Brief repor t prepared for Seminar presented at

Apex Institute of
Management & Science
Title of the Report

“Recent Trends in Advertisement in India”

Submitted By: Under Guidance:

Rajkumar Saini Ms. Kajal Sheetiani

IInd Sem
AIMS
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I take this opportunity to thank all my teachers and fellow students at Apex Institute of
Management and Sciences Jaipur, who by their continuous support and guidance have
made this present project “Recent Trends in Advertisement” possible.

I wish to acknowledge the importance of well structured learning provided to us through

the college management in view of current industry standards and expectations.

The topic “Recent Trends in Advertisement” is a subject which is very much talked
about. Advertising itself is such a fascinating subject, as one famous author remarks

"Advertising is the life of trade."

Rajkumar Saini
Roll No. 82
M.B.A II Semester , Section B
Apex Institute of Management and Science
 PREFACE

Advertisement they want to tell us something, they call out loud:

“Welcome to the world of creativity”

The beauty of advertising lies in the unexpected and in the fact that the unexpected
actually gets results. Sometimes, it can be the ordinary or commonplace that works!.

But surprisingly, with every innovative step comes from some unexpected quarters as the
growth slows down, a new influx of medium or spur in activity attributed to some
desirable effect.

Across time, we have been witness to big changes in advertising, from modest beginnings
of merely communicating a product or service, to highly sophisticated multi-dimensional
and multi-channel strategies, and always with the same goal. Across time, we have seen a
huge evolution of techniques and trends, products, strategies, media.

The authentic “next big thing” comes with the advent of the Internet.

Advertising is a very powerful business. All by itself, advertising powers large industries
such as television or print media, huge empires with thousands of employees and billions
of dollars in revenues which constantly feed their tummies with money coming from the
advertisers.
Across time, we have been witness to big changes in advertising, from merely
communicating a product or service, to highly sophisticated multidimensional and multi-
channel strategies, and always with the same goal: to induce someone to buy or use that
product or service.

To achieve their goal, advertisers use different types of weapons with very different
characteristics, ranging from pure carpet-bombing that guarantees the coverage of a large
area, to highly precise snipers that allow them to hit a specific target right between the
eyes and in the perfect moment to do so. Across time, we have seen a huge evolution of
those weapons, new techniques and trends, new products, new strategies, new media.

How ever, as in many other industries, the really big change, the authentic “next big
thing” comes with the advent of the Internet. And believe it or not, even though the
Internet has been among us for quite a significant number of years, the change is yet to
come. Let's review some of the changes that have started to emerge and would in the
coming years, turn the world of advertising completely upside down
 INTRODUCTION

In order to understand what the advertising industry is today, it is helpful to appreciate

where it has come from.

To trace the early beginnings of advertising we have to travel back in time.

The early beginnings

Check the early rock carvings and paintings of Pompeii, Ajanta and Ellora. In the Indus
Valley civilization, the craftsmen made special signs to keep their identity unique to their
products.

In Greece, in the Middle Ages, town criers used to announce important events. In India,
we had the messengers who beat the drums and conveyed messages to the public.

In the 15th century, the invention of the printing press was a landmark in world history.
The first appearance of an advertisement was brought out by an Englishman, Caxton's
handbill- advertising his book on religion. Then, in 19th century, with the printing and
distribution of newspapers, the first advertisements, as we know it now, started appearing
and soon became popular.

Here we can see below, one of the earliest advertisements - G PRowell & Co, Advertising
agent, selling ad space in Harper's Weekly, on May 4, 1867.

NO ONE whose business requires extensive advertising can

afford to neglect the unusual facilities offered to the public by
GEO. P. ROWELL CO., Advertising Agents,
No. 40 Park Row, New York.
Call and see them, or send stamp for circular.
Harper's Weekly was the leading illustrated American periodical during the period 1857-
1872. Its circulation exceeded 100,000 on a regular basis, which at times reached
300,000, such as during the Civil War and during the 1871 campaign to defeat Boss
William M. Tweed in New York City. It is best known for the political cartoons of
Thomas Nast, the illustrations of Winslow Homer and the wood engravings of
photographs by Mathew Brady.

In 1870, when annual subscription for the periodical cost $4.00, an advertisement cost
$1.50 per line per insertion for an inside page and $2.00 for an outside page. The
newspaper had 16 tabloid-size pages per issue before 1870, which later increased up to
24 pages per issue.

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution ushered in mass production and along with it came the need to
inform a mass audience about the products, to go beyond the local reach of the
manufacturer and extend to wider markets.

Growth of Media

As print media grew from strength to strength, radio, followed by television, was
introduced as a means of communication. Marketers started using these media for
advertising their goods. They remain important even today.

Advent of Technology

With the advent of technology, IT came into being. Communication explosion brought in
its wake, media options. And new media descended onus. The Internet, World Wide Web
(www) and mobile phones have changed the way we talk and communicate.
Thus, advertising is generally agreed to have begun with newspapers, in the seventeenth
century, which included line or classified advertising.

Simple descriptions given along with the prices of the products served their purpose until
the late nineteenth century, when technological advances meant that illustrations could be
added to advertising and colour became an option.

Early success

An early advertising success story is that of

Pears Soap. Thomas Barratt married into the
famous soap making family and realised that
they needed to be more aggressive about
pushing their products, if they were to survive.
He launched the series of ads featuring cherubic
children which firmly welded the brand to the
values it still holds today. He took images
considered as "fine art" and used them to
connote his brand's quality, purity (i.e. untainted
by commercialism) and simplicity (cherubic
children). He is often referred to as the father of
modem advertising.

Alongside you can see one of the ads that were

created for Pears soap.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Acknowledgement

2. Preface

3. Introduction

4. Conceptual frame work

5. Present scenario of Advertising in India

6. Examples cases of Changing Scenario

7. Advantages of Advertising

8. Limitations of Advertising

9. Future scope of Advertising in India

10. Special words about Advertising by personalities

11.Conclusion

12.Bibliography
 CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORK

The American Marketing Association, Chicago, defines advertising as "any paid form of non-
personal presentation of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor."

