CHANGING LAWS WILL CHANGE THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING

 

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.

Branding in the Time of Demonetization

Branding in the Time of Demonetization

“He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera.

Business and Economics is always about adjusting to market situations and reacting to market demands. Maybe it is for the first time that both business men and economists have reacted to a situation in the same voice. Demonetization and its after effects have rattled business men and economists alike. Nobody (here it should be read as ‘those who were not big enough to get highly classified information’) knew it was coming and now most of them don’t know how to deal with it. Those who thought this was just another gimmick are now coming to terms with demonetization as a reality but still most of the businessmen I came into contact were divided in their opinion as to how to deal with it.

Accept Reality

Yes it is for real. Demonetization has happened. Whether it is good or bad for our business is unpredictable. Alas if market economics were so easy to predict then we would have got lesser number of entrepreneurs in this world. Entrepreneurship would have been boring if there was cent percent predictability in market situations. The first thing to do for any business is to accept the reality. Accept the change in mode of operations. Government is going to push digital transactions like anything, telecoms are going to push their services more, and people are going to use digital transactions more. So stop cribbing about the advantages of dealing in cash and move on.

Every disruption in the market is an opportunity

There is a popular story narrated at most management classes about the Chinese that while the US markets were reeling under the shock of 9/11, the Chinese had already started exporting caps & t-shirts with US national flag elements printed on them. Demonetization is definitely such a catastrophic event in business world which has disrupted the whole market operations. Does that mean everything is doomed? No, there will be opportunities among disruptions. The faster you find those opportunities the better. Especially in an Indian context we have smart business houses who innovate in every way to market their products. Each market within our country is unique and the effects of demonetization are different in each state and even different in parts within each state. The need of the hour is to find out which market is faring better and reach out to that set of customers. Find new markets, new opportunities, out of the box marketing techniques like cross branding and so on.

Digitalize your transactions

Yes digitalization is not a future thing but the present thing which has captivated all the markets in the world and it is transforming the way business is done. The earlier you digitalize your transactions the better your customers would stay with you.  Already the government has announced discounts & offers for digital transactions and we all know what happens when customers are lured with such bounties. The same customer who sided up with us today, the same guy who hated to use digital payments would ask us why you are not offering digital payment options. The scarcity of POS machines/ swipe machines is not an excuse you can hang upon for long. Customers are more aware of options like internet/mobile banking, paytm, mobile wallets etc. more than before and will be ready to use them more because it is not the customer who is worried about paying that extra tax on billing but the shop owners are. It is not the customer who is afraid about the source of their income while making a purchase but it is the shop owners that are worried about the consequences of under billing or low stock declaration levels. Customer loyalty starts when they get what they expect from a brand and ends when they feel they don’t what they expect. So the day your competitor starts accepting digital payments with offers, your loyal customer will be the first one to leave you. Digitalizing your transactions has its benefits. You get better customer database, can learn on the customer buying behavior and improvise your offerings at a lesser cost than before. So it’s all about adapting to the situation at the earliest and reaping the benefits of digitalization than lamenting about the demerits of demonetization.

Measure your ROI on Ad spends

As a brand strategist it is interesting to note that most of the times it is good for brand owners to face disruptions. Be it a recession or a demonetization, these are the times to retrospect and reinvent. When the cash flows are over flowing most business houses spend too much on advertising without even caring about the return on their investments in such huge advertising budgets. If there is one thing that we all agree upon it is the fact that demonetization has brought upon us, as individuals & households, a certain kind of accountability, even spend thriftiness, in our daily expenditures. The same applies to business houses. This is the time to relook at your advertisement expenditures. At the same time every business needs to market their products to grow and in these times of cash crunch it is the time to be patient about brand building activities. More importantly it is a time to measure the effectiveness of your expenditure on advertising. Whether your brand reaches out to correct target audience is to be taken seriously and the necessary changes in the medium of advertising is to be made. Gone are the days of mass marketing only through print & TV. Other media vehicles on the Internet like social media, blogs, YouTube are all now part of daily life of an average customer and more importantly we are going to see mobiles playing a major part in marketing your products. Still except from big corporates, we see very little branding activity on those frontiers like mobile apps, mobile games and virtual reality from smaller entities. Make sure your marketing communications break the clutter. Use innovative and creative approaches to your marketing communication. Go back to your basics, call your loyal customers one by one and inform them about the new mode of transactions. Help them if they need help in moving to digital transactions. Forget those days when you had lots of unaccounted money to do mass advertising. Revoke those old days when you talked to your customer directly. Maybe relook your product packaging and renew it with new digital windows like QR codes, bar codes etc. Get online to reach out to new customers.

