally important role of bringing people together in a social event that also nourishes the intellect and the soul. In fact, from farm to fork, food has always brought people together. Whether it is in kitchen gardens or family run farms, cooking for the family or cooking as a family, food cooked and served in temples and gurudwara langar or foods especially developed to be eaten with friends – biryanis, paellas or even the garden barbeques, group meals and cookouts as a team building activity – food is as good an excuse as there can be to create and foster social interaction. At Columbia Pacific Communities, a celebration of any kind is always over great food. And it is indeed the ultimate glue that bonds people. Our communities are home to passionate foodies who generously share heirloom recipes with everyone. So, on World Food Day, it is only correct that we acknowledge and appreciate the role food plays in building communities and cementing relationships.

#Marketerleads Talk purpose is to bring you some great conversation with leading marketers. In this episode, We had an interesting conversation on Brand Positioning and Market development with someone who is working on a unique concept – Senior Living Community which is pretty new in India. Meet Piali Dasgupta, Sr Vice President, Columbia Pacific Communities, a multi-award winning marketing and communications leader with cross-category experience across e-commerce, retail, and real estate with cultivated skill sets in strategizing brand positioning, customer segmentation, PR, content strategy, digital marketing, performance marketing, etc. She has worked with top conglomerates like Times Group, Myntra, Amazon, and Publicis Groupe. Bagged prestigious awards like Woman Marketer of The Year 2020 at MCube Awards (Masters of Modern Marketing), she is one of the top 10 Content Marketing Leaders in APAC by CMS (Content Marketing Summit) Asia and also featured in Social Samosa’s list of Top 40 Marketers under 40. Piali Dasgupta Sr Vice President, Columbia Pacific Communities Creating Strong Brand Positioning in your Market What is brand positioning? What would be your recommended tips for it? Marketing is built on the fundamental principles of STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning). Hence, Positioning becomes one of the most important cornerstones of a successful marketing strategy. Simply put, positioning refers to the ‘position’ a brand occupies in a customer’s mind when compared to all other brands in the same space. Therefore, in a red ocean industry (ie, in a known market space), it is important to understand the competition that exists in the same space and accordingly builds a uniquely differentiating identity for your brand that will help it stand out from the rest in the customer’s mind. My first recommendation for any established brand would be to understand the target market and the target audience. Once this has been analyzed, it’s prudent to do a perceptual brand mapping exercise to understand how customers perceive your brand in comparison to competing brands. Remember, brand perception is owned by the customer and not by the brand, and this realization is important. Once the results of the perceptual brand mapping are in, decide what is it about the positioning of the brand that needs sharpening or changing, and then work towards amplifying that specific value proposition. Brand positioning can’t just be built on product proposition, particularly in extremely competitive markets where most products end up having similar attributes. Positioning needs to, therefore, be a combination of product proposition and brand image attributes. For example, if you look at a brand like Allen Solly, it built its positioning around “Friday Dressing” offering stylish yet comfortable apparel to the young generation of office goers who prefer to wear casuals to work. With its “Friday Dressing” proposition, the brand succeeded in a highly cluttered and competitive market changing the perception of the brand from a workwear brand to a smart casual fashion brand that was the preferred choice of clothing for the always-on-the-go young generation who did not want to wear stiff formals to work nd it all happened through augmenting the value proposition of the brand and changing the communication around it. What would be your preferred set of media buying? There are two factors that come into play when one plans media buying. Reach and frequency. And therefore, it’s usually advisable to look at a 360 degree, holistic media planning strategy, particularly for emerging brands in emerging categories such as ours, as, unlike established brands in established categories, we need to work harder to raise awareness. Traditional media such as Print and TV offer great reach, but given that they are expensive, a lot of brands may not be able to ensure the desired frequency for their messaging. As a brand, we have adopted a digital-first approach for both our brand and performance marketing efforts as the cost of acquisition of customers is low and the desired frequency achievable. We have experimented with television, outdoor and offline/BTL events, but have not seen great ROI on these channels. As far as the senior demography is concerned, in terms of traditional media, nothing beats print even today as seniors do like to start their day by reading the newspaper. A large number of them watch television, and so that’s a great medium as well for both reach and frequency when it comes