CMO Corner - Hindu Business Line

My most memorable marketing initiative –


This would definitely be the ‘Karo Zyada Ka Irada’ campaign for Max New York Life. We decided to adopt a challenger brand strategy which was based on an ambition to own a differentiated position in the market place with innovative marketing programmes. We took Life Insurance to a higher level – Financial planning for a better future. Life insurance has traditionally been sold on the plank of duty and responsibility. It has been about jeevan, zindagi and suraksha. But a resurgent India was rewriting the rules of living in its mission to create, indulge and celebrate. Earnings, savings, investment, consumption was the force multiplier that would feed this virtuous cycle of need and want as people moved from denial to desire. That was the basis of ‘Karo Zyada Ka Irada’ campaign. It was an integrated launch across multiple consumer touch points .The efficacy of the positioning was proved with the brand awareness moving upwards by 25 points in just 18 months.

My first product launch –
My first product launch was Nestle Polo with its ‘Mint with a hole’ campaign. I was working with Mudra then. The creative duo of Freddie Birdie and Naved Akhtar was behind the idea. We had a wonderful client in Nestle who was very appreciative and approved almost all innovations on the campaign that we took to him. The campaign won every possible award across categories. It won the 'Campaign of the Year' award and was instrumental in Mudra winning the A&M 'Agency of the year' award.

A setback I have learnt from
For me it was not a setback. It was a learning. I had once walked out of a job, because it was not good enough, without having one in hand. Even though I emerged stronger from that experience, looking back I think I would have done it differently. The initial tendency is to deal with these situations head-on but one needs to dwell deeper and take a careful step.

My marketing idol
SRK in a recent interview with zoom TV spoke about the amount of effort he puts into marketing his projects. His marketing efforts both on screen and off screen including his film promotion, TV shows, stage events have made him into a larger than life persona, one that the masses love. A large amount of his success can be directly attributed to the widespread marketing efforts he embarks on for any of his projects. Who hasn't seen the promos of Don, Ra One and KBC in its various avatars including traditional media, merchandising, online, road shows etc. Being one of the top grossing and the most bankable stars is no mean feat.

Where I get my insights from
Life is nothing but a set of experiences. And I gain my insights from these life experiences. If one can observe experiences just like any object then one would get a new perspective to learning.

Insights are a result of observation and curiosity. Some insights also originate from a point of frustration, a pain point or a problem statement. One needs to have an insatiable hunger and morbid curiosity to get under the skin of the customer to un-earth powerful insights.

Powerful insights can only be imbibed by a keen observer of life, aided by good questioning.

How B-school has helped in my career
B school helped me streamline my thought process. I specialized in marketing in MBA. And the two years I spent in B school helped me develop the basics of business methodology. It gave me a perspective of how each area in marketing from brand management to creative aspects worked. There was immense learning through the case studies and basic theories that prepared me to face the on-ground challenges.

How advertising has influenced/helped my marketing career
Advertising is a great learning ground where the fundamentals of brand are taught. Brand building is learnt in hands on manner, does not happen in any other place. Working across multiple categories & consumer types helps in absorbing diverse information, understanding how the consumer mind functions & most importantly why? Advertising sharpens strategic thinking capability & helps develop creative appreciation.

Marketing lessons from insurance, automobiles
Life Insurance is the ‘business of life’ and not finance. It touches the most memorable and emotional milestones of one’s life from marriage, to child birth to children’s education etc. People also have to be prepared for sudden accidents and eventuality. At each stage there is a different need that arises. The marketing strategy therefore has to emanate from a deeper understanding of this entire journey.

Automobiles however are related to ‘lifestyle’. As and when one upgrades one’s lifestyle the need and wants changes. And hence changes the aspiration for a new car. The strategy here is more focused on positioning the product that fits into customer’s lifestyle.

