|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
marketing 101 at the bottom of the pyramid  |
|
by Chintamani Rao, May-June 2010 |
"What makes innovation in India remarkable is that for years Indian industry, protected internationally by import restrictions and domestically by the license-permit raj, operated in cost-plus mode: you toted up your costs and added a margin to determine your price, and it was not uncommon for manufacturers to take two or three price hikes in a year. It is only in the last fifteen years or so that both price and quality have been benchmarked by the competition and manufacturers have had to manage costs. (Wheel was a rare exception because Unilever chose to take the battle into the enemy’s camp instead of deluding themselves that the cheap-and-nasty end of the market was not for them.)
It is tempting to get carried away with the exaggerated notion that the world has turned upside down as The Economist says it has, speaking of a new management paradigm and hailing the “new masters of management”. But the new masters of management are really the old masters of management, who taught us in Marketing 101 to start with the consumer; that marketing is about meeting needs, and that a product is only a delivery system.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. (The more things change, the more they remain the same.) ?
"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|