Marketing Management

Definitions apart, in the words of Prof. P.N. Thirunarayana of IIMB, "Marketing is not a 200 metre dash but a continuing marathon". As author of this lesson, he establishes the primacy of ‘Customer Focus’. He argues that it should be the guiding principle of any organisation. The critical role of marketing and its inseparability from business itself is emphasised. The five P’s of Marketing are subtly introduced. Strategic thinking is illustrated through the celebrated ‘Promise vs Colgate’ case and extended to the Pepsodent battle-field. Social marketing moves out of the 1995 Cancer Classic into VDIS’97. Time does not wither nor custom stale the fundamentals. The author ponders over strategic short-sightedness as enunciated in Theodore Levitt’s classic, ‘Marketing Myopia’. Fundamentals also include the concept of a portfolio constraint. How critical is it? By customer you may also mean internal customer, but what about co-products in a portfolio?

Given the intense competition in today’s marketplace, companies that fail to develop new products are under threat of extinction. Changing consumer preferences, changes in technology, and increased domestic and foreign competition are all contributing to shorter and shorter product life-cycles. This lesson traces the exciting journey of a new product from concept, to launch, to market acceptance. Different interpretations of the word, ‘New Product’ are explored along with the need and rationale for launching new products. Factors which help new products succeed and reasons for failure are illustrated. Strategies that could be used at the introduction stage are Rapid-skimming, Slow-skimming, Rapid Penetration and Slow Penetration. The concept of ‘Product Life Cycle’ is an essential ingredient. This lesson is flavoured with very many current examples from the Indian marketplace. Sundar T. Raghavachary, a management consultant and a guest faculty at IIMB, is the author.

It is foolhardy to ask a river to stop flowing. King Canute tried to stop the tide and failed. The best thing is to learn how to swim in the direction of the flow. Customer preferences are constantly changing in keeping with changing social values, and lifestyles. This lesson deals with the marketing environment, its dynamics and the impact of technology, society, economy and politics. The elements of the marketing environment including the micro-environment and the macro-environment are defined and discussed. The global environment and its bearing on industry is first presented. Then the domestic environment and the factors that affect marketers in the domestic environment are detailed. The student learns the three principle strategies used to cope with the dynamic and ever changing marketplace: the Proactive Strategy, the Crisis Management Strategy and the Reactive Strategy. Prof. M.J. Xavier, Director of the Karunya Institute of Management, Coimbatore and a former Professor of Marketing at IIMB drives this interesting lesson through some unforgettable examples.

Market Segmentation and Product Positioning are essentially marketing and merchandising strategies which have, of late, occupied marketing ‘mind share’ thanks, largely to Al Ries and Jack Trout. This lesson, authored by Prof. R.K. Vijayasarthy, formerly Professor of Marketing at IIMB, covers these two important concepts and their application, by means of illustrations and case studies. The lesson explores the need for market segmentation, defines it and discusses the merits of segmentation. The examples from the Indian market place illustrate possible pitfalls. Techniques such as the 5W’s and 5R’S are also learnt. The definition and evolution of Positioning as an important part of the overall marketing strategy is explained. Various techniques of positioning are illustrated using relevant illustrations and case studies. Other concepts include, the Perceptual Mapping Technique, and Ansoff’s 2*2 Strategy Classification Table.

This is an introduction to Product Management. The course is set for a journey through various product portfolios. The product, as the core element of the marketing mix, has its own anatomy. It also suffers and gains from various categorisations and definitions. The author is Prof. R.K. Vijayasarthy, a doyen of Marketing Management and a former Professor at IIMB. He dissects a product to discover its hard, soft and augmented levels. What are convenience products? What are shopping products? How do you deal with the difference from a marketing point of view? What are product mix and product line decisions? Industry leaders tell their own story. This lesson also provides a graphic introduction to the marketing mix issues that arise at the different stages of the PLC. The author rounds off his exposition by exploring the popular BCG relationships between cash cows, dogs and stars.

Missing the price for the costs is not an uncommon idiom (also see FM/CA2 and FM/CA3). Even if it is not missed at the generic level, there is always the danger of overlooking its many forms. Even the same form means different things to different people at a psychometric level. Prof. M.J. Xavier, Director of the Karunya Institute of Management, and a former Professor at IIMB, is the author of this lesson. He strips the price of its semantics down to its core concepts. The lesson also relates pricing decisions to microeconomics (also see CC/ECO1). Pricing decisions are based on differing objectives. Is it for profit? Is it based on costs? Does the competitor drive the price? Is it based on the market? A journey through the marketplace provides the answers.

