Tag Archives: customer experience

How to leverage India’s MarTech boom [Forbes India]

Posted on by

(c) Namrata Suryavanshi, Priya Narayanan, and Aditya Bhamidipaty

This article was first published online on May 23, 2025 in The Forbes India (online) IIM Kozhikode Thought Leadership section and is available here on the publisher’s website. The article below provides an updated version of the infographic from Scott Brinker’s Marketing Technology landscape.

Namrata is Director – Consulting & Customer Experience at FirstHive, a Customer Data Platform. Priya is Assistant Professor of Marketing at IIM Kozhikode. Aditya is Founder & CEO at FirstHive.

*

Imagine this: you’ve just landed in Barcelona after a gruelling 24-hour flight. You’re exhausted, and all you want is to check into your hotel and rest for a while in those soft new fancy pyjamas you bought for this trip. But then, reality hits—you realise your baggage hasn’t arrived. Panicked, you rush to the airline authorities, and they assure you that your luggage will be delivered to your hotel… in two days. Frustrated, you turn to social media, venting your anger and tagging the airline. Within seconds, you receive a response. But instead of empathy, you’re greeted with the last two words you want to see right now. Any guesses? “Thank you for sharing your feedback.”

Now, your frustration multiplies. The airline seems robotic and indifferent—completely out of touch with your situation. You might even vow never to fly with them again. So, what went wrong here? The airline relied on automated technology to send an instant response, but the message lacked context, empathy, and personalisation.

Could the airline have used smarter technologies to gauge your frustration and tailor a response using generative AI? Absolutely. And that’s exactly what we’ll explore in this article—how marketers, particularly in India, are adapting to MarTech. We delve into the unique challenges Indian marketers face, especially when bridging gaps arising from multiple cultures, languages, and geographies, and how technology can be a game-changer in delivering personalised, contextually relevant experiences.

Continue reading →

Why a Few Bad Quarters Might be Good for Starbucks

Posted on by

Starbucks was in the blazing limelight a month or so ago. This time the news was not a new product launch or a new store opening, but the ways that the new CEO Brian Niccols (replacing the incumbent Laxman Narasimhan before his term ended) intended to “make Starbucks, Starbucks again”. In his “open letter for all partners, customers and stakeholders”, Niccols acknowledged that Starbucks seemed to “have drifted from [its] core.”

Starbucks share price (see below) seems to reflect this view – a downward trend starting in early 2023 went on for well over a year is now beginning to pick up, with Niccols at the helm. Here is my (potentially contrarian, likely underinformed) view on the issues at Starbucks and how these could be solved. Don’t miss the bonus piece on Starbucks in India – coming up soon.

(Subscribe to my blog on the home page and you will never miss a post. No advertising, no spam.)

Share price trend of Starbucks, 2020-2024. Source: Google search.

© Priya Narayanan, Assistant Professor of Marketing, IIM Kozhikode. Views are personal.

*

All around Brian Niccols are people waiting and watching. And the last thing the newly anointed CEO of Starbucks probably wants is another bad set of quarterly financial results. But a few bad quarters might actually turn out to be good for Starbucks. Here’s why.

Continue reading →