ML0016 Assignment 2

Name : Revathi S Murthy Course : MBAID : 521033347 Semester : 4thCentre Code : 02908

Master of Business Administration - MBA Semester 4

Advertising Management and Sales Promotion - ML0016

Assignment Set - 2

Q1. Outline those elements that are considered important in advertising execution. Give examples.

A. Elements of Advertising Execution Delivery of the selected advertising concept has two aspects, creative and media execution. If the creative execution is not right, even a brilliant idea will not be noticed. If the media vehicles and schedule are not right, then too the campaign will not be noticed because it will not reach its target. Therefore, efficient planning of the content, media, and budget of a campaign are vital for the success of a campaign.

Creative Execution David Ogilvy said it for all times to come, ‘What you say is more important than how you say it.’ William Bernbach answered that ‘…execution can become content, it can be just as important as what you say…a sick guy can utter words and nothing happens; a healthy vital guy says the same and they rock the world.’

How an advertising agency, rather the copywriters decide to express it to make it ‘rock the world’, is an intuitive process that can hardly be structured or formatted. There are some basic rules. Copy should be by and large honest, it should avoid exaggeration that actually hurts the brand in the long run, and should avoid cliche’s and over-used formats and concepts. Especially now, when people have so little time, the target should not be required to ponder over and do research on the message to comprehend it. Again, Bernbach has said it memorably. “Why should anyone look at your ad? The reader does not buy his magazine or tune in his radio and television to see and hear what you have to say…what is the use of saying all the right things in the world if nobody is going to read them? And believe me, nobody is going to read them if they are not said with freshness, originality and imagination…if they are not…different.”

“People don’t necessarily like advertisements and avoid them if possible. Therefore to do a good advertisement, you are obligated, really, to reward the reader for his time and patience in allowing you to interrupt the editorial content, which is what he bought the magazine for in the first place. So entertainment is sort of repayment.” This just about sums up the copywriting techniques advertising agencies use. The creative execution has to be interesting, informative, entertaining and above all, trigger self interest in the target group. Some campaigns have become advertising legends by their sheer brilliance and brevity. Most commonly recognized are the car Volkswagen’s ‘Lemon’ because the car defied all conventional American expectations such as speed, size, looks, prestige, etc. and therefore a lemon of a car.

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Except on one count – Volkswagen is air cooled and does not freeze in extremely cold weather. And it was inexpensive. Just one word, ‘Lemon’. And the car became the darling of young folks for several generations. The other campaign is about Hertz and Avis, the two rent-a-car giants in the USA. The Avis campaign said, “We are Number 2. We try harder.” Very few companies dare to use such self-disparaging concepts as Volkswagen and Avis did. And both succeeded for different reasons. The campaign had a tremendous impact on the Avis staff because they really tried hard to improve their brand. On the other hand, this brilliant headline made readers feel as if there are only two brands of rent-a-car. As a result National, which was about the size of Avis suffered more than Hertz did simply because people forgot its existence. Number three was not advertising, see? (Batra, Myers and Aaker) However, such brilliant copy execution happens may be just a few times in a century. It is not just the copywriter’s skill and brilliance. It is also about how the audience perceives it. Both these campaigns just caught the imagination of its targets of the time and became timeless in appeal. Other campaigns of equal brilliance fail to grab this kind of drama and sink without a trace. Therefore it is difficult to write a doctrine about how to execute the creative concept. The copywriters and visualisers are trained in this and are highly disciplined and experienced people. They experiment constantly to get a handle on what will appeal to their target. How to do is difficult to define.

Media execution How effective a campaign had been, is not easy to measure. Especially in India, where the stark differences among the target populations in terms of cuisine, religion, language, culture, daily habits, social demands, aspirations and purchasing patterns are rather drastic. Yet, they all need, and indeed, buy and use exactly the same products and services. Although India has made large strides in documenting the reach, readership and their segmented personalities and circulation of media, the available database is still far from satisfactory. To be successful, an advertiser needs nuanced information on each target segment before an optimum media plan can be executed. Due to remoteness of rural areas, huge illiteracy – neo literates who just learn to sign, or even read and make up the bulk of the government literacy figures, do not necessarily read anything ever and thus out of reach for print media – and lack of access to television, media access in India is limited. Consumer and trade promotion at the grassroots level is still not a regular feature and little data are available.

