Guest Lecture by Mr. Rajesh Nair and Ms. Deepali Naair

With the spurt of competition in the current market scenario every brand wants to offer something distinct from others, and as a result branding has become an integral part of any product/service. Thus specialized brand management and marketing is required for any brand to stand out in the clutter. The concepts like Sales, Brand Management and marketing, for us were different colors of the same spectrum called Marketing. These individual concepts were beautifully elicited by our esteemed Alumni of 1993 batch Mr. Rajesh Nair and Ms. Deepali Naair to the students of the 2012-14 batch on 30th September. Mr. Rajesh Nair is currently the General Manager (Corporate Human Resources) at Tata Motors, Heading Talent Acquisition, Employee Engagement and Employer Branding. He is associated with Tata Motors from past 19 years where he has served a diverse profile portfolio. Ms. Deepali Naair is currently the Country Head - Brand & Corporate Communications at L&T General Insurance Company Ltd, before which she has been associated with various companies and sectors. Her last assignment was with HSBC Global Asset Management India as VP & Head of Marketing. 

The theme of discussion was "An overview of Careers in Marketing", "Trends in Digital Media and Social Media Marketing from career perspective". Mr. Nair set the ball rolling by asking a penetrative question that "How many want a career in Marketing?", this incited an insightful discussion of Sales V/s Marketing. Both of them explained the need of starting one's career with a sales stint to understand the market and consumer behavior at the grass root level. Sales gives us a completely different flavor of customer needs, while marketing is the support function to improve sales of goods/products. Also, ways to make the transition from sales to marketing were discussed. Focus and dedication were the key points when it came to shift in career opportunities and growth of individual. It was succinctly put as "It's okay to be confused, but the problem is many don't realize that they are confused!"

Ms. Deepali Naair emphasized on Brand Management as a career opportunity and stressed the importance of managing oneself as brand. She explained the depth of social media in critically maintaining our profile and brand. Coming to this a discussion was evolved upon the expanse of digital media and how it is different as compared to the traditional media. Same principles of traditional marketing cannot be applied, as it is more viral and complicated.

Towards the end Mr. Rajesh Nair and Ms. Deepali Naair answered several queries put forward by students. By the end of the discussion all the students were awed by the simplicity and clarity of thought they had. All of us are eagerly looking forward for many more sessions like this one.