The Advertiser’s India: One country or many? Shiv Moulee

Millward Brown Asia

May 2011  

 

The Advertiser's India: One country or many?

Shiv Moulee

Millward Brown India

The BRIC countries are such complex and colourful amalgams of languages, cultures and ethnicities that they present

challenges in creating advertising that travels within their borders. And nowhere is this truer than in India.

India, with its sure and steady growth and its alluring size (in terms of purchasing power, it's the fourth-largest economy in the

world), has created a buzz within corporate circles. But those who want to understand what makes this large and diverse

country tick may find themselves both fascinated and frustrated.

For advertising, there is no one India

Table 1, which compares India to Europe, clearly highlights the linguistic and cultural differences that exist within India.

But do these differences affect the way consumers perceive and respond to advertising? Our data suggests that the answer is

yes, they do. We have tested close to a thousand ads in multiple markets across India. Only one ad out of seven is a strong

performer across markets. Among ads that do exceptionally well in one market, more than a third perform very poorly in others.

Thus there is truly no one India when it comes to advertising.

   Title: The Advertiser’s India: One country or many?

   Author(s): Shiv Moulee

   Source: Millward Brown Asia

   Issue: May 2011

 

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What makes ads travel well or poorly?

Numerous factors play roles in determining whether ads travel well or poorly. The relevance of the brand promise and the

marketing task in each geography (defined in part by brand status and category maturity) often limit the portability of an ad.

However, these are usually "known" variables. A more uncertain variable has to do with cultural nuance.

To understand how the cultural context of a piece of creative may impact its ability to travel, we reexamined our database.

Looking specifically at enjoyment (a good measure of the power of the creative idea), the numbers improve but still point to

significant differences - only one in four enjoyable ads is seen as enjoyable in the other markets in which it was tested.

For marketers, the obvious implication is that they need to test in multiple markets to get a full understanding of an ad's likely

effectiveness. But it becomes equally imperative to understand what it takes to beat the odds and create truly pan-Indian

advertising. Do celebrities work well across markets? Does humour become a barrier? To understand the answers to these

and other questions, we compared the characteristics of ads that traveled well with those of ads that traveled poorly, and have

supplied some indexed results in Table 2.

 

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Our observations are as follows:

Celebrities can be the glue that binds markets

Celebrities can work across markets, but that doesn't mean you should simply pay big bucks to get Shahrukh Khan in your ad.

Rather than being a guarantor of success, using a celebrity simply reduces the risk of failure across markets. A popular

celebrity can contribute to an ad travelling well, but ultimately success comes down to the power of a good script.

A phenomenon peculiar to India is the presence of regional celebrities, particularly in the South. To leverage celebrities

effectively, brands at times use a common advertising proposition but different celebrities in different regions. For instance, for

its tariff ads, Vodafone uses Prakash Raj in the South and Irrfan Khan in other regions.

Children can certainly help

Children can help ads travel, but the mere presence of a child or two in the ad isn't sufficient; in fact, one-third of ads that

travel poorly have children in them. It is not simply the 'cuteness quotient' that adds to creative portability, but rather a child's

unique perspective or reaction to an event. Similarly, it's about an endearing situation coming together with the brand offer in a

meaningful manner. An excellent example is the memorable 'Dirt Is Good' ad for Surf Excel, in which a brother 'fights' the

puddle his little sister fell into.

The effect of humour is quite variable

Humour can work, but its effect is variable because it relies on the 'I get it' factor. Humour in India works particularly well when

it is derived from visuals and music. Exaggeration and 'filmy' spoofs work well, as do light-hearted, cheeky ads. Humour can

fail if the references are potentially embarrassing or taboo. An ad with humour that is overly reliant on verbal wit or region-

specific situations is also less likely to travel well. For example, a toilet soap brand used the idiom 'as soft as a jasmine flower'

as a light-hearted analogy. While it worked in one region, it ran into trouble in the other.

