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Nestle, the world’s largest food company, has ambitions to invest Rs 5000 crore in India by 2025, CEO Mark Schneider said during his week-long visit to the country, which is Nestle’s 10th largest market globally. The fresh investments will help the company accelerate its core business in the country and leverage new opportunities for growth in well-established and emerging categories.

This was Schneider's second visit to the country since joining the Swiss-based foods and beverage major in 2017 from the healthcare group Fresenius where he was chief executive. It is also his first global market visit since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and marks the first meeting of the board of directors in an international market, signifying the importance the company attaches to India in the global scheme of things, Schneider shared during an exclusive wide-ranging interview with Storyboard18's Delshad Irani on CNBC-TV18.

Schneider also said the investment would be on capital expenditure, expanding and enhancing Nestle India's portfolio of brands, acquisitions in emerging segments, and setting up new plants. 

Today, 99 percent of what Nestle sells in India is made in India and the company also has a global R&D center in the country. 

Nestle owns over 2000 brands globally and is the maker of iconic household brands such as KitKat and Nescafe, and, of course, Maggi, an Indian pantry staple and one of the country’s most loved brands. 

Maggi, the clear market leader in the instant noodles market, made a dramatic turnaround when it came back from the brink after allegations of contaminants in 2015. Packs were pulled off shelves and over 22,000 tonnes of Maggi had to be destroyed at an estimated cost of Rs 500 crore. In the years that followed the company doubled-down on efforts to reestablish trust in the brand and saw Maggi return to its market-leading position. But there’s increasing competition from well-entrenched as well as new players and the challenge of constantly evolving tastes and preferences. 

The company has also been dialing up its sustainability efforts to address the many challenges it faces today, with a focus on the new bottom-line - People, Planet, Profits. 

In India, initiatives that fall in Nestle’s ‘Commitment to society’ are in the areas of nutrition awareness with Nestlé Healthy Kids program (started in 2009) and Project Jagriti to encourage good nutrition and feeding practices and encourage uptake of public health services. In Rural Development, Nestle runs Dairy Development (1961) and the Nescafé Plan (2012) to improve the quality and sustainability of coffee sourcing and production. Others include the Spice Plan, Project Vriddhi and Project Hilldaari to drive the better management of waste collection and segregation. 

Nestle has been present in India for over a century and Schneider shared that in the last 60 years, since Nestle began manufacturing in India, it has invested over Rs 8000 crore in its operations here. 

"In 1961, we started our first manufacturing site and so in that whole time period it has been Rs 8000 crore and now in the next three years, it will be Rs 5000 crore," Schneider said during a media roundtable. The investment, subject to board approval, is for accelerating the core business and ramping up capex, development works and brand building with sustainability as one of the core pivots.

<em>Watch out for the full interview on CNBC-TV18. </em><strong>





Nestle to invest Rs 5000 crore by 2025 in capacity and brand building in India: CEO Mark Schneider

Adobe roped in Anindita Veluri as head of marketing for its India market four months ago. In a career spanning over two decades, Veluri has held various leadership roles across sales and marketing in organizations like Deloitte, IBM, and TNT (FedEx). Veluri joined Adobe from Deloitte, where she was responsible for building the Adobe alliance and scaling the company’s business in India.

After having spent the past few months understanding the brand, business and marketing ecosystem, Veluri came away with an important learning. In a hyper-digital age, Veluri thinks, “The focus on empathy coupled with creativity is clearly a skill” that future-ready markers must have.

In an exclusive chat with Storyboard18, Veluri shares her views on India - a market of opportunities and challenges, metaverse, web 3.0, game-changing marketing campaigns and more.
 
Read on.

<strong>What is it like being a marketer in today’s hyper-connected age?</strong>

It is challenging and rewarding at the same time. I feel that marketing is no longer a siloed function in an organisation but one that plays a strategic role in contributing to business growth.  I see the marketing function as an orchestrator across all functions within an organisation which holds the power to create a common fabric of co-creation as we all strive to meet our goals. 
 
