Gargi Sharma gives Tania Roy a peek into her firm Changing Sky, which won the prestigious Rebrand 100 Global Awards for revitalising Mapro Foods, and the several other exciting projects she is working on

Step into the Changing Sky office and you will find a bunch of diligent youngsters working on their computers. “I like to keep my team small. A dozen is perfect. When you grow big, you lose touch with the work and your team members as well. I am completely involved in all my projects,” says Gargi Sharma, founder of Changing Sky, a Pune-based strategic branding and integrated communications company that helps organisations improve their brand performance by optimising their marketing initiatives and helping them fulfil their business targets.

A graduate of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Sharma was one of the co-founders of Elephant Design, another successful strategic design and brand consultancy firm. After a few years, she opted out of Elephant and took up a job in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), heading their design department. “I enjoyed my two-year stint at TCS after which I joined Geometric. I was in-charge of corporate marketing and communication. The job was very challenging because I was handling a whole gamut of services,” says Sharma.

Coming full circle

With Changing Sky, Sharma began her entrepreneurial journey. Says she, “I realised that I had enough of corporate experience and it was time to go back to design. I also felt that I had the knowledge and experience of marketing (which I learnt on the job) and the conviction to have my own start-up. So Changing Sky took off in 2009.”
To those who are curious about the name, Sharma says, “Changing Sky shows how your brand can change the sky and the landscape.”

In the past few years, Sharma has been working with several big and small brands, taking up 8 to 10 projects at a time. “But I never work with competitive brands at the same time,” she says.
About her preferences, she says she enjoys working with local brands. She says, “With bigger brands, there’s a lot of pressure. Besides, you interact with the marketing personnel and they may treat you as a vendor. When it comes to local brands, you mostly talk to proprietors, who value you as an entrepreneur. The smaller the brand, the more challenging is the task, which is more fulfilling at the end of the day,” she notes.

Making a difference

Her other clients include Suhana Masala for which Sharma has introduced the Desi Dragon range that offers Indo-Chinese spices, and the No Onion-No Garlic masalas. She has also been working with Tyco Security products, a global leader in access control, video and location-based security, Suroj Modular Housing, The Chopras, which is a global education counsellor, and so on.

Working for non-profits is also very close to her heart. “Changing Sky designed the trophy for the third National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled People (NCPEDP)-Shell Helen Keller award. I am also helping Pune-based NGO Srodt for their branding and communication, Ekansh which is working towards a more inclusive society and Highways beyond cancer,” says Sharma and adds, “I want to make a difference to society too.”

Parenting tips

The mother of two feels that children should be allowed to follow their hearts. “As a mother, be a part of your children’s lives; do not control them. And the earlier you let them fly, the better,” says Sharma, whose daughter is pursuing design in NID and son has just passed his Xth Boards.

When Sharma sent her children to a residential school, she felt guilty. “But I think I made the right choice. I could make my venture successful and also be assured that my children were taken care of well. Since I had my own business, it gave me the flexibility to visit them during their summer and winter vacations,” says the caring mom.
Till now, Sharma was operating from home. “But I am moving to my new office because my children need space,” says Sharma, who is looking forward to many more exciting projects.

CLINCHING THE TROPHY

– 2012 was a memorable year for Sharma as Changing Sky won the prestigious Rebrand 100 Global Awards for revitalising Mapro Foods. Injecting excitement, energy and fun into the 50-year-old Mapro, Sharma succeeded in creating a strong brand presence.
– “Earlier, Mapro Foods had only squashes, syrups and crushes. We introduced fruit crushes, cooling range, health range, lounge range, dessert toppings and fruit squashes,” she says, adding, “We also changed the design and packaging; for example, we added fun characters like Johnny Lever, and other Bollywood stars like Salman and Kareena on the fruit squash bottles to catch children’s fancy. Colourful and attractive squeeze bottles made Mapro’s dessert toppings very popular.”
– But the most revolutionary change was doing away with the paper labels. “We introduced film packaging in all Mapro products after which every other brand started introducing shrink sleeve labels,” shares Sharma.