MAM
ICFAI Business School’s seminar on retail marketing on 28 February
MUMBAI: The next edition of ICFAI Business School’s seminar series titled Metamorphosis takes place on 28 February at the Nehru Centre in Worli, Mumbai. It will look at the emergence of organised retailing. Indiantelevision.com is the official media partner for the event.
Globally, organised retailers create and market private label or store brands. Store brands are visible across product categories – grocery, packaged food, apparel and even homecare items. For the customer, store brands most often mean products of reasonable quality at lower prices, while for the retailer; private labels translate into better margins, greater clout with the manufacturers and the ability to fill value gaps in the consumers’ requirements.
Industry sources feel that the private labels can be tailored to suit various regional tastes, and in the long run, these labels can themselves become major independent brands. In developed markets, these store brands pose a substantial threat to the established big brands. In India, while store brands are still at the infant stage, there is a tremendous growth opportunity as size of operations is becoming critical for volumes, customer patronage and marketing capabilities. The seminar would examine the threat of private labels to the established brands and its impact on both, the organised retailers and the big brands.
Issues that the seminar would endeavour to address include whether retailers need the ‘big brands’ to maintain footfalls and the consequences of taking on the ‘big brands’. It will look at the challenges that the retailers face as well as the expected backlash. The seminar will also scrutinise the advantages that ‘big brands’ enjoy over private labels. The speakers include Shoppers Stop CEO B S Nagesh, Pantaloon CEO Kishore Biyani, Retailyatra.com CEO Parag Bhise
MAM
Ad veteran Amitabha Lahiri passes away; led MASH Advertising as CEO
Industry remembers seasoned leader who shaped brands across top agencies
NEW DELHI: Amitabha Lahiri, a seasoned name in India’s advertising industry and chief executive officer of MASH Advertising, has passed away, according to media reports.
Lahiri brought with him over three decades of experience across some of the country’s most prominent agencies, carving a reputation for building brands and businesses with equal ease. At MASH Advertising, a unit of Percept Ltd, he played a key role in shaping the agency’s direction and growth since its inception.
He joined the Percept group in 2007 as senior vice president at Hakuhodo Percept and was later elevated to chief operating officer. He eventually went on to lead MASH India as chief executive, steering the agency through its formative years and positioning it as a creative and strategic player in the market.
Before his stint with Percept, Lahiri held leadership roles across leading global networks. He served as vice president at Dentsu Marcom and JWT, and earlier as vice president and branch head at Everest Brand Solutions in Delhi. His career also included significant tenures at McCann Worldgroup, Lowe Lintas and Leo Burnett, where he honed his expertise in account management and brand strategy.
Colleagues and industry peers remember Lahiri as a steady hand in a fast-changing business, someone who combined creative instinct with sharp commercial understanding. His journey from early roles in Mumbai’s advertising scene to leading agencies in Delhi reflects the evolution of India’s ad industry itself.
His passing marks the loss of a veteran who helped shape campaigns, teams and agencies across decades. As the industry continues to evolve, Lahiri’s legacy will endure in the many brands he influenced and the professionals he mentored along the way.
