To our mind, the PR industry is coming of age in India with promise of high growth. Because it is still in many ways experimental, the Indian market is far more creative, and bolder than the international market, which tends to work within the box. However, there needs to be stronger strategic thinking, better tailored tools and tactics for each client...

exchange4media Staff Jun 30, 2008 12:00 AM

The consumer mindset is evolving, they want a good quality product, with good pre-sale service as they want to understand how the product would fit and what it would do. They also want a product with minimum requirement of after sales service, but want to be sure that should they have a problem, the company is there to support and guide them.

exchange4media Staff Jun 28, 2008 12:00 AM

The Indian OOH Industry is still unorganised and quite fragmented, and though there is no official calculation, it is guesstimated to be around Rs 2,000 crore static and digital inclusive. Currently, people buy locations, but with research, the play would evolve to tracking audiences. The end game has to be about audiences and not about locations.

exchange4media Staff Jun 3, 2008 12:00 AM

With the proliferation of opportunity, the industry is also witnessing a specialisation and fragmentation of the marketing functions. Media and creative functions are no longer managed by the same people. Internet advertising is managed separately from mass media advertising… If you measure in fragments, you manage in fragments. This is where MCA or Market Contact Audit comes in.

exchange4media Staff Apr 28, 2008 12:00 AM

“Hindi channels have changed beyond recognition in the last few years…Hindi channels have become very energetic. The pace is phenomenal but they have also dumbed down the content and moved away from news. At times viewers question whether Hindi news channels are news channels or something else! I call them low-cost reality channels. A few have been converted exactly into that.”

exchange4media Staff Apr 16, 2008 12:00 AM

“In India, as cities are becoming more affluent, the proliferation of leisure activities such as cafes, bars, late-night leisure centres, gyms and cineplexes have combined to offer a lifestyle that is increasingly out-of-home. A typical person in India is now more likely than before to come into contact with some form of outdoor advertising on a daily basis.”

exchange4media Staff Apr 14, 2008 12:00 AM

It is not a business for the faint-hearted. Here, one has to go through a lot of highs and lows of the business; mainly lows initially, and a few highs. It involves a lot of attention to detail, so one has to be all charged up all the time and be nimble-footed. While identification of your target audience is very critical, you also have to remember that one should be able to monetise from the product because if you are not able to get your money from the advertiser or the subscriber, then you won't be able to sustain yourself in the long run. So, it's a roller-coaster ride and we here at UTV are enjoying every bit of it.

exchange4media Staff Mar 7, 2008 12:00 AM

“Everybody seems to be talking from the advertisers’ point of view. But it should be looked at from the consumers’ point of view. People need to be comfortable with a particular station… We are still not seeing big retailers coming to advertise on radio. I don’t think this category has grown. I think this industry needs to be made more relevant to people.”

exchange4media Staff Mar 5, 2008 12:00 AM

LINOpinion is rapidly moving towards a systems and knowledge driven approach. In the world of high clutter, high competition and technological parity, it is the idea, and the level of engagement and loyalty that differentiates. Customised solutions rather than standard transactions will mark a key turning point. Measurement and accountability will be the buzzwords of tomorrow.

exchange4media Staff Mar 5, 2008 12:00 AM

Also, I believe that most agencies stop short of generating consumer awareness and consideration for the brand, that is, build brand image and focus on attitudinal change. They are about getting consumers to think different. We, on the other hand, are uniquely poised and align ourselves to the business objectives rather than the marketing objectives of our clients. We are an agency that squarely concentrates on driving brand conversion, that is, usage, share and loyalty. Our focus is more on behavioural change. We are about getting consumers to act different.

exchange4media Staff Feb 29, 2008 12:00 AM

There are many magazines out there and if you look at a typical newsstand, the magazines are piled up one on top of the other. So, the key question is how do we survive in such a market? Ultimately, the bottomline is that there are two things that decide success – somebody has to come and ask for the magazine by name; secondly, when someone asks for us, we have to be there.

exchange4media Staff Feb 23, 2008 12:00 AM

MEC drives its business via communication planning not only in India but across all markets. This is with a view to driving revenue, and due to the fact that more and more clients are asking the agency to have an integrated plan that works across multiple channels of media. We also spend a lot of time and money on educating people and driving them along the curve of communication planning. It also helps in generating more revenue.

exchange4media Staff Feb 22, 2008 12:00 AM

The whole pitch system is obsolete and needs overhaul. This beauty contest model doesn't work. Clients should assess potential partners partly based on their work for other brands, and partly on how they would approach their business. You don't need six hours and 1,000 slides to understand that. A powerful insight can be shared in two words.

exchange4media Staff Feb 15, 2008 12:00 AM

There is a lot more know-how here, a lot more creativity. So, I think what India is doing here is quite exciting. Some of the organised retail markets are picking up tips from traditional retail. For instance, one can now get rice flour made in a food bazaar. So, it's an interesting and fascinating thing about the India as opposed to some other markets. The US has completely lost this connection between the old and the new.

exchange4media Staff Feb 8, 2008 12:00 AM

I think the firm needs to be consistent on a worldwide basis. There has to be one company, one team and one culture. However, we must inculcate an appreciation of uniqueness in each market. I would say that India is rapidly changing in the way it looks at the public relations profession, and its emerging role in the entire communication spectrum. Just as India is converging with the global economy, so is the public relations industry.

exchange4media Staff Feb 4, 2008 12:00 AM

The consumer is fragmenting between the different channels of communication. We have to know what the consumer is doing, rather than know what the media is doing. The trick for us is to stay a step ahead of the consumer; not too ahead, as then we would get it wrong. But you have to be a step head, and you adapt and build your business in that way then.

exchange4media Staff Feb 1, 2008 12:00 AM

All the money that’s spent on your ATL and BTL converges at retail. In India, marketers are just waking up to the fact that the shop is where it all matters. The fact is that many still look towards London or the US for solutions to retail design. While the work done in London and the US in the retail space is phenomenal, we need to understand that the purchase path of Indian consumers is quite unique.

exchange4media Staff Feb 1, 2008 12:00 AM

“I would not say that our ice cream is more expensive than other brands. We are definitely premium but the quality, taste and service which one gets from Baskin Robbins makes it an extremely value proposition. This is something that is borne out by the feedback we get from practically anyone who experiences the magic of Baskin Robbins.”

exchange4media Staff Jan 31, 2008 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>“HDFC Bank is possibly the only bank in India, and one of the very few in Asia, to have embarked on a data-led marketing analytics campaigns initiative, using marketing automation technology provided by Unica. Through this tool, we have been able to intelligently use the 4-5 terabytes of customer data available in its warehouse. We have set up a team to conduct marketing campaigns in a scientific manner using customer data, usage patterns, preferences, lifecycle, etc, the bank also conducts event-based marketing.”

exchange4media Staff Jan 29, 2008 12:00 AM

We do feel like a start-up agency sometimes, but we are big - we are the third largest in Asia in the WPP network. Once you are a Bates person, you are always a Bates person. The gratification of the freedom makes you come alive, that is what entrepreneurial skills are about.

exchange4media Staff Jan 25, 2008 12:00 AM