In this episode of CoBB, hosts Sharavana Raghavan and Sudeep Chawla strip away the glossy veneer of marketing to reveal the gritty, unstructured reality that marketers live every day. Sudeep, drawing from his extensive experience, offers a candid, behind-the-scenes look at the mental and strategic rigour involved in solving business problems through marketing. Contrary to the popular perception that marketing is all about making glamorous ads, the conversation explores how true marketing is abou...
Jul 24, 2025•23 min•Season 1Ep. 140
In this episode, Sudeep grills Sharan on a brutally honest question - why are so many emerging consumer brands getting steamrolled by Quick Commerce platforms? Sharan shares firsthand founder conversations and hard-earned insights to make a bold claim: Q-Com isn’t the problem. You are, if you’re treating it like a business model instead of a channel. What follows is a fiery, insight-packed breakdown of how to engage with platforms like Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart without losing your brand, you...
Jul 10, 2025•27 min•Season 1Ep. 139
In this quirky yet insightful episode, Sudeep and Sharan explore an unusual analogy - how marketers are similar to ducks. Sudeep breaks down five distinct ways a marketer’s job mirrors the life of a duck: calm on the surface but furiously paddling underneath, staying unaffected by their environment, taking short strategic flights, diving in when needed, and balancing short-term and long-term focus — just like ducks practicing unihemispheric sleep. Through humorous anecdotes and deep marketing wi...
Jun 26, 2025•20 min•Season 1Ep. 138
In this follow-up to Episode 135, Sudeep Chawla continues his conversation with Sharavana Raghavan, diving deeper into how brands—both global giants and local heroes—have cracked the code to rural distribution in India. From HUL’s legendary Project Shakti to Parle-G’s drought-time dominance and Ghadi’s two-rupee trust model, this episode moves from principles to powerful playbooks. It’s a masterclass in building brand equity where infrastructure is limited but aspiration is limitless. CONVERSATI...
Jun 12, 2025•28 min•Season 1Ep. 137
In this episode, hosts Sharavana Raghavan and Sudeep Chawla explore a question many young marketers are asking today. How can you learn, grow, and make an impact when your organisation limits experimentation and the economy feels slow? Sudeep offers an unexpected answer: B2B2C categories. Often seen as unglamorous and rigid, industries like paints, adhesives, waterproofing, and pipes actually offer a goldmine of learning opportunities. With high regional diversity, complex intermediary networks,...
May 29, 2025•27 min•Season 1Ep. 136
In this episode, Sudeep Chawla interviews Sharan on one of the most under-discussed but critical topics in Indian marketing—how brands can build effective rural distribution. Sharan draws from years of consulting experience and insights from Rama Bijapurkar’s Lilliput Land to reframe rural distribution as a strategic design challenge rather than a logistical nightmare. This episode sets the foundation with four powerful principles that every brand must understand before venturing into Bharat. CO...
May 15, 2025•22 min•Season 1Ep. 135
In this episode, hosts Sharavana Raghavan and Sudeep Chawla dive deep into a timely challenge for brand builders — how can advertising truly make an impact in the age of reels, shorts, and endless scroll? Sudeep unpacks the evolving media landscape where attention is fragmented, competition is infinite, and algorithms feed our every instinct. As digital platforms shift the power entirely to the consumer, the conversation explores how marketers can still create meaningful, memorable brand communi...
May 01, 2025•25 min•Season 1Ep. 134
In this episode, Sudeep Chawla flips the mic to interview Sharavana Raghavan on a deceptively simple but highly debated topic—how should one judge brand communication? Sharan lays down a compelling case for why most marketers get it wrong. He argues that judging an ad based on how it “feels” or how “beautiful” it looks is a flawed approach. Instead, he introduces a practical 5-point framework to help marketers evaluate advertising based on what truly matters—effectiveness. CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHT...
Apr 17, 2025•21 min•Season 1Ep. 133
In this episode, hosts Sharavana Raghavan and Sudeep Chawla discuss an unconventional yet powerful principle for brand builders — the importance of diving deep into sales to become a better marketer. Sudeep shares how his own journey from sales to marketing taught him that true marketing mastery is incomplete without understanding the sales ecosystem. Together, they explore why young brand managers often abandon their sales experience in pursuit of marketing expertise, and why that’s a critical ...
Apr 03, 2025•21 min•Season 1Ep. 132
In this episode, hosts Sharavana Raghavan and Sudeep Chawla explore a growing trend—influencers launching their own brands—and why most of them fail. Sharan takes a firm stance, arguing that while influencers excel at creating engagement, most of them struggle to build sustainable businesses. He and Sudeep break down the key reasons why influencer-led brands either thrive or crash and burn, and what influencers must do to succeed beyond their personal brand equity. CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHTS The Ri...
