Marketing matters

Updated on: Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Kolkata: Kellogg School of Management professor Mohanbir Sawhney had some bad news for unethical marketers: this is the age of nakedness where honesty and transparency are the ways forward.

A 26-hour flight from Chicago with a two-hour delay did not stop Sahwney from delivering a scintillating, daylong lecture presented by IIM Calcutta Alumni Association on marketing in the digital era to 170 people on December 12.

Sawhney drew on a diverse range of examples from the public involvement in Australian Vegemite to a US insurance website advertising its price and its competitors as a way of trust building.

“I like to say that marketing is like Communism, it’s about connect and collaborate rather than and command and control,” he said.

The session was punctuated by questions from members of the audience on a range of topics including a lack of Internet access.

“Use mobile phones,” was Sahwney’s response, “The US may be way ahead of India when it comes to the internet, but India has more mobile phone users. You have to adapt the technology to the audience and its maturity.”

The audience had questions on the use of traditional media. “What about advertising and the diminishing role of the newspapers and magazines?” asked Sudip Chatterjee of the International School of Business and Media.

Highlighting the decline of the print media in the US, Sawhney said: “If you don’t evolve, you die. The media has to adapt. Radio was the main way to advertise before television. When TV came in, people thought that radio was dead, but it’s the only thing you can listen to when driving. Old media will find new niches.”

But Sahwney had some words of caution for companies jumping into the digital media. “Don’t say: ‘Let’s do twitter or facebook’, the question should be ‘Why? What’s the goal?’. Define your brand story. What do you want to communicate and how does it connect with your consumer’s lifestyle.”

Audience members were impressed with the insights. “There were parts on empowering the customer were beneficial and I will be taking some of these ideas back with me,” said S Vijayalakshmi, branch manager, SBI, IIM Joka.

Chandana Dhar, company secretary, La Farge, Mumbai, found the lecture thought-provoking. “My clients are into cement not the kind that use twitter,” said Dhar, who was hoping to ask the professor for his thoughts on ways that she could innovate.

According to Mrinmoy Roy, chairman, IIM Calcutta Alumni Association, Kolkata Chapter, the response was “damn good”.

“What the US thinks today, India thinks of 15 years later so the points raised are pretty impressive

Marketing matters

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