David n Who

We help brands uncover their strategic business narrative to 10x their growth.

Co-Founder

Self Employed

Creating brand marketing strategy for startups and legacy brands, helping them drive revenue. 

1. Marketing Head for WinnerBrands (bootstrapped startup): 
Bridging the talent and skill gap in the Indian marketing ecosystem through careers, courses, and community play.

- Helped double the annual revenue of WinnerBrands through unpaid acquisition channels - primarily using content marketing to create a lead generation engine.
- Building WinnerBrands Academy - Developing and teaching marketing workshops aimed at upskilling young marketing professionals in India. Venture already profitable. 
- Building FreeFlowing - a rapidly growing weekly newsletter that covers Indian startups and marketing.

2. Brand Strategy Development:
- India market entry strategy for a UK based storytelling app valued at $4mn - brand positioning, content, channel and comms strategy, monetization opportunities, campaign ideas. 
- Brand marketing strategy developed for a 60Cr (revenue) hospital to drive up annualized revenue by 40%
- Brand positioning & comms strategy creation for a $150mn+ growth stage social media platform
- Brand and Comms strategy development for a $1.9 bn (valuation) fintech startup
- Brand Strategy development for a 150Cr (revenue) startup in the personal care space
- Brand Strategy development for a new to the world brand in the $35mn online dating space in India

3. Teaching:
- Created course content for Marketing Management and Business strategy for the joint MBA programme run by Deakin University and Upgrad, India's largest online higher education company.
- Taught guest lectures on marketing at IIM Lucknow and IIM Nagpur

- LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program 2022 - One of 200 selected from 1000s of applicants across India for the inaugural cohort.

Brand Marketing Consultant

topmate.io

I can help you with your marketing career questions, and work with you to craft a resume that will 10x your chances of landing marketing job interviews.

Marketing Career Counselor

Swiggy

Creating, launching & growing a national portfolio of online restaurant brands for Swiggy.

- Drove new user acquisition up by 41% & dormant user reactivation up by 11% for 2 brands worth $38 Mn GMV; 
- Conceptualized and ran 130+ growth experiments across awareness, acquisition, dormant user reactivation, packaging, in app features, and BTL activation with limited resources, helping overall GMV grow by 67%;
- Recruited and led a senior marketing team of 5 to handle marketing for 5 private brands with a total GMV of $50 Mn; 
- Created brand positioning, brand identity and marketing collateral for 4 new to the world food brands;
- Qualified 2 new brand concepts to launch by identifying existing consumer need gaps in Indian food space; 
- Conceptualized and established operating systems and processes for marketing division in the organization.

Marketing Director

Tata Global Beverages

International Portfolio Management for Himalayan Natural Mineral Water & Brand Management for Tetley India (100+ Cr business)

- Brand custodian and operational execution leader for $1.9 Mn Himalayan pilot launch in USA; pilot launched in Chicago (Feb ’18)
- Identified & qualified three new flavours for India flavoured water portfolio ($1.3 Mn sales) to maintain competitive superiority
- Led key sustainability projects for Himalayan, including making it the 1st Indian water brand to be carbon neutral certified for USA
- Executed a nationwide distribution expansion project for Tetley, helping close the gap to competition and aiding the brand achieve its market share and profit targets for the fiscal 
- Elevated the digital marketing strategy for Tetley India and developed key influencer relationships, helping the brand achieve and exceed all KPIs on digital strategy. 
- First ever in India - Planned and executed the first ever sampling collaboration between a tea brand and a food tech company in India (Tetley and Swiggy)

Senior Global Brand Manager

Key responsibility -  Mid to long term consumer focused innovations for the global Dettol portfolio

