Media Planner

He has to allocate the advertising budget amongst media.He has to select the appropriate media. He decides about the frequency, sizeand position of an advertisement. He decides about its publication date. Hereceives the tear-off copies from the media when the ad is published. He isg u i d e d b y t h e m e d i a r e s e a r c h , w h i c h h e u n d e r t a k e s , o r b y r e s e a r c h undertaken b y a n o u t s i d e a g e n c y . M e d i a i s t h e m o s t p r o f e s s i o n a l i z e d department of advertising agencies

Comparative Advertising
When a company points out its own advantage, or a competitor's weakness, in its advertising by making direct or indirect references to the competition, it's called comparative advertising Comparative advertising basically involves making comparison between two products or services, by one of the competitors with the sole intention of showing his product/service as superior to the other. It often involves the use of identical logos and trademarks, a play on words, clash of celebrities, research claims, etc.

Some of the prominent ad wars of the last decade were: MICROSOFT APPLE Some years back, Microsoft launched a campaign to advertise its online features under the punch line, Where do you want to go tomorrow? Apple attacked this campaign through its new ad, Where do you want to go today? thus suggesting that the consumer think about today rather than tomorrow. They both used web advertising extensively to virtually and subtly slap each other in the face. PEPSI- COKE The Pepsi-Coke ad war is one of the oldest examples of comparative advertising. It started in the 1980s when Pepsi launched its ad showing consumers preferring Pepsi over Coca Cola in a blind taste test. The next major send-up came in 1996, when Pepsi introduced its punch line Nothing Official about It after Coca Cola was declared the official sponsor of the Cricket World Cup that year. This war continued through subsequent take-offs on Mountain Dew, Sprite and Thumps Up by both brands. The virtual war had been very prominent since 2003 after the aggressive ads of Mountain Dew and Thumps Up. This year, PepsiCo launched a TV ad featuring Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan enacting a comic scene around an alien. Coca Cola launched its parody on Pepsi through Sprites Seedhi Baat, No Bakwaas punch line, featuring the look-alikes of the three actors seen in the Pepsi advertisement.

HORLICKS COMPLAN The brand war between the two popular health drinks, Horlicks and Complan, is not a new one in India. In September 2008, Heinz, the parent company of Complan, filed a court case against GSKs Horlicks for showing Horlicks as a better and cheaper option than Complan, in terms of nutritional value and market price. The war between these two brands started in the 1960s and has evolved into aggressive advertising through print and electronic media, showing comparisons in attributes such as protein content, growth, ingredients, flavours and cost. NESTLE CADBURY Cadbury always makes commercials with which people in general would like to be associated with. Its recent line of ads for Dairy Milk, with the tag line meetha hai khana aaj pehli tareekh hai urges people to consume Cadbury chocolate on the first of every month as people gets their salaries on that day. It successfully captured peoples attention. But Cadburys competitor Nestle, soon launched a spoof on the Cadbury ad advising people to consume Nestle Munch everyday and not just on the first of the month. Its tag line, Khao bina Tareeq dekhe directly challenges Cadbury by saying Enjoy Munch without looking at the calendar. The Aaj Pehli Tarikh Hai v/s Sirf Pehli Tarikh Ko Nahin, Kabhi Bi Kha Sakte Hai ad war is an example of ridicule through comparative advertising. Proctor & Gamble Hindustan UniLever: Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Hindustan Unilever (HUL), the two major producers of consumer goods, have been involved in comparative advertising for a long time now. Though earlier, the comparison was subtle or in the form of market price comparisons, now they have come out in the open, taking the ad war to a different level. It started on February 25 (year?), when HUL s Rin, filed a court case against P&Gs Tide Natural for claiming that it contained natural ingredients like sandalwood and lemon, though it was a synthetic detergent. Apart from the court case, HUL also launched a nation-wide ad campaign which blatantly claimed that Rin is better than Tide as it offers more whiteness (behtar safedi). Subsequently Tide took HUL to court and the ad was withdrawn. But this ad was so strategically launched on TV channels that it coincided with a long weekend, guaranteeing enough visibility among consumers. Even after the ad was withdrawn, the HUL spokesperson re-iterated that the advertisement was based on independent laboratory tests based on international protocols and proved that Rin offers superior whiteness.
Advantage and disadvantage of comparative advertising??????? One advantage of comparative advertising is that it improves the quality of information available to consumers, thus enabling them to make more informed decisions relating to a choice between competing products/services by demonstrating the merits of comparable products.

