Tata AIA Life Insurance’s Girish Kalra, ET BrandEquity

The latest episode of “The Independent Marketer” features Girish Kalra, chief marketing officer of Tata AIA Life Insurance.

According to him, independence in marketing is essential. “It is a specialised function which is very close to the brand. Although, it cannot be done in isolation, because a brand is essentially an ecosystem,” said Kalra.

“It influences many stakeholders, not just your consumers, but also your internal stakeholders, which is your employees, your channel partners, the regulatory authorities and multiple other entities,” he added.

As marketing is an influential landscape, Kalra mentioned the reason that realignment is required in any function. But as an independent function, it may not work.

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Since a marketer is the one who’s the closest to the consumer. Kalra suggested that one should look at independent marketing from the consumer’s lens. He stated that marketers are the gatekeepers.

“Certain other functions like your customer service, business team, they also bring in a lot of insights. They bring in inputs, in terms of what the changing trends are,” said Kalra.

Kalra also highlighted the importance of looking at the market from a holistic perspective. “Independence marketing makes a big difference in your communication aspect,” he added.

By giving an example of brand messaging, Kalra mentioned that the messaging leads to a lot more effective communication.

Speaking about the ability to understand the long term trends as a team, Kalra mentioned that a good marketing team would essentially focus on the long term and a strong marketing team can add value to the business.

“Marketing is part of the whole business side. It’s not a support unit or a different unit, it is an integral part of the business,” he added.

In today’s world of technology where everybody replicates solutions fast. Kalra stated that the whole debate between technology and marketing is all getting blurred. He believes that technology is a big threat.

“Ultimately for any business, the main objective is that you move in the direction of profitability or will your consumers be delighted with you and keep coming back to you? This is what any marketer should keep at the back of their mind,” Kalra added.

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