International Marketing Conference
“Emerging Markets, Evolving Prospects”
Luminaries across the globe enlightening budding marketers of the Emerging Markets
Media Coverage of the Event
The 2nd International Conference at the International Management Institute, Kolkata brings together luminaries from the industry and academia to its guests, invitees, faculties and students. The conference christened as “Emerging Markets, Evolving Perspectives” brings together a confluence of ideas of the best brains from motley pursuits.
16th December 2014, Calcutta, India: On a much awaited Tuesday morning the International Management Institute Kolkata experienced words of wisdom from stalwarts across the globe and various pursuits of profession. The Conference began with the presentation of the bouquet of flowers to the delegates followed by the ceremony of lighting the lamp. As the torch kept lighting with the true spirit of knowledge Dr. Arindam Banik, Director, International Management Institute, Kolkata addressed the august gathering with his views on the dynamics of the emerging markets and stressed on the importance of local cultures. Local cultures that drive consumer perception from the ‘Jatras’ of Kolkata to the Carnivals of Brazil.
All the dignitaries critically analysed the Emerging Markets with their own intuitive judgements which brought together a confluence of ideas to the campus. The broad array of views ranged from digital marketing, competition in the emerging markets, to rural marketing and the marketing of industrial goods and services.
Professor Stephane Bourliataux-Lajoinie, Adjoint Director, IAE de Tours, France emphasized on the power of digital media marketing being the driver of growth and capital attraction. He emphasized on the paradigm shift of the Indian Market towards digital, the availability of quality engineers in India and the requirement of managers to fuse their ideas with engineers to create digital platforms for global markets. He also stated that internet marketing is expensive in ideas, not money.
Prof Tridib Mazumdar, from the Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, USA brought to light the fact that emerging markets are being predominantly looked at as centres of demand, but the emphasis should be on studying the emerging markets on their uniqueness and diversity.
The Chief Guest of the event, Mr. Kallol Dutta, CMD, Andrew Yule Group shared his real life experience of 30 years from the field of marketing. He emphasized on the fact that budding Indian Marketers need to think beyond just FMCG and focus on services marketing because that is what is driving the economy.
The address of the Keynote Speaker, Mr. Sandeep Kaul, Chief Executive, Personal Care Buisiness, ITC Limited spoke about his unique view of the 3 I’s and the magic of their confluence. He construes the 3 I’s as Innovation, Intellectual Property and Inclusive growth. He also stated the major challenge of innovation in organization being scalability. He emphasized on price sensitivity of the Indian Market and the need for frugal engineering. Thereby emphasizing on the importance of marketers’ interaction with customers. He mesmerized the audience with his 3rd I, Inclusive Growth which must focus on the ultimate improvement of the society. Newer business models and transformative power of the three Is can bring wonders to the betterment of humankind.
The 2nd International Conference at the International Management Institute, Kolkata brings together luminaries from the industry and academia to its guests, invitees, faculties and students. The conference christened as “Emerging Markets, Evolving Perspectives” brings together a confluence of ideas of the best brains from motley pursuits.
16th December 2014, Calcutta, India: On a much awaited Tuesday morning the International Management Institute Kolkata experienced words of wisdom from stalwarts across the globe and various pursuits of profession. The Conference began with the presentation of the bouquet of flowers to the delegates followed by the ceremony of lighting the lamp. As the torch kept lighting with the true spirit of knowledge Dr. Arindam Banik, Director, International Management Institute, Kolkata addressed the august gathering with his views on the dynamics of the emerging markets and stressed on the importance of local cultures. Local cultures that drive consumer perception from the ‘Jatras’ of Kolkata to the Carnivals of Brazil.
All the dignitaries critically analysed the Emerging Markets with their own intuitive judgements which brought together a confluence of ideas to the campus. The broad array of views ranged from digital marketing, competition in the emerging markets, to rural marketing and the marketing of industrial goods and services.
Professor Stephane Bourliataux-Lajoinie, Adjoint Director, IAE de Tours, France emphasized on the power of digital media marketing being the driver of growth and capital attraction. He emphasized on the paradigm shift of the Indian Market towards digital, the availability of quality engineers in India and the requirement of managers to fuse their ideas with engineers to create digital platforms for global markets. He also stated that internet marketing is expensive in ideas, not money.
Prof Tridib Mazumdar, from the Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, USA brought to light the fact that emerging markets are being predominantly looked at as centres of demand, but the emphasis should be on studying the emerging markets on their uniqueness and diversity.
The Chief Guest of the event, Mr. Kallol Dutta, CMD, Andrew Yule Group shared his real life experience of 30 years from the field of marketing. He emphasized on the fact that budding Indian Marketers need to think beyond just FMCG and focus on services marketing because that is what is driving the economy.
