ADVERTISING: A FLASHBACK

Advertising is virtually everywhere in daily life, and its forms and roles are both
contested and admired. Some see advertising as both the mirror and the maker of culture:
its words and images reflect the present and the past even as they contribute new sounds
and symbols that shape the future. Others say that advertising is purely an economic
activity with one purpose: to sell. But most of the people agree on the fact that
advertising creates "magic in the marketplace." Advertising can be defined as a paid, non
personal communication of information about product or ideas by an identified sponsor
through the mass media in an effort to persuade or influence behavior. Advertising is non
personal as its directed to groups of people rather than to specific individuals. Speaking
in broad term advertising communicates information about products or ideas.

THE EVOLUTION OF ADVERTISING

Advertising is hardly a new phenomenon. Even a hundred years ago, advertising was an
integral though sometimes unwanted part of daily life. Over the centuries, the evolution
of advertising has been closely tied to social, economic and technological changes that
have affected the media and the message. We would study the evolution of advertising
under the following heads:

 The Early Days: These were the days when public education was low, few people
could read, and so for centuries trades people attracted attention with public criers and
pictorial signs. Some Greek and Roman traders also used signs to advertise their
products, as people could not read. When Johann Gutenberg invented movable type
and the printing press in Germany in the mid 1400s that printed materials could be
mass-produced. This led to printed pamphlets being distributed and also some
primitive forms of today's billboards.

 The Industrial Revolution: The Industrial Revolution and the subsequent shift from
rural to urban centers and the widening of the gap between producers and the
 consumers, the businesses turned to advertising quickly to reach out their potential
customers.

 Technological Changes: During and after the Industrial Revolution, technological

advance changed both the speed and form of communication. This can be attributed
to the fact that photography was invented and along with telegraph, telephone,
typewriter, phonograph, and motion pictures opened up new avenues for personal and
business communication. However, the inventions of radio and television changed the
face of advertising forever as print and electronic media expanded the use and impact
of advertising. We discuss a few of them in brief:

1. Print Media: This would include the magazines and the newspapers. Today's
newspapers and magazines offer advertisers the flexibility of targeting the audience
ranging from a small local area to the whole nation or the continent. By the dawn of
the twentieth century, advertising had become a social and economic fixture in the
U.S. and U.K. and all the magazines and newspapers were being filled by ads of
different companies and varied products. Today also the print media is an effective
mode of advertisement.

2. Electronic Media: The electronic media would include radio and the
television. The advent of the radio allowed the advertisers the liberty of using certain
'jingles' and music, which could be associated with their brand and product. Whereas
the television brought along the visuals along with the audio effects. This was a
revolution and the print media found it being sidelined as far as advertising went.
Talking of India, the Cable TV boom in the early nineties added to the choices
available to the advertiser on a regional segment.
 THE ADVENT OF THE INTERNET

The new millennium has brought us on the brink of the I.T. Revolution. This revolution
has been aided by the advent of the Internet in a big way. Internet is fast changing the
way people used to do things. Naturally, the same would have an impact on the
advertisers. The Internet has been accepted as the most powerful media for advertising
due to the absence of geographical barriers. The advent of the Internet and its subsequent
acceptance has once again challenged the traditional forms of advertising. Advertisers are
trying to use the 'net' to advertise their products and hence 'net' their customers. Thus,
with the Internet gaining prominence, advertising equations are fast changing and we, in
the subsequent chapters, would like to study the impact of Internet on advertising from
the customers as well as advertisers point of view.
 TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING VERSUS INTERNET ADVERTISING

The first Web advertisement was placed on the Hot Wired web site in October 1994.
AT&T, MCI, Sprint, Volvo, Club Med, ZIMA were the first to try it out and the Internet
advertising has come a long way since then. Here, we would like to compare Internet
Advertising with Traditional Advertising:

TRADITIONAL ADV. (TA) INTERNET ADV. (IA)

TA is static. It is dynamic with multimedia-
supporting text and graphics video
sound all together.
Space is not a restricting factor Space is a problem, as regards size of
the banners etc.
The proportion of advertising to A web page would be 91% editorial and
editorial is high sometimes 50:50. 9% advertising.
Does not evoke immediate action. Invokes immediate action, as you at-
least need to click on the ad.
Response to the action is not First response is immediate as when
immediate. the user clicks, the person is directed to
other web page with more details.
Advertisements are passively received. The user has high attention level and
concentration while using the net, and
hence they notice the ad.
Advertising does not always target a This can be very focused.
very focused audience.
Advertisements are ubiquitous. Advertisements catch users when they
are on the lookout for some thing. For
example the search is for travel on a
search engine there are ads of travel
agents on the net.
Difficult to track the exact number of This is quite possible with Internet
people who saw the advertisement. advertisements.
Ads are graphic intensive and avoid Both copy and graphics are restricted
copy overload. by the banner size specifications.
The costs would be prohibitive to reach There are no such constraints.
a global audience.

OBJECTIVES OF INTERNET ADVERTISING

1. Advertising: As far as advertising on the Internet goes, all advertisements will serve
to attract the user's attention and draw him to the company, which is advertising.
2. Build brand awareness: Direct or indirect methods can be used on the websites to
build brand awareness of the different brands of a company. This is where the
Internet scores traditional media and methods as explained below.
3. Stimulate direct action: Visitors to a company's web site should get involved with
the offerings on the site. Valuable customer information can also be captured and
tracked for future marketing initiatives.
4. Promote its brands: Promotional give - away or contests generate excitement while
simultaneously promoting your brands online, aiding off - line sale.
5. Building a culture around its brands: This goes along with that company's
traditional advertising.
6. Surrogate advertising: This is another means of surrogate advertising of the
company, where all forms of traditional advertising fail. Surrogate advertising can be
proved to be positive in case of advertising on the Internet.

FEATURES OF INTERNET ADVERTISING

1. Advertising on the Internet has certain unique features that differentiate it from other
forms of advertising. They are as follows:
2. Member registration: Member registration is an efficient tool that is used by firms
to create their database. Such a database may be used to design promotional
campaigns. Allowing registered users to participate in various events can follow
systems of free registration.
3. Online opinion polls: Opinion polls are conducted to obtain the responses from users
regarding the firms' products and services besides including topics of general interest.
4. Newsletters: Regular newsletters are sent especially to registered users. These
contain information about current updations on the site and activities being performed
by the company.
5. Contests and sweepstakes: Contests are useful in attracting new users to websites.
They may be for simple things depending on the product or service being advertised.
The prizes offered are in a wide range and usually have the logo of the company and
the homepage address displayed prominently.
6. Content: The content of the advertisement can be regularly updated with news
regarding the activities of the firm. A fact-based section showing the manufacturing
processes of a company may also be included. The use of multimedia tools can make
this more interactive.
7. E-cards: Users send free cards via e-mail from the site of the company advertising
the product. The card prominently displays the logo or the baseline of the brand. The
cards may be for different occasions such as birthdays, festivals, birthdays, etc. These
cards are used to reinforce brand identity. Star endorsers of the brand may also be
included in the picture postcard themes.
8. Downloads: Downloads may include various utilities for the computer such as icons,
desktop patterns, screensavers, themes, etc. Registered users get the opportunity of
downloading software. Charts and other informative articles may also be included.
9. Coupons: Coupons are used to promote sales off-line. Sending discount coupons for
the products and services of the company on special occasions can do this.

DEFINITION

Paid form of non-personal communication about an organization or its

products that is transmitted to a target audience through a mass/broadcast medium.
 "The paid, no personal communication of information about products or ideas
by an identified sponsor through the mass media in an effort to persuade or influence
behavior."

Now let's take this statement apart and see what it means.

NONPERSONAL

First, what is "nonpersonal"? There are two basic ways to sell anything: personally and
nonpersonally. Personal selling requires the seller and the buyer to get together. There are
advantages and disadvantages to this. The first advantage is time: the seller has time to
discuss in detail everything about the product. The buyer has time to ask questions, get
answers, and examine evidence for or against purchase.

A second advantage of personal selling is that the seller can see you. The person he's
selling to. He can see your face; see how the sales message is getting across. If you yawn
or your eyes shift away, you're obviously bored, and the seller can change approach. Rhe
can also see if you're hooked, see what features or benefits have your attention, and
emphasize them to close the sale. Finally, the seller can easily locate potential buyers. If
you enter a store, you probably have an interest in something that store sells.

Disadvantages do exist. Personal selling is, naturally enough, expensive, since it is labor-
intensive and deals with only one buyer at a time. Just imagine trying to sell chewing
gum or guitar picks one-on-one; it would cost a dollar a stick or pick.

