POORNIMA INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING AND

TECHNOLOGY

Master of Business Administration

AProject Study Report

OnContemporary Issues

2009-2011

Department of Management StudiesPOORNIMA GROUP OF COLLEGES

ISI-2 VI, RIICO Institutional Area, SitapuraJaipur (Rajasthan) 302 022

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I take this opportunity to thank all my teachers and fellow students at poornima Institute

of Management and Sciences Jaipur, who by their continuous support and guidance have

made this present project “Recent Trends in Advertisement” possible.

I wish to acknowledge the importance of well structured learning provided to us through

the college management in view of current industry standards and expectations.

The topic “Recent Trends in Advertisement” is a subject which is very much talked

about. Advertising itself is such a fascinating subject, as one famous author remarks

"Advertising is the life of trade."

Chandrakant Sharma

Roll no 11

M.B.A II Semester,

Poornima Institute of Management and Science

PREFACE

Advertisement they want to tell us something, they call out loud:

“Welcome to the world of creativity”

The beauty of advertising lies in the unexpected and in the fact that the unexpected

actually gets results. Sometimes, it can be the ordinary or commonplace that works!.

But surprisingly, with every innovative step comes from some unexpected quarters as the

growth slows down, a new influx of medium or spur in activity attributed to some

desirable effect.

Across time, we have been witness to big changes in advertising, from modest beginnings

of merely communicating a product or service, to highly sophisticated multi-dimensional

and multi-channel strategies, and always with the same goal. Across time, we have seen a

huge evolution of techniques and trends, products, strategies, media.

The authentic “next big thing” comes with the advent of the Internet.

Advertising is a very powerful business. All by itself, advertising powers large industries

such as television or print media, huge empires with thousands of employees and billions

of dollars in revenues which constantly feed their tummies with money coming from the

advertisers.

Across time, we have been witness to big changes in advertising, from merely

communicating a product or service, to highly sophisticated multidimensional and multi-

channel strategies, and always with the same goal: to induce someone to buy or use that

product or service.

To achieve their goal, advertisers use different types of weapons with very different

characteristics, ranging from pure carpet-bombing that guarantees the coverage of a large

area, to highly precise snipers that allow them to hit a specific target right between the

eyes and in the perfect moment to do so. Across time, we have seen a huge evolution of

those weapons, new techniques and trends, new products, new strategies, new media.

How ever, as in many other industries, the really big change, the authentic “next big

thing” comes with the advent of the Internet. And believe it or not, even though the

Internet has been among us for quite a significant number of years, the change is yet to

come. Let's review some of the changes that have started to emerge and would in the

coming years, turn the world of advertising completely upside down

INTRODUCTION

In order to understand what the advertising industry is today, it is helpful to appreciate

where it has come from.

To trace the early beginnings of advertising we have to travel back in time.

The early beginnings

Check the early rock carvings and paintings of Pompeii, Ajanta and Ellora. In the Indus

Valley civilization, the craftsmen made special signs to keep their identity unique to their

products.

In Greece, in the Middle Ages, town criers used to announce important events. In India,

we had the messengers who beat the drums and conveyed messages to the public.

In the 15th century, the invention of the printing press was a landmark in world history.

The first appearance of an advertisement was brought out by an Englishman, Caxton's

handbill- advertising his book on religion. Then, in 19th century, with the printing and

distribution of newspapers, the first advertisements, as we know it now, started appearing

and soon became popular.

Here we can see below, one of the earliest advertisements - G PRowell & Co,

Advertising agent, selling ad space in Harper's Weekly, on May 4, 1867.

NO ONE whose business requires extensive advertising can

afford to neglect the unusual facilities offered to the public by

GEO. P. ROWELL CO., Advertising Agents,

No. 40 Park Row, New York.

Call and see them, or send stamp for circular.

Harper's Weekly was the leading illustrated American periodical during the period 1857-

1872. Its circulation exceeded 100,000 on a regular basis, which at times reached

300,000, such as during the Civil War and during the 1871 campaign to defeat Boss

William M. Tweed in New York City. It is best known for the political cartoons of

Thomas Nast, the illustrations of Winslow Homer and the wood engravings of

photographs by Mathew Brady.

In 1870, when annual subscription for the periodical cost $4.00, an advertisement cost

$1.50 per line per insertion for an inside page and $2.00 for an outside page. The

newspaper had 16 tabloid-size pages per issue before 1870, which later increased up to

24 pages per issue.

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution ushered in mass production and along with it came the need to

inform a mass audience about the products, to go beyond the local reach of the

manufacturer and extend to wider markets.

Growth of Media

As print media grew from strength to strength, radio, followed by television, was

introduced as a means of communication. Marketers started using these media for

advertising their goods. They remain important even today.

Advent of Technology

With the advent of technology, IT came into being. Communication explosion brought in

its wake, media options. And new media descended onus. The Internet, World Wide Web

(www) and mobile phones have changed the way we talk and communicate.

Thus, advertising is generally agreed to have begun with newspapers, in the seventeenth

century, which included line or classified advertising.

Simple descriptions given along with the prices of the products served their purpose until

the late nineteenth century, when technological advances meant that illustrations could be

added to advertising and colour became an option.

Early success

An early advertising success story is that of

Pears Soap. Thomas Barratt married into the

famous soap making family

and realised that they needed to be more

aggressive about pushing their products, if they

were to survive. He launched the series of ads

featuring cherubic children which firmly

welded the brand to the values it still holds

today. He took images considered as "fine art"

and used them to connote his brand's quality,

purity (i.e. untainted by commercialism) and

simplicity (cherubic children). He is often

referred to as the father of modem advertising.

Alongside you can see one of the ads that were

created for Pears soap.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Acknowledgement

2. Preface

3. Introduction

4. Conceptual frame work

5. Present scenario of Advertising in India

6. Examples cases of Changing Scenario

7. Advantages of Advertising

8. Limitations of Advertising

9. Future scope of Advertising in India

10. Special words about Advertising by personalities

11. Conclusion

12. Bibliography

CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORK

The American Marketing Association, Chicago, defines advertising as "any paid form of non-personal presentation of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor."

