Good day, Dr. S. Kumaraperumal. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia.

Yeah. Thank you. Greetings from Kumara.

I'm Dr. S Kumara Perman.

I hold a PhD in management from Anna University.

My doctoral research focusing on parental choice in non non government primary education.

Thank you for sharing that, Professor Kumara.

Yeah.

To start, could you explain your approach to effectively teaching both theoretical and laboratory courses in marketing? How do you ensure your students grasp complex marketing concepts thoroughly?

OK, fine.

Actually, I'll, uh.

I'll, uh, teach the.

Sorry.

Yeah.

Yeah, actually, I'll teach.

Please continue. How would you teach both theoretical and laboratory marketing courses effectively?

Yeah, if it is a complex theory or a concept for in a marketing, I'll divide the complex element of the marketing concept into a smaller easily understandable one. And also I will give them a clear real-time examples which they are already come across in their life.

Because when they are knowing the.

Concept which is complex if we are giving a clear.

Example of their own life's life, it will be easy for them to understand. So giving a proper example from their own experience that is throughout the life they might have come across different situation in decision making. So those type of examples will be enabling them to understand the complex issues and also I'll give my own entrepreneurial experience and industry.

With them so that they can easily understand the complex concepts.

Got it. Using real-life examples and personal industry experience is a strong approach. How do you measure if students effectively understand and apply these marketing concepts in practical scenarios?

Yeah, of course.

After giving those examples and, uh, once the clear, uh, discussion is over, I'll give a small, uh, scenario for them so that, uh, I'll ask them, I'll pick some of the students, uh, to give the answer according to their understanding. Once they view the clear answers, I'll be happy. Otherwise, if they are struggling in certain parts, I'll give them support to.

Understand the core concept with another example. Or some other?

What you call exercise based things so that they can easily understand. Even if they are not understanding. After this exercise I may give them some role play sort of things. As two or three students. They will try to solve the problem the real with a scenario and that case I can easily identify the.

Area where they are struggling. From there I can give support so that it will be easy for them to understand.

That’s a comprehensive approach. You mentioned role plays and scenario exercises. Could you elaborate on how you design these practical exercises to align with intended learning outcomes?

Let me take one example uh from the concept UH segmentation if UH student is not clear about the how to.

Yes, uh.

Understand the segmentation because the concept of segmentation is uh, dividing the uh.

Mass market into a smaller homogeneous group. When we are dividing within the group, the homogeneity will exist among the group.

There will be differences these two key areas. If they are understanding it will be easy for them and also.

When they are debating the group, they have to decide which criteria is most important for them to create a division in the mass market. These three factors when they are considering it will be easy for them to understand. So I will give them a small exercise in the class itself. Let us because it's a MBA classroom or a master's level management class.

The requirements for them is we used to attract.

Uh, diverse students into the classroom that is uh, arts student, engineering student, pharmacy, different kind of student can enter into the such a program. So naturally there will be a lot of streams of students inside the class. So I will ask them to create a segmentation among their own classroom. They're based on different criteria. They may go for, right, they may go for gender, they may go for.

Location from where they are coming, whether they are oscillator or day scholar like that they are different criteria I will give so they can easily understand that concept.

That's an excellent way to make the concept of segmentation tangible and engaging. Now, shifting slightly, could you share your approach to evaluating students fairly and consistently, especially during exams and assessments?

Actually my assessment will be, uh, we'll have a different tools like case analysis, field presentation that is going to field and collect some data, come back and deliver those things according to the understanding based on the concept.

Maybe a topic of debate also will be given apart from the end final exam oriented tool also I'll be using.

So different kind of tools I will be using for evaluating the student because some of the students might be well very good in presenting some of the student very good in writing. So if you are giving different kind of schools, it will give a.

Good chance for different kind of student. According to their strength they can present their understanding. So it will be easy for the. It will be good for them to have a balanced approach in evaluation.

Understood. Offering diverse evaluation methods ensures fairness and caters to varying student strengths. How do you ensure alignment between these evaluation methods and core course objectives?

