RIP Time Machine: HMT

The announcement of HMT's imminent shutdown seems to have rejuvenated interest in the brand and its memorable timepieces. It definitely gave me a dose of nostalgia, having worked on the brand in the late 80s in my stint at Mudra in Bangalore.

The technology was then shared by Citizen

Somehow, the marketing division in HMT figured that quartz watches would not work in India and concentrated on manufacturing its mechanical range. Indians who were going to the Gulf to get their watches suddenly found alternatives in Titan, with its elegant range, and HMT failed to see that. The communication then positioned owning an HMT as a point of patriotism, but this did not work with the evolved Indian consumer. 

You can read more on my take on what set back HMT, in this piece in Open Magazine, here.

Googly: Branding on Indian Turf

Below is an extract from my interview coverage with MBARendezvous on "Googly: Branding on Indian Turf"!

“Mind it, Customers are not moron, they will react to your faulty deliveries on commitments so ensure that smart execution is done “

Mr Ramanujam Sridhar is a communication consultant, author, columnist, teacher, trainer, cricket enthusiast and a passionate social activist.

A postgraduate in Management from IIM Bangalore and an MA in Economics from Loyola College, Chennai, Sridhar had spent over six years in the banking industry, and in his own words “counted other people’s money and wrote other people’s Fixed Deposit receipts” before entering the fascinating and often frustrating world of advertising.

Read more »

Of older marketers, young consumers

How should the former overcome the age gap and speak convincingly to the latter?.

India's Gen Y is a complex kind that believes in self-advancement as much through education as through Indian Idol, is unashamedly self-absorbed, highly networked and lives life in a melting pot - how can marketers, usually much older, connect?

A few weeks ago I was asked to speak at the WAN IFRA conference at Jaipur on Gen Y in India, their hopes, fears, aspirations and on how marketers could reach out better to them. When my family heard of this opportunity to go to Jaipur, they asked me in their usual polite manner: “Do you do anything other than give speeches?” The Ramanujam family can never be accused of tact! Whenever I hear statements like this and it is quite often, I gently remind them that I am in the communications business and if delivering speeches and presentations isn't communication then what is! Personally, I learn a lot more from preparations for assignments like this.

Like in this case, I was able to look at several studies such as the Nielsen-India Today study on youth which was extremely illuminating and which has been used in this piece. Be that as it may, let us return to Gen Y and see if we can crack the code. I must, however, confess that I am perhaps not the best person qualified to understand this generation. Fifty-seven-year-olds are hardly the best judges of twenty-somethings, are they? My only qualification, perhaps, is that I have two sons aged 26 and 23 and my endeavour to understand them over the years has probably resulted in my only true sign of wisdom, a balding head!

But on a more serious note, is there a simple way to classify today's youth? In the mid-Nineties, Bajaj had done its second Hamara Bajaj ad which some of you might recall. Let me attempt to jog your memory. It has images of guys in motorcycles who drive around a rangoli so as not to disturb the pattern, guys in grungy T-shirts carrying sitars, a girl removing her hand from the boy's leg as she sees an older person on the road … The whole commercial, in my view at least, represented Indian youth of that time - traditional and yet modern, conservative and yet contemporary. In one word, the youth of the Nineties was being modern within the constraints of Indian culture and tradition. They would neither go completely overboard, nor would they rock the boat. Brilliant, I thought, and a nice depiction of young India.

In 2010, however, I feel that such a depiction might be an oversimplification of a complex breed of people. So what makes young India tick, what are their beliefs and what should India do to reach out to this generation?

The marketing challenge of India

At the risk of carrying coal to Newcastle we need to remind ourselves that we have the youngest population in the world and one-fourth of the world's youth population lives here. The good news is that 50 per cent of the Indian population will be under 30 even in 2015. But then what's the bad news? The people who are marketing to these people are much older. Vice-presidents of marketing are in their forties, managing directors are in their fifties and the customers who are buying products and services are in their twenties! And how old are editors of newspapers and magazines? I would much rather not answer that! Given this reality, what should companies do? I think they should start by marshalling their knowledge on Generation Y. What does today's youth brigade believe in?

