Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Jan 01, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Jan 01, 2003 |
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Marketing
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Advertising Suggestive ads: Do they work?
Nithya Subramanian
NEW DELHI, Dec. 31 DOES showing flesh really help? From branded paper to inane car batteries, from liquor brands to UPS systems, advertisers are increasingly portraying scantily-clad women to hardsell all kinds of products. So you have low-involvement products such as Powerware new generation UPS systems resorting to showing a woman clad in figure-hugging clothes with a suggestive `are you with it?' ad line to boot, and Okaya — an automobile battery brand — with equally suggestive advertising. The surrogate ad for Aristocrat Premium Apple juice (a whisky brand) depicts the woman's dress gradually sliding every time the male model takes a sip of the `juice', and models in various stages of undress selling coated paper. So does this work? The advertising fraternity is divided over the issue. "This is a short cut to attract attention, and it certainly does not result in aiding brand recall. Such ads do nothing for the brand," says Mr Prasoon Joshi, National Creative Director, McCann-Erickson India. According to Mr Sanjay Garg, Client Servicing Director, Enterprise Nexus, "These ads only indicate that there is lack of creativity, and since the brands are unable to spend big money, they try to get attention. Such brands can manage high recall only if they are repeatedly shown." According to industry analysts, categories such as power systems and paper are traditionally dominated by the unorganised sector. "These companies are trying to penetrate the unorganised market and sell branded products instead," said an ad industry official. Said Mr Deepak Sharma, Managing Director, Invensys Powerware India, which is part of the US-based $2.3-billion power solutions company, "A large segment of PC owners go in for non-branded UPS products because of their economical pricing. Now they have an alternative available in buying our superior quality products at the same prices." The marketers obviously believe such advertising works.
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