Chaptr-1

Objective of the Study

As a student of marketing I encouraged to find the similarities between the learning and real world situation. So, this can be considered as the objective of the study in a broader sense.

Advertising, one of the core terms of Marketing, is vital for every business organization. And the ad agencies are producing these advertisements and informing the people about company as well as about the products and services. The ad agencies are doing one the most important marketing tasks. The main objective of the study of is to understand the real scenery of the ad agencies and to get a practical knowledge about the activities of an ad agency.

In my academic courses, I have got lots of theoretical ideas about advertisements and ad agencies. By doing this study, I am now able to compare what I have learned in my course with the realistic corporate world.

 Methodology of the study

Since response is one of the prime ad-agencies in Bangladesh, the topic and objective of the report was such that only primary data wasn’t enough. But try to get some relevant data through their archival documents.

Primary Research: Several face-to face interviews with right designated people of the company were practiced. The interviewee was the Mr.A.N.A. Anwar, the consultant, communication and Polash Kundu, media executive

Secondary Research: Among the secondary research internet (Company website) and prospectus, scripts, archival documents of the company are the source of information collection.

 Limitations of the study

There were some limitations in gathering information for this report. These are as follows:

ð The main limitation I faced in preparing this report was obstacles in finding information.

ð Getting Relevant papers and documents were quite prohibited.

ð Many procedural matters were conducted directly in the operations by the top management level which may also gave some sort of restrictions.

ð Moreover, it was not possible to get all required information of the company as these are treated as confidential company information.

Chapter: 2

Background of the Response ad ltd

Mr. Iftikher Ahmed, a prominent advertising personality of the country, established Response Advertising Ltd. He started his career with Bitopi Advertising Ltd., a Leo Burnett associate in Bangladesh, in 1977 and came out in 1996 achieving the level of   Director, Client Service. In 1997, he established the Response Advertising Ltd with a vision to produce high quality advertisements. He has a vast experience of handling local and multinational clients like SMC, Nestle Bangladesh Ltd., Bata, Olympic Industries Ltd. and many other prominent business organizations. He is enriched with the hand on experience of conducting both commercial and social motivational campaign

Objective of the firm

Response Advertising Ltd, teamed up with seasoned advertising professionals, provide complete agency service for its clientele. To keep up with the highly competitive market Response is always unyielding to provide the best possible services in advertising planning, execution, evaluation and monitoring. Since the inception in 1997 Response endeavor to produce the type of advertising that really works for the client and ultimately hold up the mutual business growth factor. To Response society is the platform of communication and they believe, respect to the values of people is inevitable for successful communication.

The Services its offer

Pre promotional market study

Promotional planning

Media planning & execution

Advertising production- print & electronic media

Post campaign market study

Event planning & management

General market study

Major  clients

Haque Group of Industries

Monno Group of Industries

Multiplan Limited

Meridian Foods Ltd.

Bata Shoe Co. (Bangladesh) Ltd.

Kallol Group of Companies

Rigs Marketing

Fujian Electronics Industries Ltd.

Bangladesh National Women’s Lawyers Association (BNWLA)

Bangladesh Women’s Health Coalition (BWHC)

The Stillman Company inc. USA

Golden Life Insurance Ltd.

Major Competitors

The advertisement industry is one of the most competitive one in Bangladesh. There are a large number of advertisement firms are doing their business in our country. Some firms already have achieved global fame and doing business in collaborated with some world famous bank. The response ad firm has a large number of competitors. So doing business in ad industry Is so easy task.

The name of some high ranked ad firms of Bangladesh is given as follows:

Asiatic

Bitopi

Adcomm ltd.

Penguin Advertisers

The Prime Advertising

Mediacom Limited

AD TODAY

The Dhaka Advertising

 Organizational structure

An overall description of an Ad agency

An advertising agency handles part or all marketing communications activities on behalf of a client organization. The agencies themselves tend to vary in size from small, perhaps a handful of people, to vast – where many thousands of employees make up the company. A commission is generally taken by the agency which tends to be taken from the media purchases of the client organisation.

This is done rather like a theatrical agent would take a percentage of the income of an actor for whom employment had been found. The agency may also take payment from the media owners (i.e. sometimes take a discount and do not pass it on to the client). More transparent means of payment are becoming more popular, with some agencies being paid-by-results.

There are many types of agency, but it is generally accepted that the main ones are include full-service agency, a la carte agency, or specialist agency. A full-service agency will take on the whole project or campaign. An a la carte agency will offer some aspects of a campaign such as media buying, rather like buying items from a menu. A specialist agency tends to be small and more focused on a specific aspect of marketing communications and/or a specific market such as Internet Marketing.

