Ashish Limaye quits Starcom MediaVest Group; joins Classic Stripes

Limaye was general manager, marketing, at Starcom MediaVest

Ashish Limaye, general manager, marketing, Starcom MediaVest Group has quit the organisation and moved to Classic Stripes.

Classic Stripes is a leading name in the automobile graphics space and is engaged in providing distinct brand identity for OEM vehicles. Limaye has joined the organisation as head, sales and marketing.

Commenting on his move, he says, "While media agencies manage to offer retail visibility and design solutions for brands, they are often limited by their knowledge around technically important areas, such as material usage and printing capabilities. They have minimal or no investments towards research and development."

According to Limaye, this poses a huge gap in the value chain, which often results either in high costs (thanks to multiple layering), or low innovation at the retail front. He adds, "There exists a strong potential to create an ecosystem that marries the strong front- end of a retail specialist, along with the equally strong and competent back-end of a vendor."

Limaye believes that at Classic Stripes, he would be able to leverage his existing knowledge of understanding brand challenges, and address these using the organisation's strong delivery capabilities.

As head, sales and marketing, he will be responsible for growing the POP (point of purchase) and POS (point of sales) business and the retail engineering division of the organisation. He is also looking at offering brands turnkey retail solutions in areas including visual merchandising, retail store design and layout.

Talking about the learning from his previous assignments and his strengths, Limaye shares that the solution-oriented approach, which he learnt in an agency, married with the capabilities and investments presented by Classic Stripes, is something that marketers are increasingly looking at. And this will surely help him in his new assignment.

Limaye has nearly 15 years of industry experience and has worked with organisations including Bennett Coleman & Company India (Times Response Division) and J Walter Thompson (out of home division), apart from Starcom MediaVest Group.