Meaning of surrogate advertising:

The literal meaning of surrogate advertising is duplicating the brand image of one product extensively to promote another product of the same brand. Surrogate advertising is when an advertisement has the logo or brand of another company advertised within it. One essential function that surrogate advertising does is that of brand recall and not necessarily an exercise in increasing sales. The product shown in the advertisement is called the surrogate. The surrogate could either resemble the original product or could be a different product altogether, but using the established brand of the original product. The sponsoring of sports/leisure/cultural events and activities using a liquor brand name also falls in the category of surrogate advertising.

Surrogate marketing:
The essence of Surrogate marketing lies on Communicating the value of a particular banned or illegal product/service of a company by using certain acceptable brand extensions of the same company with the same logo and brand name. It refers to intentionally utilizing a company, person, product or service to help convey the message of another product or service. It can also be define as duplicating the brand image of one product extensively to promote another product of the same company. The history of surrogate marketing existed from long years backs in different connotations and applicable not only the liquor, narcotic products but service categories also like movie promotions. But it comes in limelight when a few years ago in UK, where housewives protested against liquor and narcotic advertisements and demanded to ban on advertisement of alcoholic and narcotic products. After ban on products this industry left with no other relaying option than surrogate marketing. As example, using item songs to promote the films or promoting big stars guest appearance as a major role in movies, using sodas, fruit-juices, water with Liquor, Cigarette, Bidi, and Tobacco brand names can be seen on TVs and posters. It works as a viral and opinion leader kind of way to top of the mind recall and awareness for the target consumer group, who can decode the message. Have you ever wondered why companies like Bacardi and Royal stag entered the field of music CDs and are advertising it so rampantly? Or why Kingfisher got into mineral

water? Why Haywards 5000 soda and its Honsla anthem are so popularized, whereas its originally a liquor brand? The makers of these brands have either been banned from advertising their original products or their marketing activities were restricted by the norms and regulations of the countries in which they advertised. These are all cases of surrogate marketing. Surrogate marketing can be defined as an intentional utilization of a company, person or object to help convey the message of another party. The term neednt always have negative connotations as quoted in the examples above. It can have positive connotations as well. It can be considered somewhat similar to grass-root or viral marketing in which a marketing firm or the marketing wing of a firm recruits people to spread the message. Positive surrogate marketing can also refer to employing a representative to the manufacturer who will sell your product. However, like in everything else, the darker side of surrogate marketing has always been more talked about and become a trend than the positive side. Surrogate marketing has been popularly used as a means of promoting products and services that are considered unhealthy, unethical, illegal or immoral by some groups in particular or by the society at large, in a way that it becomes acceptable to the society. For instance, there are strict norms on the advertising of liquor and tobacco in many countries including India. In such countries, companies promote their products by associating with and promotion of more acceptable brands. For instance, everybody knows four squares is a company making cigarettes, but it doesnt advertise its cigarettes, but it is more known for the Four Square bravery awards among the general public. In this way, the customer is aware of the acceptable brand but also draws a connection to the related product which is being surrogate marketed through such efforts.

Surrogate marketing generally happens in two contexts:

One, where the entire marketing function is outsourced or given away and the group then providing the marketing is referred to as the surrogate marketing department; and Two, where firms indulge into brand-extensions into products which are legal and more acceptable to the general public, while fitting well into the government norms and regulations. And in most cases, the companies are not bothered about how their surrogate product is doing in the market. The main reason to introduce the surrogate product in the market is to remind the customers each time they see the advertisement or the product on the store shelf, of the original product. There is another variant of surrogate marketing. Lets say for instance, that you are manufacturing a particular product A. This product A requires a particular service B, which you dont provide. You sign a contract with another service -providing firm X, which provides the requisite service B. Now the firm X agrees to provide the service B, and use only your product A for it. Here, the service provider of service B serves a surrogate marketer for your product A. This could be both in the positive and the negative sense.

Surrogate marketing is now done by

1. Sponsoring events like Fashion Weeks, events like rock shows and selling other cover products, IPL, Formula one etc. 2. Facebook and social media like secret group sharing, page creation, chatting, mail 3. Internet, digital and print media, like TV ads, call service, SMS A. Film Industry and surrogate marketing Movies like low budget or low starrer uses these kind of marketing to mislead the audience, an audience decode this message as his stereotypical way and get in to watch this movie, which is total far related to the message. Kollywood movies like Dhanam, Dindigul Sarathi has opted such kind of marketing, Kuselan uses the guest role of Rajneekant in its 90% posters to market like main actor. Bollywood movies like Kaal, Delhi Bellys promotions as a Shahrukh Khan and Amir Khan acted movies can also be considered in this line.