The address of the Keynote Speaker, Mr. Sandip Kaul, Chief Executive, Personal Care Business, ITC Limited spoke about his unique view of the 3 I’s and the magic of their confluence. He construes the 3 I’s as Innovation, Intellectual Property and Inclusive growth. He also stated the major challenge of innovation in organization being scalability. He emphasized on price sensitivity of the Indian Market and the need for frugal engineering. Thereby emphasizing on the importance of marketers’ interaction with customers. He mesmerized the audience with his 3rd I, Inclusive Growth which must focus on the ultimate improvement of the society. Newer business models and transformative power of the three Is can bring wonders to the betterment of humankind.
Losing Intuitive Judgement in Data-Driven Marketing
16th December, 2014, Kolkata, West Bengal: IMI Kolkata hosted the International Marketing Conference on “Emerging Markets, Evolving Perspectives”. A panel discussion was held in which eminent personalities from the creative industry as well as the business world participated in. The discussion was on the process of Losing Intuitive Judgement in Data-Driven Marketing. The five panellists who spoke were Mohit Kampani (President and CEO at Spencer’s Retail Limited), Aditya Shastri (Head of Filmed Entertainment at Relativity- B4U), Nilanjan Mukherjee (Head of Marketing, Perosnal Care Business at ITC Ltd), Jimmy Tangree (Head 91.9 Friends FM) and Abheek Singhi (Senior Partner and Director at BCG).
Mohit Kampani, who was also the moderator of the session, introduced the topic and opened the floor for discussion. He gave direction to the discussion by introducing the relative aspect of Intuitive vs. Analytical Decision Making, Cowboy vs. Commando of Commerce models as followed by entrepreneurs and CEOs.
Abheek Singhi took forward the discussion by quoting a famous CEO, “In God we trust, everyone else brings data.” He touched upon how data garnered was post-mortem and was not always reflective of the future and that a balance should be struck between data and intuition.
Jimmy Tangree gave a creative perspective to the discussion by reflecting upon how the radio and entertainment industry’s modus operandi was largely intuitive, depending much on innovation, gut feel and delivering the ‘wow’ factor. Data only gives direction to the innovators, shedding light on the path to be taken while intuition is indicative of how one travels down that path. His continuously evolving model of reaching the zenith of success lays its foundation on the principle of disruptive creation and innovation.
Nilanjan Mukherjee’s principle of consumer insight was indispensable in the business of marketing and brands. Citing examples of successful models of Harpic and Engage by challenging accepted consumer belief and support intuitive judgement based on data, the underlying message that he tried to convey was that “Intuitive judgement starts where data stops!”
Relativity, the company that Aditya Shastri is associated with, is heavily involved with extensive data crunching and analytics. With an in-house algorithm in place, which forecasts decisions based on data crunching, Mr. Shastri spoke about gut feel and how intuitive judgement is unparalleled despite huge amount of data and to back up beliefs by gut-feel.
The discussion ended with the panellists invoking the students to build intuitive judgement internally as there will always be a lot of data, a little less information, lesser knowledge and a shocking lack of wisdom!
International Marketing Conference: Plenary Session 1
Topic: Managing customer engagement
Conducted by: Professor Tridib Mazumdar of Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, USA
16th December, 2014, Kolkata, West Bengal: IMI Kolkata hosted the International Marketing Conference on “Emerging Markets, Evolving Perspectives”. A plenary session was held which was presented by Professor Tridib Mazumdar of Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, USA. The session was regarding the process of Managing Customer Engagement and how important is the role of the consumer’s in today’s competitive market.
Prof. Tridib Mazumdar opened the session by throwing questions towards the MBA aspirants present. He allowed the audience a chance to warm up to the topic by asking questions like “How often do one design their own curriculum?” or “How much in-class interaction is valued in today’s classrooms across the globe?” He took forward the session by giving a brief over revolving around the central idea of the topic and how today Gen-Y or “Millennials” respond to the opportunity of customization. He touched upon the fact that today’s generation is more engaged in the nitti gritties of the consumption process and that the youth will be the primary source of rise in economy.
Prof. Mazumdar took forward the session by citing some very relevant and practical examples. He even drew in comparisons regarding the functioning of a company following a very rigid product design like Apple with a company which is completely made and handled by the community, namely, Wikipedia. He mentioned that companies like Apple has a very fixed channel/routes in how they work and there is no scope for any customization as such which may pose as a problem in the forthcoming time. On the other hand one of the many eminent professors present in the audience Mr. Nabarun Ghose mentioned that there can be companies like Dunkin Donuts who negates the fact of customization altogether on the basis of lack of originality on the company’s part which in some extent, in fact true. Many in the audience critically analysed the point of the degree of customization that should be allowed by a particular company in order to reach the zenith of success. One of the student of IMI asked a very intriguing question as to how does the implementation of customization takes place, as in the case of Starbucks crowd sourcing, where the customers give in suggestions for new items which could be incorporated in the menu. It gave way to a very interesting discussion, shedding light on the features or more precisely the thumb rules which are normally taken into account before implementing any such ideas.