In addition, its advantage of time is also a disadvantage. Personal selling is time-

consuming. Selling a stereo or a car can take days, and major computer and airplane sales
can take years. Nonetheless, although personal selling results in more rejections than
sales, and can be nerve-racking, frustrating and ego destroying for the salesperson, when
the salesperson is good it is more directed and successful than advertising.

From the above, it appears that personal selling is much better than advertising, which is
nonpersonal. This is true. Advertising has none of the advantages of personal selling:
there is very little time in which to present the sales message, there is no way to know
just who the customer is or how rhe is responding to the message, the message cannot be
changed in mid-course to suit the customer's reactions.

Then why bother with advertising? Because its advantages exactly replace the
disadvantages of personal selling, and can emulate some of the advantages. First let's
look at the latter. First, advertising has, comparatively speaking, all the time in the world.
Unlike personal selling, the sales message and its presentation do not have to be created
on the spot with the customer watching. It can be created in as many ways as the writer
can conceive, be rewritten, tested, modified, injected with every trick and appeal known
to affect consumers.

Second, although advertisers may not see the individual customer, nor be able to modify
the sales message according to that individual's reactions at the time, it does have
research about customers. The research can identify potential customers, find what
message elements might influence them, and figure out how best to get that message to
them. Although the research is meaningless when applied to any particular individual, it
is effective when applied to large groups of customers.

Third, and perhaps of most importance, advertising can be far cheaper per potential
customer than personal selling. Personal selling is extremely labor-intensive, dealing with
one customer at a time. Advertising deals with hundreds, thousands, or millions of
customers at a time, reducing the cost per customer to mere pennies. In fact, advertising
costs are determined in part using a formula to determine, not cost per potential customer,
but cost per thousand potential customers.

Thus, it appears that advertising is a good idea as a sales tool. For small ticket items, such
as chewing gum and guitar picks, advertising is cost effective to do the entire selling job.
For large ticket items, such as cars and computers, advertising can do a large part of the
selling job, and personal selling is used to complete and close the sale.

Advertising is nonpersonal, but effective.

COMMUNICATION

Communication means not only speech or pictures, but also any way one person can pass
information, ideas or feelings to another. Thus communication uses all of the senses:
smell, touch, taste, sound and sight. Of the five, only two are really useful in advertising
-- sound and sight.

The five forms of human communication can be used to send any message to potential
customers. However, not all five are equal. Smell, touch and taste are of little use, but
sound and sight are of great value and effectiveness.

INFORMATION

Information is defined as knowledge, facts or news. However, you should bear in mind
that one person's information is another person's scam, particularly when advertisers talk
about their products.

Information comes in many forms. It can be complete or incomplete. It can be biased or

deceptive. Complete information is telling someone everything there is to know about
something: what it is, what it looks like, how it works, what its benefits and drawbacks
are. However, to provide complete information about anything is time consuming and
difficult.

Thus, for advertising, information must of necessity be incomplete, not discussing

everything there is to know about the subject. In advertising, what appears is everything
the writer thinks the customer needs to know about the product in order to make a
decision about the product. That information will generally be about how the product can
benefit the customer. There is, of course, the concept of affirmative disclosure. This
concept requires an advertiser to provide customers with any information that could
materially affect their purchase decision.

PAID FOR
". . . paid for . . . " is pretty straightforward. If an ad is created and placed in the media,
the costs of creation and time or space in the media must be paid for. This is a major area
in which advertising departs from public relations.

PR seeks to place information about companies and/or products in the media without
having to pay for the time or space. PR creates news releases and sends them to news
media in hopes they will be run. Often PR departments produce events that will be
covered by news media and thus receive space or time. There is no guarantee that the
media will run any of the PR material.

Advertising doesn't have that problem. If time or space is bought in the media, the ads (as
long as they follow the guidelines set down for good taste, legal products and services,
etc.) will appear. The drawback is that ads are clearly designed to extol the virtues of
products and companies, and consumers perceive any ad as at least partly puffery. PR
pieces are usually not so perceived.

PERSUASIVE

"Persuasive" stands to reason as part of the definition of advertising. The basic purpose of
advertising is to identify and differentiate one product from another in order to persuade
the consumer to buy that product in preference to another. The purpose of this book is to
discuss some basic elements of persuasion.

PRODUCTS, SERVICES OR IDEAS

Products, services or ideas are the things that advertisers want consumers to buy (in the
case of ideas, "buy" means accept or agree with as well as lay out hard, cold cash).
However, there is more involved in products or services than simply items for purchase.
A product is not merely its function. It is actually a bundle of values, what the product
means to the consumer. That bundle may contain the product's function, but also the
social, psychological, economic or whatever other values are important to the consumer.
Companies, through research, try to determine what values consumers want in their
products, and then advertise to show how their product satisfies the customers' bundle of
values better than competitors' products. To do this, the company must differentiate their
product from competitors. There are three basic differentiations: perceptible,
imperceptible, and induced.

Perceptible

Perceptible differences are those that actually exist that make one product obviously
different from others of the same kind. The difference may in color or size or shape or
brand name or some other way. In any case, the consumer can easily see that this car or
couch or camera is different from other cars or couches or cameras. Perceptible
differences allow a person to make an instant identification of one product as opposed to
another.

Imperceptible

Imperceptible differences are those that actually exist between one product and others,
but are not obvious. For example, there are imperceptible but profound differences
between CP/M, MS-DOS and Apple and MacIntosh computers. You can't simply look at
a computer and tell which it is; machines can and usually do look alike. And yet buying
either precludes being able to use software designed for the other.

Induced

For many products, there is no actual substantive difference between one and another.
For many brands of cigarettes, beer, cleansers and soaps, rice, over-the-counter health
products, etc., ad nauseam, there is essentially no difference between one brand and
another. These products are called parity products.

For these products, the only way to differentiate one from another is to induce that
difference, to persuade people that there actually is some difference, and that difference is
important to them. These differences are created through advertising, not through any
inherent difference in the products, and that creation often uses the appeals and methods
discussed in the bulk of this book.

IDENTIFIED SPONSORS

Identified sponsors means whoever is putting out the ad tells the audience who they are.
There are two reasons for this: first, it's a legal requirement, and second, it makes good
sense.

Legally, a sponsor must identify herself as the sponsor of an ad. This prevents the
audience from getting a misleading idea about the ad or its contents. For example, many
ads that appear in newspapers look like news articles: same typeface, appearance, use of
columns, etc.. If the ad is not identified as such, the audience could perceive it as news
about a product, rather than an attempt to persuade the audience to buy it. Case in point:
what looks like a news article discusses a weight-loss plan. In journalistic style it talks
about the safety, efficacy, and reasonable price of the product. A reasonable person might
perceive the "article" as having been written by a reporter who had investigated weight-
loss programs and decided to objectively discuss this particular one. Such a perception is
misleading, and illegal. Since it is an ad, somewhere on it there must appear the word
"advertisement" to ensure the audience does not think it is an objective reporting of news.

Second, it makes good sense for a sponsor to identify rherself in the ad. If the sponsor
doesn't, it is possible for the audience to believe the ad is for a competitor's product, thus
wasting all the time, creativity and money that went into making and placing the ad.

VARIOUS MEDIA

The various media are the non-personal (remember that?) channels of communication
that people have invented and used and continue to use. These include newspapers,
magazines, radio, television, billboards, transit cards, sandwich boards, skywriting,
posters, anything that aids communicating in a non-personal way ideas from one person
or group to another person or group. They do not include people talking to each other:
first, talking is personal and advertising is non-personal; and second, there is no way to
use people talking to each other for advertising--word-of-mouth is not an advertising
medium, since you can't control what is said.

Thus, to repeat "Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information usually

paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified
sponsors through the various media."

PROS & CONS

PROS

1. Flexibility allows you to focus on a small, precisely defined segment (School

newspapers) or a mass market (baseball show = Males, 35-50).
2. Cost efficient-reach a large number at a low cost per person, allows the message to be
repeated, and can improve public image.
3. Allows for repeating the message-lets the buyer receive and compare the messages of
various competitors.
4. Very expressive, allows for dramatization.
5. Also used to build a long-term image of a product.
6. Trigger quick sales, Sears advertising a weekend sale.

CONS

1. Absolute Rs outlay very high, make a national TV ad. Approx 150,000, local ad.
60,000. 30 second spot, Superbowl 1.1 m 1995
2. Rarely provides quick feedback, or necessarily any feedback
3. Less persuasive than personal selling
4. Audience does not have to pay attention
5. Indirect feedback (without interactivity)

THE MYTH OF ADVERTISING'S EFFECTIVENESS

 It's ironic that advertising can be so expensive while yielding such poor results.