I didn't get you a person, please.

How do you make sure that the methods you use for evaluation, like case analysis or debates, are directly aligned with the key learning objectives of your course?

OK, no, it is not only the keywords. Keywords are primary.

Primary area we have to evaluate but how it is connected with the overall scenario, how they are going to use those key and connected material for decision making or how they are going to apply those key. Words for their understanding and application in the real time. Those things are very much considered.

Not only just understand, understanding the concept will be given more weightage. The application will be given more weightage. I may be using Bloom's taxonomy for this kind of situation. How much some of the things will be given weightage for understanding some big case situation and all it is not only the understanding is enough, application of those concepts in the real situation is more important so that it will be.

Uh, testing their basic understanding to application.

Got it. Applying Bloom's taxonomy to balance between understanding and application is insightful. Moving on, could you describe your experience in guiding student projects and research? How do you assist students in developing their ideas into thorough and meaningful research?

Sure, actually, because.

They're all, uh, we'll do a.

Uh, situation, uh, sorry, not uh, situation for a research, I will encourage them to come up with uh, uh, object research problems. When they are clear about their research problem, I will support them how to define the sorry, when they are not clear about the research problem, I will support them how to define the research problem. Then they will convert that research problem into research objective. So this kind of things will be given by, uh, some examples in the class itself.

Please continue,

The basic requirements later they will give them to, uh, give them a task of, uh, going for a literature review. What are the, uh, literature they can cover from the library or the online, uh, data online resources. They can collect some good journals which are already discussed related to their research topic. Then they will go for the research design that that might have been discussed in the class already.

So within that area also, if they're struggling to map the approach and the tools, what they are, what they need for doing the research and all all those things, the hand holding will be there. But as a facilitator, we'll give the and holding, but there won't.

Uh, a research question will be explored by one way of the research and that way, uh, they will have a lot of exploring opportunity and also their own thought process will be improved. Uh, finally we can use some statistical tool like SPSS Star Lab. So there are so many tools available for them to apply.

From there they can test their hypothesis. If it is a exploratory research, we can guide them how to take the focus interview or a lot of tooling tools are there. So all those things will be given, giving them a great opportunity for them to explore the research.

Their enter their input so that they will get the output.

Thank you for explaining that. It’s evident that you place emphasis on guiding students through each research stage while fostering their independence. Could you elaborate on how you use your own research expertise, particularly your experience in publishing journals, to mentor students in achieving publication success?

Actually, uh, publication is uh, a kind of, uh, not a practice we need to go about because, uh, they have to go choose a journal which is very much suitable for their research paper. From there they have to start. After that, they have to see what are the criteria they are looking from the paper. So they have to. Rework on their paper, which is fitting well with the.

Yup.

Uh, guidelines given by the journal once the guidelines is uh.

Fitting well accordingly, if they're amending their, uh, papers, uh, then they can uh.

Upload their papers in the website or the to the journal, whatever way they are looking for. From there they may get some feedback from the comments from the editors and all. Once the editor giving comments, they can go through the comments and try to incorporate those suggestions whatever they are giving so they can go through such each and every stage they have to. See the guidelines of the.

Journal. By that way there are great opportunity for them to get it accepted in the journal. Later they will it will be published.

It's clear that your mentorship emphasizes guiding students through the rigorous process of meeting journal expectations and responding to feedback effectively. Let’s discuss your approach to consulting or collaborating on industry projects. Could you share an example of how your involvement with industry projects has enhanced both your teaching and research?

Industry and institute collaboration will provide resources and opportunity for the industry. People are the supervisor. All those people come to our campus. We call it as a industry meet in that. Different kind of industry people will come will give them.

Yes, consultancy when we are nearby. Normally in my approach we used to invite.

The current scenario in the market as the guidelines, for example, any new government policy changes or any government policy which is going to give them a leverage for their market product or services, that type of discussions will be going on.

