Marcom should be all about tangible ROI

V. Nandakumar, Director – Marketing & Communications, Lulu Group.


In the dynamic world of business, the perception of marketing communications (Marcom) has traditionally oscillated between being viewed as a necessary expenditure and an integral revenue-generating function. Lulu Group International, a global conglomerate known for its retail, hospitality, and real estate ventures, has firmly positioned its Marcom department as a pivotal profit center rather than a conventional cost center. This strategic pivot not only underscores the group's innovative approach to marketing but also highlights its commitment to integrating Marcom stategies as core components of its business growth and profitability. Here's a closer look at how Lulu Group is redefining the role of Marcom within its corporate framework.

“I have always believed that Marcom should be a profit/revenue center rather than just a cost center tasked with building the “Brand Equity” within the “given budgets”. Why can’t we move away from presenting our “Marcom cost budgets” to “Marcom Revenue Budgets ?” asks V. Nandakumar, Director of Marketing & Communications of Lulu Group, based at its Global headquarters in Abu Dhabi, UAE.


Coming from a strong media background, Nandakumar has been spearheading the revenue generating initiatives throughout the 260 hypermarkets & shopping malls the Lulu Group operates across the globe.

“In our line of hypermarket & retail business, 90% of our product-range comprise of FMCG or multi-branded products. So each promotion, each activation or even each piece of communication is promoting another brand and that is where we saw huge potential for greater brand integration and revenue generation, exactly like a media house would do” opines Nandakumar.


Elaborating on various streams of revenue which a mass retailer like Lulu Group taps, Nandakumar said “we engage very actively with our vendors, FMCG brands, tenants and banking partners to promote various physical & digital assets accross our stores, malls, ecom and social media platforms. Today the Lulu Retail space is one of the most sought after OOH media options in the Middle East, highly used effectively by FMCG, lifestyle and tech brands. Apart from “in-store” advertsing revenue, branded and collab-contents are doing extremely good for us, both from reach as well as revenue point of view.”

Lulu has successfully leveraged Marcom to drive sales, enhance customer loyalty, penetrate new markets and more importantly generate new revenue streams. This strategic alignment has been instrumental in transforming Marcom from a support function into a critical driver of profit. As a pioneer in large format hypermarkets which sells everything from groceries to fresh produce, live kitchens, fashion & lifestyle products, Lulu has been the one-stop-destination for a diverse customer base.






“Cliché as it might sound, we don’t sell different things but we try to sell differently and that’s why we are always looking for activations which will add bit of drama and excitement to the otherwise mundane job of grocery shopping. Country festivals, cultural shows, celebrity events, contents & competitions, road shows, Walkathons, outdoor BBQ fests we have done it all and each one of them have strong brand integration and shopper engagement” Nandakumar added.


“At the heart of Lulu Group's Marcom success is our reliance on data-driven decision making. By harnessing the power of analytics, we have been able to tailor our marketing strategies to meet the precise needs of our diverse customer base. This personalized approach has not only improved customer engagement but has also significantly increased the efficiency of our marketing spend, thereby directly contributing to the bottom line” elaborated Nandakumar.


“We have moved significantly away from “mass marketing” to a more measurable “data-driven” targeted marketing. With operations in 10 different countries, selling almost 150,000 different products to more than 1.6 million multi-ethnic shoppers everyday, the data we generate and curate is mammoth and very critical for us. We are investing heavily on data analytics and to set up a state-of-the-art data lab in Bengaluru which will not only help us to customize our marketing but also help us plan our buying & sales strategies to drive revenue”.


“Long story short, I seriously believe its high time we marketers moved towards delivering a more tangible ROI than just making fancy presentations and glorified contents. And next time we make our annual budget prsentations, lets make our CEOs & CFOs “happily” approve our budgets without any cuts” concluded Nandakumar.