<p align=justify>“Regulation for outdoor advertising is still a distant dream .We are looking forward to have them in place. The international players will play a vital role in forcing the government to have the laws and regulations in place for uniformity.”

exchange4media Staff Jul 6, 2006 12:00 AM

<align=justify>“Radio stations can cater to different audiences at different parts of the day by changing the programming. Also, what I can see that’s going to happen now is a lot of pushing and pulling. The passionate broadcasters would always be popular, they will always choose the radio jockeys that people like listening to. So, it’s always going to be the same band, the same music, the same words, but all those gimmicks will have to be supported by content. So, content will always be the big game.”

exchange4media Staff Jul 1, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>Indian consumers are very smart. They feel that packaged goods are not fresh. They also give importance to value for money. If they feel it will be cheaper for them to buy fruits and process them at home, they will not pay a premium for convenience. They are also brand conscious, but the most important fact is that they want a good value-for-money proposition.

exchange4media Staff Jul 1, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>“We began with the ‘tall boy’ image for the Santro. We used SRK very well. He gave good awareness to the company and to Santro. Today, the Santro is increasingly being considered as a first-timer car. Earlier, people were buying the Maruti 800 as their first car. Today, 35-40 per cent people are buying the Santro as their first car. Not just that, more and more people are upgrading to the Santro.”

exchange4media Staff Jun 28, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>We have constantly upgraded our approach. From a production driven organisation, we have become a marketing driven company. Also, our focus is on customers. Customer is the god. We believe in customer services. Secondly, for any brand, we have always identified a target market and categorising a particular brand has always helped. We offer good after-sales service and maintain feedbacks. Also, we stress on rural marketing as 50 per cent of the potential car market is in rural India.

exchange4media Staff Jun 28, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>I think The Times of India, Delhi and Mumbai are very local newspapers, in fact just as The Telegraph is a good paper for Kolkata and the east, North-East or Jharkhand. I think we could be successful in Mumbai or Delhi. But again the question arises 'will the same brand work?' The Telegraph itself is a proposition that may or may not succeed in Delhi or Mumbai. When we are talking of national presence, we should not be talking of only Mumbai or Delhi, but of a pan-India presence. The point I want to make here is that being in Delhi or Mumbai doesn't make you national, it actually makes you a local paper that comes out from five locations.

exchange4media Staff Jun 24, 2006 12:00 AM

“I don’t think FDI is required. We have the monies. In fact, Indian companies should be encouraged to emerge as multinationals. Instead of looking at the US and Europe for a shop-out, we should look at publications there that we can grab. It is a reality. If I get the right buy at the right price in the right atmosphere, I will definitely venture into it.”

exchange4media Staff Jun 24, 2006 12:00 AM

PR is a necessary component of any successful marketing organisation and a critical driver for managing perception, increasing brand awareness and fueling the overall corporate growth. PR as a function has evolved and grown beyond day-to-day media relations, press releases, media alerts, and tradeshows. Corporates are fast recognising the growing importance and effectiveness of PR since it is considered more impactful and authentic than advertising as anything that appears as an article in a newspaper will have more credible value.

exchange4media Staff Jun 21, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>No merger can be without problems. In our case, the whole thing took longer than expected.... I wish we’d been able to complete everything a few months earlier. But it took its due course. To my mind, the biggest challenge, however, is really managing people’s sensitivities during this period. Because of the natural transition that an organisation goes through during a merger, people have a lot of questions and concerns that need to get addressed. Some get resolved very quickly, while some take time.

exchange4media Staff Jun 16, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>"Street furniture is about designing, installing, and maintaining a product, which always have a public facility or communities for the public. Street furniture is more about the beautification, more about the services that you can bring to the people rather than all media design. That’s why NDMC project is more about the beauty of the shelter than about the size of the advertising, so it’s going to rock.”

exchange4media Staff Jun 13, 2006 12:00 AM

Our marketing strategy is to do intelligent spending. We are targeting netizens and credit card holders. We offer guaranteed low airfare. This apart, we are targeting TV channels, outdoors and print mediums for our campaigns. Terror warnings do affect inbound and outbound traffic. That’s why we are focusing on the NRI market. An NRI has to return home. Moreover, we have found that the travel industry bounces back the fastest despite the terror warnings.

exchange4media Staff Jun 13, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>The whole media industry of today is self-obsessed. Mainstream media is in a crisis around the world. People don’t trust it as they used to. There are many examples of corrupt practices, journalists lying, media stories going wrong. Interesting media blogging is just a symptom of this crisis in mainstream media. To some extent, it depends on the individual journalists, individual organisations to find out ways to engage with bloggers. But it requires the will power of the journalist or the publication to make a difference. And there may be some resistance to that as well.

exchange4media Staff Jun 13, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>“The uneven state laws are one of the major challenges. State laws differ from state to state. Secondly, as I said, every area has its own requirement, unique requirement so you need to understand that and adapt to that. You can’t actually run your own story and expect people to come and watch the film so that is a biggest challenge.”

exchange4media Staff Jun 9, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>We are focused on delivering "growth" and "consumer connect understanding" to our clients and all our research and tools are focused on doing custom specific rather than generic research for our clients. The challenge today is to develop a currency that addresses the use of holistic planning and we believe that this approach helps us maximise the ROI for our client's communication.

exchange4media Staff Jun 9, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>What we like about being here by ourselves is that we can put in the investment that we think is necessary. We’ve found that in the major markets of the world, we’re much more successful when we can do it ourselves and put in the full force of both the financial and the information resources that IDG has. When you’ve launched publications in 80 countries, you learn a few things on how to do it right. And it’s good to be able to use that knowledge, as well as your financial resources, to do it right in every country.

exchange4media Staff Jun 2, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>“India has been an exporter of market research talent and is one of the most talented markets in the world in terms of market research expertise. That said, the market here is growing extremely strongly – in addition you have markets like China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam – all growing in double digits. So it’s creating an enormous drain in terms of market research expertise.”

exchange4media Staff May 27, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>“The need for introducing the new logo is that it is our way of celebrating 10 years of leadership of the company. Our success is due to the true Indianisation of McDonald’s. It clearly signifies the shift that has been made for the Indian consumers. The new logo has the well-known double arch stylised as a marigold garland with the Indian flag at the top. It shows the spirit of Indianisation and celebrating 10 years of leadership.”

exchange4media Staff May 26, 2006 12:00 AM

One of the main things was that I did not have such a strong understanding of how influential TV was, for example. This is different from the European and US perspective, where print and online medium are more influential. All these here are still developing. We are also starting to see more specialist interest magazines develop here and that is why our focus is different here.

exchange4media Staff May 22, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>Other magazines like Savvy and Femina also try to empower women. Sananda is for a woman with roots and wings. It talks to a woman with an international bent of mind but with a Bengali heart… The readers feel that every section is relevant. There is no feeling of wastage. Many feel that it has given them the courage to overcome hurdles and work towards fulfilling their dreams. The magazine, they feel, has become much more interactive and, therefore, more credible and useful.

exchange4media Staff May 19, 2006 12:00 AM

<p align=justify>I think that government regulations are the only deterrent in the development of OOH. Mindsets have already changed and there are enough ways to prove to brand marketers and the efficacy of the medium does not need to be proved again, we already have an economy that is driving people outside the home and spending more time outside. So, the whole environment is absolutely ready for this. Now it is only a matter of the regulations to fall into place.

exchange4media Staff May 18, 2006 12:00 AM