- Identified and qualified a new growth platform for Dettol hygiene business, worth £50 Mn and gross margin accretive to brand
- Developed strategy to arrest decline and start long term growth of iconic Dettol antiseptic liquid for developing markets
- Qualified initiatives worth a combined £66 Mn for Dettol globally, aimed at revitalizing the hand hygiene business
- Qualified 13 new product launch ideas globally, including the strongest ever concept on Dettol hands hygiene for Europe
- Qualified new product idea worth an incremental £17 Mn for Dettol core portfolio ; first such major innovation in 15 years

Global Senior Brand Manager

Procter and Gamble

Key Responsibilities - Brand Management | Consumer focused innovation | Communication Strategy 

June 2012- Present

- Designing and Executing Brand Strategy for World's No. 1 Shampoo Brand - Head & Shoulders - owning Brand Equity, creating Campaign Master plan and drafting Brand Growth strategy for the next three years globally 
- Partnering with Creative Agency (Creative, Planning & Account Directors) to develop strong insight led Big Ideas and bring them to life: from leading consumer research, writing creative briefs, commenting on storyboards and pre/post-production edits to launching new TV advertisements
- Leading a multi functional team including product supply, packaging, design, media, trade, distribution and advertising teams on Head & Shoulders business for Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam & Korea

Aug 2011 - June 2012

- Designed and Executed a Whitespace Subline launch in Asia for Head & Shoulders, delivering USD 16 Million in Sales , helping propel the Brand to historically highest market share in Asia
- Owned a USD 52 Million business and grew it by 115% over previous year to achieve highest market share in past 19 months by making strategic choices driven by rigorous analysis of key business drivers 
- Designed and successfully executed projects worth a combined USD 36 MM over one year for P&G, helping sustain the #1 position of the brand in Developing markets (ASEAN and India)
- Analyzed media choices of over 10 Brands across different categories to design a new media strategy for the business, growing key brand equity by 130% over previous year  while generating media savings of $260,000

Regional Assistant Brand Manager

Tata Administrative Services

Responsible for developing a marketing strategy for the brand revival of a flagship insecticide product for a major agro business company in India
The project was selected by RMAI (Rural Marketing Association of India) as one amongst the National Level Top Ten summer internship projects in Rural Marketing (2010)

Marketing Intern

Tata Motors

1. Achieved savings of INR 360,000 in the Weld Shop by creating a backup for the Production Scheduling System
2. Trained workers in best practices for optimization of data capturing of engine parameters in the  Engine shop - Improved performance of the installed system to increase data captured from  55% to 89% in 2 months
3. Independently developed periodic preventive maintenance schedule for the engine data capturing system
4. Member, Core Organizing Committee for Srujan 2009, Tata Motors Tech Fest attracting 1000 footfalls over  2 days

Graduate Engineer Trainee

Indian Space Research Organisation

Designed an accelerometer used in inertial missile guidance systems for Flight Control division of ISRO

Summer Intern

I simplify brand marketing for B2C startups with less than $10M ARR and help them drive revenue.  

I have developed brand strategy for brand portfolios that grew to $38M in revenue sustainably.

Domain expertise - Brand Value Proposition, Positioning, Communication Strategy, Media Strategy, Consumer Behaviour, Marketing Team Building. 

I believe branding is a heady mix of art and science. I love uncovering tacit consumer insights and data-based behavioural patterns and using these to help nurture Iconic brands.

I have had the opportunity to study from and work with the best, on the World's Number One Shampoo brand - Head & Shoulders (P&G) and the World's Number One Antiseptic brand - Dettol (Reckitt) across SE Asia and Europe. 

I'm a brand marketer with over a decade of brand-building experience with P&G, Reckitt & Swiggy in e-commerce, Haircare, Hygiene & F&B categories. A snapshot of my profile:

1. Brand Strategy, Marketing Campaign design and execution expertise across multiple channels in ASEAN, India & Middle East; 

2. Experienced in launching and growing a portfolio of online-only food brands with Swiggy, a $10 Bn food tech startup based in India; 

3. Hands-on knowledge of designing and executing successful NPD and White Space launches across Asia and Europe;

4. Experienced in delivering results in diverse business situations across APAC – from designing global brand strategy to P&L management; 

5. Consistently top-rated amongst peer group in annual appraising and rating cycle – P&G

I’ll let you in on a secret. 