to targeting senior citizens. However, given that ours is a real estate product and hence geo specific, we don’t spend heavily on television as it leads to wastage. As for digital channels, our focus has been on Facebook as the primary channel for brand communication in the digital sphere. For demand generation, we use affiliate marketing, emailers, Youtube, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Whatsapp especially is a channel that seniors use heavily and it is a great platform to connect with them. Seniors are late adopters of technology. Having adopted it quite late, most of them appreciate the many boons of it. Moreover, we use digital platforms such as Instagram to address our secondary target audience, ie, the children of senior citizens who are looking for a solution for their parents. As a brand custodian, what are the top metrics a brand is measured on? There are a number of metrics that brand health is measured. Brand health is usually tracked every quarter, and sometimes a brand lift study is also carried out by brands to measure the impact of a robust 360-degree multimedia campaign. Brand health is measured across PR, digital, and social media channels and also through primary research channels. Some of the metrics that a brand is measured on through primary research channels are: Top of Mind Awareness Net Promoter Score Prompted and unprompted brand recall, depending on how new or established your brand is Brand Strength Purchase Intent Score –  measured on a Lichter scale Brand equity Digital channels and PR: Sentiment analysis of a brand on social media, Average time spent on site, Share of Voice Senior Living Community is a relatively new concept in India. How do you promote this? Yes, senior living as an industry is at a nascent stage in India. However, it is a sunrise industry, the potential for which is immense. There are several challenges in this category, starting with a deep-rooted stigma attached to “sending parents away” to senior living facilities and a large section of the population mistaking senior living communities for “old age homes,” which they are not. So, what we realized very early on is that there is a strong need to change audience perception on the category and turn detractors into promoters of this category. A change in perception is impossible without a change in narrative and that’s what we set out to do – build a fresh new narrative around not just senior living but also age and ageing in India. So our communication strategy is not just about the product, but very much about the socio-economic-cultural context within which a product such as ours exists. In terms of communication strategy, seniors tend to have a comparatively higher attention span than the millennial audience. They have great appetite for good quality content – irrespective of the length of it. So, there isn’t a constant pressure to grab their attention in the first three seconds. If you serve them content and messaging that is meaningful, relevant and helpful for them, they would engage with you. They respond well to long form content in the form of articles, blogs and magazine features. At Columbia Pacific Communities, we have a monthly magazine called Tales, which is read by 1800 of our residents. We also have a blog section on our website that is for, of and by the residents of our communities. Four best practices to reach out to a customer and finally make a sale? Adopt a full-funnel approach to marketing to ensure mid and long-term goals for the business are being met and you don’t have a short-term, myopic approach to achieving business objectives. Rely on the age-old AIDA model, which in the current age stands for A (Attention/Awareness) I (Intent/Interest) D (Desire) A (Action) Do not just look at bottom-funnel goals such as action (conversion). Spend equal time, effort, and resources to work on top and mid-funnel goals such as awareness and interest. Because it’s awareness and interest that builds brand saliency, which then leads to consideration for a product. Understand the sales cycle for the product category you operate in and devise a customer engagement plan accordingly. If you, for instance, market a product category that has a sales cycle as long as six months, strategically build a robust customer engagement plan working closely with your CEM team. In a category such as ours, sometimes a purchase decision can take up to six months. We actively work towards keeping the customer engaged for such a long sales cycle through various engagement methods – whether it’s sending them flowers and a card on their birthdays, or inviting them to our special Facebook Live sessions with celebrities and experts, or sending them our monthly magazine. When it comes to lead or demand generation, always prioritize quality over quantity. Certain channels such as Facebook may give you great volumes of leads, but the quality may suffer. Increasing the sales funnel needlessly puts pressure on the pre-sales team resulting in lower productivity. Hence, it’s best to engage with channels that may be more expensive as far as cost per lead is concerned, but delivers quality leads. And finally, the final sale is always a result of brand promise + product proposition meeting customer’s expectations coupled with the overall experience the consumer has had through the entire lifecycle.  