Marketing used to be a game of gut instinct, but today it often feels like it’s just about the data. Puneet Kusumbia, the Vice President-Marketing at Heritage Foods, has spent over twenty years finding the balance between the two. He knows that while a data point might find a customer, only a good “surprise” keeps them coming back.
In this conversation, Puneet talks about the daily reality of keeping a household brand like Heritage relevant in the fast-moving world of quick commerce and Gen Z. It’s a candid look at how to build a brand that lasts without losing the speed that the modern market demands.
With over two decades of marketing leadership behind you, what core principles have consistently guided your decision-making across categories and organisations? How have these principles evolved with the rise of digital, data, and consumer fragmentation?
My first principle is simple: I am still learning. This mindset keeps me open—whether in marketing, business or life.
More specifically, in marketing, I follow a slightly tweaked version of the old adage: “the consumer is the king, but can always be delighted with the right surprises.” Understanding consumers deeply—both their behaviors and their attitudes remains the foundation of every decision.
The second principle is about alignment: mapping consumer insight directly to business needs. When you apply a consumer-first lens to a business problem, the solutions aren’t just effective; they’re sustainable.
Finally, there’s innovation. It is the lifeblood that keeps a brand relevant, exciting, and attuned to emerging needs.
With digital, data and increasing fragmentation, these core principles haven’t changed—only the tools have. Digital has sharpened targeting, reduced wastage and enabled seamless actionability through e-commerce and quick commerce.
“Marketing today is far more shopper-centric. One of the new challenges is a balancing act: maintaining long-term brand building with performance marketing.”
Heritage Foods has been focusing on premiumisation and value-added offerings. How do you balance innovation with strengthening core categories, and what does the next phase of category growth look like from your perspective as a marketer?
Core categories require sustained focus to maintain growth and retain consumer franchise. So, driving growth from the core becomes the primary marketing priority. At Heritage Foods, milk and curd form the engine of our top line and bottom lines, and we
are constantly strengthening those portfolios. Innovation within the core is the real focus here. Our newer milk launches, the Sampurna platform, over the last couple of years, are strong examples of this and are helping accelerate category growth for us. Further on,
“We aim to offer superior value, stay ahead of competition in our leadership markets, and build a portfolio that keeps consumers within the Heritage brand ecosystem.”
The next wave of growth will come from value-added categories such as paneer, ice creams and drinkables. For instance, our drinkable platform, Heritage Livo, is specifically designed for health and sustained energy. With paneer, we’ve focused on making it an “easy-to-cook” ingredient for South Indian households through targeted campaigns—efforts that were actually recognized with E4M Indian Marketing Award Gold for transformational growth. We are building strong, consumer-first category development or market share gain initiatives for driving future growth.
As the media landscape becomes increasingly fragmented, how do you evaluate the efficiency of AdEx across TV, digital, and emerging platforms?
The fragmented media landscape has made efficiency measurement paradoxically easier yet more complex.
“Data availability and digital commerce enable precise tracking, but attributing impact across platforms and making efficiency comparisons have become more challenging.”
We use a mix of lead indicators—built through data-backed funnel mapping,and lag indicators such as brand awareness uplift, recall and trials. Together, these help us evaluate the effectiveness of each medium and optimize our investments across platforms.
Do you find that content-led storytelling on digital platforms now delivers better ROI and trust-building compared to high-decibel mass-reach campaigns, or does television still hold unmatched influence for household categories?
Content-led marketing has evolved into such a powerful way to reach audiences, allowing for sharply targeted messages and really strong calls to action. When you layer in influencer collaborations, performance marketing, and e-commerce advertising, you get these entirely new dimensions for targeting the full-funnel consumer journey.
However, for mass brands with wide retail distribution, television is still the primary medium for scale, trust and household affinity. We use these channels individually and in combination to create a balanced media mix that takes consumers from awareness to the purchase journey. The bottom line is,
“In household categories, TV remains irreplaceable and becomes even more impactful when paired with new-age digital touchpoints.”
What role do partnerships—content creators, entertainment IPs, festival integrations, and platform collaborations—play in your communication strategy? Which types of partnerships have genuinely moved the needle for brand affinity or business impact?
Partnerships help expand our reach and improve mental availability by engaging consumers when they are most receptive.
“While the brand narrative remains consistent, these collaborations significantly enhance relevance and resonance in the moment.”
To give you a sense of the scale, we have tapped into a wide variety of touchpoints, media sponsorships, in-programme integrations in daily soaps and reality shows, mini-series with TVF, large-scale influencer campaigns for milk under our Masterbrand IMC and radio partnerships for on-ground activations. Some of these initiatives have strengthened lead indicators, while others have delivered direct business impact—each plays a specific role in the overall communication strategy.
With retail media, modern trade, and e-commerce accelerating, how do you prioritise and allocate investments across GT, MT, and online channels to drive both penetration and premiumisation?
“Investment priorities are always driven by business and brand tasks.”
Whether we’re looking to drive penetration, build loyalty or win in a leader or challenger market, each objective demands a different channel approach.
We start by defining the consumer task first. Only then do we allocate budgets across GT, MT, and e-commerce based on the specific role each channel plays for that category. To put it simply, the strategy flows directly from the consumers’ tasks to the channel-wise investment. It is all about making sure we have the right spend in the right place for the right outcome.
Looking ahead, what excites you most about the future of marketing in India? Which emerging trends do you believe will reshape consumer behaviour and brand-building over the next 3–5 years?
India is currently going through a heightened consumption phase, giving rise to a booming appetite for premium products as well as products that drive category and household penetration alike. This fundamental change in purchasing behaviour is largely a function of three macro trends: rising disposable incomes due to lower direct and indirect taxation, heightened awareness of nutritional requirements, and powerful tailwinds favouring a more natural, rooted approach to food and well-being.
I see the following defining trends driving marketing in the next 3–5 years:
Growing disposable incomes in an increasingly BANI world: This will be the most defining trend and will cut across generations. Consumers will seek premium products while simultaneously looking for reassurance and stability from the products they buy. Consumption cycles will be shorter, as we have seen in categories like mobile phones and wearables. Brands will need to offer a narrative that is familiar yet relevant at any given point in time.
Evolving omni-channel dynamics: The next cycle of this blockbuster will see Q-commerce expanding into smaller towns and becoming more search-friendly. This will lead to sharper consumer targeting and a clearer advertising–sales linkage.
Rising prowess of Gen Z: In the next 3–5 years, nearly half of Gen Z will be earning and spending. We have already seen that the way they spend differs from previous generations. They are far more connected, clued-in and digital-commerce natives.
Hence, brands will need to adapt and cater to them in ways distinctly different from how they engage with current generations.
From India for the world: This is self-explanatory—we will see a significant number of brands from India, acro
