Strategic Marketing Issues in Emerging Markets

India is a world within the world, a complex melting pot of diverse belief systems, social structures, political views, languages, cultural norms, and consumption patterns. With a population of over 1.2 billion people, second to China, this country is a critical marketplace. Indian consumers are unique, and understanding their discrete emotions and enabling emotional connects with brands can help companies garner huge payoffs. The purposes of this chapter are to (a) underscore the possibility of scientifically studying consumer emotions (specifically, discrete emotions) and understanding their role as antecedents, moderators, mediators, and consequences in the consumption process and (b) encourage academicians and practitioners worldwide to study consumer discrete emotions in significant emerging economies such as India. This chapter is organized into three sections. The first section presents the theories of emotions, highlighting the significance of cognitive theories of emotions. Appraisal theories and frameworks are also discussed to help understand the formation of specific discrete emotions. Measurement methods to capture consumer emotions are also discussed. The second section discusses two studies conducted in India. The first study contrasts two positive valence emotions: happy versus hopeful. The second study contrasts two negative valence emotions: benign envy versus malicious envy. Each study throws light on where and how the Indian sample findings add to the existing emotions literature. The last section concludes by summarizing key lessons and calling upon practitioners and academicians to invest in the study of consumers’ discrete emotions in emerging economies such as India.

Consumer purchase behaviour concerns with the aspects of activities that start prior to purchase, during usage, post-purchase consumption and evaluation of the activities at various levels. It is also concerned with the people involved, either directly or indirectly, in purchasing decisions and end-user consumption activities including influencers and opinion leaders of the brand (https://www.slideshare.net/bmoghimi/consumer-behavior-and-marketing-strategy-chapter-1-moghimi?next_slideshow=1). The article includes the major issues that influence the purchase behaviour of the consumers. Some of the factors are (1) quality of the product/service, (2) innovation in value proposition of the product/service, (3) technology influence on the purchase, (4) cross-culture influence, (5) economic factors. The paradigm shift in the buying behaviour of the consumers has led the emerging markets mould their strategies positively. The market is emerging in a very faster pace with the consumers being more aware and accepts the innovation of the products and/or services on a regular basis. The market hence is facing variety of issues with the sudden and rapid change in purchase behaviour (http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/products/5-factors-influencing-consumer-behaviour-explained/22163/).

This chapter gives different perspectives of both rural and urban marketing strategies providing an overview of how customers’ perception of ‘value proposition’ has changed and how companies have transformed their relationship management with customers with the changing demand. It provides an overview of various contemporary issues in CRM such as missing key information, out-of-date information, inability of firms without proper customer insights, and the privacy concerns with respect to customer data, also provides insight into new technology trends in CRM industry such as applying artificial intelligence (AI), Bots, IoT, and finally discusses proposed approaches for implementing these modern technologies/frameworks for firms to get better understanding of customers to help building strong relationships with them.

Most marketers in the world have been busy targeting the population with low income, middle income or the high income. What they miss out is the fact that the lines between these segments are blurring. This phenomenon is more evident in the emerging markets. The population here is aspirational and wants to move up the economic ladder. There is a segment of people who are between the low-income level–mid-income level and mid-income level–high-income level. This we define as the neo-middle class. They are ready to pay a premium for a product or a service, but they are confused whether the product or a service is worth the premium. If positioned well, this segment of population can provide ample opportunities. The chapter gives an overview of the characteristics of the individuals in the neo-middle class, and as a marketer what kind of strategy should be employed. The chapter also provides an example of an Indian brand (Patanjali) which targeted the neo-middle class and has made use of this unique opportunity in the market.

This chapter explores the distribution challenges in Indian rural market and evaluates the various strategies to approach rural markets. Reaching out to rural markets has been acknowledged as the biggest challenge. This chapter discusses various strategies used by firms to reach out to rural India. A set of six strategies of distribution in rural India has been identified. Major fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms which have serious interests in rural markets have been using these strategies. The pros and cons of each distribution strategy have been elaborated. The critical discussion of these six distribution strategies and future recommendations is expected to enhance the understanding of marketers so that they can plan better for reaching to rural India.

