Deepika Warrier is the marketing director for beverages at PepsiCo India. She oversees strategic development and promotion of brands like Pepsi, Mirinda, 7UP, and Mountain Dew. Her day is divided between business issues like designing campaigns and people issues like motivating her team. While working with celebrities is glamorous, she emphasizes the importance of sales and risk-taking with new products. Siladitya Sarangi is an area sales manager at Marico who spends his days touring markets and stores to increase sales and visibility of brands like Parachute and Saffola. He believes being in the field is important for maximizing sales opportunities and learning people management skills.
What Brands can Learn from Hollywood: Interview with: Jonathan Sands, Chairman, Elmwood, a sponsor company at the marcus evans CMO Asia Summit 2013, on brand differentiation.
The document summarizes the use and effectiveness of humor in Indian advertising. It discusses:
1) Humor is increasingly being used in Indian ads to grab consumer attention, though there are cultural considerations around the type of humor.
2) Common humor techniques in Indian ads include personification, exaggeration, and slapstick. Ads also evolved from group-focused humor to more individual humor.
3) Case studies of ads from Amaron, Frooti, Axe, and Max Life insurance show how different humor styles can work, though humor alone may not drive sales for low-involvement products. Humor helps build awareness and engagement.
Presentation made at the recently held seminar on marketing for non marketing executives organised by Tanzania Marketing Communication Conference (TMCC) in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
From fashion retailers to salons and even restaurants, the franchise business model has been in existence for over a century now. However, what remains imperative to realise is whether this business model is apt for your brand to grow. We speak with brands across categories that have expanded using this business model and also those who chose to grow organically.
This document provides an overview and history of the advertising industry in India. It discusses how advertising originated from street side sellers and handbills and began appearing in print newspapers in the 18th century. It then discusses the origins and growth of Mudra Communications, a leading Indian advertising agency, from its founding in 1980 with one client to becoming one of the largest agencies in India with many national and international clients and offices over 23 years. The document also outlines some of Mudra's philosophies and values in creating an organization focused on client partnerships and relationships.
This book of daily meditations outlines the most important rules of marketing. It also provides a pathway to help marketers know when those rules should be broken, and to have the courage to break them.
This document summarizes information about Mary Kay Inc., a multi-billion dollar company that sells skin care and color cosmetics through a network of independent beauty consultants. It discusses the company's mission and leadership, its global expansion, philanthropic efforts through the Mary Kay Foundation, product lines, and the career development program that rewards top sellers. It also addresses common myths versus facts about the company's size, consultants' earnings, and influence on business education.
What Brands can Learn from Hollywood: Interview with: Jonathan Sands, Chairman, Elmwood, a sponsor company at the marcus evans CMO Asia Summit 2013, on brand differentiation.
The document summarizes the use and effectiveness of humor in Indian advertising. It discusses:
1) Humor is increasingly being used in Indian ads to grab consumer attention, though there are cultural considerations around the type of humor.
2) Common humor techniques in Indian ads include personification, exaggeration, and slapstick. Ads also evolved from group-focused humor to more individual humor.
3) Case studies of ads from Amaron, Frooti, Axe, and Max Life insurance show how different humor styles can work, though humor alone may not drive sales for low-involvement products. Humor helps build awareness and engagement.
Presentation made at the recently held seminar on marketing for non marketing executives organised by Tanzania Marketing Communication Conference (TMCC) in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
From fashion retailers to salons and even restaurants, the franchise business model has been in existence for over a century now. However, what remains imperative to realise is whether this business model is apt for your brand to grow. We speak with brands across categories that have expanded using this business model and also those who chose to grow organically.
This document provides an overview and history of the advertising industry in India. It discusses how advertising originated from street side sellers and handbills and began appearing in print newspapers in the 18th century. It then discusses the origins and growth of Mudra Communications, a leading Indian advertising agency, from its founding in 1980 with one client to becoming one of the largest agencies in India with many national and international clients and offices over 23 years. The document also outlines some of Mudra's philosophies and values in creating an organization focused on client partnerships and relationships.
This book of daily meditations outlines the most important rules of marketing. It also provides a pathway to help marketers know when those rules should be broken, and to have the courage to break them.
This document summarizes information about Mary Kay Inc., a multi-billion dollar company that sells skin care and color cosmetics through a network of independent beauty consultants. It discusses the company's mission and leadership, its global expansion, philanthropic efforts through the Mary Kay Foundation, product lines, and the career development program that rewards top sellers. It also addresses common myths versus facts about the company's size, consultants' earnings, and influence on business education.
