Adfunda - Hyperbole..!

For my class where the ad funda's are being taught NOW......!

What is a Hyperbole?

Hyperbole as per wikipedia comes from ancient Greek "ὑπερβολή" (meaning excess or exaggeration) and is a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is rarely meant to be taken literally.

Hyperbole is used to create emphasis. It is a literary device often used in poetry, and is frequently encountered in casual speech. It is also a visual technique in which a deliberate exaggeration of a particular part of an image is employed. An example is the exaggeration of a person's facial feature in a political cartoon.
 

Needless to say ,in Advertising hyperbole galore. Adguys are the masters in exaggeration- some time justified but most of the times totally unjustified and out of the world.... BUT it sells...may be I sound like a moron here but it really does ! Being Hyperbolic aint a crime ,at least in Marketing and Advertising it is'nt... It helps to be different, to be seen, to be heard , to stand out in the crowd... but some times it is like farting in public, the moment you do it you are different, heard and seen but that is not what you had wanted ,,,right?

It is not that the Crime is done by Ad guys only....The movie industry also bangs on heavily on the power of hyperbole. Whenever a film or television program is released, the guys behind will use selected quotes to hype their products: "Mel Gibson gives the performance of a lifetime!" They may shout from the roof top.... It really doesn't matter if Mel Gibson gave 'the performance of a lifetime' three times last year.

Without hyperbole, advertisers, storytellers and publicists would probably be looking for other lines of work. People but generally know that Hyperbole or HYPE in a common man's parlance is part of Marketing and its communication...

Hype is a short sighted business choice.....

It makes a dangerous assumption that the fool who buys what he buys would not if he is aware of the truth - in which case the sellers should not be selling the product in the first place!

It also assumes that customers are there to be exploited , and not your partners in business.For all the great theories on customer centric marketing, it is disrespectful by meaning and implication, and bestows lower on your customers in comparison to your acumen, when defacto the truth may be the other way round.

                                                            

Tail piece:-

"Ladies and gentlemen, I've been to Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and I can say without hyperbole that this is a million times worse than all of them put together."

Advertising -the Axe effect>>>> Part III

Dear Ann:

I have a problem. I have two brothers.

One brother is in advertising, the other was put to death in the electric chair for murder.

My mother died from insanity when I was three years old.

My two sisters are prostitutes, and my father sells narcotics to high-school students.

Recently I met a girl who was just re­leased from a reformatory, where she served time for smothering her illegitimate child to death, and I want to marry her.

My problem is, if I marry this girl, should I tell her about my brother who is in advertising?

(Plaque presented to Arnold Barban by the staff of Leo Burnett on his retirement from the agency.)

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Media and its role...

Media is commercialized. Profit is the very idea and competition is very much around, threatening. Recession and the resultant media expenditure cuts are eating into the revenue streams of media houses. (IPL may be an exception though.)

Just like Coca-Cola having Pepsi, Colgate having Pepsodent and Hero Honda having Bajaj, Star Plus has Sony, Sun has Vijay and x has y…... The more the competition, the more you have to commercialize and then, it is the sponsor or the ad agency that decides on what program should be on air and when….. if you think this is MISERABLE, so be it… watch a channel like Asianet and you will know how media violates all the norms to show ads than the actual programmes and make money ,I guess I should say mint money….Here I guess one should also admit the fact that some programmes, or many of them of the serial and reality show genre are disgusting watch than the commercials that interrupt them... care fully observe when you get home today, this phenomenon is there happening even at your home...

Practically all the shows and soaps, which we see are controlled by the advertisers…. ( I know that it is not news for you ..many of you..!!) Many people wonder why there are so many ads around. The simple fact is that without ads all these media will be costlier- more price for newspapers and magazines and more money for the cable operator. And as the corporate preferences about media change,( new media forms come up every day) media has to stoop many times for existence.

Reports show that local media which has largely ignored by the corporate before, now has started gathering more attention. Local cable channels mop up any where between 15% - 30% of audience share in prime time as per a recent Business World report. The fact that Grocery store chains like Food World, with many outlets across , spends pittance on mass media budget, but in abundance on local media is proof enough…

Print ads are generally considered less effective and hence less offensive, because they can be easily ignored but T.V and internet ads are more intrusive and often distasteful T.V ads appeal to all senses, they encircle, capture us in a carefully woven web.

The question of ethics ?

Giants like Hindustan Lever with its gigantic product mix and multitudes of brands and varieties of each brand in each product line, hence adopt a strategy of continuous communication with the customer in a well planned “pull strategy” and they are what they are today. Seemingly harmless ads, which appeal to our emotions like love and fear, are also not so harmless on a second thought. Hue and cry was raised against media for having shown some ads. Kamasutra and Moods resorted to enact a bedroom with all the sensuality associated with it in their ads only to be opposed far and wide.

