Impact of Illusive Advertisement

Marketing is defined as an organization function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to the customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.  Earlier when the brands catering to the needs of the customer were limited there was less of the competition but as the brands increased so did the competition. The rules of the market were simple and everybody was enjoying their share. With the due course of time communication became one of the top priorities. The important mediums constituted print, television, radio, fliers, billboards, mail, telephone, posters, CDs. Audiotapes and internet. Brands wanted to grow by increasing the size of the markets but slowly and slowly with the increasing coverage snatching away of the market share from the competitors became important to survive. Some ground rules were laid down by advertising council of India so that competition may not turn into a hostile war. 

Recently Colgate and Pepsodent two oral health care brands are caught up in defaming case against other. The campaign was so noticeable that even though somebody missed it by chance on television the news covered it up. Earlier also so many similarly themed advertisement talking about brushing the teeth, cavities, germi check have appeared on television. But this one did its task very well meaning to say covering a big chunk of the target audience. Though the case is still going on in the court Pepsodent was able to come in news.

Does the brand appreciate the fact that it has come in the limelight by whatsoever means?

Taking another example of the print ad which was created for fun in the year 2002 and had no implications for the brand communication became viral few days back.

The ad says that the earlier the kids start drinking Cola better it will be for their future. However the person who has made this advertisement says it has no implications for promoting the brand.

Now let us try to understand what does this type of advertisement says at subliminal level. Earlier advertisements used to provide the apt information and people could trust on that while making decision making. But now when the information provided in the advertisement is objectionable. Where does the responsibility of media lies? In the earlier example of Colgate vs Pepsodent  there have been charges that no such laboratory test actually existed which has been shown in the commercial.

The vintage advertisement of Cola shows the name of the “The soda pop board of America” which is nothing. Also the claims done in the advertisement are just baseless. What harm does this misleading advertisement do? These type of advertisements because of their unique claims catches the attention of the audience and then works at the subliminal level. Since not every viewer will cross check or verify the facts and figures they at their subconscious level make an acceptable premise. In future that information which gets stored gives an optimistic purview. Even though a person can straight away negate the claims (as done in the cola ad), but somewhere down the line if somebody supports that idea the response would be positive. This is how advertisements take the people away from realty at a very minute level of consciousness. In case of advertisement of Pepsodent and Colgate though Colgate is the market leader, Pepsodent will be successful in this attempt if its distribution becomes equally strong as of Colgate and it increases its visibility too by 130 percent. The prime advantage which it can bang upon is top of the mind recall because of the free publicity it has earned. Now if that is in sync with the supply chain it can be a successful moment for the brand.

Ethically speaking this type of advertisement claims should be strictly banned and be discouraged. A strict action should be taken for their course of action so that there should not be any misleading effect. The whole purpose of communications gets defeated and it will cost dearly in the future.

Dose for good advertisement = creativity + attitude + emotions

Guinness is always known for its innovative and award winning advertisement. This time they have again lived up the expectations and came out with a brilliant advertising.

The concept of a true sportsmanship and compassion amongst the players brings in the feeling of unity. The advertisement features the various emotions like fighting spirit, happiness, disappointment etc in an impressive way. Sport is such area in advertisement which binds different people with one thread and it always works. This is called brilliant advertising which leads to a positive impact on the culture of the society and unites people. The portrayal of a disabled man on wheelchair helps to reinforce the thought that no matter what the circumstances it’s the attitude of the person which makes him a part of the group.

Now, we know India is a country where cricket is termed as a religion. Cricketers as god and there is huge followers and fans for them. We say advertisement is brilliant in India as compared to the west. But the point is have we ever seen this feeling of true sportsmanship amongst our advertisements. Various brands uses cricketers as their brand ambassadors, but they never tapped their potential as a sportsman but instead tried to forge their product on something related to sports and impose it on the commercial. If the advertisement portrays the true spirit or feelings which can be well echoed works well and remains on the top of the mind recall. The sole aim of the advertising is always not to increase the sales of the product it is sometimes helpful in establishing the brand name. once the brand is able to associate itself with a strong emotion it works well.