The power of education

“A person who is better educated has more power.” The youth of today strongly believes in the power of education, even if on occasion, parents have to reinforce this belief! The success rates in IITs and IIMs are as low as 2 per cent! But clearly statistics like these do not prevent four lakh students from appearing for the IIT and a few days ago two lakh students appeared for the CAT (incidentally, a smaller number than last year). This desire to improve themselves through education is as old as the hills, but it is heartening to note that the vast Indian middle-class seems to have passed down this value to the next generation as well.

There is another new dimension to this desire for advancement, though. People believe that talent hunts like Indian Idol are the way to self-advancement. Indian Idol, for instance, had two lakh applicants and over 20,000 people were called for auditions. It is not uncommon for people to drop out of college for a year to participate in the talent hunt that will push to them to a completely new level of recognition and rewards. Young India does not believe that education is the only way.

The other important point of view is that today's Indian youth can no longer afford to “live with what he/ she has been born with”. The desire to look better is perhaps more in evidence today than ever before. An insight that brands such as Fair and Lovely have used for years and continue to do even today. Remember the controversial air-hostess commercial? Witness too, the number of fairness cream brands and cosmetic brands in the marketplace today compared to a decade ago, and the share of shelf, wallet and mind that these brands seem to enjoy. Today's youth too seems to be far more conscious of their physical well-being (if not their mental). On the rare occasions that I have gone to the gym I have been surrounded by twenty-year-olds building their bodies and toning their muscles. That's admirable but what is not is the fact that they keep referring to me as ‘uncle' despite all my attempts to look young and “with it”. Even as we speak of the younger generation we need to mention that older people are trying their hardest to appear younger. Mothers wish to appear like younger sisters of their daughters and brands such as Santoor appeal to this desire.

No longer chilled out

Our generation had its fair share of youngsters inspired by Woodstock. We talked of ‘discovering ourselves' and admired the backpack generation, though none of us owned backpacks unlike every second youngster of today. Yet some of us were chilled out, aloof and distant. Not so the current generation. Theirs is an inclusive life and unlike our generation that stayed exclusively and was friends with people who spoke the same language and belonged to the same socio-economic classification, this generation is networked. It is an inclusive group and has friends who speak different languages, come from different cultures and accepts all quite easily. It is perhaps in this context that the Idea Cellular commercial should be viewed. Have you seen the commercial where a Malayali goes to Mumbai and a Malayali lands up in Punjab … A brilliant execution of a powerful insight which must appeal to youth, certainly.

Are 24 hours enough?

How does Generation Y spend its time? Research from the Omnicom MediaGroup suggests that youth need more than 24 hours to a day. This generation has given a new dimension to multitasking. It wakes up (usually late) and reads supplements with the TV on. Continues to chat and blog with the TV on. Reality shows seem to fascinate them. Spend time at multiplexes (usually in class time), hang out in pubs and in Bangalore, at least, make their way to Café Coffee Day after the pub closes down at 11 p.m., organises and attends college fests and contests. They are plugged in all the time – either on the mobile or on their computer. If they have a quota of free SMSes that mobile service providers offer, that is usually run through by 9 a.m.!

Of course, as a parent, I wonder when they study or attend class. But this is not about how older people spend their time worrying, but about how younger people spend their time living! There is an interesting statistic about the younger generation that will have some relevance to marketers. Almost 50 per cent of the younger population goes to sleep post midnight as compared to older people who are between 30 and 45 years, where the percentage is just about 19 per cent.

Clearly (and sadly) the older generation seems to have things to do during the day like work! But this has interesting implications for marketers. Should the definition of ‘prime time' for youth be redefined to, say, 11p.m.? Newspaper owners have been keen to get their newspapers to their readers before the crack of dawn (never mind the fact that sleepy towns like Bangalore do not have such good fortune) as that was the time that the average Indian was at his brightest and most alert. What about Generation Y? When has it been up at the crack of dawn unless they are winding up after a party! So should newspapers come up with a late night edition only for this generation?

Interesting and yet incomplete … Read more in the next issue.