He also acknowledged Internet playing an indispensable role behind the involvement of the customers in the making of the product in today’s market. According to the recent research, 73% of the urban population (US figures) would rely on internet for the collation and differentiations of different deals in products in the forthcoming holiday season. Though this is just the urban figures about 65% of the rural population in India uses smartphones: hence a huge untapped market.
The session ended with Professor Mazumdar highlighting Consumer Engagement as a highly enriching subject for all the academic researchers and students looking forward towards a successful career in marketing!
International Marketing Conference: Networking Dinner
The first day of the International Marketing Conference came to an end with a special Networking Dinner organized for all the dignitaries, paper presenters, faculty and other members of IMI Kolkata family. After an eventful day at the IMI-K campus, this networking dinner, aboard a luxury cruise “Matsyakanya” on the Ganges provided the perfect opportunity to unwind.
The dignitaries who attended the dinner included Dr. Nabarun Ghose, Professor of Marketing and Business from the University Of Findlay, USA; Dipankar Chakroborty from the British Deputy High Commission; Saurabh Srivastava, Vice President of Service Delivery from IDEA Cellular Ltd and IMI alumni from the Corporate world like Rituparna Ghosh from WIPRO, Supratik Bhattacharya from Cognizant Technology.
From the 44 entries for paper presentation in the International marketing conference, the Best Paper was awarded to Dr. Kaushik Mandal from NIT Durgapur. His paper, co-authored by Dr. Sujata Banerjee, was on “An empirical comparison between societal expenditure and marketing expenditure on bank’s performance”. Dr. Arindam Banik, Director of IMI Kolkata, presented the award on the deck. During the night the glittering landscape of the city of joy provided the perfect background for the dinner.
We bid adieu to the dignitaries with the hope to have life long association with them and many more such celebration of ideas.
International Marketing Conference: Master Session
Topic: Digital Marketing
Conducted by: Dr. Stephane Bourliataux- Lajoinie, Adjoint Director, IAE de Tours, France
17th December, 2014, Kolkata, West Bengal: IMI Kolkata hosted the International Marketing Conference on “Emerging Markets, Evolving Perspectives”. The master session was presented by Dr. Stephane Bourliataux- Lajoinie, Adjoint Director, IAE de Tours, France.
“Acculturation to the global culture as moderator to subjective norm and internet adoption” – R. Ayouby and A. M. Croteau.
In the interactive session, Dr. Stephane shared his insights on Perceived usefulness & perceived ease of use in Digital Marketing. He spoke on how these affects attitude towards use & behavioural intention to use, leading to actual system use. With the booming technological, cultural and complementary product environment, various opportunities arises in the areas of Apps, Online Services and Devices. Hence, we see the market becoming more & more user centric.
It is the man-machine interface that is important to make a person believe that using a particular system would be free from effort. This concept is vital in a business’s success when it comes to Decision Making. Also, cloud computing is a growing technology and many businesses are getting developed for and around it.
The main theme of the discussion was about the changing attitude of people towards technology and its adaptability. The attitude is moving from perceived usefulness to perceived value keeping in mind the customer value i.e. values in exchange and the consumer values i.e. values in use.
Ultimately, the session ended with a final thought on customer loyalty. The final goal is perceived satisfaction that will lead to customer loyalty. This can be done using mixed approach of a trade-off between benefit and sacrifices both before & after the purchases.
International Marketing Conference: Plenary Session 2
Topic: Mainstream Consumer Reactions to Products Marketed Toward Bottom-Of-The-Pyramid Consumers
Conducted by: Dr.Ritika Gupta, Associate Professor of Marketing, ESSEC Business School, Singapore
17th December, 2014, Kolkata, West Bengal: The 2nd day of the International Marketing Conference held at IMI Kolkata on “Emerging Markets, Evolving Perspective” witnessed a plenary session presented by Dr.Ritika Gupta, Associate Professor of Marketing, ESSEC Business School, Singapore. The session was regarding Mainstream Consumer Reactions to Products Marketed Toward Bottom-Of-The-Pyramid Consumers.
“Are Companies being (Un) fair to the BOP consumers?” was the question which commenced the beginning of the much awaited session conducted by Dr. Ritika Gupta. Human psychology research being her main area of expertise in the field of marketing, she could very well explain the current scenario of the BOP (Bottom-Of-The-Pyramid) market by efficiently connecting the marketing logic with human psychology.
