A marketing professional with over 17 years of experience, Dr Anupama Wagh Koppar, head, customer segmentation with Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), thrives on challenges. She has worked on key marketing strategies, brand building, consumer insight and innovation.

Koppar’s career spans diverse industries and products. She has worked in the health care, FMCG and lifestyle sectors with brands like Marico, Parle Biscuits and Timex. She has also worked with advertising majors like JWT.

Of these, she considers her stint at JWT and her current role at TTSL as the most memorable. “Strategic planning at JWT was one of the most satisfying times of my career. I worked closely on the evolution of the Horlicks brand, from a milk food drink to a health food brand, as well as the launch of Women’s Horlicks and Nutribar. Other memorable assignments were launching the Nestle Munch Pop Choc, Kitkat Chunky and Lite products in the highly competitive confectionery market in India,” says Koppar.

Her current role offers a different challenge, an “intellectual challenge”, she says. “Building an actionable customer segmentation approach is a daunting task, especially in a market that is virtually undifferentiated and largely price driven. It is a complex project that often sees me challenge my own learning on segmentation matters, and has prompted me to learn new ways of looking at the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of segmentation.”

Koppar manages to keep her head above water by adopting a collaborative management style. “I am a risk-taker and am open to change,” she says. “Also, I have found that information and imagination are useful in finding solutions to complex business issues.”

Although a career as an educator was Koppar’s childhood ambition, becoming a marketing professional was a close second. “As a child, I always wanted to become a teacher, perhaps because my parents were both in the profession. However, as I grew up, I was keen to work in the communication and marketing sectors,” she says.

This prompted her to do a master’s in marketing and a Ph.D in consumer behaviour. This learning and the considerable experience she picked up along the way help her meet the challenges she encounters at TTSL. “My primary responsibility is to set up the segmentation model for TTSL’s mobility business, and help factor in the consumer perspective and market dynamics.”

Koppar keeps herself busy outside the boardroom as well. In her spare time, she enjoys blogging apart from travelling, practising Bharatanatyam and watching movies