-

Ramanujam Sridhar

CEO
brand – comm.
Read my blog @ http://www.brand-comm.com/blog.html
Facebook: facebook.com/RamanujamSridhar
Twitter: twitter.com/RamanujamSri

IIMB Alumni to honour ISRO chief Radhakrishnan, Sridhar, Damodaran

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) Alumni Association will honour Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Radhakrishnan, marketing communications expert Ramanujam Sridhar and valuation expert Aswath Damodaran with its Distinguished Alumni Awards for 2010.

The prestigious awards are given by the institute every year to former students who have exceptionally excelled in their careers and have made significant contributions to society.

"Each of them has the distinction of being outstanding in his education at IIMB and has achieved great heights of success in a variety of arenas," a spokesperson for the association said about this year's awardees.

The awards will be conferred on the institution's foundation day on October 28 at the IIMB campus here, she added.

Dr Radhakrishnan belongs to the 1976 batch of IIMB's flagship two-year post-graduate programme (PGP) in management. Apart from being an outstanding space scientist, who is one of the brains behind Chandrayaan-2, India's second lunar mission, he is also well-versed in Carnatic music and is a Bharatanatyam dancer.

Mr Sridhar (PGP'82) has been associated with advertising firms like Mudra and Quadrant and is the founder and CEO of Brand Comm, a marketing communications company.

He has also penned brand building books like "One land, one billion minds" and the sequel "Googly. Branding on Indian Turf."

Prof Damodaran (PGP'79) is regarded as an expert on the subject of valuation and has authored several books on equity valuation, corporate finance and investments. According to Business Week, he is one of the top 12 business school professors in the United States. At present, he is a Finance Professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University.

According to the spokesperson, the winners of the awards are chosen through a process of nominations by the alumni members of the association and a committee selection of final winners by a team of senior faculty at IIMB.

Changing world of ads and entertainment

The emergence of regional markets and consumers has led to the evolution of regional brands and advertising. Entertainment formats are evolving too, with reality shows capturing eyeballs and TV ratings..

The changes in advertising continue just like the changes in this column or the uncertainty as to whether the Ashes will change hands (at least at the time of writing) as the teams have just left Edgbaston.

A quick recap, more for my benefit, dear reader, than yours, of what we discussed in the previous column. We spoke about some of the legends who led the advertising industry with great distinction (not only their own advertising agencies).

Another significant shift that we mentioned has been of the trend of creative people leading agencies today, which too is an important point of difference from the past. Media too has transformed from five mainline newspapers and one Government-controlled TV channel to a bewildering array of choice for both the media planner and, more importantly, the consumer.

The increasing literacy in India has been a source of optimism for advertisers and advertising agencies, unlike in other countries, as India is one of the few markets where readership is growing and, consequently, advertising revenue and rates. And while 80 per cent of the world is under the grip of recession, India seems to be one of the few exceptions bucking the trend, a bit like England which seems to be the only country where even the fifth day of a test match is a sell-out!

But there are a few more changes that one has observed in between the rain interruptions at Edgbaston and the shifting of the battle to the possibly weepy skies of Headingley.

English to Hinglish to Hindi to regional

When I first came into advertising (Oh God! here I go again), the industry suffered from the Madison Avenue hang-up. Agency types looked westward for inspiration, quoted Ogilvy and Bernbach and admired George Lois. The generation was proud of saying ‘we don’t see Hindi movies or Tamil movies ...’. They were from St. Xavier’s or Stella Maris and spoke the Queen’s English. They presented scripts, concepts and ads in English. Then the ads were translated and, usually, badly.

It was in the mid-eighties that Asian Paints recognised the importance of regions and languages with the commercial ‘Pongal’ that was conceptualised, filmed and released in Tamil Nadu with great success. Then, as India became younger, it started to loosen its collar (I am not speaking of ‘Friday dressing’ only) and if one may add, its tongue.

It first started speaking in a mix of English and a regional language as it no longer needed to speak in English to either express or impress. This led to lines like ‘Hamko Binnies mangta.’ Soon the wheel turned a full circle, just a bit like the Australian cricket team’s fortunes — more and more scripts were conceptualised, filmed and released with ideas that were essentially Hindi, and to confound people like me, many of them had a clever turn of phrase as well that are as perplexing as Abdul Qadir’s googly. Slogans like ‘Daag achha hai’ and ‘Dimag ki batti jala do’ to recall just two simple ones (you must make an allowance for my ignorance of the noble language) led the way.