Recently coke came up with their advertising campaign of spreading happiness. It was a good attempt to reinforce their presence amongst the competitors.

We need more of this type of good advertising, we still remember “ hamara bajaj campaign” which was able to imbibe in the sentiments of a middle class family when India was growing up in its nascent age post independence. This advertisement made the brand a loved one by Indians.

Meaning to say when creativity is best wrapped in beautiful package of emotions it can do wonders for the brand.

Future of branding the building in India

With Delhi government interested in building Delhi a sky scrapper city and want to allocate good budget and investments, it is becoming a lucrative sector for the capital city and investors. Infrastructure and real estate are the most sought after sector in which there is a huge potential of growth in India. Plethora of various real estate builders can be seen owing to the unraveled opportunities in India. Marketers have found a new innovative way to explore new ways of marketing

Various evolutions in the field of marketing and branding are always on the move. Though not a very recent phenomenon but still new enough to be applied on large scale is that of building branding. Initiated by DLF long time back in 2009 by branding the DLF’s ship building in Gurgaon by Videocon. This created a good buzz among the people who passed by the way and it became a benchmark for sometime. To some extent the branding of the official building of Dabur is also an iconic move. The building itself is branded in such a manner with the picture of the brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan as well as a girl holding their product in hand that it is visible from a distance. People recognize the area with the building of Dabur as it is so distinctly seen from distance.

Branding the infinity tower and the ship building of DLF was a new strategy adopted by them, brand the building and create a new revenue generation source. This branding on the exterior of the building has been adopted at several places by DLF. This enables the real estate owner to generate a highly visible space and creates in a pull strategy for the marketers. Marketers purchase the space for quite some time (few months) and then real estate owner again has a chance to invite tender for some other brand.

Why will brands give a thought to this type of marketing over digital or TV or Print

Let us examine the pros and cons of this branding strategy on a broad level:

Pros:

1.       Revenue generation by the real estate owner

2.       High visibility gained by the advertiser

3.       People start identifying with the building by the name of the advertiser

4.       High top of the mind recall of the brand

5.       Breaking the clutter by innovatively spending the money

6.       Life cycle of a banner or an outdoor display is short vis a vis branding building

7.       More effective than earning high TRPs on TV by purchasing even the premium spot

8.       If invested at the right time say e.g. if the recession is around and the company has limited money to put in marketing then this is the best way to catch the eyeballs

Cons:

1.       Frequent change of the brand displayed can lead to confusion or clutter in the mind of the customer

2.       The ROI of the investment cannot be measured

3.       High investment involved

4.       Risk of Over branding

Now, we can classify this phenomenon in stages.

At present it is at a nascent stage, not very much in practice in India. This may be the reason it can be seen as breaking the clutter at present. Very few buildings are worth reminding and hence noticeable. Everybody wants to be noticed and this initiates a cattle race. All the brands shall want to be the part of this race.

The next phase in this new phenomenon can be big building at each and every location start branding themselves and slowly with due course of time this become  a common practice. At this stage, the distinct identity of the buildings will start diminishing after certain period of time. This may lose the requisite attention and hence money which was earlier well spent to break the clutter now will be a general phenomenon. This will affect the revenue generation as it may become a generic phenomenon.

Now, an innovative way of marketing should not go wasted just because of the cat race. What can be done so that this practice do not go in vain as well as not affect the revenue generation? In my opinion a well organized approach can be taken into consideration.

If the areas are divided in a manner a territory is divided things can be at ease. Elaborating on this thought, most of the time there is a circle or crossroad in order to reach a particular sector or a society. If that entire space is owned by any brand say e.g. Nestle, so now Nestle is responsible for maintain the crossroad as well as the neatness to be maintained themselves with full propriety rights to advertise in and around that region. Now branding the particular building in that area is also under the discretion of the brand how it wants to brand the building in its own way or manner. This will ensure that the brand will be there for a longer presence as compared to limited to the building only. Also it will ensure a greater recall value as the visibility is not only limited to building but to its surroundings also.

