INTRODUCTION TO ADVERTISING

Advertising is the backbone for any business. It is a form of mass communication, a powerful marketing tool. When a market or a firm has developed a product to satisfy market demand after thoroughly analyzing the market, there is a need for establishing contact with the target market to eventually sell the product. Advertising helps in reaching to the target market. Advertising can thus aptly be called as the MOTHER OF ALL COMMUNICATION. Advertising is all around us. We are bombarded with ads (commercials) over TV, radio &in the print. When we go to our colleges, offices we are expose to many bill boards, which tell us to drink more milk, donate are eyes, gives you more information, tells you to do family planning etc.

In modern times, advertising prevails in all walks of life. It has acquired the distinction of being the most visible & glamorous method of marketing communication. It is the worlds fifth largest industry. Oil, Automobiles, Computers & Agriculture follow advertising in that order. Today it is a million dollar business.

Advertising = means to inform DEFINITION OF ADVERTISING:

The American Marketing Association defines advertising as Advertising is defined as any paid form of non-personal communication about an organization, product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor.

Advertising agencies: An advertising agency is

an independent organization that provides one or more specialized advertising and promotion related services to assist companies in developing, preparing and executing their advertising and other promotional programs.

*Q) COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES

Communication Defined The steps between source and a resource that result in the transference and understanding of meaning STEPHEN R. ROBINS

Communications Objective

A mediocre advertising message properly directed stands more chance of success than the most professionally developed ad campaign directed at the wrong audience or using unsuitable message appeals. Advertising creates its most

powerful impact when it is used to solve narrowly defined communication objectives.

Advertising communication objectives can be put in a pyramid form. The lower level objectives are awareness, knowledge or comprehension. These are accomplished first. Subsequent objectives may focus on moving prospects to higher levels in the pyramid to elicit desired behavioural responses such as associating feelings with the brand, trial or regular use etc. It is easier to accomplish objectives located at the base of the pyramid than the ones toward the top. The percentage of prospective customers will decline as they move up the pyramid towards more action oriented objectives, such as regular brand use, etc. Irrespective of the fact whether the brand is new or established, the pyramid can be used to determine appropriate advertising objectives. What is required is to determine where the target audience lies with respect to various levels in the pyramid. If the level of brand awareness or knowledge of its features or benefits is low, the advertising communication should be to increase them. In case the brand liking and preference is low, then the appropriate goal can be to change the target audiences image of the brand.

COMMUNICATION EFFECTS PYRAMID

It is a difficult task to translate a sales goal into a communication objective. However, if the brand objective is to raise sales by X% the promotion manager will ultimately have to decide in terms of some message that will be used to address the target audience to achieve this level of sales increase.

Some other possible objectives could be 1. Increasing the percentage of target consumers who associate specific features or benefits with the companys brand 2. Increasing number of target consumers who prefer the client companys brand rather than competing brands 3. Increasing companys brand trial among non-users 4. Increasing companys brand trial rate among existing consumers. Even when promotion managers attempt to translate sales objectives, they are not sure what really constitutes adequate levels of awareness, knowledge, liking, preference or conviction. There are no formulas except the judgment and experience of concerned managers.

REPURCHASE TRIAL PREFERENCE

LIKING KNOWLEDGE/COMPREHENSION AWARENESS

Advertising exposure model

AWARENESS/FAMILIARITY WITH BRAND

INFORMATION OR BRAND ATTRIBUTES OR BENEFITS

CREATION OF BRAND IMAGE/PERSONALITY AD EXPOSURE BRAND ATTITUDE ASSOCIATION OF FEELINGS WITH BRAND PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR

LINKAGE OF BRAND WITH PEERS/EXPERTS AND GROUP NORMS

REMINDER OF INDUCEMENT ABOUT BRAND TRIAL

This represents another model of the advertising and persuasion process wherein the various processes that can occur after consumers are exposed to an advertisement. First, exposure to the advertisement can create awareness about the brand, leading to a feeling of familiarity with it. Second, information about the brands benefits and the attributes on which the benefits are based can register with the consumer can also result from exposure to the ad. Third, advertisements can also generate feelings in an audience that they begin to associate with the brand or its consumption. Fourth, through the choice of the spokesperson and various executional devices, the advertisement can lead to the creation of an image for the brand, often called brand personality Fifth, the advertisement can create the impression that the consumers peers or experts- individuals favour the brand and groups the consumer likes to emulate. This is often how products and brands are presented as being fashionable. These five effects can create a favorable liking, or attitude towards the brand, which in turn should lead to the purchasing action. Sometimes the advertiser will attempt to spur purchasing action directly by providing a reminder or by attacking reasons why the consumer may be postponing that action. The above model helps us to understand how and why consumers acquire, process and use advertising information. Its also important at the planning stage to develop a good understanding of where advertising fits into the total pool of information and influence sources to which a consumer is exposed. Understanding information processing invariably leads to the need for understanding a wide range of other important psychological constructs, such as perception, learning, attitude formation and chance, source effects, brand personality and image, cognitive and affective response and social factors such as group influence.

ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

Advertising agency:

An advertising agency is:

1. 2. 3. 4.

an independent business organisation composed of creative and business people who develop, prepare and place advertising on advertising media for sellers seeking to find customers for their goods and services. -American Advertising Agency Association (AAAA)

**Q)STRUCTURE OF AN ADVERTISING AGENCY

S t ru c

t u re

n c

 Account service department The account service, or the account management department, is the link between the ad agency and its clients. Depending upon the size of the account and its advertising budget one or two account executives serve as liason to the client. The account executives job requires high degree of diplomacy and tact as misunderstanding may lead to loss of an account. The account executive is mainly responsible to gain knowledge about the clients business, profit goals, marketing problems and advertising objectives. The account executive is responsible for getting approved the media schedules, budgets and rough ads or story boards from the client. The next task is to make sure that the agency personnel produce the advertising to the clients satisfaction. The biggest role of the account executive is keeping the agency ahead of the client through follow-up and communications.

Media department The responsibility of the agencys media department is to develop a media plan to reach the target audience effectively in a cost effective manner. The staff analyses, selects and contracts for media time or space that will be used to deliver the ad message. This is one of the most important decisions since a significantly large part of the clients money is spent on the media time and/or space. The media department has acquired increasing importance in an agencys business as large advertisers seem to be more inclined to consolidate media buying with one or few agencies thereby saving money and improving media efficiency.

Creative department

To a large extent, the success of an ad agency depends upon the creative department responsible for the creation and execution of the advertisements. The creative specialists are known as copywriters. They are the ones who conceive ideas for the ads and write the headlines, subheads and the body copy. They are also involved in deciding the basic theme of the advertising campaign, and often they do prepare the rough layout of the print ad or the commercial story board. Creation of an ad is the responsibility of the copywriters and the art department decides how the ad should look.

Production department After the completion and approval of the copy and the illustrations the ad is sent to the production department. Generally agencies do not actually produce the finished ads; instead they hire printers, photographers, engravers, typographers and others to complete the finished ad. For the production of the approved TV commercial, the production department may supervise the casting of actors to appear in the ad, the setting for scenes and selecting an independent production studio. The production department sometimes hires an outside director to transform the creative concept to a commercial.

Finance and accounting department An advertising agency is in the business of providing services and must be managed that way. Thus, it has to perform various functions such as accounting, finance, human resources etc. it must also attempt to generate new business. Also this department is important since bulk of the agencys income approx. 65% goes as salary and benefits to the employees.

***Q)FUNCTIONS OF AN AD AGENCY

Big agencies such as HTA, Lowe, O&M are called full service agencies because they are ONE STOP SHOP for all services that are offered to the clients. Todays agencies are providing total communications packages for the clients brands. They are acting as the custodians of the client brands. *CLIENT SERVICING Also called account executives. Acts as the link between the agency and the client. He suggests what the client exactly wants to his ad agency. He is the person who carries the client brief and is also responsible for the approvals.

CREATIVE DEPARTMENT Under the creative director are a team of copywriters and visualisers who arrive at the big idea. Accordingly the storyboard is prepared and scriptwork is done. The final layout is sent for approval to the client.

PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT The production department is responsible to convert the storyboard into a finished layout if its for print medium or Outdoor. However the TVC will be outsourced to a production house (eg. Prasoon Pandeys HIGHLIGHT FILMS). The final storyboard is made into a technical storyboard before it is sent for shooting.

MEDIA DEPARTMENT The Media Planner alongwith Media manager and brand manager of the client prepares the final media budget and purchases insertions for print media (space buying) or purchases radio spots or purchases TV time if its on television. Appropriate media mix is developed.

 RESEARCH DEPARTMENT In fact research department functions before and after a commercial is made for pre-testing and post-testing of media respectively. Consumer insights and brand usages are also tested at times, according to client in many instances.

FINANCE DEPARTMENT This department looks after the accounts (financial records) for the agency.

Q.Types of advertising agencies:

There are basically four types of ad agencies.

They are In-house agencies Creative boutiques Media buying agencies Full service agencies In- house agencies Some companies, in an effort to reduce costs and maintain greater control over agency activities, have set up their own advertising agencies internally. An in-house agency is an ad agency set up, owned and operated by the advertiser. Many companies use in-house agencies exclusively; others combine in-house efforts with those of outside agencies.

A major reason for using in-house agency is to reduce advertising and promotional costs. Companies with very large advertising budgets pay a substantial amount to outside agencies in the form of media commissions. With an internal structure, these commissions go to the in-house ad agency. An in-house ad agency can also provide related work such as sales presentations and sales force material, package design, and public relations at a lower cost than the outside agencies. Saving money is not the only reason companies use in-house ad agencies. Time savings, bad experience with outside agencies, and the increased knowledge and understanding of the market that come from working advertising and promotion for the product or service day by day are also reasons. Companies can also maintain a tighter control over the process and more easily coordinate promotions with the firms overall marketing programmes. Opponents of the in-house agencies say that they can give the advertiser neither the experience nor the objectivity of the outside agency and nor the range of services. They argue that the outside agencies have a more specialized staff and attract the best creative staff. Also flexibility is higher since if the company is not satisfied with the agency it can be dismissed, whereas changes in an in-house agency could be slower and more disruptive. Thus we can summarize by saying that Ad agency In agency house Advantages Cost saving More control Increased coordination Disadvantages Less experience Less objectivity Less flexibility

In-house agencies in India are:

1. Levers - Lintas (previously) 2. Videocon Confidence 3. Reliance Mudra (when Mudra started out) Creative boutiques Creative boutique is an agency that provides only creative services. These specialized companies have developed in response to some clients desires to use only the creative talent of an outside provider while maintaining the other functions internally.

The client may seek outside creative talent for two reasons: 1. Because he wants an extra creative effort 2. May be because its own employees of the in-house agency or the agency that he has appointed do not have sufficient skills in this regard. The full-service agencies also sub-contract work creative boutiques when they are very busy or want to avoid adding full time employees to their pay roll. Creative boutiques are usually found by members of the creative departments of full service agencies who leave the firm and take with them clients who want to retain their creative talents. These boutiques generally perform creative function on a fee basis.

Few creative boutiques in India: 1. RMG David 2. Vyas Gianetti Creatives

3. Chlorophyll Media buying agencies Media buying agencies are independent companies that specialize in the buying of media, particularly radio and television. The task of purchasing advertising media has grown more complex as specialized media proliferate, so media buying services have found a niche by specializing in the analysis and purchase of the advertising time and space. Agencies and clients generally develop their own media plans and then hire the buying services to execute them. Some media buying agencies do help advertisers plan their media strategies. Because media buying agencies purchase such large amounts of time and space, they receive large discounts and can save the small agenys or clients money on media buying. Media buying agencies are paid a fee or commission for their work. Few media buying agencies: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Mindshare Initiative Media (LOWE) Zenith Media (Bates, Saatchi & Saatchi) Optimedia (Publicis) Starcom (Leo Burnett) Fulcrum (HTA)

* Full service agency

The function of an advertising agency is to see to it that its clients advertising leads to greater profits in the long run than could be achieved without the ad agency. Most such agencies are large in size and offer their clients a full range of services in the area of marketing, communications and promotions. These include planning, creating and producing the advertisement, media selection and research.

Other services offered include strategic marketing planning, sales training, package design, sales promotion, event management, trade shows, publicity and public relations. The full service agency is composed of various departments; each is responsible to provide required inputs to perform various functions to serve the client.

*Q) SELECTION OF AN AD AGENCY

An advertising agency may be a full-service agency or part-service agency. Each has a different outlook and advertising activities. The selection of advertising agencies depends on whether one wants a full-service agency or a part-time agency. The selection is also made on the basis of compatibility of the agency team, agency stability, services, credibility and the agencys problem solving approach.

Full service agency or part- time agency The full-service agency is involved completely in the advertising functions. It has a large number of expert employees. The organization is typically useful for performing advertising agencies. It looks upon customers as key clients. It communicates with the prospective purchasers. The distinguishing characteristics of the various agencies lie in the creative skills of the personnel of each organization and in the philosophy of advertising. Larger agencies offer better services. The part-time agency offers service on free of cost or project basis. These agencies perform various outside activities and co-ordinate the activities of the advertiser and media men. Clients have greater control over advertising

campaigns. Advertisers research agencies generally perform job of partagencies. The selection of a particular agency depends on its size, its services, knowledge and growth Compatibility the selection of an advertising agency depends on the compatibility of the agency. The needs of the company determine the fitness of the agency. The advertiser visits several agencies and chooses the best agency on the basis of its merits, demerits, accreditation, its methods of handling the accounts and using the available opportunities.

Agency Team This includes management specialists, market researchers, copywriters, media experts, production managers and art directors. The attitude, thinking, experience and personalities of the team members have positive effects on the selection process. Agency Stability An agency, which has been long in existence generally, performs efficiently and effectively. The greater the investment in the agency, the more vital the contribution of the agency to the advertising activities. The personnel, finance, management and credit are examined before selecting a suitable advertising agency. Services The services rendered by the agency are evaluated with a view to choosing the best advertising agency. Cost accounting, general agreements, project estimates, selling attitudes and other services performed by the advertising agencies are considered to evaluate their efficiency and credibility in performing advertising jobs. The greater the range of an agencys services, the more fully it can serve the clients needs. The agency can serve the clients by its potential capacity for advertising, sales promotion, media placement, public relations, market research, sales training and distribution channels.

Creativity Creativity is the main element in advertising. If the advertising agency is capable of great creative efforts, it is selected for the purpose. Style, clarity, impact, memorability and action- these are taken into account while evaluating creativity. Problem-solving approach The agency which has a problem solving approach is considered to be superior and useful. The importance of choosing the right agency cannot be ignored. Caliber, compatibility, balanced services, responsiveness, talent an equitable compensation-these are important factors in selecting an advertising agency.

**Q) AGENCY EVALUATION

The process of agency evaluation involves regular assessment of two aspects of performance area financial and qualitative.

The financial assessment focuses on how the agency conducts its business to verify costs and expenses, the number of personnel hours charged to an account to an account and what payments are made to media and other outside service suppliers.

Qualitative assessment explores the agencys efforts devoted in planning, developing and implementing the client companys advertising campaign and an assessment of the achievements. For a qualitative assessment even the small things matter; such as a quick turnaround time, creativity because this is what the agency is in the business of, value add in terms of giving the client a creative edge by giving them a creative leap etc.

One can also evaluate agencies by their track record of losing clients or acquiring new clients and retaining them.

The parameters on which an ad agencys creative services dept is evaluated are as follows: (The various parameters are ranked on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the poorest and 10 being Excellent)

1. Agency regularly produces fresh ideas and original approaches? 2. Creative executions are consistently on strategy? 3. Research is effectively used in strategic development and in pre-post testing of advertising 4. Creative group is knowledgeable about the companys products, markets and strategies? 5. Creative group is concerned with good and consistent advertising communications and develops campaigns, ads that exhibit this concern 6. Creative group produces on time and submits for review in time to permit orderly revisions 7. Creative group performs well under pressure 8. Agency presentations are well organized with sufficient examples of proposed executions 9. Creative group participates in major campaign presentations 10. Agency presents ideas and executions not requested but which they feel are good opportunities. 11. Creative group takes constructive criticism and redirection 12. Creative group effectively controls costs 13. Overall evaluation of creative services

The parameters on which an ad agencys Media services dept is evaluated are as follows: (The various parameters are ranked on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the poorest and 10 being Excellent)

1. Media group actually explores the new uses of various media available 2. Agency media recommendations are objective and reflect sufficient knowledge of companys markets, target consumers, services and objectives 3. Agency exhibits a broad capability in media as opposed to specializing in a particular medium 4. Agency keeps client up-to-date on the trends and developments in the field of media 5. Agency subscribes to and makes use of available and applicable syndicated media services 6. Agency engages in original research in the field of selection and usage of media 7. Agency provides client with regular review and analysis of competitions medias usage 8. Agency media administrative practices are adequate, including co-ordination of media schedules, contracts, checking media to verify advertising has run, etc. 9. Agency regularly conducts post-buy analysis on all media placements in a timely manner 10. Agency is effective in media negotiations for best possible rates and position for the companys advertising 11. Media plans provide sufficient flexibility for opportunistic buys or other cost saving strategies 12. Agency communication plan objectives and rationale effectively to brand management 13. Media strategies establish specific and measurable goals for reach, frequency and other objectives

***Q)DAGMAR (Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results)

Awareness

Comprehension

Conviction

Action

Russell Colley (1961) developed a model for setting advertising objectives and measuring the results. This model was entitled Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results- DAGMAR. DAGMAR model suggests that the ultimate objective of advertising must carry a consumer through four levels of understanding: from unawareness to Awareness the consumer must first be aware of a brand or company Comprehensionhe or she must have a comprehension of what the product is and its benefits; Convictionhe or she must arrive at the mental disposition or conviction to buys the brand; Action finally, he or she actually buy that product. Awareness

Awareness of the existence of a product or organization is necessary before the purchase behaviour can be expected. Once the awareness has been created in the target audience, it should not be neglected. If there is neglect, the audience may become distracted by competing messages and the level of awareness of focus product or organization will decline. Awareness needs to be created, developed, refined or sustained, according to the characteristics of the market and the particular situation facing an organization at any one point of time.

Awareness grid Involvement High Low

HIGH

Sustain current Refine awareness levels of awareness

Awareness

LOW

Build awareness Create association quickly. of awareness of product with product class need

In situations where:

1. Buyer experiences high involvement: Is fully aware of a products existence, attention and awareness levels need only be sustained and efforts need to be applied to other communication tasks. sales promotion and personal selling are more effective at informing, persuading and provoking consumption of a new car once advertising has created the necessary levels of awareness. The L.G golden eye ads that are repeatedly shown inspite of high awareness to ensure top of mind awareness and retain the existing awareness levels. Where low levels of awareness are found, getting attention needs to be the prime objective in order that awareness can be developed among the target audience. Sahara Homes ad that features Amitabh Bachhan saying jaha base Bharat. Awareness level is low, however it is a high involvement decision. Thus adequate attention is required and awareness levels are raised with use of well-known and trusted celebrities. 2. Buyer experiences low involvement: If buyers have sufficient level of awareness, they will be quickly prompted into purchase with little assistance of the other elements of the mix. Recognition and brand image may be felt by some to be sufficient triggers to stimulate a response. The requirement in such a situation would be to refine and strengthen the level of awareness so that it provokes interest and stimulates greater involvement during recall or recognition. Parle G ad that talks about it being the largest seller Duniya ka sabse Zyada bikne waala biscuit. Parle G as a brand already enjoys high levels of awareness and requires low involvement decision, thus communication is mainly intended to refine awareness.

If buyers have low level of awareness, the prime objective has to be to create awareness of the focus product in association with the product class. When coils were popular in use and then the different repellants entered the market, awareness had to be created about their benefits and use. Comprehension Awareness on its own may not be sufficient to stimulate a purchase. Knowledge about the product or the organization is necessary. This can be achieved by providing specific information about key brand attributes. In attempting to persuade people to try a different brand of water, it may be necessary to compare the product with other mineral water products and provide an additional usage benefit, such as environmental claims. The ad of Ganga mineral water, featuring Govinda, which banked on the purity aspect. They related the purity of the water with that of river Ganga. Conviction The next step is to establish a sense of conviction. By creating interest and preference, buyers are moved to a position where they are convinced that a particular product in the class should be tried at the next opportunity. To do this, audiences beliefs about the product have to be moulded and this is often done through messages that demonstrate the products superiority over a rival or by talking about the rewards as a result of using the product. Many ads like Thumbs Up featured the reward of social acceptance as grown up. It almost hinted that those who preferred other drinks were kids. Action Communication must finally encourage buyers to engage in purchase activity. Advertising can be directive and guide the buyers into certain behavioural outcomes,

Use of toll free numbers, direct mail activities and reply cards and coupons. Tupperware, Aqua Guard, are famous in Indian cities as a result of its personal selling efforts. For high involvement decisions, the most effective tool in the communication mix at this stage in the hierarchy is personal selling. Through the use of interpersonal skills, buyers are more likely to want to buy a product than if personal prompting is absent.

Characteristics of Objectives

A major contribution of DAGMAR was Colleys specification of what constitutes a good objective. Four requirements or characteristics of good objectives were noted

Concrete and measurablethe communications task or objective should be a precise statement of what appeal or message the advertiser wants to communicate to the target audience. Furthermore the specification should include a description of the measurement procedure

Target audience a key tenet to DAGMAR is that the target audience be well defined. For example if the goal was to increase awareness, it is essential to know the target audience precisely. The benchmark measure cannot be developed without a specification of the target segment

Benchmark and degree of change soughtanother important part of setting objectives is having benchmark measures to determine where the target audience stands at the beginning of the campaign with respect to various communication response variables such as awareness, knowledge, attitudes, image, etc. The objectives should also specify how much change or movement is being sought such as increase in awareness levels, creation of favorable attitudes or number of consumers intending to purchase the brand, etc. a benchmark is also a prerequisite to the ultimate measurement of results, an essential part of any planning program and DAGMAR in particular.

Specified time perioda final characteristic of good objectives is the specification of the time period during which the objective is to be accomplished, e.g. 6months, 1 year etc. With a time period specified a survey to generate a set if measures can be planned and anticipated.

Written Goal - finally goals should be committed to paper. When the goals are clearly written, basic shortcomings and misunderstandings become exposed and it becomes easy to determine whether the goal contains the crucial aspects of the DAGMAR approach. Criticism with regard to DAGMAR model: 1. Sales orientation those who see sales as the only valid measure of effectiveness level this criticism. The sole purpose of advertising is to generate sales. So as the completion of communications tasks may not result in purchases, the only, measure that needs to be undertaken is that of sales. 2. Restrictions on creativity DAGMAR is criticized on the grounds that creative flair is lost as attention is continuously on the numbers game, such as focusing on measures of recall, attitude change and awareness rather

than the looking for the big idea. Thus the creative personnel is held more accountable under DAGMAR and this may inhibit some of their work. A campaign with all music and warm human visuals is loved by everybody but it would fail to meet the companys standard. Thus a wonderful campaign would be evaluated on wrong criteria.

3. Short-term accountability managers do not have adequate time to spend on analyzing levels of comprehension and preference and convert them into formats that are going to be of direct benefit to them and their organizations. 4. Difficulty in determining what constitutes adequate levels of awareness and comprehension and how can it be determined which stage the majority of the target audience has reached at any given point of time. The VIP Feelings advertisements for ladies undergarments could be successful changing the attitude towards the brand VIP that was associated to be a mans wear, or it could be successful in creating awareness that VIP has started a new line of product for ladies too. Evaluating and measuring this form one single advertisement is difficult.

5. Hierarchy of Effects Model DAGMAR attacks the basic hierarchy model, which postulates a set of steps of awareness, comprehension, and attitude leading to action. The counterargument is that it is possible that action may precede awareness. The foreign chocolates, which are bought by people from the departmental stores, are not advertised, but still people buy them. It is later that the advertising for the product is done, or sometimes it is not done at all. Another example would be that action is preceded the attitude formation and comprehension with the impulse purchase of a low involvement product.

BRAND MANAGEMENT

A brand is not a name. A brand is not a positioning statement. It is not a marketing message. It is a promise made by a company to its customers and supported by that company. If that promise is kept, it creates a consumer preference. A brand is more than just an icon, a logo, a mission statement, an advertisement. Branding is a system of visuals and words that combine to represent a product, service, or organization in the mind of a consumer. A brand is something like a flag, you see the flag of a familiar nation and you immediately associate it with that nation. The same happens with brand markings; every time you see the familiar symbols and words that make up the brand identities of Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Apple, Sony, IBM, etc., they trigger responses based on all the experiences you have had with the products and companies that display these marks. A company may be armed with all the statistics and facts as to why their product or service is superior - but if it doesnt have an image, a personality for the audience to connect with - their message falls flat. What you are selling is always more than the product/service. It's a personality, a face with which your target customers want to do business. Thus, the success of branding lies in truly understanding who you are and who your target audience is. The word "brand", when used as a noun, can refer to a company name, a product name, or a unique identifier such as a logo or trademark. Brands are often expressed in the form of logos, graphic representations of the brand. In computers, a recent example of widespread brand application was the "Intel Inside" label provided to manufacturers that use Intel's microchips. Today's modern concept of branding grew out of the consumer packaged goods industry and the process of branding has come to include much, much more than just creating a way to identify a product or company. Branding today is used to create emotional attachment to products and companies. Branding efforts create a

feeling of involvement, a sense of higher quality, and an aura of intangible qualities that surround the brand name, mark, or symbol.

A brand is an identifiable entity that makes specific promises of value.

A brand is a symbol, a word, an object, and a concept all at one and the same time. A brand is a symbol. What is a symbol? A symbol is a sign that stands for something in a prospects mind. It carries a meaning behind it. Symbols work by stimulating the cognitive process. The consumers perceptual process is nothing but making sense out of those symbols present all around. A brands figurative aspects like packaging, colours, logos; designs etc are signs that the marketers use to communicate their intensions to the customers. Symbolism is, infact, the practice of conveying notions, ideas and concepts with the help of symbols. Why do brands have different colour schemes? Its because the marketers try to communicate different messages to their target customers.

The cigarette brand Charms pack has a unique indigo blue print, like faded jeans fabric. The package design was intended to strike a cord with young customers who identified with freedom, because jeans symbolized freedom. Marketers use slender tall bottles to communicate feminine qualities. What is an athletic shoe with a swoosh logo on it? Swoosh is a concept- it is all about winning and action.

Brands create a perception in the mind of the customer that there is no other product or service on the market that is quite like yours. A brand promises to deliver value upon which consumers and prospective purchasers can rely to be consistent over long periods of time.

Thus we can say that,

A brand is a proprietary visual, emotional and cultural image surrounding a company or its products.

Branding is a process of creating and spreading the brand name. It can be applied to the entire corporate identity as well as to individual product and services. Companys brand awareness in public is often used in evaluating a company. Brands are usually protected by companies as their trademarks.

