Object 1

Introduction
Advertising simply put is telling and selling the product. Advertising Management though is a complex process of employing various media to sell a product or service. This process begins quite early from the marketing research and encompasses the media campaigns that help sell the product. Without an effective advertising management process in place, the media campaigns are not that fruitful and the whole marketing process goes for a toss. Hence, companies that believe in an effective advertising management process are always a step ahead in terms of selling their goods and services. As mentioned above, advertising management begins from the market research phase. At this point, the data produced by marketing research is used to identify what types of advertising would be adequate for the specific product. Gone are the days when there was only print and television advertising was available to the manufacturers. These days apart from print and television, radio, mobile, and Internet are also available as advertising media. Advertising management process in fact helps in defining the outline of the media campaign and in deciding which type of advertising would be used before the launch of the product. If you wish to make the advertising effective, always remember to include it from the market research time. Market research will help to identify the niche segment of the population to which the product or service has to be targeted from a large population. It will also identify why the niche segment would opt for the product or service. This information will serve as a guideline for the preparation of advertising campaigns. Once the niche segments are identified and the determination of what types of advertising will be used is done, then the advertising management focuses on creating the specifics for the overall advertising campaign. If it is a radio campaign, which type of ads would be used, if it is a print campaign, what write ups and ads will be used, and if it is a television campaign, what type of commercials will be used. There might also be a mix and match advertising in which radio might supplement television advertising and so on. It is important that through advertising management

the image is conveyed that all the strategies complement each other. It should not look to public that the radio advertising is focusing on something else while television on something else. The whole process in the end should benefit the product or service. The role of people designing the advertising campaign is crucial to its success. They have been trained by seasoned professionals who provide the training in the specific field. Designing an advertising campaign is no small a task and to understand the consumer behavior from the data collected from market research is a very important aspect of the campaign. A whole lot of creativity and inspiration is required to launch an adequate advertising campaign. In addition, the management skills come into play when the work has to be done keeping the big picture in mind. It would be fruitful for the company if the advertising campaign lasts well over the lifetime of a product or service, reach the right customers, and generate the desired revenue.

Unit objectives Direction: Advertisement objectives are essential because it helps the marketer to know in advance what they want to achieve and to ensure that they are proceeding in the right direction. Pin pointing the ad objectives also helps in making ones goals real and not imaginary, so that effective ad programmes can be developed for meeting the objectives .it also guides and controls decision-making in each area and at each stage Planning and Decision MakingSpecific objectives can be useful as a guide or criterion for decision-making. Advertising and promotion planners are often faced with a number of strategic and tactical options in areas such as creative, media, budgeting and sales promotion. Choices among these options should be made on the basis of how well a strategy or tactic matches the promotional objective.

Measurement and Evaluation of ResultsA very important reason for setting specific objectives is that they provide a benchmark or standard against which success or failure of the campaign can be measured. When specific objectives are set it becomes easier for management to measure what has been accomplished by the campaign

target audience
Your value proposition must be relevant to your target market. This means your target market must be clearly defined. It's not uncommon for a business to have to refocus and revisit their targeting, especially if it was not clearly identified in the beginning stages of business. It is necessary to find the right balance when defining your target market in a way that causes your audience to recognize that you are talking specifically to them. This often requires companies to narrow down their target market. Why is Your Target Market Important in Branding? It does not matter what your Brand mission is identifying and gaining the devotion of your target audience is the

necessary means to reaching those objectives. To achieve your brand marketing goals it is important that you know your target market inside and out. This requires conducting a market analysis. This market analysis must be as in-depth as possible providing you will all the data you need to reach your target effectively. By knowing your target audience you will be more confident in the steps to take to connect with that audience. The power of your brand relies on the ability to focus. That is why defining your target market will help to strengthen your brand's effectiveness. There are two steps in Lesson four of the Developing Your Brand's Strategy course. The first is to conduct and informal market analysis of your target market and the second is to write a target audience definition for your company. The instructions below will walk you through the process of completing both of these steps. Conduct Your Informal Market Analysis The following questions will help you assess your market analysis. Make your study as complete as possible. Use the

Internet to conduct research. You can also read news stories that are related to your target market. This will help you to narrow down your target by interest, demographic, and common trends. 1.Who is your target audience? 2.Where is your target audience located? 3.What do they think about your current brand? 4.What would you like them to think about your brand? 5.How will you attract them to your products or services? 6.Who else is competing for their loyalty and devotion? 7.Are you targeting business or consumer sectors? Write Your Target Market Description Using the questions below write a target market description. Be as specific as you like. The more specific the better. Second draft a statement on the type of relationship you would like to have with your clients.

