A Research Report on Subject Impact

of Advertising in Retailing
IN

(In partial fulfillment to the requirements of MBA program of Mahamaya Technical University, NOIDA)

SUBMITTED TO:
MR. ANKUR MITTAL

SUBMITTED BY:
NAVNEET SINGH ROLL NO. 1133570035

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, SHAMLI SESSION 2012-2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. 2. 3.

PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OBJECTIVE

1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

INTRODUTION SCOPE OF STUDY USE OF THE STUDY THEORYTICAL CONCEPT RESEARCH METHODOLOGY DATA ANALYSIS CONCLUSION RECOMANDATION QUESTIONNAIRE BIBLIOGRAPHY

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11 22 61 62 65 66 68

PREFACE

Once a time a man is died due to an accident. A Yamdoot come to take his soul with him. He said that Yamraj ordered him to take you in Haven because you havent done any type of mistake in your life. This is good for that person but he doesnt know the difference between Haven and Hell. He asked that Yamdoot about the Haven. Yamdoot define the Haven as the place where you find every thing like your earth or even more than that, i.e., happiness, love, care, and lots more. Then he again raise the question to know about the Hell. Yamdoot says that Hell is like the well of darkness where the life after death is very hard. No one cane leave there. They take the soul in the boiling water and oil to washout the dirt he take with him from earth. This is very dangerous place to leave. The man can understand the places and decided to live in Haven. But when he reached towards the Haven he saw next to the Haven a place where people is well behaved and care a lot, flowers are fluttering every where and also very attractive with the food and lightening. This can attract the person and he want to leave in that place. Yamdoot warn him not to see there because it is the Hell where all the dangerous things are happening. But the man cant listen the voice of the Yamdoot and he interred inside the Hell. After entering in the Hell guards of the Hell catch him and pull him into the boiling oil. He then asks him that if this is the hell then what be in the gate of the hell. They say it is our advertisement department to attract the people towards the Hell. This is the advertisement to attract the customer towards the product to buy or get those thing which he require or not but to generate the requirement for that product is important. 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This study explores the profile of contemporary advertising in India in the wider context of trends in international advertising, the recent changes in Indian economy and society, and issues concerning the cultural impact of foreign advertising in India. In the 1990s India has witnessed a massive expansion of advertising, and the advertising sector has quickly been taken over by foreign advertisers and agencies that are affiliated with foreign advertising agencies. The whole advertising sector demonstrates a remarkable degree of concentration. There has been a rapid expansion of the television and satellite television in the 1990s but print is still the dominant media. The profile of most advertised products is dominated by advertising for personal products. The strategies used in India have undergone significant change in recent years, and there has been increased customisation to the local culture along side a major intensification of strategies

aimed at targeting rural markets, to stimulate the purchase the products of foreign companies.

OBJECTIVE

For an advertisement to be effective it must benoticed,read,comprehended,believed,andacted upon.For one who has no objective, nothing is relevant.It is very much important to set the objective of the ad to be delivered for any of the product. The product is either of the FMCG, Consumer Durable, Service product, etc. but even that the company is looking for the promotion activities which help them in promoting

the product. Advertising objectives, like organisational objectives, should be operational. They should be effective criteria for decision making and should provide standards with which results can be compared. Furthermore, they should be effective tools, providing a line between strategic and tactical decision.

A convenient and enticing advertising objective involves a construct like immediate sales or market share. The measure is usually readily available to evaluate the result of a campaign. There are clearly some situations, mail order advertising and some retail advertising, for example- when immediate sales are a good operational objective, and other in which they can play a role in guiding the advertising campaign. However, the objectives that involve an increase in immediate sales are not operational in many cases for two reasons: Advertising is only one of many factors influencing sales, and it is difficult to isolate its contribution to those sales; andThe contributory role of advertising often occurs primarily over the long run.Advertising is only one of the force that influence sales. The other force include price, distribution, the sales force, packaging, product features, competitive actions and changing buyer needs and tastes. It is extremely difficult to isolate the effect of advertising. For instance, suppose a car company runs a campaign for a new model, but not many car sold. While the problem may indeed lie with the campaign, it might also be the case that the campaign did in fact draw potential buyers to the dealerships, but that something else (the cars quality, price, or poorly trained sales people) was the reason why they didnt end up buying.

INTRODUCTION
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The Retail Marketing Revolution

By 2010, the list of India's top 10 retailers will have at least 5 Indian corporates. Retail Marketing will go through a tremendous change in India this millennium. It will change India's cities, its people, and its households. The Indian consumer is reportedly the largest spender in Singapore and London. It is, therefore, strange that there have, so far, been few efforts to present the product in the right kind of environment in India. Indeed, the right shopping experience does induce Indian consumers to spend more. This is evident from the experiences of retail-outlets like Shipra Mall , Music World, Food World, Crosswords, The Home Store, Ebony, Bigjos, Saboos, Standard, Nanz, Vijay Store and Janaki Das & Sons, Westside etc. However, the development of organized retail is dependent on the efforts of several agencies and institutions. The first among these is the government. In a country as big as India and with as many states as ours, it is imperative that the Central government and all state governments bring in Value Added Taxation or a unified taxation system to ensure that the tax-regimes are the same across the country. The laws governing retail real estate should also be looked into, so that it is possible to develop retail-estate beyond the city-limits. Apart from providing entertainment and retail opportunities, this will also decongest the city center and facilitate the development of suburbs. The relevant rules should also be amended to allow retail-stores to operate 7 days a week, 12 hours a day.

Given the hours most urban consumers keep at work, and keeping in mind the increase in the number of nuclear families, this may, indeed, make sense. This will also help people enjoy their evenings, out at malls. The second group, whose participation is essential in making retail a boom-sector in this millennium, comprises developers. Most properties are developed without considering the end user; thus, we sometimes find high-ceilinged offices and low-ceilinged retail stores. Often, the shopper's convenience is not taken into consideration while the property is constructed. Another area of concern is the way in which developers sell their space. The only consideration is the price, not the usage pattern or the nature of the product that is to be sold. In contrast, internationally, mall-management is treated as a specialized discipline of retail management. This is what we have to focus on in this millennium. The third constituency that has a role to play in the fortunes of organized retail this century is the education-sector. Retail is a people-intensive business, and there is a huge opportunity for retail institutes in India. For manufacturers, retailing will present an attractive opportunity. Organised retail allows them to expose their products to a large volume of customers in an environment conducive to buying. Already, several transnational retail giants have established their presence in India; others, notably Chinese retailers, have visited India and studied the Indian market.

There's a lot at stake here: even so early in the 21st Century, India is too large a market to be ignored by transnational retail giants.From the manufacturing company's perspective, the focus should be on producing good products, and forging relationships with organised retail. Manufacturers need to draw a plan of producing quality products and tie in with retailers. Indeed, the birth of organised retail will also engender the creation of private labels and store-brands. Thus, if a manufacturing company lacks the resources to build a brand, it can supply to a retail-chain that has the resources to create a brand of its own. A glimpse of the last 2 decades of the previous century proves illuminating. Large-format retailing started with outlets like Vivek's and Nalli's in Chennai and Kidskemp in Bangalore, and, at another level, with manufacturer-retail brands like Bata, Bombay Dyeing, and Titan. The last decade of the millennium witnessed the emergence of lifestyle brands and the plastic culture. Liberalization, and increasing awareness of the world around us created the Indian yuppie, who aspired to own everything he saw on TV, or in shops during jaunts abroad. New lifestyle brands offered traditional retail-outlets an opportunity to convert themselves into exclusive stores, franchised or otherwise. And even as these developments were taking place, the Indian consumer became more mature. Customer-expectations zoomed. Thus, at the beginning of the New Millennium, retailers have to deal with a customer who is extremely demanding. Not just in terms of the product-quality, but also in terms of service, and the entire shopping experience.

Today, the typical customer who shops in a retail outlet compares the time spent at the check-out counter with that at an efficient petrol station, and the smile of the counterperson to that decorating the face of a Jet Airways' crew member. To cope with the new customer, manufacturers have to focus on product quality and brand building. And retailers, in turn, have to focus on the quality of the shopping experience. Internationally, retailing is a large business; you find at least one retailer amongst the top 10 companies in every country. In the us, it is Wal-Mart with a turnover in excess of $120 billion. In the UK, it is Marks and Spencer's with close to 10 billion; and, in Germany, it is Karstadt with a turnover in excess of dm 10 billion. Studies by consulting firms like A.T. Kearney, KSA Technopak, and McKinsey & Co. in India have indicated a huge potential for retailing in the country. Drawn by the magic number of Rs 1,60,000 crore-that is expected to be the size of the retail industry by the end of the first decade of this millennium-several companies from the organised sector have also jumped into the fray. In this millennium, like in the last, customers will want to spend time with their family and friends. They may like to visit malls on weekends where everything will be available under one roof. India will benefit from these developments because of increased consumption through retailing and the corresponding increase in employment created by retailing.

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SCOPE OF STUDY

Advertising is only one of many factors influencing sales, and it is difficult to isolate its contribution to those sales; andThe contributory role of advertising often occurs primarily over the long run.Advertising is only one of the force that influence sales. The other force include price, distribution, the sales force, packaging, product features, competitive actions and changing buyer needs and tastes. It is extremely difficult to isolate the effect of advertising. For instance, suppose a car company runs a campaign for a new model, but not many car sold. While the problem may indeed lie with the campaign, it might also be the case that the campaign did in fact draw potential buyers to the dealerships, but that something else (the cars quality, price, or poorly trained sales people) was the reason why they didnt end up buying.

Advertising Price Distribution Packaging Product features Competition Consumer taste

Sales

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USE OF THE STUDY

Culture in advertising:

The aim of the study is to understand and explain how culture plays an important role in advertising communications, and to investigate how these can vary across countries that are perceived to be culturally close and between different product categories in different countries.

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The similarities and findings can then be analysed using established theories and research findings in cultural and intercultural research, and explained within the framework of these. Using cluster analysis, possible links could be established between cultural dimensions and preference for certain advertising appeals and styles, allowing for theorisation about variances on a broader scale. Following from the above objectives, the study may, also potentially provide a guide for practical application in cross-cultural advertising. Given the descriptive nature of the findings, the study may well be useful to advertising practitioners seeking to better understand and be informed about current advertising in the three countries covered. Up to now, there is no research available that covers advertising in these countries to such an extent and depth. Following from this, the study may well be useful determine a possible future strategy for practitioners seeking to enter either or all of the three markets, or to enhance their present advertising and understanding. Furthermore, as the study aims to provide more than just factual information on current practice, but tries to combine the factual outcomes with previous cultural research, it may provide useful for further theorisation of the interaction of culture and advertising. Equally, the findings may be applicable more broadly to encompass consumer psychology and behaviour and their interplay with culture.

Appeal in advertising :

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The main objectives are: - To analyse and describe advertising appeals used in the India. Using television commercials from India, the appeals, as well as information content and communication style used are analysed both for all commercials together as well as in different product categories to allow for a more differentiated reading of the results. With the help of this analysis, the main appeals and themes that are used can be described and attributed both to the product category as well as the country specific cultural environment for a product and advertising as a whole. Equally I will identify and describe the frequently used communication styles and the information content of commercials in each country and/or product category respectively.

To relate the similarities and differences to cultural factors.

Advertising in Rural India : It is very much important to study the various aspects
of advertisement in rural India, since rural India has very big growing market then urban India. So to understand this we have to study some of the popular cases related to the rural marketing.

Media & Communication :Media planning is also very much important in

developing the advertisement to create a successful impact on the mind of the customer.

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This article addressed a popular method of marketing communication: the use of celebrity spokespersons in advertising to endorse brands.

THEORYTICAL CONCEPT

Modern marketing calls for more than developing a good product, pricing it attractively and making it accessible. Companies must also communicate with present and potential stakeholders, and the general public. Every company is inevitably cast into the role of communicator and promoter. For most companies, the question is not whether to communicate but rather how? The answer to this is the marketing communication mix which consists of five major modes of communication, namely:

Advertising Sales Promotion

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Public Relations and Publicity Personal Selling Direct Marketing

Among these marketing is the most important communication channel for marketing. Advertising is any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor.

The form of advertisement in todays era ranges from Print and broadcast ads, Packagingouter, Packaging inserts, Motion pictures, Brochures and booklets, Posters and leaflets, Directories, Reprints of ads, Billboards, Display signs, Point-of-purchase displays, Audiovisual material, Symbol and logos, Videotapes.

Retailingand Advertising must work in hand-in-hand to assure product success .

Advertising- The Promotional Tool

Because of the many forms o and uses of advertising, its difficult to make all-embracing generalizations. Yet an advertisement must contain the following qualities:

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Public Presentation: Advertisements public nature confers a kind of legitimacy on the product and also suggests a standardized offering. Because many people receive the same message, buyers know that motives for purchasing the product will be publicly understood.

Pervasiveness: Advertising permits the seller to repeat a message many times. It also allows the buyer tom receive and compare the messages of various competitors. Large-scale advertising says something positive about the seller size, power and success.

Amplified Expressiveness: Advertising provides opportunities for dramatizing the company and its products through the artful use of print, sound and color.

Impersonality: The audience does not feel obligated to pay attention to advertisement. Advertisement is a monologue in front of, not a dialogue.

Advertising can be used to build-up a long-term image for a product or trigger quick sales. Advertising can efficiently reach geographically dispersed buyers. Certain forms of advertisements like TV commercials can require a large budget, whereas other forms like newspaper advertising can be done on a small budget. Advertising might have an effect

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on sales simply through its presence. Customers might believe that a heavily advertised brand must offer good value.

In todays advertising three media are noticeable, namely:

Advertorials are print ads that contain editorial content and may be hard to distinguish from a newspaper or magazines content.

Infomercials are TV commercials that appear to be 30-minutes television shows demonstrating or discussing a product. Viewers can phone and order the product; hence the information produce directly measurable results like the Asian Sky Shop and Tele Brand products advertising programs.

Banners are small signs on web pages advertising an offer or company that can be reached by clicking on the banner.

In developing an advertising program, managers must always start by identifying the target market and buyer motives. There they have to take five major decisions in developing an advertising program known as 5Ms of advertising:

Mission

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The mission of advertising aims at defining advertising objectives that set an advertising goal, which is a specific communication task and achievement level to be accomplished with a specific audience in a specific period of time.

Money : It aims at deciding on advertising budget. Advertisements have a carryover affect that last beyond the current period. Although advertising is treated as a current expense, part of it is really an investment that builds up an intangible asset called Brand Equity.

Message:Choosing the advertising message is a very important and integral part of advertisements, where advertising campaigns vary in their creativity. Advertisers mainly go through four steps to develop a creative strategy:

1. Message Generation 2. Message Evaluation and Selection 3. Message Execution 4. Social Responsibility Review

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1. Message Generation:

The product benefit message should be decided as a part of developing the product concept but marketer may change the message, especially if consumers seek new or different benefit from the product.

Creative people use several methods to generate possible advertising appeals. Many use Inductive framework by talking to consumers, dealers, experts and competitors. Some use Deductive framework for generating message based on buyers expectations from the product that can be of four types:

a. b. c. d.

Rational Sensory Social Ego satisfaction.

In todays world the company do it through it various ad agencies that can compose many alternative ads in a short time by drawing from computer files containing still and video images, type sets and so on.

2. Message Evaluation and Selection:

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A good ad normally focuses on one core-selling proposition while it can be rated on the three main factors:

Desirability Exclusiveness Believability

Hence advertisers conduct market research to determine which appeal work for its target audience.

3.

Message Execution:

The message impact depends not only upon what is said but also on how it is said. Some ads aim for Rational positioning where ads mainly show the product utility and others for Emotional positioning where ads connects product with something that effects customers perception by stirring them emotionally.

Creative people also find a cohesive Style that is related to the presentation of the message theme, Tone that can be positive or humorous depending on the ads desirability, Words that can be catchy or memorable and Format that

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stresses on size, color and illustration that effects ads impact as well as cost, for executing the message.

4.

Social Responsibility Review:

Its done by advertisers and their agencies to be sure that their creative advertising doesnt overstep social and legal norms.

Measurement

It involves evaluating advertisement effectiveness. Today advertisers try to measure the communication effect of an ad that is its potential, effect on awareness, knowledge or preference.

These can be measured mainly by two-research technique: Communication-Effect Research that seeks to determine whether communicating effectively. Sales-Effect Research seeks to determine the sales that have been generated by the ads. This is generally harder to measure than its communication effect. an ad is

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Sales Promotion

Sales promotion is short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product. Targets of sales promotion include the trade (wholesalers and retailers), consumers, and an organizations own sales force. Trade promotion activities are designed to encourage companies, sales forces or other members of distribution channels to sell products more aggressively. Consumer-oriented sales promotions like coupons, rebates, samples, premiums, contests, sweepstakes, and specialty advertising, offer an extra incentive to make immediate purchases.

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Sales promotions help boost short-term sales. Consumers can be urged to make stronger and quicker responses. They are effective at inducing trial. However, they may have short-lived effects and may hurt a firms brand-building efforts in the long run if consumers get used to buying a product on sale and become unwilling to pay regular price for the product. Thus, successful sales promotions must promote customer

relationship building in the sense that they support the brand image of the product. The package is the most important component of the product as a communications device. It reinforces associations established in advertising, breaks through competitive clutter at the point of purchase, and justifies price and value to the consumer. Package cues include color, design, shape, brand name, physical materials, and product information labeling. Point-of-purchase advertising displays and trade shows are sales promotions directed to the trade markets. The point of purchase (P-O-P) is an ideal time to communicate with consumers. Accordingly, anything that a consumer is exposed to at the point of purchase can perform an important communications function. A variety of P-O-P materials -signs, displays, and various in-store media -- are used to attract consumers' attention to particular products and brands, provide information, affect perceptions, and ultimately influence shopping behavior.

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A significant trend in marketing communications has been toward greater use of sales promotion in comparison with advertising. This shift is part of the movement from pullto push-oriented marketing, particularly in the case of consumer packaged goods. Push implies a forward thrust of effort whereby a manufacturer directs personal selling, trade advertising and trade-oriented sales promotion to wholesalers and retailers. Pull suggests a backward tug from consumers to retailers as a result of advertising and sales-promotion efforts directed at the consumer. Underlying factors of the shift toward sales promotion include a balance-of-power transfer from manufacturers to retailers, increased brand parity and growing price sensitivity, reduced brand loyalty, splintering of the mass market and reduced media effectiveness, a growing short-term orientation, and favorable consumer responsiveness to sales promotions.

Public Relations
Public relations (PR) entails a variety of functions and activities that are directed at fostering harmonious interactions with an organization's publics (customers, employees, stockholders, governments, and so forth). It is an efficient indirect promotional alternative. It improves companies' prestige and image with the public. PR uses a variety of marketing communications such as media releases, news conferences, and article placements and story ideas in other media, to generate publicity for an organization. Publicity involves news stories about an organization or its products. It is similar to advertising because it uses mass communication, but it is not paid for. News stories and features reported in neutral media have a great deal of credibility. Thus, publicity has greater credibility than advertising.

