NAT’S PARADIGM

In every organisation, the inefficiencies and the incompetence and indiscretions at the top affect the man at the field the most. The Lords and the Commons Typically, in most organisations, sales-cum-distribution is divested from marketing-cum-branding. In some organisations, those in the former category, tongue-in-cheek, are called the Commons and those in the latter, mostly located at the corporate headquarters, are called the Lords . It is not unusual that the Commons and the Lords do not see eye to eye. The Lords have the blessings of the King , the CEO, and hence enjoy greater power and say in what percolates down the organisational channel. Not atypically, career-growth for a person in the Corporate Office is faster than for his counterpart at the field. This dichotomy is safeguarded, strengthened and reinforced by those who are beneficiaries of this system, and the result is the simmering anger, sometimes sabotage and many times high attrition among those in the field.

Almost a century ago, Melvin Copeland classified goods into convenience goods, shopping goods and speciality goods ( HBR , 1923), based on brand map in consumers’ mind and her clarity of brand preference. a. Convenience goods are those where the consumer has a clear brand map in her mind and is neutral among the brands. She chooses the brand readily available. b. Shopping goods are those where the consumer forms the map by comparing various brands and then decides the brand to buy. c. Speciality goods are those where the consumer has a clear brand map and specific brand preferences ahead of purchase. Almost forty years later, Bucklin extended the thinking to classify retail outlets similarly to explain consumers’ buying habits for different goods in different outlets ( JoM , Oct-1962, p.53 ). i. Convenience Stores: Those stores for which the consumer possesses a preference map that indicates a preference to buy from the most accessible store. ii. Shopping Stores: Those

R.C. Natarajan Over half a century ago, when Jerome McCarthy gave the much famed 4-Ps of Marketing, academicians and practitioners thought alike thought that they had cracked the code and mastered the field. However, it did not substitute the basic concept of marketing, coined as 3-Cs, the Customer, the Competition and the Company. (Diagram 1) Then came Jag Sheth’s 4As of Marketing in early 21 st century. Unfortunately, very few understood that Sheth was propagating a complementary model to McCarthy’s and not a substitute. Whereas the 4Ps framework focuses on what the organisation does to get its positioning in consumers’ mind right, the 4As model focuses on how the consumer perceives about the product. (Diagram 2) It is critical to understand that while Acceptability and Availability are critical factors in positioning mix,  Awareness and Affordability are intermediary factors. (See Diagram 3). STRACOMP Framework While the 4Ps and 4As frameworks