Consumers lie during market research. And it's costing brands money.

For instance, let’s consider what is called ‘conscious’ or ‘ethical’ purchases. 

Electric vehicles like Ola and Ather are the rage, but let's be real. People aren't just thinking about the environment. It's the cost savings and the cool factor which truly drive these purchases.

Organic food has become a status symbol. But It’s less about health concerns, and more about fitting in with a certain social circle. 

This trend reflects a deeper human trait.

Designer clothes and luxury brands - we say we buy them for quality and craftsmanship. Often, it's about the signalling power. We're drawn to what these brands represent, more than the product itself.

High-tech gadgets and the latest smartphones - we argue it’s for productivity and features. But deep down, it’s often about keeping up with tech trends and peer impressions.

Premium, “natural” skincare and cosmetics - It's sold as self-care and health. In reality, it's frequently about societal beauty standards and self-image.

Membership in exclusive clubs and societies - we talk about networking and opportunities. Secretly, it's about the status and the exclusivity that comes with it.

Investment in art and collectibles - we claim it's for appreciation and love for the art. Mostly, it's about the investment value and social capital it offers.

In summary, our buying decisions are complex. They’re influenced by a mix of factors, often different from our stated reasons, and masked by much post rationalizaiton. 

And if, as marketers and entrepreneurs, we spend marketing $ creating communication against stated reasons, we will come across as “cringe” or “trying too hard”. Understanding deeper consumer rationale can help us create more authentic and resonant brand messages.

#marketing #business #advertising

Sandeep Nair

Co-founder - David & Who | Past - P&G, Reckitt, Swiggy

When you speak a lot, you’re bound to offend someone. 

Still, speak.

It's okay to be average in your profession. 

Don't beat yourself up. Instead, use talent stacking to beat the odds and succeed. 

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, introduced the concept of talent stacking. 

Talent stacking refers to combining normal skills until you get the right set (stack) to become great. 

Scott is a great example of this. 

His skills are: 

Art - average
Work ethic - great
Risk tolerance - high
Business sense - ordinary
Humour sense - reasonably good

When you combine these, you get a great comic strip artist + businessman with an average net worth of ~ $20 mn (as of 2023)

Your skills may be different. 

The trick is to identify and combine them in a way that makes you stand out. 

And this may eventually mean a career/job change, especially if your talent stack does not support your current path. 

Don’t be afraid to make that change. Your future self will thank you.

#career #careerskills #job

Brand building can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. 

If you want to keep it simple, just get three things right: 

- Segmentation 
- Positioning 
- Fame

Identify the right set of consumers you want to talk to. 

Identify what you are going to talk to them about. 

Identify how you can build awareness at scale (fame) with them. 

That’s about all there is to it. 

Some brands generate fame via superior products and messaging over time. Some generate fame via imaginative PR activities, marketing stunts, or massive amount of media spend. Some generate fame via charismatic founder-led activities. It’s all good. 

Once these three things are done, then you can dive into the academics and nuances of marketing and brand building. Not before. 

#marketing #brand #business

Here's the framework for success in corporate life:

Constantly strive to increase your luck surface area. It's all about improving the odds of good things happening to you, and it is a function of two things:

- doing your job well
- letting people know about it

Either one without the other is useless in increasing your luck surface area. 

❌ Doing great at your job but no one knows about it? No reward.

❌Telling everyone how awesome you are, without the results to back it up? You get found out eventually. 

The output (luck) cannot be controlled. But the inputs (doing x telling) can be controlled. 

Good luck! 

#career #business #life

Hoping we don’t have to see the day when beer comes cheaper than water in Bengaluru. 

#bengaluru #watercrisis #life

At David & Who, we build strategic business narratives for a living. The simplest way to explain it is by saying that a strategic business narrative is what truly connects your brand to your consumers over a long period. 