This document discusses the market for fairness creams in India and other countries in Asia and the Middle East. It notes that the fairness cream market in India is worth Rs.800-1100 Crores annually and is dominated by companies like L'Oreal, Nivea, and Revlon. However, many men still feel shy about using such products. The document advocates developing rural markets through affordable sachet sizes to boost sales and market share.
P&G is on a mission to understand the deep connections customers have with its brands like Tide laundry detergent. Marketers participated in immersions with customers to learn that fabrics hold emotions and memories for women. This informed Tide's new "Tide knows fabrics best" campaign showing how the brand supports women's lives. The campaign was successful, increasing Tide's market share by 7% and demonstrating that meaningful relationships can be built even with everyday products.
This document provides an analysis of Patanjali's marketing strategies. It discusses how Patanjali promotes itself through digital marketing and content marketing. Key strategies discussed include having a single brand strategy rather than multiple brands, going against conventional branding theories, and following the model of modern technology companies in using a generic sub-brand attached to the main brand. The analysis concludes that having fewer brands, ideally just one main brand, makes distribution and customer recognition easier while significantly reducing advertising costs.
A Review on Advertisement - The Vein of Marketing with Special Reference to T...INFOGAIN PUBLICATION
The paper examines the impact of brand awareness on buying behavior through various literatures. Creating brand awareness and providing unique information about the brand and also creates brand image in the minds of consumers. Advertisement a plays a major role and an effective tool used to create brand awareness. Brand awareness is one of the marketing factors in determine the buying behavior. Consumers do build optimistic opinion about a brand on the basis of information provided by the companies.
The document is a market survey report on Tulsi Sada pan masala conducted by Chiraj, a student at RIMT-IMCT, as part of their summer training project at D.S. Group. It provides an introduction to D.S. Group, which was founded in 1929 and has grown to become a Rs. 1600 crore conglomerate. It then outlines the objectives of the market survey, which was to analyze the market share and availability of Tulsi Sada in Saharanpur city relative to other brands. The document presents findings that Rajnigandha holds a major share of the tobacco market in Saharanpur due to its high quality and taste.
What challenger brands are, how they work and how to become one. Illustrated ...Drthomasbrand Limited
An overview of what challenger brands are and what makes them work. Illustrated through extensive examples. How do you become one, what are the steps and strategies that works.
Rynn Fong Rui En completed a 3-month internship with Popculture Magazine from May to August 2016. She worked on the editorial team, gathering materials for publication and building relationships with clients. Some of her responsibilities included collecting press releases, planning marketing themes, finding collaborations with local brands, and helping to organize the magazine's launch party. Overall, the internship provided her with valuable experiences in communication, event planning, and gaining industry knowledge to benefit her future career.
The document summarizes key aspects of Kishore Biyani's book "It Happened in India" about building his retail business Pantaloon. It highlights his emphasis on creativity and fluid organizational structure. It also discusses the role of the design group Idiom in developing new ideas through observation rather than market research. Biyani believed in constant growth and established "Pantaloon Genes" to allow employees to grow. The business transitioned to focus on ideas, scenario planning and design thinking under Future Group.
This document profiles 9 young, successful marketers in India. It provides brief biographies on each marketer, including their career paths, accomplishments, and responsibilities in their current roles at companies like P&G, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, and Asian Paints. The marketers range in age from their early 30s to late 30s and work in categories like fabric care, chocolate, flavors, and paints. They demonstrate traits like passion, risk-taking, and a focus on innovation to drive their brands' growth.
A successful cyberattack can severely damage a business by crippling operations, stealing valuable data, and devaluing a brand, which can potentially cause business failure. When the pandemic hit, most field marketers had to quickly develop new digital strategies to support remote sales. Experts agree that field marketing will play an even bigger role in the buyer's journey and require raising their digital capabilities. This guide explores how field marketing has changed and what strategies experts recommend for the future, noting that while live events will return, digital strategies will remain core.
This document discusses when it may be time for a company to rebrand. It provides signs that a rebrand could be needed, such as losing market share, becoming irrelevant, or having outdated branding. It suggests examining how competitors are positioning themselves and if the company is being sidelined. A rebrand can help a company whose brand has become irrelevant to strike back and maintain a competitive edge. Examples are provided of companies like Stripe, Quicken, and Uber that struggled after being disrupted, as well as companies like Lego, Nintendo, and Honda that successfully rebounded with a rebrand.
