M.G. Parameswaran
  •  parameswaran@spjimr.org

M.G. Parameswaran

Adjunct Faculty, Marketing

M.G. Parameswaran, or Ambi as he is popularly known, is a brand strategist and founder of Brand-Building.com. In a career spanning over three decades, Ambi has handled assignments in marketing, sales and advertising with companies like Rediffusion DY and R, Boots Company and UDI Yellow Pages before dropping anchor at Ulka Advertising over two decades ago. He has helped build numerous brands, including Digene, Brufen, Santoor Soap, Sundrop Cooking Oil, TCS, ICICI Bank, Wipro, Indica Cars, and Zee TV, among others.

He served as VP, then as CEO of FCB Ulka from 2003 to 2013, and as Advisor before moving out to set up his own brand advisory unit, Brand-Building.com.

Ambi has been contributing articles to premier business publications and has conducted seminars and branding workshops for Indian/MNC organisations and industry bodies like CII, FICCI, AIMA, etc. He has spoken at international forums, including the Kellogg India Summit at Northwestern University and Cornell University; he has also been a guest faculty member at several business schools, including SPJIMR and his alma mater, IIM Calcutta.

Ambi has served as the President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India [2014–16]; he was President of Ad Club Bombay [2003–05]. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Madras in 2009 and from IIM Calcutta in 2018. Ambi served on the Board of Governors of IIM Calcutta from 2007 to 2017 and was an independent director on the board of several listed and unlisted corporate entities.

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Education

Harvard Business School

Advanced Management Programme, 2014

University of Mumbai

Ph.D. in Management (Marketing and consumer behaviour), 2006 – 2012

Thesis: ‘Religiosity and consumer behaviour – how religion and religiousness interact with our behaviour as consumers.

Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

MBA (PGDM), 1977 – 1979

Major: Marketing and Finance, Honour Roll Graduate

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering, 1972 – 1977

  • Books

    2022

    Parameswaran Ambi, All The World’s A Stage – A Personal Branding Story, Westland, Chennai

    2020

    Parameswaran Ambi, SPRING – Bouncing Back From Rejection, Westland, Chennai

    2018

    Parameswaran Ambi, SPONGE – Leadership Lessons I Learnt From My Clients, Westland, Chennai

    2016

    Parameswaran Ambi, Nawabs Nudes Noodles – India Through 50 Years of Advertising, Pan Macmillan, New Delhi

    2015

    Parameswaran Ambi M G, with Isaac Jacob and Kevin Lane Keller, Strategic Brand Management [Indian Version], Pearson India, New Delhi

    2014

    Parameswaran Ambi , For God’s Sake – An Adman on the Business of Religion, Penguin, New Delhi

    2011

    Parameswaran M G with Kinjal Medh, Draftfcb Ulka Brand Building Advertising – Cases and Concpets, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi

    Parameswaran M G with Kinjal Medh [eds.], India 2061 – Collected Articles, Cogito Publications, Mumbai

    2009

    Parameswaran M G, Ride The Change – A Perspective on the Changing Indian Consumer, Market and Marketing, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi

    2006

    Parameswaran M G, Building Brand Value – Five Steps to Building Powerful Brands, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi

    2003

    Parameswaran M G, Understanding Consumers – Building Powerful Brands Using Consumer Research, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi

    2001

    Parameswaran M G,  FCB Ulka Brand Building Advertising – Concepts and Cases, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi

  • Book chapters

    2013

    Parameswaran M G , Marketing, PR, Advertising and Media for Brand Building of Innovative Foods and Nutritional Products, in Ghosh D et al. [eds.] Innovation in Healthy and Functional Foods, CRC Press

    2008

    Parameswaran M G, Reputation Under Fire, in Arthur I and Mathews K [Eds.], Brands Under Fire, Penguin Portfolio

  • Conferences

    Parameswaran Ambi. Your First Name Tells Your Age: The Use of Sound Symbolism in Naming Over-The-Top Media Characters. AMA Winter Academic Conference. (February 20, 2022)

    Parameswaran Ambi. Perceived Age of a Name: Adopting Age-Based Names in Over-The-Top Media Content. MN : Association for Consumer Research. (October 31, 2020). https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/v48/acr_vol48_2663471.pdf

    Parameswaran Ambi. Perceived Age of a Name: Adopting Age-based Names in Over-the-Top Media Content. The Association for Consumer Research. (October 4, 2020)

    Portrayal of women in Indian English print advertising – A longitudinal study of advertising in Femina Magazine over the last 50 years, 2011 Asia Pacific Conference of the Association for Consumer Research Beijing, Parameswaran M G with Srivatsava R K [KJ Somaiya]

    Not so desperate housewives of India, 2009 Asia Pacific Conference of the Association of Consumer Research, Hyderabad, Parameswaran Ambi M G

    Portrayal of women in Indian package goods television advertising, 3rd Great Lakes NASMEI Marketing Conference, Chennai, Parameswaran M G

    Panellist/speaker at Jaipur Literature Festival 2014, the biggest gathering of its kind in the world.

    Speaker at TEDx IIM Ranchi in February 2014 [TEDx ‘For God’s Sake’]

    Link to Google Scholar

  • Periodicals

    Parmeswaran, M.G., (2024). The changing wedding business. Business Standard.

    Parmeswaran, M.G., (2024). This is us: How the nuclear family changed the world. Hindustan Times.

    Parameswaran Ambi. (2022). MBA in India: Opportunities and Challenges for MBA programs post covid era. Business Standard.

    Parameswaran Ambi. (2021). Why is there a celebrity boost in IPL ads? ETBrand Equity.

    Parameswaran Ambi. (2021). Dove’s #StopTheBeautyTest: A perspective. ETBrand Equity.

    Parameswaran Ambi. (2021). Ready for a reboot: How B-Schools can adapt to the new normal amid Covid-19. Business Standard.

    Parameswaran Ambi. (2020). Will Kamala Bloom Again? ET Brand Equity.

    Parameswaran Ambi. (2020).
    The Name Game: Picking a Brand Name that Sounds Right    . ET Brand Equity.

    Parameswaran Ambi. (2020). Will Ram make a comeback? ET Brand Equity.

    Parameswaran Ambi. (2020). How to nudge consumers back to the marketplace. The Hindu Business Line.

    Parameswaran Ambi. (2019). The new Shaadi pitch. ET Brand Equity.

    Parameswaran Ambi. (2019). What makes Bollywood actors rule the game in India and China. ET Brand Equity.

    Parameswaran Ambi. (2019). Evolution of names” An analysis based on a proprietary research on the evolution of Indian names and what it means. ET Brand Equity.

    Link to Google Scholar

  • Contracts, grants and sponsored research

    Funded

    Arora, Sunny (Principal), Parameswaran, Ambi (Co-Principal), “Your First Name Tells Your Age: The Use of Sound Symbolism in Naming Over-The-Top Media Characters,” S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, $2,200.00. (September 2, 2021 – present).

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