Functional Advantages of Comparative Advertising Comparative advertising enable advertisers to objectively demonstrate the merits of their products. Comparative advertising improves the quality of information available to consumers enabling them to make well-founded and more informed decisions relating to the choice between competing products/services by demonstrating the merits of various comparable products. Based on this information, consumers may make informed and therefore efficient choices. Comparative advertising which aims to objectively and truthfully inform the consumer promotes the transparency of the market. Market transparency is also deemed to benefit the public interest as the functioning of competition is improved resulting in keeping down prices and improving products. Comparative advertising can stimulate competition between suppliers of goods and services to the consumer's advantage. Advantages from the Consumer's Point of View From the Consumer's point of view, Comparative advertising has more advantages than disadvantages. For example, Comparative advertising represents an inevitable part of the consumer decision-making process, particularly at the evaluation stage. Consumer wants needs and looks for more information to help him in making decisions. Comparative advertising can facilitate efficient decision-making, and fill the gap in the consumer's search for meaningful information. The concept of "Consumer sovereignty" requires three conditions to be fulfilled - "Perfect competition", "Perfect information" and "free choice" - and comparative advertising creates these conditions. Risks of Comparative Advertising Comparisons between goods and services of different undertakings carry with them some significant risks. There is a danger that once undertakings address the merits and inadequacies of competing goods or services, they may be tempted to denigrate them or derive unfair advantages from such inaccurate comparisons. Just like traditional forms of advertising, comparative advertising seeks to both assist the development of the undertaking concerned and to inform consumers. Although both forms of advertising seek to attract customers, in case of comparative advertising, commercial relationships may be exposed to the constant threat of unfair practices.

Focus group A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging.[1] Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members.

Focus groups can play an important role in determining advertising strategy. Groups can be used for idea generation, and to uncover possible "concepts" that appeal to the participants. Such concepts can be exposed to determine the groups' reactions. Well-received concepts can then be developed into actual advertisements. To use groups in the next stage of research, the actual testing of an advertisement or series of advertisements, generally is not a good idea unless quantitative research also is employed. It is

better to test actual advertisements quantitatively, using a methodology which will, among other things, quantify the impact of a particular ad on purchase intent, product/service/corporate imagery, believability, recall of the actual ad and the message of the ad, and the extent to which people can identify the product/service/corporation being advertised. If quantitative research indicates problems in any of these areas, it is appropriate, although possibly overkill (depending upon the advertising budget), to use groups to "fine-tune" an ad.

Disadvantage

Disadvantage: Not as In Depth

Compared to individual interviews, focus groups are not as efficient in covering maximum depth on a particular issue. A particular disadvantage of a focus group is the possibility that the members may not express their honest and personal opinions about the topic at hand. They may be hesitant to express their thoughts, especially when their thoughts oppose the views of another participant.

Disadvantage: Expense
Compared with surveys and questionnaires, focus groups are much more expensive to execute. Usually, each participant will have to be compensated in cash or in kind.

Lack of Participation

Some panelists may participate more actively in the testing and discussion than others. Much like with moderator bias, a panelist with a strong personality or opinions about the product may sway the views of other panelists, or the other panelists may be intimidated and not want to speak up.
Definitions

Frequency is the measure of how many times a person views or hears your ad. Reach is a measure of how many people view an ad. The easiest ways to increase an ad's reach are to buy additional media that reaches fresh audiences. Issues and Implementation Every advertiser faces a budget constraint. So the question becomes, how do we reach our goals with x dollars?. 1. Frequency. An advertisement that is only seen once simply will not be effective. Consumers need multiple exposure to an ad in order to recall its message and to build trust with a brand. Newer brands require more frequent exposure. More established brands that have strong market share generally require less frequent ads, unless they have a product launch or new promotion.

2. Reach. The best way to increase reach and frequency is to advertise more. But placing more ads on premium sites will bust your budget without necessarily seeing the desired jump in viewership. What to do? Every campaign needs the right media mix, a combination of 'quality' and 'volume'. A solid media plan includes search ads, social networks, network ads and premium websites. To hit the desired numbers in your plan, advertisers will mix highly specific niche sites with wide-reaching media. Blind networks like BuzzCity are a crucial element of this mix because they provide the depth of penetration and sheer numbers needed to achieve your frequency and reach targets at a reasonable cost. Here are some examples of recent campaigns that use network ads as an important part of their media plan. These campaigns all mixed mass and targeted media to achieve their campaign objectives:

Advertising Steps

The following are the steps involved in the process of advertising:

1. Step 1 - Briefing: the advertiser needs to brief about the product or the service

which has to be advertised and doing the SWOT analysis of the company and the product.
2. Step 2 - Knowing the Objective: one should first know the objective or the purpose

of advertising. i.e. what message is to be delivered to the audience? 3. Step 3 - Research: this step involves finding out the market behavior, knowing the competitors, what type of advertising they are using, what is the response of the consumers, availability of the resources needed in the process, etc. 4. Step 4 - Target Audience: the next step is to identify the target consumers most likely to buy the product. The target should be appropriately identified without any confusion. For e.g. if the product is a health drink for growing kids, then the target customers will be the parents who are going to buy it and not the kids who are going to drink it. 5. Step 5 - Media Selection: now that the target audience is identified, one should select an appropriate media for advertising so that the customers who are to be informed about the product and are willing to buy are successfully reached.

6. Step 6 - Setting the Budget: then the advertising budget has to be planned so that there is

no short of funds or excess of funds during the process of advertising and also there are no losses to the company. 7. Step 7 - Designing and Creating the Ad: first the design that is the outline of ad on papers is made by the copywriters of the agency, then the actual creation of ad is done with help of the art directors and the creative personnel of the agency. 8. Step 8 - Perfection: then the created ad is re-examined and the ad is redefined to make it perfect to enter the market. 9. Step 9 - Place and Time of Ad: the next step is to decide where and when the ad will be shown. The place will be decided according to the target customers where the ad is most visible clearly to them. The finalization of time on which the ad will be telecasted or shown on the selected media will be done by the traffic department of the agency.
10. Step 10 - Execution: finally the advertise is released with perfect creation, perfect

placement and perfect timing in the market.

11. Step 11 - Performance: the last step is to judge the performance of the ad in terms of the

response from the customers, whether they are satisfied with the ad and the product, did the ad reached all the targeted people, was the advertise capable enough to compete with the other players, etc. Every point is studied properly and changes are made, if any. If these steps are followed properly then there has to be a successful beginning for the product in the market.
Appy Fizz is a youth brand, mirroring the youth in everything it does. Parle Agro joint managing director and CMO Nadia Chauhan said, Saif Ali Khan is a great youth icon who loves his work as much as his life. The actor brings in the cool quotient to Appy Fizzs friends circle, and both together compliment each other and make a very entertaining duo. Were sure the two will make a winning pair. We see huge potential in this brand and its massive acceptance has us led us to invest heavily in it. We see a very large growth contribution from Appy Fizz this year and in the years to come. Media planning and media scheduling

media planning is the process of formulating strategies and selecting the appropriate media vehicle that can be use to reach the target audience.

MEDIA SCHEDULING The media planner should then prepare a media schedule. Media scheduling refers to the programming of media insertions. Media scheduling depends upon a number of factors such as: Nature of product- consumer usables, durables or industrial

 Nature of sales-whether seasonal or regular sales. Product lifecycle- whether introduction, growth, maturity or decline. Pattern of competitors programmes. Entry of new competitors. Availability of funds for advertising.

This involves the scheduling and timing of advertisement. The schedule shows the number of advertisements that are to appear in each medium, the size of the advertisements, and the date on which they are to appear. There are many ways of scheduling any advertising programme. No single way can be said to be best for all advertisers. Each advertiser must prepare a specific schedule most suitable for its market and its advertising objectives.

What may be good for one advertiser and his product may be bad for another. Even for the same advertiser, the best at one stage of the product life cycle may not be suitable at another stage. An advertiser, for example, may schedule to buy six pages space in a monthly consumer magazine. Alternatively, he may buy one-page space every month for the first three months; then he may not buy space for the next three months; and then again take one-page space every month for the next three months. There may be a variety of schedules of advertisements.

The last method of scheduling is known as the wave method, or the flighting method. In flighting, advertisements are bunched with the intention of providing a concentrated impact. The other method is the blitz schedule. The insertion of double-page advertisements in three consecutive issues of a magazine is an example of the blitz schedule. There are many more methods of bunching advertisements. However, the purpose of bunching is to provide concentrated impact with a single issue of the publication. What is Advertising Budget? Discuss various steps involved in Budgeting. How you will measure adds effectiveness. Answer:Introduction:- Quantitative expression of future plan of activities prepared for fix period of time. Advertising budget is a financial document that show the total amount to be spent on advertising

