Asia-Pacific Power List 2022: Kainaz Gazder, P&G

Kainaz Gazder

CMO and SVP, baby care, APAC, Middle East & Africa
P&G
Singapore
Member since 2021

Returning to the Power List for the second year, Kainaz Gazder has been with consumer goods giant P&G for over 25 years. Rising through the ranks from an assistant brand manager to become the SVP for baby care in APAC, Middle East and Africa and CMO for AMA, her current marketing remit covers 105 countries and more than 25 brand portfolios. She is responsible for building the capabilities of over 600 marketers. 

With the pandemic, the past two years have accelerated direct-to-consumer and digital commerce as people shop online, it has also driven the need for brands to find new ways to communicate their messages. Given this, Gazder and her team have focused heavily on investing and innovating in media science, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of their media-buying strategies, and improving their ability to reach consumers with the right message at the right time. 

Improving the quality of P&G's advertising in the region with messages that are useful, relevant and interesting for consumers—based on consumer insights—has also been a priority. One example is a campaign Gazder and her team worked on for Head & Shoulders Vietnam. Called ‘Mispronunciation’, it tackled one of the biggest barriers to purchase for the brand in the country. Due to the sounds required to pronounce Head & Shoulders, Vietnam consumers find it very difficult to say the brand and were using the brand only when they didn’t have to ask for it. The campaign cleverly celebrated all the different ways that Head & Shoulders is mispronounced in Vietnam, tapping into some of the market’s most engaging personalities. The highly interesting and engaging campaign skilfully utilised consumer insights—and delivered outstanding results.

Advocating for a more equal and inclusive society both inside and outside of P&G has always been a top priority for Gazder. P&G’s highest performing campaigns—for the likes of Always, SK-II, and Ariel—comprise of gender-equal content and contribute to elevating the brands’ equities. 

Working at the world’s largest advertiser, Gazder and her team are committed to using P&G's reach and voice in advertising to eliminate bias and racism and promote equality. They have been active in producing advertisements that portray men and women as equal partners with campaigns like #ShareTheLoad from Ariel or #ItTakesTwo from Pampers, showing fathers caring for their children, cleaning kitchens, sweeping floors, and doing laundry.

At the recent P&G #WeSeeEqual Summit held in partnership with UN Women, Gazder spoke about perceived leadership stereotypes, breaking unconscious bias, and what women can do when faced with barriers in their careers. As a leader, she believes the most important thing she can do is to provide opportunities for her colleagues to grow and to enable them to bring their true unique selves to work every day.