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The key to public relations is to have a story that is interesting enough to be told to various publics using a variety of media. Activities used to manage public relations include:

news releases speeches by executives and senior management

special events (formal press conferences and tours, grand openings) written and audiovisual materials aimed at their target market corporate identity materials (logos, stationery, brochures) public service activities (charitable donations, sponsorships of events) Web sites

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Direct Marketing

Direct marketing may take the form of direct mail, telemarketing, electronic marketing, and online marketing. It is immediate, customizable to individual consumers or groups of consumers, and interactive. Direct email marketing includes unsolicited bulk email and opt-in direct email. Generally, direct marketing allows for easy measurement of effectiveness. Successful direct mailing necessitates the availability of huge computer databases containing data, such as names, email addresses, hobbies, geographic location and birthdays. A database is data accessible by a computer. It is an organized collection of data -- such as facts, figures and documents -- that have been stored for efficient

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access. Users interact directly with the database to retrieve information. Database marketing is used to employ a firms database information to direct its marketing efforts towards the best segment and potential customers. Massive amounts of data can be manipulated allowing marketers to identify specific users of products, measure their actual purchase behavior, and relate it to specific brand and product categories. Marketers use datamining (the extraction of hidden predictive information from large databases) to drill down into the data to any level of detail needed to identify common characteristics of high-volume users. Then, clusters of consumers who share certain characteristics such as income, education, and brand loyalty can be identified as targets for marketing efforts. Direct mail is the dominant direct-marketing advertising medium. Its outstanding advantages are that marketers can target messages to specific market segments and determine success (or failure) virtually immediately.

It is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with we talk of research methodology we not only talk of the research methods but also consider the logic behind the methods we use in the context of our research study and explain why we are using a particular method or technique and why using other so the research results are applicable of being evaluated either by the researcher himself .

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The Research Methodology for this dissertation primarily consists of Desk Research which is also called Secondary Research and it involves studying Various Books to have more insight about the relevant subject .Accessing various libraries for referring various national and international journals. Referring various News papers and magazines. Surfing various sites on Internet. Collecting and compiling data, preparing the final reports.

Strategies used in Advertising

Advertising in India has been concentrated on the 2 key media: print and television, with India reflecting the same worldwide trends, with print on the decline and television on the ascendency, and advertising is targeted at the groups that can be reached through those media. Products tend to be advertised to groups that can afford them, or who are future potential purchasers. Advertising strategies vary with the intention of the marketers, especially the international advertisers, their agencies and analyses of the target market. In the early phases of international entry into the Indian market they targeted the affluent 30

Indians with significant purchasing power and those with disposable income for repeat purchase consumables and increasingly consumer durables. Television advertising was seen to play on the foreign obsessions of many Indians in the early 1990s as well as significantly increasing their desires for advertised products.

Most academic research into advertising strategies seems to have been studies of print advertising, mainly in magazines, which are admittedly easier to document than more ephemeral television advertising, but which are targeted at affluent groups. The National Council for Applied Economic Research has identified the very rich and consuming classes in India as part of an international class with similar lifestyles and consumption habits. This group are educated, travel, own houses, cars, consumer appliances, and in India have servants. Advertising in certain media, especially magazines, is likely to target this group. A cross cultural comparison of magazine advertising in the US, and India and other countries in the late 1980s saw more visual similarities than differences in advertising practices of advertisements. The magazine profile included Business India, Readers Digest, India today, Femina and Womans Era. In a comparative content analysis of magazine advertising in India and the U.S. in 2002 Khairullah and Khairullah found the dominant cultural values to be similar and thus made the case for standardisation of advertising, i.e. using advertising in India primarily developed for the American market. The product range of the advertisements was limited to airlines, cars, cigarettes, computers and hotels (2002). These products have been identified as the most likely to be characterised by standardised advertising.

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Another study by Chandra et al which investigated whether American standardised advertising was suitable for the Indian market in 2002, found that market segments were similar to the United States, and that India had a strong middle class with western product experience. They recommended the use of American advertising in India, especially in a diverse market. They did find that durable products were not significantly characterised by standardised advertising any more than non-durable (in contrast to prior literature). They were however, cautious in their claims, they did not analyse the media, message or execution and suggested maybe standardised advertising from non-American advertisers might be less suitable for standardisation, which would have to be investigated. They see that one reason companies use standardised advertising is that they view emerging markets as less significant, and used standardised advertising to cut costs. Sehgal states that advertising campaigns are seen to be getting much more aggressive and focused in recent years (2000a) which is probably because advertisers are beginning to appreciate the size of the markets and the potential profits to be made in India.

There seems to have been less academic research into the advertising of cheap repeat purchase consumables to the less affluent markets, though there has been considerable market research by key advertisers (Munshi, 1998). Hindustan Lever Ltd. has been the largest advertiser in India almost every year for decades, and personal products are the biggest category in advertising. As the average income in India is still low, $42 per month according to the NCAER, a key strategy by large companies like HLL has been to reduce the size of their packages, think small, and sell tiny sachets of detergent and

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shampoo. This makes the product accessible and gets consumers accustomed to using the product.

According to India Business Intelligence the advertising industry in India has moved from focusing on demand creation to brand creation and the promotion of specific products. The most successful strategies prior to 1997 were seen to be simple and straightforward messages stressing product benefits. A good example was Rexona deodorant soap sold at Rs 60, compared to other brands selling at Rs150-200, and advertised with a campaign saying that body odour is a problem and Rexona the answer. The market also needs to be ready for the product, for example an American disposable contact lens company spent Rs30 million in 1996/1997 on advertising but could not sell its product because of its high price according to the Economist Intelligence Unit Limited (1997). Other reasons could be that if people value frugality they may be reluctant to purchase disposable items as an alternative to reusable lenses, or that they have different values about appearance and wearing glasses.

There have been significant changes in recent years and no longer does successful advertising focus only on product benefits, but works through values and value change according to Smila (2002). By the late 1990s multinational companies were seen to be customising their advertising to the Indian market. Product endorsement by celebrities, and associations with national passions like cricket were other strategies used. The Korean company L.G. sponsored the Indian cricket team in the Cricket World Cup in 2003 for example and Adidas, who had previously made their Indian ads in London,

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started making them in India in 1999, with the advertising agency RKSwamy/BBDO and using an Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar. LOreal increased its sales dramatically by using the Miss India who became Miss World, Diana Haydin, along with its usual models.

Pashupati and Sengupta state that in the 1990s the profile of rural consumers was starting to change and greater literacy levels meant brand identification was easier and more product information could be supplied. Previously visual characteristics like colour were seen to be a very important factor in identifying the product for the non-literate, for example the importance of the red colour of Lifeboy packaging from Hindustan Lever. Lifeboy is Indias largest selling soap.

In the 1990s strategies used to tap the vast rural market included using mobile vans with television sets screening Hindi film songs inter-dispersed with product promotions. Ogilvie Outreach, set up to target rural consumers, had expanded its sales force from 2 people to 1,000 people from 1994 to 2000, with another 5,000 working on contract. More recent approaches include games, door to door sales, folk dances, placing of tiles in village wells, putting up shoe racks in temples and sometimes painting the horns of cows and putting up scarecrows.

More recent marketing initiatives since 2000 have been precisely targeting rural consumers, who number about 700 million. Activities include setting up e-choupals (cybercafes) in villages and Hindustan Levers Project Shakti, (Shakti means power).

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Through Project Shakti the company supports rural self-help groups to alleviate poverty and reduce disparities in purchasing power. The groups are provided with a range of its products: Lifebuoy Soap, Wheel detergent, A1 tea, Nihar coconut milk and Clinic Plus Shampoo. Indias rural market makes up nearly 50% of Hindustan Levers total sales in India of US $2.2 billion. This project aims to reach 75,000 villages by 2004, and has already increased HLLs net profit from $273 million to $342 million in 2001. Project Nova is Hindustan Levers direct selling network set up to market personal care products and household cleaning products Other HLL endeavours including expanding its massive distribution network through Project Bharat, and its network reach in rural markets through Operation Streamline. These endeavours sound a little like military operations! Consumer durable companies such as Philips India, LG Electronics, Kodak India and Samsung India are also launching new initiatives such as Philips battery free radio (Gupta, 2002). Ogilvie Mather have launched Programme Outreach specifically to target rural consumers and also have set up initiatives to undertake consumer research.

One of the key challenges for foreign markets in India has been called decommodification, changing the pattern of consumer buying from traditional unbranded products to branded products. This was seen as a significant trend by both Reckitt and Coleman and Hindustan Lever in 1999, and HLL acknowledged that the potential for certain foods was enormous as the current market was not even .05% of the total. Another major area for growth was seen to be the establishment of retail outlets, as opposed to the traditional markets, which will further facilitate the sales of branded products.

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Coca Cola has tried multiple approaches to the Indian market since they returned in 1993, including buying out key local brands Parle and Thums Up. They havent always been able to get their advertising right, for example in 1997 a television commercial showing a child bungy jumping to get a chocolate bar had to be withdrawn after children died trying to imitate the advertisement (Marketing News, 1997). More recently they have Coca Cola has expanded efforts to market to internet users, who number approximately 7 million, ownership being 5.8 million in 2002 (ICT, World Bank, 2003). They have set up a site with an aim of building an online community with competitions and games. Coca Cola managed to turn around its 2000 $400 million loss, by selling smaller bottles in rural markets, this resulted in sales increases of 34% by the beginning of 2002. Both Coke and Pepsi have launched the 200ml bottle priced at approximately 10c. Cokes goal is to make its products available, affordable and desirable. Coca Cola opened 50,000 outlets in 3,500 villages in the first 3 months of 2002. They have also launched other products: a soft-drink concentrate at 4c called Sunfill, Sprite and bottled water. Sprite was launched in 1999 with advertising that spoofed advertising hype and current trends in advertising, targeting youth in the process of establishing their identity (Chawla, 1999). Kinley bottled water in 2001 was advertised depicting village life and military families aimed at building emotional connections with consumers (Kripalani, 2003). 65% of Coca Colas sales are to the youth market.

