‘Penning’ a new brand odyssey

Deepak Jain’s vision has transformed Add gel from a regional brand to a household name in India. He shares with Shephali Bhatt how he owes it to his father and his insights from Gen Y

Deepak Jain
COO, Add Gel

In 1990, his father M. C. Jain started a company with the brand name Advert Pens, and in over a period of two decades, during the journey that saw Advert transform to Add Gel, they have grown in terms of quality, in terms of value, and in terms of scale. With operations in more than 40 countries right now, Add Gel has a strong brand image accompanied by a vibrant consumer recall in the country.

Deepak Jain, now the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Add Gel, has been an active part of the company’s operations for eight years. He shares, “When I joined the company, the corporate and export sector growth in our product category was minimal. I saw that this is the upcoming area that has to be tapped fast. I started with corporate sales, met clients for promotional activities, and then shifted to handling exports. And now more than 1500 companies know me by my name and my face. They rely on my services”. Talking about challenges, he simply comments that challenges are never within the organization but outside. Jain’s mantra is quality and good service and he believes that the customer should feel proud when he is holding an Add Gel pen. “And we have succeeded in achieving that in the past decade,” he says.

Sharing an anecdotal learning from the past, he says, “One thing that I have learnt is that every product has its own market. Be it any segment, automobile, electronics or any FMCG product, there’s a volume market and there’s a niche market. We have already succeeded on the niche market front for we deliver the best quality, but at a higher price of course. Our customers have accepted that if it’s an Add Gel pen, it has to be expensive; it has to be a world class quality pen. Even today, our competitors come up with cheaper low quality products with less than Rs. 10 as the MRP, but we don’t have anything that’s priced at less than Rs. 20. In fact, our largest selling pen is Add Gel Achiever, which is priced at Rs. 40. And we are still growing in volumes.”

Now, Jain aims for Add Gel to be in the top 20 big brands of India, in terms of brand recall value and consumer perception, and obviously sales turnover, but all the more, he wants people to know that Add Gel is the company that they can rely on.

On being asked about the tricks of the trade that he has learnt, he says, “You need to be smart, need to be fast, you need to stick to the fact that the consumer is always right. Moreover it is very important for you to gain respect in whatever field you are working on, in terms of the commitments that you have made”.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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A travelogue that promises to thrill!

Discloses to Rajlakshmi Saikia Bhimwal & Angshuman Paul the strategy behind the travel company successfully selling premium as well as mass products to travellers

Sudip Ghose
Director Marketing, Samsonite South Asia Pvt. Ltd.

The various Ps of marketing – a concept popularised by the marketing guru Philip Kotler – have been widely accepted by all marketers and marketing managers across the world as being essential elements of any marketing mix. But there are very few marketers within India who have actually paid heed to these aspects in the true sense. Many simply move in the marketing space according to their gut feel. In this vast and discrete group of marketers, Sudip Ghose, Director, Marketing, Samsonite South Asia Pvt. Ltd, definitely stands out for his attempts to re-define the same marketing mix, and this time, practically. In his own words, he points out to us, “If marketing were all about 4Ps, then all of your people should be knowing everything about your product and its correlation with the 4Ps. Clearly, such correlations cannot be taught but only can be learned by practical experience.”

Backed up with such a belief, Sudip has transformed a boring baggage business into a glamorous travel business and has taken Samsonite from selling travel suitcases and bags to even shoes. And in doing so, he has never compromised with the brand equity and consumer behavior. “I believe that marketing is all about understanding your customers. What he/she wants and where does he/she want it is the basis of marketing, which somehow is defined in 4Ps but as I said, this has to be related to the product that you are offering,” explains Sudip. His deft marketing strategies might be the outcome of his working in various companies prior to joining Samsonite. He’s an alumnus from Narsee Monjee (NMIMS) and has worked in different sectors like optical products (Bausch & Lomb), durables (Whirlpool), electronics (Onida), telecom (RIL), and now in Samsonite, a company that Sudip ensures stays a premium company.

But wonder of wonders, Sudip doesn’t believe in over staffing and has ensured the maximum effectiveness from each individual. “Our marketing team is divided into four segments. There is an umbrella communications team comprising of three people. Brand Samsonite is handled by another three people. Then, there are three people in our American Tourister brand and two people in our shoes segment. So it is a 3-3-3-2 network. I am the 12th man in my team,” he adds with a smile.

