19945319 Advertising the Social Aid Challenge

Introduction 1

1Introduction

Advertising, a form of commercial mass communicationdesigned to promote the sale of a product or service, or amessage on behalf of an institution, organization, or candidatefor political office. Evidence of advertising can be found incultures that existed thousands of years ago, but advertisingonly became a major industry in the 20th century.

Today the industry employs hundreds of thousands ofpeople and influences the behavior and buying habits of billionsof people. Advertising spending worldwide now exceeds $350billion per year. In the United States alone about 6,000advertising agencies help create and place advertisements ina variety of media, including newspapers, television, directmail, radio, magazines, the Internet, and outdoor signs.Advertising is so commonplace in the United States that anaverage person may encounter from 500 to 1,000 advertisementsin a single day, according to some estimates. Most advertisingis designed to promote the sale of a particular product orservice.

Some advertisements, however, are intended to promotean idea or influence behavior, such as encouraging people notto use illegal drugs or smoke cigarettes. These ads are oftencalled public service ads (PSAs). Some ads promote aninstitution, such as the Red Cross or the United States Army,and are known as institutional advertising. Their purpose isto encourage people to volunteer or donate money or servicesor simply to improve the image of the institution doing the

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge Introduction2 3

advertising. Advertising is also used to promote political partiesand candidates for political office. Political advertising hasbecome a key component of electoral campaigns in manycountries.

Many experts believe that advertising has importanteconomic and social benefits. However, advertising also hasits critics who say that some advertising is deceptive orencourages an excessively materialistic culture or reinforcesharmful stereotypes. The United States and many othercountries regulate advertising to prevent deceptive ads or tolimit the visibility of certain kinds of ads.

Advertising has become increasingly international. Morethan ever before, corporations are looking beyond their owncountry's borders for new customers. Faster modes of shipping,the growth of multinational corporations, rising personalincome levels worldwide, and falling trade barriers have allencouraged commerce between countries. Because corporationsare opening new markets and selling their products in manyregions of the globe, they are also advertising their productsin those regions.

In 2000 the United States was the leading advertising marketin the world with total advertising spending of $147.1 billion.Japan ranked second with $39.7 billion, followed by Germanywith $20.7 billion, the United Kingdom with $16.5 billion, andFrance with $10.7 billion. This article deals primarily withadvertising practices in Canada and the United States.

TYPES OF ADVERTISING

Advertising can be divided into two broad categories—consumer advertising and trade advertising. Consumeradvertising is directed at the public. Trade advertising isdirected at wholesalers or distributors who resell to the public.This article focuses on consumer advertising, the form ofadvertising that is familiar to most people. Consumeradvertising can be further divided into national advertisingand local advertising. National advertising is aimed at

consumers throughout the entire country. National advertisingusually attempts to create awareness among the public of aproduct or service, or it tries to build loyalty to a product orservice. Local advertising is aimed at informing people in aparticular area where they can purchase a product or service.Advertising to the public may also take the form of institutionaladvertising, image advertising, informational advertising, orcooperative advertising.

Institutional advertising seeks to create a favorableimpression of a business or institution without trying to sella specific product. This type of advertising is designed solelyto build prestige and public respect. For nonprofit institutions,such advertising helps support the institution’s activities—forexample, by encouraging blood donations or cash contributionsfor the work of an organization like the Red Cross. A for-profitbusiness has other reasons for improving its reputation ratherthan trying to sell a particular product. In some cases a largecompany may sell a diversity of products. As a result, thereis more value and greater efficiency in building a brand imagefor the company itself. If consumers learn to have a highregard for the company, then they are more likely to have afavorable opinion of all of the company’s diverse products.

Many advertisers prefer a strategy known as imageadvertising. These advertisers seek to give a product apersonality that is unique, appealing, and appropriate so thatthe consumer will want to choose it over similar products thatmight fulfill the same need. The personality is created partlyby the product's design and packaging but, more importantly,by the words and pictures the advertisements associate withthe product. This personality is known as a brand image.Advertisers believe brand image often leads consumers toselect one brand over another or instead of a less expensivegeneric product. Brand image is especially important forcommodities such as detergents, jeans, hamburgers, and softdrinks, because within these product categories there are few,if any, major differences.


Informational advertising seeks to promote an idea orinfluence behavior. Sometimes known as public serviceadvertising, it may try to discourage young people from usingillicit drugs or tobacco, or it may encourage people to adoptsafer, healthier lifestyles.

Cooperative advertising is an arrangement betweenmanufacturers and retailers in which manufacturers offercredits to their retail customers for advertising. The credits, oradvertising allowances, are based on the amount of productthe retailer purchases. For example, if the retailer purchases$100,000 worth of a product from a manufacturer, themanufacturer’s cooperative advertising program may allot a1 percent credit, or $1,000, toward the cost of purchasing anad that will feature the product. In addition, somemanufacturers will match the amount that the retailer spends,sharing the cost of the ad. In the United States antitrust lawsenforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ensure thatthese ad allowances are offered on equal and proportionateterms so that large retailers are not unduly favored over smallretailers. Cooperative advertising is a form of local advertisingbecause it directs consumers to local retail outlets.

THE ROLE OF THE ADVERTISING AGENCY OR DEPARTMENT

Advertising agencies create most advertisements and arethe core of the advertising industry. Some companies, however,have their own advertising departments which function muchlike an agency. The development, production, and placementof a single ad can be a time-consuming process involving alarge number of people with a variety of business and creativeskills. Advertising agencies not only create the advertisementsbut also pay for the cost of placing the ad in a newspaper ormagazine or on television or radio. A large advertising agencyor department may employ hundreds or thousands of people,including advertising and marketing specialists, designers,writers known as copywriters, artists, economists,psychologists, researchers, media analysts, product testers,librarians, accountants and bookkeepers, and mathematicians.

A typical advertising agency is divided into a number ofdepartments, such as account service, research, media planningand buying, the creative department, and production. Amultinational advertising agency with clients that spendhundreds of millions of dollars on advertising may employ asmany as 8,000 people worldwide and up to 900 people in amajor office. A local agency with clients that spend about $15million a year on advertising may employ only about 25 people.

Advertising agencies make money in a variety of ways.When the agency uses the client’s advertising budget to buytime for an ad on the radio or on television or when it buysspace for an ad in a newspaper or magazine, the media outletallows the agency to keep 15 percent of the cost of the spaceor the time as a commission.

The 15 percent commission has become an advertisingindustry standard and usually accounts for the largest portionof the agency’s income. Agencies also charge clients for thecost of producing the ads. Increasingly, agencies are chargingclients a straight monthly or hourly fee for all of their servicesor are combining a fee with some kind of commission. Agencieshave turned to this approach because clients are asking themto address a range of marketing issues rather than justproducing ads. The fee arrangement pays for the time devotedto these larger marketing issues.

Once a company selects an agency, the agency assigns anaccount executive to act as liaison between it and the client.The account executive manages all of the services conductedon behalf of the client and coordinates the team assigned tothe client's business.

The account executive directs the preparation of theadvertising strategy, which includes deciding how and to whomthe product or service will be presented. The account executivealso assigns priorities, oversees the budget, reviews andapproves all recommendations before they are taken to theclient, and makes sure that the agency meets all deadlines.


THE FUNCTIONS OF ADVERTISING DEPARTMENTS

Each advertising department has a specific function orassignment. Once one department has completed its work, ithands off the completed assignment to the next departmentin the advertising process until the ad campaign is completed.The first department that becomes involved in an advertisingcampaign is the research department.

RESEARCH

Advertising agencies employ research for both strategicand evaluative purposes. Strategic research enables the agencyto better understand how consumers use a product or serviceand how they regard the product or service. Strategic researchalso determines the types of people most likely to buy theproduct. That group of people is called the target market.Advertisers have limited budgets so knowing who is mostlikely to buy a particular product helps them spend theiradvertising budget more efficiently. Evaluative research is usedafter the advertising has run and seeks to determine how wellconsumers remember the advertising message and howpersuasive it was. Evaluative research is expensive, and as aresult, many advertisers do not employ it. Instead, they try tomeasure the advertising's effectiveness by analyzing salesresults.

Agencies use both qualitative and quantitative researchmethods. Agencies employ qualitative research to gain aninitial understanding of the marketing situation (see Marketing).This research method uses open-ended questions that allowconsumers to explain their values, beliefs, and behaviors atlength. One of the most common qualitative research techniquesis the focus group in which a moderator leads a small groupof consumers in a candid discussion of a particular productcategory, service, or marketing situation.

Agencies use quantitative research to determine a finalcourse of action. This type of research uses close-endedquestions in which answers are selected from a set list. This

enables the researcher to determine the exact percentage ofpeople who answered yes or no to a question or the exactpercentage choosing answer a, b, or c. One of the most commonquantitative research techniques is the survey in whichresearchers use a questionnaire to gain information from alarge group of people, called a sample. Statistical studies showthat if the sample is large enough, about 1,000 people, and isrepresentative of a particular group (for example, workingmothers who buy disposable diapers), then the findings fromthe sample are considered true, or statistically valid, and canbe extended to the entire group of consumers in that category.The findings provided by quantitative research are thereforeconclusive in a way that qualitative research cannot be.

MEDIA BUYING

Once the target audience has been identified, an agency'smedia department determines the most effective way ofdelivering the message to that target. The media planner is theperson who decides which media will be used. The mediaplanner must consider three factors: (1) the number of peopleto be exposed to the message, known as the reach, (2) thenumber of times each person needs to be exposed to the messagein order to remember it, known as the frequency, and (3) thecosts.

The media planner wants to reach the largest possiblepercentage of the target audience. To accomplish that goal, themedia planner must employ the media that have audiencesclosely resembling the target audience. If the target is verybroad, such as the national market for medium-pricedautomobiles, the media planner will probably select networktelevision, which has a broad reach. If the target is more narrowand specialized, then the media that reach a more specializedaudience, such as magazines, would be selected. Moreover,since not all members of the narrow target audience read thesame magazines, the media planner might employ a range ofmagazines to reach a larger percentage of the intendedconsumer.


The media planner must also determine how frequentlythe advertising should run in each medium. Frequency isimportant because repetition helps the consumer rememberboth the product and the advertising message.

Finally, because no advertiser has an unlimited amount ofmoney to spend, cost is also a factor. The media planner mustchoose those media that will enable the advertiser to reach thelargest percentage of the target with enough frequency for themessage to be remembered without exceeding the advertiser’sbudget. Once this media plan has been put together, the agency'smedia buyer contacts the media on behalf of the client in orderto purchase advertising space or time at the best possible rate.

Often an advertising campaign will employ many types ofmedia. For example, to help advertise a medium-pricedautomobile, the ad campaign may consist initially of nationaltelevision advertising to raise brand awareness, followed bylocal newspaper and radio advertising to reinforce the messageand to direct consumers to a special sale at a local dealer.

CREATIVE WORK

Once the types of media have been determined, the agency'screative department develops the presentation of the ads. Theprincipal figures in the creative department are the copywriterand the art director. The copywriter is the person who writesthe advertising message. The art director is the person whooversees the design of the ad. The copywriter and the artdirector work together to find creative ways to deliver themessage that research found would have the greatest appealto the target audience.

The creative team begins by familiarizing itself with theproduct and the research. Often the creative team will 'kickaround ideas' or “brainstorm,” a process in which one idea isallowed to stimulate another without reaching a decision aboutwhether any of the ideas are valid. Such free association oftenleads to unexpected approaches that might never have resultedfrom more logical thinking.

Once the brainstorming has produced a wide range ofideas, the team then evaluates the various proposals and selectsthe best to present to the client. For example, if the team selectsan idea for a television commercial, they present the idea tothe client as a storyboard. The storyboard consists of a sequenceof drawings indicating how the TV commercial's story or actionwill unfold. Or the team may design print ads for the clientas layouts in which the various elements—the headline,photograph or illustration, and body copy—will appear asintended for publication in a magazine or newspaper.

Print ads and television commercials use a variety oftechniques to deliver their messages. Testimonials andendorsements can lend both prestige and credibility to aproduct. Seeing an athletic superstar, for example, endorse aparticular brand of athletic shoe makes the brand seem moreprestigious and suggests that it must be good because aprofessional uses it. Superiority is also often demonstratedthrough product comparisons–for example, by showing thatone brand of paper towels absorbs more spilled liquid thananother or that in consumer taste tests one beverage is preferredover another. But because more and more competing productsare virtually identical to one another, advertisers frequentlyuse image advertising to distinguish their products. Imageadvertising surrounds the product with a 'halo of positiveassociations' by using the same character or theme year afteryear.

Most advertising appeals to people’s emotions, particularlythe emotional needs for love and belonging, prestige and self-esteem. Manufacturers of luxury and fashion products, forexample, frequently appeal to the desire for esteem and prestige.Advertising for a line of clothing, such as Ralph Lauren’s Poloclothes, may associate the product with the lifestyle of wealthylandowners. Those who buy the clothing purchase it, in part,because they want to be identified with that prestigious lifestyle.Makers of personal care products, on the other hand, oftensuggest that buying their products will enable consumers to


experience love and acceptance. Advertising for perfume orcologne conveys the message that the product makes usersmore sexually attractive. Personal care products such as breathmints and dandruff shampoos, on the other hand, usually playupon consumers’ fears and dramatize the rejection that resultsfrom failing to use the product. The implication is that productusage brings love and acceptance.

PRODUCTION

Art directors and copywriters create the concepts behindthe ads, but they do not literally make the advertising. Makingthe ads is the job of the production department. In printadvertising, the art director works with the print productionmanager to hire a photographer or illustrator and thensupervises the work. Once the photograph has been taken orthe illustration completed, the image is scanned into a computerand placed in the proper position.

The art director also selects typefaces for the headline andbody copy and then, using the computer, correctly positionsthe headline and body copy. Once all the elements are in place,the computer file is sent to the newspaper or magazine inwhich the ad will run. The publication then prints the addirectly from the computer file.

After a client approves a television storyboard, the creativeteam works with the broadcast producer to hire a director forthe commercial. In consultation with the agency and the client,the director selects the actors who will appear in the commercial.The director also hires the crew, including the camera andsound people who will film and record the commercial. Afterthe commercial has been filmed, the creative team works withan editor to put the commercial's various scenes together.When that task is completed, the copywriter and art directorsupervise the addition of music and sound effects. Once thead is completed, numerous videotape copies called dubs aremade. A dub is then sent to each television station that willair the commercial.

METHODS OF ADVERTISING

To reach the consumer, advertisers employ a wide varietyof media. In the United States, the most popular media, asmeasured by the amount of ad spending, are television,newspapers, direct mail, radio, Yellow Pages, magazines, theInternet, outdoor advertising, and a variety of other media,including transit ads, novelties, and point-of-purchase displays.(These rankings are measured each year by Advertising Age,an advertising trade magazine, and seldom vary, althoughInternet advertising continues to grow significantly. In the firsthalf of 2005, ad spending on the Internet increased 26 percent,far greater than the 4.5 percent growth for the entire advertisingmarket.)

In Canada, newspapers are the most popular advertisingmedium, followed by television, magazines, radio, and outdooradvertising. Canada is the ninth largest advertising market inthe world.

Television attracts about 23 percent of the advertisingdollars spent in the United States. Television is available toadvertisers in two forms: broadcast and cable. Broadcast TV—television signals that are sent over the air rather than throughcable wires—generates all of its revenue from advertising.Advertising accounts for about 60 percent of cable televisionrevenues with the rest coming from subscriber fees.

To run commercials on television, advertisers buy units oftime known as spots. The standard units of time are 15, 30, or60 seconds in length.

These spots are purchased either locally or from a nationalnetwork. Because of the high cost of national network spots,ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions ofdollars, only large national advertisers can afford to run networktelevision spots. Advertisers wishing to reach a local audiencecan buy time from an individual station. But even these spotscost so much to produce and run that small and even manymid-sized companies cannot afford them.


Because television commercials combine sight, sound, andmotion, they are more dramatic than any other form ofadvertising and lend excitement and appeal to ordinaryproducts. Advertisers consider television an excellent mediumto build a product's brand image or to create excitement arounda particular event such as a year-end auto sale. But TV spotsare too brief to provide much product information. As a result,television works best for products such as automobiles, fashion,food, beverages, and credit cards that viewers are familiarwith and easily understand.

In the United States, newspapers are the second mostpopular advertising medium after television, receiving about22 percent of all advertising dollars. Newspapers enableadvertisers to reach readers of all age groups, ethnicbackgrounds, and income levels. Two types of advertisingappear in newspapers: classified advertising, such as the wantads, and display advertising.

Display ads range in size from as large as a full page toas small as one column in width and less than one centimeter(less than one inch) in length. Display ads often containillustrations or photographs and usually provide informationabout where the product or service being advertised can bepurchased. Typically, advertising makes up about 65 percentof a newspaper's content and generates about 65 percent of anewspaper's revenue. About 88 percent of this revenue comesfrom local businesses.

Most advertisers believe that newspaper ads fail to conveythe kind of emotional images that build brand image. As aresult, most newspaper advertising is done by retailers whouse newspaper ads to provide timely information that can leadto immediate sales. Newspapers are particularly well suitedto this role because most are published daily. Readers can clipcoupons from the newspaper and cash them in quickly at localstores. People also turn to newspapers for immediately usefulinformation about product discounts, bank interest rates,restaurant specials, and entertainment.

Direct mail is the third largest advertising medium,attracting about 20 percent of all U.S. advertising dollars. Directmail advertising, as the name implies, is advertising that is sentdirectly to people by mail, usually through the postal system.Increasingly, however, electronic mail (e-mail) is being usedas a direct mail device. Direct mail can be as simple as a singleletter or as involved as a catalog or an elaborate e-mail knownas HTML mail that offers graphics and links to moreinformation.

From the advertiser's point of view, the key to a successfuldirect mail program is the mailing list. The mailing list containsthe names and addresses of people who share certain commoncharacteristics that suggest they will be likely to buy a particularproduct or service. Because advertisers are speaking directlyto those who are most likely to buy their product or service,many advertisers consider direct mail the most effective of alladvertising media for generating immediate results. Directmail through the U.S. postal system, however, is the mostexpensive form of advertising, costing about 14 times as muchper exposure as most magazine and newspaper ads. But becauseof the results it produces, many advertisers believe the expenseis justified.

Radio attracts about 8 percent of all U.S. advertising dollars,making it the fourth largest advertising medium. Althoughnational advertisers can buy national network radio time, 90percent of all radio advertising is local. Unlike television whichreaches a broad audience, the specialized programming ofradio stations enables advertisers to reach a narrow, highlyspecific audience such as people who like sports or urbanteenagers who listen to the latest styles of popular music.Because many people listen to radio while in their cars, radioalso enables advertisers to reach prospects just before they goshopping. But because people listen to the radio while doingsomething else such as driving or working, radio commercialscan be easily misunderstood. As a result, radio ads work bestwhen the messages are relatively simple ones for familiar,


easily understood products. Yellow Pages, the thick directoriesof telephone listings and display advertisements, represent thefifth most popular advertising medium, attracting about 6percent of total advertising spending. Almost all advertisingin the Yellow Pages is local advertising.

Magazines rank sixth in total U.S. ad spending, representingabout 5 percent. Although newspapers reach all different kindsof readers, a magazine’s specialized editorial content generallyreaches readers who have similar interests. The relativelyspecialized, narrow audience of a magazine enables anadvertiser to speak to those most likely to buy a particularproduct. For example, a manufacturer of mascara whoadvertises to teenage girls could use a magazine with editorialcontent aimed especially at teenage girls to reach that audienceexclusively.

A magazine's editorial environment can also lend a productcredibility and prestige, and the magazine’s ability to reproducebeautiful color photographs can enhance a product'sappearance. As a result, magazine advertising is an effectiveway to build a product's brand image. Because such advertisingis expensive and because most magazines are distributedregionally or nationally, they generally feature nationaladvertising rather than local advertising. Magazines generate63 percent of their revenue from advertising.

In 2004 the Internet accounted for $9.6 billion in advertisingspending in the United States, or 3.7 percent of total adspending, an increase from 3 percent in 2003, according to datagathered by the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopersLLP for the Interactive Advertising Bureau. About 96 percentof ad spending on the Internet goes to 50 Web companies,mostly to four sites maintained by Yahoo, Google, AmericaOnline, and the Microsoft Network.

Advertisements on the Internet often take the form ofbanners, buttons, pop-ups, and sponsorships. But the mostimportant aspect of Internet marketing is that the World Wide

Web allows advertisers to personalize their messages forindividual customers. For example, when a customer visits acommercial Web site that person is often welcomed by nameand is offered information about new products based on thetype of products the person has purchased in the past.Moreover, the customer can then order the product immediatelywithout venturing out to a store. By allowing advertisers tocustomize their advertising, the Internet enables them to buildcustomer loyalty and generate stronger sales results. Googlepioneered the technique of providing customized ads whensomeone enters a search term. Advertisers take part in anauction to have their ads placed next to relevant search resultsand pay only when someone clicks on the ad. Outdooradvertising amounts to less than 1 percent of total ad spendingin the United States. Outdoor advertising is an effective wayto reach a highly mobile audience that spends a lot of time onthe road—for example, in commuting to and from work or aspart of their job. It offers the lowest cost per exposure of anymajor advertising medium, and it produces a major impact,because it is big, colorful, and hard to ignore. The messageson outdoor boards have to be very brief. So outdoor advertisingprimarily serves as a reminder medium and one that cantrigger an impulse buy.

A wide variety of other advertising media make up theremainder of total ad spending. Transit advertising is mainlyan urban advertising form that uses buses and taxi tops as wellas posters placed in bus shelters, airports, and subway stations.Like outdoor boards, transit is a form of reminder advertisingthat helps advertisers place their name before a local audience.Finally, point-of-purchase advertising places attention-gettingdisplays, streamers, banners, and price cards in the store nearwhere the product is sold to explain product benefits andpromote impulse buys.

You may have the finest product and the most attractiveprices, but if potential customers don't know about yourbusiness, your chances of success are limited. Advertising and


promotion refer to activities undertaken to increase sales orenhance the image of a product or business. Advertising isused primarily to inform the potential customer of:

(1) the availability of products or services,

(2) when they are in season,

(3) where you are located and

(4) anything special about your product.

Promotional activities are important for maintainingcustomer traffic throughout the market season-used early inthe season to draw customers to your business and during theseason to maintain customer traffic levels during slow periods.

Unfortunately, the benefits of advertising and promotionfor direct farm marketers have yet to be consistentlydemonstrated. Promotion of farm products appears to beeffective in some cases, but not in others.

The potential for successful advertising and promotion isincreased when products are clearly differentiated, are ofexceptionally high quality, are very seasonal in nature or arenew offerings. Research conducted on direct farm marketingindicates that advertising, with emphasis on product freshnessand quality, is more likely to move produce than price cutting.

How much should you spend? It is considered goodbusiness in retail marketing to spend 2 to 3 percent of grosssales for advertising.

A 1985 survey of direct farm marketers in the mid-Atlanticstates showed that producers spent an average of 3 percent ofsales on advertising. You may find you cannot afford to do asmuch advertising as you would like. Therefore, it is importantto set priorities.

A scattered shotgun approach with limited funds usuallyends up with poor results. It is important to plan youradvertising program, otherwise you may fritter away yourhard earned dollars. Know your targeted customers and directyour appeals to them.

BE HONEST AND FACTUAL

On-farm and roadside markets with that "somethingspecial" usually build their merchandising program around adistinguishing trademark-a unique sign, display, atmosphereor building design. Advertising is easier to remember andmore appealing when backed up by a unique, easily illustratablebusiness name or slogan that clearly and concisely states thenature of the business and/or the principle products sold, e.g.,WILBER'S WATERMELONS, APPLE ANNE'S-Fruit, Cider,Bakery Goods, RATZLAFF'S CHEMICAL FREE PRODUCE.Avoid creative names that may serve to confuse your potentialcustomer. Many successful on-farm businesses carry theowner's name, creating a more intimate and sincere relationshipwith the consumer. In the summer of 1993, a survey wasundertaken of the fresh farm produce outlets in Cochise County,Arizona. Visitors were asked how they learned about the directfarm market they were patronizing. A similar survey wascompleted in Michigan. The results, summarized as follows,give some indication of the effectiveness of differentpromotional activities. Let's now look at each of thesepromotional activities and how they might be used in yourenterprise. To help you evaluate these advertising options,first ask yourself: Why am I considering doing this? What isit suppose to do? What are my goals? Then seek feedback fromyour customers, particularly new customers, as to how theyheard about you, to determine which advertising media wasmost effective.

WORD-OF-MOUTH

What can you do to help your present customers spreadthe word? Provide visitors with your business card. Includefliers or coupons with each purchase and ask your customersto pass them on to family and friends. Develop and distribute"point of purchase" marketing materials and displays: A "FreshFarm Produce" buyers' guide and map (discussed later).Information on "how to" pick, reduce spoilage, can, freeze, dryproduce, etc.


Recipes and Cooking Ideas

How to get to other farm outlets and community pointsof interest. Build repeat customers through customersatisfaction. Inquire into the customer's needs. Seek suggestionsfor improvement. If visitors have a bad experience or don'tfind what they were looking for, they not only don't return,but will also tell others where not to stop.

Maintain a guest register or ask customers to fill out a pre-printed card. Then mail them a postcard or flier at the startof next year's season thanking them for their business, indicatingwhen different produce will be available and inviting themback. Hopefully they will also bring others. Consider havingcustomers register directly on to a postcard. Later, print yourmessage on the reverse side. This can save you a lot of time.

MEDIA COVERAGE

The fresh farm produce outlets in the Willcox, Arizonaarea have been particularly successful in generating andreceiving news coverage in local and regional newspapers andtelevision. Not only has this media coverage been very effectivein promoting the outlets, it is free. The direct farm marketersin an area should consider banding together to generate mediapublicity. Name (contract with) a publicist to develop mediaopportunities and systematically generate positive publicityfor the area's direct farm marketing outlets. This might be donethrough the local Chamber of Commerce. Organize a mediatour of area outlets. Invite the media to special events.

(a) Classified ads in the food or for sale sections of theWant Ads of local and regional newspapers:

The ad should indicate what is for sale, when andwhere. Most direct farm marketers do not advertiseprice.

(b) Display ads in the entertainment or food section or inspecial supplements of regional newspapers: Such adsshould be attractively designed and easy to read, witha limited number of words and a good use of white

space. Incorporate a trademark or symbol in every adso that it is quickly recognized by your regularcustomers. The advertising department of thenewspaper can help you plan a layout. Since such adsare more expensive, cooperative funding should beexplored with other area direct farm marketers. A groupad will convey to potential customers the wide varietyof outlets, produce and experiences available, and assurevisitors that they are likely to get what they want if theymake the trip.

(c) Radio ads: Due to their higher cost, spot announcementson the radio must be short and to the point, 15 to 30seconds. More frequent short announcements arebelieved to reach more people than less frequent longerones. Frequent spot announcements can help createname recognition.

(d) Place information articles and/or advertising in areashopping guides, tourist publications, company andspecial interest news-letters targeted to specificaudiences, e.g., Garden Clubs, health food, retirementcommunities, ethnic food.

(e) Yellow pages listing.

ROADSIDE SIGNS

Road side signs are a particularly important informationsource once travelers are near your business or event. Roadside signs can be hindrances if they are not done professionallyand kept well maintained. If signs are unattractive, hard toread, home painted and unkept, your operation is likely tostart with a bad impression.

The entrance to you business should be clearly markedwith a pull-off area on each side of the road. Your initial roadsign should, as a rule, be placed at least 2,500 feet from theentrance to your business to allow travelers a safe stoppingdistance. Then place several advance road signs out from yourinitial sign that state the distance to your business, e.g., JONES'


PRODUCE, 2 MILES. Signage should start from the nearestInter-state or major highway and clearly direct visitors to yourbusiness location. Roadside signs should contain six words orless, with a 1 or 2 word focal point to catch the traveler'sinterest. Use 7" to 12" letters and a good contrast of colors. Themost easily read color combinations are black, dark blue, bottlegreen or scarlet red on white, yellow, orange or green. It is notalways the size of the letters that make them readable, but thespace or margins around them. Create a simple logo, such asthe example provided, that provides easy recognition.

MEDIA ADVERTISING

There are a number of options for media advertising.Interviews with direct farm marketers indicate that the mostcommonly used mediums are:

COMMUNITY BROCHURE/BUYERS' GUIDE

Many rural communities have developed an informationalbrochure or directory that lists all direct farm marketers in thearea with a description of the products they offer. Also includedis a map of the area with directions to each outlet and a harvestcalendar indicating when different fruits and vegetables willbe available. Such brochures are often developed with the aidof the county Cooperative Extension office and are fundedthrough a subscription of those businesses listed. Printing andfinancial aid may also be available through a local utility orthe state Department of Agriculture. Such directories will beeffective, however, only if they are properly promoted anddistributed to prospective customers. The printing cost of thebrochure is small compared to the cost of promoting thedirectory, postage for mailing them and travel costs in placingthe directory at travel information centers and brochure racksat strategic locations. This directory should also be distributedat the direct farm market outlets to assist with referrals andencourage return visitors and word-of-mouth promotion. Thisproject might be coordinated by the local Chamber ofCommerce.

The Willcox community has implemented a telephoneservice which out-of-town customers can call for a regularlyupdated recording indicating produce availability. The serviceis sponsored through subscriptions from the advertisedbusinesses.

REFERRALS

Make sure that the employees of recreation and touristfacilities, motels, gasoline stations, restaurants, campgrounds,the Chamber of Commerce and other visitor oriented businessesare aware of your business. These people can help channelmore customers to you. Make referrals.

Exchange customers. Help visitors find the products theyare looking for. The Cochise County survey found that manyvisitors were not aware of the wide diversity of productsavailable at other locations.

Some returned home without purchasing sought-afteritems. When asked what other products or activities they wouldlike to see offered, a significant number of visitors indicateda park/picnic area, swimming, horseback riding, a good placeto eat-not knowing that those facilities were available in theWillcox community. A community brochure and map to localrestaurants, museums, motels, retail shops, swimming andother recreational facilities should be available at the farmoutlets.

SPECIAL FESTIVALS

Agricultural festivals can be effective in attracting visitorsto your community. They can generate additional sales if on-site activities are provided which bring potential customers incontact with your products. Such on-site activities might includethings like hay rides, pick your own pumpkin (or watermelon),menudo cook-off, celebrity tomato pitch, watermelon seedspitting contest and farm tours. Unfortunately, the researchindicates that limited spending on fresh farm products occurredat agricultural festivals mainly because such products (even


those that the festival was named after) were not widelyavailable. The festival activities often interfered with visitorsgetting to local businesses and on-farm outlets.

SPECIAL TOURS

Field trips and special tours have proven effective inbringing people to the area and your business that might nothave made it on their own. Such groups include garden clubs,residents of retirement communities, ethnic clubs, foreignvisitors and company picnics. School tours have been effectivein stimulating return visits by the children with their parentsin tow.

COUPONS, SPECIAL DISCOUNTS, DRAWINGS

Experience indicates that general discounting can be counterproductive in the direct marketing of farm produce. Adiscounted price suggests lower quality. The use of couponscan, however, help you track the effectiveness of differentadvertising media. In general it is recommended that discountsbe expressed in whole dollars and cents rather than as a percent,and focus on increasing business during the slow seasons ofthe years. Giving your valued customers on unexpected benefit,e.g., free samples of new or slow moving produce may havea more positive impact than a discount.

LABELS

Labels on bags, boxes, jars and containers reinforce yourname to the consumer. Labels provide an opportunity forword-of-mouth advertising as guests to your customers' homeobserve your products. Generally, people will buy food itemsas gifts only when there is an attractive label indicating itsorigin and special qualities. Also labels can be effective inpromoting the quality of your product, e.g., vine ripened,pesticide free, organic, high fiber, farm fresh, vitamin rich.Your name, logo and/or slogan can also be printed on T-shirts,aprons, hats and bags, for sale, to help your customers promoteyour business.

ADVERTISING AND PROMOTIONS MANAGER• Prepare budgets and submit estimates for program costs

as part of campaign plan development.• Plan and prepare advertising and promotional material

to increase sales of products or services, working withcustomers, company officials, sales departments andadvertising agencies.

• Assist with annual budget development.• Inspect layouts and advertising copy and edit scripts,

audio and video tapes, and other promotional materialfor adherence to specifications.

• Coordinate activities of departments, such as sales,graphic arts, media, finance, and research.

• Prepare and negotiate advertising and sales contracts.• Identify and develop contacts for promotional

campaigns and industry programs that meet identifiedbuyer targets such as dealers, distributors, or consumers.

• Gather and organize information to plan advertisingcampaigns.

• Confer with department heads and/or staff to discusstopics such as contracts, selection of advertising media,or product to be advertised.

• Confer with clients to provide marketing or technicaladvice.

• Monitor and analyze sales promotion results todetermine cost effectiveness of promotion campaigns.

• Read trade journals and professional literature to stayinformed on trends, innovations, and changes that affectmedia planning.

• Formulate plans to extend business with establishedaccounts and to transact business as agent foradvertising accounts.

• Provide presentation and product demonstrationsupport during the introduction of new products andservices to field staff and customers.


• Direct, motivate, and monitor the mobilization of acampaign team to advance campaign goals.

• Plan and execute advertising policies and strategies fororganizations.

• Track program budgets and expenses and campaignresponse rates to evaluate each campaign based onprogram objectives and industry norms.

• Assemble and communicate with a strong, diversecoalition of organizations and/or public figures,securing their cooperation, support and action, to furthercampaign goals.

• Train and direct workers engaged in developing andproducing advertisements.

• Coordinate with the media to disseminate advertising.

• Contact organizations to explain services and facilitiesoffered.

• Direct and coordinate product research anddevelopment.

• Represent company at trade association meetings topromote products.

• Consult publications to learn about conventions andsocial functions and to organize prospect files forpromotional purposes.

Requirements:

• Bachelor Degree in Commerce, Marketing orAdministration.

• Minimum of 7 years experience.

• Strong English language skills. Including the meaningand spelling of words,

• Knowledge of principles and methods for showing,promoting, and selling products or services. Thisincludes marketing strategy and tactics, productdemonstration, sales techniques, and sales controlsystems.

• Knowledge of media production, communication, anddissemination techniques and methods. This includesalternative ways to inform and entertain via written,oral, and visual media.

• Knowledge of principles and processes for providingcustomer and personal services. This includes customerneeds assessment, meeting quality standards forservices, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.

• Knowledge of business and management principlesinvolved in strategic planning, resource allocation,human resources modeling, leadership technique,production methods, and coordination of people andresources.

• Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principlesinvolved in production of precision technical plans,blueprints, drawings, and models.

• Knowledge of raw materials, production processes,quality control, costs, and other techniques formaximizing the effective manufacture and distributionof goods.

• Knowledge of administrative and clerical proceduresand systems such as word processing, managing filesand records, stenography and transcription, designingforms, and other office procedures and terminology.

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge Principles of Advertising26 27

2Principles of Advertising

In the next five sections of the Principles of Marketing webegin an in-depth look at each promotional mix item. In thistutorial we present the first of a two-part examination ofadvertising with a discussion of basic concepts and trends. Ourcoverage of advertising continues in our next tutorial, Managingthe Advertising Campaign, where we look at what decisionsare needed to carryout a successful advertising campaign. Inthis chapter we cover several fundamental issues in advertisingincluding examining what advertising is and why it is importantto the marketing organization.

We also look at managing the advertising effort bycomparing in-house management to that offered by advertisingprofessionals, such as advertising agencies. Finally, the tutorialidentifies different types of advertising and addresses trendsfacing the advertising industry.

WHAT IS ADVERTISING?

Advertising is a non-personal form of promotion that isdelivered through selected media outlets that, under mostcircumstances, require the marketer to pay for messageplacement. Advertising has long been viewed as a method ofmass promotion in that a single message can reach a largenumber of people. But, this mass promotion approach presentsproblems since many exposed to an advertising message maynot be within the marketer's target market, and thus, may bean inefficient use of promotional funds. However, this is

changing as new advertising technologies and the emergenceof new media outlets offer more options for targeted advertising.Advertising also has a history of being considered a one-wayform of marketing communication where the message receiver(i.e., target market) is not in position to immediately respondto the message (e.g., seek more information).

This too is changing. For example, in the next few yearstechnologies will be readily available to enable a televisionviewer to click a button to request more details on a productseen on their favorite TV program. In fact, it is expected thatover the next 10-20 years advertising will move away from aone-way communication model and become one that is highlyinteractive.Another characteristic that may change asadvertising evolves is the view that advertising does notstimulate immediate demand for the product advertised. Thatis, customers cannot quickly purchase a product they seeadvertised. But as more media outlets allow customers tointeract with the messages being delivered the ability ofadvertising to quickly stimulate demand will improve.

IMPORTANCE OF ADVERTISING

Spending on advertising is huge. One often quoted statisticby market research firm ZenithOptimedia estimates thatworldwide spending on advertising exceeds (US) $400 billion.This level of spending supports thousands of companies andmillions of jobs. In fact, in many countries most media outlets,such as television, radio and newspapers, would not be inbusiness without revenue generated through the sale ofadvertising.

While worldwide advertising is an important contributorto economic growth, individual marketing organizations differon the role advertising plays. For some organizations littleadvertising may be done, instead promotional money is spenton other promotion options such a personal selling througha sales team. For some smaller companies advertising mayconsist of occasional advertisement and on a very small scale,


such as placing small ads in the classified section of a localnewspaper.

But most organizations, large and small, that rely onmarketing to create customer interest are engaged in consistentuse of advertising to help meet marketing objectives. Thisincludes regularly developing advertising campaigns, whichinvolve a series of decisions for planning, creating, deliveringand evaluating an advertising effort.

MANAGING ADVERTISING DECISIONS

Delivering an effective marketing message throughadvertising requires many different decisions as the marketerdevelops their advertising campaign. For small campaigns,that involve little creative effort, one or a few people mayhandle the bulk of the work. In fact, the Internet has made do-it-yourself advertising an easy to manage process and hasespecially empowered small businesses to manage theiradvertising decisions. As we will see, not only can small firmshandle the creation and placement of advertisements thatappear on the Internet, new services have even made it possiblefor a single person to create advertisements that run on localtelevision. For instance, a company called SpotRunner allowsusers to select from a list of high-quality television ads that canbe customized and then placed within local cable televisionprogramming.

For larger campaigns the skills needed to make soundadvertising decisions can be quite varied and may not be easilyhandled by a single person. While larger companies managesome advertising activities within the company, they are morelikely to rely on the assistance of advertising professionals,such as those found at advertising agencies, to help bring theiradvertising campaign to market.

ADVERTISING AGENCY FUNCTIONS

Professionals at advertising agencies and other advertisingorganizations offer a number of functions including:

Account Management-Within an advertising agency theaccount manager or account executive is tasked with handlingall major decisions related to a specific client. Theseresponsibilities include locating and negotiating to acquireclients. Once the client has agreed to work with the agency,the account manager works closely with the client to developan advertising strategy. For very large clients, such as largeconsumer products companies, an advertising agency mayassign an account manager to work full-time with only oneclient and, possibly, with only one of the client's product lines.For smaller accounts an account manager may simultaneouslymanage several different, though non-competing, accounts.

Creative Team-The principle role of account managers isto manage the overall advertising campaign for a client, whichoften includes delegating selective tasks to specialists. For largeaccounts one task account managers routinely delegate involvesgenerating ideas, designing concepts and creating the finaladvertisement, which generally becomes the responsibility ofthe agency's creative team. An agency's creative team consistsof specialists in graphic design, film and audio production,copywriting, computer programming, and much more.

Researchers-Full-service advertising agencies employmarket researchers who assess a client's market situation,including understanding customers and competitors, and alsoare used to test creative ideas. For instance, in the early stagesof an advertising campaign researchers may run focus groupsessions with selected members of the client's target market inorder to get their reaction to several advertising concepts.Researchers are also used following the completion of anadvertising campaign to measure whether the campaignreached its objectives.

Media Planners-Once an advertisement is created, it mustbe placed through an appropriate advertising media. Eachadvertising media, of which there are thousands, has its ownunique methods for accepting advertisements, such as differentadvertising cost structures (i.e., what it costs marketers to


place an ad), different requirements for accepting ad designs(e.g., size of ad), different ways placements can be purchased(e.g., direct contact with media or through third-party seller),and different time schedules (i.e., when ad will be run).Understanding the nuances of different media is the role of amedia planner, who looks for the best media match for a clientand also negotiates the best deals.

TYPES OF ADVERTISING

If you ask most people what is meant by "type" ofadvertising, invariably they will respond by defining it interms of how it is delivered (e.g., television ad, radio ad, etc.).But in marketing, type of advertising refers to the primary"focus" of the message being sent and falls into one of thefollowing four categories:

PRODUCT-ORIENTED ADVERTISING

Most advertising spending is directed toward the promotionof a specific good, service or idea, what we have collectivelylabeled as an organization's product. In most cases the goal ofproduct advertising is to clearly promote a specific product toa targeted audience. Marketers can accomplish this in severalways from a low-key approach that simply provides basicinformation about a product (informative advertising) to blatantappeals that try to convince customers to purchase a product(persuasive advertising) that may include direct comparisonsbetween the marketer's product and its competitor's offerings(comparative advertising).

However, sometimes marketers intentionally produceproduct advertising where the target audience cannot readilysee a connection to a specific product. Marketers of newproducts may follow this "teaser" approach in advance of anew product introduction to prepare the market for the product.For instance, one week before the launch of a new product amarketer may air a television advertisement proclaiming "Afternext week the world will never be the same" but do so withoutany mention of a product or even the company behind the ad.

The goal is to create curiosity in the market and interest whenthe product is launched.

IMAGE ADVERTISING

Image advertising is undertaken primarily to enhance anorganization's perceived importance to a target market. Imageadvertising does not focus on specific products as much as itpresents what an organization has to offer. In these types ofads, if products are mentioned it is within the context of "whatwe do" rather than a message touting the benefits of a specificproduct. Image advertising is often used in situations wherean organization needs to educate the targeted audience onsome issue. For instance, image advertising may be used insituations where a merger has occurred between two companiesand the newly formed company has taken on a new name, orif a company has received recent negative publicity and thecompany wants to let the market know that they are aboutmuch more than this one issue.

ADVOCACY ADVERTISING

Organizations also use advertising to send a messageintended to influence a targeted audience. In most cases thereis an underlying benefit sought by an organization when theyengage in advocacy advertising. For instance, an organizationmay take a stand on a political issue which they feel couldnegatively impact the organization and will targetadvertisements to voice their position on the issue.

PUBLIC SERVICE ADVERTISING

In some countries, not-for-profit organizations arepermitted to run advertisements through certain media outletsfree-of-charge if the message contained in the ad concerns anissue viewed as for the "greater good" of society. For instance,ads directed at social causes, such as teen-age smoking, illegaldrug use and mental illness, may run on television, radio andother media without cost to organizations sponsoring theadvertisement.


ADVERTISING TRENDS

Like most areas of marketing, advertising is changingrapidly. Some argue that change has affected advertising morethan any other marketing function. The more important trendsin advertising include:

DIGITAL CONVERGENCE

While many different media outlets are available forcommunicating with customers, the ability to distinguishbetween outlets is becoming more difficult due to theconvergence of different media types. In advertisingconvergence, and more appropriately digital convergence,refers to a growing trend for using computer technology todeliver media programming and information. Convergenceallows one media outlet to take advantage of features andbenefits offered through other media outlets. For instance, inmany areas around the world television programming is nowdelivered digitally via cable, telephone or satellite hookup.This delivery method uses the same principles of informationdelivery that is used to allow someone to connect the Internet.

The convergence of television and Internet opens manypotential opportunities for marketers to target customers inways not available with traditional television advertising. Forexample, technology may allow ads delivered to one householdto be different than ads delivered to a neighbor's televisioneven though both households are watching the same program.But convergence is not limited to just television.

Many media outlets are experiencing convergence as canbe seen with print publications that now have a strong webpresence. The future holds even more convergenceopportunities. These include outdoor billboards that alterdisplays as cars containing geographic positioning systems(GPS) and other recognizable factors (e.g., GPS tied to satelliteradio) pass by or direct mail postcards that carry a differentmessage based on data that matches a household's addresswith television viewing habits.

FOCUS ON AUDIENCE TRACKING

The movement to digital convergence provides marketerswith the basic resources needed to monitor user's activity,namely, digital data. Any media outlet that relies on computertechnology to manage the flow of information does so usingelectronic signals that eventually form computer data. In simpleform, electronic data is represented by either an "on" or "off"electronic signal.

In computer language this is further represented by twonumbers "0" and "1" and, consequently, is known as digitalinformation. All digital information can be stored and laterevaluated. For media outlets delivering information in digitalform, the potential exists for greater tracking and matchingthis with information about the person receiving the digitaldata. And tracking does not stop with what is delivered; it alsoworks with information being sent from the customer. Forinstance, as we noted earlier, by clicking on their televisionscreen viewers will soon be able to instantly receive informationabout products they saw while watching a television show.This activity can be tracked then used in future marketingefforts.

AUDIENCE CONCERN WITH TRACKING

While media convergence offers marketers more optionsfor tracking response to advertisements, such activity alsoraises ethical and legal concerns. Many consumers are notpleased to learn their activities are being monitored when theyengage a media outlet. Yet consider the following examples ofhow marketers are tracking users:

• Television Viewing-As we noted, the advent of digitallydelivered television allows cable, telephone and satelliteproviders to track user activity through the set-topboxes connected to a subscriber's television. Futureinnovation will make the user television experienceeven more interactive and, consequently, open to evenmore tracking.


• Television recording-The days of television videotaperecording are quickly coming to an end, replaced byrecording using computer technology. A digitial videorecorder (DVR), such as TiVo, can track users recordinghabits and, based on a viewer's past activity, makesuggestions for programs they may want to record.Additionally, advertising services can program the DVRto insert special advertisements within a programtargeted to a particular viewer.

• Internet Spyware-Downloading entertainment from theInternet, such as games, video and software, may containa hidden surprise-spyware. Spyware is a specialprogram that runs in the background of a user'scomputer and regularly forwards information over theInternet to the spyware's company. In some casesspyware keeps track of websites the user has visited.The information is then used to gain an understandingof the user's interests, which then results in delivery ofspecial ads when a user visits a certain site.

AD SKIPPING AND BLOCKING

As noted above, television recording devices offer marketerstremendous insight into viewers' habits and behavior. Yet fromthe consumer side, the DVR is changing how people viewtelevision programs by allowing them to watch programmingat a time that is most convenient for them.

Viewer convenience is not the only advantage of the DVR.The other main reason consumers are attracted to the DVR istheir ability to quickly skip over commercials. Of course thispresents major issues for advertisers who are paying foradvertisements. As more DVR devices with ad skipping oreven ad blocking features are adopted by mainstreamconsumers the advertiser's concern with whether they aregetting the best value for the advertising money becomes abigger issue. Advertisers who feel frustrated with televisionad-skipping may opt to invest their promotional funds in other

media outlets where consumers are more likely to be exposedto an advertisement.

CHANGING MEDIA CHOICES

There is a major cultural shift occurring in how people usemedia for entertainment, news and information. Manytraditional media outlets, such as newspapers and majorcommercial television networks, are seeing their customer baseeroded by the emergence of new media outlets.

The Internet has become the major driver of this change.In particular, a number of important applications tied to theInternet are creating new media outlets and drawing theattention of many, mostly younger, consumers. Examplesinclude:

• Podcasting Audio-This involves delivering programmingvia downloadable online audio that can be listened toon music players, such as Apple's iPod. Many newswebsites and even other information site, such as blogs,offer free downloadable audio programming.

• Podcasting Video-While audio downloading has beenavailable for some time, the downloading of video tosmall, handheld devices, including cellphones, is in itsinfancy. Many television networks are nowexperimenting with making their programmingavailable for download, albeit, for a fee.

• RSS Feeds-This is an Internet information distributiontechnology that allows for news and content to bedelivered instantly to anyone who has signed up fordelivery. Clearly those registering for RSS feedsrepresent a highly targeted market since they requestedthe content.

• Networked Gaming-While gaming systems have beenaround for some time, gaming systems attached to theInternet for group play is relatively new and becomingmore practical as more people move to faster Internetconnections. This type of setup will soon allow


marketers to insert special content, such as advertising,within game play.

For marketers these new technologies should be monitoredclosely as they become accepted alternatives to traditionalmedia outlets. While these technologies are currently not majoroutlets for advertising, they may soon offer such opportunity.As these technologies gain momentum and move intomainstream acceptance marketers may need to consider shiftingadvertising spending.

Marketers should also be aware that new media outletswill continue to emerge as new applications are developed.The bottom line for marketers is they must stay informed ofnew developments and understand how their customers areusing these in ways that may offer advertising opportunities.

In 1923, there were 26 metropolitan daily newspapers inAustralia owned by 21 proprietors.

By 1950, the number had fallen to 15 metropolitan dailieshaving 10 owners.

By 1987, there were three major proprietors of themetropolitan dailies-the Herald and Weekly Times Limited(HWT), News Limited (News), and John Fairfax HoldingsLimited (Fairfax)-as well as a small number of independentpublishers with newspapers in one city, which shrank to twowhen News Limited took over HWT that year.

