Tuesday, July 06, 2010

GOTTA ADAPT TO BE ADEPT

Kunal Lalani on why free-thinking, independent & flexible agencies are needed to quickly address the fast changing needs of brands today

Once upon a time there lived a king. He believed his kingdom was ‘his people’; who loved him, followed him, and were truly loyal to him. In fact, he knew that it was only because of his people and their faith in him that made him what he was. He had a highly learned team of people, who were supposed to know everything and who, with their worldly knowledge, were believed to speak only the gospel truth. They, as claimed, knew everything about people and how to keep them happy. And as long as the people were happy the king had his kingdom. The highly revered league was supposed to regularly update the king about his popularity and advise him on his future plans to maintain it. Everything was convenient and the advisory team with their old knowledge of the people behaviour continued to advise the king. All was well till the time that times changed. And with change came the crying need to find new and more lucrative territories to include in the kingdom (expand) and the need to fight other kings who were getting stronger (nimbler competition). The key need was to understand the change and act quickly.

The erudite advisors, although loyal and holding big resources in their hands, were neither fast nor flexible. They thought that the people in the new territories and the new world are still the same as the people in their old territory were. Alas! That was not true. The king finally understood the problem and hired a local man with the local knowledge of the people behaviour. The new man was quick to offer solutions. He was independent, fast, flexible, and knew how to adjust. He came with the power of knowing the finer nuances of the territory behaviour and helped the king win countless battles and expand his kingdom. The king was happy and decided to switch from the erstwhile big and slow advisors to the fast, efficient, highly flexible local man for his advisory role.

The King was called BRAND.

I think that every brand today is waking up to the new realities in this fast-changing world. Today’s competitive world asks for desperate measures. Local knowledge and quick responses are the need of the day. Gone are the days when one would apply the same formula of communication everywhere. People today differ by fraction and change by second. Aspirations change. Loyalties change. The need is to adapt quickly, talk to them in their own language but never waste a second. Because every moment you waste is going to cost. And the cost is your future.

Multinationals have one advantage. They are big. But that is their disadvantage too. They are too big to be flexible, and too big to understand the need for it. They come with a set format and style of working and with a lot of red tape (although many would debate it). They take time to react.

And that is where we are making a difference! The need is there for a free-thinking, independent and flexible communication services provider who understands and adapts quickly to the fast changing needs of the brand. It’s the age of information technology and several new mediums are in the offing. We have been offering new age solutions targeting the audience of today, in their language and at their speed. And if I may say so, quite successfully.

The change is there in the attitude and approach of the clients today. They have realized the importance of independent thinking. The dynamism, the chaos and the spark needed in this otherwise product parity market can only come from breaking away from the obvious. It has to come from someone who is ready to take a challenge; someone who is ready to take a chance. And companies like us are doing our best to provide that free-spirited fervor, adapting ourselves for the consumers, and hence clients, of today.

The fight with the multinationals is actually not there. Because brands – both big and small – today have understood the benefits of dynamic, independent, quick and flexible communication agencies, who are ready to change and who are ready to adapt. It’s quite natural that Darwin’s theory of adaptation would work everywhere. Right?

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM enters into media education
IIPM makes record 10,000 placements in five years
TSI exposes b school ranking scamsters Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Premchand Palety of C fore. - For Complete Sting Operation Video Click Here
Pioneer Exposes the fraud called Mahesh Sharma and Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Barbel Schwertfeger of mba-channel.com

IIPM: An intriguing story of growth and envy
Prof Arindam Chaudhuri of IIPM on MF HUSAIN‎
IIPM Related Links
Detail of all IIPM branches
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM, GURGAON

IIPM 3-year full-time Integrated (MBA BBA) Programme
IIPM 2-year full time Programme (leading to the award of the MBA degree from IMI)

Thursday, April 01, 2010

In sharp contrast to its diminutive promoter, Madison straddles India’s ad-world like a giant colossus.

But a the common refrain among envious peers was that despite its size, Madison was a one-man-show with Sam Balsara at its helm. Five years ago, his daughter Lara teamed up with him and now the duo have a new plan. By Aditi Prasad

It’s a fantastic tale, with all the ingredients for a provocative Bollywood pot-boiler. In the late 1980s, Sam Balsara quit Mudra because Mudra aspired to be the biggest and the best in the business. Sam believed that a good agency is one that is small with a few large clients, and so parted ways with Mudra to start his own agency, Madison, with just two clients – a status quo that he retained for the next five years because he feared that acquiring size would impede his service to existing clients. Many in the industry had then scoffed at his rationale. That was 22 years ago.

Today, at his unpretentious 5ft 3inches, 57 years old Sam is regarded among the tallest men in India’s star-studded media and advertising jamboree and his once ‘small’ media agency crossed annual billings totalling Rs.2,500 crore in 2009. Madison’s skeletal client list today boasts of the who’s who of premium multinat advertisers including P&G, Cadbury, Coca Cola and McDonald’s – an astonishing feat given that Madison is the proverbial David in the mêlée of global advertising Goliaths that crowd the Indian media business. Unlike other agencies, Sam has fought hard to preserve Madison’s ‘Indianness’ and has consistently fended off stake sales to global advertising sharks like Publicis and WPP. Instead, in a case of reverse osmosis, Sam went ahead and acquired 51% stake in MediaCom (a WPP group company) last year, in the process retaining the P&G account with Madison.

Ask Sam what happened to his small agency is better belief and he laughingly avers, “I’m allowed to change my mind. Consistency is the virtue of fools toy know...” (See page 76 for Sam’s most revealing interview yet). On a serious note, Sam says that he never did believe in growth for growth’s sake. In his initial years, he says, he stuck with a select client list primarily because he did not want to let down his existing clients. “Today, I view things differently because I am better resourced than I was in 1988,” he argues.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

The Sunday Indian :- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!
For Exclusive Footage by Sunday Indian Click Here

Outlook Magazine's B School Ranking Scam Exposed
Don't trust the Indian Media!
IIPM exposes Career 360 and Mahesh Peri scam
IIPM - We will change your outlook : Career 360 and Mahesh Peri scam is exposed

Prof Arindam Chaudhuri of IIPM on MF HUSAIN‎
IIPM Related Links
Follow Arindam Chaudhuri on Twitter
IIPM B School on Twitter

IIPM 3-year full-time Integrated (MBA BBA) Programme
IIPM 2-year full time Programme (leading to the award of the MBA degree from IMI)
B-schools expect higher rate of campus placements this year
Exclusive In chat with Society Magazine - Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri