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Isabelle Allen, global head of consumer and retail partner at KPMG International was on her second visit to India this year. At a time when global markets are experiencing inflation and slowdown, India remains upbeat both in outlook and consumer sentiment. “It’s not going to be long before the Indian consumer probably develops new trends, new technologies, new ways of shopping and behaving which can be exported elsewhere,” she notes. In a conversation with Storyboard18, Allen talks about key consumer trends, new tech tools such as AI and Metaverse and the potential of social commerce in India.

Edited excerpts:

What are some trends which are unique to India?

With a population of 1.5 billion people, India is becoming such a big consumer story around the world. One can’t help but get overwhelmed by the growth mindset and the confidence level that exists at this moment in this economy. It is different from what we are experiencing elsewhere in the world.

The difference is even sharper than a few months back because the outlook for large parts of the western economy is much more negative than what I’m seeing in India. This gives an opportunity to India to really transform their consumer market. For example, covid-19 has resulted in the explosion of e-commerce in the country. While people have enjoyed shopping online, they are also enjoying being back in the retail stores. Going forward, we are talking to people in the retail industry about what is going to be their omni-channel retail strategy that they need to adopt to cater to the needs of the consumer population.

What kind of brand categories are growing in India?

Electronics, consumer durables and fashion continue to be the top categories of growth. Now, we also see personal care and foods that are coming up quite strongly. Overall, the message is very clear that India remains very different from the US or Europe. We can dub the sentiment here as ‘being cautiously optimistic’ because most companies in India when they are releasing their quarterly results they are being pretty cautious about their bottom line, the pressure around the competitive prices is taking its toll and the global situation has also taken some bit of a toll. So, we expect that the next 2-2.5 quarters will be slightly difficult but essentially the optimism still reigns supreme.

What would be the outlook for 2023?

I believe that April 2023 onwards India should do better than it did this year. The growth forecast has been dropped by a percentage odd point because of the delayed monsoons and the global pressure being released on businesses especially in the services side. As we go into the next year, there should also be respite in the funding which got really tight this year.

Are consumers gravitating towards environmentally conscious and ethical companies?

Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) is a big trend which is impacting both the companies and the consumer. It is important to understand how sensitive consumers are or will be to the ESG agenda. Will being environmentally conscious be a driver in the way consumers gravitate towards certain brands? As we are seeing in the Western Europe because of the cost of living crisis and inflation, consumers are under price pressure and hence price remains their top motivation when it comes to choosing brands. In such a case, environmental concerns become secondary.

Will consumers’ craze for festive sales taper owing to environmental concerns?

I don’t think that time is now but in the medium to long-term outlook I do think it is going to be one of the considerations. From what we have seen during the sales in the US and Asia, there comes a point where the multiplication of these sales or mad campaigns reaches a ceiling. There might be consumer fatigue eventually but I don’t think it is going to be true for the India market in the short-term.

What role does artificial intelligence (AI) play for companies?

All businesses going forward, not just consumer and retail companies, would need analytics to understand their consumers better. Precise segmentation of customer base, understanding what they respond to and their pattern and frequency of spends will be critical. In various countries globally, there’s an equivalent of the festive season where you experience massive peaks in the consumer spends. It is critical for companies to understand what triggers them and how they can manage it. This is difficult to implement in a company because it requires a sophisticated and rigorous master data management. If you can successfully do that you can compare customer spends.

Do you think Metaverse will play a critical role for brands in the future?

Consumers' experience – both physical and digital – remains critical. Metaverse is a place where brands could start the immersion of their consumers, or make the first contact with them before bringing them in the offline stores. How brands orchestrate the customer journey will be an interesting thing to see in the future.

What is the potential of social commerce in India?

It’s still the initial days for social commerce in India but it is picking up really fast. The whole trust element needs to be plugged to be honest. 

<blockquote>Like e-commerce in the early days, people in India wanted cash on delivery (COD) because they believed their payment card details could be hacked during an online payment. Social commerce is in a similar phase. It has at least two years to become sizeable in India.</blockquote>

India has a confidence that we don’t see elsewhere, KPMG’s Isabelle Allen

Achint Setia 

Previous: Head, Marketing and Social Commerce Business, Myntra  

Present: Not known

At Myntra, Achint Setia, who served as the head of marketing and social commerce business put in his papers at the end of May. Setia, who had joined Myntra in 2018, was responsible for brand marketing, performance marketing, loyalty business, and research.