The name Coca-Cola is the main asset of the firm. They have built their brand on this name. Any product or service associated with this particular name has immediate recognition. It gives the people a sense of familiarity and trust.

A chocolate associated with the name Cadburys would gain much acceptance in the market alone because of its name. It has been a recognized and accepted brand for the chocolates. Often, when people ask for a chocolate, they dont say can I have a chocolate, they say can I have a Cadbury. The same applies for Bisleri. How often do we actually ask for Bottled water?

McDonalds has a certain symbol associated with it. The golden arches are synonymous with the McDonalds outlet. The kids recognize McDonalds is a km away with one look at the arches. Even if it doesnt have a McDonalds sign attached. Or for that matter Nike. It no longer needs to write Nike under the swoosh for people to realize its a Nike product. The logo is the brand.

Here are a few of the many definitions of the word BRAND:

David Ogilvy defines brands as the intangible sum of a products attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation, and the way its advertised.

Kotler defines brands as A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of the competitor.

The Dictionary of Business and Management defines a brand as:

A name, sign or symbol used to identify items or services of the seller(s) and to differentiate them from goods of competitors.

Jared Spool, an web site usability expert, says,

"Branding means creating an emotional association (such as the feeling of success, happiness, or relief) that customers form with the product, service, or company."

Walter Landor, one of the greats of the advertising industry, said:

Simply put, a brand is a promise. By identifying and authenticating a product or service it delivers a pledge of satisfaction and quality.

From the above definitions one can interpret thatA brand is:

The proprietary visual, emotional, and cultural images surrounding a company or its products. A promise of quality, making product selection worry free. Companys one of the most important asset. A significant source of competitive advantage and future earnings. A space in consumers brain that reminds and persuades him to use the product of XYZ brand.

*Q) IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING ( READ FROM THE XEROX NOTES GIVEN) Q) BRAND IMAGE Consumers vary as to which brand attributes they see as most relevant and the importance they attach to each attribute. They will pay the most attention to the attributes that deliver the sought benefits. The market for a product can often be segmented according to the attributes that are salient to different consumer groups. The consumer develops a set of beliefs about where each brand stands on each attribute. These set of beliefs about the brand make up brand image. Brand identity and brand image need to be distinguished. Identity comprises the ways that a company aims to identify or position itself or its product. Image is the way the public perceives the company or its products. Image is affected by many factors beyond the companys control. An effective image does three things, 1) It establishes the products character and value proposition. 2) It conveys this character in a distinctive way so as not to confuse it with the competitors image. 3) It delivers emotional power beyond a mental image.

The image of a brand may contain different types of associations in memory: attributes benefits and attitudes. Attribute associations: these are descriptive features, which are used to characterize a product or service. The attributes could be distinguished on the basis of how directly they are related to product or service performance. The product related attributes are ingredients necessary for the products performance. On product related attributes are packaging, user imagery, usage imagery and price. In case of Woodland shoes the product related attributes would be: leather that weathers, unique sole, water resistant etc. The non-product related attributes would be: price -1500+; package-green box; user-young, rugged, tough; usage-outdoors, trekking. Benefit associations: Benefit associations are of 3 types: Functional: These are the outcome of the functions performed by a product of service. These are the intrinsic benefits of consuming a product or service. E.g.: for Ferrari functional benefits will be speed and power. Experiential: these accrue to the user in the form of feelings. E.g.: for Ferrari Experiential benefits will be thrill of driving. Symbolic: These are non intrinsic to the product and correspond to non-product related benefits. For Ferrari it will be the prestige of being a part of a select group.

Functional: Faster cooling makes ice fast

Benefit associations: Whirlpool ice magic

Experiential: Soothing cool, quicker ice formation Symbolic: Owning a Whirlpool fridge

Attitude associations: Attitudes determine buying decisions. They refer to overall evaluation of a concept like person, product, object or a brand.

*Q) FACTORS FOR DEVELOPING BRAND IMAGE (Read from Xerox Notes given) *Q) BRAND PERSONALITY (Read from Xerox Notes given) **Q) BRAND POSITIONING A brand position is the part of the brand identity and value proposition that is to be actively communicated to the target audience and that demonstrates an advantage over competing brands. Positioning is a concept, which is commonly seen in marketing. Positioning is the act of designing the companys offerings and image to occupy a distinctive place in the target markets mind. The essence of brand

positioning is achievement of valued distinction/differentiation in a consumers mind. The perceived differentiation takes care of the competitive angle and the value aspect takes care of customer motivation e.g. Perk is positioned as a substitute for a snack, which can be, had anywhere, anytime. A brand must create an association and cling on to it. The bottom line for a position is that it must be valuable, credible, distinctive and suitable for the product in question. The strategy to differentiate the brand or product is to place it in an appropriate cell of the human mind so that whenever the customer recalls the product, the firms brand is the first to be recalled. This strategy is called Positioning. Positioning is not what you do to a product. But what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect. Whether a brand owns a position or not could easily be found by a simple word association or word which immediately springs to mind as and when the brand is thought for when the word is thought of, the brand is recalled immediately. Some of the well-positioned brands are: Raymonds: The Complete Man Fair and lovely: Fairness Woodland: Tough Shoes Dettol: Antiseptic Captain cook: Free Flow Salt What is Lux? Is it a soap? The interpretation of it as a soap entirely misses the point if it is a soap. How is it different from others in the category? What does Lux manifest- it is beauty. The brand reveals hidden intentions. Without a compelling marketing mission, a brand probably cannot take birth. A Lux customer buys it for its promised delivery of beauty. The Lux brand seeks to satisfy the beauty aspirations in a select target group. It is a loud and clear promise of what it

has to offer. Soap is only one way of delivering beauty. A number of products have been discovered with the legitimate territory of Lux. The positioning essentially deals with a competitive frame of reference. The position differs from the older term image in that it implies a frame of reference the reference point usually being the competition. That is how a brand is to be perceived vis--vis others in the category. For instance, ICICI positions itself as a friendly bank.

In short the relation between brand image, identity and positioning can be summarized as follows:
IDENTITY IMAGE POSITION

Brand as intended Perceptual filter/screen Receivers perceptual space

Brand Identity, Image and Positioning BRAND IMAGE BRAND IDENTITY BRAND POSITION part of the brand

How the brand is How strategists want The now perceived the brand to perceived

be identity and value proposition to be actively communicated to a target audience

**Q) POSITIONING STRATEGIES

A product can be positioned based on 2 main platforms: The Consumer and The Competitor. When the positioning is on the basis of CONSUMER, the campaigns and messages are always targeted to the consumer himself (the user of the product)

Peter England always campaigns their product concentrating on the consumer, the user of its product. Louis Philip also concentrates on this kind of campaigns.

The other kind of positioning is on basis of COMPETITION. These campaigns are targeted towards competing with other players in the market.

Dettol television commercials always concentrate on advertisements, which show that this product would give you more protection, then the others.

A number of positioning strategies might be employed in developing a promotional program. The 7 such strategies are discussed below:

1. Positioning by Product Attributes and Benefits Associating a product with an attribute, a product feature or a consumer feature. Sometimes a product can be positioned in terms of two or more attributes simultaneously. The price/ quality attribute dimension is commonly used for positioning the products.

A common approach is setting the brand apart from competitors on the basis of the specific characteristics or benefits offered. Sometimes a product may be positioned on more than one product benefit. Marketers attempt to identify salient attributes (those that are important to consumers and are the basis for making a purchase decision) For e.g.

Consider the example of Ariel that offers a specific benefit of cleaning even the dirtiest of clothes because of the micro cleaning system in the product. Colgate offers benefits of preventing cavity and fresh breath. Promise, Balsaras toothpaste, could break Colgates stronghold by being the first to claim that it contained clove, which differentiated it from the leader. Nirma offered the benefit of low price over Hindustan Levers Surf to become a success.

Maruti Suzuki offers benefits of maximum fuel efficiency and safety over its competitors. This strategy helped it to get 60% of the Indian automobile market.

2. Positioning by Price/ Quality: Marketers often use price/ quality characteristics to position their brands. One way they do it is with ads that reflect the image of a high-quality brand where cost, while not irrelevant, is considered secondary to the quality benefits derived from using the brand. Premium brands positioned at the high end of the market use this approach to positioning. Another way to use price/ quality characteristics for positioning is to focus on the quality or value offered by the brand at a very competitive price. Although price is an important consideration, the product quality must be comparable to, or even better than, competing brands for the positioning strategy to be effective. For e.g. the ICICI prudential ad and also the wheel detergent or Rin soap which always focuses on the value addition and price. 3. Positioning by use or application: Another way is to communicate a specific image or position for a brand is to associate it with a specific use or application. For.e.g. Surf Excel is positioned as stain remover Surf Excel hena! 4. Positioning by product class: Often the competition for a particular product comes from outside the product class. For example, airlines know that while they compete with other airlines, trains and buses are also viable alternatives. Manufacturers of music CDs must compete with the cassettes industry. The product is positioned against others that, while not exactly the same, provide the same class of benefits.

5. Positioning by product user:

Positioning a product by associating it with a particular user or group of users is yet another approach.

Misticmoto Motorola Mobile Ad In this ad the persona of the user of the product is been positioned.

6. Positioning by Competitor:

Competitors may be as important to positioning strategy as a firms own product or services. In todays market, an effective positioning strategy for a product or brand may focus on specific competitors. This approach is similar to positioning by product class, although in this case the competition is within the same product category.

For e.g. Onida was positioned against the giants in the television industry through this strategy, ONIDA colour TV was launched with the message that all others were clones and only Onida was the leader.

7. Positioning by cultural symbols:

An additional positioning strategy where in the cultural symbols are used to differntiate the brands. Examples would be Humara Bajaj, Tata Tea, Ronald McDonald. Each of these symbols has successfully differentiated the product it represents from competitors.

**Q. BRAND EQUITY Before looking at the various methods of brand building it is essential to know what brand equity is because strong brand equity is the basis of brand building.

Keller defines brand equity as Brand equity is defined in terms of the marketing effects uniquely attributable to the brands -- for example, when certain outcomes result from the marketing of a product or service because of its brand name that would not occur if the same product or service did not have that name.

David Aaker defines brand equity as A set of assets and liabilities linked to a brands name and symbol that adds to or subtracts from the value provided by a product or service to a firm and/or that firms customers. The major asset categories are:

1. 2. 3. 4.

Brand name awareness Brand loyalty Perceived quality Brand associations

Several aspects of this definition require elaboration. First, brand equity is a set of assets. Thus the management of brand equity involves investment to create and enhance these assets. Second such brand equity asset creates value in a variety of very different ways. In order to manage brand equity effectively and to make informed decisions about brand building activities it is important to be sensitive to ways in which strong brands create value. Third brand equity creates value for the customer as well as the firm. The word customer refers to both end users and those at the infrastructural level. Finally for assets or liabilities to underlie brand equity they must be linked to the name or symbol of the brand. If the brands name or symbol should change, some or all of the assets or liabilities could be affected or even lost, although some might be shifted to the new symbol or name.

 BRAND LOYALTY

Reduced marketing costs Trade leverage Attracting new customers Create awareness Reassurance

Provides Value to Customer By Enhancing Customers

Time To Respond To Competitive

processing of information

Interpretation/

BRAND AWARENESS

Anchor to which other associations can be attached Familiarity liking Signal of substance/ commitment Brand to be considered

BRAND EQUITY PERCEIVED QUALITY

Reason to buy Differentiate/ position Price Channel member interest Extensions

Provides value to firm by enhancing: Efficiency and effectiveness of marketing programs Brand loyalty Prices/margins Brand extensions Trade leverage Competitive advantage

BRAND ASSOCIATIONS

Help process/ Retrieve information

Reason to buy Create positive attitudes/feelings Extensions

OTHER PROPRIETARY BRAND ASSETS

Competitive Advantage

BRAND LOYALTY

Brand loyalty is the ultimate goal a company sets for a branded product. A companys main question in relation to selling their products or services used to be: How do I get people to buy my product? Nowadays companies still greatly appreciate the answer to this question but they have also realized that getting customers is not the only thing they need to do. In todays rapidly moving world consumers dont stick with products for life. Advertisements and an increased feeling of independence have created consumers that will switch brands or products as soon as the feel the need to do so. What companys look for in this consumer environment is creating a so-called brand loyalty.

Brand loyalty is a consumers preference to buy a particular brand in a product category. It occurs because consumers perceive that the brand offers the right product features, images, or level of quality at the right price. This perception becomes the foundation for a new buying habit. Consumers initially will make a trial purchase of the brand and, after satisfaction, tend to form habits and continue purchasing the same brand because the product is safe and familiar. Brand loyalists have the following mindset: I am committed to this brand. I am willing to pay a higher price for this brand over other brands. I will recommend this brand to others.

LOYALTY SEGMENTATION

Loyalty segmentation helps in building strong brands. A market can usually be divided into the following groups:

Noncustomers: Those who use the competitors brand or are not product class users. Price switchers: Those who are price switchers. The passively loyal: Those who buy out of habit rather than reason. Fence sitters: those who are indifferent between two or more brands. The committed: those who are committed to our brands.

High brand equity Committed buyer

Likes the brand

Satisfied / habitual buyer no reason to change, equity diffuse Brand switchers / price sensitive buyers/ indifferent brand no loyalty no equity

The challenges to improve the brands loyalty profile are to increase the number of customers who are not price switchers, to strengthen the fence sitters and committed ties to the brand and to increase the number who would pay more to use the brand or service. Two segments where the companies generally under invest are passively loyal and the committed customers. The passively loyal customers are often taken for granted. At the other end of the spectrum are the highly loyal or committed customers. Firms also tend to take this group for granted. Yet there may be significant potential to increase business from the very loyal.

For e.g. the loyal Marriott customer might be encouraged to select even more than often with a improved portfolio of business support services such as fax machines in rooms.

Further there is a risk that loyal customers can be enticed away by a competitor if the performance of the product or service is not improved. For these reasons firms should avoid diverting resources from the loyal core to the non-customers and price switchers. One approach to enhancing the loyalty of fence sitters and the committed is to develop or strengthen their relationship with the brand. Brand awareness, perceived quality, and an effective, clear brand identity can contribute to this goal.

BRAND AWARENESS

Awareness refers to the strength of a brands presence in the consumers mind. Awareness is measured according to the different ways in which consumers remember a brand, ranging from recognition to recall to top of the mind.

Recognitions reflect familiarity gained from past exposure. Recognition does not necessarily involve remembering where the brand was encountered before why it differs from other brands or even what the brands product class is. It is simply remembering that there was a past exposure to the brand. When consumers see a brand and remember that they have seen it before they realize that the company is spending money to support the brand. Since it is generally believed that companies will not spend money on products consumers take their recognition as a signal that the brand is good. Many companies, especially while introducing a new product in the market find that sales cannot be sustained without constant advertising. Sales charts always show a meteoric rise post-advertising burst. Companies often rerun advertisement on different channels over the year to sustain the brand awareness and ensure that the consumers are exposed to the brand. Complan repeats the same TV commercials for different target markets over a period of time to ensure brand recall and visibility. Awareness for Dandi Salt is higher than Saffola Salt (despite the fact that Saffola has been in the market for longer) due to constant advertising ensured by Dandi.

BRAND PYRAMID

TOP OF MIND BRAND AWARENESS BRAND RECALL

BRAND IGNORANCE

At the top of the pyramid is the brand that exists at the top of the customers mind. This is the happy and the most desired condition that any marketer seeks. The next level is of all the other brands that are recalled by the customer in an unaided form.(brand awareness) The customer is asked to recall as many brands as he or she is able to whenever one thinks of a product. Brand recognition is the third level and perhaps the lowest level. And also known as brand recall. Here customers are aided in recalling or recognizing brands or associating brands with a product class. This is important at the point of purchase. The contribution of awareness to building up an equity for the brand can be gauged by the fact that high awareness creates associations in the customers mind. He or she is able to associate different images with the brand and this in turn can help generate a customers liking for it. It can also lead to a large base of committed

customers, and all these benefits in turn will help the firm have more leverage in the market place. FACTORS AFFECTING BRAND AWARENESS Brand Awareness refers to the strength of a brands presence in the consumers mind. Awareness is measured according to the different ways in which consumers remember a brand, ranging from recognition to recall to top of the mind. Some of the major factors affecting brand awareness are:-

BRAND NAME:- One of the most important factor affecting brand awareness
is the brand name. Brand name plays an important part in creating awareness for a brand. Also whether the name is really very meaningful or completely baseless they both affect brand awareness. Bacardi Breezers - flavoured aerated vodka based drink Hp Ghoda Lal diesel engine oil Centre Shock chewing gum.

ADVERTISING: - Advertising also helps to create Brand awareness in a big

way. Take any brand name Fevicol, Vicks, Pepsi all have used ads for creating awareness among their consumers.

CELEBRITY:- Another important factor affecting Brand awareness is the

celebrities endorsing the Brand. Whenever you see a celebrity you love endorsing a brand you tend to propagate the Brand.

Coca Cola experienced a tremendous increase in brand following post ad campaigns with Hrithik Roshan and Kaho Na Pyaar Hai.

 PARENT COMPANY:- To a large extent the parent company helps in promoting

a brand. The parent company in many cases is so popular that its brand automatically become popular and people become aware about the product.

TATA always promotes it brand with its name along with the brand such as TATA INDICA, TATA INDIGO, TATA SALT.

SALES PROMOTIONS AND OFFERS: - It also helps in making the consumers

aware of the brand. Some of the sales promotion activities that companies carry out help them in a big way to make their target aware of the brand.

BAJAJ Chetak campaign of Rs.999 and you could buy a scooter.

1st MOVER ADVANTAGE: - Usually the company that enters a product

category first has good awareness about its brand. Usually people tend to remember the first player to enter the market.

Parle products BISLERI in the packaged water segment.

PUBLIC RELATIONS: - The coverage that the fourth estate and magazines
provide a brand also helps in building awareness about a brand.

The popularity of local restaurants such as Olive and Athena has been boosted by the page 3 mentions in Bombay times.

 DIRECT SELLING:- Some of the companies use direct selling as an platform to

create brand awareness.

Eureka Forbes water filter AQUA GUARD.

PEER GROUP OPINION:- Peer group opinion also plays an important part in the

whole brand awareness exercise. Usually people tend to discuss a lot about the brand and tend to share their experiences or some recent ads they have seen which in turn increases brand awareness of their peers.

A large number of chat boards on the Internet or a group of friends from same education field.

RECALL OF ADS:- In some cases the brand awareness is also high due to
specific ad recall which is very high.

Amaron battery ad of race between tortoise and rabbit with the tagline LAST LONG REALLY LONG

BRAND RECALL

A brand (Bisleri) is said to have recall if it comes to consumers minds when its product class (mineral water) is mentioned. It indicates stronger brand position in the mind. Still at a higher level is the top of the mind recall; it is the brand, which comes first to the mind. The top of mind awareness indicates a relative superiority a brand enjoys above others. Sometimes a brand becomes so dominant that it becomes the only recalled brand in the product category. Very few brands are able to achieve dominance. The cases may include Johnson&Johnson baby powder, Dettol antiseptic, Band Aid.

BRAND NAME DOMINANCE

The ultimate awareness level is brand name dominance where in a recall task most customers can only provide the name of a single product.e.g. Mediker, Amul Pizza, Amul Cheese spread. In order to avoid losing a trademark a firm should begin protecting it early in its life, starting with the selection of the name itself. Descriptive names such as pepper should not be used because they become harder to distinguish from the generic product and thus harder to protect. Sometimes it is helpful and even necessary to create a generic name so that the brand does not become one; the generic name copier helped Xerox protect its brand.

PERCEIVED QUALITY

Perceived quality is a brand association that is elevated to the status of a brand asset for several reasons: Among all brand associations only perceived quality is known to drive financial performances. Perceived quality is often a major (if not the principal) strategic thrust of business. Perceived quality is linked to and often drives other aspects of a brand is perceived.

Achieving perceptions of quality is usually impossible unless the quality claim has substance. Perceived quality may differ from actual quality for a variety of reasons.

 Customers may be overly influenced by a previous image of poor quality. Because of this they may not believe in new claims may not be willing to take time to verify them. Thus it is critical to protect a brand from gaining a shoddy quality from which recovery is difficult and sometimes impossible. The company may achieve quality on an aspect, which the consumers do not consider important. Customers rarely have all the information necessary to make a rational and objective judgment on quality-even if they do have the information they lack the motivation and the time to process it. Thus it is important to understand the little things that consumers use as a basis for making a judgment about the quality. E.g. if the customer kicks the tires to test the sturdiness of a car the tires have to be sturdy. As customers may not know how best to judge quality they might be looking at the wrong cues. A metaphor or a visual image can help consumers see the context in the right way. Jewellery stores that cater to first time diamond buyers must educate buyers that quality is not necessarily reflected in price tags or carat claims. BRAND ASSOCIATIONS

The associations consumers make with brand support brand equity. These associations may include product attributes, a celebrity spokesperson or a symbol. Brand associations are driven by brand identity-what the organization wants the brand to stand for in the consumers mind. A key to brand building then is to develop and implement brand identity.

One key to successful brand building is to develop a brand identity- to know what the brand stands for and to effectively express that identity.

Hyundai Santro has clearly positioned itself as the sunshine car and endorsed Preity Zinta known for her bubbly personality to match their positioning statement.

Invariably all brands come to acquire a meaning in the mind of the customer. Customers associate different dimensions of the product including its use and use situations to the brands. Brand association, therefore, is anything linked to the memory of a brand. Thus a jingle like Happy days are here again has been associated in the customers mind with Thumps Up. Surf is linked with the economy-minded middle class housewife- Lalitaji in the advertisements.

The name Tata is associated with quality. It is important to know how strong this association is and for a family name like this, which are the products with which this association is the strongest.

*Q.BRAND IDENTITY

Brand identity is a unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain. These associations represent what the brand stands

for and imply a promise to customers from the organization members. Brand identity should establish a relationship between the brand and the customer by generating a value proposition involving functional, emotional or self-expressive benefits.

Brand identity consists of a core identity and an extended identity. The core identity represents the timeless essence of a brand .It is central to both the meaning and success of the brand. It indicates the reasons why the brand has been brought into existence. It contains the associations that are most likely to remain constant as the brand travels to new markets and products. The elements of the core identity remain more resistant to change than the elements of the extended identity. Thus the core identity is timeless while the brand position or the communication strategies might change. It is generally the first word that people behind the brand may utter when asked what the brand stands for:

Lux Dettol Johnson&Johnson

Beauty bar for young women Antiseptic, protection Trust and quality a baby needs

The extended brand identity includes elements that provide texture and completeness. The core identity usually does not possess enough detail to perform all of the functions of a brand identity. In particular, a brand identity should help a company decide which program or communication is effective and which be damaging or off the target. Even a well-thought-out and on-target core identity may ultimately be too ambiguous or incomplete for this task. A brand personality does not often become a part of the core identity. However it can be exactly the right vehicle to add the needed texture and completeness by being a part of the

extended identity. It provides the strategist with the opportunity to add full detail to complete the picture. Brand identity consists of twelve dimensions organized around four perspectives:

Brand as a product Brand as an organization Brand as a person Brand as a symbol

Core

Brand as a product: A core element of a brands identity is usually its product thrust, which will affect the type of associations that are desirable and feasible. A strong link to a product class means that the brand will be recalled when the product class is cued. A dominant brand will often be the only brand recalled. Band Aid in adhesive bandages i.e. whenever we think of bandages Band Aid is the first thing that comes to our mind. And many a times the consumers use the word Band Aid instead of bandage. Bisleri is the word almost synonymous with the mineral water. Whenever one thinks of mineral water Bisleri is the first name that comes to their mind. (Now the leader in this segment is Kinley)

Brand as organization: The brand as organization perspective focuses on attributes of the organization rather than those of the product or service. The people, culture, values and programs of the company create such organization attributes as innovation, a drive for quality and concern for the environment. Some brand aspects can be described as product attributes in some contexts and organizational attributes in other contexts. Quality or innovation, for instance could be a product-related attribute if it is based on the design and features of a specific product offering while if it is based on the organizational cultures values and programs it would be an organizational-related attribute. In some cases there can be a combination of the two perspectives. However organizational attributes are more enduring and more resistant to competitive claims than are product attributes because:

1. It is much easier to copy a product than to copy an organization with unique people, cultures and programs. 2. Organizational attributes usually apply to a set of product classes and a competitor in only one product class may find difficult to compete. 3. Organizational attributes such as being innovative are hard to communicate and evaluate it is difficult for competitors to demonstrate that they have overcome any perceived gap. Brand as a person-BRAND PERSONALITY: Brand personality is an important area of study for at least two reasons. First, research has shown that a strong brand personality may justify a higher price premium. Moreover, brand personality can play a key role in differentiating a brand in a product category where there is actually little or no difference between products. Prior research indicates that the greater the similarity between a consumers personality characteristics and the characteristics that they believe comprise the brand, the greater the preference for that brand. Brand-as-person perspective suggests a brand identity that is richer and more interesting than one based on product attributes. Like a

person, a brand can be perceived as being upscale, competent, impressive, trustworthy, fun, active, humorous, casual, formal, youthful or intellectual.

FARDEEN KHAN for PROVOGUE In this case you would associate Fardeen Khan with someone who is cool, trendy, from the upper class, fun loving. With Fardeen khan endorsing for provogue peoples perception about Provogue clothes is also cool, trendy, for people who are fun loving.

A brand personality can help create a stronger brand in many ways: 1. It can help create a self-expressive benefit that becomes a vehicle for the customer to express his or her personality. For e.g. an Apple user might consider himself to be casual, anti corporate and creative. 2. Just as human personalities affect relationship between people, brand personality can be the basis of a relationship between the customer and the brand. E.g. Mercedes Benz might be perceived as a upscale, admired person. 3. It might help communicate a product attribute and thus contribute to a functional benefit. E.g. The strong, energetic personality of the Ambuja man suggests that Ambuja cement is also strong and energetic. The brand as a symbol: A strong symbol can provide cohesion and structure to an identity and make it much easy to gain recognition and recall. Its presence can be a key ingredient of brand development and its absence can be substantial handicap. Elevating symbols to the status of being part of the brand identity reflects their potential power. Anything that represents a brand can be a symbol including programs such as the Ronald McDonald house. Symbols involving visual imagery can be memorable and powerful such as the Nikes Swoosh symbol and the McDonalds golden arches. Each strong visual image captures much of its

respective brands identity because connections between the symbol and the identity elements have been built up over time. It just takes a glance to be reminded of the brand.

BRAND ESSENCE

Brand essence is a compact summary of what the brand stands for. Brand identity structure includes core identity, extended identity and a brand essence. Typically the brand identity will require 6 to 12 dimensions in order to adequately describe the brands aspirations. Because such a large set is unwieldy, it is helpful to provide focus by identifying the core identity i.e. the most important elements of the brand identity. All dimensions of the core identity should strategy and values of the organisation and at least one association should differentiate the brand and resonate with the customers. The core identity is most likely to remain constant as the brand travels to new markets and products. The core identity creates a focus both for the customer and the organisation. The extended identity includes all of the brand identity elements that are not in the core . brand personality is an element of extended identity.

