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SERVICE ADVERTISING IN INDIA

by

Dr. P.K. Sinha*

November 1992

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENTBANGALORE

Visiting Professor, Indian Institute of ManagementBangalore

SERVICE ADVERTISING IN INDIA

Advertising is, perhaps, as old as civilization.It has always been there in some form or other, inthe ancient days the advertisers paraded down theroad making announcements on the beats of drum.They are still seen mainly in village markets.Technology has helped them also. Instead of hiringa drum-beater, they use blaring speakers that sendout recorded messages. The medicine men were tofollow and demonstrate their medicines. The printmedium gave a canvass to the advertisers. Thefirst service advertisement, perhaps, came fromthe entertainers - the theatricals. It has come along way since then to achieve a status ofpresenting a wide range of services. The firstservice advertisement that appeared in thenewspapers was in the form of classifiedadvertisements of passages to Europe, particularlyEngland. It appeared on the front page of TheBombay Times and Journal of Commerce on Saturday,November 3, 1838. The first formal advertisementappeared in 1840. It was an ad of AmateurTheatricals. a chronological development ofService Advertisements since then is presented intable-1. A look at the advertisements tells thestory of the development of advertisements withregards to base used for positioning and copylayout. The present paper is an attempt in thisdirection.

THE RESEARCH DESIGN

The research was aimed at studying the trends inservice advertising in India. In doing so itlooked at the different aspects of advertising ofservices. It covered three aspects:

a. Proportion of Service and Productadvertisements in India vis-a-vis abroad;

b. Bases of positioning used over a periodof time; and

c. Copy Layout.

The methodology used an exploratory design.Advertisements were collected from leadingmagazines for the years of 1978, 1979, 1984, 1989,1990 and 1991. The year 1978 was chosen as themagazines started getting popular around thattime. The magazines as a medium were chosen torepresent national advertising as againstnewspapers that contains mostly local

Table - 1 : History of Indian Service Advertisements

Advertisement Year

1 Sherrif's Sale (Auction) 18392 Viegas Circulating library 18403 Homes for Children in England 18404 Ameteur Theatricals 18405 Perukes 18446 Bounty Theatre 184 97 Yatch Race 18508 Bullock Carts Rates 18509 Railways 185310 What is Railways 185311 Electric Telegraph(Telephone dept.) 185512 Telegraphic line installed 185513 India & London Life Assurance Co. 18r614 Philippe Debarr's 185715 Dental Surgery 185816 The Colonial LIC 185817 Wax Work Exhibition 185818 Puppet Show 185819 Oilman Stores 185820 Ballock Shigrams & Carriages(Aoverseer)185921 Pestonjee Jeewanjee & Co. 186022 Europe Hotel 186023 Clarion Hotel 186024 Imperial Hotel 186125 "South Carolina" Ship for Liverpool 186126 Italian Opera 186527 Prof Vanek's Magic Show 186628 Deccan Horse Dak 186829 Hotel English 187030 Conveyance of Opium 187031 Adelfy family Hotel 187032 Essence of Chiretta 187033 Great Eastern Hotel 187034 Bombay Philharmonic Society 187035 Cure of Cholera 187036 Photograph Enlargement 187037 Drawing Room Operas 187138 The Strangers Home in London 187439 Burlington Saloon 187540 Railway Schedule 187541 H & Co. Tailors & Outfitters 187942 Photographic Saloon 188043 Esplanade Hotel 188044 Hydropathy 188045 Taylor Milliner and Dressmaker 188246 Wardes Capillare 188247 Red Boot Mart 188348 East Indian Railways 18844 9 Esteem Launch 188450 Hardwick's Hotel 188451 Changes 1886

