Customer Experience marketing is the next step for India: Columbia Business Schools Prof. Bernd Schmitt

In his address, Prof Schmitt opined that much of marketing practice in India is based on traditional 4-Ps, but Indian brands need to enhance customer experience to become global brands. Prof Bernd Schmitt, Ph.D., is Robert D. Calkins Professor of International Business and Executive Director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School in New York.

Prof. Schmitt is widely recognized for his major contribution to branding, marketing, and management through his unique focus on the customer experience. His frameworks and tools are used worldwide by companies committed to delivering value and a great experience to their customers. Schmitt has authored or co-authored more than 50 articles in marketing and psychology journals and six books which have been translated into 16 languages.

Prof Schmitt said that customer experience is the next step of branding and is much more important than just putting an image of the product in the brains of the customers. He gave immense importance on thinking big. He affirmed that in order to excel, the characteristics of the companies should get transformed from inertia & resistance to creativity & Change, from narrow mindedness to visionary leadership and from risk aversions to bold ideas and quick actions. Prof Schmitt avowed that the six steps of a big think strategy are Sourcing bold ideas, Evaluating and selecting best ideas, Turning ideas into a big think strategy, Executing big think strategy, Leading big think strategy and Sustaining big think strategy.