Indian hypocrisy has now to a large extent died down, compared to the olden days when even the Liril girl in her bikini was considered a blasphemy and moral police troops worked overnight to send her into a bath room… When Marc Robinson and the girl in the KS ads were seen like devils, when Milind and Madhu were accused of being the reason for all the ill’s of thei otherwise heavenly nation…

Having said that, I must also say that Ad makers also go over board some times….How can any one substantiate the use of half – naked women in coffee and tea ads, talcum powders “for men” which drives women behind and lipstick stains on a man’s body? There was some coffee ad which showed a bed room, with its full glory and action, and 20 seconds of a 30 sec commercial went for the jerking of the bed leaving a mere 10 second for the brand name and the product to be shown and sold. No one wonder I don’t remember the brand name ( read it again !! I said SOME coffee ad )…Most of the people who saw the ad didn’t see the coffee thing… those few who saw it kept wondering whether to have coffee before bed or after bed !!!!

Even liquor is advertised, mostly in disguise as a soda or a plan water of the same brand name…. this is when it is clear to the thinking common man ( that is a new tribe in India) that a Vijay Mallya does not need a Kingfisher Mineral water to survive…..

The media, it is clear should play a more reasonable role but then the big question comes – on what cost and at whose expense?

Tail piece :Advertising tells us what unnecessary luxuries we can't do without....

Also read my other blogs chicken curry & confusion.....

Airtel- magic realism...

There is a kid in every one .. even in the most moronic of us… and the kid somewhere at some point of time would have done this … this self assuring phone call to his dad and its desired effect is simple and we all have done it, some way or the other and that makes this a good one….

Done by Rediffusion Y&R a new angle … the trust angle, which is a hygiene factor, is bought in to the Airtel communication which the agency believes and claims to be having a far more fascinating than the network angle… Airtel which shocks(often) the poor viewers with out of the world crazy stuff, often infected with an overdose of celebrity virus, comes down to earth some times, gets sensible and talk to us in simple terms and makes us smile.. smile in agreement.. this ad is one of them.. no big hungama,,,, no brouhaha , no quagmires and hardwork to some how fit in a parade of stars who at the end of the day outsmarts and outlives the brand…

Magic realism as someone called such stuff, this realization that with Airtel you are never disconnected is a subtle message that gets into the information cluttered minds in a passive way… Even though in my flat in the heart of the city, Airtel simply fools me by refusing to show signal, this conspicuously uncomplicated ad baffled me the first time I saw it…then the more I saw I fell in love… Virej Dasani the kid, has done a wonderful job by not acting and just living, and the guys who made it ostensibly didn’t try to cultivate any bogus innocence out of the boy… Kudos for that…

Kudos to the entire team…Ramanuj Shastry, national creative director, Rediffusion Y&R, Deepesh Jha, creative head for the script, Vinyl Matthew of Footcandles for the direction…. And others…

Let this ground sense prevail…..

Tailpiece: Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising........ Mark Twain

Read my other blogs also... Chickencurry & Confusion .....................

The Recession conundrum& Agency blues...

The husband leans over and asks his wife, 'Do you remember the first time we had sex together over fifty years ago? We went behind the village tavern where you leaned against the back fence and I made love to you.'

'Yes', she says, 'I remember it well.'

'OK,' he says, 'How about taking a stroll around there again and we can do it for old time's sake?'

'Oh Jim, you old devil, that sounds like a crazy, but good idea!'

A police officer sitting in the next booth heard their conversation and, having a chuckle to himself, he thinks to himself, I've got to see these two old-timers having sex against a fence. I'll just keep an eye on them so there's no trouble. So he follows them.

The elderly couple walks haltingly along, leaning on each other for support aided by walking sticks. Finally, they get to the back of the tavern and make their way to the fence. The old lady lifts her skirt and the old man drops his trousers. As she leans against the fence, the old man moves in.. Then suddenly they erupt into the most furious sex that the policeman has ever seen. This goes on for about ten minutes while both are making loud noises and moaning and screaming. Finally, they both collapse, panting on the ground.

The policeman is amazed. He thinks he has learned something about life and old age that he didn't know..After about half an hour of lying on the ground recovering, the old couple struggle to their feet and put their clothes back on. The policeman, is still watching and thinks to himself, this is truly amazing, I've got to ask them what their secret is.

So, as the couple passes, he says to them, 'Excuse me, but that was something else. You must've had a fantastic sex life together. Is there some sort of secret to this?'

Shaking, the old man is barely able to reply, 'Fifty years ago that wasn't an electric fence' ……

My good old friend Raj who works as a Client servicing sup in a reputed Ad agency came online and was available to chat after a LONG time... recession and the related under employement I guessed, when he suddenly said Hi...

Raj: Hi man...

me: hey dude.. wassup?

Raj: cool man…njoying…

me: hehehe you sound like you just had an orgasm?

Raj: well nothing much to do so yeah kinda orgasm…now we face (like most of agencies here another probs….we can't release ads

me: ?

Raj: huge payment backlog to publications…

me: hmmmmmm

Raj: so they are not accepting the material that we send them for publishing…

me: ohhhh why u guys aren’t clearing it???

Raj: so we tried another 2-3 agencies to release through them atleast…. they also have same probs….

me: sounds tricky…..

Raj: so if they are insisting on a no release, we can very well close down….

me: shit……but who is keeping it pending….you guys or the clients?

Raj: client is paying us it seems….we roll it for some other things…. complete goof up

me: now that is totally unfair… now how u expect media to accept it?

Raj: True.. I am handling the account and now I don't know what to tell them…

me: u ask your bosses… the rolling stones…..

