Marketing and the Saintly Philip Kotler

Whilst twiddling my thumbs in Tashkent, in transit last week I came across this delightful letter in the Financial Times that, I think, could be shared with everyone who regards him/herself as a marketer or even marketeer! Eat your heart out Adrian S.

“Sir, As an economist trained by Milton Friedman......................I am in full agreement with John Kay on economics’ lack of scientific status.........Any genuine “social science” has to observe human behaviour. But traditional economists have preferred to build a “house of cards” on the assumption of consumer and producer rationality and efficient markets.

Economists have assumed rational behaviour because it lends itself to mathematical treatment that always gives the appearance of science. Had they read a textbook on marketing or followed the articles in marketing journals, they would have seen a huge literature, both theoretical and practical, going all the way back to the early 1900s, on how consumers and producers actually make decisions among products brands, companies and jobs.

Most economists emphasise the role of price in determining choice, to the neglect of other major forces such as advertising, sales promotion and sales personnel that shape and motivate consumer and business behaviour. My argument has been that besides macro and micro economics, economists must add “market economics” (ie marketing) to the study of how the market place actually works. This advance is already being reflected in the rise of “behavioural economics”.

Wadja think????

Not Eyeless in Gaza more Flightless in Delhi

Well, after five days stuck in a Delhi hotel with an outside temperature of 43 degrees we were promised a Jet Airways flight home on 5th May! Needless to say like thousands of others we found that unacceptable and started looking for an alternative route. Thanks to Uzbekestan Airlines we managed a flight to Athens via, wait for it, Tashkent (isn't there an Alistair Maclean novel about Tashkent?). We thought, worst case, we'd get a train for there to Paris or Calais which takes another three days.

In Athens Tuesday night and lo and behold UK airspace is reopened. Two hours and much swearing later flights secured on Friday morning to London courtesy of Olympic Airways. They then became the real stars, wait listing us and getting us home early, weary and much, much poorer. Bo for the insurance companies saying the volcanic cloud is not an "climatic event" and is an "uninsurable risk." Hurrah for the carriers going the extra mile for their client in very difficult circumstances. Perhaps there needs to be a site set up listing good and diabolical practices?

More about fundraising, in India, in due course.