A form is a presentation or a sign, a symbol, an illustration, an ad message in a magazine or newspaper, a commercial on the radio or on television, a circular dispatched through the mail or a pamphlet handed out at a street corner; a sketch or message on a billboard or a poster or a banner on the Net.

Non-personal means that it is not on a person-to-person basis.

Goods, services, ideas for action means making a consumer's work easy, as far as knowing about

the product of a firm. It could be a television or a banking service or filing tax returns, which the

firm or the marketer wants the consumer to know about. An idea could also refer to political

parties letting the people know about their party and why they should vote for the party. Adult

education, AIDS awareness campaign and eye donation campaign are a few examples of ideas.

Paid for by an identified sponsor implies that the sponsor has control over the form, content and scheduling of the advertisements. The sponsor could be identified by the company name or the brand of the particular product.

Some important terms usually used in the advertising fields are as follows:

AD:The name used to indicate an advertising message in the print media.

ADVERTISING AGENCY: An organization that provides a variety of advertising related services to clients seeking assistance in their adverting activities.

ADVERTISED BRAND:A brand is owned by an organization (usually a manufacturer) that uses a marketing strategy usually involving substantial advertising.

ADVERTISING MEDIA:The various mass media that can be employed to carry advertising message to potential audience or target markets for products, services, organizations, or ideas.

BANNER AD : A graphical Internet Advertising tool.

CLIENT:The term used to indicate an advertiser who has been served by an advertising agency.

OTC:Opportunity to See

POP:Point of Purchase

POS:Point of Sale

Share: The percentage of households or target audience members using television or radio that are tuned to a particular program.

TG:Target Audience

ZAPPING:The act of using a remote control to change television channels when an advertisements

begins.

PRESENT SENERIO OF ADVERTISING IN INDIA

The Indian context offers unique challenges to marketers. Cultural and economic

diversity, a blend of Western lifestyles, strong cultural anchoring, and the rural/urban

divide, with islands of prosperity in rural areas, are some of the critical factors that need

specific treatment in terms of formulation of marketing strategies.

In India, the advertising business is growing at the rate of 30% to 35% annually. It is a

1600 crore industry. It accounts for 90% of India's GDP.

In 2005, advertising was nearly a $300 billion industry in the U.S. It is irrevocably linked

to media, whether traditional media like the 13,599 radio stations in America (about $20

billion in annual revenues), the 1,749 broadcast TV stations plus myriad cable and

satellite TV outlets (totalling about $68 billion in advertising revenues), the 2,250 daily

and Sunday newspapers (about $49 billion in annual advertising revenues) or new media

like the tens of thousands of Internet sites that now accept advertising.

The advertising sector also includes direct mail, at about $45 yearly in the U.S.;

magazines, at about $21 billion; and outdoor advertising, at about $6 billion. In addition,

there is significant activity in specialty and alternative advertising, from ball point pens

printed with a message to T-shirts to small airplanes towing advertising banners.

By one count, Americans are subjected to 3,000 commercial messages daily, most of

which occur randomly such as billboards. A study by Yankelovich Partners found that

two-thirds of the Americans feel "constantly bombarded" by ads and nearly as many

respondents felt that these ads have little or no relevance to them.

Advertisers are faced with daunting new realities, when considering the various media

that they might use to get their messages across. Traditional media are losing control over

their audiences. It means that advertisers can no longer feel secure that their ads on TV,

on the radio or in print are going to receive mindshare. Gone are the days when television

and radio programmers enjoyed captive audiences who happily sat through ad after ad, or

planned their schedules around favorite shows.

Consumers, especially consumers in younger demographics, now demand more and more

control over what they watch, read and listen to and thus more control over the

advertising that they might be exposed to. Issues related to control include: pricing for

content (including free, illegal downloads versus authorised, paid downloads or pay-per-

view); portability (including the ability for a consumer to download once, and then use a

file on multiple platforms and devices including iPods and cell phones); and delayed

viewing or listening (such as viewing TV programming at the consumer's convenience

via TiVo and similar personal video recorders).

Over the last three decades, advertising and the context within which it occurs have

changed beyond recognition. As the communications universe expanded and society

became fragmented, advertising lost its traditional place within the communications

system. It has been left with a variety of challenges that it currently seems unable to meet.

Marketers should learn a lesson from politics that a new communications structure based

on flexibility rather than traditional divisions in terms of media is required to generate

effective knowledge, strategies and messages.

Advertising and marketing are undergoing a seismic shift, as new technology engenders

social change and transforms the way consumers view commercial interaction. 'Brand'

advertising is sometimes not adequate in meeting the need of the customers. Marketers

are to make the most of the new opportunities, presented by technological progress.

Advertising and advertising research are going through an exciting period of change, as

technology and social changes enable marketers to focus increasingly on individual

consumers rather than mass-market.

In a world that is increasingly dominated by technology, marketing and advertising are

also evolving. Markets, according to postmodern thought, are beginning to fragment, yet

they are creating greater challenges for the advertisers. Individuals are both isolated and

interconnected with the whole world virtually via computers. Advertising has, for a long

time, been based on a one-to-many communications model; yet new technology offers

the possibility of a computer-mediated environment, in effect, a virtual world.

In this new millennium, the attempt is to make use of the Internet and contemporary

thought for developing advertising effectiveness.

We are constantly hearing how the Internet, clutter, own-label brands and other hot topics

are about to turn the advertising world upside down. But, important though some of these

issues are, will their impact on advertising really be that great?

We foresee an exciting future for advertising, as marketers develop multicultural

strategies, find new uses for new media and explore e-commerce and on-line information

technologies.

