"Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make.

It is the art of
creating genuine customer value."
-Philip Kotler
Demarketing
1. (economic definition) A term used to describe a marketing strategy when the
objective is to decrease the consumption of a product. 2. (social marketing
definition) The process of reducing the demand for products or services believed to
be harmful to society.
Turbo marketing
Turbo Marketing. Basically, it means providing the products or services of high
quality in a cheap and different way, and delivering them to the customers as fast
as possible.
Synchro marketing
Mega marketing is a term coined by U.S. marketing academic, Philip Kotler, to
describe the type of marketing activity required when it is necessary to manage
elements of the firm's external environment (governments, the media, pressure
groups, etc) as well as the marketing variables; Kotler suggests that two more Ps
must be added to the marketing mix: public relations and power.

5 lessons from Philip Kotler

Prasad Sangameshwaran | August 01, 2006

Philip Kotler was once told, "I thought you were the author of one book (Marketing
Management) and 34 versions of it." The man who's been called the "messiah of marketing"
smiles as he recalls the incident, but there's an element of truth in that quote.
Marketing has undergone a sea change in the three decades since Kotler's first book - now
considered a Bible for all marketing management students - hit the stands. Today, Kotler says he
would be embarrassed if someone asked him to autograph the first edition of the bestseller.
In Mumbai to address a seminar on "Marketing For Results", Kotler says even his 4Ps theory
(product, price, place and promotion), that's taught in every kindergarten marketing course, could
do with some additions.

"Several Ps are missing. People, packaging...," he proceeds to take class on the A-B-Cs of
marketing. The three As that every marketer should swear by are "awareness, availability and
access" and the CCDV concept is to "create, communicate and deliver value".
'India is on a roll'
The problems for marketing? "It has become a one-P discipline. Selling," Kotler declares. Maybe
he means "peddling", because the guru is clearly unhappy with the stop-gap approach many
managers adopt these days: "Marketing professionals lack accountability and hence take short
term decisions."
Kotler recommends that CEOs should get a pay-out several years after they leave an
organisation, which may engender more long-term decision-making.
Some lessons from the day-long seminar:
Lesson 1: R&D must be market-ready
Kotler had a poser for his audience. His question: "If you were the chief marketing officer of
your organisation, who would you prefer to be close to? The CEO, CFO, CIO (chief information
officer) or the CRO (chief research officer)?" There was no single opinion, so Kotler decided to
have the final say. He would have had it, anyways.
According to Kotler, the CMO needs to be close to everybody from the CEO to the CRO.
Typically, the CFO does not see logic in investing behind brands because he is not close to
marketing. And, there is an 80 per cent failure rate in new products.
"The R&D is farthest away from customers, hence they often get it wrong," he explained. Now,
even in research-focused organisations like IT giant Microsoft, "marketing has become the front
door and their new product success rate has become higher".
Lesson 2: Number-crunching is more than just calculating market shares
"In B-schools most students choose marketing because they did not like accounts," quips Kotler.
He recommends that instead, most marketing professionals must be "clued into finance" so that
the other functions in the company take marketing seriously.
"The CMO must demonstrate the return on marketing investment," he says. Kotler recommends
the creation of a marketing scorecard that captures the number of new customers added every
year, measures the satisfaction level of current customers and indicates the brand health.
Lesson 3: The co-creation mantra
"Make your business a workshop where your customer can draw what he wants," recommends
Kotler, adding "marketing is the delivery of experience". His example is the Four Seasons hotel

chain that customises hotel rooms for its guests. Whenever possible, the next time the guest visits
the hotel, he gets the same room.
"While the aim of business is to create satisfied customers, the truth is companies continue to
lose unsatisfied customers."
The message: plug the leaks by exceeding customer satisfaction and customer delight, moving to
a higher level - customer astonishment. Kotler feels that iconic brands like Harley Davidson and
iPod reach these higher levels.
What else? Devise a net promoter score to track customer satisfaction levels. Round up your
most loyal customers. Ask them if they would recommend your products to others and become
promoters for your brand. If the number of those promoters is increasing, it's a good score.
Otherwise get the point.
Lesson 4: Expand market size
Kotler begins this lesson with the story of Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of General Electric
who made it a thumb rule that GE would only operate in businesses where it was a dominant
player.
When Welch asked his managers about GE's market share in their business, the executives would
give impressive numbers in the range of 50 per cent.
Welch would reply, "I think it's only 10 per cent. We have not tapped the rest of the market."
Kotler's point: in your rush to hit the bull's eye, don't miss out on the markets that surround the
sweet spot. The dart board is bigger. There are more places to hit.
Lesson 5: Strategic trajectory for Indian brands
Indian companies face two challenges - defending their markets against the invasion of foreign
labels. The second is to develop strong global brands themselves.
According to Kotler, the trajectory for Indian brands is to move from being seen as low-cost
average quality products, to low-cost superior quality and finally to higher-end products.
He gives the example of Haier, the Chinese consumer durables company, which has successfully
acquired a global brand status. In its first stage, Haier fixed quality. In the second stage, the
company diversified its product basket from just making refrigerators to mcrowaves,
dishwashers, vacuum cleaners and other products.
The third stage was to globalise. Most importantly, Kotler recommends that Indian companies
must lean on research. "Instead of reducing marketing to advertising and selling, it makes sense
to stick to research," says the 75-year-old, with child-like enthusiasm for his pet subject.