ABHILASH CHANDRAN
Trade Marketing Manager
Trivandrum
Summary
A dynamic professional with over 15 years of experience in:
Retail Sales Management Trade Marketing Event Management/Product launches Vendor Management Brand Management Media Planning & Budgeting (ATL/BTL Activities).
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
4
4
Languages
Work History
Brand Executive
Mediamate Advertising India Pvt. Ltd.
05.2007 - 04.2008
- Responsible for developing & execution of print/outdoor campaigns & media plans
- Coordinate Photo Shoots, Ad film production and preparation of other communication collaterals such as Brochures, Leaflets, Posters & Danglers, etc
- Recommending events specific to brand / product category / season.
- Increased brand awareness through creation of innovative print and digital productions for major publications.
Sr. Brand Executive
Maitri Advertising Works India Pvt. Ltd.
05.2008 - 02.2011
- Manage campaigns of FMCG/Retail brands and looked after the functions pertaining to retail/in store visibility in national level
- Responsible for OOH activities, new product launches, tactical campaigns etc in national/ international level
- Planning & managing annual ground level promotion calendar, in-store promotions, exhibitions, road shows, mall promotion etc
- Prepare annual/seasonal media plan and budgets
- Responsible for researches for NPD, CLM, New Media.
- Increased brand awareness through creation of innovative print and digital productions for major publications.
- Led implementation of best practices to support customer service satisfaction initiatives.
- Cut delivery times through proactive tracking and monitoring of project timelines and aggressive pursuit of customer approval of digital and print files.
Sr. Executive Trade Marketing
Unitech Wireless Tamilnadu Pvt. Ltd.
05.2011 - 08.2012
- Monitored and evaluated marketing programs and activities to measure effectiveness and recommend improvements.
- Collaborated with merchandising team on creating differentiated in-store experiences through unique merchandising and collateral opportunities.
- Measured marketing program effectiveness via regular monitoring of KPIs.
- Helped develop opportunities of seasonal programs and marketing programs to achieve retail needs and maximize sell-through.
- Managed budget allocation and resource utilization to maximize marketing ROI.
- Developed strategies to improve and maximize trade investment ROI by completing promotional analysis and validating against expected results.
- Planning and executing In-store, cross promotions & ground activations to drive sales
- Executed comprehensive marketing plans that consistently achieved targets for increased revenue.
- Coordinated with design and media teams to develop high-quality creative assets.
- Generated sponsorships with related and partnering entities to enhance marketing objectives.
Assistant Manager – Marketing Communication
Vodafone India Pvt.Ltd
02.2013 - 08.2016
- Responsible for brand visibility
- Production and deployment of GSB, FLB, POPs, inshop branding in the market
- Planning and managing brand activation calendar & cross promotions
- Branding of company touch points
- Conceiving ATL & BTL campaigns
- Media budgeting and planning for TV, radio, OOH & digital campaigns
- Lead day to day budgetary management involving sponsorships, costs, overheads for the brand
- Coordinate with Sales team to understand breadth of distribution, volume output per outlet, types of outlets and visibility required, signage and other on-ground sales requirements.
- Strengthened merchandising and promotional strategies to drive customer engagement and boost sales.
Deputy Manager – Retail Marketing
Whirlpool of India Ltd
08.2016 - 04.2018
- Driving secondary sales from chain stores & brand shops via brand promoters
- Enable sales team by driving high levels of engagement and providing updated sales aid, customer communication material, presentation content and training, as needed
- Marketing Management - Production and deployment of GSB, FLB, POPs, Inshop branding, merchandising in the counters
- Planning and managing brand activation calendar, marketing budget and trade engagement programmes
- Media budgeting and planning for TV, radio, OOH & digital campaigns
- Team Management- Management of store promoters & team leaders
- Vendor Management – Manage and develop marketing vendors
- Driving trade schemes for sub dealers, planning and execution of FTS, organizing dealer meets.
- Analyzed and reported performance data, translating findings into practical improvement actions.
Retail & Marketing Head
IFB Industries Ltd
05.2018 - 02.2022
- Business Development - Develop and implement a robust marketing strategy for the IFB Point Franchise/MBOs to achieve monthly business goals
- Generate leads- walkins by local BTL activities and running promotions in mediums such as digital platforms, radio& hoardings
- Partnership with external brands and manufacturers, trade expos, events, etc
- Determine priority markets, marketing activities, devise required budget for all activities (performed bottom-up) to achieve brand objectives and plans
- Preparing and driving monthly targets for the FOFO & COCO stores
- Partner with external consultants to plan and implement market research activities and post-campaign evaluation studies for the brand
- Driving visual merchandising and maintaining planogramme across stores
- Tracking the daily secondary sales of machines, accessories and monitoring the collections from stores
- Managing the EBO store managers, retail executives and ensuring the stores are delivering monthly sku wise target
- Implement offers and trade schemes given by category management team
- Collaborate with cross functions such as CFA, Finance and planning the material supply and logistics
- Partner with regional and national teams for brand planning, product launches, FTS trade schemes, supply planning, and market-specific support and needs
- Planning and organizing dealer meets, trade fairs/exhibitions across region.
