Pragya Bijalwann, Chief Marketing Officer at Voltas, shares her insights on driving marketing transformation in legacy organizations. With rich cross-industry experience, she emphasizes the need for relevance, responsible data use, and demystifying marketing jargon. In this conversation, she highlights how fearless leadership, clarity, and conscious choices can empower CMOs to shape a more impactful and future-ready marketing landscape.
With over two decades of experience across sectors like lubricants, paints and consumer goods, how has your marketing philosophy evolved to stay agile and relevant in today’s consumer landscape?
I often get asked about the courage it takes to shift industries so frequently. Changing sectors—whether petroleum retail, lubricants, paints, consumer electricals, or durables requires starting from the ground up in many ways, especially when aligning with stakeholders and demonstrating business impact. But one thing has always remained consistent in my approach: I keep the consumer at the core.
Whether it’s lubricants or consumer durables, the fundamentals don’t change. It’s about understanding what the channel wants, what the consumer needs, and identifying a brand proposition that is differentiated, meaningful, and relevant then delivering it in the most impactful way possible.
I’ve been fortunate to apply this philosophy across sectors, but I’ve also stayed open to learning. You can’t force-fit strategies from one industry to another; consumer behaviours vary. In lubricants, influencers play a key role. In consumer electricals, the ticket size is smaller than durables, which changes consumer involvement. Serviceability also differs.
Ultimately, while the needs of the consumer evolve, the marketer’s role is to stay agile—crafting propositions that are relevant, meaningful, and differentiated, and continually finding the most effective way to reach the consumer.
Having led both heritage brands and modern consumer business, how do you strike a balance between emotional storytelling and performance driven outcomes in your marketing approach?
I’ve always believed that every brand needs a strong reason to believe, a functional proposition that underpins its promise. Even if the story is emotionally communicated, it starts with something tangible. Take air conditioners, for instance. I can’t simply ask a consumer to trust me because I promise comfort. I must also offer a functional reason, such as a smart AC that ensures a silent experience. Over time, such tangible value builds emotional connections around trust, durability, and more.
In categories like ours, trust is paramount, but it is not built overnight. Emotional bonds are developed through consistent messaging over years, not just in one- or two-year campaigns. Functionality creates credibility. Emotions grow from there.
Let me share an example from my time at Castrol. We launched a campaign around Durashield boosters that doubled engine life, the engine being the heart of a truck. But we humanised the narrative with Jiyo Dubna, shifting focus from the truck to the trucker. We studied over 1,000 truckers, revealing long driving hours and musculoskeletal issues. So we introduced initiatives focused on their well-being.
That campaign still delivered the functional promise, better engine life, but the emotional connection came from genuinely caring about the user. That is how functionality and storytelling can harmoniously coexist, authentically and over time.
What role does data play in shaping brand strategy today and how do you ensure analytics fuel creative thinking rather than constraining it?
Analytics doesn’t constrain creativity. It gives you the confidence to move forward. I’m not sure whether I’m more left-brained or right-brained, but I believe both work together for any marketer. If I develop a creative idea and a few people say it’s great while others are unsure, only data, analysed at scale and objectively, can offer true validation.
Data doesn’t limit creativity; it strengthens it. It helps marketers know whether a creative worked, if a certain percentage of people liked it, found it relevant to the brand, and believed in the proposition. Data is in service of creativity, not the other way around.
In fact, I see data as a blessing. Earlier, we relied on intuition. Today, especially in a low-penetration category like ours, where I need to target high-intent consumers in peak seasons like summer, data helps me identify the who, where, and how, including geography, age, and even content affinity.
For example, two consumers in the same city, say Delhi, may belong to different age groups and have different content preferences. My messaging strategy adapts to this. Content affinity guides how I shape conversations with each of them. Whether above the line, below the line, or through digital and e-commerce, data fuels sharper, more impactful engagement.
How do you craft a very cohesive strategy in a world where consumer journey is you know very fragmented?
The consumer journey today involves multiple, fragmented touchpoints. Unlike earlier times when those touchpoints were limited, now, if someone is considering buying an air conditioner, they won’t simply visit a store. They’ll begin by picking up their phone, researching the best AC for their room size, browsing platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and others to compare options.
Because of this shift, brands must adopt a full-funnel approach. It starts with identifying the brand’s current challenge. For instance, a traditional market leader may already enjoy high unaided awareness but might need to strengthen consideration and preference. It’s no longer just about brand recall. The question becomes: when someone thinks of buying an AC, do they think of Voltas?
That’s where we invest in the middle and bottom of the funnel—ensuring discoverability, strong ratings and reviews, and a compelling in-store presence. Social media, while important, serves engagement rather than conversion for us.We tailor our platform choices based on their role in the funnel. Consumers often visit marketplaces for content, reviews, and price comparisons—even if they ultimately purchase offline.
Interestingly, e-commerce growth is strongest in non-metros. In our category, many are shifting from coolers to ACs due to affordability and climate change. We leverage that insight, targeting existing cooler owners with timely offers. So, while metro and non-metro strategies may differ slightly today, they are rapidly converging.
How do you see the evolving role of CMOs in shaping industry benchmarks, ethical standards and the future of responsible advertising?
One point I briefly touched on earlier is data privacy. As we accelerate the push for first-party data, marketers must take full responsibility to ensure data privacy is not just a legal checkbox but embedded across the organisation. We may collect the data, but others within the organisation are also using it, so accountability must be shared and pervasive.
The second aspect is that CMOs today must learn to make discerning choices. With numerous platforms emerging and various industries exploring different models, it’s easy to fall into a fear of missing out. As CMOs, we often work with young, enthusiastic teams who bring fresh energy and ideas, sometimes urging us to try ten different things at once.
But based on my experience across multiple industries, every strategy must be contextual. What worked in one sector may not apply in another. I’ve had to leave behind certain approaches and adopt new ones that were relevant to the brand and business at hand. You can’t copy-paste strategies. Had I tried that, I would have failed miserably.
Ultimately, it comes down to choosing what drives real ROI for your brand adopting what works, and dispassionately letting go of what doesn’t.
How do you drive marketing transformation in legacy organisations? Especially when you have to integrate new formats like influencer marketing or mark tech or agile experimentation. Anything? Is there any new format when you have to incorporate?
When traditional organisations want to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving environment, the first step is to nurture new skills and focus on upskilling. You need like-minded people who understand that technology is not here to replace us but to make us more efficient and relevant.
In my experience, people are usually open to change. What’s needed is a torchbearer, someone who can show the way forward and remove the fear of the unknown. It’s important to open up conversations and make the process approachable.
Avoid using jargon, especially in marketing. Jargon often alienates rather than educates, and marketers can be more guilty of this than others. I make sure that every deck I create explains the terms clearly. Because if what you’re doing isn’t business-relevant or understood by the larger organisation, the effort is futile.
Make things simple, because they are simple. Make them believable and actionable, and people will embrace change. Whether it’s influencer marketing, martech adoption, or agile experimentation, it’s not about the format—it’s about making it clear that these tools can truly drive business impact.
