Samsonite India has elevated Meha Parekh to the role of Head of Marketing & Communications, expanding her mandate to span the company’s full portfolio of brands in India, including Samsonite, American Tourister, and Kamiliant. The appointment marks a significant broadening of Parekh’s scope and signals the organisation’s intent to build a more integrated, brand-forward marketing function as it deepens its premium footprint across the Indian market.
In her expanded role, Parekh will oversee brand strategy, communications, and integrated marketing across Samsonite India’s portfolio. Her remit will encompass media, digital, retail, and stakeholder engagement, with a mandate to bring greater coherence and strategic alignment across what has historically been a multi-brand, multi-segment operation. The emphasis will be on strengthening Samsonite’s premium positioning in a rapidly evolving travel and lifestyle category, driving design-led differentiation, and building long-term brand equity across price points.
Parekh brings more than 15 years of brand and marketing experience to the role, drawn from a career that spans both FMCG and consumer durables. Before rising through the ranks at Samsonite India, she spent four years at Unilever as an Assistant Brand Manager in the laundry category, where she developed annual brand plans, managed pricing strategies, and led activations across media and trade. Prior to that, she held brand roles at Eureka Forbes and Lifestyle International’s MAX Retail division, building a broad commercial foundation across categories.
She joined Samsonite India in October 2018 as Brand Head for Samsonite, taking on Kamiliant shortly after in September 2020. In that time, she led some of the brand’s more recognisable campaigns in India, including the widely noted ‘Tested Like Samsonite’ initiative, and drove a premiumisation agenda that involved retail presence enhancement, product architecture refinement, and multi-channel expansion across dealer and hypermarket networks. She also oversaw Samsonite’s first foray into mono-brand retail in India and shepherded a full identity revamp for the Kamiliant label.
Her elevation comes at a moment when India’s travel and lifestyle market is witnessing renewed consumer enthusiasm, and when the distinction between luggage as utility and luggage as self-expression is becoming more commercially consequential. Samsonite India’s decision to unify brand and communications leadership across its portfolio under one mandate reflects that shift.
An MBA from IBS Hyderabad and a foundation in commerce from Calcutta University, Parekh has built her career on a consistent ability to translate consumer insight into brand narrative. Her appointment is a vote of confidence both in her track record and in the principle that sharp, centralised marketing leadership can be a meaningful differentiator in a category where awareness, aspiration, and retail experience are increasingly inseparable.