Emerging markets are more than a lucrative business opportunity for retailers in developed markets today. Retailers today see emerging markets as an irresistible opportunity to go global. Opportunities and growth rate of emerging economies provide a perfect platform for modern and traditional retailers to grow and expand their business. These markets are viewed as a fuel which will drive a retailer’s growth. But historical data suggests that there are more failure stories known to us than success stories. In this chapter, we are going to understand and analyse what the successful retailers have done right and why is it that when retailers try to expand into emerging markets, fail.

Impulse buying is an unintentional buying decision of a product or service, by an impulse buyer, made just before a purchase. Previous study explores that the emotional feelings play a significant role in purchasing, generated when exposing with the product or to a well-crafted promotional message. This study helps to identify the determinant or relational factors of the impulsive behaviour of the consumers towards different products in market. Generally, it is found that when customers enter into a store, they have specific intention and effective interaction with the particular store environment and with store people which generate higher attachments and better-perceived values. When evaluating the store environment, it is found that hedonic urge to buy impulsively is in higher levels for the impulse buyer. The change of purchasing pattern of Indian consumers and change in consumption patterns with increasing competition in retail market really insist the retail trader to think on the total effect of store in case of impulsive products. The relevance of the current study is to recognize the stimulators that trigger impulse buying and to discuss the consumer behavioural patterns, attitude and perceptions towards the product in impulse buying process and how store loyalty of the customers in the emerging markets deviates due to impulse buying characteristics.

Companies face unique challenges while operating in the rural regions of the emerging markets where a large number of customers live in India. This “bottom of the pyramid” class as described by C. K. Prahalad in his book “The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid” describes about the profit that can be earned by selling products to this rural market. The majority of the emerging market nations continue to have largely agrarian-based economies. Creating products and services for this large and wide sparsely populated rural area have got unique challenges and also have enormous opportunities for companies.

This chapter examines defined rural marketing, the perspective of rural marketing, how rural marketing is different than urban marketing. It starts with introducing rural marketing, the social, economic, and cultural factors that influence rural marketing efforts, and how these factors need to be considered in order to come up with a strong marketing strategy. Although the analysis finds that rural marketing in the context of developed nations is slightly different than the context of emerging markets, there are some commonalities in terms of the fundamental issues which can be addressed in the similar fashion as they have been done in rural segment of developed nations. This chapter also talks about the factors influencing the customer loyalty, trust, and which helps MNCs to help customers change their brand. It also talks about the discussion section that explains the details on how firms changed their strategy when they could not penetrate rural Indian market after realizing that they totally forgot about the local, social, and cultural factors which influence the purchase behavior of the people in rural emerging markets. Finally, the chapter provides some basic recommendations as to how firms need to think, act, and formulate the strategy, rural marketing campaigns, and how sales people need to build trust at a personal level using one-on-one contact points which helps firms successfully market their products. The content in the chapter also reflects my own personal experiences that I have noticed in terms of purchasing behavior of countryside people while I was working in rural countryside of the USA.

Developing new products in emerging market is a challenge due to several factors like understanding customer behavior, availability of finance for R&D activities, lack of resource with right skills and credible consumer data. This chapter focuses on the challenges and opportunities in emerging markets for new product development and product innovation.

In ancient Indian history, education had been a path to destination, whereas in the present scenario, the world is considering education as an opportunity to reach the ladder of success. Wisdom was the sole purpose to walk on for Ashram where child since its early life use to learn, whereas presently its been treated as a path to earn. Structural changes in society have led to witness a dramatic shift of education system due to massive changes in policy, governance. Environmental changes comprising privatisation, decentralisation, diversification and internationalisation are seen as controlling forces for influencing higher education system. Intense global competition with wide opening of national boundaries and broaden access, stagnancy of public fund and trends seen globally towards privatisation of education revenues are the important driving factors in creating a new platform for higher educations. These transformations are promoting government and institutional pioneers to examine education systems in their regime, and institutions that make them up providing reforms in meeting national needs are addressed which would be a catalyst in national development as seen by present leaders. Education is the seed for national growth.

