What escalates any organization's brand value is how it is positioned in the hearts of its customers. Marketers play a crucial role in enabling this through brand building and customer relationships while implementing other decisions and strategies. With slipping grips over their respective markets, where consumer behaviour is a sinusoidal track, large and small businesses are witnessing drought in offline marketing campaigns. Due to COVID disruptions, the chief marketing officers depend on strategic marketing decisions to have a strong grip. Bringing their years of unparalleled experience to the marketing domain, chief marketing officers guide their team for bestowing human touches to their services. Speaking of such inspirational marketing officers, mentioning Anjum Rastogi, the CMO of Easyrewardz Software Services is worthwhile.

Beyond practitioner of traditional marketing, she is an expert in strategies, analytics, CRM, retention, and more. Her experience in CRM Loyalty spans across industries such as banking, retail, healthcare, hospitality, and travel. Women Entrepreneur India engages in an exclusive conversation to know more about her endeavours, leadership style that is driving success for the brand she is part of.

Take us through your early education. What factors led you to choose marketing as a career?

As Indians, we all must have gone through a tough career-building cycle from middle-class families. Apparently, becoming a doctor, an engineer, a CA, or a lecturer was always the go-to option. Hailing from a family of doctors, I went through the same. However, raised by a single parent (my dad) and studied in a boarding school, I grew up as a confident and independent child. My sister is a fourth-gen doctor in my family, but it was clear that I wanted to get into economics and business administration. I pursued my schooling in Mayo School and went to DPS, R.K Puram. Further, I completed BA (Hons) in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Delhi University and MBA in Marketing from S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai.

In the journey, I realized that I'm a combination of being both, creative and data-driven. Marketing as a subject started to become more and more attractive at the age of 21. And the whole science of understanding consumer behavior, purchase cycle, and how to drive certain behavior began fascinating me. That's how my interest in marketing started.

Highlight your prior industry experience and foray into this niche of loyalty and rewards?

My professional journey began with Citibank. I spent close to five years with the brand. However, the space around data-driven marketing, customer experience, and rewards & loyalty were still my interest for a long time.

I had to choose between being a banker and pursuing the marketing field. In 2010, I left the bank and started to work in loyalty, e-Commerce, and digital transformation. I shifted my career and started the journey with start-ups. Took up executive responsibilities and enterprise-level roles, stitched up businesses and established a host of products. Today, it has been a rewarding journey of over a decade.

Share major facets of your leadership in the marketing arena.

I'm certainly guided by two core principles as a CMO. Firstly, the customer-first approach. Customer-centricity is important. Irrespective of sectors and domains, think about the value proposition for the end consumer. Some of the questions I ask myself are: What will the customers experience? What is the use case you are solving? Is there a need that you are addressing? And I truly believe in customer democracy (of the customer, by the customer, for the customer) when formulating the marketing strategy for the products at ER. 

“There are several routes to reach the top of anything. What will set you apart from others in the journey is what you learn and how richer you make the experience”

The other principle is ROI-driven strategies. Throughout the customer lifecycle, campaign interactions, or brand interventions, the focus must be on ROI. It is important to be responsible and accountable for every action. My thought process is always on how to get a bang for our buck. Lastly, I ensure to understand the industry, the domain, and products to create a USP for the brand.

What unique aspects of your profession excite you the most?

As said earlier, I have worked with companies of various sectors and consulted brands to commercialize and monetize their programs and make them profit centers from cost centers. I find it very exciting to bring business transitions and create product differentiators. As a personality with a blend of a creative and data-driven approach, I look at a P&L at unit economics and then integrate at portfolio level. To break it down into a smaller component, define the properties of a portfolio and your target group. Forecast the actions they take and then integrate it over the target size you would reach out. This will mostly be very close to your projections. I always tell everyone to start from that one unit. And if your unit economics holds well, it will remain good for you and the business.

Tell us about the driving force and support system behind your successful stint as a business leader.

We all have heard that behind every successful man, there's a woman. The adage holds true for the vice-a-versa case too, as behind a successful woman, there could be a man! It is certainly true in my case; it was my father who enriched me with the right values & education and my husband has always been a pillar of strength for me. They both have stood by me in all walks of life.

I will also credit my friend & mentor Soumya Chatterjee, who is the CEO & Co-founder - Easyrewardz, for equipping and trusting me with the right opportunities.

What would you like to say to youngsters who would aspire to be in this profession?

If you are a good storyteller, you can always paint a great picture that your audience is willing to watch and consume. You should be capable of making them cling to you and accelerate the transition in their business. Moreover, marketing is mostly perceived as only communication. Communication is a very big part, but understanding your domain is equally important because that's where your storytelling becomes stronger. 

Keep in mind that there are no shortcuts to success and hard work is a must. But always believe in your capabilities.

Anjum Rastogi, CMO, Easyrewardz Software Services

Anjum is an exceptional leader who assumes the customer's voice to achieve the goals. Setting strategic goals, solving problems with a consultative approach, communicating inspiring ideas, and building a strong relationship with the target audience is her forte. She says that she draws energy from her supportive family and her team.