Introduction into Advertising by Shruthi Jain on 13.08.2013

Before we even begin, let us lay down the ground rules.

• No Phones.  "We all grew up without phones and we did fine, it was a much simpler life too"  

• Silence (in class when not adding value to a discussion in class) is expected from you. Period. "The more control you've over your tongue and minds, better it is"  

• No Outsourcing of Work

• Be Punctual "or you'll find yourself entertaining the class, which in due time your batch-mates will begin to hate"       

• Leave your Ego's outside of class.. "not your brains"

• The Buck Stops with You. Period.

• No Pedagogy "of any sorts, this is a professional course, behave like one"

We start with a few assumptions:

1.  All (76) of you will start the class with a bucketful of respect, now it entirely depends on you if you end your term with 2 bucketsful of it or with not much in it, leakages will have to be pegged at the earliest.  
2. All of you have had a certain vision no matter how small, to be in the field of Advertising and PR  

The differences between a professional and non professional course will be a cue as to how you're expected to be in class and what yo expect from this course, at IIMC. IIMC is like the Ganges, she flows regardless and it is up to you to decide as to what to do with it, do you think about how dirty she has become, do you ensure that you add to the filth or do you take a dip, I assure you none of these will matter to Ganga but to you, it will.

• It is all about 'you', no one here will prod or force you to do anything, including studying. "Pado tho aapko nahin maiko ya baapko" (I hope to have got the saying right, if not, leave a comment rectifying the same)

• You're expected to pick or select an area of interest wherein you'd like to 'specialise' in the said area of interest or at least try to do so. 

• It is a two way street, you'll be treated as you treat the curriculum and faculty, learn to respect them and you'll be respected in return. Learning will happen only when you push yourselves and thus pushing the said faculty. You can be assured of this. 

• There are and will be no textbooks. You cannot expect your 'recommended bibliography' to ensure your marks at the end of your semester. You'll be duly move from reading finite number of books to knowing there are infinite books/sources for your requirement. Good. Luck. 

• You'll learn to work, trust and learn from your batch mates. It is of utmost importance that you know and learn the importance of a teamwork now or you'll learn it eventually but the hard way. You're group and batchmates will teach you more things than you can do so on your own and it is absolutely crucial that you understand the importance of teamwork, especially come presentation time. 

Mass Communication is a piece of communication that will invariably connect with the masses. Marketing is a subset of communication. Marketing will need advertising to sell the product and advertising can again be split into two forms: 

• Social Advertising which is altruistic in nature and wherein you usually sell a 'concept' 

• Commercial Advertising is all about selling products. 

The one common factor with both these forms of advertising that we must do well to remember is that the consumers will only think about themselves. Since our desires have expanded so did our complexities. In fact we could list out all the services that we've used so far and make a list derived from the first list of the services that were absolutely necessary we would well come to a conclusion that we indeed have too much of everything and we can do without most if not all. 

Challenge now lies in using the forces of the market in doing good for the society. It presents a bigger challenge of reaching an audience now than 2 decades go when it was simpler to reach an audience, because there weren't too many choices. Almost everyone watched Ramayan at 10 AM, everyone watched the feature movie with their entire family. No wonder some ads have a better (brand) re-call  than those that came after the later part of 1995 or even the early 2000. 

Internet and the digital revolution all happened because of human desires.  Consumer insight is one aspect that sometimes overrides all other rules of marketing. Ceasefire which had all the 4 P's (Price, Product, Place, Promotion) pretty much right but it still lead to a failure because they didn't have the right insight. In India you never talked about death. It was unceremonious to do so, it was something that was better left unspoken about and here one company went hammer and tongs about it. They literally played with fire and were burnt too.

Design, Research and Marketing are the principles of Advertising.

Book Recommendations : What Got You Here Won't Get You There 

P.S. I might've missed a point or two owing to 'stream of consciousness' please to excuse)