LAKME

Lakmé is an Indian brand of cosmetics, owned by

Unilever. Lakme started as a 100% subsidiary of Tata Oil Mills
(Tomco), part of the Tata Group; it was named after the French
opera Lakmé, which itself is the French form of Lakshmi, the
goddess of wealth, also renowned for her beauty. Indian cosmet
Lakme was started in 1952, famously because the then Prime
Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was concerned that Indian women
were spending precious foreign exchange on beauty products,
and personally requested JRD Tata to manufacture them in
India.

Simone Tata joined the company as director, and went on

to become its chairman. In 1998 Tata sold off their stakes in
Lakmé Lever to HLL, for Rs 200 Crore (45 million US$), and
went on to create Trent and Westside. Even today, when most
multinational beauty products are available in India, Lakme still
occupies a special place in the hearts of Indian women.
 Lakme also started its new business in the beauty industry by
setting up Lakme Beauty Salons all over India. Now HUL
(Hindustan Unilever Limited) has about 110 salons all over
India providing beauty services.

ADVERTISING STRATEGY OF LAKME:

 An advertising strategy is a campaign developed to communicate
ideas about products and services to potential consumers in the hopes of
convincing them to buy those products and services. This strategy, when
built in a rational and intelligent manner, will reflect other business
considerations (overall budget, brand recognition efforts) and objectives
(public image enhancement, market share growth) as well. As Portable
MBA in Marketing authors Alexander Hiam and Charles D. Schewe
stated, a business's advertising strategy "determines the character of the
company's public face." Even though a small business has limited capital
and is unable to devote as much money to advertising as a large
corporation, it can still develop a highly effective advertising campaign.
The key is creative and flexible planning, based on an indepth
knowledge of the target consumer and the avenues that can be utilized to
reach that consumer.
Today, most advertising strategies focus on achieving three general
goals, as the Small Business Administration indicated in Advertising
Your Business: 1) promote awareness of a business and its product or
services; 2) stimulate sales directly and "attract competitors' customers";
and 3) establish or modify a business' image. In other words, advertising
seeks to inform, persuade, and remind the consumer. With these aims in
mind, most businesses follow a general process which ties advertising
into the other promotional efforts and overall marketing objectives of the
business.
An advertising strategy should support the marketing plan, which in
turn supports the company business plan.
In the Real World you will rarely be handed a marketing or
business plan. So you'll normally have to figure things out for yourself.

How to create an advertising strategy:

The first step in the development of your communications strategy
could be, should be a SWOT analysis.
Properly done, a Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats
assessment will give you a 360 degree, full-color picture of the market,
the product or service, and the company.

> How to conduct a SWOT analysis.

There are two major parts to an advertising strategy.
1) Assessment.
What's going on in the market, What's the history, the current situation.
What are the major trends in the market, what's the future looking like?
With the product. With competitors. With consumer attitudes.
2) Action
What should your client do about the the most significant opportunities
or problems presented by the situation? What should you do with the
brand. With direct marketing. The Web site. The way the company is
positioned.
A SWOT analysis will help you figure out the "What's going on" part.
And figure it out quickly.
The "What to do" part of your ad strategy should follow logically from
the "What's going on" part.
Example: Say the SWOT analysis reveals that there is serious and
growing competition from price slashers.
Your strategy might be:
A) Position, or re-position the product: "Because you're worth it - worth
so much more then the extra dollar."
B) Invest in, create a stronger brand personality - one based on an
upscale, character that people will aspire to associate with.
C) Use traditional dm and the Internet / Web site to target and sell
younger buyers, new buyers, before they have established a product /
service / company preference.
You can see how your ad strategy addresses a business issue,
competitive price pressure, in the above example.
You can also see that the ad strategy deals with the big strategic issues:
branding, positioning, direct marketing, and media. And it does so with
simple action statements describing, high-level, what you intend to
accomplish.
Eventually your strategy will influence all the details, down to the copy
and design of your ads. But start with an executive summary of the big
issues, the big picture.
"OK, Mr. President. Here's what's going on. Big picture. One, two, three.
And here's what we will do about it. Big picture. One, two, three."
That's the essence of strategic leadership and vision
How to create an advertising strategy:
Here are some key issues to consider when creating an advertising
strategy or campaign.