The argument made by the proponents of advertising is almost pathetically simple-

minded: If you can measure the benefits of advertising on your business, advertising
works; if you can't, then your measurements aren't good enough. Or you need more ads.
Or you need a different type of ad. It's much the same type of rationalization put forth by
the proponents of making yourself rich by visualizing yourself as being prosperous.

Paradoxically, even though some small-business owners are beginning to

realize that advertising doesn't work, many still advertise. Why? For a number of reasons:
because they have been conditioned to believe that advertising works, because there are
no other models to follow, and because bankers expect to see "advertising costs" as part
of a business proposal.

It's important to realwed. You hi and you've heard countless times that advertising works.
To look at advertising objectively may require you to reexamine some deeply held
beliefs.

What Does Advertising Do?

"What 'work' does advertising do and how well does it do it? Aside from comforting
purchasers by assuring them they made the right choice, aside from comforting CEOs and
employees that their work is important, and aside from certain unpredictable short-term
increases in consumption, most advertising does not perform as advertised. Take away
the tax deductions that corporations get for advertising, and most expenditure would dry
up overnight. Although elaborate proofs of advertising's impotence are available, the
simple fact is that you cannot measure the relationship between increased advertising and
increased sales. If you could, ad agencies would charge by how much they have increased
sales, not by how much media space they have purchased."

AD – O - MANIA

A typical day in the life of a Mumbaikar . . ..

7 :00 am: He wakes up

7:20 am: Picks up the morning newspaper to catch up with the news only to find a huge 2
ft Pepsi bottle glaring back at him. He turns to the sports page to find a huge MRF tyre or
a tin of Castrol GTX. "Forget it, I’ll simply have my tea! "

9 :00 am: He is on his way to office – he first takes a "Digen Verma" bus and then a
"BPL Mots" train.

10:00 am: He is sending an e-mail to his colleague with several ads popping in and out of
the screen.

7 :00 pm: He is driving down the Queen’s necklace - a woman in a hoarding luring him
into buying a "Ray-Ban”.

10:00 pm: He is forced to watch "Kyunki Saas Bhi . . .. " with his wife.

"15 minutes of commercials in a 30 minute serial! “, he retorts.

Welcome to the New Age Advertising! ! ! Advertising has definitely changed

over the years. But the change that we are talking about is not merely the change in the
texture of the advertisements – digital images, special effects, quality of printing, etc. The
change we are referring to is the change in the perspective and in the way ads are
communicated. The change in the theme, the approach, the "language" and even the
channels – who would have thought of ads on bus-stops, buses, trains, kiosks or even
postcards.

In the "good old days", like they say, ads used to be directly correlated to the product. A
men’s clothing ad would have a handsome man (preferably a film star or a cricketer ),
wearing those outfits and endorsing them. A shoe polish ad would show shoes shining
after being polished. We would call these ads – the First Generation ads .
And then started the Second Generation of ads – the age of ambiguity.On seeing an ad,
one would not know whether it is a promo for a car or a suiting or a credit card until in
the end you are enlightened to find it is an ad for a soft drink !

Then advertising graduated to the Third Generation of more meaningful ads. Ads that
revolved around "Life" – that showed the "Bigger Picture" than merely the product or
service. The First Generation ads implicated practical needs like thirst, beauty, hygiene ,
safety, etc – the basic utility of the product or service. The Third Generation ads address
the "Ontological Needs", needs related to self-affirmation like a person’s aspirations,
emotions and relationships. Thus we find that these are more subtle, the Monte Carlo
sweater ad does not show a person feeling cold in the snow and wearing the sweater.
Instead, the theme is woven around a man and woman’s newly found love. The warmth
of a sweater is related to the warmth one experiences in a relationship. Or if we see men’s
suitings ads like Raymond, today they depict changing roles of a man as a father, a
husband, a son or a successful professional in the corporate jungle .

Also, as culture changes, conventions change, depictions in the ads are also changing.
The "Arial Compact" ad shows the husband washing clothes while the wife is away at
office. Or the Allen Solly ad coming up with "Friday Dressing", doing away with the
concept of conventional dull formal dressing by introducing "casual formals".

Or the latest "Pepsi" ad which shows the showdown of our very own hero, Shahrukh,
unlike conventionally – the hero always gets the girl.

Though ads are becoming subtle as to the communication of their product or service, on
the whole, advertising has become very aggressive and loud. No one would forget the
day, "Indya.com" had taken over the entire front page of "The Times of India". And
today you have a "Digen Verma" hoarding every 10 yards you walk . Admen are out to
grab every little gap in our time or space and stuff it with ads. Hence ads tend to be
intrusive, eating out (a bit too much ) on our newspaper space, TV entertainment, the
airspace of our cities – almost imposing buying decisions on us. Agression in ads also
comes in the form of crudeness and vulgarity, even on huge hoardings on busy streets. It
was shocking to find "Bisleri" resorting to vulgarity to promote mineral water that stands
for purity. Also in the name of competitive advertising, we see a lot of Softdrinks and
toothpaste wars. This has resulted in companies focusing more on mocking each other
than concentrating on their marketing strategies.

The transition of social advertising has been equally interesting. The "Drive Safely" or
the "Wear helmets when you drive" ads previously showed fear and warnings stating –
"Don’t do this . . . " which invoked "rebellion" amongst teenagers who would still end up
driving rashly or drinking. Today, such ads use humour or emotions to strike a
sentimental chord ( like "someone’s waiting for you home") amongst the target audience.

Then there are brands like "Lux" who haven’t changed their communication for years –
they still use the same "beauty soap for film stars" concept and are still effective. Even
the "Pears" soap that has been implicating "tenderness" by showing the mother - daughter
relationship. Or the "Sunsilk" shampoo that says "a shampoo for every kind of hair".

Well, we have seen our culture and lifestyle change and since ads reflect life, they have
also undergone a transition. But the question that still lingers in our minds is that - Have
the admen changed their advertising communication according to our culture changes or
is advertising today changing our lifestyle and imposing a totally new value system on
us! !

FIVE M’s OF ADVERTISING

Advertising is an important promotional tool for any marketing campaign. So much so
that whenever we think of marketing we think of advertising although it is just one of the
marketing tools. Hitherto only companies with a profit motive went in for advertising.
But today government bodies as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) go for
high profile advertising campaigns. The purpose here is not to increase the sales figure
but to increase the awareness of people regarding the relevant topics.

Today the marketing manager has a range of advertising options to choose from - from
interpersonal communication to Internet. Deciding on a correct option calls for a detailed
analysis aspects like objective behind advertising (Mission), company’s earmarked
budget (Money), content of communication through advertising (Message), advertising
vehicle (Media) and impact of advertising (Measurement). These can be broadly
classified in as the five Ms of advertising.

MISSION
First of all the marketing manager must be clear on the company’s purpose for
advertising. "Increase in sales figure" will be a very broad and to a certain extent a vague
objective. According to Mr. Philip Kotler, a renowned authority in this field, there can be
three possible objectives behind advertising:

 Information - When a new product is launched, the purpose should only be to inform
people about the product.
 Persuasion – Persuading people to actually go out and buy the product. This objective
is of paramount importance because of cutthroat competition. Any advertisement
must be persuasive in nature, attracting consumers towards the brand.
 Reminder - This objective is relevant for well-established companies. These types of
advertisements only try to remind the consumer of the brand existence. For instance
whenever we hear or read yeh dil mange more, we tend to think about Pepsi. Same
way we tend to associate "two minutes" with Maggie noodles.
The marketing manager should establish a clear goal as on the purpose of advertising -
information, persuasion or reminder.

MONEY
After the objective has been decided upon, the next step is to decide upon the budget.
There are several methods for deciding on the advertising budget. The most common
among them is percentage of sales method. Under this method, a certain percentage of
sales are allotted for advertising expenditure. Though this method is used widely, there
are some problems with this method. The first issue is what percentage the company
should take? Even if a company somehow decides a percentage figure, this would mean
increase in advertising expenditure when sales are up and less spending when sales are
down. This in some ways is quite paradoxical, because logically the reverse should
happen. The company needs to spend more on advertising when sales are down. But this
method uses circular reasoning and views sales as cause for promotion! In fact sales are a
result of promotion.

Another method suggests that a company should spend as much as its competitors are
spending. This method claims that it would prevent promotional wars. But then like each
individual each company is also different. It may not make any sense in spending like
your competitor because competitor might be on a different footing.

MESSAGE
As a common experience, we love some advertisements, while the others just irritate us.
An appealing ad will win consumers and will consequently induce them to purchase the
product. On the other hand, irritating ads will create an adverse effect. This is why many
companies hand over this task to advertising agencies, which has professionals to make
impact-making ads.

