MAM
Castrol unveils new marketing strategy; ropes in Dravid & Abraham as brand ambassadors
BANGALORE: In a bid to increase their market share and stave off competition from new entrants, India’s largest player in the retail automotive lubricant market, Castrol India (CIL) has planned a new marketing strategy, revealed CIL vice president -marketing Sudhanshu Vats.
Vats spoke to Indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of a press conference for the release of CIL brand ambassador and Indian cricket captain Rahul Dravid’s biography The Nice Guy Who finished First by Mumbaikar Devendra Prabhudesai.
The book was unveiled by Indian cricket coach Greg Chappell, who was the chief guest.
Vats elaborated on the initiatives by his company. Firstly, CIL re-launched the Castrol master brand with a new thought and logo ‘Its not just oil, it’s liquid engineering.’
Next, they’ve simplified product brand architecture – migrated their 15-16 sub-brands under five categories: (a) Consumer trucks- this cover fleets, transportation, buses, tractors, LCV’s. (b) Passenger cars (c) Motor cycles (d) Heavy Duty – this is a B2B category that caters to fleet owners, off-highway vehicles such as JCB, Komastu, Caterpillar, building construction, state transport undertakings, and (e) OEM franchisee workshops.
Thirdly, along with Dravid who has been Castrol brand ambassador for the last six years; bike enthusiast, youth icon and cine star John Abraham is the new brand ambassador for their motorcycle oil.
Also, CIL has started strengthening partnerships with vehicle manufacturers, OEMs’. This includes their recently renewed partnership for five years with Tata Motors. Other OEMs’ with whom they have a tie-up include Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti.
CIL has also taken the entire Liquid Engineering concept to the consumers through road shows, above and below the line activities, dealer meets, etc. The company has also tied up with Reliance and Essar for selling CIL lubricants at their retail fuel stations.
Castrol has increased its market share over the last two to three years from 26 per cent to 30 per cent of the Rs 70 billion retail automotive lubricant market through a 40,000 dealer network and indirectly through 80,000 dealers of the 110,000 retail automotive lubricant dealers in India.
The company spends around Rs 1.5 billion annually for product promotion activities that include print and other media ads, TVCs’, above and below the line ground activities. Oglivy & Mather handles the creative business, while MindShare handles the media.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
