Markathon May 2011

Dear Readers,

The long, hectic cricket mania has concluded after the back to back World Cup and IPL, if only for a short while. The viewer’s attention will now shift to our country’s second obsession: Bollywood. We eagerly await some major releases to hit the silver screen in the weeks to come. Recently, Kay Kay Menon made a very interesting observation about the current crop of ‘commercial’ movies. He said“Marketing has taken over content today and I have serious objection to that. It is the job of marketing people to think of creative ways to publicise a film. Just adding an item number in the film is not marketing “. The marketing expenses of low budget movies are constantly skyrocketing. In some cases they are as much as the movie budget itself. Filmmakers realise the need to grab eyeballs and attempt to maximise their collections for the first weekend, which usually connote the efficacy of the publicity. Big budget movies rely on their star power for marketing gimmicks. But beyond that first week, it is solely the content that makes or breaks the movie’s fortune at the box-office. For now, Marketing is here to stay as an essential ingredient of a movie’s success.

As regards the realm of advertising, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry has, at long last, woken up to take some stringent action against “suggestive advertising”. This action was in response to certain deodorant and talcum powder companies resorting to ‘indecency’ in their advertisements. The Government’s moral policing, for once, seems valid, and hence agreeable. Some of the aforementioned advertisements undeniably cross all limits in demonstrating how ‘effective’ their products are. The ministry has asked the Advertising Standards Council of India to enquire into the matter and submit a report in 5 days. The advertisements are expected to go off air in most probability. Till then, there seems to be a flurry of these advertisements swamping the television channels. It might be a case of companies wanting to make the most of their soon to be curtailed freedom.

Moving onto our cover story, the editorial team at Markathon wanted to bring you an Industry which has been much talked about and is yet at the receiving end of numerous misconceptions. We zeroed in on the Pharmaceutical Industry, which is a lot more than just ‘generic drugs’. Our cover story for the month, The Pharmaceutical Industry in India : Demystified, walks you through the amazing success of the industry and how the major players have contributed to it.

For this month’s Vartalaap, we have Dr. Ajay Manrai , who is a PhD in Marketing from Kellogg School of Management and is also the recipient of the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru Research Scholar award. Dr. Manrai gives us glimpses into the world of international marketing, competitive marketing in India for the next decade, and much more in a wonderful interview.

As always, we would love to hear your comments about the magazine. Write to us at markathon.iims@gmail.com.

Sit back and enjoy this edition!
Jitesh