The message, that company wants to convey, should be put in a manner that will arouse
interest. Moreover it should convincingly highlight upon the product’s USP. What is said
is definitely important but what is more important is how it is said. The tone should be
appealing. Words used should be catchy and retentive (memorable). These days both
electronic as well as print media are overflowing with ads. People have no time to read or
see them, and therefore they have to be attractive enough to catch the target audience’s
attention. This is the job of message.

MEDIA
Selecting the proper media vehicle for communicating the message goes a long way in
the success of any kind of advertising. Each media vehicle has its positive and negative
points, with a different reach and impact. Therefore, a company has to be very clear about
its target audience. Choices available are Internet, television, newspapers, magazines,
direct mails, radio and hoardings. Every one of this has its advantages and disadvantages.
Companies often go in for a media mix, i.e. they select more than one of the available
choices. Timing is of greatest significance here. Many industries face seasonal
fluctuations and pass through cycles. Therefore advertising should be timed that way to
take care of these fluctuations. A limited budget should be prudently allocated among
these media vehicles.

MEASUREMENT
It is necessary that effectiveness of any advertising be judged. Only on the basis of this
measurement, can further decisions regarding continuation or termination of the
particular advertising campaign be taken. An ad can be judged on the basis of its reach
and impact on sales. Good advertising is one that generates brand awareness and
consequently brand preference.

How much of sales can be attributed to advertising, is a difficult question to answer.

Sales are influenced by many factors besides advertising. It is not easy to isolate the
impact of advertising on sales. Nonetheless there are some advanced statistical techniques
available that can be used with the help of computer softwares like SPSS.
Thus a systematic and balanced understanding of these five Ms of advertising (Mission,
Money, Message, Media, and Measurement) will help in designing a better advertising
campaigns that create a favourable impact on the target audience.
 ADVERTISING AND FALLACY OF OUGHTS

Do advertisements influence our self-image and our self-esteem?

A look at some of the latest TV commercials: The Wrangler Jeans ad - are the jeans taken
off for fire fighting or for setting the gaping men on fire? The LML Adreno ad - A
symmetry between the physics of the bike & the figure of a woman & how! The brand
reminds him of his beloved & then he "rides" it. Don't smirk… This is serious business.

Even the images on magazine stands everywhere are full of pencil - thin models with
gravity defying breasts, impossibly long legs, and incredibly thick tresses. Beautiful it
may seem but on closer look one may notice the darker side - the possible impact on the
consumer psyche & his/her self-image.

It's a wonderful feeling seeing a 10-year-old girl striding across a playground or riding
her bike letting her hair blow in the wind, feeling free. Then you see that same girl at 17
and she's in torn faded jeans, flaunting her navel ring, looking anorexic, and doing weird
things with her hair and her eyebrows. Research shows 80 percent of American girls
wake up each morning feeling miserable about the way they look, and more than half of
the girls between the ages of 12 and 14 feel better about themselves if they are dieting.

We feel the "fallacy of oughts", created by the dream merchants is responsible for such
a feeling. The fallacy of oughts is the mistaken belief that we must satisfy everything we
ought to be, ought to do, ought to buy. These are the standards we wrongly feel we have
to live up to. Once we get caught in the trap, we start the act of abusing ourselves by
attempting to meet a powerful and overwhelming world of oughts.

Media images contribute to the fallacy of oughts by giving constant messages of

"imperfection and insecurity", by presenting unrealistic images of perfect Barbie doll
-like women. Women's bodies are used and pictorially abused to sell products even as
mundane as floor tiles & bathroom accessories.
Ads tend to convey the idea that appearance is all-important. Everywhere we turn,
advertisements tell us what it takes to be a desirable man or woman. In this way, ads limit
our understanding of self worth and our full potential. It seems so tragic to me that girls
think, "If I only do 100 sit-ups, I would . . .." What becomes "unattractive" is that
obsession with "if only . . . ".

Advertising at its best is making people feel that without their product, you're a failure. &
using their products, chances are……????? The close-up tag line 'guarantee hamaree...,
kismet tumhari'. There are huge societal implications because consumers who don't feel
good about themselves put themselves in a position to be mistreated by the ad makers -
the hidden persuaders.
 NO SURROGATE ADS PLEASE

Following the restriction on advertising and ban on sports sponsorships last year,
Cigarette companies such as ITC and VST, and liquor companies such as UDV,
McDowell, UB now face another hurdle. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry is
planning to go hard on surrogate advertisements by cigarette and liquor companies

The Ministry has already clamped down on two brands - McDowell No 1 and Gilbey's
Green Label - which have been using surrogate advertising extensively to sell liquor. The
Ministry had issued show-cause notices to broadcasters such as Star, Zee, Sony and Aaj
Tak seeking explanation why action should not be taken for violation of Rule 7 of the
Cable Television Networks Rules, 1999 for carrying surrogate advertising on liquor.
According to Rule 7 (2) of the Act, no broadcaster is permitted to show advertisement
which promotes directly or indirectly promotion, sale or consumption of cigarettes,
tobacco products, wine, alcohol, liquor or other intoxicants, infant milk substitution,
feeding bottle or infant food. Both Zee and Star have agreed to withdraw the ads, while
the other channels are expected to follow suit.

Five other brands have come under the magnifying glass now - Charms cigarette,
Smirnoff Vodka (both of which sell audio cassettes and CDs), Haywards 5000 (darting
kits), Royal Challenge Whiskey (Golf Accessories) and Kingfisher beer (Water). A
committee has been set up to look into the issue. The committee will review various
advertisements and determine whether a particular advertisement would be categorized as
surrogate advertising or not. The advertising of products would be considered surrogate if
there was a clear recall of the actual products.

The clamping down on surrogate advertising will weigh heavily on these companies.
Domestic liquor majors have been facing increasing competition from international
brands launched in the country by leading global liquor majors post removal of restriction
on imports. Restriction on the most effective medium of advertising ie television would
obviously hamper brand building. The cigarette majors too have been facing degrowth in
volumes for the last 3 years and rising competition from cheap smuggled products. Brand
strengthening activities would naturally be curtailed if the ban on surrogates were
implemented effectively. It remains to be seen if Retailing Initiatives under the Wills
Lifestyles brand by ITC is also considered a form of surrogate advertising. Or will the
ITC clout be strong enough to convince the regulators that Retailing is a full-fledged
business undertaken by ITC.
 PERFECTING YOUR NEW AD CAMPAIGN

After running the "Clove-oil" advertisement of Promise toothpaste successfully for more
than four years, Balsara Hygiene Products decided to change the ad copy. They came out
with a new campaign stressing the "extra freshness" angle of their dental cream.
Unfortunately, it bombed, plunging the No.2 toothpaste brand to No.3 position, after
Colgate and Close Up. The whole episode costed the company millions of rupees in lost
revenues and ad/promotion expenses.

Some years back, ANZ Grindlays Bank launched a revolutionary ad campaign featuring
spontaneous leisure situations in colour. It was indeed revolutionary for a bank to go for
such an advertising which suited a hotel or resort better. The copy gave very subtle hints
about the services the bank offer. The campaign obviously was much ahead of its time
and so failed to make any impact on the desired objectives. Grindlays withdrew these ads
after spending crores of rupees unnecessarily.

Recently, a leading cosmetics brand came out with a high budget ad film shot abroad for
conveying the same message they have been advertising all of the last several years. It
failed to make any impact on the consumers and they withdrew the ad after a few spots.

These are just few cases in a series of never-ending flop campaigns that occur from time
to time. Again and again, advertisers and their agencies seem to fall into a series of
common traps when making decisions that involve marketing, media and creative
strategies. Often, they result in crores of rupees in wasted efforts. Yet, almost all of them
can be easily avoided.

Most of the things that happen in the advertising business is predictable, and a careful
analysis of available research and case histories can uncover solutions to problems, which
many professionals try to solve intuitively. More often than not their intuition is wrong.
During the course of my consulting and marketing experience, I have noticed a number
of oft-repeated blunders that haunts the advertiser and the agency. This article is an
attempt to provide a remedy to all such problems. Given below are Ten Commandments,
the adherence to which would help advertisers make perfect or near-perfect campaigns.
1. Find out if your product delivers what it promises: - In order to make waves in the
market place and to taste the sweetness of success, a product must live up to its
positioning promise. Advertising guru David Ogilvy puts it in a different way: "The
consumer is no moron ... she is your wife." Noble Soya House positioned their Great
Shake as a cold beverage of great taste (The ad copy said: "Just one sip will get your
toes tapping")when it was launched. Their target market was westernized teenage
group and so they suppressed the soya product story. The product flopped badly,
simply because it could not live up to the promise it was making. Consumers just
hated the bitter after-taste of soya milk. Even after repositioning it in new markets as
nutrition-based drink, it did not do any better. Years of goodwill generated through
the baby food market prompted Glaxo to launch a baby powder, positioned against
the undisputed market leader Johnson & Johnson. Glaxo assumed that mothers would
extend their trust to this product as well. Thus came out Glaxo Tender Talc.
Everything about this product was good except one. The ad pitch based solely on the
Glaxo name and the aura of trust. Unfortunately for them, mothers trusted Johnson &
Johnson more for the baby's outside care! The brand extension just did not work
because Glaxo Tender Talc failed to deliver that trust. In a similar fashion, Aramusk,
premium soap for men, was launched by Shaw Wallace way back in 1985,
positioning it as an exclusive and expensive soap for men. As ill luck would have it,
most consumers felt that the product was too exclusive and too expensive. They just
could not identify with the advertising. Also, the largest group of triers, men of 20-30
years age, just shied away from the soap; forcing Shaw Wallace to withdraw the ad.
The product simply failed to be compatible with the promise it sought to deliver.
Many banks including IDBI and ICICI advertise that they are anxious to give loans,
but the truth often is that they are anxious to give them only to people who really
don't need them and aren't anxious to have them. Hence, most bank advertising lacks
credibility. In short, before you go ahead with a campaign, decide on whether your
product is capable of delivering the positioning promise.

