From the listening room to the allocation meeting

Mandate

Allocate acquisition spending using a credible account of household understanding and channel contribution.

Outcomes

• Changed referral signage after observing confusion over loan-approval authority
• Reconciled repeated enquiry entries before reallocating ₹42 lakh of quarterly channel spending
• Separated information-session attendance from permission for application follow-up
• Withdrew a ₹9.6 lakh customer film when its proposed use exceeded the agreed scope

Decisions in context

The CMO appointment combined spending authority with a research practice I had built over five years. I could now change a channel plan rather than only explain why its measures were misleading. That added an obligation to make the commercial consequences visible: fewer apparent leads, a less prominent partner sign or an abandoned creative asset all affected colleagues' plans. I established four management responsibilities across research, regional marketing, channel programmes and creative operations, while credit and customer service retained their own decisions. I report to the CEO and present relevant acquisition matters to directors when invited. I have no board seat. The role has taught me to examine the incentives attached to a number before asking teams to improve it. A credible report should help the company choose where to spend, not reward us for counting the same household through several doors.

Reason for the move

Current appointment; developing the next layer of research and regional marketing leadership.

Mandate

Explain how households found the lender, understood its role and experienced the path to an application.

Outcomes

• Introduced household journey interviews independent of branch conversion reviews
• Compared explanations given by referral partners and lender staff
• Established a research handover that preserved uncertainty and respondent context

Decisions in context

I moved out of branch campaign delivery to build a small research function with a different purpose. We needed to hear from people who had not applied as well as those whose applications progressed. Branch colleagues initially worried that interviews would become a second performance inspection. I explained the research question and separated individual observations from branch rankings. The team studied how households described the lender, where they expected advice and which parts of the process they believed a referral partner could control. I reported findings with the limits of the sample and asked commercial owners to choose a response. This was not credit research and did not replace underwriting evidence. The experience made me more comfortable presenting an unresolved question to senior management. It also prepared me for the CMO role by showing how apparently small communication decisions could influence the company's acquisition economics.

Reason for the move

Promoted to CMO when the company combined research with responsibility for channel allocation.

Mandate

Support branch openings and local communication without confusing marketing information with credit approval.

Outcomes

• Created branch-opening materials with a clear application journey
• Introduced field observations before repeating a local promotion
• Built a shared briefing process for regional coordinators and branch managers

Decisions in context

Housing finance required a different kind of explanation from household products. A retailer could demonstrate an appliance, while a lender had to explain a process whose outcome depended on an assessment that marketing did not control. I learnt that distinction from branch managers and credit colleagues before writing local campaign briefs. My six coordinators helped new branches prepare signs, events and printed material, then visited to observe how people used them. I found that a carefully written leaflet could be contradicted by a casual introduction at a partner desk. The response was not simply to distribute more approved copy. We needed to understand the conversation surrounding it. This period gave me a practical network of branch colleagues and the questions that later shaped the research function. I left delivery management with a clearer appreciation of how much context a head-office campaign can miss.

Reason for the move

Appointed to create a dedicated customer-research team after repeated field questions exposed gaps in the company's understanding.

Mandate

Help retail partners explain products and evaluate local promotional activity.

Outcomes

• Compared retailer explanations with campaign claims before renewing materials
• Separated shop attendance from actual product enquiries in event reports
• Introduced practical demonstration briefs for field promoters

Decisions in context

This was my first commercial role and an education in the economics of a distribution relationship. I prepared local activity plans, accompanied field promoters and listened to retailers explain products in language that rarely matched our central brochure. Some adaptations were helpful; others created expectations the product could not meet. My manager approved expenditure, and I learnt to support a recommendation with the cost of staff time, transport and materials rather than only photographs of a busy event. I coordinated three promoters without initially managing employees, which required clear briefs and respect for the retailer's working day. The experience showed me that a channel partner is an active interpreter of a company's promise. When Avirneli offered a branch-marketing role, I wanted to understand that influence in a setting where the household's decision would last far longer than the promotion that introduced it.

Reason for the move

Joined a regional lender to apply distribution experience to a more consequential household decision.

Mandate

Turn interviews and field observations into clear commissioned audio programmes.

Outcomes

• Prepared interviews that allowed participants to explain decisions in their own language
• Recorded edit permissions and corrected misunderstood context before release
• Moderated listening discussions to learn what audiences had understood

Decisions in context

After completing my communication degree in May 2002, I joined a cooperative that made commissioned audio programmes and organised listening events. I was a junior producer, not the owner of a broadcast service. Much of my work happened before recording: arranging conversations, explaining the purpose and finding a question that invited a useful answer. Editing taught me how easily a true sentence could acquire a different meaning when separated from its context. At listening events, people sometimes remembered a detail we considered incidental and missed the point we thought was obvious. I learnt to treat that response as evidence about our work rather than a failure of the audience. The role gave me habits of listening and checking that have lasted through my commercial career. I left to understand how a company funds communication and judges whether it has helped someone make a decision.

Reason for the move

Moved into regional marketing to learn how communication choices connected with commercial distribution.