The advent of foreign advertisers in India has not always been successful and according to Sehgal, campaigns that failed in India, which included Nike, Reebok, Johnny Walker,

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Sony, Panasonic, McDonalds and Coca Cola, caused advertisers to look more closely at their strategies (2000B). One of the most dramatically insensitive recent campaigns was that of Cadbury-Schweppes which compared its chocolate to Kashmir: Too tempting. Too good to share, which caused a major outrage and had to be withdrawn.

Advertising- the Art of making one buy what one doesnt need.
This line is not quite true for advertising is more of an exact science, which has been pretty much perfected now. Herein you study the product and the market determining what the consumers require and expect from you and then, following a model, design an appropriate plan that would ensure the success of the product.

The most important factor to be considered in planning advertising, in addition to the marketing plan, is an understanding of the communication and persuasion process. Advertising communication involves a perception process and the four elements: the source, a message, a communication channel and a receiver. In addition the receiver will sometimes become a source of information by talking to friends or associates. This type of communication is called word-of-mouth communication, and it involves social interactions between two or more people and the important ideas of group influence and the diffusion of information.

Perception Process

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Source
(Advertiser)
Message

Receive r
(Audience)

Destina ti o

Channel (Media)

Channel
(Word-of-Mouth)

Fig : Model of the advertising communication system.

The Elements of the Advertising Communication System:

Source: The source of a message in the advertising communication system is the point of which the message originates. There are many types of sources in the context of advertising such as the company offering the product, the particular brand or the spokesperson used.

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Message: The message refers to both the content and the execution of the advertisement. It is the totality of what is perceived by the receiver of the message. The message can be executed in great variety of ways and can include, for example, the use of humor or fear.

Channel: The message is transmitted through some channel from the source to the receiver. The channel in an advertising communication system consists of one or more kinds of media, such as radio, television, newspapers, magazines, billboards, point-ofpurchase displays and so on. The impact of the communication can be different for different media. Any communication system has a channel capacity. There is only so much information that can be moved through it and only so that a receiver will be motivated to receive and be capable of processing.

Receiver: The receiver in an advertising communication system is also called the target audience. Thus, the receiver can be described in terms of audience segmentation variables, lifestyles, benefits sought, demographics etc .Of particular interest will be the receivers involvement in the product and the extent to which he or she is willing to search for and/or process information. It is the characteristics of he receiver- the demographics, psychological and social characteristics- that provide the basis for understanding communications, persuasion and market processes.

Destination: The communication model in Figure1 allows for the possibility that the initial receiver might engage in word-of-mouth communication to the ultimate destination of the message. The receiver then becomes an interim source and the destination becomes

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another receiver. The word-of-mouth communication resulting from advertising can be a critical part of a campaign. It is only the word-of-mouth communication that has the credibility, comprehensiveness and impact to affect the ultimate behavior of a portion of the audience. Furthermore, advertising can actually stimulate word-of-mouth activity. Even when it cannot stimulate it, knowledge of its appropriateness and power can be very helpful.

An Advertising message can have a variety of effects upon the receiver. It can: Create awareness Communicate information about attributes and benefits Develop or change an image or personality Associate a brand with feelings and emotions Create group norms

While designing an Advertising Campaign, the advertisers must consider the following factors:

Advertising has a variety of purposes that are all equally significant . Many researchers have assumed that the goal of advertising is to increase sales even though this is not

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necessarily true. Advertising can also be used as a brand-building tool, to support premium pricing or in response to competitive activity.

Emotion is an important affective construct. While not fully understood in an advertising context, emotions are an essential mental attribute like attitudes. Though emotions are difficult to measure and separate them into basic categories, many advertisements stimulate an emotional response(s), whether intentionally or not. Thus, emotions must be included in any advertising model together with personal experience and cognition. But because little is known about emotions in advertising, it is hard to be very precise about how emotions work.

The operational definition of emotions is a consumer's reaction to an advertising message. Other important affective constructs include mood and wants. The former refers to a consumer's predisposition to respond in the same way to the world at large while the latter is something that a consumer desires or needs.

Behavior has been replaced with experience. While most of the hierarchy models argue for the importance of behavior, it seems that an advertisement has to create some kind of an affective or cognitive response from the receiver before the latter can act. If a consumer shops for a product then develops an attitude and feelings as a result of that behavior, this is not done as a result of an advertisement. In other words, the consumer

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bought a product without first having been exposed to that product's advertisement. Advertising then, has not influenced a consumer's behavior.

Experience seems to be a more important element of an advertising model than behavior. Prior experience of brand purchase, usage, and advertising are essential factors that help determine if an advertisement can influence a consumer's behavior. For example, a consumer's experience with an advertisement for Colgate toothpaste may be enough to rouse his/her product awareness and even curiosity-- both of which may influence him/her when shopping for toothpaste.

Frequency of advertising exposure per purchasing cycle helps achieve advertising goal. Unlike the hierarchy models, it is imperative to consider the effect of multiple advertising exposures in influencing consumer behavior. Exposing a consumer to an advertising message at a specific frequency is important so that the advertising may intercept the purchasing occasions for a given product. Higher levels of frequency may also reiterate the advertising message.

But one cannot specify the number of advertising exposures for all products; because it is difficult to be precise about the number of advertising exposures for all the advertising situations. However, ones plan should be based on the idea of spreading out the frequency of advertising exposure per media cycle. Other important considerations for determining frequency of exposure are the purchase and product life cycle of a product. For instance, research indicates that advertising is more effective in the beginning of the

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life of a product. Also, a lower frequency is more appropriate for advertising an established brand.

Low and high involvement conceptions are discarded away completely. An advertising model has no control over how a consumer may receive an advertising message. It can try to pinpoint the different mental constructs involved in the reception of an advertisement but differentiating between high and low involvement products can be too inaccurate. What one consumer thinks is a high involving product may be seen as a low involving one by another. Life experiences can even change the extent to which a person is involved with an advertised product. Thus, it is difficult to have a working definition of what constitutes a high involvement and a low involvement product.

Again, claiming whether a product is high or low involving is too simplistic and does not consider other factors determining involvement including, characteristics of the person receiving the advertising (i.e. values, personal experiences), the physical characteristics of the stimulus (i.e. advertising content, media used) and the purchasing situation (i.e. how often is the product or service bought). The interaction of all advertising elements has a synergy effect on a message's recipient.

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Marketing Communications
Through effective communications, marketers attempt to build product category needs, create brand awareness, and facilitate purchases. Communication is the process of establishing commonness or understanding between a sender and a receiver. Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is the coordination of all promotional activities to produce a unified customer-focused message. Someone in the organization is responsible for integrating and coordinating all communications in order to deliver a clear, consistent, and compelling message about the organization and its products. IMC begins with the identification of consumer needs. It includes managing every aspect of the image an organization wants to deliver, which involves coordinating the look and feel of each element, as well as coordinating the timing of various promotion elements. Then the organization must deliver that image through everything that they do, because everything communicates something about the brand. The increasing complexity and sophistication of marketing communications requires careful promotional planning to coordinate IMC strategies.

Model of Communication
The functions of communications include informing, persuading, reminding, adding value, and assisting other organizational efforts. The communication process consists of the following elements:

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A source (or sender) has thoughts to share with others. The sender includes the organization advertising, a spokesperson, or a salesperson. Celebrities are often used in advertising because they represent the desired qualities that an advertiser wishes to associate with its brands. A celebrity is a personality who is known to the public for his or her accomplishments in areas other than the product class endorsed.

The source encodes or translates ideas into a message. The message is a symbolic expression of a senders thoughts. After defining the target audience and the desired response from this target audience, the marketer designs an effective message that will achieve the communication objectives. The AIDA model defines a good message the stages a receiver should go through. It gains the receivers attention, holds interest, arouses desire, and obtains a desired action. A hierarchy-of-effects model of consumers' responses to advertisements implies that for advertising to be successful it must move consumers from one objective to the next objective, much in the same way that one climbs a ladder one step at a time until the top of the ladder is reached. In designing a message, decisions need to be made about the message content, message structure, and message format. Rational appeals relate to the audiences self-interest. These appeals simply relate the rational benefits of the product and explain how the product will satisfy the functional needs of consumers. Emotional appeals attempt to stir up positive or negative emotions that can motivate purchase. Organizations looking to discourage undesirable behavior by directing an audience to what is right use moral appeals. Widely used advertising techniques include humor, 45

fear appeals, guilt, sex appeals, subliminal messages, the use of music, and comparative advertisements.