2. Set attainable objectives: - The important thing to understand about setting

advertising objectives is that most advertisers do not set sensible ones. But then these
 same advertisers are not sure if their advertising is paying off either. If you ask them
how their campaign is going, you get answers like, "All of our people like it very
much" or "It's a bit early to tell, but we think it's going to be very successful". The
truth is that if you are spending Rs 10 lakhs or Rs 10 crores, you ought to be able to
tell with a much greater degree of accuracy what it is doing for you, or you shouldn't
be spending it. To do this, you need parameters that can be measured, such as
increasing advertising objectives with specific goals, share of mind or brand
awareness. Advertising campaigns are in one sense like military campaigns. In a
military campaign,you set an objective like "Capture the Kargil back" or "March
through McMohan Line". Then you know when the campaign is over and whether
you have won or lost. Successful advertising campaigns have the same kind of
criteria. They start with objectives, so you can tell how the campaign is going and
whether you are winning or losing. So, perfect campaigns insist on an attainable
objective as a prerequisite.

3. Measure utility before price: - One real question to ask in producing your
advertising is "How much is the utility I am going to get from this really worth"? It is
foolish for a retailer to spend lakhs of rupees producing a TV spot for Diwali sales if
the spot is only going to run on a local channel in one market. In most cases, he
cannot possibly sell enough merchandise to LEFT that kind of expenditure. But it is
equally foolish to try to sell someone a Rs 4.6 lakhs car or a Rs 15,000 vacation with
a brochure that costs a few rupees a copy. There are times when utility is a function of
price. An example of this is magazine coupons offering special cash discounts on
purchases. Coupons in colour are perceived as being more valuable and almost
always achieve a higher redemption rate. By paying greater attention to the work that
has already been done by other advertisers, a lot of blunders could be averted. In
almost all such cases, there is a lot of information available to guide the decision-
making process. But most of us are too busy to look for it. Or we tend to think that we
know the answers because we have been doing it for years, or it is a matter of
judgement. It may have been a matter of judgement at one time, but not today. That is
what separates good advertisers from bad ones.
4. Base budgets on objective-task formula: - Most advertisers still set their advertising
budgets using a percentage of either present sales or projected sales. This method puts
the cart before the horse and postulates that advertising is the result of sales, when
infact it is the cause of sales. It leads to an appropriation based on the availability of
funds rather than problems and opportunities. This can be a costly error. Allwyn
learned this fact very late. Multinationals swallowed it. A second popular method is
to base advertising appropriations on industry figures. For instance, you might use 1%
of revenue if you were advertising refrigerators because that is what the industry
average is. But industry averages may have no meaning in your own situation. By
using them, you tend to forget your own objectives. Instead of using industry average
figures, some companies use their competitors' advertising expenditures as a guide.
"If they are spending Rs 10 crores, then we ought to spend Rs 10 crores too, or may
be even a little more to be safe". So went the planning of a leading refrigerator maker.
But you are assuming here, among other things, that your competitor knows what he
is doing -- and he may not. There are several other methods as well, but the one that
has the most support behind it in the professional and academic community is the
objective-task method. In this method, you look at the objectives you have set for
yourself, decide what needs to be done to accomplish those objectives, and then price
it out. One should admire P&G for sticking to this formula, evident in their spending
of several crores of rupees in building Ariel brand. Surprisingly enough, if your
objectives are reasonable and attainable, the budget you arrive at by this method may
more or less approximate the budget that other methods might suggest.

5. Recognise advertising opportunities: - Sometimes it helps to know a little economic

theory, like grasping the basic concept of elasticity of demand. This describes the
degree of response by consumers to changes in a product's price. For instance, the
more essential a product is, the more inelastic the demand tends to be. That is, if the
cost of rice went up by Rs 5 a kilogram, people would probably not stop buying it.
However, if Double Horse Rice went up Rs 5 a kg, people might switch to Elite Rice,
and if all rice rose by Rs 10 a kg, many people might shift to wheat or other staple
foods. Infact, while consumers did not cut down on their total monthly grocery bill at
 all during the recent inflation-recession, they did buy less mutton and more beef for
the same rupees. More than that, the sales of cookery books shot up many fold!
Elasticity of demand is important to understand, because if the demand for a product
or service is elastic, and prices can be lowered, as in the case of fans and refrigerators
where seasonal discounts attract many new customers, then a real advertising
opportunity can exist. This is also the case when a retailer can get special promotional
price from a manufacturer and pass it on to consumers. But too often, advertisers
assume an elasticity that doesn't exist and then lowering the price, and advertising has
the same overall effect as if the prices had been maintained.

6. Base your actions on valid research: - Even the most experienced marketers have
been misled at times by poor research. A few years ago, a major company in the
household cleaning products business was steadily losing shares of market to a
competitor. In a study, one factor that seemed to make women prefer the competitor's
brand was the fragrance. Women, when asked, consistently said the competitor brand
"smelled better." The company proceeded to develop a fragrance, which in blindfolds
tests clearly "won" over the competition. Women definitely preferred it. The new
fragrance was put into the product and a new advertising campaign was launched.
The sales continued the same downtrend. The company went back and did some more
research. Women did indeed like the smell of their brand "better" than the
competitor's. But the product was a household cleaning formula. It was supposed be
pretty strong stuff. And the competitor's brand had a strong, unpleasant odour. To
users, that meant more cleaning power. Research had turned up the right answer to
the wrong question. The question should have been "Which product smells like it
would clean better?" and not as was originally asked, "Which product smells better?"
Similar invalid research was the catalyst to speed up the death of ICI's Savlon
antiseptic liquid. In laboratory, Savlon was proved more effective against germs than
Dettol. This helped Savlon command a leadership position in the institutional markets
like hospitals. Gaining confidence from this, ICI went ahead with a campaign,
launching Savlon to the household market in direct confrontation with Dettol. "The
other antiseptic (meaning Dettol) kills only the gram-positive germs while Savlon
 kills both gram-positive and gram-negative germs"-- so went the launch campaign.
Sadly, ICI did not recognise that semi-clinical messages such as this one holds no
water with housewives. Savlon bombed miserably. If they had done their research
right, they would have found that Savlon does not sting, it lathers well, it does not
discolour like Dettol when mixed with water, it does not have Dettol's obtrusive
smell, etc. Then, they could have positioned it in many different ways. Perhaps the
new acquirer of Savlon would do a better job! The case of "Ms" cigarettes by GTC is
no different. However, the invalidity of their research for the first cigarette for women
helped them with a valid research for a low-nicotine cigarette "Legend." Products are
frequently launched and advertising campaigns are rolled out based on the right
answers to the wrong questions. Be sure your questions are right before you make
judgments based on your answers.

7. Put message before the medium: - A good media plan should stem from knowledge
of the creative strategy. Too often, it happens the other way around. Advertising is a
form of communication and, as in any communication; you ought to base the decision
of the form the message will take on what is to be communicated. For example, you
might use the telephone to invite someone to a party. But that same telephone would
be an inappropriate medium if you wanted to fire him. A formal letter would be
better. A company in recent times that has blended their creative copy perfectly with
medium is Hindustan Lever for their AXE Deodorants. The ads pitched on the Axe
effect of sexual attraction and the media was selected only after the creative strategy
had been decided. During their launch they blocked almost all the programmes of
AXN channel to splash their several versions of the Axe effectads. This not only
brought them attention of the target audience (men in 20s and 30s) who tried the
brand several times, it effectively blocked out all competing deo brands from the
AXN channel. In six months of launch Axe cornered more than 9% market share in
the deo market. Every time I come across a radio or TV spot giving a telephone
number to call or an address I need to write for something, it occurs to me that it
came from an agency or advertiser who planned the medium first and the message
second. Those kinds of messages need to be in print to work best. To have successful
 campaigns, you need to have your creative message before you plan on the medium
of advertising.

