CoBB | Conversations on the Business of Brands

Welcome to the 50th episode of CoBB: Conversations on the Business of Brands! In this milestone episode, we're thrilled to bring you an exceptional conversation with a marketing maven who has left an indelible mark on the industry and also the careers of our hosts. Join Sharan and Sudeep as they dive deep into the world of marketing, transformation, and personal inspiration with none other tha...

Please tell us what topics you'd like to have discussed on the CoBB, by filling in this  CONTENT SUGGESTION FORM⁠ It only takes a few minutes, and it will help us provide you with the content most relevant to you. **************************************** Welcome back to another exciting episode of CoBB | Conversations on the Business of Brands! In today's episode, our hosts Sharan and Sude...

Please tell us what topics you'd like to have discussed on the CoBB, by filling in this  CONTENT SUGGESTION FORM⁠ It only takes a few minutes, and it will help us provide you with the content most relevant to you. **************************************** When starting your marketing career, especially after a sales stint, it's typical for anyone to feel out of place. A lot of marketers, ma...

Please tell us what topics you'd like to have discussed on the CoBB, by filling in this  CONTENT SUGGESTION FORM ⁠ It only takes a few minutes, and it will help us provide you with the content most relevant to you. **************************************** Checkout Sudeep's TedX talk - Everybody Should Be a Marketer **************************************** Welcome back to CoBB | Conversatio...

Please tell us what topics you'd like to have discussed on the CoBB, by filling in this  CONTENT SUGGESTION FORM It only takes a few minutes, and it will help us provide you with the content most relevant to you. ***************************************** Uncover the secrets of success as we explore how established companies can learn from emerging businesses in the latest episode of CoBB | Con...

Please tell us what topics you'd like to have discussed on the CoBB, by filling in this CONTENT SUGGESTION FORM It only takes a few minutes, and it will help us provide you with the content most relevant to you. ***************************************** In this CoBB episode, Sharan and Sudeep discuss marketing and selling convictions. They emphasize the importance of sounding dumb in front of...

In today's discussion, Sharan & Sudeep tackle a topic that seems deceptively simple yet proves to be a formidable task, even for the largest companies: Brand Extensions. The discussion begins with an intriguing case study juxtaposing Veet hair remover cream with the fairness cream category. Both used heavily by men, but when the brands launched a male specific sub-brand, one boomed and the...

In this episode of CoBB, we have Lijo Isac, a complete maverick. After his MBA, unlike most of his peers, he shunned the top jobs t go work fo new age internet companies. About 17 years later, Lijo has worked on Consumer Tech brands that have touched almost every Indian’s life. He has worked on brands like Rediff.com, Practo, Paytm, and now Byju’s. As if to top it all off, he is also an Angel Inve...

In this episode of CoBB, we have Lijo Isac, a complete maverick. After his MBA, unlike most of his peers, he shunned the top jobs to go work for new age internet companies. About 17 years later, Lijo has worked on Consumer Tech brands that have touched almost every Indian’s life. He has worked on brands like Rediff.com, Practo, Paytm, and now Byju’s. As if to top it all off, he is also an Angel In...

Today, we dive into a topic that's often challenging yet necessary in the business world: "How to Fire an Agency." In this episode, Sharan interviews Sudeep to discuss the intricacies of parting ways with an agency that has been your long-standing partner. Firing an agency can be a difficult decision, given the residual knowledge and relationships built over time. Sharan and Sudeep e...

Have you heard of The Spinner? They made headlines just before the pandemic for their eerie ability to brainwash individuals through targeted ads and news feeds. Imagine being able to convince someone to quit smoking or change their behavior using adtech techniques. It's mind-boggling! This story leads us to the question we're exploring today: why do brands advertise? An intriguing topic t...

In this episode, we explore the world of creative agencies and the vital role they play in building successful Brands. Have you ever wondered why more companies don’t build in-house creative agencies? Sharan dives deep into this question as he interviews Sudeep . They'll discuss the advantages of focusing on core competencies and accessing the latest skills in non-core areas. It turns out that...