Understand, or define, the brand ... as it is now, and what you

want it to be, whether the same or something different.
> How to create and characterize a brand.

Know how the company is positioned in the minds of consumers,

and where you want it to be positioned.
> How to position a company, product, service or brand.
Understand the Psycho-Dynamics of the market.
14 fancy letters for a simple idea: what’s going on inside the brains of
buyers, of perspective customers?
It includes, but is not limited to, Consumer Involvement Theory ... how
the consumer relates to the purchase: Rational to emotional. High to low
involvement. You probably buy the same brand of soap or soda with a
mindless motion at the market. But you do your homework when buying
cameras or cars. Most people do the same.
But besides CIT, there are likely other issues, perhaps more important
issues, such as why people buy the other brand:
“People think our competitor produces higher quality, more reliable
products.” Or, “People think Big Bank has more services and products
than we do. Things like investments and insurance, even inexpensive
safe deposit boxes. So they think Big Bank is more convenient.”
Or perhaps it's not so much what people think about competitors, but
what they think about your client:
"Gosh, I don't know if I want to buy a Mac. Just not as much software as
I can get for a PC."
Get the idea? Psycho-Dynamics is everything. It’s all that stuff rattling
around between the ears of potential customers. The thoughts, feelings
and ever-changing prejudices that influence purchase decisions. That's
the Psycho-Dynamics of the market.
And it is always changing.

Know, or define, exactly what you want the advertising to

accomplish.
Strangely enough, this is called the advertising objective. Do you want
the advertising to get people to think or feel or do something? Or a
combination of the three?
“We want people to think of us as a maker of truly top quality sports
wear, for real athletes. We want people to buy our brand instead of
Brand N. And feel cool, proud to wear our logo.”
Another way to define the Ad Objective is to ask, what’s the most
important task for our advertising?
Is it to encourage an emotional connection with the brand?
To provoke, challenge or give them an incentive to re-appraise the
brand? Give the product another try?
Is it to convince them rationally that the service delivers better value for
the money?
Is the objective to get consumers change their usage patterns? To buy
your butter instead of the butter Mom always bought?
Or react immediately in some way to the advertising? Such as pick up
the phone or go online and order?
Understand or define the marketing objective and strategy.
The marketing objective is a business goal. For example, “in the first
year we want to capture 10% of the market in six cities.” Or, “Our goal
is to be profitable in this country within 6 months.” Or, “We want to
increase sales with this product to the point where profits reach $50,000
per month, and do this in 12 months.”
All of the above, of course, to be accomplished within a budget.
The advertising strategy supports the marketing strategy.
So let’s say we’re selling Fred’s Farm Fresh Ice Cream. Chocolate,
strawberry and vanilla are flying out of the freezer. But no one wants the
prune flavor.
So Fred says, “Hey, I want my Purple Prune flavor to add 20% to my
sales - not steal sales from the existing three - or I’m going to dump it in
12 months. Here's one million dollars to work with. What do you
suggest?”
In this case your strategy might be to:
A) Re-name the product: Prune Surprise.
B) Re-position it: Surprisingly Sweet, Surprisingly Healthy.
C) Build a brand based on a fussy old lady, a great cook, who is very
demanding: it’s got to taste great, and be great for your health. or she's
rejects it.
Project the brand with TV ads showing a young Mrs. Consumer
absentmindedly reaching for some ice cream at the store. Mrs. Fussy
taps her on the shoulder, and she starts, “Oh! You surprised me.”
Mrs. Fussy, “Honey, here’s a bigger a surprise …”
D) Achieve immediate sales with an in-store promo plan or discount
coupons, something to encourage people to give it a try.
 STAGES of Advertising Strategy:

As a business begins, one of the major goals of advertising must be to

generate awareness of the business and its products. Once the business'
reputation is established and its products are positioned within the
market, the amount of resources used for advertising will decrease as the
consumer develops a kind of loyalty to the product. Ideally, this
established and ever-growing consumer base will eventually aid the
company in its efforts to carry their advertising message out into the
market, both through its purchasing actions and its testimonials on
behalf of the product or service.
Essential to this rather abstract process is the development of a
"positioning statement," as defined by Gerald E. Hills in "Marketing
Option and Marketing" in The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship: "A
'positioning statement' explains how a company's product (or service) is
differentiated from those of key competitors." With this statement, the
business owner turns intellectual objectives into concrete plans. In
addition, this statement acts as the foundation for the development of a
selling proposal, which is composed of the elements that will make up
the advertising message's "copy platform." This platform delineates the
images, copy, and art work that the business owner believes will sell the
product.
With these concrete objectives, the following elements of the advertising
strategy need to be considered: target audience, product concept,
communication media, and advertising message. These elements are at
the core of an advertising strategy, and are often referred to as the
"creative mix." Again, what most advertisers stress from the beginning is
clear planning and flexibility. And key to these aims is creativity, and
the ability to adapt to new market trends. A rigid advertising strategy
often leads to a loss of market share. Therefore, the core elements of the
advertising strategy need to mix in a way that allows the message to
envelope the target consumer, providing ample opportunity for this
consumer to become acquainted with the advertising message.

1.TARGET CONSUMER:
The target consumer is a complex combination of persons. It includes
the person who ultimately buys the product, as well as those who decide
what product will be bought (but don't physically buy it), and those who
influence product purchases, such as children, spouse, and friends. In
order to identify the target consumer, and the forces acting upon any
purchasing decision, it is important to define three general criteria in
relation to that consumer, as discussed by the Small Business
Administration:
1. Demographics—Age, gender, job, income, ethnicity, and hobbies.
2. Behaviors—When considering the consumers' behavior an
advertiser needs to examine the consumers' awareness of the
business and its competition, the type of vendors and services the
consumer currently uses, and the types of appeals that are likely to
convince the consumer to give the advertiser's product or service a
chance.
3. Needs and Desires—Here an advertiser must determine the
consumer needs—both in practical terms and in terms of self-
image, etc.—and the kind of pitch/message that will convince the
consumer that the advertiser's services or products can fulfill those
needs.

2.PRODUCT CONCEPT:
 The product concept grows out of the guidelines established in the
"positioning statement." How the product is positioned within the
market will dictate the kind of values the product represents, and thus
how the target consumer will receive that product. Therefore, it is
important to remember that no product is just itself, but, as Courtland L.
Bovee and William F. Arens stated in Contemporary Advertising, a
"bundle of values" that the consumer needs to be able to identify with.
Whether couched in presentations that emphasize sex, humor, romance,
science, masculinity, or femininity, the consumer must be able to believe
in the product's representation.
3.COMMUNICATION MEDIA:
The communication media is the means by which the advertising
message is transmitted to the consumer. In addition to marketing
objectives and budgetary restraints, the characteristics of the target
consumer need to be considered as an advertiser decides what media to
use. The types of media categories from which advertisers can choose
include the following:
• Print—Primarily newspapers (both weekly and daily) and
magazines.
• Audio—FM and AM radio.
• Video—Promotional videos, infomercials.
• World Wide Web.
• Direct mail.
• Outdoor advertising—Billboards, advertisements on public
transportation (cabs, buses).
After deciding on the medium that is 1) financially in reach, and 2) most
likely to reach the target audience, an advertiser needs to schedule the
broadcasting of that advertising. The media schedule, as defined by
Hills, is "the combination of specific times (for example, by day, week,
month) when advertisements are inserted into media vehicles and
delivered to target audiences."
4.ADVERTISING MESSAGE:
An advertising message is guided by the "advertising or copy platform,"
which is a combination of the marketing objectives, copy, art, and
production values. This combination is best realized after the target
consumer has been analyzed, the product concept has been established,
and the media and vehicles have been chosen. At this point, the
advertising message can be directed at a very concrete audience to
achieve very specific goals. Hiam and Schewe listed three major areas
that an advertiser should consider when endeavoring to develop an
effective "advertising platform":
• What are the product's unique features?
• How do consumers evaluate the product? What is likely to
persuade them to purchase the product?
• How do competitors rank in the eyes of the consumer? Are there
any weaknesses in their positions? What are their strengths?
Most business consultants recommend employing an advertising agency
to create the art work and write the copy. However, many small
businesses don't have the up-front capital to hire such an agency, and
therefore need to create their own advertising pieces. When doing this a
business owner needs to follow a few important guidelines.

