Faryal Warind

Hi i’m Faryal, I am currently pursuing my MBA (Marketing & HR) from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and working as an RB campus brand manager. My RB opportunity came along when I interned in the Marketing Department for RB PowerBrands Veet & Strepsils in Summer 2010. I was constantly on my toes and loved every minute of it! It was then that I applied for the position of Campus Brand Manager and soon enough I was the proud aspiring Brand Manager for one of the fastest growing FMCG’s of the world.

Now here I am, blogging away my wonderful experience so far! I hope this novel idea launch in Pakistan is of interest to you all and gives you a view of the RB through my eyes, bit by bit with every blog

Campus Brand Managers in Pakistan

Campus Brand Manager? Who’d ever heard of Campus Brand Manager (CBM) in Pakistan? With an exciting and novel idea, Reckitt Benckiser is one of the first companies to launch a structured CBM program in Pakistan. Giving aspiring brand managers a taste of what it really is, RB has given me the opportunity to learn the ropes via this 5 month on-campus role at the Institute of Business Administration.

My task is to involve students in Campus related activities aimed at enhancing RB brand values and promoting the leading brand portfolio that RB boasts. Doing this is a strategic process with budget constraints and timelines to be met.

Yes now I knew what all entailed to being a Brand Manager!

Lucky for me, my mentors and my fellow campus Brand Manager (Omar) and I creatively drafted a fun filled yet brand relevant activities that not only hyped up the student body at IBA but also thanks to social media and buzz marketing has become the talk of the student fraternity! Wohooooooo!

Before we could start, though, we felt the biggest challenge associated with RB had to be tackled – not many know that RB owns some of the most powerful brands in the world! Hence, we designed a teaser campaign to not only stimulate interest but to get the students wondering. How did we achieve that? Custom made posters were placed across the IBA Campus with students and the faculty both quizzically staring at and creating buzz while trying find out what was this campaign was about as well as which company really IS behind such powerful brands.

Are you RB enough?

Starting our tenure in November meant starting out just on onslaught of winters and what better way to create noise and gather people than to give out winter gear freebies? Thus began the “Are you RB Enough?” campaign.

The title for this campaign was inspired by RB being an unique FMCG, therefore, challenging IBA students’ match our unique qualities. The driving force behind this campaign was Facebook and the tools it offered – tagging, video and picture uploads, and feedback. The winter gear – hoodies – were not given out, they HAD to be EARNED! The campaign entailed ascertaining whether students had the right blend of RB core values of Teamwork, Ownership, Entrepreneurship and Achievement.

How did you earn it? Take a RB brand, own it, and be creative with it on video, either individually or in a team, with videos being posted on Facebook. Trust me, it’s not as simple as it sounds! We had to ensure that students did not treat their task as a simple TVC, rather, they had to show an understanding of the brand in a fun-filled manner. This ranged from creating songs/jingles, puppet shows, to unconventional uses of the products. Additionally, as attractive a free hoodie may seem, many declined due to their fear of facing the camera! Hence, only the ones considered RB Enough had an extra piece of winter gear in their closet by the end of the day!

Noise was created both figuratively and literally- social media helped create the buzz while filming of videos attracted crowds. The efforts, at the end of the day did leave students all over IBA chanting RB’s name and eagerly waiting for the next round of activities that come their way. Watch out for next weeks post where Omar brings you the latest update on what’s happening at IBA!

I would argue this month is the most important and exciting month for a Marketer working in Reckitt Benckiser.
1. I’m developing my Brand Plan for next year
2. I’m finalising all the marketing mix activities for my New Product (NPD) that’s launching into market this September

Every brand has a Brand Plan which is written a year ahead and it’s used as the ‘bible’ for how you manage and promote the brand for that year.

Brand Plans are written over a few weeks as it’s a lengthy process to collate and make sense of all the learnings, research and data at our disposal and requires much strategic thinking. Although its lead by the brand, it’s a team effort between Marketing and Sales because at Reckitt Benckiser brands and numbers are at the heart of our business so the starting point is agreeing what the financial target for the brand should be. This is decided through many rounds of what we call ‘bottom up’ and ‘top down’ forecasting. Marketing and Sales forecast what we believe we can deliver and we marry this up with the top down target we get from the CEO. The Brand Plan then tells you how to strategically deliver this target…and at RB the targets are never easy, but that’s what ensures we deliver strong growth year on year!

At the same time…
New product development (NPD) is the most exciting project for any marketeer as you launch a new innovation for your consumers with a variety of marketing mix activities. Im currently developing these new activities for Strepsils which include new TV advertising, in store promotions, new packaging, PR campaigns and much more.

Developing and executing an NPD launch is the sexy bit of marketing and is one of the biggest focus areas for us at Reckitt Benckiser because our brands are our most important assets. I feel so lucky to be managing a brand like Strepsils which is over 50 years old! The consumer trust that comes with that is priceless.

Look out for the Strepsils NPD in the peak sore throat season in November & December. Let me know what you think, there’s nothing more satisfying than positive feedback from your consumers, so I hope you like it!

Friends of mine who work in careers ranging from medicine to charity have asked how I feel ethically about working in such a large corporate organisation with a mission to make profit.
I say that I’m extremely proud because Reckitt Benckiser is unlike any other I know.
I don’t blame them for being curious about the corporate sector and its corporate responsibility practices, as you often hear bad press about large scale organisations’ social responsibility when it goes wrong.
But at Reckitt Benckiser, social responsibility is at the forefront our daily practices.
Our CEO, Bart Becht, actually visited the branch I work at to personally present Carbon 20, a new global initiative to reduce the carbon footprint of all our products.
For him to do this himself signals just how much RB will focus on the environment going forward.
It’s motivating because I can – and have to – participate in this in my day job.
Strepsils is the fastest growing global brand we have, so it’s critical we get on board. For example we have changed all our plastic external packaging to a more sustainable version as well as vetting all our suppliers to ensure they also comply by strict social responsibility guidelines.
In our office we even have 3 compartment bins, each of which we use to separate out paper, plastic and general waste. It’s made so easy for us to make a personal difference.
RB has been hosting an ongoing conversation about corporate social responsibility on LinkedIn and the Reckitt Benckiser Facebook page.

However, our social responsibility doesn’t just focus on the environment but also on charity.
Save The Children is our official charity and not only are there many opportunities to participate in fundraising initiatives but anyone in the business can suggest an activity where they fundraise and RB will match it!
A group of 61 employees have just returned from an amazing fundraising trek in the Himalayas for Save the Children in which they were also given the opportunity to help out at local schools projects.
Reckitt Benckiser is unlike any other large scale corporation I know in this respect and I’m extremely proud to be part of it.