Philip Kotler, marketing guru and SC Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Illinois, US, is spearheading the World Marketing Summit (WMS) initiative. The summit, which has a theme of creating better world through marketing, will be held on March 1-3 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Kotler spoke to Rajarshi Roy about everything marketing and the objective of the summit. Excerpts from the interview: You are the most-quoted marketing expert in the world. How has your gospel changed with the times?I am trained as an economist. When I first came to study marketing, most of the writing was descriptive and occasionally prescriptive, but lacking in science and systematisation.  My original interest was to develop a mathematical exposition of how different marketing efforts (advertising, sales promotion, pricing, sales force) impact sales and profits. I wrote this in one of my first books, Marketing Decision Making: A Model Building Approach.  I also started my work on marketing management, based on my lectures to MBA students at the Kellogg School.  My goal was to introduce a customer-centered view of marketing to replace a seller-centered view. I felt that it was also important to stress the social purpose and responsibilities of marketing and I introduced societal marketing. At a later point I recognised that marketing is not only done by commercial firms but is also applied by non-profit organisations such as museums, non-profit hospitals, social service firms, religious organisations and others, even though they do not make much use of the term or the tools and philosophy. I became interested in how we can do a better job of marketing ‘causes,’ such as ‘stop smoking,’ ‘say no to hard drugs,’ ‘exercise daily,’ ‘eat the right foods,’ and so on. Marketing continues to attract more scientific-minded researchers who gather data and report findings. Model builders have come into marketing and have built interesting models of how various marketing tools work. At this stage in the evolution of marketing thought, the role of branding is growing from being initially seen as choosing a name and logo to becoming a major platform for planning the organisation’s strategy. The most recent turn is to push the concept that marketing’s aim is to generate superior value not only for the customers but also for the employees and other stakeholders. There is much more to say but this suggests some of the trends.

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How aware are today’s organisations about emerging realities like environmental and social concerns?Most organisations are aware of the importance of preserving the environment and caring about social problems. But many do not practice corporate social responsibility because of limited funds and insufficient profits. Our job is to raise environmental consciousness so that firms don’t despoil the planet. This is accomplished partly by passing laws and regulations and partly by convincing companies of the benefits of enlightened self-interest.

Sales at all cost is what most organisations believe in, even though customer value is what they talk about. How will the twain meet?Companies are increasingly learning about the difference between short-run and long-run profit maximisation. It is easy to exploit a particular situation such as a shortage and charge high prices and make a lot of money. But the customers remember and when times are more normal they turn to those merchants who treated them well. Companies must take a long view of what is involved in treating a customer well and winning their loyalty.

Based on your observations, how have global corporates reacted to the emerging market powers of India and China?Global companies must treat Indian and China as ‘must do’ markets. They represent the great hope for most global companies today. Global companies based in America and Europe know their own economies are growing by 1-3%, while India and China are growing by 6-9% a year. India and China are not only major importing countries; they are major exporting countries or competitors.

Do marketing strategies of global businesses adapt to Indian/ Chinese realities and sensibilities?Absolutely.  It is a marketing maxim that you can’t win in a country if you don’t adapt your offerings and prices to that country.  Even McDonald’s learned to adapt their menu to the tastes of different countries and you will see it serving saki in Japan and beer in Germany.

Why have you come up with the idea of World Marketing Summit?I have always believed that marketing can contribute to making the world a better place.  Marketing can claim that it has delivered a much higher standard of living to much of the world. Consider how families used to prepare their food and wash their clothes. Today’s homes are equipped with washing machines, refrigerators, modern stoves, vacuum cleaners and other appliances that have reduced labour-intensive cooking and cleaning and freed the housewife to apply her talents in business and elsewhere. Today, marketing is beginning to address post-industrial questions of making life better for people. The World Marketing Summit is about creating a better world through marketing. We have chosen in its first iteration to focus our thinking and research on how marketing can improve performance in the four areas: education, health, environment and food. We will be running incubators to research specific problems in these four areas and we hope to share the findings with the larger world community.