Love in the Time of Cholera

Use this period to understand your employees and customers. Love your employees more, love your customers more. Make the ambience of your store or appearance of your product more appealing to them. Use this period to build your brand and reach out to untapped markets. If you can come out in good shape after this demonetization period you are well equipped to fly higher.

Advertising makes this world a better place to live in

Yes.  Advertising does bring about positive changes to the world around us

Every now and then we stumble upon debates on TV where they fight out like cats and dogs on issues both trivial and significant. At last the so called experts reach on an agreement – Yes Advertising & Films are the culprits for all the evils in the society.

Always on the wrong side of the table it’s high time someone stood up for the ‘Advertising Professional’.

Yes Advertising has changed the world we live in.

For hundreds of years advertising has contributed its part in changing the world around us. Whatever may the critics voice against advertising they can’t take away the contributions of advertising in making people’s life more easier, providing information to the consumer, making the consumer more powerful, providing solutions for marketing problems, innovating products & services and last but not the least uplifting the less privileged people.

We provide solutions: Even if an advertising campaign provides a wrong solution let us make it clear – we don’t create problems. Problems are created by the marketers themselves and we at advertising try to solve those problems, it is not the other way round. Most of the times it is an idea from an advertising company that provides solutions for a problem faced in the society or in a market.

We do influence that too in a positive way: Never ever in the history of advertising have someone created a product successful through negative communications. So atleast for once please own up for our own cravings for over consumption, for our own stands & beliefs  getting influenced in a negative way just through an exposure to an advertisement of a product or service. If it was so easy to influence people out there, advertising would have been extinct as a profession or the world would have been a better place to live in by its own. As advertising professionals we are hired to find something positive about a product or service, not the opposite.

We do inform and help consumer: Without advertising, people might not have found how to use oranges in juice form or how to use even a safety pin. Yes it’s true. These are not exaggerations but facts that you can browse yourself to find out how advertising have passed on information about innovations over all these years. Every day it is through advertisements, whatever be the medium, that consumers find out new ways to use an existing product/service or find out entirely new products/services. Also let us be clear about one thing- If we see misguided information about products, those are the works of such people in advertising who doesn’t know the basics of advertising. No product can be successful in a market over the long run through misleading advertisements. Transparency is what makes all those brands standing out there facing all weathers. Just because there are some scrupulous doctors out there we don’t blame that the whole medical profession is without ethics, do we?

We are always innovating: Every now and then it is advertising professionals who find innovative ways to a marketing problem and often entirely new products are devised by marketers from an idea borne out of an advertising professional’s brain. Innovative applications of existing products have helped people out there and not to mention the innovations coming out in service sectors. It is we advertising professionals who most of the time has to fight it out in board rooms of corporate companies to include an additional service or something out of the usual for the customers.

Yes we change the world: A good advertising is the one which makes way into people’s hearts. World over we have lots of examples where advertising have changed the people’s lives for good. Even a bus shelter made by a brand is a contribution towards the society. And be reminded that most of such activations are proposed by advertising companies not only because they are needed for the brand to reach its customers but also we too try our level best to give something to the society while using such advertising methods. Be it a brand raising awareness about cleanliness in Rajasthan through product sampling within a village festival or be it a government using advertisement campaigns to raise awareness about the need of vegetable cultivation, we as advertising professionals are involved from creating such an idea to making it reach among people. Especially in this age of CSR initiatives gaining importance in marketing mix of a company, we in advertising world are the happiest folks as now we can propose novel methods of sponsoring initiatives for uplifting the less privileged people using corporate money. Earlier we had to fight it out with our clients to allow us such proposals in our strategy.

Yes we do our bit to change the world within the limits of our profession just like the ones who sit there and debate on the floor of a TV channel. Just like any Doctor, Lawyer, IT guy, Mason or a Carpenter we in advertising world do care about the public. Sorry friends we have to find the real culprits for the evils of the society, maybe through individual introspection. Till then leave us alone. We are bent upon finding positive elements in a product, service and the society as a whole. Let the debate continue instead of using us as a reason to end your discussions.

Internet is no more a competitor but a facilitator

C’mon Kerala Retailer, Internet is no more a competitor but a facilitator.

