Shivani Goel Joins Reliance Brands As Vice President Marketing
Shivani Goel has joined Reliance Brands as vice president marketing, taking charge of a portfolio that covers Hugo Boss, Paul & Shark, Zegna and Tumi in India.
- Appointment: vice president marketing, Reliance Brands
- Portfolio: Hugo Boss, Paul & Shark, Zegna, Tumi
- Experience: 17 years across fashion, beauty and retail marketing
- Previously: vice president marketing at Forever New for three years and eight months
- Earlier: Colorbar USA, Koovs.com, Major Brands India, ICICI Prudential, Kansai Nerolac
The Mandate Shivani Goel Is Taking On
Four brands, four different jobs. Hugo Boss and Zegna carry tailoring credibility. Tumi is the accessories and travel entry point. Paul & Shark covers resort and leisure. On paper they are a stable. In practice they have historically behaved like four separate import operations that happen to share an owner.
Stitching them into something with a coherent voice, without flattening what makes each one distinct, is the actual work. It is also the part that decides whether a luxury portfolio compounds or simply coexists.
Why Menswear, Why Now
Reliance Brands has spent years assembling one of the deepest luxury stables in the country, and menswear has lagged womenswear in both range and depth throughout. The gap is not accidental. Indian luxury womenswear had occasion buying to lean on. Menswear has had to wait for a customer who buys tailoring for reasons other than a wedding.
That customer now exists in enough numbers to justify a dedicated marketing lead, which is the real signal in this appointment. The hire says the company thinks the category has crossed from experiment to business.
The Background That Fits The Brief
Goel's route here is unusual in a useful way. Three years and eight months as vice president marketing at Forever New meant steering a brand through a turbulent retail cycle rather than a favourable one. Four and a half years at Colorbar USA covered global marketing communications and international expansion. Koovs.com sharpened digital and e-commerce instincts at a point when Indian fashion retail was still working out what online meant.
Behind that sit the early years at Major Brands India, ICICI Prudential and Kansai Nerolac, which is a grounding in classical brand management and hard product marketing. That combination, unglamorous discipline underneath fashion fluency, is what luxury houses have started to prize as the category moves from novelty to routine.
The Difficult Part
Imported luxury in India has to hold two ideas at once. The European heritage has to stay intact, because it is the thing being paid for. And it has to be made legible to a buyer who is increasingly informed, increasingly comfortable, and no longer willing to accept a global campaign dropped in without translation.
Build desirability, stay culturally relevant, and do not dilute the house. That is easy to write and hard to do four times over.
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