VALUE REALIZATION IN MARKETING THEORY: AN ANCIENT INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

History of marketing thought in marketing literature indicates towards two fundamental axioms dominating marketing. The first one spurts from the belief that marketing came out of the discipline of economics as it is essentially an economic activity, thus, restricting the marketing concepts to economic behaviour of people. The second axiom came out of the belief that a marketer can influence, manipulate and control market behaviour through designing proper marketing programs and activities. In the later half of 20th century, for broadening the marketing horizons and as well as developing more realistic marketing theory the axioms of economic exchange is now being replaced with the exchange of values by several authors thereby including areas related to human behaviour such as social sciences, politics, and fine arts. Management thinkers started postulating that marketing should start from needs and value for customer. This characterization still holds that in true marketing spirit business goals must be oriented towards the contribution towards customers and their needs. In recent times many authors have argued for the need for reform in marketing. The dearth of values and short term thinking are cited as the reasons for such a scenario in which marketers and consumers have been treating each other as adversaries rather than as allies and partners. The recent marketing definition depicts the change required by marketers to follow, as consumers are now more socially conscious and consuming with restraint. The marketing management tools are also getting utilized for furthering sustainability goals as the definition has included all, i.e. customers, clients, partners, and society at large. The addition of ‘society at large’ indicates that benefits should reach to every individual. The preceding description motivated this research to consider marketing, in terms of values. Values are engrossed and ingrained in the ancient scriptures in every verse and prose from beginning to the end. The recent economic crisis of 2010 made the business world to rethink about moral framework and regulations that underpin our politics, economics, and interconnectedness at the global level. With reference to the context of the present Marketing definition of American Marketing Association (2013), it is believed of that organizations play an essential role in the economic development, by creating value for the society. Thus, marketing as per the new definition is indicating and leading marketing world to develop institutions, activities, and processes that can create, communicate, deliver, and exchange offerings in socially conscious, consumption restraint environment by being inclusive in nature and by involving customers, clients, partners, and society. According to the present definition, a Marketer must think for ‘welfare and benefiting all,’ while communicating, creating, delivering, and exchanging value. The very thought connotes with ‘Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah’ (Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.14), ‘Sarva Bhut hiteh Ritah’ (Bhagavad-Gita, 5.25 and 12.3-4) as these are about thinking in terms of ‘benefiting all’. The new marketing definition also reflects the same. There exists plethora of such hymns in ancient Indian scriptures. The definition of marketing seems quite near to the thoughts of ancient Indian scriptures. Thus, marketing may be viewed in terms of values for realizing value. Our assumption shares many common threads. Marketing world’s definitional progression as justifiably evolved through the years is evident in the definition given by the American Marketing Association. The definition exerts its importance not only in terms of its approach towards the fact that how marketing should be seen but also through the perspective which was involved in the development process of this definition, whether it be the cumulative experience of the people involved in the process, or in terms of where it wishes to reach. The future vision of marketing with a view of components of happiness, sustainability, and inclusiveness has drawn the attention of the world towards, value realization through values. The context which had emerged all through in terms of ‘value’ to the participants of the marketing process, i.e., customers and the organizations in association with the ‘realization of this value’ seems to be directionally correlated with their ‘values.’ This research work presents demonstrative linkage and also has considered the ancient Indian texts. The research undertaken presents this relationship in a correlative manner through testifying in the form of interpretation of expression of practitioners and thinkers who had devoted their lives for reaching towards such conclusions. Value is realized it seems in terms of values which persisted. The subjectivity associated with values in terms of their execution or implementation is important for a marketer to understand so as to measurably strategize. Interpretative corroboration of the literature and the thought process of the founders, heads of organizations, senior level executives, managers, customers, academicians, and scholars (few of them of great eminence) indicated the secret lies in the scriptural text especially ancient Indian texts, not only because of the time tested strength this literature beers but also because of the reason that the contemporary authors some or the other way have been referring to this Indian treasure of Knowledge. Hence, the research has found the linkages between value realization, value and values with marketing theory through the perspective of ancient Indian literature. The literature search on value, values, value realization, and marketing theory was conducted using library databases and also through visiting libraries of different institutions. The extensive search of the literature was done by discussing with the academicians and scholars of management, marketing, Sanskrit, linguists, and economics. The vastness of original ancient Indian literature made researcher to be restricted to the translated version of ancient Indian text such as Bhagavad-Gita, Upanishads, and prominent Veda’s. The research problem was crystallized by applying exploratory research design, and reflexive approach helped in deepening the understanding of the problem. Reflexive Methodology was used to gain enriching insights from respondents. The purpose was to produce a detailed perspective of individuals or description of processes, thereby ensuring a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of interest. The sampling technique for selecting the respondents was purposive sampling, 17 elite interviews of founders or heads of organizations, 58 individual interviews with academicians and industry professionals and 11 focus group discussions (FGDs) with 83 beneficiaries were completed at nine different organizations. The data was analyzed using the reflexive approach. According to this approach, the researcher is an inseparable part of the research process and reflects on research as well. The findings of the research are based on the interpretation of data collected by the researcher with the context in the background of his knowledge of language and culture. Interpretations also project points of convergence and divergence that emerge in the interviews and discussions. On the basis of the narrative they had around their experiences rather than the exact reference to scriptures, the respondents while referring to the objective and vision of their organizations could find a reasonably easy way to connect the values with their goal. For example, everyone could suggest that their ultimate goal is to serve their customer well which is related to values by virtue. They could also suggest that is all the stakeholders are beneficiaries at one point of time which is a genuine expression with a radical perspective but, when the question of said association/ subject of this thesis referred to with the perspective of operations of organizations, finances of the organisation, profitability of the organisation then the a prominent connection between the value and value realisation evolved. Therefore, an interesting aspect which emerged was existence and recognition of the values at the root level but degradation and deviation at the execution level. It is similar to an analogy that people may think good, but they may not act good. Many experts believe that business was termed as varta (trade and commerce) in ancient text and means “an opportunity to work for the society.” Value realization, value, and values have a close linkage as many experts expressed that values give meaning to life and foundation for analyzing and imaging a requirement for leading a good satisfied life. The coherence in the words and action, i.e., “mansa, vacha, karmana” respectively increase value realization. In case of a deviation, it may create delusion amongst clients, partners, customers, and society. Values help to refrain from falling in the trap of launching marketing gimmick. Not following values marketer may lose sheen among stakeholders and customers thereby diluting the brand. Experts also emphasized on learning from the nature for developing new innovative ideas and advocated for radical thinking and non-conventional mode of learning. The traditional knowledge and traditional text may be looked upon for achieving this. Understanding values through ancient text help in conveying the essence without getting distorted or misinterpreted. The rationality in the context of ancient texts subsumes dharma, artha, kama, and moksha. These noble pursuits if critically considered and examined shape human behavior. Ancient perspective gives importance to morality thus altering the view about benefits and sacrifice and the way, and they are measured. In this view, benefits include future benefits in terms of moral upgradation and value derived from the decision made.