Finding the target audience In a country where market economy is still new, there is a severe lack of reliable data. Considering the huge differences in aspirations, culture, social demands, daily life requirements, cuisine, religion, language, peer environ, income, professional divergences in India, a nuanced profiling of target populations is absolutely essential for an optimum media selection and package but alas unavailable. There is also a big mismatch between information arrived at by the advertising agency from its own research and experience on the one hand and data made available by external organizations, media houses and the client company. There is very little reliable information available on new media, like blog, Internet, SMS, etc. as well, even on new entrants into very old media segments such as print or television. For an industrial / technical product, an appliance or capital goods, anything that needs spare parts, after sale service or replacement, a rich source of customer profile is the company’s own files from the

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client servicing department. Customers, happy or disgruntled, write back to the company, either to seek help, to gripe and complain or to thank. Call centre records serve the same purpose. These records often contain descriptions of people’s interest, activities and attitudes, and they are all company’s real customers and real people, providing a very good profiling. Media houses and advertising agencies rarely use this source. Even for the manufacturer, these people may be interested in other products of the company and can be contacted through Direct Mail. Even publishers of magazines like India Today, Femina and Reader’s Digest are collecting database on their subscribers all the time through little questionnaires in renewal notices, etc. These are often sold through database companies, often not. They know very well that their existing subscribers are the best targets for their other publications.

Sales geography Although products may be sold over a wide area of the country, sales are never uniform in the entire territory. Advertising may be needed in areas of thin sales to increase it, or in areas where sales is reliable but can be coaxed to do better. Since nobody can afford to advertise uniformly heavily all over the country, selection of the area is important. Here sales and marketing departments have to help the advertising agency for correct media planning. Local products do not need expensive press or television advertising. Hoardings, Free Standing Inserts (FSI) in newspapers and magazines, posters in local shops, handbills are excellent media for these. They are also vastly cheaper and do a far better focused delivery of the message and can be run for a short while and changed quickly.

Timing Advertising is an expensive business. At which time of the year a campaign should be released, at what frequency and for how long, is a major factor of media schedule. Vehicle sale goes up in February-March, just before the budget, because the new owner gets a full year’s depreciation that way. So that would be the time to advertise all kinds of cars, bikes, SUVs and commercial vehicles. Consumer use cycle decides the time and duration. For instance movies and restaurants are advertised Friday to Sunday, when people have time for entertainment. Properties are heavily advertised on weekends, when people actually have the time to read carefully to find what they are looking for.

Duration How long should a campaign run? If year around presence is needed, as in property, clothes, FMCG products, an advertiser will spread his budget thinly across the year. For other products, a short burst of advertising and then nothing for months works just as well. This depends on advertising budget and above all what the competition is doing. If there is heavy traffic in competitors’ advertising, so must the brand in question or it will drop out of the target’s mind share.

Q2. Do demographic factors influence advertising strategies? Explain.

A. Demographic Influences on Advertising Like in every other area of life, advertising also has not only grown in leaps and bounds and hasbecome far more effective, in some ways it has changed its character altogether. The most important factor that directly or even indirectly influencing advertising is the demographic factors or the

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characteristics of the population. Even if combined with other factors such as social, political or environmental, they could be associated with demographic indicators like age, gender, family structure, migration of people, education levels, so on.

Demographic changes Demographic segments and the obvious changes in them are easier to define and analyse. Let us now see how these influence advertising.

Lifestyle India always had different lifestyles in different parts of the country, marked by language, food, religion, etc. But there was uniformity within that segment at least. Not anymore. Whole new lifestyles are in the market now, which cut across ethnic and local traditions. Urban India’s lifestyle is changing very fast. Young handsome rock star gurus like Vikas Malkani who runs a hep MTV style Soul Centre in New Delhi presenting Indian philosophy in easy to follow contemporary language to tarot card reader, the interests are very different. Spirituality, naturally grown food, vegetarianism, exercise, yoga, personalized counselling and psychotherapy, dynamic meditation, Tai chi, astral travel, healthy living …all have huge following. What does it have to do with advertising? All the above as well as gyms, yoga and meditation classes, aerobic dancing, etc. are all ultimately products and services which have to be advertised and need careful promotion and niche marketing.

Technology India has an amazing capacity to adopt the latest technology available anywhere in the world. A country which did not have even television until late 1980s, today literally consumes the latest gadgets and gizmos with limitless appetite. In a 2007 survey carried out by Economic Times – Dentsu on 3,000 correspondents across India, dependence on technology is clearly defined. Some 51% of urban Indians feel life will be difficult without a mobile, 93% feel life will be really tough without text messaging, 90% cannot do without television, and Internet dependency is universal. 32% in 18-25 years age group said life would be hard without the music and camera features on a mobile. But then, this was an online survey, so a biased one. Statistics may need to be taken with some caution, but the new dependence on technology is indisputable. Long before urban India discovered mobile telephony, fishermen in Tamil Nadu carried this wonder instrument. Way before they reached the coast after a night of fishing in the ocean, they called all the coastal wholesale markets to find out the best price of the day and headed straight for it, thus cutting out middlemen. Poverty or illiteracy is not always an impediment to adoption of new technology.

