Asia-Pacific Power List 2025: Somasree Bose Awasthi, Marico

Somasree Bose Awasthi

Chief marketing officer
Marico India
India
New member

Somasree Bose Awasthi has a long history of working with homegrown Indian companies  in the FMCG space; a sharp contrast from many senior marketers in India who typically begin their careers at multinationals such as Unilever or P&G. She began her career with a summer internship at Cavin Kare, a south India based FMCG, often credited with having pioneered the ‘sachet' as a sales unit within India. 

Bose Awasthi subsequently moved on to long innings with Godrej, starting as management trainee in 2003. She left as chief marketing officer after almost 16 years. Through the course of her tenure, she built the air care category with the launch of Godrej Aer; grew brands like pesticide Hit and began the direct-to-consumer channel at the company. 

Her stint in Marico, which operates in the beauty and wellness space, has been no less impactful so far. Within Marico’s portfolio, healthcare brand Saffola has consistently created campaigns timed around World Heart Day. For the most recent iteration, Bose Awasthi went past business as usual celebrity endorsement, by enhancing the campaign with AI. The ‘Step Up For Your Heart’ features a very relatable celebrity in actor Ronit Roy, but also created an app where consumers could have AI-powered conversations with the actor even as they exercised. The campaign also tapped into the equity of influencers in the health space, besides partnering with medical experts. ‘Step up’ saw over 2.5 million registrations in 35 days. 

However, while selectively deploying influencers, Awasthi Bose has avoided the trap of being besotted by them and in thrall to their power. Marico’s recent work for its ‘Hair & Care’ brand is a tongue in cheek riff on influencers and their sometimes messy and impractical solutions, selling a clear product superiority narrative. Meanwhile, marketing initiatives across flagship brands including Parachute and Saffola have helped Marico’s sales performance with revenue up by 19.8% in Q4 2025. 

Bose Awasthi is also a champion of gender equity at the workplace and has consistently moved past mere tokenistic gestures. Addressing the bias in hiring and promotions and lack of flexibility and limited mentorship for women in senior roles, she is intent on fixing the gender imbalance in marketing.  Initiatives at Marico include the Neo Mama Network which supports new mothers in the workplace. It’s a commitment further reflected in brand communication via campaigns like #ExpressWithPride for Livon and #UnStereotype for Nihar Naturals.