This will be helpful in earning the CSR initiatives by keeping the surroundings clean and green as well as branding initiatives. Though the thought is farfetched but it can have some critical execution in the near future. Brands who will take initiation in an adequate manner can be a successful advertising story.

How well are the brand ambassadors able to drive the “BRAND CAR”?

Recently, I saw a TV commercial in which Amitabh Bachchan was endorsing the latest launch of Force One. Looking at the advertisement the first thought that crossed my mind was how many brands can be associated with Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. I was able to count a number of them and strikingly it was spread across all the sectors. The single brand persona is trying to represent and fulfill the marketer’s need in different projections.

Taking into consideration the Car category in particular, I could recall another car whose brand ambassador was Mr. Bachchan i.e.  Maruti Versa. With best of my knowledge and information Maruti Versa was not able to meet the expectations even after the buzzing advertisement of duo combination of both the Bachchans. Despite of two series of advertisement the brand recall was not much among the customers. Now here comes the question: Is celebrity endorsement working for the segment like cars?

Let us see the rationale for using brand ambassadors vis a vis the outcome achieved by them keeping all other parameters to be constant (such as distribution, availability etc)

Celebrity endorsement in India has been seen in the car segment across various brands. As the number of players in the industry increased there came an important role of advertisements to clearly create and communicate the message of various brands. In order to break the clutter celebrities endorsement started to become an evolving phenomenon.

The primary reasons for using a brand ambassador can be:

1.       Celebrity buzz to launch the product

2.       Reinforce the awareness

3.       Break the clutter

4.       Create positioning  

5.       Define target audience

The driving wheels for communicating these messages can be :
      1. Emotional Connect
      2. Style quotient
      3. Product Attributes                                                             

 

According to SIAM, cars can be classified into the segments as Micro. Mini, Compact, C1, C2, D, E, F. this classification is based on the engine power and the length of the vehicle.

If we look at the number of cars in each of these segments the compact cars are most sought after cars in Indian context. The clutter and the need to advertise is seen maximum in this segment and least in E or F. This segment primarily belongs to the price sensitive and maximum ROI seeking customers. More the differential attributes more is the likeability. Hence companies are trying to break this clutter by being more loud and clear with the help of celebrities. However there exist players who are not pro this new trend and are still holding the flagship of their product attributes or primarily operating in niche segments like D or E or F. Coming back to the compact segment let us examine the trend there.

In this segment there are more than 15 Cars : Ritz, Swift, Estilo, i10, Beat, Aveo UVA, i20, Indica, Vista, Jazz, Polo, Fabia, Palio, Punto, Figo, Etios Liva, Indigo CS, Brio, Micra etc. Maximum number of campaigns in Print and TVCs are launched by these cars. Out of these two media vehicle however print is heavier than TVCs. If a brand recall is done there are only few of the cases where the brand ambassador and the name of the car can be easily recalled. On top of the mind recall is Shahrukh Khan for Hyundai Santro and I10 and latest Ranbir Kapoor for Nissan Micra.

The question which can be raised here is what worked for Hyundai: Shahrukh or the Product. One thing can be definitely said is SRK was able to give the product an initial push or buzz in the mind of the customers by focusing and communicating the rationale as well as the style. The message was aloud, the product was in sync with the expectations set by the communication and hence worked well in the market.

