Listening, storytelling & continuous interaction drive Pidilite’s mktg: Rahul Sinha

The second edition of the e4m RetailEX Conference, held today (April 15) in Mumbai, brought together marketers, retail leaders and industry experts to decode the trends shaping the next phase of retail marketing. The conference emerged as a key platform for discussions about the future of retail.

Among the key sessions, Rahul Sinha, Chief Business Officer at Pidilite Industries Limited, delivered a compelling talk titled “Building Categories, Not Just Brands: Lessons from Pidilite’s Retail Playbook.”

Setting the tone, Sinha delved into the enduring relevance of brand-building across eras, highlighting how the fundamentals remain unchanged despite shifts in technology and platforms. He drew a sharp distinction between building brands and building categories, calling the latter a far more complex exercise. “We believe building categories are about building bonds,” he noted, tying it back to Pidilite’s core business in adhesives. “Bond is also a play on the fact that we are an adhesive company… adhesives finally bind.”

He then emphasised that at the heart of Pidilite’s philosophy lies a deeply consumer-first approach. “Nobody would remember what you said. People would only remember how you made them feel,” Sinha remarked.

Further during the session, he outlined a three-step framework that drives the company’s marketing playbook—deep listening, impactful storytelling and continuous interaction. 

Calling listening a critical skill, Sinha noted that it accounts for “50% of the job of a marketer,” adding that those who listen well are far more likely to build meaningful brands. 

He urged brands to move beyond surface-level engagement and invest in understanding real consumer contexts. Highlighting Pidilite’s approach, he shared, “We know each one of them, and we ensure there is a connection happening practically once every quarter,” referring to the company’s deep engagement with its core users, including carpenters, plumbers and masons.

Storytelling, he said, is what ultimately makes brand communication stick. Reflecting on iconic campaigns around Fevicol, he noted, “Stories well told don’t need to be told ten times. If it connects once, it stays.”

Sinha also challenged conventional marketing playbooks that prioritise short-format content. Citing a 92-second Fevicol campaign, he said, “We were advised to cut it into 15 seconds… but we ran the full film. In ten days, it had 2 million views. If the story is strong, duration doesn’t matter.”

Summing up, Sinha distilled brand and category building into three key principles: “Build a listening culture, persist with insights, and keep learning every day. If marketing teams spend most of their time among themselves, it’s not enough, they need to step out and meet consumers.”