In a report titled ‘Women in the boardroom: A global perspective’ released by Deloitte on International Women’s Day, it stated that the representation of women at the board level has witnessed a growth of 18.3 percent over the last five years, the figure was still below the global average of 23.3 percent. Marketing has long been considered a male bastion, seeing many men at the helm, but women are increasingly charting their way to the top.
Through Storyboard18’s Visionaries program, the aim is also to highlight some of the women who are breaking barriers and shattering stereotypes, while building successful and iconic brands. Take a look at some of the women chief marketing officers in India, from the Visionaries’ Bangalore and Delhi editions, and how they have transformed the marketing landscape.
Anuja Mishra, Honasa Consumer
Anuja Mishra, EVP and chief marketing officer, Honasa Consumer (Mamaearth, The Derma Co, BBlunt and Aqualogica), is a seasoned business leader and marketer with over two decades of experience, she has a track record of transforming both leader and challenger brands and is passionate about innovation. Anuja is not only a marketing expert but also an avid athlete and adventure sports enthusiast. She started her career with Reckitt Benckiser and went on to work across Nestle, Hewitt Associates, PepsiCo and Godrej Consumer Products.
As the national account manager at Nestle, Mishra led national retail chains of India. She was responsible for developing and executing operational and marketing strategies for demand generation, and impactful activation across India. As the head of innovation, energy and hydration at PepsiCo, previously, she led the beverages innovation strategy for India in line with the global and regional portfolio transformation imperatives for the entire hydration categories.
She led the launch of Sting Energy drink to mark PepsiCo’s entry into the energy drink segment in India. She also led the launch and complete marketing mix on Aquafina vitamin Splash- Pepsico’s foray into value added hydration. She was a part of the marketing leadership team responsible for charting out the portfolio strategy and leading the innovation team to execute breakthrough product innovations.
Roshni Das, Intel
Roshni Das, general manager, marketing and Partner Scale – APAC and Japan at Intel has driven Intel’s marketing efforts in the APAC region, implementing strategic initiatives that elevated Intel’s brand recognition by 40 percent, positioning Intel as a leader in the semiconductor industry. She orchestrated Intel’s groundbreaking Tech Tales series, captivating audiences worldwide and amassing millions of views on YouTube alone.
Her prior experience includes Corporate Sales and Product Management at Standard Chartered Bank managing a portfolio of credit card and financial products and account management of several leading consumer brands at Lowe Lintas (Inter Public Group). Das does multiple stakeholder management and business strategy and planning, she has a keen creative eye and audience understanding, which allows her to develop integrated go-to market strategies, translating actions to clear business impact.
Minakshi Handa, ITC
Minakshi Handa, Vice President – Marketing – fragrances, skincare, consumer insights D2C at ITC Ltd (Personal Care). Handa’s customer-centric marketing and efforts in leading the D2C wave at ITC Personal Care have driven stronger consumer engagement and growth for her brands in the online space.
Handa started her career at Hindustan Unilever Ltd and led marketing efforts on Bru Coffee as its brand manager. Post that she joined Marico where she has led various brands like Parachute, Nihar and Saffola, her marquee stint being on Saffola there. She was the Head of Marketing for Hair Care and Hair innovations at Marico before she started her innings at ITC Personal Care in 2019 as Head – Innovations, personal care.
Shilpi Kapoor, Airtel Payments Bank
Shilpi Kapoor, chief marketing officer, Airtel Payments Bank boasts a rich 20-year journey in brand management, sales, and marketing, with notable contributions to well-known brands. Kapoor’s expertise spans strategic brand management, internal and external communication, digital marketing, media planning, campaign execution, and consumer research, with a legacy of trailblazing marketing initiatives. She started her career with UB Group and went on to work across Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Bharti Airtel Limited, Godfrey Phillips India, Groupe Renault and American Express.
Previously, she was the director – marketing and business insights, GMS JAPA region, Kapoor played a pivotal role in devising and launching marketing strategies to help transform the way merchants interact with American Express card members with focus on digital channels and partnerships. She orchestrated brand strategy and communication focused on connecting the buyer-seller through digital and traditional Marketing approach. She managed the end-to-end process of merchant onboarding, marketing campaigns, business strategies and activation targets.
Ruchira Jaitly, Diageo India
Ruchira Jaitly, chief marketing officer, Diageo India is an accomplished marketing and go-to-market professional with over 23 years of experience. Jaitly is actively involved in initiatives promoting women’s empowerment and is a mentor at Vedica Women’s Alliance and a founder at Ashoka University. Her stint at Unilever ran for more than six years and she held various roles in different positions. She has been a part of PepsiCo India and HMD Global too.
