Diageo India has elevated Mohit Cherian to Vice President – Customer Marketing, putting him in charge of an agenda meant to build the company’s brands and categories across the market. Cherian announced the move on LinkedIn, saying he will be “leading the customer marketing agenda in India, to shape and build Diageo’s brands and categories.”
A Diageo journey that started in innovation
Cherian joined Diageo India in 2020 and has moved across a wide arc of roles. He began in the company’s innovation team, then shifted to brand marketing and worked on Royal Challenge and McDowell’s No.1. Before the new appointment he was Category Director; earlier, as Senior General Manager, Brand Marketing, he led the BII Scotches portfolio.
The campaigns behind the CV
- Part of the Royal Challenge repositioning and the “Naya Sher” campaign featuring Virat Kohli.
- Worked on the evolution of McDowell’s No.1 and its portfolio initiatives, including the X-Series and Single Malt offerings.
- Led marketing for the BII Scotches portfolio after moving out of the innovation team.
Why customer marketing is the watchpoint
The promotion is more than a title change. Customer marketing connects brand strategy with trade, shopper and outlet activation — an especially sharp challenge in India’s heavily regulated alcobev market, where visibility and availability often do the heavy lifting that mass advertising cannot. Elevating a marketer with deep brand-side experience into this role signals that Diageo India wants that loop managed as a strategic priority, not a support function.
Before Diageo, Cherian was Assistant Vice President and Head of Marketing for Allen Solly at Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, and also spent time at Ogilvy and in management consulting. That mix of agency, consulting and brand leadership maps well to the demands of a customer marketing role, which requires juggling brand equity, portfolio priorities and field execution.
What marketers can take away
Cherian’s path is a useful reference for brand managers aiming at senior marketing roles. A few practical reads:
- Treat customer marketing as a strategic seat, not a handoff at the end of a brand plan.
- Build cross-functional proof: innovation, brand portfolio and customer-facing mandates all strengthen a leader’s case.
- Connect brand campaigns — like repositioning work — to trade-ready outcomes and outlet programmes.
What to watch next
For those tracking Diageo India, the next signal will be whether the brands Cherian knows best — Royal Challenge and McDowell’s No.1 — see tighter alignment between brand campaigns and retail or outlet activation. No numbers or timelines were provided, but the direction is clear enough: customer marketing is getting a bigger voice.
Source: Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media
