Management guru Kotler on marketing, social media and more

Management guru, Philip Kotler, in a class to management students at Chennai, said old marketing that involved "mass production, mass distribution, mass marketing and lots of 30 second commercials which would put everyone to sleep," is now dead. He said we are currrently living in the era of new marketing. Kotler's remarks on management came while he was delivering a master class at Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai.

Philip Kotler is a man synonymous with modern marketing. His book, 'Marketing Management', now in its 14th edition, has been translated into 25 languages and is a must-have for students being initiated into the world of business.

Having co-authored more than 40 other books, Kotler has deconstructed the concepts of TV marketing, social marketing, turbo marketing, mega marketing and nation marketing. Some of the best companies in the world like Apple, IBM, Bank of America, AT&T, Ford and General Electric turned to Kotler for advice and strategy.

According to Kotler, new marketing is all about social media. "The new marketing is clearly more about the social media and the transformation of our ability to reach individuals. You know the new term called 'Big Data' and its happening everywhere where we get to know more about you, hopefully not invading your privacy, so much as trying to not bother you unless you are a prospect for something that we think would improve your life," he added.

Impressing upon management students the purpose of marketing, Kotler put the wide and complex world of marketing in a simple line- Marketing is there to help us sell more goods and services. According to him modern marketing is about selling a dream- a dream of good life. "We have to figure out how to sell to the poor. Five billion people of the seven billion today on the earth are poor and marketing has offered them nothing," said the management guru. 

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