However, much as I might crib about it, I do know that this trend is here to stay and a new breed of writers has emerged whose creative ability extends beyond scripting mere 30-second commercials selling soaps and shampoos to tear-jerking commercial cinema as well.
Hindi movies, and if one may add, TV scripts, conceptualised in Hindi for brands that are part of our everyday lives, are now on our television screens, often for 24 hours at a stretch. The emergence of regional markets and consumers is a trend that promises to stay as more and more brands are creating specifically in Tamil, Bengali or Malayalam for their customers so that they can engage with them.

The other trend is the emergence of regional brands that are making their presence felt and growing their market share with the aid of cable and satellite television. ‘Think regional beat multinational’ could well be the slogan of 2009.

Programmes, commercials or both?

I remember reading an interesting study many years ago which said that consumers in India found the TV commercials that preceded a programme to be more interesting than the programmes that were being aired. Soon things changed and serials such as Humlog and Buniyaad, not to forget ‘Ramayan’, ushered in the context of long running serials.

Aradhana, the movie with Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore, ran for a mere 100 weeks in Madras of all cities but this was nothing compared to some of the television serials that followed.

Ramayan was followed by Mahabharat and now by Jai Sri Krishna, not to forget the K series and the Chithis, the Arasis and the Kolangals on Sun TV. One of the biggest challenges that advertising agencies seem to face (and it is not a new challenge) is the answer to the question, ‘when do consumers get tired of our ads?’ I wonder if the makers of TV serials worry about such unnecessary trivia as the serials seem to go on and on ad infinitum (pun intended).

But other formats have emerged, not the least of which has been the reality show. Whilst one may agonise about the reality in the Rakhi Sawant wedding, the ratings are real. The TVR for the final episode on August 2 was as high as 6.3 and the audience an estimated 15.8 million. Of course, a few mad Indians were watching Australia salvage a draw, but many more savvy Indians were watching the ‘real thing.’ Consider, too, the tremendous build-up to the grand climax, the publicity, the cynicism from the elite (!), all of which points to a new, more confident India.

Yes, even as India is changing in front of our very eyes, so too must the means of communication to its people.

You’ve come a long way, baby!

Advertising, television and movies can at best represent the times we live in and symbolise the current generation of Indians. The new India is confident of itself, though, at times, it is possible for some to view this as arrogance. But honestly, today’s India does not care. It has found acceptance from the rest of the world and is not afraid of reiterating and reinforcing its importance to the rest of the world.

The BCCI can tell the whole world a thing or two about being successful and reminding the world about its success. India has its fair share of successes from the smaller towns. It has cricketing greats who will stare at taller, stronger and more reputed guys in the eye or sledge them to kingdom come.

This attitude reflects India more and more and you just have to switch on your TV sets to watch this on display not only in the cricketing field but in advertising and in the films that are re-run Sunday after Sunday.

The woman is no longer content to keep quiet but actually raves and rants in front of the camera as to why the person at the other end of the line could have sex without protection. A small bit in a commercial but a giant shift in outlook and thinking.

Celebrities rule the roost as every third brand uses celebrities with varying degrees of popularity inflicting varying degrees of damage to the advertiser’s wallet. India and its advertising have come a long way like ‘Virginia Slims’ — a far cry from the days of using Leela Chitnis for Lux in 1941.

Unbundle, consolidate or perish

As for the agency business itself, the days of 15 per cent commission and 85 per cent confusion have gone. More and more agencies work on reduced commissions and some on retainers. The full service agency is a thing of the past, a bit like full houses in test matches in the sub-continent. The agency share of the pie is shrinking as clients use identity experts, event companies, media agencies, PR companies, creative shops, packaging consultants and brand advisors on a regular basis. The agency is being seen as a provider of ‘creative services’ and often enough not a partner. The reduced earnings make it difficult to get the talent that clients want and yet refuse to pay for, which is adding to the stress. The core competency of the agency is still the ability to produce great TV commercials that make a difference.

