Why this Blog . . .

What made two reasonably lazy Marketing Professors (who have been teaching full-time Marketing courses to B-School students for 25+ and 5+ years respectively) start writing a Blog on Marketing?

This Blog is addressed to those studying Marketing in B-Schools.

Let us look at what the learning mix for Marketing in a typical B-School is:

•  There is a Text Book, it is generically called Kotler (and each edition of the book keeps getting fatter than its earlier editions). Students are given strict instructions on reading this. Some do read this; some promise to do it tomorrow and the rest keep the reading to the week before Placement/Exam starts.
• There are Lectures where the student is taken through the core concepts. Some teachers cover the text in class, the better teachers go beyond the text and link it to the happenings in the world around us and the really great teachers make us THINK for ourselves and relate the concepts to the reality around us and see patterns.
• There are Case studies where a student is expected to give suggestions on what is the ideal option available in a given situation. The same pattern applies here. Some teachers stay on facts, the better teachers link facts to arrive at actionable insights and great teachers make YOU link facts to arrive at actionable insights.
• Then we have projects and Case Competitions – where students get their hands dirty (or at least think that they are getting their hands dirty!).

So far, so good. The learning mix in the other functional area courses are similar, give and take a few alterations. And this is where the problems start for Marketing Professors.
In “hard” (or those with numbers) subjects like Accounting, Finance, Operations Research, IT, Economics and Statistics, the student can sense that learning is happening (or not happening), depending on how far away he/she is from the Letter Grade “F”. Moreover, the act of solving a problem and arriving at an “answer” gives us all a feeling of accumulated learning being deposited in our intellectual bank located somewhere in the brain. If you ask any student in a B-School as to what they have learnt in Finance, the answer is Binomial. “Learnt a lot, Sir” to “Cannot relate to it Sir, I am not touching any elective in that area”.

In Marketing, many of the topics deal with perspectives rather than numbers. In a country like India, this is a major problem. We are a country where a child is told very early in life that the most important thing in academic life is Mathematics. Everything else is secondary. As homage to Mathematics, close to 1.4 million students appear every year for the Engineering JEE Examination (this is a rite of passage, irrespective of mathematical ability). This number is more than the population of Mauritius. Or Bahrain. Or Trinidad and Tobago. As a consequence, an average Indian gets a notion very early in life that if it cannot be measured, it cannot be trusted. Hence, at the end of any class in Marketing, there is no clear signal that accumulated learning has been deposited in the intellectual bank. Ask any student in a B-School as to what they have learnt in Marketing, and they get glassy eyed. Typical reactions could range from the more polite “Sir, we are learning theory, but where is the PRACTICAL part”? To the brutally blunt “Sir, it sounds like a lot of Gas”.

Spare a thought for the Marketing Professor. He/she is toiling away in ensuring that your thought process is more structured. That your listening and observation powers improve. That you can see patterns in events or the way people behave. In short, trying to improve the flow of your Cognitive Processes. Even though the Professor may have made significant progress in achieving this, the student does not think so. Because these are not easily measured….

What are we trying to achieve in this Blog?  This is an attempt to supplement what you have learnt in your text books and from your classes. By discussing issues and concepts. Linking them to the environment around us. Linking them to real-life Marketing situations that would have occurred in past. Linking them to products, brands and markets known to all of us. Making you think through scenarios and spot patterns. In short, to do what most Marketing Professors would have liked to have done, but were constrained by time and the rigid contours of a curriculum and academic calendar.
And in the bargain, if you feel that some accumulated learning is being deposited in your intellectual bank located somewhere in the brain, we will consider our effort worth its while!