52 Pearce's Restaurant 188853 Flower's Light Railway 188854 Zinco Copyist 189055 Ehhain dressers 189256 Atlas Assurance Co. 189457 Ericssons Telephones 189458 First Telephone 189459 Cinematographs 189660 Photography 189861 Domestic Servants Suppliers 189962 Mail Phaeton 190463 Railway Hotel 190564 Lawrence & Mayo 190565 Medical Electr. Home Treatment 190566 Taj Mahal Hotel 190667 Dr.Dastur 190668 Yarrow's Steamers 190969 Airmail 191170 Coranation Cinematographic 191171 P & 0 Mail Lines 191272 Pundlik Pundlik(Film) 191273 Esanofell 191274 Widespray Roadwatering Car 191475 Breast Feeding 191676 Thomas Cook 191678 The Mettle of Jerry McGuire 191679 Standard Life Assurance Co. 191680 Mogul Line 191681 X-Ray Accuracy Exposures 191782 War Bonds 191883 The Clive Insurance Co. 191884 Rajvaid Sri Bhamandasji Kaviraj 191885 Save the Children Fund 192086 Charleville Hotel, Mussourie 192387 Houses for Children 192388 Railway Advertising 192489 Marconiphone 192490 Gresham Life Assurance 192591 Light of Asia(Film) 192692 Broadcasting 192793 Blind Beggars 192794 Fascist Newspaper 192895 Steamer on Ganges 192896 Prudential Insurance 193G97 Special Trains of Poona Races 193298 Cornaglias Restaurant 193299 Imperial Airways 1932100 Bovarine 1932101 Night Raid in Paris(Film) 1932102 Cleve Hall Hotel 1933103 Cricket Carnival 1933104 Trunk Telephone 1934105 Telephone,India-England service 1934106 Election 1934107 Japan Tourism 1934

108 Telephone,Bombay 1935109 Central Bank of India 1940110 Bus Reply System 1940111 Western Hotel 1940112 Indian Defence Loans 1940113 Air Mail 1940114 Royal Hindu Hotel 1940115 Indian Postal Order 1940116 Deccan Queen Schedule 1941117 National Warfront 1942118 Mount Abu 1943119 Mahabaleswar Hotel 1944120 Kashmir 1944121 Air India 1944122 Tata Airlines 1945123 Black Market 1945124 National Savings Certificates 1945125 Millowners Association, Bombay 194512 6 Information & Broadcasting 1945127 Star Line Airways 1947128 Mistri Airways 1947129 New India Assurance Co. 1948130 Birla Lines 1950131 Tour Circular 1955132 Whiteaway, Laidlow Fashions 1960133 Indian Airlines 1961134 Forum of Free Enterprise 1962135 State bank of India 1965136 Bank of India 1967137 Detection 1968138 Figurette-Figure Cont.Parlour 1969139 Deptartment of Tourism 1969140 Family Planning 1969141 Congress party Election campaign 1970142 Census 1971143 All India Radio 1971144 Centaur 1971145 Sholay(Film) 1975146 Ramda Searock Hotel 1976147 Eatwell Clinic 1977148 Forum of Free Enterprise 1981149 Air freight 1982150 Palace on Wheels 1982151 Hakim Haji 1982152 Food Adulteration Prevention 1983153 Times of India 1984154 Appu ghar 1984155 CMC Ltd. 1984156 Speedpost 1986157 Medical Hair Centre 1987158 Vayudoot 1987159 Le Chalet(Opera) 1988160 Jeevan Ki Gaddi 1988

161 Human Rights Now (Rock Concert) 1988162 Pigmalion:My Fair Lady 1988163 Indian Railways 1988164 Dalmia Resorts 1988165 Nehru Yatri Ticket 1989

Source : "Brand New ^Advertising Through Times ofIndia", The Times of India, Bombay, 1989.

advertisements. A total of 885 differentadvertisements were collected. Theseadvertisements fell in 12 service categories.These categories are : Banks, Financial Services,Mutual Funds, Credit Cards, Insurance, Couriers,Travel Agencies, Airlines, Social, Tourism, Hotelsand Others, which included services that were veryfew in number such as Hospitals, Tutorials etc.Some services like Computer Education and othereducational institutions were left out as theyused newspapers as the primary medium and hencedid not classify as national advertisements* Sideby side data regarding the "Product" advertisementis also collected in terms of number ofadvertisement from the same magazines whereservices data is collected. Data regarding thecount of both services and products advertisementis also collected from foreign magazines such asWorld Executive digest, Harvard Business Reviewand Business Week.A cross-sectional as well as a longitudinal studyof the advertisements was carried out to trace thetrends. SPSS, a statistical package is used in thecross-tabulation analysis.