EXAMPLE IN THE FORM OF CASES

Indians might as well be very emotional. The ever so marketable histrionics in bollywood

movies only prove this point. There may also be a lot of demand for the “K serials”. But

do we need a forced dosage of emotions in the ads too? On TV the viewers (much to the

advantage of the advertisers) do not have much choice. One might just not be in the same

mood, as being expressed by the advertisement, worse still, nowhere close. Imagine if

you are watching Monday night laughs & then I see the Airtel ad. Your brain might just

urge you to make the same reaction as a boy enjoying his birthday party until he comes to

know that the biggest gift given to him by his worst enemy has broken. The tear would be

sitting right on the edge of your eyes, wondering if it is worth taking the plunge!

The advertising campaigns of things like life insurance, beauty products, baby products,

retirement solutions, healthcare products, tour operators & social messages can never

separate themselves from the emotional content. A viewer even expects an emotional

connect. What, however, is not easily conceivable is why some companies practice

emotional advertising even though there is no need for it? In particular, advertisements of

products like electrical switches, salt, telecom companies, hawai chappals, newspaper &

paint to name a few.

Let me start not by decimating the whole concept of emotional advertising, but cite

examples which I appreciate. Those which I think are path breaking, surpassing the

barriers of the kind of product, or the target audience.

The latest frooti advertisement is the first which comes to my mind. The VO plays,

“ladke se ladki tak,” and we see a guy with Frooti resting his head on a girl’s shoulder.

Hanging out with her friends in the college canteen, a girl whistles on seeing a guy. VO:

“Canteen se seeti tak.” A teacher enters his class to find one of his students gulping down

a Frooti. Approaching him he grabs it for a sip. VO: “Student se teacher tak.” Clad in a

spacesuit, a little girl descends from a spaceship sipping a Frooti. VO: “Fancy dress mein

chhipe armaanon tak.” A guy notices a crumpled piece of paper thrown on the road by

somebody. He picks it up to throw it in the bin. VO: “India badal gaya hai… …lekin

India ka favourite froot drink wahi.” Super: Frooti. India’s most trusted fruit beverage

brand.

Striking a balance amongst creating melodrama & sending the message across is what the

ad has brilliantly achieved. It is neither too moving nor does it rubbish the idea of an

emotional connect. It is also not a product with whom one would appreciate an emotional

connect. Hats off to the creative team, of Creative land Asia for making the ad flawlessly.

One cannot forget surf’s “daag ache hain” campaign. It not only connected to the

mother’s desires & their plight of keeping the clothes white, but also with those of the

kids, who despite all efforts not to dirty their clothes, just do it! The “chintamani”

campaign for ICICI bank was a good break from the boring ads of the banks. It was an

innovative way to convey the emotional connect & with “short term chintamani” coming

in the second leg of the ad, they assured a special mention for their efforts.

Going into the recent past, I seem to recollect a few advertisements from the automobile

sector. The “Make your own road” campaign with the racy music, the rustic &

adventurous imagery captures the inherent desire for an SUV amongst men. “The josh

machine” campaign did very well to sell the ford ikon. With the sport variant coming into

the market the tag line fit perfectly with the youth connect. Last, but surely not the least is

the enfield ad. A train is running on the tracks, the next scene shows an enfield

approaching the tracks & the legendry thud of the engine, train is given a red signal & it

stops, the enfield on the other hand is shown a green flag by a buy & it passes the track

while the train remains at a halt, the VO says-”make way for the bullet electra”. I might

be biased here, being a die hard enfield enthusiast, but the sound of the engine brought

out all the emotions it was meant to. Not to mention I could clearly see the jump in sales,

looking at the number of enfields on road. This wasn’t the first time that enfield had used

an emotional brand connect. Watching an old enfield ad, it became perfectly clear. A

rider on an enfield is going through the streets of a city, the very recognizable bullet

engine & then a jingle starts playing-”yeh bullet meri jaan, manzilon ka nishan” the 20

odd second ad finishes with some more imagery of meeting fellow bullet riders. It is the

kind of camaraderie amongst the bullet owners, the ad exploited.

In another category, thinking about ads for milk products like chocolates, butter,

condensed milk, two brands occupy most mind space-Amul & Cadbury’s. Both

“shamelessly” attempt to make us indulge in “sinful pleasures”. (I speak strictly from the

weight conscious’ point of view, excluding myself.) The splashing milk, melting butter

on parathas, condensed milk on sweets, I am already drooling. The low cholesterol oils

survive on an emotional connect. Unarguably condom ads also feature in the

“acceptable” category of ads with an emotional connect; after all, it is all about the

feeling, pun intended.

The next in the line of fire, if I may, is the ads of Airtel. The ad starts with a young girl

calling up her father who is out on duty. Apparently an engineer, he helps his daughter

who is awake well beyond her bed time & bored, to draw a whale by joining the stars in

the night sky. What benefit can an emotional connect have for a telecom company? What

first needs to be answered is why, rather how can a father leave his young daughter alone

in a huge house? Advertisers should not distort reality only to accommodate the

emotional context of the story. It is not only misleading, but never lets the viewer

understand the message. I still wonder why airtel had created the previous ad with a

football being kicked across what seemed to be a border protected by barbed wires. The

emotional content was still unwanted. The saving grace was however that the ad makers

didn’t contort reality to fit in the approved story line.

Further a question rises, why do the advertisers not capture any other emotions? Why not

use the emotions of disapproval & disgust? The new beauty product campaigners are

increasingly using this very trick. Trying to project an image that the brand actually

sympathises with their target audience, they are increasingly rubbishing promotion of all

so perfect models on screen. More “realistic” beauties are being used at an increasing

level.

Maybe use an emotion of betrayal, or anguish, or ecstasy, or fear? Is it too much of a

gamble then, with an increasing number of companies unable to get their message across,

I think they have nothing to lose to go ahead & try this.

Bajaj Pulsar - Pulsarmania

Quite often I think to myself that ad

making is like cooking – a dash of

this and a dash of that a little magic

of the chef’s hands and lo behold the

perfect dish is there to be dunked

down your belly, but whenever you

try to copy the Chef’s original recipe

you discover that in fact it was not

that original and the end product is

different from what you anticipated.