Anand V 

Previous: Associate Vice President, Posterscope - Dentsu International India 

Present: Vice President, Posterscope - Dentsu International India

Dentsu International India announced the elevation of Anand V to the position of vice president at Posterscope, the OOH communications agency from Dentsu. He joined the agency in 2013 as the associate vice president.

Sai Ganesh 

Previous: Brand Lead, Dunzo 

Present: Not known

Sai Ganesh, who served as the brand lead at the quick-commerce delivery platform Dunzo, resigned from his position. During his four-year stint at Dunzo, he played a role in the development of Dunzo Daily - the app’s quick grocery delivery division. He played a key role in developing Dunzo’s brand personality and some of the buzziest ads and hyper-local campaigns.

Narayan Devanathan

Previous: Chief Client Officer, Dentsu International India

Present: Not known

One of the most recent exits in a long line-up of executives leaving the group, Narayan Devanathan, Dentsu International India’s chief client officer, decided to move on to pursue other interests outside the advertising industry. A few weeks before his departure, Devanathan as the company’s CCO spoke to the media about a new chapter for Dentsu in India.

Vijay Swaminathan 

Previous: Senior Marketing Manager, The Kraft Heinz Company 

Present: Head of Marketing, The Kraft Heinz Company

Vijay Swaminathan, who headed The Kraft Heinz Company as the senior marketing manager, was promoted to head of marketing. Prior to this, he was associated with Unilever as the brand manager, personal care for the South Asia region.

Oindrila Roy 

Previous: Head of Strategy, Essence India

Present: Not known

Oindrila Roy, who headed media company Essence India as the head of the strategy for the last three years, has made a move. In a global move, WPP-owned GroupM merged the operations of Essence with its other agency MediaCom.

Anuj Sharma

Previous: Country Director, Poco India

Present: CMO, Xiaomi India

Anuj Sharma, who headed Poco India as the country director, rejoined Xiaomi India as the chief marketing officer, a few months after the departure of its previous CMO. Jaskaran Singh Kapany moved out of the Chinese smartphone company in April, within a year of joining.

Anindita Das Veluri

Previous: Deloitte

Present: Head of Marketing, Adobe India

Anindita Das Veluri joined Adobe as the head of marketing where she will oversee the operations for the India region. Previously, she was associated with Deloitte where she was responsible for building the Adobe alliance and scaling the company’s business in India.

Havas Worldwide Media 

Arthi Basak, EVP and Planning Head - West

Esha Datta, and Saugata Kundu appointed Vice President - client servicing

Havas Worldwide Media has been on a hiring spree, as it has been picking up pace in past two years to go up against other holding company networks. The company roped in Arthi Basak, Esha Datta, and Saugata Kundu. Basak was Strategy Consultant, Landor & Fitch, Datta was AVP at Grey Group and Kundu was AVP and CSD, Wunderman Thompson.

Compiled by Kashmeera Sambamurthy.

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Adobe has appointed Anindita Das Veluri as head of marketing for its India market. Veluri will be reporting to Adobe Asia Pacific (APAC) marketing vice president Duncan Egan. She replaces Sunder Madakshira, who left the company earlier this year to join Rezolve as CEO.

In a career spanning over two decades, Veluri has held various leadership roles across sales and marketing. She joins Adobe from Deloitte, where she was responsible for building the Adobe alliance and scaling the company’s business in India. Prior to that, as the India business leader for the Adobe practice at IBM, Veluri was instrumental in expanding Adobe’s footprint across client segments.

She was also involved in incubating the 'marketing-as-a-service' model for IBM Services and setting up the digital marketing services practice for solution selling across industries.

Commenting on her appointment, Duncan Egan, vice president - marketing, Adobe APAC, said, “With her strong track record and unique experience of having worked at the intersection of marketing, technology, business and creativity –Anindita will be a great partner for our fast growing India business.”

He further added, “We see Anindita playing a critical role in sharing Adobe’s marketing journey with brands in India, and enabling their digital transformation strategies.”

Talking about her new role, Veluri, said, “In today’s digital economy, businesses understand that building customer experiences is mission-critical to their growth, and Adobe is at the forefront of delivering next generation technology to power them. I am excited to join Adobe’s exceptional team to grow the company’s strong and loyal base of customers as well as partners in India.”

Globally, the maker of creative and marketing software, including Photoshop, with the aid of acquisitions, is expanding its marketing, analytics and e-commerce products.

Last year, Adobe India appointed Prativa Mohapatra as its vice president and managing director. Mohapatra is the first woman to lead the global software maker’s operations in the country.

She now oversees the San Jose-based company's India business and growth opportunity across three units: Adobe Experience Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Document Cloud.


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