The Hindu Business Line : ‘There is not enough creativity in advertising today’

In India, below-the-line activity has not developed very far. This is because the retail trade is terribly backward. Large organised retailers do not have the bargaining power to demand big and increasing discounts from manufacturers – which is the real explanation for the growth of below-the-line activity.

The main objective for the 21st century for the Indian government and business leaders is to bring the disadvantaged into the increasingly prosperous group, says advertising expert John Philip Jones.

Swetha Kannan

There are no golden thumb-rules that will guarantee a brand’s success, says advertising expert John Philip Jones. Success is more a matter of art than science, he says.

“Only one in ten new brands is successful,” he says. But that is no reason to feel pessimistic. As “the rewards from this success are so great that they justify all the failures,” says Jones, who was recently in Bangalore to address a seminar on advertising… from an Indian perspective. In an e-mail interview later with BrandLine, he shares more of his thoughts on brands today, the state of Indian advertising, and what marketers need to do to.

Jones has also had a long stint with the ad agency J. Walter Thompson. He was responsible for the international advertising of Unilever’s Lux soap. He has also been actively involved in academia – at the Syracuse University, the Royal Institute of Technology in Australia and the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.

Over to Jones …

What guarantees a brand success?

Nothing . . . nothing . . . nothing will guarantee a brand’s success. There are eight factors necessary for the success of a brand – functional superiority, correct positioning, appropriate name, right consumer price, adequate retail distribution, minimum but effective volume of trade promotion, appropriate volume of consumer promotions and quantitatively and qualitatively, effective media advertising.

But even if a manufacturer gets these right, there are no guarantees. Only one new brand in ten is successful. But the rewards from this success are so great that they justify all the failures. I sometimes think that a successful new brand is more a matter of art than of science.

There is a sudden spurt in use of technology in advertising/marketing – be it the Internet or other digital media like the mobile phone. Will they click?

The coming of digital media has made no difference to the importance of the main media. In the US, the Internet accounts for only about 4 per cent of all advertising, although this will increase.

But this increase will not affect the shares of total advertising accounted for by television and direct mail.

Newspapers will lose share, mainly because much of their classified advertising will go to the Internet.

Increasingly, the Internet is being used as a search medium. In other words, it is doing a direct marketing job, and it is successful in this.

On the other hand, despite years of experimentation, the Internet has not shown itself of any value for ‘low involvement’ goods: banners are on their way out. The best media for ‘low involvement’ goods remain television and (to a lesser extent) radio and magazines. The Internet will never be seriously competitive.

What is your assessment of Indian advertising today?

The obvious point about Indian advertising is that it is quantitatively very small. The total expenditure is only about 1 per cent of that in the US.

Considering this huge difference, the quality of Indian advertising is remarkably high. This is the result of the operations of large and sophisticated advertisers and advertising agencies who have conducted business in India for decades.

Are marketers focusing more on below-the-line activities today? How important are these vis-À-vis above-the-line initiatives?

In India, below-the-line activity has not developed very far. This is because the retail trade is terribly backward.

In other words, large organised retailers do not have the bargaining power to demand big and increasing discounts from manufacturers – which is the real explanation for the growth of below-the-line activity. The situation is quite different in the US and Western Europe.

In the US, of all advertising-plus-promotional expenditure, 75 per cent goes below-the-line, and only 25 per cent goes above-the-line into media advertising. It will be a long time before this happens in India, but it may happen one day.

Is advertising and marketing at point of purchase growing in importance today?

The various types of in-store sales gimmicks will obviously grow in importance with the increase in organised retailing, but the cost of these things will be trivial in comparison with the mighty expenditures that will have to go into trade discounts and consumer promotions (most of which are forms of price reduction). A 10 per cent temporary price reduction means an equivalent loss of a manufacturer’s receipts. Most advertising budgets are 5 per cent or less of a manufacturer’s receipts.

How creative are marketers today? Is a lot happening on the innovation front?

Creativity is always the number one priority in advertising. The problem is that there is not enough of it.

This is as true of the US as it is of India. What is badly needed is some understanding of what nudges members of the public into paying minimal attention to an advertisement, and I believe that the work that is being done in neuroscience will provide some important clues.

We also need much better methods of researching advertising before exposure. Most of the methods used at present are totally useless.

The broad trends you observe in media and marketing today … ? What more needs to be done?

Everyone talks about trends. The reality of marketing and advertising is that very little change takes place in the short and medium term. Changes only take place in the very long term, that is, in periods of five years or more.

One of the major problems affecting India is that the rapid rate of growth is making rich people richer, and this does not vastly change their lifestyles … they buy a slightly bigger car or a more sophisticated computer or television.

The increase in prosperity does not eddy out to the 75 per cent of the population who are still subsistence farmers. These people remain mired in poverty.

The greatest single challenge facing the Indian government and business leaders is how to bring the disadvantaged into the increasingly prosperous group. This should be the main objective for the 21st century.

More Stories on : Interview | Advertising

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Brewing big business

The consumer as seller

‘There is not enough creativity in advertising today’

‘Ideas are good, but packaging could be better’

Is innovation the name of the game?

‘Ad industry needs a CEO’

Discover Nokia

Don’t get stuck in a drying-up profit pool bookmark

Vintage enterprise

Maturity of the upstart