METROPOLITAN PRESS

Five companies own most of the newspapers of Australia.By far the biggest is News Limited which controls 68 per centof the market (70 per cent of metropolitan newspapers and 30-35 per cent of all Australian newspapers measured bycirculation). The next biggest, Fairfax, owns 21 per cent.

They control all of the metropolitan press except for WestAustralian Newspapers (The West Australian, eight per cent)and Rural Press (Canberra Times, three per cent).

REGIONAL DAILIES

As with the metropolitan newspapers the majority ofregional dailies are owned by the five biggest companies. Onlyfour are owned by independent family-owned companies.

Table. Ownersh ip and cir cu la t ion of regional da ilies 2004 Company Tit les Circu la t ion % of tota l

APN 13 162,496 27.2 Fa ir fax 3 95,030 15.9

News Limited 4 137,028 23.0 Rura l Press 9 127,292 21.3

WA Newspapers 1 5,746 0.9 Independent 616 68,382 11.5

Tota l 36 595,974 99.8

Source Communication Update: Communications Law Centre June 2005

SUBURBAN, RURAL AND COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS

Newspapers in these categories are also predominantlyowned by the main companies, News Limited, APN and RuralPress. Details of the circulation and ownership of each paperare listed in Communication Update a publication of theCommunications Law Centre and in the appendix of theAustralian Press Council Annual Reports.

OWNERSHIP RESTRICTIONS

The existing laws, restricting cross-media ownershipbetween television and newspapers, have been in force since1992. They were introduced with the intention of maintainingdiversity in all forms of media and enhancing public access toa variety of viewpoints. Several failed attempts to reform theselaws have been made since.

The controls are embodied chiefly through the BroadcastingServices Act. Where it impacts on the print media, thatlegislation restricts the holder of a commercial television licenceor a commercial radio broadcasting licence from owning anewspaper in the same licence area. In essence, that means atelevision or radio station owner in a city such as Sydney or


Melbourne cannot own a newspaper that also services thatsame area. There are additional laws that restrict foreignownership. They restrict aggregate foreign ownership ofnational and metropolitan newspapers to 30 per cent.Ownership by foreign individuals is capped at 25 per cent.

Shareholdings of portfolio investors are restricted to 5 percent, but there is provision for applications to be made to allowhigher levels. Aggregate foreign shareholding of provincialand suburban newspapers is held to 50 per cent. There are nocross-media or foreign shareholding restrictions placed onmagazines, the ethnic community press or online informationsites.

Because of the cross media rules, the owners of the majorbroadcast networks are separate from the metropolitannewspaper owners. The three major network owners are PBL(Nine Network, except Perth & Adelaide); Kerry Stokes's group(Seven); and Canwest (Ten). APN as well as owning newspapersis a major owner of radio stations. Some other radio networkowners (such as Southern Cross) also have small televisioninterests. The only restrictions on concentration of pressownership are contained in the Trade Practices Act, which setsout Australian anti-trust law and applies to all industries.Section 46 proscribes the abuse of monopoly power throughpredatory practices. Section 50 proscribes the attainment orincrease of a dominant position in a market. However, thesemay be authorised if there is a public benefit in the take-over.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commissioner'sview is that the product market for the press is the newspaperindustry, not all media, and that for most metropolitannewspapers the market is limited to the state concerned.

A report of a parliamentary committee in 1992 found noabuses of concentration and made no recommendationsconcerning initiatives to create new newspapers. However, allmembers of the committee agreed that "…concentration ofownership is potentially harmful to plurality of opinion and

increases the potential risk that news may be distorted" andaccordingly urged that the risk of further concentration"…should be minimised'.

The report seemed to accept that, if new newspapers werecreated, there would be a market battle that would result inonly one newspaper emerging. It recommended that the testin Section 50 of the Trade Practices Act be amended to returnto the pre-1977 proscription of takeovers that would result, orbe likely to result, in a substantial lessening of competition.

PROPOSED CHANGES TO OWNERSHIP RESTRICTIONS

In 2006, the Federal Government released proposals thatwould result in substantial changes in laws that govern controland ownership of print media companies and assets. At thetime of writing, the new rules have yet to be framed and placedbefore the Parliament.

Pressure to amend the laws has mounted because of theemergence of new forms of media-especially digital media thatcan be made available online or in mobile form-fromconvergence of different mediums and from increased diversityin some areas.

The centrepiece of the proposed new laws for print mediais the removal of cross-media restrictions and the impositionof new rules that set minimum limits to the number ofindependent voices in any given market. The limit would befive independent newspaper, television and radio operators inmetropolitan markets and four in regional markets. Theproposal allows considerable room for consolidation, and couldresult in significant media industry takeovers.

Any such actions would be regulated by the AustralianCompetition and Consumer Commissioner under the generalmerger provisions of the Trade Practices Act. The AustralianCommunications and Media Authority would be charged withensuring that transactions comply with diversity requirementsand the minimum limits.


The plan would result in foreign ownership limits beingscrapped, but the media industry would still be subject to the"sensitive sector" provisions of the government's foreigninvestment policy. Sensitive sectors have tighter restrictionsfor requiring permission from the Federal Treasurer to exceeda 15 per cent shareholding and also involve more rigorousexamination processes for approval.

ECONOMIC HEALTH NEWSPAPERS

Print media companies have enjoyed five years of growingrevenues. The largest impact has come from a marked increasein advertising sales.

Published financial accounts show that metropolitannewspaper publishers had, by 2005, fully recovered from lessfavourable conditions in the wake of the introduction of theGoods and Services Tax in July 2000 to reach a level wheretheir operating margins generally were running near the peaklevels of previous economic cycles. Gross profits typically werein the range 25 per cent to 30 per cent of revenues, up fromlow levels of under 20 per cent. Regional newspaper groupshave returned a steadier pattern of growth and marginmaintenance during that period, not having suffered to thesame degree in 2001 and 2002 after the introduction of the GST.Margins are in a 30 per cent to 40 per cent range.

A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers ( AustralianEntertainment and Media Outlook 2006-2010, August 2006),shows that total newspaper industry revenues were $5.1bn in2005, 14 per cent higher than the level of 2001. They hadslumped to $4.35bn in 2002. The survey predicts an annual riseof three per cent to $5.84bn in 2010. About three-quarters ofrevenues come from advertising, which is predicted to increaseat an average annual rate of four per cent-amounting to between$150m per annum (see section below on advertising trends).

Desirable but missing data for future editions would betrends in the employment of journalists, both for the print andinternet activities of the paper, and trends annually in

pagination, that is, the average size of newspapers in terms ofnumber of pages for particular days of the week.

Circulation revenues on an industry basis now amount to$1.3bn. They have experienced considerable fluctuation as thesales of newspapers decline and aggressive promotionalsubscription offers are made. After a drop of 9.9 per cent in2001, circulation revenues have slowly turned around to berunning about one per cent annual growth, a trend predictedto continue through 2010. There is considerable variancebetween metropolitan and regional newspapers, brought aboutby migration of people to Queensland and to coastal towns onthe east coast. This spurs greater growth in many regionalareas. The other main reason for the current circulation revenuerise is increase in cover price.

MAGAZINES

Magazine publishers have also been recovering from adownturn that started five years ago, but they have reboundedfaster than newspaper companies. PricewaterhouseCoopersreports that this segment grew by 6.1 per cent in 2005, whenrevenues exceeded $2bn for the first time.

It expects future revenue growth until 2010 to run at anaverage annual rate over four per cent. Revenues streams areevenly divided between advertising and circulation, althoughadvertising is expanding slightly more rapidly. The main causesof circulation revenue growth are increased unit sales,revitalised categories, new titles and cover price rises.

The magazine industry covers a broad range of interests,from fashion to celebrity, special interest to news. Theperformance of any given category can vary significantly fromyear to year, with celebrity and fashion being two of the recenthigh growth areas. There has also been sizeable expansion inmagazines that are inserted in newspapers. They enjoy widedistribution and have quickly attracted advertising support. Itis a trend that is likely to continue.


THE INDUSTRY

The improvement in the industry's financial health hasresulted in an increased investment in news rooms, but theextent to which this occurring is difficult to quantify. Fundsare being spent on newspaper and magazine websites in anattempt to capitalise on the rapid expansion in advertisingthrough this medium.

Newspapers now frequently update their websites, withnews stories written by members of staff through the dayrather than running articles supplied by wire services. Aconsiderable number of staff are devoted to the production ofinserted magazines and lifestyle sections, some of which addto staff levels. Available total headcounts often show strongrises, but these are misleading because most major publishersin recent years have expanded by making acquisitions withinAustralia and overseas.

ADVERTISING REVENUE TRENDS

Advertising revenue has rebounded strongly in recentyears, but its continued strength depends directly on domesticeconomic conditions. Some print media companies haverecently cautioned that the outlook is weakening because offactors such as increased fuel costs. Consumer sentiment andretail spending are both displaying weakening trends, andthey have a considerable impact on both advertising andcirculation.

Newspapers

Total advertising expenditure in newspapers has beengrowing since 2002 at an annual amount reaching $300m. Thatreflects high single digit growth. PricewaterhouseCooperspredicts that this will moderate, but still continue at an annualrate around 3.5 per cent until 2010. About two-thirds of thegrowth comes from display advertising.

Display advertising makes up 57.6 per cent of theadvertising stream, up from 52.3 per cent in 2002. To be most

effective, display advertising requires full colour printing. Thathas become more widely available in recent years, allowingcolour advertisements to run on many pages of a newspaper.Publishers are also focusing on inserts and the developmentof lifestyle sections and premium magazines, which open doorsto new display advertisers. This trend should continue asnewspaper companies sell more, higher margin colour displayadvertising. To this end, the major publishers have recentlyformed a new industry body to promote their colour printingcapacities to advertisers.

Classified advertising, long known as "the rivers of gold"for newspapers such as The Age and The Sydney MorningHerald, is diminishing in importance as advertisers are attractedto online sites and specialist publications. According to the2006 survey, Classified revenue grew by 1.4 per cent to $1.6bn(compared with the 2.2 per cent overall growth in newspaperadvertising). In 2002 classifieds accounted for 47.7 per cent ofadvertising in newspapers; this share is now down to 42.4 percent.

Magazines

Magazine advertising grew by 9.3 per cent in 2005. Onereason for this was the strong increase in circulation, enhancingmagazines' attractiveness as an advertising medium. The 2006survey predicts growth at about five per cent for the rest ofthe decade, outpacing the predicted growth in newspaperadvertising revenue.

The Industry

The largest threat for advertising comes in the form ofcompeting online sites. Consumers are spending more timeusing the internet and advertisers are finding new ways toreach them, either by placing advertisements on those sites orby supporting search engines. A global report by BostonConsulting Group ( Finding the Sweet Spot in Online Search,July 2006) says that the time consumers spent between 1999and 2004 on newspapers, magazines, radio and television rose

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge44 Advertising and Promotion 45

or fell by just a couple of percentage points. But time spenton the Internet escalated by 24 per cent. Online advertisingexpenditure rose by 22 per cent, whereas traditional mediaspending declined.

A similar trend is evident in Australia. Price water houseCoopers says that Internet advertising in 2005 topped $500mfor the first time, reaching $620m, compared with $160m in2001. It expects annual growth exceeding 20 per cent for therest of the decade, with revenues reaching $1.78bn by 2010.The annual dollar expansion in the near term is predicted tobe around $200m. That is about the same dollar growth expectedfor newspapers. On the other hand, UK media buyer GroupM has recently estimated that Internet advertising this yearwill beat for the first time advertising in national newspapersin that country.

The online trend is particularly impacting print media'sgrip on classified advertising. The three core categories ofinternet advertising, general, classifieds and search &directories, each experienced strong growth in 2005 and nowhave a relatively even share of revenue. Search & directorieshad the greatest growth and now surpass classifieds as themain category.

With the widespread adoption of broadband, the Internetcould also have a negative effect on display revenues. Estimatesprovided by stockbroking company ABN Amro suggest thatemployment advertisements online currently account for anestimated 20 per cent of the market, and it is the largest singleclassified advertising sector. Real estate comes next, with onlineaccounting for about 10 per cent, and cars come third at aroundeight per cent.

3Advertising and Promotion

INTRODUCTION

Advertising and promotions is bringing a service to theattention of potential and current customers. Advertising andpromotions are best carried out by implementing an advertisingand promotions plan. The goals of the plan should dependvery much on the overall goals and strategies of theorganization, and the results of the marketing analysis,including the positioning statement.

The plan usually includes what target markets you wantto reach, what features and benefits you want to convey tothem, how you will convey it to them (this is often called youradvertising campaign), who is responsible to carry the variousactivities in the plan and how much money is budgeted for thiseffort. Successful advertising depends very much on knowingthe preferred methods and styles of communications of thetarget markets that you want to reach with your ads. A mediaplan and calendar can be very useful, which specifies whatadvertising methods are used and when.

For each service, carefully consider: What target marketsare you trying to reach with your ads? What would you likethem to think and perceive about your products (this shouldbe in terms of benefits to them, not you)? How can you getthem to think and perceive that? What communications mediado they see or prefer the most? Consider TV, radio, newsletters,classifieds, displays/signs, posters, word of mouth, press

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge Advertising and Promotion46 47

releases, direct mail, special events, brochures, neighborhoodnewsletters, etc.

What media is most practical for you to use in terms ofaccess and affordability (the amount spent on advertising isoften based on the revenue expected from the product orservice, that is, the sales forecast)?

You can often find out a lot about your customerspreferences just by conducting some basic market researchmethods. The following closely related links might be usefulin preparation for your planning.

POSITIONING

Deciding and Conveying Your Unique Selling Position

Positioning includes identifying the unique market position,or "niche", for your organization. Positioning is accomplishedthrough market analysis.

Market analysis includes finding out what groups ofpotential customers (or markets) exist, what groups ofcustomers you prefer to serve (target markets), what theirneeds are, what products or services you might develop tomeet their needs, how the customers might prefer to use theproducts and services, what your competitors are doing, whatpricing you should use and how you should distribute productsand services to your target markets. Various methods of marketresearch are used to find out information about markets, targetmarkets and their needs, competitors, etc.

Various Perspectives

positioning,market segementing, etc.

Unique Selling Proposition

products, positioning and market segmentation

Unique Selling Proposition

Unique Selling Proposition: What's In It For Me?

Your Unique Selling Proposition

Simply, positioning is how your target market defines youin relation to your competitors.

A good position is:

1. What makes you unique

2. This is considered a benefit by your target market

Both of these conditions are necessary for a goodpositioning. So what if you are the only red-haired singer whoonly knows how to play a G minor chord? Does your targetmarket consider this a good thing?

Positioning is important because you are competing withall the noise out there competing for your potential fansattention. If you can stand out with a unique benefit, you havea chance at getting their attention.

It is important to understand your product from thecustomers point of view relative to the competition.

ENVIRONMENT

In order to begin positioning a product, two questionsneed to be answered:

1.What is our marketing environment?

2.What is our competitive advantage?

The marketing environment is the external environment.Some things to consider:

• How is the market now satisfying the need yoursoftware satisfies?

• What are the switching costs for potential users foryour market?

• What are the positions of the competition?

The competitive advantage is an internal question. Whatdo you have that gives you advantage over your competitors.Some things to consider:

• Is your company small and flexibility?


• Do you offer low cost and high quality?

• Does your product offer unique benefits?

• Are you the first on the market with this product(First mover advantage)?

POSITIONING STRATEGIES

There are seven positioning strategies that can be pursued:

• Product Attributes: What are the specific productattributes?

• Benefits: What are the benefits to the customers?

• Usage Occasions: When / how can the product be used?

• Users: Identify a class of users.

• Against a Competitor: Positioned directly against acompetitor.

• Away from a Competitor: Positioned away fromcompetitor.

• Product Classes: Compared to different classes ofproducts.

Segmentation

There are three types of segmentation:

• Mass Marketing or Undifferentiated Marketing: Go afterthe whole market with one offer and focus on commonneeds rather than differences

• Product-variety Marketing or Differentiated Marketing:target several market segments and design separateoffers for each

• Target Marketing or Concentrated Marketing: Large shareof one or a few sub-markets. Good when company'sresources are limited

To identify a niche market, a series of 2 by 2 matrixes canbe used to identify an area that is being overlooked by largercompetitors. The competitors are mapped on this matrix andyou can see where there may be some opportunities.

POSITIONING DIFFERENCES

The differences that are promoted for a product must be:

• Important: The difference delivers a highly valued benefitto the target buyers

• Distinctive: Competitors do not offer the difference, orthe company can offer it in a more distinctive way

• Superior: The difference is superior to other ways thatthe customer might obtain the same benefit

• Communicable: The difference can be explained andcommunicated to the target buyers

• Preemptive: Competitors cannot easily copy thedifference

• Affordable: Buyers can afford to pay the difference

• Profitable: Company can introduce the differenceprofitably

MARKETING-PLACE OR DISTRIBUTION

Place

Place, or distribution channel, is the method for makingyour product available to the consumer.

Functions

There are eight main functions for distribution channels:• Information: gathering and distributing marketing

research• Promotion: developing and communicating offers• Contact: communicating with prospective buyers• Matching: fitting the offer to the buyer's needs• Negotiation: reaching agreement on price and terms• Physical distribution: transporting and storing the goods• Financing: getting and using funds to cover the costs of

channel work• Risk taking: assuming the risks the channel work.

Example-Selling a CD


Place is simply where your fans buy your CD. You can alsocall it distribution. There are many ways to distribute your CD.

Retail

Probably the most difficult is retail (selling your CD inmusic stores). This is difficult for independent musicians orbands because you usually need to have a relationship witha distributor.

Online

Isn't the Web wonderful? You can easily and cheaply setup a web page with your information, sample audio files,show dates, and how to order your CD.

In Person

Whenever you perform, you should sell your CDs. Youcan mention that you are selling CDs and where to buy themwhile you are performing. It is easier if you have a friend tohelp you. This person can collect the money, hand out the CDs,etc. so you don't have to worry about it during a show.

In Home

There is nothing wrong with telephone orders!

PRICE

Price is the amount of money charged for a product orservice or the value exchanged for the benefits of the productor service.

For a new product, you must understand your positioningbefore you set a price. Make sure it is not too low, or theproduct will not be taken seriously. If it is too high, the potentialcustomer will not take the risk.

PRICING STRATEGIES

There are five general pricing strategies:

• Product Line: Setting price steps between product lineitems

• Optional Product: Pricing optional or accessory products

• Captive Product: Pricing products that must be usedwith the main product

• By-Product: Pricing low value by product to get rid ofthem

• Product Bundle: Pricing bundles of products sold together

New Product Pricing

There are two new product pricing strategies:

Market-Skimming: Initially set high prices to "skim" revenuelayer by layer from the market. Works when:

• Quality and image support the higher price

• Enough buyers want the product at that price

• Cost of producing a small volume cannot be high

• Competitors should not be able to enter the marketeasily

Market Penetration: Set a low initial price in order topenetrate the market quickly and deeply to win a large marketshare. Works when:

• Market is highly price sensitive

• Production and distribution costs fall as sales volumeincreases

• Low price must help keep out the competition

PRICE ADJUSTMENT

The following are price adjustments based on changingsituations:

• Discount & Allowance: reduced prices to reward customerresponses such as paying early or promoting the product

• Discriminatory: adjusting prices to allow for differencesin customers, products, and locations

• Psychological: adjusting prices for psychological effects.Ex: $299 vs. $300


• Value: adjusting prices to offer the right combination ofquality and service at a fair price

• Promotional: temporarily reducing prices to increaseshort-run sales

• Geographical: adjusting prices to account for geographiclocation of customer.

• International: adjusting prices in international markets

PROMOTION

Promotion is the specific mix of advertising, personal selling,sales promotion, and public relations a company uses to pursueits advertising and marketing objectives.

If you are an entrepreneur, you most likely have limitedresources and you are still learning about the market.Information gather is extremely important at this stage of thegame. The trick is the start the revenue stream without spendingtoo much money.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives that are met by promoting are to move thetarget market through the following phases:

Unawareness-> Awareness-> Beliefs/Knowledge->Attitude-> Purchase Intention-> Purchase

It is believed that consumers cannot skip over a phase, butthey need to move through them. Promotion is used to movethe target market from one phase to another to finally purchase.

THE OFFER

The offer needs to be identified before you begin anypromoting. What are you offering the target customer? Whatdo you want the target market to do?

One mistake that can be made is to create a promotionaladvertisement and not tell the customer what to do. You shouldprompt the customer and tell them to "call this number to placean order" or "download this software from our web site".

MEASURING RESPONSE

Testing different offers, advertisements, direct mail letters,lists, and promotion techniques can tell you what method ismost effective. There is a trade-off. Testing is expensive. Youneed different versions of promotions, which raises productionexpense. You need to track the results, which takes time. Butthe information you gather could help you reduce wasteful,ineffective spending in the future.

If you decide to test, make sure you have a method formeasuring response. You can do this by first asking thecustomer where they heard about you when taking the order,if it is a telephone order. If it is an order form that they mailback to you, you can code the order form with a trackingnumber that lets you know exactly what promotion thecustomer is responding to. This information can then be enteredinto the customer database for future analysis.

WORLD WIDE WEB

The Web allows for a cheap way of promoting your product.It is a great tool because it allows the target customers toeducate themselves about your product by reading about it,seeing a demo, and download a copy (and therefore serve asyour distribution channel). Remember, you are trying to reducethe perceive risk of purchasing your product. By providing aWeb page, you are moving the target market through thecommunication cycle from unawareness to purchase.

Also, you are trying to reach innovators and early adopters.These people are actively searching for better ways to meettheir needs. The Web is a natural place for them to go to lookfor you.

The difficulty with the Web is all of the noise out there.It is very crowded and difficult to be noticed. Register with allof the search engines, such as Yahoo and Alta Vista. Make surethat there are keywords in your web site that will attract yourtarget audience.


DIRECT MAIL

An average response rate for direct mail is about 1%. Thisdepends on the offer, the mailing list, the target audience, thecreative (how the direct mail piece looks), and the timing ofthe mailing. There is a whole industry built around directmailing.

This promotional activity involves many steps. For moredetail on how to execute a direct mailing, refer to Direct Mail.

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS

Although it may nice to be able to take out a full color, fullpage advertisement in an industry magazine, it is veryexpensive and will not reach your target market of theinnovators and early adopters. This target market will read theclassified ads in the magazines looking for and willing to trynew things.

The key for classified advertisements is frequency. Runningan ad once will create awareness, but not necessarily action.

Request a media kit from the magazine you are considering.This should contain circulation information, subscriber profiles,and prices. This will help you determine if your target marketreads this magazine.

PRESS RELEASES

A press release is an announcement of a new productrelease. Editors may take this information and publish it asnews in their magazine or newspaper. This is a great way toget free publicity.

To send a press release, you should prepare a press kit thatincludes:

Cover letter to the editor

Press release product announcement

Product features sheet

Corporate background sheet

Evaluation product

Technical specifications sheet (if any)

Reprint of any past articles

Names of end user contacts and comments

Picture of your product

The editor may take your product announcement, makesome modifications to it by hand, and send the original to beprinted. In general, editors like to have the press releasesdouble spaced with plenty of margin room.

There can be a 3-4 month lead time before your pressrelease is published.

If possible, tie your press release into current events orhuman interest. It has a better chance of being published.

Don't write your press release like an advertisement. Anyclaims you make, be sure to back them up with user testimonials.

Tailor your press release to each publication, or at leasteach type of publication. Mass mailing press releases don'tusually get published. Also, send your press release to oneperson at each magazine. If you are unsure of the person,contact the magazine for a contact name.

Include in your press release the product name, the price,a company contact name, the company name, address, phonenumber, fax number, and e-mail address. Be prepared to takequestions.

Your opening sentence should be clear and concise. "Thefirst (product) capable of (doing this benefit) is now availablefrom (your company) for people who need to (this need)".

PRODUCT REVIEWS

Magazines have product review editors that review it inan article or column. This can provide great exposure. However,it can also be risky. What damage will it do if you get a badreview? Before pursuing this promotional activity, it may be


safest to fully complete testing, and have contacted many newcustomers to get their feedback on the product. Make surethere are no surprises.

Choose a magazine your target market is reading. You canalways use quotes from the review in your promotional materialfor other promotions. With more people accepting the product,the faster you will move past the early adopters and innovators.Call the magazine for the name of the correct person to sendthe product to. Ensure that this person gets a full product.

Be available for questions. If a reviewer has problems,there will usually be a phone call to the company first.

Example-Promotion Your Music

Shows

Direct Mail

Web Page

Posters

Event Listings

Reviews

Radio

Word of Mouth

Press Releases

UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION:

The Art of Finding Your Unique Selling Proposition

Positioning is about making your offering different from,and more valuable than, your competitors' offerings--andplacing that idea in the minds of a target group of customers.Positioning attracts customers by creating a positive and uniqueidentity for your company and its offerings. Positioning is vitalfor distinguishing your offering from everybody else's. In aworld where there are more and more products and servicesevery day, your customers are on advertising overload all the

time. So they pick something to believe and hold that notionuntil a message breaks through and persuades them to change.

People can't hold warring ideas in their heads. They can'tbelieve that the Norton Anthology is the best study guide forEnglish literature, then study from a set of Cliffs Notes andbelieve they're doing the best they can to pass their exams.They can't believe that all paper towels are pretty much alike,buy one that costs more than most, and think that they arewise shoppers. The point is, positioning is your effort to claima high ground in that overloaded prospect's head and hold itagainst competition.

There may be very little difference between your productand your competitors'--but if you can't find a way tocommunicate uniqueness and connect it to a need of yourtarget, you might as well quit fighting your competition andsell out to them. There are many different ways to stake outa position. Just remember, your position reflects your uniqueselling proposition, and it is what makes your offering morevaluable to your customers than what's being offered by yourcompetition.

Perception of Your Business

How will your business be perceived as different fromyour competition in the minds of your targeted customers? Tofigure this out, you must look for your best customer and thendesign a position that matches his or her wants and needs toan advantage that only you can offer. Remember, you can't beall things to all people, but you can be the vendor of choicefor a group of them.

Positioning Affects Every Aspect of Your Communications--AndYour Business

Positioning is the basis for all your communications--yourpackaging and product design, sales promotions, advertising,and public relations. Everything you do must reinforce thatposition--otherwise you just undermine your marketing effortsand sow confusion instead of confidence. Positioning is serious


business. You must choose the right position, for now anddown the road. Do the work now to develop a clear positionfor your business vis-à-vis your competitors. You'll ensure thatyou get the most from your advertising budget.

The truth is that with enough money, you can buy successin advertising. Mediocre, unfocused messages from a companywithout a clear position will generate sales surprisingly wellif that company buys enough time or space to pound themessage home. But think how much farther that budget couldtake you if you had a focused message, a unique sellingproposition, and a target audience for your offering.Positioning--and the creative approach that grows from it--make the difference.

Developing the Positioning Statement and the Tagline

To begin creating your own sense of positioning for yourbusiness, answer the following questions with short, articulateanswers that relate your offering to your customers' needs.

1. What does your business do?

2. For whom?

3. What is your biggest benefit to them?

4. Prove your claim. To what do you attribute that benefit?

5. How will your customers perceive this benefit, relativeto the competition?

Once you've chosen your target customer and the needsyou plan to fill, the next step is to create a unique sellingposition, or USP, for your product or service. In order to zeroin on an effective and useful USP, we need to look at threetypes of market criteria. They are

• WIIFM (What's In It For Me)

• The Four Ps

• The Big Five

We'll talk at the end of this chapter on how the integrationof the customer niche and market niche criteria, if done

properly, will give your USP more than just the sum of itsparts. For the USP must be designed into the online storefront,not after it's up and running.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

The last thing you want visitors to say to themselves whenthey view your carefully constructed offer at your onlinestorefront is "So what? What's in it to me?" It could be thatyou're not answering the ever-present question of the onlineshopper, "What's in it for me?" And you have to answer it inless than 10 seconds or they're off to your competitor.

Many years ago, a company called Federal Express cameup with a new concept: delivering packages overnight. UntilFedEx came along, if you wanted to ship a small package tothe next city or state or even across the country, you had togo down to either the local bus station, post office, or airportand hand the small package over to the bus company, postoffice, or airline for them to deliver it. You were pretty muchat the mercy of these shipping companies who would deliverthe package on their schedule, not yours. Back then it mighttake up to several days to have your package delivered becausethe bus companies and airlines were in the business of movingpeople or, in the case of the airlines, people and large cargo,not small packages. Then, it had to be picked up at the package'sfinal destination! And though the post office would deliversmall parcels, you never really knew when they would bedelivered.

FedEx saw an opportunity here. All they had to do wasconvince the public that they could deliver packages in aconvenient and speedier fashion. But they needed a sloganthat would say that their package delivery service was betterthan those of the airlines and bus companies. And they neededto say it in one simple phrase.

FREE INFO

After much thought, they decided that what differentiatedthem from their competitors was that they owned their own


planes. This meant that customers could ship and receiveproducts on the customer's schedule, and not the schedule ofthe airlines or buses. So what was the unique selling positionthat FedEx chose? We have our own planes. It didn't fly withthe public.

People didn't get it. "So you have your own planes," theysaid. "What does that mean to me?"

So, FedEx went back to the drawing board and came upwith this: "When you absolutely, positively have to have itovernight." That worked. The public responded, and the restis commerce history. Consumers didn't care if FedEx had theirown planes. They didn't care if their packages were deliveredby plane, train, bus, car, or Pony Express. The benefit to theconsumer was that the package was delivered overnight, rightto the recipient's door. Another good example is Domino'sPizza. How do you differentiate one pizza service from another?Domino's differentiated itself when it first got started from thecompetition by promising to deliver your pizza in record time:"30 minutes or less, or it's free!"

There's a lesson here, one that you can use when creatingyour own unique selling position (USP). You need to alwaysremember WIIFM: "What's in it for me?" This is what a customeris looking for when he or she buys. Phrase your USP in thoseterms and you'll go a long way in creating an effective andsuccessful unique selling position.

DIFFERENTIATING YOURSELF FROM YOUR COMPETITION

It's a competitive world out there, and getting more soevery day. Your business is faced with the challenge ofdifferentiating itself from your competitors and giving theconsumer a reason why they should buy from you rather thanyour competition. But that's not as easy as it seems.

For example, ask a random sample of business owners totell you what makes them different from their competition,and you'll get a blank stare, or perhaps a response like one ofthese:

"My prices are the lowest."

"I guarantee satisfaction."

"My products are of high quality."

"I give great customer service."

But none of these responses sets them apart from thecompetition. Many businesses can claim the same things. Abusiness must know what they offer a customer besides generalstatements and why they think a shopper should buy fromthem. That is, what makes the business unique in the marketand in the eyes of a potential customer? To do that, you needto ask yourself the following questions.

• What gives your company a unique advantage overyour competition?

• What is the distinct reason for consumers to buy fromyou?

• Can you portray in the consumer's mind a compellingimage of what your business will do for them thatothers can't?

Notice those highlighted words: advantage, reason, andimage. That's your objective when creating a solid, exact, andusable unique selling position that both positions you in themarketplace and convinces a consumer to buy from you. Agood USP creates the framework and lays the foundation foryour compelling product or service offer.

If that isn't enough, a good USP also keeps your businesspointed in the right direction.

One of the things that made both FedEx and Domino's asuccess was a measurable and beneficial USP. They weremeasurable (overnight and 30 minutes, respectively) and carrieda unique benefit (FedEx delivers to the recipient's door;Domino's promises it's free if not delivered on time).

Getting the picture? A good USP is specific, measurable,and conveys a customer benefit. Let's review. So how do youdifferentiate yourself from the competition? How do you


answer the consumer questions of WIIFM? Start with this:Using a pad and pencil, ask yourself the following questionsand answer them as simply as you can. Remember, you're notcreating a corporate mission statement here, so keep yourresponses simple.

"Why is my business special?"

"Why would someone buy from me instead of mycompetition?"

"What can my business provide to a consumer that no oneelse can?"

"What's a benefit to the consumer that I can deliver on?"

Keep your answers simple, specific, and measurable, andshow a benefit to the buyer. If you're confused by what youoffer, your customers will be, too.

KEEPING YOUR EYE ON THE COMPETITION

Ignorance may be bliss, but in the knock-down, drag-outworld of business, ignorance of your competition can be adeadly mistake.

Keeping track of your competitors can be a difficult andtime-consuming task. You can hire a corporate spy to infiltrateyour competitor's organization; do a little dumpster-diving foruseful discarded memos, manuals, and correspondence; orwork smart by monitoring your competition's activities rightfrom your desk, using the Internet. The Internet is filled withresources that can provide your company with media sources,web directories, clipping services, and competitive intelligenceto keep you up to date on who the competition is and whatthey're doing.

By using these online sources, you can discover the answersto questions such as:

"Who are the leading companies in your industry?"

"What information on your competition is available?"

"Which of your competitors are most likely threats?"

Positioning Your Business-The Marketing Mix

If you've been anywhere near a marketing course, youwould have heard of the Four Ps of Marketing. They are price,place, product and promotion. The Four Ps is another set ofcriteria that can help you choose a market niche. Let's look atprice first.

MIX & MAX: TIP

Think of the criteria of the Four Ps as variables that youcan control. The Four Ps are interdependent upon each other,and taken together they form a marketing mix. Your objectiveis to come up with a mix of these Ps that will clearly differentiateyou from the competition.

If you're going to compete on price, don't just say you'rethe lowest-say why. Customers will not accept a blanketstatement unless you can prove it. For instance, perhaps youcan sell at such a low price because of your ability to sourceproduct from the closeout industry, buying products at pennieson the dollar. Or perhaps you have an exclusive arrangementwith a distributor or manufacturer that no one else has, allowingyou to sell at the lowest price. On the other hand, you maysell at the highest price but offer some added value, such asfree shipping or free 24/7 support. Play up these unique factorsin your USP.

Next is place. The Marines are a good example of this P.

The Marines are looking for a few good men-not all men,just a few, and only good ones. This is a great positioningstatement, which makes their "business" unique anddifferentiates them among the other services of the armedforces. Another example was the tagline "The Pepsi Generation."

Look for a similar positioning with your business. Perhapsyour focus is gender-based. Perhaps it's age-based. Sell to aunique segment of the population, not to all of it.


Following place is product. Take a common product thatothers sell and repackage it in a new way. For instance, takethe iMac. It's just a PC, but look at the packaging. Not onlydoes it sell, but it sells at a premium price! It also has a greatpositioning statement. Think Different! The iPod is anotherexample. There are portable music devices at a lesser price, butApple has learned that a sexy package goes a long way indifferentiating the product, plus carrying a higher price tag.

CAUTION: PROMISES, PROMISES

Whatever you promise in your unique selling position, besure you can deliver on it. Don't make the mistake of adoptinga USP that you can't fulfill. This means making sure thateveryone in your entire organization knows and understandsyour USP and can act on it!

Then there's promotion. Study the promotional possibilitiesof your product or service. Can you tie your product or servicewith a season or holiday where you can benefit from thepromotional activities and mindshare of consumers that alreadyexist at that time of year? Targeting your promotional messageat the right time is the key to acceptance. So sit down and makea list of the popular seasonal events, including religious andcultural events other than those with a Euro-Christian focus,such as the Jewish and Asian religious holidays and ethnicholidays like Kwanzaa.

Finally, remember this very important fact whenconstructing your USP. Your USP is not about you nor is itabout your business-it's about your customer.

THE BIG FIVE OF ECOMMERCE

Shoppers don't care about your site, your business, or yourlife. What they care about is themselves. When they come toyour site, they want to see if there's anything there that intereststhem. They want to know, "What's in it for me!" They cometo your web store with a certain set of expectations. Your jobas a web merchant is to meet those expectations.

CAUTION: IT'S THE CUSTOMER, STUPID

Everything on your site should be about the customer anddesigned from the customer's point of view. Your customernot only needs a reason to buy, but to buy easily and safely.

Your customers expect to find what they came for: a fairprice, a good selection of product, great service, and a secureand safe place to shop. In other words, they're looking for theBig Five of online shopping. And if they're from "out of town"-that is, another country-they're also looking for a site thatspeaks their language!

The Big Five are

• Selection

• Price

• Service

• Convenience

• Security

Consumers want to know right away if their visit to yoursite is going to save them time and money and if their shoppingexperience will be a pleasant one. Can they find what theywant easily? Can they place an order in a variety of ways? Canthey find your customer service pages, shipping and handlingfees, and return policies without spending a large amount oftime digging through your site looking for them?

These are the customer's expectations and you have tomeet them if you want your online business to be a success.If your site is designed with the Big Five of online shoppingin mind, you'll provide your customers a pleasant shoppingexperience and a reason to buy from your online store again.

Let's take a look at them. The Big Five of online shoppingare selection, price, service, convenience, and security.

SELECTION: DO YOU HAVE WHAT THEY WANT?

Shoppers come to the Net for the vast selection of productand services that are available at the click of a mouse. Whether


shoppers find you through search engines, store directories,or through your own marketing and promotion, after theyarrive at your site, they want to know you have what they'relooking for. Don't build an impression in the shoppers' mindthat you sell computer software or have an online bookstoreand then offer only a small selection of titles.

When building a small-to medium-sized business, you needto focus your product or service offering. Look at your uniqueselling position. If done correctly, it tells you the market you'retargeting and the unique product or service you're selling. Ifyou've done your homework and created a compelling uniqueselling position, the shopper will feel that your web store offersthe best selection on the Net.

Store Examples

Offering a good selection to shoppers is not necessarily anumbers game. The quality of your selection is much moreimportant for a small web business than the quantity. Thefollowing are some good examples of small sites that work inlarge product categories yet deliver a good selection of productofferings for their market.

Music Stores

You don't have to be a CDNow.com or an Amazon.comto be successful selling music CDs on the Web. Acres of Videos& CDs at Click4Stuff at stores.yahoo.com/ggroup sells hard-to-find CD sets. Shoppers who come to their web store willfind a good product selection specializing in hard-to-find classicmusic CD sets.

Software Stores

You don't have to be a CompUSA to competitively sellsoftware on the Net. You can offer a specialized selection ofsoftware to shoppers and still give them a good selection inthe category you choose. Accounting Shop at stores.yahoo.com/2020software sells only accounting software, whereas NataraSoftware at shop.store.yahoo.com/natara/ sells productivitysoftware for the Palm handheld platform.

Pet Stores

The large pet stores on the Net such as PetsMart carry awide variety of pet supplies for all kinds of pets. But a smallstore such as BunnyLuv-Essentials at shop.store.yahoo.com/shopbunnyl/ offers a nice selection of rabbit care supplies,toys, hay, food, and grooming tools. A shopper who comes totheir site would be pleased with the selection of products inthat subject area. As you can see, you can run with the big dogsof eCommerce if you choose your product or service well anddeliver the best selection in that category.

IS YOUR PRICE RIGHT?

What kind of price animal is your eBusiness? That's aquestion you need to answer. And after you answer it, yourweb store must demonstrate it.

Do you sell products or services at a discount? Do youwant to be a low-cost leader in your market niche? Or are youa value-added reseller? Do you add additional value to productsin the form of some kind of service charging a higher price?Do you set the price of the products and services you sell, ordoes the consumer? Whatever pricing model you decide on,you need to make it very clear to the shoppers who come toyour site. Consumers do not like surprises. If you promotedyour site as the low-price leader, your prices should show it.If you're a boutique shop and charge better-than-average prices,show the value you've added to your products or service.Make it very clear what you charge and why, and be sure itfits the expectations of your site visitors.

Another important point is not to hide your prices. Nothingannoys a shopper more than going through the process ofordering from you, entering their credit card number, and thenbeing told what the total shipped price is. Be sure that you giveyour shoppers all the information they need to make a buyingdecision, up front, before they buy. Don't draw the customerinto the buying process with low prices and then surprise themafter they place their order with exorbitant shipping and


handling charges on the order confirmation page. If you wantto see a shopper bolt for the door, this is the way to do it.

So how do you inform the shopper of your shipping andhandling charges? You can do it in one of two ways.

• Provide an easy-to-find section on your site that listsand easily explains your shipping rates and policies ingeneral and your handling charges.

• Present an order review page to the buyer that lists theprice of the product and all applicable shipping andhandling charges. Give the buyer the total shippedprice before you request his or her credit card number.

We suggest that you do both. That way the shopper fullyunderstands the total amount of the sale before he or shecompletes the purchase. Don't forget to include any and allapplicable taxes in the total of the sale.

SERVICE: HOW DO YOU MEASURE UP?

You've put a lot of effort into building your web store.You've created a good selection of product for your marketcategory and priced your product or service to sell. But that'snot enough to earn a customer sale. Customers expect to beserviced, so customer service is a top priority for your website.Because you're not dealing with customers face-to-face, yourservice policies must instill a sense of trust in your shoppers.

Many current eCommerce companies on the Net todaydon't understand this simple fact. Consumers expect service.Your web store must deliver it. Good customer service includes

• Email confirmations

• Multiple means of contact

• Support outside business hours

• Guarantees and return policies

EMAIL CONFIRMATIONS

After a customer clicks the Place My Order button, he orshe immediately wonders what will become of his or her

order. It's only natural that sending an order into the vastnessof cyberspace can cause a certain amount of consternation.You can relieve much of your customer's worries, and avoidfrustrations, by sending a series of email confirmations thatinforms the customer of the status of his or her order rightthrough the sales and shipping process.

As soon as the order is placed, an email confirming thatthe order was received should be sent to the customer. TheYahoo! store offers this service. The email message shouldinclude a complete record of the transaction, including thefollowing information:

• An order number.

• What was ordered.

• Who ordered it.

• Where it will be shipped.

• Total amount of the sale including all shipping andhandling costs.

• Customer service contact information in case thecustomer has a question about the order.

Yahoo! store automatically sends an email with all theinformation cited here except for the customer service contactinformation. This has to be added by you and you also havethe option of additional text in the email confirmation. Anotheremail message should be sent confirming that the productordered is in stock and when it will be shipped. A third emailmessage should be sent after the product is actually shipped,containing the name and tracking number of the shippingcompany that was used. Finally, send an email to yourcustomers after they have received their orders asking themfor feedback and even offering them a discount on their nextpurchase if they buy within the next few weeks. For merchantsthat use UPS Shipping tools to ship orders in the Yahoo! storeOrder Manager, an email is sent after processing the orderwith UPS. The email includes the tracking number, whichsaves the merchant time cutting and pasting tracking numbers.


Yahoo! store again helps you out here. Yahoo! allows youto create coupons and or discount codes to send to customersif you use their Merchant Standard and Merchant Professionalpackages.

PROVIDE MULTIPLE MEANS OF CONTACT

Always provide a number of different ways that a customercan contact your customer service department. There are severalways to do this.

RETURN POLICIES: TIP

One of the best ways to gain customer confidence is tooffer them a money-back satisfaction guarantee. As aneBusiness, you should offer a money back guarantee with yourproducts and clearly state your guarantee policy on yourwebsite.

List your customer service email address on your websiteand include in it all email correspondence with your customer.In addition, tell people where you are located. Include yourcompany's address, telephone number, and fax number onyour website.

List a telephone number for customer service. Let customersknow when a live person will answer the telephone. If you usean answering machine, be sure you leave a message that tellsthe caller when they can expect their call to be returned.

Invest in a toll-free telephone number and list it on yoursite. Not only is a toll-free number relatively inexpensive, itgoes a long way toward building a level of consumer confidencein your business. Remember that shoppers don't like surprises.Be sure they understand the terms of their purchase beforethey click the Buy Now button. Tell the shopper under whatconditions he or she can return a product. How many days orweeks do they have to decide to return it? Will they get arefund or a credit? Who shows how to use your product orservice and gives troubleshooting tips in case customers runinto trouble after hours? Be clear and specific and list all details

about your return policy on your website. Remember that itpays to keep all line of communications open with yourcustomers and to provide a quick response to customer emails.

CONVENIENCE: ARE YOU EASY TO DO BUSINESS WITH?

When a shopper comes to your web store, he's got hiscredit card in hand and he is ready to buy. So don't let yourwebsite get in his way. A web store with a poorly designednavigation structure will frustrate a shopper. Even though youhave a great offer, if the shopper can't easily find it and buyit, he'll click off to your competitor and probably will not comeback.

A lot of thought must be given to how a shopper cansearch for products on your site. If you offer a shopper multiplenavigation options, it will help her find what she is lookingfor fast. Have the capability on your site for shoppers to searchby

• Product name

• Price

• Product category

• Manufacturer

The more site tools shoppers have to search with, the fasterthey can get to the products they're looking for, and the fasteryou'll make a sale.

OFFER LIVE CUSTOMER SUPPORT-WITHOUT THE EXPENSE

Want to give live customer support on your site toshoppers? Don't want to spend the money for programming?Shoppers can download the free desktop application andcommunicate with you in real-time if they have a question.But, you have to be there for it to work.

But finding a product to buy is only the beginning. Justas important as price selection and service is convenience.How easy is it to navigate through your site? Getting lost ina site is discouraging and will send the shopper away fast if


he can't easily find his way through your web store. Good sitenavigation entails telling your visitor where he is, how he gotthere, how he can get back, and where he can go next.

If your site navigation is done properly, your shoppersshould be able to get to where they want to go in just threemouse clicks (Three Click Rule). Be careful when designing thenavigation bar on your site. Graphic links to the differentsections of your site are nice and give a professional look toyour web store. But also include text links that duplicate yourgraphic navigation at the bottom of your pages in case yoursite loads too slowly through a shopper's browser.

Remember that your website should be intuitive to navigate.Your site pages should provide a visual map of how to getfrom one place to another that says, "Here's where I am. Thisis what I clicked on to get here. If I click on that, I'll go therenext."

SECURITY: HOW TRUSTWORTHY IS YOUR SITE?

Good websites establish trust. Online shoppers can be avery skeptical bunch. They've been trained by the media toexpect all kinds of online scams that are waiting to pick theirpockets. If up to now you've given them a reason to buy fromyou, now they have to trust you enough to plunk down theirmoney.

Shoppers are looking for proof that your site is trustworthyto deal with. A good way to do this is join eTrust or the BetterBusiness Bureau (BBB).

You build trust in your website in two ways:

• The customer knows his or her credit card number issecure when placing an order on your site. Tell shoppersto your site that their credit card orders are secure. Putthat testament right on your home page and on everyproduct page.

• The customer knows that the private personalinformation he or she gives you is kept personal and

private. A good, well written, non-legalese privacypolicy should be easily accessible by visitors to yourwebsite.

Shoppers are very concerned about using their credit cardsto make purchases online. When you build your store onYahoo!, all credit card transactions are secured on their server.Still, some shoppers just will not place an order online withtheir credit card, no matter how secure it is. For these typesof customers, provide a toll-free telephone number to call intheir order to you. Also provide an order form on your sitethat they can print, fill out, and fax to you.

PRIVACY POLICIES

The Internet is a great medium of commerce. With it, youcan create new marketing methods, tap new markets, andtarget potential customers with electronic ease. And it also canget you sued by millions of consumers for violating theirprivacy!

If you thought spamming consumers with unwanted emailwas a blight on your company's reputation, consumers areeven more upset over the incessant abuse of their personalprivacy, not to mention the government investigating thebusiness practices of e-businesses. But companies need to gathera certain amount of information to personalize and betterserve their customers. After all, how can you connect with acustomer if you know little or nothing about her? There hasto be some kind of balance between protecting a consumer'sprivacy and the need for your business to target and personalizeyour offers to your customers. Consumers are sensitive towhat's done with their personal information, but it doesn'tmean they're against giving it if the circumstances change,including getting something back for the information.

Yahoo! store provides a default Privacy Policy page foryour online store, so you are covered there, but you need toread and modify the statement to create your own privacypolicy. Finally, make your privacy policy accessible right from


your home page. Appendix C provides a worksheet that willhelp you choose and integrate the different elements of a USPto create a unique selling position for your company. Theobject of this worksheet is to look at each of the elements anddecide which of them, and which parts of them, will helpdefine your USP then integrate them into an effective USP.

YOUR UNIQUE SELLING POSITION

Most business people have heard the term Unique SellingPosition (USP) bandied about, often when the subject of salesor marketing comes up. Very few understand what it reallyis, what its significance is on your ability to sell, and mostimportant, how to create one. It's tricky and not something youlearn overnight, but it is critical to the success of your business.

Start talking about differentiation and you can't help butthink of the ideas written about extensively: position yourcompany in a way that makes you different from thecompetition in the mind of the prospect and customer. It's allabout how they perceive your message. Here' s anotherexceptional way to look at it that may help you. Ask yourself,what is my offer? What are you giving in return for thisprospect's time and money? Is the offer compelling enough tointerest someone in spending their hard-earned dollars andeven more precious moments? If your offer isn't strong andsomething they perceive themselves to need, they won't buy.

That might sound somewhat simplistic, but it's true-withthe caveat that the higher the price of your product or serviceis, the more unique you have to be. And, you have tocommunicate it repeatedly throughout the sales process.

MISSION

Do you remember the ah-ha moment when you decidedyou could start a business of your own or rejuvenate an existingone? At this point, you probably began to develop a strategy.Chances are reviewing that moment will give you insights intoyour USP.