Let us slow down opening up huge stores in every small town.

Its high time the brand custodians in Kerala, be it the client or the branding agency, wake up to this reality. The customers out there have turned smarter in a blink of an eye and they are using their internet facilities in their smartphones or on their desktop/laptops not only to get info about products/services but also to make their purchase online. 

 

Still not convinced?

Just order something from a popular online site and instead of getting your parcel delivered at your doorstep visit the courier office of Blue Dart or DHL directly and get your product. Your consignment will be picked up from a room full of parcels from online sites. Maybe this activity will clear your doubts whether your customer still prefer the traditional way of purchasing. If still in doubt just ask your friends, relatives, their sons & daughters whether they have ever purchased online. It would be an astounding number of online buyers that you had ever imagined.

Internet is not a competitor

Let us make this clear. Internet is not a competitor any more for the traditional stores. Or let us put it this way. Traditional stores in their traditional mode of operations are not at all a competition for online sellers today. Why? Its quite evident. An online customer has more options to choose from, get all the info & comparisons of a product, will get back his money if damaged, can send back the product within a limited time (in some sites it is more than 30 days), even exchange one thing for another if not satisfied and all this they can do on the go. The advantages for a customer are enormous when compared to traditional stores.

Still opening up huge stores?!!!

Most of the Kerala retailers are on a spree to open up new, that too huge ones boasting in terms of the sq.ft of shopping area they occupy, stores on every nook and corner of the state. Small towns are being focused for this strategy where the investment cost is too much when compared to the footfall of customers or even the total population of that small town. All this is going on while even small town customers are the biggest online purchasers and even if not purchasing online they love visiting their nearest big town for their exclusive purchases be it a brand or an occasion. Unless it is an exclusive store or a traditional store with an innovation in product or their service its better think twice before going into all out store expansion gear.

Yes, Internet is a facilitator

I just did an experiment on this subject. I browsed through different online sites for a mid value smartphone.  Of course I need to get the best price and also wanted to buy it directly from the store. So the search narrowed down to sellers in my hometown and just as expected the best price was quoted by a small time vendor who has just one store in the entire district. Is it because they get it at the best price. No, it is just that they have grabbed the opportunity to use internet as a facilitator instead of seeing it as a competitor. While the bigger stores fight with the internet for their geographical reach by opening up unviable stores all over, small time vendors are using the internet as their extended store. Dear big time Kerala retail brands as the old saying goes ‘Better befriend your bigger enemy rather than go down fighting with them’. And by saying this using the internet doesn’t mean just updating the company facebook page, it is way much more than that. Overhaul and manage your website, use online partners to sell your products and instead of just using that old time web banner in your online advertising creatives use online platforms to interact with your existing & prospective customers, get them to visit your website and if possible make them ask for a quote from you.

Customer engagement & Loksabha election advertising in Kerala.

Reach out to customers or face the music. A new brand communicates better than the big brands. Customer engagement & loksabha election advertising in Kerala.

A 500 crore budget by the ruling party, 300 crore budget by the opposition party and undisclosed but definitely low budget by a new entrant makes up for the Lok Sabha Election Advertising Campaign 2014. Advertising to the customers in Kerala market always brings up interesting analysis whether it is a new product or an existing product. It turns out all the more interesting when it is a national election which is the biggest festival of all. All the political parties are trying to woo customers (read voters) by advertising their products (read candidates) and the most interesting part is the big names in advertising are behind creating each campaign.

Glaring mismatch

All the while we ad fraternity cry to clients that knowing the target audience and reaching out to the TG is more important than old fashioned advertising technique of spending a lot of money on bombarding all the media. Then here comes an election campaign where all the parties are made to do the same thing that we ask every client not to do. Every time a change in a copy of an ad is met with disdain by us adpeople and here comes an election campaign with glaring use of misappropriate words.

Local Markets differ

It is a fact that India now has more diversified local markets. Unlike in the old days where a single national campaign would work across all the markets (of course because the ads were mostly targeted to the urban market in each region), now every national campaign is either translated/adapted or even made in local languages taking into consideration the subtle cultural nuances in each region. The local markets have upgraded in their knowledge/info thanks to the technological advancement. Especially the easy accessibility of the internet & smart phones has changed the rules of the game like never before.