The whole effort of marketing, explained in CCDVTP mantra (London Business Forum 2008) by Philip Kotler, is directed at a target market to achieve profit. It is like launching a spacecraft. The space mission becomes meaningless in the absence of a launch pad; similarly, the marketing mission has no meaning in the absence of the launch pad of market segmentation. Market segmentation in emerging markets is the challenge of erecting a launch pad on terrain with dynamic contours, overcome by only using proper strategy. To evolve a strategy for segmenting the emerging markets, it is imperative to analyze what forces operate and what issues dominate in the gameplay. This chapter sees through the strategy lens, the issues, that challenge the business acumen of a successful enterprise, to segment an emerging market, and attempts to recommend appropriate methods for a profitable segmentation.

Mobile-coupon (m-coupon), an extension of the traditional coupon which is accessible on mobile phones, has emerged as one of the promising tools in marketer’s arsenal. The opportunity to customize and the convenience that m-coupons provide to customers are the main reasons for their growth. This chapter explains the strategic role of m-coupons in driving marketing initiatives. Apart from the aspects of customization, the role of digital disruption leading to decoupling effect is highlighted for strategic adoption of m-coupons. This chapter also explains the different strategies adopted in developed countries and how they influence delivery of m-coupons. This is followed by explanation about issues peculiar to India which may hamper or enhance usage of m-coupons in Indian markets. This section also provides some recent examples of successful m-coupon used by Indian companies. Towards the end, the chapter discusses the two technological advancements—sensor-based communication and mobile wallets—which are being integrated in mobile marketing and are likely to drive m-coupon adoption. This chapter concludes by re-emphasizing that consumer behaviour and demographic trends of Indian customers will help in m-coupons becoming an important tool for marketers in India.

Digital payments in India are in very nascent stage as compared to other large-sized economies around the world. Demonetization of high-value bank notes has given a positive trigger and opportunity for digital payments industry. This chapter focuses on analysing the environment in Indian economy which has made it conducive for the growth of digital payments industry. It also discusses possible steps that the industry participants could take to leverage this conducive environment to build a sustainable and profitable business. This chapter discusses various environment constraints and drivers that can be used for a strategic marketing exercise. It also discusses the 4 Ps framework which the digital payment industry can focus upon.

The purpose of writing paper on “Digital Strategies: Compatibility Issues in Emerging Markets” is to understand how well the new age marketing techniques are compatible with emerging markets to reach the ever-growing digital consumer base. Currently, we all are living at the edges of various digital touch points, and marketing is no exception to it; rather I would say it is one of the most technologically impacted organizational function compared to any other organizational activities. Due to higher ramifications on various activities of the organization, digital strategies constitute vital element in marketing value chain. The execution of well-defined digital strategies largely depends on how well the organization has understood its objectives and its alignment with organizational goals. We all have witnessed that MNCs fail miserably in emerging markets because they apply same principle which they apply in western markets and ignore the fact that emerging markets vary in their structure, market segmentation, demography, consumer behavior, etc. It has become imperative to broaden the digital strategies in marketing when the organization wants to reach wider audience especially in emerging markets which are known to be hub of rising digital consumer base though it opens up challenges both regionally and locally in terms of consumption, decision making, buying propensities, etc. The adoption of digital strategies is going to amplify in marketing in the years to come. In this paper, I am trying to pen my thoughts on why marketers are not able to implement or execute digital strategies efficiently and effectively in emerging markets.

In the last few years, the world has transitioned into a very digital environment. Not just the magazines and books and newspapers, many of our daily tasks such as banking transactions and office meetings have become online. Because of the rise of the digital age, it just seems right to invest in a digital campaign. Even though traditional marketing still has a place, it has started diminishing in the new digital world. In this context, with increased impetus on digital India by the Government, new vistas as well as new challenges open up for an Indian digital marketer.