• What is the purpose of your company?

• What products and/or services do you provide and towhom?

• Why are you the best company to provide theseproducts and services?

• What made you think you could do it better than anyoneelse?

• What need in your industry is not being filled and howdoes your company offer a creative solution?

Frame It

Here's one of the best ways to make yourself different fromthe competition and achieve more sales: frame your messageso your prospects are eager to hear what you have to say. Howdo you do that? Know who they are and what their specificneeds are, and then present your solution in a way that clearlyanswers all of their questions and makes them jump at thechance to buy from you.

Framing means to paint a clear picture of what you wantthem to think and visualize while you are talking about youroffer. It should be so irresistible that people are begging to buyfrom you or work with you when you're done.

There are probably only a few reasons why you won'tmake a sale:

1. They don't really need what you are selling. This shouldbe an easy one to avoid if you are doing your marketresearch and targeting the correct demographics.

2. They are price sensitive or just can't afford what youare selling. If you are selling a low-ticket item, moveon because there's plenty more prospects. If what you'reselling involves a huge budget and long cycle offulfillment, you can't afford to haggle much with price.Many studies have proven that highly desirableproducts cannot be given away, but as soon as youattach a price to them that allows the prospect to


perceive value in the product and provider, you'll makea lot more sales.

3. They don't trust you. It's all about relationships fromday one.

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

One of the most powerful tools that companies often donot use at all, or use too late in the process, is a testimonial.In your print promotions as well as on your web site, one ofthe first things prospects should see is a glowing testimonialwith the option to read more of them. The headline should besomething like "Just look at what our satisfied customers haveto say about us." Nothing sells like a good recommendationand you can't have too many of them.

Why should your prospects believe you when they areskeptical of so many others? The answer lies in the relationshipyou build from the initial contact. When you bond with someoneand show that you understand what their problem is, theybegin to feel like they have been "heard." This is a powerfulpsychological advantage. You continue by explaining howyou have the exact solution they need, and they begin to warmup to you and a mutual, win-win relationship forms. It's alsoyour job to sustain it.

COMMON USP PITFALLS

The same mistakes are often made when defining yourunique selling position. Most play it too safe and try to pleaseeveryone and end up selling to no one. Successful businessowners are innovators and they take risks. Experiment, evaluateand evolve into something even more unique on an ongoingbasis.

Another mistake is that your marketing communicationsfail to reflect your uniqueness. Companies will try to emulateother successful branding campaigns. There is nothing uniqueabout that. Don't stop looking at what your competition isdoing, just don't copy it. Remember, unique is what you're

going for. Do your advertising vehicles sound the same aseveryone else's? Your ad copy messaging must also reflectyour USP. Even if you don't have the millions of dollars largecorporations can afford to spend, you can still carve a nichefor your firm that resonates with your target audience andmakes them feel good about doing business with you.

Does your sales process cover all the steps from initialcontact through close with your USP reflected throughout?Draw up a plan of what a typical sales cycle should look like,what marketing tools should be used at what levels, and besure to leave room for flexibility and creativity on the part ofyour sales rep. Don't forget to use the darn thing.

An accomplished unique selling position is what buildsyour brand. Branding is what marketers use to capture themind share of their target audience. It's what helps peoplethink of your company and call you when they realize theyneed your product or services. Remember the last time youdrank "the real thing?"

To paraphrase a great slogan, "Build your USP and theywill come.

GROWTH OF NEW MEDIA ADVERTISING IN INDIA

In recent years various big and notable changes have beenwitnessed in the field of communication and media. Many newconcepts popped up and new media advertising is one ofthem. India is pretty new to new media advertising but thisconcept has been around for quiet a long time now. Going bythe latest trend you will come to know that new mediaadvertising is the emerging and hottest medium ofadvertisement.

New media advertising is synonym of online advertisingand has taken web media with a stride. Now people insteadof going for traditional advertising tend to give more weight-age to online advertising. This is mainly due to the fact thatit is more targeted maximum exposure. According to various


media gurus' new media advertising has got a bright futureand they also predict that within few years new mediaadvertising will experience a boom in India and around theworld.

The biggest advantage of new media advertising is thatmany other medium too fall in same bracket and the latest tojoin the bandwagon is cellular phones. Cellular phones haverecently entered into the scope of new media advertising andare predicted to flourish in the coming time. New mediaadvertising's main highlight is that it can be done via variousmeans such as banner ads, pop-up advertisements, andinterstitial and even pop-under advertisements.

The biggest advantage of new media advertising is that itis relatively cheaper in comparison to other media and can alsobe done in an attractive manner. Moreover, various small andupcoming businesses can easily go for new media advertising.In other words, you can say that it is very attractive in natureand simultaneously entices customers too. Going for new mediaadvertising is the wisest choices as it gives the surfer bothvisual and graphic treat.

Also you can use new media advertising in any locallanguage and customized message. This means it will beattracting more customers and visitors and ultimately boostingthe business. Anyone irrespective of the place he resides canaccess the Internet from any corner of the globe. However, youwill be surprised to know that it has emerged as one of themost convenient ways to promote any brand or company

MEDIA RELATION SERVICES IN INDIA

Media and communication has come a long way and theyare getting popular in India with each passing day. Withphenomenal growth of media and technology involved mediarelation has became an important strategic entity. Now moreand more people are hiring public relations and Media relationservices. There was a time when people or companies eitherselect advertising or public relations but now public relations

is one of the important component of marketing. The main aimof public relation services is to create a favorable and positiveimage about the company.

According to few media experts, there is no distinctionbetween public relation and advertising but its usage makesthem look different. Public relation is a kind of science whichis applied in a proper manner can not only build a brand butalso sustain it for years.

Companies providing public relations services have comea long way and have comprehensively shattered the image ofmere postman which is just used to deliver press releases tothe consultants who are involved in the brand building process.In fact it has been reformed now and has also shown thepotential to rise high.

Moreover, now it is easily fitted into the mainstream armof marketing instead of the peripheral role. Last few yearswitnessed a kind of recession in public relations services butnow the time has changed and soon it will be rolling over tobecome the country's top agencies growing at a blistering paceof 30-50 per cent.

There is also a speculation that various MNCs are gearingup to use the public relations services in a full-fledged manner.Also you can say that this is the waking up call to the powerof a good PR campaign. The biggest advantage of hiring publicrelations services is that it adds the credibility factor withconsumers. Moreover, public relation is also highly versatile.This is the reason why many companies go for hiring publicrelations services not only in the initial stages of image buildingon a strategic level but also on a more tactical level.

Many big companies and brands have recognized the powerof public relations services and are easily cashing on to thishighly communicative channel. In short you can easily say thatnow public relations services have become an integralconstituent of any well-balanced and integrated marketingmix.


PUBLIC RELATION: BEST TOOL FOR TODAY'SMARKETING SCENARIO

Looking to build a favorable brand name for yourorganization amongst public? If your answer is yes, then publicrelation services are there for you. Public relation is the bestand most effective concept which is successfully implementedby various media organizations, marketing and communicationprofessionals and even brand managers. In recent times it hasbeen seen that along with advertising people also go for effectivepublic relations services. By this they not only easilycommunicate their message but can also generate a favorableresponse.

Communication field is very vast and in that public relationplays a vital role. Public relation's main aim is to have a directrelation with public that's why public relation has become oneof the most significant parts of a communications strategy. Attimes people tend to confuse public relation with advertising.This is a wrong notion as public relation solves different purposewhereas advertising has some other goals.

Advertising is mainly product centric whereas publicrelation mainly emphasizes on public image. This is the reasonpublic relation campaigns include various media events andfunctions. A company providing public relation services mainlyact as a bridge between the public and organization. In factthey are the gateways to propagate any message to the generalaudience. It has been seen that with the help of public relationagency one can easily reach out to the masses and the clientsand provide what they crave for. But achieving positive publicrelation isn't an easy deal and prior going for hiring publicrelations firm, it is very decisive to understand the activitiesinvolved within and around the media with an alert mind.According to the experts, public relation is a process of buildingbetter and effective relations for the growth of any business.In other words, the main aim of public relation is to providevarious media services such as powerful advertising campaign,effective marketing strategy, concrete media planning and also

expert marketing consultation. All these factors play a vitalrole in making any public relation campaign a success.

ADVERTISING & MARKETING SERVICES

Success is one of the most important objectives of abusiness. To attain success, it is important that the businessgives due consideration to the advertising and marketing ofthe products. For effective advertising and marketing thecompany should choose the right means and people to do thejob. exchange4media offers advertising and marketing servicesto companies looking for effective and result oriented services.

The overall success depends how well the communicationmessage is passed on to the target audience. The objective ofmarketing is to understand the target customer's requirementand to develop a plan accordingly. The marketing plan shouldinclude acquiring customers and persuading them to buy newproduct or service. The marketing of the product involves avariety of methods and advertising is an important mediumto do so. Advertising helps in developing a targeted messageand delivering the message to the audience.

By impressing the audience with the message, the advertiserincreases his customer base. Advertising thus helps in increasingbrand awareness converting it to sales. To effectively marketand advertise a product or service the advertiser should usecustomized advertising and marketing strategies.

INDIAN ADVERTISING INDUSTRY

The Indian advertising industry is talking business today.It has evolved from being a small-scale business to a full-fledged industry. It has emerged as one of the major industriesand tertiary sectors and has broadened its horizons be it thecreative aspect, the capital employed or the number of personnelinvolved. Indian advertising industry in very little time hascarved a niche for itself and placed itself on the global map.

Indian advertising industry with an estimated value ofes13, 200-crore has made jaws drop and set eyeballs gazing


with some astonishing pieces of work that it has given in therecent past. The creative minds that the Indian advertisingindustry incorporates have come up with some mind-bogglingconcepts and work that can be termed as masterpieces in thefield of advertising.

Advertising agencies in the country too have taken a leap.They have come a long way from being small and mediumsized industries to becoming well known brands in the business.Mudra, Ogilvy and Mathew (O&M), Mccann Ericsonn,Rediffussion, Leo Burnett are some of the top agencies of thecountry.

Indian economy is on a boom and the market is on acontinuous trail of expansion. With the market gaining groundsIndian advertising has every reason to celebrate. Businessesare looking up to advertising as a tool to cash in on lucrativebusiness opportunities. Growth in business has lead to aconsecutive boom in the advertising industry as well.

The Indian advertising today handles both national andinternational projects. This is primarily because of the reasonthat the industry offers a host of functions to its clients thatinclude everything from start to finish that include clientservicing, media planning, media buying, creativeconceptualization, pre and post campaign analysis, marketresearch, marketing, branding, and public relation services.

Keeping in mind the current pace at which the Indianadvertising industry is moving the industry is expected towitness a major boom in the times ahead. If the experts are tobe believed then the industry in the coming times will forma major contribution to the GDP. With al this there is definitelyno looking back for the Indian advertising industry that is allset to win accolades from the world over.

ADVERTISING AGENCY INDIA-SHIFTING PARADIGM

India's economic prosperity and maturity has also helpedto shape the world of advertising agencies in India, enabling

the latter to reach global standards. Advertising has becomeserious and big business in India, with its worth being estimatedat Rs. 13,200-crore, by those in the know. This can only meanone thing that apart from the quality of work, the volume ofwork too has gone up. A decade back it was still a fledglingindustry, with a colonial hang up. Today it has transformeditself into a thoroughbred performer, doing great work bothin India and abroad and winning accolades. A prominentglobalization has been observed in the operation of the Indianadvertising industry as it has learnt to speak in differentlanguages, be it urban rural and even global.

The advertising industry in India has gone through a seachange with the inception of various divisions under it to boostits productivity and progress, such as creative department,media planning, direct marketing, public relations, and so on.With blooming markets and an ever-deepening pocket of theIndian consumer, revenues for ad-spends are touching newhighs as advertising agencies in India continue their triumphantmarch towards creating new Indian sensibilities.

Technological advancements in the last decade or so haveenabled the common man to consume the media of their choiceat their convenience and time. This blurring of lines betweenTV, Internet, mobile phones and other devices has increasedmedia fragmentation and has led to paradigm shifts within theindustry. In this part-real-part-virtual world, Advertising AndMarketing Services in India are trying to marry the age-oldtraditions of storytelling and brand experience to the new-agereality of consumer control. Agencies are creating, sharing andmanaging stories and brand experiences in a manner thatinvolves and engages, rather than interrupts or alienates.

All most all Marketing And Advertising agencies in Indiabelieve in the concept of 360 degree branding. The servicesprovided by most of these agencies include advertisement forTV, print ads, creating web sites, working on web banners,email marketing, direct marketing, telemarketing, radiopromotions, outdoor promotions, tracking retail visibility and


communications, designing inputs on packaging, ruralcommunications and PR. It is safe to say that at present a singlead agency provides a host of services from content creation,developing the artwork to radio jingles to monitoring theeffectiveness of the advertisements and even inventing newidioms and language to relate to consumers of all pocket shapesand sizes.

NEW MEDIA ADVERTISING-AN EFFECTIVEMARKETING TOOL

New media advertising is a powerful medium ofadvertising through the Internet. In today's highly competitiveenvironment, new media advertising acts as a cost effectivemeduim with a wider reach, targetting a huge online audience.New media makes it possible to communicate with the audienceusing the benefits of technology on a interactive platform.Unlike traditional media, it is possible to track the audienceusage and traffic by using new media as a marketing medium.Due to its unique features and benefits it has become popularamong the users and advertisers alike.

ADVANTAGES OF NEW MEDIA/ INTERNETADVERTISING

Online Media advertising helps in targetting a selectedaudience for conveying specific information. Millions of userslog on to the Internet everyday which gives greater visibilityto the online advertisers. Internet advertising is also useful totrack information about the number of users who visit thewebsite everyday.

Marketing and advertising on the Internet also helps inlowering the costs incurred through traditional form ofadvertising. Internet advertising enables one to conducttransactions using an interactive meduim catering to a givenaudience based on their age, gender, background,demography,interests targetting specifc needs. Internetadvertising is done through advertising banners which is aninteractive meduim to communicate with the users. Advertising

banners have been used for online marketing since the 1990'sand have become a popular marketing tool.Many advertisersuse banner ads to give publlicity to their products or services.

Marketing and advertising companies use creative bannerads to generate curiosity among the users so that they clickon the banner to see further information. This gives greatervisibility to the advertiser with more audience reach and helpsin branding.

SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGNS IN RICH MEDIA

Rich media gives an extensive range of new technologiesthat could be used as a powerful advertising medium. Thesetechnological innovations have given tremendous scope to theadvertisers which helps them target consumers with theirproducts.

ADVERTISING WITH HIGH DEFINITION TELEVISION

Every business needs to effectively promote their productsand services for generating more sales and transactions andthereby to have more profit and growth. They chalk out variousstrategies for achieving the objective. They look for variousmediums which are effective enough for the brand promotioncampaign to reach their targeted clients and customers. Andone such effective medium which has been used effectively bybusinesses in India and all over the globe is High DefinitionTelevision or HDTV, a digital television broadcasting systemwith a significantly higher resolution than traditional formatssuch as NTSC, SECAM and PAL.

High Definition Television advertising is one of the bestways to promote any products and services in front of millionsof clients and customers. Because of its ability to provide thebest of television viewing with superior picture quality andimproved quality of sound, the number of people using HDTVis increasing by days. The high definition TV also has facilitiesfor connection with computer systems. You can use net andwatch movies with good quality visuals. So, advertising


agencies are using HDTV as their medium for effectiveadvertising campaign.

Today everyone has TV and advertising on TV is one thebest options to promote your products. The ad coming on TValso put high impact on the customers. There will be morepositive effects in building brands. Advertisers are innovatingnew ways for their campaigns on high definition televisions.India Advertising agencies are coming up with glitzy, smartand tailored type ads targeting the middle classes. Besides, anumber Hindi India media news channels have been launchedand they are reaching to the masses both in urban and ruralparts of the country. Indian television news channels are nowhave become more effective as advertising agency.

And ad on High Definition television has given much inreturn to the advertisers and investors. It is effective and givesthe desired results. It is one time cost but gives you higherreturns on your investment. Your target customers willremember your product easily and you will have more salesand transactions. There will be more profit in your businessthereby growth and more return in your investment.

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Commercial, Broadcast, Mirroring, etc. User Information:

For other uses of materials from this web site-i.e. commercialproducts, publication, broadcast, mirroring, and anything else


that doesn't fall under "fair use" (explained below)-we requirethat:

1. Users must obtain permission from the currentcopyright holder.

Individuals wishing to publish or broadcast anyadvertisement included on this website must assumeall responsibility for identifying and satisfying anyclaimants of copyright, trademarks, or service marks.Included on this website is a partial list of companiesfor which we have contact information. This is not acomplete list of all companies represented in Ad*Accessbut it will assist in making contact with some of therights owners.

2. Users must also obtain permission from the John W.Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & MarketingHistory to reproduce materials held in its archive thatare featured on this website.

A letter granting permission from the current copyrightholder must be submitted along with the request to the HartmanCenter.

Contact the company that owns the product(s) containedin the advertisements you would like to use. (A partial list ofcompany contacts is below.) You must provide writtenpermission from these companies before the Hartman Centercan provide permission to use an advertisement for a purposewhich does not fall under "fair use." Please read on for moreinformation.

The Hartman Center charges fees to cover the cost ofreproduction of items in its collections. Requests that requireextensive research or preparation by Center staff may requirean hourly charge, negotiated in advance. In addition, requeststo publish, broadcast, or otherwise disseminate ads may besubject to a commercial use fee. Please contact the HartmanCenter Reference Archivist for more information and a feeschedule.

THE FINE PRINT

The John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising &Marketing History can provide high quality reproductions ofitems from Ad*Access, with permission in advance from thecopyright holder(s). We will make such copies for commercialuses, publication, broadcast, etc. uses only with priorpermission. Users may make a single copy in print or digitalform of images or other material from the Ad*Access site.These copies may be used only for use in the research, teaching,or private study. They may not be made for or donated toother repositories. They may not be further reproduced withoutpermission.

The recipient agrees to give proper acknowledgement tothe Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and SpecialCollections Library, and further agrees to secure writtenpermission in advance from the rights owner to publish orbroadcast any item, in whole or in part, from the Ad*Accesson-line collection. Persons wishing to broadcast or publish thismaterial must assume all responsibility for identifying andsatisfying any claimants of copyright, trademark or servicemarks. These print advertisements fall under the "work-for-hire" stipulations of copyright law; the company that owns theproduct or product name, not the advertising agency whichcreated the advertisement, holds copyright.

The recipient agrees to indemnify and hold harmless DukeUniversity, its officers, employees and agents from and againstall suits, claims, actions and expenses arising out of the use ofreproductions provided by the Rare Book, Manuscript, andSpecial Collections Library. Duke University claims no rightsto the advertising images included in Ad*Access beyondownership of the physical items.

UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, UnitedStates Code) governs the making of photocopies or otherreproductions of copyrighted material. As of April 1999, the


law was amended from its 1976 status with the inclusion ofthe Digital Millennium Copyright Law and the Sonny BonoTerm Extension Act. Under certain conditions specified in thelaw, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopyor other reproduction to researchers. One of these specifiedconditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be"used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship,or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, aphotocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use,"that user may be liable for copyright infringement. Thisinstitution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying orreproduction order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the orderwould involve violation of the copyright law.

FAIR USE

According to the copyright law: "In determining whetherthe use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use thefactors to be considered include-the purpose and character ofthe use, including whether such use is of a commercial natureor is for nonprofit educational purposes;

The nature of the copyrighted work;

The amount and substantiality of the portion used inrelation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

The effect of the use upon the potential market for or valueof the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublishedshall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is madeupon consideration of all the above factors."

For more information on fair use, see the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) web page on Fair Use.

For information about copyright law and how it appliesto information found on the Internet, see the IUPUI CopyrightManagement Center page and the Copyright ConsiderationsPage from UCSD. The United States Copyright Office of theLibrary of Congress and Stanford University's page onCopyright and Fair Use provide links to a wide variety of web

sites addressing these issues. How to obtain permission toreproduce materials from the Ad*Access Project

The Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and SpecialCollections Library does not hold copyright to theadvertisements in the Ad*Access on-line project. If you wouldlike to reproduce any of the advertisements in a way that doesnot fall under fair use, please follow the steps noted below:

1. Obtain permission from the current copyright holder.

Individuals wishing to publish or broadcast anyadvertisement included on this website must assumeall responsibility for identifying and satisfying anyclaimants of copyright, trademarks, or service marks.Included on this website is a partial list of companiesfor which we have contact information. This is not acomplete list of all companies represented in Ad*Access.

2. Obtain permission also from the John W. HartmanCenter for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History toreproduce materials held in its archive and featured onthis website.

A letter granting permission from the current copyrightholder must be submitted along with the request to the HartmanCenter.

Contact the company that owns the product(s) containedin the advertisements you would like to use. You must providewritten permission from these companies before the HartmanCenter can provide permission to use an advertisement for apurpose which does not fall under "fair use." Please read onfor more information.

The Hartman Center charges fees to cover the cost ofreproduction of items in its collections. Requests that requireextensive research or preparation by Center staff may requirean hourly charge, negotiated in advance. In addition, requeststo publish, broadcast, or otherwise disseminate ads may besubject to a commercial use fee. Please contact the HartmanCenter Reference Archivist for more information and a fee


schedule. Attached is a list of companies and addresses formaking contact.

This is NOT a complete list. When a company is not includedbelow, this does not mean that copyright, trademark, andservice mark claims are not viable. It only reflects our staff'slack of success in attempts to make contact with an individualor company holding copyright for the product and/or companyin the advertisement.

Individuals wishing to publish or broadcast anadvertisement from a company not listed below must assumeall responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimantsof copyright, trademarks or service marks.

COMPANY LIST

How to cite materials from the Ad*Access Project.

When using advertisements from the Ad*Access Project,please acknowledge their source by clearly stating the nameof the project, the advertisement number, the collection name,and the name of the library. Also include the URL of the projectpage. An example is noted below:

Ad*Access On-Line Project-Ad #R0108

John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & MarketingHistory

Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and SpecialCollections Library

Certain advertisements have additional copyright citationinformation required by the copyright holder. This informationis included on the individual advertisment pages directly underthe image. In some cases, supplemental citation informationis included in the "Copyright Notice" section at the bottom ofthe advertisement pages. The user is responsible for includingthis information in all citations for those advertisements.

Use and Reproduction Information for other collections inthe Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library

PROMOTIONS: DO THEY HAVE A PLACE

When your mechanic sends you a coupon for a discounton an oil change, or your local coffee shop rewards you witha free cup of coffee every tenth time you buy, you're seeinga promotional program at work.

A promotion is a planned strategy for increasing sales overa short period. A promotion adds value to the product orservice offered. It stimulates sales for reasons other than theproduct's inherent benefits.

We call those reasons incentives. Sometimes the incentiveis designed to specifically make a sale, as in "$2.00 off mediumpizza with this coupon." Other times the incentive is plannedsimply to expose the customer to the product--to break downpreliminary barriers that are roadblocks to a future sale.

With a promotional program, you can persuade people totry your product, to experiment with new beliefs about yourservice; you can shift buying habits so that light users findreasons to buy more.

Who uses promotions? There are business-to-businesspromotional programs, and there are consumer programs.We'll talk mainly about consumer programs. The conceptswe'll discuss are really about the same for both. Remember,people do business with people. It's just a matter of whatmarket you're trying to influence--end users or intermediaries.

Different businesses are drawn to different styles ofpromotion. The most frequent users of promotional programsare the retail services, like car care, hair care, and restaurants.Coupons are the most common promotion for these types ofbusinesses; dry cleaners use coupons extensively, and so dogroceries. It's the ability to track results, as well as their proveneffectiveness, that makes coupon offers so popular.

In the business-to-business world, suppliers frequentlyengage in promotions by offering sale prices. You are lesslikely to see coupons here, because the patterns of purchasing


are a little different. The person making the decision to buymay not be the same person who is writing the check, sorequiring the physical coupon to be used would be anunnecessary barrier to the desired sale.

Promotions work because people like something fornothing. They respond to two-for-one offers, and they love agood deal or free extras with their purchases. Specialpromotions help lots of businesses achieve their marketingobjectives, such as combating seasonal cycles or stealingattention from the competition.

MEDIA PLANS

The largest category in your advertising budget is likelyto be your media costs--the dollars you spend for air time onradio or for ad space in newspapers, magazines, and more.Because of this, it makes sense to have a sound plan to managethat investment. You'll want to set goals. You'll want to describestrategies for achieving them. You'll have to organize the day-to-day tasks of carrying out the strategies. The tool you'll needto do this is a media plan that begins with an overview andworks its way down to the details. It will help you with everyphase of your advertising.

Here's how many businesses manage their media buying.The person in charge of the budget starts saying yes to thesalespeople who call. Advertising appears here and there asa result. When the budget's gone, the person in charge startssaying no, and the ad campaign is over. It's a method, but youwouldn't call it a media plan. And if that approach soundsfamiliar, you can bet you're passing up opportunities tomaximize your return on investment.

Media planning is the process of choosing a course ofaction. Media planners develop yearly plans that list eachmedia outlet--print or broadcast. Planning then gives way tobuying, as each separate contract is negotiated, then finalized.The media plan is a document in sections. A ring bindernotebook is a good way to keep a media plan, because it's easy

to update and easy to refer to. Or if you prefer to work oncomputer, simply think in terms of folders and files. The sectionsin your notebook will be:

• Media outlets (newspapers, etc.). This section lists allof the media in which advertising will be placed.

• Goals. This section describes the goals of the advertising,and explains why and how this plan meets these goals.

• Audience. In this section, collect all the informationyou can about your target audience. You will wantstatistics by demographics or lifestyle; your professionalassociation can help you find this information, as cantrade journals or your banker. Look for any relevantarticles or information about your potential buyers.Pay attention to everything that helps you imagine anindividual buyer who is typical of the whole.

• Strategy. You will write a statement of strategy backedup by a rationale. The action steps you describe herewill guide a year's activity.

• Budget and calendar. Your media plan will outlinewhat money is to be spent where, and when.

The document you've compiled in this notebook guidesyou in the execution of the plan throughout the year.

Over time, these plans provide a history of your advertising.If you make alterations to the schedule in the course of theyear, be sure to record those decisions in your notebook. Ringbinders make it easy to update your plan as it evolves.

When you've finished this section, you will have anoverview and the tools you need to create a media plan foryour business. Let's start with basic vocabulary. The termyou'll hear most often is CPM, or cost per thousand. CPManalysis is the method media buyers use to convert variousrate and circulation options to relative terms. CPM representsthe cost of reaching one thousand people via different typesof media. To calculate CPM, you find the cost for an ad, thendivide it by the total circulation the ad reaches (in thousands).


By finding this information and calculating this cost for eachof your options, you can give them a numerical ranking forcomparison. CPM is a basic media concept.

Print advertising prices are based on the circulation of thepublication in question. Publications will quote you a circulationfigure based on paid subscribers. The audited circulation figuresare verified by monitoring organizations. The publications willtry to convince you that actual circulation is higher by includingthe free copies they distribute and the pass-along readershipthey claim. Sometimes these claims of "bonus" circulation arevalid--for example, magazines distributed on airlines get atleast eight readers per copy. Still, you should be wary ofinflated circulation figures.

Audience is the equivalent of circulation when you'retalking about broadcast media. Audience size varies throughoutthe day as people tune in and tune out. Therefore, the pricefor advertising at different times of day will vary, based on theaudience size that the day-part delivers.

Penetration is related to circulation. Penetration describeshow much of the total market available you are reaching. Ifyou are in a town with a demographic count of 200,000households, and you buy an ad in a coupon book that statesa circulation of 140,000, you're reaching 70 percent of thepossible market--high penetration. If, instead, you bought anad in the city magazine, which goes to only 17,000 subscribers(households), your penetration would be much less--8.5 percent.What degree of penetration is necessary for you depends onwhether your strategy is to dominate the market or to reacha certain niche within that market.

Reach and frequency are key media terms used more inbroadcast than in print. Reach is the total number of peopleexposed to a message at least once in a set time period, usuallyfour weeks. (Reach is the broadcast equivalent of circulation,for print advertising.) Frequency is the average number oftimes those people are exposed during that time period. To

make reach go up, you buy a wider market area. To makefrequency go up, you buy more ads during the time period.Usually, when reach goes up, you have to compromise and letfrequency go down. You could spend a lot of money tryingto achieve a high reach and a high frequency. The creative partof media planning comes in balancing reach, frequency, andbudget constraints to find the best combination in view of yourmarketing goals.

In developing your media plan, you will:

• Review your marketing objectives through the "lens" ofmedia planning.

• Review the options available.

• Evaluate them against your objectives.

• Set your minimum and maximum budget constraints.

• Create alternative scenarios until you uncover thestrategy that accomplishes your objectives within thoseconstraints.

• Develop a schedule describing ad appearances in eachmedium.

• Summarize your plan in the form of a calendar and abudget.

• Negotiate with media representatives to execute yourplan.

Tips on Negotiating Rates

Prices for print advertising are fixed, as the print mediacan be flexible in matching supply with demand. They haveexpandable space; if they sell more advertising than usual,they can print more pages.

Your negotiations with print media will revolve aroundwhat other services they can offer you, such as reader responsecards, additional ads in a special issue, special position, freecolor, and so on. You will probably not be able to negotiatean actual discount off the rate card.


Prices for radio are negotiable, because the amount ofinventory is fixed. There are only so many minutes betweenthe programs themselves that can be sold. If there is competitionfor those minutes, the price goes up. The effect is reallynoticeable when there's a sudden surge in demand forcommercials. Spring is the beginning of the broadcast mediabuying season, since networks issue their fall schedules inMay. Networks like to get money early, so to encourage you,they will usually offer attractive package deals at this time.This is the best time to negotiate for overall lowest cost.

Opportunities come up throughout the year as otheradvertisers change their plans. You can make good buys at anytime, but the deal might be structured differently. If you gota call from a radio station tomorrow saying that it has a highlyprized time slot available during the morning newscast, andit will cost only $22 per spot, but you've got to decide fast,would you have an answer ready? A good media plan can helpkeep you focused on how that deal fits into your overallstrategy. If it delivers an audience you want, and if it's availableat a price that fits your budget, you're in business. It helps tohave a well-documented plan to assist in these fast-breakingdecisions.

If you plan to use broadcast media heavily, I recommendthat you work with an agency or media service. Those whoknow the territory thoroughly and are working on your behalfwill be better able to find the best buys. If you are buying yourmedia time and space yourself, here are some tips:

• Be sure your chosen medium delivers your targetmarket. The media sales reps are expert at putting theirofferings in the best light. Everybody can find somethingto claim "We're Number One" about. You don't care.Does the medium deliver the audience you want toreach? That's the key question.

• Beware of bringing your personal biases to your mediadecisions. Don't buy a certain radio station just becauseyou listen to it--ask instead if your potential customers

do. And it works the other way, too. Don't not advertisein a certain newspaper just because you hate one of itsreporters.

• Look for verifiable information from your sales reps.Audience size, share, gross rating points--thesecalculations should be based on information fromthird-party ratings sources. Beware of any statisticdescribed as "estimated"--ask about the source for thatinformation.

• Representatives from the various media will call onyou; no matter what the title on their business cards,they are salespeople. Do not allow them to make yourdecisions for you. High-pressure sales techniques arefairly common. Rely on these people for information,but do your own calculations, and make the decisionsthat are right for you.

ADVERTISING TECHNIQUES-DO'S, DON'TS

Internet Advertising Techniques

• Do understand the most powerful advertising techniqueon the Internet is showing up in organic search results(ideally first page, in the first three results).

• Do understand that Wordtracker.com is currently yourbest tool along with Pay Per Click suggestion tools(from Google, etc) to discover which search terms getthe most search volume.

• Do understand that Pay Per Click search ads provideyour next best set of Internet advertising techniquesafter organic search engine placement.

• Do understand that text links almost always outperformbanner ads as advertising techniques because they lookmore like content and people are used to clicking oncontent (text links) far more than ads.

• Do understand that Internet display ads perform bestwith flash animation, motion, or video.


• Do understand the eye reads top left to bottom rightand that impacts your click-through rate depending onwhere your text links or display ads are on the page.

• Do understand that the page upon which the consumerclicks is just as important than the ad or link that gotthem there.

• Do understand that improving or optimizing your ownpages and your own site has more impact thanoptimizing your advertising techniques in text links ordisplay ads.

• Don't underestimate the importance of this sentenceabove.

• Don't assume that just because you built a websitepeople will visit it.

• Don't underestimate the power of words: You, your,asking a question, amazing, discover, now are all proven"power" words that produce far higher response. Seemore on this down below.

Direct Mail Advertising Techniques• Do use a stamp vs. a bulk mail endicia-Open rate on

envelopes with physical stamps is 13% higher.• Do make your letter look like newsworthy content-

Content gets read, not advertising.• Do attach news articles blown up to fit on 8 ?" x 11"

paper as an attachment to your direct mail piece.• If you are using a card vs. letter, use 6" x 9' stock or

larger.• Do not use any "special offer inside" language on your

envelope or "hey look at me" advertising techniqueswhen using a letter envelope.

• Do not use an adhesive address label unless it's a labelfrom Stamps.com or endicia.com.

• Do not use an 8.5 " x 11" letter in B2B direct mail, butdo use A4 or executive sized stationary-higher readrate and higher response rate vs. full sheet letter.

Writing as Advertising Techniques

Note: this applies to anything to do with Direct marketing,Internet marketing, even memos to your boss.

• Do understand that the use of certain words are powerwords which produce results.

• Do use present tense-better response than past tense.

• Do use the word "you" or "your" far more than "I" "me"or "we."

Do use words like these in your writing or advertisingtechniques which produce demonstrated higherresponse rates:

• You

• Your

• Now

• Discover

• This

• These

• Amazing

• Do understand that asking a question with the wordyou in it is one of the best ever advertising techniques.

• Don't, however, ask a question where the answer caneasily be "no, and I don't care."

TV Advertising Techniques• Do use TV as a way to legitimize your brand, launch

your brand, or reposition your brand. When usedprudently and selectively, it can be one of the bestadvertising techniques depending on your situation.

• Do investigate buying "remnant" TV media and makingopportunistic buys for a fraction of retail prices.

• Do make sure your TV spot looks like nothing else onTV (in order to stand out).

• Do make sure you have a compelling offer, and acompelling newsworthy announcement.


• Do pay special attention to audio in your TV spot…recallof ads with music in the ad (not background music)produces higher recall and captures more attention.

• If you have people in your TV spots, do make sure tohave them with their eyes looking right in thecamera…the stopping power and attention rates arehigher with ads that have people looking at you directlyin the eye.

• Do have a response medium (website, telephonenumber, SMS number, etc). If you don't, it could be oneof your worst advertising techniques.

• Do understand that for response, early AM and lateevening produce higher response rates (if someone isup at those hours, they often have nothing else goingon and are paying more attention than normal).

• Do understand that the creative that you put into thecostly media of TV makes all the difference in the world.A bad TV spot in good TV media can be one of theworst advertising techniques.

• So: do test your TV creative on the Internet beforeputting it on TV…or test at small levels before puttingon untested TV creative in large media buys.

• Do understand one of the cardinal rules of TV creative:see and say. See the product when the words are said.P.S. don't forget to show the actual product. See andsay in TV is one of the most basic, but often forgottenTV advertising techniques.

• Do understand that likeability of ads (plus the offer)produces the highest correlation to sales.

• Do understand the basics of targeting, but index thecost per thousand impressions (CPM) with the indexof propensity to buy your type of product/service (e.g.a TV show with an index of 180 for buying laptops @$20 CPM is actually more expensive than a TV showwith an 130 index @ $10 CPM).

• Don't always do what you like…let the numbers dictate.

• Don't accept mediocrity in your TV creative. MediocreTV spots in costly TV media, is the most commonblunder in all advertising techniques.

Public Relations as one of the "Earned" Advertising Techniques

Do understand that Public Relations is fundamentallydifferent than advertising. PR is not necessarily in the genreof advertising techniques, but on average PR is 6X morepowerful because people pay attention to content 6X morethan advertising (that's starting at 500% higher ROI).

The four keys to PR are the following:

• A great story: see the chapter in my book for the fivemost frequently written news stories in America.

• A great headline: consumers read headlines 19X morethan body copy and the same is true for reporters youare pitching. Also know that the first 8 characters inyour headline are more important than ever because areporter only sees the first 8 characters in theirBlackberry. Headlines are 19X more powerful than bodycopy-you should spend 19X more time working on theheadline. Headlines should be less than 11 words.

• A great database: contrary to popular belief, it's not whoyou know, but if you have a great story. Even if youknow the editor of The Wall Street Journal, it meansnothing if your story isn't newsworthy. You need alarge database blended between custom and a standardnews reporter database. Reporters are everywhere todayand so is the Internet. All reporters want greatstories…you need a database not necessarily a chummyrolodex.

• Luck: yes. Reporters have 4-7 stories in various stagesof development. If you happen to land on their deskwhen they just finished a story, it's luck and the lawof large numbers when sending/phoning a pitch. Luckis a factor.


Test your pitch much like you would test a direct mailpiece using the advertising techniques learned here. Test small,see what responds, and what doesn't. Find out before you blasta big push which may not work.

And my shameless self-promotion: everyone should knowthe five most frequently written news media stories in America.These five most frequently written news stories are in mybook, Buzzmarketing.

Print Advertising Techniques (Newspaper, Magazine, etc)• Do understand that a print ad which looks like an "ad"

will fail unless you have an amazing offer (greatdiscount, sale, limited time only). Without an offer, anad that looks like an "ad" won't get read.

• Do make your ad look like content (use the same fontstyle and layout as the publication) or make your adlook like no other ad in the pub (reference Infiniti printads from 2005 and Pfizer's Celebrex print ads from2007).

• Do understand that white space can stop people intheir tracks, and produce a higher response rate. Oneof the greatest advertising techniques is white space.

• Do understand that a photograph of a person withtheir eyes looking directly at you produces a higherresponse than a photograph of a person with eyeslooking elsewhere. Perhaps the most powerful of alladvertising techniques in print, or even on the Internet.

• Do understand that a print ad with a "Drop Cap" getsread more than without one.

• Do understand that ads with lists and bullet points getread more than ads with paragraphs.

• Do understand that a photograph's caption is extremelyimportant…a good photograph can be the first thinga reader sees, and the caption the second thing theyread. If the caption fails, they skip the rest of yourad…if the caption works, your ad gets read. Smart

captioning can be of the most effective print advertisingtechniques.

• Do understand that copy in quotations gets read 13%more than without quotations.

• Do understand that ads delivering news value get readmore than anything else.

• Don't ever use a reverse print ad (black backgroundwith white font) it's hard to read and has provenrepeated lower response rates…one of the worstadvertising techniques.

Radio Advertising Techniques• Do understand that radio advertising works best with

high frequency and proper timing.

• Do understand that the first five seconds of your radioad may be the most important…a cell phone and theradio preset button is a moment away from avoidingyour ad.

• Do understand that you need to say your brand namea lot more often than you would ever imagine in a radioad (people daydream in their car), and you need to drillyour brand name often.

• Do understand that reads from DJ's get more attentionbecause they seem like content from a familiar voiceversus a stranger's voice.

• Do understand that one of your most powerfuladvertising techniques is to produce fresh radio creativeevery week versus running the same radio spot formore than a week.

• Do understand that if it sounds like content, people willlisten…if it sounds like an ad…people won't.

Word-of-Mouth and Buzz as Advertising Techniques

Note that word-of-mouth or buzz is created with pull, not"bought" like print advertising. Also note that this lost artwhich was practiced before the advent of Television is more

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge106 Advertising Techniques 107

powerful than any other set of advertising techniques (EuroRSCG Study found it 10X more effective than TV or Printadvertising).

• Do understand that the root of all buzz is a seven-letterword: stories.

• The crux of buzzmarketing and word-of-mouth is togive people a great story to tell, which they, in turn,can tell others…and by them telling the story it makesthem interesting, fascinating, and newsworthy.

• Do not confuse buzz marketing with some other serviceswhich pay people to talk about products (still a pushtechnique). Buzz marketing is about creating a pull.Creating a story which gives people social currency.Buzz marketing is about creating a story which pullsa brand along with the story (like my own renamingof Halfway, Oregon to Half.com, Oregon).

What creates a good story can be found in my book or inthe free chapter download on this site's book page.

Buzz marketing happens when people start conversationsthat begin with "Hey did you hear…" or "Hey, you're nevergoing to believe…" and then they tell a story which pulls yourbrand along with that story. Hope these advertising techniqueswere helpful.

4Advertising Techniques

INTRODUCTION

Generally speaking, advertising is the promotion of goods,services, companies and ideas, usually by an identified sponsor.Marketers see advertising as part of an overall promotionalstrategy. Other components of the promotional mix includepublicity, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion.

HISTORY

In ancient times the most common form of advertising was'word of mouth'. However, commercial messages and electioncampaign displays were found in the ruins of Pompeii.Egyptians used papyrus to create sales messages and wallposters. Lost-and-found advertising on papyrus was commonin Greece and Rome. As printing developed in the 15th and16th century, advertising expanded to include handbills. In the17th century advertisements started to appear in weeklynewspapers in England.

These early print ads were used mainly to promote books(which were increasingly affordable) and medicines (whichwere increasingly sought after as disease ravaged Europe andBritain). Quack ads became a problem, which ushered inregulation of advertising content. As the economy wasexpanding during the 19th century, the need for advertisinggrew at the same pace. In America, the classified ad becamepopular, filling pages of newspapers with small print messages

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge Advertising Techniques108 109

promoting all kinds of goods. The success of this advertisingformat led to the growth of mail-order advertising. In 1843 thefirst advertising agency was established by Volney Palmer inPhiladelphia. At first the agencies were just brokers for adspace in newspapers, but by the 20th century, advertisingagencies started to take over responsibility for the content aswell.

The 1960's saw advertising transform into a modern, morescientific approach in which creativity was allowed to shine,producing unexpected messages that made advertisementsinteresting to read. Today, advertising is evolving even further,with "guerrilla" promotions that involve unusual approachessuch as staged encounters in public places, giveaways ofproducts such as cars that are covered with brand messages,and interactive advertising where the viewer can respond tobecome part of the advertising message.

MEDIA

One crude but effective advertising method is to paysomeone to stand on a corner and wave a sign all dayCommercial advertising media can include Chitra (outdooradvertising), street furniture components, printed flyers, radio,cinema and television ads, web banners, web popups,skywriting, bus stop benches, magazines, newspapers, towncriers, sides of buses, taxicab doors and roof mounts, musicalstage shows, subway platforms and trains, elastic bands ondisposable diapers, stickers on apples in supermarkets, theopening section of streaming audio and video, and the backsof event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an"identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through amedium is advertising.

The TV commercial is generally considered the mosteffective mass-market advertising format and this is reflectedby the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtimeduring popular TV events. The world cup of cricket is knownas much for its commercial advertisements as for the game

itself, and the average cost of a single thirty-second TV spotduring this game has reached more charges. Increasingly, othermediums such as those discussed below are overtakingtelevision due to a shift towards consumer's usage of the Internetas well as devices such as TiVo. Advertising on the WorldWide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of Web-basedadvertising space are dependent on the "relevance" of thesurrounding web content and the traffic that the websitereceives. E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon.Unsolicited bulk E-mail advertising is known as "spam". Amessage is spam only when it is unsolicited and in bulk.

Some companies have proposed to place messages orcorporate logos on the side of booster rockets and theInternational Space Station. Controversy exists on theeffectiveness of subliminal advertising and the pervasivenessof mass messages

The most common method for measuring the impact ofmass media advertising is the use of the rating point (rp) orthe more accurate target rating point (trp). These two measuresrefer to the percentage of the universe of the existing base ofaudience members that can be reached by the use of eachmedia outlet in a particular moment in time. The differencebetween the two is that the rating point refers to the percentageto the entire universe while the target rating point refers to thepercentage to a particular segment or target. This becomesvery useful when focusing advertising efforts on a particulargroup of people. For example, think of an advertising campaigntargeting a female audience aged 25 to 45. While the overallrating of a TV show might be well over 10 rating points itmight very well happen that the same show in the same momentof time is generating only 2.5 trps (being the target: women25-45). This would mean that while the show has a largeuniverse of viewers it is not necessarily reaching a large universeof women in the ages of 25 to 45 making it a less desirablelocation to place an ad for an advertiser looking for thisparticular demographic.


OBJECTIVES

Whereas marketing aims to identify markets that willpurchase a product (business) or support an idea and thenfacilitate that purchase, advertising is the paid communicationby which information about the product or idea is transmittedto potential consumers.

In general, advertising is used to convey availability of a"product" (which can be a physical product, a service, or anidea) and to provide information regarding the product. Thiscan stimulate demand for the product, one of the main objectivesof advertising. More specifically, there are three genericobjectives of advertisements: communicate information abouta particular product, service, or brand (including announcingthe existence of the product, where to purchase it, and howto use it), persuade people to buy the product, and keep theorganization in the public eye (called institutional advertising).Most advertising blends elements of all three objectives.Typically new products are supported with informative andpersuasive ads, while mature products use institutional andpersuasive ads (sometimes called reminder ads). Advertisingfrequently uses persuasive appeals, both logical and emotional(that is, it is a form of propaganda), sometimes even to theexclusion of any product information. More specific objectivesinclude increases in short or long term sales, market share,awareness, product trial, mind share, brand name recall,product use information, positioning or repositioning, andorganizational image improvement.

Examples of the ideas, informative or otherwise, thatadvertising tries to communicate are product details, benefitsand brand information. Advertising usually seeks to find aunique selling proposition (USP) of any product andcommunicate that to the user. This may take the form of aunique product feature or a perceived benefit. In the face ofincreased competition within the market due to growingnumbers of substitutes there is more branding occurring inadvertising. This branding attributes a certain personality or

reputation to a brand, termed brand equity, which is distinctivefrom its competition. Generally, brand equity is a measure ofthe volume and homogeneity of, as well as positive and negativecharacteristics of, individual and cultural ideas associated withthe product.

POLITICAL USES

The control of advertising translates into the control ofmoney and power. Thus, it can and has been used for politicalpurposes. The American culture wars between fundamentalistreligious organizations on one hand, and organizationssupporting the freedom of homosexual expression on the other,are one example. In spring of 2005, the American FamilyAssociation threatened a boycott of Ford products to protestFord's perceived support of "the homosexual agenda andhomosexual marriage." Later in the year Ford announced itwas curtailing ads in a number of major gay publications, anaction it claimed to be determined not by cultural but byeconomic factors. That statement was contradicted by the AFA,which claimed it had a "good faith agreement" that Ford wouldcease such ads. Soon afterwards, as a result of a strong upcryfrom the gay community, Ford backtracked and announced itwould continue ads in gay publications, in response to whichthe AFA denounced Ford for backing out of the agreement andrenewed threats of a boycott.Anti-Gay Group Renews FordBoycott Threat.

IMPACT

The impact of advertising has been a matter of considerabledebate and many different claims have been made in differentcontexts. During debates about the banning of cigaretteadervertising, a common claim from cigarette manufacturerswas that cigarette advertising does not encourage people tosmoke who would not otherwise. The (eventually successful)opponents of advertising, on the other hand, claim thatadvertising does in fact increase consumption. According tomany sources, the past experience and state of mind of the


person subjected to advertising may determine the impact thatadvertising has. Children under the age of four are may beunable to distinguish advertising from other televisionprograms, whilst the ability to determine the truthfullness ofthe message may not be developed until the age of eight.

TECHNIQUES

Advertisers use several recognizable techniques in orderto better convince the public to buy a product and shape thepublic's attitude towards their product. These may include:

Appeal to Emotion

Various techniques relating to manipulating emotion areused to get people to buy a product. Apart from artisticexpression intended to provoke an emotional reaction (whichare usually for associative purposes, or to relax or excite theviewer), three common argumentative appeals to emotion inproduct advertising are wishful thinking, appeal to flattery,and appeal to ridicule.

Appeals to pity are often used by charitable organizationsand appeals to fear are often used in public service messagesand products, such as alarm systems or anti-bacterial spray,which claim protection from an outside source.

Emotional appeals are becoming increasingly popular inthe health industry, with large companies like 24 HourFitness becoming increasingly adept at utilizing a potentialcustomers' fear to sell memberships; selling not necessarily theactual gym, but the dream of a new body. Finally, appeals tospite are often used in advertising aimed at youngerdemographics.

Association: Advertisers often attempt to associate theirproduct with desirable imagery to make it seem equallydesirable. The use of attractive models, a practice known assex in advertising, picturesque landscapes and other alluringimages is common. Also used are "buzzwords" with desiredassociations. On a large scale, this is called branding.

Repetition: Some advertisers concentrate on making suretheir product is widely recognized. To that end, they simplyattempt to make the name remembered through repetition.

Advertising Slogans: These can employ a variety oftechniques; even a short phrase can have extremely heavy-handed technique. Controversy, as in the Benetton publicitycampaign.

Bandwagon: By implying that the product is widely used,advertisers hope to convince potential buyers to "get on thebandwagon."

Guerrilla Advertising: Advertising by association. Done insuch a way so the target audience does not know that theyhave been advertised to, but their impression of the productis increased (or decreased) if that is the intent of the advertiser.The focus is to promote the products or services in a way thatrevolves around ingenuity rather than finances in order tomake a large impact, while spending as little money as possible.

