Guest Lecture by Ms. Deepti Gadekar

The Alumni Committee was delighted to welcome back to campus Ms. Deepti Gadekar, an alumna of the batch of 2002 and currently the Marketing Communications Manager of South Asia at DHL Express. Ms Gadekar was at SIMSREE to address the batch of 2015 about 'Integrated Marketing', and demonstrate a case study in which she explained how the process of Integrated Marketing was conducted at the world’s largest logistics firm, DHL.

Starting with a short history of the company and a few fun facts, Ms Gadekar soon switched to the crux of the presentation – the challenges and methodology of developing a marketing campaign that would cater to the requirements of a diverse set of people from the bankers in South Mumbai to the tanneries outside Agra. With a detailed presentation, the audience were able to visualize a clear picture of how the ‘Speed of Yellow’ campaign was implemented across different channels like television, print, digital, outdoor and cinema to reach out to a defined target audience. Ms. Gadekar effortlessly explained how technical ratings like GRPs are used to make decisions about choosing channels to advertise on, while also explaining the rationale behind choosing unconventional methods like advertising in cinema. Many other facets of marketing communications like tie-ups and sponsorship for the brands like Manchester United and Formula One were also highlighted. The concept of Television AFPs (Advertiser Funded Programs) was also explained to the students with examples of how DHL used relevant content as television programs to reach out to consumers and improve brand recall.

At the end of the case study, Ms. Gadekar provided the batch with an impressive list of statistics that showed the efficacy of the marketing campaign. The session ended with an interactive question and answer round in which all the queries of the students were addressed with aplomb. The batch benefited greatly from the case study since it exposed students to a real-life example of how Integrated Marketing was used by organizations to reach out to consumers.