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Vinay Kamath
Sriram Srinivasan

Dr Dipak C. Jain, Dean, Kellogg School of Management.

Chennai , Aug. 11

DR Dipak C. Jain, the India-born Dean of the Kellogg School of Management, the top business school in the US, has steered clear of comparing Dr Philip Kotler's venerable four Ps of marketing with a contemporary framework, which lists four `As', proposed by marketing expert Dr Jagdish Sheth.

"Four Ps or Four As is not the main way to think about marketing. You have to think it as a mindset, as an attitude. The real `A' that matters is attitude," Dr Jain told Business Line in a brief interview. Dr Jain was in Chennai at the invitation of the Great Lakes Institute of Management to address its students.

Dr Kotler's long-standing theory puts the onus of marketing on product, price, promotion, and place, while Dr Sheth's new framework is said to contrast the former with four As: acceptability, affordability, accessibility and awareness.

Dr Jain, a colleague of Dr Kotler, said that, while the four Ps are crucial, it's the fifth P (denoting people) that would create differentiation. "Business is about people. The trust and confidence that a customer has is what makes a business."

But, he said, the current debate in marketing is not only about how to create differentiation but also about how companies can create value for their customers, as well as how they can capture that value. "Which means, you want customers to pay what you want them to pay for your product. I always tell people that price is transparent but value is opaque. Customers can see the price tag but they don't know what the product can do for them."

The role of marketing, thus, is to educate customers about the value of the company's offerings. "Once they see the value, they will equate the value with the price. That's what marketing's role has to be. Not just changing the price from two dollars to 1 dollar 50 cents, or changing the packaging."

While the sales force needs to go out and educate customers, it should be supplemented with promotional efforts. "We all should think in terms of how we really educate customers and demonstrate to them how I am different from the next best alternative they have."

The involvement of the sales force would help build customers' trust. "So, they will buy the product, not because they like the product but because they like the people they are dealing with. The real differentiation would be if you have people who can really go and do things for the customers that others cannot."

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