Deepak Jolly, Director - Corporate Communications, Bharti Tele-Ventures

Starting from the service industry, moving to the FMCG industry, and finally to the telecom sector, Deepak Jolly has traversed a wide spectrum in the communications sphere over a 20-year career. Jolly joined Bharti Tele-Ventures in January 2003 as Director-Corporate Communications. He has previously worked with major FMCG companies like Pepsi, Hindustan Levers and Godfrey Phillips.

In conversation with Sakshi Talwar of exchange4media, Jolly speaks about the challenges and enormous scope of corporate communications in brand building and the state of the PR industry. Excerpts:

Q. You were handling sales functions at Hindustan Lever. What made you switch to a corporate communications role?

Initially, I was working in the service industry, the hotel industry to be specific. Sometime in 1987, I switched to public relations. Le Meridien, where I was working at that time, had been going through a turbulent phase. Building its image was a challenging opportunity, so I moved from being a front office manager to a PR manager. And as I moved to PR in the hotel industry, I found there was a huge amount of positive image building which could be done for the hotel industry.

Then I moved to Hindustan Levers where I worked for about seven years in corporate affairs, corporate communications and sales. Hindustan Levers was a great learning ground. I joined Pepsi in 1995. At that time, some NGO groups had targeted Pepsi, along with KFC and Enron. It was a very interesting battle for winning the mind space of people. It was a key challenge in corporate communications at the time. It is at Pepsi that I developed the art of crisis management in the Indian context. We put together a marketing communication strategy where you could communicate in all languages and capture the mind space in different parts of the country.

Q. You have been with Bharti Tele-Ventures for over two years now. How has working for the telecom sector been different from working for a mega consumer brand like Pepsi?

Whether it is Retail Banking, or Insurance or FMCG or even Telecom, once you understand the consumer psyche it becomes much simpler to deconstruct your communication process and have in place all the elements of communication targeted at different stakeholders.

Q. And what about the communication process?

The communication process has changed. Earlier a press release was distributed personally. Then came the fax machines and today the communication is via e-mails. There is a boom in medium of communications and the entire paradigm shift has happened in terms of technology. With the advent of technological advancement, the communication process is also evolving.

Corporate communications has a much larger role today. It is more to do with meaningful contribution to society, corporate social responsibility, imparting knowledge and thinking out of the box. For instance, we organised ‘Airtel Cup’ which was a benefit match for those hit by the recent Tsunami disaster. It was a ‘hope cup’ and we especially had Tsunami children flown down for the event.

Q. With cut-throat competition in the telecom sector, how far does corporate communications influence brand building?

Let me put it this way. Brand building is like baking a cake. Various ingredients are necessary like marketing and sales, finance, HR, corporate social responsibility, etc. But in a cut-throat business environment, baking a plain vanilla cake is not enough. A cake has to be appealing to the various audiences, and it is corporate communication that accomplishes this. All is lost if you don’t communicate it right to the consumer. It took Pepsi about four years of consistent and sustained messaging before the central thought of ‘Dil Mange More’ got communicated and internalised in the consumer psyche. It entails speaking to customers, vendors, regulators, decision makers, investors, opinion makers and internal audiences.

However, brand communication should be simple and easily comprehensible. Telecom, for instance, is a mass product which must have a connect with all stakeholders. Also, a brand should always be seen to maintain its core values like trust, innovation, etc. At Bharti we pride ourselves in being the leaders in innovation. We leverage and synergise all forms of communication to project the brand message.

Q. What are the important basics that make for successful corporate communications?

Experience in this industry matters a lot but more than that is your ability to put forth your point of view in a forceful manner, in addition to verbal and written communication skills. This job also requires a lot of listening skills, patience, ability to network and knowledge. Planning and execution are also very critical factors.

Q. You have been known to love competition and challenge. What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in your career so far and how did you overcome it?

In telecom, the challenges have been huge, right from FDI to issues like CDMA versus GSM, and winning the mind space vis-à-vis the competition, etc. Building up the sector has been a huge challenge. My challenge was also to respond to customer queries through customer cells across India within 24 hours. It is all a team effort. And the support from PR agencies and the team at Airtel was phenomenal.

Q. How would you differentiate the role of Corp Communication from that of PR agencies?

At the time of holding events and conferences, one needs a lot of external help and companies cannot employ such large departments, so professional help is required. Some corporates have outsourced their communication function completely to PR agencies, while many others feel that critical information should remain with the corporate communications department while the rest can be outsourced. PR agencies are a big help in reaching out to different cities like Patna, Bhubaneswar, Siliguri, etc.

Q. Can you recount some significant communication highlights from your Pepsi days?

As you know, the cola wars between Coke and Pepsi are legendary. There were two cricket World Cups during my tenure with Pepsi. One was sponsored by Coke and the other by Pepsi. Both became very interesting marketing mindshare battles. In the first World Cup, we at Pepsi blunted the edge Coke had as the official sponsor with our famous ‘Nothing official about it’ campaign. In the other Cup, we went ahead with our ‘Dil Mange More’ campaign. Strategically, both were superhit campaigns. It was a fairly satisfying period for me, as we reaped the communication benefit to the hilt.

Q. Are the communication strategies of a telecom company, which is in the service sector, different from that of a Pepsi or a Hindustan Lever?

Strategies of communication depend upon the requirements of the sector in which your company functions in. Then comes strategy for your company and, accordingly, the strategy for the brand that it owns. Bharti is our company and Airtel is the brand it owns. Similarly, the strategy for Pepsi and for that matter, Hindustan Lever, would be different depending upon the requirements of their respective brands, competition, etc.

When you are handling FMCG brands, what is important is integrating your brand ambassadors with the brand and in the minds of your consumers. For instance, we took Rahul Dravid to the home of a winner of one of the Pepsi contests in Bangalore. The house was all decorated and the kids performed a magic show for us. We started integrating with the life of young people and their parents. So one started living the brand and the brand experience with a simple initiative -- Rahul will come and have a Pepsi with you.

Q. What is your view on PR agencies? How have they evolved over period of time?

There was no competition earlier. Real brand wars started in the post-liberalisation era. As the liberalisation process started blooming, multinationals started coming to India and different sectors opened up like telecom, insurance, hospitality industry, BPOs, etc. The sectoral knowledge in different mediums started to expand. Thus, the role of PR agencies gained importance as they became a via media to connect these companies with the media, the journalists, to ensure a proper flow of information.