So, it’s important to fine-tune CX at every customer touchpoint starting with communication and advertising to a landing page, pre-sales, and finally sales. How to generate quality leads in the B2B Segment? Content plays an extremely crucial role in B2B lead generation and has been identified as the single most effective mode of generating leads. Some of the content marketing avenues that yield qualified leads in B2B businesses include webinars, podcasts, the publication of white papers, blogs, social media content, website content, videos, and, above all email marketing, which has proven to be very effective. A lot of B2B leads come through channels as well. And the key to generating quality leads is to ensure that your content acts as a lead magnet. This means that your content is so enticing that you are able to get a prospect’s contact details in exchange of the content that the person is downloading from your website and blog. So, it’s important to have a clear CTA on your content pages including blogs. Social media can be useful in generating quality leads for a B2B business. However, it’s important to get the strategy right. For instance, for a B2B business, it makes more sense to be active on LinkedIn and use that platform for its lead generation campaigns even though it’s a more expensive platform, than, let’s say, Instagram or even Twitter. The other important thing is to ensure that the right SEO strategy is in place, and landing pages are optimized to ensure people are not bouncing off the pages. The right SEO strategy helps send quality traffic to the website, but the right content strategy will ensure that they stay on the website and engage in the desired action such as filling up a form. Hence, content is key. Psychology has a role in marketing and branding. Do you agree? Please share some insights on the same.  A lot of brand building is about perceptions, which is largely governed by the human psyche. This is why, in marketing and brand building, a technique called Perceptual Brand Mapping, plays a key role as it helps brand managers understand how the consumer perceives her brand. – Piali Dasgupta Tweet The minutest detail such as the brand logo colour, the typeface used in the logo, the kind of ambassadors a brand chooses to associate with, the tone of voice, style of visual and the overall brand personality can play a role in manipulating the human psyche and creating compelling brand imagery in the consumer’s mind on one hand or putting consumers off on the other hand. An important role of advertising is to increase brand recall and saliency. And that doesn’t happen without deeply understanding consumer psychology. For example, when you look at an iconic tagline such as “Thanda Matlab Coca Cola”, it comes from a keen observation of customer behavior – using the word “Thanda” at a shop when asking for a cool beverage. Coca-Cola increased its market penetration in rural and semi-urban India by 16% back in 2003 through that campaign because it was able to equate “Thanda” with Coca-Cola. Whenever a consumer thought of drinking something cold to quench his thirst, he wanted a Coke. It’s fascinating how a specific word, a tone, or an image can evoke specific emotions and reactions and play a role in persuading a consumer to buy a product.  Similarly, if you think about colour psychology and the role it plays evoking certain emotions in a consumer’s mind, you will understand why certain brands choose certain colours for the design of their logos. The colour red is known to increase appetite. It’s no surprise then that a lot of food brands use red in their logos. What are new marketing trends you foresee in 2021? If the content was king in the pre-COVID world, it’s all set to become the emperor in the post-COVID world. In fact, I would go to the extent of saying that content is marketing. Content will play an increasingly crucial role in the customer lifecycle in the post COVID era. – Piali Dasgupta Tweet EQ would be a key factor in communication. Brands realized this during the pandemic – the fact that appealing to a consumer’s emotional quotient more than hard-selling a product was the way to go. And this trend will continue in 2021. Even as the economy slowly starts to climb out of the trough, marketers would continue to focus on ROI-driven marketing, cutting out all the fluff and attribution channels that are not hard-working enough. Digital as a medium will continue to see double-digit growth in 2021, while some of the traditional media such as Print and TV will revive gradually. With an increased focus on digital and the digital transformation finally taking place in the country and the world over, brands would leverage the power of VR to create consumer experiences that are as good as real. Certain high-value categories such as fine jewellery and real estate have already started using VR to create virtual experiences that propel purchase decisions remotely. The trend would become pervasive in certain other consumer goods categories as well. There will also be an increased focus on AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) which will make some real innovations in creating a seamless experience for customers digitally. And finally, with a general loss of trust in Bollywood celebrities with the ongoing drug scandal and several other controversies, brands will be very cautious of associating themselves with film personalities. They would, instead, focus on micro and nano influencers who have greater relevance to the audience and they are marketing their specific products too. Brands would greatly realize now more than ever that celebrity