IT IS THE LAW THAT
CREATE BIGGEST DISRUPTION IN BUSINESS. EVEN MORE THAN A PANDEMIC OR A DISASTER
We are amidst a
pandemic that has shook the world and have created disruptions in businesses. It
has forced us to change and create innovations in the way we live and do
business. Still I believe the biggest disruption in any business is created by
the laws of a state or a country. If you don’t agree imagine this. The pandemic
has created lots of new business opportunities for eg. Sanitizers. But each
state has different set of rules to procure, manufacture or distribute the
contents which create sanitizers. So any business man who thinks this as an
opportunity and invest in it should be aware of the laws that govern the
industry he is investing in. Now imagine there is another business man who has
huge supply of sanitizers with him and there is huge demand in another state
but that state has stiff regulations to do this deal. Many people had started
selling homemade cakes & bakery items to overcome the present financial
burden but there are laws which they have to conform to even for such
businesses. In states like Kerala the authorities have warned that unless these
business-from-homes are registered under FSSAI they are liable to be
prosecuted. So it is not the supply, demand or opportunity that creates or disrupts
your business but it is the law that does it. An entrepreneur should never
forget that any business in any country is governed by certain rules &
regulations made by the respective governments. Even there will be different
set of rules for different states within a country.
NEW LAWS FOR ADVERTISING (The Consumer
Protection Regulation Act 2019)
From July 2020 a new
law has been implemented in the field of advertising and without knowing this
new law it would be suicidal for any business house or advertising companies to
go ahead doing earlier kind of advertising. The new law seeks to hold
manufacturers, service providers, advertising companies and celebrity endorsers
accountable for ads, stipulating heavy fines and even jail terms for misleading
claims. There is a provision in the new law which allows for ‘e-filing’ of
complaints and a video conferencing option to participate in complaint
redressal. Gone are the days of escaping from customer complaints by simply
stating on your documents or packages that any dispute can be filed in the
remotest place on earth. Till now we had
only ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) as a self regulator which
had no legal authority to prosecute the offenders. Now, a Central Consumer
Protection Authority, headed by a government-appointed chief commissioner, will
be set up in Delhi to regulate violations of consumer rights, unfair trading
practices and false or misleading advertisements. And keep in mind this new law
is not applicable only for the traditional media of advertisements but also for
the new age media like the digital.
CELEBRITIES, BRAND OWNERS, AD COMPANIES BEWARE
This
new law brings into its umbrella everyone involved in the marketing of a
product and even the so-called digital delivery platforms or aggregators are
also held responsible for false claims or misleading advertisements. The
biggest move is to bring the celebrities who endorse a product into the ambit
of this new law which for sure will make celebrities think twice before doing
blind endorsements without checking the facts of their claims. Guilty
manufacturers and service providers face jail terms of up to two years, along
with fines of up to ₹10 lakh. Celebrities found endorsing misleading ads can be
fined up to ₹10 lakh. For repeat offences, the new authority can impose a fine
of up to ₹50 lakh and a jail term of up to five years. It can also bar a
celebrity from endorsing ads for up to a year, extending it to three years for
repeat offenders.
HOW DOES THIS CHANGE THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING
We
are in the midst of lots of false claims by even the biggest of brands in the
country. Most celebrities even don’t care what they are endorsing as far as
they are paid hefty sums. For eg. The 99% germ free ads has become so outdated
that people now see only that one germ that remains on the screen as every ad
looks and claims the same for similar products. People know these claims are
outright false ones that they don’t even care whether it is 99% or 95%. All this will have to change with the new
law. The approach and language of advertising in marketing a product or service
is going to change or else you will be held responsible by the consumer as this
new law is giving full control over to the consumer. This will bring back good
copy, good content, based on sound strategies back into play in the field of
advertising. This will bring back the creativity of thinking how to place the
product or service into the consumers mind by sticking to the originality of
the product or service rather than with misleading loud false claims.
Advertising companies will have to work more closer with the brand owners to
create brand awareness on a long term basis rather than the short term loud
speaker ones. As an advertising professional who always believe in the power of
good advertising, I personally am more than happy with this change in law. Good
advertising for me is simply communicating the true good elements of a product
or service to the consumer in such a way that the consumer finds it satisfies a
need or solves a problem for him/her. Bringing in a celebrity for the sake of
influencing a consumer with false claims is not good advertising. Offering
discounts which you don’t get in reality is not good advertising. So the new
law for sure will make the brand owners, ad companies and the celebrities more
responsible toward the messages in their ads. This would bring a more level
field to play with words and visuals and only the real professionals would be
able to create ads which help a brand to be on top of mind of the consumer.
Both advertising industry and brand owners will have to innovate to adapt to
this new disruption which is going to be out there in the market, even after
the pandemic has left us. So all the stake holders in these industries better
learn the rules by-heart so that they won’t be forced to leave the field of
play.
