Gaurav Bhatia Sothebys – A Marketing Genius worth Knowing About

India’s markets hold a lot of opportunity for growing businesses. Its luxury liquor industry is predicted to grow steadily. However, the nation’s complex economic landscape isn’t free of challenges. Clever marketing and strategic brand positioning are necessary for success here; which is how Chandon has become one of the bestselling wine brands. Its success is attributable to its Marketing Director, Gaurav Bhatia Sothebys.

Few challenges that the wine industry is facing

a.High competition in establishing a brand presence

The success of a liquor brand depends heavily on the perception by its target consumer base. While consumers belonging from affluent societies prefer a luxury brand, people from the middle-class section are drawn towards affordable brands.

b.Liquor is experimental for the youth

A major section of the liquor consumer comprises people in their 20s who are employed in prestigious jobs or study in colleges, belonging from affluent backgrounds. Alcohol consumers in this segment regularly experiment with different brands, and newer competitors in the market can easily win them over.

The less evolved taste of this segment allows various brands to sway the markets in their favours. Gaurav Bhatia Sotheby’s India with his experience and intelligently devised strategies helped Chandon to target the Indian millennial base effectively.

c.Awareness around ethics
The modern consumer wants ethical brands that encompass inclusivity into its vision. Drinking is no longer solely a man’s game, and many women are capable of affording it. The trend has been recently reflected by the introduction of a new logo, depicting a woman by Johnny Walker. So, brands need to account for this positive social change to impress an increasingly conscientious young consumer base.

Overcoming these evolving challenges requires highly effective leadership in a brand’s marketing division. Gaurav Bhatia Sothebys with his leadership skills has helped leading brands like Moet and Chandon acquire a significant market portion in India’s liquor industry.

Let’s look at a few examples of Mr Bhatia’s exceptional marketing strategy skills. 

Gaurav Bhatia – the mastermind behind the success of multiple brands

* Helped with the creation of luxury spirit category   

Gaurav Bhatia Sotheby’s India led impactful marketing initiatives which helped solidify the position of Chandon, an Indian brand of sparkling wine. He helped with the execution of the vision of twelve brands.

* Achieved remarkable growth for companies

Mr Bhatia was entrusted with the responsibility of managing the marketing portfolio and implementing strategies to sustain the growth of Sotheby’s South Asian business segment. He excelled in the endeavour by achieving a 150% growth in volume in champagne, and 500% growth in Cognac, within 5 years.

* Positioned Chandon for success

Chandon is a bestselling Indian Sparkling wine, and its success is attributable to its careful positioning. Costing Rs. 1200 a bottle, this sparkling wine is produced from grapes grown around Mumbai. It’s marketed as a luxury yet affordable beverage, and thus, has won a significant portion of the consumer segment. Mr Bhatia’s marketing plan is to credit for this success.

The life events of Gaurav Bhatia Sothebys have led him to this pinnacle of a corporate career. His time with Young and Rubicam, as an associate partner, and his education from Middlebury College has helped him greatly to achieve some remarkable feats. 

Gaurav Bhatia Sothebys - Professional who Launched Brand Chandon

Gaurav Bhatia, Managing Director at Sotheby’s, has been in the market for more than two decades. Under his excellent leadership role, Gaurav Bhatia Sothebys has not only helped in creating new markets but also made new customers across regions of the United States and South Asia.

How he helped several brands to gain a presence in India?

Before being in Sotheby, Gaurav Bhatia had been an excellent Marketing Director at LVMH for more than nine years. He was the leader of all marketing initiatives and looked after the business development processes for Luxury Wine and Spirits division for the region of South Asia. He has played a pivotal role in creating a new market for luxury champagnes, wines and spirits thus attracting a lot of younger crowd to the business. With this, in India, brands Moet and Chandon became the brand leaders. He then launched the excellent sparkling wine brand called Chandon. This attracted a lot of young base of millennial.

All the marketing initiatives that Gaurav Bhatia Sotheby's India had taken had been very impactful and helped in creating more business in the market. He executed the brand vision for twelve excellent brands too. With this development, he placed himself in a very respectful positioning the corporate.
Gaurav Bhatia had been the executive committee member in Moet Hennesy India. He had also been the Brand Board for Chandon as well as Belvedere Vodka. He had been responsible for preparing and setting a separate marketing portfolio and managing the growth in business in South Asia regions. He also stepped upwards with 150% volume growth in the champagne brand and 500% volume growth in brand Cognac all across India within a period of five years. He supported annual targets and played an integral part in the FTT budgets.

While launching Chandon sparkling wine, Gaurav Bhatia Sothebys had developed a strong marketing plan so that this can be positioned as a remarkable icon and so that it can be the market leader in the premium Indian category of wines.

His entry in the winner’s league 

He has always been a game changer with his excellent marketing and analytical skills. Therefore he won the prestigious Moet Hennesy Innovation Award for being the Game Changer, during the year 2014. Gaurav Bhatia with his marketing skills had done expert market research and thus developed marketing programmes which were very impactful.

