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<ul><li>Jobs platform and professional network <keyword id="9861237" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="apna-co" source="Orion">apna.co</keyword> has witnessed robust growth since its inception in 2019. Today it has a consumer base of 20 million, a number it plans to double in the next 12-18 months.</li><li>We speak to <keyword id="7634738" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rahul-deorah" source="Orion">Rahul Deorah</keyword>, Head of Marketing, apna.co to understand his plans for achieving this target.</li></ul>Most people looking for jobs on different job portals have come across fake job postings but there are still many who end up falling for these fraudulent postings. Jobs platform and professional network apna.co is on a mission to ensure its platform is as clean as possible and that it is able to connect jobseekers to relevant, genuine employers. The platform brought Rahul Deorah, who was previously a part of <keyword id="8681398" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="urban-company" source="Orion">Urban Company</keyword>, on board as its head of marketing in November last year. Deorah already has his plan charted out. Deorah feels apna has embarked on a Herculean task, to solve the earth-scale problems of unemployment, poverty and upskilling. He plans to do it by strengthening the platform, giving both jobseekers and prospective employers a good experience. He walks us through his plans of ensuring apna is able to achieve the ambitious goals it has set for itself in the next few years to come. Excerpts: Q) It’s been around 3 years since apna came into being. How has the journey been so far? Let me walk you through our journey so far. We launched apna in 2019 and our job is to connect job seekers with recruiters, and vice versa. Fast forward to 2022, we have over 20 million users, with a presence in over 50 cities. We have about 2 lakh people who trust us. Last month, we facilitated close to 20 million interviews through the platform. We try to create and expose opportunities to the rising workforce of India. Everyday we hear people asking, where are the jobs? At the same time, if you speak to prospective employers, they say they’re not finding the right candidates. So this is an asymmetry of information in the market that apna is trying to bridge by firstly ensuring that people who are posting jobs are deeply verified and have the right intent. At the same time, the candidates who are applying to jobs are well-filtered so that when they are connected to the employers, both sides get a relevant lead, ensuring higher chances of conversion. That's what we do today. In the future, we are working towards building a strong professional social network for the rising workforce of India, just like <keyword id="28120" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="linkedin" source="Orion">LinkedIn</keyword> does for you and me. We also want to create upskilling opportunities for our target audience to help them move ahead in their careers. Q) The pandemic brought about a seismic change in the world around us. How did it affect apna’s business? During the pandemic, especially the second wave, we felt that we had a huge responsibility, to ensure that all with the reverse migration, people could find enough opportunities to help set up their lives all over again. And during those 4-5 months of the second wave, we grew by almost 70% because we were working overtime to ensure that everything is at the right place for the candidates to find the right opportunities and the employers to post the right kind of jobs. Q) How have you been communicating with your audience? How have you been able to grow your reach? Apna is a network effects product. More employers will bring more candidates and vice versa. And the second network effect is a professional network that you create for these candidates, where people from similar vocation can speak to each other, just like we do on LinkedIn. So the power of the product has helped us grow over the last couple of years. Secondly, we have put together some innovative marketing campaigns. We’ve worked a lot to ensure that our value propositions which we swear by and execute are communicated to the candidate. There is a lot of asymmetry of information in the market and a lot of job postings on the internet are fake. That's something we’re extremely mindful of. When a candidate comes to apna, he or she knows that the jobs on our platform won’t be fake. And that helps us. Once they find the job, they refer us to multiple of their friends and family. So walking the talk is our second critical piece. Marketing can only take you so far. If you're selling something that is not right for me, I won’t care about how beautiful your ads are. Q) Word-of-mouth has worked well for you then? Absolutely. And word-of-mouth is a function of good execution. Q) You spoke about some innovative marketing. Can you give me a few examples? Marketing has two parts. The first is what you say and the second is how and where say it. The ‘where you say it’ part has been democratized over the last 5-6 years because people are spending more and more time on their phones. So when about 30-35% of their attention span in a day ends up being on the mobile phone, that becomes a conduit for us to reach our audience. What we say becomes extremely critical because we primarily focus on our value propositions. The reality is that this is a market that is plagued by mistrust. So if you walk the talk, your audiences and consumers will absolutely love you. We ensure that we only talk about things that we can actually execute and pull off and I call that innovative because you're doing the regular things but you're doing it well. We don't discount any mediums. We use anything that helps us reach out to our audiences. Q) Where does the majority of your target audience reside? Is it metros or smaller cities? We don't really segregate it that way. We try to understand where are the right opportunities for the right candidates. Our internal data says that over 50% of people in say a city like Agra are looking for jobs in Delhi. So while we target them in Agra, we tell them about jobs in different cities. Q) Can you talk us about your growth? Where are you currently and where do you want to go? Today, there are over 20 million consumers who trust us. Our aim is to at least double this number in the next 12-18 months because you can't do enough for the country. We want to ensure that we keep working hard and delivering on what our aim and ambition is, and hopefully add to the growth of the country. Q) There are already many players in the segment who have been around longer and already have a wide consumer base. What gives apna an edge? Internally, we don't really worry about or discuss competition because if we know what the right thing to do is, we just execute on that. So what gives us the edge is, over the last couple of years, we have very deeply focused on ensuring that the experience of the candidates as well as the employers is absolutely fantastic because that would make people come back to our platform. We make sure every call is genuine. Of course, if today we’re good, in the future we want to be exceptional. So we have a long way to go. If we keep doing the right things consistently, we only have the size of our ambition to worry about. Q) Is there a community communication side to apna as well, similar to what we have on LinkedIn? Absolutely! That’s one of our core focus areas. We launched a community product or groups for Indian professionals where they can send each other connection requests and connect with each other. Some of our groups like government job preparation or beautician groups are buzzing. We have included this in our Android app. We see people sharing helpful tips to each other, they try to help each other find jobs. And it's a very safe and professional place to communicate with each other and build a professional network for the rising workforce in India. Q) How big is the team currently? How are you expanding it further? We have about 500 people across India. We need to at least double this number over the next 18-24 months if we want to hit our ambitious goals because there's a lot we want to do. Q) Going ahead, what are a key focus areas for you going to be? A key focus area for us for this year as well as for the next 4-5 years is to keep improving the platform, the candidate and employee experience and our community. We already have over 70 communities and groups for different kinds of vocations, our task is to keep improving on those so that people look forward to coming online, sharing and exploring better opportunities for themselves at all times. As a company, we believe that for the rising workforce of India, there's a glass ceiling that people around them have created for them. They are told they can’t go beyond that and they themselves start believing that. We want to break that glass ceiling. Secondly, our aim would be to take our brand story to the world. Today, how much we can help people is not very well-known within our target audience. So our job would be to take that message to the right people in the right way which will help catapult growth.