RESULTS

A : Service Vs. Product Advertisements

A total 885 different service advertisements werecollected, of which Airlines, Banks and Hotelshave advertised the most. More than 50% of theadvertisements belong to these services as shownin Table-2 below :

Table - 2 : Major Service Advertisers____________ ,. .... _—_—-_->_- — -——«—-

Banks 18.0%

Hotels 17.5%

Airlines 17.0%

The proportion of service advertisementsto product advertisements is more or lesssimilar over the years. The productadvertisements are more. This is in contrast tothe advertising practices abroad. The proportionof service advertisements in foreign magazines isnearly double the proportion of serviceadvertisements in Indian magazines. Overallpercentage is shown in Table - 3. The yearlytrend is depicted in Table - 4.

Table -3

Service

Product

: Indian and Foreign

Indian

23%

77%

Advertisements

Foreicrn

41.8 %

58.20 %

Table - 4 : Trend in Service Advertisements (%)

Indian Foreign

19791984198919901992

Service

2818202125

Product

7282807975

Service

4738483942

Product

5362526158

Bases Used for Positioning

Twelve bases of positioning were identified in thestudy. The bases identified are shown in the boxbelow :

11. Responsiveness Responsiveness of the firm |

1 I

12. Physical facilities Space, Equipment etc. j

! ,

(3. Customer profile /Number Typical customers/number of customers |

I 114. Employees Featuring employees in the advertisement!

I15. Achievement Financial and Operational achievements |

I I

16. Reliability No failures and safe |

I I

17. Range of Services Better range I

I I

18. Convenience Wider network,timings,frequency etc. j

1 I

19. Comparative/Extra Benefits Better benefits over competitors i

I I

110. New Launch/Branch Starting new services/branches I

I I

111. Customer Dealings/Care Customer Caring I

I I

112. Assurance/Commitment No worries regarding delivery |

I of the service I

Advertisements based on Assurance/Commitment,Comparative/Extra Benefits and PhysicalFacilities provided, comprised 48% of the totaladvertisements. The changes that have taken placein the years with regard to the major bases areshown in Table - 5.

C : Bases Used by Individual Services

Airlines

The Airlines advertisements mainly used ExtraBenefits the Airlines provided over others. Carefor the customers. Assurance on using theairlines, Convenience in terms ease of availingthe services, more number of flights, network,etc. and Reliability of the airlines.

Over the period Airlines advertised significantlyafter Banks and Hotels. On the whole, theAirlines advertisements were based on (23.3%) andComparative / Extra Benefits they offered overtheir competitors. The other ways of positioningwere Convenience (18.7%) and Assurance /Commitmentthey had towards their customers.

The movement of thrust on the Bases is as follows:

Table - 6

Year

1978

1979

1984

1989

1990

1991

Changing Bases __ Airlines

Extra

Care

Extra and Convenience

Assurance

Convenience

Reliability and Achievement

Banks

Banks advertisements were based mainly on CustomerProfile, Extra Benefits over other banks,Asurance for good service and Range of Servicethey are providing.

Banks used Comparative / Extra Benefits (17.6)they offered in their advertisements. The otheradvertising bases were Range of Service theyoffered (14.1%) and Customer Profile and Numberof Customers they served (12.8%).

The various principal bases banks used in variousyears are as follows :

Table

Year

1978

1979

1984

1989

1990

1991

- 7 Changing Bases __ Banks

Customer "Profile and Achievement

Extra Benefits and New launches

Assurance and Responsiveness

Range of Service and Assurance

Extra Benefits and Reliability

Customer Profile and Customer Care

Courier

All most all couriers companies were usingAssurance as the main positioning base. Theiradvertisements were assuring the customers forbetter service. Some (11.1%) advertisements werebased on New launch.

