Brands
Kia India promotes digital chief to top marketing role
Mumbai: Vijay Kumar has climbed to the top of Kia India’s marketing ladder, taking on the role of general manager and head of marketing and public relations in September after spending seven years transforming the Korean carmaker from an unknown entity into one of India’s most recognised automotive brands.
When Kumar joined in June 2018, Kia was a blank slate in India. His mandate was straightforward: make the brand register. Mission accomplished. Through launches of the Seltos, Sonet, Carnival, Carens, Syros, and electric models EV6 and EV9, Kia has muscled its way into India’s cutthroat car market, earning consumer trust and—Kumar’s preferred metric—love.
Kumar’s ascent from digital marketing responsibilities to the corner office puts him in charge of brand strategy, above-the-line and below-the-line campaigns, digital operations, public relations, media planning and buying, and consumer insights. His earlier digital work earned Kia global recognition, including best digital marketing campaign honours from headquarters in 2019 for the Seltos launch, beating out 70 subsidiaries worldwide.
Under his watch, Kia cracked India’s top three digital automotive brands by online engagement.
Now overseeing media strategy across Kia’s internal combustion engine and electric vehicle portfolios, Kumar reports to Shakti Upadhyay, whom he credits as mentor and guide. His stated ambition: cement Kia as India’s most loved automotive brand and a thought leader, built on creativity and emotional connections with buyers.
Before Kia, Kumar spent over two years at Cheil Worldwide handling Samsung’s flagship mobile and television products, and nearly three years at Interactive Avenues managing digital media for brands including Reckitt and ITC. At Kia, he’s overseen performance marketing across 450-plus dealer outlets and racked up 22 marketing awards between 2019 and 2025.
Seven years in, Kumar reckons the hard part—building recognition—is done. What comes next is keeping India’s fickle car buyers smitten. In a market where loyalty is fleeting and competition ferocious, that might prove the tougher assignment.
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.