Today 20 million consumers trust us, we aim to at least double this number in the next 12-18 months: Rahul Deorah, apna.co

<ul><li>In our latest interview series, we talk to brands to understand how they are coping with the new normal and their strategies towards navigating these difficult times.</li><li>As <keyword id="8681398" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Urban-Company">Urban Company</keyword> starts operating in a few selective green zones, we speak to Rahul Deorah, Vice President - Marketing, Urban Company to understand how its regaining its consumers trust, what kind of employee wellness programs it has introduced to ensure they feel motivated, and its larger marketing strategy for the lockdown. </li></ul>Urban Company (earlier UrbanClap) has seen an uptick in the demand for home cleaning and hygiene services as people are becoming more health-conscious. The app had become quite popular for its home repair and salon services before the pandemic broke out. However, people have been wary about letting outsiders inside their homes lately. Urban Company rose to the challenge and tweaked its marketing strategy. It started communicating every day about the changes it introduced in its services and SOPs. With gradual relaxations in the lockdown, Urban Company is slowly and steadily opening up its services. And after seeing a high demand for home cleaning, it has also started offering disinfection services for cars and commercial spaces. It has opened its salon services in a few selective green zones. And now that people are under house arrest and have limited access to various services, Urban Company did some social listening and mapped out a few trends. It tweaked its logo across platforms to convey the importance of social distancing and wearing a mask. Apart from that, it realised that people are looking for a lot of DIY videos to make the best of their time. Therefore, it started uploading beauty and wellness video tips to help its consumers surf through the challenges they are posed with. It is also conducting live sessions to engage with its consumers. <div type="javascript" title="Instagram" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> We caught up with Rahul Deorah, Vice President - Marketing, Urban Company to further understand what kind of precautions the organisation has taken to ensure the safety of its employees, the idea behind its latest mental-wellness initiative, UC Academy, and its larger marketing strategy. Excerpts: Q. How challenging have the last few weeks been for you as a brand? The past few weeks have been challenging for us. As a brand, we have tried to ensure that we are in touch with our consumers. We are keeping them posted about the changes in service SOPs and the complete shift towards hygiene and safety to ensure that they get the best possible service experience in the safety of their homes. Q. From your wide umbrella of services, which ones are you offering right now? Since the last month, we have been slowly and steadily opening our services. Our Home Repairs and Maintenance services - appliances repairs, plumbers, electricians, carpenters and cleaning – are available across non-containment zones. Seeing the huge request and requirements, we also launched Disinfection Services for cars, home and commercial spaces. Lately, we also opened up our beauty and salon services in a few cities. Q. Now that salon services have begun, what precautions have you taken to ensure the safety of your employees? What kind of response have you seen for the same? We have made the following changes in our SOPs: 1. All UC professionals are equipped with 3-ply masks, gloves and hand sanitizers. 2. Usage of single use products and disposables to ensure zero cross-contamination 3. All service partners have been trained according to WHO prescribed hygiene standards. 4. Sanitization of all tools and equipment prior to the services 5. All our professionals are required to undergo a daily temperature check, which is visible to the consumer on their app 6. Low contact roll-on waxing and threading for maximum hygiene We have seen really good feedback to start with. Customers are liking the way we are providing the services with utmost caution. Q. People are becoming more health-conscious and finally maintaining hygiene at their homes, so have you seen an increase in demand for your home cleaning services as well? Yes, we are noticing increased demand in cleaning and disinfection services. Q. What has your marketing strategy been during the lockdown weeks? Have you changed your media mix, investing more on platforms like Digital since a few other mediums like OOH/Print have been suffering due to the lockdown? We have been always present on digital platforms for our marketing campaigns. Although over the past few months, we have decreased our spends and pivoted towards organic modes of communication. Q. A lot of brands have started doing webinars, have you joined the bandwagon? What kind of response have you seen around it? We are participating in a few webinars for sure. We also host fireside chats with industry leaders but currently these can be attended by employees only. We haven’t yet started an in-house webinar series that’s open to all. Q. Have you seen any changes in consumer behaviour? Yes, a lot. Consumers have become a lot more aware about the issue. They are taking a lot of measures themselves to ensure safety and hygiene is maintained. The following are the changes: a. Media Consumption: Usage of TV, OTT has increased b. Self Care: People are spending a lot of time for fitness and personal care c. DIY solutions to problems d. Online Deliveries for essentials have increased e. Need for self hygiene has increased Q. How are you utilising this time to upskill your employees? Have you introduced any mental health awareness and/or health care programs? We have introduced a program called UC Academy within our company wherein the company’s leadership have been taking online sessions for upskilling. The topics are across different functions and problems. Q. How are you preparing yourself for when things come back to normal? Because we think it will not be the same. Things won’t be the same as before for sure, at least not until a vaccine or cure is found. I believe as a company we have already taken several measures with respect to partner and consumer safety, such as introducing an 8-step safety process for each service category. Apart from this, we have procured and delivered safety kits (comprising gloves, masks, eye goggles, hand sanitiser) for all our partners and will continue to invest in this round the year.

