A Report On

Rethinking Marketing

Content
1
Sl no Particulars Page no

1 Introduction 1-3

2 Mass to Niche 4-6

3 Tradition and Culture in Modern 7-10

Marketing
4 Green Marketing 11-12

5 Social Media Marketing 13-14

6 From Marketing Product to 15-19

Cultivating Customers

7 Bibliography 20

Introduction

2
Marketing

“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating,
delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and
society at large” (AMA, 2007)

The Era`s of marketing

The Production Era

The production era is so named because many companies' main priority was the reduction of
the cost of production. Companies felt that exchanges could be facilitated merely by lowering
manufacturing costs and, in turn, passing along the cost savings to customers in the form of
lower prices.

This focus on production (which lasted from just after the Civil War until the 1920s) was
fueled by such milestones as Henry Ford's invention of the assembly line and the more
efficient work principles advanced by Fredrick W. Taylor's scientific management movement
(Haber, 1964). These two innovations made business managers aware that mass production
resulted in steeply declining unit costs of production. In turn, the declining unit costs of
production made profit possibilities look fabulous.

The rationale for mass production seemed sound at the time. According to Michael
Porter(1980), reduced production costs can lead to reduced selling prices, which appeal to the
largest segment of customers. Unfortunately, turbulent economic conditions associated with
the late 1920s through the 1940s caused many companies to fail even though they had
adopted this production oriented philosophy. As a result, companies looked for other ways to
facilitate the exchange process.Marketing objectives of the concept is to produce Cheap,
efficient production and Intensive distribution of its products all over so that it is easily
available to all the prospective customer, and rapid Market expansion to gain the control of
the market.

3
Product concept

The product concept/era proposes that consumers favor products that offer the most quality,
performance or innovative features. Managers in those organizations focus on making on
superior products and improving them over the time. However these managers are sometimes
caught up in a love affair with the products. which might lead towards Marketing Myopia.
The managers in these companies should understand that the new and improved product will
not necessarily be successful unless it is priced, distributed, advertised and sold properly.

Marketing objectives of the concept is Quality improvement of the product and adding
Addition of features to the product so that they can give more options to their customers and
attract the customer by offering better product to them.

The Sales concept

The next era of marketing evolution is called the sales era because many companies' main
priority was to move their products out of the factory using a variety of selling techniques.
During The sales era, companies felt that they could enhance their sales by using a variety of
promotional techniques designed to inform potential customers about and persuade them to
buy their products. The selling concept holds that the consumer and business, if left alone,
wont buy enough of the organizations products. There fore the organization must, therefore
undertake an aggressive selling and production effort. The selling concept is expressed in
thinking of Sergio Zyman, CocaCola’s former vice president of marketing.

The selling concept is practiced most aggressively with unsought goods, goods that buyer
normally not think of buying such as Insurance polices, encyclopedias. Most firms also
practice selling concept when they have overcapacity. Their aim is to sell what they make
rather than make what market wants. However marketing based on hard selling concept
carries a high risk. It has Less of concern for customer needs and satisfaction as it
concentrates only on selling rather than the needs of the customer.

4
The Marketing Era

The marketing concept emerged in the mid 1950s. instead of a product-centered, ‘make and
sell’ philosophy. Business shifted to a customer centered “sense and respond” philosophy.
The job is not to find a right kind of customer for your customer for your product but to find
right products for your customer. For example DELL computer dose not prepare a perfect
computer for its customer but it lets its customer to chose a right configuration for
themselves.

Now a day’s firms have moved from simply having a marketing department that sells the
products but now in companies, the marketing department sets company operating policy,
including technical research, procurement, production, advertising, and sales. The marketing
concept states that if all of the organization's functions are focused on customer needs, profits
can be achieved by satisfying those needs. The satisfaction of customer needs can be
accomplished through product changes, pricing adjustments, increased customer service,
distribution changes, and the like.

5
Mass to Niche

India is a massive market with an extremely diverse outlook. Whether it is cost driven
approach or value driven approach it more difficult to tapping or segmenting Indian market
have been one of the toughest job for the marketer. Due to these reasons the marketer has
tried to come out from typically conventional tired segmentation patterns and try something
exiting. However it worked to the marketer in his favor, but what really needs to seen at this
point of time is, whether this trend of spotting niches within the mass has a long term
sustainability, or whether the marketer would have to switch back to the “old of gold” school
of thought.

