Mr. Anand Khurana, Business Head, Hindustan Unilever Ltd.

An Interview with Mr. Anand Khurana
Business Head, Hindustan Unilever Ltd.

In this month’s Vartalaap we have with us Mr.Anand Khurana who is the Business head - Out of Home (F&B Services) & Modern Foods (Bakery) at Hindustan Unilever Ltd. He has a rich experience of 14 years with HUL and has worked in Modern Trade Channel, New Business Development, Key account management etc. He has also been the senior brand manager for hair care, responsible for brands of Clinic All Clear and Nihar.

Q1. You have had a long and illustrious career in marketing in the FMCG industry, with stints both in India and abroad while working for HUL. What are the key differences in the competitive scenario in the industry in India and abroad? What are the differences in terms of marketing?
Marketing quite simply is about understanding the consumer, his/her stated & unstated needs & developing & deploying a marketing mix (Brand Proposition, Product, Communication & Go-to-Market strategy) to fulfil that need. This basic premise remains the same everywhere in the world. However, the nuances of consumer tastes & preferences demand fulfilment options with respect to the retail store landscape, media evolution & consumption habits could differ by region/ country as much as they do between Mumbai & Muzzafarnagar.

Q2. You have worked in many diverse roles in HUL. What has been the most challenging task in your career till date?
HUL has so many different categories & a culture of moving people from marketing, sales to business operations which makes the experience very broad based & large. It’s almost like having worked in 5-6 different companies.
I have been lucky to have moved across sales, marketing, business operations in both the India business & International operations. Each stint has been very rewarding with different challenges across my tints in brands, exports & key accounts and business leadership.

Q3. HUL has recently opened Bru World Cafés in Mumbai. What spurred the company to enter direct retail for coffee? When can we expect the pilot cafes to spread to other cities?
A Café a logical extension for our coffee brand as the segment presents a great opportunity for not just consumption but also building brand experience & premiumization. It helps us move up the value chain from product to experience delivery. This is being done currently on a pilot basis

Q4. Can you tell us about HUL’s plans in the OOH (Out of Home) segment in the next 5 years? What is the strategy that you are looking at for Modern Foods?
More & more consumers are spending more & more time out of home, at Work (offices, colleges) Wait (at airports, railways) & Play (Malls, Multiplex, Leisure). This creates a large consumption and Brand experience opportunity. We have built a robust Beverages Out-of-Home business in the B2B space with our Lipton & Bru Tea/Coffee vending services, since 2002 & are look to continuing to scale that up rapidly. In addition we have entered the consumer OOH space with the Bru café and Swirls ice cream parlours. Modern Foods is a very large player in the Bakery Category which is very large. Unlike other FMCG, Bread is a perishable product & requires decentralized manufacturing & a daily distribution system. Modern as a brand has a lot of equity & we have driven aggressive growth by rejuvenating the Brand by making the packing more contemporary, introducing a lot of new products like kream rolls, chappatis, cookies etc. Our strategy is to continue to leverage our strengths in Daily distribution & Bakery technology to grow the business

Markathon October 2011

Dear Readers,

Customer engagement has become an integral element of marketing for all companies today. They want to talk to the customer, listen to the customer’s feedback and act on it. The recent course I took on Integrated Marketing Communications only reinforced the fact that, brands today are emphasising a lot more on media that enable a 2 way communication with the customer rather than just broadcast media. These media, help companies reach out directly and get first hand insights from their customers—Companies want to have conversations with their customers and convert these conversations into actual transactions. Being in the customer’s mind is what every company is aiming for and there are various ways they go about it. One of the ways companies do this is Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR is a way of giving back to the society, but it is also about creating a good image for the brand. The line between doing good and doing it for the sake of brand building seems to be getting blurry. “Greenwashing” has now become a common phrase for companies which do green initiatives just for getting a positive image. In this month’s cover story, we’ve tried to ask a simple question ‘Does CSR really help in building brands?’. In the story, we look at different companies and what CSR means to them some of them who have really been successful in leveraging CSR to their brand’s advantage and also some who haven’t been so successful at it. We hope you enjoy the story!

In this month’s Vartalaap we have with us Mr. Anand Khurana who is the Business head - Out of Home (F&B Services) & Modern Foods (Bakery) at Hindustan Unilever Ltd. Mr. Khurana talks to us about how HUL is focussing on its Out of Home division for increased profitability. We are thankful to Mr.Khurana for taking time out to talk to the Markathon team.

In our Vartalaap from the academic world, we have the renowned Dr.Jagdish Sheth who is widely regarded as the Father of Relationship Marketing. Dr.Sheth is currently the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University. He gives us a wonderful interview about how important it is to have a good relationship with the customer. Team Markathon is extremely grateful that Mr.Sheth took out time from his schedule to give us this exclusive interview.

Our articles section has an article of how companies are leveraging different media to understand what the consumer wants and then deliver it to the customer in exactly the way he desired. The other article about new Marketing Channels for retailers describes the new delivery mechanisms which are now being tapped by retailers thanks to growing use of technology. We are sure our readers will enjoy both the articles.

As always, do send us your feedback and suggestions for the magazine on markathon.iims@gmail.com .

Sit back and enjoy this edition!

Jitesh Pradeep Patel