Similarly in ad making the ad gurus copy the perfect formula complete with a celebrity

roped in despite this the commercial falls flat (read the last post). But at times you see

something which is as close to being perfect as you thought it could be.

It’s very rare that you see a commercial

that makes you crave for some action

without even asking you to do so, and

that’s precisely what the new Pulsar

commercial titled Pulsar Mania does to

you. It makes you want to jump out of

the bed, don your helmet pick up the

keys and listen to the rumble of your

bike’s engine before you hit the road.

6 guys burning rubber in such a well choreographed manner that it would make John

Woo sit up and take notice, the guys go through formations that are amazing and the

effect is heightened by some excellent

cinematography. The ad is perhaps the best

bike commercial ever to have hit the TV

screens in India – The commercial is one of

the most captivating commercials I have

seen in the recent times, it’s visually

breathtaking and the effect is tremendous. I

bet even the ad makers hadn’t thought that

the final product would be so good.

The USP of the ad is that it focuses on the product through out without ever losing focus

or stressing too much, it’s un-conventional to say the least – No voiceover, No tagline.

Yes they could have done with some good music since it would have increased the

overall effect manifolds and moreover it would have given Pulsar its own tune which is

still missing.

Feels good to see such amazing work – it’s a spark which has come out after a long time.

Coca Cola Coke

 

A bunch of teenagers late in the night, hungry looking for food in an open air car, sounds

familiar?

But that’s where the familiarity ends because these youngsters meet Hrithik Roshan and

at the right moment you see the Coke bottle opening with a fizz (Off course Hrithik opens

it). The Season opener from Coke features Hrithik Roshan and a bunch of teenagers, the

kids are out driving late in the night are feeling ravenous and thus on the look out for

food. They enter a street full of fast food shops but all are closed and they feel

disappointed, one of them finds a man sprawled on the hood of a car and shouts at him

“hey brother” – the man looks pulls up the cap on his face and passes a smile – its

Hrithik. He has a Coke bottle in his hand and a bottle opener too, before opening the

bottle Hrithik slides the opener on the side of the Coke Bottle and you hear the sound so

familiar to the pre multiplex days when the hawkers would enter the cinema hall sliding

the openers against soft drink bottles during the interval. The moment Hrithik opens the

bottle you see food being made everywhere the whole surrounding is lit up and we have a

lot of Samosas, Jalebis and the Indian version of Chowmein being savored by the

teenagers, all this disappears with the last drop of Coke in Hrithik’s bottle.

All the while there is a jingle playing in the background “ Gajab ki shaam hai yaron jage

hain hum matwale aaj naa yeh rukna hai aaj tu jashn manale” – “It’s a wonderful evening

we all yuppies are together this moment wont last forever – so party now”-  Forgive my

translation from Hindi to English. Well this jingle is the second best thing in the ad and

the best is the sound of the bottle opener sliding against the bottle. A very short ad with

no idea behind it, the ad survives only on the jingle, David Ogilvy had once said “When

you don’t know how to sell a product – Sing”, that’s what the ad makers did in this

commercial.

Since it is the first Coca Cola Coke Ad for the season it’s a big let down, we expect the

season opener to be high on the entertainment value even if we ignore the creative aspect.

The Coca Cola commercial makes the new Pepsi ad featuring Shahrukh Khan, Deepika

and Ranbeer look like a work of art and a master stroke.

Coca Cola Coke needs to pull up their socks.

Pepsi’s – Featuring Shahrukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone.

Summer’s are around the corner and the soft drink giants are vying for your attention,

Pepsi has already launched its latest commercial featuring

Shahrukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone. It’s

an explosive combination sure to make viewers sit up and

take notice of the unveiling of the new Pepsi Slogan for

2008.

The ad has Shahrukh as Deepika’s geeky elder brother and

Ranbir as the guy after Deepika.

The season opener from Pepsi has Ranbir trying to woo Deepika while donning a biking

jacket and hanging from her balcony, suddenly he falls down and in the process he pulls

down a dish antenna with him. Hearing this sound Shahrukh opens the door with a book

in his hand (titled antariksha yatri - comeon guys you could have done better than that) to

check and finds Ranbir dressed like a superhero with a dish antenna in one hand.

Shahrukh asks him who is he and where does he come from. Flabbergasted Ranbir looks

at Shahrukh and points upwards towards the balcony, Shahrukh thinks he is from another

planet and asks him where is he coming from?, Ranbir meanwhile has turned around

facing two hoardings with neon signs (one is Hindustan something and the other is

Young India Underwears) and he blurts out in an alien like tone “Youngistan se aya hoon

- i have come from Youngistan” to which Shahrukh replies - Why have you come here?

and pat gets the answer from Ranbir in the same alien tone - “To be your sister’s

bodyguard (tumhari behan ka body guard banane)”. Shahrukh takes him to meet Deepika

and tells her that he has come from Youngistan and would stay with them from now on

and leaves the love birds alone(while Ranbir and Deepika give each other the know it all

smile),  Deepika asks Ranbir “How did you do this?” and Ranbir replies holding a bottle

of Pepsi “Chaho to sab possible hai - Everything is possible if you want it” at this

moment the new slogan for 2008 is unveiled “Yeh hai Youngistan meri jaan - Pepsi”.

The ad has tremendous entertainment value which fizzles out in the end when Shahrukh

leaves the two alone and one more critical thing - SRK has been wasted in this ad, the ad

holds good promise as it begins but loses steam as it progresses. The ad is in line with

Pepsi’s efforts to establsih itself as a youth brand and the only thing that comes to my

mind is David Ogilvy’s famous quote “Every advertisement should be thought of as a

contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image”. Full marks to the ad on

supporting the overall brand image but otherwise a poorly executed ad which lacks the

punch and banks only on the celebrity’s appeal, lets hope Pepsi does better sequels to this

one.

