On 6th April, Vinod Gupta School of Management had the privilege of hosting Mr. Sandeep Verma, President, Bajaj Corps Ltd, under its guest lecture series VAARTA.
The discussion started with an introduction of Mr. Verma himself. An alumnus of IIM Lucknow, he worked with P&G during his summer internship. He now has an experience of 16 years across Sales, Brand Activation, Brand Innovation, Digital Marketing and Customer Development. He has worked on multiple regional and global categories across the globe to do impactful work that marries local cultural nuances with modern trends in marketing, sales and general business management.
The session moved on to talking about brands and trying to understand what brand repositioning is. He helped us see how repositioning your brand can change the perception of who you are. The discussion then shifted to finding the right time to reposition one’s brand. It was an interactive session where he discussed the various situations where repositioning could be used - when your brand lacks vitality, the primary benefit your brand “owns” has evolved from a differentiating benefit to a cost of entry benefit, a new competitor with a superior value proposition, evolving technology and much more. He gave several examples which definitely lead to a better understanding of the real world scenarios.
Mr Verma then spoke about the 8 important strategies for brand repositioning which he referred to as the “Magnificent 8”. He made every point interesting by citing examples of products like Lifebuoy, Surf Excel, PayPal, Lego Starwars, Toyota etc. Various videos showing the different marketing campaigns further added value and made the session livelier. He also emphasised on how important it is to touch the emotional chord of the consumers through the advertisements.
A round of questions and answers followed where Mr. Verma answered numerous intriguing questions regarding brand repositioning, career in sales & marketing and his personal experiences. The discussion left the audience (especially the marketing enthusiasts) with an excitement towards what they were about to witness in the coming years.