The ‘KUMBH’ for marketers
The Pitch CMO Summit promises to be a mega event bringing together industry stalwarts and exploring new horizons in the marketing and branding firmament. As our markets and consumers evolve at a ferocious pace, Indian marketing too is undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts. The consumer is becoming more value-seeking, and quality and service conscious at the same time. Marketers, while being aware, have played the role of catalyst in this change. Pitch, India’s most respected marketing magazine from the exchange4media Group, has been documenting these changes for eight years now, while playing the role of a marketing think-tank itself. Every year, to commemorate its anniversary, Pitch gets the crème-de-la-crème of India’s marketers together on a single platform – the Pitch CMO Summit – to share their successes and learn from others’ experiences. As Pitch celebrates its eighth anniversary in October, the exchange4media Group is organising the much-awaited CMO Summit in November. It will be held across three cities – Mumbai, Bengaluru and New Delhi on November 21, November 23 and November 25 respectively. India’s top marketers and heads of India’s best brands will make detailed presentations on their marketing success stories. This is the first time that the summit is being held in Bengaluru. With the evolvement of the consumer, marketers are under constant pressure to innovate and come up with ideas to not only catch the consumers’ attention but go a step ahead of their expectations. Leaving behind the woes of 2009-10, when the Indian economy reeled under the slowdown, marketers have done some remarkable and exemplary work in the last one year. Aptly, the theme of the summit this year is: “Indian Marketing: Breaking New Grounds”. Announcing the theme and dates of the summit, Annurag Batra, Chairman and Editorin- Chief, exchange4media Group, said, “The Pitch CMO Summit is not only India’s most respected marketing event, but the most coveted too. It is the Indian marketing landscape’s definitive marketing and branding conference. In short, this summit is the ‘Kumbh’ of marketers.” Talking about the evolving Indian consumer, Amit Agnihotri, co-founder & director, exchange4media Group and Editor, Pitch Magazine, said, “As consumers, we are open to experimentation. We are not just hung up on the past. We like brands that relate to us and are not snooty about their country of origin. We have embraced the new media like nowhere else in the world. However, we are not yet ready to completely let go of our legacy. We still value our cherished traditions and family values.” “Savvy marketers are certainly breaking new grounds,” he said. Players like Blackberry, Vodafone, Reckitt Benckiser, Croma, Café Coffee Day in sectors like telecom, FMCG, retail and QSR are tailoring their offerings in mass consumption categories, and are generating volumes. Then, a host of brands like Kinderjoy, Crocs, Google are breaking new ground to create new categories altogether. At the same time, aggressive regional players like Mankind Pharma, VI-John, Wagh Bakri, Ghadi Detergent are taking on MNCs and established market leaders without any fear. Of course, not all are succeeding. There are plenty of corpses in the brand playground! To name a few, Pepsi MAX, Parle Smart Chips, Marks & Spencer and even Maruti’s bet on the premium cars segment – Kizashi. “In these exciting times, it came naturally to us at Pitch to take a microscopic look at brands and companies that are ‘Breaking New Grounds’,” Agnihotri said. The summit will explore how brands have broken new ground in any one or more ways: • New product development • Pricing innovations • Marketing communication effectiveness • Pioneering new distribution & retailing trends • Customer experience management • Marketing effectiveness in undermarketed categories Some marketers who will make key presentations at the summit include Chander Mohan Sethi, CMD, Reckitt Benckiser (Keynote Speaker); Neeraj Chandra, COO, Britannia Industries (Keynote Speaker); Sandeep Kaul, Head, Personal Care Division, ITC (Special Address); Anuradha Aggarwal, Vice-president, Brand Communication and Insights, Vodafone Essar; Bhuwan Gaurav, Marketing Head, Tanishq; Christian Saffer, Marketing Director, BMW India; Krishnadeep Baruah, Director Marketing, RIM India (BlackBerry); K Ramakrishnan, President, Marketing, Cafe Coffee Day; Lutz Kothe, Head of Marketing and PR, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Group Sales India; Nigel Wark, Executive Director of Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford India; Sharmili Rajput, Marketing Director, Oriflame India; Srinivas Murthy, Director, Marketing (Flavours, Coca Cola India; Sumit Sahay, Marketing Head, Infiniti Retail (Croma); and Vidur Vyas, MarketingDirector, PepsiCo India- Foods.
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