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COVER STORY
CSR Flavor in Advertisements
-- Shilpa Gopal
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the new mantra in the corporate world, has now become
the recipe for the advertisements. Companies are realizing that as corporate citizens they
are responsible for highlighting the values and morals that are important for the formation of a
good society and are therefore keen on including a social tinge in their ads. Campaigns designed
around societal issues help companies to differentiate their brands from the competition, attracts
investors and creates a favorable impression about the company in the markets. These kinds of ads
have become more receptive nowadays as public sensitivity and awareness towards building a
better nation have heightened. This article examines the emergence of this trend and cites examples
of companies which are using various promotional tools to highlight social issues.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
ADVERTISING
Film-based Merchandising
-- R Harish
Film-based Merchandising (FBM) refers to the marketing of products related to a movie's theme
or characters. Usually, film producers license third parties to manufacture and sell products based
on their films. The merchandised products serve as an indirect advertisement for the film. They
also bring in sales revenues to the marketers of the products and royalties to the film producers.
While FBM has grown to great heights in Hollywood, it is as yet in a nascent stage in India.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
ADVERTISING
Power of Humor
in Advertising
-- V Ganapathy
Advertising is one of the critical tools which marketers use to differentiate products in a
cluttered marketplace. Companies use many vehicles to create this differentiation effect. One such vehicle
is the use of humor in advertisements. Many advertisers use humor as a way to appeal to
customer's emotions and entice them to purchase the products. This article talks about the various aspects
of using humor in advertising and discusses the do's and don'ts of the same.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
ADVERTISING
Corporate Advertising: A Tool for Building Brand Equity and Credibility
-- Priyanka Rawal
Business groups need to build a positive image in the eyes of their stakeholders for their
continued survival. Corporate advertising is one such promotional strategy that provides the
companies advantages like increased awareness, overall favorable consumer impressions and association
of the company with positive attributes like high-quality products, competent management
and honesty. The article highlights the importance of corporate advertising in today's business scenario.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
ADVERTISING
Semiotics and Visual Communication in Advertisements
-- Sumitra Biswal
Marketers use both verbal and non-verbal techniques to make their messages as persuasive
as possible in order to influence customer attitudes and lifestyle behaviors. Very important to
a successful ad is the use of semiotics. Thus, the placement of certain images, text, colors, and
other signs plays a key role in the overall effectiveness of an ad. This article analyzes how the ads can
be effective from the standpoint of semiotic analysis.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
BRANDING
Branding the Unbranded
-- Rahul Gupta Choudhury and S Saiganesh
Over the years, brands have come to hold the center stage in the marketing mix. In fact, the
value of successful brands is more than the cumulative turnover of the companies. However, brands
still remain complex entities with no sure-fire ways of building them. The ephemeral quality of
brands and the time taken to build them makes branding a complex art. However, once built,
successful brands have the power of weaving their way into the daily lives of the customers.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
BRANDING
Brands: Much More Than Logos and Symbols
-- Dilpi Roy
The definition of a `brand' is often misunderstood. There is
a common belief that a brand consists of a logo, design
or some letterhead. It needs to be understood that brands
involve something beyond these. A brand is a complex entity in
the minds of the customers. It is the sum total of their
experiences and perceptions, some of which a company can influence,
and some that it cannot. A successful brand is one that elicits
a consistent positive emotion when the consumer comes into
contact with it anytime.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
STRATEGY
Changing Promotion
Paradigm
-- Manu Sharma
Promotion is the preeminent variable that advances the dialogue between a company and its
target segment. Every promotional strategy is always a challenging exercise. Also today's marketplace throws
a host of challenges that a marketer cannot afford to ignore. This means that companies have to
adopt different and untested promotional strategies in order to increase the odds of reaching the
target segment. This article examines the changing landscape of the promotional activities of the companies.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
STRATEGY
Spokes Characters: Another Face of the Brands
-- Smita Kulkarni
Marketers generally use verbal claims in their campaigns to highlight their brand benefits. Of
late, spokes characters are increasingly being used in advertisements and product packages.
Originally created for the purpose of identification of the brands, spokes characters have, today,
become another face of the brands symbolically conveying a brand attribute or belief. The use of
spokes characters benefits the brands by establishing the brand identity and creating favorable
brand associations.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
PERSPECTIVE
Word of Keyboard: The Good News and the Bad News
-- Bodil Stilling Blichfeldt
Advertising is one of the information sources that consumers rely on while making purchase decisions.
It competes with other sources of information for the consumer's attention and some of these sources
like Word-of-Mouth (WOM) are more trustworthy than advertising. In this Internet era, the Word
of Keyboard (WOK) is becoming an increasingly critical element of information that consumers rely
on. This article discusses the challenges and possibilities of WOK for advertisers.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
PERSPECTIVE
Marketing Innovations for Reaching Consumers
-- Arun Bhatia and Rashmi Bhatia
Companies, in the earlier days, were successful if they focused merely on improvement. However,
the information explosion and the global economy have conspired to change the rules of the
game. Hence, the order of the day for the companies is not to do something better but to do
something different, that is to innovate. Besides discussing the need for innovation, this article introduces
a concept of competitive intelligence that aids companies in beating competition.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved
PERSPECTIVE
What's New in Marketing?: Social Networking
-- Varsha Jain
Social networking has evolved rapidly, providing huge potential for businesses to market online in
a cost-effective and efficient manner. The word-of-mouth advertising that takes place in these
networks is one of the fastest modes of advertising for the companies. Another positive aspect is that
companies can directly communicate to the customers and understand their needs. This article examines how
social networking can be used by the companies to increase sales and business performance.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved
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