Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Projects
Timeline
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Abha Kulkarni

Summary

Seasoned consumer & market insights professional with 10+ years of experience spanning FMCG (Unilever, Ipsos, Kantar) and Deloitte. Proven expertise in leading end-to-end research cycles, category & consumer understanding, competitive intelligence, and digital-first innovation studies. Skilled at integrating consumer, shopper, market, and macroeconomic insights to shape strategy, brand positioning, and go-to-market execution. Proficient with both qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques, conducting panel interviews, thematic analysis. Recognized for building next-generation insights capabilities, digitizing research delivery, and embedding consumer centricity into innovation and portfolio strategies. Adept at partnering cross-functionally, leading global projects, and mentoring high-performing teams.

Overview

11
11
years of professional experience

Work History

Assistant Manager, Center for Integrated Research

Deloitte USI
05.2017 - Current
  • Company Overview: Deloitte is a leading global provider of audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, and tax services. Website: https://www.deloitte.com
  • Led research and data projects for AI and Workforce topics, contributed to 25+ top Deloitte Insights thought leadership such as 'New framing for cloud innovation', 'Reimagining CHRO roles and responsibilities for strategic growth', 'Navigating the tech talent shortage', 'Talent strategies for WFA' and many more. These projects shaped Deloitte’s Human Capital’s GTM priorities and talent strategies.
  • Product Manager for Deloitte’s Databank, a cloud-style analytics platform housing 70+ Deloitte Led end-to-end product lifecycle from conceptualization and design to development, deployment, marketing, and adoption. Tool supported 60+ client pursuits, RFPs, and eminence initiatives. Enhanced accessibility with an AI-powered chatbot and digitized processes to accelerate insights delivery.
  • Authored competitor intelligence & market trends analysis which are recognized as Deloitte’s 'gold standard,' for competitor research. The report shaped Deloitte’s multi-year Human Capital GTM strategy and served as a blueprint for Digital and Sustainability strategy development.
  • Executed data-driven workforce analytics projects such as the 2025 Global Human Capital Trends report (awarded Gold at the Stevie Awards for B2B communication). Elevated to Research Assistant to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Leader and global sponsor for the upcoming 2026 report.
  • Co-led flagship cross-sector reports such as Great Resignation to Reimagination, showcased at 10+ global conferences and sparking 13+ C-suite client engagements (e.g., Verizon, J&J, Freddie Mac).
  • Innovation enabler: Designed automation tools (survey questionnaire automation, publication notes formatter) and applied agile practices to streamline delivery. Consistently recognized by senior leadership as a trusted advisor driving insights innovation.
  • Mentored junior team members, onboarding new hires and fostering a culture of innovation and learning. Trained colleagues across Research & Insights BU to build analytics and research tool fluency.
  • Deloitte is a leading global provider of audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, and tax services. Website: https://www.deloitte.com

Senior Research Manager (Unilever account)

Kantar Millward Brown
01.2018 - 04.2018
  • Company Overview: Kantar Millward Brown is a global leader in brand, media, and communications research. Website: https://www.kantar.com
  • Directed product and concept testing projects for Unilever’s Food & Refreshments portfolio. Delivered insights to senior clients, transforming consumer research models into actionable GTM strategies.
  • Kantar Millward Brown is a global leader in brand, media, and communications research. Website: https://www.kantar.com

Consumer Insights Manager (Food & Refreshments, Home Care category)

Unilever
11.2016 - 07.2017
  • Company Overview: Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company, specializing in food, beverages, cleaning agents, beauty, and personal care. Website: https://www.unilever.com
  • Acted as vendor liaison, training peers on research and analysis methods to strengthen analytics capabilities. Guided researchers in translating vendor reports and database insights into actionable GTM strategies, while streamlining research processes.
  • Synthesized findings from flagship global consumer reports, market trends analysis of vendors and cascaded the findings to business teams within Unilever to shape their product and GTM strategies.
  • Directed innovation studies and testing, leveraging mobile and digital-first research methods, piloting disruptive technologies, and digitizing research delivery formats to modernize Unilever’s consumer research processes.
  • Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company, specializing in food, beverages, cleaning agents, beauty, and personal care. Website: https://www.unilever.com

