Graphic works & illustrations

Advertising - as the advertiser’s wouldn’t like to read it.

"Advertising as an art, has drawn me closer to sit back, relax and to enjoy the experience that is viewed only for a couple of seconds, but the impression lasts for a lifetime. I gradually felt, making a movie and trying to get across people, is quiet simple with the space of time. But in advertising, every second costs a fortune to broadcast, due to which ads that we watch, are hardly 15 to 25 seconds. In this minimum time,they have to get their message across, attract their audience, and also push them to buy the product. Well this is a clear act of persuasion, but it is no ordinary job."

The job is more of an adventure; more like the late, Steve Irwin’s job (The crocodile hunter, Animal Planet). Sometimes, you never know what you got to do to keep your clients to yourself and compete with your competitors. This is a continuous process. In the ad- field, the battle happens on a daily basis. The creative’s sit on a hot pot, that make them run for their money, to pitch new concepts, customize their existing ideas and so on. It’s more like placing old wine in a new bottle, every single day.

Same product would never sell, if the idea is still the same. Hence an, advertiser puts in the existing ideas in a package, which goes through the phenomenon of custom modification. It’s more like calling a square as a triangle. This is creativity; it’s how you manage to get the people to accept and believe to that.

All that the advertiser does is to sell, dream as a commodity to its consumers. It gets to the people, by touching their emotions. Dreams are fulfilled by consumers who make choices about what to buy: Pepsi, Coca-cola, Nike, Reebok or Adidas. The route to happiness in this dreamland is consuming the right product. The capitalists bring in the market, and the advertiser attracts the consumers to consume the commodity. Think about how enthusiastic the Reebok commercial and how daring the thumps up commercials were portrayed to us. It’s more like a trader, who brings poison to kill rats, and the advertiser sells it to the daughter-in-laws to silence their noisy mother-in-laws. The use of both the products was to poison a living being. But to increase sales, it needs a complete package make-over. This is exactly what advertising does; it makes us feel good and drives us to consume it.

People like you and me, have fallen prey to standardization. The capitalist set a standard all the time, for us to reach it.”There is nothing left for the consumers to classify. Producers have done it for him” says Adorno, a culture theorist. For example: certain ads linked lingerie to Africa through the usage of an African black model in apparently primitive clothing and also connected perfume to India by associating the products with the characters of Taj Mahal. The irony is that, in this case lingerie or perfume has nothing to do with the people of Africa or India. These images are used to sell products made and used in the west. This is exactly how jeans became a casual wear replacing dhotis and pyjamaas in India. Because it was considered “cool” to be in them.

“When everyone is the best, no one is the best”

While I was still a child growing up, I was not brand conscious, but as the big names started emerging in the markets, I became aware of brands and felt the urge to stick to a brand that would add to my identity. As I used to play basketball, I became loyal to Nike, because Michael Jordan (famous basketball player in the 90’s) was the brand ambassador for Nike. Till date I am loyal to that brand. It is very personal feeling. This brand helps me express myself through the clothes I wear.

A brand is nothing but an expression of the consumer’s loyalty and trust. It’s a bond with the consumer. In the world of brands, when everyone is the best, no one is the best. Eleven brands of golf balls cannot possibly travel the farthest; the eight beers cannot all be the driest; the five automobiles cannot all deliver the smoothest ride. The consumer, exposed to an avalanche of similar products, touted to similar claims and tunes, correctly surmises that all of them are not unique. Big-name brands too face some struggles. Like Pepsi vs. Coke, Mercedes vs. BMW, Kingfisher vs. Budweiser and Colgate vs. Pepsodent. These mega-brands with billion dollar investments still have to prove everyday of the week that they are not the same soft drink, car, beer and toothpaste for their business to go on.

“A brand is a total experience derived by the customer at the various touch points; therefore the brand is in the customer’s mind, not on the self of the super market. This is where the role of the ad-agency begins,” says Mr. P. Ramakrishnan CEO, Active Media, Coimbatore.

An ad agency’s job is to clear a path through the fog of sameness for their clients. It should make the consumer know that they are talking to him or her directly as an individual, and that they understand the kind of life he or she leads and why the brand would mesh perfectly with that life. There are just two things that the advertisers need their consumers to tell themselves in the most rational way, ‘I get what you’re saying. I understand what your brand offers me.’ And then they would want each consumer to feel emotionally, ‘In my gut, I like what you’re saying. That’s me you’re talking to. That’s my life.’ If an advertiser accomplishes these two not-so-simple objectives, they can get the consumer to accept their logic and then feel it emotionally, thus creating an unassailable combination. Alwyn John Matdha, Director-Disha Communications, Bangalore says, “The power of making the brand unique lies in how you position the brand.”

“Consumers who are very brand conscious will always remain brand loyal and trustworthy to a brand they favour. This occurs because they feel they can associate themselves with a brand. Brands to them are much more than a name tag – it is something that understands one’s needs and preferences” says Pallavi Uday, a student of St. Josephs College, Bangalore.

Thus I would like to conclude saying that, “A brand is nothing but an expression of the consumer’s loyalty and trust. It’s a bond with the consumer.”