Image of Power

Whenever I think power dressing, I always think of the late Rajmata of Jaipur Gayatri Devi. She wore her silk chiffons with as much élan as her Polo suits. In both type of clothes and role she made her presence felt. My point is that power dressing is job specific and culturally relative. In India, we have a variety of ensemble to choose from. The age old sarees make as much an impact as a well tailored suit. It is the way one carries it.
Power dressing has now percolated to every level of any organization. I sometimes hide a smile of satisfaction when I see women stand out in their attire, in a room full of serious men with uninteresting suits. Though substance is important, it is equally vital for women to project the right image.
My personal choice is always skewed towards clothes that are comfortable. I wear both western and Indian clothes in office. The key for women is to look professional, yet retain their femininity. I add accessories such as a simple string of pearls, ear drops or sometimes silk scarves with my suits. Fashion magazines have made the terms ‘business formals’ and ‘business casuals’ very common. My mantra about Friday dressing is casual yet chic. I like carrying leather tote’s that are not too big but large enough to hold my ipad and other essentials. A subtle hint of perfume, a wrist watch and comfortable shoes, and I am ready to face the world.
Lastly, I must stress the point that it is the attitude that counts. Be positive, look confident, smile and people will look up to you.

Anisha Motwani - Profile April issue

The new age Work- life balance - Times Accent

In college we were a batch of 40 girls. Of which only 10 are still working and even lesser number of them are working to their full potential. A common thread that runs through any woman’s life is – she studies, works for a few years, gets married, continues working, has a child and that’s where the thorns start pricking in a bed of roses.

The challenges of motherhood conquer every other hurdle a woman has faced. Some look for part time jobs, others start working after the baby begins school and yet the tug of war remains.

They are what I call the ‘Parenting career woman’. These women face the perennial dilemma of - 'I need to make these choices because my family is a priority' or 'I need to make these choices to make my life work.' Eventually they pick one.

I have always come across stereotypical issues coming in the way of a woman while taking a call on their career. It is easy to get swept away by the overwhelming need to choose one – profession or managing a home. It is their own ghosts and mindsets that come in the way of work-life balance.

But there are also women who have kept working even after having children, taken a break for them and continued to climb the corporate ladder after the break. The societal understanding of marriage as a threat to career or vice versa is slowly changing.

Here are some tips that suits most of us:

1) Set your priorities. You have to have a schedule for yourself. That includes work, family time and time for your own self.
2) Don’t give up too easily. Some people also look for less important roles, as women don’t necessarily want to get to the top; they want to be good at what they do.
3) Slow down or even take a break if the juggle is too much to handle. Enhance your skills in the meantime, so that when you return the organization cannot overlook you.
4) Big job is too big for me syndrome – Most women feel that they will not be able to handle the top job as it comes with bigger responsibilities. What they forget is that with higher responsibilities comes empowerment. Look for ways to lighten the load by delegating work and focus on the most important deliveries.

Once Jack Welch of General Electric had said, “There’s no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.” It is however true for both men and women.

Work life balance for women can be dealt with. It just needs some reflection of women on their life with some support from organizations.

Reduced aspirations do not mean women employees are not talented or good at what they do. While women are given flexible working hours, stay at home options – they should also be judged by their output and results. It should not be about ‘where she is working from’; it should be about ‘what she is delivering’.

In today’s 24x7 connected business world, work can be done from anywhere and at any time. It does not have to mean that an employee works less. Instead it means that organizations are empowering employees to do their work on a schedule that works for both. So what if she is working from her dining table? This kind of flexibility increases employee morale and woman executives are able to manage their life and career well.

From having a boss to becoming one: Business Standard March 2012

Intro: More and more women are becoming entrepreneurs and bringing in their edge to work for them
Anisha Motwani
Whenever I see the idol of goddess Durga, it reminds me of the fact that women have played multiple roles not only since ages but even in our religious scriptures.

Women know how to double up a spoon as a knife; they know when the man says “I am alright” it means, “just leave me alone”; at work women know who can really deliver and when the need comes women make a quick switch from working for others to being their own boss. All this, while being the nurturing mother and caring wife, all rolled into one.

I do not mean to start the clichéd debate of women and men here. What I want to point out is the way women know how to adapt to situations. The society is going through what I call a metamorphosis of sorts. Nuclear families today are becoming bigger reality than they ever were. And women are proving it yet again that they are adapting and accepting to that change. The change is reflected in the way women want to function today.

Women aspired for corporate careers keen to break many a glass ceilings. But then realities of life catch up. Women get married; a few years down the line have children. And that is when the consequences and problems of a nuclear family impact them. It’s quite possible that while going on their maternity leave they’d marked their calendar on when they want to join back work. But then, life changes.

Corporate careers are demanding. And though there are some corporates doing a lot to make women employees feel comfortable with incentives like extended maternity, half day half pay etc., the reality is that when these women get back to their workplaces, they are torn between being a performing mom or a performing executive.

