Marketing Battles – Part VIII

(This was written in 1988 for the parting copy of the IIM-Bangalore hostel magazine IIMages as a spoof history of marketing management. Needless to say, the fictional company and characters do not intend to describe anyone in the real world and, if any existing company or person is mentioned, there is certainly no intent to state that the actions and motives ascribed to them are in any way the truth This was written in an era where the internet was not even a blip on the horizon and TV was a relative newcomer to the world. Furthermore, it is set in an era when even TV was barely a blip on the horizon.) Click here for Part I
Z was seriously perturbed. His market share had shrunk to insignificant levels. Something needed to be done urgently. His marketing guys had come up with a suggestion. They called it market extension - selling the same product to a different market. “What is good for the dog is good for the owner” blazoned the hoardings. There was a picture of a dog and his owner fighting over the dog food can and, then, munching on what they had snatched with every sign of ecstasy. If Z could not sell to dogs then he had to extend his markets to the owners. He had again repeated the mistake that the textile guys had done. No matter how much owners pandered to their pets, they refused to accept anything that equated the two of them. “What the hell are you guys doing, squatting here?” yelled a incensed Z. “Sssir!” stuttered the marketing head. “We should have tried some Product extension strategies” “Now what the hell is that?” asked Z turning to his PS. “Sir! He means that we should have been trying to sell other products to dogs – like dog-leashes.” “Yes Sir! With dog leashes, we could always have added a cushion to the owner end and sold it as an improved version to the same owners, like L is doing. Then we could have added a stud here and a stud there and kept re-selling it” “I thought you guys said that dog leashes were no good. Once a leash is sold, there was no further re-purchase” “We cannot analyze without data, Sir!” PS jumped in again. “What he means is, Sir, that they can only find out what works when someone has tried it and succeeded."  He added unnecessarily, "By which time it is too late, of course!” There was a streak of cruelty in PS. Z was near tears. “So what do we do now?” PS had a suggestion. “Sir! If we cannot sell our product here, why not in Europe?” “Great idea! Geographical extension is the only strategy left for us” said the marketing head. So now Z is out to sell dogs all over the world followed by his dog foods. HC and his ilk shall follow with cats and cat foods. Before you know it, the world shall become the best of all possible worlds – for the cats and the dogs. Not the fat cats and the under dogs but the actual fauna. They will never have it better and, who knows, the world may even go to war to suit their imagined whims and fancies. Never underestimate the power of marketing. Who else can decide what sort of life you should lead and make you like it?