5. COPY:
When composing advertising copy it is crucial to remember that the
primary aim is to communicate information about the business and its
products and services. The "selling proposal" can act as a blueprint here,
ensuring that the advertising fits the overall marketing objectives. Many
companies utilize a theme or a slogan as the centerpiece of such efforts,
emphasizing major attributes of the business's products or services in the
process. But as Hiam and Schewe caution, while "something must be
used to animate the theme …care must be taken not to lose the
underlying message in the pursuit of memorable advertising."
When writing the copy, direct language (saying exactly what you mean
in a positive, rather than negative manner) has been shown to be the
most effective. The theory here is that the less the audience has to
interpret, or unravel the message, the easier the message will be to read,
understand, and act upon. As Jerry Fisher observed in Entrepreneur,
"Two-syllable phrases like 'free book,' 'fast help,' and 'lose weight' are
the kind of advertising messages that don't need to be read to be
effective. By that I mean they are so easy for the brain to interpret as a
whole thought that they're 'read' in an eye blink rather than as linear
verbiage. So for an advertiser trying to get attention in a world awash in
advertising images, it makes sense to try this message-in-an-eye-blink

route to the public consciousness—be it for a sales slogan or even a

product name."
The copy content needs to be clearly written, following conventional
grammatical guidelines. Of course, effective headings allow the reader
to get a sense of the advertisement's central theme without having to
read much of the copy. An advertisement that has "50% Off" in bold
black letters is not just easy to read, but it is also easy to understand.

6.ART WORK AND LAYOUT:

Small business owners also need to consider the visual rhetoric of the
advertisement, which simply means that the entire advertisement,
including blank space, should have meaning and logic. Most industry
experts recommend that advertisers use short paragraphs, lists, and
catchy illustrations and graphics to break up and supplement the text and
make the document both visually inviting and easy to understand.
Remember, an advertisement has to capture the reader's attention
quickly.

7.ADVERTISING BUDGET:
The advertising budget can be written before or after a business owner
has developed the advertising strategy. When to make a budget decision
depends on the importance of advertising and the resources available to
the business. If, for instance, a business knows that they only have a
certain amount of money for advertising then the budget will tend to
dictate what advertising is developed and what the overall marketing
objectives will be. On the other hand, if a business has the resources
available, the advertising strategy can be developed to meet
predetermined marketing objectives. For small businesses, it is usually
best to put together an advertising budget early in the advertising
process.
The following approaches are the most common methods of developing
an effective budget. All the methods listed are progressive ones that look
to perpetuate growth:
• Percentage of future or past sales
• Competitive approach
• Market share
• All available funds
• The task or objective approach
The easiest approach—and thus the one that is most often used—is the
percentage of future or past sales method. Most industry experts
recommend basing spending on anticipated sales, in order to ensure
growth. But for a small business, where survival may be a bigger
concern than growth, basing the advertising budget on past sales is often
a more sensible approach to take.
Methods of Advertising
Small business owners can choose from two opposite philosophies when
preparing their advertising strategy. The first of these, sometimes called
the push method, is a stance wherein an advertiser targets retail
establishments in order to establish or broaden a market presence. The
second option, sometimes called the pull method, targets end-users
(consumers), who are expected to ask retailers for the product and thus
help "pull" it through the channel of distribution. Of course, many
businesses employ some hybrid of the two when putting together their
advertising strategy.
8. PUSH METHOD:
The aim of the push method is to convince retailers, salespersons, or
dealers to carry and promote the advertiser's product. This relationship is
achieved by offering inducements, such as providing advertising kits to
help the retailer sell the product, offering incentives to carry stock, and
developing trade promotions.