A master of customer relationship

He cultivated one to one relationships with prestigious people from the sectors of corporate, social as well as Bollywood thus networking and channelizing his products and experiences in the high-class consumers too.

He maintained good customer relationships, and this helped in developing the market. He was awarded the Best Innovation in Customer Relationship in the year 2010.

Passing out from the Middlebury College, with a Bachelor of Arts, Gaurav Bhatia was first posted as an Associate Partner in Young and Rubicam. He worked there for seven years managing a team of thirty people.

He was the business head of client servicing where he provided expert knowledge of Advertising to clients such as Taj Group of Hotels, Tata Motors, Heinz, Kraft, Singapore Tourism Board and many more. Gradually Gaurav Bhatia Sothebys grew up to be an expert professional in marketing, thus creating a brand and positioning himself too, in the top tiers of the corporate world.

Gaurav Bhatia Sothebys India - Through Champagne- Tinted Glasses

Champagne boy, Gaurav Bhatia Sothebys left 24,000 restaurants in Manhattan to come back home to become part of the first generation of luxury marketeers. He lives to eat and drink (blame it on his Lucknow heritage) and sells champagne for a living. Here, he dives into the art of entertaining at home, which is now become ever so sophisticated, 15 years on

The scene: Stunning women in yards and yards of tulle, bedecked in art deco diamonds and Zambian emeralds, hair coiffed up or flowing in cascades, smelling of Red Roses by Jo Malone, in a candlelit room filled with wild roses, old mahogany furniture and contemporary art – drinking vintage Dom Pérignon in tall Baccarat flutes between bites of Beluga.

Phew! This could be a fantasy out of Valentino’s last post show soiree. Or a decadent Saturday evening in Bombay.

I am a firm believer in the metaphor of champagne. We work hard, and if we cannot celebrate the pleasure and spectacular gift of life (and living), in our cash-rich, time-poor existence, there is little point. That genial quartet of fabulous friends, inspiring food, a rocking DJ mix and champagne, and you have a sublime party to celebrate your friends with – one they will remember for a long time to come.

Luckily for us, it is all happening right here, right now – in a way it has never happened before.

Not very long ago, we were invited to a leading industrialist’s home for dinner.  The chic invite requested us to be dressed in theme – The Jungle – quite a refreshing change from our uninspiring lives in our own asphalt jungle. From my wife taking inspiration from Katherine Hepburn’s safari chic look in The African Queen, we both dressed up in our forest fancy to enter a 10,000 sq. ft. living room bedecked in, hold-your-breath, Robert Cavalli zebra print from floor-to-ceiling. From seat-backs and tablecloths to napkins and even the waiters’ aprons, there was zebra everywhere. Dom Pérignon flowed freely and our inner animals shone as we heard Jungle Love and Mondo Africa through the evening. Feathers, animal prints and lots of skin brought out the wild side of jungle revelers for an untamed, unbridled and very lively evening in an otherwise pure vegetarian household. That said Michelin- star chefs were flown in from Milano to give us a meal that saw over 30 shades of vegetarian Italian fare, including truffles from Alba that had been freshly flown in.  If that isn’t decadent, I am not sure what is.

Indians are basically social animals, proud to open our homes and hearts, proud of our food, proud to open our bar, proud to entertain our friends at home.  Or certainly that’s the filter I see things through. Perhaps it is a champagne filter.  Some part of me still has a strong Lucknow legacy that loves to eat, entertain, invite and be invited.

Parties are meant for pleasure. Pure, unadulterated, decadent pleasure. Gone are the days when one ate a mean gosht biryani and had shammi kebabs with a glass of scotch. Entertaining at home is no longer what is used to be.

When I decide to have friends home – however small, it becomes a mini project.  A fun one at that. From the flowers and candles to the food and wine to the linens and crockery and of course at the heart of it all are the people – it is for your friends and they must be indulged. This is why I rarely plan a spontaneous gathering. Which is perhaps not a good thing. I just need it to be done my way. The right way. From menus being planned and cooks being briefed weeks in advance, to getting the cases of champagne and wine in, to our brainstorming sessions on the flowers with our beloved Nazneen Jehangir – peonies or king protea, ranunculus or hyacinths – depending on the season and what can be flown in in time, it is all one big celebration of the senses.

Coming to legendary hosts in Bombay who I have met, the inimitable Mrs G needs little introduction, but perhaps a separate story dedicated only to her. Coming to my favourite hostesses in Bombay – she is also one with the biggest heart. Roohi Jaikishan. The name spells old-school glamour with a true rockstar spirit – a rare amalgam. Always dressed in Balmain or Balenciaga, you may mistake her for an heiress who spends her days buying diamonds and chiffons and planning her flowers. Few know, that heiress she is, but she also heads marketing for one of the largest food importing companies in the country (her own) and tends to her flock of three seamlessly – a doting husband and two beautiful children. She is the true czarina of style and entertains like very few do today – with real élan. Her USP – everything is home-made.  Having an art deco townhouse with the most gorgeous vistas of old Bombay doesn’t hurt.  She brings out the best from her kitchens – her Camembert Soufflé, Chilled Gazpacho with Avocado Sorbet, lamb shanks served in heirloom hallmarked silver could give the Zodiac Grill a run for its money.  Her desserts are as breathtaking – Roohi’s very own recipe of her Flourless Persian Pistachio Cake with Rosewater Crème is a metaphor of herself – divine. Slowly becoming a legendary hostess in her own right, she keeps an eye on every single guest and mingles beautifully. You can rarely say no to Roohi. And never, you should.

