Divine Pearl Digital Products P Ltd OPC

23/11/2015

My Brand is My Future

A brand could mean a product, service or any retail chain.

Building a brand is one of the most fascinating chapters in an advertising process. Brands are built by popularising the label, establishing it and by developing it through certain strategies. Brand strategies make the business more unique.

Brand building not only reduces the marketing budget of the product, but also builds an entry barrier and loyalty where customers find it difficult to replace it with a new product in the market and thus ensure stability.

The brand's marketing department contributes to brand establishment by participation in exhibitions and signing with search engines, besides implementing cost effective media plans. The production department, however, maintains quality and has consistent practices, so that the brand becomes more reliable.

In a fast growing country like India, which is getting more and more tech savvy, the product name and packaging design should also be considered while developing a brand. Establishing a brand takes a lot of time where the resources are channelized in the right way, to reach the much desired goal. The unique technology that is used in product is mentioned while promoting a brand, in such cases.

The brand is defined, positioned, personalized and then further activities are carried out. Consumer behaviour is kept in mind while establishing or developing a brand. Brand management for B2B businesses are however handled in a totally different name where corporate values, faith and the company's personality are emphasised.

Spreading the word through aptly balanced communication is a vital and challenging part of brand building. A long term positioning perspective is very important, lest the audience should sign us off as fickle.
Brand management, on the other hand, could be really challenging in cases where the company's facts force them to sail against the currents.

19/11/2015

Lot more than visuals and flowery words

The word advertising usually spells a lot more than unusual and witty pictures and flowery languages. Most times, advertisers, with the approval of clients or due to compulsion of clients, provide free entertainment to the target audience, which is of meagre use to the paying advertiser or client.

Witty messages and visuals are more successful and get more popular only when they communicate the message in a more convincing way. The ad agency, copy writer, visualizer can beam with pride only if the message persuades effectively, lest they should dig their own grave.

Letting the client spend huge chunk of money in advertising, is not the client's fate, but also that of the agency. An inappropriate advertisement, that costs a lot, is like killing the hen that lays gold eggs. The client can rise back to normal, but the agency loses its reputation.

Positioning plays an important role in writing text for the advertising. For instance, what is the point in writing a text for young girls and displaying gorgeous girls in the ad, when we mean to sell to senior citizens?

These days, the audience are smarter and underestimating them is a costly mistake. They never entertain nonsense of any kind.

Take the case of an auditor. All he can afford is a 1 column by 5 or 6 cm ad. Filling it up with usual services by an auditor rarely reaches the audience compared to crispy words like "Tax Problems? Call 9444960084" or perhaps other main corporate accounting problems mentioned in the ad.

Silence and crisp words speak more in ads. Using metaphors or pictures that speak for the product, works well. Many of you, who are in your 30s must be knowing Fido Dido who represented 7up and all senior citizens must be knowing about the Air India Maharaja who assured personalized and special service.

These metaphors are sometimes unspoken words. But very valuable ones.

The words spoken to the target audience must have sexual, humour, fear or rational appeal. At exceptional cases, they appeal to facts.

The text is different for press advertisements as compared to television and radio advertisements. Press advertisements impart more information to serious buyers, who have more time to get back to the advertisement message as per their discretion.

But, radio and television advertisements are short lived. Television could divide the message between visuals and texts, but radio advertisements are really challenging for the copy writer.

Radio ads really demand some strong and witty words that really plunge into the minds of the listener. One has to emphasise and optimize one of the appeals in a very strong way. The copy writer usually rewrites his drafts from to 10 to 100 or more times to get the right words.

14/11/2015

Ad Agency, Budget and the Client: Who Listens to the Other Two?

The toughest subject besides media plan, that I manage to converse with my clients, is the advertising budget. The client is highly sceptic about any amount that I might suggest. This is one factor that consumes a huge chunk of the agency's energy leaving them totally drained out when a deal is actually signed.

Unless the client has prior experience in releasing ads, he might not agree with me. More so, if he had burnt his finger with any other agency that placed the right ad on the wrong media or wrong ad placed in the right media, he refuses to listen to me.

Elements like frequency, client competition, competitor ad frequency and product life cycle affect the advertising budget of the client. The need for a brand ambassador might add up to the costs.

The marketing objectives of the client, based on the company's brand status which could be fresh, making a move or established one, are considered in the advertising budget. Percentage of sales method is one of the safest approaches. Sometimes budgets are based on the product's current trend, irrespective of brand, where the management may opt for a risk of advertising more than the stipulated response.

When a company is declining, it is considered as an emergency situation, where advertisements are placed just to retain existing clients.

There is this famous statement by John Wannamaker who sulked on which half of the money he wasted in advertising. If you are in such a situation, nothing helps like monitoring and split tests. Placing exclusive mobile numbers to track leads or monitoring sales through split advertising does wonders.

