You wouldn't expect a Masters in biotechnology to become a marketer. Although the switch from labs to marketing field was an unusual turn, Manisha Lath Gupta's career has trodden the familiar path of IIM (Bangalore) and Hindustan Unilever. At Levers, she spent almost eight years across sales, consumer insights, brand management and new product development, handling brands such as Pond's and Vaseline.
At Colgate Palmolive, she spent six years, from 2004-10, in two roles. First, she headed the consumer innovation centre, setting up an innovation team and processes to deliver new products both for India and regional markets. Later, as Associate Director (Marketing), she was responsible for delivering market share and profitability for the toothpaste business in India.
My most memorable marketing initiative
Call it the ‘recency effect' if you will, but I think it would be the recent brand repositioning of Axis Bank with ‘Badhti ka Naam Zindagi…' for some time to come. I say this for three reasons. First, Axis Bank is a very new brand, having come into existence in 2007 when UTI Bank changed its name to Axis Bank. Second, feedback revealed a need to reposition the brand to emphasise what Axis Bank stands for. Therefore, the challenge for the team and me was to create a new brand positioning, find an insight we could own and deliver, and then develop a clutter-breaking creative along with Lowe which would communicate this new brand DNA to the target group.
Third, the intense involvement of our team in developing the thinking around the initiative made this campaign even more exciting. We launched the campaign on February 21, and the initial response is very positive.
My first product launch
My first product launch: A 2-in-1 cream in a multinational company targeted at 30+ women who had the dual needs of anti-ageing and fairness. We spent a lot of time formulating the product, and developing a very unique packaging which had two separate chambers which, when squeezed, delivered the two creams together. It did not do well. Perhaps it was before its time, maybe the packaging was too complicated or the advertising not compelling enough ...
A great idea that never took off
An idea that does not take off is not a great idea. I am a big believer that an idea is as good as its consumer acceptance. We might like to believe that our ideas are great, but if they do not find users in the marketplace, then they are not great ideas! A great idea will find its own way to success, mobilise the organisation, find the funding, the distribution, the offtake - no matter what. As a marketer who has spent many years in innovation, I have no qualms admitting that many ideas which I thought were great were not really all that great, and that's the reason they did not take off.
A setback that I have learnt from
There are always setbacks in one's career, but many years later when you look back at them they don't really look like setbacks, they look like opportunities in disguise. Let me give you two examples.
After eight years at HUL I decided to move on and took on the Consumer Innovation Centre Head's role in Colgate Palmolive. It was a tough decision to leave HUL, but at Colgate I went on to learn and do some wonderful things – I set up the centre, grew as a people's manager, benefitted greatly as a manager and human being from the strong ‘feedback processes' and ‘valuing people' principles that Colgate has, and launched some exciting new products such as Colgate Active Salt.
About three years later the organisation's priorities changed, and innovation thrust was slowed down to focus on growing the existing business. This was another setback, as a lot of innovation work involves long gestation, and this meant seeing some projects close down. At this time, I was offered the job of heading the toothpaste business instead. After 7-8 years of innovation experience, I was not too confident about doing ‘activation'. However, I took up the role and went on to add some useful experience to my resume, such as business planning, delivering business targets and putting together some great activation programmes such as Colgate Active Salt Challenge and Colgate Oral Health Month. Colgate toothpaste market shares touched an all-time high during this time. Apart from learning and growing as a manager, I also made some great friends for life!
My marketing idol
I can't think of anyone specifically who I would call my marketing idol. I have learnt a lot of things from a lot of people, but I have adapted all that learning to my own style and applied my own instinct to it. From a training point of view, I would say Vivek Rampal, who was the Skin Care Category Head at HUL when I was a young brand manager, had the largest influence on my thinking as a marketer. A lot of the frameworks, concepts and decision making tools I use, I learnt from him. From a consumer insights perspective, working on ‘Implicit Segmentation' with Paul J. Heylen made a permanent change in my understanding of human behaviour. However, I have added onto these experiences enormously over the years and developed a very independent style of thinking. One thing I strongly believe in is passing on everything I have learnt to my teams and constantly building the team's capability.
Where I get my insights from
I get all my insights from my day-to-day life and personal interactions. I am a keen student of human behaviour and believe there is no complex science to uncovering insights. They come from interacting with consumers, colleagues, friends and family. My insights come from my being alive – to the world and people around me. I spend a lot of time talking to people, observing them and listening. I like talking to people at parties. I like doing consumer home visits the most, more than reading any research report. I like hanging out with our young management trainees to understand their lives, and in turn influence their thinking. One of the reasons I find the younger generations not being as insightful is because they don't spend as much time observing and interacting with each other – unfortunately the gadgets are taking the human interaction away from them!
How much has B-school helped me in my career
I would say the three things from IIM Bangalore which have helped me in my career are the credentials, the confidence and the friends. To be honest I don't remember much of the frameworks or principles I learnt on campus. As I did not have any work experience before I went to IIM, I found it difficult to appreciate the marketing principles and their application to the real world. I learnt almost everything I know and use today, on the job. However, coming from an IIM strengthens your credentials even 15 years after working. And that does result in higher self-confidence. But what I cherish the most are the friends who have constantly stayed with me over the last 15 years, giving me advice when I was taking career decisions, strength when I was feeling low and opening up their networks to me when I needed help!