Core identity has 2 to 4 dimensions that compactly summarize the brand vision. Brand essence provides further focus by giving a single thought that captures the soul of the brand. The brand essence can be viewed as the glue that holds the core identity elements together.

Characteristics of brand essence

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Should resonate with customers Drive the value proposition Should be own able Provide differentiation persisting through time. Should be compelling enough to energize and inspire employees and partners of the organization.

BRAND ESSENCE VS. TAG LINE

Brand essence represents the identity while tag line represents the brand position. The function of essence is to communicate and energize those inside the organization while tag lines function is to communicate with the external audience. Brand essence is timeless or for a long period of time while the tag line has a limited life. Brand essence is relevant across markets and products whereas the tag line is more likely to have a confined arena.

**Q. U.S.P

Unique Selling Proposition is a unique differentiating quality of a product, which is easily recognisable & distinguishable from its competitors. In USP the manufacturer adds some new features to his product. These features are unique since they are not available in the similar products of competitiors. These are unique selling points that differentiate the product with competitors product. The precise definition of the U.S.P is put through in these 3 parts:
1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just

words, not just product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: "Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit." 2. The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer. It must be uniqueeither a uniqueness of the brand or a claim not otherwise made in that particular field of advertising. 3. The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions, i.e., pull over new customers to your product. Some good current examples of products with a clear USP are:

Head & Shoulders: "You get rid of dandruff" Olay: "You get younger-looking skin"

Some unique propositions that were pioneers when they were introduced:

Domino's Pizza: "You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less -- or it's free." FedEx: "When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight" M&M's: "The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand" Wonder Bread: "Wonder Bread Helps Build Strong Bodies 12 Ways"

*Q BRAND FATIGUE It takes place when the sale of branded products sharply declines over a period of time & a brand no longer looks attractive & acceptable to consumers. The market share of the product goes down due to lack of support from the consumers.They are tired of using the same brand over the years. This situation is described as brand fatigue. Causes of Brand Fatigue: 1. A brand remains unchanged in appearance & utility which makes the consumer disinterested. 2. A brand after initial acceptance fails to come up to the expectations of the buyers 3. A brand does not adjust its advertising message & brand image with changes in its environment 4. The projected qualities & benefits of the brand become outdated & are no more attractive to large majority of consumers.

***QCOPYWRITING Copywriting is a specialized form of communicating ideas that are meant to serve the requirements of modern marketing. It helps in establishing links between advertisers and their prospects. It may also be used to promote the acceptance of an idea, as in the case of non-commercial advertising. It utilizes words to convey messages having commercial, informative or persuasive value through various media and its success is indicated by the acceptance by the audience of the idea or claims made for goods or services. The results come from what words convey in terms of benefits and satisfaction. Meaning: Copywriting is essentially selling with words. Copywriting is using words to convince readers they will benefit by using a certain product or service and then motivating them to take action (buy). Copywriting is the words used in advertisements, TV commercials, and brochures. Whenever a business promotes itself (through a press release, a leaflet or a newsletter), it needs a copywriter. Thats why copywriting is everywhere - on big posters, local newspaper ads, and every slogan. And when you put a postcard in a newsagent's window, to sell your old hi-fi, you're using copywriting again. Copywriting is probably the most creative and demanding branch of writing. You start with a blank sheet of paper. You may have only a couple of days to meet the clients deadline. And your work could be read by millions of people. What Copywriting isn't! Copywriting is different from copyright. Copyright is about owning the rights to a book, play or picture while copywriting is writing of an advertisement for television, radio, posters, billboards, leaflets, pamphlets, etc. Who needs copywriters?

The market is vast. Every business, small and large, has to promote itself. Every company needs leaflets or direct mail letters. And every new product needs a pack that will entice us to buy it. These days all organizations need to communicate. That includes hospitals, local authorities and charities. So the opportunities for the copywriter are infinite. Because organizations constantly alter, their literature and ads need regularly changing, too. That keeps copywriters busy!

A copywriter performs a highly responsible role of fully understanding the marketing strategy and integrating it, through creative strategy, in the copy. Copywriting skills require Command over language and An intellectual and creative mentality.

It may also be necessary, at times, to assume the role of a salesman, for instance to understand the marketing perspective from the advertisers angle as well as from the audience point of view.

A copywriter works in the creative department along with the art director. It is the job of this department to generate alternative advertising ideas and ultimately pick one or a few that will go forward into production. A copywriter has the responsibility of creating the advertising while as the art director has to introduce illustration and pictoral materials. These two people are generally under the supervision of the Creative Director and as team is responsible to make a campaign.

***QCRITERIA FOR WRITING AN EFFECTIVE COPY

1. Be Precise 2. Be concise 3. Aim to sell 4. Be sincere 5. Be addressed according to the type of the audience 6. Stimulate interest 7. Create desire 8. Inspire confidence
9. Influence the readers thoughts & /or action

*Q.COPY PLATFORM A copy platform is a written plan that contains: a. The U.S.P which is the most important information about the product. b. The objective of the advertisement c. The creative strategy that the copy writer intends to use in order to put the advertisement together.

A copy platform helps the writer to organize material & proceed in the desired direction.

*Q PRINT COPY PRINCIPLES: 1. For print ads one of the key elements is the headline. It must pull the reader into the body copy, offering a reward for reading on. 2. The headlines should appeal to the readers self-interest. 3. Headlines and visuals should complement each other so well and tell the story so easily that a reader who only looks at the headline and the main visuals can get the message without having read a word of the body copy.

*Q. TELEVISION COPY PRINCIPLES: 1. Television scripts must be written to take advantage of the visual nature of the medium by using demonstration. 2. The message contained in the pictures is especially important as many consumers pay only limited attentions to advertisement. 3. Simplicity in the TV ads are strongly recommended as these ads are fleeting and do not usually communicate much information. 4. The shots in the ad should be more connected and better linked to each other since such ads get higher recall scores. 5. T.V. ads should use more shots because viewers attention spans are getting shorter. 6. The angle of the camera should be positioned in such a way that the product or the person appears bigger, stronger or bolder, such ads are evaluated more favourably.

*Q.RADIO COPY PRINCIPLES:

1. For radio ads, a key principle is to write the copy that creates a picture in the Minds eye, of the listener. The radio ad must pull the listener in from whatever is being done when the ad comes on; into an imagined situation through use of human voice, sound effects, humor and music. 2. The radio ad must mention the brand name and the key selling benefits early and often. 3. Short words and short sentences should be used as these are easier to understand on the radio. 4. Radio ads can use various creative tools, and a topology of different kinds of radio ads has been developed.

*****Q. METHODS OF PREPARING ADVERTISING BUDGET (Read from Xerox notes given) Q. MEDIA PLANNING Media planning takes into account all decisions regarding the time and place of advertising in addition to the selection of media. A media plans outlines how advertising time and space in various media will be used to achieve the marketing objectives of the company through advertising. Media planning is a lengthy and time consuming activity. Its basic purpose is to select the right media in order to reach the right audience so as to have the desired response. Careful media planning is necessary in order to deliver advertising message effectively to the largest number of prospects at the lowest possible cost. Media planning is lengthy and time consuming activity. Its main aim is to select the right media in order to reach the right audience so that desired response is attained.

*Q. MEDIA PLANNING PROCESS (Read from Xerox notes given) *******Q.FLIGHTING Flighting is an ad industry term referring to the planned and delivered impressions for a schedule over time. Flighting is the way impressions are spread over the entire campaign's duration. An advertising continuity or timing pattern in which advertising messages are scheduled to run during intervals of time that are separated by periods in which no advertising messages appear for the advertised item. Any period of time during which the messages are appearing is called a flight, and a period of message inactivity is usually called a hiatus. *******Q. PULSING An advertising timing or continuity pattern in which there is noted variation of media spending in the media schedule. There is some spending during all periods of the schedule, but there are periods in which the spending is notably heavier than others. This approach stands in contrast to a continuous media pattern in which equal amounts of spending are allocated to all time periods of the schedule. *Q. REACH Reach is the percentage of the target population exposed at least once to the advertiser message during a specific time frame. Reach relates to the total number of people exposed to the media during a specific period. *Q. FREQUENCY Frequency refers to the number of times an advertising message is delivered to the target audience, within a given period. It indicates the number of times a target audience is exposed to the vehicles of advertising message. The advertising frequency of a particular schedule is computed with the following formula:

Average frequency = Total exposures for all households Reach

*Q. MEDIA RESEARCH Media research also called Audience Research relates to coverage, depth & impact of different advertising media. It is also concerned with frequency & effectiveness of different advertising media. It provides information as regards popularity & effectiveness of each advertising medium, comparative position of cost of advertising in each medium & the position of cost & benefit in case of each advertising medium. This facilitates the selection of the most suitable media mix for the benefit of the advertiser. **Q. ROLE/ SCOPE/ IMPORTANCE OF MEDIA RESEARCH (Read from Xerox Notes given) Q. TYPES OF ADVERTISING MEDIA (Read from Xerox Notes given) *Q. PRINT-MEDIA VEHICLE (Read from Xerox Notes given) *Q. RADIO AS A MEDIA (Read from Xerox Notes given) *Q. ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF TV (Read from Xerox Notes given)

*Q. OUTDOOR AD (Read from Xerox Notes given) *Q. CORPORATE AD (Read from Xerox Notes given)

** Q.METHODS OF ADVERTISING AGENCY COMPENSATION (Read from Xerox Notes) Q. INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

For many years, the promotional function in most companies was dominated by mass media advertising. Companies relied primarily on their ad agencies for guidance in nearly all areas of marketing communications. Most marketers did use additional promotional and mktg communication tool, but sales promo and direct mktg agencies as well as package design firms were generally viewed as auxiliary services and generally used on a per project basis. PR agencies were used to manage the organizations publicity, image and affairs with relevant publics on an ongoing basis but were not viewed as integral participants in the mktg communication process.

Many marketers built strong barriers around the various mktg and promotional functions and planned and managed them as separate practices, with different budgets, different views of the market, and different goals and objectives. These companies failed to recognize that the wide range of mktg and promotional tools must be coordinated to communicate effectively and present a consistent image to target markets.

EVOLUTION OF IMC

During the 1980s, many companies came to see the need for more of a strategic integration of their promotional tools. These firms began moving towards the process of integrated marketing communication (IMC), which involves coordinating the various promotional elements and other marketing activities that communicate with the firms customer. As marketers embraced the concept of IMC, THEY BEGAN ASKING THEIR AD AGENCIES to coordinate the use of a variety of promotional tools rather than relying primarily on media advertising. A number of companies also began to look beyond traditional advertising agencies and use other type of promotional specialists to develop and implement various components of their promotional plans.

Many agencies respond to the call for synergy among the various promotional tools by acquiring PR, Sales Promotion, and direct marketing companies and touting themselves as IMC agencies that offer one stop shopping for all of their clients promotional needs.

THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING AN INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

REVIEW OF THE MARKETING PLAN 1. Examine the overall marketing plan and objectives 2. Role of Advertising and Promotions

3. Competitive analysis 4. Assess environmental influences ANALYSIS OF PROMOTIONAL PROGRAM SITUATION Internal analysis

Promotional department organization Firms ability to implement a promotional program.

Agency evaluation and selection Review of previous program results External analysis

Consumer behaviour analysis Market segmentation and target marketing Market positioning ANALYSIS OF THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS Analyse receivers response processes. Analyse source, message, channel factors. Establish communication goals and objectives.

BUDGET DETERMINATION

Set tentative marketing communication budgets. Allocate tentative budget.

DEVELOP IMC PROGRAM 1. Advertising Set advertising objectives Determine advertising budget Develop advertising message Develop advertising media strategy 2. Direct marketing Set direct marketing objectives Determine direct marketing budget Develop direct marketing message Develop direct marketing strategy 3. Interactive/Internet marketing Set Interactive/Internet marketing objectives Determine Interactive/Internet marketing budget Develop Interactive/Internet marketing message Develop Interactive/Internet marketing media strategy 4. Sales Promotion Set Sales Promotion objectives Determine Sales Promotion budget Develop Sales Promotion message Develop Sales Promotion media strategy 5. Public Relations/Publicity

Set Public Relations/Publicity objectives Determine Public Relations/Publicity budget Develop Public Relations/Publicity message Develop Public Relations/Publicity media strategy

6. Personal Selling/Sales Set Personal Selling/Sales objectives Determine Personal Selling/Sales budget Develop Sales message. Develop selling roles and responsibilities INTEGRATE AND IMPLEMENT MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES.

Integrate promotional mix strategies Create and produce ads Purchase media time, space, etc. Design and implement direct marketing programs. Design and distribute sales promotion materials. Design and implement public relations/publicity programs Design and implement interactive/internet marketing programs.

MONITOR, EVALUATE, AND CONTROL IMC PROGRAM

Evaluate promotional program results/effectiveness Take measures to control and adjust promotional strategies

Resistance to IMC

While the logic of IMC appeals to most marketing practitioners, there are many who resist integrating their communications efforts.

Inertia The first and foremost reason for resistance is inertia or refusal to change any attempt to change the so-called tried and tested recipe tends to encounter resistance. IMC requires a complete re-structuring of the mindset towards marketing communications both at the client side and the agency side. For most managers, this is a difficult task to embark upon.

Nothing New Most clients and agencies think that IMC is simply old wine in a new bottle that the use of multiple communications tactics, coordinated campaign themes, and consistent graphic or corporate identity has always been employed. Most brands have attempted to integrate the look and feel across media for a long time. But the last five years have seen the emergence of many new media opportunities, Internet, Events, Product-placements, etc. So the task has become a lot more complex. It is this increasing complexity that calls for a holistic and synergistic approach towards marketing communications.

Complex Planning Complex planning is another deterrent. The integrated marketer can select from more than 20 tools, from advertising to in-store merchandising to promotion to public relations to database marketing to the Internet. This often requires detailed and long-term planning at both the client and agency levels. Marketing is often viewed as cost, rather than investment. This tactical rather

than strategic perspective works against planning and preparation, which is the foundation of IMC. Planning helps in deciding the communications strategy that ultimately helps in optimising the marketing spends.

Lack of Initiative Many clients blame the agencies for not initiating IMC. Kotler writes, Most agencies have not done a good job of putting together all the different teams and organisations involved with a communications campaign. Agencies themselves have not given adequate focus to IMC. It is often treated as an appendage to the mainline agency. While agencies need to invest more into IMC in terms of people, tools & research it is also necessary to educate clients on IMC thinking.

Accountability Accountability or the problem of accurately measuring the effectiveness of the various disciplines used also discourages clients from using IMC. The client always wants the highest possible ROI on every buck he spends. Lack of guidelines to evaluate the IMC programme is also an impediment to IMC programmes. IMC in Practice

McCann Erickson India has used IMC for General Motors and the launch of Virgin Atlantic. FCB Ulka went the integrated way for launching the new TATA Indigo. Percept has implemented IMC campaigns for Reid & Taylor and more recently Hero Honda Ambition. Rediffuson DY&R too have attempted to integrate the Daikin Airconditioners campaign.

TATA INDIGO LAUNCH

The launch integrated all the elements of IMC to give one message of 'Comfort and Luxury'. This message and the visual of the 'Arm Chair' was used in a variety of media vehicles, including newspapers, magazines, TV, outdoor, merchandising, mailers, website, event design, brochures and even invitation card to the launch event. Parameshwaran emphasises, Coordinating the entire campaign called for a lot of effort, since you had to use the key elements of the message and adapt it to the medium concerned. The arm chair may look very nice in press ad, but how will look on stage, or on a banner ad on the website? Overall the integration has had a tremendous effect on the brand Tata Indigo. No one got a message from any source that was not aligned to the strategy of comfort and luxury.

DAIKIN AIRCONDITIONERS The campaign for Daikin Airconditioners has been built around message of 'complete silence' which has been taken across not only press, TV, outdoor, retail and online advertising, but has been even used by dealers and sales personnel in the field. Mendoza explains, Our client sells the Airconditioners on a technology platform which single-mindedly translates into it being more silent than other Airconditioners. And the result has been very encouraging the IMC campaign is doing wonders for the product on the sales front - this despite Daikin being about 20 per cent more expensive than other air-conditioners in its class and not once resorting to promotions, discounts etc.

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS WITH RESPECT TO LOWE Ltd.

Public relations:

LOWE had launched the AXE products with a very grand launch. It does this sort of an activity for almost all its products.

Rural Marketing: For Lifebouy, LOWE had suggested the use of vans Decorated with logos and pictures of Lifebouy all over for the rural market which was a great success.

Sales Promotion: LOWE had suggested the insertion of dental insurance in the Pepsodent toothpaste packets worth Rs. 1000/-

Direct Marketing: The team at LOWE handling Pepsodent also went and spoke to various dentists about the benefits of the toothpaste thus encouraging them to suggest that toothpaste to their patients.

SMS: There has been a lot of advertising done through SMS for the AXE range of products.

Packaging:

The team at LOWE had taken active participation in the packaging of the AXE shaving products.

Wrapping up IMC is not a management fad; it is a fundamental and marked shift in thinking and practice of marketing communications by clients and advertising agencies. A quick market scan proves that IMC is being taken seriously and is being practised by a significant group of marketing communications practitioners. The primary value that agencies see with IMC is the consistency, impact, and continuity, which an integrated programme provides. The critical issue concerning IMC is that of evaluation and measurement of integrated programmes. Part of the difficulty is that traditionally advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, and the public relations disciplines have developed separate and distinct measurement approaches. The measurement of integrated programs, which can estimate the synergy between elements, is a totally new field, which remains relatively undeveloped. IMC is a new approach to marketing communications planning being driven by technology, customers, consumers, and by organisational desire to efficiently allocate finite marketing resources. It is still an emerging discipline. We are living in a period of transition between the historical product-driven outbound marketing systems and the new information-driven, interactive, consumer focused marketplace of the twenty-first century. So is IMC an idea whose time has come? Only time will tell! **Q. Media Planner A media planner is an advertising professional who specializes in determining the best placements for advertisements. Media planners work with their clients to develop a media strategy which will position their brand well and reach the appropriate target market. Some media planners work for advertising agencies,

others as independent consultants, and others for firms which specialize in media planning services exclusively. Television owners may have noted that advertising tends to follow certain patterns. Promotions for sporting events tend not to air with soap operas, while perfume ads are rare on baseball broadcasts. This is because media planners have evaluated the demographics enjoying these types of programs, and they have determined which types of programming would be most appropriate for the products they are marketing. A media planner does more than just determining which kinds of demographics would be most interested in particular products. They also think about the specific programming which will be airing with their ads, which can require a media planner to review scripts and screener copies of media as part of their work to identify potentially problematic ad placement situations. For example, an ad for asthma medication might not be well received if it aired during an hour-long medical drama which featured a patient dying of severe asthma. Likewise, an advertisement from a company marketing to a conservative demographic should not air during a program which featured a liberal stance on an event or situation, because this might offend the demographic the company is trying to reach. Media planners work in the media department of most advertising agencies. They are responsible for putting ads in the right place at the right time, reaching the desired audience for the least amount of money. Media planners gather information on the peoples viewing and reading habits. They evaluate editorial content and programming to determine the potential use of media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, billboards and electric displays, buses, subways, taxis, airports, bus terminals, or the Internet. Media planners have to know demographics and statistics, using extensive formulas to chart out the best way a business can spend their money in order to get their product in front of the public. Media planners have to know their math. Media planners then turn their information over to media buyers who track the media space and times available for purchase, negotiate and purchase time and space for ads, and make sure ads appear exactly as scheduled. Media planners work in the big cities, New York, Chicago, and Los

Angeles. Other top cities include San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Dallas. They work in small advertising firms that employee less than ten people, to the big firms that employee dozens. Other media planners may work in house, meaning they work for a company that produces its own product and advertisements. No matter where they work, media planners can expect to put in a good 50 or more hours per week, as they strive to put together proposals for clients in a very short amount of time. Media planners have good people skills, common sense, creativity, communication skills, and problem-solving ability. There is also a need for additional training for those already employed. Knowing the newest technology and using it to your customers advantage are fundamental to success. Media planners must also know keep in tune with the culture as it ages and changes values.

**Q. TESTING METHODS: PRE TESTING AND POST TESTING

EVALUATING AD CAMPAIGNS

INTRODUCTION It is through the process of review and evaluation that an organization has the opportunity to learn and develop. In turn, this enables management to refine its competitive position and to provide for higher levels of customer satisfaction. The use of marketing communications is a management activity, one that requires the use of rigorous research and testing procedures in addition to continual evaluation. This is necessary because planned communications involve a wide variety of stakeholders and have the potential to consume a vast amount of resources.

The evaluation of planned marketing communications consists of two distinct elements: The first element is concerned with the way the ad communicates. Thus, it deals with the development and testing of individual messages. An advertising message has to achieve, among other things, a balance of emotion and information in order that the communication objectives and message strategy be achieved. To accomplish this, testing is required to ensure that the intended message is encoded correctly and is capable of being decoded accurately by the target audience. This testing could be pre or post testing. The second element concerns the overall impact and effect that a campaign has on sales once a communication plan has been released. This post-test factor is critical, as it will either confirm or reject managements judgement about the viability of their communication strategy.

THE ROLE OF EVALUATION IN PLANNED COMMUNICATIONS The evaluation process is a key part of marketing communications. The findings and results of the evaluation process feed back into the next campaign and provide indicators and benchmarks for further management decisions. The primary role of evaluating the performance of a communications is to see that the advertising objective has been met and that the strategy has been effective.

The secondary role is to ensure that the strategy has been executed efficiently, that the full potential of the individual promotional tools has been extracted and that resources have been used economically.

TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE? Companies are generally interested in finding whether they are overspending or underspending in advertising. One way to figure that out is to use the formula given below. Share of voice is the companys share of advertising expenditure that earns a share of the consumers mind, and ultimately the market. Comparing that to market share provides an idea as to the feasibility of the companys ad spend. Company Ad Spend (Rs) Share of Voice ( % ) Market Share ( % ) Advertising Effectiveness ( Mkt share / Share of voice ) A B C Total 20,00,000 10,00,000 5,00,000 35,00,000 57.1 28.6 14.3 100 40 28.6 31.4 100 .70 1 2.19

An advertising effectiveness ratio of 1 means an effective level of ad expenditure, while a ratio less than 1 indicates a relatively ineffective advertising level.

As can be seen from the above table, firm A spends Rs. 20 lakhs of the total industry expenditure of Rs. 35 lakhs. Thus, its share of voice is 57.1%. However, its market share is only 40%. So we can say that firm A is either overspending or misspending. Firm B has a market share equal in proportion to its share of voice. It spends effectively on advertising, while firm C is super efficient, and could probably increase expenditures.

PRE-TESTING

Advertisements can be researched prior to their release (pre-test) or after they have been released (post-test). Pre-tests are sometimes referred to as copy tests. The methods used to pre-test advertisements are based upon either qualitative or quantitative criteria. The most common methods used to pre-test advertisements are concept testing, focus groups, consumer juries, dummy vehicles, readability, theatre and physiological tests. Focus groups are the main qualitative method used and theatre or hall tests, the main quantitative tests.

The primary purpose of testing advertisements during the developmental process is to ensure that the final creative will meet the advertising objectives. The practical objective of pre-testing unfinished and finished creative work is that it is more effective for an advertiser to terminate an advertisement before costs become so large and commitment too final. Changes to an advertisement that are

made too late may be resisted partly because of the sunk costs and partly because of the political consequences that pulling an advertisement might have. Once a series of advertisements has been roughed or developed so that its messages can be clearly understood, advertisers seek reassurance and guidance regarding which of the alternatives should be developed further. Concept tests, indepth interviews, focus groups and consumer juries can be used to determine which of the proposed advertisements are the better ones by using ranking and prioritization procedures. Of those selected, further testing can be used to reveal the extent to which the intended message is accurately decoded. These comprehension and reaction tests are designed to prevent inappropriate advertisements reaching the finished stage. PRE-TESTING UNFINISHED ADVERTISEMENTS Concept testing

The concept testing is an integral part of the developmental stage of advertising strategy. The purpose is to reduce the number of alternative advertising ideas, to identify and build upon the good ideas and to reject those that the target audience feel are not suitable. Concept testing can occur very early on in the developmental process, but is usually undertaken when the target audience can be presented with a rough outline or story-board that represents the intended artwork and the messages to be used. There are varying degrees of sophistication associated with concept testing, from the use of simple cards with no illustrations to photomatics, which is a film of

individual photographs shot in sequence, and livematics, which is a film very close to the intended finished message. Their use will reflect the size of the advertisers budget, the completion date of the campaign and the needs of the creative team usually followed up focus groups.

The Pantene Pro V shampoo was priced higher than most shampoos, and since the target were SECs A+, the concept of showcasing modern women with short hair was created. Before they went ahead with making the ad, people at Grey Worldwide did a concept testing exercise, where a representative sample of the target was shown drawn sketches of the ad. Surprisingly, the idea of women with short hair did not gel well with them, since in India, long hair is perceived as more beautiful. Consequently, the idea was scrapped, and models were changed to those with longer hair. A lot of money was saved through this exercise, without which the ad could have backfired.
Focus groups

When a small number (8 to 10) of target consumers are brought together and invited to discuss a particular topic, a focus is formed. By using in-depth interviewing skills, a professional moderator can probe the thoughts and feelings held by the members of the group towards a product, media vehicles or advertising messages. One-way viewing rooms allow clients to observe the interaction without the focus groups behavior being modified by external influences.

The advantage of focus groups is that they are relatively inexpensive to set up and run and they use members of the target audience. In this sense, they are representative and allow true feeling and emotions to be uncovered in a way that other methods deny. They do not attempt to be quantitative and, in that sense, they lack objectivity. There may be in-built bias to the responses. Focus groups are very popular, but they should not be used on their own.

Children are a very important target audience for many products. Often focus groups of children are formed. Since they are easily bored, and may not be able to provide conclusive answers, admen have to look for creative ways to tap them. Often, they are given coloured pecils, crayons etc. and asked to draw the product. The drawing provides valuable insights. Therefore, while testing for Polo Smoothies, kids were provided with various other candies along with Polo Smoothies, and their behaviour was then noted. Picnics were also conducted.
Consumer juries

A jury of consumers, representative of the target market, is asked to judge which of a series of paste-ups and rough ideas would be their choice of a final advertisement. They are asked to rank in order of merit and provide reasons for their selections. There are difficulties associated with ranking and proiritisation tests. First, the consumers, realizing the reason for their participation, may appoint themselves as experts, so they lose the objectivity that the process is intended to bring.