This is the inflection point that forces them to introspect - at crucial crossroads of life, forced to make a choice between being with the children or getting back to a full time career. Even though advertisers have smartly used the syndrome by giving women ‘ideas’ to manage a job and child – on ground realities are not as smooth as the film.

Innovative as they are, many women have found a solution to the desire of being a good mum, wife and be financially independent. Small or big, women are taking to entrepreneurship that gives them the flexibility of working when, where and how they want. Like they say, ‘Necessity is the mother of all inventions’; some of the best known entrepreneur’s that have emerged are from ‘post-partum syndrome’.

Take for instance Saundarya Rajesh of Avtaar Career Creators. After working in Citi Bank for a number of years, Saundarya quit her job after she had her child. She started teaching MBA students and that’s when she realised that likje her there were many who wanted to do something with ‘flexi-hours’. Her primary goal was to provide career opportunities to people with unique situation in life (women with breaks in career, elderly folks who still had half a decade of service in them post-retirement) required to be presented as an alternate talent source to organisations. Today the company works with more than 400 clients.


Offbeat is the new beat

Recently, I read and interesting article about Dolly Jain. An intelligent young girl who was married off early into a family where women only wear saris. A careful dresser, she always got noticed for the way she carried off herself. Then, on a usual day, she helped somebody in her locality to tie a sari. Soon some more came for help. Then an accidental workshop and before she knew, she had a fulltime, offbeat profession as a sari draper. She loves what she does and has even got featured in Limca Book of Records for the number of styles she can tie a sari in. Her high-profile client list include women like Kokila Ambani and Neeta Ambani to Mrs Rahul Bajaj to Mittals to Jindals to our Bollywood divas (from Sridevi to Katrina Kaif and Kangana Ranaut), to innumerable women and girls.

What they probably draw their drive and innovations from, is the situations they usually go through as a woman. Take for example a typical situation where a recipe book mentions a certain ingredient. While a man would have gone on in a very usual way of finding that particular ingredient, a woman will think out of the box and look for an ingredient close to the recipe or may be just give it her own twist.

And that is exactly what they are doing in today’s time of nuclear families. They want to be around for their family and yet have their financial independence.

Second to none

What probably makes women good entrepreneurs I think is the fact that they have an inborn talent of managing people and situations and multitasking with perfect ease.

Women I feel are the power drivers for entrepreneurial rise. A study entitled ‘Growing role of women Entrepreneur in India’, by Peter F Drucker points out , “Women owned businesses are highly increasing in the economies of almost all countries The hidden entrepreneurial potentials of women have gradually been changing with the growing sensitivity to the role economic status in the society. Skill Knowledge adaptability in business are the main reason for women to take up entrepreneurship. They span generations and are there in every field. From Tractors to television from biscuits to banking from HR to hospitals Denied entry into a male bastion they create another industry like Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon. According to her hard work commitment and caring in word and deed helps people overcome obstacles.”
The societal change
What strikes me most about achievers is their inclusive approach. If they grow, they don’t grow alone.

In fact I’d say the women entrepreneurs must be considered in the economic development of the nation for various reasons. No wonder women entrepreneurs are now being recognised as an important untapped source of economic growth.

Little surprise in the first half of 2011, women angel investors represented 12 percent of the angel market, and women-owned businesses accounted for 12 percent of the entrepreneurs seeking angel capital. While these numbers aren’t outstanding, they do represent progress. More impressive is that 26 percent of the women entrepreneurs seeking angel investment in the first half of the year received it. In fact, the report notes, the percentage of women actually getting angel investments is above the overall average.

Women Entrepreneurs, points our Drucker “tend to be highly motivated and self directed. They also exhibit a high internal locus of control and achievement, possess certain specific characteristics that promote their creativity and generate new ideas and ways of doing things.”

Why we have success stories written in our own country. Look at Shahnaz Husain. A young girl from a traditional family, who was married at the age of 15, emerged from a sheltered life and upbringing, to step into the world of business. She had the will and let nothing come in her way. She started a small parlour from her home four decades ago with a borrowed capital of Rs 35,000 from her father. When the business she decided to get into franchise system and help other women grow. Like she said in an online interview of Business Standard, “A woman manages her different roles of wife, housewife, mother and career woman efficiently. She brings to the work the values of patience, courage, inner strength. The woman’s ability to adapt and adjust is important at work.”

I couldn’t agree more.