Naming your business is probably the second thing you’ll do when you start it, right after you decide what sort of business it will be. It’s a decision that you’ll have to live with every day so here’s something to think about before you print up those business cards.

Names don’t matter. Really, there is no correlation between the success of a business and it’s name. Only the first time or two that someone hears the name of your company will the words have any meaning. After that, it becomes a collection of sounds.

Maybe the first time you heard the name Nike you associated it with the goddess of victory, and that’s only if you studied mythology. Now your first association is with athletic wear. The same is true for Reebok and Adidas, and you probably don’t even know what those names are in reference to in the first place. The business becomes their meaning.

Your name doesn’t even have to describe what your business does. Take Revlon as an example. Or Accenture. When I was thinking of names for Stesnet, my website, I noticed that many of the most successful sites had nonsense names, like Yahoo!, eBay, and Amazon. Meanwhile, a company with a descriptive name like Pets.com sank.

Your name can even be misleading. Take Duane-Reade, the ubiquitous New York City drug store chain. The name comes from the fact that the first store was founded on Broadway between Duane and Reade Streets in lower Manhattan. They’re everywhere now, and only one is at the location that bears the company name. Even more confusing, Bleeker Bob’s Records sole location isn’t on Bleeker Street; it’s a block away on 3rd.

The only time names do matter is when they’re really bad. Henry Ford made the right decision in naming his company after himself. If his last name had been Czerniejewski, he would have had problems. Another example of a way to go wrong is like when a Thai restaurant opened here in New York under the name of Phuket. They changed it as soon as their customers explained to them what was so funny. Also, avoid names that are too close to those of big companies. Coco-Cola is probably going to get you letters from lawyers.

But, given the option, name your business something catchy and descriptive anyway. Even if it doesn’t help, it can’t hurt. Look at Dunkin’ Donuts, or NetFlix. Even a ho-hum descriptive name won’t hurt you, like British Petroleum, or American Airlines.

Pick a name you like, and live with it for a week or two. Then get three opinions from people you trust. If it passes those two tests, go with it. If later you decide you don’t like it, you can always change it, like Philip Morris and the Bell Atlantic Corporation did.

Fred Stesney Stesnet Community Host Stesnet is the only online community created exclusively for business owners. http://www.stesnet.com

1. You think you need ‘Image’ or ‘branding’ advertising because that’s all the so-called ‘top guns’ use in their advertising. You don’t use direct response advertising they don’t and you’d think they know best.

2. You never offer compelling benefits that cause your prospect to want to do business with you of your competitor.

3. You don’t use powerful, benefit driven headlines that literally stop your prospect in their tracks and draw them into the body of your ad.

4. You don’t tell your prospect what’s in your offer from them. But you do ramble on about your image, your business and what you are trying to sell him.

5. You don’t talk to your prospect like you know him. You don’t get specific and don’t motivate him.

6. You don’t address your prospect needs, wants and desires in your opening headlines. You’re to busying thinking about yourself or your company image! Remember, your prospect is thinking of one thing only WIIFM (What’s I It For Me?)

7. Your ads are boring and dull and look like all the other hundreds of ads. You don’t motivate your prospect to take ACTION. You don’t use energetic, exciting, action words! Your about as exciting as wet paint!

8. Because you copy what everyone else is doing, or do as the ad agency suggests, your ads are full of “white space” which leaves little room to add any benefits. (The only thing your prospect is looking for) You never have ads with a lot of copy. It’s the copy your prospects want. Information is King!

9. You don’t give specifics in your ads. Your prospects want exact numbers, percentages, results and testimonials. They want all the facts before they will make the decision to move towards a buying decision.

10. You don’t give your prospects any reason to act on your offer NOW. Tell them how to in a step by step process. Unless you tell them, them may not know what the next step is?

11. You don’t see your marketing, sales and advertising as a total system. It’s this total system that can either make or break you as a profitable business. They are not separate functions, with separate goals.

12. You focus on YOU, YOUR COMPANY, YOUR LOGO, YOUR CREDENTIALS, instead of focusing on what all of this can do for your prospect. What BENEFITS will them get if they buy with you?

Now you know the 12 reasons why maybe, some of the ads you are running are not pulling any responses at all! In fact they will be costing you and your company money EVERY TIME YOU RUN THEM!

It doesn’t have to be this way, explode your businesses cash register today and check out http://www.SmarterBusinessLeads.com for Low Cost Advertising & Marketing Ideas!

So, you know what a brand is. You know what makes up a brand and which parts of your company you might be able to exploit - I mean use, to define and manipulate your brand and the way you are perceived by the public. But, well, how?

The combination of a successfully developed brand and the implementation of a great marketing campaign will do wonders for your business. Think of the TV advertisements that stick in your mind - what makes it so? What have they done differently? If you make a list, you’ll notice that each and every one of them has taken advantage of creative and innovative ideas. It is not enough to only have a great logo, or great radio ads. The entire marketing package, when done properly, is your key to building your business into a wonderful success.

There are a great number of business tools that are widely accepted as forms of advertising. The key here is to put your brand on everything. That might not even mean to put your logo on everything (although in most cases it is advisable), but just to make sure that all of your business material fits in with the business image that you’ve already determined. For instance, if you have a particular corporate colour that’s fairly unique (that is, it’s not black), you can use that to your advantage by putting all of your correspondence in colour coded envelopes. If your brand is a particular scent or perfume, make sure you’re always wearing it when you meet with your potential suppliers or customers. Brand everything.

You should have two main ports of call, depending on your industry: your business card and your website. These are the first places your customers will look for your information. If your brand isn’t apparent through these two mediums, you’re probably in a bit of marketing trouble. Stop reading, find a brand developer (I know one you could use! ho ho) and have them redone. Right now. No excuses.

You should use your logo, or some manifestation of it, on your business card. Your business card is your little personal identity that people can carry about with them. A piece of you is written in to your business card. Work on it and work on it until it’s exactly right, or you’ll regret it as soon as it comes back from the printers. You should be proud to hand your business card over - it’s even better if people go "oooh" when they see it. Aim for "oooh".

