The Hindu Business Line : An insider’s view of Indian advertising

Nasser Munjee, Chairman, Development Credit Bank, and Ramesh Narayan, author of ‘Reflections - The marketing and advertising world around me’, at the launch of the book in Mumbai.

Ramanujam Sridhar

Ramesh Narayan is a veteran of Indian advertising though his youthful appearance belies his experience and expertise in this field where he has spent more than two decades. Reflections: The Marketing and Advertising World Around Me is his latest book, which is a collection of articles written by him and published in major newspapers across the country.

Ramesh, as most of you (who have read his columns) would have discovered by now, has a simple, engaging personal way of writing, in startling contrast perhaps to some of us who make the simplest things sound and look so difficult and profound. His book addresses a vast variety of issues – ethics, spirituality, agency commission (or is it confusion), public relations, clients and their foibles, the marketing of cities, marketing of movie brands, along with annual reviews of the advertising industry. All this and more is featured in a slim volume that is just 190 pages.

Inside out

The book is an objective view – not very easy for someone who has been in the thick of things in Mumbai and someone who has committed his personal time to developing the industry and its cause as president of the Advertising club and also as office bearer in several industry forums. Personally, I am a great admirer of people like Ramesh who have time for so many things and are keen to give back to the industry. Despite being a practising professional who has been competing with several agency heads and rubbing shoulders with them in industry forums, Ramesh has taken a stance on sensitive issues and has disagreed with some of his peers in advertising without being disagreeable.

An instance? His views on ethics, the manner in which the Advertising Standards Council of India disposes of appeals of misleading advertising created by his peers and his criticism of surrogate advertising might have ruffled a few feathers if it had been written differently.

While I agreed with him on many issues and his addressing of them, I did not agree with the need for a ‘Kingfisher first’ which he speaks very passionately about as I thought Kingfisher had a point of difference in the sense that it was already treating its economy class passengers so well that there was no need for a business class in the airline (in my view at least, as a frequent flier of the good times).

In fact, my personal view is that the brand is trying hard to be someone else with the introduction of this class as it is already pampering its economy class passengers and would be hard-pressed to differentiate itself just because it has reserved a few seats in front of the airline.

Who will benefit?

The book is of great relevance to anyone who works in a position of authority in advertising. It would be particularly relevant to anyone like me who runs a medium-sized agency as the issues are very relevant and live and affect all of us, perhaps with differing degrees of intensity. It is a good read for younger people who have ambitions of growing within the industry as it addresses the problems of the industry that they must be exposed to as they grow within their organisations.

Clients too would benefit as it gives them a perspective of some of the problems that the industry is facing. Today, agencies live in the fear of clients and are afraid to bring up sensitive issues with them lest it upset the already wobbly apple cart of client agency relationships and in that context someone else telling the client is always welcome.

What would I have done differently?

Hindsight is a wonderful quality and having been a cricket watcher and an armchair critic for as long as I can remember, let me lapse into the same unfortunate habit of mine in this review. The book does not follow any order and issues are addressed randomly. To give you an example ‘an open letter to the finance minister’ follows ‘Kingfisher first’ and precedes ‘hospitality’.

It might have been worthwhile to make sections such as branding, public relations, clients and ethics so that the prospective reader can dive into the section that interests her.

Yet in the same breath one must say that each issue or chapter is very brief and one can read at one’s convenience and pace without worrying about what one read earlier, though it is easily possible to read the whole book in one go as I was able to do.

All for a cause

I wish I had learnt a couple of things from Ramesh. I remember him announcing his retirement from advertising at the age of 50. What a wonderful thing to do! Here I am living off the sweat of my brow as I touch 55! The second is his noble gesture in dedicating the entire royalties from the sale of the book to Alert India, an NGO that is doing some pathbreaking work in the area of leprosy and TB control and cure and significantly the advance cheque has already been handed over to the organisation. I wish I had done that with my book and maybe there is a learning for the future as well.

Finally Reflections is a good, insightful, thought provoking look at the advertising industry that is slowly but steadily declining in importance and becoming low-involvement as a career and as a destination. More efforts like these are needed lest advertising becomes increasingly irrelevant as an industry.

The writer is CEO, Brand-Comm.