Definition of advertising objectives

Marketing promotion, which includes advertising, can be used to address several broad objectives including: building product

awareness, creating interest, providing information, stimulating demand and reinforcing the brand. To achieve one or more of these objectives, advertising is used to send a message containing information about some element of the marketers offerings. For example: Message About Product Details about the product play a prominent role in advertising for new and existing products. In fact, a very large percentage of product-oriented advertising includes some mention of features and benefits offered by the marketers product. Advertising can be used to inform customers of changes that take place in existing products. For instance, if a beverage company has purchased the brands of another company resulting in a brand name change, an advertising message may stress "New Name but Same Great Taste". Message About Price Companies that regularly engage in price adjustments, such as running short term sales (i.e., price markdown), can use advertising to let the market know of price reductions. Alternatively, advertising can be used to encourage customers to purchase now before a scheduled price increase takes place. Message About Other Promotions Advertising often works hand-in-hand with other promotional mix items. For instance, special sales promotions, such as contests, may be announced within an advertisement. Also, advertising can help salespeople gain access to new accounts if the advertising precedes the salespersons attempt to gain an appointment with a prospective buyer. This may be especially effective for a company entering a new market where advertising may help reduce the uncertainty a buyer has about a new company. Message About Distribution Within distribution channels, advertising can help expand channel options for a marketer by making distributors aware of the marketers offerings. Also,

advertising can be used to let customers know locations where a product can be purchased.

position the offering

What i s "po s i t io n in g "?
Positioning is the fight for the consumers mind. The different marketers want to secure a place in the mind of the target consumer. To do this the marketers use "positioning". What this means is that the marketers want their product to come to mind when the consumer thinks about purchasing that product type. For example: The marketers of "Liril" soap want the people to think "Liril" when they think soap. The marketers of "Colgate" want the consumers to think "Colgate" when they think toothpaste etc. In India, "Xerox" is what comes to mind when people think of "photocopying". "Colgate" comes to the mind of people when they think toothpaste. However, now with intensive competition things are changing. Positioning a product in the minds of the consumer is becoming harder. However, positioning is going to play a very important role in marketing in an overly competitive environment. If you have a particular product or service, then you want people to think of you when they think of buying the kind of product or service you sell. In India there are few stores that hold a strong positioning in the mind of the consumers. In other countries, there are special stores where you can go only to go to do your laundry. There are special stores where you can

go only to "Xerox". There are special stores that are dedicated only for the buying of candles, perfumes etc. These stores have a strong positioning in the minds of the consumers. When the consumer thinks candles he goes to the candles store. When the consumer thinks "Xerox" he goes to the copying stores. In India we have a lot of general stores. The "Banya" shop has everything in it. There are few specialized stores. There are specialized "Hardware shops" or in the whole sale market there are whole shops dedicated to the selling of one item like "ropes" etc. However these stores are not everywhere and their positioning in the mind of the consumer is not very strong. Besides this, there are many specialized stores that are given vague names that make it hard for them to be positioned strongly in the mind of the consumer. For example: a hardware store might be given a name "Murarilal And Sons". This makes it unclear to the consumer what the store sells unless he is given the reference of the store or visits the store himself. This might have been okay when the competition was not very large. However, as the competition increases, if a store aims to get new customers, it has to change its name to a name that represents what the store is about. If this is not done, all the new business will go to stores that are well positioned in the minds of the consumers. If you are a business selling a product in an already saturated segment of the market like tooth-paste or face creams etc. you have to position your product in the minds of your consumers cleverly.