With the marketing department on the frontline of digital transformation today, what matters most to me as a marketer is to stay relevant and ahead of the curve. I strongly believe in changing with the times and keeping pace with the fast-evolving technology landscape. That’s not all; one needs to be agile, have a results-driven mentality and foster a strong community of like-minded leaders. The focus on empathy coupled with creativity is clearly a skill that we all need to develop if we wish to be a marketer of the future. 

<strong>As a marketer, how do you think the events of the past three years - from a pandemic to socio-economic disruptions, have affected the relationship between brands and customers? </strong>

The many disruptions of the past years have changed how we interact, work and play. With a profound shift to all things digital, relationships have become more value-based and purpose-driven, with consumers expecting personalization and sustainability in everything on offer from a brand. Given this, brands are not only trying to live up to the responsibilities of delivering experiences that are real-time, relevant and engaging, but also increasing efforts to honour customer preference and privacy.
 
Trust has become a fundamental expectation of customer experience. Findings from Adobe’s recent Trust Report prove how important a role trust plays in boosting a brand’s reputation, customer loyalty and the bottom line. Moreover, with the third-party cookie landscape soon to become obsolete, brands need to quickly shift their focus to first-party data strategies to earn customer trust, building more direct and personal relationships based on data customers willingly share.

<strong>What do Adobe India’s customers want these days and what efforts are being made to meet these new requirements?</strong>

People yearn for deeper connections and authentic relations. Likewise, our customers are constantly looking for long-term partnerships with in-depth interventions and consistent engagement throughout their digital journey. They are expected to deliver digital-first customer experiences that are both contextual as well as personalised, and therefore are looking for partners who can help simplify the entire process with the least amount of friction. At Adobe, we are concentrating our efforts on establishing personal engagement with our customers, providing them with solutions to enhance the digital experience for their customers across every phase of the lifecycle, with additional ability to integrate better with existing technology and scale effectively. So be it about suggestions on the appropriate tools, the ability to future-proof and scale their IT requirements or enhance the experiences they deliver to customers using intelligent data points - we are working with our customers to empower them with the wherewithal to deliver experiences that stand out.

<strong>How would you define India as a market for Adobe? What are the major highlights and some of the challenges here?</strong>

This year is special, as we celebrate 25 years of our operations in India. As a key contributor to both intellectual property creation and business growth, India is undoubtedly a strategic market for Adobe. With around 7,000 employees, it is also the second-largest establishment for us after North America and home to over 1/3rd of Adobe’s innovation. It has seen a solid track record of growth across the enterprise and the consumer business backed by our strong team. Our customers range from financial institutions (including HDFC Bank, ICICI Home Finance Company, Tata Capital, Bajaj Allianz, AU Small Finance Bank) and retail innovators (Nykaa, Tata CLiQ, Titan) to leading travel and automotive players (Vistara, MG Motor, CEAT) and more.
 
India is a unique market, leapfrogging between several generations of technology and adopting digital technology at record pace. The young talent population is another strongpoint for this market. However, with opportunities, comes challenges. Despite an increasing internet penetration and connectivity, digital maturity and literacy continue to be key issues for India. This renders our population wanting for more when it comes to adequate skilling, upskilling, and reskilling, required to be future-ready. Additionally, the mindset of the citizens is very conventional and far from establishing trust in all things data and technology, such that they want to evaluate the product or solutions post sampling only. I prefer calling India a sachet-style economy for this very reason.

<strong>In your view, what are the major trends changing the way marketing is done and will be done in the future?</strong>

With web 3.0 and metaverse creating chatter worldwide and organizations monetizing these ecosystems, digital experiences will only become more immersive in the times to come. A cookie-less future will help build customer trust with brands implementing consent processes and being transparent about how they use customer data. At the same time, data democratization will become fundamental for other departments in the organization besides marketing. I also feel that the future will demand an amalgamation of CXO roles, and one will need to become a generalist rather than a subject or domain expert, to lead holistic development of the organization and optimized operations of the business units within.

