Guha stressed the issues of the current state of infrastructure support and the abysmally low density of telephone lines at 0.9 for every 100 households. ``How do we deliver orders? Can we reach the customer? Along with a low per capita income, the virtual reality plagues the movement of goods,'' said Guha.

Countrywide assistant vice-president (marketing) J Jain was, however, optimistic about Internet marketing and the benefits it could offer. Said Jain: ``What do customers want? The best price, wide choice, and the fastest error-free service. While the seller's advantage will be to develop a one-on-one focus with the customer, the advantage the buyer has is to get service at the finger tip.''

Not only this, the buyer can make creative use of the web, for instance, through travelocity (to get the cheapest travel ticket). ``Organising buyer-seller meets and rating customers for loyalty is another benefit,'' Jain added.

Customer retention in tandem with database marketing and relationship marketing were determined as important issues for tomorrow. Said Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) general manager (LPG) S Venkat, building a relationship with customers, encourages repeat purchas- es. ``Retaining a customer costs one-fifth as much as acquiring a new one,'' Venkat pointed out. Commenting on the subject of database and relationship marketing, Kankei marketing director Ajay Miglani said: ``It pays to retain customers. Wooing customers is not enough, you have to take care of the existing customer and it is important to reach them on a one-on-one basis.''Special offers and incentives to enable existing employees to stay, as in the case of some banks which have attrition management divisions, helps in building a loyal customer base too, said Miglani.

Talking on the relevance of trade marketing, Balsara Hygiene sales head Jimmy Anklesaria said that India is gearing towards the supermarket scenario soon to emerge. ``It will be similar to what exists in the US where supermarket chains are larger than multinationals like Unilever and Procter & Gamble,'' he said, adding that the real challenge in the next five years will be to beat the very aggressive demand for shelf space.

Concluded HCL Infosystems vice-president S Baksi, ``With the consumer getting more knowledgeable and demanding by the day, in the IT industry we need to constantly understand the customer better and to this end the business paradigm is undergoing a change.''

P&G's new mantras: Stretch, innovate and speed

Giving Procter & Gamble's (P&G) example of crafting a culture of innovation and change to meet the emerging market needs, the company head (media & direct marketing) E Narasimhan elaborated that there is a constant need to innovate significantly better and faster than the market, to meet the internal targets.

Globally, while P&G is growing at 3-4 per cent per annum, the target set for the year 2005 is a growth of 7 per cent. Thus there is a gap in growth which has to be bridged, said Narasimhan in a case study presentation. Recently, P&G had announced a global initiative to set new goals for the future and indicated sweeping changes that would be brought about in the near future.The question is how to get the customer to buy more? The three pillars at P&G are stretch (the high level set by the new goal), innovate (do things differently to reach the target), and speed (the pace of movement towards the goal).

Narasimhan said that the three pillars would involve massive changes in the organisational structure of P&G, with seven global business units (GBUs) already being defined. ``To bring in the new style of functioning, systems have to be set in and the task is to enroll all employees towards this change. It is the business head's job to encourage the change to set in.This is done through rewarding innovation and risk taking,'' he said, adding: ``Crafting a new culture is essential to bring in the change. Thinking big is essential while setting goals--as well as ensuring that creativity and logic do not clash.''