Kerala market is all the more unique

High rate of literacy, high rate of English knowledge, different dialects even in their mother tongue (Malayalam) across the state, hypocracy in ideals, always ready to experiment are just some of the key features of Keralites which makes it a unique market. And coming to figures, Kerala has the highest gender electoral ratio which stands at 1,079 women to 1,000 men. 9,06,420 more women than the male voters to be exact as per the figures released by Chief Electoral Officer for 2014 polls. Now comes the most interesting figures – 8.1 percent of the total electorate in the state are first-time voters, 19,33,844 to be exact. Apoliticisation of campuses in Kerala has resulted in making these first- time voters non lenient towards any one political party and the majority of them would vote based on issues or specific candidates. This number of new voters is much greater than the winning margin of LS polls in 2009, in 17 out of the 20 constituencies in Kerala. So the target audience is quite clear in this campaign but yet all the leading parties have gone haywire in their advertising communication.

Why the money gone down the drain?

Communication blunders & wayward selection of media

Congress: 

The campaign thought or the idea behind the campaign is quite interesting provided the fact that it tries to convey that the party has a broader outlook & is inclusive of all sections of society at the same time promoting its brand ambassador Rahul Gandhi as a person who leads from the front. Now let us have a close look at the outdoor campaign and there comes the glaring mis-match in communication. The meaningful Hindi words in the national campaign was translated to Malayalam painstakingly but resulted in words of the meaning which may have to be analysed and interpreted by Malayalam professors if even an educated Keralite should understand. Instead of the campaign being simple it became all the more complex where it doesn’t connect to the uneducated or the educated.

BJP: 

The campaign revolves around the brand ambassador Narendra Modi alone and instead of a campaign that showed what BJP could do right if elected, the campaign focussed on what the other brand (read congress) did wrong. And the worst communication blunder is seen on the outdoor campaigns of BJP where no sense has gone into the translation of the Hindi words into Malayalam. For those who don’t know Malayalam here comes the explanation - A retranslation of the outdoor campaign of BJP from Malayalam to English goes like this “Lots of atrocities against women happens, this time it’s the turn of Modi Government”!!! Is BJP asking for a chance to do the same? Maybe the translators or the agency people know about it. God save them.

Left Front: 

In shortest words LDF campaign can be defined as wrong positioning. Elections are for Lok Sabha and the voters especially the new ones think it at a national level whereas the whole LDF campaign revolves around the disadvantages of the Kerala ministry. The PR & better use of their cadre party system though has done much damage control still doesn’t clearly know who will buy them and who will not. The use of independent candidates to woo the non political votes in some constituencies seemed to be a smart move but only the results will tell us whether it has backfired as the new products were not backed up with good advertising support. Also the low usage of digital media & the high usage of outdoor (flex put up at every single street) doesn’t seem to be a good proposition in this market.

AAP: 

For a new brand entering a new market, they have outclassed the big brands in their PR & Advertising that too without spending too much money. First thing they put up famous personalities in their chosen field who were well known especially among women & youth in Kerala. Maybe they knew that most of the Kerala media have political leniencies and won’t give much space for their candidates unless they were famous. They overcame this scenario through its candidates where it became the products-speaks-for-itself case. Second when Congress, BJP and the Left Front concentrated more on high cost media like outdoor, electronic & print, AAP used customer engagement, one of the most powerful tools in modern advertising, and low cost advertising to reach out to the target audience. For this AAP candidates went down to the target customers directly by conducting grama sabhas (nobody thought it could be done in a sophisticated market like Kerala) and the first direct communication to reach the voters in most constituencies were from AAP candidates through their B&W leaflets inserted in newspapers. The content of the leaflets were so specific to each districts that a lot of time & energy seems to have invested in the study of each market where the product has to be sold. Third, the high usage of digital media has helped AAP to reach out to its customers at relatively low cost. Fourth, they gained free PR from activities by its brand ambassador Arvind Kejriwal at a national level and at the same time at the local level they were involved in every single issue happening on the streets as they didn’t mind whether another party was already involved in each issue. But does that mean this new brand will outsell all other brands? Ofcourse No, But only the results will tell us how much this new brand eats into existing market share of the bigger brands.

In short,  the selection of outdoor as the main media for bigger brands is just opposite to the new age advertising of reaching out to specific target audience & let them experience their product before making a decision. A mass media like outdoor drains out all the money in this case and especially the first time voters & the women voters will expect to meet the candidates or atleast be able to know what each of them stands for. Time is fast running out for all the political parties as the election date is on April 10th, so dear candidates its better late than never to beat the road and reach your voters directly if they should take notice of your worth as a candidate.