Redefining segmentation

Segmentation may be defined as the group or cluster of customers who share a set of wants.
The traditional segmentation aimed at

 Sorting of the market based on certain parameters like geography, demographic etc.
 Tapping the most attractive segment and trying to capture it.
 Focusing of the marketing effort on the selected customer group.
 Customizing the offers of the selected customer group.

Traditionally segmentation involves selecting the customer groups and targeting the best
customer group. It was more a stereotyped approach. At that particular period of time the
segmentation is done on those groups which are more prospective and hence open to the
opening of the firm. A case in point could be a tooth paste like Colgate that aimed at masses
positioning itself as Suraaksha Chakra for the teeth, until the launch of Pepsodent with a new
proposition like Germi-Check aimed at specific sub-segment within the mass market.

New approach to the Niche marketing

6
Earlier the marketers tried to focus only on the specific customer group rather than entering
in to the mass market. And even that also a small segment and tried to be out of reach from
the competitors. However, with the changing marketing environment marketers have realized
that if they really have to retain their customer base they have to enter to the mass rather than
focusing only on the selected base. This has changed the whole market scenario, which has
affected the marketers in a very significant way. In the current market situation the customer
will be looking for a perfectly fit product or commodity. Even the customers in the same age
group will be having different taste and traits.

As a result, the basic premise behind niche marketing seems to be undergoing a transition.
Niche marketing is more of finding a slot within the mass rather than creating a slot within
the few customers. Significant changes in the demographics, cultural transition, shift in
market dynamics are the main reasons behind the change of the segmentation from a single to
mass.

The Dynamic customer

Change in lifestyle of the customers will be leading to the change in the customer dynamics.
And also it has lead to the change in the buying pattern of the customer.

Cutting through the mass to create a niche

Mass segmentation can be seen highly in the FMCG sector. But urbanization and
demographic shifts resulted in the birth of new segments like the health and fitness conscious
generation. This also led to the customized products for the customers. The other volatile
sector in India is beauty conscious segment. In the year HUL introduced Fairness cream for
the women in the year 1980 which is called Fair&Lovely. At that time they mainly targeted
on the marriageable women between the age of 18-25. Then they initially shifted their
segmentation on the other young girls also. However in recent times marketers are learning to
accept the metro sexual man and are marketing attempts to effectively target this new
segment with a range of products made especially for their use.

The telecom sector is not far behind. While almost all the existing telecom players are
making a mad rush to pocket as many as subscribers as possible with their luring plans and

7
mass marketing strategies, Virgin mobiles has earned a distinctive competitive edge with the
strategy of tapping the Indian youth.

Creating a Niche: Nokia

The success of the telecom operators is directly proportional to that of the cell phone markets.
With a view to get to the insight of the real needs of the consumers and also to analyze the
triggers of their mobility, the finnishgiant and market leader in the cell phone segment, Nokia
conducted a survey in research in 2006. The polling was done across 77000 consumers in
across 26 countries. At the end of the study the company was able to map 12 distinct
consumer segments in the countries that were polled. This study reflects the talent of Nokia.
“Connecting people” the strategy appears to be a definite pointer for targeting the right kind
of model for right kind of segment.

This strategy of specialization within the precincts of the general mass, rather than deviating
and creating a separate niche is fast catching up. Such a strategy can definitely boost the
launching of a vast array of products for a wider cross section people.

Customers are today are extremely conscious of their needs and requirements. They know
exactly which product will meet their requirement and fit in to their individual preferences.
The market has evolved and opened up along with the customer. A product with mass appeal
will no longer works for the typical Indian customers. They go all out and demand specific
products and this clearly an indication of the fact that for controlling and daring the
competition, the marketer has to think beyond the tried and tested traditional means of
catering to customers.