Marketing in the times of COVID-19: Urban Company

<ul><li>2020 turned the marketing world upside down. All businesses had to adapt and relook at their strategies. </li><li>More traditional brands moved online and increased their investments in digital marketing. </li><li>As we end our series, in today’s feature, we speak to new-age brands to find out how the pandemic impacted their perspectives towards marketing and a few trends that they expect to see this year. </li></ul>The ongoing pandemic has revolutionised how businesses function in the entire world. While COVID-19 pushed Indian brands to move online, it also made them relook at the tone of their marketing campaigns. As consumers tried to adjust to the new normal and heightened stress levels due to an uncertain future, advertising became more conversational and empathetic in 2020. Brands reminded their consumers and even their competitors that we are all in this together. According to Zeno, when a brand is perceived to have a strong Purpose, consumers were four times more likely to purchase from the brand and 95% of surveyed Indian consumers were likely to continue to support brands in the event that they were to make a misstep or receive public criticism. The pandemic has given the brandverse some time to pause, reflect, rework their strategies and they even kept aside competition to prioritise consumer interest. Consumers have started appreciating <keyword id="10689248" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="empathetic-advertising">empathetic advertising</keyword> instead of adversarial advertising, especially in stressed situations like extended WFH, threat of Covid and living away from their family members and friends. Apart from that, there was more conversation on AI, MI and XR. There will be more focus on videos, influencer marketing and hybrid events. With a new-found appreciation for life and altered perspectives towards marketing, we reached out to new-age brands to understand how did COVID-19 change their marketing approach and what are some of the trends that they expect to see in 2021. Here is what they said: Mayur Hola, Head of Global Brand, <keyword id="7036155" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="OYO-Hotels-Homes">OYO Hotels &amp; Homes</keyword>: <div type="image" title="Mayur Hola, Head of Global Brand, OYO Hotels &amp;amp; Homes" msid="80636771" hostid="261"></div> I thought I’d do some research for this one and read pieces posted by global consulting firms, A&amp;M publications, gurus, digital agencies et all. They were all super and gave guidance on personalisation, look-alike cohorts, selling on social, VR, chat bots, influencer marketing, programmatic, omnichannel, SEO, mailers, PNs, video content and so many other helpful things. But. We’re doing all this already. So is doubling down on what’s already working the new trend? I thought that was called common sense. Here’s the one trend I see in 2021. Delivering on your promise. Brands will speak 1:1 with their consumers more than ever and look to deliver what is asked of them. Because false promises and random unconnected purpose is being seen through and called out. Doing right by your consumers. There’s your purpose. Now put out some awesome creatives based on that. Rahul Deorah, Vice President- Marketing at Urban Company: <div type="image" title="Rahul Deo urban clap" msid="80636860" hostid="261"></div> Marketing has always been about understanding how a consumer reacts to certain triggers and how brands can use that to influence them. The year 2020 made us all think on our feet. Everyone had to go back to the drawing board to think of how to communicate the “safety” of purchasing or availing their products and services. However, in 2021, the trend I foresee emerging is deeper investment in the core consumer offering and, with consumer media habits changing, a declining trend in the absolute investments by brands to reach customers, with deeper efficiencies in the media mix. Naresh Krishnaswamy, Growth &amp; Marketing Head, Cure.fit: <div type="image" title="naresh-krishnaswamy-curefit" msid="80636918" hostid="261"></div> We have seen massive upheavals last year in terms of marketing with consumer focus shifting primarily to digital channels owing to the pandemic. While such changes and shifts in trends happen each year, last year in particular saw a faster pace of change in marketing strategies and execution, opening up a great vistas for innovation and experimentation. Going into 2021, I expect the trends from 2020 to still continue. This coming year might mark a comeback for some companies who may up their marketing strategies in accordance with lessons learned from 2020. To solidify their