Raj: hehehe… you will be shocked…they are also clueless

me: huh.. what the fuck man…?

Raj: they are all ready to leave… it looks like no one has any idea about what it is going to be… recession is the reason.. but I don’t understand how in March it is affecting us.. it should be after March only….We even thought its like Austerity you know... but now we know its all goof up....

I left Raj there and started wondering… why do some people, never come back to life in spite of electric shocks?

Why is my beloved industry like this?

Tail piece:- So-called austerity, the stoic injunction, is the path towards universal destruction. It is the old, the fatal, competitive path. Pull in your belt is a slogan closely related to gird up your loins, or the guns-butter metaphor.....


Also read my other BLOGS... Chicken curry & Confusion

Advertising... behind the axe effect>>> Part II

Continued from Part I>>>>>


The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague. ~Bill Cosby



Ads are glossy, glamorous and often larger than real life. Consumer products often try to sell itself, not for the product but for what the product promises. It is plain fact that, by using a product it is not possible to become or feel like some other person- a film star or a cricketer, still fair and lovely claims glowing fairness within days and abundantly sells itself capitalizing on the weakness of the Indian public for a fair skin. Equating light skin with beauty is a deeply rooted perception across Asia and in pursuit of brand success corporate giants like Ponds and Fair & Lovely has kicked up more fuming controversies that fairer skin . It has been seen more and enough in this blog in the past and hence let me leave it alone here…..

The human desire is to look young, smart, beautiful, handsome, cool, slim, happy, glowing, rich, pompous, different and what not…Each such desire is an opening for the marketer and advertising is the greatest weapon for the purpose. To put it simply if we have desire to reduce obesity we have a score of products from VLCC to suction therapy, Sugar free and Herbal tea to Diet Coke and Pepsi and all those TSN products, advertised through poorly dubbed stupid looking hour long miserable programmes which often question our commonsense.

India with its middle class (one of the largest in the world) and with the on going task of globalization, with all the 100 plus TV channels and numerous magazines and newspapers, all the websites and portals, and an average of six thousand messages passed on through every educated Indian mind (MAD index), on any given day and a barrage of products from LCD to local agarbathies and from laptop computers to loose garments in various brand names, the task of the advertisers is getting tougher day after day. He not only has the difficult job of telling the viewers that his product is the best, to build a brand preference, but has to, by hook or cook, tell and make them believe that the “other” products are useless. Comparative advertising; stooping below a certain level becomes a dirty mocking game as the cola war demonstrated and recently the Horlicks vs Complan war amply described. Thumps-Up and Pepsi, pooh-poohing each other using a khan or other and Sprite with its new set of realty ads, flavored with humour, after every new ad by the other one are all bearing testimony.

Can marketers create needs? As per the theory, NO. But in practice, he can create an unnecessary want. A middle class family has a need for daily washing their clothes but may not necessarily want a washing machine for that purpose. A successful marketer through the advertisement and campaigns fits into this “gap of thought” and makes the selling possible.

For a middle class man the resources are less and the wants are more. Living in a world saturated of advertisements, designed as scientific and informative, somewhere down the line, he obliges. He resists the temptation ultimately by yielding. Sometimes, the appeals are so strong and touches the viewers so intensely that there is no rethinking. As an end result, any average family today has to budge by compulsion rather than conviction. Horlicks or Viva for the “complete growth of children”, use Pepsodent, Colgate or Close- Up for “hundred percent germfree teeth” and total protection, feed new born babies with Nestle grow-up milk or Junior Horlicks, and worse use a Johnson’s baby soap to wash a two year old to keep its skin soft and “same to same” as a just born baby.

The Dandi salt Ad, which claimed the vital importance of salt that too, Dandi salt for the intellectual growth and brain development of children which hit the air some time back is still my favourite example of a STUPID ad…. This ad pretending to be scientific and rational hide the fact that dogs and dolphins do not consume salt and even before the advent of this salt there were intelligent people living in this country. And to be scientific and simple, salt has nothing to do with intelligence.

There are questions we never ask ourselves. We see an ad and ignore it. We repeatedly see an ad, we remember it, so that next time we walk to department store for purchase, it works and positively influences our brand preference. There is no such thing called as brand loyalty, in many consumer products like salt because of the habitual buying process associated with it, and it is proven fact that consumer have low involvement with most low cost, frequently purchased products. So the marketers have to repeat because ad repetition creates brand familiarity rather than brand conviction. Lie or no lie- repetition is the mantra.

Now the world is so small and so flooded with products and brands. The USP and ESP’s have changed. Health of children and of the family and wellness and beauty is a main concern for upper class and middle class people and this weak spot is gently but tactfully touched in many ads. Hence all the claims of 24 hours are oral protection, slimness in 30 days and fairness in a week. Pretentious USP’s like –“stain champions” from Henko, “colour guard” from Sunlight, “stain cutters” from Vim bar and “kid stains” from Surf and “friendly chemicals” from Friendly wash are examples of how “creative” our advertisers can be. Such newly coined words and ideas generally create wonders in the market but how long is an omnipresent question….