In the Indian context marketing theory is rapidly moving from the ‘Strategic Think’ level to the ‘Implementation Act’ level. This has had a powerful impact on all aspects of Channel Management. Finding the optimum route is just one of the issues. (See CC/QM4 and CC/QM5). The author of this lesson is
Prof. R.K. Vijayasarthy. He is a marketing consultant with over twenty years in academics, most of it at IIMB. The study outlines the distribution systems of four major players ITC, Hindustan Lever, Wipro and Asian Paints. How did they evolve? Are they proactive or reactive to environmental change? Are there any paradigmatic shifts in distribution systems? Through a look, search, query, study and explain mode, the author links theory and practice.

Advertising and Promotion are the most popular elements of the market communication process (also see CC/WOC1 and CC/WOC2). What makes good advertising? How do you arrive at an optimum promotional mix? In this lesson R. Sridhar, a nationally renowned advertising consultant and a veteran of the advertising industry, lays the foundation. The lesson establishes the basic linkage to communication theory. It then moves on to the message design process and then on to the topic of selection of communication channels. The issues of objective setting and decision parameters are illustrated by borrowing current examples from the real world. The lesson provides an elementary introduction to budgeting and media selection. What about ethics in advertising?

The emphasis is on service orientation. Much to the chagrin of the evergreen salesperson, there is a hint that ‘Selling’ is under threat of obsolescence. Such fears are unfounded. (See Personal Selling – MM/AS3). The author, Dr. J.D. Singh, Professor of Marketing at the International Management Institute, New Delhi, provides an introduction to the service culture (also see MM/AS4 by the same author). Is service just a function in the sales cycle or is it part of the organisational ethos? The answers from this lesson have a doomsday ring about them. A journey, through myriad services delivery points, tells its own story. The author’s prescription for lasting success, based on his consultancy experience, is ‘shatter the nine myths of service orientation’. It is a matter of changing attitudes and mindsets (also see HM/OB2 and HM/OB3).

As the product moves through the various stages of its life-cycle (also see MM/M2 and MM/M5), and in keeping with the changing marketing environment (MM/M3), appropriate positioning strategies are called for. Positioning strategies that maintain and enhance the product’s brand equity. This dogged exercise of managing brand equity goes beyond mere positioning and repositioning strategies (MM/M4). The brand has also to defend its own turf. It may have to proliferate, it may have to extend itself. Is brand extension a prescription for success? Going by the ‘Core Competencies’ concept of C.K. Prahalad and the ‘Focus’ concept of Al Ries, brand extensions are fraught with extreme dangers. With Indian and foreign caselets of successes and failures, Mathew Paul, Director of Gallup MBA India Ltd., debates these issues as he conducts this lesson. There is a bag full of tricks, a bag full of skills and a bag full of techniques. These bags and a sense of history combine to develop sound judgement.

The lesson Research Methodologies (CC/BF7) painted the generic marketing research scenario. This lesson focuses on the nuances and intricacies of consumer marketing research. The accent is on problem definition, data collection techniques, sampling methods, questionnaire design and certain specific interview techniques. Mathew Paul, Director of Gallup MBA India Ltd., the author of the lesson peeps into and eavesdrops on various real-life and simulated situations. Look, understand and then leap into the real world. Isn’t that what everybody does? (also see CC/QM1, CC/QM2 and CC/QM3).

‘Think global, act local’ is the signature tune of Kenichi Ohmae and John Naisbitt. In this lesson Dr. T.P. Gopalaswamy, formerly Professor of Marketing at IIMB, and an authority on Indian rural markets sings a related tune ‘Think national, act rural’. As the urban markets for white goods are saturating, the growth is in the rural markets. Satellite television takes the world even to rural households. Rural buying power is growing, lifestyles are changing, yet there is a vast divide. The generic marketing principles all apply, but they cannot be applied blindly. Uniquely different local conditions exist. What are these peculiarities? What are the traps? Armed with a warehouse of statistics and cases of successes and failures, the author educates the savvy urban marketer on how to succeed in rural markets. (also see MM/M1 thro’ MM/M9).