On a lighter note, it is better to keep in mind that it is said that nobody can sell a product in Kerala market unless accompanied by a dream. So next time for election campaigns keep in mind that better weave a dream around your candidature or the product will be pushed out of this market for ever in no time.

Branding & Advertising by a Kerala client - Some myths

Business world is undergoing drastic change day by day and the media is getting cluttered both in terms of number of advertisements and avenues for advertisements. To plan and advertise for your brand in the long run is the only solution to keep ahead of the competition and this needs consistent approach in branding activities. Most of the Kerala brands are not finding it easy to scale up their brand visibility and some of the myths about branding prevailing among the Kerala clients are worth noting in this context:

What is branding?

In simple terms we can define branding as all the activities that go into bringing the name of your product/company along with its qualities/services to a top of the mind recall bracket in a customer’s mind while making the final purchase decision.  It is important to make the customer emotionally connected to your brand  rather than trying to get attention for a short period. This is the one single differentiator that makes the change over from just ‘a customer’ to ‘a loyal customer’ and branding should be seen as a long term investment decision rather than a short term business booster. The first and foremost decision of a client should be how we should project our product/company and who would be our customers. The latter part (identifying target audience) is more relevant but lacking in any discussions about branding in Kerala. Just check out the successful brands from anywhere in the world and their focus on this long term perspective will be more clear. There are quite a few myths related to branding & advertising that rules a client’s psyche. Though I admit that some of these myths are some of the most common ones all over the world, here am trying to point out more from a Kerala perspective.

5 myths that rule the Kerala market

1.     An Ad that attracts everyone !!!

Though this is a common problem faced, atleast once in his life time, by every advertising professional, this misunderstanding has a big relevance in the Kerala context. One out of 2 clients we meet would put forward this suggestion of targeting every one out there. Its time to come to face the fact that there is no such advertisement method to attract every single person of a population. Its time to realize that people are different in every way and we can only get a group of people with almost similar tastes & preferences to address our advertisement. The lack of proper focus on who you would want to buy your product (target audience) is the main reason behind this proposition. Without a target audience every rupee you spend on advertisement or branding will be just like throwing away in a gamble. Just a look at the world famous brands will help us realize the folly of trying to target everyone at the same time. Just imagine a Mercedes ad saying anyone can own it and an ambassador saying its luxury incarnated.

2.      Common man can’t understand!!!

This is the most interesting misconception among clients in Kerala. “Though I can understand, you can understand & my sales people can understand, I don’t think the common man will understand” Here it goes. Please friends, let me know who is this common man who doesn’t understand? Especially in a market like Kerala where we have high literacy levels, high exposure to all kinds of media & high levels of brand awareness how can we judge that the so-called common man is less informative & intellectually less inclined than ourselves. This again comes out of the confusion due to non identification of a target audience. Without a target audience in mind the client is confused whom to address and so tries either to complicate or oversimplify an advertisement message and the end result is that it doesn’t connect to anyone out there.

3.  Creativity in advertising

Totally admit that advertising is not a completely creative work and an advertising professional has no liberty as an artist or sculptor. Creativity in advertising goes only to that extend where the message is communicated to the target audience. But to communicate that message the ad should connect in some way with the target audience. The success of an ad is only as much as getting a customer notice about the product/brand. The success of the brand/product goes beyond that like fulfilling the promise in an advertisement and after sales service to keep that customer loyal. Most of the clients misinterpret that an advertisement is something that increases their sales from the very next day which is almost impossible in a real market situation. So keep in mind that advertising is a tool to project a character for your brand/product, the character in itself depends on the brand or product itself.

4. I know all about advertising/branding

The quintessential fight between clients and advertising professionals in Kerala is the notion of every client that they know all about advertising/branding. The truth is that unlike the earlier days a lot of studies & corrections are happening literally every day in the fields of management & marketing. New principles are being experimented and old ones replaced or renewed as the business world is undergoing a sea of changes. Advertising, like any other marketing management disciplines, is a professional field where lots of changes are happening and the client would benefit if they let the advertising professionals do their job unless they are deviating drastically from the brand’s principles. Most of the clients in Kerala have not realized that bygone are the days when anyone could use a computer operator, prepare lay outs and release an advertisement. Advertising like any other branch of business is now a field which needs specialized skill sets and above all experienced specialists. Here it is important to note that in Kerala every company engaged in advertising business is treated as an agent & called an advertising agency rather than an advertising company or brand consultant. Most of the Kerala based advertising companies have also contributed to this by doing just that kind of job like a mere agent or agency would do. But times have changed and only those companies who can add value to the brand/product can survive in modern world of marketing communications and there are quite a lot out there who can do that. . Its time to stop spending a lot of time on the artworks or ideas and coming up with phrases like “I don’t like the colour or I don’t like the font” and concentrate more on identifying the target audience and propping up the product quality or service quality. Once decided to entrust your brand with an advertising company let them do their job and bring you wonderful results.

