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Who are the Advertisers?

As the advertising manager has to have the ability to assess the load advertising would have to bear to achieve a particular marketing goal, it is also her/his responsibility to help the enterprise determine the advertising budget. In this, the advertising agency could also make a contribution. Often, the two would work as a team. The final decision would of course depend on the resources available, which might not necessarily permit the ideal amount of expenditure. From this responsibility follows the next one, control of the expenditure on advertising. In every operation involving a certain amount of expenditure, budgetary control is essential. In a large commercial enterprise, the budget controlled by the advertising department would include a number of diverse sales promotion activities, of which advertising would be one component. Even in the case of advertising, the budget would be spread over different kinds of media. It is the responsibility of the advertising manager to ensure that the budgeted amounts are properly spent according to the plan worked out in advance. It might be necessary, at times, to review the situation mid-way and divert allocations from one advertising activity to another, depending on developments in the marketing situation. Hence, the advertising manager has to exercise continuous budgetary control.

In the entire complex of advertising activities, the most crucial factor is the relationship between the advertising manager of an enterprise and the advertising agency or agencies, whose services she/he utilizes. It is on this relationship that the success or failure of an advertising campaign would depend. It is said that an advertiser gets the agency it deserves. The foundation of every advertising campaign is information. The advertising agency is a team of specialists, as much as a doctor or a lawyer. To get the best service from a lawyer or doctor it is necessary to provide her/him with all the relevant information. This is equally true in dealing with an advertising agency. The advertising manager of an enterprise must have the authority to share all information, good and bad, with the advertising agency. She/he must arrange, where necessary, interaction between the advertising agency personnel and the sales and marketing personnel of the advertiser. The marketing policy must be explained and its justification made clear to the agency. It has to be associated with the sales conferences and the entire process of marketing from the identification of a product to its ultimate launch in the market.

This is not enough. The advertising manager must be able to interpret the work of the agency to top management. She/he really is the link between top management and the advertising agency. She/he has to act as a bridge between the two. This would require her/his involvement with the entire process of the evolution of the advertising campaign. The advertising manager and the advertising agency must work together as partners with a common aim-the achievement of the marketing objective of the enterprise concerned. When the entire advertising activity is entrusted to one or more advertising agencies, the task of the advertising manager is more or less simple. When certain items, usually referred to as 'below-the-line' items, are handled directly by the advertising department of the enterprise, the advertising manager would also be responsible for the control of the production and distribution or such advertising material. These would include exhibitions, window displays, films, fashion shows, point of sale material, print jobs, such merchandising efforts as competitions, premium offers, etc. More often than not, in India, the advertising agency looks after even these items through relevant service organizations.

In many enterprises the advertising manager is also responsible for public relations for the company. There could be a press officer working under the advertising manager. In many cases the services of a PR consultant are utilized. Many advertising agencies also offer PR services. There is an internal dimension to PR-communication with the employees. This is often handled independently. If there should be a separate PR department in the enterprise, the advertising manager would work in close cooperation with it.

Finally, there is the task of evaluating the success or otherwise of advertising. This is also the responsibility of the advertising manager. It is a question of continuous monitoring of the impact of advertising translating itself into sales, provided, of course, all the other marketing efforts are in position.

Obviously the advertising manager, whether the term is used to include even the proprietor who has to look after everything including advertising, or the member of the board of directors especially entrusted with this job, is a senior person with considerable experience and tremendous responsibility. The importance of the advertising manager would be better appreciated if one looked at the advertising budgets of some of the large manufacturing and marketing enterprises in India. Economic dailies and other specialized publications and research organizations occasionally study advertising and publicity expenditure of major business enterprises in India.

This was the picture after two years of the new structural adjustment programme, with the opening up of the economy, to free competition from transnational corporations, some of the biggest in the world. This means that the Indian corporate sector as a whole would have to invest considerably more in sales promotion and particularly advertising, even just to maintain the present share of the market, leave alone increasing it. Furthermore, the high power advertising of the transnational corporations, making India their battleground, just as Coca Cola and Pepsi and Hindustan Lever and Proctor & Gamble are doing, would mean more advertising expenditure than ever before. This would mean more importance and greater responsibility for the advertising manager. The budget she/he would handle would increase. And the results expected would be much higher under more difficult conditions.

In this context, it might be useful to identify the likely growth areas, as these would also be the areas, which would offer new job opportunities. In terms of sales promotion to sales ratio, the top five industries in 1991-92 in descending order, according to the Business Standard research bureau study, were medicines and pharmaceuticals, sugar and breweries, trading, tobacco and other chemicals. In the following year the top five industries were practically the same, except for other chemicals taking the place of tobacco' which dropped to sixth place and tea came up to the fifth place.