Testimonials: Advertisers often attempt to promote thesuperior quality of their product through the testimony ofordinary users, experts, or both. "Three out of four dentistsrecommend..." This approach often involves an appeal toauthority.

Pressure: By attempting to make people choose quicklyand without long consideration, some advertisers hope to makerapid sales: "Buy now, before they're all gone!"

Subliminal Messages: It was feared that someadvertisements would present hidden messages, for examplethrough brief flashed messages or the soundtrack, that wouldhave a hypnotic effect on viewers ('Must buy car. Must buycar.') The notion that techniques of hypnosis are used byadvertisers is now generally discredited, though subliminalsexual messages are supposedly present in a variety ofmessages, ranging from car models with SX prefixes tosuggestive positioning of objects in magazine ads andbillboards.


PUBLIC SERVICE ADVERTISING

The same advertising techniques used to promotecommercial goods and services can be used to inform, educateand motivate the public about non-commercial issues, such asAIDS, political ideology, energy conservation, religiousrecruitment, and deforestation.

Advertising, in its non-commercial guise, is a powerfuleducational tool capable of reaching and motivating largeaudiences. "Advertising justifies its existence when used in thepublic interest-it is much too powerful a tool to use solely forcommercial purposes."-Attributed to Howard Gossage byDavid Ogilvy

Public service advertising, non-commercial advertising,public interest advertising, cause marketing, and socialmarketing are different terms for (or aspects of) the use ofsophisticated advertising and marketing communicationstechniques (generally associated with commercial enterprise)on behalf of non-commercial, public interest issues andinitiatives.

CRITIQUES OF THE MEDIUM

As advertising and marketing efforts become increasinglyubiquitous in modern Western societies, the industry has comeunder criticism of groups such as AdBusters via culturejamming which criticizes the media and consumerism usingadvertising's own techniques. The industry is accused of beingone of the engines powering a convoluted economic massproduction system which promotes consumption. Someadvertising campaigns have also been criticized as inadvertentlyor even intentionally promoting sexism, racism, and ageism.Such criticisms have raised questions about whether thismedium is creating or reflecting cultural trends. At very least,advertising often reinforces stereotypes by drawing onrecognizable "types" in order to tell stories in a single imageor 30 second time frame. Recognizing the social impact ofadvertising, MediaWatch, a non-profit women's organization,

works to educate consumers about how they can register theirconcerns with advertisers and regulators.

Public interest groups and free thinkers are increasinglysuggesting that access to the mental space targeted byadvertisers should be taxed, in that at the present moment thatspace is being freely taken advantage of by advertisers withno compensation paid to the members of the public who arethus being intruded upon. This kind of tax would be a Pigoviantax in that it would act to reduce what is now increasingly seenas a public nuisance.

PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF THE MEDIUM

Over the years, the public perception of advertising hasbecome very negative. It is seen as a medium that inherentlypromotes a lie, based on the purpose of the advertisement-toencourage the target audience to submit to a cause or a belief,and act on it to the advertising party's benefit and consequentlythe target's disadvantage. They are either perceived as directlylying (stating opinions or untruths directly as facts), lying byomission (usually terms or conditions unfavorable to thecustomer) or portraying a product or service in a light thatdoes not reflect reality. It is this increased awareness of theintention of advertising, as well as advertising regulations thathave increased the challenges that marketers face.

FUTURE

With the dawn of the Internet have come many newadvertising opportunities. Popup, Flash, banner, and emailadvertisements (the last often being a form of spam) abound.Recently, the advertising community has attempted to makethe adverts themselves desirable to the public. In one example,Cadillac chose to advertise in the movie 'The Matrix Reloaded',which as a result contained many scenes in which Cadillac carswere used.

Each year, greater sums are paid to obtain a commercialspot during the Super Bowl. Companies attempt to make these


commercials sufficiently entertaining that members of the publicwill actually want to watch them.

Particularly since the rise of "entertaining" advertising,some people may like an advert enough that they wish towatch it later or show a friend. In general, the advertisingcommunity has not yet made this easy, although some haveused the Internet to widely distribute their adverts to anyonewishing to see or hear them.

EFFECTIVE INTERNET MARKETING AND ADVERTISING TECHNIQUES

If your company is considering subcontracting toadvertising agencies, SOHO Prospecting is a full-service graphicdesign and advertising agency committed to excellence ininternet marketing and advertising techniques and strategy.We measure the success of our internet marketing andadvertising campaigns by their ability to help our clients reachtheir objectives.

We have years of experience handling a variety of clients,in a variety of industries, all across the country. Our provenadvertising techniques-written and graphic-continue to helpour clients grow their bottom line.

Effective internet marketing and advertising techniquesinclude concept development, design, copywriting and mediaselection.

The first step in any successful campaign is creating aconcept that will cut through the clutter, reach your keyaudiences, and create more business.

As a B2B advertising agency focused on obtainingmeasurable results for our clients, we analyze your objectives,strengths, points of differentiation and other critical factorsbefore creating a positioning for your product or service. Thisanalysis drives our internet marketing and advertisingtechniques.

Subcontracting to Advertising Agencies allows companiesto have access to design and copywriting resources not staffed

in-house. A compelling design for your advertisement drawsprospects into your message. Soho's designers create distinctivedesigns for your B2B advertising, regardless of the size orformat. As an agency focused on results, SOHO never lets adesign overshadow the key message or call to action-this is alla part of our advertising techniques.

Effective copy works hand-in-hand with good design toconvince prospects that you offer the solutions they need andto spur them to take action.

SOHO's writers, as a part of our internet marketing andadvertising techniques, make sure your copy and artwork areintegrated into a convincing B2B advertising message thatprompts your customers to take action.

SUBCONTRACTING TO ADVERTISING AGENCIES

Subcontracting to Advertising Agencies is a growing trend.Businesses large and small alike are beginning to experiencethe value of outsourcing this service.

SOHO Prospecting provides turn-key creative solutions,and innovative advertising techniques, and we take pride inproviding the highest level of customer service.

We also know that subcontracting to Advertising Agenciesis a big step for some companies, which is why we treat allof our clients, no matter how big or small, as though they areour most important client.

Every client has its own unique strengths, challenges, andpersonality-that's why each client's advertising techniques areunique and fresh.

Whatever your graphic design or advertising needs, SOHOProspecting provides the knowledge, resources, advertisingtechniques, and experience to do the job right the first time.

Finally, subcontracting to advertising agencies allowscompanies to have access to experienced Media Planners. Nomatter how creative or compelling your B2B advertising is, it


must reach the right audiences in order to be effective. As afull-service agency, committed to advertising techniques thatget results, we develop advertising placement schedules thatwill give you the most impact for your money in the mediathat are seen by your customers and prospects.

If your company is considering subcontracting toadvertising agencies and would like to receive the immediateand long-term benefits of working with an experienced, full-service B2B advertising techniques agency, call SOHOProspecting.

PUBLIC RELATIONS AND ADVERTISING

EFFECTIVE USES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

Soho Prospecting's Public Relations Campaign Managementdepartment measures its performance according to the impactthat we have in driving your business forward. A strong PublicRelations Action Plan is one of the most cost effective marketingactivities available to growing companies or companiesintroducing new products or services.

Effective uses of Public Relations should generate revenue-enhancing results, and we measure our value accordingly.Soho's Public Relations Action Plan not only includes trackingmedia coverage and bylined articles, but also tracking ourimpact on such key business objectives as sales lead generation,inquiries, proposals written, revenues generated, etc.-objectivesthat directly tie our Public Relations Action Plan to your bottomline.

That's what we mean when we say SOHO is committedto effective Public Relations Campaign Management. Good,effective Public Relations Campaign Management-unlike anyother internet marketing and advertising endeavor-can supportbuilding value in a product or service.

Effective use of Public Relations means a full page articlewith a photo in any magazine can garner greater and higherquality exposure than an advertisement in the same publication.

A strong Public Relations Action Plan will incorporate articleswritten by third parties because these articles can buildunparalleled credibility and value into the product. All of thiscan be achieved at a fraction of the cost of ad placement. That'seffective Public Relations Campaign Management.

SOHO 's PR professionals understand effective uses ofPublic Relations and we know how to work with companiesin all stages of growth. We know that a strong Public RelationsAction Plan is critical to handling and promoting your productto the media, and we have an outstanding track record inPublic Relations Campaign Management.

We have an established editorial base and experiencebuilding new editor relationships from scratch. We arecommitted to delivering results that establish mind share,capture market share, and generate revenues!

UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC RELATIONS

Understanding effective uses of Public Relations is whatmakes SOHO's PR campaigns successful. It is not the goal ofpublic relations to "sell" editors on your product.

It is the goal to provide them with news and features thatwill interest their readers. How will your product change themarketplace? Who has used it effectively? Who will mostbenefit from it? When will it be widely available? Who will useit and how will it benefit that person's business or life? Providinganswers to these questions in a well written article is part ofeffective uses of Public Relations

Soho Prospecting has built a strong reputation for ourPublic Relations Campaign Management and our ability tohelp companies achieve increased brand awareness and marketpenetration throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

We help our clients gain greater name recognition for theirproducts and services among media representatives, analysts,prospective customers, partners, and other target audiencesthrough the implementation of a strong Public Relations Action

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Plan. Effective uses of Public Relations allow us to delivermeasurable results to our clients, which range from smallprivately-owned start-up companies to larger, publicly-tradedindustry leaders. Our Public Relations Campaign managementteam specializes in delivering a broad spectrum of media andanalyst relations support.

Whether you are launching a new product or service,introducing an entire product line, or repositioning an existingorganization, Soho's Public Relations Campaign managementteam of highly qualified staff is committed to putting togetheran effective Public Relations Action Plan that can support yourneed to communicate your key messages.

5Advertising and Government

The commission on Freedom of the press (1947) has listedmost political and legal controls that have commonly beenapplied to the media. They include licensing in advance;censorship of offending material before publication; seizure ofoffending material; injunctions against publication of anewspaper or book or of specified content; requirement ofsurety bonds against libel or other offense; compulsorydisclosure of ownership and authority; post publication criminalpenalties for objectionable matter; post publication collectionof damages in a civil action; post publication correction of libeland other misstatements; discrimination in granting access tonews source and facilities; discrimination and denial in the useof communications facilities for distribution; taxes;discriminatory subsidies; and interference with buying, readingand listening.

STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION

Habermas believed that society becomes increasinglypolarised into spheres of “public authority”-referring to theemergence of the state and associated political activity-andthe “private”-the intimate domain of private relationshipsand the family.

Jürgen Habermas believed that the development of massmedia was a crucial factor in the transition from an absolutistregime to liberal-democratic society. With the invention of theprinting press and then the availability of newspapers and

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other forms of printed literature, Habermas claimed theemergence of an intermediate sphere which according to himis the bourgeois public sphere.

This space will provide individuals with a chance to gathertogether to critically access, discuss and evaluate importantcontemporary issues of utmost importance for the people. Heclaimed that this will resemble the Greek agora. Habermasclaims that this public use of reason not only acts as a regulatorymechanism over the state, which is now highly visible, butalso as a catalyst for the replacement of the absolutist regimewith a liberal democratic government.

FRANKFURT SCHOOL

The Frankfurt School came into existence in order to explainthe success of Nazism in Weimar Germany. It sees the loss ofindividuality through decline of privacy as the main cause ofdependence on great mass organisations. Habermas to a certainextent depends on some early critiques of the media from the‘Frankfurt School’, such as that of Max Horkheimer, TheodorAdorno and Herbert Marcuse. For these three, media was a‘culture industry’ which was creating an impact on passiveindividuals. These individuals merely absorb any informationthey are exposed to.

According to Thompson, the cause of this is thecommodification of art and culture, which allows the possibilityof “manipulation by demagogues”. Emile Durkheim claimedthat the interdependence of highly specialised individuals, orwhat is known as ‘organic solidarity’, is seen as being succeededby a new and barbarous homogeneity. Due to this, only a‘mechanical’ cohesion is possible, dependent on similarity andstandardisation. Horkheimer thus argued that, paradoxically,individuality was impaired by the decline in the impulse forcollective action. According to him, ‘As the ordinary manwithdraws from participating in political affairs, society tendsto revert to the law of the jungle, which crushes all vestigesof individuality.’ In this analysis the Frankfurt school saw

totalitarianism emerging as a result of corrupt social institutionsand the decline of liberal principles.

Thus Horkheimer claimed that: “Just as the slogans ofrugged individualism are politically useful to large trusts insociety seeking exemption from social control, so in massculture the rhetoric of individuality, by imposing patterns forcollective imitation, subverts the very principle to which itgives lip service.” Adorno in The Jargon of Authenticity claimedthat “mass media can create an aura which makes the spectatorseem to experience a non-existent actuality”. Thus a mass-produced, artificial culture replaces what went before.

MASS MEDIA AND MODERN SOCIETY

In political behaviour, opinion leading tends to correlatepositively with status, whereas this is not the case in consumerbehaviour. So for political behaviour, the general conclusionthat the media merely fixes (confirms) people’s opinion is notsupported. Hovland, using experimental psychology, foundsignificant effects of information on longer-term behaviourand attitudes, particularly in areas where most people havelittle direct experience (e.g. politics) and have a high degreeof trust in the source (e.g. broadcasting). Since class has becomea less reliable indicator of party (since the surveys of the 40sand 50s) the floating voter today is no longer the apatheticvoter, but likely to be more well-informed than the consistentvoter-and this mainly through the media.

There is also some very persuasive and empirical evidencesuggesting that it is ‘personal contact, not mediapersuasiveness’ which counts. For example, Trenaman andMcQuail (1961) found that ‘don’t knows’ were less wellinformed than consistent voters, appearing uninterested,showing a general lack of information, and not just ignoranceof particular policies or policies of one particular party. Duringthe 1940 presidential election, a similar view was expressedby Katz and Lazarsfeld’s theory of the two-step flow ofcommunication, based on a study of electoral practices of the


citizens of Erie County, Ohio. This examined the politicalpropaganda prevalent in the media at the time during thecampaign period to see whether it plays an integral role ininfluencing people’s voting.

The results contradict this: Lazarsfeld et. al. (1944) findevidence for the Weberian theory of party, and identify certainfactors, such as socio-economic circumstances, religiousaffiliation and area of residence, which together determinepolitical orientation. The study claims that political propagandaserves to re-affirm the individual’s pre-disposed orientationrather than to influence or change one’s voting behaviour.

Thompson does not see ‘mediated quasi-interaction’ (themonological, mainly one-way communication of the massmedia) as dominant, but rather as intermingling withtraditional face-to-face interactions and mediated interactions(such as telephone conversations). Contrary to Habermas’pessimistic view, this allows both more information anddiscussion to come into the public domain (of mediated quasi-interaction) and more to be discussed within the private domain(since the media provides information individuals would nototherwise have access to).

FREE ENTERPRISE SOCIETY

Although a sizeable portion of mass media offerings-particularly news, commentaries, documentaries, and otherinformational programmes-deal with highly controversialsubjects, the major portion of mass media offerings are designedto serve an entertainment function. These programmes tendto avoid controversial issues and reflect beliefs and valuessanctified by mass audience.

This course is followed by Television networks, whoseinvestment and production costs are high. Jerry Mander’swork has highlighted this particular outlook. According tohim, the atomised individuals of mass society lose their soulsto the phantom delights of the film, the soap opera, and thevariety show.

They fall into a stupor; an apathetic hypnosis Lazarsfeldwas to call the ‘narcotizing dysfunction’ of exposure to massmedia. Individuals become ‘irrational victims of false wants’-the wants which corporations have thrust upon them, andcontinue to thrust upon them, through both the advertisingin the media (with its continual exhortation to consume) andthrough the individualist consumption culture it promulgates.Thus, according to the Frankfurt School, leisure has beenindustrialised. The production of culture had becomestandardised and dominated by the profit motive as in otherindustries. In a mass society leisure is constantly used toinduce the appropriate values and motives in the public. Themodern media train the young for consumption. ‘Leisure hadceased to be the opposite of work, and had become apreparation for it.’

MASS MEDIA, MASS CULTURE AND ELITE

The relation of the mass media to contemporary popularculture is commonly conceived in terms of dissemination fromthe elite to the mass. There are periods when this process isreversed. During the 18th century it was the utmost chic forthe aristocrats of the French Court to assume the guise ofshepherds and peasants in their restive outings.

The long-term consequences of this are significant inconjunction with the continuing concentration of ownershipand control of the media, leading to accusations of a ‘mediaelite’ having a form of ‘cultural dictatorship’. Thus thecontinuing debate about the influence of ‘media barons’ suchas Conrad Black and Rupert Murdoch. For example, the UKObserver reported the Murdoch-owned HarperCollins’ refusalto publish Chris Patten’s East and West, because of the formerHong Kong Governor’s description of the Chinese leadershipas “faceless Stalinists” possibly being damaging to Murdoch’sChinese broadcasting interests. In this case, the author wasable to have the book accepted by another publisher, but thiskind of censorship may point the way to the future. A related,but more insidious, form is that of self-censorship by members


of the media in the interests of the owner, in the interests oftheir careers.

MODERN MASS MEDIA

During the recent years mass media has invaded the lifeof a common man in a big way. Upto seventies, mass mediamainly remained confined to cinema, newspaper and radio. Itwas in the early eighties that audio-visual electronic mediumin the form of television invaded the Indian scenario in a bigway. The Government created huge infrastructure for spreadof television network in the country. During this decade itself,advent of computers and Video Cassette Recorders (VCR) alsosupplemented the audio-visual media, putting well establishedmedium of cinema to shade. During the early nineties, satellitetelevision revolutionised the audio-visual media by reachingmost of the households in the urban areas.

The latest invasion of audio-visual electronic media hassuddenly increased the demand for professionals in journalism,technicians and other service individuals. These careers notonly offer excellent opportunities, salaries, challenge andsatisfaction of work, but also provide an opportunity for self-employment in various fields.

PRINT MEDIA

An old saying goes “pen is mightier than sword”. Thesaying is not just a rhetoric. It reflects the power of print media.Being the most important media, print media pertains to broadactivity of publication of newspapers, magazines and booksand all persons connected with this activity have theircontribution in successful running of this medium. Whilewriting of books and contributing to magazines is largely aself-employment occupation, publication of newspapers andmagazines involves a huge work force such as editors,technicians, printing technicians, composers, etc. In all thesejobs the options of either working on desk or working in thefield are available to the candidates. Reporters andcorrespondents generally operate in the field and submit their

reports or stories on local, national or international issuespertaining to politics, trade, commerce, defence, sports, etc.One special category of reporters and correspondents operatesin the field of investigative journalism.

This category of reporting pertains to investigation on theissues of public importance. This type of journalism andreporting attracts public attention instantaneously. Specialattention in such reporting is required in the authenticity ofinformation, selection of issues of public interest and succinctreporting in interesting and convincing language. In case ofmagazine reporting, many a times the reports, stories andfeatures are contributed by free-lance reporters and part-timeamateur writers. To pursue the career as a reporter one mayattain bachelor’s degree or post-graduate diploma in journalism.Some of the universities offer post graduate diplomas of 9-month duration while others offer post-graduate one-yeardiploma in Public Relations or post graduate degree in mass-communication.

Latest trend in this regard is that big groups of newspapersadvertise the posts of trainees in any of the above categoriesfor which all graduates are eligible. After conducting theentrance examination, suitable graduate trainees, with flair forwriting are selected and employed. In other words, now theformal academic qualification for being a reporter, copy writeror correspondent is not an essential qualification. Similarly, forwriting features or analytical articles in magazines, one neednot have any formal and professional academic qualification.

What is required is in-depth knowledge, command overthe language concerned and outstanding analytical capability.Broadly speaking, anyone keen to pursue this career in anycapacity must have outstanding general awareness, goodperception, an eye for details and very keen observation. Inturn, the career offers challenge, immense job satisfaction andfairly good compensation. For acquiring general awarenessregular reading of newspapers, magazines and books on varietyof topics is a must. Discussions on current topics also go a long


way in widening the horizons of knowledge. For the beginners,it is better to consult a good book on the background to currentaffairs so that further knowledge is strengthened after acquiringfundamental knowledge. Latest edition of “Current Affairsand Backgrounders” published by M/s Khanna Brothers(Publishers) Pvt Ltd is an ideal book for this purpose. Commandover the concerned language is not a capability which can beacquired overnight. Regular and intensive reading as well asregular writing practice not only improves the command overthe language, but also improves the flair for writing.

Candidates seriously pursuing this career should also goin for academic degree/diploma in Journalism/PublicRelations/Mass Communication from a good university orinstitute to have an edge over others.

AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIA

The requirement of personnel for the audio and audio-visual media is a little different than that for the print media.Traditionally, Radio has been the audio media having farthestreach. It was only with effect from the early eighties that Radiostarted getting replaced by Television. In most of the cases TVjust supplemented the Radio. Despite the recent invasion byDoordarshan channels and Satellite and Cable TV, importanceof Radio has not been undermined. The percentage ofpopulation covered by Radio is much more than the TV, mainlydue to better technical infrastructure, longer range of shortwave radio and cheaper cost and running cost of radio andtransistors. Hence, Radio still remains very important medium.

Radio needs various types of personnel which includesannouncers, news-readers, news-composers, writers,producers, commentators, and various categories of radio artistslike singers, musicians, drama artists, narrators, etc. There isalso a growing demand for good programmes and producersof such programmes. Audio-visual media is the strongest formof medium, but has limited reach. The earliest form of audio-visual medium was cinema which had very limited reach and

people had to spend some money to have an access to it.Cinema, however, still enjoys the most glamorous place in theentire media. In this feature, Cinema as career in audio-visualmedia has been left out and will be covered later in a separatefeature on careers. Television, satellite and cable TV offer variedopportunities for career seekers.

This medium offers excellent opportunities for newsreaders,composers, announcers, technicians, commentators, producers,models, actors, cameramen, script writers, etc. In addition tothe Government-run Doordarshan, all other companies in thefield of television, be it in production, direction, acting, cableoperation and satellite TV operation, are handled by theindividuals or private companies. The choice of career isavailable in a variety of fields, not only with Doordarshan butwith commercially-run media companies also. Candidatesseeking any type of career in audio-visual electronic mediamust have characteristics like artistic inclination, expertise inown field of activity, pleasing personality, adaptability, generalawareness, quick reflexes, flexibility and imagination. All thesequalities must be coupled with the required technical andacademic qualifications and professional competence. In caseof announcers and newsreaders the qualities of good voice andpresentable and photogenic face are additional requirements.

Good flow of spoken language and command over thelanguage concerned are also pre-requisites in these cases.Capabilities to compare and compose become addedqualifications. In addition to programmes and news, threeother aspects of advertisement, engineering and managementare also of paramount importance in TV and other electronicmedia. Technical and professional staff provide engineeringservices and act from behind the screen. These personnel areresponsible for providing support services so essential for goodquality of transmission, colour combinations, creation ofsupport infrastructure for transmission, day-to-daymanagement of video recording, time-management and otherrelated aspects.


JOURNALISM

Journalism fascinates many young people who have akeen desire of seeing their name in print. Anyone who haswritten something for the college paper believes a career injournalism can be pursued. This feature points out that acareer in journalism means more than merely writing well. Aswe receive a number of queries from our readers who wantto become famous journalists and editors, we decided todescribe in detail the requirements of newspapers and televisionchannels today. This feature describes the skills required, asalso the upside and the downside of the field. It also givesinformation about how one can become a journalist, the qualitiesthat are required to be a successful one and addresses of someof the well known institutes.

To an outsider, journalism is an exciting field in whichfame and fortune can be achieved if one is able to write well.The names of some famous journalists come easily to mind.Khushwant Singh, who writes columns in several newspapers;M.J. Akbar, the editor of The Asian Age; and Shobha De,former editor of Stardust and now a celebrated writer.Opportunities in the field have also multiplied with the boomin magazines and television channels.

Each of these requires people who can report and interpretevents in a coherent and interesting manner. To assess whetheryou can be a famous journalist, you have to first know theskills that are required. The first is a good command overlanguage. You must be able to express yourself well. A coursein journalism will help sharpen these skills.

But this is not all. What is required is the ability to collectinformation and report events quickly. If you are in a televisionchannel, it may mean going on camera as the event ishappening, often a difficult task. In newspapers one has towrite out the story before the deadline and it must contain allthe correct information and the drama. Even a small error candestroy the credibility of the journalist. So journalism is justnot about being able to write well alone.

The nature of a journalist’s job is also changing. With newsbecoming competitive and personality-oriented, the job of aTV journalist often means waiting outside the offices or homesof politicians for hours and trying to catch a “sound byte” asthe leader comes out.

The pursuit of truth does not extend beyond getting asmall segment in the news programme. In this race, there isno room for being creative or following stories that one maylike to. Threats of law-suits have made news channels andnewspapers increasingly wary about publishing scoops andmany of the investigative stories are just killed. There is littleroom for creativity in today’s news organisations.

INCREASING SCOPE

Once you accept these limitations, a career in journalismmay be a good option. Some years back there was a boom intelevision channels which led to an increase in opportunitiesfor aspiring journalists. Many print journalists shifted totelevision. Salaries had jumped. Today, there is a shakeoutamong the channels, which has led to the opportunities beingreduced drastically. Newspapers and magazines continue toemploy journalists, but with circulations and profitability understress, three has been a decrease in opportunities somewhat.However, this situation may be linked to the economicslowdown and things may become better once the economypicks up. It may be mentioned that there are over 4,000newspapers in 100 languages registered in India and the scopefor employment will always exist, despite difficulties.

Avenues in journalism have multiplied because ofunexpected growth in two new areas: (a) Niche publications;and (b) Web editing. We explain these below: NichePublications: This means special purpose publications cateringto particular industries, for example, travel and tourism, hotels,textiles or computers. Many such publications have been startedin the past few years. These “niche” publications may not havethe mass circulations of newspapers but are highly profitable.


However, to work in them one needs to have journalistic skillsas well as industry knowledge. Hence, MBAs are employedin business publications while computer experts find jobs ininformation technology magazines. The idea is to develop aspecialisation and build on it. In the future, journalists withspecialised skills in an industry may be more in demand thanthose with mere writing skills.

CULTURE AND DEMOCRACY

THE DOMINANT SOCIAL PARADIGM AND CULTURE

A fruitful way to start the discussion of the significance ofculture and its relationship to the mass media would be todefine carefully our terms. This would help to avoid theconfusion, which is not rare in discussions on the matter.Culture is frequently defined as the integrated pattern of humanknowledge, belief, and behaviour.

This is a definition broad enough to include all majoraspects of culture: language, ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos,codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals,ceremonies and so on. However, in what follows, I am notgoing to deal with all these aspects of culture unless they arerelated to what I call the dominant social paradigm. By thisI mean the system of beliefs, ideas and the correspondingvalues which are dominant in a particular society at a particularmoment of its history. It is clear that there is a significantdegree of overlapping between these two terms although themeaning of culture is obviously broader than that of the socialparadigm.

But, let us see first the elements shared by both terms. Bothculture and the social paradigm are time-and space-dependent,i.e. they refer to a specific type of society at a specific time.Therefore, they both change from place to place and from onehistorical period to another. This implies that there can be no‘general theory’ of History, which could determine therelationship between the cultural with the political or economicelements in society.

In other words, our starting point is the rejection not onlyof the crude economistic versions of Marxism (the economicbase determines the cultural superstructure) but also of themore sophisticated versions of it (the economic base determines‘in the last instance’ which element is to be dominant in eachsocial formation). In my view, which I expanded elsewhere,the dominant element in each social formation is notdetermined, for all time, by the economic base, or any otherbase. The dominant element is always determined by a creativeact, i.e. it is the outcome of social praxis, of the activity of socialindividuals. Thus, the dominant element in theocratic societieswas cultural, in the societies of ‘actually existing socialism’political and so on.

Similarly, the dominant element in market economies iseconomic, as a result of the fact that the introduction of newsystems of production during the Industrial Revolution in acommercial society, where the means of production were underprivate ownership and control, inevitably led to thetransformation of the socially-controlled economies of the past(in which the market played a marginal role in the economicprocess) into the present market economies (defined as theself-regulating systems in which the fundamental economicproblems—what, how, and for whom to produce—are solved‘automatically’, through the price mechanism, rather thanthrough conscious social decisions).

Still, the existence of a dominant element in a socialformation does not mean that the relationship between thiselement and the other elements in it is one of heteronomy anddependence. Each element is autonomous and the relationshipbetween the various elements is better described as one ofinterdependence. So, although it is the economic element whichis the dominant one in the system of the market economy, thisdoes not mean that culture is determined, even ‘in the lastinstance’ by this element. But, there are also some importantdifferences between culture and the dominant social paradigm.Culture, exactly because of its greater scope, may express


values and ideas, which are not necessarily consistent with thedominant institutions. In fact, this is usually the casecharacterising the arts and literature of a market economy,where, (unlike the case of ‘actually existing socialism’, or thecase of feudal societies before), artists and writers have beengiven a significant degree of freedom to express their ownviews. But this is not the case with respect to the dominantsocial paradigm. In other words, the beliefs, ideas and thecorresponding values which are dominant in a market economyand the corresponding market society have to be consistentwith the economic element in it, i.e. with the economicinstitutions which, in turn, determine that the dominant elitesin this society are the economic elites (those owning andcontrolling the means of production).

This has always been the case in History and will also bethe case in the future. No particular type of society canreproduce itself unless the dominant beliefs, ideas and valuesare consistent with the existing institutional framework.

For instance, in the societies of ‘actually existing socialism’the dominant social paradigm had to be consistent with thedominant element in them, (which was the political), and thecorresponding political institutions, which determined thatthe dominant elites in this society were the political elites(party bureaucracy). Similarly, in the democratic society of thefuture, the dominant social paradigm had to be consistent withthe dominant element in them, which would be the political,and the corresponding democratic institutions, which wouldsecure that there would be no formal elites in this kind ofsociety (although, of course, if democracy does not functionproperly the emergence of informal elites could not be ruledout).

So, culture and, in particular, the social dominant paradigmplay a crucial role in the determination of individual andcollective values. As long as individuals live in a society, theyare not just individuals but social individuals, subject to aprocess, which socialises them and induces them to internalise

the existing institutional framework as well as the dominantsocial paradigm. In this sense, people are not completely freeto create their world but are conditioned by History, traditionand culture. Still, this socialisation process is broken, at almostall times-as far as a minority of the population is concerned-and in exceptional historical circumstances even with respectto the majority itself.

In the latter case, a process is set in motion that usuallyends with a change of the institutional structure of society andof the corresponding social paradigm. Societies therefore arenot just “collections of individuals” but consist of socialindividuals, who are both free to create their world, (in thesense that they can give birth to a new set of institutions anda corresponding social paradigm), and are created by the world,(in the sense that they have to break with the dominant socialparadigm in order to recreate the world).

VALUES OF THE MARKET ECONOMY

As the dominant economic institutions in a market economyare those of markets and private ownership of the means ofproduction, as well as the corresponding hierarchical structures,the dominant social paradigm promoted by the mainstreammass media and other cultural institutions, (e.g. universities)has to consist of ideas, beliefs and values which are consistentwith them. Thus, the kind of social ‘sciences’ which are taughtat universities and the kind of articles which fill academicjournals, explicitly, or usually implicitly, take for granted theexisting economic institutions.

Therefore, their search for ‘truth’ in the analysis of majoreconomic or social problems is crucially conditioned by thisfundamental characteristic. The causes of world-wideunemployment, for instance, or of massive inequality andconcentration of economic power, will not be related to thesystem of the market economy itself; instead, the malfunctioningof the system or bad policies will be blamed, which supposedlycan be tackled by the appropriate improvement of the system’s


functioning, or the ‘right’ economic policies. In economics, inparticular, the dominant theory/ideology since the emergenceof the market economy has been economic liberalism, in itsvarious versions: from the old classical and neo-classical schoolsup to the modern versions of it in the form of supply-sideeconomics, new classical macro-economics etc. But, from AdamSmith to Milton Friedman, the values adopted are the same:competition and individualism, which, supposedly, are theonly values that could secure freedom.

Thus, for Adam Smith, the individual pursuit of self-interestin a market economy will guarantee social harmony and,therefore, the main task of government is the defence of therich against the poor. So, in Smith’s system, as Canterbery putsit, ‘individual self-interest is the motivating force, and thebuilt-in regulator that keeps the economy from flying apart iscompetition’. Similarly, for Milton Friedman, the Nobel-prizewinner in economics (note: the Nobel Prize in economics wasnever awarded to an economist who challenged the very systemof the market economy) the capitalist market economy isidentified with freedom:

The kind of economic organisation that provides freedomdirectly, namely, competitive capitalism, also promotes politicalfreedom because it separates economic power from politicalpower and in this way enables the one to offset the other…Thetwo ideas of human freedom and economic freedom workingtogether came to their greatest fruition in the United States

It is obvious that in this ideology, which passes as the‘science’ of economics, the values of individualism andcompetition are preferred over the values of collectivism andsolidarity/co-operation, since freedom itself is identified withthe former values as against the latter. But, it ‘happens’ alsothat the same values are the only ones, which could secure theproduction and reproduction of the market economy. Nomarket economy can function properly unless those in controlof it, (i.e., the economic elites), at least, and as many of the restas possible, are motivated by individualism and competition.

This is because the dynamic of a market economy cruciallydepends on competition and individual greed. Furthermore,the fact that often the economic elites resort to state protectionagainst foreign competition, if the latter threatens their ownposition, does not in the least negate the fact that competitionis the fundamental organising principle of the market economy.It is therefore no historical accident that, as Polanyi haspersuasively shown, the establishment of the market economyimplied sweeping aside traditional cultures and values andreplacing the values of solidarity, altruism, sharing and co-operation (which usually marked community life) with thevalues of individualism and competition as the dominantvalues. As Ray Canterbery stresses:

The capitalistic ethic leans toward the extreme of selfishness(fierce individualism) rather than toward altruism. There islittle room for collective decision making in an ethic that arguesthat every individual should go his or her own way. As wehave seen, the idea that capitalism protects ‘individual rights’would have been rejected during the early Middle Ages.‘Individual rights’ were set in advance by the structure offeudalism, governed by the pull of tradition and the push ofauthority. Economics was based upon mutual needs andobligations.

A good example of the enthusiastic support for these valuestoday is, again, the Nobel-prize winner in economics MiltonFriedman. According to him:

Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the veryfoundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporateofficials of a social responsibility other than to make as muchmoney for their stockholders as possible. This (socialresponsibility) is a fundamentally subversive doctrine.

Indeed, it is not Friedman who supports values which areinconsistent with the market economy system but the varioussocial democrats and Green economists, who, taking for grantedthe market economy system, proceed to argue in favour of


utopian economic institutions incorporating values which areinconsistent with this system (e.g.’stakeholding’ capitalism,‘social investment’ etc).

As I attempted to show elsewhere, the basic cause of thefailure of both the ‘actually existing socialism’ in the East andsocial democracy in the West was exactly that they attemptedto merge two fundamentally incompatible elements: the‘growth’ element, (which implies the concentration of economicpower and expresses the logic of the market economy), withthe social justice element (which is inherently linked to equalityand expresses socialist ethics).

CHOMSKY'S VIEWS

However, quite apart from social democrats and reformistGreens, there is an alternative view about the values of themarket economy proposed by Noam Chomsky, which,however, ends up with similar conclusions about the feasibilityand desirability of state action with respect to controlling today’smarket economy.

Thus, for Chomsky, the values which motivate today’selites in advanced capitalist countries are not individualismand competition; instead, these elites simply use such valuesas propaganda in their attempt to ‘persuade’ their own publicand the countries in the periphery and semi-periphery toimplement them whereas they themselves demand and enjoythe protection of their own states:

For the general public, individualism and competition arethe prescribed values. Not for elites, however. They demandand obtain the protection of a powerful state, and insist onarrangements that safeguard them from unfettered competitionor the destructive consequences of individualism. The processof corporatization is a standard illustration, as is the reliancein every economy—crucially, the US—on socialisation of riskand cost. The need to undermine the threat of competitionconstantly takes new forms: today, one major form, beyondcorporatization, is the development of a rich network of

“strategic alliances” among alleged competitors: IBM-Toshiba-Siemens, for example, or throughout the automotive industry.

This has reached such extremes that prominent analysts ofthe business world now speak of a new form of “alliancecapitalism” that is replacing the managerial/corporatecapitalism that had largely displaced proprietary capitalism acentury ago in advanced sectors of the economy.

Chomsky has recently expanded on the same theme in aNew Left Review article in which it is made clear that his viewsabove about the values of the market economy are perfectlyconsistent with his views on the nature of today’s capitalism.In this article he first states that the word ‘capitalist’ does notmean capitalist but rather it refers to state subsidised andprotected private power centres, or ‘collectivist legal entities,’which embody today’s corporatization of the market economy.He then goes on to describe corporatization and the role of thestate as follows:

The corporatization process was largely a reaction to greatmarket failures of the late nineteenth century, and it was a shiftfrom something you might call proprietary capitalism to theadministration of markets by collectivist legal entities-mergers,cartels, corporate alliances-in association with powerfulstates…the primary task of the states-and bear in mind that,with all the talk about minimising the state, in the OECDcountries the state continues to grow relative to GNP, notablyin the 1980s and 1990s-is essentially to socialise risk and cost,and to privatise power and profit.

Furthermore, Chomsky’s views about the marketeconomy’s values and the nature of present capitalism are, inturn, entirely consistent with his present views on the potentialrole of the state in controlling today’s market economy. Thus,as Chomsky stresses in the aforementioned article: The long-term goal of such initiatives (like the Multilateral Agreementon Investment-MAI) is clear enough to anyone with open eyes;an international political economy which is organised by


powerful states and secret bureaucracies whose primaryfunction is to serve the concentrations of private power whichadminister markers through their own internal operations,through networks of corporate alliances, including the intra-firm transactions that are mislabelled ‘trade’. They rely on thepublic for subsidy, research and development, for innovationand for bailouts when things go wrong. They rely on thepowerful states for protection from dangerous ‘democracyopenings’. In such ways, they seek to ensure that the ‘primebeneficiaries’ of the world’s wealth are the right people: thesmug and prosperous ‘Americans’; the ‘domestic constituenciesand their counterparts elsewhere. The scale of all of this isnowhere near as great or, for that matter, as novel as claimed;in many ways it’s a return to the early twentieth century. Andthere’s no reason to doubt that it can be controlled even withinexisting formal institutions of parliamentary democracy.

One, however, could object on several grounds this stand,as portrayed by the above extracts. First, the argument aboutthe values of the economic elites, as I attempted to show above,is contestable; second, the nature of today’s market economycould be seen in a very different analytical framework than theone suggested by Chomsky and, finally, it could be shown thatthe way out of the present multi-dimensional crisis and therelated huge concentration of power can not be found infragmented and usually ‘monothematic’ defensive battles withthe elites. Such battles, even if sometimes victorious, are nevergoing to win the war, as long as they are not an integral partof a new popular movement’s fight against the system of themarket economy itself, which is the ultimate cause of theconcentration of economic power.

Shift from proprietary (or entrepreneurial) capitalism tothe present internationalised market economy, where a fewgiant corporations control the world economy, did not happen,as Chomsky presents it, as the outcome of ‘a reaction to greatmarket failures of the late nineteenth century.’ What Chomskyomits is that it was competition, which led from simple

entrepreneurial firms to the present giant corporations. Themarket failures he mentions are not a God-given calamity.Excepting the case of monopolies, almost all market failuresin history have been directly or indirectly related to competition.It is competition, which creates the need for expansion, so thatthe best (from the profit of view of profits) technologies andmethods of organising production (economies of scale etc) areused. It is the same competition, which has led to the presentexplosion of mergers and take-overs in the advanced capitalistcountries, as well as the various ‘strategic alliances’. For instance,the recently announced merger of giant oil companies, in asense, is the result of a ‘market failure’ because of the fall intheir profits. But, in a deeper sense, this merger, as well as thetake-overs, strategic alliances etc going on at the moment, aresimply the result of self-protective action taken by giantcorporations, in order to survive the cut-throat competitionlaunched by the present internationalisation of the marketeconomy. Therefore, it is competition, which has led to thepresent corporate (or ‘alliance’) capitalism, not ‘market failures’and/or the associated state activity, which just represent theeffects of competition.

Similarly, the present internationalisation of the marketeconomy is not just the result of state action to liberalise financialand commodity markets. In fact, the states were following thede facto internationalisation of the market economy, whichwas intensified by the activities of multi-nationals, when, (inthe late seventies), under pressure from the latter, started theprocess of liberalising the financial markets and furtherderegulating the commodity markets (through the GATTrounds). Therefore, the present inter-nationalisation is in factthe outcome of the grow-or-die dynamics, which characterisesthe market economy, a dynamics that is initiated by competition,the crucial fact neglected by Chomsky.

It is also the same internationalisation of the marketeconomy, which became incompatible with the degree of statecontrol of the economy achieved by the mid seventies, that


made necessary the present neoliberal consensus. The latter,therefore, is not just a policy change, as socialdemocrats andtheir fellow travellers suggest, but represents an importantstructural change. So, minimising the state is not just ‘talk’, asChomsky assumes basing his argument on the assumptionthat ‘the state continues to grow relative to GNP, notably inthe 1980s and 1990s’. However, not only the fall in the growthrate of government spending in OECD countries was higherthan that of the other parts of aggregate demand in the period1980-93 but, in fact, the (weighted average) general governmentconsumption of high income economies was lower in 1995, at15% of GNP, than in 1980 (17%). All this, not taking intoaccount the drastic reduction in the overall public sectors inthe last twenty years, as a result of the massive privatisationof state industries. Therefore, minimising the state, far frombeing ‘talk’ is a basic element of the present neoliberalconsensus.

Also, strategic alliances, mergers and take-overs do notrepresent a movement away from the market economy but amovement towards a new form of it. Away from a marketeconomy, which was geared by the internal market and towardsa market economy, which is geared by the world market. Thismeans further and further concentration of economic powernot only in terms of incomes and wealth but also in terms ofconcentration of the power to control world output, trade andinvestment in fewer and fewer hands. However, theoligopolisation of competition does not mean lack ofcompetition.

Furthermore, it will be wrong to assume that the maincharacteristic of the present period is an ‘assault against themarkets’, as the purist neoliberal argument goes, whichChomsky accepts. The present period of neoliberal consensuscan be characterised instead, as an assault against social controlson markets, particularly those aiming at the protection ofhumans and nature against the effects of marketization, (thehistorical process that has transformed the socially controlled

economies of the past into the market economy of the present).Such controls have been introduced as a result of social strugglesundertaken by those who are adversely affected by the marketeconomy’s effects on them (social security legislation, welfarebenefits, macro-economic controls to secure fullemployment etc).

What is still debated within the economic elites is the fateof what I call social controls in the broad sense, i.e. thoseprimarily aiming at the protection of those controlling themarket economy against foreign competition (tariffs, importcontrols, exchange controls—in the past, and non-tariff barriers,massive public subsidy for R&D, risk-protection (bailouts),administration of markets etc—at present). Thus, pureneoliberal economists, bankers, some politicians and othersare against any kind of social controls over markets (in thenarrow or broad sense above). On the other hand, the morepragmatic governments of the neoliberal consensus, fromReagan to Clinton and from Thatcher to Blair, under thepressure of the most vulnerable to competition sections of theirown economic elites, have kept many social controls in thebroad sense and sometimes even expanded them (not hesitatingto go to war to secure their energy supplies) giving rise to thepure neoliberal argument (adopted by Chomsky) about anassault on markets.

In this context, one should not confuse liberalism/neoliberalism with laissez-faire. As I tried to show elsewhere,it was the state itself that created the system of self-regulatingmarkets. Furthermore, some form of state intervention hasalways been necessary for the smooth functioning of the marketeconomy system. The state, since the collapse of thesocialdemocratic consensus, has seen a drastic reduction in itseconomic role as it is no longer involved in a process of directlyintervening in the determination of income and employmentthrough fiscal and monetary policies.

However, even today, the state still plays an importantrole in securing, through its monopoly of violence, the stability


of the market economy framework and in maintaining theinfrastructure for the smooth functioning of it.

It is within this role of maintaining the infrastructure thatwe may see the activities of the state in socialising risk and costand in maintaining a safety net in place of the old welfare state.Furthermore, the state is called today to play a crucial role withrespect to the supply-side of the economy and, in particular,to take measures to improve competitiveness and to train theworking force to the requirements of the new technology, insupporting research and development and even in subsidisingexport industries wherever required.

Therefore, the type of state intervention which is compatiblewith the marketization process not only is not discouragedbut, instead, is actively promoted by most of the professionalpoliticians of the neoliberal consensus.

It is true that the economic elites do not like the kind ofcompetition which, as a result of the uneven development ofthe world market economy, threatens their own interests andthis is why they have always attempted (and mostly succeeded)to protect themselves against it.

But, it is equally true that it was the force of competitionwhich has always fuelled the expansion of the market economyand that it was the values of competition and self-interestwhich have always characterised the value system of the eliteswhich control the market economy. Chomsky, however,sometimes gives the impression that, barring some ‘accidents’like the market failures he mentions, as well as the aggressivestate support that economic elites have always enjoyed, the‘corporatization’ of the market economy might have beenavoided.

But, of course, neither proprietary capitalism (or any othertype of it) is desirable—since it cannot secure covering thebasic needs of all people—nor can we deny all radical analysisof the past hundred and fifty years or so, from Marx to Bookchin,and all historical experience since then, which leads to one

conclusion: the market economy is geared by a grow-or-diedynamic fuelled by competition, which is bound to lead tofurther and further concentration of economic power.

Therefore, the problem is not the corporatization of themarket economy which, supposedly, represents ‘an attack onmarkets and democracy’, and which was unavoidable anywaywithin the dynamic of the market economy. In other words,the problem is not corporate market economy/capitalism, asif some other kind of market economy/capitalism was feasibleor desirable, but the market economy/capitalism itself.Otherwise, one may easily end up blaming the elites forviolating the rules of the game, rather than blaming the rottengame itself!

If the above analytical framework is valid then obviouslyit is not possible, within the existing institutional frameworkof parliamentary democracy and the market economy to checkthe process of increasing concentration of economic power.This is a process that is going since the emergence of themarket economy system, some two centuries ago, and no social-democratic governments or grassroots movements were everable to stop it, or even to retard it, apart from brief periodsof time. In fact, even the grass root ‘victory’ hailed by Chomskyagainst the MAI proposals is doubtful whether it would havebeen achieved had there been no serious divisions among theeconomic elites about it.

Furthermore, the ‘victory’ itself has already started showingsigns that it was hollow, as it is now clear that the MAIagreement was not, in fact, set aside, but it is simplyimplemented ‘by installments’, through the ‘back door’ of theIMF at present, and possibly the World Trade Organisation inthe future. The basic reason why such battles are doomed isthat they are not an integral part of a comprehensive politicalprogram to replace the institutional framework of the marketeconomy itself and, as such, they can easily be marginalisedor lead to simple (easily reversible) reforms. The inevitableconclusion is that only the struggle for the building of a new


massive movement aiming at fighting ‘from without’ for thecreation of a new institutional framework, and the developmentof the corresponding culture and social paradigm, might haveany chances to lead to a new society characterised by the equaldistribution of power.

CULTURAL HOMOGENISATION

The establishment of the market economy implied sweepingaside traditional cultures and values. This process wasaccelerated in the twentieth century with the spreading allover the world of the market economy and its offspring thegrowth economy. As a result, today, there is an intensiveprocess of culture homogenisation at work, which not onlyrules out any directionality towards more complexity, but ineffect is making culture simpler, with cities becoming moreand more alike, people all over the world listening to the samemusic, watching the same soap operas on TV, buying the samebrands of consumer goods, etc.

The establishment of the neoliberal consensus in the lasttwenty years or so, following the collapse of thesocialdemocratic consensus, has further enhanced this processof cultural homogenisation. This is the inevitable outcome ofthe liberalisation and de-regulation of markets and theconsequent intensification of commercialisation of culture.

As a result, traditional communities and their cultures aredisappearing all over the world and people are converted toconsumers of a mass culture produced in the advanced capitalistcountries and particularly the USA. In the film industry, forinstance, even European countries with a strong culturalbackground and developed economies have to effectively giveup their own film industries, unable to compete with the muchmore competitive US industry. Thus, in the early 1990s, USfilms’ share amounted to 73% of the European market. Also,indicative of the degree of concentration of cultural power inthe hands of a few US corporations is the fact that, in 1991,a handful of US distributors controlled 66% of total cinema box

office and 70% of the total number of video rentals in Britain.Thus, the recent emergence of a sort of “cultural” nationalismin many parts of the world expresses a desperate attempt tokeep a cultural identity in the face of market homogenisation.But, cultural nationalism is devoid of any real meaning in anelectronic environment, where 75 percent of the internationalcommunications flow is controlled by a small number ofmultinationals. In other words, cultural imperialism today doesnot need, as in the past, a gunboat diplomacy to integrate andabsorb diverse cultures.