5.    Beat the competitor on you ad spend alone

The media in itself is undergoing lots of changes and the customer gets new avenues almost every day to get information in the modern world of communication. In Kerala market clients believe the more you spend the more your brand gets customers. Just think for yourself - will you go to a showroom in a remote location just because you saw their TVC. No way. Its pathetic to see every small town showroom spending huge sums of money on ad spends in Television & print and closing down shop within 3 or 4 years. Target customers are scattered around and to reach them there should be involvement of a smart media agency that is specialized in media planning & buying. Gone are the days of so called 360 degree advertising companies unless they are huge multinational advertising companies and again whether to avail their services depend upon the scale of operations and ad budget for your brand. Its time to realize that the field of advertising have already split into creative & media and is further splitting down as digital agencies, mobile advertising agencies and so on. So just spending a huge amount of money as ad spend won’t work anymore in this cluttered media space just find the right partners and reach your target audience using the best available creative ideas through the right media vehicle. Instead of raising your voice higher to unknown faces,  better talk to your prospective customer directly.

Leaders are Lazy – The textile war – (Part II). Are they dumb too?!!

New Players. New Game.

Now the second part of the textile war based in Thrissur is being played out in full swing. Jayalakshmi Silks, even with a half finished showroom, could leverage upon its brand value build upon several years of consistent marketing communications. Customers flew in flocks to feel that special Jayalakshmi experience. Though it was an off season, customers from all parts of Thrissur district made Jayalakshmi their shopping destination for a while. As I had mentioned earlier, Kalyan Silks (The leader) suffered the most and it was not much better for other textile showrooms too. Then came another new textile showroom named EMKE Silks from EMKE group.

The Festival Price War

The new entrant once again changed the scenario. People started to flock to the new showroom named EMKE Silks. Jayalakshmi had to split its new customers with EMKE Silks. All others like Kalyan Silks, Pulimoottil Silks, Emmanuel Silks, Seemas, Kalyan Sarees to name a few, faced the brunt and the business was shared between Jayalakshmi & EMKE. Jayalakshmi responded with a price based campaign named BEST price & BEST selection. The price range of their sarees were explicitly stated in their ads to woo the EMKE Silks customers which they believed were price conscious customers. Now came an array of ad campaigns by other showrooms to fight off the 2 new entrants in the market. Unfortunately it was all based on price. Kalyan Sarees – Aadi Sale with a flat 10% to 50% discount, Emmanuel Silks – 10% discount, Kalyan Sarees – Priceless Festival with gift coupons, Seemas – already Aadi sale going on, Pulimoottil Silks – Lowest prices with onam ramzan.

The Outcome?

Unfortunately none of the existing showrooms analysed a simple basic fact. Customers always prefer new showrooms for their festival shopping at least just to have a glimpse of what they have to offer. They are not going to Jayalakshmi or EMKE thinking about the prices. If it was so they would have gone to Seemas or Kalyan Silks which had both offered a minimum 10% discount. So it was just a matter of wait & watch for the existing showrooms. They could have just released ads to remind the customers of their existence instead of shelling out more money for less business which again will downsize their profit margins. Now most of the existing showrooms have announced discounts but business is still with the new entrants – Jayalakshmi & EMKE Silks.

The immediate future?

In this round, Jayalakshmi has fought well with their ad campaigns. EMKE too have responded well to a small extend with their BEST campaign (again the same caption!!). Festival season (Onam & Ramzan) is going to see tremendous business and unsatisfied customers for these two showrooms. It is that point which the existing showrooms should wait for. But to gain customers post festival they should do ad campaigns based on their branding strategy rather than a day-to-day market force based strategy. So once again the game is on, let’s wait and see.

Leaders are lazy (The textile war)

Now the textile showrooms in Kerala has shifted their fighting arena to Thrissur. Spreading their wings to an all Kerala presence, Jayalakshmi has opened their branch in Thrissur which happens to be their 4^th textile showroom in Kerala. The fight for consumer space will reach an all time high in the coming days.