The ad has just been splashed on all the major channels but how all these pieces fit in in

the mind of the consumer is yet to be seen, however since Pepsi has decided not to renew

the contracts of Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid we  believe that Pepsi would be

pushing this campaign quite aggressively.

Airtel comes of age - joins Idea, Reliance and Vodafone

Finally Airtel comes of age – in line with the new trend.

Well what to say, I seem to have developed a fixation for Airtel  though not an Airtel user

I have been quite impressed with the way Airtel always manages to waste money in some

ad or the other. I mean they have a knack for it off late they have been pouring money in

like anything into their ads but “uffff ads” is all that they have managed.

But finally someone seems to have woken up at Airtel and they seem to be coming of

age. The kids are amazing, the setting is great and the result is a well executed ad with a

message in it. By picking up soccer instead of cricket and not showing the Indo Pak

border the ad company certainly seems to be trying to give it an international feel, or may

be they thought cricket in no man’s land would not have been a very good idea (We at

Adidiot are big cricket fans so we are being biased).The Airtel “No man’s land soccer ad”

scores heavily in terms of being in line with the current trend in Indian Advertising

“Social Messages or just messages”.

Vodafone did it with “ek pal main kitna kuch campaign” and Idea had their very own

idea in “What an idea sirji campaign”.

Even Reliance kicked in with an ad which was not exactly a social message we are

talking about the “Yeh India ka Cricket hai Bedu ad”. In my opinion the winner is Idea

because they were the first ones to come out with the brilliant campaign starring

Abhishek Bachhan. It’s a very good ad with a very human message but I have only one

question “Is Abhishek Bachhan required in this ad”, he doesn’t add anything to the

otherwise brilliant ad. I am sure Abhishek would have charged a bomb to endorse Idea;

well it’s a different debate altogether “Do we need celeb endorsements?”

ADVANTAGES OF ADVERTISING

Let us bear in mind that we are in a world which is dominated by three Ds. Dream, Desire

and Demand.

Underneath are listed in bullets the core purpose and the benefits of advertising.

1. The Purpose

The primary purpose is: communication with the consumers, conveying

information about products or services. There is persuasion here - it is an entire process

of planned persuasion. Through advertising, there is a definite contribution to economic

growth. Advertising helps to expand market by developing new markets. And, last I but

not the least, it is a catalyst for change - as in new products brands.

Everyone knows that the purpose of advertising and marketing (regardless of the

product) is to promote and sell a product. Is there any manufacturer in the world who

spends money on advertising to encourage consumers to stop using his product?

2. The Benefits

The main benefit of advertisement is that it imparts information to prospective

customers about a company's products or services.

It involves brand image building - for example, Lux is perceived as the soap for

beauty queens; one imagines the superiority of VIP moulded luggage through

association with foreign nationals, courtesy a series of advertisements that had

appeared in the Indian media.

There is innovation involved here. However, advertising does not guarantee

success for all new products. In other words, the advertising may be very creative

and click with the target audience, but if the product does not deliver or live up to

its promise, it may flop in the market.

New product launches gain a great deal through advertising, for consumers can be

made aware of the products and also persuaded to trials.

Advertising contributes to the growth of media, by raising advertising revenues,

which, in turn, helps launch of new publications.

There are long-term and indirect benefits of advertising. There is free competitive

enterprise and advertising contributes to greater availability of goods.

It increases distribution of advertised products and others too.

Costs of production and selling are reduced, when volumes increase.

LIMITATIONS OF ADVERTISING

Today, we are bombarded by a barrage of advertisements. Be it the newspapers,

magazines, the television or the so many hoardings which line up any street or highway,

there are a lot of advertisements to be seen. In fact, the quantity and the quality of the

advertisements seem to be increasing day after day.

Advertising has become an important tool at the hands of the marketers, for selling their

products. Some advertisements are criticized for being false, misleading and deceptive

and for concealing information. Advertisements can also manipulate the consumer,

pushing him to go inot an unnecessary buying spree.

The principal criticisms against advertising are many.

1. Advertising is parasitical

Advertising influences consumer choice and purchase of products. It can be tested days

after the launch of the product or service. Has advertising forced people to buy? The truth

is that it tells people that the choice or opportunity is there.

2. Ads are untrue or misleading

Sometimes, advertisements not perfect. They are unethical, dishonest. It is always the

advertiser, the manufacturer, the businessman or the client who is at fault, not

advertising!

In India, for instance, cigarette and liquor ads are banned. But they do find a way out

through what is called "surrogate" advertising. In countries like Malaysia too, they are

banned.

Sometimes in media, ethics is largely a matter of business.

A misleading ad is definitely bad PR for the product or the company.

3. Ads causes false & materialistic demands for things that people do not want

At the bottom of it all, advertisements offer choice. It creates wants and products, say

some critics. Some examples include beauty soaps and toothpastes, soft drinks, floor

cleaners, etc.

However, it is a fact that advertising tells us about things that we have never heard of.

And, advertising moves with changes. And, what critics consider 'materialistic' is a matter

of improved living standards.

4. There is no need to continue advertising an established product

If this were true, manufacturers would be delighted.

Products have life-cycles and a need to be advertised, after which they are withdrawn or

revamped. Most established products go on advertising - Liril, Nescafe, Bata, Cadbury's,

Pepsi, Coke, Nestle etc.

5. Advertising causes costly competition and higher prices

We live in times of stiff competition. And what we see around are very competitive ads.

Sometimes it is seen that when competition gets too hot, advertisers get together and

develop a strategy to work out mutually beneficial strategies.

No doubt, the customer pays for the advertising. This is a legitimate distribution cost of

the product. Take a look at loose atta sold in the market and branded atta like Annapuma

or Pillsbury. These are definitely costlier.

On the other hand, advertising can reduce rather than increase prices. Some example are

radios, transistors, walkmans, handsets etc. Consider how much they cost during the

introduction stage and how much they came down in price once they were established,

making it more affordable for the consumer.