A channel is the path used to transmit the message. Marketers select the promotional media that best target and reach customers. Media refers to the entire set of channels through which it is possible to transmit messages to some people or the entire public. The channel can take the form of broadcast (TV and radio), print (newspapers, magazines, direct mail), display media (billboards, signs, posters), or electronic (Internet web pages, diskette presentations). If the function of a channel is to distribute the same message to many people simultaneously it is considered a nonpersonal communication channel or mass medium (television, radio, newspaper, magazine, billboard). Newspapers and television represent the largest advertising media categories. No interaction is possible between mass media and their receivers; they carry messages without personal contact or feedback. If the channel is only able to transmit a message to one person at a time it is considered a carrier (telephone). In addition, a carrier permits interactivity (the ability to respond and react) between sender and receiver. In a personal communication channel, sender and receiver communicate directly with each other over the telephone, face to face, through the mail, or through Internet chats. Direct contact with consumers by company salespeople forms a common personal communication channel.

The Internet is both a mass medium and a carrier. It can reach many people simultaneously and provide a high level of interaction. The dialogue between marketer and customer is always evolving. The Internet can be used by marketers to create individual dialogues and even to change a message as marketer and customer get to know each other. This provides the basis for the one-to-one 46

marketing process that is at the center of contemporary consumer marketing activities. The Internet is an exciting and powerful addition to traditional media. Interactive media represents the fastest growing type of media. Interactive advertising directly involves the viewer, who controls how much information he or she receives. The interactive two-way communications capability of the Internet, combined with its broad and rapidly growing acceptance around the world, has attracted advertisers. The Internet provides a medium for promotion that can be used to identify prospects, collect information profiling those prospects, and execute micro-segmentation promotion delivery strategies. Online promotional content can be tailored to current or past customer behavior, attributes, knowledge or prior buying behavior, or a combination of all three.

A receiver is the person or group with whom the sender attempts to share ideas. Marketers want a response, the reactions of the receiver after being exposed to the message.

The receiver decodes or interprets the message. For a message to be decoded by a receiver the way it was intended by the sender, the sender and receiver need to have some shared fields of experience. A receiver may not decode a message (in the way it was intended) if his or her background and experiences differ greatly from the senders. Marketers must be sensitive to the audience.

Noise interferes with or disrupts effective communication. It includes any unplanned distortion during the communications process that results in the receiver getting a different message than the one sent by the sender.

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Feedback is monitoring and evaluation how accurately the intended message is being received. After sending the message, it is important to collect feedback in order to monitor the effectiveness of the communication. Marketers conduct research by asking consumers their recall of ads, their attitudes towards products (after exposure to the ad), their evaluations of ads, etc. Feedback is used to modify promotional programs to make them more effective.

Advertising and Culture

With the increase in international marketing research in recent years, an increasing number of scholars have shown interest in cross-cultural advertising research. This section focuses on the most cited studies, and reviews them in some detail. However, there are a large number of other studies in existence that study certain aspects of advertising, or repeat other studies in different settings. For obvious reasons, those studies have not been discussed in this part. The main studies included here have been 48

selected to represent and visualise the variety of studies that are available, but certainly, the list is not exhaustive.

Most of the studies published have paired two or more countries and examined the differences. The majority of the studies used either two or three countries, and only a few have extended their studies beyond this number. Some of these studies used research questions and resulting hypothesis loosely based cross-cultural theories, in combination with economic and other data, or strictly based on cross-cultural theories. Other studies have used country specific information, such as predominantly economic information. A large number of the studies looked at advertising in general, without a directed research question, however, some studies were particularly interested in a limited number of societal phenomena, such as gender roles and work ethics. Resulting from this, current research can be broadly classified in three categories:

Sociological research Research of this type usually focuses on a certain aspect of society as portrayed in advertising. Research in this category typically tries to contrast culturally inspired norms such as gender roles between different countries. (e.g. Gilly, 1988; Tansey, Hyman, Zinkhan and Chowdhury, 1997).

Ethnology inspired research Studies in this category rely on a set of historic and general society values to explain perceived differences in advertising in two or more countries.

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Cross-cultural psychology inspired research This type of research aims to provide a somewhat deeper explanation of observed differences in advertising by linking appeals and observations to cultural dimensions, and hence trying to be able to forecast value and appeal differences in various countries.

Cultural Values in Advertising

Is it possible to persuade consumers in different markets with the same advertising message? Will they respond favourably? Or should the advertising message be

customised to reflect local culture? This question is one of the most fundamental decisions when planning an advertising campaign in different cultural areas, and, not surprisingly, one of the most frequently discussed issues in advertising today. Whereas many anecdotes tell the story of failed, or misunderstood, advertising, little clarity exists what exactly makes advertising different from country to country, and what types of appeals are used to promote different products in different markets - if there should be any difference whatsoever.

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One side in this debate emphasises that the world is growing ever closer, and that the world can be treated as one large market, with only superficial differences in values. In their view, advertising and marketing can be standardised across cultures, and the same values can be used to persuade customers to buy or consume the product. T h e opposing side is content with the fact that the basic needs may well be the same around the world, however they argue that the way in which these needs are met and satisfied differs from culture to culture. Any marketing (and advertising) campaign should, in their view, reflect the local habits, lifestyles and economical conditions in order to be effective. In 1985, Woods et al. concluded in a study of consumer purpose in purchase in the US, Quebec and Korea, that "important differences are found in the reasons why they [the consumers] purchase products familiar to all three countries".

Many researchers have contributed to the debate, examining a sample of advertising for particular ways of portraying lifestyle and themes used; advertising strategies and information, the use of appeals used or they tested for a mix of different themes, styles, appeals or advertising content. These studies, among others, and the magnitude of their findings have put significant doubt over the theories and applicability of standardised, global advertising. They clearly suggest to localise advertising messages to suit consumer expectation in each market. However, the degree of difference in advertising strategies and appeals used may well be very different not only from country to country, but also from product category to product category. A s Zandpour, Chang and Catalano (1992) and Katz and Lee (1992) have pointed out, information content, creative strategy,

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format and content style differ with each product category. This study will try to address the issues of differences in advertising in three countries: the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. I will use a whole range of advertising, both general as well as indi-vidual product categories, and examine the different appeals that are used in all three countries to promote the respective products as well as the strategies used.

Rationale
As international advertising increases, the demand for more factual information on cultural and other differences in advertising and the appeals and strategies used has increased significantly. Up to now, the majority of published research in this area has focused on comparing the US to another market, often in the Far East. This study focuses exclusively on a northern European environment, an environment that is particularly attractive not only to foreign (from outside the UK, Germany or the Netherlands) investors and advertisers, but is also characterised by its consolidation in business from within. The three countries, the Netherlands, the UK and Germany, are among the most affluent markets in the European Union, offer a variety of advertising possibilities and enjoy high advertising expenditure per capita. Equally, all three countries score relatively closely on four out of five of Hofstede's culture dimensions, and can hence be seen as being culturally close. The study will be both descriptive as well as predictive, and may offer the potential advertiser an extensive guide on both advertising strategies used as well as potential advertising strategies. It will focus not exclusively on the differences, but also extend to explain and examine the similarities that can be observed, in order to give a complete picture of the interaction between culture, advertising, products and the

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consumer. Equally, the results of the study may well be expandable to cover a wider range of cultures. By relating the similarities and differences to cultural factors, the study may point the way to further research and theorisation on a more global scale, and a more predictive and descriptive model for advertising in different cultures than the vague descriptions available today.

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Conceptual Background & Definitions Ad creation, pre-market testing and localisation

Advertising creation can vary enormously from one company promoting their products or services across borders to another company. Whereas real economic benefits, dominantly economies of scale, can be obtained by standardising advertising across borders, many compa-nies choose not to do so, but rather to rely on local knowledge. In order to create a commercial, an advertising agency is usually instructed to create the overall concept in line with the marketing objectives, create a set of different test commercials and pre-test the commercials for effectiveness. This is a crucial step for advertising creation, and often takes a relatively long time, in which the test commercials are tested qualitatively and quantitatively in focus groups, through questionnaires, in test markets, sample areas and so on. After successful testing, the real commercial is created, and finally airtime for the commercial is booked or auctioned (either directly or through a media agency). During and after the commercial is running, further tests are usually carried out in order to optimise advertising targets with real out comes, and commercials may be adjusted depending on the out-come.

Values, appeals, content and style In researching advertising across borders a number of terms are used to describe what is said in a commercial or how things are said in a commercial. All of this type of research focuses primarily on the message of advertising, taking both the visual and the audible

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component into account. Most researchers have paid little interest in execution or objectives, which may influence the advertising message. Both execution and objectives are taken a priori as being equal across countries. This limitation should be clearly pointed out, as it may account for some of the differences observed.

I have divided three main areas of research, with all overlapping or influencing each other to some extent: - Appeals (values) research, looking primarily at all or some of the advertising appeals used in commercials. - Information cues research, trying to identify the amount and type of information that is presented, usually about a product, in a commercial. - Communication and creative strategy research, looking at the actual advertising, communication or creative strategy, or parts thereof, used in a commercial.

APPEAL IN ADVERTISING

The terms "appeals" and "values" are used loosely in the literature to describe the traditional notion of "advertising appeals". In their textbook "Advertising Principles and Practice", Wells, Burnett and Moriarty (1995) give the following description of appeals:

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Persuasion in advertising rests on the psychological appeal to the consumer. An appeal is something that makes the product particularly attractive or interesting to the consumer. Common appeals are security, esteem, fear, sex, and sensory pleasure. Appeals generally pinpoint the anticipated response of the prospect to the product and message.

Advertisers also use the word appeal to describe a general creative emphasis. For example, if the price is emphasised in the ad, then the appeal is value, economy, or savings.