Mar 20, 2025•21 min
In this episode of CoBB, hosts Sharavana Raghavan and Sudeep Chawla dissect how marketers often "put the cart before the horse" by prioritizing trends and occasions over a strong brand proposition. Sudeep shares insights on how brands sometimes become slaves to topicality—whether it’s through festivals, tentpole events like IPL, or moment marketing—without ensuring a strategic alignment with their core message. The discussion covers: The Role of Topicality in Marketing: How brands leverage plann...
Mar 06, 2025•17 min•Season 1Ep. 130
In this episode, hosts Sudeep Chawla and Sharavana Raghavan dissect the challenges facing regional FMCG brands in India. With recent reports highlighting their slowing growth, Sharan connects the dots between market dynamics, the Long Chew phenomenon, and why many of these brands are struggling to sustain momentum. The discussion covers: Why Regional FMCG Brands Are Slowing Down The Growth Illusion: Many regional brands saw rapid expansion, but it was driven more by external factors like inflati...
Feb 20, 2025•16 min•Season 1Ep. 129
In this episode, co-hosts Sudeep Chawla and Sharan Raghavan explore a critical challenge for emerging brands: the temptation to copy trends, competitors, and viral campaigns. This conversation dissects why mimicking others often backfires and how brands can focus on authenticity and long-term value instead. KEY TAKEAWAYS: The Illusion of Virality as a Strategy: Many brands mistakenly believe they can engineer virality, but it’s an unpredictable outcome, not a reliable strategy. Viral content mig...
Feb 13, 2025•18 min•Season 1Ep. 128
In this episode, co-hosts Sudeep Chawla and Sharan Raghavan challenge a widespread belief in the marketing world: Can marketers outside of FMCG develop world-class marketing skills? Or is FMCG truly the only space where marketing talent can be honed? With insights from Sudeep’s experience across FMCG, B2B, and B2C industries, this conversation breaks down the essential skills every marketer should master—regardless of industry. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 1. The Myth of FMCG as the Only Training Ground Many ...
Feb 06, 2025•17 min•Season 1Ep. 127
In this episode, co-hosts Sudeep Chawla and Sharan Raghavan tackle a common entrepreneurial misconception: that a great product is all it takes to succeed. This conversation highlights how storytelling, branding, and experience delivery are essential for creating lasting impact in a commoditized world. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 1) The Myth of ‘Build It and They Will Come’: Entrepreneurs often focus solely on perfecting their product, assuming it will naturally attract customers. Manufacturing and product q...
Jan 30, 2025•20 min•Season 1Ep. 126
In this episode of CoBB, hosts Sudeep Chawla and Sharavana Raghavan delve into the transformative role of AI in marketing personalization. Sudeep shares insights on how AI enables both hyper-personalization and mass personalization, exploring how marketers can use these tools to connect with their audience effectively. The discussion highlights: Hyper-Personalization: Real-life examples like Cadbury’s Diwali campaign, where AI-driven strategies created deeply personalized experiences for local s...
Jan 23, 2025•17 min•Season 1Ep. 125
In this episode, co-hosts Sudeep Chawla and Sharavana Raghavan delve into a topic that is both critical and often overlooked in marketing: the role and importance of marketing middle management. With a compelling title, “The Missing Marketing in the Middle,” this discussion unpacks the challenges, trends, and solutions surrounding the diminishing presence of “link leaders” in modern marketing hierarchies. KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. The Vital Role of Middle Management in Marketing: Middle managers serve as...
Jan 16, 2025•23 min•Season 1Ep. 123
Join hosts Sudeep Chawla and Sharavana Raghavan as they delve into the fascinating world of marketing creativity. This episode explores how marketers can inspire great creative ideas by understanding and balancing their “convex” and “concave” lenses—strategic focus and creative divergence, respectively. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 1. The Science and Art of Marketing: Marketing is neither purely art nor science but a craft that thrives at the intersection of strategic precision and boundless creativity. 2. Wh...
Jan 08, 2025•19 min•Season 1Ep. 123
In this thought-provoking episode of Conversations on the Business of Brands (CoBB), Sharan and Sudeep dive deep into the pitfalls of vanity metrics in performance marketing. Using real-world examples and sharp insights, they unpack why brands often chase metrics like likes, impressions, and followers without considering their impact on business outcomes. Sharan discusses the misguided strategies that prioritize platform algorithms over brand objectives and how this misalignment often leads to w...
Jan 02, 2025•19 min•Season 1Ep. 122
In this thought-provoking episode of CoBB, Sudeep and Sharan dive into the transformative role of AI in the world of advertising. Inspired by a controversial AI-created Coca-Cola Christmas ad, they dissect whether AI can truly replicate the emotional resonance of human creativity. The conversation explores the delicate balance between leveraging AI as an efficiency tool and preserving the human touch essential to impactful communication. KEY TAKEAWAYS The purpose of advertising: connecting brand...
