MAM
Sony to spend Rs 1.5 bn on marketing during festive season
MUMBAI: Sony India has set aside Rs 1.5 billion or 33 per cent of its total marketing budget for the festive season as it seeks to achieve a sales turnover of Rs 28.5 billion, an increase of 50 per cent over the previous festive season.
Last year, the Japanese electronics major had spent Rs 1 billion towards advertising and promotion during the festive season to boost sales.
Sony will undertake multi-media campaign for Bravia, Cyber-shot, Xperia Tipo and Handycam. This will include ATL and BTL activities such as print and television commercial, cinema, outdoor, Web and PR activities during the October-November period.
The Japanese electronics major, which is going through a rough patch due to dwindling sales, has launched products cutting across product categories such as Television, Digital Imaging and IT products, during this festive season in the Indian market.
Sony‘s product launch for festive season includes: Bravia KD-84X9000, Personal 3D Viewer HMZ-T2, DSLT a99, DSC-RX100, and Vaio with Touch-screen.
Sony India MD Kenichiro Hibi said, “This festive season with our revolutionary product portfolio and compelling offers, we are confident of achieving 50 per cent increase over our last year’s festive season sales, taking it to Rs. 2850 crores (Rs 28.5 billion) this year.”
The company had earlier ramped up its marketing budget by 25 per cent to Rs 4.5 billion for the current fiscal and had set a target of 30 per cent growth in sales. Its marketing spend in the previous fiscal was Rs 3.6 billion while sales stood at Rs 63.13 billion, up from Rs 54.46 billion in the trailing fiscal.
India, one of the fast growing markets for Sony, currently stands at 6th position in contribution to global sales and plans to gain the fifth position by end of fiscal.
As part of its marketing initiative for the festive season, Sony has also tied-up with Sony Pictures Entertainment for the much awaited James Bond action thriller ‘Skyfall‘ in order to gain a higher mind share during the festive season.
Brands
Hardik Jhaveri named senior director marketing at Colgate-Palmolive Asean hub
Former Hill’s Pet Nutrition general manager returns to the company to steer marketing for South Asean from Kuala Lumpur
KUALA LUMPUR:Â Hardik Jhaveri has been appointed senior director marketing for the South Asean hub at Colgate-Palmolive, marking a return to the consumer goods major after a three year stint with Hill’s Pet Nutrition. He will be based in Kuala Lumpur and will lead marketing strategy for the region.
Jhaveri joins the role after serving as general manager at Hill’s Pet Nutrition in Taipei, where he led a cross functional team and oversaw the business with full profit and loss responsibility. The role placed him at the helm of operations in Taiwan, managing growth in what he described as a start-up style environment within a global multinational.
Before that, Jhaveri spent over a decade with Colgate-Palmolive across several marketing and innovation roles in Asia. As associate director innovation for Apac excluding China, based in Hong Kong, he led new product development and launches across multiple markets.
His portfolio ranged from developing specialised oral care products such as a diabetes focused toothpaste for the Indian market to launching premium oral care experiences under the Colgate Total brand in Australia. Alongside innovation, he also worked on launch planning, brand strategy and communications for the company’s oral care portfolio.
Earlier in his Colgate-Palmolive journey, Jhaveri held roles including marketing manager innovation, senior brand manager and brand manager. His work spanned urban and rural markets in Mumbai and customer development responsibilities in the Greater Kolkata Area.
Prior to his long association with Colgate-Palmolive, Jhaveri worked as brand officer home care at Unilever, where he helped drive marketing initiatives for the Rin detergent brand, including nationwide relaunch and on ground activation campaigns.
He began his career in advertising with Bates David Enterprise, working on brands such as IDBI Bank, The Leela Hotels and The Times of India.
Jhaveri holds a post graduate programme in management from the Indian School of Business and has also completed a level 4 diploma in wine from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.
Announcing the move, Jhaveri said he is excited to begin his new chapter at Colgate-Palmolive’s South Asean hub and thanked colleagues and mentors who supported his journey at Hill’s Pet Nutrition.
