Brand Building Advertising Concepts and Cases

M G Parameswaran

Tata McGraw-Hill

x+212 pages/Price not stated

The evolution of brand advertising can serve as a market’s maturity index because brand communication changes with a changing environment. So, if one is tracking advertising for specific brands over a period of time, one can arrive at answers to many questions. For instance, how has the market changed in terms of competitive activities? How have consumer habits changed?

What are the new trends and the technological breakthroughs? And, most importantly, how have brand marketers responded to these changes? These answers can then be used to analyse the problems that the brand in question faces during its evolution.

This book, written by the ad agency FCB Ulka’s executive director, fails to fully provide readers with insights into the subject of brand building in a fast-changing market.

It takes a look at brand-building advertising in different situations. From consumer products and services to social advertising — six categories in all — the book dwells on a vast range of marketing situations and snafus to highlight the role of advertising in brand building. The book is based on case studies — brands handled by FCB Ulka — and gives a brief conceptual framework before each case study.

The author has done well to add variety to the case studies by including products, services and even socially relevant concepts. “While it is true that fundamental marketing concepts do not change, it is often useful to understand the nuances of each marketing situation,” says Parameswaran.

Where the book falters is in the choice of cases and their analyses. Most of the cases discussed have become dated because of the altered market dynamics.

Take, for instance, Santoor or Sundrop sunflower refined oil. While the author discusses the two cases threadbare and spells out the thinking that went into creative execution for the brand communication and its initial results, it stops there. But the need of the hour is to build sustainable brand values.

The market has changed in both the cases. After the initial success of the agency at turning Santoor into a mass market brand, the brand has, of late, been subdued because there has been no sustained communication over the past few years. Chances are that Santoor never came out of the niche brand trap that the agency tried to bring it out of.

Similarly, Sundrop’s leadership status has been in the blockhole for some time now. Scores of brands have entered the fray with the same brand proposition — the health positioning — that had led to Sundrop’s initial success.

Indeed, the paucity of Sundrop’s case analysis comes as a surprise since FCB Ulka has handled that brand right from the beginning and still does. So much is being done by ITC to the brand and FCB Ulka must be privy to those changes.

How have these brands evolved after the early years? How did the owning companies steer the brands against mounting competition? What needs to be done now? These are some of questions that the book leaves unanswered.

In fact, it would have served readers better if the author had picked up more contemporary cases like Whirlpool and Amul Ice Cream which are again handled by FCB Ulka. The only brand studies that would be useful for marketing students of the new millennium are those of Wipro, Novartis and Escotel.

Yet the book has its own good points and these cannot be ignored.

What goes on inside the advertising agencies is still a mystery to many. The author provides a peep into this occasionally misunderstood world through his reader-friendly style. He has taken care not to take an overtly academic view of advertising.

Instead, he’s written a book, the pages of which are interspersed with interesting insights into Indian markets and consumers, quotes from leading marketing thinkers and humorous anecdotes based on exchanges within the agency. It is these touches that make the book interesting, and more accessible to the author’s target audience.