With regards to your website, above all else it should be nice looking and easy to navigate. It really need not be flashy, but chances are that people will be keener to take an interest in it if it’s not ugly. So if you have an ugly website, you’ll want to fix that too. It doesn’t need to be beautiful, but it needs to be inoffensive. If you want to do it yourself, there are tens of thousands of tutorials out there on web design that you might find useful. Otherwise, employing a web designer or developer to create an effective site for you is your best bet. Just make sure you check out their previous work, to make sure they can actually provide what you need. Web designers seem to be a dime a dozen these days, and it can make it difficult to choose one that is actually skilled!

Now go away and come back when you’ve got your business cards and web site sorted out. I’ll wait here.

Once you have your initial points of contact sorted out, you can look at everything else. There are so many options for marketing your product or service, I couldn’t possibly cover them all, even if I wrote a book about it. So let’s talk options and examples. I’ll use myself as an example, then I can disguise brainstorming as writing an article, and feel accomplished afterwards.

The most obvious form of marketing seems to be print advertising. Print advertising is available through different mediums: magazines, newspapers, letterbox drops, flyers, brochures, annoying bits of paper under people’s windscreen wipers.

There are benefits to all of these, depending on who your target audience is and how much you want to spend. For instance, a quarter page colour ad in a magazine might cost you $1500, but it might also give you more opportunity to target your specific audience (if, for example, you were a brand developer, you could advertise in a start-up company magazine). Obviously the benefit here versus in a newspaper is the specific audience reading the magazine. But the newspaper might only cost you a couple of hundred dollars, so there is benefit in that.

Letterbox drops are fairly inexpensive to develop (especially if you do the photocopying and dropping yourself), but you might find that the majority of people just throw your flyer out. And then the people who do actually read your flyer might not be interested, which can make it a big waste of time. On the other hand, if you have a low-sales, high-profit sort of business with big mark-ups, even a few sales from your drop may make it profitable, so it could well be worth the time and money you put into it.

Brochures allow you to display your full range of products, but they’re expensive to produce and like letterbox drops, a lot of people just throw them in the bin - at $4 a pop, that’s nothing to laugh at. If you stick your flyer up at your local supermarket, it will probably only cost you 20 cents for the photocopy, but it may be detrimental to your professionalism. Annoying bits of paper under the windscreen wipers are, well, annoying, and should probably be reserved for door to door salesmen.

It’s not just about advertising though, of course. As I’ve discussed previously, your brand is made up of so many more components than just advertising material. Get creative with your marketing - when you sell a product, add your own personal flair to it. Make sure your packaging material has your logo on it. When you’re out and about, wear a t-shirt or earrings in the colour of your company. If you do these sorts of things often enough, people will start to take notice. Every minute of the day is an opportunity to have your brand recognised.

Do you feel more positively about companies that are active in the community, or with charities? How would involvement in a campaign such as donating a percentage of your profits to a non-profit organisation reflect on your brand? Consider that if you sell children’s clothing, for example, donating part of each sale to SIDS & Kids may well encourage parents to think of your business as being concerned about children and involved in the community. And of course, you get a good feeling from it, and SIDS & Kids will benefit as well. Everyone wins.

Take advantage of free marketing opportunities. I recently purchased a book called Marketing Without Money (it’s not a bad book, worth a read!), and for irony’s sake put my business stickers on the front and back of it, with a little blurb about what I do. When people on the bus take an interest in what I am reading, they’ll also see an advertisement for my firm. Take your business cards everywhere and give them out at every opportunity, even if you don’t give them out during necessarily business-related conversations.

Make sure you’re well presented as often as you can be. I know we all have those days when our nose is a bit stuffy and we just want to roll out of bed and to the supermarket in our trackies to buy chocolate, but if you can give an air of sophistication and "I took the time to be presentable, because I care about my business image", that will have a profound effect on anyone you happen to speak to. You can never be certain of when a business opportunity might arise - give yourself the best chance of making a good impression when it does.

Consider sign writing for your car, which is fairly inexpensive and can be very effective. People might not pull you over to talk about your company, but if you do a fair bit of driving in your local community and you have a well-developed logo, you will generate a sense of familiarity. Then complement your car campaign with a well designed logo in the Yellow Pages or in your local community directory. When your potential clients go in search of a provider, you will be able to trigger their memories and invoke that same sense of familiarity in them - they will choose you, not someone they’re completely in the dark about.

The key marketing features you should be conscious of, then, are:

Anna Spargo-Ryan is the Principal of Australian brand development agency Anna Clements. They specialise in brand consultancy, identity design, web development and copywriting. Visit their website at http://www.annaclements.com.au/

Here are the basic steps of marketing & advertising you must know & use, if you want to make huge profits in your business.

Did you know?

Marketing and Advertising work together you simply can’t overlook the fact that if you’re running a great ad for truck parts, you may want to think twice about running the ad in ‘Dolly” magazine. Yes it sounds logical, but you’d be surprised by how many times something like this will happen each and every day.

Businesses blow hundreds and thousands of dollars everyday on ads that do absolutely nothing and pull zero response! Later we will learn why.

Businesses everywhere need this information and any business that’s “in” business, is in the business of MARKETING! That’s what it really boils down to…

Simply reading this information won’t bring sales into your business. It’s all about taking massive action and testing your ads over and over again.

The key is PERSISTANCE. As with anything, unless you persist, most of the time nothing much happens. Don’t get too disappointed if you ads don’t work the first time around…just keep trying new things till you get it right.

But remember always focus on the benefits of what your product or service will do for your prospect, NOT the features, or company or YOU for that matter!

Here’s 9 Golden Must Do Steps You Need To Follow To Get The Most From Your Advertising and Start Making More Money Today!

1)Focus on buyer benefits, not features. Your prospect is only interested in one thing. THEMSELVES!

2)Know who your prospects are, where they are and how you will reach them.

3)Understand your competition. Where are they and what are are they currently doing to source prospects.

4)Understand the frustrations & problems of your prospects and how you can solve them quickly and easily.

5)You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on advertising – there are plenty of low cost and no cost ways to market and advertise your business effectively.

6)Look at offering your prospects irresistible bonuses if they act on your offer within a specific time frame.