As this definition suggests, appeals make the product attractive to the consumer, and are hence emphasised in advertising for the product. However, they do not necessarily represent product attributes, nor do they have to be realistically connected to the product at all. De facto they are often used to set a desired atmosphere or as a means to "connect" with the target group. As such, they are "built" into the commercial and designed to represent the supposed values of the desired target group. For example, a product that has housewives as a target group may show, as an appeal, pictures of a happy family - which is thought to rep-resent a value of the target group, or at least a desired state. Also, for example beer in itself has little sex appeal - how-ever this appeal is frequently used in beer advertising (Dahl, 2000). The combination of "sex appeal", displayed in the advertising connected to the consumption of that particular brand of beer, may how-ever make the product attractive to the potential consumer, as it may represent a widely held value in the target group. Connected to the product, this may make the product more

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appealing to the target group. Clearly, not everybody will have the same values, and the appeals that are used do not necessarily actually appeal to all consumers - even within the target group. However, they usually are chosen to represent values thought to be held by the target group as a whole. The advertiser aims to link the set of appeals used in the commercial with the product in the mind of the consumer, in order to enhance and position the product, the product image and perception. They are used strategically to influence consumer perception of the product (such as drinking beer = success with women) and hence to increase consumer readiness to purchase - or product appeal. Understood as such, they can be regarded as an active part in positioning the product in the market place and enhance the product's image, by associating desirable aspects to the product.

Kotler (1997) differentiates three different types of appeals: rational appeals, emotional appeals and moral appeals. He classifies rational appeals as "appealing to the audience's self interest". Typically they refer to the quality, value or performance of the product. Emotional appeals "attempt to stir up negative or positive emotions" (ibid.), and include fear, guilt, joy. Although Kotler makes a reference to negative emotions, I would argue, that these are turned into positive appeals in commercials. For example the negative "fear" appeal is used only when the product can actually provide safety. Finally moral appeals "are directed to the audience's sense of what is right and proper." These may include such appeals as ecological appeals and nationalism.

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The often interchanging use of appeals and values by some researchers can be explained when looking at the interaction that is necessary between the two. Appeals are used to appeal to the values a consumer holds, and as such, values are the underlying source of appeals. Wells, Burnett and Moriarty (1995) define values and tentatively describe the interaction as: The source for norms [defined as simple rules for behaviour] is our values. An example of a value is personal security. Possible norms expressing this value range from the bars on the win dow and double-locked doors in Brooklyn, New York, to unlocked cars and homes in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Values are few in number and are not tied to specific objects or situations. () Advertisers often refer to core values when selecting their primary appeals.

This extract clarifies this interaction to some extent: Knowing that people value personal safety, and that a product X can enhance the personal safety, advertising for product X may use a safety appeal. So strictly argued, the safety value (or the desire to be safe) is held by the consumer - and the appeal is what is expressed in the advertisement in order to suggest to the consumer that their desired state of personal safety can be enhanced. The appeal hence represents the underlying value.

In order to avoid any further confusion of the situation, for the remainder of this document, I will refer to "appeals" as the values that are expressed in advertising, by using appeals, or the appeals that are displayed in advertising representing certain values.

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I will use values strictly when this represents a tendency to prefer certain states of affairs over others by human beings in the real world.

The use of appeals, and with them the possibility of a distorted representation of reality, has been a topic of discussion for a considerable time. In 1983 Pollay published a coding framework for the identification of cultural appeals (actually, he called them values) in advertising, primarily as a response to the discussion over the cultural consequences of advertising appeals and what values of society these reflect.

By reviewing a variety of advertising related literature, as well as literature and values research in other disciplines, such as psychology, sociology and the humanities, Pollay created a list of 42 appeals most commonly found in advertising. He notes, that advertising does reflect a somewhat different set of values as can be found in a society in general (Pollay, 1986), a notion which he termed the "distorted mirror", and which has lead to a significant debate over the subject matter.

Clearly, advertising will attempt to have positive appeals associated with the product, and hence lead to a distorted reflection of reality. Although Kotler (1997) includes negative appeals, such as fear or guilt, in his examples, these will normally be turned "positive" in advertising, and are included as such in the Pollay list: For example the fear of an accident is resolved by demonstrating the safety features of a car (safety appeal).

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Other researchers who carried out research into advertising appeals have developed different lists of possible values, often because they only tested for certain appeals rather than a complete set of appeals.

Clearly, in order to be effective, advertising has to appeal to the positive values that are held in the target group, or taken at large, the target society. If advertising is "out of touch" with the target group, it may alienate the target group, as the consumer can no longer identify with the product. It is hence essential for the advertising to reflect at least a proportion of the values held by the target group, or society at large. As Hofstede and others have demonstrated, values can vary considerably between cultures. Some cultures may be comfortable with a relatively high level of uncertainty - if expressed in appeals, then it can be expected that advertising in these cultures will make less use of safety appeals than advertising from a culture where the culture is less comfortable with uncertainty. Equally, in a society that holds highly individualistic values, it can be expected that advertising in general will use more appeals to individual achievement than in a society that holds dominantly collectivist values.

Appeal in culture
As such, advertising appeals are not a mere representation of a culture's values at large, but they represent a selective sample of positive and desired values of that culture. They are in fact a "distorted mirror", a mirror that represents idealis-tic, rather than realistic, values. Other researchers focused more narrowly on the information content, rather than the appeals as a whole, in advertising. Information cues in advertising are generally

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understood to relate to pieces of information relating to the product or service that is being offered, the content in which the product is used or consumed is generally disregarded. A major tool for research focusing on information content is the ResnickStern Content Classification System (Stern, Dean & Resnick, 1981).

Some research are concerned with the product attributes that are displayed, rather than the entire message. It is however quite useful in order to evaluate the "directness" of advertising rather than to broader based cultural dimension concepts. If counting the information cues present in advertising, a large number may suggest a low context society, whereas a low number would possibly suggest a high context culture. However, the number of information cues may equally be related to uncertainty avoidance, as it seems plausible, that in a largely risk averse culture the consumer may want to have more information about a product than in a less risk averse culture.In comparison with Pollay based research, this type of research is not suitable for research into values, however it is far more differentiated in respect to the information content that is provided, and what product attributes are explained explicitly in the commercial message. As such, it provides a more detailed picture of target market consumer expectation than the more general values research, however it provides less opportunity for descriptive advertising context analysis. This is particularly evident, as certain appeals as classified by Pollay are considerably expanded. For example the "effective" appeal is split up in to three ResnickStern cues: Quality, performance and taste. The "safety" appeal is repeated in two cues: Guarantees and warranties and safety.

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Another aspect that has frequently been looked at is the overall communication or creative strategy that is used in advertising. One frequently used measurement system analyses if the advert presented in the form of a lecture, with a narrator speaking about the product (typical of direct sales commercials), or if a "story" or drama is created in the commercial. Typically, a lecture-type commercial will use hard sales strategy to convince the consumer, whereas a drama will be more soft sell approach. Equally, a lecture- type commercial will usually contain more information cues than a drama-type commercial, due to the nature of the presentation. Looking at the communication style used, direct speech can be expected to be predominant in lecture type commercials, as the narrator usually addresses the audience directly ("Call now"). Indirect speech is logically more dominant in drama-type commercials, where the characters can be expected to speak to each other as the plot develops. A slightly different flavour of creative strategy research, and more differentiated than the above, focuses on a variety of possible creative strategies that are frequently used in commercials. Most dominantly used are Simon's Creative Strategies. This method again is clearly more differentiated, and allows for a greater variety of creative styles to be analysed than the lecture/drama method. It is however quite limited in its approach and usability to analyse the interaction between values and advertising, as it focuses more on an additional preference for a certain creative style or styles in a country. It is however well suited for that, and possibly a good tool for a more descriptive research than pure value centered research.

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Again, this method makes use of communication style and the use of linguistic styles, such as a preference for indirect and direct speech, however the link is less clearly visible than with the lecture/drama method. Another stylistic or creative method that is frequently referred to and researched is the use of humour in advertising. This stands out somewhat, as it doesn't represent a full creative style, and is not linked directly within the area of information cue or appeals research. As can be seen from the above examples of research instruments used, the focus of research into (cross-cultural) advertising can be radically different , though related. Research into appeals is evidently the most broadly focused research, whereas information cues and strategy research takes a far narrower, however more explicit, focus. All of theses research foci make a useful contribution to identify more clearly how advertising is influenced by culture, and if used in combination, have the potential to provide an extremely powerful analysis of advertising practice.

Use of Emotions in Advertising

Significance of Emotion

Brand Development Early ads followed the classical advertising model, which stated that products should be promoted on the basis of their competitive advantages in a way that consumers would understand and believe. The difficulty in accepting this philosophy has become more

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apparent over time as many products have spawned "me too" imitators which have all but gageliminated tangible elements of product differentiation.

Therefore, it has become increasingly important for individual brands to build relationships with consumers through their advertising. While competing products may be standardized, brands are emotion-laden entities formed by both the manufacturer and consumer through a variety of means such as pricing, packaging, distribution and advertising. Observers have noted that consumers buy products to fulfill both functional and emotional needs. Therefore, ads should incorporate both rational and emotional approaches to insure success. It today's high-tech communications environment, consumers can "zap" ads so quickly that advertisers must now entice and engage viewers. In 1963, Marshall McLuhan summarized advertisers' need to draw the consumer in by stating, "...the need is to make the ad include the audience in the experience."

Ads As Emotion
In addition to theories that all brands are built upon emotional relationships with the consumer, some go one step further, proclaiming that all ads convey emotion, regardless of their intent to do so or not. By applying emotional appeals in their advertising, brands communicate their messages, influence consumer attitudes and, in some cases, allow the emotion to serve as the product benefit. 64

The study of consumer response towards emotional advertising allows advertisers to understand consumer decision-making processes, which can be difficult to explain. In many cases, consumers are consciously unaware of the real motivations behind their purchase decisions. Simply asking them to explain their behavior may not yield complete answers, as many revert to the "safety" of logical explanations for what are largely decisions/reactions often based upon emotions.