A form is a presentation or a sign, a symbol, an illustration, an ad message in a magazine or

newspaper, a commercial on the radio or on television, a circular dispatched through the mail or a
pamphlet handed out at a street corner; a sketch or message on a billboard or a poster or a banner
on the Net.

Non-personal means that it is not on a person-to-person basis.

Goods, services, ideas for action means making a consumer's work easy, as far as knowing about
the product of a firm. It could be a television or a banking service or filing tax returns, which the
firm or the marketer wants the consumer to know about. An idea could also refer to political
parties letting the people know about their party and why they should vote for the party. Adult
education, AIDS awareness campaign and eye donation campaign are a few examples of ideas.

Paid for by an identified sponsor implies that the sponsor has control over the form,
content and scheduling of the advertisements. The sponsor could be identified by the
company name or the brand of the particular product.

Some important terms usually used in the advertising fields are as follows:

AD:
The name used to indicate an advertising message in the print media.

ADVERTISING AGENCY:
An organization that provides a variety of advertising related services to clients seeking
assistance in their adverting activities.

ADVERTISED BRAND:
A brand is owned by an organization (usually a manufacturer) that uses a marketing
strategy usually involving substantial advertising.

ADVERTISING MEDIA:
The various mass media that can be employed to carry advertising message to potential
audience or target markets for products, services, organizations, or ideas.

BANNER AD :
A graphical Internet Advertising tool.
CLIENT:
The term used to indicate an advertiser who has been served by an advertising agency.

OTC:
Opportunity to See

POP:
Point of Purchase

POS:
Point of Sale

Share:
The percentage of households or target audience members using television or radio that
are tuned to a particular program.

TG:
Target Audience

ZAPPING:
The act of using a remote control to change television channels when an advertisements
begins.
 PRESENT SENERIO OF ADVERTISING IN INDIA

The Indian context offers unique challenges to marketers. Cultural and economic
diversity, a blend of Western lifestyles, strong cultural anchoring, and the rural/urban
divide, with islands of prosperity in rural areas, are some of the critical factors that need
specific treatment in terms of formulation of marketing strategies.

In India, the advertising business is growing at the rate of 30% to 35% annually. It is a
1600 crore industry. It accounts for 90% of India's GDP.

In 2005, advertising was nearly a $300 billion industry in the U.S. It is irrevocably linked
to media, whether traditional media like the 13,599 radio stations in America (about $20
billion in annual revenues), the 1,749 broadcast TV stations plus myriad cable and
satellite TV outlets (totalling about $68 billion in advertising revenues), the 2,250 daily
and Sunday newspapers (about $49 billion in annual advertising revenues) or new media
like the tens of thousands of Internet sites that now accept advertising.

The advertising sector also includes direct mail, at about $45 yearly in the U.S.;
magazines, at about $21 billion; and outdoor advertising, at about $6 billion. In addition,
there is significant activity in specialty and alternative advertising, from ball point pens
printed with a message to T-shirts to small airplanes towing advertising banners.

By one count, Americans are subjected to 3,000 commercial messages daily, most of
which occur randomly such as billboards. A study by Yankelovich Partners found that
two-thirds of the Americans feel "constantly bombarded" by ads and nearly as many
respondents felt that these ads have little or no relevance to them.

Advertisers are faced with daunting new realities, when considering the various media
that they might use to get their messages across. Traditional media are losing control over
their audiences. It means that advertisers can no longer feel secure that their ads on TV,
on the radio or in print are going to receive mindshare. Gone are the days when television
and radio programmers enjoyed captive audiences who happily sat through ad after ad, or
planned their schedules around favorite shows.

Consumers, especially consumers in younger demographics, now demand more and more
control over what they watch, read and listen to and thus more control over the
advertising that they might be exposed to. Issues related to control include: pricing for
content (including free, illegal downloads versus authorised, paid downloads or pay-per-
view); portability (including the ability for a consumer to download once, and then use a
file on multiple platforms and devices including iPods and cell phones); and delayed
viewing or listening (such as viewing TV programming at the consumer's convenience
via TiVo and similar personal video recorders).

Over the last three decades, advertising and the context within which it occurs have
changed beyond recognition. As the communications universe expanded and society
became fragmented, advertising lost its traditional place within the communications
system. It has been left with a variety of challenges that it currently seems unable to meet.
Marketers should learn a lesson from politics that a new communications structure based
on flexibility rather than traditional divisions in terms of media is required to generate
effective knowledge, strategies and messages.

Advertising and marketing are undergoing a seismic shift, as new technology engenders
social change and transforms the way consumers view commercial interaction. 'Brand'
advertising is sometimes not adequate in meeting the need of the customers. Marketers
are to make the most of the new opportunities, presented by technological progress.

Advertising and advertising research are going through an exciting period of change, as
technology and social changes enable marketers to focus increasingly on individual
consumers rather than mass-market.

In a world that is increasingly dominated by technology, marketing and advertising are

also evolving. Markets, according to postmodern thought, are beginning to fragment, yet
they are creating greater challenges for the advertisers. Individuals are both isolated and
interconnected with the whole world virtually via computers. Advertising has, for a long
time, been based on a one-to-many communications model; yet new technology offers the
possibility of a computer-mediated environment, in effect, a virtual world.

In this new millennium, the attempt is to make use of the Internet and contemporary
thought for developing advertising effectiveness.

We are constantly hearing how the Internet, clutter, own-label brands and other hot topics
are about to turn the advertising world upside down. But, important though some of these
issues are, will their impact on advertising really be that great?

We foresee an exciting future for advertising, as marketers develop multicultural

strategies, find new uses for new media and explore e-commerce and on-line information
technologies.
 EXAMPLE IN THE FORM OF CASES

Indians might as well be very emotional. The ever so marketable histrionics in bollywood
movies only prove this point. There may also be a lot of demand for the “K serials”. But
do we need a forced dosage of emotions in the ads too? On TV the viewers (much to the
advantage of the advertisers) do not have much choice. One might just not be in the same
mood, as being expressed by the advertisement, worse still, nowhere close. Imagine if
you are watching Monday night laughs & then I see the Airtel ad. Your brain might just
urge you to make the same reaction as a boy enjoying his birthday party until he comes to
know that the biggest gift given to him by his worst enemy has broken. The tear would be
sitting right on the edge of your eyes, wondering if it is worth taking the plunge!