7)Always ask for the sale. Don’t expect your customer to shove money at you – they are waiting for you to ask!

8)Be Persistent. This is probably the most important rule of them all. Never ever give up!

9)Focus on buyer benefits and not on product features, it’s not about YOU!

Put into ACTION this information and your well on your way to reaping the rewards of your ACTION and maybe putting your competition out of business.

Smarter Business Leads specialize in using Low Cost Advertising & Marketing Ideas that will explode your businesses cash register. Check them out at http://www.smarterbusinessleads.com if you hurry they may even send you a free report "Dare To Be Different" go to http://www.smarterbusinessleads.com now.

When I hear the word pyschology, I think of Dr. Phil.

When I hear the word motivation, I think of Tony Robbins.

When I hear the word marketing, I think of Seth Godin.

And when I hear the word closeout, I think of my Dad.

Why?

Because each of those people are individuals who, in MY mind, have the most expertise about, and most association with a particular word. That’s called word ownership.

In terms of personal branding, however, word ownership is a great advantage to your business. It differentiates you from your competitors, keeps you in the minds of the people you serve and positions you an expert. Ultimately, it’s a fundamental key to entrepreneurial success.

Origination
In Al Ries’s famous book, 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, he explains that if you want to build a brand, you must “focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect’s mind. A word that nobody else owns.”

He also and said, “Forget about the laundry list of wonderful attributes your product has. You can’t possibly associate them all with your brand name in a human mind. The key to getting into the consumer’s mind is sacrifice. You have to reduce the essence of your brand to a single thought or attribute. An attribute that nobody else already owns in your category.”

With that in mind, the first question to ask yourself is, “Do I already own a word?”

If so, congrats! You’re way ahead of the crowd. If not, that’s cool too. You’re reading the right article. (Odds are, you already DO own a word, you just don’t know it yet!)

To discover which word you own, ask yourself the following questions:

*If you looked up the word _______________ in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of my company

*If you googled the word ________________, the first ten pages would be my company’s website

*If was about to give a speech to 10,000 people and one of the audience members came back stage and asked, “So, what’s your speech about?” I’d probably say ____________________

*In my marketing materials, the one word you will find that no other company uses is ______________________

*If CNN called me for an interview, they’d want my expert opinion on _________________

*After people get to know me, they’ll never think about the word ________________ the same way again

*The reason my customers love me so much is because I always help them with _________________

*If people were talking about me behind my back, they’d probably call me “The ____________ Guy”

Obviously, the goal of this exercise is to arrive at the same answer for every question. Now, if can’t do that yet, here’s what to do. Ask those same questions to 20 of your closest friends, family members, customers and coworkers. They might match with some of your answers, they might be way off, they might even think of words that never occurred to you! But at least it will give you an objective perspective on your degree of word ownership.

Hey! That’s My Word!
Ok, now that you’ve explored some possibilities as to which word you own, you need to maintain that ownership. After all, that word is yours, baby! Nobody else in the world deserves to own it besides you! Here are some suggestions to make sure you keep it.

REGISTER IT: just for kicks, see if www.yourword.com is already taken. If not, get it! Domain names are like currency these days! If not, register a name with your word in the URL, i.e., www.thebotanyexpert.com or www.perfectfamilyphotos.com. This will better position you in search engines.

RESEARCH IT: find out everything you possibly can about your word. Search for books on Amazon with your word in the title. Go on Google, type in your word and spend an hour a week reading every entry you can. Look up the etymology of your word’s origin. Do anything you can to increase your knowledge because, after all, you’re the expert on that word!

RECORD IT: write and publish articles related to your word. Think of yourself as a syndicated columnist, whose weekly articles always have something to do with your word. And if you don’t like or have trouble writing, don’t worry. Just go online and search “article” + “your word.” Thousands of articles on your word will come up and that will stimulate your creativity.

REVEAL IT: once you’ve developed and positioned your expertise on your word, tell everyone! Use it your lateral materials, website, newsletter, public appearances, client meetings, face-to-face networking or any of your other marketing channels. Shout it from the rooftops! Over time, customers and prospects will recognize the connection between YOU and your word. And they will know that whenever they need help on (insert your word here,) there is no person in the world they’d rather call than you!

What’s Next?
Ok. You now own a word. The world knows it. Your customers know it. Even Google knows it! So the next question is: how will this word change your business?

I’m glad you asked.

Here’s a personal example of word ownership at its finest. It all started with a voicemail waiting on my cell phone as I walked off the airplane into the St. Louis terminal.

“Yes, Mr. Ginsberg, I’m one of the editors of Cosmopolitan Magazine. I’d like to set up an interview with you for an upcoming piece. Please call me back at the following number…”

When I returned her call, she enthusiastically replied, “Oh great! I’m so glad you got right back to me – my deadline is tomorrow!”

“So, what can I do for you?” I asked.

“Well, have you ever seen those little ‘quizzes’ that Cosmo runs every month?”

“Oh, right. My girlfriend used to take those things in college.” I replied.

“Exactly! Well, as the editor of the section, it’s my job to seek out experts to help create those quizzes. And in our upcoming issue for January 2006, we’ll be running a quiz called ‘How Approachable Are You?’”

“Reeeeeely,” I said.

“Yes. And in my research for possible contributors, I went on Amazon to search for books about approachability. And guess what? Your book was the first and only title that came up! So, we’d like for YOU to write the quiz. After all, you are the expert. Would you be interested?”

Um, are you kidding?! Me, write a quiz for one of the most widely read publications in the word?! I thought.

“Yes. Yes I would,” I said.

Word.

© 2005 All Rights Reserved.

Scott Ginsberg is a professional speaker, "The World’s Foremost Expert on Nametags" and the author of HELLO my name is Scott and The Power of Approachability. He helps people MAXIMIZE their approachability and become UNFORGETTABLE communicators - one conversation at a time. For more information contact Front Porch Productions at http://www.hellomynameisscott.com

Introduction

Just a child then, when television broadcasting had begun in a makeshift studio at Akashvani Bhavan in New Delhi. A low power transmitter and 21 television sets were used as foundation stone for this globalize television broadcasting in 1959. Really, it is a great achievement for those who had witnessed that particular occasion. Bhaskar Ghose, former Information and Broadcasting Secretary shared the joy of that moment, “images of a gramophone record were being shown on television as the music blared away.” (Kohli 2003, p. 59) That gramophone picture and fantastic music became a landmark for Indian television broadcasting. People got more than enough what they have visualized as television before.