8. Consider advertising's cumulative effect: - Many advertisers, in setting print

schedules especially (where they are less likely to think in terms of reach and
frequency), fail to consider the cumulative effects of advertising exposure. One
swallow doesn't make a spring and one insertion doesn't make a campaign. Make sure
that when you plan your perfect campaign, run your ads at least till they get noticed.
Yankee Doodle succeeded in launching their ice creams with very low expenses.
They released their campaign in winter with a series of ads. Since few ice cream ads
appear in winter, they took off royally by grabbing much attention. According to a US
study, eight insertions (once a week) doubled the number of triers that four insertions
produced, but that effect stopped when the ads stopped. Fifteen insertions produced
the most triers per ad dollar invested. Clearly, once is not enough, or atleast, very
inefficient.

9. Use media correctly: - There is a lot of research available as to what works on TV,
what works in print and so on. But many advertisers either ignore it or never bother to
find out. For instance, some advertisers have very definite beliefs about what are the
best days to run advertising in newspapers, but those are often the wrong beliefs.
There is a lot of evidence that shows that advertising that is run on the days with the
least amount of other ads receives the highest readership. Not as popularly believed
about Sundays being the best days. Studies in this respect support the aforementioned
viewpoint. One leading newspaper did a survey of their readers and was astonished to
find that their best lineage days produced the lowest readership. So, if an advertiser
persists on bunching up his ads during Sundays or some other "popular" day it might
result in his receiving a lower return for each advertising rupee invested. Similarly,
other advertisers demand certain positions in newspapers despite the fact that most
studies show that ads on the right-hand page score as well as those on the left. Ads
above the fold do as well as those below the fold, and outside ads fare as well as those
printed next to the gutter. Creativity and innovation are what really makes the
 difference. A good ad can outpull a bad one, as much as two times, even if the
position, size, and day of the week are all exactly the same. I wonder if the target
audience noticed the recent imitation by Fa of AXE. AXE, when lauched in India
carried an innovation in Sunday Times with a half page flap of sexy lips which would
be lifted to show the AXE effect on the main page of the paper. Mudra, the agency
for Fa, attempted a similar stunt,but the creative was so bad that few people would
remember it.

10. Expect advertising not to do the whole job: - Too often, advertisers expect
advertising to do the whole selling job. This is obvious if you read their marketing
plan, which identify advertising as "increasing sales". And yet, with the exception of
direct-response advertising, advertising almost never directly sells goods. The sale is
completed in a store or a showroom. Displays, competitive pricing, the salesmen, and
the dealer location among things almost always affect the effectiveness of your
programme. Many good campaigns fail because someone expected the advertising to
make the sale. The next time you plan to launch a new campaign, make it a perfect
one with the aid of these Ten Commandments. When you do, savor the taste of
success for a long time.
 BAN ON LIQUOR ADS: BOON OR DOOM?

The Information & Broadcasting Ministry, under the Cable Network Rules, 1994 has
imposed a ban on advertisements of tobacco and liquor products on satellite channels
effective from 6th October 2000. The government's aim obviously is reducing the
exposure of such ads to teenagers in habit-forming years. While advertising on
Doordarshan has always been banned, the restriction on private channels has done away
with one of the most effective channel of communication for the players in this industry.
The ban includes both direct as well as surrogate advertisements in its ambit.
Additionally there is also pressure from public interest groups to ban print and hoarding
advertisements too. If the Government does accept it that would close all the doors of
communication for the industry, which would then have to solely depend on their
established brand equity or direct promotions to grow their markets. Coming at a time
that it has just a few months before the sector is opened up for free imports (March 2001),
one really wonders if there hasn’t been some lobbying by the local players themselves for
imposing this ban.

Why would the players be in favor of such ban? Infact the ban has divided the entire
industry between multinationals and local home grown companies. From the point of
view of Indian players', the biggest threat today is the entry of global majors who will
have an unrestricted licence to sell once the free import regime as per the WTO
commitment comes into force from March 2001. These MNC’s not only have well
known brands, but also have deep pockets. And advertising is their most potent weapon.
Television would be the quickest and the most effective way to reach the maximum
number of people, throughout the country, in the shortest possible time. Print media has
its own shortcomings, with the multiplicity of languages that people speak in India. Also
print media cannot beat the effectiveness of the audio visual medium of television.

Adding to the woes of the international players would be the legislative hurdles in setting
up a distribution network. Given the fact that liquor distribution remains a state subject
and involves several restrictions and legal impediments, building a distribution
infrastructure is a long term game plan, which would take a few years atleast. Resorting
to a retail push therefore would be a difficult proposition for the new entrant. So the best
bet for him would have been that of generating a consumer pull through effective
advertising. And that no longer exists.

For the existing domestic liquor players, such as United Breweries, McDowell, Shaw
Wallace, Radico Khaitan, Jagatjit Industries etc, who have a strong brand equity, as well
as an established distribution network, the impact of the ban would certainly not be so
severe. Of course new brand building and relaunches would certainly become difficult.
However, the ban is likely to have a positive impact too. Besides keeping the foreign
competition at bay, it is also likely to help improve margins of these domestic players.

The domestic players have established a strong equity for their brands like KingFisher,
Haywards, Royal Challenge, McDowell No.1, Aristocrat, Bagpiper, Contessa, 8 PM, etc
in the national and regional markets. Ad spends of leading player’s range anywhere
between 7% to 13%. Infact UB spends about 28% of sales on advertising and sales
promotions.
 ADVERTISING – NINETIES & NEW MILLENNIUM

TECH SAVVY IN THE NINETIES

1990

 Marks the beginning of new medium Internet

 Agencies open new media shops; go virtual with websites and Internet advertising
 Brand Equity (magazine) of The Economic Times is born

1991

 First India-targetted satellite channel, Zee TV starts broadcast

 Close on the throes of the Gulf War enters STAR (Satellite Transmission for Asia
Region)

1992

 Spectrum, publisher of A&M, constitutes its own award known as 'A&M Awards'
 Scribes and media planners credit The Bold And The Beautiful serial on STAR Plus
channel as a soap that started the cultural invasion

1993

 India’s only advertising school, MICA (Mudra Institute of Communications

Ahmedabad), is born
 Tara on Zee TV becomes India's first female-centric soap

1995

 Advertising Club of Bombay calls its awards as Abby

 Country's first brand consulting firm, SABRE (Strategic Advantage for Brand Equity)
begins operations
1996

 The ad fraternity hits big time for the first time by bagging three awards at the 43rd
International Advertising Festival, Cannes
 Sun TV becomes the first regional TV channel to go live 24 hours -a day on all days
of the week

1997

 Media boom with the growth of cable and satellite; print medium sees an increase in
titles, especially in specialised areas
 Government turns towards professional advertising in the private sector for its VDIS
campaigns
 Army resorts to the services of private sector agencies
 Advertising on the Internet gains popularity
 Equitor Consulting becomes the only independent brand consultancy company in the
country
 Several exercises in changing corporate identity
 For the first time ever, Indians stand the chance of winning the $ 1- million booty
being offered by Gillette as part of its Football World
 Cup promo 1998
 Events assume important role in marketing mix
 Rise of software TV producers banking on ad industry talent
 Reinventing of cinema -advertising through cinema begins

1998

 Lintas becomes Ammirati Puri Lintas (APL)

1999
 B2B site agencyfaqs.com launched on September 28, 1999
 The Advertising Club Bombay announces the Ad Works Trophy

IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

2000

 Mudra launches magindia.com - India's first advertising and marketing gallery

 Lintas merges with Lowe Group to become Lowe Lintas and Partners (LLP)
 bigideasunlimited.com - a portal offering free and fee ideas for money launched by
Alyque Padamsee and Sam Mathews
 Game shows like Kaun Banega Crorepati become a rage; media buying industry is
bullish on KBC Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi marks the return of family-
oriented soap on TV French advertising major Publicis acquires Maadhyam

2001

 Trikaya Grey becomes Grey Worldwide

 Bharti's Rs 2.75-crore corporate TV commercial, where a baby girl is born in a
football stadium, becomes the most expensive campaign of the year

2002

 Lowe Lintas & Partners rechristened Lowe Worldwide

 For the first time in the history of HTA, a new post of president is created. Kamal
Oberoi is appointed as the first president of HTA
 AD REVIEW OF PEPSI INDIA

"Mera Number Aaayega"

Pepsi has always been known, and indeed to a great extent admired for its ability
to come up with advertising which immediately connects with its target audience. The
"Yehi Hai Right Choice, Baby" was the first Indian Ad by Pepsi, which really drew
people to itself. The "Yeh Dil Maange More" campaign was another extremely successful
endeavour for the Pepsi team in India. This slogan was made even more famous when the
wounded in the Kargil war, when asked about their health and spirit replied –" Yeh Dil
Maange More". The catchline "Nothing official about it" blew the winds out of arch-rival
Coke’s sails for a long long time. Most of these ads were novel ideas which drew the
attention of the people towards the soft drink market, which has done a great deal to
make this segment grow in India. In this sector of the industry, advertising plays a key
role in the marketing mix as there is very little that you can actually do to the product.
What this industry does is that it sells an image and not a product. To this effect,
advertising is a major force in defining and reinforcing that image in the minds of the
target audience.

