Brands
Wham! Mobiles announces Chris Gayle as brand Ambassador
BENGALURU: Indian handset manufacturer, Wham! Mobiles, has announced West Indian and IPL Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) cricketer Chris Gayle as its brand ambassador.
The association at present will be for a year, but Wham Infocom (Wham) managing director Subhash Chandra L says that it would probably be extended for further periods. Chris Gayle will be endorsing the entire range of smart phones, feature phones and tabs for Wham! in India.
Wham! was launched by Sangeetha Mobiles which has been in the mobile retail business for the past 18 years. The company says that with this move, Wham! makes its pitch at the national level – offering cutting edge mobiles at affordable prices with a big star to endorse it for greater impact. For the young generation, who demands a handset packed with many features that’s also easy on the pocket, they can easily relate to Chris Gayle with his power performance on the field just as Wham!
Chandra says, ““We are thrilled to unleash the famous ‘Gayle Storm’ on our customers. We couldn’t find a better connect to our brand than Chris. Wham! is an all-rounder just like our brand ambassador Chris Gayle, providing the ever evolving Indian customers with the latest innovation, the finest features and the most stylish products at an affordable price. Chris Gayle is the perfect embodiment of what Wham! is all about. We are proud to be associated with the all-rounder.”
“We are working on a media plan on how to use Gayle effectively. Quite obviously, television, print and outdoor as well as social media and youtube, digital media would all be a part of those plans. We have no option but to burn money on branding to make our presence felt and to grow our revenues from Rs 60 crore in the last fiscal to about Rs.250-300 crore in this one,” reveals Chandra.
“We are on the verge of finalising the creative agency, and would probably announce this in a couple of days’ time. The main contenders are Beehive Communications and Bengaluru based People along with a couple of other agencies. Beehive has worked with us for our parent company Sangeetha Mobiles in the past. We have been buying media through different agencies, as well as directly. We have a different agency for television, another one for outdoor and another one for print for Sangeetha Mobiles,” adds Chandra.
Wham! has launched 32 models in the market at an attractive price range of Rs 999 to Rs 14,999, within one year. “Our products have been received very well by our Indian customers in 11 states. We aim to expand our presence nationally. With this partnership, we look forward to bringing both the all-rounders – Wham! and Chris Gayle – on the national platform for better delivery and a power-packed performance,” concludes Chandra.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
