By Saad K. Bashir
The book is written keeping in mind organisations and consumers in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Apart from Kotler and Gary Armstrong, the regular authors of the POM series, the South Asian edition has two guest authors as it were, Professor Prafulla Y. Agnihotri (from India), who is a professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and Professor Ehsan ul Haque (from Pakistan), a founding member of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and currently Associate Professor of Marketing at the University.
The above concepts are explained with what the book calls ‘real marketing’ practices from South Asian countries. This essentially involves taking a successful brand from a given company and explaining how it used a particular marketing concept to its advantage, for example, Engro with its brand Olper’s or Mobilink and its brand Club Red. Other companies mentioned include Candyland, Nirala, Tapal, TCS and UBL, etc.
Most marketing textbooks usually highlight marketing principles with ‘case studies’, which give the background of a brand and pose a problem and then ask questions – expecting students to come up with the solutions. Unlike these books, the real marketing practices in POM are not case studies, but success stories.
The idea, says Prof. Haq (in an email interview) was to “correct this imbalance in which the media only presents stories of failures and despondencies from Pakistan, whereas success stories are kept as state secrets.”
While the book has been successful in fulfilling this objective and students will learn from the efforts of the organisations from where the stories have been drawn, it is equally important to involve students in thinking through problems on their own. Should a brand be launched, should it be repositioned, and all the other questions which marketers face in a real world environment, need to be posed. The book falls short on this important aspect and perhaps this is where marketing instructors and teachers need to step up to the plate.
There is a section called ‘marketing by numbers’ at the end of every chapter in which POM takes a very practical approach. The idea is to discuss issues such as ROI, demand forecasting, market sizing and penetration and budget allocation, which take centre stage in every marketer’s work life. According to Haq, the ‘obvious’ reason for including this section is that “you cannot be a marketing professional if you are afraid of numbers.”
“Money is scarce and accountability is in. With the availability of massive amounts of consumption behaviour data, future marketing managers will need to gear up for more sophisticated statistical tools and analytical techniques if they want to compete successfully.”
The response to the South Asian edition has been somewhat slow in Pakistan mainly due to the fact that Pearson (the publisher of Kotler’s books) has only recently set up a small office in Lahore and is still struggling to find it feet.
In spite of its shortcomings, the book is a must-have for every marketing professional and student in Pakistan because it is full of informative content which helps broaden understanding. Marketing professors and teachers will also find this book useful. However the biggest beneficiaries of this book will be the students as POM adds a uniquely Pakistani flavour to the way marketing is carried out.
Some people are born marketers whereas the majority of us need to study the subject. Most marketers in Pakistan enrol for an MBA in order to learn about marketing concepts; however, there is a gaping hole in this method as most of the concepts and their applications found in textbooks are contextualised for the US and European markets. The end result is that Pakistani students are alienated as they cannot relate to the information they are ostensibly being taught. Principles of Marketing (POM) by Philip Kotler is the most commonly used book in Pakistani universities and indeed around the world. The latest edition of the book, Principles of Marketing: A South Asian Perspective attempts to bridge the gap that South Asian students may have felt when reading previous international editions.
The book is written keeping in mind organisations and consumers in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Apart from Kotler and Gary Armstrong, the regular authors of the POM series, the South Asian edition has two guest authors as it were, Professor Prafulla Y. Agnihotri (from India), who is a professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and Professor Ehsan ul Haque (from Pakistan), a founding member of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and currently Associate Professor of Marketing at the University.POM is divided into four parts; part one defines marketing and basic marketing processes, part two is about understanding consumers and the marketing environment, part three discusses the elements involved in designing a customer driven marketing strategy including the four Ps; and part four titled ‘extending marketing’ is about creating competitive advantage and the ethics and social responsibility involved. These chapters comprehensively cover all the elementary topics that a marketer should be familiar with.
The above concepts are explained with what the book calls ‘real marketing’ practices from South Asian countries. This essentially involves taking a successful brand from a given company and explaining how it used a particular marketing concept to its advantage, for example, Engro with its brand Olper’s or Mobilink and its brand Club Red. Other companies mentioned include Candyland, Nirala, Tapal, TCS and UBL, etc.
Most marketing textbooks usually highlight marketing principles with ‘case studies’, which give the background of a brand and pose a problem and then ask questions – expecting students to come up with the solutions. Unlike these books, the real marketing practices in POM are not case studies, but success stories.
The idea, says Prof. Haq (in an email interview) was to “correct this imbalance in which the media only presents stories of failures and despondencies from Pakistan, whereas success stories are kept as state secrets.”
While the book has been successful in fulfilling this objective and students will learn from the efforts of the organisations from where the stories have been drawn, it is equally important to involve students in thinking through problems on their own. Should a brand be launched, should it be repositioned, and all the other questions which marketers face in a real world environment, need to be posed. The book falls short on this important aspect and perhaps this is where marketing instructors and teachers need to step up to the plate.
There is a section called ‘marketing by numbers’ at the end of every chapter in which POM takes a very practical approach. The idea is to discuss issues such as ROI, demand forecasting, market sizing and penetration and budget allocation, which take centre stage in every marketer’s work life. According to Haq, the ‘obvious’ reason for including this section is that “you cannot be a marketing professional if you are afraid of numbers.”
“Money is scarce and accountability is in. With the availability of massive amounts of consumption behaviour data, future marketing managers will need to gear up for more sophisticated statistical tools and analytical techniques if they want to compete successfully.”
The response to the South Asian edition has been somewhat slow in Pakistan mainly due to the fact that Pearson (the publisher of Kotler’s books) has only recently set up a small office in Lahore and is still struggling to find it feet.
In spite of its shortcomings, the book is a must-have for every marketing professional and student in Pakistan because it is full of informative content which helps broaden understanding. Marketing professors and teachers will also find this book useful. However the biggest beneficiaries of this book will be the students as POM adds a uniquely Pakistani flavour to the way marketing is carried out.
Principles of Marketing: A South Asian PerspectiveBy Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, Prafulla Y. Agnihotri & Ehsan ul Haque Pearson, Pakistan
620pp. PKR 660.
620pp. PKR 660.
Saad K. Bashir works for a telecom company in Pakistan. saadkbashir@gmail.com
First published in the November-December 2010 issue of Aurora
Is there an online book shop that would have a home delivery facility? I tried looking for this book at Liberty Books and Paramount. But they have the old version ...
ReplyDeleteHi Hiba, please send me an email at marylou@dawn.com and i'll send you a list of places where the book is available. Unfortunately Pearson is not distributing it too widely!
ReplyDelete