8
Tradition and Culture in Modern Marketing

Most of us think about marketing in a traditional sense where you develop a campaign and
advertise it in traditional mediums such as direct mail, TV or magazines. This traditional
outbound method of marketing is currently being challenged with the emergence of new
technology, creativity and social media. Inbound marketing strategies are now competing
with our traditional methods by earning the attention of consumers rather than buying it
through paid media. So we are now forced to rethink marketing to remain competitive in the
21st century.
Tradition and Culture in Modern Marketing

Increased urbanization and westernization coupled with influx of a whole variety of modern
consumer products led to a departure from past practices, and pushed traditional vehicles of
communication as well as traditional art forms to the background. However once the potential
of our tradition and culture was recognized, enterprising business began to exploit the same
for promoting their products, leading to their resurgence.

Art and culture in modern advertising and Promotions

Over the years, the Indian consumers had got distanced from their roots. In such a scenario,
Indian television and movie industry started mythology through new technology platforms.
Ramayan, Mahabarata on television and most recently Ganesh and Hanuman in the movies
reflects such a development.

Advertisers also use mythology to capture the attention of the viewers. In one of the add it
was showed the Ravana using headache balm.

Sponsorship of Durga Puja

The Durga Puja is performed in Kolkata in a grand way. At the initial days it was performed
by collecting funds from the public. And then corporate organizations started looking to it
and they started sponsoring the Puja ceremony. Last year the Pandal facilities were given to a
American company. All major companies used to promote their products in this function.

9
Promoting network marketing through Dandia

The commercial support given to Dandia since late 1990’s is sure be noticed. In particular,
use of this festive occasion by network marketer became quite popular.

Akshaya Tritiya to promote sale of jewelry

Another major development in the use of tradition in modern business is environs are
Akshaya Tritiya. It is believed that if gold is bought on this day there will be grate luck for
the person. And thus the companies will make a big sale on the day.

Folk Arts, Dance and Music in Advertising

However the product concept never supported the system till recent days. But it is now a day
used widely. For e.g. Rajastani singer and a dancer shown in the advertisement of bourn vita.
And in some adds they will show the days a king used to look after the country

Panchatantra in Election Campaign

Not only the marketers but also the politicians now a day are using many traditions to
promote their parties. A political party campaign during election was Panchatantra flokore in
its advertisements.

Thus we can see that various developments around us carry a very strong and powerful
unspoken massage with them. These recent trends in society give strong hints of the fact that
we are definitely getting back to hoary past. In days to come we see more advertisements and
promotions that uses traditional art forms and elements drawn from our rich culture.

As marketing dollars shift away from paid media and towards technology and creative, we’re
witnessing a new era in the world of advertising. Creativity is becoming indispensable for
businesses to develop new and engaging campaign ideas that spark some type of interaction
rather than advertise a proclamatory campaign message.

10
Current retailing Landscape in rural india

Tata – Tata Kisan Sansar

Tata chemicals had a chain called tata kisan Kendra which offerd agri – inputs and financial
advisory functions to farmers. Rallis, in partnership with ICICI bank and Hindustan Unilever,
supported farmers from pre-harvest to post-harvest stage. later these two operations were
merged under Tata Kisan Sansar (TKS) banner into a network of one-stop shops providing
agri-inputs to loans and knowhow. Today these TKSs reacg out to over 3.6 million farmers
through 421 franchisee-run centers in three states.

M & M – Mahindra shubhalbh and Mahindra krishi vihar

Mahindra Shubhlabh and Mahindra krishi Vihar initiated by india’s largerest ferm equipment
company M & M , operate along similar lines. The former operates in 11 states and offers a
complete range of products and service to augment farm productivity and establishes linkages
to the commodity market chain. The company has invested Rs.20 cr into these initiatives
during the last three years and has plans to enter food retailing

Godrej – Aadhaar and Manthan

Goderej Group which entered agri-business almost 30 years ago through a small animal feeds
subdivision. Currently, its rual marketing initiative is based on two concepts Aadhaar &
Manthan.The first Aadher outlet was established at Mancher near pune . through Aadher,
Godherej sells only branded products – its own as well as those of oters, nad also offers
services like veterinary care, soil testing, rural credit, water management, agri-inputs ,
advisory services, marketing of rural produce, ets. These malls are the logical extension of
the agri-extension service.

