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Tag: IAA Awardwinners-2

  • That Star India had a brilliant run in 2012 was proved once again when the broadcast major was declared winner in Marketer of the Year: Media & Entertainment category at the inaugural IAA Leadership Awards held recently in Mumbai

    Meet the IAA Awardwinners-3 | Differentiation is not enough: Gayatri Yadav

    The recipient of the Marketer of the Year for the media and entertainment category, Gayatri Yadav, Executive vice president, Marketing & Communications at Star India, chose to downplay her role in the award and instead credited the team. MxMIndia’s Johnson Napier caught up with Ms Yadav soon after she received the metal from I&B Minister Manish Tewari to gather her reactions on the win and more.

     

    What are your initial reactions to the inaugural Leadership Awards instituted by the IAA?

    This is a fantastic initiative where they’ve managed to get three different disciplines together; it’s something I have not seen anyone else do. The organizers need to be applauded.

     

    The line-up of shortlists under your category comprised the who’s who from Media, most of whom shone brightly with their performance last year. What worked in Star India’s favour?

    Where the award is concerned, I think it belongs to the whole team at Star and not to any one individual. What makes the media as a discipline challenging from a marketing perspective is two aspects: one is that it is a very dynamic category in the world. As a category this is the only one that undergoes a change almost every day. You may have categories like Telecom etc where the pricing and other such factors may change but the product doesn’t see any fundamental change. Media is the only category whose dynamics change every day when you’re catering to the consumer. The other aspect is that the consumer always has infinite choices at his/her disposal and unless you have something exciting to offer them they won’t stay loyal.

     

    What would be your advice to fellow marketers so that they’re ready to take on the challenges of tomorrow?

    There has to be a relentless focus today on knowing who your consumer is and what they aspire to be tomorrow. And, differentiation is not enough; it is necessary for one to disrupt. Whoever follows these precepts will emerge winners in the long run.

     

  • Anil Dua, Senior Vice President – Marketing and Sales, Winner – marketer of the year – 2-wheeler

    Meet the IAA Awardwinners-2 | Every year is action-packed: Anil Dua

    By A Correspondent

     

    How has the two wheeler category been performing – and how would you rate Honda Motcop’s performance vis-à-vis the industry?

    Two wheeler category, this year, has been subdued. Two wheeler industry is used to of double digit growth. Last year it was 15%, and year before that 24%. The growth this year, so far, has been 4 to 5%. But the market sentiment is good, and things are going to look up.

     

    As far as Hero is concerned, we just finished January – where we have recorded our highest ever numbers.

     

    Would you say major growth for two-wheelers would now come from rural markets?

    Whether the growth comes from rural and small town markets, or from metros is very product specific. If you look at some of our products like Impulse, pleasure, Ignite – urban areas are contributing majorly more so from small towns. As for rural areas – they are not highly penetrated, and hence there is far more scope. If monsoons are good – leading to good agricultural growth, and good fund flow, and infrastructure development – then certainly rural areas would drive growth.

     

    Can you share your plans for higher end brands and products?

    As is public knowledge, we have tied up with EBR. Idea there has obviously been to look into high cc products – which we are developing and they would see the light of the day in due course of time.

     

    So when do we see real action in high end segment?

    Every year is action packed for us and if you look at the last half decade or so, every year we bring 7-8 new things to the customer. The coming fiscal is not going to be any different. Having said that, when you are No 1, you have to be there in all segments. Hence, action would not only be in high cc segments – but across segments.

     

    Lastly, your expectations from the budget.

    The economy needs some drivers of growth and we are optimistic about the budget which would have stimuli for growth. As the Indian market is under penetrated, low interest rates and ease of penetration would definitely help.