Event Details

Guest Lecture by Mr. Ashutosh Rajput

Date of Conduct: 13^th September, 2020

Duration: 1.5 hours

Guest Lecture Title: "How to grow a liquor brand in a competitive Indian market and Alcohol Brand Management in the digital age."

Speaker’s Name & Designation: Mr. Ashutosh Rajput, Country Manager

Organization He Represents: Campari India

HOD/Concerned Faculty Head: Miss Anuja Zanzad

Batch: IB (Marketing) and AB Batch 2019-21

No of students present: 80+

On 13th of September, the students of MBA-IB (Marketing) 2019-21 and MBA-AB 2019-21 attended a guest lecture by Mr. Ashutosh Rajput, Country Manager, Campari India on the topic - ‘How to grow a liquor brand in a competitive Indian market and Alcohol Brand Management in the digital age’. In his lecture, Mr. Rajput discussed about the three critical questions: The What, Why and How of any business. He emphasized that any business is about enhancing shareholder value. The companies should focus on increasing the top line and keeping a tab on costs to generate profits. It is important to create a roadmap to meet the objective.

Next, he spoke about how Campari has evolved as a company. He gave an overview of the Indian market place and told that reaping demographic dividend must be paid attention to. Mr. Rajput told how focusing on the Indian household income patterns and population distribution among rural and urban areas is equally important. He explained how increasing internet penetration in India will be advantageous to the industry. 

After this he went on to discuss about the complexities in advertising the alcoholic/beverage brands since it is considered as a dark market. He shared some strategies that are mostly used by brands to promote themselves in a confined retail space. He stressed on the significance of conquering the mind space of consumers. 

He informed the students of what are the key segments, key players in the market and what business approach they take. He told how competitive retail prices help drive sales. Towards the end he talked about strategy, target, demand spaces, channel strategy, pricing etc. and what should be the focus areas and how to act accordingly for running the business successfully.

Feedback:

1. “It was a nice session. I really liked the way Mr. Rajput spoke about shelf placements, surrogate marketing, targeting IT hubs, tourist places.” – Ujwal Suri, MBA, International Business (Marketing), Batch 2019-2021.
2. “The session gave deep insights regarding what the challenges are of marketing an alcohol brand in India, delved deep into the nuances of the branding, positioning and marketing tactics including how to plan future sales and assigning targets depending on existing sales and predictions.” – Aju Thomas, MBA, International Business (Marketing), Batch 2019-2021. 

Overall Feedback: The session was quite thorough and successfully helped the students to understand the concepts related to growing a brand in alcohol/beverage industry as well as how to promote these brands in the digital era.