<strong>In the last couple of years, customer experiences have been at the core of brands' marketing strategies. How is technology going to disrupt CX further?</strong>

With the pandemic accelerating the shift to digital, there’s no question that being digital-first will continue to drive business success in the near future until digital-everything becomes the norm. While customer experiences have always been a key differentiator in conventional times, the outburst of technology has only helped enhance it with real-time insights for customer satisfaction. Deep tech has made this possible with data at the core. Big data has also helped transform and up the customer experience game in the last few years. As technology evolves and innovation comes to life, it is vital to understand that today, customer experience is not about and dependent on technology but on what we do and how we leverage technological advancements to derive insights and value.

<strong>Realistically, what's the next big thing coming down the line in terms of technology?</strong>

With immersive experiences growing in prominence, metaverse and web 3.0 are definitely the big bets for the future. Another would be a unified technology platform which will support in providing a single suitable source of truth not only in times of customer profile evaluation but also for end to end experiences. For businesses to succeed in leveraging these, the focus would largely need to be upon integrating technology advancements within a set framework because the two most critical factors driving business success will continue to be data-rich personalisation and delightful customer experiences across the board.

<strong>What is a benchmark piece of work, initiative or innovation by others that was a game-changer for the industry, in your view?</strong>

As a marketer, I feel like a piece magnet that is attracted to game-changing innovation irrespective of the verticals. For example, Nike's deployment of technologies like outdoor 3D billboards to attract eyeballs stood out for me - the experience it created was unmatchable.
 
The CRED IPL campaign series is one of my favourites in recent times as it uses the power of nostalgia to build a higher brand recall. High on entertainment value and full of our favourite cultural icons in their most uncharacteristic selves, the fintech player’s series of ads over the last two seasons have definitely got conversations going on how brands can unlock innovation and differentiated means of storytelling to engage more effectively with their consumers.
 
I also think the way FSI players accelerated their digital journeys during the pandemic to service their existing users and onboard newer customers was exceptional. For instance, during the pandemic, Nippon India Mutual Funds ensured end-to-end digital onboarding and touchless paperless experiences for its consumers. They executed this by tapping into digital consumer culture, scaling personalisation, enhanced targeted messaging and continued customer engagement by connecting people with relevant investment opportunities. They could scale it country-wide within no time by creating cross-channel experiences that wow Indian youth and get them excited about saving, investing, and building new wealth.
 
Another remarkable work that I can recall is from Max Bupa, which established its digital presence in 2020.However, despite the convenience of an online platform, consumers continued to rely on intermediaries such as agents or tele-callers for assistance and almost 100% digital sales were driven through the tele-agent model because the company’s digital platform was not focused on customer experience.

 



Adobe India’s Anindita Veluri thinks India is a sachet-style economy

Criteo, the commerce media company, recently announced the launch of a video advertising solution in India. The company is bullish on the India market, looking to sign more clients, grow its team and offices. Its video advertising solutions help brands, publishers, and retailers reach and monetize audiences.

As more Indians spend time on digital consuming videos, opportunities with video ads are booming. India's total video market - traditional TV and digital - is currently at USD 11.6 billion and will grow at a 9.5 percent CAGR in the next five years to touch USD 18 billion in revenue by 2026, as per independent research and consulting firm Media Partners Asia (MPA).

Criteo is looking to tap this growing market by connecting brands to consumers through retargeting, internet advertising, recommendation, personalization, search, behavioural targeting and ecommerce ad solutions. In an interaction with Storyboard18, Brian Gleason, chief revenue officer, Criteo talks about growing the business, potential of open web and trends which are unique to the India market.

<strong>Edited excerpts.</strong>

<strong>How big is India as a market for Criteo? What percentage of your global revenue comes from India?</strong>

India is incredibly important to us. We began operations in 2016 in India. We have over 160 employees with rapid expansion plans. We're going to build our technology and engineering hub out of India. In terms of overall markets, Criteo makes roughly a billion dollars in the overall revenue and India is certainly in the top seven of our markets, and scaling extremely quickly. It's one of our highest growth markets, and I think it's been registering double digit growth all the way back to 2019.