According to the current world economic scenario around 4000 million of the world population falls under the Tier 4 category (BOP) whose per capita income is less than $1500 as compared to that of Tier 1, 2& 3 where the population ranges from 75-1500 million. As stated by Dr. Gupta the BOP section is the largest producer of the world and if they are given the option of a better lifestyle then they can easily be the largest sector of consumers as well in today’s market. She even mentioned about the bouffant multinational companies like Procter & Gamble, Hindustan Unilever, and Danone who have successfully entered the BOP market by implementing different promotional strategies. Strategies like “$2 a Day” Project conducted by P&G which showcased how the products were pushed into the rural market of China, HUL’s “Help a child reach 5” campaign as well as their Kumbh Mela campaign definitely resulted in the boost of their respective products.
Dr. Gupta furnished the audience with a plethora of real life examples which helped us understand the BOP scenario in a much extensive way. She enlightened us about a survey which was conducted by her team and herself where few of the villagers were asked to keep a journal regarding the weekly products bought by them so that it would be easier for the marketers to understand product range which is required by the consumers.
It was a very open discussion kind of a session where quite interesting questions where kept forward by eminent professors and mba aspirants present in the plenary. Professor Tridib Mazumdar from Syracuse University, USA asked an intriguing question regarding how will the marketers differentiate among the necessity and the lifestyle products in case of a BOP family where the daughter is getting married but on the other hand their son is suffering from malnourishment? How would one rank their needs between a perfume and a packet of curd? The views relating to this question varied from sticking to the basic norms of necessity to prioritizing according to the personal taste of the concerned family/person.
The session ended with Dr. Ritika Gupta invoking the students to differ their perception depending upon the culture, mainstream consumers, Indian & US markets and further quoting her: “Frame your BOP market efforts accordingly!!”
International Marketing Conference: Plenary Session 3
Topic: Creating a pricing organisation
Conducted by: Professor Tridib Mazumdar of Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, USA
Prof. Tridip Mazumdar from the Whiteman School Of Management,Syracuse University during the plenary session enlightened the students on the various aspects of pricing. He subdivided pricing into behavioural and psychological, pointing to the fact that people remember pricing in different ways. To bring his point home , he asked the students present ” how many of you think you are marketable and if so how will you price yourself”. After listening to the views he summarised the fact that pricing is basically dependent on cost, value addition and present competitive market.
During the lecture he analysed the topic of pricing in great detail and in the discussion he explained the importance of pricing, focus of pricing, skills needed to perform the pricing function, developing guidelines on who should perform what task and the trends of cross functional pricing teams. According to him pricing is a neglected function as only 5% of fortune 500 companies have a full time function dedicated to pricing moreover fewer than 15% of companies do systematic research on pricing.
Focussing on the role of Micro economics in pricing function he concluded that although microeconomics plays an important role but in the practical world the accounting department and the managerial function plays the most vital role while taking the final decision for determining the price. Further elaborating he mentioned the Three ‘C’ of pricing i.e. Customer, Competition, and Cost .How in the modern day business these 3 ‘C’s can be assigned weights and can be used to suit the product or service as per the market condition and the position of the products in the product life cycle.
Mentioning the example of the Panasonic Vs. Sony lawsuit where Panasonic was dumping VCR at 1/4th of the total cost in the market thus resulting in Predatory pricing lawsuit by Sony. But in their defence Panasonic brought the argument that in the future their price will go down faster than competitors and won the lawsuit. He shared one of the case studies on the “Starbuck Verismo Coffee Maker” and how even while cannibalizing their own product they ventured into the home coffee market, simultaneously building on their brand loyalty they were able to make revenue on sales of these machine and coffee cups.
At the end of the session he summarised the tasks involved in customer Valuation of pricing by identifying the target customer, Identifying the reference products, identifying the incremental benefit over the reference product, quantify the tangible benefit, Communicating the “Differentiating Value” and assessing the variation across customer preference. Overall, the session provided a broader perspective on pricing to the audience.
International Marketing Conference: Valedictory Session
The two-day International Marketing Conference on “Evolving markets, Emerging Perspectives” came to a close with the valedictory session. From 44 papers which were received, 28 were presented in the conference over two tracks in these two days. The papers presented covered diverse topics within the discipline of marketing where some even included relevant insights on rural India, BOP and emerging markets. All the paper presenters were felicitated by Dr. Arindam Banik, Director of IMI Kolkata. Dr. Rituparna Basu, faculty at IMI Kolkata, received adulations for her paper on the empirical study carried out in NCR region of India titled “Sports Marketing around Football Ancillaries”.
Dr. Mohua Banerjee delivered the vote of thanks. Dr. Banerjee spoke about the success of the conference in terms of its relevance in offering a balanced participation from industry and academics. She on behalf of the other members of the conference management committee, Dr. Rituparna Basu, Ms. Rajashri Chatterjee extended her gratitude to all the dignitaries from both the academic and business world, friends in the print media, the faculty, administrative colleagues and students for their support and inspiration to making this Conference a grand success.
