Marketing Bypass Surgery

Tales of College Days : II

 

 

 

 

Philip Kotler, Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, taught marketing to the world. His book ' Marketing Management ' was standard reference at the college.

 

Kotler's marketing was about innovation, whether it was products, advertising or customer management. The students in my classes were quite intimidated by him.  

 

In 1996, our Japanese cousins were fighting for market shares in the camera and film market in the US. Kodak held a whopping 80% of the home market while Fuji was inching up to 17%. But it was impossible. Kodak was viewed by the American consumer through the family photo albums of newlyweds, babies and the warm glow of family portraits. Love meant a ' Kodak moment.' They would never have switched to a foreign brand of film.

 

Then digital cameras came on the scene and all bets were off. Kodak fought valiantly, diversified and spent more on new product research but just as they broke surface, cell phones and cameras erupted on the world market. In January of this year, Kodak filed for Chapter 11 protection. In retrospect, the 131 year old American giant was fighting more than Fuji but that is the mystery of the American psyche.

 

Fuji was a Lazarus from WWII. They had reinvented their heliotropic resolve to survive. Kodak was the darling of the American family, apparently unaccustomed to life's rigors.

 

Kotler comes to speak in the Malaysian Institute of Marketing  seminars on global marketing. He was here last year and they flocked to hear him on the nerve of our heliotropic impulses. The institute had also organized a birthday party for him. Undeniably, innovation is the key.