Background:

Thrissur is famous for its textile showrooms & jewellery showrooms and is well known for the traditional pattu saree. Kalyan Silks, Pulimoottil Silks, Emmanuel Silks, Kalyan Sarees, Seemas are some of the bigger players in the market while there are umpteen number of textile showrooms which are of mid size and small size. There are other bigger showrooms of yester years like Elite Fabrics, Fashion Fabrics which still cater to a particular segment of customers especially during festive seasons.

The Ad war:

The opening of Jayalakshmi was expected to jolt the existing players in the market as they are well known among Thrissur customers so much so that customers used to travel to Kochi for their wedding purchases. Jayalakshmi started off its ad campaign with teasers which tried to gain eyeballs by making the customers guess about the celebrity who is inaugurating the showroom. The ads made people guess different names like Kareena, Katrina, Aishwarya etc. We were interested how would the leaders of the market, read Kalyan Silks, would respond to Jayalakshmi coming to their home turf. Out of nowhere came Kalyan Sarees (mind it regardless of the similarity in the name, both are different) came out with their comparative ad directly fighting with Jayalakshmi. It said “nobody is coming to Thrissur”. This has made the market interesting. Though the same concept was tried earlier by Mudra itself (they are the incumbent creative agency for Kalyan Sarees), and it was considered by many as a cheap fight, it was a smart move for the brand Kalyan Sarees. This reasoning just because Kalyan Sarees all of a sudden came into limelight and people started talking the names of Jayalakshmi & Kalyan Sarees at one go. Just months back it was Kalyan Silks which was expected to be the direct competitor for Jayalakshmi and the tables turned all of a sudden. Was it a good ad? No. But it was a good strategy and a good example of how to use an opportunity to position a brand.

Leaders are lazy:

Just as I have written in my earlier posts, market leaders have a tendency to go lazy once they think they are the undisputed leader. Here once again the market leader was just basking in its glory and sitting lazy and not planning to face the new competition. Kalyan Silks made mistakes on two fronts. On one side it went to fight its own replica named Kalyan Sarees which was the first stepping stone for Kalyan Sarees to get a grip on their own in the highly competitive market. Arrows on hoardings showing the real Kalyan, trying to educate the customers that both were different was not a good plan for a leader. They just gave space to a brand which till now had tried hard but was never in the same level. On the other side it failed to have a strategy or advertising plan to keep their market share intact when a same level competitor was getting ready to come to its home turf. And when their real competitor came they were trying to fight off a smaller competitor.

Meanwhile Jayalakshmi which is considered as a competitor for any textile showroom in Kerala made all the mistakes of a lazy leader taking its fight to unknown territories. Instead of using their reputation as a tool they tried to use the old tried & tested formula of advertising. The concept of their campaign was - Katrina nor Kareena nor Aishwarya is bigger but Jayalakshmi is. After their teasers, they came out with their launch ad saying Why u need any celebrity while Jayalakshmi is coming to Thrissur. Again a wrong strategical move where instead of announcing the leader is coming here they were confusing the customer. There was no promise of quality or service which is known to be their forte. Here we should mention their earlier campaign of ‘History will change when special people arrive’ used in their Calicut inauguration was a good one and again there what they did was changed their whole game plan just before the launch trying to woo all the customers saying about the price range of their product. They just didn’t understand that the Calicut customers were travelling to their early Kochi showroom not because of low prices but because of quality which matched the customer perception. Till now from what I have heard Jayalakshmi could not turn a match winner in Calicut. And in Thrissur their showroom is open but  parking area is still under construction and interior works still not completed!!

Lets wait and see:

Its interesting in the coming days, especially during the onam season, to see how these textile showrooms are going to fighting it out. It will be more interesting just because no study has been conducted about the market place and it is doubtful whether there is space for so many of them without any product differentiation among themselves. Some will win & some will lose. Lets wait and watch how the gladiators fight it out in this arena.

Gold’s own country

Evolution:

Over the years it was quite interesting for those who watched the evolution of jewellery advertising, especially from Kerala market. Mind you, Kerala is known more as Gold’s own country rather than God’s own country now.