and list the way this amount is to be allocated. Advertising budget shows how much is to be spent on promotional efforts and how this amount is allocated among different media, sales territories. Advertising Budget differ from company to company. Some companies spend large amount on advertising, While there are companies spent very less amount on advertising. Steps in framing advertising Budget BEST BUSINESS SCHOOL 1) Setting advertisement Objective:- Before deciding on advertising budjet, the advertising manager must be clear about advertising objectives which help him to determine and allocate the ad budget. Main Objectives of advertisement are:Achieve the level of sales Enhance the market share by specific % To increase awareness regarding Products and its uses. To develop preference o f our product To convinces the customer to buy our product. 2)Determining Tasks to be performed to Achieve Advertising Objective:The next step is to determine tasks, activities, strategies, functions to be performed to achieve the advertising Objectives. This task includes Selection of media selection of advertising agency designing of advertising copy Deciding frequency o f advertisement Designing of advertisement Timing of Advertisement Quantum of space to be taken in print media . 3)Preparing Advertising Budget-

After identifying various activities to be done to achieve advertising objectives, the next step is to find out the cost of all such activities. Total cost of all such activities is amount required for advertising budget. To keep the budget flexible, certain amount in the form of provision of contingencies is added to the total cost. BEST BBA BCA AND MBA COLLEGE IN NCR 4) Approval: After preparing advertising budget, it is sent to Top-Management through chief of marketing-department for necessary approval. Top-Management will see if the budget is affordable and justified it will pass the budget. 5) Allocation of advertising Budget: After the budget is approved by the top management, the next step is to allocate it. Allocation means dividing the budget on different products and activities. Budget should be flexible to accommodate sudden changes in market, competetiors strategies, and change in another components of market. 6) Monitor and Control: After allocation of resource it is essencial to have an adequate monitoring and control over it. In control, actual expenditure is compaired with planned expenditure. In case if ex penditure is greater then the planned expenditure then corrective actions are taken responsibilities are fixed to ensure cost control. Humour in ad Humor has a universal language. It doesnt need degrees in obscure languages, hardly ever in Clinical Psychology and it is one of the few devices used to make people smile and think at the same time. Great messages have been passed in the guise of humor, great authors and playwrights have used it over the centuries. If there are great tragedies there are also great comedies. So is it surprising that advertising has used this medium to sell a wide spectrum of products?! The effect of these ads is felt by all of us in our daily lives. My two year old recently said Vaango, I was a proud mama for a minute, thinking that perhaps she was trying to learn a new language, till I realized that she was only repeating the new Bingo ad. There went my hopes for a genius baby. Humor has always got our attention. It could be controversial, subtle, blatant or slapstick. However it is used, humor sticks. Ad makers often take the commonplace and make them more exotic, twisted or just different enough to create an impact. In the case of the Smirnoff Vodka ads, the world seen through a vodka filled glass is completely different from the reality or is it the other way round?

It took me a while to realise that the cute bunny and the homey teddy were doing more than just being bounced about by the Blaupunkt speakers! Talk about subtlety. On the flip side are the very exaggerated and obvious Axe ads, which really don't leave much to the imagination. Recently they came up with ads that had famous fairy tale heroines doing unspeakably naughty things to all in Fairyland - from the seven dwarfs down to poor Prince Charming! This begs the question that maybe even humor has to draw the line somewhere. To be effective, humor has to be used innovatively, keeping in mind the target audience and what message the ad needs to convey. Consider the new Pepsodent ad: it is funny while not being so in your face, it gets to the required target audience of kids and espouses the 10 values of the toothpaste without getting preachy. And the ringing Cheatercock gets everyones attention too. For the marriage-obsessed Indian, the humor in the JeevanSaathi.Com ad, where the father is trying to find a bridegroom for his daughter in practically every man, does not fail to get the required attention. Sarcasm works well and when that is directed at the boss can it get any better??!!! Poor Hari Sadu did indeed get a taste of his own tea, eh, sorry medicine. There was also suddenly a dearth of new born baby boys named Hari. Indian audiences are very verbal and therefore prefer to have very verbal ads rather than subtle and non-verbal ad messages. There is also a rather sharp demarcation between urban and rural Indians. Some ad makers do find a point where the twain do meet, as in a recent ad for Camlin Permanent markers, where, in a rural Rajasthani village the husband passes away and the Rudalis or the professional mourners come to the hut and start breaking the recent widows bangles and mangalsutra but cannot remove her bindi as her husband had used Camlin permanent marker, as a result of which he gets a second life! There was no conversation just the tag line Camlin permanent markers really permanent. The message got through perfectly. We also like comparing ourselves to our neighbors and either want to keep up with the Joneses or want to be better than the rest. Therefore we have every neighbor in an up market housing colony peeping into Mrs Sharmas bedroom. It turns out they were all just checking out her new wall paint finishes! Or we have Sharukh Khan forgiving his neighbors everything because Santro Waale hain. The best ad that has recently hit Indian TVs and which has actually got a couple of sequels to it, are the Orbit ads!!! Dr Bhatondekar has probably started his own language or BhatodhekarismsIn the before, see the handsome and It is a must for bachelor mans and bachelor womans. The concept was novel, interesting, imaginative and very, very funny. Our most scared animal has finally left her mark in the Indian ad scene, either being wooed by the Fully Vaccinated African Black Bull or as the winner of a beauty contest, Ms. Palampur, with the Big B himself promising that next year she will be in films. The products of these two ads were Orbit and Cadburys chocolate. Seen any cows chew on these lately?

