Wheel, one of the most iconic brands from the stable of HUL, has a long history of building and becoming the household name. And in order to make sure that a brand registers and resonates with its customers, a brand manager plays a crucial role. We spoke to one such brand manager Ruslan Khan, who started his journey at HUL from the internship he got during his FMS days. From learning about a new culture in Durban during his internship to handling thousands of stakeholders, Ruslan shares his journey of becoming a brand manager at HUL. Here are the excerpts:
- During your time at FMS was HUL always on your cards or it was a chanced encounter for you?
HUL being the biggest FMCG in India was always on the cards, but since I had no prior work experience, I was not sure about the function that I wanted to work in.
- Tell us about your initial experience in Durban when you just joined HUL as an intern. Was it your first trip abroad and what were some of your expectations?
I have been abroad before, but it was always with family, this was my first experience of going to a new country alone. The office was in a scenic location and I started to feel comfortable as well.
I was working on a project that involved multiple stakeholders. I worked with the marketing team in identifying whitespace opportunities, with the finance department it was to build a business case, with the Supply chain department I was figuring out the feasibility of landing the product and the incremental Capex that was required to get it done.
One thing that stayed with me was the fact that in order to work at Unilever you needed to know not just marketing but every nuance of the business at hand. In two months, I got a full view of how a business is run and how all the functions come together.
The internship had a huge impact on me and thus in my second year at FMS, apart from choosing Marketing I also chose supply chain and Finance electives, something that I wasn’t planning before the internship.
- Tell us about your journey with Cleanipedia and it became the biggest HUL website with massive annual visits. How did you go about doing it at a time when the focus on digital was not this high as today?
HUL has always been ahead of the market in new initiatives and that is one of the reasons why it’s such a great place to work in. We invest in capabilities that are future fit, but not necessarily ROI positive at that time.
Building Cleanipedia was a two-step process. The first one was building a website with the right content and the second was optimizing media spending to get traffic to the website. The first one involved working with content partners on creating the right articles which would be relevant to the current consumers, the second one made me work with the media team on optimizing spending to get the lowest CPV (cost per visit).
We brought down the CPV by 80% and got close to 3Mn unique visitors every month. To do this one has to understand how performance marketing is done and the FB/Google tool that serves ads to consumers.
I realized that the machine worked on a set algorithm that prioritized both revenues for the platforms (Fb/Google) and value for the customer (HUL). There were various levers (Daily budget, audience set, optimizing metric, creatives, etc.) on the ad serving tool that one could play with to get the lowest CPV. Once you know how to play with these levers, you ultimately taste success.
- You became the marketing activation manager next where you were handling the way brand spending was being done and made sure that it gets the best RoI. What were a few challenges that you came across and how did you solve them?
The role wasn’t difficult per se, managing a huge team definitely was. I was handling close to 10,000 promoters, 15 agencies/vendors, and 100s of deployment teams. Prior to this, my association was more digital, and handling people and team building wasn’t a part of my daily routine. But, this role gave me the confidence to do so. I took up responsibilities to manage ad spends close to 500 crores for varied brands, which boosted my confidence further.
Apart from people management I also built a couple of strategic programs which were digital and future fit. MA was a big elephant and even a small pilot meant putting people on the ground and getting things done. Building new programs and the sheer volume of work gave me the confidence that I can build something from scratch.
- Currently, as a Brand Manager for Wheel, one of the biggest brands at HUL, what is your role? Which were some of the campaigns you were part of and how did the journey teach you in return?
It’s been 4 months since I have taken over this role. My job is to handle the Wheel business end to end, which involves both topline and bottom-line delivery.
I have to work with varied stakeholders in the process from different departments.
- Finance- Managing the PNL
- Supply chain- What to produce and how much to produce (ensuring that we service the market to 100%)
- R&D- Product development
- CD- Ensuring that we are competitive on trade ROI and have a robust distribution
A brand manager's role in HUL requires you to run the entire business end to end and thus one gets a complete perspective on how a large business is set up and how to run it.
- What has been your professional growth so far after your B-school with HUL and do you think these 6 years were full of challenges?
HUL shifts you into a different profile/role every two years and thus you never get to be too comfortable. The learning curve never flattens.
In the past 6 years, I had the opportunity to work with multiple teams across many verticals. HUL also puts on huge responsibilities on you at a very young age, which pushes you to grow and mature as an effective manager.