<strong>Tell us what trends are unique to India?</strong>

The two biggest trends in India is that the e-commerce space is growing quickly but I believe it's still less than 10 percent versus retail sales. But what I do see is a hybrid type of relationship in India, and I'm not seeing as much of that in the other countries. 

We see that a lot of shoppers are going to physical retailers and then buying online or researching online and buying in retail. And I think we're going to see more and more of that as things develop. But the numbers are interesting. I believe it's one in three of every shopper that starts their search on a retail site, so we'll see more and more as the market develops. But I think the hybrid nature of the market that stands today is unique.

<strong>What’s the potential of the open web and what it brings for businesses including local brands?</strong>

If I look at our overall total addressable market for commerce media as a whole. I believe it's about USD 100 billion. We're really at this third wave of growth with digital. The first was search that was followed quickly by social, and I think that's coming upon commerce media. 

Commerce media is really beyond the walls. You know you have a few walled gardens, and the biggest one is Amazon. So, beyond that I think we see this ecosystem beginning to form, and there's a relationship between the largest retailers and the large e-marketplaces. But then that also goes down to local players, the mom-and-pop type of establishments that are beginning to build relationships with some of these players (e-marketplaces).

As that develops again, I think it's a massive opportunity, and what it does is it opens up an opportunity for brands, the largest brands in the world, whether it is P&G, L’Oréal or Unilever to engage with audiences and get real time measurement or close the measurement against the open web, but back to a retail environment. It's driving so much of the growth that we see today, and I think we'll see it continue to scale.


<blockquote>India is not a market where you just put your toe in the water. And that's why we're making the investment, obviously, and building our technology here.</blockquote>


<strong>How critical is first-party data strategy for companies?</strong>

For a retailer, certainly first-party data is gold. We certainly build our first-party data. If I look at India as a market, I believe we have a reach of almost 250 million daily active users in India itself, and out of that it's a very high percentage that are female, which is a little bit higher than we see in most markets. 

For first-party data, everybody needs to lean into that, because it's really about measurement and effectiveness. Now it doesn't just have to be first-party data. I think there are other signals and insights that will start to take shape. 

The Google cookie deprecation delay certainly gives everybody more time but I believe as an industry we need to continue to lean in and find a solution and work together. I don't think it'll be one party who breaks the code on this.

<strong>How can smaller, scalable brands in the region grow and carve out new revenue streams through retail media networks and technology?</strong>

Digital by itself, created the opportunity for a small retailer or someone with an idea to be able to compete with someone with massive scale. E-commerce is a little bit unique, because you need partners to help with the logistics. 

I'll go back to the Flipkart relationship with us, which is interesting, because they have a massive marketplace which connects using Flipkart’s scale with Criteo in our instance to be able to do performance and dynamic creative. But it invites in that marketplace multiple smaller sellers to be able to use the logistics of Flipkart and get into the game and be able to compete. That's massive, and I think we'll see more and more of that, and you'll see it both with niche solutions. 

Whether that be an artisan or someone who is creating or crafting, or it could be smaller delivery apps right where you're seeing more people compete, whether it's a restaurant or a service-based business. I think all these things are starting to come into play, which is fascinating to watch.

India, as a whole, has such a massive scale, and I think the one thing that we have to think when we look at India for anyone, is to think big. It's not a market where you just put your toe in the water. And that's why we're making the investment, obviously, and building our technology here.


<blockquote>We're really at this third wave of growth with digital. The first was search that was followed quickly by social and now it's commerce media.   </blockquote>


<strong>Are you planning to launch more products and what are your team or office expansion plans in India? </strong>

We recently announced a new video solution in India a week or two ago. We will continue to roll out new solutions to the market. You'll see us too much more around retail media capabilities and market. We started with Flipkart, and I think we continue to build in that space in terms of talent. We look to build our technology hub out of India and we've already made some significant hires, and the plan is to hire another additional 150 people for that operation. 