Humor being humor can be packaged appropriately to sell any product - however controversial or embarrassing. Which is good as it is a makes an effective weapon to be used to get social messages across. The series of ads using humor to spread AIDS awareness throughout India is effective without being offensive. Television ads have a small window of 30 to 60 seconds to try and capture the target audience and get the message across. Print media has to rely on capturing attention at the flick of a page. In both, humor is an effective tool. A recent Fosters beer ad, after the World Cup Series, showed a picture of the World Cup and below it were these lines Fosters: Australian for habit. Succinct. How could I end this without mentioning the Utterly, butterly that stared 40 years ago! Amul ads are iconic, in that they have not changed in all this time. They are as contemporary today as they were four decades ago when they created a sensation in 1967. I would try to second guess what the weekly ad copy would be about. Remember Aati kya makhan dala? Amul on everyones lips. The ads were funny, simple and on occasion controversial but always they did their job they got our attention!! Ultimately like the Bingo ads say No complication, only great combinations. Humor works even if we might crinkle our nose with distaste at some of those supposedly funny Fast Track ads. Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial ads, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam One major benefit of online advertising is the immediate publishing of information and content that is not limited by geography or time. To that end, the emerging area of interactive advertising presents fresh challenges for advertisers who have hitherto adopted an interruptive strategy. Another benefit is the efficiency of advertiser's investment. Online advertising allows for the customization of advertisements, including content and posted websites. For example, AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdSense enable ads to be shown on relevant web pages or alongside search result he internet has become an ongoing emerging source that tends to expand more and more. The growth of this particular medium attracts the attention of advertisers as a more productive source to bring in consumers. A clear advantage consumers have with online advertisement is the control they have over the product, choosing whether to check it out or not.[1] Online advertisements may also offer various forms of animation. In its most common use, the term "online advertising" comprises all sorts of banner, e-mail, in-game, and keyword advertising, on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace has received increased relevance. Web-related advertising has a variety of sites to publicize and reach a niche audience to focus its attention to a

specific group. Research has proven that online advertising has given results and is a growing business revenue.[2] For the year 2012, Jupiter research predicted $34.5 billion in US online advertising spending. BRAND ENDORSEMENT

What are the benefits of representing India [ Images ] in the national cricket team? It is an
opportunity to compete with the best in the world and pitch one's talent against the best.

It is an opportunity to travel around the world. It is an opportunity to uphold national pride. And make good money from every match played.

Slide Show: Sportsmen and Big Bucks Slide Show: Celebrity Endorsements

But there is more -- a ticket to modelling in the advertising world (and a future perhaps in Bollywood). Not surprisingly it's a very attractive profession. As advertisers pour crores of rupees every year into celebrity advertising, the question arises is it worth all the money and the headaches of coordinating stars and managing their tantrums. Think of Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ]. He means Pepsi in soft drinks, Boost in malted beverages, MRF in tyres, Fiat Palio in cars, TVS [ Get Quote ] Victor in two-wheelers, Colgate Total in toothpastes, Britannia [ Get Quote ] in biscuits, Visa in credit cards, Airtel in mobile services and Band-aid. Clearly, an overload of brands and categories associated with one star. Does it actually help each of the brands? Does the consumer think in categories and slot brands accordingly or is it one big maze of brands and saliency is dependent on 'recency.' Interestingly, while celebrity advertising is big, few agencies actually present celebrity advertising as a solution to client problems. In the advertising world, celebrity advertising is seen as a substitute for 'absence of ideas' -- and actually frowned upon. Yet it appears again and again. The reasons are quite insightful. A client hits upon celebrity as a solution when his agency is unable to present to him a viable, exciting solution for his communication/marketing problem. He then feels that the presence of a well-known face is an easy way out.