Close-Up released “shade card” with its toothpaste only to be matched by a “germ indicator” from Pepsodent. “Bio” was the buzzword and being bio or herbal was a short cut to success. Marketers understood the growing awareness among the educated class about the merits of vegetarianism and being close to nature and hence we had “bio fresh L.G.” and “Eco-freshetarian” Samsung and even “Eco drive watches” from Citizen. Fair and Lovely promoted its herbal version made with “Kumkumadhi Thailam” and it worked in the market. With celebrities like Meneka Gandhi endorsing products like Chandrika soap more credibility got associated with such products….

But this game was not to last for ever….


Tail piece: Advertising is like marriage. There may be a better way, but what is it?

Also read my other BLOGS... CHICKENCURRY & CONFUSION

Advertising... behind the axe effect>>> Part I

Advertisers constantly invent cures to which there is no disease. ~Author Unknown

The Ad war is always on, fiercely and ferociously with all the Khans and Bachans, Gangulies and Tendulkars, as weapons on either side in this battle of ideas, designed and executed by ad agencies through various media in varying combination, for the corporate with loads of money, in pursuit of attaining their business objectives-sales volumes, profit or competitive edge.

Advertisements are generally considered as torture or at least an unwanted intrusion in between our valuable hours of infotainment says my class where I last taught Marketing and this topic accidentally came into discussion… Is it so? Not exactly was my answer (biased that I am to the ad world)….. Some recent studies, I told them reveal that many people, youngsters in particular see commercial breaks as more interesting and entertaining than the main programmes in between where these ads peep in…. There the class got struck.. they didn’t protest and it looked that they to an extent agree to that study… The variety of Pepsi ads related to a world cup cricket some years back was chosen as the most interesting TV show by youngsters and college students in a survey conducted in Chennai city at that time… It was shocking for the researcher but that was it…

What does this mean? Does that mean that these ads are doing their jobs? They are reaching their intend targets and are driving people in herds to drink Pepsi or Coca Cola? It doesn’t matter, which brand… come summer the cola sales are up and this summer is no different….. “What is Coca Cola?, it is really water and syrup. But the stuff about the brand is so big and Americanized and refreshing it makes the product really big” … now who doesn’t know that and yet why people buy the yankee stuff and gulp down?

The hype and hoopla created by the continuous and persistent influx of advertisements, termed as ad campaign so influence the consumers psyche, that there will be no place for logical reasoning or to be more genuine many a times logic slowly hides behind hype and slowly fades into oblivion … Repetition is the key and our ad guys know it… Joseph Goebels , the propaganda guru of Adolf Hitler is the inspiration for the Ad world… “tell a lie and it shall remain a lie”.. said he… “but repeat it and it becomes the truth”

Advertising, as per the American Advertising Association, is “any paid form or non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor”. In the process of advertising, the partners at work are the sponsor (manufacturer/marketer), the ad agency and the media, with the consumer or the prospective consumers as the target. The degree of compatibility and like levels of thinking between these partners is the most important ingredients towards success. The agency creates message contents for the sponsor, and executes through the media to the target audience and such messages should be able to gain attention, hold interest, arouse desire and elicit action as far as the audience is concerned…

Regardless of whether an advertisement uses rational or an emotional appeal, regardless of the USP or ESP used, ads work, only if it is identified and owned by the segment of the audience for whom they are designed and executed. New ideas may be resisted or even be counterproductive if the message is poorly designed. This becomes a headache for international marketers in particular because of the cultural, linguistic and racial variations from continent to continent, country to country and even within a single country.

As per Keegan, there are five international product and promotional strategies namely ‘Straight Extensions’ – into the new market, “Product Adaptation” – as per the new market, “communication adaptation” –for the new market, “Dual Adaptation” –where the product and promotion changes for the new market and “Product Invention” – creating new products ….Read your Marketing text books guys… It is a wonderful Model by Keegan….

Theories apart, in practical market, every new entry is a nightmare for the sponsor and the agency, through which they communicate to the consumer. Successful ad agencies do their homework keeping in mind the cultural difference and behavioral pattern of the target audience … But it is easier said than done… This home work thing… is it not??


Tail Piece:-
Ram: I can't understand why you failed in business...
Guru: Too much advertising
Ram: What do you mean too much advertising? You never spent a dime on advertising.
Guru: That's true, but my competitors did.

Advertising & Recession- Why should it coexist? ...part III

6. Advertising makes you innovate

What is advertising for you?
Innovate the reason to advertise when you see the slump. Tell yourself what it is for you.
A tool to react to competition?
A tool to keep your brand growing?
A tool to keep your buyer informed?
A tool to announce new products? Variants?

If you advertise only because your competition also does and they cut back during recession, you also do it. But remember the competition’s objective may not be yours even if both are in the same category. Pepsi and Coke are selling cola and in the same war but the strategies need not be same. One is the leader and one is the follower. Even if, or to see it the other way round it is better to keep the marketing spending on particularly if your competition has cut it. And in any case the grounds to advertise during the happy season may not be the same to advertise during sluggish times. It has to keep going.

7. Seeing is believing

More so during dull times this rule is applicable. When you are not to be seen, as compared to your omnipresence when the boom was on, you will be seen with suspicion. The brands are friends as well .The friend who disappears during bad times will not be trusted. The customer needs to be constantly told how you are with them and how much you are working to help them by supporting them with cost effective offerings.Imagine a B2b firm who disappears from a trade show that they are part of year after year one year due to recession, just to cut costs. There can be better ideas to save money but one needs to think beyond the obvious. To quote Zyman “If you don’t stay on top of the situation, you will be right back where you started: building the brand from scratch. The logic is simple.

