Now Trending—Social Media Advertising

Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief - Leo Burnett

 And when the public today is extremely aware, there is an accentuated need to effectively advertise to create an edge for the product. Living in an information age, the customer knows what exactly he wants and then the market is flooded with products in a particular segment. As a result, it becomes critical to not just set apart the product with new and relevant features  but also advertise in a unique and relevant way. However, even advertising has come a long way. With technology ruling the businesses today, how can advertising remain touched. Advertising has evolved into a vastly complex form of communication, with literally thousands of different ways for a business to get a message to the consumer. It would be no exaggeration to call 2014 as the year of social media advertising. From sponsored posts to promoted pins, advertising has found a home in social media.

Advertisement or promtion is amongst the 4P's of advertising. It is very important for marketing and brand building. Without advertising,  a company cannot reach out its target audience. Solution providers believe that advertising is very essential to reach out to the end users. With advancement in technologies, channel too has adopted modern approaches for advertisement and publicity. Social media has gained prominence in advertising space with print media maintaining its position. The modes of advertisement are changing but advertisement is a prominent marketing tool for solution providers to scale up their turnover and to make their presence felt.

Advertisement—An Important Marketing Tool for Channel

Apart from the traditional modes of advertising, which includes advertising through print and electronic media, billboards, word of mouth publicity, digital advertising and social media advertising is gaining huge momentum amongs the SPs.  However, VK  Bhandari, founder, chairman & Managing Director of Supertron Electronics, the seventh largest IT distributor in India, says that advertising is a marketing tool which has helped the company to generate revenue indirectly. “Online advertising is cost-effective but for IT products it is not beneficial till now, scenario may change in future. To attract maximum customers, the company uses innovative BTL activities, personalized EDMs and product EDMs, SMS alerts, etc with different innovative platforms,” he adds.  For Supertron Electronics major advertising mode is print media (channel magazines and end users magazines, printed collaterals, etc). Surprisingly, the company is using social media platforms but not on a frequent basis.

Social media is a very effective and quick tool of spreading awareness about product or services. Social channels are inherently built for sharing and engagement, making them the perfect place to cultivate valuable business relationships. However, Social marketing is not a simple undertaking; one has to be dedicated every single day to maintain a consistent, relevant, and engaging social marketing strategy. Once followed rigorously partners can develop a powerful new source of revenue that costs substantially less than traditional channels.

Ranjan Chopra, managing director, Team Computers says that for a business to succeed, the product or service it provides must be known to potential buyers. Without marketing, potential customers may never be aware of product offerings and business may not be given the opportunity to progress and succeed. “We use medium of e-mailers, EDMs and customized events to promote our services. We invite our potential prospects and give them knowledge transfer of our services. It helps us in delivering immediate value and increase product awareness along with our organization effectiveness,” he adds.

Whereas traditional modes of advertising have their own limitations, social media is a cost-effective way of reaching out to the end-customer. VK Malhotra, Agmatel India, says that in the world of visiblilty,  advertisements are very important for brand promotion. It plays vital role in escalating the sales. “If planned properly, social media advertising is cost-effective rather than traditional means of advertisements. Social media attracts more eye balls and helpful to reach to the masses. We have not used social media platforms for advertising yet. But we are planning to move towards social media and search engine optimization (SEO),” adds Malhotra.

In today's competitive business scenario,  solution providers who are gradually becoming players of national importance cannot remain dependent on vendor companies for the promotion campaigns. Advertising is very important especially for new product launches. It is important to create a buzz among end users. KL Lalani, chairman, Lalani Infotech says that along with advertisement, the company focuses on channel meets. “Social media platforms are beneficial and cost effective. There is no direct investment and one can reach directly to the target audience.” Lalani Infotech allocates budget of around Rs 40 Lakh for advertisement. The company has come up with various innovative ad campaigns for its products. When a company advertises products, the aim is to attract maximum numbers of people. Lalani believes in innovating in their advertisement and publicity campaigns. They offer attractive gifts and discounts for particular product for the partners. Sometimes, we offer bundle product with other products exclusively for our partners. Such initiatives have helped us in terms of boosting sales, ” he says. Other promotional offers clubbed with advertising also work very well and solution providers are getting aggressive and leaving no stone unturned to market themselves competitively.