Inside Every Creative there's a hidden Marketing Guerrilla - PPTMohit Pachauri
Guerrilla marketing focuses on low-cost unconventional tactics to reach a large audience. While effective for small businesses, these tactics carry more risks for large companies. In 2007, an LCD advertisement in Boston resembling a cartoon bomb led to a security scare. Experts say guerrilla marketing should be "unauthorized and disruptive" while also being "sticky." Large companies can still use these tactics if they learn from failures, such as when Coca-Cola's "happiness machine" video on YouTube won awards after initial viewers. For small businesses, guerrilla marketing is effective if executed well by inspiring audiences with low costs.
8 Steps to Get Sales & Marketing Cranking in UnionHeuvel Marketing
This document provides 8 steps for better aligning sales and marketing efforts. It begins by noting that B2B buyers now conduct extensive independent research online and through peers before engaging with sales. This has changed expectations for sales interactions. It argues that to be successful, sales and marketing must work together to engage prospects throughout the entire buying process rather than just the sales cycle. The first step discussed is to clearly define the ideal customer through buyer personas in order to focus efforts on the most promising leads.
This document provides a framework for building resilient brands in the digital age. It discusses three elements of resilient brands: brand as belief, brand as strategy, and brand as experience. For brand as belief, the document emphasizes identifying a common purpose between the brand and customers. It provides examples of Patagonia and Chipotle finding common purpose. For brand as strategy, it introduces the "hourglass model" to balance top-down and bottom-up brand activities around a common purpose. And for brand as experience, it stresses that brands are only as strong as the last customer experience.
Resilient Brands: A framework for brand building in the digital ageBrilliant Noise
This document provides a framework for building resilient brands in the digital age. It discusses three elements of resilient brands: brand as belief, brand as strategy, and brand as experience. For brand as belief, the document emphasizes identifying a common purpose between the brand and customers. It provides examples of Patagonia and Chipotle finding common purpose. For brand as strategy, it introduces the "hourglass model" to balance top-down and bottom-up brand activities around a common purpose. It discusses how Netflix has transformed its brand strategy. For brand as experience, it stresses that brands are only as strong as the last customer experience.
Storytelling, A New Brand Imperative. CosmoProf Interview with David Altman,...David Altman
David Altman discusses the importance of storytelling for brands to emotionally connect with consumers. He emphasizes that great storytelling encompasses being immersive, interactive, integrated and initiating action. It is also important for brands to be authentic, clear, simple, differentiated, remarkable and not rely solely on price. Brands should cultivate trust through transparency and welcome consumer involvement in co-creating the brand story.
The Game Changer of the PR and Marketing Industry October 2022.pdfInsightsSuccess4
This edition features a handful of PR & Marketing leaders across several sectors that are at the forefront of leading us.
Read More: https://insightssuccess.com/the-game-changer-of-the-pr-and-marketing-industry-october2022/
The trees and the forests, 'why' brand and why usUllash Tiwari
The document discusses brand strategy and why it is important. It defines a brand as the personality of a product or service. A strong brand is built through every customer interaction and experience. The document advocates developing a holistic brand strategy that guides the customer experience, culture, and messaging. It notes that an effective strategy provides clarity on where the brand needs to go and how to get there.
This document discusses the pros and cons of celebrity marketing for a summer training project. It begins by acknowledging those who helped with the project. The executive summary notes that choosing the right celebrity is important for brand building and that celebrity endorsements can increase sales but the product still needs to deliver value. The introduction discusses how celebrities are commonly used in advertising to gain attention and influence purchases in the short term, though their impact on long term loyalty is debatable. It also notes that brands use celebrities to create associations in consumers' minds between the celebrity and brand through repeated exposure.
As a speaker on a panel discussion at the recent Brand Innovators Summit, I focused my talk on employee advocacy at Avanade and how social media activity can be maximized with emerging technologies such as a dedicated social media sharing portal.
This document discusses the market for fairness creams in India and other countries in Asia and the Middle East. It notes that the fairness cream market in India is worth Rs.800-1100 Crores annually and is dominated by companies like L'Oreal, Nivea, and Revlon. However, many men still feel shy about using such products. The document advocates developing rural markets through affordable sachet sizes to boost sales and market share.