8. Advertising is an Investment in Success

Advertising gives you a long-term advantage over competitors who cut back or cancel advertising . A survey of more than 3,000 companies found that advertisers who maintained or expanded advertising over a five-year period saw their sales increase an average of 100 percent, and companies that cut advertising grew at a less than half the rate of those who advertised steadily.Competition is competition pre recession, during recession and post recession. The pie of the market cake that is yours, to keep it intact at least, advertising has to go on. And even other wise for second and third players in a given market, it is the right time to change competitive positions by wise spends, extra pressure and use of creative strategies. Looking for cheaper creative and cheaper production however because recession has come, will end up in a disaster and make your brand look cheaper.

9. Advertising Keeps Your Business Top-of-Mind during recession

With Shoppers with lighter wallets roaming in malls from store to store comparing prices, quality and service, top of the mind recall has become more important than in good times. Some may even stay at home postponing buying decisions unless it is that pressing or that extra ordinary. Advertising must get in touch with them progressively through the complete decision-making process. Your name must be fresh in their minds when they decide to buy .
Now that is a dream which to be true, you need to be seen, constantly and consistently. Bigger brands many a times make the mistake of switching off their engine after they have attained a certain height. It is ostensible, what will come about in such a case.

10. Advertising Gives Your Business a Successful Image

In a competitive market, bad news travel fast both within the firm and outside. Advertising kills rumours by telling the buyer and the market place of your buoyancy and vibrancy and that in turn boosts the morale of everyone from the employee to the buyer. The more so when there is a crisis situation, the ad agencies that handles you will be more bothered about the ROI, the media spends will become wise (particularly in commission based fee structures) media efficiency can be improved and asked for, and the brands will get constant attention by the agencies- both creative and media, which otherwise would have been even lacking.

Conclusion:

Advertising is a tool to successful marketing and brand building. There cannot be two opinions about it. It is a question only when bad times come and recession looms. This is an opportunity for marketers to redefine business and strike new paths than to resort to easy ways like cutting the marketing budgets. The ten points above is just to direct the reader’s attention to the fact that Advertising during Recession is not an oxymoron but instead something which can co exist. As the saying goes “when the going gets tough, the tough gets going” and only the tough gets going.

To quote Prof Andrew Raseghi “ If you are already in the process of tightening your belt anyway, you might as well consider investing in a new pair of pants.”
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Also read.. my other blogs ---- Confusion & Chickencurry .....

It pays to advertise !!!

Republished under the best of Adformula series....

The fish, it never cackles

'bout it's million eggs or so,

The hen is quite a different bird,

one egg-and hear her crow.

The fish we spurn,

but crown the hen,

which leads me to surmise:

Don't hide your light, but blow your horn.

it pays to advertise

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Why should I advertise?

Can you do business without advertising?

It looks familiar, often asked questions ,considering the fact that advertising money is spend on a virtually immeasurable platform.

See this story....

"A man lived by the side of the road and sold roasted chicken.

He was hard of hearing so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes so he watched no television and read no newspaper, but he sold good roasted chicken. He did however, advertise in the local newspaper telling people how good they were. He stood by the side of the road and cried, 'Buy roasted chocken sirrrrr 'and people bought. He increased his orders and bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade.

Then his son came home with an MBA from a city college to help him in trade and then something happened.

His son said, "Father, haven't you been listening to what people are saying? If money stays tight, we are bound to have bad business. There is a big recession coming on, you had better prepare for poor trade, if we stay on only with this business".

The old man thought..... "Well, my son has been to college. He listens to the radio, watches television and reads the newspaper and he ought to know".

So, he cut down on chicken orders given to the supplier. He cut out his advertising and took the money thus saved to venture into new areas like dealing with a local wine his sons friends made, and his sales fell almost over night. After a week it was completely gone and the old man couldnt win anything back..

"You're right son", the father said to the boy. "We are certainly headed for a recession".


Every one in business realise the necessity of advertising, which is the main reason we are carpet bombed with so many messages(The MAD [Message A Day] index in many Indian cities equals that of the west)....... The various ways a business can advertise its products is limitless, and today we no longer call it advertising but Integrated Marketing Communications. In booming business most of them do booming advertising too and when slump appears advertising is the first victim. shouldnt it be be the other way round?.

Shouldnt business spend most of its advertising budget when business is slow and cut back or retain only that level to be heard, when business is good?.

Again it depends on the type of relation the Ad agency and their corporate client enjoys..

it depends on how far the client trusts the agency during the fall..

it depends on how far the agency was also the reason for the fall

it depends on how far they could convince the client about why certain level of advertising should be maintained..

Boom or slump, it pays to advertise...Pulsar didnt look male and masculine until they started saying so.. they said and said and the otherwise front fat, ugly looks encompassed masculinity , suddenly.

Even B2B brands like Intel have made it big by careful branding and ,as part of it careful advertising... most of us havent seen an integrated chip which goes in a PC and yet the world believes that without an 'Intel Inside' mark on their PC ,it aint complete....

