Guest Lecture by Mr. Sujan Roy

SIMSREE was proud to welcome Mr. Sujan Roy, Head - Marketing Services & Product Planning at Tata Motors on campus for a guest lecture on Marketing Communications for the Automobile Industry. Also, our Alumnus from the 2004 batch, Mr. Rahul Pansare, Head, Marketing Communications at Volkswagen Group, India was present for the lecture. 

Mr. Sujan Roy

Mr. Roy told us how love and passion for cars led him to work in various automobile companies over the years. Mr. Roy made a presentation, in which he demonstrated how simplicity and directness are the best marketing tools. He said that the customer should be given information in a simple, easy to understand format. The essence of an advertisement should be understood even with the volume off, since most people turn off the sound during commercial breaks. 

Also, he shared an important insight made by David Ogilvy- that the customer is not an idiot. Your wife is your customer. So you should always try to market things in such a way that your wife would be convinced. He also told us how cranks are generally the most loyal customers. They care more about the product and company than the employees. So it is good to listen to them and not dismiss them in irritation. 

He then opened the Q&A session. Many questions were asked by the students, about why various cars were positioned the way they were, how to stop companies from losing money on dealerships since people went to local garages etc. We thank Mr. Roy for the insights we gained into marketing for the automobile industry. It was an amazing experience.