The future is all about a competitive context that is different - a context that
needs to be understood carefully before planning a foray that is different
by Harish Bijoor
Marketing is too important to be left to marketing people! Ouch! That hurts! But that is the reality of the future for sure.Are you gearing up for change? Are you concerned about being competitive in the long term? Time to re-think the line. Marketing is too important to be left to marketing people.
Marketing is therefore the key concern of every Tom, Dick and Harish in your organisation. It should be. From the CEO to the chaprasi at the door, marketing is a ubiquitous fetish to adopt and cherish for the future ahead of us.
Firstly, marketing is all encompassing. It is about all of us in the business of life itself. Not a moment goes without the need of a marketing intervention. From the early morning cup of coffee to the late night tryst at the potty, marketing intervenes every moment of our lives. We can’t live without it. It is a part of our lives and indeed a part of our psyche at large.
Never mind then whether the man at hand is an entity urban or an entity rural, the needs are largely the same. The same set of bellies and bladders that crave for food and drink and the same set of teeth that crave that brush with hygiene early in the morning.
Marketing therefore needs to be inclusive. Inclusive about all our needs and inclusive about every one in the chain that contributes today and have the potential of contributing tomorrow.
Marketing is about competition then. The day of the early-mover-marketing is over. In comes the day and age of the mature market. The mature market where top-lines are under threat to the oldest marketed categories of them all. Consumers have lived in these categories pretty loyally for long enough. There is a huge need and want to move to the better product and the better price. Marketers are hastening this process further.
As marketers cut prices, one in tandem with another, bottom-line profits become thinner and thinner. The vain quest for the top-line is hurting the bottom line no end. As all of this happens and the premium of the brand, built assiduously over all these years vanishes, the concept of branding itself is in question.
The markets are therefore drying up. The early marketers of the day did his job pretty well. The marketer of the day is however finding it tough to go forward. The future is all about a competitive context that is different. A competitive context that needs to be understood carefully before planning a foray that is different.
As traditional markets dry up, time to look at the new. Look at the standard process the Indian marketer has adopted over the years. Step one was into the nascent urban market. Pluck the low hanging fruit of urban first. Pluck then the higher handing fruit of urban. Go then to the low hanging fruit of rural (43 million homes). And then into rural that is just about developing (90 million homes).
The only reality out there is competition. Marketers of the day face competition in one of the following four formats.
The competitive advantage of India in world markets is best assessed by taking a quick peek at the models of competition possible in markets of the present and the future.
If I am to look around the nations of the world and correlate models in current use, there are four distinct patterns that emerge. Four clusters that have whole sets of nations congregating in models those seem to work for each of them differently and with different levels of efficacy. Needless to say, the peculiarities of each nation in question dictate the distinct choice they have made for themselves. Let’s visit the clusters. And let’s call them all kinds of animal names.
1. The Earthworm Model:
The passive model of competitive reaction. The invitation theory that is best practiced by the earthworm. A rich worm really. It knows the basics best. It is in constant touch with the earth that it seeks nourishment from and nourishes back simultaneously. A fundamentally strong being.
Several problems in this model though. It is passive for one. Non-reactionary. A model in the self-fulfilling prophecy mode. The best example of the fatalistic theory in practice. When faced with danger, all it can do is continue its humble journey in the earth. Competition kills this model with ease. There is no reaction. The fatalistic model of competition at its best! Is Indian marketing here?
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