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Thursday, August 10, 2006

Advertising Directories....


“Statistics conceals more than it reveals!”

Can we replace ‘Statistics’ with ‘Secondary Sources of data’? I think we can.

As a part of our analysis of directories and surveys in India, we would like to discuss two sources of data and analysis, which are widely used and highly depended upon by the corporate world. The first one is an integral part of ‘Advertisement Spending’ by any corporate and the second deals with the management and publication of reliable database about the industry, from reliable sources.

Advertising Evaluation

When was the last time you picked up latest issue of ‘India Today’ to answer a ‘Poll Survey’ on ‘Have you seen the ‘Sar utha ke jiyo’ ad & has it impacted your choosing your cold drink?’

If you have not, probably you have missed the survey that Coca Cola conducted to know the effect of its new advertisement on the public?

Advertisement Expenses are a major source of concern for any organization today. It directly evaluates the performance of a particular advertisement launched by the company in the specific time period, its impact on the sales of the product and the bottom line of the company. Like many industrially advanced nations in the world, India is also aware of this phenomenon of Advertising Expenses and has research agencies which evaluate such expense. Advertising Evaluation sets in to help companies gauge their efforts and look further to bridge the gap between ‘understanding’ the market and actually ‘selling’ the product! Research methods like Advertisement Tracking, Brand Equity, Demand Forecasting, Market Segmentation and Retail Tracking, are used to analyze reach of a particular advertisement in the market.

ACNeilson stands out as one of the premier Marketing Research institutes in the world. In India, it conducts both Online and Offline market research, which focuses on understanding what users want from the Internet and from the Market. ACNielsen's leadership in On-line research lies in its ability to offer insight into consumer behaviour and attitudes, ensuring client development and maintenance of competitive strength through their websites and e-services.

Another important Advertisement Research agency in the country is IMRB (Indian Marketing Research Bureau). A research wing of J Walter Thompson, IMRB specializes in Predictive Modeling, Media Measurement, Data Capture and Consumer Handling. It is also associated with National Readership Survey since 1978, Television Rating Points (TRP) System for Continuous Television Audience Measurement System since 1986 and a joint venture project with ACNeilson on ‘National PeopleMeter’. With such stalwarts in Advertisement Research in India, it leaves no room for companies to let Sales and Marketing depend on luck!

But let’s look at relation between Sales Figures on Demand Forecasting! A pre-test of consumer’s response to ‘cologne based soap’ versus ‘lime based soap’ was carried out in the month of December. The sample was taken from various supermarkets across a particular city in India & this data was provided to the FMCG Company, to analyze which of the two fragrances would be more successful in the market – after the recent advertising campaign. The survey showed that people preferred ‘cologne based soap’ in the winter months in India and ‘lime based soap’ in the summers. Since this survey was carried out in December, this seemed to be a pre-conditioned data. Also, since the sample was taken only from Supermarkets, it did not take into account the innumerable people, who buy soaps from ‘kirana shops’ and other places. The product might be a success amongst certain set of people in that city but not otherwise.

Thus, a focused and un-biased Advertisement Evaluation is necessary by any organization today to understand the needs of the consumer. This besides, increasing the sales of their product would also promote the positive brand image of the product!

Directory Databases

It is practically impossible to enter a Railway Station or a Tourist Spot today without coming upon the ‘Road Map’ and ‘Places of Importance & Interest’ directory somewhere! In fact, one has become more proactive now and has started finding these details, even before he has reached the ‘place of interest’. One of the easiest ways to access any information about any other part of the world is through the Internet.

Computerized Databases have replaced a lot of printed database that exists. If that sounds like an exaggeration, it would be worthy to note that every printed form of database today finds an electronic medium of storage. Most of them are either accessible to the public or to members of these sources.

There is no one today who would have not heard the name of ‘Tata Yellow Pages’. It is undoubtedly, the most trusted source of information regarding anything and everything in India. From industries to its components, hospitals and doctors, wholesalers and retailers, agents and prospective sellers – everyone finds a mention in the ‘TYP’. A lot of other databases have come up in the recent past, e.g. Just Dial Services in Metros, which attempts to integrate the Telephonic Database & Online Database in this regard, but in vain!

TYP is complied every year in the months of March and April with proper Advertisements inviting information to be published in the Yellow Pages. This happens both on local, regional and national level. The best part about TYP is that it integrates the data from every nook and corner of the country and gives the reference of the same in every edition of its publication. Once all the advertisements are compiled, they are sorted out, proof read and then finally printed in index form.

‘Sales’ finds a big help in entering different market pockets by the use of the TYP and its related issues. From information about the cloth merchants and their association in Chandni Chowk, Delhi to the Shop description of Fashion Street, Mumbai; TYP successfully manages to compile data about everyone who is ‘in the business of doing business’. A local approach followed by a national integration approach increases the viability of the database by leaps and bounds.

TYP finds a mention in this article on Computerized Database as it has made successful attempts to put all this information online. This data is now accessible to everyone and anyone and gives one the scope of knowing details like Contact Address, Inception Data and Work Profile of the Company.

The TYP database, although informative, cannot be considered to be an effective medium for endorsements. Directory databases essentially enable the customer to get to the product and not the other way round. To an onlooker, it projects all that information which is projected to him and not the actual.
Another point that goes against these databases is that it only has those companies, which have them listed with the database. The ones, which do not have the money to advertise themselves in the TYP, do not find a mention in the database. This way, a customer may not get the most accurate information.

If one takes the example of ‘Mohan Industrial Area’ in Faridabad, it consists of all those factories which were relocated out of New Delhi, during the ‘Clean Delhi’ drive, at the end of the last century. Somehow, the local Directories of Faridabad fail to mention the details of these 100-110 factories located in its outskirts and simultaneously, no Directory in Delhi mentions the same as they are not a part of Delhi anymore. This might be a case in isolation, but informs one of the anomalies which might set in Directories on a regional level, due to politics & misrepresentation of information.

Parallel computerized directories have emerged in the past to capture data at every level in the market. CD-ROMs, with collective data on doctors, medical practioners, architects, consulting engineers, are circulated in closed professional communities, which help a devoted section of society, to keep all the information at hand. This is actually a very good method to provide information about the market to everyone who is concerned about it. We believe that every database should provide online directories to local people (in addition to online cataloging and storage) in order to help in the usage of the same.

One year might be too long a time to revise a Directory. Since the system is computerized, a level of dynamism, in the matter of updation of irrelevant and old data, can also bring about the presence of ‘clean data’. This supported with proper representation of those entities which find it difficult to get publicity, can increase the reach of the Directories, manifolds.

Tata Yellow Pages, along with Just Dial, Infomedia Yellow Pages, are yet to prove their parlance in the modern database management context. Yellow Pages Association is working in tandem with them and we hope to see a ‘smarter’ Telephone Directory, on the next Phone Booth that we visit, the next time we get lost, round the corner!

References:
1. www.acnielson.com/in
2. www.imrb.co.in
3. www.yellowpages.com
4. www.getit.co.in

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