My Big Interview With a very Big Ad Agency

Marketing as a field has diversified so much over the time still there are people, all the understand from marketing is Advertising and Selling through advertising(the pull factor), I am one of them.
Right since I was able to differentiate a' commercial from sit com' and 'ad from editorial', I loved the former. When I was in boarding school our only contact with civilization was Sunday outings and I always used to rush for the theater well before time so that i can't miss the Nirma washing powder and Vicco Turmeric ads which used to come before movie.

Name of Agency can't be revealed for obvious reasons.

The Prequel: Call from Agencies Gurgoan Office

DATE: 18th of February TIME: About 5:00 PM

Agency: Would you like to work for an Advertising Agency.

Me: I Will Love to.

Agency: I haven't gone through your resume somebody forwarded it to me. Tell me something about your background.

Me: Sir Academic or Family background.

Agency: Both.

Me: I am a native of Bihar and both my parents are working. My Father is employed with SBI and mother works as a Teacher in Govt. High School. I have a younger sister, she is doing her BBA from Modi collage which is near Jaipur (and then I disgorged my resume).

Agency: Come down to our office at 5:45 tomorrow.

The Interview

DATE: 19th of February TIME: About 5:45 PM

Agency: Have you brought your resume.

ME: Yes Sir. Here.

Agency: Tell me something about your background.

Me:

Agency: Tell me something about your Summer Project.

Me: I did it in a small manufacturing unit also engaged in export of Home textile and Ready made Garments. My most valuable contribution which satisfied me was writing companies profile for overseas buyers and designing logo and the catch phrase-'Innovation Through Ideas'.

Agency: Tell me about your Project in Consumer Behaviors.

Me: Sir it was a group project where in we visited shopping malls in different localities of Delhi. We tried to measure people perception in terms of id, ego and superego. We found that most people fall in ego phase and are impulsive buyers.

Agency: OK. What do you think is the purpose of advertising?

Me: Depends on the objective of the sponsor, could be awareness, word of mouth, moving product, image building…

Agency:

Me: Sir would you like to know something about the thesis I am doing.

Agency: No first tell me about this Zipouch

Me: Oh I have recently analyzed the market communication of Zipouch (www.zipouch.com) and I can bet the kind of communication they have they will never succeed.

Agency: Why?

Me: They are trying to position Zipouch as an all purpose pouch.

Agency: What did you said?

Me: They are positioning Zipouch as a pouch which can be used for to store anything from food to pencil to needle to jewelry.

Agency: And what do you think?

Me: I think they are confusing customer by over positioning. They should sell a healthy way to store food and not sale a sack.

Agency: Over Positioning! What is that?

Me: Sir its promising just too much of product benefit which confuses customer. Like in case of Zipouch it should only be positioned as a better alternative for hygienic food storage and if there as other benefits too it should be left for the users to discover it themselves.

Agency: And tell me something about your thesis-Why Ads Fail?

Me: Sir I am trying to analyze the reasons which are common in most of the failed ads.

Agency: And what are they?

Me: There are things like Switch Effect and Negative recall

Agency: What is Switch Effect!

Me: If after watching an advertisement of TAG Heuer I am don't fell like buying TAG Heuer over my current watch there is no switch effect in that advertisement.

Agency: And Negative Recall?

Me: It happens in some ads for example an irritating ad has very high recall but is seldom able to move the product.

Agency: What is promotion?

Me: If we talk about Sales Promotion, there are things like discount coupons, off Seasons, etc and if we talk of Below the line promotion , there are things like Road Shows, kiosks etc.

Agency: They are short term measures or long term

Me: Short Term.

Agency: Have you applied anywhere else.

Me: Actually our campus placements are going on but they are mostly for sales profile

Agency: Do you think you can do branding sitting in air conditioned offices without doing sales how would you know what a customer exactly wants.

(OH! Come on I am 24 and all my life I have been a customer. Who better knows?)

Me: Sir I think they are two alternative medium. I am more compelled to show customer a way to reach Product than finding a way to reach customer. But I am not apprehensive to sales it is just that its not compelling enough.

Agency: yaar theory se nahi hota hai.

(I told them I am a fresher)

Agency: Which is your favorite campaign?

Me: I am sorry I am not able to recollect any recent campaign because of excitement as well as tension but Pepsi's Oye bubble, Fevicol and Hutch are my favorite. Sir if you will look at fevicol ad no where they show the product. They show a beautiful blend of emotional and functional benefits.

Agency: Yaar aise branding nahi hoti. Fevicol 20 saal se market me hai.

Agency: Reading is your hobby. What do you read?

Me: The last book I read was 'Clients for life' by Prof. Jagdesh Seth and I am currently reading Ogilvy on Advertising and the book I refer most is Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler.

Agency: And what do you write?

Me: About Management and Poetry.

Agency: Tell me what is Brand?

Me: Sir brand is a promise..(CUT SHORT BY JWT)

Agency: Kotlar rat kar aiye ho yaar.

Me: But I agree with Kotlar.

Agency: Even I agree with Kotlar. We do not have an option.

Me: Ok Sir I got your point. I will give you my perception and understanding of brand.

Agency: Yes.

Me: Sir according to me you cannot see a brand.

Agency: Kya baat karto ho. Is it not a brand (showing his Nokia Phone)

Me: Sir let me explain we cannot see culture

Agency: (Expression of disbelief)

Me: We can only see the manifestation of culture in the food we eat, the movie we see, the way we talk and the type of clothes we wear likewise we can only see the manifestation of brand in the product, logo, colour, services etc.

Agency: Theory se nahi hota . Accha tell me why after such a good campaign still Hutch is not a market leader.

Agency: You use the word Positioning Quite often. What is positioning?

Me: Positioning as it is said is done in the mind of consumer. It builds the perception of brand in the mind of people as good or bad.

Agency: Come on Positioning is never done as good or bad.

Agency: What shop did you used to bathe today?

Me: Liril.

Agency: What does it mean to you? How is it positioned in your mind?

Me: It doesn't mean anything to me except for a bathing solution to keep my body clean. But it is positioned as a soap which provides freedom to women.

Agency: Jharna aur ladki but Freedom! I don't think so.

Me: Sir let me explain women are seldom been shown as Individual in Indian Advertising.

Agency: Ek dum Kiya gaya hai.

Me: Aap Ads dekh ligeya sir Maggi me who mummy hai, Tiger balm mein bahu, Whirlpool- Mummy ka magic chlega kya. Except for few ads like Pep;Why should boys have all the fun and liril girl she has always been shown in relation to someone.

Agency: Suppose you are targeting SEC A to..(CUT SHORT BY ME)

Me: to SEC R

Agency: 'R'- I thought it was only upto SEC E.

Me: Yes sir but yesterdays Economic Times there was an article which says the division is from SEC A to SEC R covering urban and rural India. They also claimed that this classification no more works and gave a different classification used by Future group.

Agency: Yaar they are just different ways of holding the ear.

Agency: See Rituraj I will be frank with you I need to interview few more people .I will let you know.

Me: (Expression of disbelief).