B. Typical Alcoholic/Narcotic brands and products promoted by surrogate marketing Brand Communicating product Main Product Category Whisky Whisky Cigarettes Whisky Beer Gutkha Whisky

Bagpiper McDowells Red and White Teachers Kingfisher Pan Parag Johny walker Royal challenge Four square white Wills lifestyle Bacardi

Water and soda, cassettes, CDs Water and soda Bravery awards Bravery awards Calendars and mineral water Pan masala Soda

Golf accessories and mineral Whisky water Water rafting and gliding Apparels, Accessories Cassettes and CDs Cigarettes Cigarettes Rum Vodka Bidi Beer Whisky

Smirnoff, Aristocrat Apple juice 502 Pataka Haywards 5000 AC Black 502 Pataka Tea Darting kids Apple juice

Surrogates as a brand personality

Using celebrities or associated persons in advertising, arouses the customer to take a chance of trial, help them to crack the message. Suppose for example Sunny Leone is advertising for a religious movie, the customers who are aware about Sunny Leone can easily get the communicated message. Communication fit for Alcoholic and narcotic industry Being banned to the normal advertising of its core message to the audience has left orphan to the liquor, narcotic and pornography industry, so as a possible choice they are more prone to depend on surrogate marketing, due to its effectiveness in terms creating awareness, recall and selling products to the target consume

Target Consumer base (India):

Alcoholic beverage Industry Market Market size(crores) size growth

Liquor Country Not 58 liquor quantified million IMFL 6000 Beer 2200 70 million

15%

10-12%

[Source: indiamarkets.com, Dec. 2011]IMFL: Indian made foreign liquor

Surrogate Ads as a smart way of marketing Surrogate Ads are a creative & smart solution to make potential customers recall and aware about products which are not be allowed by the law to advertise in certain type of public media. 1. Ride on some other more popular product and/or concept 2. Strong sense of positioning of brand Identity and deployment 3. It creates strong association with customers, e.g. Vodafone ads.

The existence & its types:1. Happens when there is ban on alcoholic and tobacco advertising. Therefore, companies in banned industries are introducing brand extensions with products that are legal to advertise with the same brand name as the brand product.

Example: Many can recall the Bacardi ads of yore with the famous Bacardi Music! Again, it was not the beverage brand that was being promoted. The direct promotion was for the Bacardi soda and the Music CDs, but if you see the lyrics (which cannot be contested) it does talk about Bacardi RUM! 2. Marketing banned products by collaborating with social causes, so that not only do they get the audiences association, theyre in line with the ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) but they get a broad platform to market their products.

Example:Red & White cigarettes are manufactured by Godfrey Phillips India ltd. They have always utilized top film stars depicting through advertisements promoting their product. Along with that they also have an actual bravery award ceremony. Press coverage is also given.
4.

Marketing done at the stake of another company. Example:Let us assume there is a Big Brand called A. It wishes to advertise something but does not want to put attention on itself. So it uses a smaller company, lets say B, usually owned by A, to propagate those advertisements. Usually it is done to create a negative impression about a rival Brand, or to market controversial stuff. So in this case, even if there is any legal action, it will be against B and not A. Since B is a small company there wont be much loss!

This as we know is a promotion by Kingfisher. Though Kingfisher airlines have a full-fledged business (Company A) but it has small promotions like the Kingfisher Calendar (Company B) to promote its brand of Kingfisher beer.

Impacts Of Surrogate Marketing:1. A lot of marketers, health industry, ASCI and various other NGOs which work towards the health of people believe that sale of banned products is difficult to stop with as many regulations possible but at least these products could be less glorified and less publicized to curb sales. Surrogate advertising breaks the bound of these regulations and uses a smart way to promote these brands and make sure that these products are marketed in the best possible way and as indirect as possible to avoid any conflicts with the regulatory boards. 2. Impacts like early experimentation and regular consumption of alcohol and other products can be visibly seen amongst youth and teenagers too. 3. The further developments contribute even more in lowering the cola-beer ratio bringing along with it an undesirable lifestyle supposedly mimicking a global perspective. 4. The positive impact can be mostly seen on brands whose sales thrive on advertisements and promotions and the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverages Companies (CIABC) too maintains that the advertisement of products by the liquor industry must be allowed.