The marketization of the communications flow has alreadyestablished the preconditions for the downgrading of culturaldiversity into a kind of superficial differentiation akin to afolklorist type. Furthermore, it is indicative that today’s ‘identitymovements’, like those in Western Europe (from the Flemishto the Lombard and from the Scots to the Catalans) whichdemand autonomy as the best way to preserve their culturalidentity, in fact, express their demand for individual and socialautonomy in a distorted way.

The distortion arises from the fact that the marketizationof society has undermined the community values of reciprocity,solidarity and co-operation in favour of the market values ofcompetition and individualism. As a result, the demand forcultural autonomy is not founded today on community valueswhich enhance co-operation with other cultural communitiesbut, instead, on market values which encourage tensions andconflicts with them. In this connection, the current neoracistexplosion in Europe is directly relevant to the effectualundermining of community values by neoliberalism, as wellas to the growing inequality and poverty following the rise ofthe neoliberal consensus.

Finally, one should not underestimate the politicalimplications of the commercialisation and homogenisation ofculture. The escapist role traditionally played by Hollywoodfilms has now acquired a universal dimension, through themassive expansion of TV culture and its almost full


monopolisation by Hollywood subculture. Every single TVviewer in Nigeria, India, China or Russia now dreams of theAmerican way of life, as seen on TV serials (which, beingrelatively inexpensive and glamorous, fill the TV programmesof most TV channels all over the world) and thinks in termsof the competitive values imbued by them. The collapse ofexisting socialism has perhaps more to do with this culturalphenomenon, as anecdotal evidence indicates, than one couldimagine.

As various TV documentaries have shown, people inEastern European countries, in particular, thought of themselvesas some kind of ‘abnormal’ compared with what western TVhas established as the ‘normal’.

In fact, many of the people participating in thedemonstrations to bring down those regimes frequently referredto this ‘abnormality’, as their main incentive for their politicalaction. In this problematique, one may criticise the kind ofcultural relativism supported by some in the Left, accordingto which almost all cultural preferences could be declared asrational (on the basis of some sort of rationality criteria), andtherefore all cultural choices deserve respect, if not admiration,given the constraints under which they are made.

But, obviously, the issue is not whether our cultural choicesare rational or not. Nor the issue is to assess ‘objectively’ ourcultural preferences as right or wrong. The real issue is howto make a choice of values which we think is compatible withthe kind of society we wish to live in and then make thecultural choices which are compatible with these values.

This is because the transition to a future society based onalternative values presupposes that the effort to create analternative culture should start now, in parallel with the effortto establish the new institutions compatible with the new values.On the basis of the criterion of consistency between our culturalchoices and the values of a truly democratic society, one coulddelineate a way beyond post-modern relativism and distinguishbetween ‘preferable’ and ‘non-preferable’ cultural choices.

So, all those cultural choices involving films, videos,theatrical plays etc, which promote the values of the marketeconomy and particularly competition for money,individualism, consumerist greed, as well as violence, racism,sexism etc should be shown to be non-preferable and peopleshould be encouraged to avoid them. On the other hand, allthose cultural choices, which involve the promotion of thecommunity values of mutual aid, solidarity, sharing andequality for all (irrespective of race, sex, ethnicity) should bepromoted as preferable.

ROLE OF MASS MEDIA TODAY

A basic issue in the discussion of the role of the mass mediain today’s society is whether they do reflect social reality ina broad sense, or whether, instead, the elites which controlthem filter out the view of reality which they see fit to be madepublic. To my mind, the answer to this question is that themedia do both, depending on the way we define reality.

To take, first, political reality, mass media, in one sense,do not provide a faked view of it. Taking into account whatis considered as politics today, i.e. the activity of professionalpoliticians ‘representing’ the people, one may argue that it ispolitics itself, which is faked, and mass media simply reproducethis reality. In this sense, the issue is not whether the massmedia manipulate democracy, since it is democracy itself, whichis faked, and not its mass media picture, which simply reflectsthe reality of present ‘democracy’.

But, at the same time, if we give a different definition topolitical reality, mass media do provide, in general, a distortedpicture of it. In other words, if we define as real politics thepolitical activity of people themselves (for instance, the collectivestruggles of various sectors of the population around political,economic or social issues) rather than that of professionalpoliticians, then, the mass media do distort the picture theypresent about political reality. They do so, by minimising thesignificance of this type of activity, by distorting its meaning,


by marginalising it, or by simply ignoring it completely.Furthermore, mass media do provide a distorted picture ofpolitical reality when they come to report the causes of crises,or of the conflicts involving various sections of the elites. Insuch cases they faithfully reflect the picture that the sectionsof the elites controlling them wish to reproduce. The latestexample of this was the way in which the Anglo-Americanmedia, in particular, distorted the real meaning of the criminalbombardment of the Iraqi people at the end of 1998. Thus,exactly, as in their reporting during the war in the Gulf, thereal cause of the conflict, (i.e. who controls the world’s oil,irrespective of where the oil stocks are located—the elites ofthe North versus those in the South), was distorted as a conflictbetween the peace loving regimes in the North versus therogue regimes in the South, or, in more sophisticated versionssupported by socialdemocrat intellectuals, as a conflict betweenthe ‘democracies’ in the North versus the ‘despotic regimes’in the South over the control of oil.

Under these circumstances, it is obvious that the massmedia usually offer a true glimpse of reality only when theelites are divided with respect to their conception of a particularaspect of political reality. From this point of view, concentrationin the mass media industry is significant and whether themedia are owned by 100 or 10 owners does indeed matter inthe struggle for social change. It is for instance such divisionsamong the European elites over the issue of joining theEuropean Monetary Union which have allowed a relativelywide media discussion on the true meaning of Europeanintegration, particularly in countries like Britain where theelites were split.

It was also similar divisions between the Anglo-Americanand the European elites over the latest war crime in the Gulfwhich made a bit clearer the directly criminal role of the former(support for the bombardments), as well as the indirectlycriminal role of the latter (support for the embargo). It is notaccidental that in the USA and UK, where the media played

a particularly despicable role in distorting the truth andmisinforming the public, the polls showed consistently vastmajorities in favour of the criminal activities of their elites. Ofcourse, this does not mean that decentralisation of power inthe mass media industry (or anywhere else) represents byitself, even potentially, a radical social change leading to anauthentic democracy. Still, the significance of decentralisationin the media industry with respect to raising consciousnessshould not be ignored.

THE ECONOMIC REALITY

As regards economic reality, mass media, in one senseagain, do provide a relatively accurate picture of what countsas economic reality today. This is when the media, taking forgranted the system of the market economy, end up with apartial picture of economic reality where what matters is notwhether the basic needs of the population are coveredadequately but whether prices (in commodity and stockmarkets), interest rates, exchange rates and consequently profitrates are going up or down. Still, in another sense, the veryfact that mass media take for granted the system of the marketeconomy means that they cannot ‘see’ the ‘systemic’ nature ofmost of the real economic problems (unemployment, povertyand so on) and therefore inevitably end up with a faked imageof economic reality. This way of seeing economic reality is notimposed on the media by their owners, important as theirinfluence may otherwise be, or by their internal hierarchicalstructure etc. The media simply reflect the views of orthodoxeconomists, bankers, businessmen and professional politicians,i.e. of all those who express the dominant social paradigm.

But if the picture of political and economic reality offeredby the media is mixed this is not the case with respect toecological reality. As no meaningful reporting of the ecologicalcrisis is possible unless it refers to the systemic causes of it,which by definition are excluded by the discourse in themainstream media, the result is a complete misinformation, orjust straightforward description of the symptoms of the crisis.


The mass media are flooded by the ‘realist’ Greens who fill thevarious ecological parties and who blame technology,consumerist values, legislation etc—anything but the real causeof the crisis, i.e. the very system of the market economy.

Similarly, the reporting of the present social crisis neverlinks the explosion of crime and drug abuse, for instance, withtheir root cause, i.e. the increasing concentration of political,economic and social power in the hands of various elites.Instead, the symptoms of the social crisis are distortedlyreported as its causes and the media blame, following theadvice of the establishment ‘experts’, the breaking of thetraditional family, or of the school, as the causes of crime.Similarly, various ‘progressive’ intellectuals (like the lamentableex ‘revolutionary’ and now well promoted by the mainstreammedia Euro-parliamentarian Con Bendit) blame the prohibitivelegislation on drugs for the massive explosion of drug abuse!

However, there is another approach being promotedrecently by system theorists, according to which mass mediado not just either reflect or distort reality but also manufactureit. This is not said in the usual sense of manufacturing consentdescribed by Chomsky and Herman or, alternatively, byBourdieu, which is basically a one-way process whereby theelites controlling the mass media filter out the information,through various control mechanisms, in order to create consentaround their agenda.

Instead, system theorists talk about a two-way processwhereby social reality and mass media are seen as twointerdependent levels, the one intruding into the other. Thisis based on the valid hypothesis that reality is not just somethingexternal to the way it is conceived. TV watching is a constituentmoment of reality since our information about reality consistsof conceptions that constitute reality itself. At the same time,the conception of reality is conditioned by the mediafunctioning, which is differentiated in relation to the othersocial systems (political, economic etc). In the systems analysisproblematique, it is not the economic, or the political systems,

which control the media functioning. What determines theirfunctioning, as well as their communicative capability, is theirability to generate irritation-a fact that could go a long wayto explain the high ratings of exciting or irritating TV programs.

The diversified functioning of mass media creates, in turn,the conditions for a social dynamic which, in a self-reflectiveand communicative way, reproduces, as well as institutes,society. Thus, whereas the early modern society is institutedthrough a transcendental subjectivity and a material mode ofproduction, the present post-modern society’s reproductiondepends on the processes of communicative rationality. Themass media are an integral and functional part of thecommunicative processes of post-modern society.

However, one may point out here that although it is truethat social reality and mass media are interacting, i.e. that ourconception of TV news is a constituent element of reality andat the same time our conception of reality is conditioned byTV functioning, this does not imply that the diversifiedfunctioning of mass media creates the conditions for a socialdynamic which acts for the institution of society, although itdoes play this role as far as its reproduction is concerned. Themeaning we assign to TV reporting is not determinedexogenously but by our world view, our own paradigm, whichin turn, as we have seen above, is the result of a process ofsocialisation that is conditioned by the dominant socialparadigm.

Furthermore, TV functioning plays a crucial role in thereproduction of the dominant social paradigm and thesocialisation process generally. So, the diversified functioningof TV does indeed create the conditions for a social dynamicleading to the reproduction of the status quo, but in no waycould be considered as doing the same for instituting society.

AIMS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

The goals of the mass media are determined by thoseowning and controlling them, who, usually, are members of


the economic elites that control the market economy itself.Given the crucial role that the media could play in theinternalisation of the dominant social paradigm and thereforethe reproduction of the institutional framework which securesthe concentration of power in the hands of the elites, it isobvious that those owning and controlling the mass mediahave broader ideological goals than the usual goals pursuedby those owning and controlling other economic institutions,i.e. profit maximising.

Therefore, an analysis that would attempt to drawconclusions on the nature and significance of media institutionson the basis of the profit dimension alone, (i.e. that they sharea common goal and consequently a similar internal hierarchicalstructure with all other economic institutions and that they justsell a product, the only difference with other economicinstitutions being that the product is the audience,) is boundto be one-dimensional. Profit maximising is only one parameter,often not even the crucial one, which conditions the role ofmass media in a market economy. In fact, one could mentionseveral instances where capitalist owners chose even to incursignificant losses (which they usually cover from otherprofitable activities) in order to maintain the social influence(and prestige), which ownership of an influential daily offersto them (Murdoch and The Times of London is an obviousrecent example).

Given the ultimate ideological goal of mass media, themain ways in which they try to achieve it are:

• first, by assisting in the internalisation of the dominantsocial paradigm and,

• second, by marginalising, if not excluding altogether,conceptions of reality which do not conform with thedominant social paradigm.

But, what are the mechanisms through which the mediacan achieve their goals? To give an answer to this question wehave to examine a series of mechanisms, most of them

‘automatic’ built-in mechanisms, which ensure effectiveachievement of these goals. It will be useful here to distinguishbetween ‘internal’ and ‘external’ control mechanisms, whichfunction respectively as internal and external constraints onthe freedom of media workers to reproduce reality.

Both internal and external mechanisms work mainlythrough competition which secures homogenisation withrespect to the media’s main goals. Competition is of course thefundamental organisational principle of a market economy;but, it plays a special role with respect to the media. As Bourdieupoints out, competition ‘rather than automatically generatingoriginality and diversity tends to favour uniformity’. Still,competition is not the only force securing homogenisation. Ina similar way as with the market economy itself, competitionprovides only the dynamic mechanism of homogenisation.

It is the fact that owners of mass media, as well as managersand the highest paid journalists, share the same interest in thereproduction of the existing institutional framework whichconstitutes the ‘base’, on which this competition is developed.

But, let us consider briefly the significance of the variouscontrol mechanisms. The main ‘internal control’ mechanismsare ownership and the internal hierarchical structure, whichare, both, crucial in the creation of the conditions for internalcompetition among journalists, whereas the ‘ratings’mechanism plays a similar role in the creation of the conditionsfor external competition among media.

Starting with ownership, it matters little, as regards themedia’s overall goals defined above, whether they are ownedand controlled by the state and/or the state-controlledinstitutions or whether, instead, they are owned and controlledby private capital.

However, there are certain secondary differences arisingfrom the different ownership structures which may bementioned. These secondary differences have significantimplications, particularly with respect to the structure of the


elites controlling the media, their own organisational structureand their ‘image’ with respect to their supposedly ‘objective’role in the presentation of information.

As regards the elite structure, whereas under a system ofstate ownership and control the mass media are under thedirect control of the political elite and the indirect control ofthe economic elites, under a system of private ownership andcontrol, the media are just under the direct control of theeconomic elites.

This fact, in turn, has some implications on whether filteringout of information takes place directly through state control,or indirectly through various economic mechanisms (e.g.ratings).As regards the media organisational structure, whereasstate-owned media are characterised by bureaucratic rigidityand inefficiency, privately owned media are usuallycharacterised by more flexibility and economic efficiency.Finally, the ‘objective’ image of mass media suffers less in caseof private ownership compared to the case of state ownership.This is because in the latter case control of information is moredirect and therefore more obvious than in the former.

Another important internal control mechanism is thehierarchical structure which characterises all media institutions(as it does all economic institutions in a market economy) andwhich implies that all-important decisions are taken by a smallmanagerial group within them, who are usually directlyresponsible to the owners.

The hierarchical structure creates a constant internalcompetition among journalists as to who will be more agreeableto the managerial group (on which their career and salaryprospects depend).

Similarly, people in the managerial group are in constantcompetition as to who will be more agreeable to the owners(on which their highly paid position depends). So, everybodyin this hierarchical structure knows well (or soon learns) whatis agreeable and what is not and acts accordingly.

Therefore, the filtering of information works through self-censorship rather than through any kind of ‘orders from above’.The effect of the internal hierarchical structure is to impose,through the internal competition that it creates, a kind ofhomogenisation in the journalists’ performance.

But, does this exclude the possibility that some mediaworkers may have incentives other those determined by careerambitions? Of course, not. But, such people, as Chomsky pointsout, will never find a place in the corridors of media powerand, one way or another, will be marginalised:

They (journalists) say, quite correctly, “nobody ever tellsme what to write. I write anything I like. All this businessabout pressures and constraints is nonsense because I’m neverunder any pressure.” Which is completely true, but the pointis that they wouldn’t be there unless they had alreadydemonstrated that nobody has to tell them what to writebecause they are going to say the right thing… it is notpurposeful censorship. It is just that you don’t make it to thosepositions. That includes the left (what is called the left), as wellas the right. Unless you have been adequately socialised andtrained so that there are some thoughts you just don’t have,because if you did have them, you wouldn’t be there.

But, how is it determined what is agreeable? Here it iswhere the ‘external’ control mechanisms come into play. It iscompetition among the various media organisations, whichhomogenises journalists’ behaviour.

This competition takes the form of a struggle to improveratings (as regards TV channels) or circulation (as regardsnewspapers, magazines etc). Ratings or circulation areimportant not per se but because the advertising income ofprivately owned mass media (which is the extra incomedetermining their survival or death) depends on them. Theresult is, as Pierre Bourdieu points out that: Ratings havebecome the journalist’s Last Judgement… Wherever you look,people are thinking in terms of market success.


Only thirty years ago, and since the middle of the nineteenthcentury—since Baudelaire and Flaubert and others in avant-garde milieux of writers’ writers, writers acknowledged byother writers or even artists acknowledged by other artists—immediate market success was suspect. It was taken as a signof compromise with the times, with money... Today, on thecontrary, the market is accepted more and more as a legitimatemeans of Iegitimation.

The pressures created by the ratings mechanism, asBourdieu points out, have nothing to do with the democraticexpression of enlightened collective opinion or publicrationality, despite what media ideologues assert. In fact, asthe same author points out, the ratings mechanism is thesanction of the market and the economy, that is, of an externaland purely market law.

I would only add to this that given how ‘public opinion’is formed within the process of socialisation and internalisationof the dominant social paradigm, it is indeed preposterous tocharacterise the ratings mechanism as somehow expressingthe democratic will of the people. Ratings, as well as pollsgenerally, is the ‘democracy of the uninformed’. They simplyreflect the ignorance, the half-truths, or the straightforwarddistortions of the truth which have been assimilated by anuninformed public and which, through the ratings mechanism,reinforce the role of the mass media in the reproduction of thedominant social paradigm.

One may therefore conclude that the role of the mediatoday is not to make the system more democratic. In fact, onebasic function of the media is, as Chomsky stresses, to help inkeeping the general population out of the public arena because‘if they get involved they will just make trouble.

Their job is to be “spectators,” not “participants”.Furthermore, the media can play a crucial role in offsetting thedemocratic rights and freedoms won after long struggles. Thishas almost always been the case when there was a clash between

the elites and trade unions, or popular movements generally.Walter Lippmann, the revered American journalist was explicitabout it, as Chomsky points out. For Lippmann, there is a newart in the method of democracy, called “manufacture ofconsent.” By manufacturing consent, you can overcome thefact that formally a lot of people have the right to vote. Wecan make it irrelevant because we can manufacture consentand make sure that their choices and attitudes will be structuredin such a way that they will always do what we tell them, evenif they have a formal way to participate. So we’ll have a realdemocracy. It will work properly. That’s applying the lessonsof the propaganda agency. Within this analytical frameworkwe may explore fruitfully the particular ways through whichthe filtering of information is achieved, as, for instance, isdescribed by Chomsky and Herman in their ‘propagandamodel’. Similarly Bourdieu shows in a graphic way how thefiltering of information takes place in television, through thestructuring of TV debates, the time limits, the methods ofhiding by showing etc. Particularly important is the way inwhich the media, particularly television, control not just theinformation flow, but also the production of culture, bycontrolling the access of academics as well as of culturalproducers, who in turn, as a result of being recognised a publicfigures, gain recognition in their own fields.

Thus, at the end, the journalistic field, which is structurallyvery strongly subordinated to market pressures and as suchis a very heteronomous field, applies pressure, in turn, to allother fields. An illustrative application of the above analyticalframework is the crucial contribution of the mass media in thecreation of the subjective conditions for the neoliberal consensus.Thus, the mass media have played a double ideological rolewith respect to the neoliberal consensus. On the one hand, theyhave promoted directly the neoliberal agenda:

by degrading the economic role of the state,

by attacking the ‘dependence’ on the state which thewelfare state supposedly creates,


by identifying freedom with the freedom of choice,which is supposedly achieved through the liberation ofmarkets etc. (talk radio and similar TV shows play aparticularly significant role in this respect).

On the other hand, the media have also attempted to divertattention from the consequences of the neoliberal consensus(in terms of growing inequality and poverty, the explosion ofcrime and drug abuse and so on):

by promoting irrational beliefs of all sorts (religion,mystical beliefs, astrology etc). The film and videoexplosion on the themes of exorcism, supernaturalpowers etc (induced mainly by Hollywood) has playeda significant role in diverting attention from the evilsof neoliberalism.

by manufacturing irrelevant and/or insignificant ‘newsstories’ (e.g. Monica Lewinsky affair), which are thentaken over by opposition politicians who are eager tofind fictitious ways (because of the lack of real politicaldifferences within the neoliberal consensus) todifferentiate themselves from those in power.

by creating a pseudo ‘general interest’ (for instancearound a nationalist or chauvinist cause) in order tounite the population around a ‘cause’ and make it forgetthe utterly dividing aspects of neoliberalism.

At the same time, the creation of the neoliberal conditionsat the institutional level had generated the objective conditionsfor the mass media to play the aforementioned role. This wasbecause the deregulation and liberalisation of markets and theprivatisation of state TV in many European countries hadcreated the conditions for homogenisation through the internaland external competition, which I mentioned above. It is notaccidental anyway that major media tycoons like Murdoch inthe Anglo-Saxon world, Kirsch in Germany, or Berlusconi inItaly have also been among the main exponents of the neoliberalconsensus agenda.

TELEVISION THE BEST MEDIUM OF ADVERTISEMENTIN INDIA

A huge industry by itself, the Indian silver screen hasthousands of programmes in all the states of India. The smallscreen has produced numerous celebrities of their own kindsome even attaining national fame. TV soaps are extremelypopular with housewives as well as working women. Somesmall time actors have made it big in Bollywood.

Television first came to India (named as Doordarshan orDD) as the National Television Network of India. The firsttelecast started on September 15, 1959 in New Delhi. After agap of about 13 years, second television station was establishedin Mumbai (Maharashtra) in 1972 and by 1975 there were fivemore television stations at Srinagar (Kashmir), Amritsar(Punjab), Calcutta (West Bengal), Madras (Tamil Nadu) andLucknow (Uttar Pradesh). For many years the transmissionwas mainly in black & white. Television industry got thenecessary boost in the eighties when Doordarshan introducedcolour TV during the 1982 Asian Games.

1980s: Indian small screen programming started off in theearly 1980s. At that time there was only one national channelDoordarshan, which was government owned. The Ramayanaand Mahabharata was the first major television series produced.This serial notched up the world record in viewer ship numbersfor a single program. By the late 1980s more and more peoplestarted to own television sets. Though there was a singlechannel, television programming had reached saturation. Hencethe government opened up another channel which had partnational programming and part regional. This channel wasknown as DD 2 later DD Metro. Both channels were broadcastterrestrially.

Post Liberalization Television: The central governmentlaunched a series of economic and social reforms in 1991 underPrime Minister Narasimha Rao. Under the new policies thegovernment allowed private and foreign broadcasters to engagein limited operations in India. This process has been pursued


consistently by all subsequent federal administrations. Foreignchannels like CNN, Star TV and domestic channels such as ZeeTV and Sun TV started satellite broadcasts. Starting with 41sets in 1962 and one channel (Audience Research unit, 1991)at present TV in India covers more than 70 million homesgiving a viewing population more than 400 million individualsthrough more than 100 channels. A large relatively untappedmarket, easy accessibility of relevant technology and a varietyof programmes are the main reasons for rapid expansion ofTelevision in India.

Cable Television: In 1992, the government liberated itsmarkets, opening them up to cable television. Five new channelsbelonging to the Hong Kong based STAR TV gave Indians afresh breath of life. MTV, STAR Plus, BBC, Prime Sports andSTAR Chinese Channel were the 5 channels. Zee TV was thefirst private owned Indian channel to broadcast over cable. Afew years later CNN, Discovery Channel, National GeographicChannel made its foray into India. Star expanded its bouquetintroducing STAR World, STAR Sports, ESPN and STAR Gold.Regional channels flourished along with a multitude of Hindichannels and a few English channels. By 2001 HBO and HistoryChannel were the other international channels to enter India.By 2001-2003, other international channels such as Nickelodeon,Cartoon Network, VH1, Disney and Toon Disney came intoforay. In 2003 news channels started to boom.

THE SPECTATOR AS SPECTACLE

In April last year, a banner appeared on the terraces of theNewlands cricket ground in Cape Town, South Africa, duringa one-day international. It was a blow-up of a dollar bill bearinga picture of the disgraced South African captain Hansie Cronje'sface. The legend above the photo read: Rally Round the GreenMachine.

The banner appeared a few days after Cronje had beensacked for lying about his involvement with an illegal Indianbookmaking ring, and it raised a few wry laughs. It reflected

fairly accurately the public cynicism over the entire affair, soonnicknamed Hansiegate. But the banner had also hijacked oneof cricket's most triumphal chants "Rally Round the West Indies"and turned it into a cruel dig at the state of the game itself.Back in the 1970s, the West Indies cricket team was close tounbeatable, playing cricket with a flair and a freedom thatdisguised its tactical heart and discipline. Everywhere theyplayed, whenever a handful of their supporters turned up atgrounds, the cry would go out, "Rally Round the West Indies!"

In the year 2000, as West Indies cricket struggles for survivaland the credibility of cricket and some of its most celebratednames has been called to question, the banner at Newlandsspeaks of many truths. Not just about the current crisis, butabout the distance that the sport has travelled from the era of"Rally Round The West Indies" to the present day, when crickethas turned into an entertainment industry. Particularly in SouthAsia, where its liaison with satellite television and big businesshas led to a financial boom, prompting an image make-overand now, in the light of the match-fixing scandal, somethingapproaching overkill.

Banners like the one at Newlands may seem like the graffitiof the sport, a medium for off-the-cuff and irreverent comment.The individuals who think up and display such banners mayeven be considered a late 20th century version of the legendarybarrackers who flocked to the cheap stands at grounds inEngland and Australia before the advent of television andpassed deafening comment on the state of the game. Caribbeangrounds still feature characters who try to puncture superstaregos and lighten the atmosphere, but these men have nowshrunk to a handful; in the popular culture of modern cricket,it is the banner that rules over the banter.

The world has absorbed this change over 25 years. In India,it has taken place in less than ten and the stresses are still withus. Until the late 1980s, the slow pace of Test cricket wasbelieved to be ideally suited to the Indian temperament (it wasopen-ended, and had a casual disregard for time), one scholar


stating that it was an Indian game invented by the British. Yettoday, that theory stands on shaky ground as the Indiantemperament has become an addict to the culture of the insta-thrill one-day game, which is both a product of television andnow a force driven by it. This spatial and territorial shift hasnot only changed the way Indians watch cricket, but also theway they see themselves as its spectators.

The country has staged two World Cups of Cricket, almostten years apart: the first in 1987, organised with Pakistan, washugely popular, a subcontinental financial success story. In1987, spectators would pack into grounds, carrying food anddrink and do as they always did: behave with sobriety andrestraint in Bangalore and Madras, risk being lathi-charged inDelhi and take up chanting in Bombay. What astonishedoverseas visitors most was the fact that Australia playedEngland in the final in front of a vociferous capacity crowd.In no other country in the world, it was said, would such anenthusiastic non-partisan reception have been possible. (Indeed,when India played Pakistan in the 1985 World Championshipof Cricket final in Australia, the stadium was far from full, anda banner described the final thus: "Bus Drivers vs. TramConductors," a snide reference to the most common image ofthe Indian and Pakistani presence in Australia.

Nine years later, the second World Cup, organised byIndia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 1996, marked the zenith ofthe sport's popularity and marketability. But for the Indianteam, it ended in a crowd riot at the Eden Gardens, caused bythe knowledge that the national heroes were going to lose.

The period between these two World Cups is virtually acase study of the effect of television on a sport and on its fans.The end result? The growth of a very large, easily-manipulatedspectator mass with a low tolerance for failure and a largeappetite for jingoism. The elevation of cricket to a vehicle ofNational self-esteem, the sensitive index of urban morale.

A street performer tries to attract spectators for viewinga snake-mongoose fight, but with little success.

The chief catalyst in this process was the advent, in 1993,of satellite television: for the first time in a long and colourfulhistory, there were banners, and the Indian flag made itsappearance at cricket grounds.

At the same time, cricket on television began to resemblethe slick, much-envied coverage on Australia's Channel 9 inthe days when Doordarshan's best efforts were black and whiteblurs. The banners and face-painting were imported adaptationsof what Indians saw Australians doing in Melbourne or Sydney(minus, of course, two cultural no-nos: streakers and sunbathersin bikinis). Shrewd Australian marketing men now pay $500prizes for the wittiest banners picked out by the TV camerasat a match provided they include the logo of the companysponsoring the prize; it is a practice which will no doubt soonbe latched on to by Indian sponsors.

The Indian flags, again imitative of fan behaviour overseas,have come to represent an angry and aggressive nationalism;the old, somewhat harmless practice of a century-maker beinggarlanded by someone jumping the fence at grounds is nowabandoned for orgies of bottle-throwing. Indian cricket is nostranger to crowd disturbances, but the frequency and thevenom have increased manifold.

Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that the potof public sentiment is kept boiling by promotional ad campaignsin which Indian cricketers no longer bat or bowl inadvertisements: they leap over burning tyres to make stops inthe field, hurl balls of fire at opposition batsmen and batagainst bowlers shooting machine guns. Westernised accentspromote cricket series nicknamed Badla, Qayamat, andSarfarosh. The imagery and vocabulary smoothly subvertOrwell's analogy of sport as war minus the shooting and justifythemselves by the ominous reminder that only two thingsbring India together: cricket and war. Defeat, therefore, is notan option. This may sound like the hackneyed MTV Theoryof Social Change: how traditional Indian values (here,institutions like cricket) are being corrupted by the impact of


television. In most cases, blaming the media may be the easiestoption, but in the case of sport it is perhaps the most valid one.

A soccer fan stabbing a supporter of a rival team.

Live sport cricket in India, football in Europe or basketballin the U.S. is the highest-revenue earner on television. The saleand purchase of TV "rights" is a multi-million dollar business,and sporting events are turned into "properties" sold forterrestrial and satellite television, radio and now the internet.

Such an exhaustive dissemination of sport spawns imitativebut largely homogeneous behaviour over large swathes of theglobe. It could spark off a trend in street fashion (e.g. the baggyshorts of NBA basketball superstars), teach Indian cricketspectators to do the Mexican wave and pass on to the athletesthemselves, who turn any key moment on the field-a goal, acatch, a three-pointer-into an elaborate celebratory ritual.

The high-five, the chest-butt, the mass pile-up of bodiesnear the football goal-mouth... no matter what their tribalisticorigins, where or why they were actually "invented" or firstused, this elaborate sign language of sport is always"discovered" by the media, mostly television, and returned tothe public as a legitimised, desirable code of behaviour.

This phenomenon of crowd participation, largely for thebenefit of the all-seeing eyes of television in the form ofcelebrations, chanting, banners, has turned the spectator froma witness into an element of the spectacle itself. It is a self-perpetuating cycle, a mass of flag-waving, banners, Mexicanwaves, each gesture magnified time after time to catch theattention of the camera.

The Indian Board's drive to take cricket and its revenue-earning television cameras to all corners of the country,including smaller metros, has created and perpetuated theimage (more like an orientalist caricature) of the Indian cricketcrowd: large, "colourful" "passionate" "volatile"-words sprinkledall over television commentary from a group of distinguishedEnglish or Australian experts, who have turned into the eyes

and mind of the crowd. It sees what they want it to see, itbelieves what they tell it. With little work for the powers ofimagination or interpretation, it acts the way they would likeit to act.

Television companies know that the tempo of a match, nomatter how humdrum, can now be cranked up merely byturning a television camera on a section of the crowd. Thetemperature of a crowd can be raised by replaying acontroversial umpiring decision over and over again on a giantscreen. The whole production, its mechanics and its "look" isunder control.

Mark Mascarenhas, chief of World Tel, which brought the1996 World Cup live to television, told Sportstar that hiscompany's television coverage changes from nation to nation,the Indian formula being ridiculously simple: "In India spendmuch more time on the crowd because they are so animated,so colourful. We spend more time on the VIPs because in Indiapeople like to be seen on television... If you try to do this Indiantype of coverage in England it won't go over very well."

Such commodification and codification of public space hasleft little room for spontaneity or candour, which is really theheart of a spectator's response. During the Australian Opentennis tournament a few years ago, "fans" of French tennisplayer Mary Pierce showed up in the stands wearing all hertrademark tennis dresses and naturally caught the cameras.They turned out to be employees of Nike, whose tennis clothingis endorsed by the statuesque Frenchwoman, planted in thestands to do precisely that.

Hansie Cronje's disgrace was made complete, again by"fans" who blackened his face on an advertising hoarding afew days after his admission of dishonesty. But the fans (inreality, members of the "youth" wing of a political party) madesure that they did so in the presence of television cameras.Cronje's descent from role model to persona non grata wasformalised in footage. Other hoardings featuring Cronje andthe South African team were pulled down; in the age of the


media, removal from the public gaze is akin to punishment,humiliation and exile. In India, cricket's sign language mayappear to become more varied, more elaborate, richer in colourand bolder in gesture. But its words today, as part of a pre-determined script written by someone else, come up empty.

A SNAPSHOT OF INDIAN TELEVISION HISTORY

Television in India has been in existence for nigh on fourdecades. For the first 17 years, it spread haltingly andtransmission was mainly in black & white. The thinkers andpolicy makers of the country, which had just been liberatedfrom centuries of colonial rule, frowned upon television, lookingon at it as a luxury Indians could do without. In 1955 a Cabinetdecision was taken disallowing any foreign investments inprint media which has since been followed religiously fornearly 45 years. Sales of TV sets, as reflected by licences issuedto buyers were just 676,615 until 1977.

Television has come to the forefront only in the past 21years and more so in the past 13. There were initially twoignition points: the first in the eighties when colour TV wasintroduced by state-owned broadcaster Doordarshan (DD)timed with the 1982 Asian Games which India hosted. It thenproceeded to install transmitters nationwide rapidly forterrestrial broadcasting. In this period no private enterprisewas allowed to set up TV stations or to transmit TV signals.

The second spark came in the early nineties with thebroadcast of satellite TV by foreign programmers like CNNfollowed by Star TV and a little later by domestic channelssuch as Zee TV and Sun TV into Indian homes. Prior to this,Indian viewers had to make do with DD's chosen fare whichwas dull, non-commercial in nature, directed towards onlyeducation and socio-economic development. Entertainmentprogrammes were few and far between. And when the solitaryfew soaps like Hum Log (1984), and mythological dramas:Ramayana (1987-88) and Mahabharata (1988-89) were televised,millions of viewers stayed glued to their sets.

When, urban Indians learnt that it was possible to watchthe Gulf War on television, they rushed out and bought dishesfor their homes. Others turned entrepreneurs and startedoffering the signal to their neighbours by flinging cable overtreetops and verandahs. From the large metros satellite TVdelivered via cable moved into smaller towns, spurring thepurchase of TV sets and even the upgradation from black &white to colour TVs.

DD responded to this satellite TV invasion by launchingan entertainment and commercially driven channel andintroduced entertainment programming on its terrestrialnetwork. This again fuelled the purchase of sets in thehinterlands where cable TV was not available.

The initial success of the channels had a snowball effect:more foreign programmers and Indian entrepreneurs flaggedoff their own versions. From two channels prior to 1991, Indianviewers were exposed to more than 50 channels by 1996.Software producers emerged to cater to the programmingboom almost overnight. Some talent came from the filmindustry, some from advertising and some from journalism.

More and more people set up networks until there was atime in 1995-96 when an estimated 60,000 cable operators wereexisting in the country. Some of them had subscriber bases aslow as 50 to as high as in the thousands. Most of the networkscould relay just 6 to 14 channels as higher channel relayingcapacity required heavy investments, which cable operatorswere loathe to make. American and European cable networksevinced interest, as well as large Indian business groups, whoset up sophisticated headends capable of delivering more than30 channels.

These multi-system operators (MSOs) started buying uplocal networks or franchising cable TV feeds to the smalleroperators for a fee. This phenomenon led to resistance fromsmaller cable operators who joined forces and startedfunctioning as MSOs. The net outcome was that the number


of cable operators in the country has fallen to 30,000. The rashof players who rushed to set up satellite channels discoveredthat advertising revenue was not large enough to supportthem. This led to a shake-out. At least half a dozen eitherfolded up or aborted the high-flying plans they had drawn up,and started operating in a restricted manner. Some of themconverted their channels into basic subscription servicescharging cable operators a carriage fee.

Foreign cable TV MSOs discovered that the cable TV marketwas too disorganised for them to operate in and at least threeof them decided to postpone their plans and got out of themarket..

The government started taxing cable operators in a bid togenerate revenue. The rates varied in the 26 states that go toform India and ranged from 35 per cent upwards. Theauthorities moved in to regulate the business and a Cable TVAct was passed in 1995. The apex court in the country, theSupreme Court, passed a judgement that the air waves are notthe property of the Indian government and any Indian citizenwanting to use them should be allowed to do so. Thegovernment reacted by making efforts to get some regulationin place by setting up committees to suggest what thebroadcasting law of India should be, as the sector was stillbeing governed by laws which were passed in 19th centuryIndia. A broadcasting bill was drawn up in 1997 and introducedin parliament. But it was not passed into an Act. State-ownedtelecaster Doordarshan and radiocaster All India Radio werebrought under a holding company called the Prasar Bharatiunder an act that had been gathering dust for seven years, thePrasar Bharati Act, 1990. The Act served to give autonomy tothe broadcasters as their management was left to a supervisoryboard consisting of retired professionals and bureaucrats.

A committee headed by a senior Congress (I) politicianSharad Pawar and consisting of other politicians andindustrialist was set up to review the contents of theBroadcasting Bill. It held discussions with industry, politicians,

and consumers and a report was even drawn up. But theUnited Front government fell and since then the report andthe Bill have been consigned to the dustbin. But before that itissued a ban on the sale of Ku-band dishes and on digitaldirect-to-home Ku-band broadcasting, which the RupertMurdoch-owned News Television was threatening to start inIndia. ISkyB, the Murdoch DTH venture, has since beenwallowing in quicksand and in recent times has even shed alot of employees. But News Corp has been running a C-bandDTH venture in the country which has around 20,000subscribers.

CHANGING LIVES THROUGH TV PROGRAMMING

Nothing can be more devastating for a father than notbeing able to touch his own children. And that is exactly whathappened to Panchu Bhol, a villager in the southeastern stateof Orissa, India. Many men from this poverty-strickenhinterland of Puri district migrate seasonally to Gujarat insearch of livelihood. Panchu had also embarked on thismigration route, regularly sending money to his family, untilhe contracted HIV in Surat, the port city of Gujarat.

News of Panchu's HIV status spread like a wildfire. Hisfamily was excommunicated, and his village declared Panchua curse. Even Panchu himself started to believe it. He lost thecourage to pick up his daughter, fearing that he might infecther. Banned from the village life, Panchu cried at his fate,seeing death as the only way out.

But an extraordinary event in December 2005 turned hislife around. Panchu still remembers the mild afternoon breezeon the day when the Kalyani team came to his hamlet. Kalyani-meaning the one who provides welfare-is a television healthtelecast on Doordarshan, the national television of India. SinceMay of 2002 when it was launched, the program about buildingpositive health behaviours has been reaching nearly 50% ofIndia's population. Doordarshan national television is theworld's largest public broadcaster and a signatory to the Global


AIDS Media Summit. Providing localized content, Doordarshanproduces its key messages in consultation with the NationalAIDS Control Organisation and the Ministry of Health. Itstelecasts feature short spots, folk songs, and informativesegments with experts, in an attempt to tackle themes of HIVrelated stigma, discrimination and treatment. Kalyani programalso provides follow up action through expert visits to ruralareas to interact with the target audiences.

Actors playing Kalyani characters 'Sehri Didi and ChakuliaPanda', along with the rest of the Kalyani team, reachedPanchu's village. The team met an emaciated, bearded andconfused Panchu. And as the villagers gathered to catch aglimpse of the movie stars, tears rolled out of Panchu's eyes.It was the first time that someone had visited him since he hadbeen diagnosed with HIV.

Informed of Panchu's situation, Sehri Didi (the characterportraying the sister's role in the programme) offered to becomePanchu's "sister" in real life and tied him a raakhi, the traditionalauspicious red thread. She also shared some sweets with him.

Sehri Didi challenged the villagers not to stigmatize hernew "brother" Panchu. An elderly man from the crowd summedup the sentiments of the village: "You told us that HIV doesnot spread by touching people living with HIV or eating withthem. Why should we hate Panchu? We are sorry we did notknow this before."

Panchu was finally accepted. Having learned about meansof HIV transmission, Panchu took his daughter into his armsfor the first time. For Sehri Didi, accustomed to crying withglycerine on screen, it was difficult to control her tears.

When the Kalyani team visited Panchu's village threemonths later, they could hardly recognize him-now a cleanshaven and confident young man championing HIV prevention.The doctor treating Panchu thanked the Kalyani team forremoving a major hurdle in Panchu's recovery-the social stigma.Kalyani program airs in the capital cities of eight highly

populated Indian states and there now exist nearly 2,000community level Kalyani Health Clubs, with close to half millionmembers.

A CLIENT-CENTRED NETWORKING PROJECT INRURAL INDIA

TV Firms Gear up for Rural Market: When Oscar Televisionmade it to ORG-Gfk's list of 10 top-selling colour televisionbrands earlier this year, there was one person who wasn'tsatisfied.

Arpita Khurana, Oscar's youthful director, insisted thatthe ORG-Gfk survey didn't tell half the story because it collectedfigures only in the metropolitan areas.

Oscar, she said, was flying off the shop-shelves in semi-urban and rural India. What's more, Khurana predicted thatsemi-urban and rural demand would zoom by around 80 percent this year. That, say her rivals, may be an overestimate.But the other colour television and consumer electronicsmanufacturers aren't disagreeing loudly. In fact, they are alsogearing for a buying spree in rural and semi-urban India.

The industry association too is bullish about sales this year.Cetma (the Consumer Electronics and TV ManufacturersAssociation) has projected sales of 10 million sets in 2004compared to around 8 million to 8.25 million TVs likely to besold this year. That's compared to 6.7 million sets sold in 2002.

Cetma believes that between 8 million and 8.25 millionTV sets will be sold this year compared to 6.7 millionlast year

In 2002 63.1 per cent of sales came from cities andsmaller regions with a population of less than 1 million

Companies like LG and Philips are almost doublingdistribution networks in the rural areas

To attract rural buyers 14-inch televisions are beingsold for as little as Rs 3,500


Most amazingly, about 70 per cent of this will come fromthe semi-urban and rural market. "This means the rural marketwill grow by as much as 25 per cent compared to 5 per centgrowth in the urban markets," says an association executive.

What's fuelling the rural optimism? There's a growth inawareness, say the manufacturers. Also, they have boostedpenetration in semi-urban and rural areas.

And this year there have been good monsoons followedby good harvests. Diwali sales have been robust and the feel-good factor in the economy is boosting buying.

It's important to keep one thing in mind. This isn't the firstyear when rural demand has climbed sharply. Market researchfirm Francis Kanoi recently said in a report (on consumerelectronic market growth and projections) that the top sevenmetros contributed 24.1 per cent of total sales in 2002. That wasfollowed by towns with a population of over 1 million where12.0 per cent of the sets were bought. The remaining 63.1 percent of sales in 2002 came from cities and smaller regions witha population of less than 1 million.

The tilt towards the smaller towns and rural areas isbecoming more pronounced with each passing year. This year,for instance, it has been reckoned that buying in the top sevenmetros will contribute only 22.6 per cent a fall from last year.Smaller towns and regions will be 64.3 per cent of total sales.

"Barely five years ago, the contribution from semi-urbanand rural markets for us was 20 per cent. Today we get 70 percent of our volumes from these markets," says ChandramaniSingh, product group head (consumer electronics) at LGElectronics India.

But another subtle change is taking place this year,according to industry analysts. Until now, the markettransformation has happened primarily because owners ofradios and B&W televisions were upgrading to colourtelevisions. As per Francis Kanoi data, the upgrades fromB&W to the colour TV segment forms over 60 per cent of total

CTV purchases. But now the industry is talking of other factors,which will drive growth like the booming rural economy.Also, they feel consumers will be making up for lost time: thefeel-good factor has been distinctly missing for the last twoyears so rural consumers have held back on big ticket purchases.

But there's an additional factor that's likely to fuel growth.Loans for products like televisions have become easier in therural areas because the public sector banks are moving in withoffers of easy credit.

Add to that the fact that prices of televisions have fallensteeply and companies are taking extra initiatives to promotesales.

"Rural consumption is linked with agricultural output andthe availability of cash. Untill very recently, financing wasavailable to the rural people at very high interest rates and thattoo, not made available by any financing agents or banks butby the village sahukars (money lender). Thus, the trend in therural areas still is to make cash purchases, which links to goodharvests and ready availability of cash," says Ravinder Zutshi,director (sales) of Samsung India Electronics Ltd.

Zutshi is convinced that buying will climb even moresharply in coming years because of cheap financing. Bankssuch as the State Bank of India are pushing their loan schemesin the rural areas and so are financing companies like BajajFinance.

"The manufacturers too are expanding both theirpenetration as well as the products for the rural markets, allof which should help boost rural sales," he says.

Says LG's Singh, "Electrification of villages and an increasein awareness among the people, a good harvest and a boomingeconomy will help drive growth. The rural market should seea growth that is three to four times that in the urban markets."

"The potential is high as the penetration levels are low, andhence our efforts towards creating a bigger market here," adds


Devender Saini, senior product manager (television), PhilipsIndia Ltd.

"If we look at the penetration levels in rural markets, it isless than 10 per cent. This is lower than the all-India averageof 21 per cent and the urban markets which are at 35 per centto 40 per cent."

The increase in penetration levels in the rural markets hasalso shown the way to the Oscars and Belteks of the world,which are carving out a niche by positioning themselves asprice warriors. And their cut-price tactics have forced LG,Samsung and Philips, among others, to launch productstargeted only at these markets.

These products have fewer frills, and are hence, cheaper.As a result, the rural masses are being tempted by the lowerprices offered by all manufacturers. The entry of the biggerplayers in these market segments has forced the smaller onesto squeeze margins and reduce prices further.

R K Caprihan, an old industry hand and the chief executiveof The Kelon Corporation, claims he is selling 14-inch for aslow as Rs 3,600 and a 20-inch for only Rs 5,500.

In fact, the success of the smaller brands and the entry ofthe bigger players have started a war on many fronts. It's notrestricted to pricing, but it's also about visibility and value formoney.

Oscar, for instance, which derives 40 per cent of its salesfrom the semi-urban and rural sectors, has launched a battery-operated television model in the 14" segment to cater to partsof Eastern UP and Bihar.

This has boosted the company's sales by 5 per cent to 7 percent. It is planning to come out with a similar 21" model thismonth. Says Arpita Khurana: "Since electricity is a problem inthese areas we felt the model would be a success."

LG is putting more emphasis on dealership network. Thecompany had only one distributor in Jaipur. But it now has

distributors in Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Udaipur and several otherplaces. Over the past year, the company's direct dealers haverisen from 1,000 to 1,500 and the number of sub-dealers hasclimbed from 2,800 to 5,000.

The company, which is the market leader in the colourtelevision segment, has focused on decentralising its operationsto increase its rural penetration this year. It has increased its'remote area offices', which function at district levels, from 27earlier to 62 this year. Similarly, Philips is planning to doubleits retail presence. From an existing network of 6,000, thecompany plans to have 12,000 retailers. About 75 per cent ofthis increase will take place in the rural areas.

Companies are also spending on huge sums on advertising,especially in local vernacular newspapers. Philips has fallenback on some unconventional advertising media like wall-writing and radio advertising. Says D Shivakumar, vice-president, consumer electronics, Philips India: "We have astrong base of loyal consumers of transistor sets as well as B/W TVs who are now ready to upgrade. We will try and tapthese consumers for our rural scheme."

Companies are also organising rural melas and haats anduse mobile hoardings to reach potential customers in villagesand semi-urban markets. And, if the rural customers areswitching on in larger numbers the picture can only get brighterfor all the companies.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC DISTINCTION OF TV

In sociolinguistics, a T-V distinction describes the situationwherein a language has second-person pronouns thatdistinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance,courtesy, familiarity, or insult toward the addressee.

HISTORY AND USAGE

The expressions T-form and V-form were introduced byBrown and Gilman (1960), with reference to the initial lettersof these pronouns in Latin, tu and vos. In Latin, tu was originally


the singular, and vos the plural, with no distinction for honorificor familiar. According to Brown and Gilman, usage of theplural to the Roman emperor began in the fourth century AD.

They mention the possibility that this was because therewere two emperors at that time (in Constantinople and Rome),but also mention that "plurality is a very old and ubiquitousmetaphor for power". This usage was extended to otherpowerful figures, such as Pope Gregory I (590-604). But Brownand Gilman note that it was only between the twelfth andfourteenth centuries that the norms for the use of T-and V-forms crystallized. Less commonly, the use of the plural maybe extended to other persons, such as the "royal we" (pluralismajestatis) in English.

Brown and Gilman argued that the choice of form isgoverned by either relationships of 'power' and/or 'solidarity',depending on the culture of the speakers, showing that 'power'had been the dominant predictor of form in Europe until thetwentieth century. Thus it was quite normal for a powerfulperson to use a T-form but expect a V-form in return. Howeverin the twentieth century the dynamic shifted in favour ofsolidarity, so that people would use T-forms with those theyknew, and V-forms in service encounters, with reciprocal usagebeing the norm in both cases.