The advertising campaigns of things like life insurance, beauty products, baby products,
retirement solutions, healthcare products, tour operators & social messages can never
separate themselves from the emotional content. A viewer even expects an emotional
connect. What, however, is not easily conceivable is why some companies practice
emotional advertising even though there is no need for it. In particular, advertisements of
products like electrical switches, salt, telecom companies, hawai chappals, newspaper &
paint to name a few.

Let me start not by decimating the whole concept of emotional advertising, but cite
examples which I appreciate. Those which I think are path breaking, surpassing the
barriers of the kind of product, or the target audience.

The latest frooti advertisement is the first which comes to my mind. The VO plays,
“ladke se ladki tak,” and we see a guy with Frooti resting his head on a girl’s shoulder.
Hanging out with her friends in the college canteen, a girl whistles on seeing a guy. VO:
“Canteen se seeti tak.” A teacher enters his class to find one of his students gulping down
a Frooti. Approaching him he grabs it for a sip. VO: “Student se teacher tak.” Clad in a
spacesuit, a little girl descends from a spaceship sipping a Frooti. VO: “Fancy dress mein
chhipe armaanon tak.” A guy notices a crumpled piece of paper thrown on the road by
somebody. He picks it up to throw it in the bin. VO: “India badal gaya hai… …lekin
India ka favourite froot drink wahi.” Super: Frooti. India’s most trusted fruit beverage
brand.

Striking a balance amongst creating melodrama & sending the message across is what the
ad has brilliantly achieved. It is neither too moving nor does it rubbish the idea of an
emotional connect. It is also not a product with whom one would appreciate an emotional
connect. Hats off to the creative team, of Creative land Asia for making the ad flawlessly.

One cannot forget surf’s “daag ache hain” campaign. It not only connected to the
mother’s desires & their plight of keeping the clothes white, but also with those of the
kids, who despite all efforts not to dirty their clothes, just do it! The “chintamani”
campaign for ICICI bank was a good break from the boring ads of the banks. It was an
innovative way to convey the emotional connect & with “short term chintamani” coming
in the second leg of the ad, they assured a special mention for their efforts.

Going into the recent past, I seem to recollect a few advertisements from the automobile
sector. The “Make your own road” campaign with the racy music, the rustic &
adventurous imagery captures the inherent desire for an SUV amongst men. “The josh
machine” campaign did very well to sell the ford ikon. With the sport variant coming into
the market the tag line fit perfectly with the youth connect. Last, but surely not the least is
the enfield ad. A train is running on the tracks, the next scene shows an enfield
approaching the tracks & the legendry thud of the engine, train is given a red signal & it
stops, the enfield on the other hand is shown a green flag by a buy & it passes the track
while the train remains at a halt, the VO says-”make way for the bullet electra”. I might
be biased here, being a die hard enfield enthusiast, but the sound of the engine brought
out all the emotions it was meant to. Not to mention I could clearly see the jump in sales,
looking at the number of enfields on road. This wasn’t the first time that enfield had used
an emotional brand connect. Watching an old enfield ad, it became perfectly clear. A rider
on an enfield is going through the streets of a city, the very recognizable bullet engine &
then a jingle starts playing-”yeh bullet meri jaan, manzilon ka nishan” the 20 odd second
ad finishes with some more imagery of meeting fellow bullet riders. It is the kind of
camaraderie amongst the bullet owners, the ad exploited.

In another category, thinking about ads for milk products like chocolates, butter,
condensed milk, two brands occupy most mind space-Amul & Cadbury’s. Both
“shamelessly” attempt to make us indulge in “sinful pleasures”. (I speak strictly from the
weight conscious’ point of view, excluding myself.) The splashing milk, melting butter on
parathas, condensed milk on sweets, I am already drooling. The low cholesterol oils
survive on an emotional connect. Unarguably condom ads also feature in the “acceptable”
category of ads with an emotional connect; after all, it is all about the feeling, pun
intended.

The next in the line of fire, if I may, is the ads of Airtel. The ad starts with a young girl
calling up her father who is out on duty. Apparently an engineer, he helps his daughter
who is awake well beyond her bed time & bored, to draw a whale by joining the stars in
the night sky. What benefit can an emotional connect have for a telecom company? What
first needs to be answered is why, rather how can a father leave his young daughter alone
in a huge house? Advertisers should not distort reality only to accommodate the
emotional context of the story. It is not only misleading, but never lets the viewer
understand the message. I still wonder why airtel had created the previous ad with a
football being kicked across what seemed to be a border protected by barbed wires. The
emotional content was still unwanted. The saving grace was however that the ad makers
didn’t contort reality to fit in the approved story line.

Further a question rises, why do the advertisers not capture any other emotions? Why not
use the emotions of disapproval & disgust? The new beauty product campaigners are
increasingly using this very trick. Trying to project an image that the brand actually
sympathises with their target audience, they are increasingly rubbishing promotion of all
so perfect models on screen. More “realistic” beauties are being used at an increasing
level.
Maybe use an emotion of betrayal, or anguish, or ecstasy, or fear? Is it too much of a
gamble then, with an increasing number of companies unable to get their message across,
I think they have nothing to lose to go ahead & try this.

Bajaj Pulsar - Pulsarmania

Quite often I think to myself that ad

making is like cooking – a dash of
this and a dash of that a little magic
of the chef’s hands and lo behold the
perfect dish is there to be dunked
down your belly, but whenever you
try to copy the Chef’s original recipe
you discover that in fact it was not
that original and the end product is
different from what you anticipated.
Similarly in ad making the ad gurus copy the perfect formula complete with a celebrity
roped in despite this the commercial falls flat (read the last post). But at times you see
something which is as close to being perfect as you thought it could be.

