Philip Kotler and Hinniappuhamy

Finally Professor Philip Kotler has visited Sri Lanka. He came to Sri Lanka at a time when we were celebrating the “Sambuddha Jayanthiya” (Buddha attained enlightenment 2600 years ago). The marketing guru came with his new version (with Hermawan Kartajaya & Iwan Setiawan) of Marketing 3.0. Here is the description of Marketing 3.0 in Kotler’s own words:

“My colleagues and I believe that Marketing 1.0 represented an effort to establish the superior performance of a product (“Tide cleans better,” “Volvo is safety,”). In Marketing 2.0, marketing added an emotional dimension to strengthen its appeal to prospective customers. We are entering Marketing 3.0 where marketers are adding a human spirit dimension. Marketing 1.0 and 2.0 is how a product or offering will serve you. Marketing 3.0 is how a product and its company are sensitive to social and economic issues that are a concern to everyone.”

According to Marketing 3.0, instead of treating people simply as consumers; marketers must approach them as whole human beings with minds, hearts and spirit. This is what the Buddhism dictates. Dr. Mikio Matsuoka, Researcher, Institute of Oriental Philosophy discuses it in one article “The Buddhist concept of a Human Being” (published in The Journal of Oriental Studies, 2005) which explains how Shakyamuni Buddha’s religious movement attempted to realise a moralistic revolution of society by reforming the hearts and minds of the individuals in that society. Buddhism offers methods to clarify our mind, open our heart, and face the realities of human life. So a marketer should follow more on the philosophy of Buddhism in order to apply Marketing 3.0.This is the beauty of Buddhism.

More importantly, recently I read the success story of Maliban Biscuit led by Angulugaha Gamage Hinniappuhamy, from Akmeemana, in the Galle District. Once he arrived in Colombo, he was given a sound advice by his mother .That was, “Son you may leave the village and go to Colombo, but remember that whatever you do must be in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha and has the blessings of the gods”.

Having taken this advice to heart Angulugaha Gamage Hinniappuhamy and his brothers started their business in biscuit. The sons also treasured the advice to give consumers only products that could be safely given to their own family and children. They tasted the biscuits first before giving it to the customers. It is through applying the teachings of the Buddha that they understand the heart, the values and the mind of the customers.

Is it the same thing that Professor Kotler is saying? But he took 40 plus years for this, and passed 3 versions to arrive at this argument in Marketing 3.0. We always like to embrace Western theories. But once we visited the real ideology then we can understand that they also learnt it from us. But there are still some people with a colonial mentality. They do not value our culture or our heritage. Even we do not value our own people. But now the time has come to respect them — give respect to the people like Hinniappuhamy. We have to revisit these success stories and organise some international level conferences to communicate and showcase this to the world and also communicate this to our next generation. This should be one part of “Marketing our values”!