At PepsiCo India, as senior director – marketing, social beverages, Jaitly led marketing and consumer strategy and execution for the portfolio of beverage brands. This included Pepsi, Mountain Dew, 7Up, 7Up Nimbooz, Mirinda and Gatorade for India. She led core brand Innovation, communication strategy and execution and activation including brand activation and execution for the 360 plans for the portfolio of brands at Pepsi IPL in 2014-15.
Chandrika Jain, Lenovo
Chandrika Jain, director – marketing, Lenovo India shaped Lenovo’s brand narrative and content strategy, resulting in a 25 percent increase in brand recognition within the target demographic, 40 percent increase in social media engagement, and around 30 percent rise in online sales.
In a conversation with Storyboard18, Jain stated, “In every job I have had, I have come to the conclusion there will always be a lot of noise and one is bound to be pulled in different directions. It is important to be able to cut through that noise and constantly remind yourself about what you started out to do.”
Mohua Das Gupta, Tata CliQ Luxury
Mohua Das Gupta, Head – Marketing at Tata Cliq Luxury is known for her innovative marketing strategies that helped redefine luxury e-commerce experiences. Her leadership marked as a driving force for Tata Cliq Luxury’s market differentiation and brand prestige through creative campaigns and curated customer journeys. Mohua’s strategic partnerships with top luxury brands have not only expanded Tata Cliq Luxury’s product offerings but have also solidified its position as a go-to destination for premium online shopping experiences.
Das Gupta has worked across Ogilvy, McCann Erickson, Arvind lifestyle Brands and Myntra. As the director of marketing at Myntra, she drove the marketing growth strategy to onboard the next 100 million customers with focus on T2/T3 audiences. Further, she led Strategic Brand Marketing to establish leadership in fashion e-commerce – Unlocking consumer insights, Identifying brand positioning spaces and developing brand narratives culminating into multimedia campaigns across TV, ATL, OOH, digital platforms.
Gauri Malhotra, Visage Lines Personal Care
Gauri Malhotra, Visage Lines Personal Care, is a marketing professional with over 15 years of experience. Currently, the CMO at Bombay Shaving Company, Gauri focuses on consumer-centric innovation to drive growth for the company’s personal care brands. Malhotra started her career with Perfect Relations, and then in 2008 joined Marico as area sales manager. As she rose to the ranks and as group product manager – Parachute, she anchored the brand and business strategy for Parachute Mother brand in India. She conceptualised and anchored NPDs in the portfolio, like the launch of the Parachute Advansed Aromatherapy Oil.
Nidhi Hola, Dell
Nidhi Hola, Dell is a dynamic leader with over 23 years of experience in strategy and marketing. She excels in driving business growth and nurturing team development, fostering a culture of personal and collective success. Hola started her career with 20:20 Media, and has worked across GoDaddy and Microsoft. Previously, as the director of integrated marketing at Microsoft, she was responsible for driving a connected sales and marketing strategy for Microsoft Cloud offerings. She led a team of high performing, modern marketers who developed insightful customer-centric solutions to drive long-term business growth by building an engaged customer base.
Sumeet Singh, Naukri
Sumeet Singh, group chief marketing officer, Naukri began her career as a management trainee at NIIT and quickly rose to become the Area Manager Sales. Currently, as the vice president of marketing, alliances, and corporate communication at Info Edge, the parent company of Naukri.com, Singh continues to contribute significantly to the marketing landscape. As the deputy director at CII, Singh headed the IT practice for the northern region and served on the IT committee of 10 state governments. She was responsible for introducing IT initiatives in the northern part of the country and organised many visits and meetings of dignitaries with chief ministers. She was involved in framing the IT policy of Chandigarh and Himachal. She worked closely with the chief secretary of Delhi Govt in IT initiatives.
Anurita Chopra, Haleon India
Anurita Chopra, Haleon India boasts over two decades of illustrious experience in consumer marketing. With a robust background in consumer insights, media utilization, and cross-functional collaboration, Anurita is a distinguished marketing professional who has consistently driven category-defining success across diverse sectors. She has worked across Hindustan Unilever, PepsiCo, Nokia India, Philips India and GSK Consumer Healthcare India. Chopra is a consumer marketing professional with over 22 years of category and business leadership across lead brands – Sensodyne, Philips, Nokia, KurKure (PepsiCo) and Bru (HUL).
She led high growth, high profit businesses across Oral Health and Personal Care. She created, launched and grew power brands through disruptive strategy that challenged the category norms, and became category definers in their own right. She received multiple external and internal recognition for innovation, creative excellence and impact at forums like Cannes, AdClub, Emvies. She has extensive experience in consumer demand creation based on consumer insights and effective utilisation of marketing channels across mass media, digital, community building and advocacy, social, apps, on-ground programs, celebrity endorsements, large scale sponsorships and retail.
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