Sounds strange, right? That was the definition given by the presenter in the show ‘logo’ telecast on UTVi on 16th of August. I knew the 4Ps of marketing as Product, Price, Place and Promotion, but there is this channel which added a new tool to the marketing mix. Jerome McCarthy! Are you listening? I learnt packaging to be a part of Product, one of the Ps of marketing mix. But this 24 hour English Business (Take a note of this) News Channel claims packaging to be one of the Ps. I have learnt from the channel’s website that the presenter was Tina Tandon who had conceptualized the show and also anchors it. I am remembered of my advertising professor’s words here. He often says that if you are in the top rung in the industry, you may even talk crap and people would take it as words of wisdom. They may even talk things which are even common sensical but they would be applauded for their insights. Everybody can talk sense, but it is the position, the status of the person that determines the value of his talk rather than the intrinsic value of the talk itself. But when these high profile individuals or corporates make statements which are false or do not have any sense, people try and find out some kind of newer meanings in them, because it is often perceived that successful people are always right in what they say and do. Anyway, returning back to the topic, I tuned into this show some 15 or 20 minutes after its start and was astonished to hear what was being said and I was like, “What!, Packaging, the final P of marketing! Are you crazy or what?” I don’t know what the previous Ps were referred to as and for that matter, I do not even know their stand on the number of Ps in the marketing mix. So, no comments on it. The show later went on to show how the sachet revolutionized the Indian FMCG market. All was fine, but referring to Packaging as one of the P was hard to hear and accept for a student of marketing. The concept on which the show was based is all good but the makers need to take care to get their basics right before embarking on making such shows.