Second, the halo effect can occur, whereby an advertisement is rated excellent overall simply because one or two elements are good and the respondent overlooks the weaknesses. Finally, emotional advertisements tend to receive higher scores than informational messages, even though the latter might do better in the market place.

Nestles Smoodles have kids as the target audience. They were asked to participate in such an exercise, and actually thumbed down 7 variations of the packaging, before they finally gave their approval to the present one. While testing for Kotak Mahindra Financial Services, consumer juries were provided with the names of various banks and financial service providers, and asked to segregate them into Good, Bad, and Ugly. The results were a little surprisingICICI and HDFC enjoyed top spot, while the Citibank and HSBCs were second,mostly because consumers didnt feel they could trust the MNCs completely. Kotak, Tata etc. were at the bottom. Kotak Mahindra was perceived as an unprofessional, fuddy duddy, Indian company. To change this image, the company came out with the Zindagi ka hisaab kitaab ads, which were totally non financial, and non technical, featuring instead Hindi Poetry in the background. Also, simple feel good messages were sent out for a year and a half to create a positive feeling about the company. The ad was a great success.

PRE-TESTING FINISHED ADVERTISEMENTS When an advertisement is finished, it can be subjected to a number of other tests before being released. Dummy vehicles

Many of the pre-testing methods occur in an artificial environment such as the theatre, laboratory or meeting room. One way of testing so that the readers natural environment is used is to produce a dummy or pretend magazine that can be consumed at home, work or wherever readers normally read magazines. Dummy magazines contain regular editorial matter with test advertisements inserted next to control advertisements. These pretend magazines are distributed to a random sample of households, who are asked to consume the magazine in their normal way. Readers are encouraged to observe the editorial and at a later date they are asked questions about both the editorial and the advertisements. The main advantage of using dummy vehicles is that the setting is natural, but, as with the focus group, the main disadvantage is that respondents are aware that they are part of a test and may respond unnaturally.

Respondents are shown a number of ads, and then asked which they remembered, what they liked about the ad, and so on. Going back to the previous example, the Kotak Mahindra ad stood out in such a test because (according to respondents) it was a financial services advertisements, which had no finance aspect to it.

Readability tests

The readability test involves, among other things, determining the average number of syllables per 100 words of copy, the average length of sentence and the percentage of personal words and sentences. By accounting for the educational level of the target audience and by comparing results with established norms, the tests suggest that comprehension is best when sentences are short, words are concrete and familiar, and personal references are used frequently.

Such norms are especially used when it comes to designing ads for hoardings. There are established norms as to the minimum font size a text should have to avoid being missed. Ads also try to have shorter sentences, fewer than eight words, and avoid using words like because, and so etc.
Theatre tests

As a way of testing finished broadcast advertisements, target consumers are invited to a theatre (laboratory or hall) to preview television programmes. Before the programme commences, details regarding the respondents demographic and attitudinal details are recorded and they are asked to nominate their product preferences from a list. At the end of the viewing their evaluation of their programme is sought and they are also requested to complete their product preferences a second time. There are a number of variations on this theme: one is to telephone the respondents a few days after the viewing to measure recall. The main outcome of

this process is a measure of a degree to which product preferences change as a result of exposure to the controlled viewing. This change is referred to as the

persuasion shift. This approach provides for a quantitative dimension to be added

to the testing process, as the scores recorded by respondents can be used to measure the effectiveness of advertisements and provide benchmarks for future testing. It is argued that this form of testing is too artificial and that the measure of persuasion shift is too simple and unrealistic. Furthermore, some believe that many respondents know what s happening and make changes because it is expected of them in the role of respondent.

PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASURES Physiological tests have been designed to measure the involuntary responses to stimuli and to avoid the bias inherent in the other tests. There are substantial costs involved with the use of these techniques, and the validity of the results is questionable. Consequently, they are not used a great deal in practice, but, of them all, eye tracking is the most used and most reliable. However, ad agencies dont use these tests in India. Pupil dilation

Pupil dilation tests are designed to measure the respondents reaction to a stimulus. Pupil dilation is associated with action and interest. The level of arousal is used to determine the degree of interest and preference in a particular advertisement or package design.

Eye Tracking

This technique requires the use of eye movement cameras which fire an infra-red beam to track the movement of the eye as it scans an advertisement. The sequence in which the advertisement is read can be determined and particular areas which do or do not attract attention can be located, the layout of the advertisement can then be adjusted as necessary. Electroencephalographs (EEG)

This approach involves the use of a scanner, which monitors the electrical frequencies of the brain. There are essentially two ways of utilizing this approach. The first, hemisphere lateralisation, concerns the ability of the left-hand side of the brain to process rational, logical information. It tends to process verbal stimuli. In contrast, the right-hand side of the brain is thought to handle visual stimuli and respond more to emotional inputs. The right is best for recognition; the left is better for recall. Thus, advertisements should be designed to appeal to each hemisphere.

POST-TESTING

Testing advertisements that have been released is generally more time-consuming and involves greater expense than pre-testing. However, the big advantage with post-testing is that advertisements are evaluated in their proper environment, or at least the environment in which they are intended to be successful.

There are a number of methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of such advertisements, and of these inquiry, recognition and sales based tests predominate. Inquiry tests

These tests are designed to measure the number of inquiries or direct responses stimulated by advertisements. Inquiries can take the form of returned coupons and response cards, requests for further literature or actual orders. Inquiry tests can be used to test single advertisements or a campaign in which responses are accumulated. Using a split run, an advertiser can use two different advertisements and run them in the same print vehicle. This allows measurement of the attention-getting properties of alternative messages. If identical messages are run in different media then the effect of the media vehicles can be tested. Care needs to be given to the interpretation of inquiry-Based tests, as they may be misleading. An advertisement may not be effective simply because of the responses received. People may respond because they have a strong need for the offering rather than

the response being a reflection of the qualities of the advertisement. Likewise, other people may not respond despite the strong qualities of the advertisement, simply because they lack time, resources or need at that particular moment.
Recall tests

Recall tests are designed to assess the impression that particular advertisements have made on the memory of the target audience. Interviewers, therefore, do not

use a copy of the advertisement as a stimulus, as the tests are intended to measure impressions and perception, not behavior, opinions, attitudes or the advertising effect. Normally, recall tests require the cooperation of several hundred respondents, all of whom were exposed to the advertisement. They are interviewed the day after an advertisement is screened, hence the reference to day-after-recall tests (DAR).

Once qualified by the interviewer, respondents are first asked if they remember a commercial for, say, air travel. If the respondent replies yes, Virgin Airlines, then this is recorded as Unaided Recall and is regarded as a strong measure of memory. If the respondent says no, the interviewer might ask the question did you see the advertisement for British Airways? a positive answer to this prompt is recorded as Aided Recall.
These answers are then followed by questions such as what did the advertisement say about British Airways? What did the commercial look like? and what did it remind you of?. All the answers provided to this third group of questions are written down word for word and recorded as verbatim responses. The reliability of recall scores is generally high. This means that each time the advertisement is tested, the same score is generated. Validity refers to the relationship or correlation between recall and the sales that ultimately result from an audience exposed to a particular advertisement. The validity of recall tests is generally regarded by researchers as low.

Recall tests have a number of other difficulties associated with them. They can be expensive, since a lot of resources go into looking for and identifying respondents. Also interviewing time is expensive, and scores may be rejected if it appears that the respondent is merely guessing. However, as recall tests are an indication of the levels of attention and interest in the advertisement, they are used a great deal. They provide an acceptable means by which decisions to invest heavily in advertisements can be made. Agencies accumulate vast amounts of recall data, which can be used as benchmarks to indicate whether a particular advertisement generated a score that was better or less than the average decided for the brand. Despite their merits, however, they are poor predictors of sales.

Kinetic wanted the Kinetic Challenger ad to have everything about the product shown. Though the agency tried to make the ad as memorable as possible, recall tests found that people were confused, and had little idea as to what the bike stood for, or its features.
Recognition tests

Recall tests are based on the respondents memory and their ability to process information about the advertisement. A different way of determining the effectiveness is to ask the respondents if they recognise an advertisement. This is most common in the case of print advertisements.

Having agreed that the respondent has previously seen a copy of the magazine, it is opened at a predetermined page and the respondent is asked for each ad, whether he has seen or read any part of the advertisement, If yes, then he is asked to indicate exactly which part he has seen/read.

What the scores note are? The percentage of readers who remember seeing the ad (noted) Percentage of readers who recall seeing or reading any part of the ad identifying the offering (seen associated) Percentage of readers who report reading at least 50% of the ad (read most) Percentage of readers who remember seeing the brand name or logo (signature) The reliability of recognition tests is higher than that of recall tests. Costs are also lower because the technique is simple, quick and easy to administer. It is also possible to deconstruct an ad and then assess each effect on the reader. However, bias is inevitable, on the part of the respondent. It could also be introduced by the research organisation and the interviewers fatigue. Also there could be the problem of false claiming, where the respondent claims to have seen the ad, but in fact has not. Sales tests

If the level of sales that occurs during and after an ad campaign could measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns, then sales tests would be a useful method of measuring the effectiveness of an ad. However, the fact is that, sales tests are historical by definition. Sales occur partly as a consequence of past actions, including past communication strategies, and the costs of production, agency and media have already been sunk. However, with the development and advances of technology, it is now possible to correlate consumer purchases with the ads they have been exposed to. This is known as single source data and involves the controlled transmission of advertisements to particular households whose every purchase is monitored through a scanner at supermarket checkout points.

Consumers on one side of the street receive one set of advertisements, while those on the other receive the test advertisements. Then, any change in buying pattern is observed to arrive at conclusions.
Other tests

o Tracking studies A tracking study involves interviewing a large number of people on a regular basis, weekly or monthly, with the purpose of collecting data about buyers perceptions of the advertisements and how these ads might be affecting the buyers perceptions of the brand. By measuring the impact of an advertisement campaign when it is running, adjustments can be made quickly. The most common elements that can be

tracked or monitored are the awareness levels of an advertisement and the brand, and its image ratings, as well as image ratings of the organisation. Tracking studies could be on a periodic or continuous basis. A further form of tracking is to monitor the stock held by retailers. Counts are usually undertaken every month, on a pre and post exposure basis. This method of measuring sales is used frequently.

Grey Worldwide has been tracking about 50 families in New Zealand, to find their patterns of consumption. This has gone on for the last 10 years and is still continuing. They now have an enviable wealth of information, including the products bought, reasons why, where the products are placed within the house, the manner of usage and so on. However, they say tracking in India is extremely expensive. Since this is a heterogenous market, with the North, South, East and West having distinctive preferences, and since more people would have to be tracked given our population, tracking is not feasible here.

Likeability: The key factor Research has shown that of all the measures and tests, the most powerful predictor was likeability: how much I liked the ad A lot of work has also gone in to clarify the term likeability, and has been found to have a deep meaning, and is concerned with the following issues:

Personally meaningful, relevant, informative, true to life, believable, convincing Relevant credible, clear product advantages, product usefulness, importance to me Stimulates interest and curiosity about the brand, creates warm feelings through enjoyment of the advertisement. Thus, post testing should include a strong measure of how well an advertisement was liked at its deepest level of meaning.

CONCLUSION The evaluation of a marketing plan, once implemented is an essential part of the total system. It provides a potentially rich source of material for the next campaign. The achievement of advertising objectives can only be specifically measured if the target audience is tested before and after exposure, in order that a degree of change can be determined. Such pre and post testing is however, not without its share of problems. One way of coping with such problems is to control all variables except the advertising. To achieve this, a control group and a test group are required and tests conducted so that the advertising effect can be theoretically isolated.

Again, assessment of advertising is easier said than done. There is no singular perfect technique, but research should be undertaken if the communication performance of the offering is to be built and maintained.

An important question is why so many managers choose not to measure effectiveness. The immediate answer is that all managers do measure the effectiveness demonstrated through their observation of the sales results at the end of each period. However, proper testing is rarely done for various reasons. Since different people associated with the campaign have different needs there can be disagreement as to what is to be researched. Also budget maybe restricted. It is also difficult to isolate the effect of advertising, thus why waste resources on testing.

However, only by attempting to measure the effectiveness will our understanding of advertising improve and lead to more effective utilization of the tool of communication. Sales measurement is used so commonly because it is relatively cheap to administer and quick to implement and to many managers sales and profits are derived from advertising, and so this constitutes as the only real measure.

However, pre and post testing should use a range of re and post techniques, both qualitative and quantitative. This together with the measure of likeability would be the ideal measure if time and financial resources permit.

***Q. PUBLIC RELATIONS (READ FROM THE NOTES GIVEN) *Q. ROLE OF PR IN CORPORATE IMAGE (READ FROM THE NOTES GIVEN) ****Q. CONSUMER RELATED SALES PROMOTIONS (READ FROM THE NOTES GIVEN) *Q. HOW DOES ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER (READ FROM THE NOTES GIVEN) **Q. SALES PROMOTION TOOLS (READ FROM THE NOTES GIVEN) **Q. GRP Reach and Frequency describe a part of the media plan. When these two components are put together, it is possible to describe the total weight of the media effort. The concept used to express this combination is called Gross Rating Points.

GRP= REACH * AVERAGE FREQUENCY

**Q. TRP Television Rating Points indicates the popularity of T.V. programmes. Rating is the percentage of viewers tuned to a particular T.V. programme. It is conducted every week or month *Q. DISTINGUISH BETWEEN PROMOTION & SALES PROMOTION (READ FROM THE NOTES GIVEN) *Q. IMPACT ****Q. PROMOTION STRATEGY (READ FROM THE NOTES GIVEN) *Q. OBJECTIVES OF SALES PROMOTION *Q. OF LATE, SALES PROMOTION IS HELPING IN CONSUMER FRANCHISE BUILDING. COMMENT. ***Q. CORPORATE ADVERTISING Institutional advertising also called Corporate or Image building advertising is basically for promoting Corporate Image. It aims at creating favorable image of the company in the minds of consumers and others including suppliers, dealers. Retailers, shareholders and society at large. Institutional advertising is not for achieving specific sales target. It only aims at creating market reputation and good image of the company among all social groups. Institutional advertising indicates Public relations approach to advertising. Corporate advertising is a promotional strategy that is designed to not only interest consumers in products and services offered by the company, but also to

cultivate a positive reputation among consumers in products and services offered by the company, but also to cultivate a positive reputation among consumers and others within the business world. The focus of corporate advertising is on the company itself, with the attention to the products produced by the corporation being a byproduct of the advertising effort. This type of corporate marketing is often employed along with advertising campaigns that are directly focused on the goods and services produced by the company. The main function of corporate advertising is to generate and enhance a sense of confidence and appeal among vendors and consumers. Depending on the exact nature of the corporate marketing approach, the advertising may also be developed with an eye of enhancing the reputation of the company among its peers in a community or within a given sector of the marketplace. In any application, the idea is to build the most agreeable public image for the corporation as possible. It is not unusual for a company to engage in corporate advertising as a means of dealing with some incident or factor that has damaged the reputation of the company. Factors may include unsubstantiated claims made about the business practices of the company, or some aspect of the quality of the products produced by the corporation. Corporate advertising campaigns may also help to restore consumer confidence when a takeover or merger involving the company takes place. From this perspective, a well-crafted corporate advertising campaign is a powerful tool for use in damage control situations, and may be capable or restoring confidence after the public perception of the business has been tarnished in some manner. While corporate advertising does include some mention of company products, the object of this type of advertising is not directly aimed at generating sales. Instead, corporate ads focus on the strength and reliability of the company as a whole, the integrity that the business employs in all its business relationships, and how the company seeks to better the circumstances of the geographic locations where it operates. As part of this process, it is not unusual for one or more of the leading products to be mentioned, but there is usually no mention of pricing or

upcoming discounts of products found within corporate advertising campaigns. Those are left to product advertising efforts that focus specifically on the goods produced for sale.

*Q. STRATEGIC ROLE OF PR *Q. SALES PROMOTION IS THE ONLY PROMOTIONAL TOOL THAT CAN MAKE USE OF PULL & PUSH STRATEGY SIMULTANEOUSLY. DISCUSS WITH EXAMPLES. Q. SALES PROMOTION. SALES PROMOTION

WHAT IS SALES PROMOTION? Sales promotion refers to many kinds of incentives and techniques directed towards consumers and traders with the intention to produce immediate or shortterm sales effects. DEFINITION

Sales promotion includes incentive-offering and interest-creating activities which are generally short-term marketing events other than advertising, personal selling, publicity and direct marketing. The purpose of sales promotion is to stimulate, motivate and influence the purchase and other desired behavioral responses of the firms customers.

MORE ON IT...

Sales promotion offers a direct inducement to act by providing extra worth over and above what is built into the product at its normal price. These temporary inducements are offered usually at a time and place where the buying decision is made. Not only are sales promotions very common in the current competitive market conditions, they are increasing at a fast apace. These promotions are direct inducements. In spite of the directness, sales promotions are fairly complicated and a rich tool of marketing with innumerable creative possibilities limited only by the imagination of promotion planners. Sales promotion is often referred to by the names of extra purchase value and below-the-line selling. Used to achieve short-term sales Sales promotion is a separate and distinct element in the promotion mix and is an important and powerful tool of marketing. The aim of sales promotion is goaloriented to achieve sales/marketing objectives which are short-term and immediate. Becoming too common Today we find companies in almost all sectors offering some sort of a promotion scheme. These sectors range from automobiles to beverages, from financial services to foods, from household durables to services, from household products to business products, from personal care to textiles and apparel. Writing about sales promotion tools, Prof. Philip Kotler observes they have 3 distinctive characteristics.

1. 2. 3.

Communication: they gain attention and usually provide information that may lead the customer to the product. Incentive: they incorporate some concession, inducement, or contribution that gives value to the consumer. Invitation: they include a distinct invitation to engage in the transaction now (offer valid till or till stocks last) Major users of sales promotions are marketers of soaps, detergents, toiletries, soft drinks, toothpastes, tea, coffee, footware, textiles, readymade garments,

consumer durable goods, music systems, autos, televisions, washing machines, microwave ovens, refrigerators, magazines and many other household items. In fact the list of product categories using sales promotion is ever-increasing, no matter what the product category, it could be staples, impulse goods, emergency goods shopping goods, speciality goods, unsought goods, industrial products, or different types of services. Sales promotion is now established as an important and increasingly respectable element of the marketing communication tools. Sales promotion expenditures are increasing dramatically, and economic recession is most likely to fuel this trend further. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION Advertising Sales Promotions

By using a variety of persuasive appeals, it offers reasons to buy a product or service.

Besides giving reasons in the form of different appeals, they offer incentive to the consumers to buy the product or service now. Appeals are rational

Appeals are emotional or functional in nature Time-frame is long term The primary objective is to create an enduring brand image Indirect and subtle approach towards persuading customers to buy a product or service

Time frame is short term To get sales quickly or to induce trial. Direct in approach to induce consumers to buy a product or service immediately by temporarily changing the existing price-value relationship of the product or

service. But both advertising and sales promotions go hand in hand. Both are very essential to achieve success. Both are complementary to each other.

REASONS FOR RAPID GROWTH OF SALES PROMOTION There are a number of reasons that are favourable to the growth of sales promotion: Increasing Competition The air of change is gaining momentum after the introduction of economic liberalisation. Due to increase in competition; companies are finding it increasingly difficult to compete on quality. They are therefore resorting to more and innovativemethods of sales promotion.

To break away from the clutter, Samsung introduced the phod ke dekho and phir se phod ke dekho offers, which helped increase sales.
Customers Have Become More Price Sensitive This increased price sensitivity is a direct result of rampant inflation. Economic recession is likely to fuel this trend further, as consumers and dealers become more sensitive towards prices. Sales Promotions Generally Create An Immediate Positive Impact On Sales Advertising, personal selling and other methods of promotion produce slower sales response compared to sales promotion. Sales promotions are mostly for short duration, for a specified period, leading to a sense of urgency in consumers to buy now. This creates an immediate positive impact on sales. With careful planning, it

would not be difficult to measure the impact on sales volume and profit, and see the consequences of running the promotion even on weekly or daily basis. Products have become more standardised In many product categories, there is a proliferation of brands; many of them are line extensions and me-too brands. Most brands are being perceived by consumers to be more or less similar within a given price range because of the inability of manufacturers to develop truly differentiated products. Under these circumstances, advertising messages are unable to strongly influence the consumers perceptions and create brand franchise. As a result of these perceptions of similarity among brands, marketers have no way but to compete on the basis of extra benefit offered through sales promotion. Competing companies struggle to capture market share by using every tool likely to bring sales success. Consumer Acceptance As competition intensifies and promotions proliferate, consumers have learnt to earn the rewards of being smart shoppers. Over a period of time, they have also learnt that brands on promotion are not necessarily of lower quality.

Woodland has a scheme of upto 50% off on Woodland shoes and apparel.
This learning based on experience, gets transferred to other product categories as well. Consumers have learnt that promotions are being extended to many product categories where such promotions were unheard of. Expectations Of Price Decrease With the entry of many different brands of consumer durable products in the same product category, consumers anticipate that the prices of durable goods will come down. This encourages them to postpone their purchases. To speed up the purchase in this segment of consumers, sales promotions are an effective and attractive method. Consumers evaluate the incentives associated with their purchase decision and are motivated to act now, rather than wait for the anticipated decrease in price. The marketers should ensure that the extra benefit is attractive enough to create a sense of urgency in consumers.

Samsung offers upto Rs. 8,000 off on exchanging an old refrigerator for a new Samsung refrigerator.
Advertising Has Become More Expensive And Less Effective All the advertising media have become quite expensive. Audio-visual medium, which is considered as the most effective for short-duration ads, may cost in excess of Rs. 1 lakh for a 10 second exposure during prime time. In many cases, consumers have reached a point of boredom due to excessive advertising on TV. Some consumers even consider advertising as an intrusion into their privacy, leading to zapping (surfing channels). Firms with small budgets cannot compete with big companies which spend huge sums of money on advertising. For these small budget firms, sales promotion is a more cost-effective promotion method to produce sales results. Trade Has Become More Powerful Retailers and wholesalers have become powerful and find themselves in a position to demand extra facilities from the companies. They Channel members demand more incentives to get the desired results. Manufacturers do not seem to have any alternatives but to concede to their demands, keeping in view the competitive market conditions. Pepsi offers silver coins to their dealers stocking Pepsi cases during Diwali season. And the promotions offer differs across dealers. Emphasis On Sales Volumes Towards achieving the long-term profit goals, manufacturers try to attain high sales volume. Brand managers and product managers find themselves under pressure to achieve short-term sales results for the sake of their careers. Compared to any other promotional method, sales promotion is a more effective method to generate short-term sales volume. Sales Promotions Maximise Profits A number of economic theories conclude that a company can maximise profits by using sales promotion. Such promotions can permit price discrimination by allowing the brand to compete in 2 or more different market segments. Sales promotion

may allow a premium brand to compete with a lower tier brand among price sensitive consumers. For example, a premium band of toilet soap may be on promotion in some price sensitive markets, while in the remaining markets it is sold at its normal price. Introducing An Element Of Interest There are a number of promotions which are often called interest promotions. Some of the more popular interest promotion techniques are samples, contests, and sweepstakes, free premiums and mail-in premiums. These promotions create an element of interest and excitement, and consumers enjoy these and response enthusiastically to such contests and sweepstakes, etc.

Fevicol had recently launched a contest in which one had to choose 3 Fevicol ads which they considered the best, and then complete a slogan I like Fevicol ads because

Impulse Buying Is Increasing

The number of marginal customers is increasing. Displays at the point of purchases lead to impulse buying by consumers, more so if the items on display are not expensive. There is a popular saying in Hindi, jo dikhta hai, voh bikta hai.

This strategy is followed by soft drink majors like Pepsi and Coke on a large scale. They pay huge sums of money to keep their products in front so that they are visible. These are also known as display promotions

Sales Promotion Specialists Are Available

As a result of economic liberalisation, the number of management institutions has increased. This has lead to the availability of specialists, who are not only well paid but can handle this specialised work more efficiently in the current market conditions, where sales promotion has become more important. Excess Stocks

Because of increasing number of brands, it is difficult for manufacturers and dealers to anticipate future sales. This, at times, leads to excessive inventories, and the quickest way to clear that, is to go for sales promotion.

Footwear companies like Bata, Woodland, etc regularly offer around 50% discount on their products.
ADVANTAGES OF SALES PROMOTION

Sales promotions have a significant effect on the behaviour of consumers and trades people. Such promotions can bring in more profits for the manufacturers because they permit price discrimination.

Price discrimination Producers can introduce price discrimination through the use of sales promotions. They can charge different prices to different consumers and trade segments depending on how sensitive each segment is to particular prices. Coupons, special sales events, clearance sales and discounts are examples to explain the phenomenon. Often such price discrimination are offered in specific cities in the country, Bajaj Auto Ltd. started the scheme on 20th august 2001, where by if you buy a Bajaj Spirit two-wheeler you get Rs.3000/- off, valid only in Ahmedabad. Such price discriminating sales promotions that enable consumers and traders to

pay less in certain market area or stores usually bring in more contribution than if one price is charged to all. list price. Effect on consumer behaviour As sales promotions are mostly announced for a short period, customers may feel a sense of urgency and stop comparing the alternatives. They are persuaded to act Such price discrimination also held in adjusting to fluctuations in demand and supply situation without affecting any changes in the

now rather than later.

With every 500g pack of Tang, you get a free Tang glass. Offer valid only till stocks last.
In our over communicated society and because of selective attention, it is not uncommon to ignore many advertisements. Sales promotion deals such as discounts, debates, coupons, premiums, etc also increased the attention getting power of advertisements and convey the advantages and benefits of the brand, including price information. By using promotions, marketers can reach the deal prone customers and encourage brand switching. Effect on trade behaviour Short-term promotions present an opportunity and encourage dealers to forward by. This forward buying ensures that retailers wont to go out of stocks. As dealers have more than the normal stocks, they think it advisable to advertise in local media, arranged displays and offer attractive promotion deals to consumers. These actions help in increasing the store traffic.

Retailer promotion: Buy Cadburys products worth Rs.3000/- and get any 30 chocolates worth Rs.5 each free. Buy a box of Munch and get 1 Munch free.

Regional Differences

The South is generally characterised by greater degree of going out and people tend to drink outside the house. The Tamilian, consumer in particular, is value oriented, rational and looks up to film stars, while the Keralite is more international in his outlook. The Bangalorean is as Cosmopolitan as his Mumbai or Delhi counterpart."

That sort of diversity, believes Coca-Cola, calls for a corresponding variety in promotions. The place to attract is the retail zone. Coca-Cola recently launched a promotion called ' world of Coca-Cola' covering Chennai in Tamil Nadu and Bangalore and Mysore in Karnataka. It was a value deal, aimed at the consumer disposed towards global- style outings. The consumer pays Rs 20 along with a label of a 500 ml of PET bottle to get a card which entitles him to gifts and discounts at 29 outlets, including those of global chains such as TGI Friday and Baskin and Robbins this, in these cities. About four years ago, Pepsi had a similar promotion with its Pepcards. This, however was on a national level, while the Coca-Cola promotion is South based build retail level activity matters more than it does in the North. The primary aim is to help the retail raise volumes.

