Graduate Studies Blog

Article contributed by Maitrayee Pathak

We kick started our club with our very first event on 1st oct 2018. It was an industry talk by one of the most loved and renowned FMCG companies of the world; Procter & Gamble. The guest speakers were Mr Chinmay Shenoy and Candice Chung who are brand managers of Pampers (Baby Diapers) & Whisper (Women Sanitary care).

The agenda of this presentation was to give our audience an understanding of market research in the consumer goods domain and how do companies use research data to make significant strategic decisions.

The discussion started off with the speaker (Chinmay) taking us through his journey on working with Nielsen (Market research company). He gave us very insightful information on different market research techniques and how they are leveraged across industries and clients. He then moved on to talk about how his role translated from a researcher to a brand manager at P&G. The conversation was then around how research methods are adopted by the team of Pampers to improve footprint, brand equity and consumer base. The speaker cited multiple examples of different types of strategies adopted by the brand across Asia Pacific. He shed some light on how the behaviour of a new mother various across different regions in APAC. We also learnt how the brand team devices their communication based on consumer insights and market dynamics.

Candice went on to speak about the internal dynamics of the company and interdependency among various teams such as Marketing, Sales, R&D and finance. This reflected well on the company’s culture and ways of working.

This talk was not a monologue but spurred highly engaging discussions among the class.  After the insightful presentation, we had a mini networking session with the speakers during which some participants expressed their thoughts and interests about P&G and the FMCG industry.

This session was indeed a big opener for the club with around 30 participants from the Full Time MBA and Fellows MBA programmes. The feedback from the crowd was utterly positive and the group was very impressed with the guest speakers. We ended the event with some delicious pizza.

We are extremely thrilled with how our first event turned out and we promise to raise the bar with each event that we do. A huge shout out to the cohort, business clubs and Exco members for all your support.

Looking forward to organizing more fun filled and insightful events for the club.

Till then, signing off: Maitrayee & Jeffrey