6. Advertising may encourage unsound or false values

Consider the effect of advertising on children and young people and you may see sense in

this allegation. Critics club this and the spoils of the modern society consumerism and

what have you - and may be you can see the connection.

7. Advertising can endanger competition

Sometimes big advertisers monopolise the market and colour the meaning of healthy

competition. Generally, in the marketing warfare, it is the winning principle of "might is

right" rather than "survival of the fittest."

The benefits of advertising are a part and parcel of modem society. Sometimes there is

too much of it and we are often irritated by the 'commercial break.'

The amount of advertising that one can observe is actually proportionate to the size of

market. And dearth of advertising would reflect diminished market, weak purchasing

power and a narrow choice of goods. To aid economy, advertising works best when there

is: reasonable free trade, full employment and high purchasing power.

In this case, advertising works as a lubricant, a force for the social good. It helps to

maintain prosperity and to raise the standard of living or the quality of life.

FUTURE SCOPE OF ADVERTISING

With the dawn of the Internet have come many new advertising opportunities. Popup, Flash,

banner, advergaming and email advertisements (the last often being a form of spam) abound.

Each year, greater sums are paid to obtain a commercial spot during the super bowl, which is, by

the most measures, considered to be the most important football game of the year, or for the

matter of fact the new format of 20-Twenty cricket which has been introduced by the Indian

Cricket Board as IPL (The Indian Premier League) which is expected to generate unprecedented

volumes of advertising and that will be the revenue generator for the whole tournament which has

attracted major attention both from media but also from all the cricket playing countries whether

negative or positive.

The Indian online advertising market size is estimated between 150-175 crores and is

growing at more than 50% year-on-year. Almost 70-80% of online advertising is

happening on a handful of large sites like Indiatimes, Rediff, Yahoo India , Google India,

Sify, Moneycontrol and MSN India. Compared to print and television the number of

players and market size is still very small. To exponentially grow the online advertising

business,

A clear strategy should be formulated based on industry standards and norms along with

looking at well settled practices around the world. Some suggestions to foster the growth

and to bring an understanding into the matters of feasible and sensible adverstising.

Advertising and national goals

Governments of many developing countries, except those which have a strong

commitment to private enterprise, frequently frown upon advertising. India has a mixed

economy. The system of national planning and the Institution of planning commissions at

the centre and in the states were evolved to satisfy further demand. The question of

resources allocation is undoubtedly relevant. However, it has assumed undue importance.

A lot of miscomprehension about the role of advertising arises because inherent

marketing orientation of accepted and established systems, such as planning is ignored.

Attitudes towards advertising

The function and purpose of advertising, when considered in isolation from marketing objectives,

is often misunderstood. There is extensive use of advertising in the Indian context not only by

business and industry, but also by the government and political parties. Political

advertising, too, raises questions about the applications techniques as well as motives,

despite the explicit use of advertising by the government and political parties. The image

of advertising amongst opinion leaders and decision makers, as indicated by their

personal opinion, is however, distinctly positive.

Use and misuse of advertising

Critics of advertising in India include individuals and action group such as women's

associations.

Woman's groups are particularly offended by excessive and irrelevant use offemale

models and vulgarity in advertisements. A vigilant attitude towards advertising is

certainly desirable. It is however, unfortunate that many a time much criticism, regardless

of its merits, takes the form of an attack of the specific advertising and the concerned

organisations.

The consumer education and research centre is an organisation which has given a lead in

initiating action on misleading and untruthful advertisement. An instance may be cited

here.

Seven Seas Super Vitamin E was being advertised in the lay press with the claim that it was

helping millions around the world feel young. The body copy went on to state that the product

"helped hair retain its natural lustre, body and bounce; made a woman's skin glow with health,

youth and beauty; and, made a man feel more lively and full of energy." The CERC took up the

matter with the manufacturers and enquired about the indications and dosage of this vitamin and

whether a doctor's prescription was required. Replies received were not considered satisfactory.

The centre also sought the opinion of experts and the food and drug control organisation,

Mumbai. This development represents a healthy instance of probing done by a consumer

body and the consequent pressure that was brought to bear not only on the manufacturer

but also on the authority concerned, in this case with drugs and remedies.

Norms of Judgment

The instance cited above was an unambiguous case when the validity information

contained in the advertising was not tenable. Apparently, the manufacturer too appreciated

it. In a large number of debatable cases, it is necessary to know accepted

New Horizons

Advertising professionals in developing countries have to be fully aware of the challenge and

responsibility trust on them by virtue of a vast unexploited potential, on the one hand, and the

resistance that they encounter from various quarters, on the other.

This requires looking beyond their own narrow areas of operation. A great deal of co-operative

endeavor is required in order to put advertising on a sound footing. This has to be backed by

research, the bulk of which is a major drawback for advertising decisions.

There has to be a greater willingness on the part of all persons and actions concerned with

advertising to innovate and experiment. This calls for an unconventional approach, as applicable,

whether it is towards idea, content of the message, creative strategy or evaluation of tenses.

Stereo-typing, the curse of advertising, is a real danger against which the industry has to guard

itself. This may be seen for instance in heavy reliance on the standard mass media or in creative

execution. Advertisements for textiles products, for instance, look alike. This type of situation

may render all such advertising ineffective. It is, basically, in the interest of advertisers to

get a proper payoff from their investment in using agencies, which can justify their existence

only if the advertising products result.

The quality of advertising and its social acceptance are the two sides of the coin. Advertising has

to reflect social norms, value and aspirations. Since various problems arise, there is a need for

legislation.

In India, too, this subject should be treated with the urgency that it demands. Sensible and

practicable guidelines can be developed and an institutional framework established for self

regulation. The benefit for the advertising industry will be great. Imposition of such discipline

will be preferable to legislation. Self regulation can be more effective, because of its expediency,

as against lengthy legal processes.

If recent trends towards increasing professionalisation are any guide, there are grounds to believe

that the advertising industry will be able to evolve norms of conduct for itself, which will enable

it to continue growing and making its due contribution to person and the nation.