DISADVANTAGES OF SALES PROMOTIONS While sales promotion is a powerful and effective method to produce immediate short term positive results, it is not a cure for a bad product or bad advertising. In fact, a promotion is speed up the killing of a bad product. Increased price sensitivity Frequently promoted brands in the product category, especially on the basis of price, make consumers and traders more price sensitive not only for the promoted brands but for other brands as well in the same product category. Consumers wait for the promotion deals to be announced and then purchase the product. This is true even for brands where brand loyalty exists. Customers wait and time their purchases to coincide with promotional offers on their preferred brands. Quality image may become tarnished If the promotions in a product category have been rare, or the product happens to be of high involvement category, the promotions could have a negative effect about

its quality image. Consumers may start suspecting that perhaps the product has not been selling well, the quality of the product is true compared to the price or the product is likely to be discontinued because it has become outdated. Dealers forward buy and divert stocks In case of deals for the trade, many dealers forward buy, in excess of their inventory requirements. This is particularly happens if a product is low bulk, much in demand and the inventory holding costs are favourably low. This is true both for wholesalers as well as retailers. Forward buying of excessive stocks on deals or quantity discounts can lead to diversion of some of the stocks in non-deal areas. Forward buying of excessive stocks on deals or quantity discounts can lead to diversion of some of the stocks in non- deal areas. Wholesalers and retailers do not hesitate in selling these excess stocks in non- deal areas on prices that are less than the list price, but keeping some reasonable margin for themselves. This is likely to have a negative effect on price discrimination efforts of the company as dealers and those areas would not be buying even the normal requirements from the company.

Merchandising support from dealers is doubtful One of the trade promotions tool is to offer promotional allowances to trade people to motivate them to provide merchandising support and to pass on some benefit to consumers. This generally is the condition attached with such promotional allowances. In many cases, the dealers do not cooperate in providing the merchandising support nor do they pass on any benefit to consumers. The retailer might not be willing to give support because he does not have the place, or the product does not sell much in his shop, or may be he thinks the effort required is more than the commission/benefit derived. Short-term orientation Sales promotions are generally for a short duration. This gives a boost to sales for a short period. This short-term orientation may sometimes have negative effects

on long-term future of the organization. Promotions mostly build short-term sales volume that is not maintained. Heavy use of sales promotion, in certain product categories, may be responsible for causing brand quality image dilution. The argument given in favour is that companies should develop superior products or services which are better than competitors and consumer should be convinced through appropriate and focused advertising about the superiority of the product and its image. This will result in lasting brand identities reflecting consumer values. Then there will be no need to offer any extra benefits; only the lasting brand image will keep customers loyal to the brand.

PULL AND PUSH STRATEGIES

Sales promotion decisions are significantly affected by whether the company decides to do to pull or push strategies to accomplish its objectives. Such a The decision may require a little or a lot of cooperation from resellers.

requirements to implement one strategy might be little more than to just stock the product by the retailers. The other strategy may demand more participation from resellers such as the ability to explain to the consumers as to how a product works. In case of using a pull strategy, marketing efforts are directed at the ultimate consumer and consumer promotions such as consumer contests and sweepstakes, rebates, coupons, free samples, consumer premiums, etc are used. expenditures. If this strategy is also chosen to include advertising, there are large advertising The objective of such promotional efforts would be to create sufficient consumer demand to pull the product through the channels, that is the consumers are encouraged to demand the product from retailers who in turn place orders with wholesaler or manufacturer to meet the consumer demand.

PULL
Manufacturer

Wholesaler Flow of Retailer

Flow of promotion: sales promotion

Consumer

Bajaj Auto Ltd. offered a scheme of taking home a scooter at Rs 999 was a sales promotional offer communicated through effective advertising and was essentially a pull strategy.

This strategy may require little promotional efforts from the resellers except to stock input the product on shelves.

A pull strategy is appropriate when

The product demand as high. It is possible to differentiate the product on the basis of real or emotional features, Brand consumers show high degree of involvement in the product purchase, There is reasonably highly brand loyalty and consumers make brand choice

decision before they go to the store. If a firm decides to use push strategy, its efforts are directed at resellers and the manufacturer becomes very dependent on their personal selling abilities and efforts. The promotional efforts are focused at pushing the product through the distribution channels; the resellers may be required to display, demonstrate and offer discounts, to sell the product. The communication to resellers is generally through trade circulars or the sales force.

PUSH
Manufacturer

Flow of deman d

Wholesaler

Flow of promotion: trade deals advertising, personal selling.

Retailer

Consumer

Push strategies generally appropriate for product categories where there is low brand loyalty and many acceptable substitutes are available in the market. It may also be suitable for relatively new products or when the brand choice is often made

in response to displays in the stores, the product purchase is unplanned or on impulse and the consumer is familiar and has reasonably adequate knowledge about the product. Manufacturers, who cannot afford to engage in sustained mass advertising, often use push strategy and offer effective incentives to dealers.

Retailer promotion: Buy Cadburys products worth Rs.3000/- and get any 30 chocolates worth Rs.5 each free. Through this offer the company is pushing its product to the retailers and now that the retailer has enough incentive the retailer stocks more and thus it becomes essential for the retailer to push the product to the consumers.
PULL AND PUSH

Manufacturer

Flow of deman d

Wholesaler

Flow of promotion mix

Retailer

Consumer

Pull promotions (Manufacturer to consumer)

Push promotions (Offered to trade)

Push promotions (Offered by retailer)

Sampling Coupons Price packs Rebates Continuity programs Contests Sweepstakes Tie-in promotion Financing incentives Special events Premiums Bonus packs Exchange offers

Discounts Display allowance Advertising allowance Free goods Contests Trade coupons Quantity discounts

Price cut Free goods Premiums Displays Feature advertising Quantity discount Clearance sale

"Product life cycle and pull or push strategies" It is quite important for brand managers to analyze and identify the stage of a particular brand in its life cycle before deciding about using sales promotion. During the stage of product introductions, a product requires different sales promotional tactics. Likewise, during the product growth stage, its maturity and the decline stages, the sales promotion tactics required are likely to be quite different. Promotional strategies are also likely to be affected for different non-durable and durable products. Also important in the development of promotional strategy would be the target audience is towards whom the sales promotional messages would be directed.

Introduction stage When the product is being introduced, the major objective is to increase the trial rate and distribution of the product. For increasing trial sampling, coupons, demonstration which are all pull promotions, can be used. To make the product available in distribution channels, it may become necessary to use some kind of incentive scheme for the resellers to encourage them and minimise their risk associating stalking a new product. Manufacturers can offer display allowances to resellers to make the product highly visible. There could be liberal guarantees to take back the stocks, if unsold, to reassure the trader. These are all push promotions. For most new products, it would be difficult to be successful without pull promotions. In fact when new products are introduced, much more emphasis is given to pull rather than push promotions.

Fair and lovely is introducing the Fair &Lovely dark circle remover crme by having an introductory offer Rs10 off which will be available through the coupons that are distributed with newspapers like the Times of India.

Growth stage In this stage, the dominant objectives are to expand the market for increasing the number of new customers who would try the product for the first time and to encourage the repeat purchase by those who have already tried the product. Another important objective is to expand or at least maintain the distribution. For increasing trial, pull promotions are appropriate however as the trial rate increases free samples become quite an expensive proposition. To encourage repeat purchase by consumers, in pack or on-pack coupons can be used.

Samsung had launched the Phod Ke Dekho offer last Diwali between October 15 and November 20, 2001, to optimise sales of its consumer electronics and home appliance products during the festival season, which resulted in tremendous sales. Samsung's sales during Diwali grew by over 28 % over last year's corresponding period and closed the period with sales of Rs 275 crore. While Samsung's CTV sales grew by 46%, refrigerator sales grew by 25% and microwave ovens by 52%. Due to the success of this promotional scheme the Samsung "Phir Se Phod ke Dekho" Consumer Offer, valid between October 1~November 15, 2002 had been reintroduced by the company to optimize sales.
This would also help in converting those customers who have already tried the product into regular users of the product. Another tool of sales promotion that can be used is to offer bonus packs containing additional quantity at the same price as an incentive to encourage repeat purchase. To expand the distribution, push promotions such as different types of discounts, free goods that increase the profitability of the trade, can be used.

Maturity stage

When the product is in maturity stage, many similar brands are available to customers. Due to price discounts or other extra benefits, consumers often This phenomenon of brand switching is more common if the The sales promotional switched brands.

product category happens to be one of low involvement.

strategy in this stage can focus on attracting maximum number of brand switchers, reward and reinforce the loyalty of regular users and use more of push promotions to build inventories with resellers. advertising become important. Generally a combination of pull and push promotions prove more effective during maturity stage of a product life cycle. The market share of the brand is an important factor in gaining the support of resellers. Many tools of sales promotion such as premiums, price discounts, extra goods, displays, dealer contests, feature

Decline stage Survival of the brand often becomes more important during decline stage. Another important objective is to maintain distribution. Sales promotions that help in generating sales volume become quite important. Resellers, in general, are not a tall enthusiastic about declining brands and for this reason we do not show any kind of interest in promoting them. Because of this negative factor, manufacturers use pull promotions. In many cases this becomes a game of endurance for marketers. Bombay Dyeing The Bombay Dyeing Lao Diamond Pao Offer On buying Bombay Dyeing products worth Rs. 300 and scratching the card available, you would be eligible for a prize. There were 6990 diamonds to be won. TECHNIQUES OF SALES PROMOTIONS Consumer market sales promotions Sales force sales promotions

Trade sales promotions

Price discounts Price pack deals Rebates/refunds Continuity programs Coupons Samples

Off-Invoice Allowance Buying allowance Display and advertising allowance Buy back allowance Bill back allowance Count and recount allowance

Sales contests Incentives Awards and prizes Premiums (gifts) Sales meetings Training

Contests and sweepstakes Premiums and advertising specialties Free trials Brand placement Event sponsorship Product warranties Exchange offers Internet promotions Low interest financing Free service camps

Slotting allowance Merchandise allowance POP displays Cash rebate Free goods Trade coupons Dealer listing Dealer loaders Sales contests SPIFFS (push money) Incentives Sales training programs

Sales manuals etc.

Trade shows CONSUMER SALES PROMOTIONS

Sales promotions directed at the end-user, whether by the manufacturer or the retailer, are called consumer sales promotions. Manufacturer announced promotions to consumers are based on pull strategy of the manufacturer and retailer announced promotions to consumers constitute push strategy of the retailer.

Objectives of consumer market sales promotions

The following basic objectives can be pursued with sales promotions in the consumer market.

Stimulate trial purchase When a firm wants to attract new users sales promotions tools can reduce the consumers risk of trying something new. A reduced price or offer of a rebate may stimulate trail purchase.

Pantene when it was launched did a lot of sampling, to stimulate trail purchase. Their efforts have surely shown results, with Pantene being one of the top selling brands in India today.

Stimulate repeat purchases

In-package coupons good for the next purchase, or the accumulation of points with repeat purchases, can keep consumers loyal to a particular brand. The most prominent frequency programs are found in the airline industry where competitors try to retain their most lucrative costumers by enrolling them for various perks such as frequent flyers can earn free travel, hotel stays, gifts etc.

Stimulate larger purchases Price reductions or two-for-one sales can motivate consumers to stock up on a brand, thus allowing firms to reduce inventory or increase cash flow.

Many soaps brands are doing sales promotions to stimulate larger purchases. When people generally come to buy soaps, and see the offers like, Fairglow, buy 3 get 1 free, Lux buy 3 get 1 free,

Introduce a new brand Because sales promotions can attract attention and motivate trial purchase, it is commonly used for new brand introductions.

Fairglow has effectively used sales promotions to introduce its brand, by doing a lot of sales promotions like the buy 3 get 1 free, also Fairglow free with Good Knight, with other HLL products. Combat or disrupt competitors strategies

Because sales promotions often motivate consumers to buy in large quantities or try new brands, they can be used to disrupt competitors marketing strategies. If a firm knows that one of its competitors is launching a new brand or initiating a new advertising campaign, a well-timed sales promotions offering deep discounts or extra quantity can disrupt the competitor strategy. Add to the original discount an in-package coupon for future purchases, and a marketer can severely compromise competitors efforts.

When Godrej did sales promotions to increase it washing machine sales Samsung to protect its market also introduced sales promotions. Godrej gave a rebate offer and a free VIP suitcase. So Samsung also introduced

the rebate offer and gave a camera free.

Contribute to Integrated Marketing Communications In conjunction with advertising, direct marketing, public relations and other programs being carried out by a firm, sales promotions can add yet another type of communication to the mix. Sales promotions suggest an additional value, with price reductions, premiums, or a chance to win a prize. This is an additional and different message within the overall communication effort.

Techniques of consumer sales promotions

Price discounts or price-off deals. Price deals are probably the most commonly used promotional techniques. A price deal for a customer means a reduction in the price of the promoted product and the consumer saves money on purchase.

Colgate fresh energy ice blue gel (Colgate India) 50 gm pack, Rs. 5.50 off on normal price, now available at Rs. 12.50 only.

Price discounts are communicated through POP advertising, window displays, sales people, advertising in newspapers, magazines and TV ads.

Determining the quantum of discount depends on the consumers price perceptions and may be difficult to decide.

Such promotions work very well in gaining the attention of consumers, particularly at the point of purchase among similar brands and may also encourage unplanned or impulse buying. If there are three different models of a product and because of the discount offered the price of the higher end model is appears, not too high to the consumer as compared to the lesser priced model, then the consumer may buy the higher end model. Titan watches

Objective: make the high end product seen cheaper.

Branded watches are a high value product. Titan watches are expensive compared to many other branded watches available. Hence in case a sales promotion offer like some rupees off is available on the watch, the consumer finds the high priced high quality product cheaper and so buys that instead of the cheaper one.

The main advantage of this tool is that it has a very Strong consumer response Such discounts offer immediate value and strong consumer response. The Flexibility and convenience of implementation is another advantage. Price offers are extremely flexible in the sense that the producer has total control on the number of units being promoted and the market area in which the offer will be given. If different packs of the same brand are available, the marketer can choose the one size that is not selling well.

A discount offer may rapidly lose its advantage if competitors announce a similar offer. In fact, competitors are very likely to retaliate leading to the danger of triggering a promotion wall in which no one benefits except the consumer.

Such discounts are short term and are unlikely to produce any long-term gains because the incentive is to purchase now by creating sense of urgency. When the discount is withdrawn the sales may fall below the level of pre-promotion period. And in the long run the sales would return to pre-promotion period level.

Price pack deals Price pack deals are also called value packs.

They can take any of the two forms: one is bonus pack and banded pack. In case of a bonus pack, an additional quantity of the same product is offered free when the standard pack size of the product is purchased at the regular price.

Godrej colour gloss triple action shampoo, offers 20% extra free. 100ml +20ml. Sunsilk shampoo (HLL) 400ml bottle gives 33% more free. New Ever youth lemon face wash, by Cadilla Health care Ltd. Offers 20% Extra with 60 ml 12 ml free. Lotus Herbal Ltds Fresh Apricot scrub, 25% extra, communicated as 7.5 ounces at 6 ounce Price.

Dettol shaving cream (Reckitt Benckiser (India) ltd.) get 40% extra free.

Bisleri 20% extra free

A variation of this offer is when the marketer develops special packs of the product containing more quantity but the price is proportionately low. This is a method to load the consumer up with the product. This technique is often used to introduce a new large size of the product or to encourage continued usage and also to increase consumption. The offer is termed as banded pack when 2 or more units of the products are sold at a reduced price compared to the regular price.

Pepsodent toothpaste special pack a 150gm toothpaste + a 100gm toothpaste and a G.I.Joe international character, all in 1 pack at a low price of just Rs., which saves Rs.81/-

Another variation of this technique is buy 1 get 1 free or some similar offer, it could be same for less or more for the same.

Fairglow buy 3 get 1 free, The main advantage of this tool is that extra product may encourage increased usage and help sustain the habit. Also among other similar brands, a bonus pack stands out at the point of sale.

Refunds And Rebates Refund is the repayment of total money paid for purchase, while the rebate represents repayment of only part of the money paid for the purchase. Refund offers seems to work very well in guaranteeing the trial of a product or service since there is no risk involved for the customer because of the promise of total refund of the purchase amount. Refunds and Rebates play an important role in the consumer durable segment because the product price is reduced to a great extent because of the rebate offer.

 Whisper Objective: To increase product trials After having launched it new product whisper ultra thin, confident about the product quality and confident about offering the promised product, to increase its trail and usage has started the money back offer. The money back offer is a very effective tool in making the consumer try the product in 2 ways, firstly because the consumer feels that the company will launch such a scheme only if it is possible for it to offer such quality and so is become confident that the product will be satisfactory. And secondly he is more willing to try because if he does not like the product he has the option to get his money back.

Coupon A coupon entitles a buyer to a designated reduction in price for a product or service. Coupons are the oldest and most widely used form of sales promotions. Coupons bear an expiry date and cannot be redeemed after the cut off date.

Coupons can be of 3 types:

Direct to the consumer Media distributed Product distributed.

The main Advantages of coupons are:

Encourage brand switching Stimulate trial for a product Take off the attention from price

Fair and lovely dark circle removal cream to create more product trials has coupons in the newspapers and magazines which avail you of Rs.10/- off on a 40 gm pack.

Contests And Sweepstakes Contests and sweepstakes can draw attention to a brand like no other sales promotions technique. A contest has consumers compete for prizes based on skill or ability. Winners in a contest are determined by a panel of judges or based on which contestant comes closest to a predetermined criterion for the contest. Contests tend to be somewhat expensive to administer because each entry must be judged against winning criteria.

Contests were very often used earlier where people has to write slogans, poems, stories etc. generally I like the product because and the best ones won prizes. But off lately, contests are becoming less and sweepstakes increasing. People are more willing to play on luck rather than participate by showing their abilities.

Nokia India Pvt. ltd. Promotion: Nokia Sms Challenge-august, 2001

Objective: To establish nokia phones as the most SMS-friendly phones in the market City: Delhi Strategy: Tie-ups with 15 premier outlets preceded and asked them to SMS a pre-decided line to a particular number, the time taken by a participant was the determinant of the contest, the person taking the shortest tome would be gifted a Nokia 3310 phone.

A sweepstake is a promotion in which winners are determined purely by chance. Consumers need only to enter their names in the sweepstakes as a criterion for winning. Some popular types of sweepstakes also use scratch-off cards.

Contests and sweepstakes often create excitement and generate interest for a brand, but the problems of administering these promotions are substantial. One problem is that the game itself may become the consumers primary focus, while the brand becomes secondary. The technique thus fails to build long-term affinity for the brand.

Britannia khao world cup jao campaign has taken the market by a swing. Under the offer you collect points available on Britannia biscuit packets and exchange 100 points for a scratch card, which has various gifts and the 100 world cup tickets. The offer was actually introduced during the last world cup and had shown phenomenal results. Sale increased tremendously; there was an increase in the sales by 25%, claims the company. So it is being done this year too. This year too the contest is showing good results.

Contests-cum-sweepstakes:

Elle 18 Promotion: Elle 18 valentines day promotion, feb 2002 Objective: to use valentiness day platform to communicate with th etarget audience of Elle 18 City: Delhi, Mumbai, Banglore, Chnadigarh, Pune. Strategy: Upon the purchase of Elle 18 products worth a certain amount, a scratch-card was given out. this could entitle the person to a number of gifts and hampers. The highlight of this was the Cinderella Activity which invited those customers who had bought products worth a pre-decided amount to try put a glass slipper. The lucky few, whose feet fit, were awarded dinner dates.

Sampling

Getting consumers to simply try a brand can have a powerful effect on future decision-making. Sampling is a sales promotion technique designed to provide a consumer with an opportunity to use a brand on a trial basis with little or no risk. Saying that sampling is a popular technique is an understatement. Sampling is particularly useful for new products, but should not be reserved for new products alone. It can be used successfully for established brands with weak market share in specific geographic areas.

Techniques used in sampling:

In-store sampling

Lakme has in-store trail products. Since it in the cosmetics market it is very essential to provide samples, many stores in Mumbai from time to time have Lakme sampling offers. Where they allow you to try the product and then buy it.

Door-to-Door sampling

Whisper have done door-to-door sampling, sampling through schools, newspapers, etc. even now after so many years of its launch it does sampling because of the new target base that gets added every year.

Pantene also does door to door sampling.

Newspaper sampling

Again Whisper and Pantene have done sampling through the newspapers.

On-package sampling

Fair glow, a lot of free Fairglow soaps were available with many other products, especially other HLL products.

Mobile sampling

Many road shows and mobile vans distribute free products or offers.

Free Movie tickets, disco passes, pensare often distributed.

Trial offers Trial offers have the same goal as sampling to induce consumer trial use of a brand- but they are used for more expensive items. Ex: exercise equipment, appliances, consumer electronics, etc. the expense to the firm of course can be formidable. Segments chosen for this sales promotion technique must have high sales potential.

Premiums and advertising specialties

Premiums

They are items offered free or at a reduced price, with, the purchase of another item. Many firms offer a related product free. There are 2 options available for the use of premiums:

1. A free premium provides consumers with an item at no cost, the item is included in the package of the purchase item. 2. A self-liquidating premium requires a consumer to pay most of the cost of the item received as a premium. In this promotion offer the consumer is required to send a specified sum of money along with a proof of purchase to claim the premium. Premiums have become very common today. Many companies are offering lots and lots of premiums. The main advantage of Premiums is that they offer not only that one product but also another product, which may influence the customer, a lot to buy the product. Especially if the other product is worth it. Also new products are given free with established brands to stimulate trial of the new brand.

Ponds buy Ponds cold cream 100ml and get a ponds body lotion 50ml pack free. Buy Good Knight expert refill pack and get 3 Nyle shampoo sachets free.

Pepsodent toothpaste buy 100gm and get 4 Clinic Plus sachets free.

Advertising specialties

Popular advertising specialties are caps, t-shirts, toys, mugs, mouse pads, pens, calendars, etc. Advertising specialties have 3 key elements: A message placed on a useful icon, and given to consumers with no obligation.

Pepsodent toothpaste 100gm pack get free dental insurance worth Rs.1000, this is a very effective strategy because it is giving youre the guarantee that nothing can happen to your teeth. The Rs.1000 insurance speaks a lot for its brand and its product thrust. Buy a Fairglow fairness cream and get a mirror free.

Many other kids products are influence a lot by such specialties especially liked by the kids like tattoos, masks, tazo, cricket bats etc. hence products that have such offers sell more than the other brand available.

Ruffles lays, get free Tazo, Rasna, get free Prankies

Continuity/frequency Programmes In recent years, one of the most popular sales promotion techniques among consumers has been frequency Programmes. The main objective of such

Programmes is encouraging repeat purchases or repeated visits to particular retail shops. Frequency Programmes offer consumers discounts or free product rewards for repeat purchase or patronage of the same brand or company.

Shoppers stop Objective: reward the loyal customer. Shoppers stop started the First Citizens Club and enrolled customers as members of the shoppers club by charging a fee of Rs.150. The customers were entitled to a variety of benefits by collecting points.

Brand placement Brand placement often referred to, as product placement is the sales promotions technique of getting a marketers brand featured in movies and television shows. The use of a brand by actors and actresses or the mere association of the brand with a popular film/ television show can create a positive image and have a huge impact on the sales of a brand. Marketers and advertisers used to think that brand placements affected only consumers perceptions of a brand, much like advertising. But recent brand placements have shown that the technique can have a sales impact like a traditional sales promotions.

Brand placement has varying results; if the brand name is spoken aloud the impact can be dramatic but less obvious placements, referred to as background placements are considered by some as a waste of money.

Coke in Yaadein , Pepsi in Khushi Pass Pass in Yaadein

Event sponsorship When a firm sponsors or co-sponsors an event such as a rock concert, a cricket match, etc. the brand featured in an event immediately gains credibility with the event audience. The audience attending an event already has a positive attitude and affinity for the contest they choose to attend. When this audience encounters a brand in this very favourable reception environment, the brand benefits from the already favourable audience attitude.

Hindustan lever limited: Project: Lakme Makeover promotion January 2002

Objective: to present the amazing qualities of Lakme range of cosmetics City: Delhi Strategy: tie-ups with select outlets preceded the actual event. They served as the venues for makeovers that were conducted live on the spot. During the course of the promotion, a fashion show, featuring the 3 models that represent the range of the promotion, a fashion show featuring the 3 models that present the range, was also organized. This event led to a considerable increase in the actual sales of the products.

Coke and Pepsi keep sponsoring cricket matches.

Exchange offers If a family bought a refrigerator 10 years ago and the machine is still giving reasonable service then the family is unlikely to buy a newer and more advanced version of the refrigerator unless they get rid of the older one by selling it to someone. No one in our country is prepared to throw it as junk. Same thing is true for a number of products such as televisions, microwave ovens, washing machines, cars, two-wheelers, computers, etc. This segment of present owners is sizeable enough yet to sell new brands to those who already own a similar product is not easy. To attract this segment, manufacturers regularly announce exchange offers.

Consumer durables market is the one where exchange offers are used the most. Almost all the TVs, Refrigerators, Washing Machines, etc. have exchange offers.

Samsung On exchanging old TV for a new Samsung Plano, upto Rs. 5000 off.

On exchanging old TV for a new Samsung Hitron Digital, upto Rs. 3000 off. On exchanging old refrigerator for a new Samsung refrigerator, upto Rs. 8000 off.

Internet promotions

They are the most recent form of sales promotions. They are promotions that are done via the Internet. It is becoming increasingly popular because of the large use of Internet. But still it has a lot to develop.

TRADE PROMOTIONS Sales promotions can also be directed at members of the trade wholesalers, distributors, and retailers. It is intended to stimulate demand in the short run and help push the product through the distribution channel more immediately. Effective trade promotions can generate enthusiasm for a product and contribute to the loyalty distributors show for the brand. With the massive proliferation of new brands and brand extensions, manufacturers need to stimulate enthusiasm and loyalty among members of the trade and also need a way to get the attention of the buyers suffering from information overload.

Objectives for promotions in the trade market

Generally speaking, when marketers devise incentives for the trade market, they are executing a push strategy i.e. sales promotions directed at the trade help push a product into the distribution channel until it ultimately reaches the consumer.

Obtain initial distribution Because of the proliferation of brands in the consumer market, there is fierce competition for shelf space. Sales promotion incentives can help a firm gain initial distribution and shelf placement. Like consumers, members of the trade need a reason to choose one brand over the other when it comes to allocating shelf space. A well conceived promotion incentive might sway them.