P&G is on a mission to understand the deep connections customers have with its brands like Tide laundry detergent. Marketers participated in immersions with customers to learn that fabrics hold emotions and memories for women. This informed Tide's new "Tide knows fabrics best" campaign showing how the brand supports women's lives. The campaign was successful, increasing Tide's market share by 7% and demonstrating that meaningful relationships can be built even with everyday products.
This document provides an analysis of Patanjali's marketing strategies. It discusses how Patanjali promotes itself through digital marketing and content marketing. Key strategies discussed include having a single brand strategy rather than multiple brands, going against conventional branding theories, and following the model of modern technology companies in using a generic sub-brand attached to the main brand. The analysis concludes that having fewer brands, ideally just one main brand, makes distribution and customer recognition easier while significantly reducing advertising costs.
A Review on Advertisement - The Vein of Marketing with Special Reference to T...INFOGAIN PUBLICATION
The paper examines the impact of brand awareness on buying behavior through various literatures. Creating brand awareness and providing unique information about the brand and also creates brand image in the minds of consumers. Advertisement a plays a major role and an effective tool used to create brand awareness. Brand awareness is one of the marketing factors in determine the buying behavior. Consumers do build optimistic opinion about a brand on the basis of information provided by the companies.
The document is a market survey report on Tulsi Sada pan masala conducted by Chiraj, a student at RIMT-IMCT, as part of their summer training project at D.S. Group. It provides an introduction to D.S. Group, which was founded in 1929 and has grown to become a Rs. 1600 crore conglomerate. It then outlines the objectives of the market survey, which was to analyze the market share and availability of Tulsi Sada in Saharanpur city relative to other brands. The document presents findings that Rajnigandha holds a major share of the tobacco market in Saharanpur due to its high quality and taste.
What challenger brands are, how they work and how to become one. Illustrated ...Drthomasbrand Limited
An overview of what challenger brands are and what makes them work. Illustrated through extensive examples. How do you become one, what are the steps and strategies that works.
Rynn Fong Rui En completed a 3-month internship with Popculture Magazine from May to August 2016. She worked on the editorial team, gathering materials for publication and building relationships with clients. Some of her responsibilities included collecting press releases, planning marketing themes, finding collaborations with local brands, and helping to organize the magazine's launch party. Overall, the internship provided her with valuable experiences in communication, event planning, and gaining industry knowledge to benefit her future career.
The document summarizes key aspects of Kishore Biyani's book "It Happened in India" about building his retail business Pantaloon. It highlights his emphasis on creativity and fluid organizational structure. It also discusses the role of the design group Idiom in developing new ideas through observation rather than market research. Biyani believed in constant growth and established "Pantaloon Genes" to allow employees to grow. The business transitioned to focus on ideas, scenario planning and design thinking under Future Group.
This document profiles 9 young, successful marketers in India. It provides brief biographies on each marketer, including their career paths, accomplishments, and responsibilities in their current roles at companies like P&G, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, and Asian Paints. The marketers range in age from their early 30s to late 30s and work in categories like fabric care, chocolate, flavors, and paints. They demonstrate traits like passion, risk-taking, and a focus on innovation to drive their brands' growth.
A successful cyberattack can severely damage a business by crippling operations, stealing valuable data, and devaluing a brand, which can potentially cause business failure. When the pandemic hit, most field marketers had to quickly develop new digital strategies to support remote sales. Experts agree that field marketing will play an even bigger role in the buyer's journey and require raising their digital capabilities. This guide explores how field marketing has changed and what strategies experts recommend for the future, noting that while live events will return, digital strategies will remain core.
This document discusses when it may be time for a company to rebrand. It provides signs that a rebrand could be needed, such as losing market share, becoming irrelevant, or having outdated branding. It suggests examining how competitors are positioning themselves and if the company is being sidelined. A rebrand can help a company whose brand has become irrelevant to strike back and maintain a competitive edge. Examples are provided of companies like Stripe, Quicken, and Uber that struggled after being disrupted, as well as companies like Lego, Nintendo, and Honda that successfully rebounded with a rebrand.
Inside Every Creative there's a hidden Marketing Guerrilla - PPTMohit Pachauri
Guerrilla marketing focuses on low-cost unconventional tactics to reach a large audience. While effective for small businesses, these tactics carry more risks for large companies. In 2007, an LCD advertisement in Boston resembling a cartoon bomb led to a security scare. Experts say guerrilla marketing should be "unauthorized and disruptive" while also being "sticky." Large companies can still use these tactics if they learn from failures, such as when Coca-Cola's "happiness machine" video on YouTube won awards after initial viewers. For small businesses, guerrilla marketing is effective if executed well by inspiring audiences with low costs.
