Part I covered the marketing concept, consumer behaviour, STP and the 4 Ps. Part II looks at competing strategically, marketing services, building customer relationships, digital channels, special markets such as rural and global, and measuring marketing.
1. Competitive marketing strategy
| Position | Share and posture | Typical strategies |
|---|---|---|
| Market leader | Largest share | Expand total market, defend share, grow share |
| Challenger | Strong runner-up | Attack the leader or weaker rivals head-on or from the flank |
| Follower | Avoids confrontation | Imitate, stay profitable |
| Nicher | Focuses on a small segment | Specialise on customer, product or service |
Porter’s generic strategies (cost leadership, differentiation, focus) and the value disciplines (operational excellence, product leadership, customer intimacy) frame the choice; being “stuck in the middle” is risky. Defensive moves: position defence, flank defence, pre-emptive and counter-offensive. Offensive moves: frontal, flanking, encirclement, bypass and guerrilla attacks. Blue ocean strategy (Kim and Mauborgne) looks for uncontested space by creating new demand instead of competing in existing markets.
In the real world: Jio’s low-price entry in 2016 was a challenger’s frontal attack that reshaped Indian telecom. Red Bull created a category around energy drinks and content marketing. Cirque du Soleil is a standard blue-ocean example, blending circus and theatre for adult audiences.
2. Services marketing
Services differ from goods in four ways (IHIP): intangibility, inseparability (produced and consumed together), heterogeneity (quality varies) and perishability (cannot be stored). Because customers cannot inspect them, they rely on cues. The marketing mix extends to 7 Ps: product, price, place, promotion plus people, process and physical evidence.
The SERVQUAL model measures quality on five dimensions: reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness (RATER). The Gaps model lists five gaps that cause poor service: between customer expectation and management perception, between perception and service standards, between standards and delivery, between delivery and external communication, and between expectation and perceived service. Tools: service blueprinting, service recovery (a well-handled complaint can build loyalty), managing capacity and demand (differential pricing, reservations, queues) and internal marketing (employees as the first customers).
In the real world: an airline’s seats are perishable, so it uses yield management. Taj Hotels and Ritz-Carlton are known for empowering frontline staff to fix problems on the spot, which closes the delivery gap.
3. Customer relationships and CRM
Keeping a customer is usually cheaper than acquiring one. Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the present value of the profit a customer brings over their life. A simple version: CLV = average annual margin × expected years of retention (adjusted for discounting). Example: ₹1,500 margin a year over 4 years is ₹6,000 before discounting, so spending ₹2,000 to acquire the customer is sensible, but ₹7,000 is not.
| Concept | Meaning |
|---|---|
| CRM | Strategy and systems to manage all customer interactions; contact data, sales pipeline, service history, analytics |
| Loyalty | Behavioural and attitudinal; programmes reward repeat purchase |
| Customer satisfaction and NPS | Net Promoter Score = % promoters (9–10) − % detractors (0–6) on the “would you recommend?” question |
| Segmentation by value | Treat top customers differently (RFM: recency, frequency, monetary) |
| Churn | Rate at which customers leave; track and predict |
In the real world: Amazon Prime locks in customers with benefits that raise lifetime spend, while airline frequent-flyer schemes reward the most profitable travellers. Subscription businesses obsess over churn because a small drop in it compounds into much higher CLV.
4. Digital marketing
| Channel | What it does |
|---|---|
| SEO | Earn organic search visibility through relevant content and site quality |
| SEM / paid search | Pay-per-click ads on search results |
| Social media marketing | Build community and reach; paid and organic |
| Content marketing | Useful content that attracts and educates |
| Email and messaging | Direct, measurable, low-cost; consent matters |
| Influencer marketing | Trust borrowed from creators |
| Affiliate and performance marketing | Pay on clicks, leads or sales |
| Mobile and app marketing | Notifications, app-store optimisation |
Digital allows precise targeting, testing and measurement, but also raises privacy and ad fraud issues. The funnel: awareness → consideration → conversion → retention → advocacy. Omnichannel blends online and offline into one experience. Marketing automation and analytics (web analytics, attribution) tie spend to outcomes. Kotler’s Marketing 4.0 describes moving from traditional to digital while keeping human connection.
In the real world: Zomato and Swiggy have used witty social-media voices to build brand recall cheaply, and D2C brands grow on performance marketing and influencers. The cost of acquiring customers online keeps rising, so retention and CLV matter more.
5. Rural, social and green marketing
Rural marketing in India targets the large share of the population outside cities: lower and irregular incomes, lower literacy, dependence on agriculture and monsoons, poor distribution and media reach, and strong local culture. Strategies: small, affordable packs (sachets), sturdy products, local languages, haats and melas, mobile and community channels, and self-help group networks.
In the real world: HUL’s Project Shakti recruits rural women as direct-to-home distributors. ITC’s e-Choupal connects farmers to markets and information, building supply and demand together. Sachet pricing of shampoo and other goods is a classic rural strategy.
Social marketing promotes behaviour change for social good (hand-washing, vaccination, road safety); green marketing sells environmentally responsible products, but greenwashing (false claims) harms trust. Cause-related marketing ties sales to a donation.
6. Global and international marketing (overview)
Reasons to go abroad: saturated home markets, growth, scale and following customers. Entry modes: exporting, licensing, franchising, joint venture, wholly owned subsidiary. The tension is standardisation vs adaptation; “think global, act local” (glocalisation) is the usual answer.
In the real world: McDonald’s keeps the core menu but adapts locally, for example vegetarian and chicken options in India. (International Marketing is covered in more depth later in the series.)
7. Metrics, planning and control
| Metric | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Market share | Company sales ÷ market sales |
| Customer acquisition cost (CAC) | Cost to win one customer |
| CLV : CAC | A ratio of about 3 or more is often seen as healthy |
| Conversion rate | Share of visitors who buy |
| ROAS / marketing ROI | Revenue or profit per ₹ of marketing spend |
| Brand awareness, NPS | Mind-share and advocacy |
The marketing plan has an executive summary, situation analysis (SWOT), objectives, strategy (STP and mix), action programmes, budget and controls. Control includes annual-plan control (targets vs results), profitability control (by product, region and customer) and strategic control (the marketing audit). Budgeting methods: percentage of sales, competitive parity, affordable and objective-and-task (best).
One-minute recap
| Topic | Key idea | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|
| Competitive strategy | Leader, challenger, follower, nicher; blue ocean | Jio, Red Bull |
| Services marketing | IHIP, 7 Ps, SERVQUAL, gaps | Hotels, airlines, banks |
| CRM and CLV | Retention, NPS, churn, RFM | Subscriptions, loyalty |
| Digital marketing | SEO, SEM, social, content, funnel | D2C brands, apps |
| Rural and social | Small packs, local distribution | HUL Shakti, ITC e-Choupal |
| Global | Standardise vs adapt | McDonald’s menus |
| Metrics and plan | CAC, CLV, ROAS, marketing audit | Budget reviews |
Next in MBA Revisited: Financial Management.
Written by Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant, as part of MBA Revisited, a quick refresher of the PGDM subjects one at a time.