positions in the market, brands need to focus on the development of a deeper level of trust with their customers. People will continue to place a higher premium on trust and transparency and companies need to be able to communicate efficiently with their customer base. Moreover, with some pandemic-related restrictions still in place, virtual events and platforms will continue well into the coming months. While there is some amount of burn out from online events, there is also scope for further innovation. Marketers will have to be prepared for technological advancements. Emerging technologies, automation, AI/ML, augmented reality, etc. can heighten the immersiveness of such experiences and create space for more one-on-one interaction with audiences. More marketers should shift their focus on creating more enhanced consumer experiences online while we wait to physically get back to our previous lives. Kartik Johari, Vice President, Nobel Hygiene: <div type="image" title="Kartik johari nobel" msid="80636931" hostid="261"></div> Consumer Trends: Consumer spending will moderately rise, but economic woes will start weighing down on people. So far, we have survived the lockdown and the macroeconomic situation by burning our accumulated wealth and health. Sooner or later, there is bound to be a deep impact on our collective national psyche, of worsening unemployment, of a worsening economy, healthcare, etc. Additionally, areas such as healthcare and personal care have taken an irrevocable step forward. We will see more growth on this front. People will focus on their physical health and will reorganize their time around it. There will be new problems to face, with a growing threat from medicine-resistant bacteria, growing now due to a heightened consumption of hand-sanitisers. Value-based spending and ecologically sensitive spending is here to stay. People will henceforth buy/support brands with a similar ethos (true or not, is immaterial). Similarly, brands' efforts towards minimizing their carbon footprint will be appreciated by consumers. Market Trends: Hygiene and FMCG will trend upwards, while other indicators will remain muted. Even IF the vaccine is successful, our market dynamics have not improved overnight. We are still an agrarian economy, without adequate public infrastructure on healthcare and education. We will require massive government spending to boost our market performance. Markets will remain in a state of limbo as they are now, wildly volatile and without impetus. We are now going into the 13th year without a market correction; at some point, this is bound to catch up. Online Trends: Video content all the way, and a permanent boost to eCommerce. People have become comfortable consuming content and making transactions online, including using E-Wallets. However, apart from the obvious, only time will tell which long-term trends will sustain. There will be a boost in services that can help effectively target individuals in this new crowded realm, and some that can help them make sense of the breadth of content and services available. Teaching and Training will have permanently moved online, and the sector will continue to grow tremendously, and will also help other sectors to aid in ancillary teaching services in person. Dunzo's brand team: <div type="image" title="dunzo mascots" msid="80636941" hostid="261"></div> One of the most important takeaways from 2020 for all content lovers has been the stories that uplift and inspire them. In a changing world, stories of the human spirit and the impact we as individuals and brands can have in our world, resonate most with users and customers. Going forward, we hope to keep that positive trend going with more stories from our community, touching on important human issues, and delivering some hope and delight with every post. Another trend we foresee is the continuation of moment marketing and putting our brand's unique spin on a viral sensation. It's always like an inside joke that is shared by a large audience, with no need for explanations or context. Finally, as we focus on quality over quantity, we plan to dive deeper into some of Dunzo's impact and inner workings through mediums such as podcasts and blogs. Using a combination of all three trends, we hope to expand our audience as well drive stronger engagement and shareability of content.

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Today 20 million consumers trust us, we aim to at least double this number in the next 12-18 months: Rahul Deorah, apna.co

Samarpita Banerjee

Marketing in the times of COVID-19: Urban Company

Karuna Sharma

Marketing: Trends to watch out for in 2021

Karuna Sharma

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