Page 149 - MYM 2015

Is there a market, but no customer?
Aegis India, developed a water evaporation retardant (WER), for the rst time in India. This was a boon for India, to spread on lakes in drought areas, where evaporation could be prevented to the level of 65%. Municipal Corporations found the price too low – and preferred to use cloud seeding to create rain. It is possible that commissions on larger expenditure were higher, in quantum – than would ever be possible with WER, which was a very economical product tailored for emerging markets!!
Is there a customer, but no Salesman to tell him/ her, about it?
The fuel ef cient kerosene stove developed by the Government agency KVIC, for villages to save money on fuel (kerosene), never reached the target segment. It was too inconvenient – the villages were too deep and too far.
The big sales were among the poor in the cities – and the rural population, for whom it was meant, in the rst place, never got to even know about its availability. Surely, there was a customer, but there was no salesman to tell her about its availability and its bene ts
A lot of the time, it is the third factor that is missing. Marketing professionals miss out at the front end . Innovation does not match with Marketing. Inspite of Peter Drucker, tirelessly repeating many times , and for many years,
“There are only two pro t centers in a company – innovation and marketing. All the others are costs.”
Somewhere, it is forgotten that Marketing begins with the customer and ends with the customer. Develop something that she needs and wants – at the right Ps – and ensure that she satis es these needs. The possibilities are endless in emerging markets- at the bottom of the pyramid, in the middle and at the top of the pyramid, unlike in many developed markets.
We all need, as marketing professionals, to re ect:
• How can giant multinationals answer this challenge in emerging markets? As some giants like GE, Datsun, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, LG, Samsung- have successfully done?
• How can giants work with new age entrepreneurs, to answer this challenge- in the footprints of Mahindra and Mahindra, as shown in the example earlier?
• How can innovators who have the right product, scale up to serve a wider base of consumers than they do – and understand that the problem is just
not funding, but marketing? They cannot expect the customer to beat a path to his door, because he has built a better mousetrap. Unfortunately, this attitude has not changed, even after many decades!
• How can marketers, as professionals be proactive and seek opportunities to marry their skills to those of new age innovators- to help make this a better world?
A Word of Caution
Working in developing countries is not always a bed of roses. One has to contend with a plethora of rules and regulations (many of the countries labeled as EM are at the lower end of the Index on “Ease of doing business”); a slow moving bureaucracy; poor infrastructure ; blocks in communication; widespread corruption; longer gestation time because of levels of literacy.
Those from the developed countries may nd it particularly frustrating – but the rewards are there for the taking, to those who persist and follow a dream. It takes courage, patience, persistence and passion!
A Great Challenge for Marketing Professionals
Marketing has a big job to do if we are to prove the Paul Mazur de nition of “Marketing is the delivery of a standard of living.”
If WMS takes this up as the banner for its existence, there is so much to do – especially to lift the standard of living of a large percentage of the world population, who live below the poverty line. They are surrounded by the af uence they see through new age media
like television. This is a window that was never open
at the time of the French Revolution – and yet, the Revolution happened !! The poverty juxtaposed against the af uence of the very few, is neither good for those above or for those below what we call the” poverty line”. Television and the mobile, is changing this into the “aspiration line “ , which is even a bigger challenge. Sounds strange?
Finally, Marketing Professionals need to provide the answers!
Author’s note: Most of the statistics and information is taken from Times Network, India , during the period 2011-15, and a few other publications like Mint.
Author: Walter Vieira is the Visiting Professor, Business Journalist , Social activist; President, Marketing Advisory Services, India ( since 1975); Founder Chairman, Asia-Paci c Conference of Management Consultants, Past Chairman, International Council of Management Consulting Institutes; Chairman, Consumer Education and Research Society , India
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