Markathon August 2010

Dear Readers,

Change is one word that I have heard countless times in classes over the past one and half years of MBA education. There have been numerous debates whether change is good or bad, whether people like change, whether change can be forced on people, how to “manage” change and so on.
So what is it about this word “change” that makes people sit up and turn around? According to me change more often than not is for a brighter future and for a more glorious path ahead. Change ensures a break from the past routine and gives people something new to discuss, analyse and evaluate. In the world of marketing even the most popular & trusted brands go in for a makeover & a rebranding exercise over a period of time. Why? This is because after a period of time people demand for something new, something different, something that makes the brand experience refreshing. In short, they demand CHANGE.
We, the members of Team Markathon thought why not give our readers something fresh, something innovative. So we decided it is time to go in for a “change”.
Building on our aim of creating a connect with our readers, we have started four new monthly columns, namely, Brand Story, Bookmark, ADdicted & Radical Thoughts so that you, our customers would have the opportunity to interact & discuss your views & thoughts with us on a one-to-one basis.
We have also introduced a new competition – “The 4th P”, which is a photography competition with a marketing tinge to it.
This is not all! We have more for you. Our website has been given a complete makeover to make it much more attractive, user friendly and dynamic in nature. A number of exciting features have been added to improve your experience with brand “Markathon”. Do check it out and let us know what you think.
In this month’s Cover Story – “The Rise of the Indian FMCG Company” we have analysed the Indian FMCG industry from the perspective of the Indian, home bred FMCG companies, which includes the likes of Godrej, Marico, Wipro, Emami etc. Their secret to success, strategies executed, plans to counter the multinationals and much more has been studied in depth.
In the Vartalaap section, we present to you an intellectual, who is from no less than the Mecca of education itself. Yes you guessed it right!! This month’s guest is Prof. Sunil Gupta, the Head of Marketing, Harvard Business School. He talks to us extensively about one of his prime research areas which is customer management and also shares his views on the new age medium of marketing which is social media.
That’s about it from my side. So go ahead and check out our all new revamped Markathon and do let us know what you think about it. Send in your suggestions too so that we could incorporate them over, as we all know change is an on-going & continuous process.

Happy Reading.

Kaushik Subramanian