Is Call-to-Action Required?

Call-to-Action phrases like call today, visit us for discounts, or click to learn more are commonly used in advertising to encourage audience to act and buy products or services. How effective are these catchphrases? I haven’t seen a research that supports or discounts call to action verbs but I believe it has been overplayed.

Why would you tell customers to call, visit, click or do this or that? Nobody wants to be taught or spoken at. We live in knowledge economy. People realize their needs and wants and can look for it (thin market concept). Providing information through gentle and frequent reminders about benefits of your offer is more effective than hard sell. I think subtle messages that connect emotionally with the target market do a better job in increasing brand awareness and sales.

Do you think that Call-to-action has diminishing utility in knowledge economy? Please comment and let me know.

Creative Ad-VII

Another good  ad with all visual, color and minimal copy. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

It’s a simple creative with a touch of humor. The visual aptly conveys the message that you get immediate relief from pain with Bengay, like having a new leg! The tagline should have been bigger to be legible in smaller versions / reprinting of this ad.

Overall, kudos to Bengay and their ad agency, JWT, Shanghai.

Yes, you can

Today a client graciously asked me if he could reprint and use one of my recent posts. I told him to use any of my posts, if he could mention the source.  

I would also like to advise you to feel free to reprint or use any of my posts and articles, as long as you include a credit line.

Thank you,

Creative Advertising II

Above is a creative point-of-sale ad and a possible impulse buying reminder. Life-size stickers of people were pasted on automatic sliding doors at a mall in Mumbai, India. When someone approaches the doors at the entrance, the doors move apart and it feels like the people on the door are moving away. The person enters to find the message ‘People Move Away When You Have Body Odour’.
 

Please rate the above ad on a scale of 1 – 10? Are there any constriants to this type of advertising?

What Every Good Marketer Knows About South Asian–Canadians

Inspired by Seth Godin’s “What Every Good Marketer Knows” I have come up with my list of What Every Good Marketer Knows about South Asian-Canadians:  

• South Asian-Canadians are the biggest visible minority in Canada at 1.26 million
• Ontario has the largest South Asians-Canadians population – 794,170 people
•  British Columbia has second largest South Asians population – 262,290 people
•  More than 80% of South Asian-Canadians live in the provinces of Ontario & British Columbia making it an easily accessible market segment
• South Asians population constitutes 25% of the visible minority group 
•  By  2017, the South Asians population will increase by 50% to 1.8 million 
• South Asians Canadians families spend 23% more on groceries than other households in Canada 
• South Asian population is younger than overall Canadians. On average, 73% are between the ages 25 – 49 years versus 46% of overall population 
• South Asian-Canadians have an estimated spending power of $12 billion and 80% of this could be targeted by focusing on Toronto and Vancouver markets

Family is most important for South Asians

Earlier this month I asked South Asians what they like. I used e-mails & social media (Facebook, Linkedin and Blog) to pose this questions. Mostly Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis living in Canada, the USA, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the UAE and Saudi Arabia responded. Many non-Asians also commented. Altogether, I received about 100 comments. Two interesting and distinct findings of the survey are; (i) the family came out as the major consideration by majority of the respondents of South Asian origin, (ii) comments from non-Asian respondents were very different from the preferences shown by the South Asian respondents highlighting a lack of understanding of South Asian culture by the non-Asian respondents.

Further detail and analysis of the outcome of the survey are as follows: 

(i) Majority of the respondents mentioned that family is most important to them followed by relations (relatives or relationships). It shows that marketing communication leveraging family, family values and relationship themes would have an “emotional connect” with South Asians with a greater possibility of striking a chord with them. Based on this survey, as South Asians are family oriented, they would mostly move together and could be reached at family events and melas in large numbers. Furthermore, it could be safely deducted that word-of mouth publicity will be effective in South Asian market segment.

Why this Blog?

Several times I have been asked the reason for starting this blog. Though I had alluded to it in the About page of this blog, I think it will be useful to provide additional perspective here.

When I started marketing integrated media (print, direct & online) for South Asian market segment, I observed that many corporate clients were deliberating on the What, Why, Where, How and When of the emerging market segment. I thought the best way to facilitate clients and add value to their marketing efforts is to share with them the information, research and analysis on the multicultural markets, advertising and other relevant topics. Hence this blog was initiated with the objective of adding value to clients by keeping them informed about latest marketing information, trends, developments and ideas.