endorsements are a double-edged sword. While it gives a brand and its product the kind of eyeballs that very few other associations do, it can also backfire if the general sentiment around a celebrity is not favorable. Why I should choose marketing as a career? Marketing is one of those rare fields that necessitate the use of both your left and right brains. It is as analytical as it is creative; it’s as much about numbers as it is about big ideas. And if that’s not exciting, I don’t know what is. Marketing truly is about the yin and the yang, and so, if you are someone who’s as much a thinker and ideator as a data miner and number cruncher, this profession is for you. Marketing also allows you to build brands and become custodians of brands. And this is a truly fulfilling and rewarding experience. It’s almost like being a parent because you are responsible for everything to do with the brand  – from the customer experience to the health of the brand and it’s public image and so on. So you look after it and nurture it just the way you would nurture your own child. Every marketer and brand manager looks at a brand in a similar manner. Marketing is a vast function, and it gives you an exposure to almost every function within an organization because nearly every function is closely intertwined with what Marketing as a function does. Marketing as a function builds brand, which in turn builds brand equity, which results in shareholder value. So, it’s a crucial role in any organization and hence there are many good reasons for one to choose marketing as a career. Can you please tell us a little bit about Columbia Pacific Communities? Columbia Pacific Communities is India’s largest and most experienced senior living community operators with over 1600 residential units under management in 5 cities and 9 locations across south India. As the pioneers in this category, it is committed to reimagining the concept of senior living in India and create world-class practices that exceed these expectations of its stakeholders. It is part of the Seattle-based Columbia Pacific Group, one of the foremost developers of senior living communities in the United States and China. Founded by entrepreneur and senior living pioneer Dan Baty, Columbia Pacific has more than 40 years of experience and expertise in designing, building and managing senior housing communities around the world. The team, with the expertise of its principals in the United States of America and its partners in India, brings together rich experience in senior housing design, development and management. pic credit:thesmetimes.com Columbia Pacific Communities is committed to reimagining the space of senior living and senior care in the subcontinent and is already the recipient of several awards. Chit Chat Your Favorite Book: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Your Favorite Destination: Paris Your ME Time: Reading, watching Netflix, traveling, sketching Your Happy Moment: Travelling Who Am I: A passionate marketer What motivates you: Great leadership Your Current Read: Pragmarketism by Trupti and Arvind Bhandari Passionate about: Mental health advocacy One thing people don’t know about you: I am cynophobic; really scared of dogs.

#Marketerleads Talk purpose is to bring you some great conversation with leading marketers. In this episode, We had an interesting conversation on Brand Positioning and Market development with someone who is working on a unique concept – Senior Living Community which is pretty new in India. Meet Piali Dasgupta, Sr Vice President, Columbia Pacific Communities, a multi-award winning marketing and communications leader with cross-category experience across e-commerce, retail, and real estate with cultivated skill sets in strategizing brand positioning, customer segmentation, PR, content strategy, digital marketing, performance marketing, etc. She has worked with top conglomerates like Times Group, Myntra, Amazon, and Publicis Groupe. Bagged prestigious awards like Woman Marketer of The Year 2020 at MCube Awards (Masters of Modern Marketing), she is one of the top 10 Content Marketing Leaders in APAC by CMS (Content Marketing Summit) Asia and also featured in Social Samosa’s list of Top 40 Marketers under 40. Piali Dasgupta Sr Vice President, Columbia Pacific Communities Creating Strong Brand Positioning in your Market What is brand positioning? What would be your recommended tips for it? Marketing is built on the fundamental principles of STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning). Hence, Positioning becomes one of the most important cornerstones of a successful marketing strategy. Simply put, positioning refers to the ‘position’ a brand occupies in a customer’s mind when compared to all other brands in the same space. Therefore, in a red ocean industry (ie, in a known market space), it is important to understand the competition that exists in the same space and accordingly builds a uniquely differentiating identity for your brand that will help it stand out from the rest in the customer’s mind. My first recommendation for any established brand would be to understand the target market and the target audience. Once this has been analyzed, it’s prudent to do a perceptual brand mapping exercise to understand how customers perceive your brand in comparison to competing brands. Remember, brand perception is owned by the customer and not by the brand, and this realization is important. Once the results of the perceptual brand