What is unique about the latest "Mera Number Aayega" slogan is that it was never
meant to be a slogan for Pepsi. It was merely a novel way of presenting a consumer
oriented sales promotion scheme to the consumers. It was not a catchphrase for Pepsi like
the previous endeavours.

Why is this ad such a rage?

Some of the reasons why this ad has been appreciated are:

1. It uniquely defines the sales promotion scheme, which Pepsi has brought out for its
flagship cola brand.
2. It is an ad, which everybody can identify with. Each one of us, sometime in our lives
has been turned down when we asked for something because it was not our turn. This
sentiment has been highlighted throughout the series quite successfully.

Pepsi realized that a majority of consumers were beginning to perceive such promotion
schemes as mere gimmicks and believed that their opportunity to win things under such
schemes would never arise. The fact that they would never win in such schemes was so
ingrained in the people’s minds that Pepsi, to ensure the success of such schemes had to
make sure that it attacked these beliefs. By coming up with this slogan, Pepsi seeks to
identify with the consumer in this regard and then assures him that his chance to win will
come, the fact that "Mera Number Aayega!". Achieving this in a humorous way, Pepsi
ensured the success of this scheme.

A comparison could be drawn with a similar promotion carried out by Coke. Such
"under-the-crown" or UTC schemes are fairly common in the industry. Coke recently
launched a similar scheme where 50 winners would get to have dinner with Hrithik
Roshan. However, as has come to be expected from Coke, very few people actually
remember about such a scheme. This was because the promotion ads were pedestrian
when compared to Pepsi’s promotions of its scheme.

The Visuals

The visual examples taken in the ad are fairly commonplace and occur commonly with
people in their day-to-day lives. A child being denied a place on the swings because it is
not his turn yet. A young boy waiting for his turn at the basketball trials but never quite
getting a chance to prove his worth. A college student being left out in a "Spin the Bottle"
kissing game while the lucky one on his left gets to kiss the girl which they both vie for.
Yet, this man refuses to give up, hopefully looks into the camera and with quiet
confidence states – "Mera Number Aayega". It is a powerful statement, which
simultaneously connects with the viewer and entices him to grab a bottle of Pepsi and
save the crown.

The Slogan
A one similar to "Yeh Dil Maange More", the slogan in the ad is in the commonplace
language – a mixture of Hindi and English, a language which is frequently used all over
the country by the audience Pepsi wishes to identify itself with. It brings out their
thoughts, connects with them on an emotional level, speaks their language and ultimately
seduces them into buying their favourite product.

The Strategy

After the initial success of the first few ads in the series, Pepsi has not just left the
campaign there. They have made additions and modifications to keep the campaign alive
and new. The latest ad in the series is a case in point. This ad shows a cemetery as the
background and the person is oddly dressed in white indicating a funeral environment.
The background music also adds to this effect.

This man holds a candle in his hand and says –" Ek Na Ek Din Sabkaa number aata hai",
indicating that everybody dies one day and this is a fait accompli. Using this euphemism
in a humorous manner, he goes on to once again sign off by saying-" Mera Number
Aayega ". Again, using something as serious as death, Pepsi has driven home its point
effectively.
 GIVE UNTIL IT HURTS: ALTRUISM AND ADVERTISING

Two men sit at the bar, enjoying a beer. A commercial comes on the TV behind the bar
and the announcer says that for every bottle and can sold the brewery will give five
cents to charity. The two men turn to the camera and lift their beers in a salute.

Pictures flash on the screen: a little girl, dressed in rags and sitting on a filthy mattress
on the floor, gazes up forlornly into the camera; a starving child, its belly distended
from malnutrition, its face covered with sores and flies, lies too ill and exhausted to
cry; ragged children play in muddy streams that are no more than open sewers. The
announcer says that, for a few cents a day, these children can get food, medicine,
shelter, clothes. New pictures flash on the screen: happy, well-dressed, well-fed
children. The screen displays the address and phone number to give money.

Altruism is contrary to the normal purpose of advertising, to convince the individual that
acquiring a certain product or service will benefit that individual. Altruism is doing things
for the benefit of others. For this reason, the use of altruism in advertising requires that it
be linked with some other appeal, an appeal that shows how being altruistic benefits the
individual. The stronger the linked appeal, the stronger altruism will appear. The
strongest appeals are self-preservation, sex and greed. Somewhat weaker, but still
powerful, is self-esteem. There seems little likelihood of linking sex or greed to altruism,
since they are both contrary to altruism. However, self-preservation and self-esteem both
work well with altruism.

When linking self-preservation to altruism, the ad will imply that giving of yourself now
will result in helping you later. For example, ads promoting donations to disease research
show people that have the disease but are being helped by the research, and suggest that
more research will lead to a cure. The ads also imply that you, the potential donor, are
susceptible to the disease, and that your donation will help ensure that, when you get it,
you can be cured. Thus, the scenes of victims and words say that you should help the
afflicted and help yourself in the process. Such appeals to self-preservation are rarely
overt, but do provide an undertone to the ads.

Self-esteem, when linked with altruism, is a very subtle appeal. If you recall, for most
men self-esteem is directly related to where he believes he fits in a hierarchy: the higher
his relative position, the higher his self-esteem. Ads could say that helping others
demonstrates his superiority to those others, but such an approach would run counter to
most men's social sensibilities that say overt displays of superiority, better known as
arrogance, are improper. For an altruistic appeal to men, linked to self-esteem, to work, it
must appear that he is simply helping those less fortunate, rather than appearing that he is
deigning to help. Deep down inside, he may feel a sense of superiority, but he can
assuage his social conscience by telling himself that he's doing it out of a sense of
fellowship.

Altruism is easier to link to self-esteem for women, since for many women self-esteem is
related to a sense of connectedness rather than competition. Ads asking women to be
altruistic can easily show how her actions can benefit others, gaining her their
appreciation and even love. For example, ads asking for donations to help children in
Third World countries emphasize how grateful the children will be, and how the children
will write to express their appreciation. Pictures and ad copy personalize the children so
they appear as individuals in need of her individual help, giving her a personal
connection with a child, implying a closeness akin to that she has with her own children.

Of the other appeals (personal enjoyment, destructiveness, constructiveness, curiosity and

imitation), only two can reasonably be linked with altruism, since the other three are
fundamentally selfish and personal rather than selfless. Those two are constructiveness
and imitation. Constructiveness can be linked to altruism through the concept of building
a better world and worldview. However, this better world is, subconsciously, not for the
benefit of the recipients of the altruism, but for the donor.
 I WANT IT, I WANT IT NOW: GREED AND ADVERTISING

The spokesman stands before a picture of a book cover and says that silver is at an all-
time low. He says the book contains information on how to take advantage of this fact in
order to make money when the price of silver rises. He then explains how to get the book.

The ad shows a credit card. If you use it, the company will donate 5% of the amount you
charge on the card to a fund you can use to buy one of their cars. In this way, you can
save a lot of money when you buy your next car -- from them.

The headline reads, "10,000 RED HOT PRIZES!" The rest of the American Dairy
Farmers' ad explains how to win one of 10,000 barbeque grills during Double Cheese
Cheeseburger Days.

The above ads have something in common: they appeal to greed, the desire to get more of
what consumers need or want with the minimum of effort.

GREED AS AN ADVERTISING TOOL

Greed, no matter what anybody says, is a part of the human psychological make-up.
Everybody wants more. Thus, as an advertising tool, greed, (or acquisition of property, to
make it sound better), works well. If an ad can makes a product, or more usually a
service, appear that it will help the individual get a bigger piece of the pie, then it will
attract attention and generate sales. Bank, financial service and broker, franchiser,
magazine subscription service, state lottery, etc. ads, and memory improvement, grade
improvement, and "make a fortune in real estate" infomercials all depend on convincing
people that what they sell will make possible the purchaser getting more.