DCM – Hariyali Kisan Bazaars

The Rs.2000 cr New Delhi – based DCM Shriram consolidated Ltd.., which is in the
consumer finance and insurance businesses, has diversified into rural Malls too. Today, it
has 101 outlets of Hariyali Kisan Bazaarz (HKBs)stocking agri- inputs, consumer durables
and FMCGs. On an average, each HKB has 400 walk-ins per day with 70 to 80 % repeat
visitors

11
SBI’s Focus on Agricultural credit

SBI is leading in the agricultural financing in the country. With the record of Rs 18000 cr in
advances granted to around 50lakh farmers the rural network has reached a figure of 6600
branches, which include 972 special branches meant exclusively for extending credit for
agriculture. The specialized mango and litchi credit cards for the orchard owners in
Uttarkhand is another initiative of the bank.

Specialized credit cards

ICICI Bank’s high tech projects and franchisee model have made its way easy into the rural
market. The rural internet kiosks and partnership with microfinance institution have proved to
be successful. The village knowledge centers of the Union Bank of India have helped the
rural consumer with a series of services including credit services. Union green Cards are
launched for easing the credit sanctioning process and White card for dairy activities was
another innovative scheme by the bank.

Initiative by insurance companies

Insurrence in India has primarily been an urban phenomenon. But many private insurance
players have begun to enter rural market. TATA AIG Life insurance entered the rural areas
initially focusing on rural rich and has now begun to offer life insurance to the economically
weaker sections in the rural area.. by offering appropriate small premium polices. Was in the
micro-insurance concept of the IRDA(Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of
India). Aviva Life insurance has launched ‘Grameen Suraksha” in association with micro
finance firm BASIX.

12
Green marketing

IT refers to the process of selling products and/or services based on their environmental
benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in itself or produced
and/or packaged in an environmentally friendly way.

Why Green Marketing?

As resources are limited and human wants are unlimited, it is important for the marketers to
utilize the resources efficiently without waste as well as to achieve the organization's
objective. So green marketing is inevitable.

There is growing interest among the consumers all over the world regarding protection of
environment. Worldwide evidence indicates people are concerned about the environment and
are changing their behaviour. As a result of this, green marketing has emerged which speaks
for growing market for sustainable and socially responsible products and services.

Green marketing cases

Philips Light's CFL

Philips Lighting's first shot at marketing a standalone compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb
was Earth Light, at $15 each versus 75 cents for incandescent bulbs. The product had
difficulty climbing out of its deep green niche. The company re-launched the product as
"Marathon," underscoring its new "super long life" positioning and promise of saving $26 in
energy costs over its five-year lifetime. Finally, with the U.S. EPA's Energy Star label to add
credibility as well as new sensitivity to rising utility costs and electricity shortages, sales
climbed 12 percent in an otherwise flat market.

Car sharing services

Car-sharing services address the longer-term solutions to consumer needs for better fuel
savings and fewer traffic tie-ups and parking nightmares, to complement the environmental

13
benefit of more open space and reduction of greenhouse gases.[citation needed] They may be
thought of as a "time-sharing" system for cars. Consumers who drive less than 7,500 miles a
year and do not need a car for work can save thousands of dollars annually by joining one of
the many services springing up, including ZipCar (East Coast), Flex Car (Washington State),
and Hour Car (Twin Cities).

Electronics sector

The consumer electronics sector provides room for using green marketing to attract new
customers. One example of this is HP's promise to cut its global energy use 20 percent by the
year 2010. To accomplish this reduction below 2005 levels, The Hewlett-Packard Company
announced plans to deliver energy-efficient products and services and institute energy-
efficient operating practices in its facilities worldwide.

14
Social Media Marketing(SMM)

Online marketing has been evolving continuously with the passage of time. For a while,
Keyword campaigns and banner ads used to be the choice for the advertising in cyberspace.
However, the development of online social networks and the accompanying technological
changes led to a new form of marketing known as Social Media Marketing. The technique of
SMM help the companies, particularly the newly established and small ones, reach the mass
market rapidly and inexpensively. This article provides an overview of SMM including its
characteristics, advantages, disadvantages and the possible future.
SMM is primarily internet based, marketing methods like word of mouth marketing. SMM is
the way of promoting website brand or business by interacting with or attracting the interest
of current or prospective customers through the channels of social media. It is also defined as
the activities that permit marketers to receive large amount of traffic to their website by
establishing attention and links.

