Being Authentic and Using Formats that Connect with Customers are Important: Gayatri Rath

Pine Labs has recently appointed Gayatri Rath as Chief Marketing & Communications Officer. She will lead the brand, marketing and communications function as the company accelerates its growth in merchant commerce across India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

Commenting on the appointment, B Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs, said, “At Pine Labs, we continue to invest in industry-leading talent and build leadership depth. Gayatri’s years of experience in building local and global brands will be valuable as we take Pine Labs to more merchants and many other new audiences in Asia.”

On her appointment, Rath said: “I am excited to join Pine Labs at this time when they are gearing up for the next phase of growth. There will be challenges and opportunities in branding, marketing and communications as the organization expands its reach and relevance. I am really looking forward to an enriching and learning experience.”

Excerpts from the recent interaction with BW Businessworld:

What are your thoughts on the Fintech sector and why do you think it’s a sunshine sector today?

Fintech is where the most exciting innovations in banking, personal finance and merchant commerce is taking place. The innovations are no more confined to the coders’ world, they are coming into the real world faster than ever before. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown up interesting scenarios for fintechs to make business and commerce work better. Within the fintech space, payments is where the rubber hits the road. That is the moment of truth. Contactless payments, app-based payment acceptance, QR-based payment acceptance – these are just a few examples of what is possible. Customer preference demands that payments are seamless between all the various online and offline modes. That is where the real opportunity for payments lies – in the ubiquity of payments and the freedom from any specific form factor.

What role does marketing play to reach to your customers?

I see marketing in this space helping build customer trust and helping customers effectively use technology to their benefit and their convenience. For us at Pine Labs, our customers are the merchants. We work for the merchant and with the merchant to help their customers. Affordability solutions (e.g. installment payments or pay-later solutions), loyalty and gift solutions will all be an important part of this trust-building work for us.

How according to you does brand storytelling play a role to reach the merchant community?

Merchants have very strong brand affiliations and brand storytelling with merchants will mean showcasing real value from our technology. The question they always ask is how does this change my everyday business? Will my customers benefit from it? Will I earn more as a result of this piece of new technology? Our brand storytelling needs to answer those questions. Being authentic and using formats that connect with them are important. One small way of doing that is by making our content available to them in local language. We now translate all important merchant-facing communications in multiple Indian languages. We have a long way to go though.

What are the challenges and opportunities in the sector? How does the role of Marcom help in raising the bar for Fintech sector?

The challenges and opportunities are not unique to fintech. Whenever a new piece of technology needs to be explained to a first-time user group, it has its challenges. The fintech industry faces the same. Only that challenge is compounded by the need for compliance to regulatory and security frameworks and guidelines. But then, that is also the opportunity. If we can make marketing and communications work within these guard rails, we would have driven financial inclusion faster than any regulator or bank could.

How do you envision to take the company forward with your new role at Pine Labs?

Pine Labs aims to drive better financial inclusion in the markets it operates in. We hope to help thousands of new merchants use technology to grow their business across India, South

East Asia, and the Middle East. Helping Pine Labs become relevant to these new merchants will be my goal.

How does the New Normal look like according to you?

Interestingly, while macro-economic data shows a downward trend, small businesses seem to be coming back to normal quicker than anticipated. At Pine Labs, we have seen recoveries at 75% of pre-COVID-19 levels and we hope businesses will be back to pre-COVID-19 levels in a couple of months. What the lockdown has done though is, it has accelerated the need for digitization and merchants are more open to digital systems more than ever before. It is a good trend as financial inclusion is easier in a digitized world than in a non-digitized one. At Pine Labs, we are grateful to be in the middle of this big societal change.