Doing the simple things well

As Director - Marketing at Aviva India, Gaurav Rajput has to achieve the tricky balance of creating brand awareness for a financial product without being pushy. But then his foundation in advertising stands him in good stead – he started out in agencies such as FCB Ulka and Rediffusion Y&R soon after his post-graduation from Welingkar Institute of Management. During his advertising days, he worked on prominent brands such as Tata Motors, Taj, Zodiac and Godrej.

Then came the move to media. As the Marketing Head for NDTV, Rajput was responsible for the launch of the two news channels NDTV India and NDTV 24x7.

Financial services has been another ball game altogether – but a stint with Citibank for close to five years with experience in the domestic as well as international markets such as London and Singapore provided good grounding before the move to insurance.

Rajput joined Aviva in 2009 as the Head of Channel Marketing and was responsible for developing effective marketing campaigns for the key distribution channels – Direct Sales Force and Bancassurance. He was also in charge of the customer communication initiatives before taking over as Marketing Director in 2010.

Currently his role encompasses brand marketing, communications, research, channel marketing, analytics, cross-sell and product development.

My most memorable marketing initiative

Among several, one that's closest to the heart is the ongoing ‘Aviva Great Wall of Education'. When it was being conceptualised we wanted an idea that would work at multiple levels, aligning a strong social agenda with Aviva's Global CSR programme ‘Street to School' with the company's business strategy of focusing on the child space to bring alive our brand promise, ‘Education is Insurance'. When the agency (BBDO) came up with the thought of a book donation drive for underprivileged children, the team was immediately enthused by the idea's simplicity, despite which it had a strong brand and business connect. The challenge was to keep building on the idea to make it bigger, more meaningful and over the years the team has successfully managed to achieve a national scale through tie-ups with leading publications and technology companies resulting in over 2.5 million books being collected over the last three years.

It worked because inherently people want to do something good for the society that they live in. This campaign gave them that opportunity in a simple way. This was evident from the brand awareness scores which saw a consistent growth from 79 per cent in 2009 to 89 per cent in 2011. As with most successful campaigns, it started with a simple idea that went on to create substantial brand and social impact. Moreover, due to the strong social connect, it made one feel really good about the work that was being done.

My first product launch

My first launch experience was when we were re-launching the Zodiac range of shirts and ties during my formative years in advertising. The starting point was the brand's strong advertising legacy through the ‘Zodiac Man' campaign, which had been running for many years. The client was very clear that it wanted the brand to move forward from that to be seen as more progressive and with the times, yet not lose its brand values. The agency's challenge was to arrive at that inflection point where familiarity with the brand was not lost in the guise of progressiveness. It really helped to work on a launch at such an early stage of my career, it gave me a holistic sense of all the elements that went into a launch. What's interesting is that the initial campaign's thought and look that was developed at that time continues even today!

A setback I have learnt from

There are several ups and downs over any career and whether it's a success or failure, there's always some takeaway for the future. To give you an example, at Aviva we were very bullish on the online insurance space and worked hard to launch a best-in-class proposition as quickly as we could. However, days into the launch we realised that our sales process needed to be simpler, with lesser documentation to ensure a better customer experience. This initial setback rushed us back to the drawing board. The organisation showed great dexterity in coming out with breakthrough process improvements within days, resulting in Aviva i-life becoming one of the market-leading products in a short time. This taught me that it's okay to make mistakes as long as you have the ability to recognise and course-correct immediately.

My marketing idol

Many peers and bosses that I have worked with could feature in this list. Having worked across advertising and the corporate world, you engage with so many bright, sharp people from whom you learn so much. I guess you pick up different things from different folks. I've enjoyed working with Vijay Ramchandran who was the Marketing Director at Citi India and imbibing his people management skills. The senior management at FCB Ulka where I started my career taught me the fundamentals of marketing and communication which I follow till date. Also, iconic marketers such as Steve Jobs, Phil Knight and new-age marketing gurus such as Seth Godin give you good insights on doing the simple things well.

Where I get my insights from

Insights are all around us, the society that we live in, the people we interact with. Friends, families, all give you insights. I enjoy interacting with people and travelling, they have always been the best sources of insights that I've got. Also, it's becoming critical to interact with the younger generation, their approach and thinking is radically different and constantly changing. As digital becomes an important medium, insights from this segment are key to success.

How much has B-school helped me in my career

B-school really helped me structure my thought process. More than the principles and the academic part, I think it helps in developing a logic-based and solution-providing mindset. At the same time, it forces you to think beyond convention, and differently. I also believe that the peer discussions help prepare you for the corporate world, the whole environment is based on sharing best practices and case studies and that helps build a team orientation. Moreover, it helps build networks which are always useful throughout your career.

In what way is marketing for financial products different from other industries?

The level of knowledge and awareness of financial products in India is still very low. Hence, marketing of financial products is a tricky balance between educating the customer and brand awareness. You have to keep in mind that there are two types of customers, a smaller segment that is financially aware, while the larger mass is still coming to grips with financial terms and products.

Marketing needs to be able to speak to both, hence the balance becomes important. Also, other communication elements such as product literature, customer communication, sales aids and even tele-calling scripts are critical in financial services to ensure that it is jargon-free, simple and customer-friendly.

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