Chandini Malla is a Senior Manager of Online Media at Diageo. Chandini has been included in The Drum's Future 50, which is a list of the world's most exciting new talents in brand marketing.
"We're so proud that Chandini Malla, our Senior Manager for Online Media in India, has been included in The Drum Future 50," tweeted Diageo.
An impressive career journey
Chandini did an MBA at the Indian Institute of Management and then worked at Google as a Digital Media Manager where she worked with global clients across diverse sectors. Chandini then started working at Diageo where her role involves media planning and digital strategy across all brands under Diageo's India portfolio.
Discovering a career in marketing
Chandini shares how she first discovered marketing as a future career option - and it was all thanks to the Indian Premier League,
"With the launch of Twenty20 in a cricket-crazy country like India, all Indians ate, slept, talked, breathed and danced to was the Indian Premier League for six months. With a bit of research, I realised that the secret to its success lies in its amazing marketing and value creation," says Chandini.
"Being fascinated by this, I decided to be a marketer. One thing led to another and in time I pursued a post-graduate in business. The marketing projects, courses, and the internship all indicated to me that this was my calling."
Working with any brand in history
If Chandini could have worked with any company at any moment in time, she would have worked for De Beers in 1938.
"It was a monopoly market and the brand was struggling to create a demand despite the economic crisis. In the US, diamonds were perceived as a luxury reserved for the super wealthy," she explains.
"The main challenge was that the stone itself wasn't intrinsically valuable, given the resale value. To be able to sell more diamonds in a depressed economy, De Beers decided to associate these stones to be a representation of 'purity and durability'. The brand mastered the art of creating an occasion around it of 'celebrating love and marriage'."
Ideas on how to change the marketing industry
Finally, Chandini explains how she would transform the marketing industry by encouraging brands to lessen the pressure on consumers and letting them make their own buying decisions.
"The shift that I'd like to make is where consumers are chasing brands and not the other way around. We need to stop bombarding people with intrusive ads by creating unique, money-can't-buy experiences," she says.
"The spenders of tomorrow will open their wallets willingly for authentic experiences that add value to their lives. Case in point is the brand Apple, which has created an aspiration just by the experience, design and not the product itself."
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