Senior Research Executive

Ipsos
04.2014 - 07.2017
  • Company Overview: Ipsos is a global market research and consulting firm. Website: https://www.ipsos.com
  • Conducted consumer analytics surveys and market trend models, KPIs for cosmetic giant L’Oréal. Managed end-to-end projects, delivering insights that influenced senior client strategies.
  • Ipsos is a global market research and consulting firm. Website: https://www.ipsos.com

Education

Certification - Data Science & Artificial intelligence for Managers

IIM Kozhikode
10.2023

Master of Business Administration - Marketing

Mumbai Educational Trust Institute
Mumbai

Bachelor of Engineering - Electronics & Telecommunications

Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering (CRCE)
Mumbai

Skills

  • Consumer & Shopper Insights
  • Category Drivers & Barriers
  • Brand Tracking
  • Market & Competitive Intelligence
  • Social Listening
  • Nielsen Retail Audit
  • Data Strategy & Advanced Analytics
  • Predictive Models
  • Forecasting
  • Visualization & Analytics
  • Tableau
  • Power BI
  • MarketSight
  • SPSS
  • Programming
  • SQL
  • Python
  • R
  • Big Data Solutions
  • Databricks
  • BigQuery
  • Cloud Analytics
  • GCP
  • AWS
  • Product Development & Management
  • Data Platforms
  • Chatbots
  • Automation
  • Business Writing
  • Executive Storytelling
  • Thought Leadership Development
  • E-commerce
  • Digital Research
  • Dashboarding
  • Looker Studio
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Global Collaboration
  • Matrix Organization Experience
  • Team Leadership
  • Mentorship
  • Training
  • Driving Consumer-Centric Culture

Projects

Consumer immersion & qualitative insights – Green FMCG Products (Unilever), Qualitative research design, Focus groups & in-depth interviews, Thematic analysis, Executive storytelling, GTM strategy, Partnered with Unilever UK leaders to evaluate consumer perceptions of natural vs. extracted-from-nature ingredients. Databank (1st proprietary survey data repository), Cloud based data analytics platform, Product development and management, Analytics, Data processing and warehousing, Tableau, Gen AI skills (Chatbot), Market activation, Served as Product Manager and marketer for Databank, driving end-to-end development, deployment, and market activation. Competitor scan, market trends, Analytics, Forecasting, Market research, Trends analysis, Social listening (Sprinklr, Quid), Authored a comprehensive competitor intelligence report analyzing Deloitte and key competitors’ market positioning. Human Capital Trends 2025, Research and analytical skills (SPSS, MarketSight), Stakeholder management, Data-driven storytelling (Tableau), Contributed to Deloitte’s 2025 Global Human Capital Trends report, which won Gold for B2B Communications. Forecasted Online Retail Sales using Google Cloud BigQuery ML (IIM-K project), Experience of Google BigQuery, Kaggle, BigQuery ML, Looker studio, Designed and implemented an end-to-end forecasting pipeline on Google Cloud. Uncover customers pattern behavior in online deliveries for CPG industry (IIM-K project), Python, SQL, Tableau, Kaggle experience, Applied Python, SQL, and Tableau on Kaggle’s ‘Online Food Order Dataset’ to build predictive classification models.

Timeline

Senior Research Manager (Unilever account)

Kantar Millward Brown
01.2018 - 04.2018

Assistant Manager, Center for Integrated Research

Deloitte USI
05.2017 - Current

Consumer Insights Manager (Food & Refreshments, Home Care category)

Unilever
11.2016 - 07.2017

Senior Research Executive

Ipsos
04.2014 - 07.2017

Certification - Data Science & Artificial intelligence for Managers

IIM Kozhikode

Master of Business Administration - Marketing

Mumbai Educational Trust Institute

Bachelor of Engineering - Electronics & Telecommunications

Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering (CRCE)
Abha Kulkarni