Some years ago, the research firm that I was working for decided to implement the Key Account Management approach, as a means of strengthening our relationship with our clients. As a first step, we had to draw up a list of key clients. Even this simple step proved quite tough to action! We had to [...]

November 23, 2009 The Joint Editor, The Hindu Business Line Dear Sir, We have put together a small booklet that has 14 of the Capsules published so far; and we plan to distribute this to around 150 people across our client and prospective client organizations. We shall be giving this free to these people. The [...]

In the world of B2B marketing, there is a very thin line of difference between marketing and selling. In fact, it would be fair to say that the term marketing here generally is synonymous with business development. This is perhaps a result of the fact that there are not really many avenues for B2B players [...]

Titoo Ahluwalia, when he was Chairman of the market research company ORG-MARG, said “Seat prediction is a mug’s game”. The statement surprised many, since he had used published opinion polls as one of the key methods to create visibility for his company.  But there can be no doubt that he was right; seat prediction in [...]

As the name suggests, this refers to the sub-discipline of marketing in which marketing / promotional messages are sent to a prospect only after getting their permission to do so. The field of permission marketing caught fancy thanks primarily to Seth Godin, who can well be termed as the father of this field. Godin wrote [...]

One of the tougher decisions that a marketing manager faces is how to price the product in the market. In an existing market (i.e. where a new brand is being introduced in a category that already sees competition), the decision is a little easier than in a new market; since the marketer can take some [...]

An interesting field that was a lot more in vogue a few years back than it is now. Around seven years back, it looked poised to become one of the next big things of the Indian business environment but has since lost steam quite a bit. I am not quite sure why the momentum has [...]

Quality Function Deployment, better known universally as QFD,   is an important tool used primarily in the manufacturing sector.  QFD and the techniques associated with its implementation were first developed around 25 years ago. Nonetheless, they have not become as widely used as they should have, probably because of poor implementation in some organisations. So what [...]

I don’t think this is a term that will be found in too many textbooks, but it is nonetheless one of the most important concepts in marketing. It is a concept that is intuitively understood by all good marketers, and is used by customers all the time, though not always wisely. Let me explain with [...]

This is one of the most happening new topics in the field of management. Quite a few may wonder why it should have gained importance so lately; after all, reputation has been important for as long as companies and brands have existed. The reason is – quite simply – the sheer variety of tools that [...]