The basic positioning of courier services is basedupon Assurance and Commitment (38.9%). The otherimportant bases used for positioning are PhysicalFacilities and Comparative / Extra Benefits.

Except in 1979, where most of the advertisementswere based on New Launch (due to new companies ornew centres or new services), in other years mostof the advertisements were using Assurance as themain bases.

Other bases used were Range of Services, ExtraBenefits, Physical Facilities and Achievement.

Credit Cards

Initially in 1978 and 1979, Range of Servicesoffered got more importance in the advertisementsand customer profile was getting less importancebut gradually the trend changed and by 1991Customer Profile was used in most of theadvertisements.

Credit cards advertised mostly on the Comparativeor Extra Benefit (30.8%) they could give overtheir competitors. They also advertised using theCustomer Profile and Number of Customers using(25.6%) their services. Some of theadvertisements (20.5%) were based on theConvenience aspect. The gradual change that tookplace is as follows:

Table - 8 : Changing Bases _ Credit Cards

Year Basis

1978 Range and Customer profile

1979 Range and Extra benefits

1984 Extra and Convenience

1989 Physical Facilities and New launches

1990 Extra Benefits and Convenience

1991 Customer Profile and Comparative

Financial Services

Over the years most of the financial servicesadvertisements were talking in terms ofAchievements their companies obtained. Other basesused were Customer Profile and New Launch ofservices.

Achievement is the main orientation of FinancialServices advertisements (37.3%). It was followedby New Launch or New Branches (20.3%).

The movement in bases is as follows :

Table - 9 : Changing Bases __ Financial Services

Year Basis

1978 Extra Benefits

197 9 Customer Care

1984 Extra Benefits and Convenience

1989 Assurance

1990 Convenience

1991 Reliability and Achievement

Insurance

Insurance services which started in late 70's werebasically using extra benefits and care forcustomers. Later in early 90s the advertisementsshifted the thrust to "Range of Services".

The two important bases used by Insurancecompanies in advertising were Range of Services(21.9) and Customer Dealings and Care forcustomers (23.3%).

The change that took place over a period of timeis as follows:

Table - 10 : Changing Bases _ Insurance

Year Basis

1978 Extra Benefits

1979 Customer Care

1984 Extra Benefits and Convenience

1989 Assurance

1990 Convenience

1991 Reliability and Achievement

Hotels

Physical facilities, more or less hadconsiderable importance in the advertisements.Initially the advertisements were based onComparative Benefits or Extra Benefits, but laterthe shift took place through Assurance toPhysical Facilities. In 1991, Physical Facilitieswas the main basis for advertising.

Hotel advertisements used Assurance/Commitment andPhysical facilities equally (28.4%). They werealso advertising on comparative and extra benefitthey offered (20.6%).

The change in usage of bases is as follows:

Table - 11 : Changing Bases __ Hotels

Year Basis

1978 Extra Benefits

1979 Customer Care

1984 Extra Benefits and Convenience

1989 Assurance

1990 Convenience

1991 Reliability and Achievement

Mutual funds

Mutual Funds advertising started only in 1980's.So largely their advertisements (45.9%) were basedon New Launch of various schemes. The other basisthey used was Achievement (21.6%).

The bases used from 1984 to 1991 are as follows:

Table 12 : Changing Bases _ Mutual Funds

Year Basis

1984 Extra Benefits and Convenience

1989 Assurance

1990 Convenience

1991 Reliability and Achievement

Social

All the social advertisements used Assurance andCommitment they had towards the society.

Tourism

Advertising of Tourism started only in 1980's.They mostly used Assurance (27.3%), Extra Benefits(27.7%) and Physical Facilities as basis foradvertising. There were not many of advertisementsof tourism.

The bases used in different years are as follows:

Table - 13 : Changing Bases _ Tourism

Year

1984

1989

1990

1991

Travel Aaencv

Basis

Extra Benefits

Assurance

Convenience

Reliability and

and Convenience

Achievement

Travel Agencies which started advertising in late1970's used Extra benefit (47.1%) mainly. Some(17.6%) of their advertisements were based onconvenience also.