A client looks at a celebrity solution, sometimes, to follow competition. When attacked with a celebrity, a quick response is to get another one to combat. The result is often, at best, achieving parity. A third, and often unfortunate, reason for celebrities is a client's desire to rub shoulders with the glitterati. And signing a celebrity is a passport to that. Most frequently, celebrities are given as 'fate accompli' to the agency. And scripts are written around them. It is rare that there is an idea on the table and client and agency mutually agree that the presence of a celebrity will actually lift the script. This is very similar to Bollywood blockbuster films where the cast is decided upon and the script either written accordingly or re-engineered around the cast! There is no doubt that celebrity advertising has its benefits -- the four Qs: Quick saliency: It gets cut through because of the star and his attention getting value. Goodlass Nerolac has ensured high saliency for its brand with the inclusion of Amitabh Bachchan [ Images ] in its advertising. Quick connect: There needs to be no insight but the communication connects because the star connects. Sachin, Shah Rukh and their ilk's ensure an easy connect for Pepsi with the youth. Quick shorthand for brand values: The right star can actually telegraph a brand message fast without elaborate story telling. Kapil Dev [ Images ] and Sachin Tendulkar seem to have done that successfully for Boost in the early '90s. And helped to differentiate it in the malted beverages market. Quick means of brand differentiation: In a category where no brand is using a celebrity, the first that picks one up could use it to differentiate itself in the market. Boost did it in the malted beverage category. And Preity Zinta [ Images ] does all the above four for Perk -- connecting with the youth and reinforcing the brand's youthful, spontaneous, energetic values. There are however the classic fears of celebrity usage. The celebrity vampires the product: Unless the celebrity's values, the category benefit and the brand values are closely linked, there are chances that the celebrity is remembered more than the brand he is advertising for. And in a celebrity clutter, the chances that the brand and category can be remembered become even more difficult for the average consumer. Pepsi and Lux tend to use multiple celebrities in an attempt to overcome this. The celebrity trap: Once into a celebrity, it is hard to get out of it. If the brand has done even moderately well after the break of a celebrity campaign, it becomes difficult to separate the role of message and the role of the celebrity in selling the brand.

And hence, the celebrity becomes an addiction for the marketing team. And the task to find substitutes becomes more and more difficult. Interestingly, celebrity is a disease that is seen to spread across a marketing department. Once one brand manager gets into it, others tend to follow, not wanting to be left behind! With the surfeit of celebrities on screen and in the newspapers, there are two new drawbacks emerging for celebrity usage. Celebrity credibility is coming under question. Consumers are getting more and more advertising savvy and are beginning to voice opinions, even in small towns, like "He has been paid to sell the product." Clearly celebrity endorsement is no longer as credible as it was a few decades ago. Unless category and celebrity are closely linked (like Nike and sports stars), the power of a celebrity's word is questionable. The trustworthiness of public figures, which celebrities tended to bring in the past, is bound to disappear if a celebrity begins to appear and endorse a brand in every conceivable category! Celebrity clutter. With each celebrity endorsing multiple products and multi brands in a category, resorting to different celebrities, the consumer is left confused. And reluctant to get into 'this celebrity is bigger than that comparison' to make brand choices. Santro [ Images ] is endorsed by Shah Rukh Khan [ Images ] and Palio by Sachin Tendulkar does the consumer buy the brands because of the star pull? a question worth pondering about. It ends up making brand parity rather than giving brand differentiation, often one of the key aims of using a celebrity. When Palmolive used Kapil Dev in the '80s, his line 'Palmolive da jawaab nahin' became famous -it is remembered even today. Pataudi gave Gwalior suitings a strong competitive edge and pushed it to Number 2 in perceptions in the suitings market. Even Sridevi [ Images ] made Cema bulbs and tubes memorable by dancing in a bulb! The advertisements by themselves were fairly non-descript; the celebrities gave the brand the differentiation. Celebrity advertising were few and far in between in those days. The days of 'pure' celebrity working for the brand seem to be over. Today, it is back to the power of an idea and an insight. No simple solutions exist any longer. Unless there is something powerful in the idea, the celebrity is just another cost.

Aamir Khan [ Images ] and Coke is the ultimate example of the same. As long as the brand depended on his star value and wove interesting stories around him, it just didn't cut ice with the consumer -- until 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola' happened. Could it have worked as well without a celebrity? One will never know as the brand has entered the celebrity trap.