9. PULL METHOD:
 The aim of the pull method is to convince the target consumer to try,
purchase, and ultimately repurchase the product. This process is
achieved by directly appealing to the target consumer with coupons, in-
store displays, and sweepstakes.
Analyzing Advertising Results
Many small businesses are distressingly lax in taking steps to monitor
whether their advertising efforts are having the desired effect. Instead,
they simply throw a campaign out there and hope for the best, relying on
a general sense of company health when determining whether to
continue, terminate, or make adjustments to advertising campaigns.
These small business owners do not seem to recognize that myriad
factors can influence a business's fortunes (regional economic straits,
arrival of new competition, seasonal buying fluctuations, etc.). The small
business owner who does not bother to adequately analyze his or her
advertising efforts runs the danger of throwing away a perfectly good
advertising strategy (or retaining a dreadful one) if he or she is unable to
determine whether business upturns or downturns are due to advertising
or some other factor.
The only way to know with any accuracy how your advertising strategy
is working is to ask the consumer, the opinions of whom can be gathered
in several ways. Although many of the tracking alternatives are quite
specialized, requiring either a large budget or extensive advertising
research expertise, even small businesses can take steps to measure the
effectiveness of their advertising strategies. The direct response survey
is one of the most accurate means of measuring the effectiveness of a
company's advertising for the simple reason that it measures actual
responses to a business's advertisements. Other inexpensive options,
such as use of redeemable coupons, can also prove helpful in
determining the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.
 Advertising Agencies
The decision whether or not to use an advertising agency depends both
on a company's advertising strategy and its financial resources. An
agency has professionals who can organize, create, and place advertising
so that it will meet established objectives better than most small
businesses can do on their own, but of course the expense associated
with soliciting such talent is often prohibitive for smaller companies.
Still, some small- and mid-sized businesses have found that agencies can
be helpful in shaping and monitoring advertising strategies.
Because of their resources and expertise, agencies are useful when a
business is planning a broad advertising campaign that will require a
large amount of resources. An advertising agency can also help track
and analyze the effectiveness of the advertising. Some criteria to
consider when choosing an agency include size of the agency, size of
their clients (small companies should avoid allying themselves with
agencies with a large stable of big corporate clients so that they are not
treated as afterthoughts), length of time that the principals have been
with the agency, the agency's general advertising philosophy, and the
primary nature of the agency's accounts (are they familiar with your
industry and the challenges involved in differentiating your company's
products or services from others in that industry?).
Advertising Laws
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) protects consumers from
deceptive or misleading advertising. Small business owners should be
familiar with the following laws, which pertain to marketing and
advertising and are enforced by the Commission:
• Consumer Product Safety Act—Outlines required safety guidelines
and prohibits the sale of harmful products.
• Child Protection and Toy Safety Act—Prohibits the sale of toys
known to be dangerous.
• Fair Packaging and Labeling Act—Requires that all packaged
products contain a label disclosing all ingredients.
• Antitrust Laws—Protects trade and commerce from unlawful
restraints, price deception, price fixing, and monopolies.
Many complaints against advertisers center on allegedly deceptive
advertisements, so small business consultants urge entrepreneurs and
business owners to heed the following general rules of thumb:
1. Avoid writing ads that make false claims or exaggerate the
availability of the product or the savings the consumer will enjoy.
2. Avoid running out of advertised sale items. If this does happen,
businesses should consider offering "rain-checks" so that the
consumer can purchase the item later at the same reduced price.
3. Avoid calling a product "free" if it has cost closely associated with
it. If there are costs associated with the free item they need to be
clearly disclosed in the ad.
NAMES OF GROUP MEMBER’S
1.