Businesses are trying to reach customers directly through digital interactions instead of going through traditional brick and mortar model or through whole sale/retail outlets. This is due to e-commerce burst post 2010, which directly impacted traditional distribution channels. There is change in the behavior of consumer sharing positive feedback towards brands, branding of product and its services that improved acceptance, trust, and loyalty. With more customers accessing online medium and other app based platforms, many e-commerce companies started hiring more distribution channels to keep abreast with the competition and demand. Hence increased scope of distribution in the value chain, it is more like coexistence than competition.

The emerging markets, including India, China, Brazil, Russia, and then new emerging markets like parts of Africa, Eastern Europe are outside of the traditional home markets of MNCs. The MNCs typically have grown their business in many industries in their home markets of North America, Western Europe, or Japan. On the one hand when these home markets are seeing saturation in growth, on the other hand emerging markets are exploding in growth. This offered a perfect opportunity for the MNCs to capture higher market share and establish dominance. However, the journey has not been easy for many and only few companies can claim success across all customer segments. We looked at India as a representative emerging market and examined the market segmentation in a couple of industry domains. We then make a comparison between the market segment pyramids of the MNC home market and the emerging market. Though the pyramids are similar, we observe that the pyramids are offset to each other in the vertical direction, which means the bases of the two pyramids are at different levels. We refer to this phenomenon as the “Emerging Market Offset.” As a consequence, this leads to two fundamental gaps—a Premium gap and an Addressability gap. The MNCs have to develop a better understanding of these gaps to formulate a successful strategy. We then present a case that MNCs have to develop a deeper understanding of the emerging market offset and the consequent gaps. With this, they can adopt right strategic choices to successfully create a profitable business across the segments. They cannot easily copy approaches from home markets and expect automatic success. Success seems to be more elusive for many MNCs, when the offset is higher!

Introduction of this chapter covers a brief historical background of India’s macroeconomic transition since independence and how India gained prominence as one of the fastest growing emerging markets and why Customer Relationship Management (CRM) became increasingly important over the last few decades. A brief introduction is given to two types of business streams—Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C)—followed by a discussion on salient differences in CRM in these two streams. Focus is then given in discussing CRM in B2B context specifically in relation to suppliers from India to export markets and export customers. Issue in context of a developed country vs. issue in context of India in the area of CRM is discussed. A CRM model called “ECP model (Expectations vs. Commitment vs. Performance)” is introduced specifically for B2B context. This model along with the views of industry practitioners was used to discuss the issue in context of India with two real-time examples in B2B CRM for export customers. The conclusion of the chapter proposes solutions and recommendations to overcome the issues and challenges. As the chapter is intended to provide an overview of issues in CRM corresponding to the immediate past, and prevailing business context, emphasis was given on discussions with management practitioners from the industries in gathering insights, challenges and solutions in the Customer Relationship Management rather than extensive literature review.

This paper looks at the sociopolitical trends over the last few years and tries to examine the strategic marketing challenges arising out of protectionist sentiment driven by a sense of nationalism in many regions globally. It looks at the scenarios leading to the anti-globalization sentiment and looks at how this situation has been converted to opportunities by local companies in many emerging geographies. Conversely, it also dwells on the adverse impact on global or multi-national companies. It attempts to bring out questions that Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) of global corporations/brands should answer to be able to have their companies and brands effectively face such challenges in these markets, remain competitive and still relevant given this volatile environment.