How does it affect advertising? Lot of people get their information from Internet, all these high-tech products are sold and advertised on Internet. So it pays to understand this target group’s age, lifestyle, aspirations, expectations, demands and needs.

Aggressive middle class Indian middle class has become the object of keen observation for everybody from MNC consumer products to political campaign planners. Whole books and furious research projects are being written on this phenomenon. It is a grossly over rated class, in numbers, consumption volume and desires. Rough estimate is that there are about 50 million families in India in middle class who really do buy

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branded products significantly. After all, a villager who buys a branded soap or cigarette occasionally is no different statistically than an upper middle class urban family who also buy those, among other things. Yet, individually the poor villager’s consumption is insignificant, while the urban middle class consumer has a regular and rising purchase profile. How does one define middle class? By government rules, a family that has one two-wheeler, one colour television, and one telephone, is middle class, which most urban maid servants’ families possess and covers about 20% of the country. That sounds pathetic in consumption terms. A 2007 survey pegs middle class at ` 2–10 lakh annual income, which are about 50 million families. But then, in a country of such reluctant income tax compliance, there is no reliable data on household income profiling. One thing all business people agree on is that middle class is aggressive, ambitious, uninhibited about their demands, self-absorbed and very busy climbing the upwardly mobile social ladder. This class has chosen its lifestyle, their image is very important to them and they will fight to retain it. And this is the class that keeps buying nonstop. Therefore this segment needs analysis and pampering.

Sharia compliant banking and stock market Sharia, the laws for finance and commercial activities permitted to the believers of Islam, is mandatory for Muslims, who do not invest in alcohol; conventional banking that gives interest, insurance, entertainment, tobacco, pork, weapons, etc. India has the second largest Muslim population in the world, and Indian Sharia compliant market capitalization at 61% in 2007 is higher than in some Islamic countries like Malaysia, Pakistan and Bahrain. Sectors such as computer hardware and software, drugs and pharmaceuticals, automobiles and ancillaries are all Sharia compliant and constitute 36% of Sharia compliant stocks on NSE. Even when Sharia compliant stocks are few in number, its share of market capitalization is never below 50% of the total market capitalization.

What can advertising do? Plenty. Advertise Indian Sharia compliant stock in Islamic countries and maximize opportunities. A dedicated Sharia compliant stock index advertised in Gulf countries can deliver wonders. Even in India sensitive advertising can open up a whole new world of investments to fund raisers. The USA has the Dow-Jones Islamic Market Index (DJIMI) and Pakistan has Meezan Islamic Fund Criteria.

Advertising abroad As Indian companies go abroad and Indian products are sold all over the world more and more, advertising too has to adapt to that. The whole approach has to evolve to cater to more educated, sophisticated and subtle approach that will appeal to a different class of people. Long and tedious text, careless grammar and Indian English or Hinglish have to make room for concise and clear copy and indirect approach. With growing confidence, Indian retailers and products abroad now use Indian themes, models and sets in advertising and are doing just fine. But it has to be handled with sensitivity, so that the local targets are not confused by too much of Indianness and can relate with both the product and promotion. In 2003, Walker’s Chips, a brand of crisps by Krispwallah, a corner chip shop in the UK, used Gary Linekar, former English footballer and television personality, and MeeraSayal, an Indian actress, as

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models and a very garish Indian wedding as theme and did very well. At least this was an Indian product, manufacturer and advertiser.

In 2003, Peugot used an Indian small town set, an Indian model and a purely Indian environment to advertise their product. The story was about how a poor Indian young man who dreamed of owning a Peugot 206, banged an old Ambassador in the shape of a Peugot by hammering, reversing it into a solid wall with a bang, and finally being sat on the bonnet by an elephant. The product, manufacturer, advertiser, media, target, retailers all were non-Indian. As we are told endlessly, this is the Indian century. True or false, this new ‘Asian is cool’ development gives Indians a tremendous opportunity. Indeed, many international campaigns are now conceived and executed in India by the Indian branches of international advertising agencies. This gives Indian agencies an opportunity to learn first-hand how to communicate with targets and cultures alien to us.

