AIMA organizes the Indian Marketing Congress 2010

India Inc. sees ‘Affordable Innovation’ as a key differentiator in scaling up the market growth

• SBI awarded AIMA RK Swamy High Performance Brand Award 
• Book Release of a special set of Volumes by Dr Jagdish N Sheth:  Legends of Marketing

With the burgeoning brand conscious middle class, continued liberalization, proliferation of media and improved infrastructure, the Indian market is set to be amongst the top three markets in the world. Indian Inc. sees Innovation as the best growth differentiator to scale up the market share especially when the world market is slowly coming out of the recessionary trends. At the opening day of AIMA’s (All India Management Association) two day marketing congress 2010 that began today at Hotel Le Meridian. This year theme is “Marketing for Emerging India : The Road ahead”.

 

During the first session on ‘Affrordable Product Innovation’ Maruti Suzuki’s Managing Executive Mr. Mayank Pareek, Tata Chemicals COO Dr. Arup Basu and Raymond’s President Retail and Business Mr. Rakesh Pandey opined and shared as to how these companies made affordable product innovation as key tool in lowering the overall product costs and breaking into newer markets with products that were developed for the market at the bottom of the pyramid.

Dr Arup Basu giving examples of product innovation spoke of low cost water purifiers for the masses, iodised salts to fight iodine deficiency and iron, chemical fertilisers being sold to farmers with adequate information said “ Abilty to deliver customised applications through deep understanding minimal frontline presence and low cost back end will give value based innovation.” Tata chemicals recent innovation – Low cost (sub Rs 1000 water purifier Swach is already a huge success in the state of Maharsahtra and the company is looking at selling close to one million units during this fiscal since its launch few weeks back.

Mr. Mayank Pareek said “India needs affordable innovation as India is diverse, unique and so we need affordable solution to create new segments. India will be the springboard for innovation in the world in the coming decade.”  He shared as to how Maruti Suzuki used innovation in the developing new products and expanding the product offerings in the small car segment of which it still is the leader. Maruti’s latest offering ‘Ecco’ is the result of mapping closely the consumer insights and combining it with innovation According to Mr Rakesh Pandey President of Retail and New business Development  Raymond affordable innovation is a game changer provided its not a strip down version and makes  significant difference to the consumers life. He also talked about the process that fuel innovation. 

Earlier in the day , delivering the welcome address Mr. S K Swamy, Congress Co-Chairman & CMD – R K Swamy BBDO Pvt Ltd and President AIMA giving reference to various studies said “ That India is poised to be the largest economy in the years to come and also in terms of purchasing power ability. Importance needs to be given to Innovation , modern retailing, social media, rural economy and creativity to help in the marketing space”

The congress Chairman Dr Jagdish N Sheth -Congress Chairman & Charles H. Kellstadt Chair Professor of Marketing Goizueta Business School, Emory University giving a presentation on the affordability and accessibility said “Marketing practice will be more driven by growth of branded products and services in emerging markets. This is due to aging of affluent nations, rise of new brand conscious middle class, affordable innovations and geoeconomic realignment of the world. Rise of Chindia (China and India) will have the greatest impact on world’s resources, markets and geopolitics.”

Mr. R Gopalakrishnan-Executive Director - Tata Sons Ltd talking about 4 C’s of marketing relevant to India where Jugaad is a way of Life said that “ Challenge, Chaos, Creativity, and Communication are the unique features for  India. We need to be disciplined and analytical to get straight to our target and we have a great time ahead’

Mr. Ramesh Thomas -Chairman Equitor Consulting gave an overview of the parameters in choosing the brands for the first AIMA R K Swamy High Performance brands. The Award aims to celebrate high performance brands and is open to all brands created in India, for India and the world. The High Performance Brand of the Year Award will use consumer and financial data to analyse performance of the brands that are nominated.The eligibility of the awards is open to all brands born in India for India and in existence for the past three years,  has a growth rate higher than of the category for the last two years and in has international sales under the same brand name. This year there were 58 nominations received under various categories. SBI was adjudged the best across the category and was awarded the first AIMA R.K Swamy high performance brand award.

In Session II: “High Performance Brands – Case Studies” chaired by Mr S K Swamy had a presentation of Mr Piyush Pandey Executive Chairman & National Creative Director (India & South Asia) – O & M in which he gave an overview of The Indian Advertising sector and the best performing brands.

Mr Vivek Bali Group President Global Brand Marketing CMD Spice Communications and Mr  Ashok Belani  CEO - Tata Johnson Controls Automotive Ltd talked about the traditional  approaches to branding that needs to be re-examined as the social responsibility of business in general, and marketing in particular was rising globally.

In the third session chaired by Mr Pranjal Sharma Executive Editor – BloombergUTV saw participation of Ms Anisha Motwani Chief Marketing Officer Max New York Life Insurance Mr Suparna  Mitra Global Marketing Head -Titan and Mr B M Vyas Managing Director Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation limited.

The congress saw participation from 300 marketing professionals across the industry genre including management students who had come to listen and understand the innovational strategies of Unique India, where made for India would rule rather than made global to act local. They also got to hear from transformational leaders, the innovative strategies to stay the course in India.

The second day will touch upon interesting topics such as Impact of social media on marketing, Future of India’s retailing , Creativity in communication and Rural  marketing.