For example, in the case of fairness creams the first thing that comes to the consumers mind is generally Fair and Lovely. Fair and lovely is very well positioned in the minds of the consumers. Lunching a product to change this position of Fair and Lovely in the minds of the consumers may be hard. However, if you position your fairness cream in the minds of the consumers on the basis of some unique selling point then maybe you might have a place in the mind of the consumer. For example: If your ads say that yours is a fairness cream specially designed for oily skin then you have a position in the minds of the consumer. If a consumer with oily skin thinks about a fairness cream, they will think about your cream. Consider the case of Dominoes Pizza. They have positioned them selves in the minds of the consumers as fast home delivery of pizza under 30 minutes. Because of this Pizza Hut has become the place to go and eat pizza but Dominoes is what you think of when you think home delivery of pizza. This is what positing is all about. Finding a place in the customers head. Positioning has to be specific. The more specific, the better will the positioning be. For example, consider three stores: A huge shopping complex that also has a foot ware department A store specially dedicated to foot ware A store specially dedicated to womens foot ware. If a woman was to think about buying new shoes and she knew about these above stated options, then she would most likely go to the third

store. That is the store that will come to her mind when she thinks about buying shoes. People are more likely to trust specialists than generalists. If you are to have an open heart surgery, who would you trust, a general surgeon or a specialist heart surgeon? This is what positioning is all about. Its about finding a place in the minds of the consumers. Making the consumers think of you when they want something you are selling. The best way to achieve this is to clearly differentiate yourself from you competition in what you are offering and clearly tell the consumer exactly what you are offering.

Create awareness
The best way to create awareness for you company or marketing strategy is to ask yourself a simple question: what bad things happen to business results for buyers with a particular title (CEO, VP, and so on) in a particular vertical (health care, financial services and so on) or geographic (e.g., North America or Europe) market because they are not offering what you are? Much how top sales people develop their value proposition, marketing needs to understand this as well. The answers will enable you to create a message crafted in such a way to kill two birds with one stone. It can both generate awareness and increase urgency to act by illustrating the financial impact if the potential buyer does nothing. Human nature is such that people place a higher value on potential loss than on gains (for more on this check out our recent post How to Shorten Your Revenue Cycle). For that reason, it is better to create awareness and start you potential prospects with problems rather than with goals. By being as specific as possible to a target role in a specific industry or region, you will resonate with prospects much better and start to gain mind share. Once you have been successful with taking your prospect from latent need (i.e. something that they did not previously realize that they should

be focusing on) to active need (already has the attention/desire to solve the issue) you start to hone in on their buying path that will either end in one of two results: The buyer takes action and buys from a vendor The buyer realizes that addressing the issue is too complicated, too expensive, no longer a priority, and so on, and therefore does not buy (or postpones it).

Establishment of advertising expenditure

Determining an advertising budget is an old challenge. But, as media choices have become more numerous and the "noise" in the marketplace has increased, the budgeting decision has grown increasingly difficult. This chapter explores some traditionally popular advertising budgeting techniques as well as the new challenges facing advertising managers when dealing with the allocation of budgets for advertising efforts. The relationship between advertising objectives and budget decisions is a vital one. It is important, therefore, to review some of the principles set forth in Chapter 4 to better understand the rationale behind advertising budget allocation models. This chapter will consider longterm and short-term advertising objectives as major criteria for budget decisions. The effectiveness of advertising expenditures will also be examined, as budgeting should be considered a control tool as well as a planning ingredient. TRADITIONAL METHODS OF SETTING BUDGETS The advertising budgeting decision can be divided into two major components: (1) how much should be spent on advertising and promotion, and (2) how the total advertising and promotion money marked for different media, different products/services, geographic areas or target markets should be spent. Determining the size of the advertising budget is a very important decisioninfluencing the future impact of all of the firm's marketing efforts and determining the firm's future marketing strategy. The promotion budget is generally a major financial expenditure and will be closely scrutinized by top management. It is crucial therefore that such a decision be made with a careful and thorough consideration of potential effects, along with its constraints and limitations. Some methods have been popular among advertising managers for many years. While all such methods have some shortcomings, they have they have allowed managers to plan and control the performance of the advertising and promotion functions by comparing against results within their industry or against the performance of major competitors. Such methods will be discussed next.