8 Steps to Get Sales & Marketing Cranking in UnionHeuvel Marketing
This document provides 8 steps for better aligning sales and marketing efforts. It begins by noting that B2B buyers now conduct extensive independent research online and through peers before engaging with sales. This has changed expectations for sales interactions. It argues that to be successful, sales and marketing must work together to engage prospects throughout the entire buying process rather than just the sales cycle. The first step discussed is to clearly define the ideal customer through buyer personas in order to focus efforts on the most promising leads.
This document provides a framework for building resilient brands in the digital age. It discusses three elements of resilient brands: brand as belief, brand as strategy, and brand as experience. For brand as belief, the document emphasizes identifying a common purpose between the brand and customers. It provides examples of Patagonia and Chipotle finding common purpose. For brand as strategy, it introduces the "hourglass model" to balance top-down and bottom-up brand activities around a common purpose. And for brand as experience, it stresses that brands are only as strong as the last customer experience.
Resilient Brands: A framework for brand building in the digital ageBrilliant Noise
This document provides a framework for building resilient brands in the digital age. It discusses three elements of resilient brands: brand as belief, brand as strategy, and brand as experience. For brand as belief, the document emphasizes identifying a common purpose between the brand and customers. It provides examples of Patagonia and Chipotle finding common purpose. For brand as strategy, it introduces the "hourglass model" to balance top-down and bottom-up brand activities around a common purpose. It discusses how Netflix has transformed its brand strategy. For brand as experience, it stresses that brands are only as strong as the last customer experience.
Storytelling, A New Brand Imperative. CosmoProf Interview with David Altman,...David Altman
David Altman discusses the importance of storytelling for brands to emotionally connect with consumers. He emphasizes that great storytelling encompasses being immersive, interactive, integrated and initiating action. It is also important for brands to be authentic, clear, simple, differentiated, remarkable and not rely solely on price. Brands should cultivate trust through transparency and welcome consumer involvement in co-creating the brand story.
The Game Changer of the PR and Marketing Industry October 2022.pdfInsightsSuccess4
This edition features a handful of PR & Marketing leaders across several sectors that are at the forefront of leading us.
Read More: https://insightssuccess.com/the-game-changer-of-the-pr-and-marketing-industry-october2022/
The trees and the forests, 'why' brand and why usUllash Tiwari
The document discusses brand strategy and why it is important. It defines a brand as the personality of a product or service. A strong brand is built through every customer interaction and experience. The document advocates developing a holistic brand strategy that guides the customer experience, culture, and messaging. It notes that an effective strategy provides clarity on where the brand needs to go and how to get there.
This document discusses the pros and cons of celebrity marketing for a summer training project. It begins by acknowledging those who helped with the project. The executive summary notes that choosing the right celebrity is important for brand building and that celebrity endorsements can increase sales but the product still needs to deliver value. The introduction discusses how celebrities are commonly used in advertising to gain attention and influence purchases in the short term, though their impact on long term loyalty is debatable. It also notes that brands use celebrities to create associations in consumers' minds between the celebrity and brand through repeated exposure.
As a speaker on a panel discussion at the recent Brand Innovators Summit, I focused my talk on employee advocacy at Avanade and how social media activity can be maximized with emerging technologies such as a dedicated social media sharing portal.
This document discusses the gap between marketing and sales departments and what sales needs from marketing. It provides 7 strategies:
1. Marketing should focus on generating high-quality leads that are well-defined and nurtured over time, rather than just collecting names.
2. Both marketing and sales must create strong value propositions that clearly articulate the business results and outcomes customers will achieve, rather than just focusing on product features.
3. Marketing needs to provide sales with an understanding of customers' status quo situations and typical decision makers they may encounter.
4. Marketing should make sales aware of potential "triggering events" that could create an immediate need for their products or services.
The document argues
This document discusses several women entrepreneurs in the retail industry in India. It profiles Richa Kar, founder and CEO of Zivame, an online lingerie retailer. It also profiles Suchi Mueherjee, founder and CEO of Limeroad.com, an e-commerce fashion site. Finally, it discusses Mira Kulkarni, director of Forest Essentials, a natural skincare and haircare brand based on Ayurveda. It highlights their backgrounds and accomplishments, as well as their visions for the future growth of their companies.
