• by Alan Hart , January 16, 2019

This week on “Marketing Today,” I speak with Siddharth Taparia, senior vice president and head of marketing transformation at SAP, where his duties include overseeing partner marketing and strategic transformation.

During the course of our discussion, Taparia talks about his 13-year career at SAP, including his transition to marketing. He also discusses the efforts by SAP to transform its brand — both internally and for its clients. In talking about that transformation, Taparia said, “I firmly believe that transformation starts and is successful with people. Everything else is an ingredient. But the thing that really makes it work is that the people have to transform — there has to be a transformational mindset.”

He later added, “Any type of brand transformation is driven by how your customers perceive you, what they think about you, and how they champion your products and solutions.”

Highlights from this week’s “Marketing Today” podcast include:

• Taparia discusses his background, career and transition to marketing at SAP. (1:19)

• How SAP tells its story in the marketplace. (3:53)

• The genesis of SAP’s brand transformation. (5:33)

• Making the consumer journey fundamentally better. (10:09)

• SAP and the customer experience: “We are looking at the future of customer experience and that future is being built right in front of our eyes.” (15:36)

• Taparia is focusing on things that bring people together as well as being a role model for his two daughters. (19:49)

• Disruption, dynamic change, and a reckoning regarding the use of personal data: Taparia’s take on the future of marketing. (23:39)