 Increase order size One of the struggles in the channel of distribution is over the location of inventory. Manufacturers prefer that members of the trade maintain large inventories so that the manufacturer can reduce inventory-carrying cost. Conversely, members of the trade would rather make frequent, small orders and carry little inventory. Sales promotions techniques can encourage wholesalers and retailers to order in large quantities, thus shifting the inventory burden to the channel.

Encourage co-operation with consumer market sales promotions It does a manufacturer no good to initiate a sales promotion in the consumer market if there is little co-operation in the channel. Wholesalers may need to maintain larger inventories and retailers may need to provide special displays or handling during consumer market sales promotions. To achieve synergy, marketers often run trade promotions simultaneously with consumer promotions.

Increased store traffic Retailers can increase store traffic through sales promotions or events. A promotion that generates a lot of interest within a target audience can drive consumers to retail outlets.

Techniques of trade sales promotions

1. Allowances

 Off-invoice Here marketers allow wholesalers and retailers to deduct a set amount from the invoice they receive for merchandise. This programme is really just a price reduction offered to the trade on a particular marketers brand for a specified short promotional period. The incentive for the trade with this programme is that the price reduction increases the margin (and profits) a wholesaler or retailer realizes on the off-invoiced brand.

This scheme is in general available for many products, where if the bill amount is above a certain amount you get a certain percentage discount. The % varies from around 2% to 10%, from company to company and also from time to time.

Buying allowance It is similar to the off-invoice allowance. It is a discount for the purchase of the promoted product during the specified period on the purchase of certain minimum quantity of the product. This trade incentive is often used to gain more distribution or to maintain the existing one.

Display and advertising allowance The retailer is required to arrange the product display in a prominent show-window or offer discount to consumers and advertise this offer in the local newspaper or arrange a point-of-purchase display on the shelf corner. The retailer earns the incentive only after meeting the conditions set by the manufacturer.

Buy back allowance

Manufacturers sometimes announce a buy-back allowance to encourage re-stocking by retailers. This promotion immediately follows another type of deal offered to resellers and offered some incentive for new purchases. When the manufacturer realizes that after the initial deal the inventory levels at the retail level are quite low or depleted, such an offer helps in building the inventory level with retailers to normal.

Bill back allowance The manufacturer offers a discount for every item purchased during the promotion period. At the end after the promotion is over, the dealer counts the discount per unit for all the items bought during the promotion period, adds any additional promotional allowances as stipulated by the manufacturer and submits the statement. He also needs to submit the bill for all such items.

Count and recount allowance This allowance consists of an offer of certain amount of money to retailers for each unit of promoted product sold out of their stocks during a specified period of time. The sales person concerned counts the opening stock with each retailer at the start of promotion and a final recount is made at the end of the promotion period. It can be used to ensure that resellers are not out of stock. The deal is easy to implement and the allowance is paid only on product units sold from the retailers shelves.

Slotting allowance These are the fees that a retailer charges the manufacturers to make available the space on the shelf for their new products. Retail store owners say that the number of brands in each category is multiplying, there is increasing competition and margins are decreasing, hence they have no option but to ask for a fee to keep

the product on their shelf and use the money to improve their shelf design and promotion, etc.

Merchandise allowance In the form of free products packed with regular shipments, are payments to the trade for setting up and maintaining displays. The payments are typically far less than manufacturers would have to spend to maintain the displays themselves.

Some of the schemes operating in town are:

Buy Cadburys products worth Rs.3000/- and get 30 any chocolates worth Rs.5 free. Buy a box of Munch and get 1 Munch free.

POP displays Point-of-purchase displays i.e. product displays and information sheets are useful in reaching the consumer at the point of purchase and often encourage retailers to support ones brand. POP promotions can help win precious shelf space and exposure in a retail setting. From a retailers perspective, a POP display should be designed to draw attention to a brand, increase turnover, and possibly distribute coupons and sweepstake entry forms.

Companies do P-O-P displays as and when they have sales promotion schemes going on.

Some companies that do a lot of P-O-P displays on a regular basis are Gillette,

Vicks, Duracell, Pepsi, Coke

Cash rebate This is a form of delayed value promotion for the retailer. Only after the proof of performance is furnished, the retailer is given a cheque for the amount of discount. Once a retailer has met the laid down conditions, the rebate is given to the retailer. The advantage of this method is that the rebate is given only after the retailer has performed to qualify for the rebate.

Free goods A free goods promotion is a deviation from straight price cut. The promotion offer to trade is in the form of extra quantity of purchased product free. For example, the manufacturer offers one case of free goods with the purchase of 12 cases of the product. There may or may not be any limit on the quantity of the purchase during the promotion period. If the retailer purchases 36 cases of the product, then he gets 3 cases of the same product free. Free goods deal often encourages resellers to stock more during the promotion period. For the manufacturer, it is an excellent promotion because it costs less than it otherwise appears.

Buy 24 Close Up toothpaste and get 1 free. Buy Cadburys products worth Rs.3000/- and get 30 any chocolates worth Rs.5 free.

 Dating Manufacturers of seasonal products often use dating as a technique of sales promotions. Dating is not a direct type of allowance such as free goods or cash. Manufacturer extends the facility to retailers to purchase a certain quantity of product now but the billing is done after a period of time. It is not only the billing, the retailer purchases the product at some reduced price during the promotion period, however, the goods are shipped at a later date.

Trade coupons It is a manufacturer initiated sales promotion, however, the coupon distribution is undertaken by retailers, either through local print medium or in some other manner. The important thing about such coupons is that they can be redeemed only at the distributing store. There is an agreement between the retailer and the manufacturer that some agreed allowance will; be paid to the retailer. Generally this is in the form of re-imbursement of some amount of money to the retailer for each coupon redeemed. The distributing retailer gets the double benefit due to the increase in store traffic and the incentive of reimbursement from the manufacturer. This is a string incentive to the retailer to arrange displays and promote the coupon offer.

Dealer loaders A dealer loader is a premium that the manufacturer gives to the retailers for buying a certain quantity of a product. There are generally 2 types of dealer loaders buying loader and display loader. A buying loader is given to the retailer on purchase of a specified quantity of a particular product. A display loader is the premium given to the retailer for the window display. After the promotion period is over, the item or items, are given to the retailer as a free premium.

 SPIFFS (also called push money) It is a monetary reward given to the salesforce of the dealers to sell a manufacturers product. For example, a manufacturer of washing machines may offer Rs.500 to each sales person who sells the manufacturers brand of washing machine. The SPIFF money varies as does the willingness of the dealers to allow the salesforce to accept the offer. Dealers who carry product brands of different manufacturers generally hesitate to allow such offers.

Incentives Incentives to the members of the trade include a variety of tactics like awards in the form of travel, gifts, or cash bonuses for reaching targeted sales levels that induce retailers and wholesalers to give a firms brand added attention. The incentive does not have to be large or expensive to be effective. Another form of trade incentive is referred to as push money i.e. SPIFFS.

Sales-training Programmes An increasingly popular trade promotion is to provide training for retail store personnel. This method is used specially for consumer durables like personal computers, exercise equipment, etc. the increased complexity of these products has made it important for manufacturers to ensure that the proper factual information and persuasive themes are reaching consumers at the point of purchase. For personnel at large retail stores, manufacturers can hold special classes that feature product information, demonstrations, and training about sales techniques. Another method to give information would be the use of videotapes and brochures.

Hewlett Packard Promotion: Mystery shopper program Objective: to revitalize the distribution chain, audit retailers and the competitive situation. City: Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and many more Strategy: aimed at the dealers, the objective of this promotion was top revitalize the distribution chain, audit retailer and competitive situation. Mystery shoppers visited the retail outlets to ascertain merchandising and retailer-consumer interaction.

Trade shows At trade shows, related products from many manufacturers are displayed and demonstrated to members of the trade. Literally, every industry has trade shows. Their representatives are there to explain the products and services and perhaps make an important contact for the sales force. The use of trade shows must be carefully coordinated and can be an important part of the business market promotional programme. Trade shows can be critically important to a small firm that cannot afford advertising and has a sales force too small to reach all its potential customers.

SALES FORCE PROMOTION

Sales promotion directed towards the sales people is referred to as sales force promotions. These schemes are intended to motivate sales people to put in more efforts to increase sales, increase distribution, promote new or seasonal products, sell more deals to resellers, book more orders, develop prospects lists and build up morale and enthusiasm. Some of these activities are meant to prepare the sales people to do their jobs well and include sales meetings and manuals, training programmes, sales presentations, film and slide shows etc. Prize distribution to winners is the more tangible aspect of any such programme.

Objectives of sales force promotion schemes are:

Increase sales volume Introduce a new product Reducing selling costs Offset competitive promotions Improve working habits Develop new prospect lists etc.

Tools used in sales force promotions

Sales meetings Sales meetings are generally organized for sales people form one area, region or district more frequently, usually once a month, once in two months, or quarterly. These meetings bring together sales people from different territories of the nation and are considered a popular way of educating sales people. There is a varying mixture of business and pleasure. Educational material of sales meetings generally focuses on product knowledge , selling skills and motivation of the sales force. The programme often includes

formal lectures, quiz shows, etc. The purpose is to generate interest and enthusiasm and the winners are awarded prizes and certificates.

Max Healthcare Objective: to celebrate the annual day of Max-India and instill a sense of pride

amongst the employees for being exclusive Max-team members. City: Delhi Strategy: presentations, reviews and their vision for the future marked the evening. An address by the chairman, Mr.Analjit Singh and the award ceremony were the highlights. The vent itself was held in park royal, Delhi. Live feed of the evening was transmitted on audio-visual screens. This exclusive live relay added to excitement among the invitees.

Sales Manuals Training materials such as manuals, visual aids, flip charts, programmes, learning books are most useful to sales people. Sales manual may be long or short depending upon the type of the products manufactured and sold by the company. The sales manuals usually contain product details, applications, manufacturing processes, prices, sales techniques etc. Some companies also have house journals that reports about the company programmes, new products, research activities, new polices, awards, promotions, etc.

In any firm where personal selling is critical for the sale of the product incentives to the sales people become very important. Incentive programmes most often used by the company include paid vacations within or outside the company, cash rewards, prizes, honour awards, merit certificates for excellent performance etc.

 Training Sales contests Incentives Awards and prizes Premiums (gifts)

Consumer-cum-Dealer-cum-Sales force sales promotions:

Nokia Promotoion: perfect 10 contest Objective: to attract channel partners, salespersons., an prospective buyers City: 15 cities Strategy: the contest was three fold - for consumers, dealers, and sales personnel. A large number of activities were organized. Dealer road shows, mass media consumer competition and intensive merchandising were undertaken. Lucky draws were conducted and the participants get to win some great prizes also.

SALES PROMOTION BUDGET

The allocation of monetary resources to sales promotion is determined by the promotional strategy of the firm. In most cases, first the total amount of money for promotion is determined then it is budgeted for different activities. Before deciding the money allocated to sales promotion, the management should evaluate relevant factors such as type of product, its stage in PLC, the market situation, level of competitive activity, etc. All these factors, alone or in combination, can significantly affect the promotional budget. There are five important techniques that are commonly used to allocate funds to sales promotion.

Percentage of sales method The percentage of sales method to allocate the funds is probably most popular among companies. In this approach, the budget is determined by taking a fixed percentage of sales. The sales figure taken could pertain to the previous year, or the average of several past years. This percentage could also be based on the forecasted sales of the year under consideration.

Unit of sales method This method is commonly used by companies dealing in high-priced products, generally consumer durable goods such as four and two wheeler automanufacturers, refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens, entertainment electronics and many other items.

Instead of rupee value of sales, as in the previous method, the base is the physical volume of either the past or anticipated sales. This figure of units is then multiplied by a fixed amount of money to reach the budget amount. For example, the manufacturer might allocate Rs. 2000/- per unit for sales promotion.

Competitive parity method Many marketers match or base their sales promotion budget to that of the major competitors. The logic attributed to this method is that the collective minds of the companies in the industry probably generate promotion budget that are close to optimal and any departure from the industry norms may lead to promotion war.

All you can afford method

In using this approach to budget allocation, the amount that is leftover after all other relevant allocations have been made, is earmarked for sales promotion. This approach is used, generally, by companies with small budget, or by some other companies, large as well as small, when they are introducing a new product. It is merely an availability oriented budget and quite unsophisticated. Apparently, there is no realisation that in a competitive market situation, sales promotion mainframe sales in many ways.

Objective end task method

As mentioned earlier, the promotion budget is determined by the overall promotional strategy. Objective end task method approach is the one which is driven by strategy. This is also the most popular technique to decide the sales promotion budget. The promotion manager starts by making a thorough study of the market, the product, competition and consumer behaviour in order to set up

appropriate promotion objectives. These objectives may relate to increasing short-term sales, introducing a new product, stimulate trial, increasing distribution, etc., within a specified period of time. Next step is to determine how much money would be necessary to accomplish each task involved in achieving the objectives. If the costs happen to be more than the money available, then either the promotion objectives adjusted or more funds are made available from the contingency reserve or by reducing the budgets of the other promotional activities.

SALES PROMOTION EVALUATION

Measurement of results in any area of business activities related to the objectives that are set. To accomplish this, set of evaluation criteria is laid down before the implementation of the sales promotion programme. A number of these objectives are directly related to sales. In all such cases, the measurement does not pose any complexity and the sales based techniques can be used with relative ease. For instance, it is quite easy to measure the sales effect before, during and after the sales promotion. In case of objectives not related to sales, such as trial purchase, or changing consumer awareness and attitude as resultant increase and perceived value of the product, measurement is more difficult. In certain types of promotion, the reseller support is important and can have significant effect on marketer's promotion performance.

Pretesting How sales promotion is to be communicated and what would be communicated to the target groups is important and can be pre-tested. For example the pre-tested may find out what is likely to be the perceived value and the risk. A customer considers whether it would be wise to buy an unknown brand of sport shoes at a

45% discount. In this offer was there a risk of buying an unfamiliar brand? The pre-test can be conducted to assess these factors by using focus groups and consumer panels. Another approach, ballot method, consists of kneeling a ballot paper to a list of consumers. They are requested to evaluate different illustrated promotion is and vote for the most light and return the ballot to the firm. A relatively expensive but more accurate method is a portfolio test. A portfolio of sales promotion is prepared and shown to consumers in person and the responses are noted.

To test consumers behaviour responds such as trial purchase, repeat purchase, etc., pretesting consists of experimenting in certain markets for individual stores in a market. All other factors remain the same; only the sales promotion device being tested is the variable that is manipulated.

It is often quite helpful to evaluate the responses of resellers before implementing the promotion programme. The simplest ways to visit several important retailers and wholesalers, discuss the programme and seek their opinion and suggestions. This may prove to be quite favourable in case the support of resellers is considered to be of paramount importance for promotion results.

Concurrent testing

This testing is done when the sales promotion is in progress. Concurrent testing the permit the promotion manager to modify the sales promotion, if needed This type of testing is conducted in terms of sales data which can be obtained on a weekly or monthly basis. If the promotion is a consumer contest and the consumer is not require to purchase anything, the response to promotion can be adjudged by

the number of entries received at some interval and if need be, the contest period can be extended. In case of a coupon distribution programme, similar approach can be adopted by keeping track of coupons redeemed.

Post testing

Post-testing is done after the promotion period is over. To assess the changing consumer awareness and attitude, telephone calls, questionnaire mailed to the consumers and personal interviews can be used. In these methods, the most expensive is the personal interview method and the least expensive is the mail. The information sought pertains to the promotion event. In case of samples on premiums distributed through retail stores, intercept interviews at the Point of Sale can reveal more reliable information.

To measure the sales affect, sales figures before the promotion period can be compared with figures at the end of promotion and one month after the promotion ends. Suppose that the promotion objective was to increase sales by 30 percent in certain period and the pre-promotion sales for a similar period were worth 5 million rupees. The sales jumped to in excess of 5.6 million in the promotion period. This would show that the objective was achieved. It is very likely that in the ensuing month after the promotion, the sales will come down to say 3.5 million rupees. In the sales return to 5 million rupees on the long run, then perhaps the sales jump is because of brand features and deal prone customers. However, if the regular sales settle at 5.5 million rupees on the long run, then definitely the promotion prove successful in increasing the long run sales by attracting new customers and we have also attracted customers away from other competing brands.

PUBLIC RELATION

Public Relations is defined as helping an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.

Public relations is a planned and sustained activity to help an institution create a social climate favorable for its growth. It is based on the fundamental belief that the survival of any enterprise, public or private depends today on the sensitive response to changes in public opinion.

The International Public Relations Association defines public relations as Public

relations is the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, interest. counseling organisation leaders and implementing planned programmes of action which will serve both the organizations and the public

Public relation is a two way process. On the one hand it seeks to interpret an organization to society while on the other it keeps the organization informed about the expectation of the society. Fundamentally public relation is a means by which an organization improves its operating environment. ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS Public relations people have the role of being always in the middle pivoted between their clients/employers and their publics. They must be attuned to the thinking and needs of the organizations they serve or they cannot serve well. They must be attuned to the dynamics and needs of the publics so they can interpret

publics to the clients, as well as interpret the clients to the publics.

ORGANIZATIONAL ROLE & FUNCTIONS: 10 BASIC PRINCIPLES

We can describe the function and role of public relations practice by stating ten basic principles:

1.

Public relations deal with reality, not false fronts. Conscientiously planned programs that put the public interest in the forefront are the basis of sound public relations policy.(PR deals with facts, not fiction.) Public relations is a service-oriented profession in which public interest, not personal reward, should be the primary consideration. (PR is a public not personal, service.) Since the public relations practitioner must go to the public to seek support for programs and policies, public interest is the central criterion by which he or she should select these programs and policies. (PR practitioners must have the guts to say no to a client or to refuse a deceptive program.) Because the public relations practitioner reaches many publics through mass media, which are the public channels of communication, the integrity of these channels must be preserved. (PR practitioners should never lie to the news media, either outright or by implication.)

2.

3.

4.

5.

Because PR practitioners are in the middle between an organization and its publics, they must be effective communicators conveying information back and forth until understanding is reached. To expedite two-way communication and to be responsible communicators, public relations practitioners must use scientific public opinion research extensively. (PR cannot afford to be a guessing game.) To understand what their publics are saying and to reach them effectively, public relations practitioners must employ the social sciences psychology, sociology, social psychology, public opinion, communications study and semantics. (Intuition is not enough.) Because a lot of people do PR research, the PR person must adapt the work of other related disciplines, including learning theory and other psychology theories, sociology, political science, economics and history. (The PR field requires multidisciplinary applications.) Public relations practitioners are obligated to explain problems to the public before these problems become crisis. (PR practitioners should alert and advise, so people wont be taken by surprise.) A public relations practitioner should be measured by only one standard: ethical performance. (A PR practitioner is only as good as the reputation he or she deserves.)

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

WHO NEEDS PUBLIC RELATIONS? The diverse institutions and individuals requiring professional Public Relations go beyond the more traditionally defined corporate world. Who are they? And Who are the Publics of Public Relations?

Following are the main publics of Public Relations:

A College or University: A public relations expert needs to defuse those crisis situations where student bodies could be in revolt over demands, where there is a change in educational policy, where something could be wrong with the examination papers or simply when, in interaction with State and Central Governments, grants have to be sought or when a college organizes intercollegiate festivals.

Case: public relations for college festivals like Kshitij Mithibai college, Brouhaha of sidnam college, Drishti of Narsee Monjee college.

A Newspaper: Some of the better newspapers have Public Relations Staff quite separate from the advertising department or the marketing people.

A Non-Profit Body: From the point of view of the organisation, whether it is Rotary, UNICEF, the Institute of Cerebral Palsy, the Red Cross, or any number of charitable and cultural and social service organizations, a Public Relations cell is an integral part of the institution. It has to interact with a number of bodies for its very existence, for the support of its causes, for mis-understandings that can crop-up as, at every stage it is public money at stake.

An Individual: An aspirant to a political post needs it, so does a person standing for president-ship of a chamber of commerce. So does an actor, a producer or a gallery owner, or a non-resident who is seeking to make a mark in the Indian business circle.

A Cause: The problems exist AIDS, drugs, population explosion and other environment concerns, slums, poverty of every sort, child abuse, womens rights on abortion and property and marriage laws, the handicapped, uneducated and the champions and doers for these causes are only in thousands, not in millions. If PR agencies unite and pool in their resources they can help in tackling such problems.

CORPORATE BODIES: Corporate organizations constitute bulk of recognized Public relations activity involving numerous publics.

Employee Interaction:

The most important public of Public Relations activity in a corporation is the employee. He is vital in a more crucial way than people imagine. The employee could be viewed as a decision-maker, someone who cannot merely be a target for communication but who would also be dictating the direction in which the company moves. Which means that the Public Relations Practitioners cannot be mere purveyors of information, but have to ensure an involvement and participation of and direction from employees. Employee aspirations have soared as a result of which a PR expert has to remember some basic tenets. He has to ensure the least amount of secrecy and holding back of information. He has to cater to many strata of employees, he has to convey the companys plans, ideas, projects and vision, and also ensuring better communications during a crisis. Effective Public Relations begins at home!

Shareholder Interface: A shareholder relation is a key aspect of corporate Public Relations. Shareholders, particularly those who have stayed with a company for many years because they value their investment in it, deserve more than just the statutory annual report, interim report or not well shareholders visits to the company which turn out to be a mere picnic. A well-treated shareholder can do a lot for the companys image in terms of his feedback to his peer group. For, armed with his detailed knowledge of the companys financial status, twinned with the kind of treatment the company the metes out to him in terms of goodies like shareholders meets and gifts and information, he can be a better ambassador of the company than the organisation could ever imagine. Also now there are new investor associations, which are championing the rights of shareholders. This is an issue companies need to be aware of so that their interaction can extend beyond shareholders to these associations. Example: Balrampur Chini The Stretch philosophy of Balrampur Chini Mills, is yet another inspiring example of public relations. Stretch is the philosophy of the company, their baseline and also the attitude that reflects everything they do, according to their Managing Director Vivek Saraogi. It is used as the title of their annual reports; it is also a pocket-sized document that is sent out to a few thousand people encapsulating anecdotes that have compiled with great sensitivity. These anecdotes embody the Stretch philosophy, as you would apply it to everything from uncompromising integrity to stretch as a boon, as an education. It has inspired the depressed individual as well as the corporate chief alike. The annual report for they year 2000-01 gives an overview of the sugar industry and the role of Balrampur. In the new scenario of progressive de-regulation, the future of the industry in the international context and then goes into the Measurement of Value, the requirements of Corporate Governance, analytical reports and a focus on Community Development. The 68-page report leaves no

stone unturned, giving an invaluable picture without actually doing any pictorial spreads. Consumer Consciousness: Where public relations comes in, when marketing products is concerned, is in revealing the character of the company that is behind a product. It could be summed up as the reassurance factor beyond brand image. Llew von Essen in his Handbook of Public relations quotes, Public Relations Techniques can be effectively used to put the companys side of picture across; to explain marketers problems, talk about product complexity, review market conditions and pressures, show how good companies are in combating these pressures and above all highlight how the consumer benefits from product improvement, research and keen competition. Dealer Dealings: Most of the companies, especially those with large dealer networks, have no integrated approach to communicate or formulate a corporate personality in the minds of the dealers. However, a handful of companies have through their Public Relations efforts, instituted even such things as financial funds for dealers that have served them well when they have they have required sums of money for, say, a wedding in the family or a crisis arising out of an accident. Media Monitoring: The area, which occupies considerable amounts of time for any Public Relations department is the relationship with the media. To many people, this is probably the only function of a public relations person. To the Chief executive, this is the area, which is likely to create the greatest problems. To the public relations expert, this is what brings in the best opportunities to communicate the product-policy-plan conundrum of the company through well-mustered plans. To the journalist or the television producer, it is sometimes a reactive situation of reviving unsolicited plugs, but also one, which could provide material for analysis, projection of industrial progress and background for potentially explosive stories.

Government Goodwill: When public relations was in its infancy, the strongest focus, and perhaps the need of the day, was lobbying with the powers that be. Today, the needs of the company to interact with the policy makers, not just through their government liaison departments, but also through their public relations managers who are expected to be able to study the complete picture and present not just a case for license but a total image package.

BENEFITS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

1.

Prestige or favourable image and its benefits

The familiarialty and reputation of its name are among the greatest assets of any organization whether it deals directly with the public or not. Everyone is influenced by Reputation because reputation in industry can rarely be won without true accomplishments.

2.

Promotion of products and services

Telling people about products and interesting them, in purchasing requires more than advertising efforts. Peoples tastes and desires are developed by the unobtrusive influences by them. These unobtrusive, non-selling influences have an immeasurable effect on their desire to buy.

Determining the organizations posture in dealing with its publics Increasing sophistication had modified how organizations have approached their

relations with various groups. There are 3 major conceptions of that role:

To master the publics; to direct what they think and do, according to the desires of the organization involved 2) To block; to react to developments and problems, to respond to events or the initiatives of others by blunting them 3) To achieve mutual adaptation; to develop relations of mutual benefits all parties involved In the present human climate, achieving mutual adaptation, has become the most
1)

widely taken course.

Fostering the Goodwill Goodwill of: The employees Communities in which the organization has units Stockholders Suppliers Government Rest of the industry Dealers Customers Supporters

Helps in building Brands Building Brands becomes easy when proper public relations exist. Brand vitality and
brand credibility follow. This can be concluded from a national poll of brand managers. The brand managers have given authentication that public relation is the

most effectual way to institute brand credibility. Maximum utility can be derived on every marketing rupee spend. More than half the voters i.e., brand managers regard that, PR are more imperatively judged against advertising, sales promotion and new media. PR paves the path for effective communications discipline though the editorial context cannot be put aside. PR is the best way to gather third party endorsements according to brand managers. The survey clearly states that PR is a valued marketing partner in building brand equity. Probably the return earned on the marketing rupee spent makes the brand managers, give more importance to public relations. Prevention and Solution of Labour Problems Public Relations can assist in stabilizing labor conditions through employee relations activities. The use of public relations as a labour stabilizing aid is preventive as well as curative and its most beneficial when it is carried on continuously rather than only when strike clouds appear. Overcoming Misconceptions and Prejudices Prejudices that may exist because misinformation has been spread also threaten the success of business. Analysis of the situation, plans for meeting it, and the dissemination of correct information can clear up these difficulties Ability to attract the Best Personnel No organizations future is any better than the caliber of future executives it is able to attract. Making a company or organization known and respected is necessary to assure its healthful development.

Education of the Public to the use of a product When an entirely new service or product is to be promoted, it is necessary to capture the imagination of the public in order to make the item attain steady

sales. When a company brings out a new type of product, public relations must support advertising and the sales staff in capturing the publics imagination. Education of the Public to appoint a view When an organization seeks to win support for its method of operation, its principles, the system that supports it, or any other viewpoint, its most effective means are the channels of teaching the public that are constant being utilized by Public relations people

Dealing with Emergencies This has three phases: 1) 2) 3) Monitoring whatever may cause unexpected difficulties for the organization Preparing for meeting the full range of such emergencies Actual handling of matters when there is an emergency

Directing the course of change At its best, public relations is a bridge to change. It is a means to adjust to new attitudes that have been caused by change. It is a means of stimulating attitudes in order to create change. It provides judgment creativity and skills in accommodating changing groups to each other.