The agency business has changed and will continue to change in front of our very eyes. The agency business needs to take a closer look at itself and maybe find answers to some questions that are perhaps easier to ask than to answer, but here goes:

Are agencies truly partnering their clients, or are they living in hope?
Does the agency understand new media such as digital and mobile or is it merely looking the other way?
How much time and money are agencies investing in training their people to serve clients better?
How well does the agency understand and apply the other allied communication services?
What is the strategy to get better people into the business?

These are not great times to be in business. But this is, perhaps, the time for serious introspection. It generally needs a good crisis to get people thinking about important stuff that can make a difference to their future. Let’s not waste this opportunity to worry about the future now. That way we will, at least, have a future.

(Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO, brand-comm, and the author of Googly - Branding on Indian Turf.)

Brand India needs a champion

It is common for products, services and even organizations to brand themselves. Very often these branding exercises are done after extensive research to understand what consumers want, followed by carefully crafted positioning and slick communication, all adding up to a coherent promotion for the brand. This coupled with a number of value propositions which the brand owners provide along with the service experience creates an image for brands in the minds and hearts of consumers. There is also another important aspect to successful brands. Brands have custodians who guide their destiny and constantly worry about the image of the brand and they keep pushing their teams to come up with activities that add to the image of the brand. Associations are carefully nurtured and those that might dilute the brand’s equity are quickly eliminated. Nothing is left to chance and the environment is carefully monitored for things that are unexpected. There is almost paranoia about what the competition does or even contemplates doing. Smart brand managers too know that branding is not only about identity and advertising, though they are important too, but about the whole customer experience connected with the brand. Experts on branding claim that any thing can and will become a brand - whether it is a product, a company, a service, a person or even a place. Right now all of us are in India, a country which has developed significantly over the six odd decades of its independence and yet
even the most ardent of its fans must confess that despite our progress there are “miles to go before India sleeps” when we evaluate India as a brand.

A brand called India

India might not have consciously attempted to brand itself, but it is still evoking reactions both within the country and in other parts of the world ever since its inception. In fact they do say that “perception is reality”, and in my view at least, the perceptions about India have probably harmed it more than they have helped it. Very simply put there are a few major stages in India’s brand history after independence which happened in 1947 as all of us know. In the early stages, India was a country of elephants and snake charmers, at least to the rest of the world, and one did not have to visit the country to subscribe to this point of view. Thankfully visitors to
India experienced different facets of the young nation’s diversity and beauty in each visit. They realized that there was more to India than the things that they already knew about like the Taj Mahal and yoga. They came back, again and again, their horizons widened and slowly their impressions about the country changed and the change was usually for the better. This was primarily the tourist, whose expectations were different and usually met on most counts, barring the infrastructure, the lack of which continues to fox everyone including the people who are responsible for creating the infrastructure. India ambled along placidly, dragged back by a large population below the poverty line while the rest of the world was galloping in economic terms. The business and financial world did not take too much interest in India and who could blame them? India’s liberalization changed many things not least of all, the world’s view of our country. Suddenly a new interest group emerged and that was the foreign institutional investor who immediately looked at India and the tremendous opportunity it provided. Things changed dramatically as investors came, if not in hordes but in reasonably large numbers, as the “vast
Indian middle class” which was only rivaled by China beckoned the rest of the world. More and more MNC brands entered the country. To evaluate their success or failure is not the purpose of this piece.

The world gets Bangalored

The next major facet of brand India has actually been a city which has almost overshadowed the country that it is part of, when it comes to the brand stakes. Let me start with a small anecdote. In September 2003 I went to South Africa to watch the cricket world cup. (India has its fair share of cricket crazy people like me who keep traveling around the world in the hope that their team wins!). I bumped into someone at the mall quite literally and instantly apologized, only to
be asked “Indian?” I said “yes”. (We Indians have a give away complexion even before one gets to hear us speak.) He then went on to ask “Which city?” I said “Bangalore” and his instant reaction was “Oh, software?” Mind you, he was just an ordinary citizen, not even someone from business. It’s amazing the way IT and IT enabled services have captured the image high ground in a manner in which no other industry has been able to do for India over the years and almost hijacked the India brand, so strong is the association with software and technology. In fact it has spawned new words in the lexicon like “Bangalored” and even today Barack Obama seems to have his sights on jobs in Bangalore and how there would be a different structure of
taxation to protect jobs in the US. Well we seem to have progressed rather dramatically from being seen as a nation of snake charmers to a nation of techies, and even people like me, who are probably best described as technophobes, are acquiring a degree of respectability.