It’s very rare that you see a commercial

that makes you crave for some action
without even asking you to do so, and
that’s precisely what the new Pulsar
commercial titled Pulsar Mania does to
you. It makes you want to jump out of
the bed, don your helmet pick up the
keys and listen to the rumble of your
bike’s engine before you hit the road.
6 guys burning rubber in such a well choreographed manner that it would make John
Woo sit up and take notice, the guys go through formations that are amazing and the
effect is heightened by some excellent
cinematography. The ad is perhaps the best
bike commercial ever to have hit the TV
screens in India – The commercial is one of
the most captivating commercials I have
seen in the recent times, it’s visually
breathtaking and the effect is tremendous. I
bet even the ad makers hadn’t thought that
the final product would be so good.

The USP of the ad is that it focuses on the product through out without ever losing focus
or stressing too much, it’s un-conventional to say the least – No voiceover, No tagline.
Yes they could have done with some good music since it would have increased the
overall effect manifolds and moreover it would have given Pulsar its own tune which is
still missing.

Feels good to see such amazing work – it’s a spark which has come out after a long time.
Coca Cola Coke

A bunch of teenagers late in the night, hungry looking for food in an open air car, sounds
familiar?

But that’s where the familiarity ends because these youngsters meet Hrithik Roshan and
at the right moment you see the Coke bottle opening with a fizz (Off course Hrithik opens
it). The Season opener from Coke features Hrithik Roshan and a bunch of teenagers, the
kids are out driving late in the night are feeling ravenous and thus on the look out for
food. They enter a street full of fast food shops but all are closed and they feel
disappointed, one of them finds a man sprawled on the hood of a car and shouts at him
“hey brother” – the man looks pulls up the cap on his face and passes a smile – its
Hrithik. He has a Coke bottle in his hand and a bottle opener too, before opening the
bottle Hrithik slides the opener on the side of the Coke Bottle and you hear the sound so
familiar to the pre multiplex days when the hawkers would enter the cinema hall sliding
the openers against soft drink bottles during the interval. The moment Hrithik opens the
bottle you see food being made everywhere the whole surrounding is lit up and we have a
lot of Samosas, Jalebis and the Indian version of Chowmein being savored by the
teenagers, all this disappears with the last drop of Coke in Hrithik’s bottle.

All the while there is a jingle playing in the background “ Gajab ki shaam hai yaron jage
hain hum matwale aaj naa yeh rukna hai aaj tu jashn manale” – “It’s a wonderful evening
we all yuppies are together this moment wont last forever – so party now”- Forgive my
translation from Hindi to English. Well this jingle is the second best thing in the ad and
the best is the sound of the bottle opener sliding against the bottle. A very short ad with
no idea behind it, the ad survives only on the jingle, David Ogilvy had once said “When
you don’t know how to sell a product – Sing”, that’s what the ad makers did in this
commercial.

Since it is the first Coca Cola Coke Ad for the season it’s a big let down, we expect the
season opener to be high on the entertainment value even if we ignore the creative aspect.
The Coca Cola commercial makes the new Pepsi ad featuring Shahrukh Khan, Deepika
and Ranbeer look like a work of art and a master stroke.
Coca Cola Coke needs to pull up their socks.

Pepsi’s – Featuring Shahrukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika

Padukone.
Summer’s are around the corner and the soft drink giants are vying for your attention,
Pepsi has already launched its latest commercial featuring
Shahrukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone. It’s
an explosive combination sure to make viewers sit up and
take notice of the unveiling of the new Pepsi Slogan for
2008.

The ad has Shahrukh as Deepika’s geeky elder brother and

Ranbir as the guy after Deepika.

The season opener from Pepsi has Ranbir trying to woo Deepika while donning a biking
jacket and hanging from her balcony, suddenly he falls down and in the process he pulls
down a dish antenna with him. Hearing this sound Shahrukh opens the door with a book
in his hand (titled antariksha yatri - comeon guys you could have done better than that) to
check and finds Ranbir dressed like a superhero with a dish antenna in one hand.
Shahrukh asks him who is he and where does he come from. Flabbergasted Ranbir looks
at Shahrukh and points upwards towards the balcony, Shahrukh thinks he is from another
planet and asks him where is he coming from?, Ranbir meanwhile has turned around
facing two hoardings with neon signs (one is Hindustan something and the other is Young
India Underwears) and he blurts out in an alien like tone “Youngistan se aya hoon - i
have come from Youngistan” to which Shahrukh replies - Why have you come here? and
pat gets the answer from Ranbir in the same alien tone - “To be your sister’s bodyguard
(tumhari behan ka body guard banane)”. Shahrukh takes him to meet Deepika and tells
her that he has come from Youngistan and would stay with them from now on and leaves
the love birds alone(while Ranbir and Deepika give each other the know it all smile),
Deepika asks Ranbir “How did you do this?” and Ranbir replies holding a bottle of Pepsi
“Chaho to sab possible hai - Everything is possible if you want it” at this moment the
new slogan for 2008 is unveiled “Yeh hai Youngistan meri jaan - Pepsi”.

The ad has tremendous entertainment value which fizzles out in the end when Shahrukh
leaves the two alone and one more critical thing - SRK has been wasted in this ad, the ad
holds good promise as it begins but loses steam as it progresses. The ad is in line with
Pepsi’s efforts to establsih itself as a youth brand and the only thing that comes to my
mind is David Ogilvy’s famous quote “Every advertisement should be thought of as a
contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image”. Full marks to the ad on
supporting the overall brand image but otherwise a poorly executed ad which lacks the
punch and banks only on the celebrity’s appeal, lets hope Pepsi does better sequels to this
one.

The ad has just been splashed on all the major channels but how all these pieces fit in in
the mind of the consumer is yet to be seen, however since Pepsi has decided not to renew
the contracts of Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid we believe that Pepsi would be
pushing this campaign quite aggressively.

Airtel comes of age - joins Idea, Reliance and Vodafone

Finally Airtel comes of age – in line with the new trend.