5 Forms of SMM:
1. Interaction based on Identity
2. Interaction Based on association
3. Conversation initiated by User
4. Conversation initiated by provider
5. In-person interaction
Video games, iPhone and Facebook applications are becoming wildly popular by consumers
who spread the sponsor’s associated brand virally across the Internet by word-of-mouse.
BMW launched the “1Series” with a Graffiti Facebook application asking consumers, “What
drives you?” Consumers were encouraged to create their own Graffiti art and over 9,000
drawings were submitted garnering over 500,000 votes. For BMW, that was an extremely
inexpensive way to not only reach but also engage over 500,000 people. Small businesses can
accomplish the same results with the right creative and technological support.

Marketing today is about pulling people in to engage in something for fun or educational
purposes. It is about publishing information direct to consumers to attract them to you.
Publishing information like news releases, blogs, webcasts, podcasts and viral marketing
messages is exactly how David Meerman Scott became a best selling author of The New

15
Rules of Marketing and PR. This book delves deep into the inbound marketing system, and
he is obviously on to something since it has now been translated into 23 different languages
without even working with a publishing company.

The success of these new inbound marketing methods hinges on the creativity behind the
ideas and content. Bad content will deliver a negative brand image which is exactly what you
don’t want to do! And traditional advertising continues to offer a quick and easy way to
market your message to the masses if you have the budget to place media. Your best bet –
Convergence Marketing. Mix an inbound marketing approach that will engage your
audiences, and then balance your traditional and new media strategy accordingly.

16
From Marketing Products to Cultivating Customers

Imagine a brand manager sitting in his office developing a marketing strategy for his
company’s new sports drink. He identifies which broad market segments to target, sets prices
and promotions, and plans mass media communications. The brand’s performance will be
measured by aggregate sales and profitability, and his pay and future prospects will hinge on
those numbers.

We are being constantly reminded, by scholars, practitioners, and journalists, that today's
individuals and business organizations live in a highly networked, interactive, and
collaborative world. This new reality has given rise to new customer behaviours, and to
entirely new vocabularies. The consumer is dead, long live Prosumers, Trysumers, and
several other forms of - - - sumers yet to be born.

Prosumers - today's customers are both producers and consumers; i.e., they are not just
consumption machines, but also contributors and co-creators of unique value

Trysumers - consumers immune to most advertising, who enjoy full access to information,
reviews, and navigation, who love to try out new products and services - appliances, artists,
outfits, food, holiday destinations - new "anything", with post mass-market gusto

Despite this daily dose of revivalist thinking, several companies approach their customers and
markets as if they were still stuck in the 1960s; an era of impersonal transactions with the
customer, relying on everything "mass" - mass markets, mass media, mass undifferentiated
value And impersonal transactions.. For these companies, Marketing is still a one-way street,
where companies do the talking and influencing through their advertising, and customers do
the listening and consuming; passively at the end of a long invisible value chain .Companies
must transition from marketing products to cultivating customers! Yet never before have
companies had such powerful technologies for interacting directly with customers, collecting
and mining information about them, and tailoring their offerings accordingly. And never
before have customers expected to interact so deeply with companies, and each other, to
shape the products and services they use. To be sure, most companies use customer
relationship management and other technologies to get a handle on customers, but no amount
of technology can really improve the situation as long as companies are set up to market

17
products rather than cultivate customers. Companies must shift their focus from driving
product-centered transactions, to building long-term relationships with customers by offering
whichever of the company's products the customer values most at any given time.
To compete in this aggressively interactive environment, companies must shift their focus
from driving transactions to maximizing customer lifetime value. That means making
products and brands subservient to long-term customer relationships. And that means
changing strategy and structure across the organization—and reinventing the marketing
department altogether.

This can only be done if companies make products and brands subservient to long-term
customer relationships. And that means - reinventing the marketing department altogether.