Mall culture Every technical, social or economic development in the west comes to India about ten years later, in fully developed form without going through the evolutionary stages and then goes through exactly the same life cycle. Mall culture is no different. When Indian economy was opened up, organized retailing and malls spread quite quickly across the country. As early as 2006, India had around 450 malls and not all of them in the metro cities. Now not only there are malls everywhere, with increasing disposable income mall crawling has become a youth culture and part of urban life. Enough parking place, childcare facilities or at least opportunity to leave children free safely, mouthwatering food courts, pleasant ambience make these shopping complexes a leisure destination for people with money and time, instead of parks, museums and public places. Open seven days a week, malls are now favourite family outings, youth hangouts and meeting places. According to international statistics, 40% of mall visitors all over the world, especially the lonely older people in cold countries and aimless youth with time on their hands are just spending idle time in the air conditioned / heated space. What about advertising? With this social and behavioural change, the advertising and promotional materials must change too. Competition is very intense and crowded together, many shops selling pretty much the same luxury goods and brands. Therefore advertising is different here. More in-store and in-mall material, banners and danglers, more seductive displays to combat competition and outdoor advertising just outside the mall are needed. As people hang around and while away their time, they do see all kinds of advertising. The giant flexes, digital displays are impossible to ignore and hopefully have a subliminal effect on their purchasing decisions.

Retail outlets India has over 15 million retail outlets, big and small and huge domestic and international corporates are moving in to cash in on this visible result of rising incomes. Birla, Reliance, Wal-Mart are some of them. Retail mania assumes that huge supply will automatically create huge demand, not necessarily proven in reality. Retail is a business with very thin margin of profit, usually 2-3% only.

How is it advertised? A retailer can make money only if he seduces with some very compelling offer to a very interested set of customers. Or people will stick to their neighborhood shops only, since those have always met all their daily needs very nicely indeed. So it is back to consumer segmentation,

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customer loyalty, customer pull and not just creatively designed stores, attractively stocked shelves. And this is created by advertising for every individual retailer. Sharpening advertising strategies which includes better functioning, brand positioning, trade and consumer promotion as well as high level of consumeradvertising are needed. Retailers often forget how much it is necessary to maintain advertising pressure to sustain high volume of sale, which in turn creates economy of scale to keep prices low and still protect margins. Both mall and retail advertising need short, medium and long term advertising strategy for sustainable sale. Short term advertising fights off the daily poaching threat from competition and mid and long term promotions build up brand image. There is very little or no loyalty for retail outlets at all in either low priced products of daily use or branded products which are the same everywhere. A customer will just go to the next shop for a few rupees less, and rightly so. Customer loyalty can be created and held only when he feels he is getting a good deal.

Q3. Which are the evolving consumer segments in the market? How do they affect advertising?

A. Evolving Consumer Segments Demographic changes are just basic factors that influence advertising. The influences of consumer groups or segments, the type of segments, their behaviour, attitude changes, buying patters, consumption style, aspirations, the amount of disposable income in hand, their choices – all these factors will definitely have an impact on advertising, advertising budget, message structure, media vehicle used so on. The consumer and his/her buying decisions will make industries more competitive in order to grab their share of the market. Let us see what type of newer consumer segments are evolving. These consumer groups may go through several transition phases that involve their psychological, behavioural, economical and environmental factors.

The sunshine economy and Generation Me In 2008-09 Indian economy along with the rest of the world is very quiet when buying is cautious and restrained. But this is a passing phase and does not change the fundamental shifts in personality and aspirations of people in general. Ordinarily evolution does not go backwards. Purchases get postponed, that is all. The last decade had seen rapid rise in disposable income and relaxing of parental control over young people. Nuclear families have only one or two kids and they are the centre of the universe for their parents. A very large percentage of Indian population, like 55% is between 18 – 34, where the highest income and consumption are. These young Indians will create the destiny of the country for the next three decades. They are hardworking, ambitious, have global aspirations in both career and acquisitiveness and they are going to get it. They have no doubt about it. The disposable money in the hands of high school and college students at a certain segment is any businessman’s delight. Branded jeans like Levi Strauss Signature and Newport University, Lee Cooper’s Beatles collection of T-shirts are just ordinary wear. This generation is pro-money and does not care where it comes from. It is this bulging youth profile that will set the buying pattern and volume now. They also have a great ego which needs to be catered to in promotional and advertising activities.

