Personal correspondence

Listen beyond the riders already in the room

Chief Marketing Officer India

I want a bicycle retailer to earn attention from people whose journeys differ from the riders already closest to the brand, with research, partnerships and availability described honestly.

My first research assignments taught me to value a completed interview. They also taught me, more slowly, to ask who had not been interviewed. An articulate participant could explain a preference with confidence, and a full spreadsheet could make the work feel complete. Neither established that the people who answered represented the people a client wanted to reach. That distinction became personal when I later sponsored a cycling proposition whose evidence came from riders already unusually close to the category.

The people who answer most readily are not necessarily the people we need to understand next. I want the route into our evidence, the relationship behind a recommendation and the availability behind an invitation to remain visible.

Marketing colleagues: 22; Three heads; nine agency personnel separately
Bicycle retail shops: 22; Vadodara-led network serving commuting and leisure customers
Annual marketing authority: ₹6.4 crore; Includes ₹3.1 crore paid-placement expense

Listen beyond the riders already in the room.

In 2019 I supported a commuter-cycling proposition using a survey recruited through existing cycling clubs. The 240 respondents could tell us something about their own preferences. They could not, simply by being numerous and engaged, describe adults who had not joined a club or who were uncertain about cycling to work. Yet my first recommendation treated their enthusiasm as evidence of a wider market ready for the same offer. A research colleague asked who had never been invited into the conversation. I withdrew that inference and funded a different discovery programme before committing the campaign around it.

Today I lead marketing at Zerqani Bicycle Stores in Vadodara. The enterprise has 22 shops and 414 employees, and recorded ₹164 crore revenue for FY 2025–26. My responsibility covers 22 marketing colleagues through 3 heads, with 9 agency personnel counted separately. Annual authority is ₹6.4 crore, including ₹3.1 crore for paid placements. CEO Aditi Zelqvani holds enterprise direction; COO Saira Delqvani holds shop operations. My team can shape a proposition and its communication, but cannot make an unavailable frame size appear in a shop or replace qualified product advice with an attractive campaign. The invitation must remain connected to the offer the business can actually support.

That connection has informed later decisions about creator partnerships and launch timing. A bicycle supplied to a creator can be a material relationship even when no cash fee changes hands. A product shown in a campaign can be present somewhere in the supply network without being available in the advertised variant at the advertised shop. I want those distinctions discussed before attention becomes the main measure of success. I would consider a consumer CMO mandate that gives research and operating evidence a meaningful voice in investment. A first outside appointment also interests me after further preparation. I have no statutory seat, and any proposed role would require its own capacity, conflict and suitability assessment rather than rely on my executive title.

The enthusiastic sample had a boundary

Withdrew a commuter-market inference drawn from people recruited through existing cycling clubs.

A supplied bicycle was part of the relationship

Reworked creator communications to make commercial connections understandable before publication.

The invitation needed the actual variant

Narrowed a campaign to confirmed shop-and-frame-size combinations while pending availability remained visible.

Current focus

Research recruitment, transparent creator partnerships and campaign timing tied to the offer a customer can obtain.

Conversations I welcome

A consumer-marketing mandate and, after preparation, one suitable first non-executive contribution.

The leadership record

Trusted with consequential decisions.

Formation

Bachelor of CommerceVernqeli Commerce College · 1997

Milan withdrew an inference he had supported and gave us a narrower recommendation whose evidence we could examine.

Aditi ZelqvaniFictional CEO, Zerqani Bicycle Stores

The full record ↗

Contact

A consumer-marketing mandate and, after preparation, one suitable first non-executive contribution.

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