brand ambassador

The advertisement industry experienced drastic fall in revenues during the economic downturn last year. WPP, the world’s largest advertising company saw a fall in profits by 11% in 2009. Organizations in all major sectors in order to cut short their losses reduced the advertisement budgets handsomely. It is said that the health of the economy can be judged by the amount of advertisements. If its low then something is wrong and vice verse.
Interestingly, brand ambassadors form a very expensive, important and affective part of traditional advertisements. As an indication of good times for advertisement industries, Aamir Khan, a Bollywood star recently clinched an advertisement contract worth Rs. 35 crore which is more than double his next highest! It is not just him but other powerful and famous men have attracted similar growths in most of the developing industries. WPP in particular has grown this year because of its capability and resources to exploit the opportunities in developing nations like India, china and Brazil. The first two months of 2010 recorded business worth $2 billion which is 50% of the entire 2009 earnings. According to the PITCH-Madison Media Advertising Outlook 2010, after a tough 2009, the Indian advertising pie is expected to be worth about Rs 21,145 crore this year, a 13 per cent increase over the previous one. Happy times hmmm!
Hence, it is wise to infer that the advertisement industry is back on the growth track which would in turn fuel other industries.

Rogues

Let us conceptualize it:
1.      Make your product identifiable if you believe in your product
2.      Promote the identification mark to inform your customers
3.      Reap the benefits of increasing revenues!

The evolution of traditional branding:
Branding evolved steadily along with the evolution of industries. Tobacco manufacturers used different bags in 1800s with differentiable labels. This was because the flavor of tobacco varied significantly with the change of climate in which it is cultivated. To ensure that the customers got their favorite flavor, the companies branded the products based on the country produced in. Branding got a boost when countries initiated changes in trademark laws in favor of manufacturers. The modern branding started with the introduction of a star on candles produced by Procter & Gamble. Customers almost always asked for this star mark before buying candles. This forced the company to put this mark consistently on all their candles produced. Thus, a brand was born. Further, National biscuits, Heinz and Coca-Cola lead the branding game to astronomical levels. Today Coca-Cola’s brand value is more than $64 billion!

Which products can be branded?
The answer lies in the fact that any thing can be branded and is being branded and will be branded. Chinese silk, Indian Spices, German technology, Arabian horses and other regional products are associated with the country of origin. The bottled water industry is a classical example of branding. Bottles are branded based on the source of water like spring water, mountain water, glacier water, with each relating to different level of perceived purity of water. The air you breathe can also be differentiated like air of Beijing and air of Amazon. By the name people can evaluate the quality of air. Even the services provided by companies like Infosys, Taj Hotels and HSBC bank are used to distinguish certain products. Guess why do companies use brand ambassadors for branding?

Rogues