A Full-Service Agency will offer:

• Account management.
• Creative.
• Media.
• Traffic and production.
• Account planning.
• Account management.

Account managers work for an agency with the client (an agency’s customers are called ‘clients’). Very often they will spend a lot of time with the client working as part of their marketing team. This is one way in which an agency works closely with its client and why the ‘chemistry’ between a client and its agency needs to be right. The account manager makes sure that the correct information is passed from the client to the other members of the agency. He or she is a co-ordinator and time manager. The account planner will work on a brief that is fed back to the agency team.

Creative Team

The first internal agency team members to see the brief tend to be the creatives and the media planners. The brief contains a ‘proposition’ that the client wishes to communicate to the target audience. The creative team will transform the proposition into something exciting and attractive to the target audience. The creative team decide upon the ‘creative concept.’ This will be a motivational idea. The words used to express the creative concept are called ‘copy.’ The images, pictures and diagrams are created i.e. the ‘design’ or ‘layout.’ This is done by ‘designers’ and ‘copywriters.’ Beware some creatives! Creatives tend to be artistic and innovative. Hence their advice should be highly regarded and any criticism should be constructive.

Traffic and Production Team

The traffic and media team are in charge of the production of the physical and artistic output, i.e. the marketing communication. In the case of a TV advert, they would commission scripts, recruit a ctors (mainly via agents), film crews and supporting activities (such as costumes and catering). All ads are different and so the specifics will vary. In the case of print advertising, the traffic and production team would commission and sign-off all printed advertising material such as direct marketing materials, magazine ads or posters.

Account Planning Team

The account planning team work on the ‘customer’s’ perspective, and take an outward look at the world. They support the creative teams by supplying data and opinion on what I actually occurring in the marketing in which advertising is to be placed. They tend to use secondary data to support decisions, and would rarely commission original research. However, with material supplied my organisations such as Mori, Datamonitor, ACORN, and other – the account planning team can build an image of segments to help the creatives.

Media Team

The media team will organise the timing and scheduling of the marketing communications campaign. They will look at the range of media to be exploited, and then look at the best slots in which to run advertising. They will help a client to decide upon the duration of and individual slot, and how many of them to run. Here the expense and return to the client are key factors that influence decision-making. The two main skills of the media team are media planning and media buying. Today there is a wealth of data on which media buying can be based. There is software for planning and simulation.

The roles play by “RESPONSE”

“RESPONSE” as an add-agency plays certain types of roles to different discipline. The followings are several roles played by “Response”-

Role as an add-agency

As an ad-agency “RESPONSE” plays the role of middleman  to establish link between the clients and the media partner. It is very successful in doing this job. It could manage various successful brands like BATA, Monno Ceramic, Hoque Brothers, meridian foods etc to be their clients. Also it could manage all the medias including print and on air. As we discussed earlier it was able to make and provide us with various nice adds which not only gave us the information or message about the particular products but also helped increased the sale of the products.

Role playing to the clients:

The role of “RESPONSE” should not be underestimated in making time needing and entertaining ads. It is also careful about the message of the ads. It gives emphasize in giving the right message for right products so that the consumers can know and understand the product properly. It also helps the clients to manage the advertising medias to allow space and time for their products. Sometimes it provides their clients with financial help.

Role-playing to the media:

First of all “RESPONSE” is responsible for collecting clients for the medias to whom they can sale their spaces and times. It also provides the medias with time needing and entertaining adds. Thus the medias are assured that they are showing customers the quality ads.

Role-playing to the society:

It would not be wrong if we say that societies are indebts to the ad-agencies to be aware themselves about such products of with which they were not familiar even. It is ad-agencies which is responsible for making people aware of the products like various types of insurance policies; fixed accounts, savings accounts and many other unsought products. As we mentioned earlier, “RESPONSE” also provides the society with these types of ads. It also increased the standard of living of our society as it introduced people with various new and modern products. It also helps the society in reshaping its culture.

Response’s experience in media

Television

Spot booking and sponsoring program for the clients.

Radio

Spot booking and program sponsoring for the clients

Print Media

Press Advertisement. All sorts of print materials i.e. Sticker, Poster, Brochure, Leaflet, Newsletter, Pamphlet, Folder, Calendar & Diary etc.

Outdoor

Hoarding, Billboard, Banner,  Neon Sign, Bell Sign, Festoon etc.

Film Production

TVC and any type of documentary.

Event management

Arranging and conducting events for clients such as seminars, promotional events, public relations etc.

Non-Conventional

Jatrapala, Jarigaan, Street canvassers, fair and festivals.

