Game changing strategies in Retail marketing

Smita Murarka, Head Marketing & eCommerce – amanté

A retail professional with over 13 years of work experience across international brands, Smita is also a Certified Image consultant and is passionate about making people highlight their true potential, helping them present themselves in their best ‘Avatar’.

Having worked across portfolios of Buying, Sales, operations and Marketing, and helped set up many brands in India, she has a deep understanding of the consumer and their fashion needs. Currently she heads marketing at amanté, an International intimate-wear Brand.

Prior to joining amanté– MAS Brands she was Senior Brand Manager at Lifestyle International. She has been part of the core teams to set up many international brands in India like Splash, Bossini, Kappa and many more. She has also had a stint at a brand consulting firm, brand-comm prior to her experience in the retail industry.

Smita loves travelling and is a foodie, with an interest to understand cultures and consumerism across the globe. She shares her experiences as a Retail Marketing Professional with team ABT here.

Who is your greatest inspiration & Why?
Personally, my greatest inspiration has been my father who had a big role to play in the way I look at life. He has taught me if you are righteous in your intentions and work hard towards your goals, then immediate results are not the end but just means to your growth. Today I am a fearless and confident woman because of the values he inculcated in me early on and can speak my mind without prejudice.

Professionally each of my mentors have taught me and shaped my growth. I believe everyone has a role to play in your life, and one needs to focus only on what can be learnt from people, ignoring the rest.

What are the challenges that you face? How do you overcome them?
Every working professional faces challenges and to have a positive attitude is of utmost importance for overcoming any situation. Being abreast of changing consumer needs through regular research, robust feedback mechanism, agility in response are all ways in which I keep our marketing strategies relevant and have a deeper connect with our end consumer.

Tell us about your initiatives at amanté that have helped achieve strategic goals for the brand
amanté as a brand has doubled its turnover in about 2 years, and has higher consumer awareness than before. The brand has moved from product selling to brand salience. Digital focus early on, has helped us connect with our consumers closely, to understand their preferences and educate them to make evolved product choices.

It gives me immense satisfaction to work on a brand and category as part of the leadership team and be part of its growth story.

If you were to do one thing differently, what would that be?
I would have liked to work in a different country for a few years, to add to my global exposure. However, have been lucky to have travelled extensively to other countries during my different work assignments.

Your views on the opportunities available for Women for entrepreneurship today
Today most of the established companies recognize the value a woman leader/ entrepreneur can bring to the table, and the gender divide has surely reduced, compared to a decade back.

As for the retail industry, consumerism is on the rise amongst women, and they are the decision makers for most purchase categories. Thus, it makes business sense to have women market to women.

The free digital space has also helped women connect to various opportunities and think beyond the obvious career choices. Women are bloggers, Bikers, product creators and own/ lead a whole of careers which dint seem viable earlier.