Impact on Stakeholders and Business environment

Positive Economic Government generates revenue Profiting media advertising cost Social by paying high Company ends up with high cost of advertising Negative

Dont effect on others who are unaware Focused to selective target segment Leads to healthy environment Legal Company spectrum doesnt breaks the legal

Misleading to younger generation Challenging the ethical way of doing business Leads to promote unhealthy products

Some examples of surrogate marketing in india 1. DIAGEO: The Diageo has associations with its brands. First, Smirnoff, that has
cult association with popular music events like the War of the DJs, Nightlife Exchanges, etc. Johnny Walker is another famous brand of the company, who successful endorsers Vijay Amritraj & Narayan Murthy have made the brand very popular. They have also made popular its Striding man logo, which now also has a society in its name the Striding Man society for Johnny Walker drinkers. Smirnoff advertises its party and club music VDs well on the TV as well, which are popular among the high-class people ard socialites.

2. SAB MILLER: Sab Miller has been promoting its brand Haywards 5000 has
famous actors like Suniel Shetty and Sanjay Dutt endorsing the brand. However, they do not promote the beverage as such, but are endorsers for Haywards 5000 club soda. Soda promotion is wholly acceptable to the society. There have known to be associations with Fosters & Australia, which also surrogate markets its beverages through its mineral water range.

3. BACARDI: Those ads of the times gone by featuring the very famous Bacardi
musicthat did not promote the beverage brand, but the music CDs and the club soda. This was indirect brand building for Bacardi. If you listen to the lyrics of that popular song carefully, you can hear it talking about the Bacardi rum. But the rum is not being promoted officially, its the music being promoted, so the lyrics cannot be contested at all. Off late, a cocktail-mixer app has been designed for the iPhone by Bacardi. But this is not surrogate marketing, its indirect marketing. The CDs and soda is surrogate marketing.

4. UB Group: The UB group is the talk of the town, not for its liquor, not for its
boss, not for its marketing, but for its airlines. However, this is one firm that has taken surrogate marketing to heights that are beyond thought.

Kingfisher: This is one brand with the most divergent sources of surrogate
marketing Kingfisher Airlines (which may soon be taken off the list), the Kingfisher calendar, the Kingfisher bird logo, which is a part of the logo of the television channel NDTV Good Times, and a show on the same channel Making of the calendar. And moreover, the brand doesnt need a full -time brand ambassador. Vijay Mallya himself and his trail of bikini-clad calendar girls are brand ambassadors unto themselves. Bagpiper: Another club soda surrogate. Akshay Kumar has been saying since ages now, Khub jamega rang jab mil baithenge teen yaar, ap, main aur bagpiper. But it is being said of the soda, not the hard drink! Royal Challenge: Needless to say, the biggest & most expensive surrogate one could ever get for a product the Royal Challenger Bangalore pay testimony to this. Whyte & Mackay: Its silent marketing, with making a presence on the Royal Challengers Bangalore players jerseys. Nothing beyond that actually. White Mischief: Zaid Khan, Fardeen Khan promoting the White Mischief holidays, not to forget the cheerleaders in the IPL as well. Though some of these are full-time interest and the company does bother if they do well in the market or not, they are still surrogate marketing the hidden product. Surrogate marketing can be considered a smart way of marketing products as the ad doesnt name the product as such, but by just communicating the brand name, the original product is being marketed. They are actually more contextbased. The judgment of whether they are right or not is left with the customer. Imagine the amount of creativity that goes in to produce one such ad or even come with a product that could be used as a surrogate for marketing. This trend majorly helps to take a diversion to go across the rules and regulations in particular regions. These rules could be of the government or just the societal norms. If it is liquor and tobacco in India, it could be some other things in some other countries. But companies dont stop making such products, neither are they banned altogether. Just the marketing is put under the scanner or regulated.

Surrogate marketing proves to be a useful tool to take a roundabout route and reach the target.

Positives:
This kind of marketing acts as a tool for the product, for which otherwise marketing is banned in various nations due to laws, however these businesses bring loads of revenue both to the government and the organization as the whole. E.g. Beverage industry in India is worth Rs.60, 000 crore, and contributes around Rs. 22,000 crore to Indian government.

Negatives:
It is the cons that have always been in news about Surrogate marketing. These campaigns primarily promote the products which in a way are unhealthy, unethical or illegal. For example, organizations promote their brands of alcohol by tying the brand names to more acceptable products like soda or mineral water, and in this way, customer gets confused in figuring about the relation between two products, and they get lured to it.

Future Alternatives
Having high growth and market penetration of other marketing channels like, direct marketing and mobile commerce can be considered as options for these industries because of its larger impact and reachability to target consumers.

Take away
Finally, we conclude that for industries like, liquor, cigarette, bidi, tobacco and porn have to depend on surrogate marketing to survive and grow. Surrogacy is serving their purpose; this trend will also be leverage by other industries to recall strong brand association and loyal consumer base. But surrogate marketing in other industries will serve the purpose or not it is questionable.