Pidilite CMO Vivek Sharma has quit

Vivek Sharma, the chief marketing officer of Pidilite Industries has quit. He leaves the Indian adhesive manufacturing company after nearly seven and a half years of leading its marketing department. A duty that falls to Vinay Subramanyam, the former vice president of marketing at Britannia Industries, who joined Pidilite in December 2021.

Sharma announced his exit on LinkedIn where he expressed his gratitude to his seniors, colleagues - present and past and the agency partners.

He also wrote:

”Over 7 years at Pidilite Industries Limited working on 7 #iconicbrands with 6000 great colleagues came to an end yesterday but the unbreakable bond with Pidilite will last forever. I have had fulfilling, learning and fun-filled years at Pidilite and I want to express gratitude to my seniors, colleagues - present and past and the agency partners. To sharpen business building approach, brand creation, innovation and skills to navigate in the VUCA world, Pidilite is the place. I wish Pidilite family the continued success they have always enjoyed. My next playing innings by taking fresh guard will be live soon.”

The now-former CMO of Pidilite has a career that spans over three decades with stints at Philips India, Mirc Electronics (Onida), Mondelez, and Ogilvy. He spent the most time at Pidilite Industries.

Sharma had told afaqs! in 2020, in response to whom Pidilite's Fevicol wants to target: “Pidilite spots unfulfilled need segments among consumers and attempts to fulfil them. At a time when people didn't know which adhesives were used in making furniture, Fevicol advertised to consumers.”

The company had released a 90-second ad by Ogilvy in 2019, its longest, to celebrate Fevicol’s 60 years in India. “Fevicol wants to be where the consumers are. We noticed over time that consumers are moving towards OTT because they find different and segmented content over there. We believe that Fevicol, like OTT, has good stories to tell,” remarked Sharma.

Sharma spent a month over five and a half years at Ogilvy and Mather (now Ogilvy) and what is interesting is the fact that he spent a decade in marketing (Mondelez) before joining advertising.

At Ogilvy, he worked as a business head and was eventually appointed executive director and handled brands like Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, HUL, Cadbury, and others. Then for two years, he was the business head of Unilever from Ogilvy and he handled the role across multiple geographies.

“My days at Ogilvy were a fantastic learning experience for me. I would advise all marketers to work in advertising for at least for two to three years. Doing so really grounds you into the whole creative process and it gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how ideas are conceived and how brands are built, how ideas are implemented in a sustainable way,” Sharma told afaqs! in 2020.

A vital learning he credits to his time at Ogilvy was that he understood the creative process and “realised that the ability to take risks with ideas is what builds iconic brands in advertising.”

Another learning he deemed noteworthy and applied to all service-related industries (as opposed to product-related industries), was people management. “Since there's no product in question, you're left to rely on the people. It really hones your people management and situation management skills.”

Sharma’s next destination remains unknown. We’ll update this story once he announces the move.

Photo credit: Vivek Sharma/LinkedIn