Does advertising work less today?

I think advertising works less today than it did 30 years ago when I was in marketing. Isn’t creative getting too creative also? Am I right in saying this?

- C. S. Somnath, Siliguri

Somnath-ji, you are really right. For a start, there is just too much advertising around. So much that there is confusion. Confusion that confounds. The degree of trust a consumer places in advertising is also on the wane. Both these factors combine to offer fodder for me to agree with your contention at large.

Advertising has many roles to play. The first role is really that of creating brand awareness. Here, creativity of every kind works beautifully. The second role of advertising is to build an interest in the product category and the product itself. Here, the creative process needs to be limited to offer solutions that are close to what the product actually does for you as a consumer. This is where creativity needs to be reined in. Some would even say stifled. The third role of advertising is to actually stoke that interest built into a desire to buy or own or franchise. Here again, creativity can go bonkers. It is important to remain credible, though. The fourth role of advertising, then, is to create the sale. Here, reality bites. And bites like mad. This is where you need to be as real as real can be. Creativity dies. The final role of advertising then is to create satisfaction cues in the buyer of the product or service. Out here, you need to stay close to the knitting of product delivery, but can take a bit of licence here and there.

The pity is that one piece of advertising needs to do all these things. Imagine a situation where five different pieces of communication were to do each of these things on their own.

The point I make is a simple one. In the real world, where clients use one piece of advertising to achieve all five objectives, creativity needs to be reined in and gets reined in.

Why is it important to build a personal brand?

- Rohini Mitta, Kolkata

Rohini, I am not sure if it is important to build a personal brand at all. I will, however, go ahead with my reply.

I define the brand simply. The brand is a thought. A thought that lives in people's minds.

To that extent, the brand is not a physicality, it is a metaphysicality. This metaphysical entity packs value. It packs memories, it packs baggage (both positive and negative) and it packs a lot, lot more.

Your personal brand is a function of who you are, and who you represent yourself to be. The best personal brand is that which can match both these 100 per cent, with absolutely no subterfuge and absolutely no over-claim.

A personal brand is important, as it is both an introduction and a reliability factor. The moment you muddle this terrain, you get into trouble.

Every brand is also many things really, when you look at it from the physical perspective. A brand is a product or service (depending on whether it is a toothpaste or a telecom service), a brand is all about quality, it is about the packaging and it is about the kind of experience it delivers to the user. To that extent, clothes to a man or woman are like external and visible packaging. Just as external packaging attracts or repels, clothes do the same. Clothes have the ability to showcase and communicate. They offer an excellent way of visual communication that needs no language.

Therefore, the right clothing can convey the right message, without you wearing the message you want to convey on your sleeve.

The beer and wines market is slated, hopefully, for some reprieve from excise laws that stifle. How do you see this panning out?

- Mohan Varkey, Alleppey

Mohan, there sure is a case for this, in the categories of wine, beer and indeed some of the low alcohol percentage beverages such as RTD (ready to drink) alcohol mixes.

In this hierarchy of want, wine wins. We have already seen many States easing up on wine. The relationship of grape and wine is being touted and worn on the sleeve of both consumption and marketing. Beer has a similar case. It is all about the relationship between traditional home-brewed beers that existed in India centuries ago. Soma, to an extent, is also called the “nectar of the Gods”.

The low alcohol content in beers and the nascent microbrewery movement might help in this route immensely. Wine and beer are going to emerge being considered as lesser evils in an alcoholic beverage consumption context. And finally RTD alcoholic beverages will breach the bastions. This will take time, but expect it to happen.

There is a latent demand for these beverages to be considered as a food product coming under the rules that govern the food processing industry. Expect advertising and promotion norms to ease up for these categories as well, as opposed to strong alcoholic beverages.

Innovation in beer needs to span the terrain of manufacturing practice and process, scale of manufacture, range of manufacture, packaging, serving, marketing and branding innovation and distribution. There is for sure space for beer tourism to emerge in India. One just needs to think hard and deep.

(Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. askharishbijoor@gmail.com )

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