India is shining,claims our government - through an ad campaign aimed at generating the much taunted “feel good factor.” What it doesn’t tell us, however, is that the country’s sheen is largely the contribution of the services sector, which now accounts for half of India’s GDP. In eight of the last ten years, in both good as well as bad years, the services sector has registered growth in excess of seven per cent, and has often crossed eight per cent.
A report in The Times of India says that during 1992-93 to 1996-97, GDP growth averaged 6.7 per cent per year. Had it not been for the services sector, which recorded an average of eight per cent annual growth in the last five years, the GDP growth of the country would have been merely 5.3 per cent during 1998-99 to 2003-04, which apparently is the period of a “shining India,” the report said. If these figures are any indication, we can assume that it is the services sector that will propel our country’s growth in the future. It follows then that as marketers, we should pay extra attention to marketing of services.
In this issue, we bring to you the wisdom of Dr A Parasuraman, who is widely recognised as the Guru of Services Marketing. Parsu, as he is fondly called, is the third most quoted Guru in Philip Kotler’s Marketing Management. In the interview, Parsu deals with difficult issues such as challenges posed by the intangible nature of services, human involvement in delivering services and the issue of pricing versus quality of services in a price sensitive country like India.
“Every business is a service business,” says Harry Beckwith, bestselling author of “Selling the Invisible,” which is one of the top ten best selling management books of all time. Beckwith tells us that no matter which business we’re in, service is now an integral part of doing business.
The issue is heaving with articles on strategy, branding and communications. While Dr Bernd Schmitt, the father of Experiential Marketing, explains how we can create experiential brands on the web, Vivek Vaidya, from Vertebrand, shows us how to tell the difference between brands and labels and Shombit Sengupta’s Mega Brand Pulley is about how we can exploit an established brand’s power. Dr Ranjan Das and Raveendra C reveal the on strategic choices available in the Insurance Industry. And Manoj Khatri takes a look at what is perhaps the oldest form of marketing communications known to man - word of mouth communications.
Of course, we also have our regular columns by Patricia Seybold and Muhamed Muneer. Plus the article and book reviews and the marketing quiz to test how well you’ve absorbed the contents of the journal.
We’re sure you’ll enjoy what we’ve served you in this issue.
Always at your service,

Bhaskar Das
Director
The Times of India Group
bhaskar.das@timesgroup.com