Dec 26, 2024•18 min•Season 1Ep. 121
In this episode, Sudeep and Sharan tackle one of the most critical yet misunderstood aspects of branding: the difference between Positioning and Proposition. Through their conversational style and a focus on simplifying concepts, they break down how these foundational pillars shape a brand’s identity and communication strategy. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or a budding entrepreneur, this episode is packed with actionable insights, practical frameworks, and real-world examples to help you c...
Dec 19, 2024•19 min•Season 1Ep. 120
In this episode, Sharan and Sudeep engage in a spirited debate about Jaguar's recent rebranding effort, which has garnered polarized reactions from consumers and industry experts alike. Sudeep voices his disappointment with the brand’s approach, critiquing its lack of consumer insight, while Sharan plays the devil's advocate, exploring the potential merits of bold and disruptive strategies. Together, they unpack the implications of Jaguar’s rebranding on its legacy, its core consumers, and its f...
Dec 12, 2024•19 min•Season 1Ep. 119
In this episode, hosts Sharan and Sudeep tackle a cornerstone of modern marketing: Integrated Marketing Campaigns (IMCs). They explore the distinction between "doing" and "living" an IMC, highlighting how brands can transition from executing isolated campaigns to embedding their core propositions into every consumer touchpoint. Through captivating anecdotes and real-world examples, they reveal why simply “doing” an IMC is not enough. The duo deep dives into the nuances of creative multipliers ve...
Dec 05, 2024•20 min•Season 1Ep. 118
In this episode, hosts Sharan and Sudeep unravel the complexities of brand extension, offering a roadmap for sustainable growth without diluting the core identity of your brand. They delve into the nuances of: The Danger of Over Extension: Why focusing on a few core products often yields better results than spreading too thin across a vast portfolio. Lessons from Industry Leaders: Insights from Anand Kripalu’s transformative strategy at Cadbury and the concept of "Fewer, Bigger, Faster, Better."...
Nov 28, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 117
In this thought-provoking episode of Conversations on the Business of Brands (CoBB), Sharan and Sudeep dive into the often overlooked balance between logic and intuition in media planning. Using real-life case studies of brands like Atomberg Fans and Govardhan Ghee, they explore how unconventional media strategies can achieve remarkable results when guided by clarity, empathy, and conviction. KEY TAKEAWAYS: The Art and Science of Media Planning: Sudeep emphasizes the importance of combining stru...
Nov 21, 2024•21 min•Season 1Ep. 116
In this episode, Sharan and Sudeep tackle a pressing question in today’s content-heavy marketing landscape: *Is traffic really a sign of success?* Diving into the often misunderstood world of content marketing, Sharan explores why chasing views and clicks might actually derail brand goals rather than support them. Together, they discuss the pitfalls of focusing on vanity metrics and the difference between brands acting as “content creators” versus “media houses.” Throughout this lively conversat...
Nov 14, 2024•20 min•Season 1Ep. 115
In this episode, Sharan interviews Sudeep in a deep dive into how traditional and digital marketing approaches are evolving. They revisit the past reliance on TV as the cornerstone of Integrated Marketing Campaigns (IMCs) and contrast it with today’s multifaceted strategies tailored for a cluttered media environment. KEY TAKEAWAYS: The Shift from TV-Centric Campaigns to Multi-Channel Approaches: Sudeep elaborates on how marketers once centered brand messaging around TV campaigns, which were then...
Nov 07, 2024•16 min•Season 1Ep. 114
In this episode, Sharan and Sudeep dive deep into the strategic decisions brands face when determining whether to "fight" and persevere or "flight" and pivot in declining markets. Drawing on practical examples and case studies, they discuss the critical signals that help marketers differentiate between a temporary market slump and a terminal decline. KEY TAKEAWAYS: 1. Recognizing Market Declines: Slump vs. Terminal Decline Sharan discusses the key indicators that reveal whether a brand is experi...
Oct 31, 2024•19 min•Season 1Ep. 113
In this episode, Sharan and Sudeep dive deep into a critical topic for emerging businesses—how to leapfrog the "long chew" phase of the brand lifecycle and accelerate growth once product-market fit (PMF) has been achieved. Sudeep unpacks the idea of "gaming the marketing stage," explaining how brands can effectively transition from proving their PMF to scaling up without getting stuck in the long chew—a period where many businesses struggle to convert early success into sustained growth. The con...
Oct 24, 2024•19 min•Season 1Ep. 112
In this episode of, Sudeep and Sharan tackle the often misunderstood concept of Product-Market Fit (PMF). Drawing from their extensive experience in B2C and B2B sectors, they break down what PMF really means and why it’s essential for businesses of all kinds. This is a must-listen for any entrepreneur, marketer, or business leader aiming to scale a brand successfully. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: What is PMF? Sharan defines PMF as the point where your product satisfies a market need profitably, with the ...
Oct 17, 2024•23 min•Season 1Ep. 111