Confident youth

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Aware of the decision taking power in the hands of very young people, companies and advertisers pamper them by creating commercials directed at them. For consumer durables, ready-to-eat food items, branded clothes, startlingly expensive electronics and entertainment equipment, music, computer games, etc. it is the young people who occupy the mind of the art directors of advertising agencies. Parents now accept their children’s choice even in the products which really have nothing much to do with children, such as cars, holidays, computers and electronic equipment. Fathers are no longer the feared patriarchs and feel the pressure to provide the luxuries advertised on Cartoon Networks, even though they know that children are highly selfish, pleasure seeking, irresponsible and inexperienced in both products or brand selection and decision making. It triggers severe imbalance in family equations and sociologist feel it is creating a whole generation of selfish kids who will become equally selfish adults. But this social development is here to stay now and advertising has adjusted to it rapidly.

Brat power The kids are now the new age customers and very conscious of their pester power over their parents. They have perfected the art of shopping and know all about the launch of branded products. Since 30% of Indian kids are now below 15, these cartoon kids are now the target of marketers and advertisers. From Walt Disney to Cartoon Network, everybody is doing brand extension to cover footwear, eyewear, and watches and so on. Pogo Wheels of Cartoon Networks plans apparel. Gifts, novelties are designed exclusively for rich kids worldwide, India included. Even movie makers are running after this age group, knowing their money clout. Koi Mil Gaya, Krishh, Hanuman were specifically made for young children, even though they delighted adults as well.

A survey by Walt Disney Co. and a media investment management group in 2006 found that kids under 12 now influence purchasing decisions of cars which they cannot drive or pay for and computers they only dimly understand. With parents increasingly indulgent of their precious one or two kids allowing them to make their purchasing decisions, the brat power can only grow. Various surveys show that even small children understand when they are being bluffed, teased or talked down to and see through false advertising claims very quickly. As always, advertising not only should show due respect to its target, it has to be responsible and ethical. Children are easily swayed, incapable of seeing the difference between fantasy, imagination and reality. Manipulating, twisting or teasing a small child’s emotions is not only irresponsible, it is immoral and distasteful. ‘Papa, I won’t kiss you (if you do not buy brand X’) – this is a real ad headline - is not exactly the best way to sell an adult product.

Assertive working women A joint study in 2008 by Nasscom and Mercer found that 30-35% of Indian workforce is women, among the highest in the world. Only 20% of them are in urban areas. There are more women engineers, doctors, pilots and professionals now. They earn well, retain at least partial control over their personal income and take their own decisions about savings, investments and financial planning. The ‘working women – unhappy home’ cliché is fading and they are a social and economic force in their own rights. They now have the freedom to succeed and spend.

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This is the glamorous side. Majority of Indian women are still economically dependant, socially inferior and controlled by the family. Yet, even at that level, rebellion is in action and they are increasingly assertive, with which comes independent and assertive buyers.

Many earn more than their husbands. They control the purchase of family necessities as well as luxuries like cars, insurance, retirement plans, expensive holidays and properties. More and more young women stay single longer and are consumers of these categories in their own rights and for their own needs. The providers of these services and products, ranging from special bank loan schemes for women to cover marriage to jewellery, orchid pink coloured light-weight scooters, special health insurance, all-women group holidays abroad, slim long cigarettes to look great in delicate feminine hands which unfortunately crashed, all the way to women’s special buses in peak office time are rapidly adjusting to it. They are actually creating these special products for women of independent means and doing highly focused and narrow-targeted advertising. The percentage of women who really want to remain homemakers is falling rapidly. All this translates into huge disposable money in the hands of women, a much desired state for the advertising industry. Surveys carried out all over India from 2005-2010 show: – 7-10% growth in beauty care products

– 8% growth in ` 1,700 crore skin care market

– hair care market is over ` 1,500 crore

– Women’s apparel market is ` 29,000 crore

– Home textile décor market is ` 15,000 crore

– 30% Reebok revenue comes from women’s products such as track pants, workout gear

– 20% growth in colour cosmetics market of ` 600 crore

– The woman’s income now pays for vacations, higher education, better house, retirement plans

– They hire housekeepers, full-time maids, child minders, cleaners, cooks, drivers, gardeners, all the way down to dog walkers because they are not home. This pushes in new money into the system, which supports many more people

– Women are getting disabled by their jobs just like men. That means they buy accident and health insurance, better quality medical care.

All these are advertised products and services, and they need different treatment of the buyer. These women are no whimpering helpless dependants but strong confident people who can take their own decisions, pay for their purchases and expect to be kept informed correctly by advertising and promotions.