mapping are in, decide what is it about the positioning of the brand that needs sharpening or changing, and then work towards amplifying that specific value proposition. Brand positioning can’t just be built on product proposition, particularly in extremely competitive markets where most products end up having similar attributes. Positioning needs to, therefore, be a combination of product proposition and brand image attributes. For example, if you look at a brand like Allen Solly, it built its positioning around “Friday Dressing” offering stylish yet comfortable apparel to the young generation of office goers who prefer to wear casuals to work. With its “Friday Dressing” proposition, the brand succeeded in a highly cluttered and competitive market changing the perception of the brand from a workwear brand to a smart casual fashion brand that was the preferred choice of clothing for the always-on-the-go young generation who did not want to wear stiff formals to work nd it all happened through augmenting the value proposition of the brand and changing the communication around it. What would be your preferred set of media buying? There are two factors that come into play when one plans media buying. Reach and frequency. And therefore, it’s usually advisable to look at a 360 degree, holistic media planning strategy, particularly for emerging brands in emerging categories such as ours, as, unlike established brands in established categories, we need to work harder to raise awareness. Traditional media such as Print and TV offer great reach, but given that they are expensive, a lot of brands may not be able to ensure the desired frequency for their messaging. As a brand, we have adopted a digital-first approach for both our brand and performance marketing efforts as the cost of acquisition of customers is low and the desired frequency achievable. We have experimented with television, outdoor and offline/BTL events, but have not seen great ROI on these channels. As far as the senior demography is concerned, in terms of traditional media, nothing beats print even today as seniors do like to start their day by reading the newspaper. A large number of them watch television, and so that’s a great medium as well for both reach and frequency when it comes to targeting senior citizens. However, given that ours is a real estate product and hence geo specific, we don’t spend heavily on television as it leads to wastage. As for digital channels, our focus has been on Facebook as the primary channel for brand communication in the digital sphere. For demand generation, we use affiliate marketing, emailers, Youtube, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Whatsapp especially is a channel that seniors use heavily and it is a great platform to connect with them. Seniors are late adopters of technology. Having adopted it quite late, most of them appreciate the many boons of it. Moreover, we use digital platforms such as Instagram to address our secondary target audience, ie, the children of senior citizens who are looking for a solution for their parents. As a brand custodian, what are the top metrics a brand is measured on? There are a number of metrics that brand health is measured. Brand health is usually tracked every quarter, and sometimes a brand lift study is also carried out by brands to measure the impact of a robust 360-degree multimedia campaign. Brand health is measured across PR, digital, and social media channels and also through primary research channels. Some of the metrics that a brand is measured on through primary research channels are: Top of Mind Awareness Net Promoter Score Prompted and unprompted brand recall, depending on how new or established your brand is Brand Strength Purchase Intent Score –  measured on a Lichter scale Brand equity Digital channels and PR: Sentiment analysis of a brand on social media, Average time spent on site, Share of Voice Senior Living Community is a relatively new concept in India. How do you promote this? Yes, senior living as an industry is at a nascent stage in India. However, it is a sunrise industry, the potential for which is immense. There are several challenges in this category, starting with a deep-rooted stigma attached to “sending parents away” to senior living facilities and a large section of the population mistaking senior living communities for “old age homes,” which they are not. So, what we realized very early on is that there is a strong need to change audience perception on the category and turn detractors into promoters of this category. A change in perception is impossible without a change in narrative and that’s what we set out to do – build a fresh new narrative around not just senior living but also age and ageing in India. So our communication strategy is not just about the product, but very much about the socio-economic-cultural context within which a product such as ours exists. In terms of communication strategy, seniors tend to have a comparatively higher attention span than the millennial audience. They have great appetite for good quality content – irrespective of the length of it. So, there isn’t a constant pressure to grab their attention in the first three seconds. If you serve them content and messaging that is meaningful, relevant and helpful for them, they would engage with you. They respond well to long form content in the form of articles, blogs and magazine features. At Columbia Pacific Communities, we have a monthly magazine called Tales, which is