Category: General Marketing

Berne has put forward a useful framework for exchanges and relating to others ( 1964 ) . It is called Transactional Analysis ( TA ) which suggest three ways of relating. Each individual has three egos — parent ego, adult ego and child ego. Parent ego is learned from parents. It is protective and moralistic. Whenever in any situation, there is dependence or the question of morals and values, the parent ego is activated. A superior may exercise parent ego while dealing with the subordinates. The adult ego is reality-oriented, problem-centred and mature. It allows one to cope with stress. The child ego comes naturally to a youngster. It is an ego in helpless situation and dependent situation. It is playful and inquisitive. A successful transaction occurs when a teacher’s parent ego interacts with a student’s child ego. There is conflict if the teacher’s adult ego transacts with a youngster’s adult ego.

Let us point out some controversial beauty queens who won the coveted Crown but lost it afterwards.

1974 Miss Universe Amparo Munoz of Spain sought fame as a porn star. After this, the organisers of pageants began scrutiny of the contestants.

1974 Helen Morgan of Wales won the Miss World title. She was decrowned because it was detected that she was an unwed mother.

2002 Miss Universe Oxana Fedorova of Russia was fired by the managers of Miss Universe contest four months after her reign.She was a police lieutenant and was writing her dessertation on detective techniques at the Academy of Internal Affairs.She refused to perform a number of duties as Miss Universe. It was suspected she was married, and may be carrying.She continued her police career and obtained Ph.D in civil law.

1984 Vanessa Williams was stripped of her Miss America title after a lesbian porn video featuring her was found. She also appeared in Penthouse.

1998 Donald Trump of Miss Universe pageant permitted Miss Puerto Rico to participate despite posing semi-naked for underwear ads.

2004 Lakshmi Pandit gave up Miss India World title after it was revealed she might have been married before the contest.

We come across several instances of brands being positioned on attributes. As the brands are introduced, they are positioned on a single benefit, e. g. a toothpaste that contains clove oil. As brands evolve and reach further stages in their life cycle, positioning is changed to newer attributes, e.g. these days we  need flat TVs, TVs with surround sound, LED TVs, smart TVs etc. Even our fridges are now freshetarians — they keep things fresh.Some do quick chilling to make ice quickly and some have water dispensers in the door. The benefits are accepted when a strong need is felt for a brand with such attributes. A water purifier is to protect against water-borne diseases, and an automatic washing machine has to ease the life of a working couple. Sometimes some attributes require concept selling, e.g. dish washers and air-friers. While positioning on the basis of attributes, different models or product versions may be necessary for different segments of the market. Attribute positioning is possible for both high involvement and low involvement consumables. In fast moving consumer goods, attribute positioning may lead to different versions of the same brand –‘ your kind of Lux for your type of skin.’ A shampoo that nourishes hair (rational benefit) and gives it a shine (psychological benefit) uses a combination of benefits to position itself.

A company is managed by a Board of Directors, and is governed by the Companies Act. A secretary to the company is a link between the company and the outside world. He puts the company’s seal, and signs on behalf of the company on communications. He sees to it that the company complies with the provisions of the Companies Act. A secretary writes the minutes of the Board meeting. A secretary must be communicative enough to liaise with Board members and shareholders alike.

A company secretary can report to the CEO. He could be given the status of Chief Operating Officer ( CXO ). Alternatively, he could report to the legal head or Chief Financial Officer ( CFO ).

There are 40,000 practising company secretaries in India. In India, we have Institute of Company Secretaries of India which conducts the CS examination. It certifies around 3500-4000 students a year. Each large corporation requires at least 16-20 company secretaries. The talent pool is limited. This dearth of talent leads to poaching.

Apart from working as secretaries, a CS qualified candidate can work as a CFO, if he has qualifications in finance, and additional qualification of CS. Even a legal head can have additional qualification of CS. Smaller firms have to CS, CFO and legal head, all combined into one.

If a company secretaryworks as CXO, he gets a package of Rs. 1 to 1.5 crore. If he reports to CFO or legal head, he draws Rs 50 — Rs.80 per annum.

The thumb rule is 5 billion of USD in revenue or valuation demands a price of a million to million and a half ( Rs 100 million or RS 10 crore) to be paid to the CEO.

