CII Marketing Summit 2011: Elephants Can Dance

The Eleventh CII Marketing Summit was held on 31 March and 1 April, 2011 at Intercontinental The LaLit, Sahar, Mumbai. It lived up to its promise of bringing together leading authorities from the industry to engage and encourage professionals by providing insights and exploring ideas on how to effectively combine the power of marketing and advertising to meet the challenges brought about by a vibrant complex marketplace and consumer demands that are unique to India.

This years theme revolved around our rapidly developing and changing nation that demands new marketing techniques. In a country like India The need for companies and brands are two fold: first to compete with and secondly to find their own place in an increasingly globalise world. In am attempt to over come the modern challenges of marketing, CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) has brought together the starts of marketing, advertising and media in the 11th CII Marketing Summit to discuss and share strategies and innovations under the theme "Elephants Can Dance ' New Ways to Market to a New India'.

The two days focused on various sessions that included panel discussions on topics such as "Marketing Vs Advertising' , "Marketing to a New India by a New India', "Luxury Products ' The "not-so-small' Top of Pyramid', "Only Innovative Marketing Strategies will deliver from hereon'. "Can Research Create Leads for Marketing', "What Indian Brands need to do, to succeed globally', "Services Marketing ' What's Different?', "Public Relations and Lobbying ' Are they two sides of the same coin?', "Why do Indian Companies under invest in Advertising and Marketing?'

The summit was well attended and attracted national and international speakers and delegates. The industry leaders addressing this summit include those from Google, Levi's, Marico, ITC, Citigroup, Cadbury, Hindustan Unilever, Godrej, UTV Motion Pictures, Leo Burnett India, Beattie McGuiness Bungay, Rekitt Benckiser India, Procter and Gamble, Audi India, VU Televisions, Conde Nast India, Gitanjali Group among many others. Godrej, Levi's and ITC were the official sponsors of the CII Summit 2011.

The highlights of the Summit were presented by Sam Balsara. He stated that it is the not only the market share but also the profit share that is a crucial measuring tool. "Globalisation" was another chief topic of discussion at the summit, be it in any industry. PR vs. Lobbying was another engaging subject that was well received by the audience. Balsara said, "PR is more than just getting an article in the newspaper." According to him this is what most agencies fail to comprehend. Thus ended the two day summit with Balsara's words. So can the elephant dance? | By Vanessa Azavedo [vanessa(at)adgully.com]