South Asian & Chinese Canadians – A Market To Grow With

Statistics Canada recently published the findings of the 2006 Census. It showed that visible minority population surpasses the 5 million mark in 2006 with an estimated 5,068,100 people, representing 16% of the total population of the country. In 2001 census, the visible minority population was estimated at 3.98 million or 13.4% of the total population. Thus between 2001 and 2006, the visible minority population increased by 27.24%; five times faster than the growth in total population, which grew by 5.4% during the same period. Moreover, according to Statistics Canada projections, visible minority could account for 20% of the total population in next ten years, that is, by 2017.

South Asian and Chinese-Canadians (termed SACHIN for convenience) comprise of about 50% of the total visible minority population. First time in 2006, the South Asian Canadians population estimated at 1,262,865 exceeded the Chinese-Canadian population estimated at 1,216,570. Ontario has the highest number of South Asian and Chinese-Canadians, 794,170 and 576,980 respectively. British Columbia has second highest numbers, 262,290 South Asians and 407,225 Chinese.

The New Canadian Experience

The Royal Bank published a research report on aspiration and experiences of new Canadians. This research was conducted by Ipsos Reid in 2007. A representative randomly selected sample of 1,000 new Canadians was interviewed on the telephone. New immigrants who landed in Canada after the age of 18 years and have been in Canada for less than 10 years were classified as new Canadians for this survey. The partial findings of the research, as published by the RBC, provide good insights for organizations and marketers interested in the new Canadians market segment. I have highlighted and interpreted significant findings of the survey from a marketing perspective, primarily focusing on new Canadians from South Asian countries.

The study revealed that the majority of new Canadians of South Asian origin are young and well educated. 73% new Canadians were between 25 and 49 years of age compared to 46% Canadians overall. Based on estimated 265,000 new immigrants in 2007, about 70,000 new Canadians emigrating from South Asians countries were between 25 and 49 years. Moreover, 62% new Canadians have some university education and 51% came to Canada in “skilled workers” classification. Being young, educated and skilled, the new Canadians could be early adopters for many Canadian brands new to them. This presents highly promising profile for businesses and particularly for the marketing world. If the marketers can understand and cater for the needs of new Canadians and win their hearts and minds, they can acquire loyal customers and retain them for long. These potential customers come with adequate funds (estimated to be more than $20,000 per family of four, as mandated by the immigration policy) and have various urgent economic needs. For example, buying house, cars, home electronics, education savings plans, long distance calls, opening bank accounts and last but not the least securing employment. New Canadians, being young with children, will possibly be interested in outdoor activities, sports and fun and could enhance the demand for products and services related to these activities.

Cookie-Cutter Advertising Does Not Cut it

If you are in a real estate market selling or looking for a residential property or have sold or bought one, you would have noticed it and will agree that all real estate print advertisements look the same. If you have not noticed the similarity yet, I am confident that after reading through this article, you would. Real estate print advertisements are of same size, mostly small, with similar layout, image on the right hand side of the ad, text on the left, small type font and lots of ads cluttered on a page. In multicultural (ethnic) newspapers as well, where generally properties are not listed, the ads layout resembles the mainstream newspapers. That is, the ads are small in size, mostly black & white, the image of the property, however, is replaced with a headshot of the sales representative. One difference in the real estate ads in multicultural newspapers and magazines is that these do have a caption or a heading. Though, the relevance and emotional connection of the heading with the target market is a moot point.

I call the above mentioned advertisements the cookie-cutter advertising, as if a baker has used his recipe and a mould to cut all real estate ads similar in size, look and feel. This symmetry could be a job par excellence in bakeries but I believe it does not provide a unique selling preposition (USP) or a competitive edge to real estate advertisers. To me, it is akin to driving through a street alongside townhouses built by one builder, Daniels, Mattamy Homes or Great Gulf Homes, looking similar in architecture and style. One has to slow down and make an effort to spot a particular townhouse. Similarly, a reader has to make an effort to discover the offer or simply, what’s in it for him!

Effective Advertising in the Changing World of Marketing

A friend who is the head of an advertising agency commented last week that one of his clients, a leading national Advertiser, considers that their branding gets distorted from advertising in newspapers. His remarks stuck to my mind and inspired me to mull over the effective advertising media in the changing world of marketing.  Though Internet is the fastest growing advertising medium and provides core benefits of cost-effectiveness and targeted advertising, the TV, radio and print media are still high impact advertising tools for effectively reaching target market for several products and services. For example, consumer packaged goods, personal care brands, grocery products, and over-the-counter drugs to name a few.