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Past Events

Session with Pratik Pota, Executive Director, PepsiCo

Students swarmed to a session by an engineer who made it big in Marketing in one of the most sought after companies. In an industry expert speaker session, Pratik Pota, Executive Director – Pepsico India shared insights on appealing to the not-so-loyal FMCG consumer. He spoke at length about the PepsiCo strategy in India, while sharing insights on marketing brands to the youth.

How does one really build a brand?

There’s nothing more enlightening for a B-school student than hear about “real-life” problems associated with brands and how companies work around them. Kedar Lele, Alum Co2004 and Head, Sales and Marketing (Kcll) - HUL, spoke about brand building, brand development and what marketing at Unilever has in store for an ISB graduate. He took us through some brand building initiatives that he oversaw at HUL to give measurable results that eventually led to brand growth.

Best ads from around the world, at ISB

The best ads around the world which make it to the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2009 were screened, while our very own batch mates with years of experience in the advertising industry provided valuable insights.

Brands: Where they come from, where they’re going – A session with Wally Olins
Brand enthusiasts received a potent doze of gyan on brand building from the best in the business when Wally Olins, Worldwide Chairman, Saffron Brand Consultants and Bobby Sista, President, Saffron Brand Consultants, India, visited the campus for an industry expert speaker session. Wally Olins has authored 7 books on Branding that have become sacred industry resources. He is known to be abrasive and outspoken, but his clients still love him for precisely that. They spoke about their Brand consultancy firm and how they service clients like Coke, LVMH and The British Government among other influential firms.

Marketing roles in the Telecom sector
When you want to know more about life at and post ISB, who is the best person to run to? Aarti Kothari graduated from the ISB in the 2008 batch, and went on to join Airtel in a marketing role. She spoke to students at length on how to lead a balanced life while at the ISB. Students were curious to know her views on which electives to choose for majoring in marketing, and she satisfied all the curious minds to the fullest. She also spoke about life at Airtel and what career path can one expect in the telecom sector in general. Kothari and the students were totally at ease with each other and promised to carry on the discussions over mail.


Textile technology and marketing strategy
Chandu Valluri, Assistant Professor of Marketing- Saint Mary’s University, Minnesota conducted a interactive session on HDM (a company he is a Strategic Marketing Consultant to), a textile company which produces Super Fabric and which finds it’s use in camping gear, military equipment, apparel etc. Super Fabric has built relationships with big corporations across the world and targets relationships with individual brands like Nike, Ralph Lauren who use Super Fabric in their products. The session was about HDM’s strategy to grow in the international market and looking at the segments of the market it should grow in. Furthermore, ISB students were given a chance to critique HDM’s strategy and give the company suggestions on what it should do next

Beer and brands with Pradeep Ramarathnam, Brand Manager, HUL
The Marketing Club conducted its first Beer and Brands session on August 2, 2009. Sipping on a chilled beer, Pradeep Ramarathnam and some students discussed life at HUL, the daily grind of a brand manager and what makes him so passionate about his work. He went on to speak about some successful marketing campaigns and the thought process that really goes behind them. The session was very interactive with students asking him questions that they may have not got answers to in the classroom. Cloudy skies, chilled beer, birds chirping and stimulating conversations. It was a perfect evening!

Internet Marketing and Gaming Industry

Akshay Maheshwary (Deputy Manager - Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd) started the session with a talk on the medium and the revenue models used by internet companies. He then spoke about Search Engine Marketing, Banner Advertising and Electronic Direct Mailers more sophisticated forms like Social Media Optimisation, Viral Marketing, widgets and in game branding. As interaction with the audience increased other concepts like the importance of a good landing page and basics of Search Engine Optimisation were also discussed. Akshay took the audience through various cost model followed and touched upon web analytics and how it was important for an online marketing manager.

Pawan Singh Bal (Assistant Product Manager – Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd) then talked about how a product manager had to interact with the alliances, sales and technology teams as well as understand its customers. Pawan then took the audience through the Indian gaming industry and future projections. After covering console, mobile, online gaming and gaming cafes, he went on to speak on the developed gaming industry in the rest of the world.

A Talk on Leadership: D.Shivakumar (MD, Nokia India)

In his speech, Shiv focused on Leadership, by sharing some data and thoughts which he drew from his past experiences. He started off by sharing his thought that “everything is relevant for a leader”. The various factors which lead to a success of a corporation, are – the firm itself, the industry, the leader, the year of operation and other factors.

Of all the important factors mentioned above, the choice that a firm makes about its leaders is one of the most crucial ones. It is one thing to have a person sitting with a managerial title bestowed by the organisation and a totally different thing to have an individual who the people of the organisation look up to as a leader.

The session was very refreshing and made a lot of sense because of the real life examples quoted by Shiv, some of which were drawn from his prior professional and personal experiences.

The follow up Q&A session and the closed group session with members of the marketing club and telecom-focus group was also very interesting as he addressed several questions on Nokia’s growth and branding presence in India and the emerging markets. He also spoke about the future of telecom, in terms of content and services driven 3G technology. He also addressed questions on Nokia’s entry into consumer microfinance in the rural area and the future of urban markets.

ikshaa08-Business at Youth Avenue
November 8, 2008