consultantsreview logo

Consultants Review Magazine

Mitu Samar: Enabling Companies to Move from Consideration to Conversion Set

CIO Vendor How many of you would like to associate with a company with whom you or someone you know did not have a good experience? Possibly very few or may be none.

Eminence,a reputation consulting firm, works to solve this challenge of companies and individuals. Be it an employee, customer, distributor, media or a vendor, each one seeks a positive experience. Companies make big strategies, spend huge money in implementing them but often fail to address the little things that matter. This is exactly where Eminence's expertise makes a difference. It helps companies in identifying gaps between the brand promise(what their brand stands for) and the promised delivery. There after it offers recommendations and solutions that can bridge these gaps. The Company focuses on engaging with all the stakeholders of its clientsfollowing a comprehensive approach to their reputation. Every strategy is aimed at enhancing the experience of their clients' varied stakeholders.

Having spent over two decades with various corporates spanning across industries, Mitu Samar, a well-known name in the brand and communication space, incubated the concept of reputation management through stake holder experience and thus Eminence was born.

“A company’s promise and campaigns around it result in brand recall, but it's the promised delivery, that drives sales and builds loyalty. Typically companies focus on the former and therefore take their eyes off the actual experience of all stakeholders. This is the single most important reason why many high decibel campaigns or initiatives fail the ‘ROI test’. Eminence through its research backed structured approach aids in fixing the experience, through active stakeholder engagement”, shares Mitu Samar, explaining what made her pioneer the concept of reputation management. This unique approach actually gained our attention and that drove her selection to be a part of the top 20 women consultants in India.

Eminence offers 360-degree solutions in building, establishing and protecting the reputation of their clients. In the building phase the consultancy helps its clients in setting the basics right by first understanding their brand positioning, and then designing brand collaterals and messages like logos, brochures, websites tag lines, values, vision and mission statements. In the establishing phase, it supports in cementing their position through various kinds of profile-raising activities such as PR initiatives, digital media communication, and various content-led thought leadership positioning. For well known companies and individuals, protecting their hard-earned reputation is highly critical and that is what differentiates Eminence. It has worked with popular companies including PSUs in drafting their reputation policy, formulating crisis communication strategy, implementing client delight initiatives, building employee engagement plans and even promoting channel partner advocacy. All these are essential for ensuring that the organization leaves an unforgettable experience with
everyone and anyone who engages with them.

"The challenge with companies is that they depend a lot on product or service offering specific campaigns. Without a doubt these campaigns are essential. They build recall for the company, which in turn enables it to be a part of the consideration set whenever any stakeholder makes a transaction decision. However, it is the reputation of the company that decides its movement from the consideration set to the conversion set. And reputation is built over the long term by ensuring each stake holder is engaged well. That's the differentiated consulting space we operate in" adds Mitu Samar.

Mitu samar's professional journey of working up the ranks to leadership roles in various corporates, experience as an entrepreneur and exposure as an independent director has empowered her with 'bottom-up'and 'top-down' understanding of corporate challenges. This uniquely positions mitu samar to provide strategic consultation pertaining to corporate reputation


Having a diverse mix of talent with experts in strategy formulation, research, content creation, PR, social media marketing, creative visualization and brand building, it has been attracting clients largely through references. The consultancy lays high importance on ensuring that its employees understand the client's business and industry; special attention is paid to achieve this. For a company that started as a one woman show operating out of a shared workspace, Eminence has grown multifold. It has worked with well known CEOs during their times of crisis and also with CXOs in building their personal brands. It has an impressive client roster covering Indian as well as international clients such as Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Acuité Ratings & Research, ICICI Prudential Mutual Funds, HDFC Ergo General Insurance Company, Tata Cliq, CEAT, C2FO, Capital Foods of Ching's Secret Desi Chinese fame and more. Working with these well known companies has enabled Eminence to acquire finer nuances associated with various industries, and adopt global best practices. Combining those with their bespoke services, the company has put clear daylight between them and the rest operating in this niche segment.

As regards the future plans, with businesses adopting technology as their second skin, Eminence is working on a technology platform that will compute the reputation score of companies guide them on what is working or missing and formulate policies to help them improve their reputation. Betting big on their domain expertise and experience, Eminence is set to become the epitome for reputation management solutions.

Education & Degree:
-Executive MBA, SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai
-Master’s Degree in Economics, University of Mumbai

Specialties:
Reputation Consulting, Strategic Communication, Crisis Management, C-Suite Coaching, Diversity & Inclusion, Customer Experience Enhancement