FROM THE EDITOR I am glad that the marketing club got the opportunity to use its monthly magazine as a platform for all the young marketing enthusiasts who are curious to let out their views on various topics. It gives me immense pleasure to write this message as Editor of this unique edition of the magazine. The theme of July’s edition revolves around the usage of technology and brand advocacy in marketing. The theme gives a sneak peek into the marketing practices of the new age. This edition has a lot under its umbrella, from bringing forward automation, psychology, and a blend of digital and physical experiences while drawing hidden inferences of marketing. I extend my warmest gratitude to all the authors for their interest, enthusiasm, and well-documented submissions of excellent articles and participation in this magazine’s building. I firmly believe that no matter how your magazine is delivered; either at your doorstep or to your computer, printed on glossy stock or on cheap tabloid paper, appearing on your iPad or your cell phone screen, it is still the work of an editorial team for a discerning audience, a beautiful and meaningful (we hope) package of ideas, words and images put together by a group of experts for its readers. While technology efficiently delivers new stories to our desktops, laptops, and mobile devices, magazines are all about context – how ideas and images are presented in relation to one another and spanning a broader perspective. We, the editors, will always strive to keep you engaged.
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CONTENTS 01 How are NFTs changing the marketplace?
05 ‘In’clusive Marketing
09 The “Phygital Domain”:
A Case Study with the Hindun 13 Buzzfeed
17 Artificial Intelligence in Marketing 21 Marquing The Moments
How are NFTs changing the marketplace? Sameer Shaikh Welingkar Institute Of Management Development And Research, Bengaluru In the last few years, technology has been advancing at an extremely high speed. One field that has been enjoying some of the speediest technological advancements is blockchain. That doesn’t mean solely cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the flock of other cryptos being marketed on the crypto market. Let’s look at Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and how brands are using or can use NFTs in their marketing campaigns. Wondering about NFTs? Don’t worry, let me explain! While NTFs have been around for a few years, they have recently become a hot topic and investment. So, you might be wondering what are they, and how do they work?
A NFT is a cryptographic asset formed using blockchain technology. The main difference between NFTs and cryptocurrencies (which are fungible tokens as they are undistinguishable) is that NTFs have unique identification codes and metadata to differentiate one NFT from another. As each NFT is unique, it cannot be exchanged with another NFT. Hence, each NFT is a digital collectible & a one-of-a-kind asset that can’t be duplicated. And that’s where started the craze for NFTs. In 2017, CryptoKitties, a combination of Tamagotchi and trading cards, took away the scene. Each kitten is unique and can be raised or traded — some for say, $140,000. NFT mania was born, and now, the interest in NFTs is only snowballing.
Source: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/explained/2021/03/nfts-explained-daylight-robbery-onthe-blockchain/
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Why Are Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) Important Three Ways Brands Are Using NFTs to Brands out there? In marketing, the concept of NFTs may be a bit One of the foremost reasons NFTs are vital for complex to grasp. The best way is to understand is brands is that they can represent digital files - to look at examples. Here are some attractive ways art, audio, and video and other forms of creative brands are using them.
work like, virtual worlds, fashion, games virtual 1. Taco Bell GIFs real estate and much more. Wondering…? How it is related with your brand and marketing strategy? Thanks to the global interest NTFs created, they have given new ways of brand storytelling and consumer engagement, which are the two key pillars of an effective marketing strategy. NFTs allows you to: • generate unique brand experiences • increase brand reach & visibility • encourage interaction & engagement • create awareness about your brand and product
A Consumer Culture Report by 5wpr shows that around 80 percent of millennials would likely do business with brands that align with their values. Thus, companies need to invest in causes they believe in. Taco Bell has already been supporting this for years via their foundation but they took it to a whole new level to support the Live Más Scholarship by selling taco-themed NFT GIFs. Just in 30 minutes of putting their 25 NFTs up for sale on Rarible, an NFT marketplace, all the GIFs were gone…. Booooom! Each GIF began at a bidding price of $1. However, they all went for thousands of dollars each. No doubts, producing and selling NFTs was an ingenious move by Taco Bell - helped to create a lot of buzz.