Globalisation strategies for Indian brands

To succeed in the particular business, one needs an ability to raise cost effective capital

and a sound understanding of technology and trends. It is very important to do so, not as

much as to raise money as to gain equity on a global platform.

Branding was repositioned at the Confederation of Indian Industry's Brand Summit in Chennai.

With globalisation stretching markets, the focus was on creating strategies for effective global

brand management.

BT (Business Today) presents six routes to global branding, which emerged from their

brainstorming.

High level of customisation

A brand as an experience calls for high sensitivity to the customer's needs, even

discerning to the customers subtle expressions! Customisation has become imperative.

The customer will always find exactly what he or she needs, whether it is his/her brand or

not. Every global player is trying to develop a brand image-specific customer relation

marketing module, which entails customer-emotion evaluation. With growing use of

technology and freer cross-border trade, the customer has so much choice now. The one

one-size- fits-all marketer will perish if they do not customise.

Manage the value perception

The brand transcends every barrier, most of all, class. But it still means different socio-

economic groups. The customer's commitment towards the value of brand is inversely

proportional to her standing on the socio-economic scale. The functional attributes of

successful global brands define a brand. However, it is the value that the companies

manage to yoke to these brands, by exploiting the perception of the customers belonging

to different socio-economic groups, which ultimately works.

Do not extend your brand indiscriminately

Procter & Gamble, Chevrolet, and Millers & Coors have all been victims of

indiscriminate brand-extensions. Levi-Strauss' brand-share dropped from 31 to 19 percent

in just seven years, when it came up with 27 different cuts to appeal to a wider market.

Diluting the brand equity by getting into sub-branding will only kill sales. For, when

there are too many products under the same brand name on the shelf, the customer is not

patient.

In the US, nine percent of the brand-extensions die.

Localise global brands

Ford Motor's response to the Indian market is a pointer. Even as it positioned its new car, the

Ikon, in line with Indian needs, it replicated its global manufacturing in all the Indian

manufacturing plants.

Speak in one Voice

No matter what’s its product, service or market, general electrics communications is universal.

“We bring good things to life”. Indian brands should bring in this habit.

Do not neglect the nucances

Every one knows it by now, but cross cultural mistakes can still kill your chance of globalization.

SPECIAL WORDS ABOUT TRENDS AND CHANGES IN ADVERTISING BY PERSONALITIES

There was a time when advertising was perceived or rather misunderstood as a non-serious

profession. “15 years ago, people were sceptical and had pre-conceived notions about the

advertising industry. Their pride and joy lied in the fact that their wards chose to be doctors,

lawyers or engineers as they believed that the advertising industry is meant for ‘glamourous boys

and girls’ who want to have fun and are not serious about their careers. However, with the

changing trends, this perception has changed and how!” says Pratap Bose, CEO, Ogilvy India.

This mindset has certainly changed, as people consider a profession in the advertising industry

lucrative and competitive. And now it’s not just about making ads, it is about creating, selling and

branding a concept. “I believe that the Indian advertising industry today is moving into a

completely different direction and is getting more in touch with the local flavour. Though most

agencies in India are being pushed by multi-national agencies, the ads being produced in India are

more advanced and are getting their share of the bigger pie. Also, the traditional methods of

making ad films are no longer existent as computer graphics are playing a key role in enhancing

the quality of Indian ad films, making them unusual and different than the way they were made

earlier,” says famous ad guru and the current Chairman of London Institute of Corporate

Communication, Alyque Padamsee.

“The Indian market is being flooded by various brands and the best and the only way for a

consumer to come to know of the value of the brand is through the right communication channels

and the right communication message,” says R Balakrishnan, Chairman and Chief Creative

Officer, Lowe India.   

CONCLUSION

The whole purpose of advertising is to sell products or ideas, so the massive

expansion of foreign companies and advertising, whether coming from overseas or

created in India, has meant the massive expansion of the sales of foreign products. The

liberalisation of the Indian economy in the early 1990s has led to the accelerated entry of

foreign business and foreign advertising agencies to sell the products of foreign products

to the vast potential Indian market of over a billion people. Though there are

approximately about 25% living at or below the poverty line, the expanding potential

markets represented by those above the poverty line number hundreds of millions for low

priced repeat purchase consumer goods, and many millions for those able to purchase

consumer durables and luxury goods.

Advertisers are using considerable ingenuity to develop strategies to enter these

markets. In the early 1990s there were Indian advertising companies in the profile of top

advertising agencies but by the end of the decade most had made strategic alliances with

foreign agencies. There was a concentration in revenue, both in products, companies,

(HUL being the largest company and the greatest spender on advertising), and in the fact

that 25 agencies accounted for 75% of the advertising revenue in India in 1999 (Srinivas,

1999).

The major competition is in the low end of the market between the cola giants, the

personal products and soap markets but there is also an expanding market for electronics,

consumer durables and services amongst ‘the consuming

classes’. Television and satellite television has been eroding the market dominance of

print advertising in the 1990s, but print is still the largest source of media, including

newspapers and magazines, which have expanded considerably in the 1990s. Advertising

in the 1990s focused on the Hindi and English speaking population via television and

print, which was predominantly, educated, urban and middle class. In the 2000s however,

major companies have been using strategies to other markets, such as the rural and

village market (70% of the population), and the internet user teenage market.

These increases in advertising expenditure and the promotion of foreign products have

impacts on culture, through the undermining of traditional habits and behaviours, the

creation of new wants and desires, often for products like soft- drinks that have no

nutritional benefit, and also by strategies that rework cultural values and beliefs. The

roles of men, women and children are changing, traditional places within home and

family, concepts of beauty, identity and personal cleanliness are undergoing major

change. The overall impact of massive increases of foreign company advertising is the

acceleration of India into the culture and ideology of consumerism, the expansion of

foreign businesses into India and the export of profits to foreign corporations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Gupta,R. (2002, June ). Rural consumers get close to established world brands.