3. Altering Misconceptions: In India some PR agencies and independent consultants are doing just that. An example of an advertising management would be when pictures of Pepsi bottles with fungus in them were splashed in newspaper, their agency, Perfect Relations launched an intensive media awareness campaign with the misinformation in the media. How did they do this? They highlighted that 40 percent of Pepsi bottled in India was spurious, established that the bottle reproduced in newspapers was

not an original one, and then suggested Government needed to take a firm stand on enforcing laws against spurious manufacturers of consumables.

What happened in the end was that many illicit plants were raided and closed down, Pepsi emerged as the aggrieved party and the case was diminished.

4. Issues and Perception Management: The Issues Management departments of companies or of consultancies today have become a part of a total system of anticipative Public Relations.

A fair amount of research has to be done by the communications department to be able to track issues that could affect companies in the long run.

Public Relations have both advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include:

Credibility: Because PR communications are not perceived in the same light as advertising that is, the public does not realize the organization either directly or indirectly paid for them they tend to have more credibility. The fact that the media are not being compensated for providing the information may lead receivers to consider the news more truthful and credible. For example, an article in newspapers or magazines discussing the virtues of aspirin may be perceived very much as more credible than an ad for a particular brand of aspirin.
1.

2.

Cost: In both absolute and relative terms, the cost of PR is very low, especially when the possible effects are considered. While a firm can employ PR agencies and spend

millions of dollars on PR, for smaller companies, this form of communication may be the most affordable alternative available.

3.

Avoidance of Clutter:

Because they are typically perceived, as news items, PR

messages are not subject to the clutter of ads. A story regarding a new product, introduction of break through is treated as a news item and is likely to receive attention.

4.

Lead Generation:

Information about the technological innovations, medical break-

throughs and the like results almost immediately in a multitude of inquiries. These inquiries may give the firm some quality sales lead.

5.

Ability to reach specific groups: Because some products appeal to only small market segments, it is not feasible to engage in advertising and / or promotions to reach them. If the firm does not have the financial capabilities, to engage in promotional expenditures, the best way to communicate to these groups is through PR.

6.

Image Building: Effective PR helps to develop positive image for the organization. A strong image is insurance against later mis-fortunes. Perhaps, the major disadvantage of PR is the potential for not completing communication process. While PR messages can break through the clutter of commercials, the receiver may not make the connection to the source. Many firms PR efforts are never associated with their sponsors in the public mind. PR may also mis-fire through mis management and a lack of co-ordination with the marketing department. When the marketing and PR department operate independently, there is a danger of inconsistence communication, redundancies in efforts and so on.

The key to effective PR is to establish a good program, worthy of public interest and manage it properly. To determine if this program is working, the firm must measure the effectiveness of the PR effort. PR AND SIMILAR ACTIVITIES PR AND ADVERTISING: Many people consider public relations and advertising as almost synonymous, probably because there is an element of information and persuasion inherent in both.

Public Relations PR is winning of public acceptance by acceptable performance without any idea of instant tangible gain.

PR does, of course, provide support to marketing activities but it has a wider prospective and is broader in scope and vision.

Advertising Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by any identified sponsor. Although some advertisements seek to inform an even educate, there is an immediate, commercial goal behind most. Advertising is essentially a tool of marketing along with product, price, packaging and place (distribution).

PR is a management function. Every organization has a public perception and consequently public relations. PR presents its messages to specialize external audiences and internal publics.

Advertising is a marketing function. Advertising may or may not be used by an organization. Advertising is addressed to external audiences, primarily consumers of goods and services.

 PR message is largely matter of credibility.

Advertising messages are mostly emotive and strident. Advertising involves directly acting upon the briefs or problems presented by the client.

PR is more proactive than advertising. It involves anticipating, diagnosing problems and then providing solutions PR AND MARKETING:

There are certain areas like publicity, sponsorship, exhibitions, consumer and dealer relations where both the functions of PR and marketing overlap. They do not always talk the same language though both marketing and PR make use of communication to pursue their goals. What really matters in the long run, however, is not whether a particular set of techniques should be labeled PR or marketing but whether they are effective in achieving the desired corporate goal. From a marketing perspective, PR is part of the promotional element in the marketing mix and aid to consumer relations. It is seen as a component in the total marketing communication and is bracketed with advertising and sales promotion. As a support function for marketing, PR operates primarily as a publicity function. PR PR is a marketing of an organization Marketing Marketing is the selling of a tangible service or product through promotion, pricing and distribution. Marketing is external in its orientation. Customers are the key audiences for marketing. Similarly, a successful marketing campaign and satisfied consumers make good relations with the others easier

PR is equally concerned with internal and external groups. The audiences of PR include employees, shareholders, neighbors and many others. Good PR can pave the way for marketing effort. It is concerned with creating a favorable climate for marketing. It can help maintain good

relations with dealers organize to develop and maintain. product publicity and disseminate information to trade and industry. PR is both a compliment and a corrective to the marketing approach. compliment, it provides and techniques with support marketing efforts. in support of product and sales promotion.

As a The

techniques of communication used in PR and available to marketing and can be used Introduction of new products and publicity campaigns to put fresh life into the sales of established products are important marketing functions. In these areas, PR can work closely with marketing Indeed, PR and marketing can support and reinforce each other with synergistic force, if planned and coordinated in a total communication strategy. PR AND PUBLICITY: Publicity is often confused as an identical activity to PR probably because it is the most visible aspect of PR. Tangible evidence of PR efforts can be seen thorough publicity.

A publicist works on only one area of PR-dissemination of information for the media. Publicity consists of obtaining free space or time for news about the organization. Spreading of information in this way can effectively improve PR program. But it is quite possible to have wide, even favorable publicity and still not achieve good public relations. Publicity can sometimes be unfavorable or even controversial. Frequently, its over abundance may cause bad reaction instead of good. Publicity can be measured by the length of space or time obtained in mass media and it is possible to maintain a record through press clipping. But publicity is, in effect, one-way communication. PR, on the other hand, strives to initiate dialogue and feedback. It is a more complex and comprehensive discipline. Unlike advertising the main cost of PR is time. If an advertising campaign is undertaken too early, it will fail to overcome the barriers of prejudice, apathy and ignorance. To create acceptance, interest and impart knowledge, PR should come earlier.

While PR begins very early and then proceeds steadily as a constant factor as a part of an organizations existence, advertising is intensive at the launch and then tapers off in proportion to the product sensibility. PR and Propaganda: Public Relations PR is responsible for presenting factual information without comment.

Propaganda Propaganda seeks to build a favorable public opinion through one-sided presentation of facts. The selective and slanted presentation is designed to strengthen particular images by emphasizing only the good points of one position and the bad points of another. They resort to deliberate disinformation for building the strongest possible case for their views. Propaganda is designed to manipulate the beliefs and attitude of the people through colorful half-truths. Objective: to build a sectarian movement.

The receiver of the information has the freedom to take his own decision. The fundamental purpose of PR is to establish mutual understanding. It is based on facts and information. Objective: Consent TOOLS OF PUBLIC RELATONS

PRINT

MEDIA

Most of the efforts chapters make in public relations are through forms of print media, primarily newspapers. These are usually the most visible outlets on college campuses, especially school newspapers, and in the local community.

2.

PRESS RELEASE

The press release is the most common material provided to media outlets. These documents provide a brief, yet thorough, description of an upcoming activity, whether it is rush or a service project.

2. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS These are very short articles (no more than 75 words) that simply provide the facts of the activity (what it is, where it is located, when it will be, who is sponsoring, etc.).

3. PHOTOGRAPHS There are usually two types of photographs in publicity portrait shots, where people pose for the camera and smile, and candids, where the subjects are doing something.

4.

CASES HISTORIES/ STUDIES Case studies which show a good image of the company are shared with the media/ investors, community etc. Books on Making of Asoka, Making of Lagaan,, Amitabh

Bacchan- A book by Jaya Bachchan

5.

EDITORIALS No money, high credibility, however no control over message.

ADVERTORIALS Advertisement + Editorial. Control over message, pay lesser than an advertisement. It is a strategic tool, but should not be used too often. J & J is coming out with Branded Cotton. So they are coming out with advertorials on wound handling.

6.

INTERVIEWS/FEATURES

Meeting journalists. Here there is lot of room for different interpretations. More often than not, press releases will not be printed verbatim. Even though your media contact will likely rewrite them, possibly including additional quotes or information they research on their own your press releases should be written well enough. However, there are also times that a press release will encourage a reporter to do more, such as conduct a full interview with chapter members or write a feature article on an upcoming project. While doing sponsorships one should try to brand it with the event simultaneously.

8.

BROCHURE

A booklet published bye the organization which contains the organisations background, its ethics, vision, mission, its past, present and future projects, its USP, etc.

9.

POSTER AND CALENDAR

Any poster or calendar used to achieve a public relations objective.

10.

WRITTEN SPEECH

The typewritten or printed text of a speech given to achieve a public relations objective.

11.

INTERNAL NEWSLETTERS AND PUBLICATIONS

e.g. ICICI has their internal Newsletters, in which information about the company, its profits, employees etc. is given.

AND PRESS SUPPORT Special events are acts of news development. The ingredients are time, place, people, activities, drama, showmanship; one special event may have many subsidiary events, such as luncheons, banquets, contests, speeches, and many others as part of the build up.

EVENT

TO THE EDITOR Submitting these articles does not require a media contact. This also gives an opportunity for any member to submit a letter on their chapter for printing in a local or campus newspaper.

LETTERS

ANALYSTS

BRIEF

One tells about the company, what the company is doing. It is done to influence the stock buyers, analysts, employees and media.

AND SEMINARS - Press Om Kotak doing many seminars. It contacts associations and tells them to give numbers of their members so that they can talk to them. The members are contacted through telephones and asked to attend seminar on General Insurance. In the seminar they talk on General Insurance for 20 minutes and then the next 10 minutes they talk about the company products. Pharma Companies when they do any research say for example, diabetic research, they would launch the product and before or after the launch they would call doctors for a conference to discuss about the research

CONFERENCES

ITEMS Any gift, premium, novelty or physical token used to convey an impression, make a point, establish an image or achieve a public relations objective.

PROMOTIONAL

ADVERTISING If you believe the image of the company is good i.e. that trustworthy, reliable one then you can use that as a PR tool.

CORPORATE

This one medium has helped transform the whole business of marketing and public relations. In a way, it gives any organization the ability to promote themselves without having to rely solely on other media outlets. Websites and e-mail are the two most common methods to use the Internet for PR purposes.

INTERNET

A chapter website should not only be designed to serve as a resource for members, but it should also present a positive message to nonmembers just "browsing through.". Brief descriptions of chapter history, past projects and activities, and long-standing relationships with other organizations may give an outsider a positive impression of the fraternity. Like the newsletter, information for members shouldn't just inform, it should also encourage involvement and develop enthusiasm.

WEBSITE

Today, this has become the most common method used for communication between fraternity members. It can also be used to promote a chapter to fellow students and others, but it should be used carefully.

E-MAIL

AND VISUAL This division includes any audio or audio/visual presentation or program which serves a public relations objective.

AUDIO

1.

AUDIO PRESENTATION

Any sound-only program, including telephone hot lines and other recorded messages, radio programs, public service announcements and audio news releases.

2.

AUDIO/VISUAL PRESENTATION

Any internal or external audio-visual presentation using still illustrations, with or without sound, using one or more projectors.

3.

FILM OR VIDEO

Any film or video which presents information to an organization's internal audiences.

4.

VIDEO NEWS RELEASE

Any film or video prepared and released to the media as a news item, article or feature story on behalf of a sponsoring organization.

NEWS

AND PUBLICITY

News is something that interests many people today. From the point of view of THE TIMES OF INDIA, that means the national readers of THE TIMES OF INDIA and the metropolis readers of THE BOMBAY TIMES, etc. From the point of view of THE INDIAN EXPRESS, it means all the people interested in hardcore content and no masala.

Every medium has a news standard of its own, and that is the criterion the publicist goes by in attempting to address publicity to the public through that medium.

Ways To Make News

Tie in with the news events of the day Tie in with another publicity person Form and announce the names of a committee Hold an election Announce an appointment Issue a summary of facts Make a statement on a subject of interest Bring a celebrity from elsewhere

SPECIAL

EVENTS

Special events are acts or news development. The ingredients are time, place, people, activities, drama, and showmanship. One special event may have many subsidiary events, such as luncheons, banquets, contests, speeches, and many others, as part of the build-up. The special event is the coup de maitre of publicity, propaganda, and public relations.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF A PR AGENCY On the basis of size PR agencies can be classified into: Big Agencies Medium sized Agencies Small Agencies In big agencies the scope for growth is large, whereas in small agencies responsibility may be very high but there is little scope for growth. When the number of clients of a small agency increases it needs to hire new people, and gradually becomes a medium sized organization.

Grey Worldwide (India) Pvt. Ltd., has three branch offices situated at Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

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a t io n HD ee al h d i s 1

a l H

e a d g lo r e s H e a d

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T e a m

T e a m

T e a m

Each of these teams follows the following hierarchy.

G D A A A S e n i o r A c c c c

e i r e c c c

n c c o o o

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l l i e t

M n D S t M u

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TE r x a e i n c eu et i v e

An Account Director maybe heading 2-3 supervisors depending on the number of total accounts GCI is handling.

MAJOR CLIENTS OF GCI

OM KOTAK MAHINDRA
RUF AND TUF CRY BRITANNIA

PUBLIC RELATIONS PROCESS

Establishing an public relations program on behalf of a business or industry, or a professional group, involves a series of steps that, although subject to some variation in differing situations, generally will include

Public relations activity has seven steps

Analysis of the situation Definition of problem areas Identification of pertinent publics Establishment of specific objectives Planning of program Implementation of program Periodic evaluations of progress

ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION:

Analysis of the situation calls for broad study of all aspects of the business that affect the publics. The starting point will be the people in the business or industry (particularly those who are active in the company, such as board members, appropriate committee chairman and members, and so on) who appear to have awareness of the public relations situation. The public relations person will begin by interviewing such people; from them he or she will go to people outside the business but in a position to observe it more closely than the average layman (these may include editors of trade publications, officials of chambers of commerce and better business bureaus, government officials concerned with the regulations of the business or profession if there are any and others). Finally, this basic study may approach the general public for additional views. This may be done through an opinion or attitude research study, of market research, conducted by a recognized research firm. Sometimes, this may be done on a more informal basis where the budget will not permit formal research. Such an approach to the general public will be designed to provide a profile of the business as it appears in the public mind.

DEFINITION OF PROBLEM AREAS:

This will follow naturally from the interviews and research activities. Comparisons among the views of the public, of people in the business, and of those who are close observers of the business may reveal some interesting parallels as well as differences and may indicate some cause and effect relationships. It should be noted, also, that ignorance and misconception will not always or necessarily be found in the public mind. Industry people more often then not will be found to have some misconceptions about the publics viewpoint, too. In such an event, correction of industry thinking will be called for. Sound public relations may require changing the attitudes of the client (diplomatically, of course) as much as it involves

endeavoring to change the attitudes of certain publics. As a matter of fact, although the public relations person is usually hired to change public attitudes, he or she sometimes performs the most important task in changing the attitude of his client or employer. In todays climate, the role of public relations practitioner is enlarging. He or she should be capable of observing and analyzing the social, economic, and political trends and helping his or her management or clients become aware of their significance to the institution they represent. Through such expanded awareness, the manager or clients come to view their business or institution in a new and different perspective.

IDENTIFICATION OF PUBLICS: A public is a group of people bound together by a specialized interest with reference to a focal point.

Example: Employees in the steel mill may constitute one of the publics of a steel industry associations public relations effort; dairy farmers may be a special public of the association representing the milk processing industry; automobile dealers a special public of the association representing automobile manufacturers, and so on.

Customers of a particular business always are a primary public; for a professional society, the individual members will also be one. Indeed, the associations members should not be overlooked in any public relations effort; their understanding and support are necessary.

ESTABLISHING OBJECTIVES:

Once the problem areas are defined, long range objectives should be established. Usually, these will be outlines in terms of the respective publics involved. General objectives should be drawn with perspective in order to serve as guides over the long range. If they are drawn only in respect to immediate, short term problems, they will not serve to provide continuity of direction and they will need constant revision.

It would be unwise to draw an overall objective in reference to a specific piece of current legislation that is to be opposed or supported, for once the legislature has adjourned, the objective is meaningless. Instead, a long range objective might describe in general terms the nature of legislation that an industry favours, viz:

To support, in the respective states, legislative efforts that will enable our business to serve the public on a competitive basis in accord with the traditions of a free market economy, and to oppose legislation that would deny this opportunity.

Any association public relations program must be flexible; obviously it should be modified as time and circumstances require. But if it is drawn with sufficient perspective, changing day-to-day and month-to- month problems will be found to fit within the framework of its general objectives. And, of course, short-range objectives will be developed from time to time. In addition, if sound communications networks have been developed to obtain long-range objectives, these networks will facilitate the solution of passing and temporary problems. But common sense demands a long-range plan with specific objectives against which results may be measured.

PROGRAM PLANNING:

It involves laying out in detail the various activities and communications that will be employed with reference to the key publics that have been pinpointed in the objectives.

Let us assume, for example, a situation in which an association of home appliance manufacturers finds that the industry has lost standing in the public mind because a substantial number of consumers are dissatisfied with the repair and maintenance services. The industry association identifies, as one of its publics, the retail appliance dealers who are responsible for servicing. The objective with respect to this public is to indoctrinate the dealers in the necessity for providing quality repair services and to provide information to them on the methods by which high quality servicing may be established.

The program plan will outline the activities to be directed toward gaining the support of the dealers for this mutually benefit purpose. It may, for example, call for the preparation of a code of good service and of a manual describing the service functions the dealer is expected to perform. Further, this part of the plan may call specifically for a series of dealer meetings in various communities; for special articles to be prepared for trade publications that are circulated among the dealers; for a special periodical to be published by the association especially for the dealer-audience; for paid advertisements in industry publications, addressed to dealers; for the conduct of special training schools for the service people employed by the dealers; or for any combination of these and other techniques, some of which may lie outside the field of public relations must, inevitably, be based on good performance, and it should be noted that all of these measures would be designed to improve performance in repair and maintenance.

IMPLEMENTING THE PROGRAM: Involves carrying out these steps. It calls primarily for hard work by the associations public relations staff or the external counsel. In association work, however, the implementation of a public relations program frequently requires active participation of people in the profession or industry. Indeed, in respect to many objectives, the only path to success is to enroll the people in the business or profession who are located at many points across the country.

No association staff, however large, has sufficient people to perform the grass roots indoctrination task all by itself. Frequently, therefore, means will be devised for recruiting people who are working in the business, but who are not themselves public relations people, to assist in the public relations efforts of the association.

For any grass-roots efforts by a national, regional, or even a state association, reliance on local representatives of the business, industry, or profession is essential. This Carrying out the program can involve a wide range of functions, always guided by the long-range plan and associations policies.

PERIODIC EVALUATION:

Periodic evaluations of progress are necessary. Such evaluations should be made on a continuing basis, of course, by the professional public relations staff or public relations counsel or by the association. Progress reports should be made regularly also to the membership and to interested committees and boards of the association.

Though the contribution of the campaign would be difficult to measure we should try to evaluate it with the help of the following 3 most commonly used measures of PR effectiveness. The return on PR investments can be calculated as follows: Total sales increase Estimated sales increase due to PR Contribution margin on product sales Total direct cost of PR programme Contribution margin added by PR investments Return on PR investments Rs.. Rs.. Rs.. Rs.. Rs.. ..%

An activity which fails to add value stands to be eliminated in todays professional world for several decades PR practitioners did not see any need to demonstrate that the PR adds value. Any publicity is good publicity was the questionable catch cry of the PR model practiced. The main method of demonstrating results of PR was collecting and presenting the management with piles of press clippings. The different methods of evaluation are: MEASUREMENT BY KILOGRAM Commonly referred to as measurement by kilogram collecting press clippings focuses on quantitative measurement with little attention paid to the quality of media coverage. Press clippings, tapes or transcripts indicate only that reporting occurred in the media. They do not indicate whether target audiences read, saw or heard the information and if they did whether it influenced their attitudes or behavior.

POSITIVE/ NEGATIVE ANALYSIS

In attempt to provide qualitative assessment of editorial media coverage PR practitioners accepted that negative publicity was unlikely to achieve objectives and began to categorize media coverage in terms of positive, negative or neutral. This was done based on the belief that positive coverage supported clients or employers objectives while neutral coverage at least raised awareness. However this runs into 2 major challenges: 1. It involves a high degree of subjectivity, 2. Sometimes positive articles may appear in media which do not reach the clients target audience or which while generally positive may not contain the clients key messages. Also the articles may be positive but not strategically important and thus do not contribute to achieving a clients objectives.

MEDIA CONTENT ANALYSIS

Media content analysis is a growing area of public relations research for evaluating publicity and offers a more reliable and relevant method of evaluating the effectiveness of media coverage. While systems vary, most rigorous media content analysis systems measure: 1. 2. 3. 4. Total circulation or audience reached; Target audience or market reach/penetration; The extent to which key messages were communicated; Share of voice compared with competitors or others.

In simple terms, communication is about getting your key messages to your target audiences preferably better than competitors do. That is what PR needs to focus on and what PR research should address.

BILLING OF A PR AGENCY

It is the bread and butter of an agency. PR agencies are doctors and lawyers, professional who diagnose a problem and dispense their skills and expertise on a time cost basis. They charge by the hour or motnthly retainer ship and sall projects or events are then billed at cost or on a total turn-key basis.

Case: At Contact corporate communication they prepare a contract based on the needs of the client. Sometimes if the client is not media savvy then the public relations agency provides media counselling to the client. For this they charge an additional amount to the client.

The scope of the billing is generally decided before hand. E.g.: The PR agency may charge for the STD, ISD calls, traveling separately if the PR activities are on a broader base.

ROLE OF PR TO ESTABLISH AND DEVELOP CORPORATE IMAGE

CORPORATE

IDENTITY

Every individual, every business or nation has an identity. For most of us, as individuals, it emerges naturally. Just as the way we speak, dress, behave, just as much as what we say and do, consciously or unconsciously, expresses what we stand for and believe in as individuals, in the same manner organisations too express themselves in a variety of ways. It accumulates over a period of time and is a sum total of the company's history, philosophy, ethical values, ownership, people, technology and performance.

Ideally the corporate identity reflects the inner truth about the organisation. It is the coordinated and consistent projection of everything an organisation stands for. Corporate identity is not reflected merely by visual elements but nevertheless, it is often readily identified through visual signs and symbols. Because, the visual expression tends to encapsulate with imagery what the company holds to be its essential belief and philosophy.

As organisations grow large, complex and increasingly impersonal, most of them feel the need to develop a distinctive identity in order to provide them with a competitive edge in the market place. The desire to seek a new identity may arise out of dissatisfaction with the current identity or even an absence of any consciously created identity. Diversification, entry into a new field, mergers and

acquisitions, major technological changes can all be reasons for the creation of a new identity. This desire to be different, to stand out from the crowd, is one of
the many vital measure to survive and grow in this fiercely competitive world.

The need for developing a strong corporate identity has been further felt owing to the weakening of brand loyalty. A considerably shorter life-cycle of an average product in today's market has forced the companies to reposition themselves. If a company has a definite public perception, it is likely that it will also have a definite market slot.

A corporate identity is also a method of expressing a body corporate in human terms. In essence, it communicates the style of management and the spirit of the working culture within the organisation. Successful companies like ITC and Tatas have distinctive identities borne out of long and widely-held beliefs and values. But identities require to be relevant to the new business strategies. Identities,

therefore, call for constant review.

CORPORATE IMAGE

Some people seem to get confused between corporate image and corporate identity. Corporate Identity is a matter of physical recognition while Corporate Image is a matter of mental perception. Corporate identity can contribute to corporate image.

A corporate image develops out of a company's corporate identity and, as a result of people's knowledge and experience of the company. The organisation can seek to influence this image, it cannot control it. Vic Markham describes corporate image in these words: "Everything we buy helps us express our personalities; helps

us to say to the world around us: 'This is the kind of person I would like you to think I am.' We buy products to assist us in this projection of our personalities. In effect, we see the mirror image of ourselves in the product we buy. Image is a reflection of that personality. Corporate bodies project recognisable personalities and people choose between competing brands very largely because the brand reflects their own personalities. Corporate identity, on the other hand, is how one identifies ourself: on one's advertising, on the packaging, on the van sides so that a symbol or logo can be a part of the corporate identity." To sum up therefore,
corporate image is what people think about an organisation and corporate identity is how people identify an organisation.

An organisation will have a corporate image whether or not it has made conscious efforts to manage a corporate identity. Since the image is going to be present anyway, it is now universally accepted that organisations should make an effort

towards the development of a favourable image through the projection of the chosen corporate identity.

Creating the desired corporate image is not just a matter of giving a face-lift to the company's otherwise sagging identity. It is a matter of firm commitment to a corporate life-style and culture in policy and action. The organisation has to address itself to a variety of publics. Quite often, they have mutually conflicting expectations of the organisation and as a result, they may interpret the message from their particular point of interest. The corporate image, therefore, has to be consistent among all its operation and all its audiences. Hence, the management of corporate image has to be a constant and all-encompassing process.

CORPORATE COMMUNICATON

Corporate communication is the process that makes the corporate identity visible in concrete terms.

But corporate communication is not an option. It is happening to all companies all the time, sometimes haphazardly and often without real planning. It has also been described as a process that translates corporate identity into corporate image. The role of communication is crucial in the entire process because without communication the values and strategies of an organisation will never be understood properly. Corporate communication includes virtually the entire range of its interaction with the society; from the way telephone calls are answered to the way video films are made.

Corporate communication cannot overnight turn a poor company into a

successful one.

It can only ensure that it conveys a consistent and credible message of what the company is, what it does and how it does it by trying to synthesize the messages it transmits.

The visual projection in corporate identity is derived from the fact that it not only helps internal cohesion but it plays a large part in showing to the outside world what the company is like and how it can be expected to behave. Indeed a distinctive visual communication programme is one of the most prominent and marketable corporate assets; without it, ready acceptance of even the most superlative product may be difficult. It can provide a focus for a consistent message to all the external publics.

