Brands
Cinthol won’t go hyper-aggressive with offers: GCPL’s Urshita Nema
MUMBAI: India’s famous soap brand Cinthol, owned by Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) is gearing up its effort to connect to consumer for its freshness portfolio as the heat after monsoon kicks in. The popular brand held an interesting day filled with fresh adventure, in association with the cricket sensation, Shubman Gill as part of its #TurnDownTheHeat campaign of Cinthol Lime & Cinthol Cool soap variants.
“We have done a 360 degree here. It starts with TV campaign; the TVC is on all of national channels. We are also doing regional media taking Maharashtra and West Bengal channels. Along with TV, we started this digital campaign, which has thought and led to activation campaign where Shubman Gill came in as the celeb and he started asking about what is your adventurous spree to turning down the heat along with Cinthol Lime and Cinthol Cool,” GCPL personal care generale manager marketing Urshita Nema shared the details of the campaign.
“Cinthol as a brand has done a lot of outdoor activities and we got responses from across the nation. We picked up the winners and then we had micro-influencers to lead the campaign. Multiple influencers started posting their pictures may be with a parachute, diving in the waterfall and we tried to involve them in the campaign,” Nema added.
Nema also added that Cinthol’s target is practically youth oriented and while the brand has been there for years, it has been refreshing itself constantly to connect with its TG. But she also added that TG is more about psychography and people who are young by heart, who love to go out for sports and adventure, they are also the brand’s TG.
Talking about current focus of marketing initiatives, Nema shared that they are focusing on ‘hyperlocal marketing’ right now. She explained that while they divide the term, one of it has to be rich media and TV will be there.
“But when we have to connect to our TG, we look into the relevance of which market we are working. Cities in North, West like Delhi, Bombay all these cities’ digital connect is very good. So, we have taken up this as digital friendly. We have few states where we are doing experiential marketing campaign like Ola, Uber tie-up. We gave fresh lime wipes. So, it depends on market what we pick,” she added.
Nema also pointed out that where consumers are going is practically digital savy. While the brand also understands internet rates are coming down, everyone is hooked onto digital, they are going digital with micro-influencers, OTT platforms like Hotstar, Voot.
GCPL posted its second-quarter financial result on Wednesday and the soap segment’s revenue declined by 4 per cent year-on-year and the brand’s overall ad spend sharply fell down by 22.1 per cen year-on-year. In an exception, India’s recent economic slowdown has affected FMCG brands also which are usually more immune to slowdowns. While asked about the impact of the slowdown, Nema said that slowdown news is correct but there are markets like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu which are still growing.
Due to weak demand, FMGC major HUL slashed prices of Dove, Lux, and Lifebuoy soaps recently and Wipro Consumer Care, the maker of Santoor soap, also cut the price of the soap. While Neema was inquired if Cinthol is also thinking of a similar move, she answered that the brand is ready to react to competition anytime.
“But I would say we are not in a stage where we have to go hyper-aggressive to counter competition with offers. The brand pull for Cinthol is very high. We would say we are least impacted in the situation,” she added.
Brands
Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