Internationally, I have always admired how Oscar de la Renta used to entertain. Or Valentino. With Valentino, you are indeed at the emperor’s table. From his seasonal flowers to fresh menus to his themed soirees (more about that in another story), it is all a form of perfect storytelling. Who can match this in India? Perhaps the original boys of couture – Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla. If you are ever, ever invited to their table, go! Sandeep comes from an old family from Kapurthala and Abu from a gastronomically enthusiastic Bohri one; food is very much their raison d’être. No day is complete without discussing the next meal. The same amount of passion that goes into their design goes into their food. There is no halfway house. That makes every meal in their home very, very special. With lots of drama.

I remember many years ago when we had just begun to know them, Sandeep causally invited us to watch the season premiere of a show on television. As budding friends (and their biggest fans) my wife and I agreed in a heartbeat. “Come in tracks; it’s a causal night at home. Just us!” said Sandeep across three Bombay islands.  Everything about the plan worked and we trekked to their gorgeous home in Juhu.  Many glasses of Moët Rosé (they only serve Rosé, never any other), out came the decadent galoutis freshly flown down from Lucknow. “See I knew you are from Lucknow so I made a friend send these via this evening’s flight!” I thought to myself this is possibly the most generous and thoughtful host and friend I have ever met!  But it didn’t stop there. Out came the Akhe Masale ka Gosht, the Goan Prawn Curry, the Chicken Farcha (a Parsi-borrowed recipe – divine), the Stuffed Crabs, Stuffed Bombil, the most decadent Aloo Bharta in the world (a potato mash that is truly a trip to heaven and back!), Crispy Okra Raita and a host of condiments and chutneys – all home-made.  Don’t even get me started on the khichda – an old recipe from Abu’s family. And about four desserts which I smartly ignored. A feast fit for the Gods. And for the two of us! All washed down by generous flutes of the Rosé. Well, that’s just the way they do it. Over-indulgent. But done with the purest goodness of their hearts. As complex as their zardozi. And just as delicious.

Coming closer to home, it took 65 people and 75 bottles of Moët & Chandon to get my wife Pratima to turn 40. Well, that made it a little more than a bottle of champagne a person. And guess what, we actually ran out at half past two in the morning. I had to chill and uncork my backup case of champagne so we could run until 5 am. But there was something that night. A little magic. And that came from the decadence that we created. Amidst the stars in the flute and those above us were good friends. There was a live band, followed by a stream on SoundCloud by Kygo chill tunes, to Calvin Harris to dance, and Eric Prydz, tons of yummies, a bar with every tipple you could think of and a banquet that began with caviar and ended with the Valrhona chocolate shots. The home looked like a garden in bloom in spring with wild roses. You could have been in Capri.

From the best chefs and mixologists to home-made banquets, entertaining today is all about make-believe. You could be in the fantasy of Marie-Hélène de Rothschild’s famous Surrealist dinner.

Good parties are about good souls.  What you get is experiences – sublime ones. Done with the biggest hearts. Let’s just say I’m lucky there are plenty of them around.

Gaurav Bhatia from Sotheby's India planned menu for his wife’s 40th birthday on October 16, 2014 in his apartment in Bombay

Apéritifs
• Magnums of Moët & Chandon
• Belvedere Martinis – Shaken (Think Bond!)
• House Red & White Wine
• Glenmorangie and Ardbeg Single Malt Whisky
• Café Patron
• Home-made Rose Sherbet with fresh Kashmiri Saffron (Gaurav Bhatia"s grandmother’s classic Lucknow recipe)

Hors d’Oeuvres
• Blinis with Crème Fraîche & Beluga
• Gruyère Gougère with Goat Cheese Mousse & Crispy Beets
• Sushi Rice Cakes with Avocado & White Asparagus & Wasabi Air
• Blinis with Crème Fraîche, Beetroot Relish & Balsamic Caviar

Small Plates
• Four cheese Truffle Oil Mac & Cheese
• Butter Poached Lobster on English Muffin with Hollandaise
• Duck Confit in Phylo Cups with Orange Segments & Pomegranate Coulis
• Watermelon with Thai crab & Shredded Kataifi
• Spanish Paprika Prawns & Clams on Sourdough Bread
• Lamb Bourguignon with Mashed Potato & Baby Carrots
• Mascarpone & Portobello Mushroom-Stuffed Chicken with Jus & Seasonal Vegetables
• Paired with Dom Pérignon Vintage 2003.

Dessert
• Mini Crème Brûlée
• Chocolaté Profiterole Crème Pâtissière
• Seasonal Alphonso Mangoes Crème Fraîche
• Desi Gulab Sorbet