Industry experts share their views on why some brands flaunt the region they come from and whether a region or city name in a brand name can boost sales of the product...

Dr Prafulla Agnihotri, Director, IIM Tiruchirappalli, & Co-author of the book ‘Principles of Marketing: A South Asian Perspective’ with Philip Kotler, provides solutions to readers’ marketing-related queries. Readers and marketers can reach out to Dr Agnihotri through Pitch and address their queries to him at pitchqna@pitchonnet.com.

Interested in watching the ICC Cricket World Cup Finals 2011 at the Wankhede Stadium and live in Mumbai? Follow some simple steps and a World Cup final ticket is yours…

Interested in watching the ICC Cricket World Cup Finals 2011 at the Wankhede Stadium and live in Mumbai? Follow some simple steps and a World Cup final ticket is yours…

Changing consumer preferences kept marketers constantly on their toes in 2010. Pitch captures the biggest happenings in the last 12 months and presents the 10 trends that rocked the world of marketing: Youth Marketing, More for less, Innovations, Luxury Marketing, Retail, Rural Marketing, Brand Extensions, Brand Makeovers, Instant Nirvana and Social Media Marketing.

What makes companies and brands like Britannia, McDonalds, Big Bazaar, Micromax, Nestle Maggie tick in the Indian marketplace? Are there success mantras – like the proverbial 4Ps expounded by Dr Philip Kotler? Which product & services categories are driving marketing thinking & practices in India? And of course which marketers stand for marketing excellence in our country? These are some questions that we have tried to answer through our annual special issue & award-show that celebrates Pitch India’s Top 50 Marketers.

Red FM and Oh! Wonderful Emotions – an NGO have joined forces to spread awareness about greener means of celebrating Ganesh Jayanti this year.

As the city of Delhi prepares to host India’s biggest sporting event ever, CNN-IBN, IBN7 & IBN-Lokmat announced ‘Indian Sports Legends – A Network18 Initiative’. The initiative is an effort to honour the living legends of Indian sports who have brought glory to the Nation, yet haven’t been recognized enough. The awards are aimed at recognizing their selfless contribution to Indian sports and for being India's sporting icons who have endured over generations. It is an honour for their timeless achievements and for displaying the greatest sporting spirit by placing the country above personal triumph. These awards will be given away in a grand ceremony to be held in Delhi on Friday, 24 September 2010.

While preparing for its imminent transformation to IMN News, NewsX has announced the appointment of Diptosh Majumdar as its Editorial Director. He will be based in NewsX's Noida office and spearhead channel’s newsroom operations.

Charles Courtier, Global CEO, MEC, turned Guest Editor of exchange4media.com on September 3. As Courtier guided the team on the pegs for stories and possible lead reports, in a conversation with team exchange4media, he shared his excitement on assuming this ‘new role’ and explained his thought process on some of the developments like Pizza Hut scouting for a social media partner, or the broadsheet versus compact newspaper formats in India or ESPN signing Big B as brand ambassador for Champions League...

“Brand Del Monte has 118 years of heritage and is a globally renowned food and beverage brand. We create products that are in accordance with consumer taste and preferences. To differentiate ourselves from the competitors, we make sure that we offer innovative products and a 'never before' product experience in each of the four product categories that we operate in,” says Yogesh Bellani, Business Head, Del Monte Foods Business, FieldFresh Foods Pvt Ltd.

Sudha Natrajan, President and COO, Lintas Media Group:

GoaFest is always such an invigorating and refreshing experience for me. I’ve seen it improving year on year and it has today attained the stature of being on the world advertising map as an event of high repute. The work and play equation at the event is really good. The weather clouds, too, this time were benevolent and we did not get baked!