Attitudes are changing too. A study of 3,400 women in 9 cities surveyed by EvesDropping study of Trikaya Grey found that 51% wanted to live for today – gone are the days when even working women lived for their family and spent every rupee of their earnings on them, leaving nothing for themselves,

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their image or future. A growing number of women put themselves first now. Over 60% women held money as critical to show success.

DINK family DINK refers to Double Income, No Kids family pattern that is slowly emerging and even seen in Indian scenario. Here, husbands and wives earn, spend and save without having to worry about raising kids. They adopt a lifestyle of being without children and basically look after each other or their parents if involved or their own selves. In the age of globalization, where husband may work for a MNC and wife may have to constantly travel on work, there is very little time left for them to stay home or even raise kids. Besides, cost of living and expenditures may lead to couples voluntarily deciding not to have kids. Even, live-in relationships constitute the need for sharing expenses, household chores but ideally they cannot be termed as family. Socially, it would be considered as an adjustment without much commitment.

It should be remembered that DINK family style may not include those married couples who would like to have kids but due to certain reasons cannot bear children. In such cases, advertising helps to seek information regarding cure, therapies, medical help, adoption centers in case the couple decide to adopt a child. Word of Mouth also plays a major role here.

Metrosexual Just as economy and society are changing very fast, so are images and emotions. On the one hand film stars and young boys are into body building to develop unreal muscles, on the other hand men young and old are paying great attention to their looks, which used to be considered ‘being a sissy’, a feminine quality. Now women of taste and elegance dress more like men – well-cut, excellent quality, stylish but comfortable and unfussy clothes and very little make-up or jewellery. And men are into self-adornmentand fashion – manicured hands, blow-dried designer haircut, gold and silver jewellery and very ornate clothes. It is not shameful for women to show strength and dress practically and for men to show feelings and enjoy beautiful clothes. These are human qualities and not gender-linked. What has this social development got to do with advertising? A lot… When we have a relevant product, such as party / evening / wedding wear for men, or a slim cigarette, light motorbike or a special insurance product designed for women, how do we position them? What kind of model to choose, what sets and script, what mood to create? Strong men do not relate with what they consider a feminine image. A strong woman does not like to be patronisedor talked down to. Yet they both will buy wedding clothes and handy motorbikes. Now men take paternity leaves and women pilots fly Air Force cargo planes to combat areas. Great caution has to be taken to create the right image, so as not to alienate either group.

A new consumer group created entirely by media hype is the metrosexual – men living in cosmopolitan metro cities who are sensitive, in touch with their feelings, attractive and yet strong. According to many surveys carried out in the past few years, such conflicting messages confuse many men, and rightly so. If it is any help, it confuses women too. A survey of 2,000 men in 13 countries found that 60% of men see themselves either as power seekers who crave professional advancement or family patriarchs who believe ruling a family is the most important thing. The remaining 40% are busy in the metrosexual debate.

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Marlborough Man, the ultimate symbol of a macho cowboy created by Leo Burnett Advertising Agency, is having a severe identity crisis. Recently the same Leo Burnett ran a world-wide survey. Results say that half the men in most parts of the world do not know what is expected of them, and ¾ of them think images of them created in advertising is way out of touch with reality.

Image creation is a delicate business. It is confusing times, not just for men, but for marketers and advertising professionals too. The ultimate decision and thus image building will depend on the product and the market segment chosen. And as always, should be done with responsibility and sensitivity. A super sweet cloying image built for male targets in the name of ‘metrosexuals’ can actually turn a man off the brand for life.

Elderly population In 1950, 5.6% of India’s population was above 60. Projected by informal surveys based on 2001 census, in 2004 it was almost 8% or over 8 million people, with another 60 million between 55-60 years, many of whom have crossed 60 now. It is still a small percentage, but in absolute numbers 77 million. In tradition-bound India, old people are not considered a commercially high priority target, but it will be foolish to ignore this segment. Largely due to break up of joint families where adult children have moved away quite far or due to the end of the times when extended families lived in separate homes but close to one another, older parents now often live on their own. This generation has finished paying for their homes and child rearing, and they had planned and saved for an independent old age. They are in control of their lives and money now. And they do not plan to leave their life’s savings for their children only.

