AgTalk | Focusing on consumer demands: SapientNitro's Guha

SapientNitro, as Idea Engineers, seamlessly and consistently combines communications, brand and transactional expertise to conceive, build and execute integrated, multi-channel brand experiences that lead to tangible business results.

Shubhradeep Guha leads SapientNitro’s business in India and is part of the European and Asia-Pacific leadership team of the company. As a Global Capacity Lead, Shubhradeep Guha is responsible for building capabilities in line with SapientNitro’s go-to-market strategy. His remit includes building people capability as well as solution accelerators and product components for which he works closely with specialists in-house and alliance partners.

Adgully caught up with Shubhradeep Guha, Global Capability Lead and Country Manager, SapientNitro (India) to understand how the year was for the company and what strategies do they have in mind going forward in 2013.

Guha has been with Sapient for eleven years, and brings a wealth of insight and knowledge of interactive trends having played a variety of roles across three continents; besides, he has deep expertise in telecommunications, digital commerce and mobile experience. In the past he has been responsible for building large client portfolios, providing digital thought leadership as well as building strong relationship with clients to collaborate on shaping projects and opportunities.

Before relocating to India last year Guha was based out of Sapient’s London office. He is also on the European and India Leadership Teams where his focus is on improving people experience at Sapient.

Adgully (AG): Share with us the three key milestones of Sapient’s Journey in 2012. Also share with us one success story that you had in 2012.

Shubhradeep Guha (SG): I am really happy about the fact that we got design awards for the work we did for Citibank. Just last to last week we won a couple of ‘Epica’ awards in United States. In terms of key milestones, we are now increasingly seeing conversations with clients which have moved away from marketing communications going either towards economics or content.

AG: Do you think we as a country are in the midst of an e-commerce revolution or the best is yet to come?

SG: I feel revolution is a strong word but as we go forward we are definitely seeing an uptake in terms of people accepting the e-commerce change that is rapidly taking place in our country. We can’t really predict the future but if some of the barriers in the mobile space are removed then probably mobile commerce would see a faster growth than e-commerce. The usage is increasing day-by-day. Interestingly I was going through a report wherein I learnt that two-thirds of the total payments made in e-commerce is by direct debit cards and one third by credit cards. This clearly shows the acceptance and change.

AG: With so many new e-comm companies offering a variety of products online what do you feel is the key success to stand out amongst the clutter?

SG: I feel that most brands have not invested in producing content. Content refers to something that drives engagement. The brands cannot survive without driving engagement and content cannot be produced without engagement, which is the biggest concern. Brands today offer a lot but the fact as why to buy from that brand is not clear to the customers. So if any brand breaks that it can break the clutter as well.

AG: What should e-commerce companies do to build customer traffic and thereby loyalty? Everybody is seen betting big in that direction so what according to you would happen: the bubble would burst or there will be some sustainability in the market?  

SG: The important thing is to build engagement that drives customers and consumer base thereby creating a loyal one. Of course the shake will happen and it happens with anything new that comes in. There are around 2000 e-commerce web portals operating in the country and obviously 2000 cannot survive and so there has to be some sustainability and some shakeout.

AG: What are the three key business strategies/ plans that have always worked for SapientNitro?

SG: The best one is to have the ability to retain talent; the next is to create differentiated and innovative content and third keeping a clear focus on the demands of our consumers.

AG:  How was the year 2012 for Sapient given fact it was economy was going through a tough time?

SG: It was tough in terms of growth and we could have done better if we would have kind of grown but we did register quite a net growth over and above than in 2011, which was not huge but modest one.

AG: How are planning to welcome 2013?

SG: We would have to keep our portfolio really strong in the Indian market as it is kind of seeing a rapid growth in terms of e-commerce and would allow our team to win more awards and thirdly we would want to see how mobile space grows in 2013 and then we would plan our strategies in that direction. | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal@adgully.com]