“In future there will be no emerging markets”—This is one of the tag lines used by HSBC bank. Emerging markets provide a unique adventure to many big corporations. On the one hand, they hold the vast untapped resources and markets that can be exploited, and on the other hand, they hold the knowns and unknowns that may prove detrimental to the firm’s reputation and profits. These areas cannot be applied to the same recipe that was successful in other developed markets. The culture, sentiments, and sociopolitical volatility play a major role in timing and volume of the projected business. In the world where protectionism is replacing globalization, when NAFTA and WTO treaties are being challenged and Brexit is being voted in, emerging markets are the most obvious options for MNCs to be ventured into. Those who choose to be varied of these may in turn be losing the future opportunities. Going in too early and too aggressive may also backfire against them. All these are the reasons to consider the importance and impact of emerging markets across the world. This report will cover what all are emerging markets and what are the challenges and prospects these markets hold and is it worth the risk. We will also talk about various scenarios that failed and ones that worked.

Rapid urbanization has impacted communities and environment equally. Global financial crisis has not only pushed the limits of economic policies of nations but also stressed the need for reviewing and retaining the competitive advantages of nations. The need for sustainable development has gained support both at national and international levels. Increase in economic activities and growth rate in emerging markets had shifted the focus of multinational companies towards emerging markets. This article will review the approach taken by IBM for its market expansion in emerging markets outlining how IBM balanced the competing demands of developed and developing countries by adopting strategic CSR initiatives. Theoretical foundations laid down by analytical and empirical research favor the use of strategic CSR as a competitive advantage which is also evident in its growing adoption by large corporations. Making use of CSR disclosures done by IBM, we draw inferences on how strategic CSR practiced in emerging markets is helping in addressing business needs of IBM as well as social needs of host countries.

This paper traces the historical evolution of globalization attempts of B2B firms from India. Post-1991, India’s global presence has changed at a very fast pace. The exports have increased from US$ 18 billion (1990) to US$ 267 billion (2015). The share of India in global trade which was 0.54% (1990) has increased to 1.66% (2015). Article shares that nearly 0.3 million large and big organizations from India have contributed to this spectacular performance. The article has shared the challenges of creating global brands from India. It has shared the globalization of three well-known organizations: House of Tata, Larsen & Toubro and Infosys. It has also shared the data on South Korea and China.

This article discusses the adoption process of B2B market in agriculture business. The current challenges in today’s agriculture business provide a holistic view on better implementation of B2B market opportunities using e-commerce platform. Electronic commerce has the potential of improving the efficiency and productivity of any economy. Currently, there are still a limited number of studies on e-commerce adoption by developing countries. This article is meant to identify factors that could influence proper implementation and adoption of e-commerce in developing countries focusing towards B2B market. Factors affecting the adoption of e-commerce and the condition of emerging market in relation to e-commerce adoption were also discussed.

Market segmentation is one of the key strategic planning and decision that companies have to take while starting their operation for the first time or expanding their businesses or even when launching a new product or service.

Marketing division in Indian IT companies is not being utilized to its full potential. In this chapter, there are suggestions to revamp IT companies’ marketing departments, make them more empowered, and enable them to be part of strategic decision making. Authors will also try to list down key strategic marketing questions faced by both small/mid- and large companies. Response to the questions would be aligned to overall mission and vision of the companies, but authors are trying to give a generic approach. Finally, each strategic question should be part of an organization’s overall short- and long-term strategy.

There are a large number of studies that have examined the diversification–performance and business group affiliation–performance relationships. However, very few have looked into the impact of macroeconomic environment on these relationships. In this paper, we examine under varied macroeconomic conditions, the impact of diversification, and business group affiliation on performance for firms. We argue that although diversification is influenced by macroeconomic parameters; the effect of business group affiliation is unchanged. Diversification results in superior performance during munificent macroeconomic environment while it has a negative impact on performance during scarce macroeconomic environment. In contrast, business group affiliation has positive impact on performance, irrespective of macroeconomic environment.