Do people understand what branding means?

Yet even the greatest optimist must recognize that things do not happen the way it ought to in affairs which involve a city, a state or a nation even. Let me explain. I have already spoken about how Bangalore, thanks to its association with software and technology, has pole-vaulted to instant recognition across the world. And yet what do the people who run the state and the city do? They change the successful city’s name to Bengaluru. They were hardly the first as even earlier Madras had become Chennai, Calcutta had become Kolkata and even Bombay had become Mumbai. Clearly the people who run these cities have no clue about the sanctity of the brand name or how a brand name is forever, and are merely pursuing their own personal,
shortsighted agenda . Nor do they ask people like you and me to whom the city matters as to what we think of the proposed change. In fact most of these cities suffer from a lack of ownership for the brand, as people with a different agenda and with a very limited view of branding and its long term implications tamper with the brand.

On to India

Today India has a few people who realize what branding can do. {Thank God for small mercies!}. In fact in 2007 a major exercise was undertaken in New York when the UN was in session showcasing India’s achievements since the six decades of independence across a variety of verticals and dispelling the notion that India is more than a destination for tourists. It has the capability to be the destination for foreign capital and a provider of cheap, intelligent and efficient
manpower, the creator of films that the world watches, the manufacturer of the lowest priced car in the world … in short a brand with multi-faceted skills and achievements. All too often branding is seen as an exercise to build a brand for tourists and tourism. Malaysia did a highly visible campaign showcasing the country’s inherent beauty and the fact that it had so many sights worth seeing. India too has had its “discover India’ campaign. But branding a nation is far more complex. It needs to address several audiences many of whom are looking for different things and this nation offers it. Most critically India needs to position itself to the external world consciously and not leave it to accidents of chance or fate and that is the challenge we must face.
Mind you we have made a start. We are being noticed. Now all we need to do is ensure that we are being noticed for the right things and some of the earlier misconceptions are corrected.

But who will manage it?

The recent elections in India have thankfully thrown up results that indicate reasonable stability. Unless the current lot of elected people do something that is very dumb (which is not beyond them) they should stay in power for five years. Five years is a reasonable time frame in the context of a nation and almost “long term’ in the context of a brand. Traditionally government has a cabinet of ministers drawn from the length and breadth of this country who are allotted portfolios like health, education, home, defence to name just a few of the hordes of ministries that we have. But whose responsibility will be brand India? Who will agonize about the perceptions that continue to hurt it? What revisions in India’s image will be contemplated? What will be the desired personality? What are the recognition symbols of India? One of the things that we have realized over the years is that successful brands have senior people managing and guiding their destinies. CEOs of companies constantly worry about their brands and it is not only valuation that guides their thinking .In the case of a nation, particularly a developing nation like ours, which has aspirations that are sky high, the task of brand management becomes even more critical. It cannot be done piece meal as it is currently being done - with someone looking after tourism and someone else looking after Information and broadcasting. A brand cannot be fragmented. It needs to be looked at holistically. India more than ever needs a champion, both internally and externally. A champion who can win over the cynics and the disbelievers, both within the country and without. A champion who can communicate the brand’s achievements in a manner that is credible. It is not about spin, as much as it is about building and sustaining credibility. The time is now. India is ready for branding, but who is ready to don the mantle?

Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO of brand-comm and the author of”Googly –
branding on Indian turf”.

What's stopping you from a career in advertising?

http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Oct222008/avenues2008102196403.asp

Imagine you are sitting at home with your family and friends watching a T20 match and just at that time a commercial comes on air. The people around you love it and spontaneously say 'This ad is just great'. Imagine how delighted you would be feeling if you were to be actually involved in the making of the ad.

Such a scenario is not only plausible but possible if you enter the arena of advertising, which leads one to ask what the possible career options in advertising are.

