How Advertisers Align Advertising to Match Consumer Lifestyle

Agile companies align their people and processes, bothmay conform to a certain subgroup, by being a
globally and locally, in a way that allows them tonon-conformant of the mainstream.
collaborate and respond quickly and continuously to The way consumers are interacting with media is
consumers’ changing and diverse needs.also changing as the number of digital delivery
Today’s multiple performance-related pressuresplatforms grows and their use increases. The
require organizations to drive agility. With commodity“new” consumers created by these platforms
price volatility up, retailers looking to manufacturers fortend to look for engaging, targeted, and timely
innovation to drive category growth, and consumersinteractions rather than broad-based information.
becoming more demanding, organizational silos andLeading manufacturers are identifying internal
confusion are not acceptable options.technology champions, aligning advertising to consumer
Companies that enhance their traditional organizationallifestyles, and identifying new mechanisms to leverage
structures by aligning people and process withthese platforms in order to better anticipate customer
consumer needs, selectively standardizing bothsentiment (both good and bad), build brand equity, and
non-consumer centric and customer-centric activities,grow their business.
and leveraging internal collaboration are able toThe adage “change is the only constant” is
respond quickly and effectively in this environment.especially true in business today. Globalization, rapid
A lot of brand management research, generatingadvances in media and technology, changes in
fruitful concepts such as brand equityconsumer spending habits, shifts in distribution channels,
(Aaker, 1991), brand leadership (Aaker &and other factors force today’s business
Joachimsthaler, 2000), brand identity (Kapferer, 2004),landscape into a state of constant evolution.
brand image (Gardner & Levi, 1955), and corporateThere have been significant changes in recent years
reputation (Gray & Balmer, 1998), has thus beenand no longer does successful advertising focus only
conducted to understand and explain how successfulon product benefits, but works through values and
brands are to be built, managed and developed byvalue change according to Smila (2002). By the late
corporations and their brand managers in a way that1990s multinational companies were seen to be
would give firms a competitive edge over theircustomising their advertising to the Indian market.
adversaries. Brand strategies, tactics, and other brandProduct endorsement by celebrities, and associations
building activities for building not just a strong brand butwith national passions like cricket were other strategies
a right type of brand then needs to be developed andused. The Korean company L.G. sponsored the Indian
put into action if it is to add value to the firm. All thecricket team in the Cricket World Cup in 2003 for
brand management strategies, techniques andexample and Adidas, who had previously made their
concepts though rests on a certain logic of brands, aIndian ads in London, started making them in India in
set of axiomatic assumptions and principles that lies1999, with the advertising agency RKSwamy/BBDO
behind how firms ought to and seeks to build, manageand using an Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar
and handle their brands, which all together comprise(Chawla, 1999). L’Oreal increased its sales
what Holt (2002) refers to as a branding paradigm.dramatically by using the Miss India who became Miss
Youth as a socially constructed category, generallyWorld, Diana Haydan, along with its usual models
referring to what is considered young and new and(Fannin, 1999).
therefore strongly connected to the future, being Sprite was launched in 1999 with advertising that
culturally determined in the discursive interplay withspoofed advertising hype and current trends in
visual, musical, and verbal symbols and signs Fornäsadvertising, targeting youth ‘in the process of
(1995), is often considered as a product of theestablishing their identity’ (Chawla, 1999). Kinley
development of the Western modern societybottled water in 2001 was advertised depicting village
(Kjeldgaard & Askegaard, 2006).life and military families aimed at building emotional
Fitting in with peers, conforming to certain social normsconnections with consumers (Kripalani, 2003). Most
simultaneously as one expresses individuality, is ofcreatives view emotional advertising as the key to
importance for young adults where clothing symbolsdeveloping brand loyalty. Creatives want customers to
such as brands may be used to symbolize the relationfeel a bond with the brand.
between the actual person and the social group he or            So how does one go about
she wants to affiliate with and be accepted, wherecreating new India connects? The first step of course,
refraining from certain symbols used and recognizedis to accept that new India exists as a separate entity,
by the majority actually may become a way to showwhich has little in common with the old India way of
individuality (Piacentini & Mailer, 2004). Younger peoplethinking. The image of young adult is Fashionable,
thus also make consumer choices based on theVibrant, Peppy and intelligent. This is the frame of
elimination of what is not acceptable (Auty & Elliot,appeal the advertisers are using in their advertising
1998), which paradoxically mean young individuals thenstrategy.