Finally, NFTs can help you increase conversions rate and drive revenue. Taco Bell teach you to use NFTs to kill two birds with one arrow: Here’s how brands are using NFTs to strengthen 1. drive brand awareness 2. support a good cause their marketing.
Sources: https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/non-fungible-tokens-7
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2. RTFKT Digital Sneakers Do you want to disrupt the market and make a name for your brand? NFTs are the answer! That’s what happened when RTFKT, a Chinese virtual sneaker brand, designed an NFT sneaker for the Chinese New Year and kept in auction. The sneaker sold for a gigantic $28,000. That’s pretty remarkable for a brand that just entered the market especially as they sold a sneaker that can’t be touched. Impressive this was but still way behind the $3 million the brand had from another NFT sneaker they made in collaboration with FEWOCiOUS - the 18-year-old artist. With NFTs still in their embryonic stage, this is the hot time for marketers to join the trend. They can take a cue from RTFKT. Create limited ephemeras to celebrate special milestones and holidays, and use them in your marketing campaigns around those holiday seasons. Sources: https://jingdaily.com/rtfkt-nft-luxurychinese-new-year/ 3.Grimes Videos Six million dollars in 20 minutes… Yeah, you read it right! That’s the amount Grimes made from a collection of 10 NFTs auctioned on Nifty Gateway. Brands can leverage people’s interest in NTFs to market their products. For example, they can: • Collaborate with artists or auction sites • Create an NFT then auction it for charity. • Run a contest keeping NFTs as the prize.
Source: https://neilpatel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/non-fungible-tokens-2
Marketing is all about joining current trends and using your creativity to draw attention to your brand.
The Future of NFTs No doubt, NFTs are still new, and their application is still limited. However, people love them and are ready to have them. This indicates that they’re here to stay. NFTs will play an important role in the digital landscape of the future. That’s predominantly true for marketers as NTFs have opened up new paths for interacting with their audience and generating memorable experiences for them. Keep in mind, most common technologies, we use today, looked like fads when they began. Then also we depend mostly on them in life. NFTs may look like a fad today, but they provide a lot of beneficial features that breakdown the limitations of existing technologies.
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Conclusion NFTs are excellent in generating memorable experiences for a brand’s customers. A brilliant way of engaging with and interacting with your target market. While the technology is still in its embryonic stage, brands need to pay close consideration to it. In fact, you need to explore ways to leverage NFTs in your marketing strategies. Finally, just want to say that NFTs are here to stay, and it’s unquestionably all set to become a part of digital marketing.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56371912
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‘IN’CLUSIVE MARKETING Anushka Dalvi K J Somaiya Institute Of Management A s e v e n teen-year-old girl walks into a burger restaurant. The smell of sizzling, juicy patties wafts through the air. She sniffs as she tries to identify what smells so appetizing. Unable to guess, she decides to get her usual order of chicken and fries. Just as she is about to order, the hostess hands her a menu. For the first time in her life, she peruses the menu and orders a chicken teriyaki burger. Plot twist: the menu is in Braille. Red Robin Burgers in Ohio was the first restaurant to have offered seventeen-year-old Annalicia Herrera a menu that had considered her vision impairment. After her sister’s Twitter post about this, this local restaurant gained massive customer engagement for their simple act of inclusion. Inclusive marketing is one of the trending terms of 2021. HubSpot defines inclusive marketing as ‘campaigns that embrace diversity by including people from different backgrounds or stories that unique audiences can relate to. While some inclusive campaigns make an effort to break stereotypes, others simply aim to reflect or embrace people in the real world.’ Inclusive marketing is often confused with diversity and inclusion (D&I). While D&I is focused on creating an inclusive culture within a workplace, inclusive marketing aims to remove exclusion through marketing efforts. Let us look at some statistics to understand the role of inclusive marketing in today’s consumer mindset. According to a SalesForce State of Marketing report, more than half the consumers are likely to switch brands if their messaging isn’t personalized or inclusive of them. This data reflects the fact that the current consumer base throws a great emphasis on a feeling of belonging in return for their loyalty towards a brand. Another example is the 2019 consumer survey by