The group recently commemorated 100 years of its existence and as a part of such celebration, the brand tied up with Bollywood blockbusters like ‘My Name is Khan’ and revealed a collection of products under the brand name Cosmolite – the world’s strongest and lightest travel gear. He adds that churning out new products is Samsonite’s USP, explaining, “We have just completed 100 years, and in every decade we have brought out something new and revolutionary. Cosmolite is also a product of patented technology.” Sudip opines that they have been able to combine the desired attributes of light and strong bags, and at the same time maintained an element of design and fashion and they plan to keep introducing such high-end products for their discerning customers termed as ‘globe trotters’. Interestingly, whether you are in Mumbai, Tokyo or Cairo, you can get the best of Samsonite, as they launch all products simultaneously across all their markets.

Coming on to American Tourister, Samsonite’s easy on the pocket brand which is positioned against VIP’s Aristocrat. Sudip says, “Working with American Tourister as a brand was a different experience. We had to stop thinking of only style and class; this product is for the mass with class.” He explains the ‘Place’ in marketing mix and clarifies that Samsonite, being a niche brand, is not for everywhere and everyone, but it does have presence in Tier II cities such as Coimbatore, Madurai, Nagpur, Kanpur, et al, and “the idea is to keep expanding.” Currently, Samsonite enjoys an overwhelming 80 per cent market share and thus is not bothered about competition even from premium names like Da Milano and Giordano. The company has recently ventured into the shoe market as well, which Sudip says is because of the simple fact that shoes are also part of travel.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Burning Indian roads on Korean wheels!

What is Hyundai India’s marketing chief doing to ward off competitive eyes? Or is he only bothered about giving his best shot and not worrying about the pack? By Pawan Chabra

Arvind Saxena
Director – Sales & Marketing, Hyundai Motor India

Arvind Saxena is one of those individuals, who have seen the Indian automobile industry being built brick by brick. With a rich experience of 25 years in the industry, Saxena, who is currently the Director of Sales & Marketing division at Hyundai Motor India, has been spearheading the company’s branding and sales efforts for the past five years. After he majored in mechanical engineering from the Motilal Nehru Regional Engineering College, Allahabad, he got enrolled in the MBA degree course at Lucknow University. Saxena started his career with Escorts as a Management Trainee in the Sales & Marketing department. Realising his capabilities at an early stage, he was handed over control of Escorts’ auto business in Bihar after just a couple of months into his training at the company. Recalling those days, he says, “It was actually the best assignment that has ever been given to me.” After a successful stint of nine years at Escorts, he moved to Bajaj Auto as a Regional Marketing Manager for the company. He was put in charge of the company’s marketing operations in the Eastern and Northern region of the country. Saxena also has a long list of achievements to share, and they have all been result-driven performances. After a short stint at Bajaj, he joined Maruti Suzuki, where he worked for ten long years. He quickly rose up the hierarchy and was spearheading Maruti Suzuki’s all-India sales force (in the capacity of Chief General Manager – Sales) before he joined Hyundai in November 2005, where he was allocated the task to manage sales and marketing operations at the all-India level.

While at Maruti, he ensured that the company maintained its #1 spot in the Indian market. From there, he jumped ship to the #2 Hyundai, which was then and still is, chipping-away at the leader’s market share day in and day out. So how is Saxena taking this change of side? Is there a sudden antagonism towards all in the Maruti camp? Disagrees Saxena, “There is always a sense of competitiveness, but even today, I have close friends at Maruti. But when you are at the marketplace you are definitely competing with each other.” But one fact which he cannot deny is that a lot has changed for Hyundai since he joined the company. And it comes in the name of heightened competition. Though Hyundai continued to play the right cards by banking on the Indian small car segment (which has always attracted maximum volumes in the industry), competition has grown by the day. In recent years, players like GM, Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan et al, have moved into the small car category to make the most of the opportunity at hand. But Saxena disagrees on this front as well. He boldly dismisses any worry, as he says, “The market has expanded well over the past few years, with many product launches happening in the small car segment. But Hyundai has also done very well. Five years back our market share stood at 17%, and despite competition rising, our market share today is close to 20%, which more or less describes how well we have been doing.” Numbers surely prove his point.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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