Business

Saturday June 6, 2009

Up close and personal with Dr Philip Kotler

By CECILIA KOK


At 78, most people would be well and truly retired, but not Dr Philip Kotler. The internationally acclaimed “Father of Modern Marketing” enjoys his work so much that he takes it as a form of “play”.

So, while many of his friends and acquaintances have tagged him a workaholic, Kotler says “play-aholic” is a better description of who he is.

Retirement is not even in his dictionary, because with a career that is his playing field, Kotler feels as though he has been “retired, like forever”.

He has no plan to take this “game” slow because being busy keeps him physically active and healthy. To the septuagenarian marketing guru, life activity is all about research, writing, speaking and family.

Married for 53 years to his wife Nancy, Kotler is now a happy grandfather of nine grandchildren through his three daughters. And he enjoys spending quality time with them.

A family-oriented life, Kotler says, is part of how he maintains good health, on top of leading a lifestyle of disciplined exercise and eating well.

Weathering the storm

Kotler’s work takes him around the world very often to preach about marketing. He was in Kuala Lumpur last week to conduct a seminar on “Marketing in Turbulent Times”. It was a timely topic of discussion, and the event was well attended by more than 1,000 participants from local and international organisations.

The new normality is turbulence, Kotler says, adding that the 21st century company must be on high alert at all times, with a ready set of responses to different surprises and shocks and opportunities that might occur.

“Global companies operate in a 24-hour, 7-day a week schedule and the CEO must be available,” he says.

“They must put into place all the people, systems and software to monitor the changing market landscape and be ready to take appropriate actions,” he explains, adding that people who invest their money in a company have the right to expect this level of alertness and readiness to respond.

And as cliche as it sounds, Kotler says the current economic downturn is a great time to discover new opportunities. For instance, as consumers are increasingly looking for value-for-money products due to the recession, companies can consider launching new brands of lower-priced products to tap the market.

Quoting an old Chinese proverb, “when the storm comes, some build walls, while others build windmills,” Kotler says: “Storm has energy … we should not build walls to block it, but rather, we should think of ways to harness its energy for use.”

Companies should constantly look for ways to improve their operations to survive “because they are either going to innovate continuously or decay continuously,” Kotler says.

Strategic profile

On the ideal strategy for companies to deal with the current turbulent economy, Kotler says it all depends on their strategic profile. There are essentially four categories that he has come up with to describe a company’s strategic profile.

The first is a strong company, which is one with strong financial and marketing positions. This company can consider buying up its competitors or their assets, and increase its marketing expenditures to grow its market share at the expense of its struggling competitors.

The second category is a stable company, which is one with a strong financial, but weak marketing position. This company should spend some money on strengthening its marketing team, or acquiring some strong brands.

“It takes a long time to build a brand, so it is better to buy an existing strong one,” he explains.

The third category is a struggling company, which is one with a weak financial, but strong marketing position. This company should focus on generating new cash through cost-cutting measures, renegotiations with its suppliers for lower prices and improving its operational processes to boost efficiency.

Lastly, a failing company is one that has weak financial and marketing positions. In a straightforward manner, Kotler says such a company should just close down and salvage what it can.

“If you are slow in closing down, you won’t be able to get the price that you can get now,” he explains.

While widely regarded as the author of marketing bibles by many, Kotler considers the late Peter Drucker as his mentor and source of inspiration. He adores Drucker for his uncanny ability to sense new trends and shrewd marketing observations. These include “business has only two functions – marketing and innovation” and the “purpose of a business is to create a customer.”

According to Kotler, the highest level of achievement for a company is when it can create enthusiasm in its customers and get them to talk about the company’s products or services.

Economist by training

He believes that effective marketing always involves being empathetic to consumers. He explains: “Think about the customer, what makes him hesitate to buy. Then, create a comfort zone for him to be willing to spend his money to buy your product.”

Although Kotler is a marketing specialist, he would like people to recognise that he is essentially an economist. After all, marketing is a sub-branch of economics, even though many economists would not recognise that as such, he says.

An economist by training, Kotler turned to marketing in the 1960s because he disagreed with the use of overly rational and simplistic models to describe complex consumer behaviour and business decision-making. He believed that it required a combination of economic theories, mathematics, organisational theory and behavioural science or psychology to best describe consumer behaviour.

Based on this, he conducted research and wrote his first marketing book, Marketing Management, in 1967. The book is now in its 13th edition and is used around the world. In many cases, the book has been adapted to the region rather than just being translated.

To date, Kotler has written more than 40 books, including the recent Chaotic, which was co-authored by John A. Caslione.

Compassionate marketing

In addition, he has recently published a new book, Up and Out of Poverty: The Social Marketing Solution. Co-authored by Nancy Lee, the book features at least 14 case studies of social marketing making a major difference in the lives of poor people.

“The bottom line is that my interest goes beyond the marketing of goods, services, places, people and organisations into some broader questions of economic health and welfare,” Kotler explains.

He has recently taken a keen interest in the theory of measuring “gross national happiness” as a useful addition to gross domestic product.

“All said, the real outcomes that we want to measure are not how many goods and services we have produced but how much health, education and happiness we have created,” he says.

He desires to do things that help people and raise their standards of living. Convinced that marketing can contribute to improving the lives of people in a non-commercial context, Kotler has developed a theory of social marketing to influence positive behaviours.

“As an economist, I am returning to my early interest in the distribution of income and the conditions that create poverty,” he says.

“Poverty is a disgraceful condition of human society and I want to apply ideas on how to help more people migrate out of that,” he adds.

Kotler considers himself a humanist, interested in policies that improve the everyday lives of citizens of the world. He favours providing excellent education for men and women and excellent health and social facilities so that people can realise their potential.

Holding these values close to his heart, Kotler will continue to travel around the world to share his thoughts and knowledge. Even while doing so, he will keep himself busy by writing at least one book a year, for surely, the marketing guru has many interesting ideas that have to be crystallised in writing.

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