When I think about India's growth in all facets, whether it be product, talent or big capabilities, that's a market we want to build in.

 



Going to build our technology, engineering hub out of India: Criteo’s Brian Gleason

Truecaller has entirely redesigned its app. In addition to many upgrades over the previous version, the update also adds much-needed security. The new Truecaller iPhone software has improved by 10x in terms of spotting spam, scams, and verified businesses. The iPhone owners will find it simpler to avoid those bothersome callers as a result. It will also be possible for iPhone users to check for numbers without first opening the app. On iPhones, the app will now show emojis in addition to the caller ID.

In an exclusive conversation with Storyboard18’s Shibani Gharat, Alan Mamedi, co-founder and CEO of Truecaller, spoke on the app upgradation. Listen in.

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In conversation with Truecaller’s co-founder and CEO Alan Mamedi

Why PepsiCo India’s Lay's launched gourmet chips

“We were ignored, then we were ostracized, later we were heard and over a period of time we were accepted,” says Raj Armani, co-founder of IMBesharam, India’s first and biggest sextech brand. 

From a consignment worth Rs 3 crore getting confiscated by Customs to payment gateways cancelling their account for being ‘obscene’, IMBesharam has fought many battles. As the brand completes nine years in the business of sexual wellness, Armani and his team are looking at interesting ways to on-board social media marketing executives, brand managers, designers and a host of other roles. 

In an exclusive interview with Storyboard18, Armani, talks about the company's unique hiring campaign, challenges of hiring in the sextech space and how that’s changing, and the brand’s rocky journey in a market where ‘sex’ is typically a taboo topic. 
 
Read on. 

<strong>What is the core idea behind the hiring campaign you announced on LinkedIn? And what’s the response so far? </strong>

This was a totally spontaneous decision as we were finalizing our team’s yearly international holiday. We skipped holidays for the last two years due to COVID interruptions and restrictions, so this year the team holiday is a much awaited event.

The response has been actually overwhelming. We got 120 candidates to fill applications that’s posted on our job listing after reading this post and it will take our team 1-2 weeks to narrow down 10 best and interview them. The three who standout will get an invitation to the office trip to Bangkok. We think this is a fun and unique way to start a work relationship, they will get a premium team culture experience which can form the foundation on which they will hopefully build up on.

<strong>Is hiring difficult in the category you operate in?</strong>

Yes and no. Yes, because lately startups’ model has been the ‘in’ thing, lots of new aspirants want to jump on. Even the well-seasoned work force seems to be attracted to the concept of working in a team as an independent entrepreneur vs the traditional manager/supervisor/employee model. So we get several inquiries from experienced candidates in various industries who want to join our team. In fact many of them approach us thinking they would get hired and get a VIP ticket to Besharam mansion. Those hopes don’t last too long as our application forms bring a reality check and that filters the just curious from the seriously serious.

The reason why we say no, is because we have a hard time finding new team mates who have similar work ethics as the majority of our team. We find many of the candidates who apply lack communication skills, organizational skills, time management skills and various other non-negotiable expectations we have from a high quality professional. A few of them who do, are either overqualified for the position or too expensive for us to make an offer to. 

<strong>What are the hiring challenges you face, especially for your marketing team?</strong>

Our challenges have evolved over years. From the usual and expected ‘log kya kahenge’ between 2013-16 to ‘Hi I am Sonia and I wanna work in a sextech startup’, the journey has been like a tour of Indian culture in a saas-bahu soap. Now we get the upper hand and can choose the best candidate from the pool because suddenly working in a startup is cool and sexual wellness is no more taboo.

