Former HUL, Pepsico hand Ruchira Jaitly is Nokia's new CMO

Former HUL and Pepsico hand, Ruchira Jaitly joins HMD Global - 'home of Nokia phones' as chief marketing officer. Sources in the organisation confirmed that Jaitly will head marketing in India and APAC and report to Ajey Mehta vice president and region head, HMD Global, India and APAC.

Ruchira Jaitly

Jaitly replaces Jyotsna Makkar who had joined Microsoft as its CMO in 2013 and in December 2016, she became the head of marketing at HMD Global India. (Also Read: https://www.afaqs.com/people-spotting/492_Nokias-Jyotsna-Makkar-moves-on )

Ruchira Jaitly started her career with HUL as a management trainee in 1997. She moved on from the FMCG giant as a brand manager in 2003 to join Pepsico as VP marketing. In 2014 she was elevated to senior director marketing - social beverages at Pepsico. In 2015 Jaitly called it a day at Pepsico and joined DSM as director - strategy and nutrition challenges.

According to market research firm Counterpoint Research Nokia slipped to its all-time lowest smartphone market share in India in the first quarter of 2019. The research firm analysed that while in Q4 - 2018 Nokia's market share in India managed to trudge to 3.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 it dropped to 1.7 per cent. So the iconic Finnish brand will have to work hard to turn it around in the smartphone space and marketing will certainly need to play a vital role.