Well what to say, I seem to have developed a fixation for Airtel though not an Airtel user
I have been quite impressed with the way Airtel always manages to waste money in some
ad or the other. I mean they have a knack for it off late they have been pouring money in
like anything into their ads but “uffff ads” is all that they have managed.
But finally someone seems to have woken up at Airtel and they seem to be coming of
age. The kids are amazing, the setting is great and the result is a well executed ad with a
message in it. By picking up soccer instead of cricket and not showing the Indo Pak
border the ad company certainly seems to be trying to give it an international feel, or may
be they thought cricket in no man’s land would not have been a very good idea (We at
Adidiot are big cricket fans so we are being biased).The Airtel “No man’s land soccer ad”
scores heavily in terms of being in line with the current trend in Indian Advertising
“Social Messages or just messages”.

Vodafone did it with “ek pal main kitna kuch campaign” and Idea had their very own idea
in “What an idea sirji campaign”.

Even Reliance kicked in with an ad which was not exactly a social message we are
talking about the “Yeh India ka Cricket hai Bedu ad”. In my opinion the winner is Idea
because they were the first ones to come out with the brilliant campaign starring
Abhishek Bachhan. It’s a very good ad with a very human message but I have only one
question “Is Abhishek Bachhan required in this ad”, he doesn’t add anything to the
otherwise brilliant ad. I am sure Abhishek would have charged a bomb to endorse Idea;
well it’s a different debate altogether “Do we need celeb endorsements?”
 ADVANTAGES OF ADVERTISING

Let us bear in mind that we are in a world which is dominated by three Ds. Dream, Desire
and Demand.

Underneath are listed in bullets the core purpose and the benefits of advertising.

1. The Purpose

The primary purpose is: communication with the consumers, conveying

information about products or services. There is persuasion here - it is an entire process
of planned persuasion. Through advertising, there is a definite contribution to economic
growth. Advertising helps to expand market by developing new markets. And, last I but
not the least, it is a catalyst for change - as in new products brands.

Everyone knows that the purpose of advertising and marketing (regardless of the
product) is to promote and sell a product. Is there any manufacturer in the world who
spends money on advertising to encourage consumers to stop using his product?

2. The Benefits

The main benefit of advertisement is that it imparts information to prospective

customers about a company's products or services.

• It involves brand image building - for example, Lux is perceived as the soap for
beauty queens; one imagines the superiority of VIP moulded luggage through
association with foreign nationals, courtesy a series of advertisements that had
appeared in the Indian media.

• There is innovation involved here. However, advertising does not guarantee

 success for all new products. In other words, the advertising may be very creative
and click with the target audience, but if the product does not deliver or live up to
its promise, it may flop in the market.

• New product launches gain a great deal through advertising, for consumers can be
made aware of the products and also persuaded to trials.

• Advertising contributes to the growth of media, by raising advertising revenues,

which, in turn, helps launch of new publications.

• There are long-term and indirect benefits of advertising. There is free competitive
enterprise and advertising contributes to greater availability of goods.

• It increases distribution of advertised products and others too.

• Costs of production and selling are reduced, when volumes increase.

 LIMITATIONS OF ADVERTISING

Today, we are bombarded by a barrage of advertisements. Be it the newspapers,

magazines, the television or the so many hoardings which line up any street or highway,
there are a lot of advertisements to be seen. In fact, the quantity and the quality of the
advertisements seem to be increasing day after day.

Advertising has become an important tool at the hands of the marketers, for selling their
products. Some advertisements are criticized for being false, misleading and deceptive
and for concealing information. Advertisements can also manipulate the consumer,
pushing him to go inot an unnecessary buying spree.

The principal criticisms against advertising are many.

1. Advertising is parasitical

Advertising influences consumer choice and purchase of products. It can be tested days
after the launch of the product or service. Has advertising forced people to buy? The truth
is that it tells people that the choice or opportunity is there.

2. Ads are untrue or misleading

Sometimes, advertisements not perfect. They are unethical, dishonest. It is always the
advertiser, the manufacturer, the businessman or the client who is at fault, not
advertising!

In India, for instance, cigarette and liquor ads are banned. But they do find a way out
through what is called "surrogate" advertising. In countries like Malaysia too, they are
banned.
Sometimes in media, ethics is largely a matter of business.

A misleading ad is definitely bad PR for the product or the company.

3. Ads causes false & materialistic demands for things that people do not want

At the bottom of it all, advertisements offer choice. It creates wants and products, say
some critics. Some examples include beauty soaps and toothpastes, soft drinks, floor
cleaners, etc.

However, it is a fact that advertising tells us about things that we have never heard of.
And, advertising moves with changes. And, what critics consider 'materialistic' is a matter
of improved living standards.

4. There is no need to continue advertising an established product

If this were true, manufacturers would be delighted.

Products have life-cycles and a need to be advertised, after which they are withdrawn or
revamped. Most established products go on advertising - Liril, Nescafe, Bata, Cadbury's,
Pepsi, Coke, Nestle etc.

5. Advertising causes costly competition and higher prices

We live in times of stiff competition. And what we see around are very competitive ads.

Sometimes it is seen that when competition gets too hot, advertisers get together and
develop a strategy to work out mutually beneficial strategies.

No doubt, the customer pays for the advertising. This is a legitimate distribution cost of
the product. Take a look at loose atta sold in the market and branded atta like Annapuma
or Pillsbury. These are definitely costlier.

On the other hand, advertising can reduce rather than increase prices. Some example are
radios, transistors, walkmans, handsets etc. Consider how much they cost during the
introduction stage and how much they came down in price once they were established,
making it more affordable for the consumer.

6. Advertising may encourage unsound or false values

Consider the effect of advertising on children and young people and you may see sense in
this allegation. Critics club this and the spoils of the modern society consumerism and
what have you - and may be you can see the connection.

7. Advertising can endanger competition

Sometimes big advertisers monopolise the market and colour the meaning of healthy
competition. Generally, in the marketing warfare, it is the winning principle of "might is
right" rather than "survival of the fittest."

The benefits of advertising are a part and parcel of modem society. Sometimes there is
too much of it and we are often irritated by the 'commercial break.'