Source: Twitter Google and the Female Quotient, which reveals that 64% of the respondents took some action after seeing an ad that they considered inclusive or diverse. This percentage was found to be higher among specific consumer groups, including Latinx (85%), Black (79%), Asian/Pacific Islander (79%), LGBTQ (85%), millennial (77%), and teen (76%) consumers. This shows how consumers are emotionally drawn towards ads that portray the reality of their everyday lives. How Companies Can Adopt A Successful Inclusive Marketing Strategy 1. Get educated about Cultural Intelligence To represent a marginalized community, identity, or ethnicity, the first step is to educate yourself about them. Cultural intelligence defined as the skill to relate and work efficiently in a culturally diverse environment. Developing this skill is one of the biggest challenges in executing an inclusive marketing campaign. Learning about your customers cannot be
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Source: SalesForce Research, Fourth Annual State of Marketing Source: Google, U.S., Inclusive Marketing Study, n of 2,987 U.S. consumers ages 13-54 who access the internet at least monthly, Aug.2019 an overnight task. Thorough market research needs to be conducted in the form of personal conversations and focus groups. It is essential to go beyond the primary line of interrogation and pinpoint the characteristics that cannot be superficially identified. Such research can highlight the real issues and challenges that these communities have been facing. Volvo, which is highly regarded for its safety standards, found that women are more likely to get injured in a car crash, as most of the standard testing is done using male crash test dummies. Following this observation, Volvo collected 40 years of
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crash data to look for ways to protect people of all sizes, gender, and body shapes and launched the E.V.A. initiative: Equal Vehicles for All. They further shared their research with the rest of the car industry in order to improve gender equality in cars. 2. Practice what you preach Inclusive marketing cannot just be adapted for the sake of following a current trend. In order to fully embrace the concept, brands need to take a look at their own staff and question whether they are representing a diverse network or not.
representing a diverse network or not. A genuine connection to the audience can be established when your own company is a staunch reflection of the message you are sending out. With a workforce of 57,000 employees in over 50 countries and a score of perfect 100 on the Corporate Index for LGBTQ equality, Lenovo lives by its own tagline of ‘Different is Better.’ Various other companies have started awakening to this new cultural revolution by reinventing their brands. There was a research conducted by The Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media & J. Walter Thompson (J.W.T.) in 2017 which studied 2000 films from the Cannes Lions Archive and 10 years of Cannes Lions Film and Film Craft winners and shortlists. This research brought to light the fact that there are twice as many male characters in ads as female characters, and 25% of ads feature males only, whereas only 5% of ads feature women only. Post the release of this research, the FMCG giant Unilever teamed up with U.N. Women to launch the ‘Unstereotype Alliance’ to banish stereotypical portrayals of gender in all major advertising. By practising what it preached, Unilever reformed itself via its own brands such as Lynx, which stopped promoting scantily-clad women and male-dominant ads, and Dove, which redefined the female perception of beauty. Another famous recent example is Victoria’s Secret which rebranded itself to switch from its standard controversial image of objectifying women to empower them.
3. Embrace the celebration of variety One-size-fits-all is no longer a suitable marketing tactic. People want diversity and variety in the brand they are choosing. They want to hear the voices and stories of people that have been underrepresented. They want brands to take a stand for the marginalized communities and in turn, influence positive social change. One of the best examples of brands who have successfully won the hearts of customers with their multicultural marketing campaign is P&G via its 2019 Emmy award-winning ad ‘The Talk.’ This ad depicts the universal closed-door conversations that African American mothers have with their children about racism. In an interview with AdAge, P&G’s Global Communications Director, Damon Jones told that, “We know that bias is not just an African American issue. It’s an issue that takes on many shapes and forms, across gender, race, age, weight, sexual orientation, and more.” To sum it up, inclusive marketing is more than just a current trend or a P.R. opportunity for companies to promote themselves. The end goal of inclusive marketing needs to be a genuine commitment towards understanding and connecting with people across all genders, communities, and races and helping them find their voice after years of being quietened down. Only when the people feel a true sense of belonging after watching a company’s advertisement can the company claim to have succeeded in the true sense.
