Of brand managers and the ad agencies they hire to make the ad!

Whoops... aren't they supposed to work for the same goal?

When an ad is made by hiring an ad agency - the team consists of members from both sides - the brand and the ad agency. The ad agency's proposition to their target group (other brands wanting to make ads) are the ads they make. The brand managers are interested in how their brand would look to their target (the audience) via means of this communication (the ad) and thus, in turn, sell!

When represented as a Venn Diagram, this is how it looks:

  

There are two factors to be considered:

1. How does the ad look to the other current and prospective clients of the agency - decided by appearance of the ad for the brand.

2. How does the brand look to the target of the brand - decided by appearance of brand in the ad.

The first interest is exactly that of the ad agency members in the team - how does the ad look. Other current and prospective clients would decide to hire the agency based on how creative the ad was, did it capture attention of the viewers, recall, awards etc. The second is of the brand managers in the team.

The ad agency and the brand managers get intertwined in a relationship where for their own individual ends, they require the outcome of this union (the ad for the brand) to be a success. To some extent, they require the successful meeting of ends of the other for their own success!

Now here are the possible perceptions on the outcome of the union (the ad for the brand).

1. Good for ad, good for brand.
2. Good for ad, bad for brand.
3. Bad for ad, good for brand.
4. Bad for ad, bad for brand.

NOTE: No perception case is considered the same as bad as not having any perception is the biggest failure... after spending so much, if no perception is made at all... that is a waste!

Here lies the catch... WHOSE PERCEPTIONS HERE??
The perceptions that matter for the ad agencies towards the ads are of the other brands and not of the public, and for brands are those of the audience! So the perceptions towards the ad in the above possibilities are of the other brands and the perceptions towards the brand are of the audience!

Obviously, the brand managers would want the ad for their brand to invoke perceptions that lie in points 1 and/or 3. Similarly, the ad agency would like points 1 and/or 2. And here lies the challenge!

If you are the brand manager - you have to ensure that the team (of the brand managers and ad agency) does not make an ad for the brand which may venture in the case 2... the agency would not be the one trying to avoid that from happening!  Not claiming that they would opt for it intentionally - just saying that it might be something they won't think about, and hence, the onus of ensuring avoidance of this selection lies on the brand manager members of the team!

If you are the ad agency - you have to ensure that the team (of the brand managers and the ad agency) does not make an ad for the brand which may venture in the case 3... the brand managers would not be the ones trying to avoid that from happening!  Not claiming that they would opt for it intentionally - just saying that it might be something they won't think about, and hence, the onus of ensuring avoidance of this selection lies on the ad agency members of the team!


If this sounds a tad theoretically correct but too obvious to be pointed out... wait for my next few posts (which I will post in a couple of days) where I will take up certain examples of ads where this was not kept in mind and what it caused!!

P.S. Assumption - neither is stupid enough to opt for case 4 as it hurts both!!!

P.P.S. Please note here that I have used the instance of an ad agency and brand managers but the learning can be translated to almost any company outsourcing any part of its business to an outsider specializing in that area.

View on the Asian Paints "Vaah Sunil Babu" television commercial

Let me first beg your pardon for belaboring the obvious - It is a funny and attractive ad in the Indian context. Seeing it would definitely have ensured the imprinting of Asian Paints into the viewers' brains adding a cue to the brand of Asian Paints into the public's mindset.

Now to get to the hard part - to determine if this was a good advertisement for the company or not. From the vantage point of any company - an ad must spread awareness, catch attention, should appeal, be memorable etc. but only with the view of ultimately creating preference for the brand and this should reflect in the sales! An ad to the company is an investment whose returns are reflected in the sales of the paints in this case. I could present you with enough factual and empirical statistical data to show that the sales of Asian Paints increased after this and also increased their market share. Of course, proving that they did increase because of this particular ad is opening another Pandora's box altogether.

What is truly great about this ad is the fact that the marketers first realized what the major problem with their product was and then addressed it via this ad. Paints - typically not considered in everyday life, unlike products like cars which have been known to be part of the consciousness even when purchase is not the intent. Many of us think of "this would be the car that I'd love to buy," even if we are not going to buy a car in the near future. But paints - paints had never had their presence in our heads, save for the time when we actually needed to paint something! And at this juncture, with absolutely no real idea about which paint we would really use to paint our house with, we rely on either our painter's or the retailer's advice. So despite the fact that the consumers were the ones paying for the paint, the real decision was made based on the opinion of the painters and retailers, who acted as the influencers for the purchase. For that reason - all promotion efforts of all paint companies were directed towards the painters and the retailers, instead of the public. It made perfect sense. This was the scenario - and for the large part - still is. 

Asian Paints chose to advertize to the general public instead. They attempted and accomplished reduction of the influence of the above influencers. Suddenly, Asian Paints Sunil babu ad made us think of the brand even when we did not use it and it brought a smile on our faces because the ad was so funny. At the same time addressed a functional benefit of the product for competitive advantage - the long lasting paint. Asian paints now gained a pleasurable cognition in some part of our brains.

As opposed to the previous scenario - where you'd ask the influencer on which paint to buy, and get all unheard names rendering you clueless, now among the names, you recognize one too! And this is what increases the chances of preference shifting to Asian Paints. You hear 5 names, one of which is an already existing pleasurable thought in your head - Do that math... which one would you buy?

One of the best ways to judge if something works or not is to see what the competitors do after you do something. LO!! Other paint manufacturers also started advertizing - possibly the biggest evidence of the ad having worked for Asian Paints! "When your adversary starts to emulate you - you are doing something right!"

The best mistake I ever made

This was my first experience with Wall Street – “a place where a fool and his money are soon parted.” For a long time, I had been an investor in stocks and had been practicing on virtual stock market simulation games but it was my first day trading real stocks online. 

XYZ was a particular share that I had been tracking for a long time, which had ranged between 42 cents to 68 cents in the last 2 years. I noticed that 100,000 shares were available at 33 cents. The bid to buy 100,000 at 33c button was visible on my screen. I immediately clicked the option and my purchase got accepted. I received the notification e-mail on my account confirming the same. I also received an e-mail from my bank, that my account was overdrawn. Knowing that I had my bid covered easily, I went to the manager seeking an explanation. That was the moment I realized, that the bid that I had clicked and which got accepted, was in fact 88 cents and not 33 cents, and in US banks, the payments don’t bounce like here in India, the account gets overdrawn. I re-checked the confirmatory mail and realized that I had misinterpreted the 88 as 33 for some reason that I still don’t understand. I was horrified. I could clearly foresee myself in legal trouble in the near future.

The next couple of days, the value of the share reduced further and I went to the bank manager, explaining to him about my mistake. Even though he realized that it was an accident, there was nothing he could do about it. And on the third day, terrified of the ramifications that were soon to follow, I consulted a lawyer about how to plead guilty at court but prove it to be an accident. The first thing the lawyer did, was check the price of the stock, which had miraculously risen by 80 cents that very day, moving to the price of 1.08$. I immediately sold the stock, making a profit of 20 cents a share so 20,000$ total profit.

The turmoil was over so we could see the humor in the situation. We even mocked Wall Street as “a place for fool’s gold.”But I can never forget the feeling of impending doom that I experienced, and thus far, it has been the best mistake I ever made!