Social Media- A Cost effective Approach

Advertisement is very important to grab attention of end customers. With daily advancement  of technology, various avenues of advertising are available. Social media is emerging as a popular mode of advertisement among vendors as well as distributors.

“We are very active on social media platforms. It is very cost-effective. The strength of social media is that it reaches to the masses and is a fast mode of communication. We use all social media platforms like Facebook on our smartphones. Social media has enabled us to change our traditional look out. I believe that social media will take over television advertisement in next couple of years, “ says Dushyant Mehta, CEO, Mediaman Infotech. Mehta says that there is no specific budgetary allocation for advertisements. It varies from product to product and brand to brand. Similarly, Rajesh Goenka, VP, sales & marketing, Rashi Peripherals believes  that digital and social media are the core focus to reach the end customer. For a distribution company like Rashi Peripherals, social media plays an integral role because it helps the company to connect directly to the end customers and interact with them. It is very cost effective with wide range of visibility among end users and partners.

Rashi Peripherals annually spends in crores for advertisements of its various brands, products, schemes and promotions. Its latest promo of ‘Buy a Plantronics Bluetooth from an offline retailer and get an assured with a 6 month extended warranty’ is being promoted heavily in channel magazines and selected online media. The company says that the response to this promotion is huge and end customers are enjoying their buy of Plantronics products.

A new trend which is now trending is promotion through whatsapp even though it has its own strength and challenges. Goenka adds that innovation has always been major priority for Rashi Peripherals and experimenting with new ways of promoting various schemes & products utilizing means like Whatsapp & EDMs to specific people has received good appreciation.

“When the print ads help us for Brand Recognition, these partner specific methods help us give that personal touch to the partners across the country”, he says.

In today’s generation, everyone is connected through Social Media. It has become a worldwide phenomenon making it beneficial for everyone to sell their product with a certain ease. Social media has always been a helpful tool for promotion and advertisement. Through social media the organization is connected to many people at once and helps in increasing this medium to increase their visibilty to a large extent. The companies are are now concentrating on creating content especially for the ‘Social Media Generation’.

Umang Mehta, MD of Roop Technologies says social media advertisement is comparatively cheap at the same time it is very effective. The company uses TV, print and social media platforms for advertising.

Majority of distributors making effective use of traditional and modern means of advertising, however, some distributors do not undertake advertising and publicity campaigns for its products. However, for channel partners print and online is still effective and is the preferred mode.

No Advertising Yet High on Spirits

There are still many business organizations who are not advertising on their own, rather these have devised their own strategies to remain profitable. Sanjiv Krishen, Chairman, Iris Computer sticks to company's policy of not advertising its products. It concentrates more on educating its partners. Pradip Biyani, owner of Kolkata based Suntronic Systems says that the company gets very thin margin from vendors. Therefore, it cannot afford special budgetary allocation for advertisement. The vendors normally bear advertisement expenses. South based V Murali, founder director of Precision Group and Dinesh Dhanapathi, MD of Symmetrix Computer Systems also say that as a distributor they are not involved in advertising and brand promotions.

Online advertising is becoming popular among distributors. The biggest advantage of online advertising is that it has no barriers of geographical boundaries. According to a report by the Internet Mobile Association of India/Indian Market Research Bureau (IAMAI/IMRB), Indian businesses spent Rs 2,850 crore on digital advertising as of March 2012, a number that’s expected to grow to Rs 4,391 crore next year. In the next three years, India’s internet users are estimated to double from about 150 million at present. Growing usage of Smartphones has boosted social media marketing. As mobiles are connected to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin, advertisements are always in sight. Companies can constantly remind and update followers about their products. Also many companies are now putting QR codes along with products for individuals to access the company website or online services with their smartphones.

It can be concluded that in the world of digitalization, modes of advertising are changing with channel adapting to new technologies, however, the prominence of advertisement has not declined. Advertisement plays important role in brand building and sales and it also helps distributors to connect with target customers. In next couple of years, Digital advertisement or social media advertisement will take over major portion of advertisement with distributors making smart and effective use of this platform for the benefit of their businesses. Advertising is one of the 4 pillars of product promotion. Advertisement gives 360 degrees visibility to all sections and demographics of the end user. Of late there are very unique and innovative ways of online marketing which enable you to not only track the hit rates but also get the ROI.

Ekta Saxena and Priyanka Pugaokar

(ektasa@cybermedia.co.in and priyankapu@cybermedia.co.in)