A new appliance entered into our periphery with its uncommon characteristics. Have you ever thought about the family members of a newborn baby? Every day and every moment, they are anticipating some changes in their child. Like that, we were expecting for new significant changes in television broadcasting.

The journey from 21 television sets to 80 million has been marked by many milestones: Regional Kendras; DD metro; satellite transmission; and cable broadcasting among others. In 1976, television broadcasting was ‘de-linked’ from All India Radio (AIR) with a new appropriate synonym for distant vision (i.e. Doordarshan). As a public service broadcaster, it was also claimed as an ‘advertisement-free’ electronic media. The revenues for Doordarshan were funded through a combination of television licenses and allocation from the annual budget. But the need of advertising revenue was felt by DD only after the telecast of first commercial on 1st January, 1976. Though the advent of commercial could fulfill only 1% of Doordarshan’s budget, however later advertisements become the only major source of revenue for Doordarshan.

Cable Television Industry

Cable has grown from an apartment connected together in 1980s to coverage of nearly 42 million households in India. During the last decade, the cable network mushroomed as an industry. There are about 280 channels that beam their signal over India. Generally the MSOs are delivered 80 channels (31 are pay channels and 49 free-to-air channels) to the viewers. Gradually the large broadcasters or cable companies stepped into this business as multi-system operator (MSO). They had the capacity to set up a large control room and subscribe maximum number of pay channels.

Now the cable industry is fragmented with over 40,000 cable operators. These cable operators are controlled by MSOs. Some major MSOs in India are Siticable, IndusInd Media, InCable Net, Hathway Cables, Sun TV and RPG Netcom. They are not only controlling the four metropolitan cities but have also covered some major cities in India. Siticable has the highest market share (5.4 million) of Indian Cable industry while IndusInd Media has its subscription base of four million homes. Multi-system operators (MSOs) are backed by large corporations to invest money in this business.

Siticable is a joint venture between Zee TV and Rupert Murdoch’s News Television. InCable Net is managed by the Hinduja group; property baron Rajan Raheja’s Hathway Cables has come out of nowhere to become a powerhouse over the last couple of years; the most dominant cable force in south India, Sumangli Cable Vision is run by southern media baron Kalanithi Maran; and RPG Netcom is promoted by the RPG group, who holds sway over West Bengal. This is just like any other business. Think of MSOs as a wholesaler of the signal while the small cable operators (SCOs) are the retailers of the trade.

Obviously, these small cable operators have a control over the viewers. They collect subscription fee from the cable home every month. Barely 15-20 percent of every subscriber’s share goes to multi-system operator. Though, this monthly cable charges vary from place to place, the MSO’s share is almost equal everywhere. The multi system operators (MSOs) know that it is very tedious task for them to touch the threshold of the last mile. So, they don’t have any direct control over the cable homes. But in some cities like Bhubaneswar and Trivandrum, the MSOs have controlled the cable homes directly.

Let us take an average of Rs. 100 per subscriber per month, India’s 61 odd million cable and satellite households shell out a cumulative Rs. 61 billion. This is one major revenue stream for the cable operator/MSO. After launching of pay channels, they are looking for any other source of revenue to get more profit in this trade. If you consider the structure and the way revenues flow through it, then the cable industry is just like a pyramid. The satellite channel broadcasters are up-linking the signal from their earth stations and these signals are captured by the multi system operators. The small cable operator (SCO) distributes the feed in his territory which covers between 200 and 300 households of its neighborhood. The main aim for cable connection is to get clear reception and enjoy matinee and night show cinemas, which was telecast in the cable channels.

These cable channels belong to MSOs like SitiCinema belongs to Siticable, CVO belongs to InCable and C-News belongs to Hathway. In small towns, the small cable operators (SCOs) also have their own channel in which they telecast Hindi movies, regional movies, songs, religious discourses, fairs, community games and regional news. The cable operator has all type of control over these channels. If any blockbuster movie is to be telecast in cable channel, they have given a prior notice to their viewers about the timing of the movie. Sometimes, they also use this channel for some statutory warning (pay your monthly fee on time; else without notice your home will be disconnected from the network.)

Some local advertisers were interested to show their messages as scroll item in the bottom of the television screen. Instead of advertisement tariff, they pay very less amount to the cable operator for their service. At the beginning, they have accepted the money as an extra income. However, son they got a positive response from their consumers. Gradually, this became another growing stream of revenues, which so far has gone unnoticed.

Cable Advertising

From scroll item to message plate, from animated to full-fledged television ad, the cable ad have passed through various stages of growth. As we know, television is one of the most expensive and effective media for mass advertising. If you are booking for a television slot, do not forget that it is very expensive. For a prime time 10-second commercial in a national television channel will cost several thousands of rupees. So, television advertisements are out of reach for most small and medium sized businesses.

As far as small business is concerned, it has its own target consumers and those consumers are confined to a particular geographical area. Television advertisement lacks the ability to restrict your advertisement to closely target audience. Sometimes the marketer feels that advertisement is the only way to enhance the sale. Instead of choosing a proper channel, the marketer advertises in different slots of different programmes in different channels. Many times, the investment may not be very productive as per your expectations because thousands of people may not be interested in your product so they may skip your advertisement.

The taste and choice of the consumers in the developing countries are more vulnerable to that of developed countries. After globalization, the multinational companies entered the market with different promotional activities. Advertising counted as a major activity in which local brands had to face stiff competition with their multinational counterparts. Even the best local product may not survive in the market unless it is advertised. On the one hand, they have to advertise their product to survive in the competitive market. On the other hand they have to choose a media which touches the grass root level.

Cable TV provides a solution, especially for small business. Cable TV advertisements tend to be less expensive, even though their audience is huge. Almost half of all Indian homes subscribe to cable. In a research it is found that cable’s subscribers watch more television and belong to higher income groups. Cable also has the ability to send your commercials to specific parts of town and neighborhoods. If you have a product or service that can be visually demonstrated, cable television can work wonders.

