The Delhi-based FORE School of Management hosted its sixth session under the institute’s Global Leadership Lecture Series on Tuesday, November 3. The guest speaker for the session was Sanjeev Asthana, CEO of Patanjali Foods Ltd., who addressed the first and second-year MBA students on the role of marketing in business. Professor Varsha Khattri moderated the entire session. 

Introducing the session, Prof. Khattri said, “FORE has been working ceaselessly with industry and academia for developing new domains for managerial thought and education and contributing to building leaders in this global business environment.” 

During the session, Asthana spoke in detail about the four Ps of marketing and how emerging trends are causing a change in those Ps with references to his experience in the market. 

Highlighting the difference between a service and a product, he said, “Much larger roles are getting built in the services sectors. One can no longer see traditional roles that can still be seen in the FMCG sector regarding products. In the few years, the services industry has built massive markets in emerging areas with distinguishing features.

“The significant issue FMCG sectors are facing nowadays is the marketing of commoditised products, as commodities have no features other than the price tag. The importance of positioning is shown through the sale of these commodities. FMCG products essentially need to be marketed with an added level of sophistication and added attributes.”

He also explained the influence of social media as one of the significant marketing dimensions other than the consumers’ orientation about a product. 

According to Asthana, with the emergence of D2C (Direct to Consumers) and e-commerce in the digital media sector, global markets have been opened. Any publicity received while launching a product will be handled differently by different countries. Due to the worldwide access to markets, global insights must be kept in mind while marketing; whether the brand is international or Indian, the service level must be ominous. He also highlighted the importance of choosing the right channel of communication and brand ambassador since a wrong choice could also lead to much negative publicity. According to him, selecting a well-known celebrity or influencer has not always resulted in success; often, the opposite of the desired result has occurred. The brand ambassador’s selection must be in line with the ethos of the company and its employees. 

He concluded with a critical note for the future management professionals. “Consumer perspective is the most important in our field. Never lose it. It must be aligned with the product, price, place and promotion on top of the company ethos. One must have the 360-degree built-up ability to see what the product or service stands for. Building a better understanding of it will build a better ability to impress the marketing industry.” 

The session ended with an interactive Q&A session with the students of FORE School and the vote of thanks delivered by Prof. Ashutosh Pandey which summarised the entire session for all.