Modern English has no T-V distinction. It can often beconfusing for an English speaker learning a language with aT-V distinction to assimilate the rules surrounding when tocall someone with the formal or the informal pronoun. Studentsare often advised to err on the side of caution by using theformal pronouns. However, this risks sounding snobbish orridiculous. Though English has no syntactic T-V distinction,there are semantic analogies, such as whether to addresssomeone by first name or last name (or using sir and ma'am).

However the boundaries between formal and informallanguage differ from language to language, and most languagesuse formal speech more frequently, and/or in different

circumstances than English. In some circumstances it is notunusual to call other people by first name and the respectfulform, or last name and familiar form. For example, Germanteachers use the former construct with upper-secondarystudents. The use of these forms calls for compensatingtranslation of dialogue into English. For example, a characterin a French film or novel saying "Tutoie-moi!" ("Use [theinformal pronoun] tu when addressing me!") might betranslated "Don't be so formal!"

EXAMPLES

In many languages, the formal singular pronoun derivesfrom a plural form. Many Romance languages have familiarforms derived from the Latin singular tu and formal formsderived from Latin plural vos, sometimes via a circuitous route.Sometimes, singular V-form derives from a third personpronoun. Some languages have separate T and V forms forboth singular and plural; others have the same form; othershave a T-V distinction only in the singular.

Different languages distinguish pronoun uses in differentways. Even within languages, there are differences betweengroups (older people and people of higher status tending toboth use and expect more formal language) and betweenvarious aspects of one language. For example, in Dutch, u isslowly falling into disuse in the plural, and thus one couldsometimes address a group as jullie when one would addresseach member individually as u. In Latin American Spanish, theopposite change has occurred-having lost vosotros, LatinAmericans address all groups as ustedes, even if the group iscomposed of friends whom they would call tú or vos (mostlyin Argentina). In Standard Peninsular Spanish, however,vosotros is still regularly employed in familiar conversation.In some cases, V-forms are likely to be capitalized when written.

TRADITIONAL MEDIA

For generations, rural populations living in isolated villageswithout access to modern means of communication have relied


on the spoken word and traditional forms of communicationas a means of sharing knowledge and information andproviding entertainment.

For illiterate rural women in particular, occasions forinformation exchange have consisted solely in local festivities,family gatherings, traditional and religious associations,interaction with itinerant merchants and encounters atmarketplaces or water wells. However, women have made useof the oral tradition to ensure their own as well as their families'survival and, as a result, have developed a rich communicationenvironment. They have lived creative lives, transmittingculture, knowledge, customs and history through traditionalforms of communication such as poetry, proverbs, songs,stories, dances and plays. Within their communities, womenare active participants in social communication networks. Theyuse indigenous communication methods for informationexchange, knowledge sharing and the dissemination ofstrategies for mutual assistance and survival.

Culture and history play an important role in the socialdevelopment of a community. The preservation of traditionalforms of communication and social change are not mutuallyexclusive. Traditional communication methods can beimportant channels for facilitating learning, behavioural change,people's participation and dialogue for development purposes.Indigenous media have been successfully adopted by changeagents to promote rural development issues of relevance towomen. They have been used, for instance, to influence attitudestowards family size, female genital mutilation, teenagepregnancies, unsettling lifestyles and HIV/AIDS.

They have also been applied in health care, environmentalprotection and women's literacy programmes as well as inteaching mothers about child nutrition and in introducing newagricultural practices. Traditional forms of communication canalso be integrated with other media such as radio, television,video and audio cassettes. Communication is a product ofculture, and culture determines the code, structure, meaning

and context of the communication that takes place. Theparticipation of local folk artists, storytellers and performersin the production and use of traditional media ensures respectfor traditional values, symbols and realities and, at the sametime, ensures that such media productions appeal to ruralaudiences.

By tapping the community's creative pool of traditionalculture, expressions and formats, women can maintain theircultural identity while gaining social self-reliance. Women'suse of local media and communication channels also increasesthe credibility of media programmes and thus their effectivenessand impact on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour ofother women.

GRASSROOTS ARTISTS FOR POPULATION COMMUNICATION IN

MALAWI

Population communication teams working in the Comoros,Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and the Philippines havetapped a variety of artistic expressions: the beat of drums, thesound of three-string guitars, the rhythm of skiffle bands,women's dance groups, village clowns, storytellers, theatregroups and puppets.

Building on those experiences, a population communicationproject in Malawi invited grassroots artists (including women)from the project's target audience to a communicationworkshop. The participants then worked together to producea coherent multimedia package of songs and dances, storiesand plays, village clowneries and drum shows addressing avariety of population issues and lifestyles.

The productions were pretested and integrated into amultimedia campaign, which also used radio, visual materials,drama and print. Yet it was the talent, creativity and intuitionof the artists that triggered a process of village participationin the rural areas of southern Malawi.

The emotional excitement created by the launching ofvillage campaigns gave way to the spontaneous development


of traditional songs, dances and popular plays by other villageartists. The Malawi experience proves the potential thattraditional forms of communication have to involve and reachwomen audiences.

MULTIMEDIA

Communication programmes should make use of all mediainfrastructures and channels available in a country, both modernand traditional, in an orchestrated and mutually reinforcingfashion.

The combination of several media approaches and toolswith interpersonal channels multiplies the impact ofcommunication campaigns, which are being used increasinglyto support clearly defined development priorities. Some strikingexamples include a health campaign in the United Republic ofTanzania; nutrition programmes in Nicaragua, the Philippinesand Tunisia; a breast-feeding campaign in Trinidad and Tobago;family planning programmes in China, Colombia, Egypt,Honduras, Pakistan and Thailand; and a campaign againstfemale genital mutilation in Ethiopia.

Multichannel communication approaches can also help inidentifying appropriate agricultural technologies for womenas well as in disseminating the required knowledge and skills.

A recent evaluation of the Soul City "edutainment"programme in South Africa has demonstrated the added valueand effectiveness of using a multichannel approach. Thiscommunication campaign aimed at delivering health educationmessages to women over a three-month period. It included aseries of 13 television drama programmes, broadcast at primetime on the country's most popular television channel.

It was accompanied by a series of 15-minute radio dramaprogrammes, called Healing Hearts, broadcast daily on thecountry's three largest radio stations. In addition, Soul Cityused newspapers to provide more detailed information and tosupplement the health messages conveyed by electronic media.

A booklet, illustrated with characters from the television series,was serialized in the major newspapers and distributed throughclinics and health service organizations.

Finally, educational packages combining audio and video-tape together with written materials were produced to facilitatelearning processes in both formal and informal settings. Apublic relations campaign strengthened the messages furtherby placing the issues on the public agenda by using editorialspace, competitions and a range of actuality programmes inthe various media.

The entire campaign was preceded by formative researchto identify appropriate channels and messages. Messages weredesigned in consultation with the target audience and expertsin the field, and materials and programmes were pretestedwith groups of women and men.

An evaluation analysed gender-desegregated data to assessthe impact of the various channels and materials on knowledge,attitudes and behaviour. The results showed that themultimedia approach in this case was effective in reachingfemale audiences.

Audiovisual materials such as slides and video can assistextension workers. Women trainees, even if they are illiterate,can see and discuss innovations before putting them intopractice.

IMPROVING EXTENSION AND TRAINING PROGRAMMES

Investing in the sharing of knowledge and learning forrural women through extension and training can be an effectivemeans of reducing poverty and promoting food security andsustainable development. However, studies on agriculturalextension have highlighted a number of weaknesses in currentefforts to reach rural women. There are very few womenextensionists; moreover, the attitudes and behaviour of maleextension personnel can be a major barrier between extensionservices and women.


Extension services have often ignored the specificinformation needs of women as well as the fact that they mayrequire different agricultural technologies from those suited tomen. They have underestimated women's indigenousknowledge and experience and have not taken the time tolisten to and learn from women themselves.

A combination of traditional and modern communicationmethods can help extension workers to improve the qualityand outreach of their programmes with women. Fieldworkersneed to abandon top-down approaches in favour ofparticipatory communication skills and methods and establisha climate of confidence and trust.

They need to learn how to promote dialogue among womenfarmers, help them identify their needs and strengthen theirself-confidence. Participatory communication methods canimprove the linkages among women farmers, extensionists,researchers, policy-makers and planners, thereby fostering theexchange of information and knowledge and ensuring thatdevelopment activities correspond to the real needs of ruralcommunities.

Audiovisual materials such as slides and video can assistextension workers with their training activities. Womentrainees, even if they are illiterate, can see and discussinnovations before putting them into practice.

Audio-visuals can compress time and space. For example,in a single session, a training group can explore an entireagricultural cycle, from sowing to harvest. Through visualmaterials, women can travel to places that are too distant tovisit.

The extensionists themselves also benefit from usingcommunication materials. The technical information presentedcan be standardized and of high quality and the presentationsmade attractive and interesting. Audiovisual materials sparkdialogue and debate and, overall, they allow trainers to bemore confident and professional.

The use of mass media, such as rural radio, can reinforceand multiply the impact of extension messages and allowextensionists to reach rural people in isolated areas. Radio andtelevision can be used to conduct distance educationprogrammes for rural women who are unable to attend formaleducation and training programmes.

DEVELOPING AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES

Rural women play an important role in Jamaicanagriculture: as farmers in their own right, in partnership withmen on household farms and as the main cultivators of kitchengardens. A challenge to extension in Jamaica has been findingcreative and cost-effective ways to communicate with ruralwomen. A pilot project, supported by the Governments ofJamaica and Canada, used various participatory communicationapproaches to deliver appropriately designed soil nutrienttechnologies to rural women.

In order to develop appropriate agricultural and soil fertilitytechnologies for rural women, a participatory communicationmethodology was used that incorporated both indigenous andscientific knowledge.

The project demonstrated that women have specificinformation needs, and a set of participatory techniques for agender approach to agricultural activities was developed. Italso demonstrated how extension workers could select froma variety of traditional and modern communication methodsaccording to the needs of rural women. The approaches andmedia applied, and the products generated, by the projectincluded:

a series of community video screenings, followed bydiscussion, showing agricultural practices in Jamaica;

video tapes of community demonstration plots,comparing the effects of various soil nutrientapplications;

a visual baseline survey, with respondents interviewedeither on video or on audiotape;

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge186 Advertising and Society in India 187

a drama performance-for which rural women were hiredas actors-to improve understanding of how genderrelationships affect agricultural decision-making (theperformance was used to verify the baseline surveyfindings);

oral history testimonies about each community, (theseemerged from interviews and were published in localnewsletters);

a quarterly newsletter, produced to inform projectparticipants and other audiences about soil fertility andother agricultural issues;

participatory video training carried out in each of thecommunities, resulting in a series of short, humorousprogrammes related to agriculture and soil fertility.

Based on findings from nine months of field testing as wellas on the results of the video baseline survey and a mid-termevaluation, the technology package was redesigned and a finalvideo was produced to present soil nutrient and soilconservation recommendations.

6Advertising and Society in India

As innumerable media corporations execute decisions madein boardrooms (where "globalization" and "deregulation" arethe mantras), the challenges facing international communicationscholars become veritable riddles of the Sphinx. They watchin bewilderment as transborder commercial satellites pulverizethe protective, monopolistic, state-controlled broadcastingregimes of erstwhile colonies of South Asia. They ponder asthe antediluvian legislation pertaining to airwaves prevalentin these nations fails in its attempts to cope with what Ithielde Sola Pool called the new "technologies of freedom." Imaginetheir plight when they see the comprador bourgeoisiecollaborate, nay, fraternize with the "invaders," waving market-friendly banners which spell out "joint venture."

This paper is an essay in empathy, the beneficiary beingthe aforementioned scholars of global media. Focusing on theIndian subcontinent, the author discusses the complex set ofevents leading up to the current conjuncture (the term usedhere in its fullest Althusserian import) in the nation'smediascape. The paper draws on literature in the field ofglobal communication; print-media reports from the last sixyears; and a series of interviews with broadcast entrepreneurs,analysts, and consultants, conducted by the author in India.

It argues that the promise of global interconnectivitythrough new technology can fast become "technological" and"cultural imperialism" unless guided by a well-groundedunderstanding of global difference, national philosophies

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge Advertising and Society in India188 189

regarding the role of electronic mass media, and above all, theperils of leapfrogging developing societies into media ecologiesborrowed heavily from the industrialized West. Finally, itunderscores the importance of localizing the debate onglobalization, allowing the concerned communities to developand articulate broadcasting architectures most appropriate totheir new role in the "global village."

THE "WONDERLAND" OF COMMUNICATION SATELLITES

The Gulf War of 1990-91 did more than just convey imagesof SCUD missiles punching their targets. It also showcased toa captive worldwide audience, the technology that made thispossible. Big city hotels with rooftop dish antennas were ableto relay CNN's live reports to an aspiring, upwardly-mobileclass of Indians. A class that would soon feature in India's ownwar of the airwaves.

Communication satellites are not new to India. In tunewith the developmental communication rhetoric of the 1960s-1970s India conducted the world's largest techno-socialexperiment using a NASA satellite. The SITE project (SatelliteInstructional Technology Experiment) of 1975-76 representedIndia's communication philosophy: a categorical rejection ofthe entertainment component of electronic mass media and acommitment to realizing their potential as agencies of socialchange. The models developed by Daniel Lerner and WilburSchramm served as guidelines for many of these experiments.

While television broadcasting under Doordarshan (fromSanskrit "distant vision") had already begun in 1959 asexperimental programs to villages around Delhi, the SITEexperiment unfolded the "national" reach of the medium forthe first time. Indian broadcasting entered the satellite agewith the launching of the first Indian satellite, INSAT-1A (IndianNational Satellite) in April, 1982.

The viewers of CNN's live broadcast of the Gulf War in1991 had lived through a decade of huge domestic growth inbroadcasting led by a monopolistic, state-controlled

Doordarshan. Plan outlays, coupled with the nation's aggressivespace research program, had assured incremental coverage ofIndia's remotest regions. From a mere 26% of the populationin 1982, Doordarshan's reach grew to approximately 80% by1991 (Audience Research Unit 1996). Interestingly, the avowednon-commercial objectives had given way to the immenserevenue-earning possibilities of the medium. Doordarshan'scommercial revenue through program sponsorships on itssingle national network grew from a meager Rs 159 million in1982 to a whopping Rs 3 billion in 1992 (Audience ResearchUnit 1996).

According to Kiran Karnik (1997), Managing Director ofDiscovery Communications in India, commercialism"completely overtook" the professed developmentalcommunication objectives. "At the end of the year," he adds,"they would not say what great programs they did, whatchanges they brought, what social programs they did--but thiswas the profit that was made, this was the ad revenue earned."

In inverse proportion, Doordarshan's credibility as animpartial information medium had plummeted. Successivegovernments abused the "visibility" potential of the medium,hijacking news and public affairs programming and turningthem into "a-day-in-the-life-of-your-prime minister" stylecoverage. Pendakur (1990) charges Indian television policy ofthe period with serving "its own propaganda needs as well asthe demands of indigenous and transnational capitalists, alongwith the entertainment prerogatives of the middle/uppermiddle classes." Urbanites cringed at its insincere attempts atdevelopmental programming, while ruralites "wondered whyitems alien to their world...be repeated through loud andannoying jingles."

However, lest this criticism be construed as a dismissal ofall the achievements of television in India in the eighties, it isimportant to highlight what Doordarshan was up against.India's prolific film-industry had created a preeminententertainment format comprising formulaic story-lines bundled


with a heavy dose of hybridized song, dance, and music. Itgoes entirely to Doordarshan's credit that it made sincereattempts at delivering made-for-TV fare such as pro-socialsoap-operas in a climate loaded with escapist entertainmentformats.

THE GROWTH OF SATELLITE-FED CABLE

Three months after CNN's historic broadcast, Hong Kong-based entrepreneur Li Ka-shing launched the preview channelof his pan-Asian satellite network STAR (Satellite TelevisionAsian Region). The company started as a 50-50 joint venturebetween Li and a Hong Kong conglomerate HutchinsonWhampoa. It was beaming from a communication satelliteAsiasat-1, whose footprint covered 38 countries from Egypt toJapan and the Soviet Far East to Indonesia. Potential viewershipof STAR was estimated to be 2.7 billion people living in theabove-mentioned countries.

The five channels initially offered by STAR-Prime Sports,MTV Asia, the Chinese Channel, BBC World Service Television,and STAR Plus-were piped into urban homes in India byunderground, illegal cable operators. "It came so fast," saysPronnoy Roy (1997) of India's premier news and current affairsproducer New Delhi Television. "It spread all over the countrythrough small entrepreneurial cable operators in a disorganizedfashion, which was the best way it could have happened."

Amid cries of "alien invasion" and large-scale policy-paralysis, fly-by-night cable operators were capitalizing on the"hotbird" frenzy. By June 1992, a mere twelve or so monthsafter its launch, viewership in India had gone from zero to 1.28million households. In July 1993, News Corp's Rupert Murdochacquired 64% stake in STAR-TV, affirming the keen interestof global media companies in India's broadcasting future.

The chaotic growth of cable is a telling comment on India'srudimentary regulatory framework. The only Act governing"wireless communication" dated back a century to the colonialgovernment's Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1885 which prohibited

"both the transmission and reception of all forms of wirelesssignals on Indian soil without the consent of the Governmentof India" (Swami 1997). Clearly lacking the political will andthe administrative machinery to arrest the errant "cablewallahs,"the government offered them legitimacy in the form of TheCable Television Networks (Regulation) Act of 1995.

The act was narrow in its scope, requiring cable operatorsto register and assume responsibility for providing contentunder the guidelines of the "program code" and "advertisingcode" included in the act. Also embedded in the act was amust-carry provision, asking cable operators to "retransmit atleast two Doordarshan satellite channels of his choice"(emphasis mine).

As is evident from the "must-carry" provision, Doordarshanwas not prepared to relegate itself to simply being the referee.It had responded to the alarms of "cultural invasion" bylaunching its own line of cable and satellite channels.

By 1995, it was offering a full-blown "EntertainmentChannel" (the Metro or DD2), it had added a third "InfotainmentChannel" (DD3) and beefed up its regional offerings with 13regional language channels (India has 15 recognized languages).It had floated a Movie Channel and was also eyeing the Indiandiaspora with a limited duration broadcast on DD-InternationalChannel.

For a monolithic organization mired in red-tapebureaucracy, Doordarshan had responded remarkably well tocompetition. Its reach, as Pronnoy Roy (1997) of NDTV stated,was "at its peak...275 million people, while the best satellitechannel can reach about 75 million...only one in every four TVhouseholds have satellite and cable." Given these figures, theimage of a beleaguered state-broadcaster fighting off the foreignscare is difficult to conjure. A more serious challenge to itsmonopoly, according to the author, was represented by:

(a) the rapid growth of the domestic private broadcastindustry in news and entertainment, and


(b) the increasing awareness among foreign broadcastersof the need to Indianize their program offerings.

Murdoch's investment in STAR was an endorsement ofeconomic projections which placed Asia among the fastestgrowing economies of the world. Asian cities, wrote TheEconomist (1993), were "fast becoming a chain of sequentiallyexploding firecrackers of demand for one consumer good afteranother." It was difficult not to be lured by the promise ofplaying to an audience that would comprise 60% of the world'spopulation by 2000. English was widely spoken in the area,and the number of television channels per home averaged 2.4.STAR burst onto the market with its American software librariesand became a household name in urban India.

"But will 3 billion Asians buy Homer Simpson?" querieda 1993 Time magazine article. India was answering with adecisive "no." When the foreign channels broke into the Indianhousehold by offering an alternative to state-controlledmonopoly, they also stirred up the imagination of a culture-industry that was sitting pretty atop a 750 movies-a-yearproduction base. Within two years of its launch, as reportedby the Far Eastern Economic Review, ratings for STAR'straditional attractions, Santa Barbara and The Bold and theBeautiful, were looking "pale compared with Hindi hits," aproducer at United Television, summed up the situationsuccinctly: "Mahabharata has 60% of the Indian audience,(while) Santa Barbara is half a percent. Sometimes it reacheseven 0 percent. I rest my case."

Says Siddharth Ray (1997) of SPA, referring to a half-hearted attempt to dub English programs into Indian languages:"...this audience was not prepared to watch a blonde with ascarf who speaks Hindi." A slew of Indian channels stole a leaffrom Murdoch's book and undertook the challenge of beaminginto their own country through the back door shown by STAR.

The latter part of the revolution was, thus, dominated byIndian channels and software houses, programming mainly in

Indian languages. Zee, launched in October 1992, led the fieldwith its unique line-up of Hindi soaps, dramas, game-shows,and made-for-TV movies.

By early-1994, Zee's prime-time audience share in threemetropolitan cities was up to 37%, compared to 39% combinedshare of Doordarshan National Network and Metro Channel,and a meager 8% combined share of the STAR platform. SUN-TV (Tamil, one of the 15 recognized Indian languages) andAsianet (Malyalam, another recognized language) were makingequally significant inroads into Doordarshan's Southern Indianstronghold. Others such as Sony Entertainment Television,ATN, Home-TV, and EL-TV completed the roster of domesticsatellite players making STAR's opening market strategyunworkable.

The response of international channels like STAR and MTVwas predictable and swift. The new "foolproof formula," anIndian weekly reported, "was Indian concepts plus Indianexecution equals neat Indian profits." By early 1997, STAR-TV,under the "home-grown expertise" of former Doordarshan chiefRathikant Basu, had started a daily "Hindi-band" on Star-Plusbetween 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., bookended by a news bulletin inHindi and English (produced locally in India).

MTV Asia, re-entering the market after its 1994 breakingwith STAR, decided to split its unified South Asian beam,creating MTV Mandarin and a dedicated Indian channel MTVIndia. Its biggest competitor was Channel V, STAR's hybridizedmusic channel providing an eclectic mix of Indian film music,a fast-growing Indi-pop segment, and international hits.Speaking of a Channel V Indian top-ten show, Jules Fuller(1997), General Manager India, Channel V, said: "When westarted out it was all international music, now we find at leasthalf the chart, sometimes all the chart is Indian pop."

Between Channel V, MTV, and Music Asia (another Zeeoffering), the realigned objective was to cater to an indigenousmarket for music. Although traditionally dominated by Indian


film music, the market for Indian pop was projected to risefrom 6% in 1995 to 21% by 2000 due in no small part to theselling window provided by the three above-mentionedchannels.

In an article written for the 1996 NATAS InternationalCouncil Almanac, the author had argued against the"oversimplistic characterization of transborder satelliteprogramming as 'cultural invasion.'" The active "local" culturalproduction in India, he stated, is more than likely to survivethe initial onslaught of foreign programming.

Taking that argument further, not only has the localproduction base been revitalized, but internationalprogrammers have also been forced to approach the Indianviewer on different terms. Murdoch's 50% stake in the mostpopular Indian satellite channel ZEE, an 80-20 tie-up betweenUnited Television (a Mumbai-based private production house)and 20th Century Fox, are only a few examples of therecognition of the talent-base and creative potential withinIndia. As Shashank Ghosh, creative director at Channel V,succinctly stated: "I refer to the global players as technology,and to Channel V as appropriate technology."

AMBIVALENCE IN THE NEW UNIVERSE OF CHOICE

The 250 million strong Indian middle class voted with its"zappers" to signal approval of the new age of informationchoices. Clearly, satellite technology had rendered domesticstrategies of delinking or cultural disassociation from globalcapitalist media an unviable option.

However, as the dust settled in the wake of the welcome-wagon, many were left wondering: is there really much tochoose from in this new universe of choice? Was satellitetelevision merely replacing state control with market control?Media advocacy groups, critiquing the homogenous contentof the multi-channel universe, were raising serious concernsabout the ability of a market-driven media culture to representthe "milieu of the complex social classes" that constitute India.

In the following paragraphs, the author will discuss the variousdivisions in the ongoing debate over the democratization ofthe airwaves in India.

India's policy-makers are struggling with formulating amedia-policy in a climate dominated by reactive, damage-control measures. In an article titled "Cultural onslaught: massmedia, globalization and the state," Sashi Kumar, president ofAsianet Communication, raises a cautionary voice against theprevailing ambivalence towards the haphazard growth of theelectronic media in India. Information technology, he says,travels almost instantaneously from the industrialized West tothe developing world. However, "as we demur and remaintentative and reactive in our response to technology...theliberating potential of the information technology goesunrealized by default."

The term "reactive" largely summarizes the state's responseto non-government satellite broadcasting. The "Statement ofObjects and Reasons" accompanying the Cable TelevisionNetworks (Regulation) Bill stated that the availability of foreigntelevision signals has been perceived as "cultural invasion" inmany quarters since their programs are "predominantlyWestern and totally alien to our culture." This stance has servedsuccessive coalition-based governments to cloak the officialstrategy vis-a-vis satellite television.

Ironically, the Indian government used the "culture" of themarketplace to dispel the "cultural invader." Media terminologysuch as "TRPs" (Television Rating Points), "profit centers," "SEC(socio-economic categories) Groupings," "DART" (DoordarshanAudience Research Television) has become the mainstay of themarket-driven directors in Mandi House (home ofDoordarshan). The state's response has been no less ambivalentthan the stark contradictions between its official proclamationsand actual practices. The following extract from the PressInformation Bureau's annual publication pays lip-service tothe electronic media: "It plays a vital role in creating awarenessamong the masses about policies and programs for development


and helps in motivating them to be active partners in thenation building endeavour..."

The domestic broadcast industry has largely been positivein its view. Respondent after respondent interviewed by theauthor hailed the information revolution set off by satellitetechnology. The creation of new opportunities for Indian talent;the market-intelligence brought in by the foreign players; theintroduction of higher technical standards; creation of a free-information society; the prospect of starting a reverse flow ofIndian programming towards overseas markets-these weresome benefits that the industry feels have clearly sprung fromthe satellite fountainhead.

Some, like Kiran Karnik of Discovery Communications,think it is a mixed-blessing. According to Karnik, satellitetelevision has accelerated a kind of "consumerist... 'me-first'hedonistic kind of culture" which actually began with the turn-of-the-decade policy of economic liberalization. A by-productof this, he adds, and perhaps the "strongest input that hascome to us from abroad," is an "immediate gratification typeof culture" which has important consequence in terms of "thefuture orientation of India itself."

The new opportunities have resulted in a shifting culturalfocus too. Amrita Shah (1997), editor of Elle Magazine India,feels that the advent of youth-targeted channels has alteredhow the young are perceived in society. "I think in India," shesays, "we did not take young people very seriously for manyyears. We've always worshipped the old, the traditional. Thanksto MTV, thanks to Channel V, there is definitely...a platformgiven to young people."

Akhila Sivadas, coordinator of the New Delhi-based MediaAdvocacy Group, sees a discernible change in the representationof women on satellite channels. Targeting an urban, upwardlymobile market segment, these channels "were not only able toshow women as being equals, they were also able to adopt thelanguage of hegemony...that women could even dominate the

situation." However, these images, rooted as they are "in theeveryday experiences of the upper classes" are unable to deepen"insights about the process of exploitation" to a cross-sectionof women.

Other fora, like the New Delhi-based Forum forIndependent Film and Video, seek "an alternative structure ofbroadcasting" which can exist outside "the point of view of thestate on the one hand, and a purely commercial logic on theother." Referring to similar models of Public Broadcast Service,the forum cites three essential values for the proposedbroadcasting system: Autonomy, Access, and Plurality.

WHO SHALL BE THE UMPIRE?

In a landmark judgment (Union of India vs. CricketAssociation of Bengal, 1995) echoing the 1934 CommunicationAct in the United States, Supreme Court judges ruled that"airwaves constitute public property and must be utilized foradvancing public good." A ringing endorsement of the "rightsof the listeners and the viewers," the judgment threw open thegates for a larger debate on the democratization of electronicmedia.

The Indian Supreme Court categorically stated that"diversity of opinions, views, ideas and ideologies...cannot beprovided by a medium controlled by a monopoly...whetherthe monopoly is of the state or any other individual, group ororganization."

Further, it stated that the "broadcasting media should beunder the control of the public as distinct from the government"(emphasis mine). In one stroke, the judgment called forautonomy for India's state-controlled media, and the settingup of an independent referee to regulate all broadcasters.

The Indian judiciary had set the stage for the legislativearm to put the country's broadcasting industry within a broadphilosophical framework pertaining to free speech and diversityof views. Instead, the Union cabinet chose to continue alongits reactive vein, obsessed with regulating technology. Out of


the laborious deliberations of the parliamentary subcommitteeemerged a draft document dominated by issues such as"mandatory uplinking," "foreign equity," "prohibition ofexclusive rights for live broadcasting," "DTH licensing," and"cross-media restrictions."

The Broadcast Bill, currently in the stage of its legislativepassage, proposes sweeping restrictions on foreign players.One of its foremost aims is to set up a Broadcasting Authorityof India and make it the apex regulatory body in the country.The BAI, it is proposed, would issue licenses only to companiesin which foreign equity did not exceed 49%. Licenses wouldbe given for terrestrial and satellite radio and TV, DTH (direct-to-home) TV, and cable.

The foreign equity cap meant that channels like STAR,Sony, MTV, Discovery and other channels with dominantforeign holdings had to find Indian partners and "hand overmajority control (51%) to them." Foreign satellite broadcastingcould continue unlicensed so long as it (a) remained free-to-air (b) carried limited-duration advertising or (c) carried sportsor international news and current affairs programming only.

Further, with the bill becoming an act in its proposed form,all licensed channels would have to uplink from India. Giventhe fact that the legislation came in the sixth year of satellitebroadcasting, companies that had locked themselves intoarrangements with nearby countries like Hong Kong andSingapore would now have to invest in brand-new uplinkingfacilities from India. Remarked Kiran Karnik (1997) of DiscoveryCommunication: "this is an economic issue really, it's not amatter of great policy or philosophy." Siddharth Ray (1997)offering a dissenting view, opined that "in the long term, if youare going to make money out of this market, the market hasa right to demand some investment...." An upside of theproposal is the possibility of live-event coverage and live newsbroadcasts for satellite channels.

Severe restrictions have been proposed in the granting ofinter-category broadcasting licenses, rendering STAR's DTH

plans redundant, as it could no longer be a free-to-air satelliteprovider and a DTH player. There are cross-media curbsproposed, barring newspapers with more than 20% interest ina broadcasting concern from applying for a license.

While the attempt to arrive at some form of regulation hasbeen lauded by most, widespread criticism has greeted theBroadcast Bill in its proposed form. Raging debate over keyprovisions relating to limits on foreign equity, uplinkingrequirements and inter-category limitations have clouded thelarger issues set forth in the Supreme Court judgment.According to Raghav Behl (1997), managing director of theleading production house TV-18: "The Broadcast Bill is adocument which has been much maligned. It is a documentthat has gotten lost in agendas that have very little to do withbroadcasting."

Others have questioned the locus standi of the Indiangovernment in the regulatory process. "At the moment," saysKarnik of Discovery Communications, "the government or theMinistry of Information and Broadcasting is both referee andplayer, which is quite crazy." Ideally, he adds, the governmentshould have legislated itself out of the refereeing process byissuing broad guidelines, setting up the Broadcast Authorityof India, and letting it shape the regulatory frameworkindependent of the government.

Along with prompting the formulation of the BroadcastBill, the Supreme Court judgment had also forced thegovernment to resurrect a 1990 act relating to autonomy forstate-controlled electronic media (Doordarshan and All IndiaRadio). Through the efforts of a liberal Information andBroadcasting minister the act was finally notified in the Gazette(all acts of the parliament must be notified in the Gazettebefore attaining full stature as acts) on June 22, 1997, sevenyears after it was passed by the Parliament. The act wouldplace the erstwhile government-controlled TV and radio undera Broadcasting Corporation of India to be governed by anindependent board. Together, the Broadcast Bill and the Prasar


Bharati Act constitute India's response to the growing demandsfor regulation and autonomy. In order to understand theanomalies within this response, it is important to understandthe fractured political alliances within the Indian government.Since the last mid-term elections held in 1995, in which noparty emerged with a clear majority to form the government,a pragmatic coalition of left and centrist parties has governedIndia. Certain sections of the coalition have expressed grudgingto unconditional support for private broadcasting (whetherdomestic or foreign). However, the Left has held that "publicgood...would be scarcely served by private broadcasting (which)would be bound to be motivated by profit." The "Murdochites,"charges Sashi Kumar, "cleverly confuse globalization witheconomic liberalization," often disguising their support for thelatter as "advocacy of a free information regime."

THE DREAM OF THE "GLOBAL VILLAGE"

India stands at the crossroads of choice-making in the newuniverse of technologies. Having erupted from a single-channel,government-controlled monopoly of the airwaves into a thirty-channel cornucopia over a two-year period, it must now becomea savvy regulator of its spectrum. From among the hordes ofopinion-wielders, lobbyists, and power-brokers it must discernthe ones most appropriate for its unique and complex citizenry.

The task is no easy one for a young democracy with anunstable political centre. Objectives are defined, redefined,and finally rendered unrecognizable by successive changes ofgovernment, shifting coalitions, or confusing diktats from thepowers-that-be. All this while, the expanding global powerslobby for loosening controls and opening the market, practicingadvocacy-by-proxy for the choice-deprived Indian consumer.

What are the cultural imperatives unique to theunderstanding and shaping of India's broadcasting future? Forone, according to the author, a contextual assessment of thepeculiar "information needs" and "information sensibilities"should moderate all pronouncements favouring a "consumer-

take-all" approach. The critique of the proposed "globalinformation society" can only benefit from a ground-upapproach which favours the information "user" as opposed tothe "provider."

Media conglomerates are putting their versions of "audienceresearch" in place, as is evidenced by the setting up of a joint-venture between Indian Market Research Bureau and A CNielsen for a "people meter based rating system.". To whatextent this unquestioned transposition of quantitativemeasurement systems will be able to assess the "information"vacuum in the Indian home remains to be seen.

In discussions of a burgeoning urban middle-class of 250million, the profile of a nation with 48% illiteracy; three-quartersof the population living in rural areas; and agriculture providingthe main mode of sustenance for 65% of the population isneglected. The selective use of statistics to drive the agendafor an "information revolution" serves the purposes of theglobal merchant. The challenge before the internationalcommunication scholar is to enrich the understanding of theculturally, linguistically, and economically diverse informationindustry in countries like India.

The electronic media in countries like the United Stateshave fulfilled market functions from their very inception. Whileprogressive deregulation has now placed the broadcastingindustry at the confluence of traditionally discrete spheres oftelecommunication and computer-aided communication, therehas been a concomitant deepening of concern for the user.Witness the creation of the V-chip, the new ratings system fornetworks and cable, and the plethora of filtering software toaid parents in shielding the young from pornography andother inappropriate content available on the World Wide Web.The enrichment of the individual user's information resourcesenabling him/her to identify "usable," "unusable," or "useless"information has evolved alongside the industry responsiblefor providing that content.


Addressing the Pre-Conference Symposium on SouthernCountry Interests organized by the International Institute ofCommunication, David Nostbakken (1994), executive directorof WETV, offered a skeptical prognosis: "So before we acceptthat technologies of information and communication will bringpositive change, we need to consider the social, cultural, andpolitical context into which the technologies are beingintroduced. Then, we must determine the kinds of actions thathelp to translate the improvements in communicative capacitiesand facilities into actual improvements in living conditions."

"When the delivery systems of the future are constructedand bandwidth becomes a commodity," wrote an analyst ofEuropean television, "power will shift to those who can createenticing things to fill it." In the preceding pages the author hasdescribed the creation of just such a delivery system in India.

As legislators, global conglomerates, and domestic mediaentrepreneurs struggle with evolving a regulatory frameworkwhich will allow a new democracy of the airwaves, thecommunication scholar must address the challenge of localizingthe search for the user of information. As the profile of thisuser is defined and refined, so shall the power of meaningfulcontent in the new information age become decisive. After all,as Thoreau pointed out in Walden, the consequences of doingotherwise are appalling: "We are in great haste to construct amagnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas,it may be, have nothing important to communicate.

We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring theold world some weeks nearer to the new, but perchance thefirst news that will leak through into the broad, flappingAmerican ear will be that Princess Adelaide has the whoopingcough."

THE IMPACT OF FOREIGN TELEVISION ON INDIA

Increased competition and shrinking budgets have forcedpublic service broadcasters around the world to reconsidertheir role. Doordarshan, India's public service television

network, shares the problems faced by its counterparts inmore developed countries. Although it continues to enjoy theluxury of being the only television network broadcasting itsprograms from within national boundaries, it has had to changeits policies and programming to compete with foreign televisionchannels including Murdoch's Star TV.

However, it is the Indian audience that has benefited mostfrom this competition from the skies in the form of improvedquality and quantity of programs. This discussion talks aboutan audience survey carried out in India earlier this year togauge television viewers' perception of these benefits. Thepaper also gives background on the developments in thetelevision industry in India.

The visibility of television as a mass medium and itsperceived impact on audience always generates passionatedebate about the role of public service broadcasting in anycountry. Whether it is the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)in the USA, BBC in the UK, ABC in Australia, the TelevisionRepublik Indonesia (TVRI) in Indonesia or Doordarshan inIndia, these public service broadcasters have an important roleto play in their respective countries. As with PBS's mission andthe ABC's charter, Doordarshan has its own set of socialobjectives to live up to. In the United States, the PBS has topresent programs that "educate and entertain, inform andinspire." In Australia, the ABC has to broadcast programs that"contribute to a sense of national identity and inform andentertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of the Australiancommunity."

Similarly, Doordarshan's social objectives include that ithas to:

(a) act as a catalyst for social change;

(b) promote national integration;

(c) stimulate a scientific temper in the minds of the people;

(d) disseminate the message of family planning as a meansof population control and family welfare;


(e) provide essential information and knowledge in orderto stimulate greater agricultural production; and

(f) promote and help preserve environment and ecologicalbalance.

Like many public service broadcasters, over the past fourdecades Doordarshan has been criticised for not meeting itsobjectives. However, this criticism has been harsher from itsviewers as Doordarshan was the only source of television inIndia from its beginning in 1959 until 1990.

Apart from a handful of Hindi soap operas which Indianviewers devoured, as they did not have a choice to switchchannels, viewers have had to tolerate uninspiringprogramming for almost three decades. One of the reasons forthe dismal performance by Doordarshan was lack ofcompetition. Successive Indian governments legislated All IndiaRadio (AIR) and Doordarshan as a duopoly. The AIR networkwas established in 1947. Doordarshan which was part of AIRsince its inception in 1959, was separated from AIR in 1976 asthe second public service broadcaster in the country.

However, in the past six to seven years Doordarshan hashad to change its policies and programs to maintain its shareof viewership and advertising revenue. In early 1990s followingadvancements in satellite technology and inadequacies inbroadcast legislation in India, a number of broadcasters begantelecasting their programs directly into Indian homes fromforeign locations.

These broadcasters use satellite transponders to send theirsignals into the country, while enterprising cable operatorsreceive these signals via dish antennas and distribute them toindividual households for a small fee. As a result, Doordarshanhas been forced to respond to this increased competition byincreasing the number of channels and programs it broadcasts;improving the quality of its programs and trying to gaincredibility for its news programs by offering prime time slotsto outside producers. It has also reduced its advertising rates

and launched a number of purely entertainment channels tosatisfy audience demand.

Today Indian audiences have a wide variety of programsto choose from on both Doordarshan channels and otherchannels. They can watch numerous news and current affairsprograms. Therefore, to find out how television viewers inIndia perceive Doordarshan's current performance. The surveyincluded questions about the television industry as a whole:Are viewers satisfied with television programming in India atpresent? Are they satisfied with Doordarshan's performanceat present? If television as a medium as a whole gained people'sconfidence as a source of credible news and information sorelylacking before 1991?

The survey also asked whether news and current affairsprograms improved sufficiently to provide in-depthinformation "to those who may not have a formal education"due to this competition in the television industry in India. Thisdiscussion looks at the survey results and discusses the impactof foreign competition on general programming, on publicservice broadcasting and, particularly news and current affairsprograms in India.

DOORDARSHAN-A CALL FOR CHANGE

After the demise of British rule in the Indian sub-continent,Indian politicians and people whole-heartedly embraced idealsof socialism. Hence, after independence in 1947 most of thebasic industries were set up as public sectors. Since the countryalready had a flourishing print media that was working on theprinciple of "free speech and free expression for all," no needwas felt to develop broadcast media at the time. Therefore, itwas almost by accident rather than through planning thattelevision was introduced in India in September 1959.

The multinational company-Philips-had been exhibitingsome television equipment at an industrial expo in New Delhi.The company gifted the closed-circuit television equipment tothe government at the end of the exhibition. This is when the


Indian government decided to experiment with the newtechnology.

From these beginnings the pattern was set for the growthof television in India, which was for almost two decadesdependent on equipment gifted by either foreign governmentsor international agencies. Since AIR engineers were deeplyinvolved with the development of the country's first TV centre,television was perceived as an extension of radio until the1970s when progress in space technology spurred the Indiangovernment to experiment with television as a developmentcommunication tool.

In the 1970s and 1980s, although Doordarshan continuedto expand its coverage across the country, the public servicebroadcaster remained torn between its role as a catalyst forsocial change and as a tool for government publicity. TheSatellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) indevelopment communication was launched in 1975. Whereason the political front, the imposition of a State of Emergencyby then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi placed Doordarshan atgovernment's disposal.

Indira Gandhi's government suspended many democraticrights and started using both AIR and Doordarshan to publicisegovernment policies. As the print media largely decided toblack out government propaganda, Doordarshan was used tochurn out dozens of programs in support of the government's20-point development program. Meanwhile, the SITE projectwhich involved broadcast of development oriented programsto 2400 villages in six far-flung states, lasted for a year insteadof 10 years as planned. Analysts are divided about the successof the project, some contending that the project was envisagedas an experiment in satellite broadcasting rather thaneducational or development communication.

However, realising the potential power of television as acommunication tool, the government began to adopt policiesto popularise television viewing in India. This skewed

Doordarshan's focus from development to commercialisation.In 1976 Doordarshan started broadcasting imported programsand accepting advertisements to support the purchase of theseprograms. Again, in 1982-a significant year in the history oftelevision in India-the government allowed thousands of colourTV sets to be imported into the country to coincide with thebroadcast of Asian Games in New Delhi. There were alsosponsored entertainment programs such as Hum Log andBuniyaad that added to its efforts to attract viewers in mid-1980s. Later serials based on Indian epics Ramayana andMahabharta had a very successful run. But on the news front,viewers did not trust Doordarshan.

To boost the state broadcaster's credibility, the Informationand Broadcasting Ministry of India has over the past fourdecades appointed a number of committees to look intoits status and performance.

But these committees' recommendations have never beeneffectively implemented. One such international body was theMedia Foundation of the Non-Aligned. The Ministry appointedthe specialist organisation to convoke the broad range of publicopinion about television prevailing in the country at the time.In 1986 in its report, which was based on five "feedback"seminars and a national colloquium, NAMEDIA criticisedIndian television (Doordarshan) for failing in its main objectiveof inducing development. A contributing factor was thattelevision remained accessible only to urban, middle and high-income groups.

The NAMEDIA report concluded:The primary purpose of television in India is development througheducation, information and enlightenment, to improve the qualityof life of the largest masses of the people; to bring communitiesand societies, regions and the states together as one nationthrough mutual awareness and sympathy while preserving,consolidating and enriching their unique ways of life, cultures,customs and traditions. The secondary purpose is entertainmentper se or show-business.


The report also stated that "news" could not be used topromote those in power. It urged a variety of programs basedon issues and current affairs, rather than just half-hour newsprograms, to facilitate better understanding for those withoutformal education. On the issue of credibility the reportadvocated that television in India needed an "openness" togain credibility:

Such openness, it was considered, would not put either thegovernment, or the ruling party or the nation in jeopardy.Squarely and properly placed in intelligent and honest contextit would promote understanding and confidence and lead togreater and discriminative appreciation of issues by the people.In the longrun, it would strengthen the nation.

The NAMEDIA report stated that Doordarshan needed toestablish a separate autonomous operation for producingtelevision news: It should have freedom of appraising newsvalues and judgement, news selection and content, emphasisin presentation, and freedom of choice in summarising physicaland human resources in making up a news programme. Itshould have a clear independent professional chain of commandfree from bureaucratic, political or other outside interventionand interference.

One of the themes which came across very clearly from thepublic forums organised by NAMEDIA was that television (inthis case Doordarshan) in India should be free of all governmentcontrol. Over the years Doordarshan, though established withhigh social objectives, has failed to satisfy the intellectuals aswell as the common people in India.

Asok Mitra, former secretary of the Ministry of Informationand Broadcasting from 1966 to 1969, in his submission toNAMEDIA recalled that in the 1960s television was considered"essential for accelerating development, modernisation andsocial change." He expressed his disappointment with the factthat India had followed a path similar to other Third Worldcountries which first introduced television in the capital city

and other metro cities, subserving the interests of the rulingclass. In the process of making television more attractive to theaudience, government allowed more and more commerciallysponsored, privately produced programs to be aired; thoughalways retaining the final say about what was suitable for theIndian audience. Critics examining the development of Indiantelevision say that as television grew, developmentalistalternatives were steadily eschewed, and "over the yearshardware expansion was undertaken with no evidence ofplanning for software."

Television viewers, too, were not happy. Until 1990, mostIndian viewers did not have a choice but to watch one nationaland one regional Doordarshan channel. In a survey in 1987,Singhal found that 90 per cent of the respondents preferredHindi-film-based entertainment programs, whereas 60 per centappreciated educational and development programs.

The survey of 1170 respondents showed that although 76per cent were in favour of commercial advertising on television,60 per cent of the low-income households, 75 per cent ofviewers in lower castes and 60 per cent of non-Hindi speakingviewers felt that the "problems and difficulties of their dailylife were not adequately projected" by Doordarshan. Similarly,92 per cent of them felt that political opposition's views werenot sufficiently represented, whereas 85 per cent said thatDoordarshan adequately covered government policies andprograms. The fact that Doordarshan's performance did notreceive many accolades was compounded by the reality thatthe people of India could not switch channels. Either due toits charter or due to political and bureaucratic interference,Doordarshan's performance remained unsatisfactory and itwas often referred to as "the government channel" and as being"dull and boring".

COMPETITION FROM THE SKIES AND CABLE NETWORK

The impact of foreign television in India has been two-fold:viewers-at least those living in urban areas-can watch more


than 40 channels and the quality of television programs hasimproved. People subscribing to a cable service can now chooseanywhere between 40 to 50 channels to watch. As an alternativeto three half-hour news programs in three different languages,they can choose between the two 24-hour news channels (BBC& CNN) and up to 20 news and current affairs programs onvarious cable and foreign television channels everyday. Sincethe 1991-92 invasion from the skies by foreign televisionnetworks, Doordarshan too has expanded its service from 2to 18 channels with a claimed viewership of 448 million at theend of 1997.

The first competition for Doordarshan came in the formof illegal distribution of television signal by cable and foreigntelevision channels in late 1980s and early 1990s. With theintroduction of VCRs in India, some dynamic entrepreneursin Bombay in 1984 launched cable network. Instead of peoplewatching programs on their VCRs at home by buying orborrowing videocassettes, the cable operator in the area/blockconnected their television set to a community network for asmall fee. This way all those connected to the local cable networkcould watch one or two movies, sitcoms in a regional languageand perhaps a pirated foreign program everyday. Accordingto a survey cited by Rahim, there were about 3500 cable TVnetworks in India in May 1990. Another advertising groupestimated that more than 330,000 households in four metrosof Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and Madras had cable connectionswith a total audience of 1.6 million. Legally, there is noprohibition on receiving a TV signal in India.

Therefore, other television channels and networks ownedby Indians or foreigners have been able to beam their programsinto the country from the skies using satellite technologywithout violating any Indian law or regulation. However, thereis legal uncertainty over its distribution. Until 1995, the IndianTelegraph Act 1885 governed the laying of cables on publicproperty. It required the cable operator to apply for a licenceto do so.

The success of cable operation was due to a number ofreasons: on one hand the urban middle class had spare timeand resources to seek more entertainment; on the other, "thegovernment channel" remained slow in satisfying that demand.Being hooked up to a cable network became fashionable amongthe hotels that catered to tourists' needs. In fact, cable networksspread across smaller Indian cities during and after the PersianGulf crisis in February 1991, when everybody was nervousabout the war. One of the US television networks did offer theIndian government broadcast rights to its service at the time.Doordarshan declined the offer. Nevertheless, dish antennaspicking up CNN and other satellite broadcast service signalssprouted everywhere, defeating the Indian government'sattempt to protect the politically stifled public servicebroadcaster.

In the Far Eastern Economic Review, Hamish McDonaldwrote that Doordarshan's credibility was undermined by itsGulf War coverage which was noted for its "state news, lackof visuals, use of ancient library footage and poor audioquality.". Although the war ended within weeks, people's desirefor foreign programs had been aroused and they wanted more.Entrepreneurs took advantage of this market opportunity andstarted installing their cable networks in every block of bigcities where people were willing to pay between Rs 50 and Rs150 (Aus$2-6) a month for the connection. In May 1991, theSatellite Television for the Asian Region (STAR) TV launchedits operation from Hong Kong beaming multi-channel televisionover a South Asian footprint via Asiasat.