Having understood the various pricing issues under MM/M6, this lesson delves deep into the psychometric and strategic world of pricing. The accent is on consumer products as opposed to industrial products. Price is an important element in the creation of esteem value. Understanding the buyer’s subjective perception of price is the key to successful pricing decisions. How do various pricing strategies integrate? Mohan Krishnan, a Bangalore based marketing and advertising consultant, illustrates the practical reality and establishes its equation with theory. Pricing is not a one-time activity nor an annual ritual, it is an ubiquitous mantra that has to be applied at each stage of the product life cycle. The author tells us how.

The front end of all Distribution Management is the retail counter. It is the principal domain of the consumer product salesperson. This is where all marketing strategies finally come face to face with the ultimate consumer. Conventional retailing with all its ‘point of sale’ systems and retail audits is undergoing a transformation. Location and merchandise mix decisions are now in the realm of Operations Research (also see CC/QM4 and CC/QM5). The electronic media revolution with teleshopping on Internet is changing the way people sell and the way people buy. This lesson traces the history of retailing in India and abroad, from what it was in the early 90s to what it is in 1997. The author, T.V.G. Krishnamurthy, President of SRF Opthal and a former Marketing Director of Cadbury’s India, illustrates the conventional systems and procedures, modern analytical tools, promotional effects, winning strategies and provides a strategic look ahead into the future.

The size of the industrial market is three times that of the consumer market, yet marketing wizards shy away from it. Prof. P.N. Thirunarayana of IIMB illustrates the conventional processes of industrial marketing and the changing scenario. Competition is becoming more intense and global. Customer expectation, born out of easier access to information, is becoming more quality and service oriented. Computer technologies, discontinuities, shorter product life cycles and surplus capacities are redefining markets and buying processes. This is an area where the distinction between R & D , Marketing and Manufacturing is getting blurred (also see OP/PM13, OP/PM14 and OP/PM15). Mindsets are changing. How do you challenge the realistic? This lesson will change minds which have not yet changed.

This lesson takes off from the primary lesson on Advertising and Promotion (MM/M8). The focus is on media planning, the parameters, tools and techniques. The author, Sai Nagesh, Director of Optima India and an accomplished expert in this field, illustrates the planning process. Can media mix decisions make or break an advertising campaign? The core concepts behind successful campaigns and the attendant media decisions tell the story.

The scope of this lesson is to illustrate how a combination of Media Advertising, Direct Marketing, Sales Promotion and Public Relations can optimise the effectiveness of advertising objectives and budgets. Who builds brands? Hard as they may try, manufactures can’t build them, for it is the customers that do. The author, Chintamani Rao, President of MAA Bozell and a former CEO of O&M,  Indonesia, elucidates that it is marketers who supply customers with the requisite brand building elements. And these elements are communication messages in more ways than one, and they had all better be in harmony. Why?

This is a lesson in the art and science of Personal Selling. Can the lessons in Behavioural Science (HM/OB2, HM/OB3 and HM/OB4) be applied to perfect this art? What about negotiations skills? After all, isn’t the salesman the company in the eyes of the customer? The author Prof. P.N. Thirunarayana of IIMB illustrates the benefits of openness, candour and empathy in the selling process. He shows how ethical conflicts are automatically resolved. The author argues that it is the salesperson who discovers and delivers customer empowerment. The lesson also deals with the nuts and bolts of the professional selling process.

This lesson focuses on the ‘How of Managing Services’ and takes off from the philosophy of service orientation outlined in MM/MM9. The focus is on the services business which accounts for 46% of GDP of India. The author
Dr. J.D. Singh of the International Management Institute, New Delhi highlights the unique service characteristics of intangibility, immediacy, perishability, heterogeneity and the inseparability of production from consumption. Strategic management of services has to be concerned with capacity planning, capacity servicing, demand management and internal marketing. Real world cases of an up-market train service, a cellular phone company, a bowling alley, a courier company and that of International tourism are used to illustrate the intricacies of capacity planning. Caselets pertaining to a private airline company, a five star deluxe hotel and a credit card company, illustrate the service-quality delivery parameters. The lesson is rounded off with the application of TQM in Services Marketing.

This is a lesson which extends from the realities of the present on to the other side of the mountain. Can marketing concepts explain, predict and control the marketplaces of tomorrow? How does the marketer move from the realms of explicit and experimental knowledge into the dizzy realms of existential knowledge? Prof. P.N. Thirunarayana of IIMB, the author of this lesson, deals with these issues through the concepts of Multiple Sensing, Informated Marketing, Coopetition and the Discipline of a Market Leader.