Understanding Marketing Prudently : Face to Face with Mr. Vivek Srinivasan & Ms. Salma Moosa

V. S Prudence Advisors Pvt. Ltd. Is an organization that has been helping entrepreneurs set up their businesses for over 5 years. The session starts off with Ms. Salma Moosa promising an interesting session and giving us the freedom to do whatever we want during her lecture.

With her easy flow and engaging approach to the subject matter at hand, it was no wonder that many of us chose to listen rather than engage otherwise.

Their company has always believed in the policy of never saying no to the client. She highlights that they majorly work on strategizing the marketing aspect of any new company along with making B-Plans, helping them set up, designing logo etc. 5 years into the inception she emphasizes that  the company is still learning.

Mr. Vivek Srinivasan takes forward the lecture by getting us all back to basics. Many of us may remember the “Philip Kotler definitions for marketing” but Sir took that a step forward by providing examples for each of the concept. He starts of by saying that marketing in simple terms is selling and highlights the importance of marketing. It plays a key role in making sure the rest of the company has works to do.

The 4P’s of marketing have to be controlled according to what we have to sell. Sir says that marketing of a company starts off with the name. A name provides recognition and identity, so much is invested on naming a company. Taking further the products are to have a “value” for them to sell. A “promise”, “company values”( unsaid rules of any company that decides the priorities),”time”, ”aspirations”, ”real solutions” all of these decide the marketing objective of a company.

The 4P’s, selling; advertising and communication play a large role in setting up. Marketing is therefore the observation of human behavior and the attempt to stimulate certain type of behavior resulting in sales.

Sir also introduces the concept of” below the belt” marketing- no cost spent on marketing. For example: word of mouth transmission. He highlights that the difference between a good marketing company and a bad marketing company is in the way its criticism is handled. Salma ma’am at this point relates her personal experience with two well-known hotels.

In the hotel 1 – when a complaint was lodged for some faulty gym equipment, the marketing manager walk up to them and negates with them stating that such a thing could never happen.

In the hotel 2 – Salma ma’am had misplaced her laptop in her rush to catch a flight. She realizes this on the way to airport and calls up the hotel letting them know that she was coming back for it. However the hotel personnel asked her to catch her flight and they took care of the matter. They found out where the laptop was through their CCTV cameras and lodged a complaint with the local police on the hotels name. They ensured that she got back her laptop before she got on to the flight and therein lies the difference between a good and bad marketing company.

Vivek sir ends the discussion by noting the differences between marketing in a startup and large organization taking the examples of café coffee day and a startup.

All in all the time spent was useful and the session was quite notably and engaging one. It was a pleasant surprise to note that Salma ma’am and Vivek sir being so young have achieved so much in life. It makes us want to sit up and start doing things to fulfill our dreams.

Mohita Vadrevu
MBA M