Fords Advertising Strategy in India - Research Paper Example

? [Your Business Environment According to Uppal, R K, and Bishnupriya Mishra in their publication, India is considered to be one of the fastest growing economies of the world with n ever growing middle class. This growth is backed by enormous nationwide investment in education in the 1980s which has now begun to pay off in the form of a skilled workforce for the economy. Besides this, India is rightly considered to be the country with the second largest population in the world with the middle class measured to approximately 350 million households. The Indian economy is growing at a rate of 10% since the last 5 years (Uppal, et al, 2009). Apart from the growing middle class, India also features a strong upper class leading it to the fourth largest country with the highest number of billionaires. This makes India a lucrative market for high-end and premium brands as well. Besides being on the road of economic improvement, India also is a democratic state which encourages foreign direct investment. After a long isolation from international trade, India finally has opened its gates for foreign brands which leave a huge opportunity of the international giant corporations to capture their share of the market (Uppal, et al, 2009). As mentioned above, the high income earners of the country along with the growing middle class constitutes a high overall spending power and this fact makes it one of the most lucrative markets in South Asia and the whole world. In contrast to having a strong appeal to international businesses, India does have some factors which put a negative impact on its business environment. One of the problems which India faces is unimpressive law enforcement by the Indian judiciary. This is prevalent predominantly because of resource limitations and long procedures fashioned by corruption. However, in order to keep the consumers safe and to increase their confidence, exclusive courts catering to consumer needs and concerns have begun to be set up (Uppal et al, 2009). The elements which Ford must take care of while designing and executing its advertisements is the target segment which must targeted. As mentioned above, India has a growing economy with majority of a middle class and a high proportion of youth, the brands must be appropriately positioned in order to get the most business out of a segment. This means that a premium brand for example Mustang must not be positioned amongst the middle class as it will not be feasible for the company in terms of revenue. Therefore, considering the business environment of India, the advertisements must have relevance to the lifestyle of the market. This suggests that if the target market does not drink, the advertisement must not show any reference to drinking otherwise, the brand will not have any receptive and relevance to the target market. Besides this, the idea of an advertisement must be in line with the culture and expectations of the audience. In order to be generally acceptable and receptive to the audience, the advertisement must clearly portray the true depiction of the lifestyle of the target market. Be it the fashion, models, lifestyle, language etc, every element of the ad must have a relevance to the target market else the brand will not be accepted and will not sell. 2. India’s Advertising Industry India’s advertising industry is on the boom. From being a small scale business to a fully fledged industry, the Indian advertisement has become a world in itself. It is now considered as one of the major industries of the tertiary sector of India with worth $6.4 billion. Apart from the traditional print and electronic media, the advertising industry of India is registering enormous growth of the social media. The internet is increasingly becoming an important tool for businesses to sell their product and for the advertisers to market their brands. The fact that the internet has become a marketplace itself has been well adopted by the Indian advertising agency and increasingly, advertisers are increasingly using internet as a tool to market their brand (Butalia, 2011). 3. The Target Market Ford Figo’s print ad which appeared in The Hindu and Times of India in March 2010 features a QR code which usually works through a mobile application. This means that the advertisement was meant to be for a certain class which knew to operate mobile phone applications. This brings us to the point where we can gauge that Ford Figo was targeted towards SEC A – C. The individuals in this class would be educated and would have the knowhow of the interactive social media. The print ad incorporates the element of interactive social media which makes it stand apart from the rest of India which is not as tech savvy. As far as the geographical reach of the ad is concerned, the ad states the contact details of Ford’s dealers. Besides this, the Times of India is the world’s largest selling newspaper which is sold throughout the country. For an ad appearing in Times of India, it can be easily said that the advertised brand is targeted to pan India. Therefore, it cannot be said that Ford Figo’s target market is limited or restricted to any particular geographic region or regions (Times of India Presentation. 