Before cable television the local advertisers have very less opportunities to advertise for their business. In small towns, they were distributing some leaflets or advertised in the local print media. In some cases, they did not get the proper channel for advertisement. I spoke to a small marketer about cable advertising. He expressed that generally in two situations they prefer to advertise.

(1) When they want to create awareness about the shop or product.

(2) Whenever they are offering any discount/rebate, they are heading towards advertising. Before cable advertising, they used outdoor advertising (leaflets, hoardings, etc.) for the purpose.

After advent of cable advertising, they are spending more revenue in this channel due to instant result. Sometimes, after a few minutes of telecasting the ad in cable television, the customers rush to shop. Though, they have a limited budget for the advertisement, they take every step in a careful and calculative way because it counts the success and failure of their business. Let’s have a glance on overall advertising industry in India.

India has one of the lowest advertising spends to the GDP ratios in the world. If you compare with developed economies - UK (1%), Germany (0.8%), France (0.6%), Japan (1.1%) - as well as developing economies - Latin America (1.2%) and China (0.6%), the ratio of advertising expenditure to nominal GDP in India is about 0.4%. On the advertising front, consultancy firm KPMG estimates that the overall advertising pie was Rs 118 billion in 2004. Press advertisements took a share of 48% followed by television with a share of 41%. Radio advertising, outdoor advertising and cinema advertising has their respective share 3%, 7% and 1% in the advertising revenue. India has almost 108.2 million television homes with comparison to 213.1 million total homes. Out of these, almost 61 m homes have cable connections. The last few years have witnessed a conscious shift of advertising revenue. Indian companies spent a total of Rs 48.5 billion on TV ads in 2004.

The advertising pie consists of five major advertising channels – print, television, radio, cinema and outdoor. Lack of transparency keeps the growing cable advertising market away from the major advertising channel family. Everyday, every moment, cable ad is stretching its tentacles in all possible directions. That’s why it marches ahead against all other media. Though, print media has a major share in the advertising pie, but unnoticed and unobserved media, cable TV has covered a wide populace of 61 million.

Newspapers have a limited and stable readership with compare to cable advertising. Newspaper readership has declined with every passing generation while cable TV viewership continues to rise. As we know, geographically and demographically radio has reached all the nooks and corners of India. As a portable medium, radio has a very strong grip over the audience during the morning and evening commutes.

Cable TV reaches viewers through out day particularly in primetime viewing hours. But when we think from the advertiser’s angle, cable advertising impresses more than radio advertising because of the visual notion. Cable TV viewers are active, because TV itself is an intrusive, emotionally charged medium. As a big brother, broadcast TV covers a large number of diversified viewers – even viewers with no interest in the advertised product or service. Cable advertising can target the approximately exact consumers through unique programming that appeals to their interests and lifestyle choices. In the same time, having all the features of big brother, cable advertising prices are very low and cost effective because cable TV offers less waste through more strategic program targeting. Now let us familiarize ourselves with the advantages of cable advertising.

Advantages of Cable Advertising

If you compare cable advertising with the television advertising, you will find a very thin line between them. Cable advertising offers an audio-visual medium, motion, colors, like television advertising with an additional benefit (i.e affordable rates). It also has the ability to cover geographically and demographically target specific customers. The peripheral area of television may be larger than cable television but this is targeted at the ‘right’ customer. However, as a business strategy, every marketer wants to increase the area of the marketing sphere. So, they give first preference to the television channel. But due to high advertising rate, they cannot afford it for long time.

In many cases, some small makers may advertise for a limited period in the prime time. Others may choose a non-prime time slots if they want to have any long-term frequency. Unlike having a big budget and a particular allocated amount for promotional activities, it is very difficult to survive in the market. That’s why more and more small firms are turning to advertising on less expensive alternative, local cable channels. Local cable television advertising can be highly effective, and very affordable. It can quickly create awareness of your business, product or sevice. It also establish your image and educate viewers about your products.

When your target viewers are limited and confined, cable advertisement is a perfect channel for micro target groups. You can compare cable advertisements with other television advertisements, cable advertisements are very cheap. You can achieve frequency on a limited budget, which often moves fence-sitters into action. Televsion advertisements may be missed by viewers due to bouquet of channels and the cable viewers are always in a fickle mood to switchover from channel to channel. There are many cities in India, where the viewers watched cable channel for their local news, films and some non-fiction programmmes. Because the private satellite channels are either in Hindi or English. In some states, you will find private regional channels. But in maximium states, the viewers have to satisfy with the only Doordarchan’s regional channel because they have no aternatives and the viewers need more entertainment programmes.

Cable operators take this opportunity by telecasting some regional films, songs and local news. It is also found that, these cable channels have a large viewership in compare to other satellite channels. So for a local advertiser, cable channels allow to communicate enough information to prompt people to call for an appointment, send in an order or request additional information. If you think about the medium’s cost in terms of the number of the number of people it will reach, then it will be the unbeatable vehicle for your advertisement. You can enhance and stretch the power of other existing advertising you might be doing. Though televison overcomes the barrier of literacy which is a major obstracle as far as print media is concerned.

In cable advertising, you may be able to reach a different segment of the population, one that doesn’t read newspapers or magazines. Overally, it fulfills all the functions of television advertising with a cost of less than the print media.

InCable is a leading cable and satellite distributing company in Hyderabad and subhurbs. The MSO distributes the signals through a single control tower connecting to small cable operators through optic fibre cable covering a radius of 30 Kms. In the local cable channel, InCable telecast two telugu news programmes, three movies (two tulugu and one hindi) daily. Though it telecast basically two types of programes, the ad tariff slots have catagorised into morning, matinee, night and news slots.

