Advertising gives way to marketing communication

Our Bureau / Kolkata
Advertising is dead. Long live advertising.

Industry experts think the term advertising is a misnomer and ought to be replaced by marketing communication with the latter being the operative word.

Anil Jain, general manager, RK Swamy/BBDO, said as markets were becoming more porous and accessible, advertising was nothing but a spoke in the wheel of marketing communication and other disciplines like direct marketing and rural marketing evolve.

Advertising is not only about being at Cannes but about non-personalised dissemination of commercial information, Jain remarked.

He was speaking at a seminar on the role of advertising in the society at large at the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI).

Advertising was one of the major catalysts of economic growth besides providing product information at the micro level is also responsible for creating vendor jobs at a macro level.

"Products like credit cards, telecommunication services after getting recognition through communication outsource parts of their business to relevant stakeholders thus creating further jobs as part of the cycle," Jain explained.

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) receives about 70 to 80 complaints a month regarding the advertising content, representation and the likes, 50 per cent of which are found faulty and the council addresses the problem accordingly, Jain added.

Jain said the medicinal sector should be completely opened up for advertising albeit with befitting regulations and structuring.

This would empower customers to become more aware about drugs and their usage and able to even address issues of the dangers of self-medication.

Advertising should ideally contribute in making a true knowledge-based society and has contributed actively to social issues like the Green Revolution by taking up causes sometimes beyond commercial considerations, said Surojit Nag, senior vice-president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Advertising and Sales Promotion Company.

The physical part of the economic transformation would comprise infrastructure addition and improvement but advertising has a graver responsibility of motivating and influencing human minds, Nag said.