Some emphasized the importance of studying emotions in advertising by concluding that the feelings consumers experience as the result of viewing ads correlate to such evaluative and action-oriented behaviors as ad liking, brand affect and purchase intention.

Advertising strategies

The main visual characteristics of outdoor advertising were the use of illustration or text only, with very little photography used except for technical products such as cars (Fiero). Lifestyle advertising featuring people located in environments was rare, though people were often used in a decorative way. I saw only 2 examples using foreign models, one a billboard for Benetton and Celebration cigarettes in Kerala. Some of the advertising for Scissors cigarettes featured males who looked like movie stars, and some of the text was targeted to materialist and upwardly mobile values. 65

Product only advertising dominated the visual imagery. Coke and Pepsi are the most prominent international advertisers using billboard advertising and they did it through illustrations of the product with no lifestyle advertising or foreign referents. Computer advertisements in Kerala also showed the product alone.

Most of the text only advertising was smaller but very colourful using primary colours, often painted on the sides of buildings in the countryside. In the small villages small advertisements were everywhere on the tops of shops advertising shops, political parties, health services, cattle feed or local services, always for local products. There was no evidence of saturation strategies used by companies like Coca Cola in other markets.

Retail Marketing

Retail Marketing includes all the activities involved in selling goods or services directly to final consumes for personal, non-business use. Any organization selling to final consumers -- whether a manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer is doing retailing. It does not matter how the goods or services are sold ( by Person, Mail, Telephone, Vending Machine, or Internet ) or where they are sold ( in a store, on the street, or in the consumers home ).

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There are many approaches to understanding and defining retail marketing;

most

emphasize retail marketing as the business activity of selling goods or services to the final consumer. Retail marketing is defined as follows: Any business that directs its marketing efforts towards satisfying the final consumer based upon the organization of selling goods and services as a means of distribution

The concept assumed within this definition is quite important. The final consumer within the distribution chain is a key concept here as retailers are at the end of the chain and are involved in a direct interface with the consumer.

A retailer or retail store is any business enterprise whose sales volume comes primarily from retailing. Retail organizations exhibit great variety and new forms keep emerging. There are store retailers, non store retailers, and retail organizations.

Consumers today can shop for goods and services in a wide variety of stores. The bestknown type of retailer is the department store. Japanese department stores such as Takashimaya and Mitsukoshi attract millions of shoppers each year. These stores feature art galleries, cooking classes, and childrens playgrounds.

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A retailer is at the end of the distributive channel. He provides goods and service to the ultimate consumers. This he does through his small organization, with the help of a few personnel. In an individual retail store there is not much scope for organization except in the sense that the shopkeeper has to organize o apportion his time and resources.

The need for organization becomes essential as soon as he hires people o enters into partnership or takes the help of members of his family in running his store.

A retailer deals in an assortment of goods to cater to the needs of consumers. His objective is to make maximum profit out of his enterprise. With that end in view he has to pursue a policy to achieve his objective. This policy is called retailing mix. A retailing mix is the package of goods and services that store offers to the customers for sale. It is the combination of all efforts planned by the retailer and embodies the adjustment of the retail store to the market environment. Retailing mix, a communication mix and a distribution mix. The maximum satisfaction to the customers is achieved by a proper blend of all three. The success of the retail stores, therefore, depends on customers reaction to the retailing mix which influences the profits of the store, its volume of turnover, its share of the market, its image and status and finally its survival.

There are three main phases in the life of a retailing institution. These are: -

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Innovation ( Entry )

Trading Up

Vulnerability.

In the entry stage, a new retailer enters with new price appeal, limiting product offerings, Sparton Stores & Limited services. Its monopoly power over the others is its price advantage, which means that it offers products at low prices so as to get a competitive edge over its competitors.

In the trading up stage, the retailer starts expanding. It expands in terms of product offering, better services, and improved interiors. With all these, it starts charging a bit higher prices.

In the vulnerability stage, there is a gap in the market leaving some space for the new players to come in. this is due to increase in the prices by the retailer.

I have already explained the three stages in the life of a retail institution. Normally these stages are there in the life of a retail institution. But all these may not be necessarily there

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in every retail institution. For instance, any retail institution targeting the upper class may start itself with a large variety & high price.

This brings to broadly identify and categorize the types of retail marketing, which are defined as follows: 1. Store Retailing 2. Nonstore Retailing

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Trends In Retail Marketing At this point, I can summarize the main development retailers and manufacturers need to take into account as they plan their competitive strategies. In India the trends are mainly in three sectors. These sectors are:

Trends in retail marketing

Urban

Suburban

Rural

1. New retail forms and combinations continually emerge. Bank branches and ATM counters have opened in supermarkets. Gas stations include food stores that make more profit than the gas operation. Bookstores feature coffee shops. Even old retail forms are reappearing : In 1992 Shawna and Randy Heniger introduced peddlers carts in the Mall of America. Today three-fourths of the nations major malls have carts selling everything from casual wear to condoms.

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Successful carts average $30,000 to $40,000 a month in sales and can easily top $70,000 in December. With an average start-up cost of only $3,000, pushcarts help budding entrepreneurs test their retailing dreams without a major cash investment. They provide a way for malls to bring in more mom-and-pop retailers, showcase seasonal merchandise, and prospect for permanent tenants. 2. New retail forms are facing a shorter life span. They are rapidly copied and quickly lose their novelty.

3. The electronic age has significantly increased the growth of non store retailing consumers receive sales offers in the mail and over television, computers, and telephones, to which they can immediately respond by calling a toll-free number or via computer. 4. Competition today is increasingly intertype, or between different types of store outlets. Discount stores, catalog showrooms, and department stores all compete for the same consumers. The competition between chain superstores and smaller independently owned stores has become particularly heated. Because of their bulk buying power, chains get more favorable terms than independents, and the chains large square footage allows them to put in cafes and bathrooms. 5. In many locations, the arrival of a superstore has forced nearby independents out of business. In the book selling business, the arrival of a Barnes & Noble superstore or

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6. Borders Books and Music usually puts smaller bookstores out of business. Yet the news is not all bad for smaller companies. Many small independent retailers thrive by knowing their customers better and providing them with more personal service. 7. Todays retailers are moving toward one of two poles, operating either as mass merchandisers or as specialty retailers. Superpower retailers are emerging. Through their superior information systems and buying power, these giant retailers are able to offer strong price savings. These retailers are using sophisticated marketing information and logistical systems to deliver good service and immense volumes of product at appealing prices to masses of consumers. 8. In the process, they are crowding out smaller manufacturers, who become dependent on one large retailer and are therefore extremely vulnerable, and smaller retailers, who simply do not have the budget of the buying power to compete. Many retailers are even telling the most powerful manufacturers what to make; how to price and promote; when and how to ship; and even how to reorganize and improve production and management. Manufacturers have little choice: They stand to lose 10 to 30 percent of the market if they refuse. 9. Marketing channels are increasingly becoming professionally managed and programmed. Retail organizations are increasingly designing and launching new store formats targeted to different lifestyle groups. They are not sticking to one format, such as department stores, but are moving into a mix of retail formats.

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Technology is becoming critical as a competitive tool. Retailers are using computers to produce better forecasts, control inventory costs, order electronically from suppliers, send e-mail between stores, and even sell to customers within stores. They are adopting checkout scanning systems, electronic funds transfer, and improved merchandise-handling systems. 11. Retailers with unique formats and strong brand positioning are increasingly moving into other countries. McDonalds, The Limited, Gap, and Toys R Us have become globally prominent as a result of their great marketing prowess. Many more Indian retailers are actively pursuing overseas markets to boost profits. 12. There has been a marked rise in establishments that provide a place for people to congregate, such as coffeehouses, tea shops, juice bars, bookshops, and brew pubs. Denvers two Tattered Covered bookstores host more than 250 events annually, from folk dancing to womens meetings. Brew pubs such as New Yorks Zip City Brewing and Seattles Trolleyman Pub offer tasting and a place to pass the time. The Discovery Zone, a chain of childrens play spaces, offers indoor spaces where kids can go wild without breaking anything and stressed-out parents can exchange stories. There are also the now-ubiquitous coffeehouses and espresso bars, such as Starbucks, whose numbers have grown from 2,500 in 1989 to a forecasted 13,000 by 2001. And Barnes & Noble turned a once-staid bookstore industry into a fun-filled village green.

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RetailingMarketing Decisions
Retailers today are very anxious to find out new marketing strategies to attract and hold customers. In the past they held customers by offering convenient location, special or unique assortments of goods, greater or better services than competitors , and store credit cards. All of this has changed. Today, national brands such as Calvin Klein, Wrangler , Lacoste, Levi etc. are found in most department stores, in their own shops, in merchandise outlets, and in off-price discount stores. In their drive for volume, national brand manufacturers have placed their branded goods everywhere. The result is that retail-store assortments have grown more alike. Therefore the key aspect in marketing or retail marketing is the attitude of mind. It requires that, in taking Marketing decisions, the retail manager should look at the situation from the customers point of view. These decisions are thus driven by keeping the shoppers needs & wants at the forefront of product/service delivery. The most critical part of retail marketing but the key to its success is the ability to adopt to the customers viewpoint. Service differentiation also has eroded. Many department stores have trimmed services, and many discounters have increased services. Customers have smarter shoppers. They do not want to pay more for identical brands, especially when service differences have diminished. Nor do they need credit from a particular store, because bank credit cards have become almost universal. In the face of increased competition from discount houses and specialty stores, department stores are waging comeback war. Once located in the center of cities, many

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opened branches in suburban shopping centers, where parking is plentiful and family incomes are higher.

