What Gulbahar Taurani teaches about brand purpose

I think excitement, focus and also sport is a great teacher. You're part of a legacy brand Philips. It's been around for decades even in India and also globally. It's a Dutch brand. 12 years and you've sort of moved when the digital wave has come into India. How has the company evolved or adapted to that? How has it taken it as part of its main core? Because there's a big lesson in there for many other large legacy brands who are still trying to make the transformation happen.

At Philips, we always believe that it's consumer first and we have always evolved with the consumer. So we saw this trend coming and in fact we saw it as an opportunity. Because see, this is one of the mediums where you get to engage with the consumer. It's a two-way communication. It's not like traditional medium where you go and speak and then the feedback comes or sometimes you even don't know whether your communication is making an impact. However, with digital, you actually communicate with the consumer and also you create an engagement.

Through that, you are able to create a communication with the consumer and I think Philips has been evolving with this trend and has taken it as a big opportunity to have a better connect with the consumers. What has been those key measures that you have taken to stay relevant to a very young audience which is sort of key to consumption today? Sure. See, so starting from the type of innovations and the type of products that we are trying to bring to India especially.

For example, let's take air fryer. Now, air fryer is what? It's a cooking medium but it's a new way of cooking. And when I say new way of cooking because you see a lot of talk around health and we also see that this new generation and young people are really concerned about the health. Not from a, you know, what I do when I face any type of illness or something like that but how do I keep myself healthy? And that's where an air fryer fits in.

So, this is a way wherein you don't have to sacrifice on your favorite fried food but you can have it the way you want without oil and that takes care of both your taste as well as health. So, that's one example of how you can bring new innovations which is in line with the new generation's thinking. You know, I just wanted to get a bit on how you are using the insight to figure out and the global knowledge that Philips has to figure out where is the market moving? What are those segments that are nascent today?

And of course, being Philips, one of the areas that comes to my mind immediately is the air purification business because that's, I think, you're the market leader there, right? So, a little bit to your two cents on that. Sure. So, you know, air purification as you said, one of the things that you will see more and more is the awareness around the indoor air pollution, right? So, today what happens, you see a lot of sales of air purifiers when you see in pollution outdoor, right?

While what we are trying to do is we are trying to create this awareness that the indoor air is as polluted or even more polluted than what is outside, right? And how air purifiers can help consumers resolve this problem, right? That's one. So, we do see a large market for air purifiers in the coming years. That's one bit of it. Second, you see, you know, if you look at the way we are growing as a country, there is a lot of young population. And that's where you see a lot of scope for personal care products.

And, you know, Philips was the first one to get on the trend of beard trimmers. If you see now any strategy that you have for a very, you know, I would say relevant and responsible organization, content has a digital leg. And digital leg has a DIY, you know, content because consumers want to do it on their own. They just are very confident about what they are choosing and how to use it. So, Gulbhar, just one last question. So, how do you re-energize yourself after a rough, grueling week? How do you sort of get that energy back on a Monday?

See, I think two things. One, I love nature, right? But you live in Gulgaon. And, of course, you have beautiful apartments nowadays and also all the facilities. So, I never give up on my morning walks. I think that's the time of the day throughout the week and especially on the weekends because the duration becomes a little longer. Where I enjoy my walk and that's something which really re-energizes me. Second is sports. So, I like sports and not only watching sports but I like playing. So, whatever I can pick up. So, I used to play table tennis earlier.

But today also I pick up table tennis as a hobby or even if I get a chance to play some badminton with my daughter or something like that. So, some sort of sports actually gives you… Keeps you active. Yeah. Keeps you active and keeps you full of energy. And the positive vibes. I think sports is a great thing to keep the excitement levels, energy. I think excitement, focus and also sport is a great teacher. I know. I have learned how to accept failure. Yeah.