The Percentage-of-Sales Method

There are two ways of establishing an advertising budget according to the percent-of-sales method. The first is to calculate advertising allocations as a fixed percent of past sales. This calculation is done by applying a specific percentage number to the previous year's total sales revenue for a product, a line of products or a whole company. The formula for this calculation is
A2 =f(S1) where A2 is the total advertising budget for next year (or period 2) f is percentage figure S1 is sales for period 1 (or last year's sales)

Advertising-to-sales ratios are computed by each industry every year by professional advertising organizations. An example of such calculations can be seen in Table 5-1. The reason for this practice is to provide a general overview of whether expenditures change over time by industry in response to conditions. Year-to-year comparisons are also reported to provide another measure of relative growth for specific industries. The first budgeting model of advertising-to-sales ratio has some shortcomings. First, the use of past sales to determine future advertising allocations does not seem logical. Advertising is assumed to influence a firm's sales performance, yet the use of past sales to determine future advertising allocations will not take that interdependence into consideration. In addition, such a method the advertising manager to adjust the budget to meet in the marketplace because the only criterion used is the past performance of the firm. The second advertising-to-sales method attempts to eliminate these drawbacks. Instead of basing advertising expenditures on past sales, a forecast future sales is made, and the advertising budget is calculated of that amount. The formula for this model is
A2 = f(S2) where A2 is the total advertising budget for next year (or period 2) f is a fixed percentage S2 is the total sales forecasted for next year (or period 2)

This second model is an improvement over the previous one because it based its budget calculation on the sales period that will theoretically be affected by the advertising expenditures to be budgeted. However, the model still reflects only one of the possible effects of advertising--its relationship to sales. It ignores all other possible variables that may be influenced by advertising, mainly some of its longterm effects. The advertising-to-sales ratio is as good a method of budgeting advertising expenditures as a firm makes it. If used to develop a base allocation, which can be modified as the market or firm objectives change, then it is a very good yardstick for budget considerations.

The Competitive-Parity Method Another popular method for setting advertising budgets is the competitive-parity method. This method establishes an advertising budget as a proportion or share of the product or service's market share. The expenditure on advertising for the product is expressed as a share of the total advertising for all products in that category. As an example, if the total advertising expenditure for athletic shoes is $100 million, and the expenditure for Nike is $30 million, Nike would have a 30 percent share of advertising, or 30 percent share of voice. The formula for the calculation of the "share of voice" for a specific product/service is as follows:
AF Asv = Ac + AF where Asv is the firm's share of voice AF is the firm's advertising expenditures for the period in question Ac is all competitors' advertising expenditures for the period in question

The reason for using share of voice as a method for setting advertising budgets is the belief that, in a stable market, a firm's share of voice should be the same its share of market. If a firm were attempting to gain competition, its share of voice should be greater than its would commonly be the case for new products entering place. The competitive-parity method also focuses on only one of the many variables affecting advertising. The fact that competitors' actions should be one considered when establishing advertising expenditures is undeniable. However, this method ignores other important factors that may affect the advertising allocation. Changes in consumer habits, economic conditions, and the strategic objectives of a firm are some of the forces that should taken into account. This method does have some advantages. It provides a yardstick for comparing results whenever a product faces a very stable market and enjoys a mature competitive position. As such, it is a useful planning and control tool. An example of the use of competitive-parity spending can be seen in the recent move of some automobile companies. In an article appearing in October 28, 1992, Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Corporation stated that they planned to increase their advertising spending to reclaim market shares lost to Japanese competitors. Japanese auto advertised very heavily in 1991, and domestic manufacturers believed that in order to recapture their market share they would have to fight back with an increased budget. The advertising expenditures of General Motors, for example, appeared to be very different for the first six months of 1991. General Motors had spent 6 percent less than the previous year, while Toyota spent 11 percent more. Sources from the companies felt Toyota's increased advertising expenditure was responsible for the relative market share of the two companies. In this specific example, competitive-parity method appears to have been the main motivation behind the domestic manufacturers' reaction to competitive spending.