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Retail Marketing Promotion : Role of Advertising and Different Media

In todays market, a retailer must do everything possible to reach as many potential customers as he can with the stores limited funds. The most efficient method of reaching method of reaching these potential customers for most retail is the marketing tool known as advertising. For purposes of definition : Advertising is any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. The definition points out the true role of advertising in the promotional mix of a store. Advertising is a paid form of promotion : The retailer can control the placement and content of the advertising for the store. Advertising id non personal : The retailer cannot expect advertising to do all the selling. It will not replace personal selling effort where it is needed. Advertising and personal selling must complement one another. Advertising can sell something besides a product : The retailer should use advertising to sell the service of the store. For many retailers, services is their only differential advantage. For some retailers, selling ideas as also significant. If a retailer is trying to promote a civic cause o a unique or different retailing image, this idea may be presented through the stores advertising.

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 Advertising requires an identified sponsor : The retailer wants to be sure the store is identified. A retailer should take extra care to insure that a potential customer has no doubt as to the name of the store and where the store is located. As a retailer studied the stores advertising program, factors to be considered include. Advertisings effect on the retail image Objective of advertising Characteristics of available media Advertising budget Advertising schedule Cumulative effect of advertising Coordination of advertising with the other parts of the marketing program. By examining these key factors, a retailer can improve his understanding of the role and capabilities of advertising. This understanding should in turn results in a more effective and more efficient advertising campaign. Each of these factors for effective advertising are equally important to well-planned advertising. Although advertisings effect on the retail image will be discussed first, non of the seven advertising areas in many stronger than any other in the chain of advertising success.

Retail Marketing In India

Retail marketing is the most important part of the entire logistics chain in a business especially in consumer related products. Without proper retailing the companies can't do

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their business. Retailing is the process of selling goods in small quantities to the public and is not meant for resale. Retail is derived from the French word retailer, meaning to cut a piece off or to break bulk. There are various ways of making goods available to consumers like: Company to distributor to wholesaler to retailer to consumer Company to salesperson to consumer Company to consumers (online/ phone/ catalog ordering)

These three are among the most common ways of making the goods available to consumers. But in India the three layered system of distributor, wholesaler and retailer, forms the backbone of the front-end logistics of most of the consumer-good companies.

In this system the company operating on all India basis appoints hundreds of distributors across the country that supplies to various retailers and wholesalers. Wholesalers in turn can either directly sell in the market or can supply to retailers. The current retailing system prevalent across the country is highly fragmented and unorganized. Anyone with some money and some real estate can open a small shop and become a retailer catering to the locality in which he opens the shop.

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There are a number of reasons behind this fragmented retail market. Some of the major reasons being: Poverty and lower literacy levels. Low per capita income. Savings focused and less indulgence mindset. Poor infrastructure facilities like roads etc. Restrictions on intra-state good movement. High taxes. No exposure to media. High import duties on imported goods. FDI in retailing is not allowed. Retailing is not considered as a business or industry by the government. Hitherto none of the business schools in India were offering specialized courses on retailing. Expensive supply chain. Besides this there are other reasons too, which led to stifling of growth of organized segment of retailing sector and which instead led to highly fragmented market.

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Today in India we have more than 12mn retail outlets and most of then are family run and locally owned. There are very few nationally present retail stores. In India the process of buying and selling at these unorganized retail outlets, is highly characterized by bargaining and negotiations. But slowly with increasing influence of media and urbanization the market is shifting towards organized segment. Seeing the huge market size of retail business in the country and the current level of organized segment, many players have jumped into the fray and many are waiting for the right opportunity to enter it.

Retailing And The Future

Through this project various topics have been presented which reflect the current state of the Art and Science of retailing. To look beyond the present to what it will be like in ten, fifteen or more years is a difficult endeavor at best. It is important, however, for retailers to look to the future since the store which plans for the future increases its chances of being in business at that time. In examining the future, a care full study of trends can be quite helpful. Trends in population, store development, merchandising, personnel, promotion, customer service, and retail control are examined. It should be noted that retailing is dynamic. Predicting its future is no easy assignment.

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DATA COLLECTION

Data collection for research can be broadly collection

1. Primary data 2. Secondary data

1. PRIMARY DATA: Primary data are those, which are collected afresh and for the first time and thus happen to be original in character. Important primary data are: -

1. Observation method 2. Interview method 3. Through questionnaires 4. Through schedules etc.

2. SECONDARY DATA-Secondary data are those data, which have already been collected by someone else and which have already been passed through the statistical process, secondary data can be collected from:-

1. Various publications of state, central and local government. 2. Technical and trade generals

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3. Books, magazines and newspapers. 4. Reports and publications of various associations. 5. Reports prepared by research scholars, universities etc. 6. Public records and statistical, historical documents etc.

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,

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(HLL 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.

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.

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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.

This article addressed a popular method of marketing communication: the use of celebrity spokespersons in advertising to endorse brands. A brief assessment of the current market situation indicates, that celebrity endorsement advertising strategies can under the right circumstances indeed justify the high costs associated with this form of advertising. However, as several failures show, it is essential for advertisers to be aware of the complex processes underlying celebrity endorsement, by gaining an understanding of the described concepts of source credibility and attractiveness, match-up hypothesis, meaning transfer model, multiple product and celebrity endorsement. While these concepts can help to answer the question if and when celebrity-advertising investments pay off, it has to be the goal of further research efforts to develop an extensive, consistent and user-friendly tool to avoid arbitrary decisions and enhance the strategic character of celebrity sponsorship decisions.

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This article also define the media role in the advertisement of the different brand and the role of the advertiser to crash the opportunity of the market of rural world. This article also give an idea related with the cultural effect in the advertising. Research into the cultural impact in advertising is still relative young. Although a number of articles deal with the topic, a large number of them focuses on specific topics or specific product categories, and does only rarely attempt to link their findings with previously researched cultural dimensions.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

The companies should give more emphasis on advertising and sales promotion as the competition is becoming tougher and tougher. So they need to make some brand image amongst the consumers.

The customers are becoming king as they have a whole lot of choices. So the companies should try to be cost effective and pass on the saved amount to the customer.

Retailers are still the place to buy toothpaste. So the companies should focus on retailers also who is also a customer for their products.

The companies should try to launch new products after through research of the consumers as they are becoming more dynamic day by day.

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Bibliography 1. Hawkins, Del I., Roger J. Best, and Kenneth A. Coney (1998), Consumer Behavior: Building Marketing Strategy, 7th ed., Boston: McGraw Hill. 2. Kotler Philip (2001), Marketing Management, Millennium edition, prentice hall of India private limited. 3. L. G. Shiffman & L. L. Kajum (1998,fifth edition), Consumer Behaviour, prentice hall of India private limited. 4. Subroto Sengupt (1999), brand positioning - strategies for competitive advantage, eighth reprint TATA MC Graw-hall publishing co. ltd. 5. Tull & Hawkings (1999,sixth edition), Marketing Research, prentice hall of India private limited. 6. www.aandm.com 7. www.colgate.com 8. www.projecsthub.com

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9. www.psychology.com

10.www.indiainfoline.com

ANNEXURE Sample Questionnaire

1. In which age group do you belong: (tick one) a) 12-18 Yrs [ ] d) 41-55 Yrs [ ] b) 19-27 Yrs [ ] c) 28-40 Yrs [ ]

e) above 56 Yrs [ ] Male [ ] Female [ ]

2. Sex :

3. Your Family income : (Rs per month) a) 5000-10000 [ ] b) 10001-20000 [ ] c) above 20000 [ ]

4.

Ho

many

members

are

there

in

your

Family

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__________________

5. You are a: a) Student [ ] b) Professional [ ] [ ] c) Businessman [ ]

d) Serviceman [ ] e) Housewife

6. Write the names of three Bands that come to your mind when you hear the word Toothpaste. a)______________ b) ________________ c) ________________

7. You most often buy your toothpaste from: a) Departmental stores [ ] b) b) Local grocery shop [ ] c) Chemist [ ]

8. Do you apply Toothpaste on : a) 1/4th length of toothbrush Bristles. b) 1/2th length of toothbrush Bristles. c) Full length of Toothbrush Bristles.
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[ [ [

] ] ]

9. Do you: a) Buy toothpaste well in advance. b) You buy as and when you have an empty tube. [ ] [ ]

10. Which size of toothpaste do you normally Buy: a) 50 gms [ ] b) 100gms [ ] d) 200 gms [ ]

c)150 gms [ ]

11. Why do you brush your teeth: Please give points in the scale of 1-5(1 for least important and 5 for most important). a) It gives me Confidence. b) It leaves a Tinge of Freshness in me. c) It is a Hygienic activity. d) Necessary otherwise I will have Bad Breath. e) It removes stains from by Teeth. f) Necessary as it Prevents Tooth Decay. [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]

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g) It gives me stronger Gums.

[ ]

12. Which toothpaste do you use most often : _______________________

13. For how long have you been using the above mentioned toothpaste : a) Less than 6 months [ ] c) More than one Year [ ] b) 6 months to one year [ ] d) since my childhood [ ]

14. Can you name the Manufacturer? Yes [ ] ` No [ ]

15. During the last 1 year which other brand of toothpaste have you used/bought: 1) 2) 3) 4) More than three brands 5) Not bought any other brand.

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Thank you for your precious time.

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