The shift took place as follows.

Table - 14 : Changing Bases _ Travel Agency

Year Basis

1978 Extra Benefits

1979 Customer Care

1984 Extra Benefits and Convenience

1989 Assurance

1990 Convenience

1991 Reliability and Achievement

Other Services

Other Services comprised of various maintenanceorganisations/ technical service organisations andcorporate and personal services which do notfigure in other eleven categories used. Theseservices basically used Physical Facilities(23.3%), Range of Services (18.3%) and Achievement(16.7%).

In other services a mix of various bases were usedin various years. The movement of usage was asfollows:

Table - 15 : Changing Bases __ Other Services

Year Basis

1978 Extra Benefits

197 9 Customer Care

1984 Extra Benefits and Convenience

1989 Assurance

1990 Convenience

1991 Reliability and Achievement

D : Copy Layout

Analysis of the Copy Layout was carried out withregards to size of the advertisement, picture,size of the text/ slogans and headlines. Theresults are described below.

Size

Airlines, Banks and Hotels advertise mostly infull page (A4) advertisements. Most of the halfpage advertisements belonged to banks and hotels.80% of the total advertisements are full pageonly. 13% of the total advertisements are indouble page. Less than 2% are quarter pageadvertisements.

Picture

More than 50% advertisements had Large Picture.Scattered picture advertisements were also used(11%) . Less than 10% advertisements did not haveany picture.

Of the total, 64% of advertisements had Largetext, 22% of which were Bank advertisements.Adverisements that did not contain any text weremainly Airlines and "Couriers" (81%).

Slogan

Most of the advertisements (68%) carried Slogansin the advertisements.

Headlines

Long Headlines were found in 44% of theadvertisements. About 20% of the advertisementshad the headlines in bold letters. Advertisementsthat did not contain any Headline were few (5%),

DISCUSSION

Service Advertising has been in India for a longtime. Their ratio, however, with regard toproducts has been consistently low. This is incontrast to the advertising scenario abroad. Thisphenomenon may be attributed to the country'seconomic development. India is entering into apost-industrial economy. At present a majorportion of the service sector is in theunorganized sector. Also a major part of theindustry is managed by government monopolies. Thechanging government posture may lead to a changein service advertising also. Banks, Airlines andHotels constitute about half of theadvertisements. The presence of strong competitionin these segments is a major factor contributingto this phenomenon.

Services are intangible and thus requiretangibilization for the customers to evaluate anddecide. They also represent a high riskproposition. The finding also suggests this.About half of the advertisements use Assurance,Comparative Banefits and Physical Facilities outof a total of 12 bases used. This trend hasremained more or less unchanged over the years.Different services use different bases due totheir nature. For insance, Hotels and Airlines arevery high capital intensive services and they havethe opportunity to *show' their services. Hencethe use of Physical Facilities is common. On theother hand Mutual Funds, Financial Services usetheir Achievements and Extra Benefit to helpcustomers evaluate their services in light ofcompetition. Services for which the custoemrsdepends very much on other's experience, likeTourism, use Assurance in their advertisements.Services like Travel Agencies seek to giveConvenience to their customers. Social Servicesaim at giving a better life to the individuals inthe society and hene show their Committments andgive the Assurance for a better life in theiradvertisements. The use of Comaprative / ExtraBenefits Advertisements by many of the sevices isan indication of the growing competition.

The copy of the service advertisments tries toachieve mainly two objectives; (a) Awarenwssthrough large/ bold headlines and large picturesand a full page advertisement/ and (b)Interest/Conviction through a large text thatgives enough information to the customer toevaluate and choose the company/ as in case ofFinancial Services.

In short, service advertising is an interestingarea and requires a different approach since therequirements of the audience is different. Thisresearch touches only the trend of the phenomenon.Further research is needed to find the forces thathave caused the changes. The impact of each ofthese bases used on the customers with regard totheir decision making in buying a service isanother area to be researched.