But before I get into that let me quickly tell you that advertising, while it may not currently be “top of the pops” in the career sweepstakes, is certainly not an option to be sneezed at. Before I go into the specifics of career opportunities in advertising I need to talk about some basic skill sets that equip people not only for entry into the profession but also for success in it. The first is the ability to get along with people and that skill is perhaps much more important here than in other industries. The second most important skill is the ability to communicate well particularly for those who get into client management or client servicing as it is often referred to and that is the first area we will be talking about.

Manage clients

This is an important department of the agency. It has men and women who manage relationships with clients. Very simply put they meet the clients of the agency, understand their requirements, come back to the agency, brief the creative team and are responsible for releasing the ads, maintaining the relationship, getting new business in, collecting money. The job involves coordination, management and ability to handle stress. In fact client service is the key to an agency’s success and growth and many successful client service people have grown from management trainees to the level of heading large agency operations.

To enter the client service area, you need a degree definitely and it is preferable to have an MBA from one of the second line management schools at least, though in the eighties we had people from the IIMs joining the agency business. Today two year post-graduate courses in communication are also on offer and these too offer an opportunity to enter the profession to youngsters who pass out of these institutions.

Creative, the core competence

What sets apart one agency from the other is its creative ability. Advertising, it would help us to remember is the business of producing ads and TV commercials. To produce ads and TV commercials the agency needs copy writers and visualisers. Agencies have teams of copywriters and visualisers who come together to create advertising. Just like fast bowlers in cricket good creative people hunt in pairs.The copywriter is the one who writes the print ads and thinks up the script for those television commercials that we see on air. Many young copywriters have basic degrees in English or communication. Some of them have prior experience in writing and may have written for their school or college magazine.Of course it is important to remember that writing to sell products is very different from the literary writing that some of us have done in our youth. Copywriters are not writing to impress readers but actually persuading them to buy products, which they may not even need. This calls for a different set of skills and the usage of words and phrases that people can remember , like the Nike’s ‘Just do it’ campaign that was one of the most memorable advertising campaigns of all time.

Designing the ads

‘A picture paints a thousand words’ is perhaps a statement depicting the importance of the visual in communication. People remember strong, eye catching visuals and even more so today as people are getting busier and spending lesser time reading.

People want to get to the point faster and do not want to spend too much time thinking about what you are trying to say. Visualisers usually do courses in art for 5 years from reputed institutions like Sophias in Mumbai or Chitra Kala Parishad in Bangalore.

The difference over the years to today is that today’s aspiring young visualisers need to be more than merely computer literate but actually experts at creating on the computer. Both visualisers and copy writers must have a strong desire to think differently and stand out from the crowd so that their work is noticed.

It is also pertinent to remember that creative people are paid extremely well and at times are the highest paid within the agency's structure. So, if you think you are creative, maybe the agency business is the place for you to get into.

Media, the other unit

There was a time when the media department of the agency was known as the ‘back room boys’ as it was the creative and the servicing types that were hogging the limelight. Not any longer. Because of the emergence of stand alone media buying houses and their increasing importance, agencies are realising the value of media personnel.

Within media the less glamourous role is that of the buyer who is in charge of negotiating with media houses and television channels on rates. They work out special deals, preferred positions and bulk discounts for their clients. The more exalted role is that of the media planner who very simply decides how much to put in where, which newspapers to advertise in, which serials to buy.All of this is through analysis of various data that is available with the agency, monitoring of television rating points of popular programs, using sophisticated computer programming models to help optimize the client’s budget so that he/she gets the maximum “bang for the media buck”. Media planning too is becoming increasingly important as a career option and most media planners have management degrees with a strong liking for numbers and have the capability to understand and interpret research.

The greatest perk

One of the greatest perks of working in the advertising business is not money or incentives but the challenge of working on so many diverse products and services so that one never gets bored. If you are a salesman you are selling only one product or groups of products. If you are in marketing you are a specialist in only one category soaps or detergents. But in advertising you have to know about soaps, shampoos, clothes, shoes, computers… you name it. So there’s never a dull moment if you are in advertising. In fact it has been described as the industry where you have the maximum fun with your clothes on! Get ready to have fun!

Ramanujam Sridhar is the CEO of brand-comm and the author of “One land, one billion minds”.