Packaging – The final ‘P’ of Marketing Mix

Sounds strange, right? That was the definition given by the presenter in the show ‘logo’ telecast on UTVi on 16^th 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.

Business Schools Today – Are they Businesses or Schools?

The present day business schools are no less than business houses thanks to the exorbitant fee they charge. One gets a doubt whether the so called elite business schools get their status on the quality of education they impart or because of the fee they charge. Students too do not worry much because they see it as potential investment for which they expect much higher returns. This trend is being cashed upon by banks which give educational loans to the students since they too expect the student moves up in his career ladder after B School education and so his chances of becoming a defaulter are very low. There is no doubt in saying that the schools are merely turning into employment exchanges rather than institutions of learning. The only thing that is taught is to how to fight and win a war rather here the war is fought inside closed walls of glass. And the adage, “Everything is fair in love and war” is also very apt. And not very surprisingly most of the B Schools grads say that their goal of getting into a management school is to get themselves equipped with a better job.

There have been views that the real culprits behind the sub prime crisis are the B Schools, since they not only teach management to the students but also boost their confidence levels to dangerously high levels. With this the B School grads reach such a position where they feel that everything they do is right and with such attitude when they enter the corporate world, incidents such as the sub prime crisis are bound to happen due to utter carelessness.

In our very own state of Andhra Pradesh, B Schools can be categorised into two levels based on the fee they charge. First, the schools that charge mammoth amounts which have a national level entrance and second, the schools that charge realistic amount which have state level entrance. Surprisingly, even the state level entrance would do in some of the first category B Schools if you are ready to pay the fee. So, it is not the entrance criteria or the quality of students that form a basis for segregation but only the fee that the schools charge.

The objective of education is to impart values, ethics and should make a student more enlightened. But the education at B Schools does not seem so. They only teach how to wipe out competitors; how to be aggressive and get your point across; how to be an extrovert and the likes. Barring a few schools in India, which also teach ethics, most of the schools the world over seems to have same kind of environment. But after the sub prime in the US, the change can sensed. B Schools are reconsidering their mindless educations system and incorporating corporate ethics into their syllabi.

But the days are still to come where students get into B School out of passion for management education also and not exclusively for the career opportunities they offer.