The amount of advertising that one can observe is actually proportionate to the size of
market. And dearth of advertising would reflect diminished market, weak purchasing
power and a narrow choice of goods. To aid economy, advertising works best when there
is: reasonable free trade, full employment and high purchasing power.

In this case, advertising works as a lubricant, a force for the social good. It helps to
maintain prosperity and to raise the standard of living or the quality of life.
 FUTURE SCOPE OF ADVERTISIN

With the dawn of the Internet have come many new advertising opportunities. Popup, Flash,
banner, advergaming and email advertisements (the last often being a form of spam) abound.

Each year, greater sums are paid to obtain a commercial spot during the super bowl, which is, by
the most measures, considered to be the most important football game of the year, or for the
matter of fact the new format of 20-Twenty cricket which has been introduced by the Indian
Cricket Board as IPL (The Indian Premier League) which is expected to generate unprecedented
volumes of advertising and that will be the revenue generator for the whole tournament which has
attracted major attention both from media but also from all the cricket playing countries whether
negative or positive.

The Indian online advertising market size is estimated between 150-175 crores and is
growing at more than 50% year-on-year. Almost 70-80% of online advertising is
happening on a handful of large sites like Indiatimes, Rediff, Yahoo India , Google India,
Sify, Moneycontrol and MSN India. Compared to print and television the number of
players and market size is still very small. To exponentially grow the online advertising
business,

A clear strategy should be formulated based on industry standards and norms along with
looking at well settled practices around the world. Some suggestions to foster the growth
and to bring an understanding into the matters of feasible and sensible adverstising.

Advertising and national goals

Governments of many developing countries, except those which have a strong

commitment to private enterprise, frequently frown upon advertising. India has a mixed
economy. The system of national planning and the Institution of planning commissions at
the centre and in the states were evolved to satisfy further demand. The question of
resources allocation is undoubtedly relevant. However, it has assumed undue importance.

A lot of miscomprehension about the role of advertising arises because inherent

marketing orientation of accepted and established systems, such as planning is ignored.

Attitudes towards advertising

The function and purpose of advertising, when considered in isolation from marketing objectives,
is often misunderstood. There is extensive use of advertising in the Indian context not only by
business and industry, but also by the government and political parties. Political
advertising, too, raises questions about the applications techniques as well as motives,
despite the explicit use of advertising by the government and political parties. The image
of advertising amongst opinion leaders and decision makers, as indicated by their
personal opinion, is however, distinctly positive.

Use and misuse of advertising

Critics of advertising in India include individuals and action group such as women's
associations.

Woman's groups are particularly offended by excessive and irrelevant use offemale
models and vulgarity in advertisements. A vigilant attitude towards advertising is
certainly desirable. It is however, unfortunate that many a time much criticism, regardless
of its merits, takes the form of an attack of the specific advertising and the concerned
organisations.

The consumer education and research centre is an organisation which has given a lead in
initiating action on misleading and untruthful advertisement. An instance may be cited
here.
Seven Seas Super Vitamin E was being advertised in the lay press with the claim that it was
helping millions around the world feel young. The body copy went on to state that the product
"helped hair retain its natural lustre, body and bounce; made a woman's skin glow with health,
youth and beauty; and, made a man feel more lively and full of energy." The CERC took up the
matter with the manufacturers and enquired about the indications and dosage of this vitamin and
whether a doctor's prescription was required. Replies received were not considered satisfactory.

The centre also sought the opinion of experts and the food and drug control organisation,
Mumbai. This development represents a healthy instance of probing done by a consumer
body and the consequent pressure that was brought to bear not only on the manufacturer
but also on the authority concerned, in this case with drugs and remedies.

Norms of Judgment

The instance cited above was an unambiguous case when the validity information
contained in the advertising was not tenable. Apparently, the manufacturer too appreciated
it. In a large number of debatable cases, it is necessary to know accepted

New Horizons

Advertising professionals in developing countries have to be fully aware of the challenge and
responsibility trust on them by virtue of a vast unexploited potential, on the one hand, and the
resistance that they encounter from various quarters, on the other.

This requires looking beyond their own narrow areas of operation. A great deal of co-operative
endeavor is required in order to put advertising on a sound footing. This has to be backed by
research, the bulk of which is a major drawback for advertising decisions.

There has to be a greater willingness on the part of all persons and actions concerned with
advertising to innovate and experiment. This calls for an unconventional approach, as applicable,
whether it is towards idea, content of the message, creative strategy or evaluation of tenses.
Stereo-typing, the curse of advertising, is a real danger against which the industry has to guard
itself. This may be seen for instance in heavy reliance on the standard mass media or in creative
execution. Advertisements for textiles products, for instance, look alike. This type of situation
may render all such advertising ineffective. It is, basically, in the interest of advertisers to
get a proper payoff from their investment in using agencies, which can justify their existence
only if the advertising products result.

The quality of advertising and its social acceptance are the two sides of the coin. Advertising has
to reflect social norms, value and aspirations. Since various problems arise, there is a need for
legislation.

In India, too, this subject should be treated with the urgency that it demands. Sensible and
practicable guidelines can be developed and an institutional framework established for self
regulation. The benefit for the advertising industry will be great. Imposition of such discipline
will be preferable to legislation. Self regulation can be more effective, because of its expediency,
as against lengthy legal processes.

If recent trends towards increasing professionalisation are any guide, there are grounds to believe
that the advertising industry will be able to evolve norms of conduct for itself, which will enable
it to continue growing and making its due contribution to person and the nation.

Globalisation strategies for Indian brands

To succeed in the particular business, one needs an ability to raise cost effective capital
and a sound understanding of technology and trends. It is very important to do so, not as
much as to raise money as to gain equity on a global platform.

Branding was repositioned at the Confederation of Indian Industry's Brand Summit in Chennai.
With globalisation stretching markets, the focus was on creating strategies for effective global
brand management.

