To grab audience attention in a fast-growing digital space amidst aggressive competition brands are always on the trail for innovative ways to reach out to their target consumers. With technology as an enabler, user generated content (UGC) is evolving as a compelling tool, transforming how consumers engage interact and consume information. It's emerging as a practicable, cost-effective option across a consumer's purchase journey to drive engagement footfalls and maximum conversions. It indicates original content generated by consumers of Products with a minimal contribution of the brand itself. For communicating the Brand message, UGC has brought about a change in the role of consumers. from being passive observers to empowering them and making them an integral part of the brand narrative. This chapter navigates through the role of UGC in transforming the consumer journey, focussing on how the untapped potential of authentic customer-centric content can be leveraged on social media to drive a strong consumer community, get insights in new-varied formats of new media, and perform data-analytics.

Small cars accounted for 75% of the cars sold in India; electrification of these cars and making them affordable was one of the major challenges apart from the infrastructure. Hence, leading automakers saw this as highly impracticable. However, Mahindra Electric Cars Pvt. Ltd., India’s only electric car maker, firmly believed that electric mobility, though in the nascent stage, is the future of the automotive sector. The case tries to deals with Mahindra Electric Cars Pvt. Ltd.’s opportunities and challenges, the pioneers in electric mobility in India in the wake of government decision. It raises certain imperative questions like: Is the Indian market ready for electric cars? What will be the likely impact on the current market scenario? Can the automaker create a favourable perception in consumers’ minds towards electric cars? Will this new category thrive in a hyper-competitive conventional market? This case is written based on insights provided by the company. The case authors interacted with the four-member Mahindra team in Bangalore, India, and got first-hand input.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is promoting innovation and creating new opportunities by turning just about anything, including consumers and actions, into a digital activity. The IoT can significantly impact the retail industry transforming the customer experience. By creating digital ecosystems, retailers are trying out novel methods to employ connected, smart systems to provide unique offerings, alter user experiences, and expand their reach. The goal of this paper is to identify different customer touch points in a retail store, research the adoption of different IoT technologies to improve customer experience in the retail industry, comprehend the impact and benefits of these technologies, and suggest potential future applications to further enhance customer experience in the retail industry. This paper adopts a case study approach, looking at several IoT use cases in the retail industry in terms of the technology used and how it affects consumer experience. Academics, professionals, and retailers can use the study to build and create solutions for the retail sector that will improve the shopping experience for customers.

In recent years, the world has experienced cutthroat competition in every industry, including marketing. Companies are employing advanced marketing innovations in order to become more accessible to current and future consumers and distinguish themselves from their rivals. The field of marketing has been catalyzed by digital disruption. Experts believe that Extended Reality (XRs), which includes technologies like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR), are promising technical resources for selling goods by offering virtual user interactions that mimic those encountered in physical usage. In this research paper, we will examine how augmented reality and virtual reality are helpful in enhancing the decision-making process in the field of marketing and are disrupting the traditional style of marketing. We will further observe the transformation of marketing strategies by analyzing recent use cases. This research paper aims at assisting marketing managers in comprehending the recent change in conventional marketing strategies and how incorporating decision-making using extended realities into their campaigns will benefit them in achieving successful optimum marketing, improved product exposure, and increased revenue.

This book chapter tries to address the concept of Consumer engagement and subsequently review it systematically in the light of digital entertainment through existing studies, theories and frameworks. It also aims at providing a broad theoretical perspective on the various applications of consumer engagement and how it differs across different platforms. What are the various aspects of a digital platform that engages consumers? While doing so this study also attempts at addressing the existing gap where consumer engagement has been studied more in the context of a brand consumer relationship. The first half of the chapter focuses on existing definitions and theories. The analysis and discussion in the second part of the chapter broadly applies the above framework while the concluding part discusses significant digital entertainment formats and options in consumer engagement.