The competitive-parity method also takes into consideration the long-term effects of advertising. To establish a stable market share, the competitive-parity method suggests that a firm should maintain a share of voice over a certain period of time. Many leaders in industry believe likewise. Edwin Artzt, of Procter & Gamble, stated that "advertising is a longer-term investment, and it shouldn't be intruded upon by short-term needs." This statement supports continued expenditures in advertising in spite changes in profits and sales. The expenditures should continue to reflect a position as opposed to a concentration on immediate results. The Objective-and-Task Method The objective-and-task method of setting advertising budgets is used by the majority of advertisers in the United States. According to this method, a firm will first set objectives for its advertising task. These objectives may include reaching a certain percentage of the population or of prospective consumers, creating awareness of the product among a percentage of the specific market or geographical area, and so on. After these objectives have been set, the firm calculates which media to purchase and at what cost. That cost may be arrived at by deciding what percentage of the total reached by the advertisement and how many times each individual in the population should be exposed to the advertising message. The cost of obtaining this advertising reach and frequency will then be translated into an advertising budget. This approach is more logical than the previous two approaches because it relates specific tasks of advertising to the amount of money being spent to accomplish those tasks. It also relates the theory of advertising effect to the budget decision. For example, if the main goal of advertising is to develop awareness among the public, then fewer exposures per person will be needed than if the objective is to achieve customer preference for the product. The major problem with this approach is that it doesn't fully consider the relationship between shortterm and long-term effects of advertising or translate them immediately into a budgeting decision. In addition, although a certain number of exposures may produce a specific effect on the audience, the relationship is not always constant or measurable. Nevertheless, the method is an improvement over the percentage-of-sales and competitive-parity methods. This method has been refined using different problematical models. Large advertising firms have developed models that they use to formulate budgets in specific product and service categories. This practice illustrates the belief that the memorability and efficiency of advertising will differ by product categories or by geographic or demographic factors. An example of the application of the objective-and-task method is a decision by Anheuser-Busch to advertise its products to female consumers. At the end of 1991, Anheuser-Busch kicked off a sharply different campaign, to women. Its purpose was to try to cut through the typical advertising and to treat women as equals. The previous approach used by Anheuser-Busch was the "Nothing beats a Bud" campaign--a two-year-old campaign that the manufacturer believed was no longer timely and was perceived as arrogant by women.

The chairman of Anheuser-Busch stated when unveiling the campaign that the company wanted to portray both men and women as healthy and vital individuals. It did not want to be perceived as using women as sex objects. (Vincent Blasko, "Budgeting Practices of Big Advertisers," Journal of Advertising Research (December 1981): 23-29.) The budget for this campaign was considerably higher than for the previous campaign because the advertiser was focusing on a specific target market and particular results from the advertising. Although there are many other ways to establish an advertising budget, the three methods discussed in this portion of the chapter are the ones most by advertising firms and agencies. Another method frequently mentioned is the "all-you-can-afford" method, meaning a firm will decide to spend as much money as it can on advertising without regard to specific objectives, to competitive parity, or even to the level of sales. In addition, economic models are used to try to achieve a level of expenditure that will bring positive marginal gain to the company. Examples of such methods abound in specific studies made for classes or even brands of products over the years. As marketing factors change drastically and as the number of variables affecting marketing decisions increases, economic models to develop advertising budgets and to assess advertising effectiveness are becoming increasingly complicated. Nevertheless, in the future it is expected that more and advertising agencies alike will resort to such models because expenditures are increasing and the accountability of advertising is becoming of an issue, at least among U.S. advertisers. The next section will consider recent changes in advertising budgeting methods.

Message decision
TYPES OF MEDIA The media are classified into two categories: Above-the-line media : press, TV, outdoor, posters, cinema and radio. The recognized agencies get commission from these media. Below the line media: those who do not give commission to the ad agency. Examples are direct mail, exhibitions and sales literature.

MEDIA CLASSES/VEHICLES
PRINT MEDIA

Advertising in the print media is the oldest and largest in terms of advertising billing. More than 50% of the space is devoted to the print ads. The print media has two sources of income: Circulation and subscription and Advertising revenue. Newspapers There are several types of newspapers:

Daily Weekly Special interest

Evening, etc. Newspapers can also be classified as regional, local, national, etc. Each newspaper has its target audience. For example ECONOMIC TIMES targets businessmen and the student community, INDIAN EXPRESS targets people who want quality news, MID-DAY targets people with funky attitude, etc.The marketers need to identify various target audiences and then use it as a medium of communication. Magazines Most magazines are weekly or fortnightly or monthly. They are in many ways different from newspapers. The major difference being the class of people catered to. While newspapers cater to the mass, magazines have a niche audience. For example TOINS is circulated to 10 lakh people daily, while a magazine like BUSINESS WORLD has an audience that has interest in knowing about the current business happenings. A newspaper is read daily or on the day it appears while the magazine is read over a long period of time. ELECTRONIC MEDIA Television: Television was introduced in India on September 15, 1959. Previously only Delhi had TV transmission center but later the centers spread across India. Now a days more and more companies prefer to advertise on television because it creates a visual appeal and also television enables demonstrative effect. It is because of television that the MNCs have been successful. After LPG the reach of television has increased tremendously. It has changed the way the rural people perceive things. The rural people have also started using the new tech products and this has really led to the growth in the GDP. Radio Till recently, the importance of radio was not realized in a country like India. In fact Radio as a medium has far greater importance than TV. It is the real mass medium. Radio is very easy to use and does not require technical abilities. It is the least cost form of

communication. Radio was the medium that helped in spreading the messages of various freedom fighters during independence. 90% of the rural India has access to Radio.

OUTDOOR AND TRANSIT MEDIA

Outdoor advertising is the oldest form of advertising. The modern outdoor media include outdoor advertising in several form such as posters, billboards, hoarding, roadside signs, highway advertising; and transit advertising placed on vehicles and rail, bus and air terminals. Advantages of outdoor media: The outdoor offers long life. It offers geographic selectivity. The marketer can vary the ad message according to the particular segment of the market. The ads can be local, regional, national and even international. The advertiser can incorporate the names and addresses of his local dealers or agents at the bottom of the poster. These dealer imprint strips are called snipes. The outdoor ads offer impact. Shoppers are exposed to last minute reminder by the stores when they drive down the lane where the store is located. Since the display is huge it creates an impact on the prospective consumer. SHOPPERS STOP generally follows this type of advertising. Outdoor ad allows displaying the slogan, product name and logo properly which are an integral part of the product. Disadvantages of outdoor media: Outdoor advertising when employed on a national basis proves to be expensive. Outdoor advertising is not selective in the sense that once the outdoor ad is put it is seen even by people who are not the target audience. Blind spot is the most dangerous thing marketers fear. The term is used to refer to a campaign that is sustained for a long time. The audience gets bored seeing at the same hoardings. Advantages of transit advertising: Low cost medium. It offers a sure exposure and repetitiveness Reaches a large population Disadvantages:

 Cannot reach the rich urbanites who move about in their own automobiles. Direct marketing, cinema and miscellaneous media Direct marketing is defined as any activity whereby you reach your prospect or customer directly as an individual or they respond to you directly. Advertising can initiate a sale but it is only through DM that the sale is finally made. DM also helps in maintaining customer relationships. One time communication does not built a relationship. We have to get married to our customers. This is possible largely due to DM. DM is affordable only when the margins in the business can afford the cost of sustained contact. DM helps in long term. There is a huge opportunity for DM in India. DM may exploit new technologies like E-mail, TV, etc. For DM to be successful the customer database has to be really good. The pharmaceutical industry is most acquainted with this type of marketing. Cinema advertising is when the ads are shown in the movie theatres before the start of the movie, interval and at the end. The following are the merits of cinema advertising: Cinema ensures captive audience: The people coming into cinema halls come with their own wish and their enthusiasm to see a movie is very high. They are very engrossed into the screen as soon as they arrive. Cinema is ideal media for niche marketing: The advertiser reaches the audience of his choice. Economical: the cost is very negligible. Miscellaneous media: Video and cable TV, Point of Purchase advertising, window display, trade shows, exhibitions and fairs, etc.

INNOVATIVE MEDIA

Innovative media focuses on alternative platforms of advertising which open up new avenues for advertisers. As technological breakthroughs facilitate better modes of communication, the emergence of new media have enhanced reach on several levels. The result is new advertising vehicles which are wider in reach, specific in targeting and most of all lower in cost. Voice Reach : Voice Reach advertising is an exciting new medium for advertisers which enables them to broadcast audio messages to a precisely defined target audience. The idea behind