The importance of the advertising manager is very great indeed. This seat is obviously many years distant for the new entrant to advertising business. So it is necessary to find out which are the possible areas of entry in the advertiser's side of the business. This is where the advertising department comes in. The size of the advertising department would depend on the size of the operations of the business enterprise concerned. That apart, it would also depend on how much of the work the advertising department would handle independently and how much it would depend on the advertising agency. Even so, the advertising manager would have the assistance of a certain number and category of staff. Among them would be the personnel who would monitor the services bought. Someone would have to check the expenditure made by the agencies or other services for their accuracy in relation to the advertising carried out-advertisements appearing in the press according to the schedule and properly reproduced; same with TV spots or radio spots; and so on.

Depending on the amount of work involved, the advertising manager would require assistance in conducting the different advertising activities. The advertising manager, either working independently, or with assistance, would have to ensure that the right media have been selected and the advertisements have been scheduled in relation to the sales and marketing requirements of the company. She/he would have to be able to assess the suitability of the advertisement itself and set the production costs. Naturally, the assisting staff for all such activities would be the minimum in case the business enterprise secures the services of an advertising agency. Similar activities would have to be 'undertaken in different areas of advertising such as outdoor hoardings, television advertising, radio and cinema advertising, direct mail, print jobs, exhibitions and displays, point of sale material, sales promotion and merchandising, trade relations, sponsored events, press relations and house journals. The contribution of the advertising agency would vary from item to item. The advertising manager would have to supervise the work of the agency in every area in which it. is involved.

Outdoor advertising would involve the selection of sites, the rates offered by the hoarding contractors, the design and the way it is reproduced. In the case of television, the storyboard or the script, the models if used, the lyrics and the music and the words, the finished videotape, would all have to be approved. The advertising manager would be involved at every stage of the production directly or through the appropriate staff in the advertising department. Then, of course, there would be the evaluation of its effectiveness. With regard to radio advertising the advertising manager's responsibility would be about the same as that with TV advertising. Film advertising would call for the advertising manager's involvement, both with the total process of film making, as with TV or radio, and also with the scheduling and proper screening at the cinema theatres. As for TV advertisements, the advertisement manager can view them at home; for film advertisements visits to cinema theaters would be necessary, particularly to get an on the spot, spontaneous audience reaction.

It might be convenient for the advertising department to handle direct mail advertising independently, if this is a medium the company uses extensively. It could get the help of a direct mail service to keep the mailing list updated. The advertising agency could help design and print the direct mail literature. The advertising department could handle the mailing itself. In case of highly specialized requirements even the preparation and maintenance of the mailing list would have to be handled by the advertising department. A mail order trader, big department store or even a good library could use direct mail as a medium for the promotion of retail trade or information to its customers. In such a situation the entire operation would be handled directly by its user. Such direct mail would not really be considered as an advertising medium.

Exhibitions are becoming a regular feature of marketing and advertising operations. It would be the responsibility of the advertising manager to be well informed about exhibitions that are held from time to time, both at home or abroad. She/he would have to advise the management about the exhibitions in which it would be useful to participate. Then would come the entire process of booking space, selecting the exhibits and then buying the required services for the design and construction of the exhibition stall and the display stands and getting photographs taken, mobiles constructed, video films prepared and so on. Some of these jobs could be handled directly by the advertising agency, or it could buy the necessary services on behalf of the advertiser. Even so the advertising manager, or the staff of the advertising department, would be involved at every stage of the operation in a supervisory capacity.

Every advertiser or business enterprise uses a great deal of printed material. These would include catalogues and other sales literature, packaging material, instruction leaflets or manuals, show cards or point of sale material and of course the annual report, all of which come within the scope of marketing, advertising and public relations. Then there are other print jobs, such as office stationery, which too have to be carefully designed and may require the services of the advertising agency. The advertising agency is equipped to handle all print -jobs on behalf of the advertiser, but in some cases the business enterprise concerned handles some of the jobs directly, particularly those for which the design services of the advertising agency are not required. This in itself is a major task and requires properly trained staff in the advertising department.

In the area of sales promotion and merchandising, the advertising department would have to assume major responsibility, even though valuable assistance might come from the advertising agency. You might describe this area as the 'special efforts area of marketing and advertising. This can involve a whole range of diverse activities in which the sales force of the business enterprises would have to be directly involved. For example, there could be sample demonstrations not only at retail outlets but also at the homes of potential consumers. Prize contests could be organized, premium offers, free gifts and various other sales incentives to remove goods crowding shop shelves or to beat competition. The entire operation would be the responsibility of the advertising manager, who might seek ideas from the advertising agency. Apart from Iecommending schemes and sales incentive activities, the advertising agency would be involved in the advertising part of the effort and in producing other publicity material. The agency would also work together with the advertising department of the business enterprise concerned throughout the operation. This is not merely to help out but also to gather enough information for its future advertising activities on behalf of the advertiser.

