Shell

Rahul Malhotra

Rahul Malhotra, currently works as a Head of Brand Strategy & Stewardship, Shell. In his 25-year career with Procter & Gamble and Shell, Rahul has led several global businesses as P&L head and helped shape the destiny of several global brands (Shell, Pampers, Vicks, Metamucil, Whisper/Always, Tide, Ariel, Olay). He has lived and worked in Singapore, India, Japan, Switzerland, the US and now lives in London. Rahul is a passionate historian and economist. He was a professional rock musician before choosing marketing as a career but continues with a new love for the piano. Married with two children, he enjoys reading non-fiction, hiking, and cooking.

What Are Some Of The Latest Trends Impacting Brand Building Or Brand Strategy Execution?

Digital has a significant effect on consumers and customers. People's perceptions of which product, service, or brand to purchase are shaped by what they see on social media. For example, tiktok is becoming a major search engine and is almost a replacement for google for some age groups and demographics. Second, we observe that individuals are no longer visiting stores to execute their purchase decisions. People are primarily engaged in ecommerce purchases. Thus, these are the changes in a that we observe today from a customer's perspective.

As a response to the rise of digital and social, new rules have been put in place to protect privacy, keep data safe, and make sure ads are shown to the right people. AsiIf we don't have control over how our brand message will be shown or in which social media environment, one could end up on a website for religious extremists. For example, your ad might show up before a YouTube video that doesn't fit with what your brand stands for. So, those are some of the problems that companies face in terms of regulations, brand safety, and marketing.

What Are Some Of The Challenges In Brand Building Or Brand Strategy Execution?

There are many components that make up brand strategy. The brand manager has the ability to influence the purpose of their organisation, which is the reason why the company even exists. Brand strategy includes what brand promises or the brand attributes, which are your unique positioning and differentiation in comparison to other companies and brands. In addition to this, it possesses a brand personality, which can be defined as both the manner in which you communicate and the manner in which the brand presents itself.

“Senior people in the marketing departments, across companies unless they're, high flyer needs to reinvent their own capability to learn about all of the new tools and skills that they need to survive in this new world of digital”

The couple of challenges that the majority of companies are facing. The first is the shifting demographic profile of consumers and second is the shifting needs of consumers. What matters most today is a product that makes human being feel good, that meets their need, that is priced affordably, and that is easy to get to are the one that good to go in todays market.

What Are Some Of The Projects You Have Recently Worked On?

The effort my team and I have done to define the Shell purpose and then integrate it into the company's DNA, culture, procedures, tools, and business strategies has made me proud of our accomplishments. As a result, our business behaves very differently now than it did five or six years ago. Moreover, we have launched countless new initiatives and projects as a consequence of my team's efforts as a catalyst for change in our organization. This make me feel passionate about talking to marketers about how they can also be change agents inside their own companies, pushing them to be more purpose-driven, sustainable, and in line with the UN's sustainable development goals.

To accomplish this, we develop strategies that would help to succeed externally with customers in the future, their stakeholders, and their evolving employee profile. At the same time, we looked at where the company wanted to go in terms of being purpose driven and the kind of company we want to become in ten years' time.

What Would Be Your Piece Of Advice For Budding Professional In This Field?

Senior people in the marketing departments, across companies unless they're, high flyer needs to reinvent their own capability to learn about all of the new tools and skills that they need to survive in this new world of digital. Therefore, i would ask everyone who is concerned that they do not have the time to return to school or is too old, to understand that the world has changed and try to develop new capabilities fast as possible without any hesitation. As even those who graduated from business school two years ago are not aware of current market conditions unless they are actively engaged in the field. Secondly, as large portion of the organization is intersected by marketers i believe that marketers can inspire people and act as good change agents. So for instances if each company did one thing for environment, disabled people or for women that would have a great impact on planet