ETV Oriya, a 24 hour satellite regional channel, telecated oriya programmes exclusively for oriya viewers. This regional channel has covered larger geographical and demographical area than cable channels. ETV Oriya telecast at least 20 programmes round the clock. The ad tariff in a regional channel is catagorised on the basis of programme’s television rating point (TRP). In ETV Oriya, the tariff slots are divided in five groups (O1, O2, O3, O4, and O5). The duration of advertisemnt is calculated in 10 seconds. Whereas in local cable channel, the advertiser will be offered two types of slots ( 20 and 30 secconds). The rate for 10-second advertising slot in prime time (20:00 hrs) in regional channel is just 38 times less than regional channel. If you compare the same slot in a national channel, the difference is hell and haven (around 400 times). After this finding, the big advertisers are turned up towards the local cable advertising.

How to place your advertisement in cable

A ten second spot in television is actually equivalent to 80-second spot in cable television. One also has number of choices on the hand. You may produce an advertisement for 30 second spot or you can telecast the 10 second advertisement for eight times. A 30 second advertisement may contain more visual and information, which can portray your sale massage very attractively and effectively. The most important thing is the ability to target specific groups of viewers. A clothing store specializing in kids cloths can advertise on matinee movie. It is not a matter to count number of eyeballs watching your advertisement but a careful targeted audience that gets results for your business. The next phase is to book a slot in a cable television.

Cable rates are highly negotiable. Some channels will cost more than others. The zones you choose to send your spots to, the size of your town, and the time of year, all have an impact on the spot price you pay. Don’t wait until the last minute to place your spots. Plan weeks in advance. Placing your order early will ensure you get the times and channels you want at a lower price. Call the sales department of your local cable operator. Find out spot rates and coverage areas. Before entering into the trade, make a sketch of your plan. It may need some research and good planning. You should have a ‘second look’ on your advertisement before releasing to the cable operators. Do not leave everything on media sales people, because they are good at devising clever strategies to use your entire ad budget. It is better to trust your own instincts and stick to your plan.

When you are buying cable slot, think horizontally, not vertically, when scheduling your advertisements. In other words, advertise on the same few networks at the same few times on the same few days of the week, week after week, month after month. The goal is to reach the same people over and over again. This is the best way to reach to your consumer. The consumer is exposed to your advertisement repeatedly. The best formula to reach a person with a second and third exposure to your ad is to go back to the same channel at the same time on the same day of the week that you reached him the first time. Do not scatter your ads across many different networks at many different times of the day. Yes, it will reach too many people with too little repetition to ever secure in their minds. It is nothing but to reach 100 percent of your city and persuade them 10 percent. But it is always better to reach 10 percent and persuade them 100 percent.

Conclusion

Due to powerful and persuasive advertising medium, cable advertising is become a smart choice of small and medium marketers. By positioning itself as an alternative to network television, cable television has found itself judged using the same parameter of network television that of mass reach and low cost. If you compare with magazine and direct mails, cable will score higher on its audiovisual capabilities. This is where cable should innovate. Cable industry can develop a time selling framework that lets advertisers buy cable slots on a local cable system basis. Now cable television is booming in a rapid way. MSOs are expanding their business not only in term of the number of subscribers but also in term of number of people employed by them. They should have separate advertising department that looks after this trade. In some cities, the big advertisers are also turned up towards cable advertising. No doubt it is a cheap ad but at the same time it is a chief trade.

Sources:

http://www.businessworldindia.com/archive/201113/cover1.htm

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inimr-ri.nsf/en/gr119406e.html

http://www.equitymaster.com/research-it/sector-info/media/

http://www.mpw.org/cable_why_advertise.htm

http://www.etv.co.in/etv_d3/sponsership.php?channelname=Network&fromhome=index

http://www.incableap.com/adtariff.htm

The author is a media researcher in Journalism Department of ICFAI University. He has five years experience in electronic media in the field of Public Relations and Media Relations. His qualifications include a Master in Journalism and Mass Communication, had special paper Advertising and Public Relations.

Your Slogan is the “Headline” for Your Business

Tell people in a short phrase or sentence what you want them to know or remember about your business. The best ones conjure up a strong mental image, that will be forever linked with you in their memories. A little wit, humor, insight, unusual (yet relevant) spin goes a long way toward making it stick.

If you don’t stand out during the famous first impression, (or in a later contact) there won’t be anything for them to recall later. They’ll draw a blank – which means they don’t feel any connection to you at all. So few businesses have a good slogan (also called a tag line), yet it’s an easy way to distinguish yourself from the rest.

Finding the Phrase that Defines the Enterprise Isn’t Easy – But is Worth it

Choose one that people will easily relate to and remember. Don’t make it too long or complicated. And avoid the bland phrase that’s not unique to your business. Saying, “We aim to please” could apply to any type of business, and really doesn’t aim very high.

Imagine a much more potent a phrase like, “On-time Delivery or It’s Half Price.” That certainly sets you apart from the competition! People will notice, and they’ll hold you to it. You can be sure they won’t forget it. Your next challenge would be to live up to it.

A printer’s card showing camels in a row and stating, “We take the humps out of problems,” emphasized its service orientation. Notice the words and image reinforce each other. That’s filed in the brain as an image, rather than information. Such amusing impressions are much more likely to be recalled than XYZ Printers.

The Slogan is Your Verbal Logo – Weave the Words and Images Together

A tagline can be as important as your logo, since it delivers your most direct message. It should send a reassuring message that attracts precisely those customers you can best serve. Weave it into your image (via color or font) so they appear as a unit. It’s more powerful and likely to be remembered that way.

Once you adopt one, use it constantly. Put the phrase everywhere the business name or logo appears.

State your slogan aloud at every opportunity. Have everyone who works with the enterprise say it in every business contact, sale, or telephone greeting. And practice saying it with emphasis and enthusiasm – not just another “have a nice day” substitute. Ugh!

The up-beat repetition of the words reinforces the message you want people to recall about your enterprise – with an emotional charge as well. And it helps for you to take the words to heart as business policies and decisions are made. For example, people would note the irony of a slogan promising good customer services, when they’ve just been treated poorly.

Kinds of Tag Lines - Statement of purpose, philosophy, or mission statement - Motto or slogan - Pledge - Policy - Guarantee - Jingle - Pun, joke, or play on words - Relevant quote or aphorism - or a takeoff on one

Defining Your Business Slogan is a Rite of Passage

Finding your unique and powerful slogan isn’t easy. It’s hard to distill a business philosophy or personality into a single phrase. But it is incredibly potent when it hits the mark. The public notices those businesses that have pulled it off in a positive way.