Experiences and achievements

Since 1997, after the birth of Response Advertising ltd., It has always been sincere to give the best to our clients. It’s unique efforts and cordial nurture of the brands have made them prominent in market. To present a few of them:

Haque Brothers industries Ltd. started going with Response in 1997. Response launched Haque’s NIC NAC Chocolate, Vitamin Plus and Digestive Biscuit with great success.

After one-year campaign they became popular brands and are still cutting above in the market. Now Response is going to launch their other brands like Chanachur, Cereal etc.

Response launched Fujian Fridge in 1998 and made one of the fast selling brand  within a short time.

Monno Group of Industries is Response’s starting partner too. Response produced corporate films and  several TVCs for Monno Ceramic and Monno Fabrics aiming the foreign and local market. Response is proud to say that they have brought significant prospect for the brands.

Meridian Foods Limited became Response’s associate in mid ’99. We differentiate it’s Chips with the advantage of chicken and shrimp taste and they are now enjoying almost 50% share of this category market.

Response launched Fresh Soyabean Oil and Fresh pure drinking water successfully. Fresh pure drinking water is now one of the market leaders and fresh Soyabean oil is also selling very good.

In last few years, Response just stuck to sincerity, hard work and standard. If these are it’s success, it is the out come of our teamwork and extreme level of professionalism.

The social communication team

Response social communication team is specially trained in country and abroad in planning, organizing and executing communication program in an effective way. The team members are persons of repute in their specialized sector and are crowned with legendary successes. Their innovative communication strategies for creating awareness of family planning and diarrhea prevention have been highly esteemed. Presently, the team is successfully conducting campaign on women’s right for BNWLA.

Foreign association

Indigo Productions, a complete production house in Kolkata run by Indrani Halder and Arnab Banerjee  Riingo is our `Creative & Production Associate’ since 2003. The creative cell of Indigo,led by an ex-Grey like Riingo, works in collaboration with the Response Creative Team. Indigo is empowered with all modern technical & human resource support from Kolkata and Mumbai to make every production a successful one.

The process of advertising

                                                                                                                                                  (With an practical example)

After getting the primary call from Bata, Response Advertising made a meeting in own organization. The team- Managing Director, Account (Bata) executive, creative and visualize or graphic designer, At first they create a well prepared presentation and design on Bata (Bubble gummer Brand).

Then the Account executive Mr. Shahidul Islam made a appointment with Mr. Ekramuzzaman, Advertising Manager of Bata. They consult with each other for better branding. This type of consultation may be arising two or three times and finally goes to a standard level.

After finalize a layout of Add. The Ad manger of Bata passed if for published or broadcasting and he gave to responses executive a work-order. Then Mr. Shahid make an insertion on the press add and for TVC.  He arranged the shooting parts.

After published press add Mr. Shahid made a bill to Bata and one other bill for TVC production cost and media spot  buying cost. Here point must be noted that, the media budget had been already submitted to Bata before the execution of ad.

After 45 days of executive day BATA paid the bill. RESPONSE income about 15% compensation from BATA.

How “RESPONSE” gains client

“RESPONSE” gains clients generally through

• Referrals

•  Solicitation

•  Presentations

•  Public relations &

•  Image & reputation

How “response” gains clients through these elements are given below-

Referrals

“Response” obtains new clients as a result of referrals from existing clients, media representatives and other agencies because it maintains good working relationships with their clients, the media and outside parties that provide business to it.

Solicitation

“RESPONSE” develops a group to seek out and establish contact with new clients. The group is responsible for waiting solicitation letters, making cold calls and following up on leads.

Presentaion

Through presentations, “RESPONSE” can gain clients because here it gets the opportunity to sell itself to describe its experience, personnel, capabilities and operating procedures as well as to demonstrate its previous work.

Public Relation

“RESPONSE” also gains clients through public relations efforts. It participates in civic and social groups and work with charitable organizations to earn respect in the community.

Image and Reputation

“RESPONSE” can gain clients through image and reputation. It develops excellent campaigns that are often approached by clients.

“RESPONSE” gained the following clients through the following methods-

Types of Advertising

                                                                                                             (example from Response)

“RESPONSE” produces Three types of advertisings mainly. These are-

•   INFORMATIVE

•   PERSUASIVE

•   REMINDER

Informative

“RESPONSE” uses informative advertisement to introduce new products and services. Here, for informative advertisement “RESPONSE” uses information that is taken from technical reports, company-prepared sales literature or written testimonials from persons who have used the product.

EXAMPLE:  MERIDIAN NIMKI.

Persuasive

Persuasive advertisement is used by “RESPONSE” to influence the prospects beliefs, attitudes or behavior to encourage buyer action. This advertisement is used when the need is identified and the customers have selected a suitable product. Here the Ad is done to give information about the benefits of the product.

EXAMPLE: Hoque pillow Chips.