Porter’s five force framework is a very popular tool for analyzing the competitive environment of an industry. However, it has implicitly assumed the context of the developed market. There has been some criticism that these assumptions might not be tenable in the institutional environment prevailing in the emerging markets. However, little has been done to adapt it for such contexts. Only one paper (Narayanan and Fahey, J Manag Stud 42:207–223, 2005) has pinpointed some contextual differences between emerging and developed market and have indicated that the framework is not valid. I, however, argue that such contextual differences will lead to a different outcome, and if practitioners incorporate the differences in their analysis, they might still make quite accurate inferences. So extending the above mentioned work, I explore some links between institutional characteristics of emerging markets (which contrasts with that of developed market), and the competitive forces. Some of the links identified might be visible only to practitioners who have deep insights in the industry. Others might be easily identified by industry outsiders. It is a call to practitioners and academicians, to develop deep insights of the industry before applying the Porter’s five force framework in emerging markets. The links identified might not be applicable to all emerging markets, or even all industries in a given country. The judgment of managers or academic instructor would play an important role relating the paper in industry. I expect this will help practitioners of emerging markets to use the framework more accurately by avoiding biases from overlooking institutional context of emerging markets.

Marketplace in India is a crucial element for businesses in order to sustain and maximise their profits. With extreme competition among the sellers and increase in the buying power of the consumers, it becomes of utmost importance to reinvent the wheel to sell their products. Physical marketplace being proven and tested for years now is challenged with the new era of virtual marketplace. Both have their pros ancient times but has and cons for both the sellers as well as the buyers, this chapter focuses comparing the two marketplaces—physical v/s virtual and the strategic intent for any business to choose what best suit them. It also discusses the need for many businesses to consider its place in both worlds in order to sustain their growth in the industry.

This study explains the impact and role of sustainability marketing in the changing business scenario. It discusses and explores the link between sustainability marketing and brand equity leading to consumers’ preference for the brand in the present era, which is governed by strict environmental regulations and greater societal expectations. The role of sustainable practices is also discussed in the context of channel relationship wherein it is emphasized that the sustainable practices undertaken by the firms would enhance the relationship with their channel partners with similar orientation. The study also discusses that sustainability fuels innovation in a firm. The sustainability marketing practices in a firm are expected to drive innovation since sustainability requires utilizing limited resources in an optimal manner. This study also considers the role of sustainability marketing in shaping the behaviour of consumers towards responsible consumption. It touches upon the potential role of social marketing to alter the behaviour of consumers resulting in responsible consumption. The study highlights some important outcomes of sustainability marketing, which have relevant implications for marketers in emerging markets.

Corporations are actively embracing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in response to expectations of customers, employees, society and other stakeholders. In many cases, CSR is used as a tool for enhancing the legitimacy of the business among its stakeholders and for the development of a positive corporate image (Morimoto et al. 2004). This paper looks at the use of CSR as mechanism for corporate image resurrection by two business houses in Odisha. The paper looks at the activities undertaken by the business houses to communicate a positive brand image among its stakeholders. Though the paper draws on the stakeholder theory of the instrumental and moral duty of businesses to meet stakeholder norms for desirable organizational behaviour, it goes beyond it to look at CSR as an image makeover and a brand-building exercise. The paper describes the case of two India-based mining corporations located in the state of Odisha which were in the eye of controversy and drew global criticism. The business houses soon realized the importance of corporate reputation and inherent benefits associated with it. The first step they took was to resurrect their image in the eyes of stakeholders through CSR activities. The focus of the cases is on this aspect of their activity. The cases have been analysed in the light of stakeholder approach.

We are living in a resource-constrained world grappling with ever-increasing population. At one hand, this means that consumerism is on the rise, but on the other hand, this puts businesses under extreme pressure to innovate and take future proofing actions. The traditional approach of take-make-dispose for consumer products is being challenged by circular economy and sustainability practices across the value chain. These practices can provide companies with competitive advantage through resource efficiency. Latest market research shows that consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the need for environmental and social performance of companies in addition to financial performance, leading to heightened expectations from their preferred brands. Leading companies are cognizant of these changes and increasing risks posed by social and environmental issues. As a result, companies are taking strategic approach in the context of positively impacting environmental and social ecosystem both inside and outside the business. This has an impact on marketing and brand communication. This chapter discusses industry approaches on using sustainability performance as a tool for marketing across various economies.