Sudhir Sitapati and Sanjiv MehtaSudhir Sitapati calls Sanjiv Mehta a born marketer. And Mehta calls Sitapati a marketing immigrant.Coming from a CA background and getting into finance, Mehta mentioned that he was influenced by his father, who used to work in a reserve bank all his career. “My capabilities in marketing have grown by being in the vicinity of great market years,” Mehta added.Donning multiple hats in his career, Mehta shared that the most important part is the love for business. “I love business, creating value, and understanding consumers. The reason I love marketing and marketers is because they are the fulcrum of businesses like Unilever,” he added.Sitapati highlighted the importance of understanding consumers, and Unilever provided examples of early marketing battles fought. Sharing an example of sensitive marketing, Mehta spoke about his time when he was working in Arabia as a board member and he went to Bangladesh. “Bangladesh was the premier consumer goods company. But they were into three categories and the biggest business which was giving them half the turnover. And two thirds of the profit was toilet soaps,” Mehta shared.Back in the days, Unilever used to make soaps out of tallow. Here, came a local competitor in the picture who had done a good job of understanding the consumers. With vegetable oil noodles, palm oil based noodles from Malaysia, he made the soap. He then went to town overtly, not covertly, saying, he is a colossal and luxon lifewire around subs. Because of tallow, Unilever uses big fat britches anathema to the majority of Muslims, and cow fat, which is an anathema to minority Hindus. The brand got decimated. So when Mehta reached Bangladesh as a board member, the shares tumbled to the lowest ever.“For the first time in the history of the company, it had negative growth, and it had made a loss. To me, that was the baptism by fire in marketing,” Mehta said.At the Brand World Summit 2024, organised by ETBrandEquity.com, Mehta and Sitapati discussed marketing strategies and leadership, emphasising the need for adaptability and consumer-centric approach.Sitapati asked Mehta about his responses to his marketing teams coming to him for present marketing plans, either it’s advertising or media or activation.To which, Mehta mentioned that a company like Unilever, where marketing is the fulcrum around which the company operates, one can never be a CEO, if they don’t have an understanding of marketing.“In my opinion, it’s a team that makes a difference. Always surround yourselves with great marketers, who have done the basic work of understanding the consumers. Understanding how we can create value for the consumers, build a brand identity, which is unique and distinctive,” Mehta said.“Very importantly, understanding not just the functional attributes, but how you can traverse the minds and emotions of the consumers. That’s what a great marketer does,” he added.Sitapati spoke about his tenure as the marketing head of HUL’s food and beverage brand, Brooke Bond Red Label. He reminisced about the big risk that the beverage brand took in the year 2014 with their “Swad apnepan ka”.Mehta said, “The ad explained, going back to the essence of the brand, primarily, it means that you can bridge differences over a great cup of tea.”Speaking about today’s marketing strategies, Mehta said, “The cornerstone of marketing is a sense of marketing, I don’t think it has changed. But the way people bring that alive will change in a very profound way. There is no getting away from technology.”Mehta highlighted how India is still in love with the past and nostalgia takes over every time.“I don’t think in a country like India the 30 seconder has run its course. TV plays an important role but going forward it is bound to come down as brands embrace hyper personalisation,” he addedWith hyper personalisation, contextual advertising, influencer marketing, social commerce and omni channel entering with tech enabled marketing. Mehta advised, “Don’t get obsessed with technology or fear it, but embrace it.”Mehta urges marketers to do a full body immersion when it comes to adopting technology. “There’s no getting away from that. And if you do it, keep the perspective that the cornerstone of marketing, which is understanding consumers, building brands, storytelling, building long term relationships with consumers, and distinct distinctive properties, are not going to change.”Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia, tells Glynda Alves that people are too romantic about the past. “It is shocking how many people still fantasise and spend most of their energy on the 30-second commercial [in 2024]. It’s crazy,” he shares in a free-wheeling interview, encompassing everything from his target audience — a demographic that spans from 11 to 70 — to how working retail honed his marketing chops.
Published On Jul 6, 2024 at 08:55 AM IST
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