‘I want to see Spice positioned as a Brand of Respect and Admiration’

Chhavi Leekha,
Group President (Brand and Corporate Communications),
Spice Global

A perfect mix of Communication strategy is what makes Spice stand out in the crowd

Spice Global is pre-dominantly known to be a mobility technology company, though it has diversified its interest in other sectors of Healthcare, Finance and Entertainment, and the Spice brand has taken to fully utilize this strength. It is a conglomerate established in 1980 by B. K. Modi. The Group is in a phase of a major transformation at the moment. But it continues to be still a Mobility-led company and covers the entire spectrum of mobility.

While enlivening its brand awareness and ethos, Communication is and will remain an integral part of Spice, whether it is with its internal stakeholders or the outside world. While learning to change with time, the Group has used and enhanced the usage of the Digital platform to reach out to customers across nations and continent and providing uniform messaging in real time. 

On giving her  idea on what she feels Branding is, Chhavi Leekha, Group President (Brand and Corporate Communications), Spice Global speaks, “Branding parse when you go by Philip Kotler is all about positioning of a company or an entity in a consumers mind. But practically on a day-to-day basis what I have realized is that branding is not just positioning a brand but it is an all-encompassing phenomenon. The visible part of that is what we call positioning.  The crust of branding is the idea behind that brand that includes its persona, attribute, and the vision that we have. Positioning is more of an interplay of audio-visual translation of what we want to say about that idea.”

As a Communication strategy, Spice uses a mix of all the media –be it the Social Media, Mobile Applications, Traditional Media. On the prospects of Social Media for the company Chhavi opines, “We recognize the importance of Social Media and leverage that in very many ways – be it Wikipedia, YouTube channel, FB, LinkedIn. People fail to perceive your existence if you are not on Social Media.” 

BTL activities also form an important part of the Communication mix as Chhavi feels it gives the company the share of impact and the sustenance. Activities like EDMs, targeted events, Thought Leadership platforms always comprise a big part of their portfolio.

Spice also does a fair amount of internal positioning.An employee being one of the key stakeholders for Spice, the power of Intranet is leveraged besides the use of usual medium like brochures, Newsletters to reach out and transmit important company messages and announcements.

Finally…

Spice has had a rich track record of innovation and it has been an early mover in a lot of areas.“We have come up with futuristic offerings like low-end devices, dual-SIM.  We want to be known as a brand that has created value which is very key for us. As a fact, I would like to place Spice in a position of respect and admiration,” Chhavi echoes her sentiments. 

The last few months has seen a spurt of activities from Spice that clearly reiterates its interest in a number of areas. It has recently inaugurated a Super-Specialty Healthcare project in the heart of Delhi. It has also applied for a Banking license besides many other things. “At the same time we want to see value coming out of all these initiatives we are taking up,” Chhavi adds.

“To move on, we will communicate more strongly. We will be using more of Mobile advertising, Applications to reach out to our TG,” says Chhavi. “We plan to bring out more smartphones and devices that will cater to the needs of the consumers. Hence, there would not be any vertical we would not be making our mark in.” 

samrita@varindia.com