Brand cues link ads across markets

Brand cues such as slogans, jingles and music help to signpost ads for viewers and provide commonality across markets. In

fact, an established brand cue is the feature most likely to show up in ads that travel well (see Table 2). However, it takes

time, sometimes many years, for such associations to be established, so a well-known cue is in part a byproduct of brand

 

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success, rather than solely an ingredient. It may also be that well-established and successful brands invest more time and

effort to ensure that their ads are likely to travel.

Product demonstrations are less likely to travel well

Advertisements that focus on product demonstrations are less likely than other types of ads to travel well.

Differing expectations from advertising are at the root of this difficulty. There are clear differences across regions and town tiers

in this regard. South India tends to be driven more by the need for information, as does small-town India.

A look at regions and towns

While we have seen some common themes that help an ad travel, more often than not ads don't perform consistently across

markets. But to make this observation meaningful to marketers, we need to dig deeper. For example, are there specific regions

that respond to advertising in a unique way? Is advertising created for major cities doomed to fail in smaller towns?

We see four broad but clear themes when we analyze the performance of ads across regions.

First, something that all of us (in India) suspected: North is North and South is South, and never the twain shall meet. These

two regions show the poorest creative transfer; an ad that does well in the South is unlikely to do well in the North, and vice-

versa.

Second, the West is a poor receiver of ads from the North. Looking at ads tested in those two regions, only 34 percent of ads

that were highly enjoyable in the North did well in the West, while close to half the ads that did well in the West also performed

well in the North. Therefore, if we need to prioritize between the two regions, the West provides a better litmus test of likely

performance.

Third, the South is neither a borrower nor a lender. Ads that do well in the South transfer poorly to the North, moderately well

to the West, and well to the East. Therefore, if the South is relevant for a brand, it must automatically be selected as a test

centre.

Fourth, successful ads in the East transfer well to other regions, though within a specific and limited context. To clarify, the

East is an important market for relatively few brands and categories, so any principle of travel would apply to this rather

specific set of brands. The East also tends to be more critical of advertising compared to other regions. Hence, purely from the

perspective of creative transference, strong performance in the East is an indication of good performance in other zones.

Why does each region behave so differently?

We analysed the content of top-performing ads in each region to understand what the different audiences relate to, and we

arrived at some broad conclusions. For example, the Southerner is a sceptic who seeks strong messaging cues from

advertising. Tell them what (benefit) and why (ingredients, manufacturer endorsement), all in a story they can relate to.

On the other hand, the Northerner focuses less on the product story and more on narrative elements, such as the use of

celebrities, music, humour, etc. Tell them how they can benefit from the brand, but first and foremost, entertain them! The

Westerner is pragmatic and practical; they want information about brands as well as situations that they can relate to.

 

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What about town classes?

India has over 300 towns with populations over 100,000. We have defined three town groupings: metros, large towns and

small towns. A metro has a population exceeding four million; a large town, between one and four million residents; and a small

town, less than one million. (Note: other distinctions exist among 'small towns', but for the purposes of evaluating advertising

we have collapsed them all together.)

Ads that test well in metros are less likely to do well in other town classes, though small towns are more accepting of these ads

than are large towns. An analysis of top-performing ads compared to poor ads reveals just why there is such a gap between

metros and other towns. While the smaller towns still see advertising as a vehicle for product information, consumers in large

towns are more aspirational. Celebrities are their role models; daily scenes and testimonials are not what they wish to see

when it comes to advertising.

 

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Conclusion

The challenges associated with advertising crossing national boundaries can also come into play within borders. These

effects can be extreme in a large and diverse country such as India, and marketers should keep these lessons in mind. While

in smaller, more homogeneous countries, differences in brand status and category development may not be apparent by

region, they may exist across specific demographic groups and subcultures. Consumers' responses to advertising may vary

according to age, life stage, or level of education. Residents of small country towns will have different needs and attitudes than

those in large cities.

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