Dr. Philip Kotler hits the sub-continent
Many students of marketing owe much of their knowledge of marketing theory to Philip Kotler, the S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and author of many books on marketing management. I admit I wasn’t exactly a fan of Mr. Ktoler back in the days when I had to digest his large, though largely quite readable, tomes that covered just about every though on marketing that’s ever been applied in real life. Or so it seemed to me when I was a student. Yet, over the years I have time and time again relied on what I gleaned from his books. So, yeah, I’m I just a tad jealous of this guy…
Back in those days, young hip know-nothings dismissed Dr. Kotler as “an old goat” (I’m not making it up). Sad is the ignorance of youth. Oh well.
A couple of days ago the “old goat” participated in an online chat hosted by Indian portal Rediff.com. The complete transcript is here.
Here are some of the questions and answers that I found particularly interesting:
Suresh asked, I am a product manager with Microsoft wand one of the biggest challenges that the company is facing is changing the perceptions of the company over the quality of the product. How do you change a brand perception using a quality product?
Dr Philip Kotler answers, My experience with Microsoft is that some years ago they would develop new software without much input or participation by marketing. Some of the software was overly complex and failed to win a following. In the last three years, my colleagues at the Kellogg School–Dipak Jain and Mohan Sawhney–have been teaching Microsoft how to upgrade its marketing skill and include marketers in developing new products. To my knowledge, the success rate is now higher because of the marketing participation in new product development.
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juskitting asked, To what extent the Net economy would influence the business environment in next 5 to 10 years? I see lot of business being done over net especially in USA, just wondering how long it may take to have similar kind of trends in developing economies like India and China..if it does, would the same business models that are existing in developed markets be applicable to these upcoming economies.
Dr Philip Kotler answers, I don’t think that you will have to wait long to see the Net economy pouring into India, especially in the city and business sectors. Its use, I believe, will increase at an increasing rate and leave behind those businesses who are not alert enough to realize its power to carry on business more efficiently.
Gunz asked, Sir,What do you think should be the approach that an MNC should take in a diverse country (especially based on language and culture) like india when it is trying to market its product over the Internet?
Dr Philip Kotler answers, One answer is to concentrate to serving the online interests of one group rather than try to satisfy all cultures. Another answer is to offer different entry points into the Web site for different communities where the language- and even offer-mix is varied
And here’s a question that should resonate with us in the Commonwealth of the Big Dig:
LVSANKAR asked, You address marketing on a pure basis. But when one steps into the world market, one understands that almost 50-60% of buying is done by Govts. Most parts of the world where Govt is involved, there is corruption. In such cases, what is the role of marketing. Is there a special marketing management for corrupt markets.?
Dr Philip Kotler answers, No marketing textbook has dealt with this difficult question of how to respond in the face of corruption. It is hard to stand by and see less efficient competitors win the bid because they paid a corruption “tax” to get the business. U.S. companies cannot play in this field because of the Anti-Corruption laws that would jail U.S. business people who engage in this practice. One answer is to avoid doing business with government and focus on private industry. Unfortunately corrupt practices are found there as well. Until a mass movement of business people to clean out corruption occurs, a business would be best to stay away from government and industries that require this tax.