In the current cluttered context, delivering brand communication competently to the intended target audience is a big challenge. Given the multiple options available in terms of brands and channels, creating the right impact is a tough call. One format which has emerged in recent times is long-duration storytelling. As a creative strategy, the format is gaining an immense prominence primarily due to its potential to hold audiences and leave an enduring impact on their minds. The trend also shows that brands embracing storytelling are moving beyond the traditional 30- and 45-s duration, resorting to longer formats of more than 60 s. Though there is some research on the ability of brand elements and other factors like culture and family influencing customer attitudes through storytelling, marketers also try to influence behaviour by adding elements of storytelling that demand realism, conciseness, reversal, humour and personal relevance. Yet, despite recent advances, there is limited research on long-format storytelling beyond 60 s. This study aims at investigating factors that can influence the retention ability of brands in commercials above 60 s. The outcome is significant from a practical perspective as it endeavours to assist brand and media practitioners in leveraging the factors that truly matter for enhancing the efficacy of long-duration storytelling above 60 s.

A growing demand for engaging content, coupled with the availability of cheap data, an increasing footprint of 4g services and facilities like mobile payment motivated several over the top (OTT) service providers like YouTube, Hotstar, Amazon Prime and Netflix among several others to venture into the Indian streaming space. Netflix saw this as an opportunity to virtually tap into the Indian Television market and leverage the shift in the content consumption pattern among young consumers, by empowering them to watch content of their choice at their time and on their preferred connected device. The easy access of Internet technology helped Netflix overcome the censorship issues, break stereotypes by allowing creators and marketers to dive deep into untapped cultural and social sensitivities, hit pain points thereby creating room for unique content. This chapter aims at exploring how Netflix is creating a differentiating factor with its new content marketing strategy in India and remodeling the viewing habits thus molding the Indian stereotypes.

The commentary is aimed at exploring the ethical dimension of Bigg Boss, one of the most commercially profitable reality shows on Indian television. While reflecting on the entertainment quotient of the show pulled in by way of controversies and abusive behaviour of the celebrity participants, it also delves into the aspects like depression, drug addiction, racism etc that is triggered during the show. The conclusion suggests profit but with more legally ethically and philanthropically active purpose.

E-commerce businesses in the Indian scenario have lately seen an overwhelming growth and acceptance owing to factors like better Internet penetration and advancement in technology. The E - commerce business models, in particular, have aroused a great interest among researchers and academicians. Majority of the players operating within the e-commerce space in the country have a single-point agenda of driving motivation and creating needs by way of offering lucrative discounts, cash on delivery options, and a wide variety in terms of products and services. In terms of 'value' offered, several rewarding options are made available to the customers, but the point of differentiation for the players is thinning, leading to a visible clutter, and hence, pressures on profitability, indicating a need for innovation to make the business models more sustainable. Integrating secondary data and expert opinion, this paper attempted at proposing a framework by identifying key areas, which can be reinforced by these companies to differentiate themselves and create a sustainable advantage.

The ever-rising middle class coupled with high disposable incomes and burgeoning internet culture in the country has driven the e- commerce industry like never before. The resultant cluttered scenario has put pressures on the competing players & a rapid desperation to rise across social media and create relevance for their brand. Contextual hyper advertising by leveraging technology to own up key words is one such strategic formula applied by major players to make their brands more meaningful for optimally reaching out to consumers in the fastest and most economical way possible. The paper aims at evaluating the overall appeal of Contextual hyper-advertising as a strategy in creating Brand Relevance by adapting to certain models in integrating communication.

The media consumption in India has gone through several unruly variations. Statistics reveal that we currently have over 350 million internet users in the country and about 80 % of the population is active through their smartphone devices. On the basis of user base and revenues for most global internet companies India is one of the largest markets. Internet is where the population spends maximum time especially young students and working executives, with the digital advertising spends accounting for a growth of over 2200 crore in December 2013 thus making it one of the most powerful brand communication platforms in the current scenario. Urban15 suggests that “Digital marketing uses the internet and information technology to extend and improve traditional marketing functions”. It has a wide spread application across sectors, however in the current context with proliferation digital and social media have gained enormous popularity and are integral parts of the decision making of young students seeking higher education. Digitalization has changed the way information is conveyed and perceived by viewers/information seekers. At times the information conveyed through digital media may not be authentic and legitimate creating a scope for misleading the target audience. The paper aims to study how digitalization can mislead thus influencing decision making among a certain Target group taking Education Industry as a sample. It seeks to supplement the claim by relevant data of an institute to evaluate whether the information provided for marketing purpose is legitimate enough to take crucial decisions.Keywords: Decision, Digitalization, Digital Marketing, Digital Media