Let’s consider Nike: 

Strategic Business Narrative: Everybody is an athlete. Irrespective of your physical stature, colour, creed, caste, or taste, you are an athlete. Just bring your inner athlete to the field. Nike will get the rest. 

Advertising tagline: Just Do it. 

The tagline is excellent, but it’s not what drives business. 

It’s not what helps you decide which markets to expand into, which products to launch where. 

It does not tell you what decisions will ruin the brand and business, and what decisions will help elevate them. Strategic Business Narrative does this. 

Sometimes, it takes 3 days to crack a narrative, and sometimes, it takes 3 months. However long it takes, when it arrives, it's worth the wait and effort. 

At David & Who, we love strategic business narratives. 

#marketing #business #startups

I used two strategic sound effects to turn a global P&G town hall from a snoozefest to "wow". 

Here’s the story of what happened. 

In 2015, P&G held a global town hall as part of the usual drumbeat of meetings. 

As a senior marketer working on the Head & Shoulders shampoo brand, I was asked to present my brand’s results. 

A great opportunity for a marketer to make himself stand out, especially since everyone from junior marketers to the Asia VP was present. 

The only problem? There was nothing new to say. 

All the work we had done throughout the year was already known to the team via monthly and quarterly business reviews. 

How do you make a 15-minute presentation interesting when your audience already knows your script?

I decided to shift the tone of my delivery from corporate-speak to an audio-visual experience. 

I knew the one thing that was certain about the town hall was its formal, buttoned-up nature. There would be pin-drop silence during presentations, every word carefully measured, and all presentations sanitised. 

I decided to go the other way. 

I kept my delivery deliberately playful. Made a couple of jokes. Played a whiplash sound effect at the part where I talked about how the competition had been beating us. And then a drumroll sound before I unveiled the new communication idea that helped turn around our market share woes. 

The audience sat up and took notice. They smiled. And laughed. And finally, applauded. 

Afterwards, the brand director, my boss’s boss, sent a note congratulating me on my delivery style. Many great presentations were made that day, but mine was, safe to say, quite memorable.

When you tell a story, the delivery matters almost as much as the substance. Combined, they form an experience, and it's the experience people remember. Not the colour or the font used for the slides. 

The next time you have to present something you suspect is dull, forget the slides. Focus on the story you have to tell, and then elevate it to an experience. 

Remember, experience trumps words. 

#storytelling #marketing #business

Finally, after years of LinkedIn conversations and DM shenanigans, met the legendary Amit Gupta in person. Over many rounds of food and drinks, we pretty much discussed everything under the sun from startups to politics to fun to Namma Yatri 😂 

It was amazing. Here's to catching up again soon in Goa, sir! 

Mejo Kuriachan - I think we spent more time discussing stuff in the car on the ride back than at the dinner 😂  More #peakbengaluru moments.

Growth Advisory | Business Transformation | Thought Leadership

A rare digression weekday selfie post - Why not? When you have three LinkedIn  influencers in one frame. #peakbengaluru moment 😆 — No?

Tons of startups, venture capital, growth, marketing, eCommerce, web development strategies were discussed. Unfortunately, no gyaan to be shared on this post.

Enjoy the day!

#meetsups #onlinetooffline

P.S: No creator or influencer was harmed in our discussions!

Mejo Kuriachan Sandeep Nair Amit Gupta

"Thank God for this discovery."

It's an amazing privilege to receive testimonials like these regularly. 

It shows how much we can help each other, and how often a little help can go a long way. 

Hope to continue more such interactions on topmate.io!

Let's connect:

My resume: https://rb.gy/jzpfwi

Recommendations: Available on my LinkedIn page

Blood group: available on request, but why would you request for it?

Happy Monday morning to all those excited to go to work today. The rest of you, buy my e-book so you can get into the first group. 

The link is in the comments section. 

#career #work #business

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