The essence of reconfiguring marketing as a customer department is captured in this diagram:

The traditional marketing department must be reconfigured as a customer department that

puts building customer relationships ahead of pushing specific products. To this end, product
managers and customer-focused departments report to a Chief Customer Officer instead of a
CMO, and support the strategies of customer or segment managers.
Two key implications of this reconfiguration need additional emphasis:
18
First, reconfiguration is not merely drawing a different looking organizational chart, with
different sounding titles. It is a fundamental shift in allocating, sharing, and managing
resources - people, budgets, and information. This has implications not only for which tasks
get priority and how they are executed, but also for who is the best person to execute them.
For instance, since the role of the customer manager is the ultimate expression of what
marketing should be - co creating unique value with and for specific customers - we expect
them to approach their task more like consumer anthropologists and behavioural scientists as
opposed to advertising or promotion specialists.

Second, in this reconfigured world, being able to offer relevant consumer value at all times
becomes a key driver of business success and profitable growth. For ongoing customer value
innovation to become a part of the DNA of the organization, it is important that the company
move from an internally focused concept of customer value creation, to a more open,
collaborative model of co-creating value with customers and other key stakeholders.
Integrating R&D into the customer department will go a long way to ensuring that the
customer remains at the center of all value creation activities.

A migration from marketing products to cultivating customers will also require a shift in
metrics to gauge the effectiveness of a company's customer-focused strategy. We discuss
four new ways of thinking about business success in this customer-led world of marketing:

Focus more on customer profitability, less on product profitability

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) thinking should trump maximizing current sales thinking
Customer equity - the sum of all CLV's of a company's customer base - should replace a
brand equity orientation
Companies should pay more attention to customer equity share, and less attention to market
share

Cultivating Customers

Not long ago, companies looking to get a message out to a large population had only one real
option: blanket a huge swath of customers simultaneously, mostly using one-way mass
communication. Information about customers consisted primarily of aggregate sales statistics

19
augmented by marketing research data. There was little, if any, direct communication
between individual customers and the firm. Today, companies have a host of options at their
disposal, making such mass marketing far too crude.

The exhibit “Building Relationships” shows where many companies are headed, and all must
inevitably go if they hope to remain competitive. The key distinction between a traditional
and a customer-cultivating company is that one is organized to push products and brands
whereas the other is designed to serve customers and customer segments. In the latter,
communication is two-way and individualized, or at least tightly targeted at thinly sliced
segments. This strategy may be more challenging for firms whose distribution channels own
or control customer information—as is the case for many packaged-goods companies. But
more and more firms now have access to the rich data they need to make a customer-
cultivating strategy work.

Building Relationships

B2B companies, for instance, use key account managers and global account directors to focus
on meeting customers’ evolving needs, rather than selling specific products. IBM organizes
according to customer needs, such as energy efficiency or server consolidation, and
coordinates its marketing efforts across products for a particular customer. IBM’s Insurance
Process Acceleration Framework is one example of this service-oriented architecture.
Customer and industry specialists in IBM’s insurance practice work with lead customers to
build fast and flexible processes in areas like claims, new business processing, and
underwriting. Instead of focusing on short-term product sales, IBM measures the practice’s
performance according to long-term customer metrics.

Large B2B firms are often advanced in their customer orientation, and some B2C companies
are making notable progress. Increasingly, they view their customer relationships as evolving
over time, and they may hand off customers to different parts of the organization selling
different brands as their needs change. For instance, Tesco, a leading UK retailer, has
recently made significant investments in analytics that have improved customer retention.
Tesco uses its data-collecting loyalty card (the Club card) to track which stores customers
visit, what they buy, and how they pay. This information has helped Tesco tailor merchandise
to local tastes and customize offerings at the individual level across a variety of store formats

20
—from sprawling hypermarts to neighbourhood shops. Shoppers who buy diapers for the first
time at a Tesco store, for example, receive coupons by mail not only for baby wipes and toys
but also for beer, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Data analysis revealed that new
fathers tend to buy more beer because they can’t spend as much time at the pub.

Bibliography:

21
 Keely Saye ,Embracing the Marketing Revolution
 Rethinking Marketing: by Roland T. Rust, Christine Moorman, and Gaurav Bhalla
 Rethinking marketing: Peter Drucker’s challenge
 Rethinking Marketing, by Roland Rust, Christine Moormon, Gaurav Bhalla, Harvard
Business Review, January-February 2010.

Journels
 4P’ of marketing-
 Marketing mastermind

22