Advertising Strategies for Indian Market

Chapter 1: Introduction

I think one of the major roles of any company whether in a domestic market or international market the role of a marketer is to create an awareness of the product among the general public and attract general customers. However good the product is, without knowledge of the product and desires for the customer on the product it is impossible to create a brand or a successful product image. And the best thing that a company can do this is by launching an effective advertising campaign that kindles the emotions of customers in all positive sense.

Advertising is the simplest way of informing or drawing attention or telling a group of potential audience regarding the product or company. Advertising can take several forms and it’s the duty of the advertising department of that particular company to conduct the market research and decide what are the most important things that have to be concentrated while launching an advertising campaign.

Based on the research I conducted and analysis over several authors I was able to obtain what was the main goal of advertising and what are the various factors that influence in advertising. The main part of my research was to find how culture has an impact on advertising and what are the various strategies that can be used by multinational companies while entering a country like India.

As marketers how can we integrate various communication methods in order to produce an effective advertising campaign resulting in producing a successful product? The main purpose of this chapter is to give some details in research background. This chapter will also give information on research aim and objectives. And the main part of the research is how advertising strategies vary while entering India. In order to understand the environment of India a detail study was conducted and I have drawn the conclusion.

1.1 Research Background

India is a large country which has a large population around 1.14 billion currently and rapidly growing and for any multinational company entering India the market share they might target can be never enough. However the country has 28 states with 18 languages recognised. Though English is the medium of education through out the country the next most widely used language is Hindi which also the national language of the country. So for any company entering India as to decide which part of the country they are entering into and which market segment they are planning to advertise and what language is used there.

India can be divided into two parts the north and south. In north the language that is most popular are Hindi followed by Marathi and Bengali where as in the south Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam are spoken in different states so companies do not have only the need of creating an advertisement blending the cultural impacts but also catering the local needs of each and every particular region.

India has become potential emerging nation since China makes an entry to join the World Trade Organisation. Geographic advantage is only one part of the factors that speed up the growth of the Indian economy. India, however, also has other factors that attract the interest of foreign investment, such as FDI attractiveness, cheap materials, the education rate and low labour costs. When foreign companies enter Indian market, mass advertisement does pay significant part in making a good sale.

This is because advertising can persuade consumers to think about their own self-image, influencing them to follow the advertisement’s message. However, when entering a market like India, cultural factor is also important because customers in each culture have different tastes. As a result, marketers have to take into consideration standardisation and adaptation because local customers will have different advertising appeals. The company’s image also will have a great influence of the customer. Because the brand is contributed from the company’s image and based on the product and its brand appeal the advertising campaign can follow a standardised strategy or opt to choose an adapted strategy. But India has already mentioned is such a large country companies entering will have to work hard as they require to enter several countries in one country like India because of its diversity in languages, cultures and values.

1.2 Research Aim

This research aims to develop effective advertising strategies for foreign firms when entering India market.

1.3 Research Objectives

• To understand factors that can influence Indian customers to remember advertisement

• To know under consumer behaviour of Indian customers

• To know the implications of adverting on consumer behaviour

• To what extent advertising has importance

• How cultural values are essential in advertising going international

• To make qualitative analysis of advertising across cultures

1.4 Various media channels in India

According to my research 80% of the population above the age of 16 is exposed to some media or the other in India. Whether its students or kids or homemakers or proffesionals.There are various media channels in India and all of them are considered to be effective and the question comes how the company is going to distribute in various media and identifying which media would give the best result.

The various media channels in India are Television, Press, Radio, Cinema, Posters/Hoardings, and Internet. When it comes to Television the company has to decide who they are targeting are they homemakers or kids or working professional or students. When it comes to television certain channels that the company can never let chance are in television are news channels and sports channels.

When it comes to news channels there are several news channels how ever there are media networks which telecast in each regional state in their own language. The next is sports channels and India is country in which majority of the population watch television in order to watch cricket matches. Home makers in India are really interested in television and spend most of their time in watching serials and the various serial programs can be the target location for targeting home makers. When it comes to kids the kid’s channels is the best place.

In the later part we will discuss the various television categories in detail. Similarly in newspapers and radio they can be categorized.

However the whole campaign depends on the company to decide who they want to market their product and how they want to market it.

1.5 Role of Cultures in India

When it comes to culture India is one of the oldest and the most unique country. Country is so large and with varied cultures it is very difficult to understand them very quickly. As a result India varies amazingly throughout the country when culture is concern.

Different culture in different parts of the country north, south, north east all of them have their own distinct features. Every state has its own unique culture and with a country with 28 states it is not possible to cater the need of entire nation in respect to culture. India is the home of various ancient civilizations including four major world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. India is the home of various life styles, languages, cuisine and music.

For example when we consider cuisine it varies from culture to culture within the same country and every cuisine is different from each one. Similarly music and dance itself is completely different from north and south. In north it is bhangara, Hindustani. Where as in the south it is bharatanatayam, folk etc.India is a nation of festivals with so much cultural diversity festivals are celebrated with lights, fireworks, prayers and rituals.

So when any multinational entering has to study the culture of that particular region understand the culture and then try to impact the advertising. They have to analyze whether they product will be suitable for that culture without creating any issues.

1.8 Significance & Scope of Study

“The study undertaken fulfils the requirements of the research outlined in the dissertation objectives. The study attempts to highlight the theoretical concepts from the course work and correlates those concepts with the research conducted in order to comes up with an analysis on what are the advertising strategies for a multinational company while entering India and what are the cultural influences that must be concentrated in order to succeed Therefore a thorough research had been conducted with the help of questionnaire and secondary data.” My own work (2008)

1.9 Limitations of the Study

“ The major limitations of study is that advertising in a country like India has various effects on various targets and most of our respondents are students and the response we achieved are from a narrow group because with the time limit it is not possible to analysis the entire market because it is very broad. Most of the questionnaires where answered by age group ranging between 18-25 and they responses cannot be considered entirely because it is not possible to predict whether they answered what they meant. The data obtained was cross checked. But however the responses cannot be 100% accurate.” My own work (2008)

1.10 Structure of Dissertation

The dissarteation is divided into five chapters inorder to make a detail analysis of how multinational companies can advertise while entering India. It gives a inroduction on advertisement and on India what are factors that should be concentrated and a brief description of the media.The second chapter gives the litreature review by introducting what is advertisement ,what are the ethics,how culture and advertisement must be blended.How to define objectives and what are the various advertising styles.

The third chapter defines the research methods and how to determine various advertising strategies. Inorder to know this we have to understand consumer behaviour and needs. This chapter aims to represent research findings, which are described in descriptive fashion. The collected data are analysed on the basis of a comparative qualitative analysis, with related or similar studies. This is the final chapter of this research and it aims to provide recommendations and suggestion, explain limitations and produce proposal for further research.