Institutional Advertising or Corporate Advertising The main aim is to build a positive image for the firm in the eyes in internal and external public in institutional advertising. It does not attempt to sell anything directly. However, it does a lot of good to the organization as a whole. It forcefully tells how the organisation is a socially responsible institution. It also tells about the nationalistic learnings of the organization. It shows how its actions are consistent with overall national objectives like environmental protection, employment generation, literacy, loss prevention, health for all etc. It is integrated to public relations function of the organisation. Institutional advertisements may be addressed either to consumers or other groups like government, suppliers, financial institutions etc. Effective institutional advertising evokes a positive response amongst the target group and creates goodwill. Institutional advertising may introduce products indirectly or may

introduce the sales people indirectly. Glaxos advertising on child health may make doctors favourably inclined to meet its medical representatives. Institutional advertising like product advertising can be in formative, persuasive or reminder-oriented. It's objectives is of institutional/corporate advertising are: To To To To To make make make make make the company known. its products/services known. its achievements known its values known. socio-political/economic/moral statements Philips hosts the second 'India Retail Summit'

Case:

100 retailers from the Consumer Electronics industry attend India's one and only summit on trends in the Retailing sector. July 22 2002, Mumbai: The Consumer Electronics Division of Philips India Limited, in association with leading global retail consultants, KSA Technopark hosted the 'India Retail Summit' - 2002', for 100 top Consumer Electronics Retailers, from across the country, on 21st and 22nd July 2002, in Mumbai. The 'India Retail Summit' was organised, for the second time in successive years, after it was launched in July 2001. The theme for the 'India Retail Summit - 2002', was "Retailing for the New Millenium". Besides high pitched discussions on "How to improve the Consumer Electronics Retailer's business" in India; sessions on 'International Retailing trends', 'Regional Trade Evolution' and the 'Human Resource aspect to Retailing' were some of the key attractions at the two days India Retail Summit 2002. The top 100 Retailers of Philips were enthusiastic participants, who witnessed the coming together of leading national & international experts on retailing, as Philips aimed to address issues of critical importance to the current and future business of retailers both with respect to general trends and specific operational issues.

The tone of the day was set by Mr. Alan Sparks, who was addressing such a major platform on retailing for the very first time in India after taking the reins of Philips as its new Regional General Manager, Philips Consumer Electronics (PCE), Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa. After inaugurating the Summit, in an insightful special address, he commended the major changes witnessed by our markets in the last few years and how closely these changes matched developed markets on most parameters. Earlier, while opening the Summit, Mr. Rajeev Karwal, Senior Vice President, Consumer Electronics, Philips India, said, "After being the first Consumer Electronics company to initiate an interactive session on Retailing trends for its dealers, by launching the 'India Retail Summit' for the first time in India, in July 2001, Philips has reiterated its commitment towards its valued trade partners by once again inviting them to be a part of the 'India Retail Summit' experience in 2002. We believe that exposure to current and future retailing trends in India and internationally, will help broaden our trade partners' approach of looking at his business, and in the process generate a win-win relationship for the Retailer as also Philips". Mr. Raghu Pillai, President & CEO, Retail Sector - RPG Enterprises, focusing on The Retail evolution in India and the emergence of various formats across various categories, said, "The hypermarkets, supermarkets, mass merchants, Departmental stores, exclusive stores, specialty stores, are all emerging. Each has its own role to play and a value proposition for the consumer. This has been a good initiative by Philips to share learnings across the retail segment with it's channel partners" Mr. Rajan Chibba - Managing Director, KSA - Technopak provided a few valuable insights on the 'Step-by- Step' approach to 'Better Retailing'. Providing an overview of what retailing entails - an end-to-end macro view, Mr Chibba said, "Retailing is complex. Anybody who is a retailer or understands retailing will appreciate what it means to ensure that the consumer gets what he wants, when he wants in the store." On the Philips India Retail Summit 2002 he said, "This is our second year of association with Philips on this platform, and, seeing the response this year round, we feel that the India Retail Summit would be an important date on the calendars of retailers from here on"

The Importance Of Operational Excellence And Other Key Success Factors Of Retailing was an interesting talk by Mr. B. Nagesh, CEO & MD - Shoppers' Stop. He shared with the CE retailers , what it takes to achieve operational excellence in retailing and its importance. "It's pleasing to see a leading brand like Philips working hand in hand with its trade partners to imbibe best practices followed globally in the retail industry" said Nagesh. Case: Pantene unveils 'Shine Morning to Night' campaign Pantene, the world's largest selling shampoo from Procter & Gamble conducted a consumer research on identifying the top hair needs which revealed that Indian women rated 'Shine' as the No.1 hair attribute. August 26, 2002, Mumbai: Research further indicated that the major cause of dull hair that lacks shine is weakness of hair, misalignment and roughness. Pantene's unique Pro-V formula has been researched and identified as one of the best solutions to achieve long-lasting hair-shine, because it penetrates dry strands better, smoothens roughness, reduces frizz and fly-aways thus making hair smooth, straight and polished. Supporting the research, Pantene unveiled the launch of "Shine Morning to Night" campaign that has two exciting components to it; The MTV "Shine Your Soul" contest which has diamonds worth Rs. 12.5 lacs to be won and the launch of 'Pantene Shine Booths' across the country that helps to achieve shine that lasts from morning to night. Complementing the "Shine Morning to Night" campaign P&G has launched Pantene Shine-Meter, a unique device that measures the level of hair shine, followed by a recommendation from the Pantene Beauty Assistant on the right variant of Pantene shampoo. To help consumers attain long lasting hair-shine, the Pantene Shine Meters will be covering 30 cities across India through Pantene Mobile Vans and Pantene Shine Booths. The Pantene Shine Booths will be set up at more than 1100 leading retail stores across the country for the next six weeks. The "Shine your Soul" contest with MTV gives consumers an opportunity to win an exquisite Diamond Necklace and 19 diamond sets from Inter Gold. All Pantene users are eligible to participate in the MTV 'Shine Your Soul' contest by answering the simple question - "What gives you a Shining personality" (a) Wealthy Mind and Wealthy body, (b) Healthy mind and Healthy body and (c) Stealthy mind and Stealthy body. Commenting on the Pantene "Shine Morning to Night" campaign, Mr. Rahul Malhotra, Brand Manager, P&G India said: "Only hair that is healthy can have long

lasting shine. Pantene's unique Pro Vitamin B formula strengthens hair, smoothens roughness and leaves hair looking shiny from morning to night. We have tied up with MTV and Intergold for the "Shine your Soul" contest to communicate Pantene's ability to deliver long-lasting shine, through the simple analogy between diamonds and shine." Said Ms. Neha Dhupia, Miss India-Universe'02, at the launch, " With the everyday pollution hair is exposed to and the routine hustle-bustle, there is very little time to invest in your hair and possess dream hair that shines 'Morning to Night'. But truly, Pantene with its remarkable range of shampoos; Smooth & Silky, Volume & Fullness, Balanced clean, Anti-Dandruff and Lively Clean offers the right shampoo variant for every hair type and gives hair that shine all day long". All Pantene shampoo variants are available at Rs.61 for the 100 ml pack and Rs. 117 for the 200 ml pack. Procter & Gamble Home Products, India also has in its portfolio, Head & Shoulders' Shampoo in three variants; Smooth & Silky, Refreshing Menthol and Clean & Balanced, Ariel Total Compact, Tide detergent and Gain Super Soaker. Procter & Gamble Worldwide has in its beauty-care basket, brands like Vidal Sassoon, Pert Plus, Pantene, Head and Shoulders, Rejoice, and Physique in Hair care; Olay Skin Care and Cosmetics; Max Factor and Cover Girl cosmetics and fragrances from Hugo Boss. Case: Amway to use corporate 25 ad campaign in October India to communicate 2002

Mumbai: Amway India Enterprises, the multilevel direct marketing company, which has grown into a global multibillion corporation exclusively by word of mouth publicity, is now planning to use corporate advertising to communicate to its customers, though in a limited manner. And India is the first country where the company plans to use the mode of advertising. Amway India managing director and CEO William Pinckney says: Amway is growing fast in India and corporate advertising at this stage will be beneficial to its distributors, prospective distributors, customers and prospective customers. It will also add to the increased awareness and appreciation of the company. He emphasises that it would not have a real change in Amways communication strategy. The company still relies mainly on the word of mouth, and the ad campaign in India is a low-key affair.

He says Amways ad campaign focuses on the business opportunities thrown up by the company, its corporate values and commitment. More importantly, ads mention very distinctly about one of its important unique selling points, which is the 100-per cent customer satisfaction or money-refund policy commitment towards India is found necessary if only to supplement the efforts the companys distributors continued to put in. The ad campaign, he feels, will enhance the receptivity of Amway products, and with it the business opportunities, and enable distributors to reach out to a much larger audience and much faster. Amway India clocked a turnover of Rs 553 crore in the year ended 30 September 2001 and is targeting a turnover of Rs 700 crore for the coming year. From a sixproduct company ii 1998, the company now sells 33 products through 3 lakh distributors and is present in four categories - personal care, home care, nutrition and cosmetics. Amway India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amway Corporation and was established in August 1995 after getting approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. The company commenced commercial operations on 5 May 1998. The company manufactures all its products in India through three third-party manufacturers. Till now, it has invested in India in excess of $35 million, of which $6 million is in the form of foreign direct investment.

Case: Daler Mehndi to paint for quake-hit New Delhi, February 24 Popular crooner Daler Mehndi, who becomes a livewire performer with a microphone, will try his hands with a painting brush for the sake of earthquake victims in Gujarat. The Punjabi pop singer will be the chief guest at an on-the-spot painting competition for schoolchildren being organised tomorrow at Aadharshila Vidyapeeth School, Pitampura in West Delhi. Organisers of the programme informed that famous painter Jatin Das would grace the occasion as the guest of honour. The canvas to be painted by the two celebrities will later be auctioned and the proceeds given to the quake-hit. In the competition, being jointly organised by Aadharshila Vidyapeeth School and Archies, children from class II to VII have been invited to participate

*Q. ADVERTISING BRIEF Document confirming understanding between client and an advertising agency on objectives of an advertising campaign, identification of the targeted audience, strategies to be adopted in reaching the audience, the timeframe of the campaign, and its total estimated cost. *Q. Advertisability and its criteria

Before taking up the advertising program, a marketer should investigate the advertisability of his product. Next, he has to define explicitly the various objectives of advertising his product. These things will enable him to proceed in the right direction and succeed in his business. The ability of a product to be advertised is the advertisabilty of a product. It exists when there is already primary demand for the product. When an advertisement is able to create selective demand for the product we can say that the product is having advertisability. There are some situations in which advertisement would be a sheer waste. Similarly in some other cases, advertising a product is a big way would lead to the closure of the business in its initial stage itself. Birden has suggested five criteria advertisability. These are the primary demand, buying motives, hidden

qualities, differential advantages and money. Some more criteria is also added which includes the consumer surplus, market condition and marketing arrangements. ***Q. WHAT IS INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION? EXPLAIN ITS FORMS, CHARACTERISTICS, ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES? **Q. 5 Ms OF ADVERTISING The following are the 5 Ms of advertising: a. Media It is a vital role in the process of advertising communication. Effective advertising is possible only if suitable media are available. A substantial proportion of the advertising budget allocation is spent on buying time and space in the mass media. Therefore media decisions assume considerable importance when financial implications came to the fore. b. Message The achievement of an advertising objective is dependent on the appeal of the message to the target audience and the reach of the media. The qualitative aspect of creation of advertising and the quantitave estimation of exposures to which each unit of the target audience is subjected, have to be considered.It must also be pointed out that the reception of the advertisers message is also dependent to a great extent on various distractions and disturbances operating on the audience. These are inherent in the process of advertising communication. c. Mission It is the goal and objective in to be set. d. Money

It is the amount available to spend e. Measurement It is evaluation of results. Advertising must adopt open and honest communication. It shall never be false and deceptive, social and legal norms must be dully honoured.

**Q. MESSAGE STRUCTURE (part of the AIDA model) **Q. THE ROLE OF PR IN DEVELOPING A CORPORATE IMAGE Image is a mental representation or a conception. Public relations advertising is one type of institutional advertising where an attempt is being made to maintain good image of the company in the minds of the general public. Efforts are being made to maintain good rapport with different social groups and thereby maintain good image of the company in the community as a whole. The importance of cordial public relations is now accepted at the business level and therefore public relations advertising is undertaken. **Q. DISTINGUISH BETWEEN A COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVE AND A MARKETING OBJECTIVE Communication is the act of conveying a message whereas marketing is a total system of interacting business activities designed to plan, price, promote and distribute want satisfying products and services to the present and potential customers. For an example if a producer comes to know that he is likely to fetch higher prices prevailing in market A as compared to those offered in market B the producer is bound to transport his produce to market A, unmindful A the additional cost of transportation because he is confident of recouping the extra expense because of the price differential between the two markets. *Q. RATIONAL AND EMOTIONAL APPEAL

The rational appeals are directed towards the thinking faculty of the audience. This appeal highlights the functional benefit of the product e.g. Performance-Luna moped, Resale value- e.g. Bajaj scooters. Emotional appeals could stir up positive or negative emotions which leads to an interest in the purchase of the product. The excited or agitated mind prompts to purchase. *Q. GREAT IDEA Advertising is concerned with much more than the promotion of tangible goods. Although the use of advertising has been made largely for promoting goods and services it is, now, also being increasingly used for further public interest as well as goods and services with limited or little profit motive. For an example The Indian Cancer Society ran an advertising campaign whose theme centred around a positive approach to an otherwise fearful disease and gave valuable information on facilities for regular checkups. The campaign was highly successful and was also applauded as a professional masterpiece. The word Great Idea can very often be substituted for the product. In order to achieve socially desirable aims such as conservation of energy the same principle can be applied. *Q. CONSUMER PRODUCTS Consumer products means products of daily use such as soaps,detergents, toothpaste, grocery items, cosmetics, ready-made garments, and consumer durables such as radio, television, refrigerators, mixers, fans, computers etc. The demand for consumer goods is direct, regular and also elastic. These goods have a wide market and market competition. Consumer goods are products destined for use by ultimate consumers or household and in such form that they can be used without further processing.American Management Association. *Q. ACCOUNT FOR AN ADVERTISING AGENCY

In advertising accounts means a client. Thus Hindustan Lever is an account for Lintas or ITC is an account for Lintas. The accounts executive is a link between the agency and the client. *Q. AD AGENCY COMPENSATION Advertising agencies are basically compensated in four ways viz. a) 15% Commission on gross billing by media owners: Under the commission method of compensation, the agency receives 15 per cent commission from the media owner on the cost charged for media space/ time. The agency tells the advertiser for the straight rate charged by the media and pays to the media owner after deducting 15 per cent commission. For an example the agency prepares and places an advertisement of a client in a newspaper at an agreed charge of Rs.1 lakh. The agency will collect Rs. 85,000 to the media owner. The difference of Rs. 15,000/- is its commission. b) Cash discount at 2% on Net billing by media owner: The agency in addition to 15% commission may get a cash discount at the rate of 2 percent for prompt payment. This discount is usually passed on by an ad agency to the advertiser provided the latter makes prompt payment of the bill. c) Fee payment method: Fee system is suggested as a better alternative to commission system. Under the fee system method the agency payment would consist exclusively of service fees based on the total cost calculated by the agency for providing the service.

For payment method is more objective as compared to commission method. It is fair to both parties as the client pays fees as per the services provided. d) Agency Charges method: In addition to the commission of 15% from the media owners, an ad agency charges its clients for special services rendered by it. For an example an ad agency may have to spend money on filming television, Television story boards, comprehensive layouts, or finished artwork for its clients. The ad agency collects these expenses and other expenses if any from its clients. e) Cost plus system: When the media billing is small and the client requires a lot of agency service the cost plus system is used. This method becomes operative when a new product is launched or the client requires non-commissionable work from the agency, such as preparing catalogs, brochures etc. Under this method, the client agrees to pay the agency out of pocket expenses and employee cost for the completion of work plus a certain percentage of this amount in order to cover overheads and profits of the agency. *Q. IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING THE TARGET AUDIENCE? BALANCE THEORY OF ATTITUDE THEORIES ON ATTITUDE CHANGE a)THE CONSISTENCY THEORY This theory is based on the assumption that man seeks consistency, balance and harmony in his belief. He cannot tolerate inconsistencies for a long time and tries

to remove them. The consistency theory states that whenever inconsistencies take place between the existing belief and the information provided to the consumer, he will definetly try to remove the inconsistencies. This would result into attitude change. b) THE CONGRUITY THEORY AND DISSONANCE THEORY These two theories emerge out of consistency theory. The congruity theory points out the relationship among congnitive structure such as knowledge, awareness and comprehension and also the intensity of their relationship. The dissonance theory assumes that when a consumer buys one product rejecting the other, he faces psychological tension.The tension is always proportional to the after-effect of his choice. Awareness and knowledge that support his decision are accepted by him and those that are dissonant are rejected by him. c) THE BALANCE THEORY The balance theory assumes that there are three elements viz. an individual some object and another person. It also assumes that there is a definate relationship among them. The cognitive structure may either be balanced or unbalanced depending on the arrangement of relationship among the above mentioned three elements.Take for an example an individual X likes another person Y and who likes an object 2. If the other pay Y dislikes Z then structure is unbalanced. *Q. PERSUASION MATRIX

*Q. COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDE Attitude is made up of three inter-related components:

a) COGNITIVE (KNOWLEDGE, AWARENESS AND COMPREHENSION) Advertising is not restricted to the beliefs about the characteristics of the object but it also deals with its evaluation e.g. whether the objectives of good quality or inferior moral or immoral. Attitude develops out of belief. b) AFFECTIVE (LINKING, EVALUATION) This component establishes the positive view about the object. It indicates individuals emotional reaction to the object. It brings about an individuals favourable or unfavourable attitude towards the object. c) CONATIVE (ACTION, TENDENCY) This component establishes the behavioural part of the attitude to respond with action. There is no problem as long as the attitude is positive but when the attitude is negative it will adversely affect the behaviour of the individual. The object may be criticised strongly orignored completely.

*Q. ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES BASED ON ATTITUDE An advertising objective involves a specific communication task. It is recognised that advertising is a mass paid communication that is intended to create awareness, impart information develop attitude or induce action. A consumer is not aware about the presence of a particular brand in the market. The communication task increases the awareness about the brand. Advertising objectives like organistaional objectives should be operational. They should be effective criteria for decision-making and should provide standards with which results can be compared. Further, they should be effective communication tools, providing a line between strategic and tactical decisions.

Advertising objectives that emphasize sales are usually not very operational because they provide little practical guidance for decision makers. OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVES: 1) Identify target audience 2) Behavioural dynamics 3) Create brand awareness 4) Brand comprehension 5) Build brand image and personality 6) Create brand attitude 7) Associating feelings with brands or use experience 8) Multiple objectives

*Q. A BRAND IS NOT JUST A NAME OR A LOGO. IT IS A PROMISE TO CUSTOMER.-DISCUSS *Q. BRAND NAME IS A PROMISE IN ITSELF.

*Q. DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN BRAND IMAGE AND USP Brand image means the opinion/ impression which consumers cultivate about a particular brand provided by manufacturers. It is a mental picture of the product developed among the consumers overa period of time. Brand image grows out of brand positioning. USP is a unique differentiating quality of a product, which is easily recognisable and distinguisable from its competitors. In USP, the

manufacturer add some new features to his product. These features are unique as they are not available in the similar products of his competitiors.These are unique selling points which make his product special/ different as compared to the product of his competitors. *Q. OUTLINE THE THREE GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING A USP WITH AN EXAMPLE USP is a unique differentiating which is easily recognisable and distinguisable from its competitors. A typical example is the USP for Colgate Total which states that the toothpaste is the only one that offers 12 hours protection. The following are the guidelines for developing a USP: 1) In USP the manufacturer must add some new features to his product.These features must be unique as they are not available in the similar product of his competitors. 2) The attention of the consumers should be drawn to the USP purposefully. 3) Market research as well as product research activities must be conducted on regular basis.

*Q. DISTINGUISH BETWEEN IMAGE AND POSITIONING According to Philip Kotler, Positioning, is the act of designing the companys offer so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target consuemrs minds. Positioning is not merely a statement or a slogan that creates an image. Brand image means the opinion/ impression which the consumer cultivates about a particular brand provided by a manufacturer. It is a mental picture of the product developed among the consumers over a period of time. Image is a multi-dimensional character to a brand that places in on any scale good or bad, rational and emotional. Brand image grows out of brand positioning.

*Q. WHAT YOU SAY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HOW YOU SAY IN AN ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN.- COMMENT. Advertising campaign has been defined as series of advertisements having the same theme and published within a specified period. During the campaign period, series of advertisement with identical message are published through different media in order to have positive impact on the people. The purpose of ad campaign is to solve the marketing problem with the help of extensive advertising. Therefore what you say is more important than how you say in an advertising campaign. **Q. PRINCIPLES OF COPY WRITING FOR: PRINT, T.V, RADIO,OUTDOOR, RETAIL, BUSINESS TO BUSINESS COPY. (READ FROM XEROX GIVEN) *Q. MODEL OF CREATION AND PRODUCTION OF A COPY The production of advertising is a process involving many people, much time and a lot of expenditure of money. We might recognize greatness in the final output of the process. It is difficult to set up a creation and production system that will always guarantee such greatness . Behind any print ads or commercials lie hundreds of decisions involving Visualiesers, Copywriters, Art Directors, Photographer,Models and so on. Production decisions are important because all the investment on research and development for a new product or maintaining sales level of an established product is at stake. Hence a produced ad is the means through which advertising objectives are carried out and strategy is executed. A generalmodel is presented that traces the various stages and activities involved in the overall process. The creation stage of the

model comes first. This is followed by a review of activities at the production stage. The activities associated with the creation stage take place largely within the confines of the advertising agency. Those associated with production are usually done by outside suppliers to the agency. The creation stage involves the generation of words (copy writing) and the generation of pictures (illustrating) with the copy writer and art director working as a team, whether the end result is a print advertisement or a broadcast commercial. (diag as per given in class) The production stage activities are usually done by external suppliers. They are different for print production or broadcast production. Print production involves the graphic arts and specialists in typography, engraving, printing and so on. On the other hand broadcast production, particularly television involves audiovisual studios, production houses and basic tasks of filming and editing which are very similar to the production of movies. The important input to the generation of advertising is reffered to as the CREATIVE PROCESS in the model. Much attention has been given to ways of improving this process and generating ideas. An important decision at the point of production is the selection of suppliers to actually produce the finished advertisements. These tasks are shown in the Model as client approval and supplier selection.

*Q. PRINCIPLES OF GOOD COPYWRITING

*Q. MAJOR DECISIONS/ STEPS REQUIRED FOR DEVELOPING AN ADVERTISING PROGRAMME The five major steps required for developing an advertising programme: 1) Advertising objectives 2) Prepare creative personnel and product offer- target audience 3) Copy and layout design 4) Copy- layout test 5) Creative strategy and tactics *Q. ADVERTISING BUDGET AND APPROPRIATION *Q. FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED WHILE SETTING AN ADVERTISING BUDGET 1) ORGANISATIONAL OBJECTIVES: Advertising budget depends on the objectives, which the firm desires to achieve. There are various objectives behind advertising campaign.Some of the objectives are noted below: a) To introduce new products through advertising campaign. b) To develop consumer loyalty and create market reputation. c) To fight market competition effectively. d) To promote sales and earn more profit. e) To create brand awareness.

f) To encourage dealers to stock the product. 2) TYPE OF PRODUCT TO BE MARKETED: Advertising budget will be more for consumer items like textiles, cosmetics, soaps etc. due to severe market competition and wider area coverage. In case of industrial products, the budgeted amount will be less due to limited competition. 3)FREQUENCY OF ADVERTISING: In order to get better results in terms of sales and brand loyalty an advertiser may like to repeat his advertisement frequently. The budgeted amount will be substantial when the frequency is more. 4)EXPENDITURE OF THE PREVIOUS YEAR Previous year advertising budget is the base in preparing the current year budget. Some addition is made as per the media cost, market competition etc. 5)SIZE OF THE COMPANY Large companies marketing many products need larger budget while small companies with limited products and funds prepare advertising budget of smaller amounts. 6)MEDIA USED Different media are used for advertising, some are very costly while the others are economical. Advertising budget depends on the media used for advertising. The media cost is the major item of expenditure in advertising. The budget will be high if electronic media is used. 7)AVAILABILITY OF FINANCE The financial position of the company determines the advertising budget. A company selling its products on a large scale will have sufficient funds to spend on

advertising. Companies selling products quickly and earning huge profits spend more on advertising. 8)SIZE OF THE MARKET Consumer goods have wider area coverage as compared to industrial goods. The size of the market and the scope of advertising are interrelated. If the size of the market is bigger the advertising budget should be more and vice versa.The regional advertisers have to spend more as compared to a national advertiser. 9)IMPORTANCE OF MIDDLEMEN In the marketing of some consumer items and durables the middlemen play an important role.Here the manufacturer has to spend more on dealer commission and less on advertising and publicity. 10)QUALITY OF ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN An advertiser may introduce innovative advertising in order to make the advertisement extremely creative and attractive. As a result the advertising budget will be heavy. On the other hand, smaller budget will be adequate if advertising plan is simple and media used is economical. **Q. MEDIA VEHICLE Media vehicle is the instrument of the media for carrying the message to target consumers. One of the essential part of buying is choosing the best vehicle to fit the target audiences aperture (the time & place at which the audience is the most receptive to the message). The media planner lays out the direction, but the buyer is responsible for choosing the specific vehicle. Previously in outdoor advertising media newspapers, radio, televisions etc were used. Today this has changed and it includes everything from billboards to hot air balloons. It is now known as OUT OF HOME ADVERTISING (OOH). Out of home advertising also includes ads on buses, walls, telephone kiosks, semi-trucks, taxi

signs, transit and railway platforms, airport, bus shelter displays, bus benches, shopping mall displays, grocery store carts, public restroom walls, in-store clocks etc. **Q. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CONTINUITY, FLIGHTING AND PULSING Continuity: relates to the timing of the media insertions. Advantage: Continuity in advertising willcreate consistent demand. Disadvantage: During off seasons such as a strategy will not give any results Flighting: This stategy is used for seasonal products and also for all consumer products of mass consumption Advantage: Useful only in case of seasonal products Disadvantage: In case of severe competition advertising at short intervals are required during off seasons also. Pulsing : In this strategy there is inconsistency in advertising Advantage: Useful for new products only. Disadvantage: May not create lasting impression. *Q. PROMOTION MIX Promotional activities are for encouraging retailers and dealers to keep the stock ofcompanys product and also for encouraging consumers to purchase companys products due to various plus points. Promotion mix includes the following variables: i) Advertising and publicity of the product ii) Personal selling (salesmanship)

iii) Sales promotion measures introduced at different levels iv) Public relations techniques used for cordial relations with the dealers and consumers and v) Display of goods for publicity and sales promotion. *Q.CPM The process of measuring the target audience size against the cost of that audience is called efficiency- or more popularly COST PER THOUSAND (CPM) and Cost per Rating (CPR).Media specialists make these calculations and provide them to the account executive or the advertiser.