Very few operations have bothered to find an effective slogan, and it seldom happens until other aspects of the business “jell.” That’s the true importance of the effort to find yours.

Businesses that have all their parts working together communicate to the public in a way that other enterprises don’t. And one of they things they communicate: “We have our act together.” You can bet that customers prefer to do business with those that do.

Copyright 2005 Off the Page

Dr. Lynella Grant Consultant and Author - Promote yourself, business, website, or book with online articles http://www.promotewitharticles.com Free how-to. Or let me write and submit your articles online for you. No learning curves (719) 359-5575

The most successful a company is the most it advertises. Big companies have big advertisement budgets – they spend crores of rupees every month on advertisements. They are not advertising because they are successful, they are successful because they advertised and they are advertising shrewdly. In stiff competition of the modern age no venture or business can have any hope of success unless they advertise heavily and wisely. Suppose you have a wonderful and unique product but nobody would buy it till the people know about it. The solution – you have to tell the people about its qualities and availability. Then many of them will start buying it and your business vehicle will run.

SPARK PLUG OF YOUR BUSINESS

In fact, advertisement is like the spark plug of business. The engine of your business vehicle won’t run without it. The first secret of business success is having a valuable and good product the second is letting the people know that you have such a product.

There was TV shop. The owner was a sincere and hard-working man. He talked politely and kept quality TVs. He was so popular that customers came to him again and again. Then one day, a smart man opened a new TV shop in another building. This man believed in power of advertisements. Thus he started advertising in local newspaper regularly and put up banners and boards at busy cross roads. In the beginning he found it very tough to get customers. He was losing money. But his faith in advertisement was immense so he continued advertising and telling the people about the extra benefits they would get if they bought TVs from his shop. Soon customers flocked to his shop and he had roaring business. Then he increased his budget of advertising so that it could become difficult for his competitors to challenge him. After some time people forgot the old shopkeeper and he was out of business. It was all due to the impact of wise advertising.

SUCCESS OF INDIAN TELECOM

India is big in telecom sector too. Great success of Reliance, Tata, Airtel and BSNL in telecommunication is the direct result of effective advertisement campain. They almost bombarded the media with juicy ads which could hook the customers to their company, and they succeeded. Campaign of Reliance was more aggressive from the beginning throwing into its account more than 5 million just in two years customers. A rare feat in this industry. Deeply moved by Reliance others companies also poured a large amount of their budget into innovative advertisement campaigns and they too were handsomely rewarded by the customers.

COLA WARS AND ADVERTISEMENT

When there was no Pepsi the king of the cold drinks was Coca-Cola. The group who wanted to launch Pepsi thought they had a marvellous product and they also knew about the power of advertisement. They planned innovative publicity techniques and invested a lot of money in advertisements. Soon Pepsi became a powerful competitor. Pepsi is still using the same old technique to have lead over Coke everywhere. Both of these companies eliminated the competition from the whichever country they entered with the sheer force of their advertisement war.

PEOPLE LOVE ADVERTISED PRODUCTS

Multinational companies succeed because they advertise so heavily that the people start forgetting the local products. Most of the people demand for those products which are advertised again and again. It is psychology of the people. If they buy an unadvertised product they feel an inferiority complex. Heavily advertised product becomes a status symbol for them. They love to buy a branded product and show it to others proudly. Visit any big shop of your area and you can see it yourself that people rarely buy those products which are not advertised. The bigger the advertisements the better the sale.

Advertisements not only supply products according to the demand but they also have power to mould the taste of the public. So advertise … advertise… advertise …

Anandrahi
CEO: News of India Network
Director: LSE-India (for Communication
Skills and Personality Development)

Trained thousands of persons to get great jobs, improve personality and achieve goals in business.

Best-selling Books written by Anandrahi: 1. Think Your Way to Wealth and Power
2. Fire of Success in Your Mind
3. Speak English and Influence People (To get an ebook write an email).

emails:
anandrahi@newsofindia.net
anandrahi@yahoo.co.in

I’ve seen it all. The good, the bad and the ugly of Web site design. And the more I analyze what’s on the Web, the sadder I get, because the Web has become open game for Web site designers with bad taste and no plan.

On the other hand, there are many talented Web designers to choose from. But talent will only take one so far. A designer has to understand and master the essence of design: Design with purpose, Create with purpose, and Implement with purpose.

As with the world of print, TV, and radio, a designer must design with four specific goals in mind:

Branding Good branding makes the cash register ring. Take Fox News as a case in point. Unlike CNN or MSNBC, Fox strives to be a bit more edgy and bold — and they lead the pack. Their logo animation, bumper graphics, and over-the-shoulder graphics are bright primary colors. Even their music is a bit edgier with guitar riffs versus the subdued music tones of the other stations.

Concept A great concept on a shoe-string budget will blow away a weak concept on a multi-million dollar budget any day. For example, how many truck or SUV commercials have you seen with guys careening through mud or snow-covered mountain passes as the words scream out “Chevy Tough” or “Ford, Built to Last.” I can’t believe executives at these car companies spend millions each year on poorly conceived advertising campaigns.

Now, see if you remember this one. A mother is about to drop her child off at school, and asks if he’d rather get dropped off at the curb instead of directly in-front of the school. The child says, “nah, that’s okay mom.” He steps down from the Hummer and strolls up to the school entrance while an older student, with his eyes glued to the Hummer, says “cool.” This is a “concept;” a very well executed concept. It strongly conveys an attitude. Even Hummer’s theme music has attitude. The branding and concept raises the Hummer’s image above the rest.

Your Web site or your client’s Web site should convey this type of branding and concept. Think outside the box. Look at other well executed designs for inspiration. Don’t look at the industry, look at the design. Just because you’re building a Web site for a golf course doesn’t mean you should only Google golf courses in your research. Look beyond. Here are some great Web site resources for creative inspiration.

http://www.commarts.com
CA- Communication Arts, the online counterpart of Communication Arts magazine.
http://www.designinteract.com
Design Interact, The premier source of information and inspiration for the field of interactive media.
http://www.coolhomepages.com
Cool Home Pages, Great resource for designer’s block.