Hyundai Santro 2012 Data not available, Hyundai i20 launched in year 2009

Hyundai Santro is however facing a continuous decline in the sales figures after the year 2007

Hyundai Santro	2004-05 ( launch)	2006-07	2008	2009
	1,03,301	1,63,838	121,163	91,466

The figures clearly state that the initial launch figures of all the three was a decent number. The message from the brand ambassador was communicated well. However the declining sales of Santro Xing are of concern.  The reasons for which can be varied:

1.       Launch of more competitive product in the market

2.       Lack in the supply chain system

3.       Attributes not matching the expectations of the customer

4.       Declining recall of the product vis a vis competitors

5.       Lack in the servicing of the product

Now in this case what role can a celebrity do is not very clear. He can either revive the product by increasing the brand recall (if that is the concern), or help in repositioning the product amongst the TG.

Nissan is trying to follow the footsteps of Hyundai in a similar manner.  Post its launch in July Nissan Micra was able to sell 6000 units in market and till H1 10,000 units have been sold. The overall feel is positive for it till date. Amongst all the other cars from Nissan the opening sales figures of Micra are impressive if compared Nissan 370Z- 4, Nissan Teana- 347, Nissan X trail- 253. This is the very first time that Nissan has come up with the marketing campaign with the brand ambassador.

Some of the other brands which were endorsed by the celebrities are:

Looking at the sales figures at the launch of these models vis a vis the brand which is a head on competitor but not endorsed by any brand ambassador are compared below.

Brand	Launch Sales figure	Latest Sales figures
Fiat Palio Swift	791 (2005-06) 34,463(May-Nov 2005)	3,303(2008) 88,745 (2008) 110,071(2009)
Fiat Punto Maruti Ritz	9000(Jun-Nov 2009) 8,565 (May- June 2009)	8.401(2010) 6,214(June 2010)
Toyota Innova Mahindra Scorpio	32,000(2005) 31,661(2005-06)	42,740(2009) 27,000(2008-09), 3200(March 2010)
Aveo- UVA Honda Jazz	11,523(2007-08), 753 (Sept 2009) 3,069(Jun- July 2009)	434(Jan 2010) 490(Jan 2010)
Etios Liva Ford Figo	3154(2010) 58,000(March-Nov 2010)	Not available 100,000(June 2011)

The figures above are showing the result deviated from the above stated two examples. The brands which have not been endorsed by the celebrities have done fairly well as compared to the endorsed one. The implication of the above observation can be:

1.       Car purchasing is a high involvement product category and hence brand ambassador cannot influence the purchase decision to a great extent

2.       The product attributes are the main attraction and it can be well communicated without an ambassador

3.       Rational rather than emotional aspect works strongly in case of purchase of the car

4.       Economy rather than style quotient weighs higher in decision making

5.       Sustainability/ increment in the sales figure cannot be assured by the brand ambassador e.g. Santro Xing.

6.       An initial attention/ buzz can be created to generate awareness by the brand ambassadors.

One interesting observation when asked from people about their preferences basis the endorser was people know that the brand endorsed and brand possessed by the endorsers is not the same and in such a high involvement product risk of face value cannot be taken.

There are players in India which have till now never used any brand ambassadors for their product. E.g. Honda, Volkswagen and Maruti (except their one model).

Fiat Palio	Sachin Tendulkar	12 crore for 2 years
Fiat Punto	Yuvraj Singh	6 crores
Toyota Innova	Aamir Khan	12 crore ( industry average)
Aveo –Uva	Saif Ali Khan and Rani	6 crores
Etios Liva	A R Rehman	Exact figures not available

Table 1: Fee for endorsing the brands by the celebs

Now here comes the question:  We saw two pretty successful celebrity endorsed cars and five not so successful vis a vis cars not endorsed by any celebrity, how much is the role of a brand ambassador in making a brand successful? The answer to this question is debatable. We also have the success stories of the brands which have never used the brand ambassador is still doing well with their products. Be it the established player like Maruti or a new foreign entrant in the market like Volkswagen or Honda.

 If a brand is able to explain WHY it is there (with or without the brand ambassador) instead of answering WHAT (it is providing) and HOW (it is meeting the requirements), connect with the customer can be strong leading to success. It is because every other brand will answer the What and How easily but in order to distinguish or break the clutter answer to “WHY” is important so that people believe in you.