How does advertising convince people that they can get more if the customer buys the
product? By making vague promises. Please note that the ads never state unequivocally
that the purchase of the product or service will result in an increase in material goods.
What the ad promises is a chance, a possibility.
The most common approach is the testimonial. In this type of ad, someone who has
purchased the product or service tells the audience how rich they have gotten. They will
often explain how they were in dead end or low paying jobs (the better to relate to the
target audience of these products). They then give paeans of praise for the product or
service that showed them how to get out of their ruts and into their Rolls Royces.
 INDUSTRY OVERVIEW: ADVERTISING AGENCIES

The advertising market in India is estimated at USD 1.6 billion for 1998, and is estimated
to grow at about 12 percent to USD 1.8 billion for 1999. Revenues of advertising
companies in India, which are 15 percent of the total expenditure on advertising, were
USD 243 million in 1998 and are expected to reach USD 272 million in 1999. About 400
advertising agencies with a work force of 18,000 operated in the Indian advertising
market in 1999. The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) segment is the largest
advertiser in the Indian advertising industry, closely followed by the consumer durable
segment and the automobile industry. With 80 percent of all billings, newspaper and
television remain the two most popular forms of advertising. Advertisers predict this
trend will continue in the coming years due to the proliferation of the print media and the
growth in the cable TV and the satellite television business.

Indian advertising companies with foreign collaborations control 75 percent of the Indian
advertising market. Of the top 20 advertising agencies in India, 15 firms have either joint
ventures or affiliations with large multinational advertising agencies. Most of these 15
multinational agencies are among the top 24 global advertising agencies. As the number
of multinational companies (MNC’s) grows in India, the Indian advertising industry is
expected to experience more affiliations and collaboration agreements with foreign
agencies.

The presence of American advertising companies in India is as old as the Indian

advertising industry itself. Hindustan Thompson Associates (HTA), the largest Indian
advertising agency in India has collaborated with the J. Walter Thompson Company of
New York since its beginning in 1929. American advertising agencies with a long
presence on the Indian advertising scene include J. Walter Thompson Company,
Interpublic Group and Ogilvy & Mather. Of the top 20 advertising agencies in India, 12
have joint ventures with American advertising agencies. Other countries with agencies
active in this sector include the U.K. (two equity participants), France, and Japan (one
equity participant).

ADVERTISING GENDER BIAS

A PAIR of tiny scissors held by a

male hand cuts apart criss-cross
strings of a woman’s back,
undressing her. The visual is quite
often seen on popular TV channels.
The scissors is one of the
attachments of an army knife
offered free along with a deodorant for men.

A man and a woman cling to each other, woman’s head sunk in his chest, visible is a
woman’s long nude back with four horizontal strings and a pair of male hands playing it
as a bass/cello. This advertisement is of a music store. Agreed that advertising is a
necessary instrument for business to operate and economy to run. How these imaginaries
in visual and print media use and project women does unconsciously affect people’s
mind, needs to be addressed.

All advertisements, by and large (mainly on TV), depict sports, work situations and the
outside world as focus of man’s existence and kitchen as a woman’s world. Hardly is a
woman shown as an equal partner, who is employed and is a person of her own will, e.g.,
in advertisement of a cigarette (in newspapers) mainly consumed by men, man is shown
as a distinctive business personality with a female looking at him admiringly.

The visual of a shampoo on television brings about a woman’s desire to get mere sapnon
ka rajkumar as if this is the only goal she has. One of the texts of Amway products in the
print media reads: ‘You will find me in the praise of proud husbands’.

Reinforcing gender roles, these representations project a modern housewife who is fast,
active, intelligent, confined to the home but commanding the kitchen. She is a caring
mother, loving partner, devoted wife, ideal daughter-in-law whose happiness ranges
around the health and happiness of her family. This woman, in one package, advocates
the image of Sita. Above all, she is a smart buyer. Through these representations, a
woman is announced as a homemaker, whether it is cooking oil (Sweekar cooking oil
where she is referred as home manager) toothpaste, hair oil, detergent, electronic gadget
or automobile.

"Not only do these advertisements reinforce stereotypes but they are also far from real
conditions of existence", maintains Jaya, a college lecturer. Not close to reality, women
are shown in a neat environment with done up hair. Even while being confined to bed by
pain or illness, a woman is dressed in a traditional costume as in the ad for the ointment
for pain. All beauty products like creams, shampoos, lotions and soaps highlight woman
as healthy, fair and beautiful. The gap between the real and these representations does not
reflect on any other aspect. On the extreme end are models, particularly in the print
media, shown as new generation ultra modern women waring scanty clothes, breaking all
rules and thus expressing a sense of freedom. "These ‘imaginaries’ are there to befool
people and create a false world of beauty," says Tanu Anuja, a doctor by profession.

These representations have made beauty a pressure for women. After all what is this
beauty and for whom? Many women have internalised the belief that their job is to please
men and these standards of beauty, they do not realise, are set by men. The media has
used this concept of beauty for commercial purposes. Not only does it increase
competition among women who can afford all the products but also creates a complex
among those who are unable to possess these. "A woman becomes victim of
incompleteness and feels that if she does not look like models, some thing is wrong with
her. She feels guilty".

Feminine charm and sex is projected to boost the sale of products. Almost every
advertisement of sanitary ware in prestigious magazines uses the female body. One such
advertisement, of a large photograph of woman in her two-piece costume on a beach
accompanied by the next, which reads ‘looks so tempting, you wouldn’t mind fishing out
extra money’. Though the product is more important and she is only a secondary object,
but still her body is highlighted to enhance the face value of the advertisement. Instead of
showing the model cleaning the bathroom (which she actually does) she is there only to
attract the attention of readers.

Scrutiny of the text and its relation to the image in all reveals commodification of
women. She is brought on a par with the commodity and creates an impression that she is
for the consumption of man. What is dominating in the advertisement is the model and
her looks and not the phone. A model in her soft blue neckless skirt endorses her
confidence and freedom through possession of a mobile phone. In another newspaper ad
of the same product, one woman holding the mobile is dancing to glory surrounded by six
men adoring her. Her presence is there only to increase the visual appeal of the
advertisement.

Postures and expressions of female models in many advertisements nearly lead to

eroticism. In another advertisement one finds a woman whose bosom is covered with
merely a strip of cloth. The advertisement is vague, the idea silly and there is no clarity of
concept. One assumes from the pair of scissors (the only thing next to woman’s image)
that it could be about opening of a grand showroom in Ludhiana. The pleasing smile of
the woman seems to be soliciting that nude is in vogue. Another ad of the same shop has
a nude woman with few glitters covering her private parts. Visuals of Swarovski crystal
jewellery and carbon accessories are equally provocative.

Not only big companies but also even local and small business entrepreneurs feel that
advertisements of their products are incomplete without a woman, e.g., visuals of a
photographer’s studio, wristwatches and bedsheets etc. The commercial slot of underwear
and vests for men on TV has nothing to do with women but still a woman is a must in
them. Men and women both use all shampoos and soaps, but exclusively women using
these products are depicted.

Besides commercial slots, some programmes on TV also use women is a wrong way. For
instance in Khulja sim sim on Star Plus all the products won in Darwaja number 1, 2 and
3 are displayed along with a tall, slim woman usually in a tunic or blouse. When the
Darwaja opens, this attractive young lady is the first one to catch the viewers’ attention
and is made to stand there just to enhance the beauty of the whole show. She does not
utter a single word and silently points to the products with a broad smile.

There are many commercials where women do not appear at all, for examples in ads of
Calcium Sandoz (haddion ke jaan, winners ki pehchan) Dabur Chawanprash, Sona
Chandi Chawanprash, Parle ji biscuits, Kisan Jam etc. on TV. Boys are shown engaged in
physical activity outside home (as if girls are not suited for adventurous activities). These
ads clearly demonstrate a gender bias. Browsing through magazines like Health would
reveal that products of MNCs like Nestle’s milk powder with honey, Nestle cerelac (mere
ladle ko chaiye poshak tatv sahi matra mein) etc. show only a baby boy and not a baby
girl. All these products claim to have vitamins, proteins and calcium etc. for growing
children. But absence of girls in these ads projects that a girl child does not require
strength and energy. Even the ad of Linc pen on TV displays a boy student in boys’
school. It ends with the slogan "encouraging literacy" (perhaps only for boys).

We have to understand the whole scenario in a commercial framework, that is understand

the close relationship between industry and the media. The issue is related to these
questions: To whom does a particular advertisement speak? To whom is it addressed?
Who controls the media, sponsors the ad and who benefits from it? It is true that
consumer capitalism depends on the continual production of novelty of fresh images to
stimulate desire but at what cost? The debate can be extended to the male projection as
well perpetuation of sex-specific roles and stereotypes. Even a cursory survey reveals
how the representation of women is much more distorted than that of men when it comes
to advertisements.