Komal Shah
Head – New Business Development
Percept Profile (A Division of Percept Limited)
How has your experience been so far with regard to your association with Percept Profile?
I am basically a Marketing and a Brand Management Professional and have worked on both sides of the table – agency as well as for clients. I have worked on branding, communications, new product development and marketing for past 12 years. Hence, working with a PR firm - Percept Profile - has been a novel and different experience. However I believe that when professionals with different skill-sets and diverse backgrounds work together, it truly helps in what an agency can eventually offer to its clients. I strongly believe that professionals who have joined the agency from client end and the brand management functions bring in a different perspective not just from the discipline point of view but for the category itself.
Heading the new business development function at Percept Profile has given me in a short span of time many opportunities to work on various brands across different sectors; to understand various markets, customer realities, brands marketing & their communication objectives. The journey of developing effective PR programs that influences all stakeholders pertaining to the brand is truly exciting.
What’s currently in the works at Percept Profile?
Percept Profile is constantly targeting new clients in new sectors with new kinds of services and solutions. We currently offer communication solutions across various sectors. We are sector agnostic. We provide strategic counseling to various brands grouped around five verticals/themes – Corporate & Finance, Lifestyle & Retail, Media & Entertainment, Sports and Talents.
In today’s world of instant feedbacks and a fragmented media scenario, there is a growing and strong community on social media. To meet our clients’ communication needs in the social media space we have started a Social Media division in August 2011. Today Percept Profile has a separate team and division to deliver solutions and monitor the social media for our clients.
Can you share with us some milestones of your advertising career? I have been fortunate to get many opportunities on various challenging assignments such as Corporate Campaigns, Product Launches, Theme Park, Launches, Services Launches, Large Promotions and Contests. Some memorable ones include the Corporate campaigns & launch campaigns of esteemed brands such as Reliance Mutual Fund, Reliance Industries Ltd., Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), Parle Agro’s - Frooti, Jolly Jelly, Bailley mineral water, Tata Chemicals - Shudh detergent, Essel group’s- Water Kingdom theme park , Esselworld amusement park. Direct marketing/ promotion and contests at pan India level of Tata Tea and ICICI bonds. Working on all these brands has been great, it was a rich learning and challenging experience.
What is the most memorable project you’ve worked on?
I have been truly blessed to get a wide range of experience across different products & platforms, on different and innovative campaign structures and in different geographies, and those experiences have been very enriching.
My most memorable projects have been handling marketing and entire Brand management functions of Esselworld – India’s biggest amusement park and Water Kingdom- Asia’s largest theme park. These projects gave me an opportunity to demonstrate leadership and handle independently all marketing and brand management functions. Water Kingdom was my dream project, it was completely my baby, I was solely responsible for the Water Kingdom launch right from research on industry, competition and consumer insights to the launch campaign, direct promotions and contests, event management, handling celebrities, aligning customer relations functions, merchandising and tie ups with various Food and Beverages suppliers to park such as Coca –Cola, Frooti, Mcdonalds, Shree Sunders and more. It was a very satisfying, enriching and thrilling experience.
How do you envision the PR in the next five years?
Earlier PR was about relationships, but today it is about knowledge and the flow of information. The PR industry needs to evolve from an expense to an investment space in near future. If we want the business world to take Public Relations seriously, Public Relations Communications Program have to function in tandem with other business and marketing initiatives to allow the process to deliver results that are tangible. Having said that PR programs have to be accountable and add value in lead generation, conversion, thought leadership, Web traffic and Brand awareness. The PR industry in India is facing a talent crunch. There is an acute need to train and retain people in this space. I believe that advocacy and image management will be critical functions of PR.
Do you think traditional media is losing ground to the rapidly growing social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook ? I don’t think traditional media is losing to social media sites. In fact social media is giving us more communication tools to engage, interact and communicate with target audience. Both mediums have to work hand in hand and play supplementing role in fulfilling the communication needs of various brands and support in effective implementation of PR Programs. The PR industry has to incorporate social media tools along with tradition media tools in their PR campaigns to meet client’s priorities.
How do you unwind after a hard day at work ?
Playing with my kids or reading to them in the evening is my way of de-stressing after a challenging day at work. I do spend time on my iPad at home to catch up on the latest trends on the social networks or read some blog posts. I don’t do any business-related work on the weekends. It makes me more focused and effective during the week.
What is your personal success mantra ?
Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. I learn from my mistakes. I reflect on what’s working and what’s not working for me. And adjust my vision, my strategy, or my communication to improve my efforts.
Any parting shot for our readers?
Always remember what’s really important in life and what gives you happiness and a sense of satisfaction. Unfortunately, you won’t be remembered after you’re gone, for how many hours you worked.
Source: http://www.mypercept.in/Percept_newsletter_2009/Nov_2011/up-close.html