2011). As far as the demographics are concerned, the ad features a young male and female who apparently, seem to be single, aged from 25 – 35 and belong to the working class. Figo does not seem to be positioned as a family car or as a premium brand like Fiesta which seems to be positioned for someone who is at a self-actualization stage of the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Figo’s psychographic and behavioral segmentation seem to be done on the basis of the lifestyle you young individuals. As portrayed in the print ad, the young individuals seem to be educated and fun loving, judging from their bright colored clothes. Also, the car itself is of a bright green color which itself portrays an upbeat image of the brand. The target market would be most likely to own a Smartphone which would run the application to access the QR code on the advert. The car would most likely be used by young people who frequently go out and spend their leisure time with friends. 4. Idea and Execution of the Ad: The ad presents Ford’s Figo with simplicity. The copy attempts to create a strong, confident, and “boosting with substance” image of the brand. The ad features a QR code which would generate curiosity amongst the readers who would be willing to try out the new Figo. Also, there is an action call in the ad which gives the readers a contact point to send a text message on if they want to take a test drive. The basic idea of the advertisement is to create awareness amongst the relevant target market about Figo’s launch. The idea, very basic to be considered as a product of out-of-box creativity, serves its purpose of letting the target customers know and notice its presence. It is to illuminate Ford Figo’s presence through a half-page ad appearing in the world’s largest English newspaper. Besides this, another adaptation of this ad which appeared in one of the regional newspapers of India, says Smart is checking out the new Ford Fido and the Smarter is booking one today. The idea of the latter ad is to generate an action call amongst the audience with the copy. The ad is supposed to be a reveal advert for the readers as the idea is executed in the style of a curtain raiser. Besides this, it also says “The all new Ford Figo. On display now.” This reveal advertisement does not give out comprehensive details of Ford’s dealerships like the one which contains the QR code. 5. Elements of the ad’s execution The advertisement with the QR code seems to be for a certain class who knows the use of mobile phone applications. However this does not necessarily mean that the car will not appeal to those who do not know how to use mobile phone applications which can make use of QR codes needless to say that by advertising in Times of India, Ford means serious business. If Ford was to target a particular niche segment for its Figo, it would not have spent the advertising budget by purchasing space in Times of India. There are cheaper and more effective ways to promote a brand in a niche segment as the channels of promotion are narrowed down to a few tools. Besides the QR code, the background of the advertisement feature high rise buildings which tell that the car is meant for the urban areas of India. Considering the population of India and especially the traffic congestion, good handling is portrayed as one of the major attributes of Figo. Apart from the car usage, the advertisement features young models both male and female which define the user profile to some extent. Independent youngsters who can afford a car and who live in the urban areas and enjoy the city life will be the ideal target market which has been targeted through the advertisement. Ford seems to have selected the above mentioned profile as its ideal target market for Figo because India’s population majorly comprises of youth. Besides this, the country has a growing middle class as the economy is in its growing stage because of increasing number of skilled workforce with sufficient buying power. Furthermore, the advertisement contains all the information of dealerships through which the interested customers can get their Figo. Alongside dealerships, the option of booking the car through SMS is also given to the tech savvy market. As the IT industry is also at a boom in India, the number of mobile users who have the knowledge of mobile applications and who know how to operate one, through a cell phone, is considerable. Ford has tried to reach out to its customers interactively however, as purchasing a car involves complex decision making process for the consumers, it cannot and should not expect SMS booking to be an important source of sales. Bibliography Uppal, R K, and Bishnupriya Mishra. Business Environment in India: Some Aspects. New Delhi, India: New Century Publications, 2009. Print Butalia. A. Goafest 2011: India's ad industry lacks insight, says Crowe. Goa. 10 April 2011. Online. 5 August 2011. Available at: http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/goafest-2011-indias-ad-industry-lacks-insight-says-festival-of-media-founder-charlie-crowe/1/14647.html Print Ad. Ford Figo. Available at: http://itwofs.com/beastoftraal/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/FordFigo.png Karthik. S. “What Really happens to the QR Code in Ford Figo’s Print Ad!” Itwofs.com. 15 March 2010. Online. 5 August 2011. Available at: http://itwofs.com/beastoftraal/2010/03/15/what-really-happens-to-the-qr-code-in-ford-figos-print-ad/ Print Ad. Ford Figo. http://www.theindiaexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Ford-Figo-ad.jpg Temples of India: Times of India Presentation. Mumbai: Bennett, Coleman & Co, 2011. Print. Read More