Fixed pay is 50-60 per cent. The balance is variable pay. It accrues on achievement of 100 per cent performance related to goals of finance and other qualitative measures such as innovation, implementation of the best practices, grooming leadership, environmental conservation and so on.

Variable pay has two components — cash component paid at the end of the year and stock component paid as stock or deferred cash with at least three years vesting or deferment respectively.

In the turbulent environment today, there are uncertainties — both operational and structural, increasing complexity and new business models. These have profound effects on business, as contended by the consultant Ram Charan. Operational uncertainty can be addressed, say in the lean period, by giving incentives, a hotel can raise its occupancy. Structural uncertainty eliminates the demand for a certain kind of hotel. Just as the advent of digital photography eliminated photo films of Kodak or the instant photos of Polaroid. Clayton Christensen talked of disruptive innovation. He visualised people coming at the lower end of the market and disrupting the industry. These days instead of disruptions, there is Schumpeter’s destruction and creation. The forces at work can alter the exiting structure of the market space and industry. The whole landscape is changed. It all may become obsolete. These are long term forces. An industry rides on the wave or gets trampled ( Ram Charan ). Indian companies must conduct an exercise involving its employees asking them to visualise changes so as to generate perceptual equity. According to Ram Charan, companies have catalyst human beings who are driven,  practical and risk taking. These must be spotted and encouraged. Core competencies become irrelevant. The firms have to develop a new model to do the business. Algorithms are used to develop this new model and scale it up. If you cannot cope with this, there is death for you.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, journalist , New York Times, and author of Too Big To Fail : Inside the Battle to Save Wall Street quotes the conversation of President Bush and Paulson, the treasury secretary and Ben Bernanke to emphasise over-extension of AIG beyond its core business of insurance into exotic derivative products such as credit default swaps. President Bush asks,’ An insurance company does all this ?’ Well, this one did. If you had asked 99 per cent of the world, ‘ What does AIG do ?’, they would have replied that it is an insurance company. But it was really into so much more. And that was a big part of a problem.

These days the companies have realised that success in today’s competitive market place is by providing customer service of quality and their grievance redressing mechanism. A contact or call center is one such mechanism which handles customer calls and complaints. It is a third-party customer contact desk. It does beyond call handling, and tries to establish comprehensive customer relationship management system. Theses services are outsourced. Many companies from abroad are outsourcing significant amount of customer contact services from India. It is what we call Business Process Outsourcing or BPO. If companies just rely on their internal resources, it may result in customer dissatisfaction. A plethora of communication devices may not be helpful. These should be a simple response number. Customer contact centers are common in service industries like credit card companies, banks and cellular phone companies. Third party customer contact centers are increasingly being used by FMCG companies, consumer durable companies and insurance companies. These centers also provide telemarketing solutions. Some companies get forms filled up online, courier them to be signed, collect them with supporting documents and submit them. A call center enters into an agreement with the company. In centralised model, all calls across various cities are handled by customer service representatives, ( CSRs ) in a single location. If the central location is at place  called X, and calls originate from Y and Z centers, they are received  at the respective local switches to be re-routed to X. In distributed option, the local centers take care of the calls. The hybrid model is a mixture of the two. Companies improve brand perception by employing the services of call centers. A company will have to advertise a customer service number.

A business class traveller, writes Vir Sanghvi, is charged for every small thing by the airlines, e.g. $10 for Martini, $3 for Coke and even $3 for water.Business class travel is highly priced and it can include certain basic services.However, airlines rip off the customer perhaps knowing that all these expenses will not come from his pocket but are on the company’s expense account. Similarly, a five star hotel charging RS 30000 or $500 for a room takes pleasure in ripping off the customer by charging for mineral water, phone calls, faxes, ironing and things from the mini-bar. Such ripping off is allowed as many guests do not pay out of their own pocket.There is the factor of oligopoly too. According to Saghvi, these organisations who treat the customers with more respect will benefit in the long run.Some basic minimums a deluxe room guest expect are free local calls, free ironing, free movies, free internet and free airport transfers. A hotel could afford these at the tariff paid today.The customer should also refuse to be ripped off and refuge to stay at hotels that offer nothing for these high rates.We should also mention here the hospitals who charge obscenely high amounts once they come to know that you have a health insurance policy.