Through that, we'll have a lot of touch with the industry people. Once those type of things happen, they will come up with some. Once they start implementing these things normally they will have some bottlenecks. Those type of time they will expect our support. That time I will take my students as a Co supporter with the team. Those will go with the faculty.

Among themselves, they will see the, they will observe the situation, what type of problem they are facing, why that is going to be a bottleneck for them, what type of solution they can give. All those things they will brainstorm and discuss, then go with the a good solution based on the resource availability and situation. All those will be discussed in the brainstorming session. So, so they will get.

Some good result from them, then they will discuss with the.

Understand their, uh, side of the things. When we are, uh, whatever the solution we are giving, if there is any fine tuning requirement, we'll adjust accordingly and uh, we can give the better solution for them.

Uh, uh, organization which they are going to give consultancy and, uh, try to.

It seems like you effectively integrate industry collaborations into the academic environment, offering practical exposure for students. Lastly, with your background in marketing strategy and business, how do you incorporate marketing analytics into your teaching and research to keep up with evolving industry demands?

Marketing, analytics, uh, a lot of statistical tool and uh, technology is giving great support nowadays. Umm, so technology.

Is simplifying our work and also it is giving uh.

Good, uh, result.

Thank you, Professor. That provides insight into leveraging technology in the context of marketing analytics. I’ll document everything you’ve shared, and we’ll proceed from here.

OK.

Yup.

Yes.

Yes, Sir.

Dr. Kumaraperumal, I see that your academic work includes publishing in Scopus-indexed journals, ABDC journals, and book chapters. Could you discuss one of your research papers or publications that you believe has had the most significant impact, and explain its relevance?

Yeah, actually in if you take a recent publication which are trying to understand the acceptance of.

Online vouchers in the consumer behavior angle, how the consumers are accepting the online vouchers are given by the marketing companies. So that that was my recent publication which was accepted and indexed in a Scopus journal when we were discussing about that with my colleagues.

The research scholars because that was the new thing happening in the.

That 2024 it was published, we started that one in 2022 end. So we are discussing about that the this research, that research question was interesting for them for us. So we took that topic. We took data from the online data from young generation because the target group was.

Using the technology for their purchase and all. So we took that type of target group. We asked them to give their opinion on how they are feeling about the online voucher, how frequently they are utilizing their voucher and trustworthiness, all those things we ask them. So based on those data we analyzed and we got the.

What do you call somewhere around those people who are very frequently?

Things uh, we got a output from the uh uh, datas. The finding states that a lot of young generations are having a very good uh, confidence in vouchers, but uh.

The I value product if when they are going for still they are looking for.

Uh, conventional purchasing a attitude, but if you're taking the a bit of, uh, uh, older generation, maybe Gen. Y people and all, uh, Gen. Y people are not having such a strong belief in.

Purchasing lot of things online, uh, but still, uh, some of the people are, uh, adapting to the new technology that was also indicated in the findings. So slowly the online voucher acceptance will be more and more. I think if you are taking now, there are very high possibility the percentage of, uh, acceptance might have improved because now it is familiar.

Thank you for that summary. It's clear that your research on online voucher acceptance provides valuable insights into consumer behavior trends, particularly among younger generations. How do you take the findings from studies like this and incorporate them into your teaching strategies or curriculum when addressing marketing topics with your students?

Yeah, when I use this recent classes and all I used to take consumer behaviour when we are discussing, I used to discuss the this case also the sorry this research finding also in the class I used to tell them why this generational. Gen. Y, Gen. Z, Gen. Z and some of the Xenex if you are taking their belief and attitude towards technology is changing.

But now the world is moving fast through technology adaptation. So the market, as a marketing people, we need to adapt to the system. We need to understand how the our consumers are using the technology. These are all the things as a marketer we need to understand. So for that purpose I use this case study. So this one this research has.

Case for them to different kind of generation having the different beliefs and values that having.

Impact on their buying behavior. So these are all the things we discussed in the class for that I use this when I recently as a program director when I designed my.