BT (Business Today) presents six routes to global branding, which emerged from their
brainstorming.
High level of customisation

A brand as an experience calls for high sensitivity to the customer's needs, even
discerning to the customers subtle expressions! Customisation has become imperative.
The customer will always find exactly what he or she needs, whether it is his/her brand or
not. Every global player is trying to develop a brand image-specific customer relation
marketing module, which entails customer-emotion evaluation. With growing use of
technology and freer cross-border trade, the customer has so much choice now. The one
one-size- fits-all marketer will perish if they do not customise.

Manage the value perception

The brand transcends every barrier, most of all, class. But it still means different socio-
economic groups. The customer's commitment towards the value of brand is inversely
proportional to her standing on the socio-economic scale. The functional attributes of
successful global brands define a brand. However, it is the value that the companies
manage to yoke to these brands, by exploiting the perception of the customers belonging
to different socio-economic groups, which ultimately works.

Do not extend your brand indiscriminately

Procter & Gamble, Chevrolet, and Millers & Coors have all been victims of
indiscriminate brand-extensions. Levi-Strauss' brand-share dropped from 31 to 19 percent
in just seven years, when it came up with 27 different cuts to appeal to a wider market.
Diluting the brand equity by getting into sub-branding will only kill sales. For, when
there are too many products under the same brand name on the shelf, the customer is not
patient.

In the US, nine percent of the brand-extensions die.

Localise global brands

Ford Motor's response to the Indian market is a pointer. Even as it positioned its new car, the
Ikon, in line with Indian needs, it replicated its global manufacturing in all the Indian
manufacturing plants.

Speak in one Voice

No matter what’s its product, service or market, general electrics communications is universal.
“We bring good things to life”. Indian brands should bring in this habit.

Do not neglect the nucances

Every one knows it by now, but cross cultural mistakes can still kill your chance of globalization.
 SPECIAL WORDS ABOUT TRENDS AND CHANGES IN
ADVERTISING BY PERSONALITIES

There was a time when advertising was perceived or rather misunderstood as a non-serious
profession. “15 years ago, people were sceptical and had pre-conceived notions about the
advertising industry. Their pride and joy lied in the fact that their wards chose to be doctors,
lawyers or engineers as they believed that the advertising industry is meant for ‘glamourous boys
and girls’ who want to have fun and are not serious about their careers. However, with the
changing trends, this perception has changed and how!” says Pratap Bose, CEO, Ogilvy India.

This mindset has certainly changed, as people consider a profession in the advertising industry
lucrative and competitive. And now it’s not just about making ads, it is about creating, selling and
branding a concept. “I believe that the Indian advertising industry today is moving into a
completely different direction and is getting more in touch with the local flavour. Though most
agencies in India are being pushed by multi-national agencies, the ads being produced in India are
more advanced and are getting their share of the bigger pie. Also, the traditional methods of
making ad films are no longer existent as computer graphics are playing a key role in enhancing
the quality of Indian ad films, making them unusual and different than the way they were made
earlier,” says famous ad guru and the current Chairman of London Institute of Corporate
Communication, Alyque Padamsee.

“The Indian market is being flooded by various brands and the best and the only way for a
consumer to come to know of the value of the brand is through the right communication channels
and the right communication message,” says R Balakrishnan, Chairman and Chief Creative
Officer, Lowe India.
 CONCLUSION

The whole purpose  of advertising is to sell products or ideas, so the massive 

expansion   of   foreign   companies   and   advertising,   whether   coming   from   overseas   or 

created in India, has meant the massive expansion of the sales of foreign products. The 

liberalisation of the Indian economy in the early 1990s has led to the accelerated entry of 

foreign business and foreign advertising agencies to sell the products of foreign products 

to   the   vast   potential   Indian   market   of   over   a   billion   people.   Though   there   are 

approximately about 25% living at or below the poverty line, the expanding potential 

markets represented by those above the poverty line number hundreds of millions for low 

priced repeat purchase consumer goods, and many millions for those able to purchase 

consumer durables and luxury goods.

Advertisers are using considerable ingenuity to develop strategies to enter these 

markets. In the early 1990s there were Indian advertising companies in the profile of top 

advertising agencies but by the end of the decade most had made strategic alliances with 

foreign agencies. There was a concentration in revenue, both in products, companies, 

(HUL being the largest company and the greatest spender on advertising), and in the fact 

that 25 agencies accounted for 75% of the advertising revenue in India in 1999 (Srinivas, 

1999).

The major competition is in the low end of the market between the cola giants, the 

personal products and soap markets but there is also an expanding market for electronics, 

consumer durables and services amongst ‘the consuming

classes’. Television and satellite television has been eroding the market dominance of 

print advertising in the 1990s, but print is still the largest source of media, including 

newspapers and magazines, which have expanded considerably in the 1990s. Advertising 

in the 1990s focused on the Hindi and English speaking population via television and 
print, which was predominantly, educated, urban and middle class. In the 2000s however, 

major companies have been using strategies to other markets, such as the rural and village 

market (70% of the population), and the internet user teenage market.

These increases in advertising expenditure and the promotion of foreign products have 

impacts on culture, through the undermining of traditional habits and behaviours, the 

creation   of   new   wants   and   desires,   often   for   products   like   soft­   drinks   that   have   no 

nutritional benefit, and also by strategies that rework cultural values and beliefs. The roles 

of men, women and children are changing, traditional places within home and family, 

concepts of beauty, identity and personal cleanliness are undergoing major change. The 

overall impact of massive increases of foreign company advertising is the acceleration of 

India into the culture and ideology of consumerism, the expansion of foreign businesses 

into India and the export of profits to foreign corporations.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

• http://ciagov/publications/factbook/goes/in.html#Econ

• htttp://ciagov/publications/factbook/goes/in.html#Econ

• www.euromonitor.com/rti/default.asp

• Gupta,R. (2002, June ). Rural consumers get close to established world brands. 

Advertising Age Global. 2 (10), p.5.

• Iwww.adb.org/india/links.asp

• http://www.adb.org/India/links.asp

• http://sphere.rdc.puc­rio.br/parceerias/untpdc/incubator/ind/tpdel/doingbus.html

• http://indiantelevision.com/industryresources/adagemncies/top50_2001a.htm2001

• www.magazineworld.org/members

• Sehgal, R. (2000c, September 25).India clamps down on vice, piracy. 