The television scene in India or for that matter in Asia hasnot been the same again. By the end of 1991, experts in thecommunication field began speculating the effect satellitetelevision, in this case STAR TV network which at the timeincluded BBC news service, would have on televisionprogramming in Asian countries. Columnists Margaret Scottand Hamish McDonald in the Far Eastern Economic Reviewwrote that: Social, political and commercial surprises of


immense proportions are bound to follow. For starters, usingsatellite for transborder television defies the tradition thatnational sovereignty includes state control over televisionwithin a nation's borders... Nowhere will the impact be moreprofound than in news coverage, for most of the countriesunder Palapa's and AsiaSat-I's footprint have spawned heavilyregulated television industries, often government owned.

The small-time entrepreneurs who recognised the demandfor more television in India spearheaded the massive, largelyillegal proliferation of cable networks in India, rather than asingle cultural imperialistic aggressor such as Rupert Murdoch.Cable operators began operating with two dishes-one pointedat Palapa for CNN and the other at AsiaSat for STAR TV (plusBBC)-and included them both in their menu of channels forsale. The scene described by commentators at the time (1991year-end) was something like this: In crowded bazaars likeDelhi's Lajpat Nagar or Bombay's Lemington Road, shops arebusy taking orders for indigenously made satellite dishes. Rollsof cable are piled on pavements. All around Indian cities,private cable television operators are stringing coaxial cablesalong the road and up light poles. For a small monthly fee,people could watch 24-hours a day the U.S. open (live), PrimeSports (the wrestlers of the WWF), MTV (music videos),American soap operas such as Santa Barbara and The Bold andthe Beautiful, morning cartoon shows and BBC's World NewsService-all part of STAR TV network. Ninan says the impactof television in India in the 1990s has been accentuated by therapid nuclearization of Indian middle class homes, the trendof the working mother, and the consequential rise in "latch-key children."

Television viewing in India had been on the rise since theintroduction of Hindi soap operas in the late 1980s. However,the television scene changed sensationally after the advent ofSTAR TV and subsequently the launch of other foreign andlocal channels. TV homes have more than doubled in the lastseven years from about 30.8 million in 1991 to 65 million by

1998. At the same time, according to the Indian readershipsurvey, cable and satellite homes have grown from 1.28 millionin June 1992, 9.30 million in June 1995, to 11 million in December1996.

Doordarshan's Audience Research Unit puts the totalnumber of cable and satellite homes at 14.2 million in December1996; and Joshi estimates that there are about 15 million homeswith cable connection.

An overwhelming number of viewers (90 per cent) inHyderabad-a city in south of India-in July 1992 were thoroughlydissatisfied with programs and cited that as the reason for theswitch-over to cable TV.

Abdur Rahim, who measured the impact of cable ontelevision and VCR viewership, interviewed 250 peopleincluding 200 cable and satellite TV subscribers about a yearafter the launch of STAR TV. Many (62 per cent) felt thatDoordarshan was wasting public money on "unimaginative","absurd" and "silly" programs. The cable subscribers whoparticipated in the study considered cable TV not as "morethan television" but as "more of television." Viewers preferredcable TV channels to Doordarshan for both entertainment andnews programs. Rahim found that BBC was the most popularchannel because of the quality of its news programs.

RESEARCH METHOD

We carried out a survey in Bombay and New Delhi inJanuary 1998 to explore people's response to the impact offoreign television and cable networks in the past five to sevenyears. The study was conducted in these two cities as thesubscription to cable/foreign television channels remains anurban phenomenon.

Self-administered questionnaires were delivered to 350sample households and later collected in-person. In this way,the survey participants could seek clarification if they did notunderstand a question. This took into account the fact that


English is a second or third language for Indians and eventhough they understand English, some of the complex questionscan be confusing. This also prompted respondents to completethe questionnaire on time. A pilot survey was conducted inBombay to fine-tune the questions, where 20 university studentsanswered the questionnaire.

The stratified sampling method was used to ensurecomparison between different groups of population. Threeaudience groups were chosen: 1. University students in Bombay,2. Bombay residents and 3. New Delhi residents. The importantvariables included age, education and income levels, as thesecan influence the consumption habits among audiences. Aneffort was made to select different suburbs in Bombay to haveapproximately equal representation of various income groupsin the survey. Questionnaires were given out in areas withlow, middle and high-income groups in Bombay, which wasthe main location for the survey. No such distinction was madein New Delhi or when asking university students to answerthe questionnaire. The questionnaire included a combinationof closed and open-ended questions. Besides asking audiencesto indicate their level of satisfaction with television programs,they were given an option to comment on the reason/s fortheir satisfaction/dissatisfaction. They were also asked of theirperception of the quality of present day programs comparedto those broadcast in 1991-92, and to name their favourite newsprograms and channels.

RESULTS

In all, 350 questionnaires were given out to households. Ofthese, 291 were completed (51 by university students, 205residents in Bombay and 35 residents in New Delhi). Overall,3 to 6 per cent did not answer one or the other question. Therewas a higher number (40.7 per cent) of respondents in the agegroup of 18-24 years. However, this group includes most ofthe university students. The over representation of youngerpeople in the audience sampling was not planned, but can beexplained by the fact that when a questionnaire was given to

a household, it was generally answered by the younger memberof the family. Reasons for this could be their better knowledgeof English and interest in television programs.

Table: Distribution of respondents by age

Audience/age Bombay University New Delhi All groups

groups residents % students % residents % %

Under 18 years 23.5 13.7 20.6 21.4

18-24 years 35 72.5 26.5 40.7

25-34 years 20.5 11.8 5.9 17.2

35-44 years 13 2 20.6 11.9

45-54 years 6 0 11.8 5.6

55 years & over 2 0 14.7 3.2

As many as 99.3 per cent of the respondents watchtelevision, whereas 97.9 per cent watch television at home,indicating a very high level of television adoption among theurban population in India. Most people (80.6 per cent) saidthey watched television every-day of the week. More than 82per cent watch television from one to four hours a day. It issignificant to note that about 80 per cent of the cable subscriberswatch television for one to four hours a day. Overall, about68 per cent subscribe to one or more cable services. Those whodo not subscribe to a cable service gave a range of reasons from"parents do not allow," "it distracts from studies" to "notinterested".

Table: Distribution of respondents by income

Annual household Bombay University New Delhi All

income in rupees residents students residents groups

More than 110,000 23.3 18.6 59.4 26.9

109,999-80,000 13 30.2 25 17.2

79,999-51,000 32.1 23.3 9.4 28

50,999-26,000 20.7 16.3 6.3 18.3

25,999 or less 10.9 11.6 0 9.7


Table: Distribution of respondents by education

Education level Bombay University New Delhi All

residents students residents groups

University graduate 55.6 77.6 61.8 60.1Secondary 34.3 17.6 20.6 29.9Primary School 6.1 2 8.8 5.7None of the above 4 2 8.8 4.3

Table: Average number of television viewing hours per day

Audience All areas (in %) Cable Subscribers %

1 hour 20.8 21.22 hours 29.6 26.43 hours 18.3 18.14 hours 13.7 145 hours 6.3 8.36 hours 4.9 6.27 hours 1.8 1.68 hours 1.4 110 hours 1.8 2.112 hours 0.7 0.515 hours 0.4 019 hours 0.4 0.5

Total = 100 100

In response to the question about "how many Doordarshanchannels and 'channels other than Doordarshan' can you watchdaily?", the response is so spread out that it is almostunquantifiable. Responses ranged between 1 to 100 channels.However, most of the television viewers watch either 1-3channels (42.8 per cent) or 4-10 channels (47 per cent) regularly.

An overwhelming number of respondents have one ormore favourite television programs. The 10 most-favouriteprograms are Hindi soap operas (known as serials in India),viz., (in order of preference): Amanat, Hum Paanch, Aahat,Just Mohabbat, Hasratein, Banegi Apni Baat, Boogie Woogie,Teacher, Thoda Hai Thode Ki Zaroorat Hai and Dastaan. The(English) News and Aaj Tak (a Hindi news & current affairs

program) on Doordarshan channels are the 12th and 13thmost-favourite programs respectively. This indicates that thetelevision audience in India still prefers Hindi-entertainmentprograms to other programs. Similarly, the most favouritetelevision channel is Zee TV-Star's Hindi channel 8; then inorder of popularity Sony TV, Star Plus, Discovery, Star Movie,ESPN, Star Sports, DD2, DD1 and BBC.

Table: Number of channels regularly watched

Audience All areas (in %) Cable Subscribers %

1-3 channels 42.8 36.54-10 channels 47 51.811-20 channels 7.7 9.121-30 channels 1.1 1More than 30 1.4 1.5

An impressive 78.7 per cent of the respondents regularlywatch news and current affairs programs on television. Themost viewed news and current affairs programs are: Aaj Tak(a Hindi news & current affairs program on Doordarshanchannel DD2) followed by The (English) News (on Doordarshanchannel DD1), Zee News (A mix of Hindi and English newsand current affairs program on Zee TV), Star News and theEnglish news channel-BBC World service.

More than two-thirds of the respondents rely on televisionand newspaper for their daily news updates. However, thenewspaper still remains as the source of news on which mostpeople depend, followed by television.

Table: Source of news

Audience/Sources Bombay University New Delhi All areas

of news Residents % students % residents % %

Television 74.1 86.3 85.7 77.7Radio 9.3 17.6 5.7 10.3Newspaper 80 86.3 94.3 82.8Magazine 19 27.5 14.3 19.9Internet 2.4 2 0 2.1


Relatively higher numbers of respondents are satisfiedwith programs on "channels other than Doordarshan" for theirtechnical quality, entertainment value, credibility of informationand overall performance. For overall performance, 91.1 percent said they were satisfied with "channels other thanDoordarshan", whereas 67.6 per cent were satisfied withDoordarshan channels. A striking majority (84-85 per cent) ofthe respondents said that Doordarshan programs had improvedover the past five to seven years.

Table: Source of news on which people most depend

Sources of Overallnews/Age %

Under18 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 above 54

Television 34.6 50 40 43.3 62.5 33.3 44.8

Radio 0 0 3.3 3.3 0 0 0.4

Newspaper 65.4 49.1 57.1 53.3 37.5 66.7 54

Magazine 0 0.9 2.9 0 0 0 0.8

Internet 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

A similar number of respondents wanted Doordarshan toimprove further. Opinion varied about how Doordarshanprograms should change from "needs to broadcast moreentertainment programs" to "improve technical quality" and"show more educational and meaningful programs."

Table: How should Doordarshan programs be different?

How different should DD programs be? % of response

More entertainment programs 24.4

Improve technical quality 20.3

Improve news and current affairs 11.6

More educational & meaningful 10.9

More variety, less repeats 7.2

Hindi entertainment channels such as Zee TV and Sony TVare among the most popular cable/foreign channels. However,BBC still gets the highest score for credibility of news and

information. More than 70 per cent of the respondents feel thatDoordarshan covers local, regional and national issues betterthan international issues; whereas an almost equal number feelthat channels other than Doordarshan cover all these categoriesof issues well. About 90 per cent of the respondents state thatchannels other than Doordarshan cover national andinternational issues better than Doordarshan. Once again, ZeeTV is considered the best cable/foreign channel to cover local,regional and national issues, whereas BBC remains the bestchannel for covering international issues.

An impressive number of respondents feel that programson Doordarshan channels represent Indian cultural values,whereas only about half of those feel that programs broadcastby "channels other than Doordarshan" represent Indian culture.As can be observed from the responses, younger generationis more satisfied with Doordarshan for representing Indiancultural values in their programs. However, more than two-thirds of respondents also think that foreign programs aregood for the country as they are "informative and cover globalissues".

Opinion is divided over the question of governmentcensorship of programs. Most people are concerned about thebroadcast of "vulgar programs" and "the need to preserveIndian culture"; however they "do not want the governmentto censor programs for political reasons". A majority of peoplesaid that programs are "not biased" on television. However,more viewers feel that programs are "not biased" on "channelsother than Doordarshan", compared with Doordarshan. Mostof the respondents commented that Doordarshan programswere still "government oriented", whereas "other channels"provided "more variety and entertainment".

Significantly higher number of people are satisfied withthe quality of news in January 1998 (93 per cent) than beforecable and foreign television channels became popular in 1992(64.1 per cent). Cable subscribers are marginally more satisfiedwith the quality of news today than before. However, an


overwhelming majority of respondents feel that news programhave improved in technical quality, entertainment value,credibility and coverage of current affair issues.

DISCUSSION

The survey results support the research hypothesis thatincreased competition in the television industry in India hasimmensely benefited the audience by providing them withbetter quality and quantity of programs and channels. Althoughthe primary focus of programming provided by all channelshas been entertainment, news and current affairs have notbeen far behind. Today, audiences have an option to switchbetween channels and watch a wide range of programs, andthey do exercise this choice as is evident from the surveyresults.

The profile of an Indian television viewer is one whowatches one to three hours of television daily and three to fourchannels regularly. Although the typical Indian viewer stillprefers Hindi-entertainment programs, he or she watches anumber of news and current affairs programs on anywherebetween two to 10 different channels every week.

The survey shows that respondents are very discerning incomparing the quality of programs offered by all channels.Although they are satisfied with the programs on offer as oftoday on all channels including Doordarshan, Indian viewersstill want Doordarshan to further improve as they perceivethat Indian cultural values are better represented by an Indiantelevision network.

This is one of the reasons why "other channels", whichbegan their broadcast by showing re-runs of Western soapoperas from yester-years, have been Indianising their menu ofprograms. Not surprisingly, Star network's Hindi channel-ZeeTV-which essentially broadcasts Hindi-entertainment programsis the most popular among Indian audiences. Other channelsincluding Doordarshan have tried to adopt Zee's successformula to achieve the same result.

One of the focus areas of the survey was to find out ifviewers can rely on television as their source of news. Withthe addition of two 24-hour news channels and a vast rangeof news and in-depth current affairs programs, Indians arerelishing the visual feast of watching live telecast of newsevents around the world. The respondents in Bombay andDelhi overwhelmingly indicate that they are keen to watchnews and current affairs programs on television, and choosea combination of Hindi and English news and current affairsprograms from both Doordarshan and "other channels".

A new language called Hinglish – a mixture of Hindi andEnglish is becoming popular in India. Joshi refers to thislanguage as the Bombay Hindi language. Channels such asZee TV present news programs in this new language wherea news story is told in both Hindi and English: sometimes evena sentence can have both Hindi and English words so thateverybody can understand it.

This relaxing of standards to reach a mass audience is oneof the surprising outcomes of the recent expansion of televisionindustry in India. Yet Indian viewers still want to watch moreof local or regional language news and current affairs programs.This is evident from the fact that channels covering local issuesin local languages such as Sun TV in Tamil Nadu and EenaduTV in Andhra Pradesh have achieved some degree of successagainst other more popular national channels such as Zee TVand Sony TV. Indian viewers are beginning to trust televisionas a source of news along with newspapers, which still remainspopular.

One of the areas of dissatisfaction with the televisionindustry had always been the technical quality of the programstelecast by the public service broadcaster. Although India hasnot lagged behind in venturing into satellite technology, duringthe first three decades of development of television, a numberof factors from the quality of equipment used to produceprograms to the quality of television sets at the receiving enddiminished the entertainment value of television programs.


However, with the advent of Star TV channels in 1991 andfalling prices of television sets, Indian audiences today enjoytechnically superior programming.

In the survey, the audience indicate that though they aresatisfied with the improvements in Doordarshan's technicaland entertainment quality of programming, they still consider"other channels" to be better. Overall, urban Indian viewers aremore satisfied with television programming at present thanfive to seven years ago. However, a future potential studycould be to gauge the impact of foreign television on the ruralpopulation of the country. Because of time and resourceconstraints, this audience survey had to be restricted to twocities.

But the study does allude to the improvements inprogramming for all viewers as competition from foreign andother cable channels has caused Doordarshan to improve itsreach and programming. It could be deduced that as a result,today the Indian rural population is better off than before asthey can view better Doordarshan programs. Cable networkinghas already spread to smaller cities and towns of India, andwill soon reach the rural population.

There is no doubt that Doordarshan has a significant roleto play in India, particularly in providing information andentertainment to the masses and, representing Indian culturalvalues. The network has to satisfy other social objectives suchas disseminating the message of family planning and nationalintegrity.

Television audiences across the world not only want toreceive important information from their television sets, butalso want to be entertained. Indian audiences in that respectare no different. They also want their television to be a windowto the world via a variety of news and current affairs programs– local, regional, national and international. In the case ofIndia, it is the other channels including both owned by foreignor Indian private businesses which have provided them withthat opportunity. As a result, the national public service

broadcaster has improved its performance. On the other hand,the presence of Doordarshan has made other channels Indianisetheir programs rather than feed the starving Indian audienceold Western sitcoms.

TV AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN RURAL INDIA

The wave of ICT innovation, that started in the UnitedStates of America in the eighties, hitting Japan and Europerather soon in the nineties, has found new territory to flood.

India and China are preparing themselves to surf the waves,so many people and magazines tell us.

The Europe based Doors of Perception Conference, hasbeen asking questions in the middle of these tumultuousmovements "What is this stuff for?" By doing so, debates weretriggered, many best practices shown, a powerful networkevolved. A network in which business, design and undergroundmeet, all being there not to miss the next ripple in the waters,all there to show and benchmark their own work, find newpeople and/or companies to work with. It has been driven bya social agenda, an agenda in which the ameliorating qualityof life was in the centre of attention. Always seeking the highground in which public and commercial domain meets, inwhich design and serendipity exchange.

In December 2003 the Doors of Perception Conferenceorganized for the second time its Indian edition, Doors East2003 in Bangalore. Starting with a two day workshop in whichover 40 people participated (25 from India, 15 from USA andEU) and resulting in a conference with 30 speakers and over350 people participating.

The workshops and conference took place in the NationalInstitute for Fashion and Technology (NIFT), partner of theDutch Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI).

IN CONFRONTATION WITH INDIAN REALITY

India has 18 formal languages, and many more are spoken.The complexity of Indian society with its rich 6000 years of


history, many religions, many geographical distinct areas andvery fast entrance into the 21st century is very hard to graspin such short time. The sensory experience of India with itscolours, its smells, its tastes is impressive and changesperception of the world.

Bangalore, the India's Silicon Valley where the conferencewas held, is heavily polluted. CEO's of big companies run thecity, up to the point that parks in town are taken care of bylarge companies. In return they can work by the law that saysthat if you can prove you need a certain piece of land for thedevelopment of industry, with or without houses on it or parksfor example, it can be taken.

Bangalore is polluted, but even more so is Delhi. When thepollution of Delhi reached the unbearable point, all publicutility vehicles (buses, taxis, rickshaws) were obliged to startrunning on gas. This sort of happened overnight, and the waygas is distributed is so dangerous that people leave the bus orrickshaw outside the gas station when it is time to fill up. Andstill, one can't see the sun in Delhi because of the smog, althoughit is improving people assure me.

One third of India lives below the poverty line. Accordingto Ravi Sundaram, urbanist at the school of architecture inDelhi, per year 60.000 new poor people move into Delhi, thecity expands exponentially.

Next to huge office buildings you will find people livingin tents. They have to find ways of livelihood, somehow, tosurvive. It is raw capitalism in its worst form.

Women's participation in public life is everywhere, buthardly in power. Shree Venkatram (journalist) wrote a reporton women's presence in media in India over the last 50 years.She analysed 18 English and Hindi newspapers and found thispresence has been ameliorating with 1,3% per year. Todaywomen's presence is 13%, mostly in the adds though, IndiraGandhi being the only woman who made it to the front pagetill today.

BANGALORE, INDIA'S SILICON VALLEY

Bangalore in the South, has a very pleasant climate. It isthe booming city of ICT. Many small and large companies areall present. You find yuppie life with trendy cafes andnightclubs, next to Bollywood cinemas and little old fashionedfood places everywhere. Of course, there are poorneighbourhoods with very poor people, but the city as a wholedrives on industry and you can feel it everywhere.

THE DOOR EAST CONFERENCE

Focus of the Doors East conference was 'Mobility,Geography and Access'. The overall evolving theme for methough, was the realization and the endeavour to understandthe development of service design and service economy. Servicedesign, as we understood it, has different meanings in differentareas of application. To develop content is different fromdeveloping technological infrastructure, to sell goods is differentfrom selling services.

In USA and EU the development of content is a constantarea of concern. E-learning, my field, has many initiatives tomake it flourish. But we yet have to find the workable servicemodel that will be sustainable in the structural developmentof content as well as in the development of infrastructure thatwill deal with authorship and privacy in a convincing way.

Presentations of the western participants dealt a lot withhow to move the private, public and commercial domainsforward in cohesion: how to develop strategy, how to createsupport, how to design innovation in schools and design newschools. It were all questions we are familiar with over here.

Nevertheless it is interesting to hear how other people andinstitutions go about things. I realized again that the way wedeal with things at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam is prettyimpressive. I enjoyed presentations of some of the newinteraction designers exploring for example, the body asinterface for information, fluid time interfaces to monitor thegoing bad of milk-instead of just a date that is never correct


anyway, elaborate time banking and car sharing designs as aservice for mobile phone companies. My presentation raisedquestions derived from the experience of the 10 year innovationof the Hogeschool van Amsterdam and the experience of beingpart of the Digital University of the Netherlands.

The Indian presentations did not talk strategy, they talkedbusiness, but on issues we usually talk strategy. The givencomplexity of Indian society demands from any initiative tobe extremely simple to be able to survive. What really crackedmy brain was that I found in India, that a service economy isvery much in place (one does not iron ones own clothes, itgives someone the opportunity to earn some money, etc).

Also, the development of content and integration of ICTis realized in apparently economically sustainable servicemodels. Since Indian society is a complex one, simplicity of theideas is actually very impressive and attractive. The buzzwordsof the conference were corporate citizenship and socialentrepreneurship.

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP

In the workshop a variety of new Indian best practices waspresented. Being a European participant, it struck me the veryfirst day how socially driven projects were financed andorganized in commercial ways. And in the conference thisinsight became even deeper when the Indian labs of the 4 ofthe big companies (Philips, Siemens, Nokia and HewlettPackard) presented details on how they have been doing deepresearch into the lifestyles the poorest sections of society.

They did not only talk about their research but also abouttheir difficulties in communicating with the mother companiesabout the results they find and designs they develop.

This trend started about two years ago. Realizing that themarkets of the wealthy parts of this world are more and moresaturated with technological devices, facing the burst of theICT bubble and facing world recession, companies have becomeaware that the majority of the people on our planet are poor.

And this is a huge potential, provided one changes the modelsof doing business. Poor people do not have the money topurchase tech-gadgets. Nevertheless, the services that arefacilitated via those gadgets can be sold for millions time a fewrupi's. This will make a huge market in the end, so thecompanies argue.

The business models that they are exploring are inspiredby a new Indian tradition of innovation that have been firstheard of in the Doors of Perception conference 4 in 1996 whenSam Pitroda (well known Indian businessman) talked abouthis plan to make sure a public phone system would be availablein every village all over India. Pitroda gathered over 300students one summer and made a complete roll out plan forputting wires in the ground to make sure every village wouldhave this public phone.

He assumed that once there was a public phone in everyvillage, all villages would have a chance to participate muchbetter in the market place (making deals, finding out aboutmarket prices, communicate about transport and huge amountof personal communication that also helps to develop ruralareas in unforeseen ways).

He also assumed this huge scheme would be profitable,since in every village one person would be the service delivererof this public phone service.

This person will find a living and the people from thevillage only have to pay a few rupees for the call they make.STD (Standard Trunk Dial) as it is called today, is indeedfound all over India, in rural areas and also all the cities. It isa model that builds upon the already existing serviceinfrastructure that is part of communities.

It took some years, but then in the Indian models ofinnovation it is remarkable that one does calculate at least 5to 6 years before profit will happen. A very different time-frame than the figures that were shouted at the time of thehype in ICT in USA and EU, where investors and banks were


going down to 6 months time to market and another 6 to makesure you were successful. Even Nokia, well known for itsreally short time-to-market which their modular building nearlydeveloped into an art form, is now looking for ways to connectto this new scheme of innovation. You do not sell your goods,you design a framework in which other people will deliverservices, the goods being the carrier of the service to bedelivered.

We are used to the fact by now here in the west, that whenwe order a hamburger it will consist of meat from Argentina,pineapple from Israel, flour made of wheat from Russia, saucesmade in Italy and wrapped in paper produced in China. Wealso know the coca cola model, the Amazon model of internetbusiness, and the American callcenters based in India. Wehave not seen these service networks evolving on a scale likethe present. Strangely enough, they have a social agenda weonly knew from NGO's and charitable bodies. Now the socialreality is the driver of new economic models, since in Indiaeverybody is convinced of the fact that sustainability in socialterms can only be achieved when it is based on solid economicbusiness structures. In education for example the innovationis financed with venture capital and the government hardlyparticipates.

Off the record in the conference a lot of stories were sharedabout changes in companies from within. How do boardschange opinion, how can one be effective, how and when toseek confrontation. It gave me a feeling of hope that maybewe are entering a new paradigm in doing business, when somany people are actually concerned and want to make adifference and are willing to work hard to find new forms.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

As a result of this new market strategy of the big companiesproviding technological service infrastructure, smallerinitiatives are evolving, calling themselves social entrepreneurs.Jiva and N-Logue, two Delhi based companies, were part of

the workshop. They have attracted serious venture capital todevelop e-learning and e-health services to poor people mostlyliving in rural areas. Jiva 8 years old now was founded byIndian expatriates who came home to make a difference intheir country. Jiva does three things: health, learning and socialentrepreneurship. In 1995, Jiva first started exploring the healthmarket and they were making money rather soon withproviding an ayurvedic (traditional Indian medical and lifestylesystem) internet shop.

They then took it further with the ambition to providecheap and effective health-care to rural villages. In December2003 they won the World Summit Award ( at the World summiton the Information Society held in Geneva 10-12 December2003) with their 'Teledoc' project.

Teledoc provides a mobile phone interface for doctors andhealth workers to diagnose people who are ill and who areelsewhere. The doctor sits behind a computer anywhere, andthe local health worker (the one who runs the service), talksto the patient and fills in standard forms that the doctor seeson his screen. If necessary a man on a scooter will bringmedication to the village (creating another job..). First aid andsimple advice can be delivered efficiently at low cost. Healthworkers are trained by Jiva, establishing a relationship of trustbetween villagers and the health worker, between the healthworker and the doctor. Creating this trust is the most criticalsuccess factor in this service model. Having developed thismodel together with 10 villages and Nokia, they are nowpreparing to 'roll out', as one of Jiva's founders, told me.

Jiva created a similar long term innovation scenario withtheir schooling department. Inspired by the development lifelong learning and the rise of the information society, Jiva hasdeveloped a learning to learn methodology for India. In 1999Jiva started a school in an outskirt of Delhi and with a teamof 10 designers and copywriters all the time present in theschool and working with the teachers for over 6 years. Todaythey publish books, have internet sites and train teachers (IRL


and on-line). Since one and a half year they are now rollingout: today 500 village schools work with this methodology andit takes 54 hours to train teachers to change from the old wayof trespassing curriculum to the new learning to learn strategiesof learning. They plan to intensify the rolling out. The designteam will stay in place, only working harder to unfold newparts of the curriculum to transform. And also here, Jiva isstarting to earn money with their publications and with thetraining of teachers, with the continuous back up service theyprovide for teachers.

While Jiva specializes in development of content services,N-Logue focuses on creating small entrepreneurs in villageswho deliver internet services including web cam connectionsvia the already existing STD telephone infrastructure. Theyroll out a standard technology set (PC, printer, web cam),including training for the service deliverer, for a fixed start upprice for which they take the risk for success.

Their service includes agricultural college, online clinics,marketing data, financial services (incl. microcredits, banking)and travel services. Over 8500 villages have been connected inthe last two years as was presented in the doors east conference.The person running the service knows how to operate themachine.

CREATIVE RESOURCE

The creative aspect of service design in India is very muchdominated by pragmatism and standard procedures.Nevertheless there are many design schools in India, and somereally good designers. Being very well educated theoreticallyand being aware of western and Indian traditions, mostdesigners look for ways of integrating these old and newcultures. There is a tremendous respect for the Indian heritageand big concern that it will evaporate with the evolving media-society. The Bollywood industry has become a commercialculture that is appreciated highly. But for young musicians,writers, designers and artists, there is very little space to develop

new work. Visiting the Sarai medialab in Delhi was thereforevery interesting. Sarai is a medialab in Delhi that is connectedto the Waag Society in Amsterdam. They do social research,innovate design practice, publish, organize events and concertsand run a medialab. Two years ago they started two othermedialabs in some poor neighbourhoods of Delhi, to fostercreative resources. The medialabs in these localities are calledCybermohallah's. In these creative spaces young peoplebetween 15 and 20 years old, spend 3 to 6 hours a day.

These media labs are not a school, not a computer training,nor a job creation facility. They provide a creative space whereyoung people write and visualize and critic each others workand discuss the notions and perceptions that underlie theirwork. In one Cybermohallah 15 young people will participate.

People from Sarai-being the 'motherlab'-will visit once aweek to have conversation, and take time for this conversation,as well as to tackle technical or design issues. As JeebeshBagchi (one of Sarai and Cybermohallah's founders) formulatedit: paper, pencil, conversation and duration will make creativityflourish. And that is what we need.

In another two years Sarai intends to start another 5Cybermohallah's, creating in this way a new youth culture andinfluence the way people inside and outside the localitiesperceive of life in these localities. Building a creative resourceand knowledge base eventually.

Two books have been published that are very impressive.Especially since the stories the young people write examine indetail experiences of day to day life in a very revealing way.The human experience in walking down the street, in realizingtime passes by, in describing the fight-known-all-over-the-planet in a family negotiating what television program towatch.

The focus on creative resources is rather courageous in acountry with so many people living below poverty lines. Whynot make schools or jobs for those young people? Sarai takes


the perspective that culture has always been this driving forcein change and crisis, culture is an expression of wealth as itis of poverty. It is an expression of the human condition.Whether one is rich or poor, stories and songs and drawingswill help to transcend the day to day life.

The raw capitalism in India does not take this into account,being very conservative. To see the results and the success ofthe Cybermohallah's, to read the work and meet young people,gave me great inspiration. And the realization that creativeresource always needs fostering and space for self organizationat the same time.

The trust that Sarai puts in these young people, that no oneconsiders to be good for anything else than work force, is morethan worthwhile and already does and will pay off in thefuture in unforeseen ways today.

CONCLUSION

The confrontation with raw capitalism is intense foreveryone coming from social democracies in the west. To seethough that out of this raw capitalism now has evolved a socialagenda in unforeseen ways till now, was very provoking. Weare aware of the big difference big companies like Shell canmake in peacemaking process like in South Africa. This newtrend though where big companies look for poor people marketsis very worthwhile following.

Local resonance and transparency of models appears to bea requirement though. Local resonance being the basis for trustfor any one person to be able to express and act upon this.Transparency requiring simplicity and at the same timefacilitating different forms in different places. The local has toresonate in the global.

Talking to the Jiva people they emphasized how thebuilding of a trust relation is crucial for their success. The issueof trust has been on the ICT agenda because of e-cash andelectronic banking. But mostly it is a non issue in today'sworld. Trust is a two way thing, one can not build trust without

listening. To create business models that actually take intoaccount this local resonance's in the context of establishingtrust relations was one of my deep insights in India. We dodevelop learning to learn methodologies, talk about question-based design of curricula, but we always define how otherpeople will act. Taking the scale of higher education institutionsin the Netherlands into account, it would be a challenge toanalyze and design learning environments from the perspectiveof trust relations and from the perspective of an infrastructurethat allows local resonance's to be distinct.

Possibly this change of capitalism from within will actuallymake a huge difference in the decades to come. Social equality,creative development, eco-awareness and more still have to beput on this new market's economic agenda though. And thequestion is whether this will be possible at all. But if thishappens, India's wave of innovation will effect us all in wayswe will inevitably learn to appreciate. Conferences like DoorsEast are the bridges that make this learning possible.

CHANGING RURAL SOCIETY: MYTH AND REALITY

Communication for social change is part of an evolutionof communications methodology that can help accelerate globaldevelopment. The process began in the first quarter of the 20thcentury with the use of publicity tools to bring attention tosocial problems such as hunger and disease.

It grew to a reliance on public relations as a means ofidentifying stakeholders and creating programs to fit theaudience's interests. More recently, social marketing took centrestage-where sophisticated marketing and cause relatedadvertising tools were applied to influence individual andsocietal behaviours-such as convincing couples in poor nationsto use contraceptives.

This was followed by development communications andstrategic communications, the latter which rightfully considerscommunication to be a process rather than as a series ofproducts.


In the pages that follow, the two authors argue thatcommunication for social change is a distinct way of doingcommunications-and one of the few approaches that can besustained. Such sustainability is largely due to the fact thatownership of both the message and the medium-the contentand the process-resides with the individuals or communitiesaffected.

We believe that this approach can help make greatercontributions to the pace of development. From this basicassumption we move to questioning "how" and "if" and "where"we might find interesting work and committed individuals totest the effectiveness of this approach.

In order to do this work, the Rockefeller Foundation hasbrought together a group of social activists, academics,filmmakers and journalists, funders, electronic communicationsexperts, service providers and professional communicators.The ideas expressed in this position paper reflect discussionsheld at two conferences-one at the foundation's Bellagio Studyand Conference Centre on Lake Como, in Italy, and the otherin the fall of 1998 in Cape Town, South Africa.

In Bellagio we committed to a new agenda for globalcommunications: communication that is empowering, many-to-many (horizontal versus top-down), communication thatgives voice to the previously unheard, and that has a biastoward local content and ownership. The group's action steps,agreed upon at the end of the meeting, include a commitmentto convince others of the value of this approach (broadeningthe debate), to publicize writings about the effectiveness ofthis work, and to continue to study the prospects in a globalsetting.

During the Cape Town gathering, we continued the inquirywith an expanded group of people. There we developed aconcrete and comprehensive definition of communication forsocial change, put together an outline for the skills and attributesneeded to do this work, began work on the skills/resources

training "toolbox" or "practitioner's kit" or "knowledge transfer",reached agreement on measurements, and identifiedorganizations and people that we'd like to engage in helpingus do this work and to advocate for its effectiveness. Whatfollows is further explanation of the value and benefits of thediscipline of communication for social change.

AN ENVIRONMENT FOR NEW THINKING

This initiative is based on a simple premise: that recentdevelopments--in communications technologies, in politicaland media systems, and in emerging development problems--suggest a greatly enhanced, radically different role forcommunication in development programming.

Communication programming has, very simplistically,tended to fulfill three roles in development thinking andpractice:

First, its role has been to inform and persuade people toadopt certain behaviours and practices that are beneficial tothem: for example, to inform people how to protect themselvesfrom HIV and to persuade them to use a condom; to persuadethem of the importance of vaccinating their child and to informthem when and where they can do so; to persuade them thatsimple sugar and salt solutions can cure diarrhoea and toinform them how to make them up; to persuade them to havefewer children and to inform them how to do so.

Second, it has been used to enhance the image and profileof the work of organizations involved in development with aview to boosting the credibility of their work, raising morefunding and generally improving public perceptions.

Third, it has been used on a more targeted level withincommunities to enable community consultation over specificinitiatives.

The communication for social change initiative believesthat all these roles are important and communication work ingeneral remains underfunded and undervalued. We argue


that these traditional approaches to communication aregenerally insufficient in addressing the reality of thedevelopment problems that exist, and they do not alwaysreflect the complex changes in the communicationsenvironments taking place in many developing countrysocieties.

We argue in this position paper that communication canplay a much greater role in enabling people to take controlover their own lives, in enabling people and societies to settheir own agendas in relation to political, economic and socialdevelopment; and in enabling, in particular, the voices of theeconomically and politically marginalized to be amplified andchannelled to mainstream public and political debate.

We argue that the interaction between communication andthe social well-being of people in developing countries will beradically redefined over the next few years. Global economicliberalization of communications, the deployment of theInternet, mobile telephony and other new technologies and thechanging political environment in most developing countriesare all coinciding to make the cusp of the new millennium adefining moment which will determine how successfully allcountries, especially developing nations, adapt to and exploitthese changes.

Information in society does not simply enable people toknow what they should do or think.

Information is power--it enables people to make sense oftheir lives and it enables them to shape their aspirations.Ultimately it can enable them to take control of their lives. Inmany areas of the world, people have precious little access toinformation outside their community that enables them tomake such "sense."

In other societies, despite a multitude of information outlets,people who are historically marginalized and excluded remain"voiceless" and "invisible" because those who controlinformation channels refuse to share access equitably.

Communication for social change principles focus on usingdirect, many-to-many communications which spring from theaffected communities. The problems inherent in this work arethose which have plagued communication practice for decades:how to assess impact beyond counting products produced ornet impressions received; how to program communication forsocial change work on the micro community level and on themacro multinational level, often simultaneously; and how totransfer knowledge and skills to those most in need of "training"who often live and work in hard-to-reach areas. We also strugglewith ways to capture the best learning-those cases that illustratethe power of communication for social change yet are notoverly simplistic.

Language is also a challenge: the notion of how to explainthis work in terms that can be readily accessible and used bygrassroots activists as easily as by professional communicators.These are all issues that the groups assembled for the RockefellerFoundation conferences grappled with. This paper reveals somepreliminary thoughts on solutions. Others, such as site-basedknowledge transfer, are in the early exploratory stages andwill require more study, testing and applications, especially indeveloping nations with scarce human and financial resources.

Yet nothing in our questions should suggest lack ofconviction nor should they prevent us from energeticallyembracing the potential of communication for social changeto fulfill critical gaps in the development process.

WHAT IS COMMUNICATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE?

The traditional understanding of the role of communicationin development is one that seeks mainly to change individualbehaviours. This behaviour change communication can bebroadly defined as a process of understanding people'ssituations and influences, developing messages that respondto the concerns within those situations, and usingcommunication processes and media to persuade people toincrease their knowledge and change the behaviours and


practices that place them at risk. Communication for socialchange, on the other hand, is defined as a process of publicand private dialogue through which people define who theyare, what they want and how they can get it. Social changeis defined as change in people's lives as they themselves definesuch change. This work seeks particularly to improve the livesof the politically and economically marginalized, and isinformed by principles of tolerance, self-determination, equity,social justice and active participation for all.

This approach attempts to rebalance strategic approachesto communication and change by taking the overridingemphasis... Away from people as the objects for change … andon to people and communities as the agents of their ownchange. Away from designing, testing and deliveringmessages…and on to supporting dialogue and debate on thekey issues of concern. Away from the conveying of informationfrom technical experts… and on to sensitively placing thatinformation into the dialogue and debate.

Away from a focus on individual behaviours…and on tosocial norms, policies, culture and a supportive environment.

Away from persuading people to do something …and onto negotiating the best way forward in a partnership process.

Away from technical experts in "outside" agenciesdominating and guiding the process…and on to the peoplemost affected by the issues of concern playing a central role.

THE STARTING POINT

The starting point for this inquiry is the growing evidencethat, as a generality, the "communications environment" inwhich most people on the planet live has changed radicallyover the last decade. It has changed both in relation to theinformation people have access to, and the opportunities peoplehave to communicate their own perspectives on issues thatconcern them. This new communications environment is shapedby three main interlocking trends:

I. Media liberalization and deregulation

II. New information and communication technologies

III. The changing global political and economic context.

In general, and with important exceptions, these trends aretending to decentralize communications in developingcountries, with a trend towards a more fragmented, morehorizontal, people-to-people model of communication, andaway from a highly centralized, vertical model.

In industrialized countries, media liberalization suggestsmore choice for consumers, which should, theoretically, meanincreased access. Yet the way it plays out in countries like theUnited States is in encouraging the growth of huge mediamonopolies that result in far less community input toprogramming. With deregulation, public service programminghas become just a fading memory, and station ownership hasleaped beyond the realm of possibility for most community-based organizations or individuals of color.

This new communications environment has, we argue,important implications for development programming, animportance that is compounded by the emergence of newdevelopment problems--such as HIV/AIDS--that demand newapproaches to communication. Our inquiry suggests that thereare many opportunities to be seized, as well as real challengesto be faced in understanding and acting upon these changes.

LIBERALIZATION AND DEREGULATION

Most people on this planet receive most of their informationon issues beyond their immediate communities from the printand broadcast media. Fifteen years ago, much of humanityhad one main source for this information--their governments.The means were stolid, formulaic broadcast and print mediathat had been established with the express purpose of tellingpeople what they should know and think.

Two general trends have changed this. First, following theend of the Cold War, a combination of internal pressure from


their citizens and external pressure--often in the form ofconditions set by donors--have led governments to relaxcensorship and freedom of speech laws. Second, this pressurefor political liberalization has been combined with economicliberalization and deregulation of national media industries.

The result in many of those countries with tightly controlledmedia has been a blossoming of dynamic, generally populistand highly commercial newspapers, television and radio mediain most developing countries, and flourishing of newcommunity media in some. Meanwhile, old monopoly state-run media, particularly broadcasters, have tended to languish,losing their audiences to more dynamic competition. They alsoface declining government support and funding.

The implications of these changes for those involved incommunication are challenging.

Monopoly broadcasters have presented a convenient wayof communicating simple messages to huge audiences throughone medium. In much more fragmented media environments,this opportunity no longer exists and reaching the sameaudience requires putting messages out through many differentmedia, and adapting it to many different audiences.

Perhaps more importantly, the creation of these morecomplex and dynamic communications environments raisesthe deeper question of just what information do people haveaccess to, and does it empower poor people and give them agreater voice--or does it move them further to the economicand social margins?

At their worse, new communications environments havedone the latter. They have shifted from providing stodgy anddogmatic government propaganda to providing a uniformdiet of often Western popular music. In some countries, state-controlled news has been replaced by no news, or informationthat is sensational, inaccurate or irrelevant to the daily livesof much of its audience, or news that is derived entirely frominternational sources. Often operating in anarchic regulatory

environments, commercial and private stations have littleobligation to provide anything other than entertainment. Atits very worst, media have encouraged intolerance, sectionalismand tribalism, the most extreme example being the "hate" radioof RTML in Rwanda which played a key role in the massacresin that country.

At their best, however, commercial, community and, insome cases, newly invigorated state-run news and mediaorganizations have managed to attract large audiences withcompelling, popular and informative programming. InKampala, Uganda, the FM station Capital Radio attracts someof its highest audiences for its Capital Doctor program, whichprovides advice and information on issues of sex, HIV/AIDSand other health issues. In South Africa, a form of"edutainment"-

"Soul City," set in a Johannesburg township--has becomeone of the most popular soap operas in the country, yet hassucceeded in educating people about diarrhoea, HIV/AIDSand other issues.

Again in South Africa, deregulation has spurred the creationof more than 80 community radio stations broadcasting in 15languages. Community stations have made serious inroadsinto the broadcast markets, often stealing audiences from thewell-established public broadcasting stations. Communitybroadcasting provides communities with information that isrelevant to their lives, as well as a voice through which peoplecan make demands.

In Cape Town, the tiny community radio station, RadioZibonele, drew on their audience's anger to play a key role inmediating and resolving the township's gang warfaresurrounding the taxi business.

In fact, the success of community radio proves, in somesmall way, the ready market for communication for socialchange principles to be applied in diverse circumstancesthroughout the world. In addition to sub-Saharan African


nations, community radio has succeeded where little else canfrom northwest Canada to southeast Asia.

The print media too is changing under similar pressure,with more entertaining, more populist and often more trenchantcoverage of news issues. These changes have demonstratedhow in the print media in particular, poor reporting underminesmany other forms of social and political discourse; high qualityreporting can play a major role in promoting and stimulatingconstructive public debate. Well-informed, investigativereporting in particular can provide a key element of publicaccountability, both for national governments, for internationalinstitutions, and for NGOs and other civil society organizations.

Finally, the last decade has seen an explosion in satellitebroadcasting. Take the South Asia region, home to one-fifthof the world's population which is today within the footprintof at least 50 broadcast satellites. In India, Pakistan andBangladesh alone there are more than 70 million householdswith television sets, adding up to a total viewership of 300million. By 2007, there will be 550 million television viewersin these countries. Half of them will be hooked up to cable-able to watch the 350 channels that will be available to themby then.

These changes do not apply to all people in all countries,but in one form or another they do affect the vast majority ofpeople in the great majority of countries.

They present many problems; reaching lots of people withprepared messages is becoming more difficult and moreexpensive. They also present substantial opportunities: to workwith communities to enable them to amplify their voices, toenable access to the information that can empower them, tohelp shape communication environments that can work forpeople, not against them.

NEW INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

The current revolution in information technologiesrepresents probably the most profound set of technological

developments human society has experienced since theindustrial revolution.

The innovations of the Internet--and particularly e-mail--have transformed communications capacities in countries withoften dilapidated telecommunications infrastructures; and haveopened up access to much more information about globalissues. The falling costs and increased access to telephonymean that an increasing number of people have the capacityto communicate rapidly beyond their immediate communities,thus opening up new economic opportunities and opportunitiesfor social and political discourse.

For many participants in this communication for socialchange initiative these technologies represent a hugeopportunity: Centralized control of information by governmentsor commercial interests becomes much more difficult.Increasingly, political systems can neither control theinformation their citizens receive nor monitor or constrainhow they communicate with each other.

Technology is--for good and ill--increasing access to thekind of information that is uncensored and unfiltered.Technology is growing most rapidly in those areas where itsdemand is most clearly defined by the users.

The capacity of people to access information is substantiallyincreased.The capacity of people to organize, advocate andlobby beyond physical boundaries is greatly enhanced.

The capacity for people and organizations in developingcountries to communicate information--their aspirations,demands, experiences, analysis--becomes cheaper, morepowerful and far more pervasive.

Nevertheless, we also recognize the limitations of thesetechnologies. In particular, the "information gap" between richand poor is stark. One of the least expensive of the informationand communications technologies (ICTs)--the telephone--illustrates just how far apart the rich and poor worlds are inaccess to such technologies.


One quarter of the countries in the world still have fewerthan one telephone line per 100 people. The majority of thepopulation in developing countries--60% of the total--live inrural areas. Yet in these countries, more than 80% of maintelephone lines are in urban areas.

The distribution of new ICTs is no more equal.

Eighty four per cent of mobile cellular subscribers, 91% ofall fax machines and 97% of Internet host computers are indeveloped countries.

Telecommunications is nevertheless becoming cheaper,more reliable and more accessible and will continue to do so.

Despite the constraints, it seems likely that we are seeingthe emergence internationally of organizational structures thatare increasingly based on networks, rather than hierarchies. Itis this revolution which represents most powerfully the increasein horizontal, people-to-people communication, and whichprovides profound new opportunities for more inclusive publicand policy debate.

A CHANGING POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the ColdWar have had far reaching effects, a full exploration of whichis beyond the remit of this paper. However, two key issuesshould be mentioned.

The first is the growing, though uneven, democratizationand political liberalization that has swept much of thedeveloping world over the last decade. Many of the highlycentralized one-party states or dictatorships have given wayto multi-party democracies, or at least to more open politicalsystems.

This political liberalization has been matched by a stillmore pervasive economic liberalization and we have seen therapid emergence of a new global economy. As Manuel Castellsargues, "for the first time in human history the entire planetis capitalist, since even the few remaining command economies

are surviving or developing through their linkages to global,capitalist markets."

As all governments are finding, including China's,maintaining strict and centralized control of information in amarket economy (which, in turn, needs to rely oncommunications technologies) is both difficult and ofteninefficient.

The fragmentation and decentralization of informationoutlined above is potentially countered by the greaterconcentration of ownership in communications and mediaindustries ushered in by globalization. According to UNESCO'sWorld Communication Report 1997, "international [media]conglomerates are emerging with the purpose of controllingnot only the transmission system (manufacturing, network,cable, satellite etc.) but also the programs they convey."

An increasing spate of mergers and acquisitions over recentyears has seen the emergence of a handful of "world companies"who now dominate global media markets. Time Warner Inc.,News International, Sony, Finivest and Bertelsman each haveannual sales well in excess of $10 billion, an increasingpercentage of which is generated outside the United States.This concentration is compounded by convergence of mediaand telecommunications industries leading to still greaterconcentration of ownership.

Such concentration may not matter and may be offset bythe more horizontal and decentralized models ofcommunications outlined above.

But both these trends--towards a decentralization ofinformation production away from government, and aconcentration of ownership of the means of communication inthe hands of transnationals--should matter to anyone involvedin communication. These trends are bound up intimately withquestions of who controls the information that people receive.

Communication and emerging development problemsThese changes to communication environments come at the


same time as important changes in how we think aboutdevelopment. Some of the most important emergingdevelopment challenges of the last decade have raised newquestions.

Issues such as HIV/AIDS, reproductive health andreproductive rights, and others such as tobacco use havehighlighted more intensely than ever how disease and poorhealth are linked not only to poverty and poor nutrition, butalso to prejudice, to social, political and economic inequality,and to social dislocation. They have focused an especiallystrong spotlight on social and political environments whereissues of sex and sexuality are habitually hidden or are difficultto debate in public.

Such complexities are forcing societies globally to change--to question long cherished, deeply rooted social, political, andreligious mores and practices. A whole range of issues--fromHIV to reproductive rights, from domestic violence to femalegenital mutilation--have crystallized the need for much widersocial and political change. Such change is informed by whathappens both within countries and by international debates,but if it is to be sustainable, change has to emerge from withinsocieties.

