Ramnik Chhabra is one of those admen who made the move to the other side, to marketing. Now Associate Director and Head (Marketing) at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, he worked for 14 years in advertising at Grey Worldwide, Ogilvy & Mather and JWT and has several awards to his credit, including an Effie and a Stevie. After graduating from Kirori Mal College, Delhi, Chhabra earned an MBA from Pune’s Symbiosis Institute of Business Management. He believes that ‘3 As’ need to be in place when it comes to market creation: accessibility, affordability and acceptance.

most memorable marketing initiative

During my advertising days it was the marketing campaign for Philips DVD Players in 2003/4 based on the proposition of multiplayability. This helped grow the DVD player market 300 per cent and Philips DVD Player sales by 380 per cent. More recently, at Motilal Oswal (MOFSL), we created a unique consumer education initiative on Investing vs Trading. It is based on the insight that in the stock market you can be either an investor or a trader. The problem is that people don't know their investing style and worse still, keep changing their style and lose money.

Using the cricketing metaphor of investing being like a test match and trading like 20-20 cricket, we created a campaign that included online profilers, mass media advertising, collateral material and seminars on guides to investing and trading, culminating in a first-of-its-kind reality show on the mistakes people make in investing and trading.

My first product launch

Many years ago, when all glucose biscuits were based on taste (Parle G’s ‘ sadiyon se sabki pasand ’, Britannia Glucose’s ‘ Gabbar Singh ki asli pasand ’), we had launched Bakemans Glucose Plus, the first biscuit to be positioned on a ‘health’ platform. A glucose biscuit on the ‘health’ platform seems quite normal nowadays, but in 1993/4, it was quite path-breaking.

A setback I learnt from

During my advertising days I had worked on the Real Value Vacuumizer (a food preservation system from the makers of Ceasefire). It was a great product but a concept well before its time. It was a time when Indian kitchens believed in cooking and eating food fresh rather than preserved. It is only recently, with families getting increasingly nuclear, that we have started accepting processed/packaged/preserved foods in our kitchens. The marketing failure taught me that changing food habits is one of the most difficult marketing tasks.

My marketing idol

For sheer marketing innovation and marketing efficiency it would have to be Richard Branson. He has created a successful business and a focused brand through innovative and inexpensive marketing campaigns.

I also admire Steve Jobs for his ability to come up with an experience that is at the intersection of technology and art – ‘hi-tech’ products with a ‘hi-touch’ brand experience!

Where I get my insights from

I am a fan of ethnography, the process where you get insights from observing people, consumer behaviour and society. When it comes to market research, I believe in personally interacting with consumers.

Separately, given the transnational nature of the broking business, there is a wealth of customer data that we generate everyday which is a rich and continuous source of insights on customer behaviour. I also like to practice the principle of ‘Insights by Wandering Around’, reading and observing other categories, brands, consumer opinions with no particular objective in mind. With the exploding online canvas, this is quite easy to do.

Many times what you observe is not relevant, but once in a while you get an insight/idea that you can cross-pollinate to your category/brand/marketing task that makes all the effort worth it!

How B-school has helped my career

B-School helped me get into the reading habit and gain a more rounded perspective. It also helped me learn the importance of teamwork; besides keeping me connected to a network of well-placed executives, professionals and entrepreneurs.

Shifting from advertising to marketing

In advertising I worked on a variety of categories. Being part of the business of ideas for over a decade has helped me approach financial services challenges and opportunities with a more innovative bent of mind. Some of this specifically came in handy during the marketing of our maiden IPO and for the launch of our AMC ETF products – M50, NASDAQ 100, M100 etc

marketing financial services in India

I see the challenge as two-fold.

The category challenge: The markets have been going through a roller-coaster the past five years. A tough global economic outlook and average stock market performance has made it very challenging for brands to attract and retain customers. On the brighter side, with Indian GDP slated to reach $5 trillion by 2020, and savings over the next 10 years slated to be $10 trillion, market potential is immense. The category, however, is under-penetrated and still evolving. There is, hence, a huge challenge of providing relevance, accessibility, affordability and also the right kind of consumer education.

The brand challenge: A plethora of brands have been aggressively trying to establish themselves in banking, financial services and insurance. As a result of this brand proliferation in the ‘wealth creation/management’ category, the consumer has been bombarded with messages from umpteen brands.

Financial brands (and financial advertising) are seen as having very similar offerings and hence perceived as bunched up close to one another – almost like a ‘ghetto of brands’. For brands to differentiate themselves in this ghetto, especially if you have limited marketing budgets, is another challenge.

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