Advertising Age Global. 2 (10), p.5.

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www.magazineworld.org/members

Sehgal, R. (2000c, September 25).India clamps down on vice, piracy.

Multinational News International, 21 (39),p.49.

Sehgal, R. (2001, May) Kiss and sell? Don’t try it in India. Multinational News

International, 7(4), p.8.

http://www.ou.edu/class/jmc3333/India.htm

The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited. (2006, February 9). Darwinian

struggles. Business Asia.

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=1&titulo=Advertising:-The-times-are-a-changing

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http://www.watblog.com/2008/01/11/iamai-session-iv-the-digital-media-

%E2%80%93-trends-and-reasons-why-it%E2%80%99s-likely-to-grow-or-not/

http://anuraggupta.blogspot.com/2006/03/online-advertising-in-india-how-to.html

Mark Read, the Director of Strategy at WPP and the CEO of WPP Digital Delivered the Keynote Address. V. Ramani, the Co Founder of Connecturf also delivered a presentation outlining the various bottlenecks with respect to client – agency relationships online (special emphasis on the Indian Online Space). Kiran Gopinath, the founder and CEO of Ozone media along with Vishnu Mohan the CEO of APAC, Havas Media completed the panel.

 

 

Here is WATBlog’s analysis of the key elements of discussion.

 Global Online Advertising Revenue – $19.5 Billion in 2005. This has grown at about 11 – 13% on an average Worldwide.

 As of now, consumers worldwide spend about 11% of their time on the Internet while the % spends on the Internet are at only 4%. There exists an obvious gap which will eventually be bridged as advertisers recognise lower ROI from other mediums where consumers may not really be spending as much time.

 In India, 1.8% of ad spends are on the Internet. For the UK, this figure stands at 20.1%. So as penetration goes, one can get a sense of where the market is headed. Projections are that by 2010, 3.7% of all advertising in India will be on the Internet.

 Another point to note is that in many industries, India has skipped traditional growth models. So mom and pop shops who want to grow and connect with consumers directly and contextually may skip direct marketing via mail or mail order catalogues altogether and thus in a sense skip being attached to those forms of advertising and develop an expertise and guaranteed presence on the Internet.

 

 

 

 

The problem with the Internet in India however is penetration and a lack of cultural understanding.

 To give you an example – Women in India are traditionally known as decision makers for many products. Most FMCG product decisions are dictated by women.

 In India, women do not access the Internet and they are fragmented audiences. The ‘real’ Indian Woman – the middleclass housewife is not accessing the Internet and thus the Internet today is reduced to a niche medium, a medium that generally does not attract too much strategy or too much money either.

 Advertisers however fail to recognize that the power of the Internet lies in relevance – true as of now the TA is limited only to teens in India. But the Internet has the power to actively engage the user – create conversations, create interactions etc. Thus it goes beyond the passive experience that a TV commercial would provide.

 The Internet currently does not take ad spends primarily because of penetration issues and also because it does not understand Indian Culture too well. Traditionally, FMCG products are ingrained in culture so once Internet Media Vehicles recognize this, the Internet can become an apt complementary medium for Mass media vehicles (for now atleast)

An interesting point was noted Mr. V Ramani, Co – founder and Vice Chairman of Connectturf – he asked the audience at the IAMAI summit whether anyone was from the FMCG sector on the client side – interestingly only one hand went up. So the verdict from FMCG majors is quite clear – as of now, the Internet is not a priority.

 

Online advertising in India: How to make the big leap

The Indian online advertising market size is estimated between 150-175 crores and is growing at more than 50% year-on-year. Almost 70-80% of online advertising is happening on a handful of large sites like Indiatimes, Rediff, Yahoo India , Google India, Sify, Moneycontrol and MSN India. Compared to print and television the number of players and market size is still very small. To exponentially grow the online advertising business, I feel that the Indian Internet portals can do better by focusing on the following:

Selling accountability

Search advertising globally is already as large as banner / display advertising. What makes search advertising so special? Well two main reasons, firstly search advertising is contextual so it leads to better response and secondly and more important the entire cost is based on performance (clicks) i.e. an advertiser only pays when someone clicks on his ad.

The Internet portals who depend on banner advertising will increasingly have to face this challenge – they will made to be more and more accountable by their advertisers who use the medium to advertise and increasingly start using tracking tools to evaluate the performance of their campaigns (in terms of number of clicks/ leads etc). One needs to remember that Internet is the only truly accountable medium for advertisers and further it is so easy to track performance of an internet advertising campaign.

The Internet portals will like the advertising deals to be on impressions (Cost per thousand or CPM basis) rather than on performance (Cost per click or CPC basis). I do not understand this logic, as the advertisers in due course of time will calculate down to the last paisa the cost per unit of performance (per lead or per click) even in the CPM deals. Accordingly the cost of CPM itself may drive down in case of low performance delivery! A manifestation of this can also be happening in form of advertisers insisting on larger banners as they will naturally tend to give better response!

So, rather than lamenting about Internet being over accountable, the Internet portals should actively start selling and positioning Internet on its true strength of accountability. They should also learn from listing models like Naukri etc where the only criteria for advertising is performance!

Self help model: Target small advertisers

how do we grow the advertising pie? One of the ways is obviously to get more and more new advertisers to start advertising online. Currently all Indian portals are grappling with getting the offline big / national advertisers to start spending online. This is proving to be a daunting task itself; however, no one is focusing yet on the smaller advertisers. One of the problems with approaching these people will be the small ticket / order value. The cost of servicing these clients will become very high. This is where Internet technology can come into play. It can allow an advertiser to set up and manage his own campaign on a site. I have not yet seen any such offerings from Indian portals. Maybe we should learn from Google who have thousands of advertisers using self enablement / help model and advertising on their

sites.

Of course one can argue that Google’s self enablement model works on text based ads, but I am sure we can extend the same logic to self-enable display / banner advertisement campaigns.