Prashant Kumar shares his thoughts on his book

PETALING JAYA: Author Prashant Kumar is a well-recognised media and marketing heavyweight who has held senior industry roles including that of President World Markets Asia at IPG Media Brands.

He is the founder of Malaysian agency Entropia, which was acquired by Accenture in 2021 in one of their biggest ad agency acquisitions in South-East Asia.

Prashant has been getting rave reviews since his book on marketing “Made in Future” was launched last year. He shared some of the pertinent views of the book with StarBiz.

StarBiz: Could you explain what the book is all about?

Prashant: Marketing strategy as a discipline continues to live and die by the precepts and frameworks of the 80s and 90s. This is the reason why many established incumbents have been disrupted, and many marketing transformation projects fail.

Somebody needed to weave in a picture of the deep underlying fabric of change in the human experience. And how it flows into marketing decisions.

The nature of new marketplace and competitive forces, the new prospect and choice journey, the nature of new influence, experience, creativity, media, and new measurement, how it all adds up in one seamless value chain. And how it relates back to creating a sustainable margin advantage across the demand chain.

How has the book fared so far?

It was published and launched by Penguin Random house in India in May last year, and rocketed up on the Amazon India bestseller list across multiple categories – communication and journalism, marketing, and management for 12-16 weeks.

It has also been covered and recommended by the highly prestigious CNBC, Asian Age and Financial Express, among others.

Who stands to benefit the most from it?

It’s a very holistic new look on marketing, full of myriad original takes on the discipline. The book is as useful for people working in core marketing and media companies, as it is for those in content, market research, PR, martech and advertising.

CEOs who see the value of marketing, get to understand the deep shifts in customer mindsets and where the blue ocean of customer value may lie. Junior and mid-level executives get practical examples and frameworks they can include in their everyday decision-making.

The book talks about the new marketer. What does the new marketer look like?

The new marketer needs to wear a venture capital hat. Due to the nature of rapidly evolving choices, you are essentially playing with a portfolio of opportunities and risks. The new marketer is a relentless crusader for where the new customer value may lie.

To be able to tap the new norms of engagement between people and brands, also requires her or him to be data and design aware. He or she is a hacker, hustler and hipster rolled into one.

You have touched on new brand building. What is this about?

Brands of the future will have to be made of data-driven experiences.

Socially aware, hyper relevant, in-moment, adaptive and immersive experiences right from customer value imagination to product design to access mapping to communication all the way into delivery and service architecture.

Authentic, agile human experiences take the centre stage, and empathy becomes the holy grail of businesses.