Source: Will Gardner
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Source: B.I.C. @ The City College of New York
Source: https://penji.co/beauty-ads-diversity/
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The “Phygital Domain”: A Case Study with the Hindu Hitesh Kishore Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon Traditionally, the field of journalism has had a pretty straight forward model for revenue generation. It was driven by consumers who purchased the newspaper according to their personal preferences. The advent of the Internet has changed this sector on its head. Earlier to reach the maximum number of people for a new advertising campaign, a company had to approach the largest daily in circulation in the location of its target audience. But now, social media platforms and Google emerge as much better alternatives both in terms of pricing and targeted reach. This has had a phenomenal change due to which the newspaper industries have had to change their business strategy and actively adopt the digital terrain. The Hindu One of the most notable cases of taking the digital plunge is with the Hindu
large following especially in the South. Here in this brief analysis, we will look into how it has marketed in the “physical”, “digital” and the “phygital” domain individually. Physical domain: • The Hindu in School: Launched in 2012, it was a collaborative attempt by the company with various local schools in Chennai to reach out to the younger audience and increase its circulation. It was an 8–10-page supplement that was tailormade to cater to younger audiences in the age of 12-16. This aimed at capitalising on the great reputation for quality journalism and high standards of English that were the hallmarks of the paper. This was a good success with many schools going in for this as it enables students to improve their language skills and also understand the important events of the world.
Source: https://pay.hindu.com/esubspay/images/corporate_
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•The Hindu in Tamil: This was launched in 2013 as the paper for the first time began a local language paper. This seeked to capitalise on the good reputation of the Hindu publishing group and to increase its readership base. This was targeted at regional
time for a newspaper. Initially it was launched as a fully free app that gave access to the major breaking stories that were reported in the paper. Later on, it was launched as a subscription service that charged a nominal monthly fee. For free users it still allows access to 20 free articles in a month. This is the hook that they use to bring in new consumers by priding
Source: https://www.snapmunk.com/augmented-reality-virtual-reality-2017/
Source: https://www.clearias.com/up/The-Hindu-e-Paper.png Figure 3: The Hindu Website themselves on their high-quality journews stories and major developments in the nalism and objectivity in news reporting. region. This was also a moderate success as the company was able to make some inroads in the •The Hindu website: Similar to their app, this promarket but was unable to shake market leaders vides the readers with access to the news stories on its website. It is supported by a combination of readlike the Daily Thanthi. er subscriptions and various types of banner advertisements that are hosted on the website. This also Digital domain: has high footfall and is a supplementary source of •The Hindu App: This was launched to cap- income. They also give free access to their old ediitalise on the need for fast on the go news torials and news stories that were published earlier that had become the defacto market standard which enables them to earn revenue by advertising for the everyday consumer who didn’t have even from older stories that are accessed by people.
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Phygital domain: The combination of the physical and digital or the “phygital” domain is a relatively new advent that has seen a great uptick in recent times. They are curated to cater to audiences in the physical and digital domain through a combination of new technologies and innovative use of older ones like telephone and newspapers. The Hindu group recognised this the potential and launched their flagship “STEP” program. The STEP is a multifaceted program that seeks to provide a platform for people to improve their English communication and writing skills. It was targeted at various audiences like students who want to improve their English skills, working professionals who need interview training, corporate organisations that need bulk training programs for their employees and various aspirants who are seeking to clear various government exams.
Another major need that they uncovered and seeked to fulfil is the large number of competitive exam aspirants who follow the paper rigorously for their various entrance exams.
They offer online assistance like recorded videos that are customised for each group individually. This is a supplement to their live video classes that are offered online for the individuals or groups. They also provide on-site training programs for various corporates and colleges that are seeking to enhance the skill sets of their employees or students respectively. They also provide skill building activities like games and puzzles that test their English proficiency and help them to benchmark their progress.
