What scares the smartphone marketer?

And how is the role of the smartphone marketer changing? Here's what our panel of experts in the space said.

Edited Excerpts.

Sushant Sreeram, Head of Marketing, Xiaomi India

Sushant SreeramIt's essential for marketers to operate with their ear to the ground. The internet has changed how people communicate and share opinions with each other. Social media has changed how brands control the message (hint: they don't).

Good CMOs no longer operate with silos in marketing but have hybrid models that require pollination across brand building, digital, social media, community and commerce.

Not having my ear to the ground and running the risk of losing the understanding of what our fans want is what scares me the most.

Nomit Joshi, Director - Marketing, Gionee India

Nomit JoshiThe job is moving beyond conventional marketing as new avenues to communicate with consumers have emerged. Brands are not restricting themselves to one-way communication any longer. This makes the job more challenging. Also, data analytics has become a key component of decision making.

Too much data scares me. At times I feel after looking at so much data you are bound to think conventionally.

Vikas Agarwal, General Manager, India, OnePlus

Vikas AgarwalThe CMO's role is not just a functional role in an organisation. The CMO is first a user and a fan of the brand. Especially for the smartphone industry, involvement in the product and passion for the brand are important.

We are concerned about fundamental challenges like team culture, negative consumer feedback, etc. As the brand grows, it will become a challenge to maintain the same cultural values of a nimble startup built around community feedback.

Will Yang, Brand Director, Oppo India

Will YangToday, marketing is a field that cannot function all by itself and needs a well-integrated plan to work in sync with the complete working structure of the organisation. It's not just the job of marketing head/brand director to lead a project; it's a team effort.

As a marketer in this fast-growing industry we face different problems every day. But we have principles in place that come from our culture of cooperation that help us solve all the problems.

These inputs are part of our Marketers' Special Issue - afaqs!Reporter magazine, June 15, 2017.