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
Boeing appoints Barun as head of FP&A for global engineering function
Seasoned finance leader to steer budgets and strategy across global centres
BENGALURU: Boeing’s finance cockpit has a new pilot, and he is no stranger to turbulence or transformation. Boeing has appointed Barun as head of FP&A for global engineering, placing him at the centre of financial strategy for its worldwide engineering and technology operations.
Based in Bengaluru, Barun steps into a role that is as expansive as it is critical. He will serve as the primary finance lead for Boeing’s Engineering and Technology Centers globally, working closely with executive leadership to shape financial decisions, manage complex budgets, and design scalable finance processes that support the company’s growing engineering footprint.
In a note announcing his move Barun said, “I’m excited to share that I’ve joined Boeing Global Engineering. This opportunity is incredibly meaningful to me not just from a professional standpoint, but also for what Boeing represents globally.” He added that he looks forward to contributing to an organisation that continues to shape the future of aerospace and innovation.
Barun’s mandate spans strategic financial leadership, operational oversight, and stakeholder engagement. From directing large-scale budgets and schedules to influencing long-term organisational goals, the role blends financial discipline with business foresight. He will also lead cross-functional teams and partner with finance colleagues worldwide to support engineering programmes across geographies, including India.
The appointment caps a long stint at Juniper Networks, where Barun spent over a decade, most recently as finance senior manager. There, he led FP&A for global product business units and G&A functions, driving budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning. He also played a key role in enterprise-wide transformation, including spearheading an Oracle to SAP ERP migration and building advanced analytics capabilities using tools such as Tableau and SAP Analytics Cloud.
His earlier career includes finance leadership roles at Sony India Software Centre, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and Mphasis, where he focused on financial planning, governance frameworks, and operational efficiency across global delivery centres.
A chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Barun brings nearly two decades of experience across financial planning, digital transformation, and analytics-led decision making.
His appointment comes at a time when global engineering operations are becoming increasingly complex and distributed, requiring sharper financial oversight and agile planning. With Barun at the helm of FP&A for engineering, Boeing appears to be tightening its financial playbook as it looks to scale innovation with discipline.