This document is from MARCOM, a student marketing group at MIB, welcoming new students and introducing the latest edition of their magazine Brand.i. The magazine covers innovations in marketing like QR codes, gamification, and neuro-marketing. It also discusses concepts like sustainability and social media. The editorial team and authors from various top business schools are thanked. The convenor Ashita Sharma invites feedback on the magazine. The magazine aims to explore "the Next in Marketing" as the field is constantly changing with new technologies and customer demands.
This document provides guidance on developing an effective employer branding strategy. It lists several "dos" and "don'ts" for employer branding. The key recommendations are to [1] share an honest portrayal of the realities of working at the company rather than exaggerating strengths, [2] align employer branding messaging with existing company marketing efforts to ensure consistency, and [3] showcase the meaningful work and impact of employees to attract talent interested in innovation and purpose. Developing an employer brand requires assessing current communications and making adjustments to follow these best practices.
Bob Pritchard is an outstanding businessman who has enjoyed exceptional success in the United States,
Europe and Australasia.
More Information: http://www.icmi.com.au/bob-pritchard
this is a series written based on the book - 22 Immutable law of branding , written by Al Ries & Laura Ries. All the excerpts, examples taken from the book is for educational purpose. PPT uploader do not claim any rights on the content taken from the book.
Similar to The sellers of small things livemint (20)
1. 11/29/12 The sellers of small things - Livemint
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Mon, Nov 26 2012. 08 39 PM IST
The sellers of small things
Three marketers tell us what it takes to survive in the big, bad, tough world of sales and marketing
Sonya Dutta Choudhury
Get a Glimpse | Packaged consumer goods marketing
Packaged consumer goods marketing jobs today are looking better
than ever. They have high growth markets and all the action. And yes,
they may begin with the squelch and mud (read that as a mandatory
stint in rural markets) and the sheer exhaustion of selling from shop
to shop, but they move on to the glitzy world of brand launches,
hobnobbing with celebrity endorsers, and designing ads that take
the world of consumers by storm.
We spoke to three sales and marketing professionals and
discovered that while some part of their job can be about attending
photo shoots in exotic places, a large part is dedicated to number-
crunching and being able to learn from failure.
(From left to right) Anil Vishwanathan, Siladitya Sarangi and
••••••••••••
Deepika Warrier .
Deepika Warrier, 43
Marketing director—beverages, PepsiCo India region, Gurgaon
PepsiCo’s marketing office on the fourth floor in DLF Corporate Park,
Glam factor: Working w ith M.S. Dhoni and Didier Drogba is the Gurgaon, has balloons, a giant basket of fruit, and pinboards crammed
glamorous part of Warrier’s job. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint. with collages on most desks. Amid all this colour is Deepika Warrier’s
cabin, with the doors open. “I don’t mind anyone walking in; I believe in
not being regimented,” says the marketing director. An honours graduate from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi who has done her MBA from
the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Warrier has been at PepsiCo for over a decade. She joined the company in 2000 as general
manager, marketing—potato chips, working on the brand Lay’s, after stints in Britannia, Gillette and Ogilvy and Mather. Since then, she has
worked in various divisions within PepsiCo, including a stint in Mexico (2005-07), as category marketing director for the youth/fun and
snacks portfolio on brands like Doritos and Cheetos.
The assignment: As marketing director, Warrier is in charge of strategic development and promotion of beverages, including brands like
Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mirinda, 7UP, Nimbooz, Mountain Dew, Aquafina and Slice. It is her job to work the mega campaigns for these brands.
Signing on cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni and working with international soccer sensation Didier Drogba may be the most glamorous
parts of her job, but there is a whole underlying set of activities as well.
“I divide my day into business issues and people issues,” she says. The business issues include designing creatives, planning and
executing advertising and other promotional campaigns. PepsiCo works with three advertising agencies, one media agency and one public
relations agency. Along with Warrier’s own team of five direct reportees and 35 indirect reportees, they form part of the larger marketing
team. Meetings with these teams, as well as with cross-functional teams like supply chain, research and development and sales, take up
most of Warrier’s day.
The people issues are centred around her team of reportees. “As you move
"Sales is something you need to do, otherwise into senior leadership, your role changes from a doer to more of a recognizer
and a champion of good ideas. You need to spend more time motivating the
you become an ivory-castle marketer."
younger talent in your team and dealing with their career issues,” explains
Warrier.
Most proud of: Pepsi’s T20 Change the Game World Cup campaign last year, with Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor, Dhoni and the Indian
cricket team. “We had a terrific year on the back of that campaign, in terms of both sales and other measures like equity growth and brand
affinity,” she says.
