136) Micro Marketing: How B2B2C Brands Train The Best Marketers
Description
In this episode, hosts Sharavana Raghavan and Sudeep Chawla explore a question many young marketers are asking today. How can you learn, grow, and make an impact when your organisation limits experimentation and the economy feels slow?
Sudeep offers an unexpected answer: B2B2C categories. Often seen as unglamorous and rigid, industries like paints, adhesives, waterproofing, and pipes actually offer a goldmine of learning opportunities. With high regional diversity, complex intermediary networks, and under-researched end-users, these sectors challenge marketers to think deeply, act locally, and execute precisely.
If you’re a marketer wondering where the real action is, this episode will surprise and inspire you.
DISCUSSION FLOW
They discuss
Why B2B2C is a misunderstood space
Most marketers assume it’s all sales and no brand, but Sudeep reveals how intermediaries like plumbers and contractors actually shape consumer choice and trust
How regional practices create micro markets
From Punjab’s mud phaska roofs to Kerala’s truss constructions, India’s geography and culture create unique user behaviours and needs
What makes marketing in B2B2C a learning playground
With every town acting like a unique market, brand managers get infinite chances to experiment, observe, and refine their craft — if they’re willing to put in the work
The role of intellectual humility in marketing
Sudeep explains why empathy and humility are critical when working with blue-collar influencers, people marketers often overlook but must learn to understand
Three enablers of deep marketing learning
1. Look beyond the lack of glamour
2. Stay humble and open to learning from all
3. Work under marketing leaders who create frameworks and feedback loops
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- B2B2C categories are rich in insight, diversity, and marketing opportunity — not just sales operations
- Micro marketing is a powerful model for building core marketing capabilities
- The most impactful learning comes from observation, empathy, and iteration — not just from campaigns
- Great marketers thrive where others don’t even bother to look
QUOTES
“There’s no one India. There are many Indias. And each one teaches you something different”
“Micro markets are not small markets. They’re marketing labs”
“You’re not your brand’s consumer. And in B2B2C, you can’t even pretend to be”
“If you want to learn fast, put in the hard yards where others don’t”
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CREDITS
Album Art & Design by ting.in
Voiceovers by Anjale Stephanos
Music from Zapsplat.com
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