<strong>What are the questions you usually ask candidates?</strong>

Some of the questions we ask are 'how will you react if your parents/in-laws find out about our company?' ‘What will you tell your husband if he passes and sees the screen on your laptop’? ‘Will your relationship get affected if you work in our team?' ‘Have you visited an adult store outside of India?' And the one question that most new talent asks us is ‘will we get to meet Sunny Leone at your office?’ or ‘Can we talk to her after being hired’? Well it’s cruel to burst that bubble but we do get a few laughs out of it here and there. Once a smart chap who took a role in marketing said that us hiring him is a ticket to move out from his home and start a living with his girlfriend, so he can tell his parents ‘shifting due to job’. 

<strong>As a brand that opened up the category 10 years ago, what’s your view on India? What were the initial roadblocks?</strong>

Now is the golden period to be in sextech in India. India is the only country in the world with the most dormant demand. It is the third-biggest consumer of porn, second-most populated country, with a new age population of GenZ and shifting mindsets of millennials, the demand is soon going to blow up. It’s just a matter of time when the attention of every brand and service that’s catering to sexual health and sexual wellness will divert to India.

When we started, we had the burden to introduce this category as a credible and legit category where audience understand that pleasure and sex toys are not a shady underground phenomemnon to play around in bachelor parties or make jokes about. It is an experience that gives the biggest high without having to snort, sniff or drink and it’s as organic as your hunger for different cuisines and your wanderlust for different locations. Then our focus shifted on discovery and fighting taboos, on social media and society at large.

We were ignored, then we were ostracized, later we were heard and over a period of time we were accepted. In the middle we had several highs and lows, like getting a large consignment of over Rs 3 crore confiscated by Customs in Mumbai to being pitched on the front page of a newspaper against the police commissioner who allegedly wanted to clean Mumbai of this ‘crap’. We were celebrated for what we did and at the same we had payment gateways cancel our accounts because ‘this is obscene and not allowed in India’. We have seen it all and are still alive and kicking.

<strong>But marketing sex toys, sexual wellness products and other related items is still challenging in India. What’s your brand’s strategy? What has helped you so far? </strong>

That’s true. The best practices to marketing in India are changing as audiences' taste, knowledge and expectations are evolving. For example, look what Ranveer Singh's nude photos did recently and think back to what Aamir Khan and Karishma Kapoor did in the 90s when they kissed in the rain. 

The best ideas usually excite viewers’ minds and engage their intelligence. So we are trying to learn this one step at a time and hopefully we will master it soon. Our brand's strategy since 2018 has transitioned to 80 percent telling and 20 percent selling, across social media as well in press and offline media. We have realigned our vision with a single focus which is to ‘normalize (sexual) pleasure’ and remove the stigma. So since 2018 our focus has been to source and impart real-life sex-ed, share stories, open conversations and fuel discussions. We have not ventured outside of social media but we plan to do that aggressively for Q3-4 2022 between ads on social media, search ads, video marketing on OTT channels, engaging influencers and channels who can advance our agenda and join hands in our effort to normalize pleasure. The name of the campaign we are coming up with next is ‘Don’t have SEX’…Guess why?

<strong>What’s the growth you are expecting by the end of the year? What’s your marketing spend like?</strong>

2020 was a turning point in our business as well as the industry at large. It’s the year that saw sales tank to 5 percent and then skyrocket to 200 percent on previous year numbers. We only realized the true potential after this eye-opening phase and since then have doubled down to establish Besharam as a one stop shop. Our revenues were upwards of Rs40 crore for 2021 and we are on pace to beat that by 25 percent this year. It may go higher as we have a bunch of events and activities lined up for the remainder of this year. Our marketing spend may be the highest ever, crossing Rs 2 crore this year.

<strong>What are some of the bigger consumer trends you are noticing in India that are surprising and promising? </strong>

We notice that online shopping is shaping consumer behaviour, habits and expectations so fast that in a few years we will use an app to flush the toilet, cook your food or put you to sleep. So why not lovemaking or sex? We are seeing early adoption of VR headsets, smart toys that can make lovemaking possible using apps and at a distance, bluetooth and airdrop dating based on your location, and possibly e-weddings and suhaag raats. The possibilities are endless. 

Exclusive: How India’s biggest sextech brand IMBesharam is hiring

INTERVIEW