It is not only necessary that we do, it also is necessary that we tell it that we have done it...



"The man who fails to advertise just because conditions are a little uncertain is on par with the farmer who refuses to feed his cows because the price of butter has gone down."

Also read,,, continuousconfusion & chickencurry !!!

Horlicks VS Complan-the comparison war !!...part 3

Continued from part 2....>>>>>>

Spontaneous trait transference as we saw it may or may not happen when brand A compares itself with Brand B but one thing that can for sure happen among the masses that see the ad is the phenomenon that ad researchers have termed as sponsor misidentification. This is the customer/viewer confusion as to who is actually sponsoring the ad is many a times a main by product of such comparative advertising.....

When the viewer belongs to the so called SEC A (the upper strata) may be the story becomes different and the job may be done…I mean the ad may be effective in the sense brand recall may happen but assuming that recall and attention is equal to ad effectiveness would be as stupid as assuming that since people have a smile when they see you they simply love you…But in any case direct comparative ads are far better and decent than the indirect comparative ones( remember the Pepsi vs Thumbs up humbug some time back)

Marketing is war and the war strategies are used without mercy here as well.. Defense and offense.. no matter what ..the end result is what matters… finding weakness in the leaders key strength is the main and most usable offensive principle in the marketing warfare.. as Pepsi would vouch and its war with Coca cola over the last so many years bears testimony. Coke had to claim that they are “The real thing” in face of such offense which later was abandoned for the lesser impressive and unexciting “Coke is it” and the rest is history .Coke is what? Or what is it? you may never get and answer….The blind tests that Pepsi did and since it was a bit sweeter than coke (9% to be precise) the tests favoured Pepsi and in the worst of marketing blunders coke changed its formula and bottle.. Now the Real thing had gone and Coke jumped into the new and improved bandwagon when its users wanted and loved and bought it for the OLD taste/sweet/formula/communication/brand whatever it stood for. The real thing that coke was had made the difference and it was lost in one stroke… this is what too much of comparison can do to anyone… even the giants….

It can some times be really dirty and cruel jokes.. Hyundai dealers in north were discredited to have come up with ads ridiculing their competitors who sold the Daewoo cars with tag lines “Car at your homes, company on the roads” when Daewoo ran into rough weather financially and went bankrupt. For Daewoo who introduced the concept of comparative advertising in India ( decent and side by side or A-B comparison) this below the belt attack came as a rude shock and for the people who saw it, it was free knowledge that even car majors can go bankrupt… if it is Daewoo today it can be Hyundai tomorrow….

To sum up let us derive some rules for those who are hell bend on comparing and get compared….

1 Comparative advertising should not be misleading and should not make improper use of the reputation and name of the competitor .

2 Comparative advertising should only compare things that can be compared.

'apples and oranges' are two different things…

3 Comparative advertising should objectively compare demonstrable results.

The comparison must impartially compare relevant, verifiable and representative characteristics of the goods and services, such as price, reliability, quantity and safety.

4 Comparative advertising should not confuse the consumer.

The consumer must not be made to think that the comparative advertising originates with the competitor (hope Horlicks and Complan is listening..)

5 Comparative advertising should not negatively reflect on the competitor.

The comparative advertising must not harm the competitor's good name or be disparaging with regard to his brands, activities or products( ahem!!!)

The consumer is a smart ass.. or that is what he believes at least. The last tirade and the war of statistics/ facts/figures and fiction between the two malt majors- Horlicks and Complan reminds me of the proverbial crabs… no one will allow another one to climb up…

And that is to say the least…. !!!

Tail piece:-

How do you compare American, British and Canadian English?

Americans: Spell words differently, but still call it "English".
Brits: Pronounce their words differently, but still call it "English".
Canadians: Spell like the Brits, pronounce like Americans.

A recession letter !!!

Dear,

Recession regards!!!

I am sitting at my office where till a week back we had about 21 guys with lots of fun and frolic but as of today, this Saturday (yeah we have started working on Saturdays as well) we are just 15. I know you are bad in numbers so I will make it easy for you… 21-15=6…..the rest of 6 has gone… not in search of greener pastures but for want of a choice. You know the agency world….. Its fun… may be we have had so much and too much of fun that even God’s would have felt jealous. The sword of recession has fallen on us so sharp… every day when some one from the top calls some one to his/her cabin the heart beats go up… pink is not only a color denoting gays ..Not any longer… when the creative guys who sit opposite to me were asked to leave last week, they didn’t cry but didn’t laugh either…... they were still and didn’t talk anything… for all the beautiful verbal skills that they had and displayed in umpteen ads, that day no words in their literature could convey what their eyes did… fear… now which is reflected in mine as well … the media manager who took me in here is asked to go in what came as the ultimate recession shock for me…

Now it’s only a matter of time when I too will have to go or else some miracle should happen… The airline client that I am working on as a client service executive should up with his ad budget or at least go back to his volume of advertising before this Bloody f&^%$ng recession… or else as Chithu ( India ka FM yaar) promises things should go back to normal very soon… hey Chithu is the home minister now na… anyways… that doesn’t make any difference to the real situation here… in my agency the only creative work that is happening is to indulge in a guessing game as to who next and which client next will call up and say what… every time the phone rings we all shudder…and since I am the only guy in account management I at times feel relaxed but at times feel odd and insecure…

I love this place dear, this industry… and hence cannot really believe that when hard times come; it’s the ad money that gets cut first… what is the reason…? When you are in a plane and flying high and when there is a crisis that is developed, which fool will switch off the engine…?

