The Hindu Business Line : Four-letter words are the best!

Specialist boutique agencies offering services to companies are all around. How do you see their future? And what of the advertising agency at large?

_ Raman Kukreja, New Delhi

Raman, I really think this is the day and age of the specialist agency. This is the day of the narrow, specialised vertical. Broad-spectrum advertising agencies will need to redefine their roles keeping in mind the changing needs and wants of the savvy marketer.

Gone are the days when the marketer would head to the advertising agency with all her requirements. Today, there is a different solution provider for every specialist domain of marketing. If you need an input on point-of-purchase, you will go to a specialist POP solutions provider. You as a client know that this specialisation is a niche and the advertising agency at large does not possess this. Even if you went to the agency, the agency would in turn go to the same solution provider, for all you know.

A similar splintering of core competence is occurring in several arenas. Brand strategy is one. Account planning is another. Media broke away many years ago. Media audit is different as well. Add below-the-line as a separate competence, retail branding yet another. Retail solutions of the tactical kind are yet another.

What used to be the macro-business of the advertising agency of yore is today the micro-businesses of a host of solution providers, strategy houses and such outfits. This has indeed put pressure on the quantum of money that finds its way to the advertising agency. In several cases, the monies could be static from the client, but incremental spends of the client are going elsewhere. The pressure on margins is similar as well. Commissions are on a decline. This has been a self-fulfilling prophecy written long long ago.

Let's remember one thing. The core competence of the advertising agency as defined in this day and age seems to be one in the arena of the creative. The client will still go to the agency for that. He will still pay for that. Good creatives will merit good prices and good margins, but nothing else will get monetised.

How big is the below-the-line (BTL) ad industry in India? Is it increasingly becoming an important segment?

_ Josy P. Punoose, Thiruvananthapuram

Josy, it is difficult to hazard a guess. I will, however, look at all three categories - trade leverage activities (which is the biggest of BTL), out-of-home and POP, add market-activation as well, and put the number anywhere between Rs 11,500 crore and Rs 14,000 crore as of now. And it is growing, possibly at 16 per cent per annum as per a recent probe of ours.

The market that caters to the older age group is being exploited in the US. What kind of opportunities would they offer for marketers to tap in India? What are the trends here?

_ K. P. Kannan, Chennai

Dear KP, India is essentially a young country with a young population. Fifty-four per cent of the population in India is below the age of 25. The `grey' segment of the market is a small percentage.

Even though this is a small segment, niche marketers can actually utilise it to good advantage for products and services. Marketers in the realm of travel, the hospitality industry, holidays, branded apparel for the senior citizen, clubs of every kind, and medicare intervention facilities of every kind will do well to be prepared. Lifestyle disease management will be a big one to gain as well.

Segmentation of this market will be more acute than current. Marketers will need to carve out market spaces by age group and psychographics of the spenders in the category. Mass media advertising itself will address this market. In addition to it, BTL will play a role. Point of purchase will play a big role as well.

Remember, this market is a sizeable one. Seven per cent of the total population of 1.19 billion will be the retired non-working population age to address as of today.

You have waxed eloquent on four-letter word brand names being the ultimate semantic successes. Why so?

_ Suhas Ratnakumar, Chennai

Suhas, let me illustrate with an example. Amul!

The success behind Amul the brand name is one that can be re-created with brand knowledge of the kind we have today. It is important, however, to note that when the rustic name was rustled up decades ago, this knowledge was non-existent. To that extent, the rustic method of branding used in the old days has paid off rather well and fits into modern brand thinking and the logic of brand-naming pretty well and snug today.

Amul is one of the crispest brand names on the Indian tongue today. It is a four-letter word brand name. It is therefore crisp, easy to recall, memorable and easy on the tongue. It is all of two easy syllables, `am' and `ul'. These two syllables are easy on the tongue of any of the many languages spoken in the country. What's more, the brand name is easy to pronounce in any country of the world because of these two simple and easy syllables.

I have always maintained that brand names across the world must be four-letter words with just two syllables. The best name in the world is a four-letter word with two repeat syllables. For example, Pepe. `Pe' repeated by `pe'. Or Bebe. Or in India: Baba Zarda. Or Sasa detergent (made by Lijjat Papad). And, of course, the best of them: Tata!

The next best brand names are ones that have four letters and two syllables, maybe not the same repeated. Amul figures here. So does Bata. Amul's secret lies for a start in its name. It is not `Anand Milk Union Limited'. It is a sweet `Amul'. The equity of the brand of Amul butter of course gave it further smooth strokes in the consumer's mind and seeped into the consumer psyche easily!

I rest my case.

(Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. Email:askharishbijoor@thehindu.co.in

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