Research based advertising expenditures save a lot of money for the advertiser, who has more of a scientific and well calculated approach. The data collected helps with the content, media and the budget planning.

Though there might be trending media like internet, social media and others, traditional media like press, television and radio are eternal in advertising world and never lose their scope.

11/11/2015

When Hyderabad became Secunderabad

It was a quiet evening, around 5 pm, when I was walking in the nearby park, immediately after dispatching bulk SMS for my freshly found advertising agency. Barely few steps and I got a call inquiring my possibilities in a marketing campaign for some real estate property in Hyderabad.

Boy! You should imagine my excitement! I have to prove myself. I did not compromise with my daily walk and made it a point to complete the scheduled one hour before I rushed back home.

Research! Yes, that's what I need right now. I must understand Hyderabad, before plunging inside this. So what's going on in Hyderabad? Nothing helps like Google.

Hyderabad has relatively lower prices than other cities and is a good investment for NRIs. Narsangi, Nanakramguda, Tellapur, Miyapur, Hitec City, Gachibowli in west Hyderabad, Attapur, Manikonda in South West are good for 1st time investment.

Outer Ring Road in East Hyderabad is good for long term investment. 5 pc appreciation in residential and 6 to 8 pc appreciation in commercial is good buy. IN the long run 10 pc appreciation is good buy.

Gachibowli is one of the fastest growing hotspots in the country. The IT suburb started developing in 2003. World Class Infrastructure close to the international airport. It has expansive gated community projects, competitive prices and new age living amenities. Madhapur reaches saturation point.

Tellapur is close to reduces travel time to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad and is a major plus to professionals who travel frequently.

So, I need to address the IT professionals who travel frequently. I thought about the visuals and copies that could reach them. It is also close to prestigious institutions with more multi storied apartments coming up.

I also browsed the subsidies that Andhra and Telengana governments are offering. I categorised and arranged information about zones like Hitech City–Gachibowli, Uppal-Pocharam, Miyapur-Chandanaga, North-West Corridor and Jubilee Hills-Banjara Hills.

I analyzed the supply and dynamics, population growth, government initiatives, clear titles and many other interesting details.

For a moment, I felt like the Hindu angel Hanuman. And if you don't know Hanuman, can you understand, if I said that I felt like a positive version of Godzilla?

The appointment day came. Proud and energetic, I walked inside the office and after the formal introductions, I started speaking.

"Sir, I had worked on the real estate situation in Hyderabad and ...." I narrated the entire story. And after that I asked, "So, where in Hyderabad is the property?"

The client said, "The property is in Secunderabad."

"But you said it was Hyderabad?" I gasped.

"It's all the same. They are twin cities, you know!"

Yes! You are right!

We were happy with each other and I said I would return back for a second sitting of discussions. You can't catch me dead without preparations right! I slowly walked to the door and something struck me.

I turned back and asked, "In which part of Secunderabad is our property located, Sir?"

09/11/2015

Meet Mr. Client Service, the CEO in Indian Advertising

Client service is one of the most important parts of advertising agencies. He is more of a business partner as he is aware of all the trends in his atmosphere. Actually there is no point in making a result oriented advertisement if it cannot be convincingly explained to the client or advertiser.

Just imagine a well thought ad with the right ingredients, but without any flashy or flowery words being produced before the client for approval.

Here, the agency, through its experience knows that the target audience would not take any nonsense and would just brush away irrelevant ads. But the client insists on something inappropriate.

Now the agency sincerely wants to do a good job and insists on result oriented advertisements for two reasons. One is to safeguard its reputation and the second is to stick to business ethics.

The client service, explains the purposes of the advertisement visuals, copy and selected media in the most comprehensive way. The client service is diplomatic and still does not hesitate in pointing out the client's misconceptions and explains consumer behaviour in a more assertive way with apt explanations.

A result oriented advertising agency, which has the best ideas in its pocket, is a failure if its client service department could not communicate effectively with its clients.

Client service executives also communicate the client's ideas to the creative team. One cannot say that the client is always wrong. Maybe, he knows his business and customers better than someone in the ad agency, sticking to their pens and palette.

Client service executive is open and all ears to anyone speaking to him. He also has a good communication with the accounts department. He and the account executive are important members in the creative team's brainstorming session.

The client service executive is very devoted to his relationship with the clients and brings every word back to his office. None of them are brushed away and the possibilities and prospects of each idea are well analyzed.

So much and the world pronounces advertising as copy writers, art directors, media managers and advertisers. But still, job satisfaction is enough for this devoted soul.

06/11/2015

05/11/2015

Media Planning-Rule Your Time and Space

Before entering into the discussions related to media planning and advertising, one has to understand a basic matter. Anyone and anything in the universe, has time factor ahead of them.