Failures have taught me: “Be willing to take risks but ensure they are not fatal risks. With Lay’s we introduced flavours like ‘chaat’ and
‘chicken’. Both had great responses from consumers during the trial stages. But both bombed after we launched them. ‘Chaat’ started well
but the growth didn’t sustain, it bombed so much that we had to recall the flavour a year later. With ‘chicken’ we had a major backlash with
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2. 11/29/12 The sellers of small things - Livemint
retailers,” she says.
Why selling comes before marketing: While working at Gillette in 1997, Warrier spent a year and a half in trade marketing, selling buckets
(as part of a special promotion scheme) and brushes to the trade in the wholesale markets of Delhi. “I fell into mud and got trampled by
buffaloes in the wholesale markets of Sadar Bazar in Delhi. Did I thrive? No. But sales is something you need to do, otherwise you become
an ivory-castle marketer,” she says.
What I look for in the people I hire: Confidence, groundedness, a knowledge of strengths and weaknesses, and the ability to learn. Also
the ability to work in a cross-functional team, partnering with sales or creative agencies.
Work-life balance: Warrier tries to encourage her team to leave office on time. “We have one day a week on Wednesdays where we try to
get people home by 5.30pm. In case you have to stay on, you have to send me a formal mail explaining why, and also pay up `500 as a fine,
which goes into a party pool. Unfortunately, we manage to collect a lot of money,” she confesses ruefully. Warrier says her stint in Mexico
taught her the importance of doing things outside of work and how outside interests like reading, photography and travel could actually
make you a better marketer.
Money matters: Could range from ` 80 lakh to ` 2.5 crore.
••••••••••••
Siladitya Sarangi, 29
Area sales manager, Marico, Mumbai
“You have to be where the action is. The more you can maximize the
In the field: Sarangi’s days are spent touring markets and retail time in the market, the better benefits you get in sales,” says Siladitya
outlets. Photo: Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint. Sarangi. The management graduate from Xavier’s Institute of
Management, Bhubaneswar, joined Marico in 2008. His main task is to
look after the sales of a basket of products, including flagship ones like Parachute hair oil and Saffola cooking oil.
The assignment: His days are usually spent touring the markets and retail outlets in Mumbai, and he reaches the sales office in suburban
Andheri in the evenings. The day begins at 9.30am. There are the kirana stores that stock Saffola and Quaker oats and Parachute, medical
shops that stock products like Mediker and hair oil—Sarangi must visit all these, along with the general stores and cosmetic stores that
keep Marico products.
There is a different set of sales programmes for each product, and Sarangi spends time working with his territory sales representative and
his merchandisers to increase sales and brand visibility. “One of the good parts of being in sales is that you have people reporting to you at
a nascent stage in your career; this teaches you people management,” he says.
By 3.30pm, Sarangi heads for the office in Andheri to finish administrative, backend work.
Most proud of: Upping sales in the Goa territory during his stint as a sales manager in Goa in 2010-11. “I felt the market had a potential to
grow from `50 lakh to `80 lakh,” says Sarangi, who proposed that the sales schemes for retail outlets be changed to more long-term ones.
Sales zoomed to `90 lakh.
Failures have taught me: “Everything you try in the market doesn’t always
"Everything you try in the market doesn’t always work, but that shouldn’t prevent you from trying,” says Sarangi. “Sales were
lagging in the outlying Thane district of Maharashtra, in areas like Dahanu and
work, but that shouldn’t prevent you from trying."
Talasari, for Marico. It was decided to double sales representative visits to this
market in order to get more sales volumes. Sales did grow, but only 20%.
Purchasing power parity was a problem, not the lack of servicing, and the increase in sales did not justify the extra effort we had put into
servicing that market,” says Sarangi, who subsequently reduced sales coverage to the original levels.
Why selling comes before marketing: Selling and being in the market provides real-world exposure. As an MBA it’s easy to come and say
increase sales from five pieces to six, says Sarangi. But only if you’ve been from outlet to outlet will you know how difficult it is. There are lots
of issues like these. For example, do incentives work? Should you run a particular kind of incentive? These are things you can only learn
from the ground level.
What I look for in the people I hire: The ability to plan, to be good at number-crunching and interpreting data.
Work-life balance: Sarangi enjoys travelling, especially to Goa, whenever he can. It’s a fun destination with the added bonus of family; his
brother works in the hospitality industry there.