Flashback (1990 – 1995):

Jewellery advertising took the major share of all the media space in Kerala and jewellery retail showrooms widened their branches to every nook & corner of Kerala. All the jewellery groups were vying for the same market share and this eventually lead to an all out fight among them. Mudslinging ads on quality & price were the order of the day. It was those days when an average gold customer (here read gold jewellery customer) didn’t have standards to compare either the quality or price. Not even a single jewellery group thought about branding or positioning which involved long term planning. It was interesting to see retail jewellery advertisements in the back page of leading newspapers with contradicting claims, ofcourse placed next to each other. The messages were quite interesting, some even hilarious;

Lowest price – later this lead to price wars (customer ended up being a loser with low quality gold in their hands)

Biggest showroom – including biggest in Kerala, India, world & universe being the messages (till this date I don’t have a clue why this is used repeatedly in most retail ads from Kerala. Have anyone thought it from the customer’s angle. Is there a customer who would go to a showroom just because it is too big, unless otherwise he could ride his vehicle inside the showroom?)

Marriage – every single ad was used to lure the marriage target audience towards gold purchase. It was, for the most part still is, as if inviting you into a jewellery showroom only if your son or daughter is getting married in the near future.

Quality – it is hilarious to look back to this aspect in ads those days. 916 gold was just being introduced in the market. Kerala jewellery, Bengal jewellery, Calcutta collections were used to denote different quality jewellery. BIS as a standard for gold jewellery was in its nascent stage.

Making charge – this is the single most terminology in god jewellery market which even today the consumer can’t comprehend. Lowest making charges were the order of the day which even extended to ‘No making charges’. There was even a TVC of a jewellery retailer which said ‘’Why pay making charges for your jewellery when you don’t pay making charges for your shoes?”!!!

916 – the ultimate salvation

Then came the standardization in gold jewellery market. BIS logo & 916 are integral part of any gold jewellery ad in Kerala. Though most consumers didn’t know what 916 meant, they demanded the retailers for this feature in the product. Most of the jewellery groups started thinking about branding & positioning. Also they expanded to nearby states (Kerala jewellery retailers are now the leading players in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka). This resulted in the entry of Brand ambassadors , which of course is the easy way out to make an impact. The hunt for filmstars were on. Mohanlal for Malabar Gold, Mammootty, Dileep, Prabhu for Kalyan Jewellers, Madhavan for Joy Alukkas, Vijay for Jos Alukkas, Vikram for Josco Jewellers and the list goes on. Most of the smaller players who didn’t dream that one day consumer will demand for a quality standard for Gold jewellery were shocked and are still reeling under its impact. Those who cried out no making charges & lowest prices are now out in the dark not knowing where to head next.

Today

Some smart marketers in the jewellery retail sector in Kerala saw the future early and they invested on their long term plans to create an identity for their brand. I still remember when one jewellery brand introduced MRP tags on their jewellery, most people thought they were crazy to invest on this message but they are one of the jewellery brands which is most associated with the word ‘Trust’ in the present jewellery market. Today gold consumer has more evolved and knows that quality comes with a price. Even the so-called marriage-gold consumer sees Gold as an investment and is not ready to compromise on the quality of the product they purchase. Ofcourse the steep increase in the gold bullion prices have made a huge impact on the gold consumer. Those marketers who have invested on their brand identity are now expanding their customer base and consolidating like never before.

For eg., Joy alukkas - one of the first group to invest heavily & consistently in branding now stands above most of the other retailers in their brand identity.

Malabar Gold – consistently created communication messages around culture which even used social messages like clean city as a tool. Now has extended this plank to culture & traditions in weddings across India.

Kalyan Jewellers – always created communication messages which were way ahead of the rest, they are one of the brands that now has top of the mind recall among Keralites

Jos Alukkas – though late in recognizing the need for effective branding, has now grown leaps and bounds in creating a better brand identity

Bhima – consistently tried to communicate about quality gold and for Keralites Bhima gold stands for quality now.

Tomorrow

Consumers will become more demanding in this sector. Those who advertise for this month’s sale are living in fool’s paradise. Gold will be seen as an investment product rather than just a dowry product. Investment & determination to create a USP for the brand is the only way ahead. This needs consistency in communication messages. Designs & product innovations will be the future of gold jewellery market rather than price. Jewellery retail showrooms which provide top class customer service & latest designs only will thrive. With the entry of bigger players into retail jewellery market, competition will get tougher and only those who foresee the future of gold jewellery will come out winners. Almost always a jewellery client when confronted with the question who are we talking to or who is our TG, the answer would be mass market!! Its time to move ahead and decide who your mass is.