We can see that in the modern marketing era, the various avenues of marketing are rapidly colliding and integrating with one another. This is a trend that is there to stay as going forward especially in a post COVID world, the impact of digital channels would be profound. If a publishing company like the Hindu which relied on a physical product has had to change itself for the digital era then we can be rest assured that every other company would have to follow suit.
They seeked to capitalise on this by marketing their STEP program to cater to these audiences to improve their fluency in the language and interview preparedness training. This is especially true for the Union public service examinations for which the Hindu is widely considered to be the best resource. Seeking to capitalise on this they are actively looking to collaborate with various centres in the city that that provide UPSC training. This is a very innovative and promising strategy as they are catering to an enormous audience that is ready to spend any amount of money to guarantee success in this hyper competitive environment.
Source: https://www.noticebard.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/The-Hindu-StepProgramme.png
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#BUZZFEED #BUZZFEED
Ola Electric Scooter Zomato offers Rs. 25 lakh for consumer created ad
On August 15th, Ola Electric introduced the S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters for INR 99,000 and INR 129,000, respectively. It doesn’t have a physical key and instead connects to your phone through “digital keys.” This feature enables it to sense your presence and instantly unlock. It also locks itself as it moves away. A multi-microphone array, AI voice recognition algorithms develZomato is proof that can turn criticism into a super marketing After oped in-house, andthey a 7-inch touchscreen display areinnovative all incorporated in campaign. the scooter. A conpowersumers. After consumers expressed their growing boredom with Zomato’s monotonous YouTube and ful motor and a lithium-ion battery will power it. It has enough space in the boot for two helmets. TV ads,LED somelighting, users took to as social mediaheadlight to criticize Zomato’s butterLED chicken ad. However, Zoamto It has such an LED with LED DRL, winkers, and an LED taillamp, seems to have played its cards well by coming up with a smart idea to help it come up with camas well as a fully digital instrument panel. Alloy wheels, with a single disc, are utilized fun in the front paigns while engaging with their customers. and rear. It also has flush-with-the-floor footpegs. The e-scooter will come in 10 different colors. Bookings for the Ola Electric scooter in India began on July 15, 2021, for a refundable fee of Rs The all out, proclaiming ads do suck. So24now, it has thee-scooter floor forwill creative 499.firm Thewent e-scooter garnered over 1that lakhthe bookings in only hours. Olaopened Electric’s be manideas from customers. What was commendable was that, apart from the novel idea, they also shared ufactured at the Ola Futurefactory, which will be developed on a 500-acre plot of land in Tamil Nadu’s the feeling with their customers made many hearts. Krishnagiri district. In its initialthat phase, thethem Ola win Futurefactory will have an annual production capacity of 2 million units. It will be capable of generating 10 million units per year once completed.
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Apple faces antitrust case in India In India, Apple Inc is being sued for antitrust violations for allegedly exploiting its dominating position in the app industry by forcing developers to adopt its proprietary in-app purchase mechanism. The charges are similar to those leveled against Apple in the European Union, where regulators launched an inquiry last year into Apple’s imposition of a 30% in-app fee for the delivery of purchased digital content, among other limitations. The Indian case was brought by a non-profit organization, Together We Fight Society, that claims Apple’s charge of up to 30% harms competition by boosting prices for app developers and consumers while also acting as a barrier to market entrance. The India antitrust case against Apple also argues that its restrictions on how developers connect with customers to offer payment solutions are anti-competitive and damage the country’s payment processors, which offer services at discounted rates ranging from 1% to 5%. Apple has damaged competitors by forbidding developers from informing users of other purchasing choices, putting “app developers’ relationships with their consumers at risk by inserting itself as a middleman in every in-app transaction.” Unlike Indian court procedures, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) does not make the files and information of cases it evaluates available to the public. Apple and the CCI did not respond to our requests for comment. The CCI will assess the complaint in the coming weeks and may instruct its investigations arm to begin a broader probe or dismiss it outright if it finds no merit in it.