Sharan and Sudeep delve into the topic of TAM, SAM, and SOM. These acronyms may sound like alphabet soup to some, but they have become common place especially after 2 season of Shark Tank India. They are essentially concepts for entrepreneurs and investors to understand when evaluating market potential and business growth opportunities. TAM estimates the total market demand for a product or servic...

Often Marketing is propagated to be this creative endeavour. However, marketing is all about inspiring the creatively inclined and then objectively reviewing and providing feedback to elevate the execution. In this episode, Sharan & Sudeep tackle a crucial aspect of the creative process: providing objective reviews and constructive feedback to creative agencies on their creative output. It is...

In today's episode, Sharan & Sudeep explore a fundamental yet often misunderstood concept: Strategy. Have you ever come across organizations claiming to have a strategy but soon realizing that what they presented was merely a goal, a plan, or even a catchy slogan? We've all been there. It turns out that many strategies are not strategies at all. They lack the essential components that...

In Episode 32 , where Sharan & Sudeep has discussed DIY market research, we had a lot of enquiries about research stimuli in general and Brand Concept cards in specific. This episode, our hosts go into detail as to what a Brand Concept is. Whether you use it for market research or not, writing a Brand concept is core to a marketers job. So, they go on to describe how to write one on your own w...

We wanted to wanted wait a while before discussing this topic. With the dust settling just a bit (maybe), Sharan & Sudeep have decided to share their thoughts on the Cadbury Bournvita vs the influencer episode. Everybody in the marketing circles seems to think of this as a Striesand moment for the Brand, where they might have been better served just ignoring the issue. But then, hindsight is a...

In this episode, Sharan & Sudeep interview Narayan Sundararaman , the CMO of #BajajAuto and a veteran marketer with over 25 years of experience across various industries and brands like ITC, Cadbury/Mondelez, and Star TV. Narayan shares his insights on how marketing has evolved over the years, and how marketing professionals can stay ahead of the ever-changing environment. The hosts also delve...

In this episode, ⁠Sharan⁠ & ⁠Sudeep⁠ interview ⁠Narayan Sundararaman⁠ , the CMO of #BajajAuto and a veteran marketer with over 25 years of experience across various industries and brands like ITC, Cadbury/Mondelez, and Star TV. Narayan shares his insights on how marketing has evolved over the years, and how marketing professionals can stay ahead of the ever-changing environment. The hosts also...

Marketers often refers to this term ‘insights’ as the holy grail of marketing. The term is often used liberally to glorify any marketing activity. This results in a diluting the meaning in general parlance. Wouldn’t it help us to just set the record straight once and for all? This is the challenge our hosts Sudeep & Sharan have taken up on this week’s episode. They start with simply defining w...

This episode of CoBB delves deeper into the topic of measuring brand progress, following the enormous interest generated by a previous episode, 'Measure Whatever You Treasure'. Sharan and Sudeep, explore the world of DIY market research, to equip you with the ideal tools and technique to understand your target audience and measure Brand progress. The hosts begin by differentiating between...

In the Q&A episodes to celebrate the 25 episodes mark, Sharan & Sudeep chose to skip a specific question because it is something they have been asked not just by podcast listeners, but also on other occasions. So they decided to dedicate a whole episode to it. The question: How do I get an FMCG marketing role and become a better marketer? They first take on the the underlying ask of how on...

In this episode of CoBB, Sharan and Sudeep explore the world of Integrated Marketing Campaigns (IMCs) and how businesses of all sizes can run successful and memorable campaigns by following the basics of what makes an IMC successful and memorable. They break down the four key components of an IMC - Consumers, Brand Experience, Approach, and Cross-Channel Adaptation - for Brands to create a unified...

This week we get into the one of the most debated and most entertaining of Brand Building topics. Should a Brand use celebrity endorsements or not? There are two schools of thought. One, that says a well known celebrity can help build awareness and credibility for a Brand that might take years to build on its own. The other: Celebrities are so expensive that investing the money in marketing will p...

This episode, hop on the brand wagon with Sharan and Sudeep as they explore how Go-to-Market (GTM) choices can be extensions of the core brand strategy. In this episode, our hosts discuss how a brand-led GTM approach can help businesses make their products accessible, drive customer engagement, enhance sales conversion, and even sustain a competitive advantage. They explain how aligning GTM planni...