Is it not the same??

Or am I in the wrong line..? if everything is coming on my way I guess I am in a wrong lane…

Will it remain the same for ever…….this beloved industry?

Regards,,,,,

What is in a name yaar??? 27-Dec-08
.

The Fun Gun!!!

Q: What's the speed limit of sex?
A: Sixty-eight -- at 69, you have to turn around.

How I hope all questions that clients ask in Advertising could be answered with such ease and fun....

Week end wishes people... !!!!

The Fun Gun !!!

Working at a theater box-office ticket window poses many challenges in dealing with people........

When a disgruntled customer at a window exclaimed, "No Tickets?" What do you mean NO TICKETS?"

The women waiting on him smiled sweeting. "I'm terribly sorry, sir,"

She replied. "Which word didn't you understand?"

Now that happens quite often when ad guys communicate as well ..right? within ad agencies, and with their clients is it not quite often,,,,,....?

Now that it is a week end, its fun time folks... Enjoy !!!!!

Horlicks or Complan-the comparison war !!...part 2

Continued from part I....

To recap from part one where I left you with…

1. Comparative advertising is a form of advertising in which two or more named or recognizable brands of the same product class are compared and the comparison is made in terms of one or more product attributes. That is definition but the clause of the SAME PRODUCT CLASS MAY CHANGE AND STILL IT COULD BE CALLED COMPARATIVE ADVERTISING)

2. The comparisons can be:-
a. implicit (brands implied but not named), or explicit (brands named);
b. the comparisons can be vocal or visual;
c. and the claims can be of complete advantage, of supremacy on some attributes but not on others, or of parity;
d. And the advertised brand can have a market share smaller than, roughly equal to, or greater than the comparison brand. (Even the leader can compare but why the hell?)

3. Regulations and norms about comparative advertising differ around the world, (some have no rules while others have tough ones.. some are liberal like the US ( see the Pepsi joy of life ad and you will know how liberal is liberal..) While in some like India it takes time to interpret as is the case in the Horlicks vs Complan court battle now.



Now getting on….I have answered a couple of phone calls and many mails and scraps on this topic particularly from friends who haven’t gone and lived abroad. Now that gives me enough reason to conclude that this is a cultural shock and may be to an extend when it happens more , when more brands compare and get compared the average viewer in India will get accustomed to the fact that the compared and the comparing are all the same, like the political parties.

Interestingly, all academic research that I was browsing through seems to support the logic that a direct comparative ad from a market follower is least likely to lead to higher awareness for the compared-to market leader (because the market leader is already well known), whereas a market-leading brand has the most to lose from a direct comparative ad (by creating "free" awareness for the compared-to smaller brand). This leads to the conclusion that while low-share brands ought to use direct comparative ads; market leaders perhaps ought to use non comparative or indirectly comparative ads (those that don't name competitors). … Hmmm…. that made me ponder and yawn… the academic researchers have missed it somewhere or the Horlicks guys haven’t heard of this logic… whatever is the case this new one in Indian advertising is amusing and if it goes on you will get to see everyone jumping into the fray and agencies encouraged to wash more dirty linen and open all cupboards and skeletons falling down…

Followers may (!) gain more from direct comparative ads in another way which the leader if he initiates the comparison war will find it later a curse of his own creation. The comparison ads may make the buyer put both the brands in the same "consideration set," by increasing the degree to which they are perceived as similar to each other. Comparative advertising in that case becomes more and much more effective than the regular ones where one just extol ones own virtues .The supposed distance between the leader and the follower which when is higher ,the leader stands to gain and when the distance lessens the advantage is lost and the follower stands closer to the leader.. Is Horlicks listening?

Studies, studies and more studies and yet the market remains as elusive as it was even before all these studies…The more the closer it becomes to the leader, naturally the higher should be the sales of the compared you thought? Not always .....says another study (!!)…. who is compared and with who is compared is another issue…? who attacks and who counter attacks is also important Forget all the studies ..one cannot seriously think that this war will cut deep into Horlicks share and leave Complan smiling…It would be, to put it simply, foolish to assume that comparative ads sway attitudes and preferences because, while people may indeed notice them more, they nonetheless may consider such ads as disgusting, less believable and less informative (especially if they happen to like the brand being shown in a negative light.)

Worse they may even attach with the accuser, all those worse things that one accuses of the other …when Horlicks says Complan is bad the consumer may think.. why is Horlicks saying this? Aren’t they equally bad as well?

Psychologists call it as Spontaneous Trait Transference …. But who cares ?

The war is on….

To Be Continued……>>>>>>>>>>

Top 4 letter words in Advertising!!!

The suspense is over and the winners have all gone to the nearest bars and beer parlours... the loosers will need to think and do some study than using four letter words sitting in the same bars and alchohol joints...Mean while the reckoner team has come up with the fourth ad in the series and here it is... the fun world of advertising is summarised in this compilation....

Advertising rocks !!!!

