Mittal: To learn marketing, wear a customer hat

"I don't believe you need to train marketing people. If you're a vocal customer and wearing a customer hat, understanding marketing isn't a difficult task. Marketing is all about knowing what's happening around you," said Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group managing director, the Bharti group.

Mittal was addressing the managers of tomorrow at the jam-packed Ravi Matthai auditorium of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, on day two of star-studded show, Confluence 2005.

Talking on 'Marketing - Today and Tomorrow', Mittal threw light on consumer mindset and technological innovation against the backdrop of the emerging markets scenario.

Mittal said he "witnessed old rules of games" having started career as the 'Bharti' promoter at an early age of 18. On his experience during the quota-regime or pre-liberalisation days, "We faced several hurdles in the past when there was hardly any infrastructure and support available for the industry."

He further said, "Earlier, policymakers had created an environment where consumers had no choice but to accept what was being produced in India. The producers had ideas to deliver better and bigger, but there was no scope for that. Today, with the entry of global players and increased awareness, customers' expectations from even Indian players have gone up."

Mittal explained that today Indian consumers, despite having the cheapest tariff structures, are demanding services better than international standards.

"The cost per minute to Indian consumers is mere two cents per minute vis-a-vis 25-40 cents in developed countries," he said.

The participants from acclaimed national and international B-schools as well as some executives from the corporate world got to learn a few lessons from the experiences the Airtel brand had.

"The technology should never ride on the company. Several companies have lost money just for going after the technology. One should simplify it by merging both - dreams of technology with the needs of consumers. At Bharti, for Airtel, we believe in deploying the best technology that can simplify life for consumers," Mittal said.

The chief of one of the fastest-growing telecom conglomerates also ridiculed the traditional ways of segmenting market on the basis of standard attributes, saying the need of the hour is 'flexibility' - to meet new challenges.

"The product and values have changes. Hence, we can't stick to the traditional rules of segmenting the market. There are examples where a pre-paid customer is spending over Rs 10,000 per month and a post-paid customer is spending only Rs 200 per month, which showcases there is a need to apply the set of flexible rules," said.