Pranali Vichare: Breaking the Traditional Shackles of Marketing

In today’s era of digital marketing, brands are grasping countless strategies to be at the epicenter of the market. While tech marketing is still in a nascent phase with the current market following a conservative approach, response to rising consumer expectations stands to be the ultimate key to success. Over the last two-three years, the IT industry has moved towards ‘Everything-as-a-Service’ model, empowered with trending technologies like Cloud and AI.

Best of innovative concepts engaging target markets for a long time is a combined result of innovative technology, strategic marketing, and unmatched creativity. This renaissance has enabled the ‘new-age’ leaders to be agile and explore ‘out-of-the-box’ ideas that can eventually cement them as trendsetters in the industry.

This excerpt highlights the journey of one such gifted professional who has been immensely successful in creating her own space and continues to march forward with utmost determination. A tech-marketing enthusiast and a passionate globetrotter, we introduce Pranali Vichare – Founder and Director of Talkd. Pvt. Ltd., in this cover story edition. As a Human Wikipedia, she stands true to her name as she believes in Process and drives Talkd to the next level through her powerful vision.

A Mindful Leader 

Bridging the prevailing gap between Technology and Marketing function, for companies across the globe, has been the most gratifying part of her journey. While an MBA in IT cemented her professional foundation, studying psychology helped her to understand thoughts and behaviours. In her quest to acquire knowledge, this journey of a decade and a half has played a pivotal role in shaping her professional career.

Right from the start to her career in 2004, Pranali has been fortunate to be mentored by industry leaders  and ace consultants. This phase also proved to be significant in her career as she identified the industry gaps and the need for tech marketing to bridge this space. As a thoughtful leader and a self-learner, Pranali keeps herself updated with every development around her – be it a new word or innovations in the tech space.

Inspired by some of the greatest tech-influencers and storytellers of the era, like Steve Jobs and Satyajit Ray, Pranali takes a cohesive approach that results in a collective success in deliveries.

“My passion is intertwined with my aims and goals – both professional and personal. Travelling not only broadens the mind but allows me to leverage experiences for creative ideas that might come in handy at the workplace.” This is how Pranali talks about her passion and goals of life, with travelling as her ‘petri dish’ to learn and collect experiences. Here, she ventures not only to popular tourist places but even to terrains like Kailash.

The Cornerstones 

Leveraging years of professional experience, Pranali has painted the canvass of her entrepreneurial journey with countless milestones. She has created an eco-system where every opinion is counted and welcomed. Believing in the thought-process that sharing ideas eventually become the essence of the collective decision-making process, Pranali has nurtured this practice to the core.

However, she gives the credit to her family values of transparency and maintaining a culture of openness. Embracing the right values from her initial days, today she is supported by her partner – Shashi Sudhanshu – the Founder and CEO of Talkd. Recognized as a Storyteller and Design Thinker, he is the strategic guide and undoubtedly a pillar in the joint vision for the company.

Talkd – Storytellers of the Digital World

Conceptualized in 2009 as a unique lead farming model that converted business deals into leads, ileadfarmers saw the light of the day. Later, it evolved to Talkd, was incorporated in 2017 and located at the ‘Oxford of the East’ – Pune, in India and has over 70+ employees today. Talkd is a Global Agency exclusively catering to Tech Companies, supporting the entirety of Marketing functions of the C-level executives, with USP as a capable and proven Tech Storyteller. After successfully delivering hundreds of projects, it stands as the preferred design and marketing agency for tech companies around the globe.

Gaining acumen and expertise has resulted in achieving strategic partnerships and has bought accolades for Talkd at countless platforms. Awards like ‘RED HERRING 100 ASIA’ and ‘HONORABLE MENTION at Awwwards’ and accreditation from prestigious business magazines have strengthened Pranali’s endeavour to reach the epitome of success. Being associated with global IT giants like Hero Electronix, Tessolve, Persistent, The Chatterjee Group (TCG) and more, team Talkd has set the right trajectory of growth. Recently, Talkd became the Official UX Partner of the digital transformation arm of an Indian multinational group, alongside being the preferred choice for a leading semiconductor service provider, supported by its three business units – Talkd Lead, Talkd Agency, and Talkd UX.

Core Business Units

Talkd Lead is all about Lead Nurturing and supporting the Sales Engine of its technology clients, pitching application suites to ITES. Talkd Agency, on the other hand, is the Storytelling arm- through creatives and marketing. Agency works on positioning, brand strategies, digital & traditional campaigns, websites, production of collaterals and more. With Talkd UX, the team leverages user research, design thinking, and UI design to define better user experience across interfaces, applications, platforms, etc.

Guiding the Novices

For the newbies aspiring to start their entrepreneurial journey, Pranali advises them to be adaptive enough for the changing and challenging conditions. Elaborating the current scenario, she says, “Today, the lifecycle of technology has decreased with continuous innovations superseding earlier technology breakthroughs. Entrepreneurs – especially the one’s building product based tech-startups need to keep this mind”. 

She also points out that one needs to have a clear understanding of the pain points surrounding the proposed business model. Having a robust business plan, that can address the crucial business levers is another element. However, the most important for an entrepreneur is to have an inner circle for moral support, or else frustration and isolation will get the better of one.

Alongside highlighting the roadblocks in the journey of an entrepreneur, Pranali shares an effective solution that acts as a deterrent against the pressures and demanding situations. She adds, “One must simulate their inner being in the right direction to avoid being consumed by their venture. After all, an entrepreneur must be larger than entrepreneurship.” It can be anything – learning music, yoga, travel, fitness, art, community service, hikes/treks – possibilities are infinite but one has to decide.

Collaborative Efforts to Create Milestones

While the journey has been memorable in countless ways, Pranali carries an optimistic outlook for the future as well. Commenting on the recent economic volatility, she feels that innovations in Cloud technology, Machine Learning, and AI will open up new avenues.  While Intelligent Applications, Wearables, Smart Electronics, and Prescriptive Analytics are the preferred areas for Startups in 2019, the same will continue to the year ahead. Concluding this story on a positive note, Pranali states that although Talkd is competing with the agencies in the US and Europe, the competition is still at the early stages and there’s a lot to explore.

To know more about the captivating journey of Pranali Vichare and about Talkd, do visit: https://www.talkd.co/