Money matters: Sarangi prefers not to say. Industry estimates for this level range from `6-10 lakh per annum.
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3. 11/29/12 The sellers of small things - Livemint
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Anil Vishwanathan, 35
Vice-president, chocolates, Cadbury India Ltd (part of Mondelez International Inc.), Mumbai
Anil Vishwanathan has the corner office on the first floor of the iconic
Connecting the dots: Having outside interests actually helps the Cadbury House. It has trees outside and certificates, awards and
marketing process, says Vishw anathan. Photo: Abhijit photographs inside. Vishwanathan has been a chocolate man for as
Bhatlekar/Mint long as he can remember—he joined Cadbury straight from the Indian
Institute of Management, Calcutta, in 2000 as a management trainee.
“Simply put, my job is to make people eat more chocolate,” he says. Vishwanathan says the per capita global consumption figures for
chocolate are 1kg per year, but the figure for India is only 100g, leaving him ample opportunity to work for more growth. If this means getting
to work on popular ad campaigns like Ramesh Suresh, well that’s just another perk of the job.
The assignment: Vishwanathan works on four chocolate brands —Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Silk, Bournville and Perk. He is also part of the
larger marketing team that looks at advertising and marketing of all Cadbury brands, including the biscuit portfolio of Oreo cookies.
Vishwanathan has a team of 14, six of them direct reportees. Besides this team there are other experts. “The marketing world is very
complex, there are digital experts, corporate affairs experts, advertising experts; and since in marketing in most cases it is the team that
takes decisions, getting everyone into a room and making decisions is important,” says Vishwanathan.
Vishwanathan travels to markets like Chennai and Kolkata two-three times a
"People who can be analytical, those who can month. “I have lunch with the distributor and his sales force and then meet
scratch beneath the data to understand the retailers. There is no substitute for this kind of frontline feedback. It’s the best
people issues, do well." way to gauge the pulse of the market in terms of reactions to products,” he
says.
Most proud of: The successful launch of Oreo in India in 2011. “Kraft had just acquired Cadbury and they were keen to launch their popular
global brand here. The Oreo launch was a challenge for various reasons. The biscuits market in India consisted of well-entrenched players
like Parle and Britannia, who had been around for years. Besides the product—the Oreo biscuit—itself was different in a difficult way; it was
black and had a slightly bitter chocolate taste. The team designed their advertising to appeal to both parent and child. Vishwanathan feels
the ads worked because they managed to capture the zeitgeist of the evolving Indian parenting style—that of parents as fun companions
and friends rather than arbitrary authority. The launch was a success, and Vishwanathan says Oreo today has a 2% market share of the
entire biscuits market in India. “This may not sound like a lot, but it is more than established brands like Bourbon and Krackjack,” he says.
Failures have taught me: Just because you tick all the boxes in terms of research doesn’t mean a new product will succeed. In 2004,
Vishwanathan helped launch fruit-flavoured gems and also Dairy Milk desserts with fillings like kalakand and tiramisu. “We were confident
these would succeed; all the consumer research was positive. But both the products bombed, leading us to question ourselves about our
decisions and looking for what went wrong.”
Why selling comes before marketing: “Pretty much everybody starts in sales. You can sit in your room and devise strategies, but you won’t
get the pulse till you have on-the-ground experience,” says Vishwanathan. He started his job with a sales stint—three months in
Sindhudurg, in the small towns of coastal Maharashtra—followed by three and a half years in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. “It was tough. It is
physically hard work going from store to store taking orders. You see yourself as a management graduate from a premium institution.
When you arrive you think people should take notice, but for the retailer you are just another salesman. Only then do you understand what
the job of a salesman is, how to keep him motivated. It helps you to understand how to make a marketing plan and execute it.”
What I look for in the people I hire: An aptitude to work with other people. “Marketing has real-life problems, so people who can be
analytical, those who can scratch beneath the data to understand the people issues, do well.”
Work-life balance: Vishwanathan runs marathons, running for a few hours early morning at least three days a week. He ran his fourth
marathon a few weeks ago in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, clocking a personal best of 3 hours, 50 minutes. “Since marketing is about
connecting the dots it is important to have some outside interests as well; it helps to have a passion which lets you think laterally and gives
creative energy to the marketing process as well,” says Vishwanathan.
Money matters: Could range from `50 lakh to `1crore.
Every month, we explore a profession through the lives of three executives at different stages in their careers.
Tell us which profession you want to know more ab out at b usinessoflife@livemint.com
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