Grandmas do not sit in rocking chairs and knit sweaters which nobody ever wears and grandpas do not doze and cough in a sunny veranda corner. They take Tai Chi lessons, practice sudarshankriyas, go to gym, wear expensive clothes and new jewellery, swim, party and go for international holidays and cruises. Retirement is not withdrawal from life, but merely starting another phase of life. It is a very complicated series of social, economic and cultural demographic shift that has changed the way we must look at older people, because they demand so. This group now has considerable economic power and they know it. Just like the very young. What advertising does with this new phenomenon? Plenty. They spend on high end clothes, jewellery, consumer durables, holidays, club memberships, travel, collectibles like paintings and antiques, gifts, entertainment, things they never could afford when they were young, or dared to spend on. And now they are also buying smaller cars and apartments to move out of the big houses they no longer need or can maintain. Many widowed older people are marrying again and setting up new households, just like young newly-marrieds do, with exactly the same purchase pattern. It is a great market with rising consumption, and elders pay exactly the same price as the young do, but they make full down payments and are not into hire/purchase or consumer loans. This segment just has to be cultivated differently. In April 2006, a survey carried out to choose India’s sexiest man listed John Abraham as number one, followed by Amitabh Bachhan, then 63. Clearly something very strange is happening and marketers better take note.

Q4. Discuss media planning in detail.

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A. The commercial world uses the word ‘media’ as a collective term to present its services to its specific target group. Be it the door to door seller knocking on doors or the hawker calling out his ware as he walks the streets or the village fairs where the fair itself is the media platform, products were always sold through media. And the greatest of all was the word of mouth, the only medium rich in authenticity, user feedback, just in time information and real time networking.

In the second half of the last century, media diversity, reach, innovativeness, etc. have really blossomed to the extent that just about any person anywhere can be reached to deliver information on the product he needs or aspires for, even in the remotest villages. Or the most rarefied atmosphere of high politics and finance, where selling just a few in the whole country in a year will be considered a rare achievement. Commercial passenger aircraft or military arms and weapons, for instance. Growth of media has grown along with the complexity of life today. Apart from conventional print, radio and television, there are a number of media that make message delivery far more focused and effective. More innovative use of newspaper space, interactive media, electronic hoarding with moving messages, Internet, direct marketing, are only some of them.

Media objectives The fundamental objective of media as we understand it in reference to advertising is to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time, so that he goes out and buys, or at least enquires about the product or brand advertised. Therefore, media objective depends on the objective of the campaign – what does one want to achieve in this particular campaign? Media objectives therefore can be divided into target group objectives (to whom the message is going) and distribution objectives (when, where and how the message is delivered). (Jethwaney&Jain) Advertising objectivecan be classic or routine: – Increase sale

– Increase consumer awareness of the brand

– Develop, reinforce or change brand personality

– Associate brand with feelings and emotions

– Create group norms

– Improve audience learning and communicate information about brand comprehension, its characteristics and appeals, difference from competitors, etc.

– Launching the brand in a new geographical area

– Launching a new brand or product category

– Introducing new or innovative features or benefits

– Precipitate behaviour, ie, action towards purchase. Media target objectives are to whom the message is directed to: – Reach the person of the right demographic and psychographic profile

– Concentrate in the right geographical area where the highest concentration of buyers of this product is likely to be found

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– Provide the right advertising support to the brand at the right season for reaching the target, eg, rainwear in monsoon or expensive formal clothes in the festival season of all religions, ie. August-December, or gold coins and jewellery before AkshayaTritiya festival

– Support the specific creative message chosen for the brand to touch base with the target at the moment, eg, a product that needs to show dramatic action, like motorbikes need television commercials, even though they need heavy support from print media too

– Deliver the greatest reach at the lowest cost per exposure. Every product and brand has a different media need, and the same brand has different needs at different times. The target profile is defined with tremendous care and then the media to reach him or her are chosen carefully. The psychograph and demograph or the Socio Economic Classification (SEC) mentioned elsewhere helps to do that. Most commercial media now carry out extensive and intensive research on their readership profile and the changes occurring in them, for better or worse, and make it available to their potential advertisers. Media distribution objectives define the when, where, how often the ad will deliver the message. This is carefully calibrated to prevent expensive advertising where it will not get results. For instance, men’s luxury products in day time serials or children’s products in the morning television will not attract the right audience, when these segments are not at home.

Media Options There are thousands of publications in over 17 official Indian languages, government and private television channels, AM and FM radios, and dozens of informal media available to the media professionals. With the rates wickedly expensive and client’s budget usually rigid and carefully watched, the media planners need a very high level of skill, expertise, experience and understanding of the process to deliver the maximum penetration for each rupee spent.

The major and most frequently used structured mass media, called above-the-line, include: – Print – newspapers, magazines, journals, weeklies, etc. total up to some 50,000 publications and reach 50% of population. With the entry of television in India in 1990s, doomsayers predicted the death of this very powerful medium. That did not happen. It even showed serious growth due to increased literacy in semi-rural areas.