The means of how societies change, and who drives suchchange is contentious and difficult. Part of such change willcome from education about issues such as condom use--butmuch of the more deep seated changes that need to take placein societies, such as the improvement in the status of women,need to emerge from advocacy and vigorous public debatewithin and between societies.

Such debates depend fundamentally on communication:on communication within societies, within families, withincommunities, through political discourse; and oncommunication between societies, at the levels of the individual,of the community and of the global society. The capacity ofpeople to communicate is intimately bound up with theircapacity to effect change.

In short, a new model of communication could be emergingfrom a mixture of political, technological, economic and socialchange. It is decentralized, pluralistic and democratic; it seeksto empower rather than persuade people; it fosters debateamong and between citizens, among and between communities,and between people and government. This model envisagesincreasingly horizontal communication allowing people tocommunicate with each other easily and inexpensively. It alsoinvolves the steady disintegration of traditional monolithicvertical lines of communication, where governments ownedradio and television stations in order to control flows ofinformation.

CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT FOR CHANGE

The Rockefeller Foundation has responded to a growingbody of opinion and evidence that the role of communicationin developing country societies is changing, and that thestrategies of those working in development needed to changewith it. The Foundation's inquiry is based on the premise thatthe changes that are taking place in communication and societymay have profound implications for donor and developmentstrategies, but that this premise remains poorly researched andarticulated.

Communication for social change programming suggestsa major shift in development. Above all it is about enablingpublics and communities to articulate their own agendas fordevelopment--at the community, the provincial, the nationaland the international level. Programming in this area is aboutmaking connections--at these different levels and between them.It involves making connections between global trade policiesand local communities, and it involves making connectionsbetween many different kinds of activities--between the issuesthemselves (such as HIV/AIDS, domestic violence) and themeans that exist for debating and discussing them: communityradio, women's radio listeners groups, an informed andresponsive national media, quality media programming (e.g.,Soul City), telecommunications.


It involves framing and phrasing debates in language andforms that are inclusive. It involves a responsibility of academicsin particular, but those concerned with development in general,to communicate research and information not only to theirpeers, but to the wider public within developing countries. Itinvolves "returning" research and analysis to where it originates.Perhaps, above all, it suggests that the key role for donor anddevelopment institutions is to create an environment for change.It suggests a role that sees these organizations continuing toinform and create development strategies, but also in creatingthe conditions where developing country societies can assess,challenge and adapt such strategies and begin to createstrategies for themselves.

It provides new opportunities to open up developmentdecisions and programming to public debate and dialogue,and to enable publics--and not just experts--to be more proactivein shaping debate on development issues.

THE PROCESS OF INQUIRY

The Rockefeller Foundation has been engaged aggressivelyin intellectual inquiry about the power of communications fornearly 60 years. In the late 1930s, program officer John Marshallformed the Rockefeller Communications Seminar whose goalwas to promote a theoretical framework about the role of masscommunications in American culture. Under Marshall'sguidance, the foundation funded one of the country's firstefforts to quantitatively document the effect of radio on listeners.The work expanded in the 1940s to include support for PaulLazarsfeld, who began the new field of communication andattitude research. In this time-frame, the foundation also fundedthe creation of the first communications journal, Public OpinionQuarterly.

It is from this historical base that the currentcommunications efforts to promote an enhanced disciplineknown as communication for social change grows. TheRockefeller Foundation, like most other progressive U.S.-based

foundations, is in the business of positive social change-changein attitudes, in behaviours, in utilization of technology, and ofaccess to opportunities to enhance lives.

While a key player in the development arena, thefoundation's focus remains predominantly on science-basedknowledge. Yet at the core of much of the foundation's currentportfolio is the need to affect individual and community normsand behaviours-the type of change that requires sophisticated,sustained communication.

Three years ago we began to ask the tough questions: howcan we demonstrate that communication-planned andimplemented strategically-can indeed bring about desired socialchange? Can we prove that such communication thinking andwork is as systematic, scientific, sustained and measurable asother social sciences? And can we move beyond publicity andpromotional activities to a new way of thinking and deliveringcommunication that starts with the identified community orstakeholder's needs, engages the recipient of the communicationin decision making and, most importantly, can be sustainedand replicated. The answers are "yes", "maybe" and "watch us."

We began this inquiry the way much work starts at thisfoundation-with a group of people coming together at a Bellagioconference. While this may not have been a unique method,the process of discovery we used-search conferencemethodology-yielded encouraging results. We brought togetherdisparate types with little in common except our belief thatcommunication MUST be done differently. We, individuallyand collectively, knew that we were on the cusp of anevolutionary turn in the history of communication fordevelopment.

We felt that our work had to be bigger than embracingelectronic technology or providing access to those in "unwired"parts of the world. We also believed, with some certainly, thatthe discipline of communication can be ill-defined,misunderstood, undervalued and often ignored for itscontributions to the development process. What we're about


today is, hopefully adding to the discourse rather thanmuddying it. In the process of figuring out what to do andwhere to start, we realized that the type of communicationwork that needs to be done is not often done-especially in poorareas of developing nations most in need.

It seems that a particular niche for this network will be inidentifying needed skills, developing ways to transmit trainingand to reach those people and communities most likely to havescarce resources. Going forward we will work with such peopleand communities to bring communication for social change tothem. We come to this work humbly confident that ultimately,development-in virtually any sector-cannot happen withoutinnovative and sustained communication processes.

WHERE IS GOOD WORK HAPPENING?

One question that we're asked frequently is "what doescommunication for social change look like? Who is practicingit, or where is the greatest potential?"

In looking for examples of good work, it's important tokeep in mind the key principles of communication for socialchange: it empowers individuals and communities, it engagespeople in making decisions that enhance their lives, it is many-to-many, it relies on democratic ideals, it allows previouslyunheard voices to be heard, and both the process ofcommunications and the content of the messages are controlledby the receiving communities. This can be heady stuff-at timesbordering on the ideal rather than the practical. Yet even so,we've found examples of innovative social communicationswork in several locales. As we work in the United States,Africa and Asia, for example, it appears that the most likelypractitioners of communication for social change are smallstruggling organizations with few resources.

Communication for social change in some respects becomesa means of survival. Without the benefit of largecommunications staffs or budgets, and facing media that arehesitant to cover social issues in substantive ways, some small

NGOs and community-based organizations have figured outhow to use the people most affected by their work to makethe communications process work.

In Africa and Latin America, the community radiomovement stands out. By definition, community radio stationscannot succeed without local control, citizen participation, localissues-based programming and open access. Yet radio remainsessentially a top-down methodology; that is, someone decideswhat will be broadcast, it airs, and is received passively bylisteners.

The better community radio stations, such as Cape Flats'(South Africa) Bush Radio, Radio Zibonele in the Khayelitshacommunity of Cape Town, South Africa, and AlexandraTownship's community station focus on audience participation.New programming stems from the suggestions listeners makewhen phoning into the stations, or when they are workingthere as volunteer staff. Critical issues facing the communitiesare discussed-and problem solving happens in real time-on theair. Outreach is daily and continuous-the community radiostations are vital parts of the neighbourhoods where theyoperate. They don't just "cover" issues-they lead the residentsin collective decision making.

A KEY CHALLENGE: CAPTURING IMPACT

Recognition of the role of communication in achievingsocial change is not necessarily new nor surprising, but itreceives comparatively little funding. While the case for thiskind of programming--for the reasons already given--isbuilding, there remain significant obstacles to it attracting majorsupport.

Much of this work involves stimulating dialogue and debatewithin communities and the public, and--when it works best--ensuring that the engine of change is the community andpublic itself. As a consequence, much of this work isunpredictable and risky. Because dialogue and debate are theimmediate objectives and are difficult to measure or attribute


to any particular intervention, and because it is recognizedthat social change is likely to take a long time, this work is verydifficult to assess and evaluate.Indeed, many of thecommunications initiatives that are currently funded--particularly around behaviour change--attract support lessbecause they are perceived as addressing the main problem,but more because they can be claimed as having changedsomething. In the field of HIV/AIDS, for example, much of thefunding for communications initiatives has gone into attemptsto change individual behaviours. Much of this work has hadsubstantial impact but it has not, as many of its practitionerswould acknowledge, sought to change the underlying factorsthat are driving a still escalating epidemic: poverty, socialexclusion, prejudice and discrimination, migration and poorhealth systems.

Such problems are fundamental. Communication for socialchange programming can constitute only part of the realsolution; it can help enable people to shape their own agenda,articulate their own priorities and aspirations of how to addressthe epidemic, and ensure that donors are following andresponding to public and policy debates within developingcountries as well as shaping such debates.

Evaluation of impact in this area remains difficult but not,we conclude, impossible. It does, however, mean that we mustdevelop new methodologies.

MEASUREMENTS AND EVALUATION

Donors have a right and an obligation to demand evidencethat their funds have been spent wisely, that they have achievedwhat they were meant to, or that there are good reasons forany changes or lack of achievement. However, there are otherreasons why impact needs to be measured.

1. Accountability-understanding the impact ofcommunication interventions is an essential componentof being accountable. The primary accountability is tothe people engaged in the communication intervention.

Being involved with them in aspects of their livesrequires that accountability. They are also the people,proportionate to their means, who will invest the mostresources.

2. Progress-understanding what is happening and whetherit is what people want to happen.

3. Improvement-information from any measurement andevaluation is crucial to both large strategic decisionsand to fine tuning communication interventions in orderthat better value is gained from the investments thatare made.

4. Motivation-a sense of achievement is crucial tomotivation. Good motivation is an essential element ofany endeavour, including communication for socialchange programs. The people involved draw energyand drive from knowing that progress is being made.Not knowing can lead to the opposite.

5. Credibility-Good data on the impact of communicationfor social change interventions can only enhance thecredibility of this field and the investments-from localto international-that are made.

The long-term goal of all development action is to seepositive change in the issues of concern. We all want lesspoverty, increased employment, better gender equality, toeradicate HIV/AIDS, more girls in school, higher educationalachievement, lower child and maternal mortality rates, betternutrition, fewer accidents and no violence. That is the crucialmeasure of success.

Such changes can take five years or a decade, but generallymuch longer. People involved in communication for socialchange initiatives need more immediate data that indicateswhether what they are doing is making a contribution to theoverall change process.

It is not possible to run a program for 15 years beforeassessing impact and then finding that the wrong things were


done. More immediate information on the contribution ofcommunication to change is required.

Although communication for social change activities tendto have less specific and immediate objectives and targets, theynevertheless need to develop a similar set of indicators bothto measure and indicate progress and to drive the nature ofthe programming. We are at the start of this work, but theCape Town meeting, drawing on the information, analysis andperspectives above, made some suggestions of indicators.

EXPANDED PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DIALOGUE AND DEBATE

Dialogue and debate are crucial. They indicate that peopleare engaging in the issues of concern, are motivated to lookat them, and that at least some of the parties to the debate anddiscussion are challenging the orthodoxy that may becontributing to the matters of most concern. For example, therole of women in politics; the need for a more open approachto sexual health issues; equal rights for boys and girls; and landredistribution. Increased accuracy of the information that peopleshare in the dialogue/debate Accuracy of information isimportant.

There are two types of information. First where there isspecific, proven data such as would exist in relation to aparticular medical issue. Second, accurately reflecting thebackground information, perspectives and views of the partiesto a debate over a more complex issue such as girls in school.

The more accurately the data and the perspectives arereflected in the dialogue-from among friends to public policydebate-the more likely is the chance of positive change. Themeans available that enable people/communities to feed theirvoices into debate and dialogue.

Increased leadership and agenda setting role bydisadvantaged people on the issues of concern Whatever thefocus of the communication for social change action the peopleat the centre of the issue[s]-those whose everyday lives are

most affected-should be involved in the major decisions relatedto the initiative.

This will ensure relevance and meaning-a vital componentfor any intervention.

Resonates with the major issues of interest to people'severyday interests Communication for social changeinterventions need to be positioned in ways that resonate,make sense to them, to which they can relate. Of course thisis a basic tenet of all communication, but it can be easilyforgotten in the midst of complex detail relating to an issuesuch as breast feeding and HIV/AIDS.

If the positioning of the issue does resonate there is agreater chance of momentum and action. And it is not possibleto focus on all the many and varied aspects of a concern. Rarelycan the issue that resonates be chosen in advance. It will emergeand then needs to be accentuated.

Linked people and groups with similar interests who mightotherwise not be in contact One of the main turning points forany change process is when different groups form allianceswith a common overall objective and a loose coordinationframework. Each group does its own thing, but in theknowledge that it contributes to a greater effort. Thereforeactivities that link people together and help working alliancescan be interpreted as contributing to positive change.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

Throughout the NGO community in industrialized and inless wealthy nations, the potential both to apply communicationfor social change methodology and to encourage its use isgreat. The change communication principles seem obvious tothose of us in development, philanthropy and social services.They speak to the very essence of our work-that is, to helpingcreate locally-based solutions to critical social ills.

Yet throughout time, obvious "fixes" have been the onesmost often overlooked. "Of course innovative communication


techniques are essential" we hear frequently. "Of course wehave to empower those 'on the ground' to have greater controlof their own stories and how they are communicated. Of course'horizontal' communication is more effective than top-down,"we all opine.

Yet "how" remains a mystery in far too many instances. Ormore precisely, we're not sure "how to make it work."

Key to answering the "how" question, we believe, is infinding smart practitioners and thinkers throughout the worldwho are able to reach others, train others, test the changecommunication principles, encourage ongoing site-based work,and evaluate its effectiveness. The strategy for moving thisinitiative forward has five prongs:

1. Reaching clarity of terms and defining, or perhapsrefining, the field;

2. Identifying and describing the skills, attributes andresources necessary for communication for socialchange. During the Cape Town conference, participantsdiscussed both the form and content of the skillsdevelopment process.

3. Developing the systems and exchange mechanismsneeded to spread the change communication workglobally;

4. Maintaining the network of supporters and enrollingothers; and,

5. Using concrete measurements to evaluate effectivenessand the reach of communication for social change.

We are well along on the first prong. We believe we havemany good ideas for the second and third ones. Each day we'rethrilled by another expression of interest that we receive; theword is getting out, which only fuels our evangelical spirits.And, as this paper suggests, there are different ways of doingevaluation that should further the communication for socialchange agenda.

Yet, many questions remain: can we create a "transfer ofknowledge" or type of curriculum that can be transportedworldwide easily and economically? What's in such acurriculum? Who are the trainers? How will they receive theinformation? (Is, for example, Internet-based training a viableoption?) Can we establish regional centers of learning that arebased on local realities? How do we reach people in thoseareas of the world most in need of this knowledge but whohave the smallest number of resources to access such training?

Or should we, perhaps, be worrying less about skills andmore about personal attributes? Going forward we must debateanswers to these questions and test possible solutions on acommunity-specific basis.

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge The Impact of Advertising on Society258 259

7The Impact of Advertising on Society

The advertising business has become such an importantfactor in the economy in many countries, especially in theUnited States, that it also changes the economy itself, society,culture, and the political system.

The stimulation for the demand of products and serviceshelps the economy grow stronger and stronger. New inventionsbecome known much faster and can establish their spot in thesales figures of the economy. If there are more people buyingthese products the overall costs will drop and the product willbecome cheaper for the customer which raises his willingnessto buy even more. On the other hand advertisements are veryexpensive and some economists believe that these costs are puton top of the actual price paid by the customer.

Critics argue that advertising can also have a huge influenceon society. It tells the consumers that only purchasing productsmakes you happy and therefore people compare each other ontheir belongings. Women also compare themselves with thebeautiful and very skinny models they see on commercials andads. This sometimes results in eating disorders and a low self-esteem of women who don’t look like these models. Anotherbad effect is, that minority groups, especially in the UnitedStates are portrait in a subordinate position, which settles inthe minds of people. Commercials are also an important partof the income of a TV station which leads to the suspicion thata news channel might not report on an incident about acompany they depend on. A lot of TV shows are also based

on these commercials, and if the ratings aren’t good enoughthe show will be stopped. Only those shows which attract alot of viewers will be shown, which is not very differentiatedand put minorities like older people at a disadvantage.

Advertising can also have an impact in politics. $ 467million were spent on advertisements and TV commercials inthe elections of 1998. It gives the opponents the chance torespond to charges very quickly reaching a few million viewers.But since this is very expensive only very rich people have tochance to run for a political position or at least depend on thedonation of wealthier people who could have a huge impacton democracy this way. The political issues talked about in anelection are also very much simplified because the spots areonly about 30 seconds long, and you can’t really discuss a lotin such a short period of time.

There is finally the impact advertising can have on theculture of a country. The globalized economy uses the samecommercials in a lot of different countries, which leads to abreak down in the differences of these societies. Children willgrow up not knowing how their culture has been before intheir country. It can also lead to a lot of discussion about moralvalues if we just think about the very controversial ads ofBenetton we have discussed.

Advertising has an important effect on a country’s economy,society, culture, and political system. This is especially true inthe United States where the advertising industry plays sucha prominent role.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

Most economists believe that advertising has a positiveimpact on the economy because it stimulates demand forproducts and services, strengthening the economy bypromoting the sale of goods and services. Manufacturers knowthat advertising can help sell a new product quickly, enablingthem to recoup the costs of developing new products. Bystimulating the development of new products, advertising helps


increase competition. Many economists believe that increasedcompetition leads to lower prices, thereby benefiting consumersand the economy as a whole.

These economists also argue that by interesting consumersin purchasing goods, advertising enables manufacturersand others to sell their products in larger quantities. Theincreased volume of sales enables companies to produceindividual units at lower costs and therefore, sell them at alower price. Advertising thus benefits consumers by helpinglower prices.

Other economists, however, believe that advertising iswasteful. They argue that the cost of advertising adds to thecost of goods and that most advertising simply encouragesconsumers to buy one brand rather than another. Accordingto this view, advertising simply moves sales from one companyto another, rather than increasing sales overall and therebybenefiting the economy as a whole.

SOCIAL IMPACT

Advertising can have wide-ranging repercussions on asociety. Some critics suggest that advertising promotes amaterialistic way of life by leading people to believe thathappiness is achieved by purchasing products. They arguethat advertising creates a consumer culture in which buyingexciting new products becomes the foundation of the society'svalues, pleasures, and goals.

Other critics express concern over the way advertising hasaffected women and racial minority groups.

Ads in the 1950s depicted women primarily as decorationor sex objects. Although millions of women worked outsidethe home in the 1960s, ads continued to focus on their role ashomemakers. Whether owing to the feminist movement or towomen's increasing economic power, after the 1960s it becamemore common to see women depicted in professional roles.However, many ads today still emphasize a woman’s sexuality.

The way advertising has depicted racial minorities has alsobeen harmful. Prior to 1960, African Americans were usuallyshown in a subordinate position. Due to the influence of thecivil rights movement, however, advertisers by the 1980s hadbegun to depict African Americans as students, professionals,or business people. However, many African Americanorganizations and community activists continue to object tothe way that alcohol and tobacco companies have seeminglytargeted low-income minority communities with a heavypreponderance of outdoor advertising for their products.

As ads have begun to more fully reflect the lives of womenand African Americans in the United States, increasing attentionhas been paid to the way in which advertising shows otherethnic groups, including Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans,and Eastern Europeans. There is still considerable debate overhow advertising influences public perception of gender and ofparticular ethnic groups.

Advertising has a major social impact by helping sustainmass communications media and making them relativelyinexpensive, if not free, to the public. Newspapers, magazines,radio, and broadcast television all receive their primary incomefrom advertising.

Without advertising, many of these forms of masscommunication might not exist to the extent that they dotoday, or they might be considerably more expensive, offerless variety, or even be subject to government control throughsubsidies. In-depth news programs, a diversity of magazines,and free entertainment might no longer be widely available.

At the same time, however, some critics warn that becauseadvertising plays such a major economic role, it may exerciseundue influence on the news media and thereby curtail thefree flow of information in a free society. Reporters and editors,for example, may be hesitant to develop a news story thatcriticizes a major advertiser. As a result, society might not be


alerted to harmful or potentially harmful conduct by theadvertiser. Most members of the news media deny that pressurefrom an advertiser prevents them from pursuing news storiesinvolving that advertiser, but some members of the mediaacknowledge that they might not be inclined to investigate anissue aggressively if it threatened to offend a major advertiser.Advertisers may affect media programming in other ways,too, critics charge.

For example, companies that sponsor TV programs preferrelatively wholesome, noncontroversial programming to avoidoffending a mass audience. This preference causes TV networksto emphasize this type of programming. The result is thatsociety may be denied the benefits of being able to viewchallenging or highly original entertainment programs or newsprograms on controversial issues.

Because advertisers are especially interested in attractingthe 18 to 34 year olds who account for most consumer spending,television shows are often developed with this audience inmind. If the ratings show that a program is not attracting largeaudiences, particularly among 18 to 34 year olds, advertisersoften withdraw support, which causes a program to be canceled.As a result, shows that are more likely to interest and to beof value to older audiences are not produced.

The impact of television on young children has receivedmuch attention. Research suggests that children see televisionadvertising as just another form of programming and reactuncritically to its messages, which makes them especiallyvulnerable to advertising. There is also concern about the wayin which adolescent girls respond to advertising that featuresbeautiful, thin models.

Research indicates that many adolescent girls are undulyinfluenced by this standard of beauty, become dissatisfiedwith their own bodies, and may develop eating disorders inpursuit of a thin figure. New research suggests that adolescent

boys are also being influenced by advertising images of bulked-up, buffed bodies. As a result, many become dissatisfied withtheir own body image, devote large amounts of time toweightlifting, and may even take drugs that have harmful sideeffects in order to develop more muscle.

Those over the age of 60 are thought to be less influencedby advertising, but some elderly people no longer processmessages as easily as younger people, making them moresusceptible to questionable advertising claims.

POLITICAL IMPACT

Advertising is now a major component of politicalcampaigns and therefore has a big influence on the democraticprocess itself. In 1998 more than $467 million was spent onelection campaigns in the United States.

That amount of spending placed political advertising inthe ranks of the country’s 30 leading advertisers that year.Political advertising is a relatively new development in U.S.history. Advertising professionals did not become involved inelectoral campaigns until the 1950s. But since then, politicaladvertising has grown in sophistication and complexity.

Political advertising enables candidates to convey theirpositions on important issues and to acquaint voters with theiraccomplishments and personalities. Television advertising isespecially effective for candidates running for national orstatewide office because it can reach so many people at once.Candidates can also use advertising to respond effectively tothe charges of their opponents.

Various campaign finance reform proposals, however, havetried to address the impact of television advertising on politicalcampaigning. Because of the high cost of television ads, thecosts of political campaigns have skyrocketed, making itnecessary for candidates to raise money continually, even afterthey have been elected to office. Critics say this factor


jeopardizes the democratic process by making elected officialsbeholden to wealthy contributors and by making it more likelythat only the wealthy will run for office. Some reform proposalshave called for free airtime, but television and radio networkshave resisted this idea.

Critics of political advertising also charge that the 30-secondtelevision spot has become more important to a politicalcampaign than a thorough discussion of the issues. As a result,voters are bombarded with image advertising rather than beingacquainted with the candidate’s positions. They contend thatthis practice is harmful to good government. Issues aresimplified, and candidates are “packaged and sold” much likea consumer product, thereby distorting the political process.

CULTURAL IMPACT

Advertising can affect cultural values. Some advertisingmessages, for example, encourage aggressive individualism,which may clash with the traditional cultural values of a countrywhere the collective or group is emphasized over the individualor humility or modesty is preferred to aggressiveness. Withthe globalization of the world economy, multinationalcorporations often use the same advertising to sell to consumersaround the world.

Some critics argue that advertising messages are thushelping to break down distinct cultural differences andtraditional values, causing the world to become increasinglyhomogeneous.

Many advertising campaigns, however, have universalappeal, overriding cultural differences, or they contribute toculture in a positive way. Humor in advertising has mademany ad campaigns widely popular, in some cases achievingthe status of folklore or taking on new life in another arena.For example, a popular ad campaign for a fast-food chain withthe slogan “Where’s the beef?” became part of the 1980

Democratic presidential primary campaign between Gary Hartand Walter Mondale. The ad ridiculed a competitor by depictinga small hamburger patty dwarfed by a huge bun. During aprimary debate one of the candidates used the ad slogan tosuggest that his opponent’s campaign lacked substance.

REGULATION

Advertising is subject to both government regulation andindustry self-regulation to prevent deceptive advertising or tolimit the visibility of advertising. Advertising is heavilyregulated in the United States, Canada, and a number ofEuropean and Asian countries.

IN THE UNITED STATES

Government Regulation

Federal, state, and city governments have all passedlegislation restricting advertising in various ways in the UnitedStates. The Supreme Court of the United States has overturnedsome restrictions, however, ruling that advertising is protectedunder the free speech provisions of the First Amendment tothe Constitution, although to a lesser extent than politicalspeech.

In a landmark 1976 ruling, Virginia State Board of Pharmacyv Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, the Court declaredadvertising to be a semiprivileged form of free expression,subject to some regulation. In the Virginia case the SupremeCourt struck down a ban that prohibited pharmacists fromadvertising drug prices. The ruling removed bans that hadapplied to other professionals, such as physicians and lawyers,and enabled them to advertise their services.

In the United States the main government regulatory agencyfor advertising is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). TheFTC enforces a variety of consumer protection laws to eliminateads that deceive the consumer. The FTC defines deceptive


advertising as any ad containing a misrepresentation oromission harmful to the consumer. An advertisement does nothave to be untrue to be deceptive.

For example, ads for a certain bread product claimed thatit had half as many calories per slice as its leading competitors.The advertiser failed to say, however, that each slice of itsbread was also half as thick as the competitors. The ads wereruled to be deceptive.

The key to the FTC's regulation of advertising is its powerto require that advertisers substantiate the accuracy of theirclaims. So if advertisers say that 'tests prove' or 'physiciansrecommend,' they must be able to show test results or affidavitsfrom doctors. Moreover, companies cannot misuse evidence.For example, claims that a particular brand of dog food providedall the milk protein a dog needs were ruled to be misleadingbecause dogs do not need milk protein.

Products that can affect health receive special regulatoryattention. The U.S. Congress banned cigarette advertising fromradio and TV in 1971 under the Public Health Cigarette SmokingAct. In 1998 the tobacco industry and the attorneys general of46 states agreed to ban outdoor cigarette advertising and theuse of cartoon characters in advertising, a practice that manythought had encouraged young people to start smoking.

Advertising directed to children has received considerablescrutiny. In 1990 Congress passed the Children's TelevisionAdvertising Practice Act. Among other things, it set limits onthe amount of advertising that could be included in children'stelevision programming and barred hosts of children's showsfrom selling products.

State laws and enforcement bureaus impose additionalregulations on certain types of advertising, particularly thoseinvolving contests. These regulations may differ from state tostate. Consequently, advertisers planning a national contest

through newspapers may have to prepare several differentversions of an advertisement to comply with the varying laws.In some states the media are themselves regulated. For example,it is illegal in a number of states for radio and televisionstations to broadcast distilled-liquor advertising; outdoorbillboard advertising is banned in certain other states.

INDUSTRY REGULATION

The advertising industry has resorted to self-regulation ina serious effort to stop abuses before they occur. These self-imposed codes of ethics and procedures aim principally tocurtail not only bad taste but also misrepresentation anddeception in copy and illustrations, as well as derogatory andunfair representations of products of competitors.

Several advertising trade associations are concerned withmaintaining high standards. The associations believe it is goodpublic relations to do so, inasmuch as advertising that weakenspublic confidence damages the impact and influence of alladvertising.

Individual media and media groups often establish theirown codes of ethics. Some newspapers and magazines refuseto publish advertising for tobacco and alcoholic beverages;most of them, in varying degree, investigate the reliability ofadvertisers before accepting their copy. Some publishers havestrict rules about the presentation of advertising to prevent thepublication of false or exaggerated claims and to preserve theaesthetic tone of their publications.

Radio and television stations generally try to investigatethe company and its product before broadcasting advertisingmessages that might cause unfavorable reactions. The networksand the National Association of Broadcasters have establishedcodes regulating the advertising of medical products andcontrolling contests, premiums, and other offers. All thenetworks maintain so-called acceptance departments, which


screen both commercial and noncommercial scripts, eitherdeleting or challenging for substantiation any questionablematerial. Most magazine publishers have their own strict ruleson acceptance of advertising copy.

The American Advertising Federation, an organization ofleading national advertisers, has long campaigned for “truthin advertising.” Other organizations that promote ethicalstandards are the American Association of AdvertisingAgencies and the Association of National Advertisers. TheInstitute of Outdoor Advertising encourages its members toimprove the design of their advertising posters and signs and,more importantly, to make sure they do not erect advertisingbillboards in locations where they will mar the landscape orotherwise offend the public.

The best-known and most active watchdogs in theadvertising field are the Better Business Bureaus, which bringpressure to bear on unethical advertisers through persuasion,publicity, or, in extreme cases, legal action. The fact that localand national bureaus are subsidized by both advertisers andmedia reflects the conviction of modern business managementthat “good advertising is good business.”

IN CANADA

Canadian advertising regulations are even stricter thanthose in the United States. The Competition Act is the Canadianfederal statute that seeks to prevent false and misleadingadvertising. The act is administered by the Bureau ofCompetition Policy which is part of Consumer and CorporateAffairs. If the bureau finds advertising to be misleading, it maysimply ask the advertiser to stop running the ad or it may aska company to take certain steps to correct the impression madeby the false claims. The bureau may also take legal actionagainst the advertiser in which case it will turn over its evidenceto the Attorney General of Canada who will decide whetherthe evidence warrants a criminal prosecution.

Canada’s self-regulatory body, the Canadian AdvertisingStandards Council, has the right to take a commercial off theair if it offends taste and public decency. Moreover, in Canadaads that deal with products regulated by the government (forexample, food, drugs, alcohol, and children's products) haveto be approved before they air and can also be pulled ifcomplaints arise after they run. In the United States, action canonly be taken after the advertisement runs. Finally, beginningin 2001 tobacco advertising in Canada was limited to directmail and to adults-only environments such as bars.

IN OTHER COUNTRIES

Advertising is often heavily regulated in other countriesas well. But the regulations vary from country to country.For example, in Mexico advertising for tobacco andalcohol is limited to late evenings after children have gone tobed. France prohibits any reference to health in tobacco ads,and Italy allows alcohol advertising to promote the brandname but not product attributes such as 'cold filtered' or 'smoothtasting.'

Advertising regulations in other countries are oftendesigned to protect culture and morals. France prohibits theuse of foreign expressions where there are equivalent Frenchterms as a way of protecting the French language. Advertisingregulations in Malaysia bar the depiction of nudity, discodancing, seductive clothing, and blue jeans in ads and requireads to project the Malaysian culture and identity. Varyingregulations present numerous challenges to multinationalcorporations that advertise their products in many differentcountries.

HISTORY

Archaeologists have found evidence of advertising datingback to the 3000s bc, among the Babylonians. One of the firstknown methods of advertising was the outdoor display, usually


an eye-catching sign painted on the wall of a building.Archaeologists have uncovered many such signs, notably inthe ruins of ancient Rome and Pompeii. An outdooradvertisement excavated in Rome offers property for rent, andone found painted on a wall in Pompeii calls the attention oftravelers to a tavern situated in another town.

In medieval times word-of-mouth praise of products gaverise to a simple but effective form of advertising, the use ofso-called town criers.

The criers were citizens who read public notices aloud andwere also employed by merchants to shout the praises of theirwares. Later they became familiar figures on the streets ofcolonial American settlements. The town criers wereforerunners of the modern announcer who delivers radio andtelevision commercials.

Although graphic forms of advertising appeared early inhistory, printed advertising made little headway until theinvention of the movable-type printing press by German printerJohannes Gutenberg about 1450. This invention made the massdistribution of posters and circulars possible.

The first advertisement in English appeared in 1472 in theform of a handbill announcing a prayer book for sale. Twohundred years later, the first newspaper ad was publishedoffering a reward for the return of 12 stolen horses. In theAmerican colonies, the Boston News-Letter, the first regularlypublished newspaper in America, began carrying ads in 1704,and about 25 years later Benjamin Franklin made ads morereadable by using large headlines.

In the United States, the advertising profession began inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1841 when Volney B. Palmer setup shop as an advertising agent, the forerunner of theadvertising agency. Agents contracted with newspapers forlarge amounts of advertising space at discount rates and thenresold the space to advertisers at a higher rate. The ads

themselves were created by the advertisers. In 1869 FrancisAyer bought out Palmer and founded N. W. Ayer & Son, anagency that still exists today. Ayer transformed the standardagent practice by billing advertisers exactly what he paid topublishers plus an agreed upon commission. Soon Ayer wasnot only selling space but was also conducting market researchand writing the advertising copy.

Advertising agencies initially focused on print. But theintroduction of radio created a new opportunity and by theend of the 1920s, advertising had established itself in radio tosuch an extent that advertisers were producing many of theirown programs. The early 1930s ushered in dozens of radiodramatic series that were known as soap operas because theywere sponsored by soap companies.

Television had been introduced in 1940, but because of thehigh cost of TV sets and the lack of programming, it was notimmediately embraced. As the American economy soared inthe 1950s, so did the sale of TV sets and the advertising thatpaid for the popular new shows. Soon TV far surpassed radioas an advertising medium.

The tone of the advertising was also changing. No longerdid advertising simply present the product benefit. Instead itbegan to create a product image. Bill Bernbach, founder ofDoyle Dane Bernbach in New York City; Leo Burnett, founderof the Leo Burnett agency in Chicago, Illinois; and DavidOgilvy, founder of Ogilvy & Mather in New York City, allcame to prominence in the late 1950s and 1960s and led whathas been called the 'creative revolution.'

Bernbach's agency captured the spirit of the new age.Bernbach believed that advertising had to be creative andartistic or it would bore people. He also believed that goodadvertising began with respect for the public's intelligence.The ads his agency created were understated, sophisticated,and witty.


For example, when Bernbach's agency picked up theaccount for the Henry S. Levy Bakery in Brooklyn, a boroughof New York City, the agency created an ad that entertainedNew Yorkers and provided fodder for many conversations.The ad showed a Native American eating a slice of the bakery'srye bread with the headline, 'You don't have to be Jewish tolove Levy's.'

But it was the advertising for Volkswagen that made theagency's reputation. At a time when American cars were gettingbigger and bigger and the advertising for them trumpeted thatbigger was better, Doyle Dane Bernbach created a magazinead that showed a small picture of the Volkswagen Beetlesurrounded by a sea of white space with the headline, 'thinksmall.'

An equally unconventional ad carried the headline 'lemon'beneath a photo of an apparently flawed Volkswagen. The ad'scopy explained that 'this Volkswagen missed the boat. Thechrome strip on the glove compartment is blemished and mustbe replaced…We pluck the lemons; you get the plums.' In anera of hype and bombast, the Volkswagen ads stood out becausethey admitted failure in a witty way and gave facts in abelievable manner that underlined the car's strengths. This wittogether with a conversational and believable style was ahallmark of the advertising created by Doyle Dane Bernbachand that style became highly influential.

The creative foundation established by Bernbach and othershas been critical to the success of contemporary advertising.The introduction of the TV remote control and access tohundreds of cable channels mean that today advertising mustinterest and entertain consumers or else they will simply usethe remote to change the channel.

New digital devices even threaten to make it possible toedit out commercials. The development of interactive television,combining the functions of a computer with access to high-

speed transmission over cable lines or optical fibers, will likelyenable consumers to select from a vast video library. Consumerswill be able to determine not only when they watch something,but also, to a greater extent than ever before, what they willwatch. Some industry observers believe that as consumersgain greater control over their viewing activities, they will findit easier to avoid advertising.

No one can predict what new forms advertising may takein the future. But the rapidly increasing cost of acquiring newcustomers makes one thing certain. Advertisers will seek tohold onto current customers by forming closer relationshipswith them and by tailoring products, services, and advertisingmessages to meet their individual needs. So while advertisingwill continue to encourage people to consume, it will also helpprovide them with products and services more likely to satisfytheir needs.

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge Bibliography274 275

Edwin, C.: Advertising and a Democratic Press, Princeton NJ:Princeton University Press, 1994.

Emery, Michael: The Press and America: An Interpretive Historyof the Mass Media, Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 1999.

Fallows, James: Breaking the News: How the Media UndermineAmerican Democracy, New York, Pantheon, 1995.

Freedman, Warren: Press and Media Access to the CriminalCourtroom, New York, Quorum Books, 1988.

Gerald, J. : News of Crime: Courts and Press in Conflict, Westport,Greenwood Publishing Group, 1984.

Gillmor, Dan: We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by thePeople, for the People, Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, 2004.

Good, Howard : Media Ethics Goes to the Movies, Westport,Praeger, 2002.

Hudson, V.: Mass Media, New York, Garland Publishing, 1987.Hutchison, R.: Writing for Mass Communication, White Plains,

NY: Longman, 1996.Jewkes, Yvonne: Media and Crime, Thousand Oaks, Sage, 2004.Kellner, Douglas: Television and the Crisis of Democracy,

Boulder, CO. Westview Press, 1990.Land, Mitchell : Contemporary Media Ethics, Spokand,

Marquette Books, 2006.Leslie, Z.: Mass Communication Ethics: Decision Making in

Postmodern Culture, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 2000.Limburg, E.: Electronic Media Ethics, Boston, Focal Press, 1994.Linder, Ken: Broadcasting Realities, Chicago, Bonus Books, 1999.Moore, L.: Mass Communication Law and Ethics, Hillsdale,

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999.Mouritsen, H.: Case Studies in Media Management, Boston,

McGraw-Hill, 2001.Neil, A.: Mass Politics: The Politics of Popular Culture, New

York, NY: St. Martin’s/WORTH, 1999.Norris, Pippa: Women, Media and Politics, Oxford, Oxford

University Press, 1997.

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Atkins, B.: The Mission: Journalism, Ethics, and the World:International Topics in Media, Ames, Iowa State University Press,2002.

Bagdikian, Ben: The Media Monopoly, Boston, Beacon Press,1997.

Berkman, I. : Digital Dilemmas: Ethical Issues for Online MediaProfessionals, Ames, Iowa State Press, 2003.

Berry, David: Ethics and Media Culture, Woburn, Focal Press,2000.

Bertrand, Jean: An Arsenal for Democracy: Media AccountabilitySystems, Cresskill, Hampton Press, 2003.

Brennen, Bonnie : Picturing the Past: Media, History andPhotography, Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1999.

Cannadine, David: History and the Media, New York, PalgraveMacmillian, 2004.

Christians, G.: Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning, Boston,Allyn & Bacon, 2004.

Conrad, C.: Strategic Newspaper Management, Boston, Allynand Bacon, 1996.

Darrell, M.: The Rise and Fall of the Media Establishment,Boston MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001.

David, Sloan: Historical Methods in Mass Communication,Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1989.

David, W.: Perspectives on Mass Communication History,Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1991.

Denton, Craig: Graphics for Visual Communication, Dubuque,William C. Brown, 1996.

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge276 Index 277

Index

Patterson, Philip : Media Ethics: Issues and Cases, Boston,McGraw Hill, 2002.

Quaal, Ward: Radio-Television-Cable Management, New York,McGraw Hill, 1998.

Robert, V.: Mass Media, New York, Garland Publishing, 1987.Russell, Nick: Morals and the Media: Ethics in Canadian

Journalism, Vancouver, University of British Columbia Press, 1994.Seiter, Ellen: Gender, Race and Class in Media, Thousand Oaks,

CA: Sage, 1995.Sherman, Barry: Telecommunications Management, New York,

McGraw Hill, 1995.Sohn, Ardyth: Media Management: A Casebook Approach,

Mahwah, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003.Surette, Ray: Justice and the Media, Springfield, Thomas Books,

1984.Underwood, Doug: When MBAs Rule the Newsroom: How the

Marketers & Managers Are Reshaping Today’s Media, New York,Columbia University Press, 1993.

Warner, Charles: Media Management Review, Mahwah,Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997.

William, G.: Creativity in TV & Cable Managing & Producing,Lanham, University Press of America, 1999.

AAchievements, 153, 189.Administration, 24, 139, 143.Advantages, 84.Advertising, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23,24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31,32, 34, 36, 40, 41, 42, 43,44, 45, 46, 52, 56, 57, 58,77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83,84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91,92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 100,101, 102, 103, 104, 105,106, 107, 108, 109, 110,111, 112, 113, 114, 115,116, 117, 118, 121, 125,157, 167, 169, 170, 177,187, 191, 198, 204, 209,210, 233, 258, 259, 260,261, 262, 263, 264, 265,266, 267, 268, 269, 270,271, 272, 273.

Advocacy Advertising, 31.Agency, 4, 5, 6, 10, 28, 29,80, 82, 84, 86, 89, 98, 108,116, 117, 118, 159, 265,270, 271, 272.

Audience, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15,30, 31, 33, 53, 54, 58, 77,80, 81, 84, 85, 95, 96, 98,

99, 109, 113, 115, 124, 154,162, 181, 183, 188, 189,192, 193, 195, 201, 203,205, 209, 210, 213, 214,215, 216, 217, 220, 221,222, 223, 240, 251, 262.

Audio-visual Media, 126, 128,129.

CCable Network, 209, 210, 211.Campaigns, 2, 23, 28, 76, 80,85, 86, 114, 116, 119, 165,181, 182, 263, 264.

Citizenship, 226.Community, 18, 20, 21, 37, 38,111, 115, 116, 137, 147,149, 173, 180, 185, 186,203, 210, 235, 236, 237,239, 240, 241, 242, 246,247, 249, 251, 255, 257,261.

Company, 3, 5, 19, 22, 23, 24,28, 30, 31, 34, 44, 47, 49,52, 55, 56, 58, 59, 61, 62,69, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79, 80,81, 88, 89, 91, 92, 116, 118,165, 170, 176, 177, 190,205, 258, 260, 267, 268.

Conference, 202, 223, 224, 225,226, 227, 228, 230, 234,249, 256.

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge Index278 279

Corporate, 54, 62, 109, 137,139, 140, 141, 145, 226,268.

DDemocracy, 132, 134, 138, 140,145, 149, 151, 158, 159,200, 202, 259.

Department, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10,19, 20, 23, 70, 83, 87, 118,229.

Distribution, 25, 35, 41, 49,50, 51, 53, 121, 146, 173,210, 215, 216, 244, 270.

Doordarshan, 128, 129, 161,168, 170, 171, 172, 188,189, 191, 193, 195, 199,202, 203, 204, 205, 206,207, 208, 209, 210, 211,213, 216, 217, 218, 219,220, 221, 222, 223.

EEconomy, 82, 107, 131, 133,134, 135, 136, 137, 138,139, 140, 141, 142, 143,144, 145, 146, 149, 151,152, 154, 155, 156, 158,174, 175, 225, 226, 244,245, 258, 259, 260, 264,271.

Emotion, 112.Environment, 14, 47, 84, 147,180, 204, 235, 236, 238,239, 244, 247, 248.

Evaluation, 25, 55, 182, 183,186, 252, 253, 256.

GGlobalization, 83, 187, 188, 195,200, 245, 264.

Government, 39, 73, 121, 122,126, 129, 136, 142, 161,162, 170, 171, 191, 195,197, 199, 200, 205, 206,207, 208, 209, 211, 212,219, 228, 240, 245, 247,261, 264, 265, 269.

IImage Advertising, 3, 9, 31,264.

Implications, 147, 155, 156,239, 240, 247.

Industry, 1, 4, 5, 23, 24, 26,38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 54,62, 63, 75, 81, 82, 83, 112,114, 120, 132, 139, 146,150, 151, 161, 163, 169,170, 173, 174, 175, 176,189, 191, 192, 196, 197,201, 203, 205, 220, 221,224, 225, 230, 259, 265,266, 267, 273.

Innovation, 33, 140, 223, 225,226, 227, 228, 229, 233.

Institutions, 3, 123, 132, 134,135, 138, 140, 148, 154,155, 156, 165, 225, 233,242, 248.

Internet, 1, 11, 14, 15, 28, 32,34, 35, 40, 43, 44, 62, 73,78, 83, 84, 90, 99, 101, 102,103, 104, 109, 115, 116,117, 118, 166, 217, 218,228, 229, 230, 236, 243,244, 257.

JJournalism, 126, 127, 128, 130,131, 169.

LLeadership, 25, 125, 254.

MMagazines, 1, 7, 11, 14, 38,41, 42, 43, 54, 55, 94, 96,108, 126, 127, 130, 131,132, 157, 223, 261, 267.

Management, 25, 26, 29, 90,118, 126, 127, 136, 177,273.

Marketing, 4, 5, 6, 14, 16, 17,18, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28,30, 32, 33, 45, 47, 48, 49,52, 57, 63, 66, 73, 74, 76,77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84,85, 88, 89, 91, 92, 94, 97,101, 106, 110, 114, 116,117, 118, 165, 230, 233.

Marketing Services, 81, 83.Mass Culture, 123, 125, 146.Mass Media, 109, 121, 123,124, 125, 126, 132, 135,149, 150, 151, 152, 153,154, 155, 156, 157, 158,159, 160, 185, 188, 195.

Media, 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13,15, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24,25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32,33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40,42, 44, 45, 46, 54, 62, 72,77, 78, 79, 80, 82, 83, 84,85, 86, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98,99, 101, 102, 103, 104, 108,109, 114, 116, 117, 118,119, 120, 121, 122, 123,124, 125, 126, 128, 129,132, 135, 149, 150, 151,152, 153, 154, 155, 156,157, 158, 159, 160, 166,

168, 172, 177, 179, 180,181, 182, 183, 185, 187,188, 190, 194, 195, 196,197, 198, 199, 201, 202,205, 206, 207, 224, 230,231, 235, 237, 239, 240,241, 242, 245, 247, 250,261, 262, 267, 268.

Methodology, 185, 229, 230,233, 249, 251, 255.

Mission, 62, 74, 203.Multimedia, 181, 182, 183.

NNetwork, 7, 11, 13, 14, 38,126, 138, 161, 162, 169,176, 177, 189, 190, 193,203, 204, 209, 210, 211,212, 220, 222, 223, 245,250, 256.

Newspapers, 1, 11, 12, 14, 18,27, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40,41, 42, 43, 44, 94, 95, 107,108, 121, 126, 127, 130,131, 157, 177, 182, 183,199, 221, 224, 240, 261,267, 270.

OOperations, 140, 161, 177.Organization, 1, 3, 26, 31, 45,46, 62, 64, 80, 110, 114,120, 191, 197, 232, 268.

Ownership, 37, 38, 39, 40, 89,121, 125, 133, 135, 154,155, 156, 234, 239, 245.

PParadigm, 82, 83, 132, 133,134, 135, 146, 151, 153,154, 158, 228.

Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge280 Advertising: The Social Aid Challenge 281

Contents

Preface

1. Introduction 1

2. Principles of Advertising 26

3. Advertising and Promotion 45

4. Advertising Techniques 107

5. Advertising and Government 121

6. Advertising and Society in India 187

7. The Impact of Advertising on Society 258

Bibliography 274

Index 277

Policy, 40, 70, 71, 73, 142,168, 184, 189, 190, 195,196, 198, 244, 252, 254,268.

Press, 36, 37, 38, 45, 54, 55,56, 79, 121, 195, 270.

Price Adjustment, 51.Pricing Strategies, 50, 51.Print Advertising Techniques, 104,105.Print Media, 37, 39, 40, 42,97, 126, 128, 168, 205, 206,239, 242.

Production, 4, 5, 10, 25, 29,42, 51, 53, 114, 124, 125,129, 133, 134, 135, 136,141, 153, 159, 167, 181,192, 194, 199, 204, 245.

Project, 20, 87, 91, 92, 173,181, 185, 186, 188, 206,229, 269.

Promotion, 16, 20, 23, 26, 27,30, 45, 49, 52, 53, 56, 63,64, 66, 85, 93, 104, 107,149.

Promotions, 23, 45, 53, 56, 57,76, 83, 93, 94, 108.

Public Relation, 79, 80, 81, 82.

RRelationships, 76, 121, 122,179, 187, 273.

Research, 5, 6, 7, 8, 16, 21,23, 24, 27, 46, 49, 75, 82,86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 140,144, 162, 174, 183, 189,

195, 201, 213, 220, 226,231, 248, 262, 271.

SSociety, 31, 121, 122, 123, 124,125, 132, 133, 134, 135,137, 146, 147, 148, 149,153, 187, 196, 201, 223,226, 229, 230, 231, 233,236, 242, 243, 246, 247,258, 259, 260, 261, 262.

TTelevision, 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9,10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 27, 28,30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37,38, 39, 43, 85, 86, 105, 108,109, 112, 124, 126, 128,129, 130, 131, 159, 161,162, 163, 164, 165, 166,167, 168, 169, 171, 173,176, 177, 180, 182, 183,185, 188, 189, 190, 191,192, 193, 194, 195, 196,202, 203, 204, 205, 206,207, 208, 209, 210, 211,212, 213, 214, 215, 216,217, 218, 219, 220, 221,222, 231, 240, 242, 247,261, 262, 263, 264, 266,267, 270, 271, 272.

WWorkers, 24, 155, 157, 183,184, 185, 229.

World Wide Web, 14, 53, 109,201.

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