WPP arm appoints new country head

MUMBAI: Icon Added Value India (IAVI), a market research company and one of the largest operations worldwide within WPP’s Kantar division, has appointed Balachandran Ramiah as the country manager for its Indian operations. He replaces Anand Varadarajan, who has left on an overseas assignment.

Ramiah comes to IAVI from Icon Added Value’s group company IMRB where he was the VP and GM looking after the southern region. He has over 20 years of research and consulting experience.

A product of Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi), Ramiah has an MBA from IIM Kolkata and a PhD from Wharton. He has extensive experience in tracking and brand research, consulting and teaching in business Schools.

When contacted, head of the firm, C R Sridhar confirmed Ramiah’s appointment and stated, “With his joining us we are sure that we will be able to add more value to our brand & insight work. He’s a veteran in the profession and has enough expertise in the core areas of strategy and research: innovation, brand equity, brand marketing and strategy, consumer insight and communications performance optimisation. Our objective is to galvanise clients’ brand performance by focusing exclusively on igniting consumer desire for their businesses and brands and Ramiah fits in perfectly into our plans.”

Ramiah said, “I think that IAVI has some exciting innovation products, which are relevant to a lot of brands. There are some cutting edge research ideas in the areas of PSU packaging, new segments and product concepts. In the current media environment, it’s important to get the creatives on target.”