Uh, curriculum for 2025 in, uh, sine Vishwa vidyapeeth that time I saw we have to introduce some of the courses, emerging courses like uh, uh, neuromarketing. Neuromarketing is emerging in that I one of the article when I read, I was really impressed with that research, Martin.

Who?

That is a cigarette smoking research in that it gave attitude is not easy to attitudes. This some of the habitual behavior, even though the consumer feel that.

When they are giving opinion, they say they are, they are feeling about. When they see the cigarette labels, cigarette warning labels, they feel guilt, they feel fear. All those things they are telling as a opinion, but their brain study is saying something opposite of that and also it is stating it is the findings state that.

The opposite of that. After that, when I read the article fully, I understand it is habitual things. It is not easy to change by creating fear. Actually that creating fear it is a classical conditioning if you are taking it become a cue for them to.

Think about the smoking habits. So instead of reducing the consumption, need to increase the consumption. That was the finding it came up from that research.

So these type of things student has to understand which not all the.

All the fear making things will change the behavior. Behavior is some of the fear making advertisement. For example, if you are seeing insurance or something like that in that area you can see fear is one of the good element to.

Change the behavior of the consumer, but the same thing not applicable in the cigarette smoking because.

Attitude is different because the whatever the, uh, fear, what we are trying to create is not having such a important factor.

But the emotional element which is giving the pleasure of smoking, all those things are over performing this rational side. That is the thing I read. So I introduce neuromarketing in the curriculum.

Fascinating work, Dr. Kumaraperumal. It's clear you draw directly from cutting-edge research to contextualize your teaching in meaningful ways. You used your research findings effectively to provide useful case studies in the classroom. Additionally, you're demonstrating innovation in curriculum design by incorporating emerging fields like neuromarketing. One last follow-up: When introducing innovative concepts like neuromarketing, how do you ensure that students not only understand the academic theories but also know how to apply them in practical marketing scenarios?

Yeah, good. Uh, actually practical in the sense, uh.

We have to give students some of the tasks which they need to go and observe or collect data from the field so that they can understand where they will be exposed to the real time situation. By that way they are going to learn how to.

Two element what we discussed here, the insurance angle and the smoking angle, both are practical element.

Observe what is the way they have to analyze those data when they are observing all those things in the real field. If you are sending, they may get more exposure and learning opportunity than the classroom. So the field exercises will give the innovative way of understanding for the new emerging things. That will be one of the good tool we can use, I feel.

Dr. Kumaraperumal, I understand your perspective on integrating real-world field exercises into the curriculum to give students practical exposure. Let me focus this a little further. Specifically, how would you integrate such field-based activities into your Marketing curriculum while ensuring they align with the learning outcomes of your course? How would you ensure that students not only gather data but also develop robust analytical and decision-making skills from these experiential tasks?

OK.

Uh, yeah.

I, I'll try to integrate UH-2 areas now, because the lot of decision making uh, in marketing connected with the economics angle. Also, economics is going to give some of the very good uh, concepts which are going to be used by the, all the marketers when they are talking about decision making situation. For example, if you see. A market structure which is having a oligopoly structure that is the.

Blue ocean, sorry, red ocean strategies sort of things. But if you're trying to go for perfect perfectly competitive market, there is no need of advertisement all those things. And this type of integrating different subjects into the marketing then it will be easy for them to then it will give more precise answer for them to understand. So it is not only the marketing concept you have to teach.

For when they are going for the field work they have to do some other element also they have to connect those subject which they are studying in their program. So that interdependency are interconnected. Analysis will give them a better chance for them to understand the situation and they may make.

A clear analysis then they will give a better answers for those situations.

Like that we can give some task which they can integrate other area of market, other areas or other domains also connected with the marketing concepts.

Interesting approach, Professor. Integrating interdisciplinary concepts, like economics and marketing, to address real-world scenarios, indeed provides students with a broader perspective on decision-making and strategy development. How would you evaluate or measure the outcomes of such interdisciplinary fieldwork? How would you gauge whether students have successfully synthesized these interconnected concepts into actionable insights?

Time is up! Ending the interview now.