Multinational News International, 21 (39),p.49.

• Sehgal, R. (2001, May) Kiss and sell? Don’t try it in India. Multinational News  

International, 7(4), p.8.

• http://www.ou.edu/class/jmc3333/India.htm

• The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited. (2006, February 9). Darwinian 

struggles. Business Asia.

• http://www.ideas-empresariales.com/ articulos.cfm?idArticulo=91&idIdioma
=1&titulo=Advertising:-The-times-are-a-changing
• http://brandzero.adidiot.com/wp/category/new-trends-in-advertising/
• http://www.watblog.com/2008/01/11/iamai-session-iv-the-digital-media-
%E2%80%93-trends-and-reasons-why-it%E2%80%99s-likely-to-grow-or-not/
• http://anuraggupta.blogspot.com/2006/03/online-advertising-in-india-how-to.html
Mark Read, the Director of Strategy at WPP and the CEO of WPP Digital Delivered the
Keynote Address. V. Ramani, the Co Founder of Connecturf also delivered a
presentation outlining the various bottlenecks with respect to client – agency
relationships online (special emphasis on the Indian Online Space). Kiran Gopinath, the
founder and CEO of Ozone media along with Vishnu Mohan the CEO of APAC, Havas
Media completed the panel.

Here is WATBlog’s analysis of the key elements of discussion.

Global Online Advertising Revenue – $19.5 Billion in 2005. This has grown at about 11
– 13% on an average WorldWide.

As of now, consumers worldwide spend about 11% of their time on the Internet while the
% spends on the Internet are at only 4%. There exists an obvious gap which will
eventually be bridged as advertisers recognise lower ROI from other mediums where
consumers may not really be spending as much time.

In India, 1.8% of ad spends are on the Internet. For the UK, this figure stands at 20.1%.
So as penetration goes, one can get a sense of where the market is headed. Projections are
that by 2010, 3.7% of all advertising in India will be on the Internet.

Another point to note is that in many industries, India has skipped traditional growth
models. So mom and pop shops who want to grow and connect with consumers directly
and contextually may skip direct marketing via mail or mail order catalogues altogether
and thus in a sense skip being attached to those forms of advertising and develop an
expertise and guaranteed presence on the Internet.
The problem with the Internet in India however is penetration and a lack of cultural
understanding.

To give you an example – Women in India are traditionally known as decision makers
for many products. Most FMCG product decisions are dictated by women.

In India, women do not access the Internet and they are fragmented audiences. The ‘real’
Indian Woman – the middleclass housewife is not accessing the Internet and thus the
Internet today is reduced to a niche medium, a medium that generally does not attract too
much strategy or too much money either.

Advertisers however fail to recognize that the power of the Internet lies in relevance –
true as of now the TA is limited only to teens in India. But the Internet has the power to
actively engage the user – create conversations, create interactions etc. Thus it goes
beyond the passive experience that a TV commercial would provide.

The Internet currently does not take ad spends primarily because of penetration issues
and also because it does not understand Indian Culture too well. Traditionally, FMCG
products are ingrained in culture so once Internet Media Vehicles recognize this, the
Internet can become an apt complementary medium for Mass media vehicles (for now
atleast)

An interesting point was noted Mr. V Ramani, Co – founder and Vice Chairman of
Connectturf – he asked the audience at the IAMAI summit whether anyone was from the
FMCG sector on the client side – interestingly only one hand went up. So the verdict
from FMCG majors is quite clear – as of now, the Internet is not a priority.

Online advertising in India: How to make the big leap

The Indian online advertising market size is estimated between 150-175 crores
and is growing at more than 50% year-on-year. Almost 70-80% of online
advertising is happening on a handful of large sites like Indiatimes, Rediff,
Yahoo India , Google India, Sify, Moneycontrol and MSN India. Compared to
print and television the number of players and market size is still very small. To
exponentially grow the online advertising business, I feel that the Indian
Internet portals can do better by focusing on the following:

Selling accountability

Search advertising globally is already as large as banner / display advertising.

What makes search advertising so special? Well two main reasons, firstly search
advertising is contextual so it leads to better response and secondly and more
important the entire cost is based on performance (clicks) i.e. an advertiser
only pays when someone clicks on his ad.

The Internet portals who depend on banner advertising will increasingly have to
face this challenge – they will made to be more and more accountable by their
advertisers who use the medium to advertise and increasingly start using
tracking tools to evaluate the performance of their campaigns (in terms of
number of clicks/ leads etc). One needs to remember that Internet is the only
truly accountable medium for advertisers and further it is so easy to track
performance of an internet advertising campaign.

The Internet portals will like the advertising deals to be on impressions (Cost
per thousand or CPM basis) rather than on performance (Cost per click or CPC
basis). I do not understand this logic, as the advertisers in due course of time
will calculate down to the last paisa the cost per unit of performance (per lead
or per click) even in the CPM deals. Accordingly the cost of CPM itself may
drive down in case of low performance delivery! A manifestation of this can
also be happening in form of advertisers insisting on larger banners as they will
naturally tend to give better response!

So, rather than lamenting about Internet being over accountable, the Internet
portals should actively start selling and positioning Internet on its true strength
of accountability. They should also learn from listing models like Naukri etc
where the only criteria for advertising is performance!

Self help model : Target small advertisers

How do we grow the advertising pie? One of the ways is obviously to get more
and more new advertisers to start advertising online. Currently all Indian
portals are grappling with getting the offline big / national advertisers to start
spending online. This is proving to be a daunting task itself, however, no one is
focusing yet on the smaller advertisers. One of the problems with approaching
these people will be the small ticket / order value. The cost of servicing these
clients will become very high. This is where Internet technology can come into
play. It can allow an advertiser to set up and manage his own campaign on a
site. I have not yet seen any such offerings from Indian portals. Maybe we
should learn from Google who have thousands of advertisers using self
enablement / help model and advertising on their sites.

Of course one can argue that Google’s self enablement model works on text
based ads, but I am sure we can extend the same logic to self-enable display /
banner advertisement campaigns.