this service is simple and powerful. It allows people to communicate with each other within and across cities, at the cost of a local telephone call. How it works is as follows. A person in Mumbai can call up a local number and leave a message for his friend, relative or business associate in Mumbai and Delhi. The system will deliver the message to the recipient's mailbox or voice box, which can be accessed by calling a local number in Delhi. Thus, it provides the convenience of listening to a familiar voice, which otherwise is a rare occasion and expensive. It is cheaper than long distance calling, more convenient than e-mail and requires no knowledge of the Internet or PC. To hear/access the messages posted in their inbox, users have to hear a commercial announcement. These announcements are targeted according to the profile submitted by users at the time of registration. This service is not just convenient, but also completely free. Moreover, all the technology required to use this service is a telephone. All these factors promise to make the Voice Reach service immensely popular. Advertising & Promotions Voice Reach is undoubtedly an advertising platform with massive potential. As expected, this enormously valuable service is drawing users across all ages, occupations, socio economic classes and geographical areas of India. Advertisers, in effect, not only have an ever-growing user base to target, they also have the advantage of reaching out to their specific target group. Voice Reach advertising promises: o Better one-to-one marketing capabilities than the Internet o Guaranteed ad consumption : The advertisement comes before a user hears or sends messages o Target-based advertising o Interactive Advertising Commercial announcements are just the beginning of a strong line-up of services which Voice Reach offers. Customized Promotions & Contests Everybody runs contests. But are these contests really effective? How many people do they reach? How many people respond? How many people actually remember to fill up a postcard, or send a fax (if they can), or remember to send an e-mail. The fact is very few do.

Geography is no longer a limiting factor, your audience can now be an active part of your contests just by dialing a local number. Make your television programs more interactive, let your viewers talk to you. Your viewers, anywhere in India, can call a local number and leave a message for you. These messages in turn will be delivered at your doorstep. A very valuable service for any broadcaster on television or radio. Voice Reach, thus, is the perfect medium to carry messages from the viewer to the broadcaster, enabling your audience to enter your contests with a simple phone call. Highlights o Customised contests - National Participation through local calls. o Making TV shows more interactive o Messages transferred over a local telephone could be Requests Feedback Queries Opinion polls The Vidiwall: The Vidiwall is an intensely captivating advertising medium which truly represents the best of today's technology. The Vidiwall is essentially a mega screen capable of broadcasting high quality audio-visuals, banners, logos & slides of stunning size, resolution and picture quality. Placed at Mumbai's premier shopping plaza, Crossroads, the Vidiwall is fast being recognized as a medium that grabs attention like nothing else. Vidiwalls, a trademarked Philips solution, have been adapted for dedicated Point-Of-Sale and Point-OfInformation usage. Known to have a tremendous impact on people, the Vidwall is a highly effective tool to maximise brand recall.

INNOVATIVE RURAL MEDIA

In addition to the conventional media vehicles, a lot of innovative mediums are used in rural advertising and marketing. Some of the most striking ones are: Puppetry Puppetry is the indigenous theatre of India. From time immortal it has been the most popular form and well-appreciated form of entertainment available to the village people. It is an inexpensive activity. The manipulator uses the puppets as a medium to express and communicate ideas, values and social messages. Folk Theater

Folk theaters are mainly short and rhythmic in form. The simple tunes help in informing and educating the people in informal and interesting manner. It has been used as an effective medium for social protest against injustice, exploitation and oppression. Demonstration: "Direct Contact" is a face-to-face relationship with people individually and with groups such as the Panchayats and other village groups. Such contact helps in arousing the villager's interest in their own problem and motivating them towards self-development. Demonstration may be A. i. Method demonstration ii. Result demonstration B. i. Simple Demonstration ii. Composite Demonstration Wall Paintings Wall Paintings are an effective and economical medium for advertising in rural areas. They are silent unlike traditional theatre .A speech or film comes to an end, but wall painting stays as long as the weather allows it to. Retailer normally welcomes paintings of their shops, walls, and name boards. Since it makes the shop look cleaner and better. Their shops look alluring and stand out among other outlets. Besides rural households shopkeepers and panchayats do not except any payment, for their wall to be painted with product messages. To get one's wall painted with the product messages is seemed as a status symbol. The greatest advantage of the medium is the power of the picture completed with its local touch. The images used have a strong emotional association with the surrounding, a feet impossible for even a moving visual medium like television, which must use general image to cater to greatest number of viewers.