Regional Marketing Manager
Landmark Group –Fashion Retail
03.2022 - 10.2022
- Understanding the business requirements of franchise stores and launch tailor made marketing programmes to drive FF& image building for the store
- Preparing and driving monthly FF targets for the FOFO & COCO stores
- Support the sales team to deliver the business targets
- Marketing budget management - Planning & budgeting for TV, radio, outdoor, digital campaigns/POP merchandise etc
- Determine on-ground activation of consumer engagement, lead generation activities planning, Draw up budgets and detailed plans to generate FF to stores
- Partner with creative agency by providing a suitable brief and consumer insights for the brand to enable development of robust brand campaigns.
- Developed strategic and tactical marketing plans for region.
Account Director
Visual Veda Communication
11.2023 - Current
- Develop and execute strategic communication plans to achieve client’s business goals
- Actively pursue new business opportunities for upselling and expanding agency services
- Contribute to development of annual marketing campaign plan taking into account changes in consumer behavior and market environment
- Coordinate with clients and production house to finalize detailed marketing plans and budgets; Resolve issues from a brand perspective on campaign design and execution.
Education
PGDBA (Marketing) -
PGDJ (Advertising) - undefined
B.A. (Economics) - undefined
12th - undefined
10th - undefined
Skills
Ms ExcelWordPower Point
Event Management
Customer Engagement
Advertising Campaigns
Significant Highlights
- Spearheaded the store expansion plans in the state and count of touchpoints were increased from 20 to 34 during 2019-2020.
- Exceeded the business contribution from retail division from 5 to 12% of the total branch revenue.
- Headed the launching and implementation of new CRM tool and successfully managed the transition.
- Conceptualized and Implemented various partnering programs with NBFCs, Banks, PSUs and created alternative revenue streams for new business development.
- Improved the profitability of COCO stores by introducing attractive product mixes & launching various cross promotions.
- Retail – Kerala topped the national ranking on YOY growth consecutively for 10 months during 2019-20.
- Topped in national ranking in CSR productivity consecutively for 10 months in 2017-18.
- Clocked the ever highest secondary business of 76k units of appliances in 2017 onam season
- Driven result-oriented local engagement activities for EBOs
- Experience of handling larger teams – Managed the field team of 180 members and registered consistent revenue growth
- Played a key role in the launch of 3G and 4G in Kerala
- Improved the Circle visibility ranking nationally
- Driven result-oriented local engagement activities to promote Mpesa/3G/4G services.
- Managed large-scale merchandising – handled merchandising of 7k telecom outlets
- Played a key role in maintaining brand score for Kerala in IMRB research by introducing innovative brand signages and BTL activities.
- Rendered support to the national product team for successful product launches
- Pivotal in driving the ground level activity to promote the product for which the state registered the highest MOU (32%) in STD usage. Bring down the LUT sites in the zone from 22 to 10 via various ground promotion activities.
- Instrumental in implementing communication plans to generate awareness of new product launches at the state level.
- Demonstrated skills and abilities in introducing cost-effective collaterals to support the sales force to accelerate consumer acquisition.
- Served as a part of the team that successfully re-launched the V-Guard Fan national level.
- Successfully managed the national level print campaigns for V-Guard, Mathrubhumi Daily, Vasan Eye hospital, etc.
- Took a structured and meticulous approach in managing & coordinating Southern Investments Pvt. Ltd., property exhibition in the KBF Property Show in Dubai, during 2008-11.
- Leveraged skills and abilities in driving tactical add campaigns and ground level marketing activities for Dhathri Ayurveda Pvt. Ltd., that helped to increase the market share of its hair care and beauty care brands.
- Instrumental in setting guidelines for market communication strategies for the cosmetic division of Dhathri Ayurveda Pvt. Ltd.
- Played a key role in creating successful add campaigns for Bhima Jewellers and launching a new showroom in Madhura, Bangalore.
- Demonstrated skills and abilities in introducing seasonal in-store sales promotions like NRI Festival, Nakshathra- Diamond Festival, Bangles Festival, etc. to increase sales.
Personal Information
- Date of Birth: 05/15/85
- Marital Status: Married
Timeline
Account Director - Visual Veda Communication
11.2023 - Current
Regional Marketing Manager - Landmark Group –Fashion Retail
03.2022 - 10.2022
Retail & Marketing Head - IFB Industries Ltd
05.2018 - 02.2022
Deputy Manager – Retail Marketing - Whirlpool of India Ltd
08.2016 - 04.2018
Assistant Manager – Marketing Communication - Vodafone India Pvt.Ltd
02.2013 - 08.2016
Sr. Executive Trade Marketing - Unitech Wireless Tamilnadu Pvt. Ltd.
05.2011 - 08.2012
Sr. Brand Executive - Maitri Advertising Works India Pvt. Ltd.
05.2008 - 02.2011
Brand Executive - Mediamate Advertising India Pvt. Ltd.
05.2007 - 04.2008
SCDL - PGDBA (Marketing),
Kerala University - PGDJ (Advertising),
Govt. Arts College, Trivandrum - B.A. (Economics),
Govt. Model BHSS, Trivandrum - 12th,
Govt. Model BHSS, Trivandrum - 10th,