You can rule the time ahead of you and all you need to do is make choices so that you could see yourself, where you want to be.

This is one thing that you should keep in mind while chalking media plans for your advertising campaigns. Media planning is, as everyone knows, an effort taken by an advertiser with a hope of finding himself in a better spot after a stipulated time. Media plans should be cost effective and result oriented at one go.

After setting a budget for your media expenditure, all you could do is make a clever spread of advertisements over the media for a stipulated time so that the time is saturated and the campaign is well exploited and you still save a huge chunk of money.

Your business could only be in one of the three stages namely beginner stage, making a move from moderate stage to established one or is an established stage. Your promotional activities could accordingly introduce your product to the audience or compete with rivals and move on to a higher level.

An effective media strategy where you could keep the target audience aware of your services and deliver maximum information through minimum cost is, by popularizing your well constructed website through strategies like Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Marketing.

The digital media which includes television and radio advertising meets its formidable foe in social media advertising. Today, digital media holds just 10 percent of the market share. While local FM channels are popular among music buffs, an average person views television for not more than an air. Surprising, yet true!

Whether the media is digital, social or interactive, only a well targeted media fetches best results. Timing is also another important ingredient in advertising and planning the media. It is one of the best ways where precise positioning meets careful media planning so that the results are just optimized.

The missed call approach in the integrated advertising has fetched excellent response in the recent times. It just assures more sales and more inquiries than apps and websites.

As a closing note, whatever your plan might be, make sure that you reach your target audience effectively through the right information and that every paisa spent has saturated returns.

04/11/2015

Positioning Your Brand

Positioning your brand is the most important thing to do, when you move your business to the next level or when you want a winning edge over an equal competitor.

It is also known as brand strategy. Your brand is presented in a unique perspective which appeals to a specific audience. You could also term it as targeted marketing.

Positioning is a magical mirror which scans the desires and preferences of people standing in front of it and pretends to offer only their requirements.

When you sell a bathing soap and each of your audience might demand things like established brand, health, beauty or easy availability, the advertisement is projected accordingly in individual advertisements.

Assume that you have an identical business at the same area, with not much or no difference at all. Such a competition calls for positioning, where you boast a feature or benefit that it is different from your competitor. In that way, you explore the unexplored market.

When you pack a huge advertisement with maximum information that appeal to people of different categories, you might be happy that you saved money and would expect better results. But the truth is that you have lost them all for meagre results.

Positioning is all about assimilating information about your product and concentrating the information for a narrow audience. This requires multiple ads at almost the cost of the huge advertisement, but with pampering results.

While positioning your brand, you must be focused, consistent and with a long term commitment.

Positioning when teamed up with effective media planning gives the best results. The procedure is pretty interesting and work is elaborate, where the advertising agency assorts the features and the benefits of the product and prepares a list of the audience.

The media is carefully assimilated and the advertiser gets the best reach which can also be termed as real value for money.

04/11/2015

Tea Shop in Chennai

Tea in India, might not be as religious as that of the Far East, and could not be close to what quiet evenings with tea are in Vietnam and Thailand. But, tea is consumed as enthusiastically, with equal zeal and passion.

An Indian is no less to the rest of the world, in identifying an opportunity, and guess what? The Indian roads are filled with tea shops.

The blend of elements like voices placing orders, different voices conversing with flawless concentration, the tempting aroma of tea and bajji at one go, the radio stations religiously chatting with the latest songs are memorable in each of its consumer.

Coffee machines might share the business scenario, but tea shops especially the road shop ones are here to stay. The Indian landscape is incomplete without these shops.

Tea is not just tea and it spells socializing and conversations. Intellectual conversations. It might be official matters amongst colleagues or political matters by the common man.

You know what? Every self made business conglomerate from Chennai would definitely have a handful or more interesting such experiences where he also made friends or clutched opportunities.

Tea shops are also places that inspire winners. Can't say how, but the enterprise of the owner and workers of the tea shop might have just got contagious.

We Indians are more penny smart and value tasty tea and quality experience over posh interiors. This reason keeps the tea stall controlling its winning edge over a posh cafe.

One fifth of tea stalls in Chennai are unlicensed and the others are licensed. Licensed shops are costlier than the non licensed ones. What was once a predominantly a Keralite's shop, with uniqueness of his state, is now barged with tea shop owners from Bihar and Orissa. Not surprising, since they know the nuances of the beverage equally well.

These tea employees from across the country are chosen for their ability and willingness to work for tougher number of hours. That is one another reason which adds to your tea's cost. But then, one sip makes the paisa worthy.

No matter how you hike the price of milk and raw tea, the beverage is much in demand. But thanks to the association that bonds them, they are disciplined in their prices, much to the delight of their customers.