“Every business enterprise has two – and only two – basic functions: marketing and innovation,” said marketing guru, Philip Kotler. Innovation itself implies constant change from the status quo. Today, everything is rapidly changing – be it organisations, business environment, consumer behaviour, products, markets, or competition. Take for instance, the telephone. Few decades back, telephone was considered more as a medium of ‘telecommunication.’ But, with changing time, telecom companies have been vying with one another, offering several hours of ‘free talk time’ to users, and forcing them to talk, thus marketing telephone as a medium of ‘tele-conversation.’ Similarly, fairness creams, once regarded as a bastion of the fairer sex, is no more so today, as companies are intensely competing for the attention of males, too, with a glut of men’s fairness creams in the market. Organisations have turned their focus from being a mere provider of customer solutions (reactive) to being an anticipator of customer needs (proactive). There has been a paradigm shift from satisfying the ‘articulated needs’ of the customer to foreseeing the ‘unarticulated needs,’ and coming out with innovative solutions.

Change is the only constant thing and the only reality in the world today. It is a sine qua non that signals rebirth and leads to growth. The average Indian consumer and his/her behaviour have changed drastically over the years. Rapid urbanisation has made the Indian consumer more trend-conscious. Today, the Indian consumer does not base decisions on price alone, but also takes into account aspects such as design, quality, style, fashion, etc. There is a marked change in the mindset, too, from ‘saving for a rainy day’ to ‘living for the day.’ With more and more banks and

credit card companies extending loans generously, the distinction between necessities and luxuries is fast disappearing. The changing face of marketing is conspicuous from the way companies in various sectors such as airlines, hotels, tourism, telecom, etc., are changing their strategies and slashing prices to attract the low-end consumers in urban as well as rural areas.

According to McKinsey’s forecast (The ‘Bird of Gold’: The Rise of India’s Consumer Market, McKinsey Global Institute, May 2007), the Indian market is expected to undergo a major transformation in the next two decades. Income levels will be trebled, and India will climb up from being the twelfth largest consumer market today, to being the world’s fifth largest consumer market by 2025. More than 291 million people are expected to move from below poverty line to a more sustainable life. India’s middle class is also expected to expand ten times, from 50 million today to 583 million by 2025. Over 23 million people (outnumbering Australia’s population) are expected to be in India’s wealthiest list. The spending patterns of Indians will also undergo a transformation, with a shift from food and apparel to communications and healthcare.

This issue features cover stories on ‘Marketing and its changing face’ from some of the who’s who of Marketing, including Dipak Jain, Dean, Kellogg School of Management, and Vijay Mahajan, John P Harbin Centennial Chair in Business Marketing and former Dean of the ISB. Industry executives also share their perspectives on the dynamic behaviour of Marketing and its implications for India.
The author of the above article is Mohan Chandran P