– Television – due to cable, DTH and satellite technology, reaches more than 50% of population

– Radio – declined and reaches only 20% of population but has seen a great revival recently due to private and FM radio stations with segmented programmes like classical, oldies, Hindi movie music, rap, pop, Western, etc. Which allow the advertiser to narrowcast to his clearly defined target segment?

Then there are the informal media called below-the-line, where the available and loosely structured resources are adapted to the need of the brand at the moment. Some of the most frequently used are:

– Direct mail

– Exhibitions

– Cinema

– Sales promotion

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– Merchandising

– Point-of-sale / point-of-purchase material (PoP)

– Public relations

– Sponsorship

– Internet

– SMS on mobile

– Outdoor like posters and hoardings

– In-shop displays.

– Folk and rural media like storytelling, puppetry, folk plays, street plays, music and dance - India has a very old and strong tradition in these due to illiteracy and remoteness of many rural areas and local dialects, where modern mass media simply cannot work. Now global FMCG MNCs too have taken to these in a big way and are adapting these rural media to their requirements to penetrate the rural market, where growth now is.

In this below-the-line segment, imagination of the advertising agency is the only limitation. Many really incredibly innovative vehicles for advertising messages are thought up every day, which deliver results too, if only for the unexpectedness of it. Every advertising agency works out the best possible combination of media to be used for the assignment on hand and within the given budget, which is called the media mix.

Media Selection and Space Buying After the creative work, a strong, sustainable and effective media plan is the most important factor for the success of the campaign. It includes media selection, media mix, buying of media space and time, schedule and budget allocation. This integrated process is now so infinitely complex, with such interactive results which can be surprisingly good or shockingly bad, with a whole range in-between, which cannot even be audited scientifically, that it definitely requires some intuitive understanding of how the media scene works. However, the sheer volume of money involved in advertising ( Rs. 20,717 crore and growing at 17% in 2008, according to Pitch-Madison Media Advertising Outlook Survey 2009) demands that some predictable mechanics are put in place. To get a handle on the mechanical side of it and assess media effectiveness, here are some technical terms most frequently used in the industry?

Medium: A single form of communication, like hoarding or television. Media mix: All the media used in a campaign combined. Media vehicle: A single programme, magazine or radio station.

Circulation: The number of copies sold or distributed by a newspaper or magazine. Audit Bureau of Circulation publishes these figures regularly and is respected for being authentic. Readership: The number of people presumed to read each copy. Every copy is read by several people, like in an office, family, village, club or library. In India, old magazines stay available for months, even years and are read as passionately as current ones, thus increasing exponentially the number of exposure of advertisements which was probably not even intended originally.

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Viewership: The number of people that watch a particular television programme for more than five minutes. Arguably not a very reliable tool, but this is all that is available. Listenership: The number of people listening to a particular programme on the radio.Reach: The number of people or households exposed to an ad schedule within a particular period. Frequency: The number of times a particular ad reaches the same person or family. Gross impressions: The total of all audiences covered by a media plan, inclusive of the number of times they receive the message. Gross rating points (GRP): The total audience delivery of a media schedule.Space and time buying This is now such a complex activity that there are specialist agencies which do only this and nothing else. They buy time and space in bulk, which gives them the advantage of wholesale, so to speak, like discounts and negotiated rates and sell it to advertising agencies in retail, who are too small to procure such deals. They are the suppliers to the advertising agencies and work like agents and not a replacement of the media departments of the advertising agencies, which do the real media planning and need huge creative thinking and in-depth knowledge of the media scene. Often called the Agencies of Record (AOR), these media agencies charge the advertising agencies 2.5% of the media bills, the agencies keeping the remaining 12.5%. Some of the most successful media agencies are Mindshare Fulcrum, Madison Media, Carat, Initiative Media, Lodestar, and Zenith Media. They conduct their own media research, updating all facets constantly and make the information available to their client agencies. However, this is not an unmixed blessing and some critics feel these agencies hold such tremendous money power that they may wield unholy influences on the media policies. Another drawback is that their research is more of a demographic tool, with little input about the psychograph of the readership, which is sorely needed to do a proper media planning. Most full service or smaller agencies though continue to do their own media plan and buy their own space and time and cultivate their own relationships with their preferred media.

Q5. How is ad-spend on a particular ad campaign decided? Explain.

A.

Q6. Supreme Ad agency is thinking about setting up two separate specialized agencies under it. If they do so, how do you think the working of departments and integration of services will be? Will it be beneficial to the clients?

A.

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Date post:	26-Oct-2014
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