Top IN things in Advertising- the agency reckoner part 3

Just one day to go for the great announcement as to who and what is going to top the charts as far as Indian advertising is concerned. Whether the clients are having sleepless nights as the agencies are, is another question but this is for sure an awaited event. The creatives behind the series of ads ( the third one posted here) deserves appreciation in any case for being so very factual and true of the advertising world today.. Adformula wishes in advance, the participants of this great race, an exiting finish and hence more business and more importantly wonderful advertising in the next year.

visit also the reckoner blog ....
Bingo !!!

The Fun Gun!!!

Husband and wife decide to make a password for sex, they decide on 'washing machine'. Later in bed that night husband says, "Washing machine."

Wife replies, "Not tonight darling I have a sore head."

Half an hour passes and she feels guilty so she says, "Washing machine."

Husband replies, "Too late it was only a small load so I decided to do it by hand."

Is it not again the case with ad agencies and their clients that by the time the realisation dawns, the load would be done...???

Enjoy the week end people... and come back fresh on Monday....

What do clients say in Advertising?

The Brand Equity Ad agency Reckoner is a much awaited issue every year to know who tops whom and who snatches what from whom....Packed with power lists, rankings and analysis, the Agency Reckoner is a concise guide to India’s most admired creative and media agencies and the 6 th edition is to roll out next week setting the rumour mills on, fulltime. Ogilvy will retain the top slot or not in the creative side...or will a new dark horse emerge? and who among Mindshare, Madison and Starcom will head the media agency scene,,,, these are questions that the Indian ad world is waiting to get answers for.. but as of now this ad, created by rediffussion tells it all....

The Fun Gun!!!

A tourist from Albegestan goes on his first overseas trip.Upon arriving, he is visibly puzzled filling his visa application. The border official looks over his shoulder,and sees the tourist trying to write 'Twice a week' into the small space labeled 'SEX'.

The official explains: "No, no, no. That is not what we mean by this question. We are asking 'Male' or 'Female'."

"Doesn't matter," the tourist answers......

Now that sounds like some client for whom IT DOESNT matter who is their agency.... anyone chalega.... Fun has come guys... njoy ur week end....

The best of Adformula...My Ass is Bigger than his...

As originally published on 22/11/05....

Let us call him Anand. He was in love,and the girls father wanted to meet the guy to decide on his qualification to marry the girl. So here comes Anand to his would be F-I-L's house , a big , sprawling mansion which blew him off.. He was a poor guy( and had the mandatory inferiority complex), and fell in love with this rich girl Arathi( that is the way it should be.. have u not seen bollywood masalas?)

U'r a handsome guy... so charming.. flattered Arathi's father-- now let us talk over dinner..
Anand was full blushing as he walked to the dining table

Dinner started. Everyone was seated..

Our hero found himself in a very tight situation.. why?.. he wanted to FART.. but how? will it not be shameful if he does that..? he thought and thought but his bowel pressure wouldnt listen . it came out with a funny sound.. He looked embarassed ,and started sinking, cursing his bad stars. But then the F-I-L had that presence of mind...

Tiger--- he shouted at the dog , lying near to Anand under the dining table.---- go out.....

Anand was happy.. he simply loved the guy.. his would be F-I-L , who saved his face ..Relieved he decided to let him loose once again and farted ,this time with added volume.

Tiger--- again shouted the old man...

Anand was gleeful... the dog is gettting the blame.. so I can be relaxed and can be farting more..

So did he.. this time the volume was more...

The old man stood up and shouted at the dog...

Tiger.. get the hell out from under that table before this bastard shits all over u....

Boooooooom................

The ad creatives are great guys( no pun intented).. who convert a brief ,often vague and unclear (many clients dont know what they want to communicate.. let us discuss it later on), often highly technical and complex to great mind blowing ideas that touches and stays with us for ever...

Can any one forget the Cadbury's girl running into the cricket field? or for that matter the Fevicol series, that won a standing ovation at the Cannes?.. Can any one ignore the Dog and the Boy campaign which made the now famous duo of O&M famous, which solved a complex marketing problem( the target audience liked Hutch network but thought it as having no network) through a simple communication which made Hutch sales go up by 77 %...

So what is the Anand story doing here...Some ad creatives are Anand's.. they like the laurels but blames.. they like to pass it on..they take the bouqets with blush, but the brickbats they simply transfer to colleages and subordinates ..some are bothered about their Abby's and if possible Cannes.. some talk to the competetor.. some talk to the competetor's ad agency creatives(My ass is bigger than his).. some talk to their own ego's.. the result is clear.. ad's which are so churned out doesnt even sell the clients brand, forget Marketing.

Some day the client will call the bluff... the Czar creative will stand exposed like anand...

The guys who suffer from 'My ass is bigger than his' complex should wake up to the reality.. it simply means ' I am a bigger asshole than him'

Am I right?

Apply now.. Durex condom tester ...

Durex in Australia had some time back called for applications for what it claims could be the world's best job - condom tester.According to Durex "any Australian over the age of 18 could apply for one of 200 positions as a condom tester".One thing's for sure - it's a job where employees won't mind taking their work home and burning the midnight oil....

Yesterday was world AIDS day and hope people will get more reasons to wear a condom , if morality is a no issue for them...