B2B BRAND MANAGEMENT By Philip Kotler and Waldemar Pfoertsch Springer Pp: 357 Price: Rs 2,524

When it comes to marketing, there's no name bigger than Philip Kotler. The Kellogg School professor has a formidable reputation, built on the fact that an entire generation of marketers has grown up reading his books on the subject at various B-schools. So, is it possible that Kotler still has something to say about marketing that he already hasn't? It turns out, he has. In this book, co-authored with Germany's Pforzheim University professor, Waldemar Pfoertsch, Kotler makes a case for brand management in business-to-business (B2B) marketing as well. Those who've read Kotler's textbook Marketing Management will recall that his revisions over the year have included B2B marketing, but this is his first book devoted entirely to the topic.

The core proposition in the book is that in the new globalised world "being known" rather than "being one of many" is the need of the hour. "Customers for everything from specialty steel to software now face an overwhelming number of potential suppliers. Too many to know them all, let alone to check them out thoroughly..." The authors say that companies that once measured their worth in terms of tangibles such as factories, inventory and cash have to revise their point of view and embrace branding.

How does branding help in overcoming these challenges? The authors offer a huge list-it helps with differentiation (and, hence, premium) in product categories that are highly undifferentiated; creates brand loyalty, as it helps companies transition from a transaction-based selling model to one that is relationship-based; and assures future business. And all this, ultimately, leads to increased sales. There are enough examples in the b2c space of companies with strong brands benefitting not only from higher margins but also from higher sales volumes. Toyota, Nokia, Starbucks and Nike are just some of them. But there aren't too many examples that come to mind from the B2B space. Sure, there are marketers like Intel, GE, and Caterpillar that realised the advantages of B2B branding early on in their lives. For most other B2B marketers, though, branding is a superfluous exercise. After all, the argument goes, the business buyer is much more sophisticated than the retail consumer. The former is more eager to look at your costing, product performance and service than the badge on the box.

That, however, is changing, say the authors. Proliferation of similar products, increasing complexity of customer needs (moving from stand-alone products to solutions), and high price pressures will force B2B marketers to focus on brand building. If you are a B2B marketer already thinking along those lines, then this book is the weightiest corroboration you could have asked for.

THE CORPORATION THAT CHANGED THE WORLD By Nick Robins Orient Longman Pp: 218 Price: Rs 295

This isn't the first book on the British East India Company. Everyone from John Keay (Honourable Company) to John Sutton (Lords of the East) to Philip Lawson (The East India Company: A History) has written at various times about this unique corporation. So why should you read Robins, a London-based Fund Manager? "There are countless histories of the East India Company, yet none address(es) its social record as a corporation," says Robins in his introduction to the book. Not strictly true, but where Robins differs is in studying the impact of the world's first "global" corporation on the modern day multinational. For instance, the governance structure of the East India Company still lives on to a large extent in the corporation of today. "Across 400 years of modern corporate history," writes Robins, "three design flaws in particular unite the Company with the global corporations of the 21st century: the drive for monopoly control, the speculative temptations of executives and investors, and the absence of automatic remedy for corporate abuse." By examining the Company's executive abuses in detail, Robins also hopes to stimulate a debate on how to rein in errant modern day corporations. Whether he'll succeed is a different issue.