It is the advertising department, under the supervision of the advertising manager that would maintain a marketing communication network functioning with the wholesalers, distributors, retailers and other trade personnel. It is the responsibility of the advertising department to keep all of them informed about the advertising support that is available to them. In some cases it would even supply them with advertising material for their own use with their names added. The advertising department would organize release of advertisements locally with the names of local agents, wholesalers, retailers and other trade personnel arid also be responsible for organizing dealers or sales conferences and visits to the works. In all these activities the advertising department would work in close cooperation and co-ordination with the marketing department, particularly the sales force on the one hand and the advertising agency or other service organizations, on the other.

When the business enterprise does not have a separate public relations department, the advertising manager has to fulfill the role of a public relations officer as well, as far as external relations are concerned. Some of the activities in relation to the trade could be considered as belonging to the area of public relations. One of the most important and difficult activities is press relation. This calls for specialized training and aptitudes, which do not come easily. This would require the ability to draft press notes, which would provide news and not advertising messages. For a company official it is often very difficult to make this distinction between news and advertising copy. It is usual in such circumstances to take the assistance of an advertising agency, which has a specialized public relations department, or of a public relations service.

Related to public relations is the house journal, both for internal and external consumption. A person with journalistic experience or flair sometimes handles the internal house journal directly at the work level,, particularly when there is no public relations department. In such circumstances, the external house journal becomes the responsibility of the advertising department. The advertising agency can provide designing and a production service, but the bulk of the editorial material has to be secured and provided by the advertising or public relations department. When the advertising department handles this job, obviously the advertising manager needs assistants solely responsible for the house journal.

All these activities of the advertising manager add up to the qualifications required to fulfill such a task. First, the advertising manager would obviously have to have some knowledge of advertising. This could be' gamed through a period of service in an advertising agency or though a course in advertising now offered by many institutions in the country, particularly the Indian Institute of Mass Communications, Delhi. Secondly, knowledge of advertising would not be enough, as the name implies. Training in management is also essential. This is obvious. The advertising manager would have to be able to prepare a budget, manage it and contribute to policy formulation and interpret them to others. Above all she/he would have to manage personnel, however small the department might be. This is where an MBA would be useful. Such a qualification would include knowledge of marketing and advertising as well. This is what brings us to the third requirement. The knowledge of marketing, as studied in the Institute of Management, would probably provide a theoretical grounding. This would have to be built upon through experience gained in the marketing organization by working on the sales side or as a brand or a product manager. Advertising agency experience can also help.

Finally, to reach the position of advertising manager one would have to acquire, through experience, good knowledge of the industry to which the enterprise concerned belongs, as also of the enterprise itself. This knowledge can be acquire by working for a number of years in the organization itself or in some other company in the same industry or in an advertising agency which services that particular enterprise or similar enterprises. There are many instances of a person graduating from the advertising agency to an advertising manager in a company, which that particular agency services. This is often to the advantage of the advertiser. . An advertising manager with agency experience is well aware how far the agency can be pushed to get work done speedily. There is a saying in the advertising business that in an advertising agency everything is wanted yesterday. Such is the measure of the demand that the advertiser makes on the advertising agency to get a job done quickly. Furthermore, such an advertising manager is stricter with the budget and budget control.

Obviously, as a fresh entrant into advertising you cannot aspire for an advertising manager's post, unless of course, you are the proprietor of your own firm. What is important, however, is that you would have to acquire the same knowledge that the advertising manager is expected to have, but, at a much lower level. Unless you wish to work as a clerk in the advertising department, you would require some training in advertising and marketing, and preferably be an MBA. There is one advantage, however. Even as an executive trainee in a marketing organization you would start at a slightly higher wage level than in an advertising agency. You would have to be a graduate in humanities or science and may be, in commerce. Your starting salary would be in the neighborhood of Rs 15,000 and Rs 16,000 a month. If you are an MBA, you would possibly be taken on as a management trainee and start on a salary varying between Rs 7,000 and Rs 8,000.

The challenges are limited in a marketing organization. Generally, you would be concerned with one product and a particular marketing situation. In an advertising agency you would have to face different types of situations. You could specialize in one particular area; there is greater scope for creativity. It is true that, in the advertising agency.. you are at the beck ?I1d call of the advertising manager of the marketing company you happen to service. As an advertising manager you would be calling the tune. Promotions are also much quicker in an advertising agency. . What really matters is what you are looking for, the daily rough and tumble, the daily tension of meeting near impossible deadlines, but the excitement of creativity and innovations and working with a team of highly talented persons, or an early start at a higher income level, more stable and steady growth prospects, without too much tensions, but much attention from various outside service organizations. May be, the other side of the table seems more attractive. It is for you to find out. You can shift from one to the other, you know.