Communication During my career in broadcast graphics we would churn out graphics for the evening news. Many of them were “over-the-shoulder” graphics which appeared behind the anchor as they delivered the story. The main philosophy I constantly ingrained into my design team was:“If it doesn’t read – it doesn’t work.” In other words, if the volume of the TV is turned off, the viewer should know what the story is about without the presence of text or title.

Your Web site should project that same philosophy. Ask yourself, does it immediately communicate my message? In television your message is “one click” away from the next channel. On the World Wide Web, you’re one mouse click away from a potential customer moving on.

If you own an e-commerce site, do you expend Web real estate endlessly talking about yourself, or do you get right down to business by featuring your products? If you own an industry or business site, do you have fancy animation with glitzy music, or does your site convey a serious professional business image?

Make sure your Web designer is communicating well with the public. Solid thinking translated into clear messages works every time.

Focus Test Want good feedback? Want good direction? Try a grassroots focus test.

Late one evening after some finger breaking work on some all important Flash animation, the cleaning crew entered my office. I asked, “What do you guys think?” They replied, “What is it?”

I was taken back. Ouch!!! I had fallen into the old trap of not being able to see the forest for the trees. This is an all too common problem among creative types. Design work tends to be a labor of love, and you can get too close to your project without seeing the big picture.

Get feedback, it’s the breakfast of champions. Ask your team, neighbor, spouse, significant other — ask anyone but yourself. And once you step out on the ledge, make sure you’re ready for negative feedback. Learn to embrace it and use it to develop into a better professional. Growing some thick skin will also be helpful.

To see what I mean, visit www.webpagesthatsuck.com.

About the Author http://www.visionefx.net - Visionefx President Ricardo Vidallon has been in the creative business of advertising, cable broadcast, animation and the World Wide Web for more than two decades. His work has been featured on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc., Fox News and NBC Entertainment. His career track in Web consultancy includes the global companies of Reynolds and Reynolds, CMGI Solutions, and Automark, Inc.

Out of 100 products, 90 never get past the initial development and testing stages, of the 10 that do 7 will fail in the market within 3 years.

To make matters worse 80% of new businesses are gone within 3-5 years!

WHY?

Because a higher number of the Business Owners have no idea how to sell, promote, advertising or market their products. Most Business Owners are brilliant in their fields of expertise or they have a great product, but they couldn’t market or advertising their way out of a wet paper bag!

If you are serious about YOUR business then read every single word on this page. You see today I’m covering a subject that sent a lot of those 80% of businesses to an early grave!

"Image and Brand Advertising"

Sometimes when people go into business, they feel they have to throw heaps of money at advertising because that’s what the “Top Guns” do isn’t it?

We are surrounded by image advertising everywhere we look. It’s in our face 24/7. Half the time, we are a compete loss as to what the business is actually trying to sell?

And let’s face it, most of us who are in business just don’t have money to burn. As an entrepreneur every dollar must be watched, after all the reason we go into business in the first place is to make a profit right?

“Image Advertising” is the type of ad campaign that use music, sexy women and men, dancing, singing and then end with the company’s logo. They give absolutely no reason for the buyer to take immediate action in most cases.

Unless you are a huge company like Coca Cola or Nike, and have very deep pockets, this type of advertising will do nothing to attract “top of mind awareness”. Using “Image” advertising is one of the major traps that traditional and online businesses fall into today. People get wound up trying to be clever, cutesy or creative that they forget WHY they’re advertising the first place.

Now correct me if I’m wrong, buy wouldn’t you agree the whole reason for spending big bucks on advertising and marketing is to make money? So don’t go getting trapped in all that glitz and glamour. Think about the number one reason for being in business. (Yes, apart from the money!)

It’s to serve your customer. Because let’s not forget, it’s them who has the money you want in their pockets! If you really want to make all that money you’ve been dreaming of for years – I’ll tell you how to get it.

DIRECT RESPONSE ADVERTISNG! Yep and you will get a response with Direct Response Advertising, You will get results, you will get orders, you will build a very profitable database, you will build customer loyalty and you will make money. It’s a fact.

What you have to keep in mind is that your prospects don’t give a hoot about your company image. All they want is to know your product or service can take away his pain and give him pleasure. The more benefits you through their way, they more likely they will move towards a buying decision!

By the way, even though your prospect doesn’t care to deeply about your credentials, what they will want to know is what PROOF you can show them about how great your product or service is.

Tell them about this, give them testimonials, tell they you’ve been to seminars on you topic all over the world, tell they you’re up with the ‘latest and greatest’ tell them you conduct seminars on this topic. Sooth their anxieties.

In everything you do, give people reasons why they should believe in you, so they’ll buy.

Now just to clarify this once more, the difference between an “image ad” and a “direct response ad” is this.

An image ad is all about the company image. It has no call to action and is totally focused on the business and not the prospect. It’s purpose is merely to put a company name or message in front of the general public. This type of advertising is not trackable I any specific way.

A Direct Response Ad is trackable. It’s asks of the prospect to take action in some way. Usually by phone, email, mail, coupons download etc. This means you can measure the effectiveness of the direct response ad and know if you are getting a return on investment.

Here’s Something You Must Never Forget…

The only reason you ever advertise to get a response. You want your prospect to be compelled to take immediate action. You want them to call or visit your business. You want them to download your information now. You want them to become loyal customers. Nothing else is worthy of your hard-earned money!

Once you’re using direct response ads, you can keep track of the results, measure what the bottom line comes to and know whether to keep running the ad or to drop it. It’s that simple! If you were running and image ad, there wouldn’t be any way to track the results…it just wouldn’t happen.

And whatever you do, don’t forget to track your results and keep records. This way you can improve your ads and work out which ones bring in the most money!

Smarter Business Leads specialize in using Low Cost Advertising & Marketing Ideas that will explode your businesses cash register. Check them out at http://www.smarterbusinessleads.com if you hurry they may even send you a free report go to http://www.smarterbusinessleads.com now.