read by 1800 of our residents. We also have a blog section on our website that is for, of and by the residents of our communities. Four best practices to reach out to a customer and finally make a sale? Adopt a full-funnel approach to marketing to ensure mid and long-term goals for the business are being met and you don’t have a short-term, myopic approach to achieving business objectives. Rely on the age-old AIDA model, which in the current age stands for A (Attention/Awareness) I (Intent/Interest) D (Desire) A (Action) Do not just look at bottom-funnel goals such as action (conversion). Spend equal time, effort, and resources to work on top and mid-funnel goals such as awareness and interest. Because it’s awareness and interest that builds brand saliency, which then leads to consideration for a product. Understand the sales cycle for the product category you operate in and devise a customer engagement plan accordingly. If you, for instance, market a product category that has a sales cycle as long as six months, strategically build a robust customer engagement plan working closely with your CEM team. In a category such as ours, sometimes a purchase decision can take up to six months. We actively work towards keeping the customer engaged for such a long sales cycle through various engagement methods – whether it’s sending them flowers and a card on their birthdays, or inviting them to our special Facebook Live sessions with celebrities and experts, or sending them our monthly magazine. When it comes to lead or demand generation, always prioritize quality over quantity. Certain channels such as Facebook may give you great volumes of leads, but the quality may suffer. Increasing the sales funnel needlessly puts pressure on the pre-sales team resulting in lower productivity. Hence, it’s best to engage with channels that may be more expensive as far as cost per lead is concerned, but delivers quality leads. And finally, the final sale is always a result of brand promise + product proposition meeting customer’s expectations coupled with the overall experience the consumer has had through the entire lifecycle.  So, it’s important to fine-tune CX at every customer touchpoint starting with communication and advertising to a landing page, pre-sales, and finally sales. How to generate quality leads in the B2B Segment? Content plays an extremely crucial role in B2B lead generation and has been identified as the single most effective mode of generating leads. Some of the content marketing avenues that yield qualified leads in B2B businesses include webinars, podcasts, the publication of white papers, blogs, social media content, website content, videos, and, above all email marketing, which has proven to be very effective. A lot of B2B leads come through channels as well. And the key to generating quality leads is to ensure that your content acts as a lead magnet. This means that your content is so enticing that you are able to get a prospect’s contact details in exchange of the content that the person is downloading from your website and blog. So, it’s important to have a clear CTA on your content pages including blogs. Social media can be useful in generating quality leads for a B2B business. However, it’s important to get the strategy right. For instance, for a B2B business, it makes more sense to be active on LinkedIn and use that platform for its lead generation campaigns even though it’s a more expensive platform, than, let’s say, Instagram or even Twitter. The other important thing is to ensure that the right SEO strategy is in place, and landing pages are optimized to ensure people are not bouncing off the pages. The right SEO strategy helps send quality traffic to the website, but the right content strategy will ensure that they stay on the website and engage in the desired action such as filling up a form. Hence, content is key. Psychology has a role in marketing and branding. Do you agree? Please share some insights on the same.  A lot of brand building is about perceptions, which is largely governed by the human psyche. This is why, in marketing and brand building, a technique called Perceptual Brand Mapping, plays a key role as it helps brand managers understand how the consumer perceives her brand. – Piali Dasgupta Tweet The minutest detail such as the brand logo colour, the typeface used in the logo, the kind of ambassadors a brand chooses to associate with, the tone of voice, style of visual and the overall brand personality can play a role in manipulating the human psyche and creating compelling brand imagery in the consumer’s mind on one hand or putting consumers off on the other hand. An important role of advertising is to increase brand recall and saliency. And that doesn’t happen without deeply understanding consumer psychology. For example, when you look at an iconic tagline such as “Thanda Matlab Coca Cola”, it comes from a keen observation of customer behavior – using the word “Thanda” at a shop when asking for a cool beverage. Coca-Cola increased its market penetration in rural and semi-urban India by 16% back in 2003 through that campaign because it was able to equate “Thanda” with Coca-Cola. Whenever a consumer thought of drinking something cold to quench his thirst, he wanted a Coke. It’s fascinating how a specific word, a tone, or an image can evoke specific emotions and reactions and play a role in persuading a consumer to buy a product.  