The Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam has successfully concluded the two-day International Marketing Conference on 6th May 2023 – #Vipanan2023. The theme of the conference was Marketing 5.0– Inroads to Technology and Sustainability. The concept of Marketing 5.0 emphasizes the importance of creating meaningful relationships with customers, leveraging technology to create personalized experiences, and incorporating sustainable practices into business operations. The theme is particularly topical as technology is disrupting how marketers interact and connect with consumers. We now see an advent of personalized communication using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning with a focus on sustainable practices and social responsibility. The hybrid conference intended to allow a productive discourse not only in marketing theory, but also in contemporary business domains. The conference had exciting line-up of topical and well researchedpaper presentations.
The conference commenced with the inaugural event on 5thMay. The chief guest and keynote speaker of the event @Prof. Ramendra Singh, Professor Indian Institute of ManagementCalcutta stated the evolution of Marketing to Marketing 5.0 and discussed the diversity of Indian consumers and the difference in preference for different generations. Prof. Singh stated thatmore than half of the world is not using technology, and this gives marketers opportunity to reach them in a unique manner. Talking about Bottom of the Pyramid consumers Prof. Singhstressed that Marketing 5.0 need to understand the specific problems of the urban and rural segments and address them in a unique manner. @Prof. Chandrasekhar, Director Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam stated that marketers need to understand the changing behaviour of customers and keep pace with digital transformations. Prof. Chandrasekhar also mentioned that looking at any product from a service perspective gives much more opportunity to marketers to serve the customer in a better manner. Also, @Prof. Amit Shankar, faculty at IIM Visakhapatnam took an interesting workshop on research paper development. Day 1 of the conference saw interesting research presentations from students and faculty across India.
The second day of the conference took ahead the informative presentation session from the first day. Day 2 of the conference witnessed an insightful session from @Prof. Balaji Makam, Professor, Rennes School of Business, Rennes, France. Prof. Makam discussed how Artificial Intelligence can enhance customer experience and the how can companies overcome the challenges faced when adopting Artificial Intelligence. Prof. Balaji mentioned the importance to address the personalization-privacy paradox and leveraging the touch points of consumer journey to help reduce customer churn. During the valedictory, @Prof. Shiv Shankar Patel discussed the need to be vigil about sustainability, collaboration, and conflict at a macro and micro level. The conference concluded with participants being celebrated for their presentations. @Dr. Komal Nagar, Associate Professor at The Business School, University of Jammu received first prize of INR 15,000/- for her impressive experimental work on menu labelling and @Dr. Anjali Sharma,Assistant Professor at Master’s Union received the second prize of INR 10,000/- for her fascinating work on flash sale. The final day of the conference concluded with an engrossing hands-on workshop on qualitative research methods by @Prof. Subhadip Roy. The insightful and engaging workshop brought forward multiple perspectives on why and how to conduct qualitative research.
The organizing committee @Prof. Priyavrat Sanyal, @Prof. Preeti Virdi, @Prof. Amit Shankar, @Prof. Pankaj, @Rajasekhar, @Nivin, @Rohit and @Aman thank the participants and the speakers for their valuable contribution to the conference.