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN MARKETING R. V. Pooja IIT Madras
The problem solving and decision making abilities of Artificial Intelligence (also called AI) are of huge advantage in the field of marketing. It permits the company to play to its strengths and accomplish skyrocketing sales. Many more companies are now dependent on AI for polished solutions to cater better to the company’s needs and their customers. The application of AI generated analysis and solutions can be seen in every nook and corner of the field of marketing such as social mediamarketing, content marketing, video marketing, digital marketing, outbound and inbound marketing, influencer marketing, personal marketing, personalized marketing, account-based marketing, persuasive marketing, field marketing etc
The five categories of AI which are analytic, textual, visual, interactive and functional AI are put into play individually or as a combination depending on the needs. This smart technology, in order to cater to the right audience, functions in the following 4 steps. Reach AI, here, is involved in content curation of the needs of the customers, analysis of real time bidding and their purchase history, generation of suggestive content specific to individual customers for attraction and at times voice searching for better gimmicks
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Figure 1 Act After the first step ‘reach’ and having enough raw data, the next step is working on the data. This involves propensity modeling (which predicts the probability of customers performing certain actions/clicks), predictive analysis and advertisements targeting wherein specifically chosen advertisements are displayed on priority to its customers
Apart from AI’s use to gratify its customers, the company uses AI to gauge its performance and conversion rates. Not just that but also to gauge its competitors’ performance so that they can come up with competitive, better, refined and creative marketing strategies to keep their customers captivated.
Convert After having acted, based on customer response, the AI’s next step is to convert the audience’s interests to sales. For this, chatbots are used for alluring their customers. Some other methods used in this step are retargeting the same audience i.e. the algorithm betters itself based on each click and preference of the customer in real time by website and application personalization (this method in specific poses huge benefits for the companies - Figure 1) and dynamic pricing according to the market needs. Engage: The AI, now having known in customers better, will tend to engaging with is customers better by predictive customer service, sending personalized emails based on their previous interests, wishlists etc. Figure 2 - Importance of artificial intelegence
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A few examples of companies being heavily dependent on AI for marketing their commodities are as follows:
1) Chase bank, bank by partnering with the company Persado (which uses AI for marketing creatives), noticed that the textual content generated for digital advertisements generated by AI was far more human-like than the ones actually written by humans. This is assuring them better copywriting which was evident in their customers’ reaction.
2) Starbucks uses AI to collect, process and analyze its customers data (purchase history, time and location of the transaction) based on which predictive analysis is performed. This way they provide their customers with good recommendations and send out personalized marketing messages.
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3) Nike launched a program called the ‘Nike Makers’ experience’, in 2017, wherein they let customers design, choose graphics and color their own shoes however they wanted. This novel idea served two purposes. It drove the sales high and at the same time Nike collected a pretty good amount of information about the choices and preferences of its customers. This data was later analyzed with tools of AI such as machine learning to design products in its future.
Though AI is the key player and star performer of many companies, it also poses a few challenges - a few surmountable and a few insurmountable. They can never replace and think the way humans and their brains do. At times, they tend to exaggerate or underestimate the risk. A small misinterpretation due to the AI algorithm being naive, new, improperly debugged, made with wrong strategies might be catering to short term goals but the same might lead to incurring huge losses in the long run if steps are not taken to correct them. These challenges are just the ones visible in the myopic view. This is because this technology is very young and has a long way to go. The more and more advanced it becomes, newer and sophisticated challenges it might pose. Between all of these, there is definitely a balancing point. The solutions which arise when the right amount of potential of AI is tapped mixed with the instinctive reactions of the company’s smart mindsets will always serve the customers better while giving the company the right edge.
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Marque - The Marketing club, IIM Rohtak
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ARQUING OMENTS
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MARQUE - THE MARKETING CLUB INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT ROHTAK
marketingclub@iimrohtak.ac.in
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the stake holders of IIM Rohtak EDITOR : Niribili, Priya, Thiviya DESIGN : Chetna FOLLOW US ON :