Similarly, if you think about colour psychology and the role it plays evoking certain emotions in a consumer’s mind, you will understand why certain brands choose certain colours for the design of their logos. The colour red is known to increase appetite. It’s no surprise then that a lot of food brands use red in their logos. What are new marketing trends you foresee in 2021? If the content was king in the pre-COVID world, it’s all set to become the emperor in the post-COVID world. In fact, I would go to the extent of saying that content is marketing. Content will play an increasingly crucial role in the customer lifecycle in the post COVID era. – Piali Dasgupta Tweet EQ would be a key factor in communication. Brands realized this during the pandemic – the fact that appealing to a consumer’s emotional quotient more than hard-selling a product was the way to go. And this trend will continue in 2021. Even as the economy slowly starts to climb out of the trough, marketers would continue to focus on ROI-driven marketing, cutting out all the fluff and attribution channels that are not hard-working enough. Digital as a medium will continue to see double-digit growth in 2021, while some of the traditional media such as Print and TV will revive gradually. With an increased focus on digital and the digital transformation finally taking place in the country and the world over, brands would leverage the power of VR to create consumer experiences that are as good as real. Certain high-value categories such as fine jewellery and real estate have already started using VR to create virtual experiences that propel purchase decisions remotely. The trend would become pervasive in certain other consumer goods categories as well. There will also be an increased focus on AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) which will make some real innovations in creating a seamless experience for customers digitally. And finally, with a general loss of trust in Bollywood celebrities with the ongoing drug scandal and several other controversies, brands will be very cautious of associating themselves with film personalities. They would, instead, focus on micro and nano influencers who have greater relevance to the audience and they are marketing their specific products too. Brands would greatly realize now more than ever that celebrity endorsements are a double-edged sword. While it gives a brand and its product the kind of eyeballs that very few other associations do, it can also backfire if the general sentiment around a celebrity is not favorable. Why I should choose marketing as a career? Marketing is one of those rare fields that necessitate the use of both your left and right brains. It is as analytical as it is creative; it’s as much about numbers as it is about big ideas. And if that’s not exciting, I don’t know what is. Marketing truly is about the yin and the yang, and so, if you are someone who’s as much a thinker and ideator as a data miner and number cruncher, this profession is for you. Marketing also allows you to build brands and become custodians of brands. And this is a truly fulfilling and rewarding experience. It’s almost like being a parent because you are responsible for everything to do with the brand  – from the customer experience to the health of the brand and it’s public image and so on. So you look after it and nurture it just the way you would nurture your own child. Every marketer and brand manager looks at a brand in a similar manner. Marketing is a vast function, and it gives you an exposure to almost every function within an organization because nearly every function is closely intertwined with what Marketing as a function does. Marketing as a function builds brand, which in turn builds brand equity, which results in shareholder value. So, it’s a crucial role in any organization and hence there are many good reasons for one to choose marketing as a career. Can you please tell us a little bit about Columbia Pacific Communities? Columbia Pacific Communities is India’s largest and most experienced senior living community operators with over 1600 residential units under management in 5 cities and 9 locations across south India. As the pioneers in this category, it is committed to reimagining the concept of senior living in India and create world-class practices that exceed these expectations of its stakeholders. It is part of the Seattle-based Columbia Pacific Group, one of the foremost developers of senior living communities in the United States and China. Founded by entrepreneur and senior living pioneer Dan Baty, Columbia Pacific has more than 40 years of experience and expertise in designing, building and managing senior housing communities around the world. The team, with the expertise of its principals in the United States of America and its partners in India, brings together rich experience in senior housing design, development and management. pic credit:thesmetimes.com Columbia Pacific Communities is committed to reimagining the space of senior living and senior care in the subcontinent and is already the recipient of several awards. Chit Chat Your Favorite Book: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Your Favorite Destination: Paris Your ME Time: Reading, watching Netflix, traveling, sketching Your Happy Moment: Travelling Who Am I: A passionate marketer What motivates you: Great leadership Your Current Read: Pragmarketism by Trupti and Arvind Bhandari Passionate about: Mental health advocacy One thing people don’t know about you: I am cynophobic; really scared of dogs.