Reminder

“RESPONSE” uses the reminder advertisement to maintain its customers. It is done to maintain an outgoing awareness and familiarity with the advertisement of its products.

EXAMPLE:   Hoque Chanachur.

Specialty of “RESPONSE”

“RESPONSE” has a strong growing strategy. It is the first Agency in Bangladesh, which could achieve six big brands in its first three years. “RESPONSE” was related with Ad club of Bangladesh from the very beginning. It stands with a crystal image and strong reputation by its honesty and high experience

Compensation for Promotional Activities

There is no special or significant promotional activity taken by “RESPONSE”. But for special clients it allows 2%-5% commission. Here we design the compensation rate of response to its client to measure the discounts it allows to its different clients.

The figure shows that . “RESPONSE” allows Houque Brother, Multiplan and Meridian food 5% commission as their promotional activities.

Different Parts of an Ad

Headline

The headline contains the words in the leading position in the advertisement – The words that will be read first and situated to draw the must attention. That is why headlines usually appear in danger type that other parts of the ad.

Sub headlines

While many ads have only 1 headline, it is also common ( in print media ) to use print ads containing the main head and one or more secondary heads or subheads. Subheads are usually smaller than the main headline. But larger than the body copy. They may appear above or below the main headline or within the body copy.

Types of headlines:

Directive headline:

The directive headlines are used more often in written advertising. The objective with this appeal is to get the prospect to act now. For example- “Seek our service in case of emergency”.

  News headline:

The headline gives a specific news item. For example- “ Over 1 million women in Bangladesh use our products.

   Slogan headlines:

The headlines may be used in the format a slogan pointing at a particular product or service to motivate the readers. For example: “ Biman- Ur home in the air”.

Rational headlines:

This headline is used to urge readers to show the rational behavior in purchase decision. For example- “ Delivery within 24 hours or 24 hours service”.

Curiosity headlines:

Some advertising use curiosity headlines to get readers interested in the product or service they advertise. For example: “Win fabulous prices” or only 3 days left.”

Emotional headlines:

Some ad may use emotional headlines effectively with the products or services advertised. For example- “ Donate blood save life.”

Question- Style headline:

LUXURY CAR? (SENSES)

Body copy or copy

Copy is the word message of advertising. The copy is usually the heart of ad message, getting the audience to read, it is often difficult. Copy includes the word message, whether for print, radio, or television. In the printed ad, it consists of the printed words. Most ads rely heavily on copy, the words that the make up the headlines and message. The people who create those words called copywriters mu8st contents of that can be said about a product into a few relevant points.

Approaches copy to writing:

Before copy is written, the copywriter should answer the few basic ques which are given below –

• What am I advertising or selling?
• To whom am I advertising or selling?
• How can I best convey the message or concept to the reader?
• Where & how the advertised product will be sold?
• When the product will be purchased or used?

Properties / Feature/ qualities / characteristics of a good copy:

• Be Brief
• Be clear
• Be Apt
• Be interesting
• Be personal
• Be sincere & convincing
• Uniqueness
• Use of appropriate figure
• Artistic layout
• Acceptability

Slogans

Many slogans also called theme lines or taglines begin as successful headlines, like “AT & T” ; Reach out & touch someone’s through continuous use they become standard statement, not just in advertising but for salespeople & company employees.

Suggestions for writing slogan:

• Include the brand or firm name in the slogan if possible.
• Include the most significant idea or theme.
• Be brief.
• Make the slogan specific & unique
• Avoid the clever or tricky slogan.
• Utilize devices used in poetry to aid in memorizing the slogan.

Different part of an ad (Practical)

(example from Response)

                       Some Examples of Press ads

                                           (From response)

LEAFLET

                                                                                                                          (example from Response)

BILLBOARD

                                                                                                                (example from Response)

DANGLER

                                                                              (example from Response)

Chapter:4

             Media buying for BATA: Electronic

Media buying is monetary contract between the ad agency and different ad media such as electronic and print media. Different media require different amount of money for broadcasting and telecasting advertisements. Here the detail cost for the advertisements in different media for a specific product for example Bata shoe is given for better understand. 

Estimate of Bata Shoe for Eid – Ul – fitre ’07 Campaign.

(Spot duration – 30 Sec)

Note:

• Channel i will give 1: 1 bonus spots against buying spot for J B News. Bonus spot will be broadcast within off peak time.

For Radio Today

(Spot duration – 30 Sec)

Estimate of Bata Shoe Eid – Ul – fitre ’07 Campaign through e – media

(Spot duration – 40 Sec)

Estimate of Bata Shoe for Eid – Ul – fitre ’07 Campaign through Radio Today

(Spot duration – 30 Sec)

Estimate of Bata Shoe for 24 hours open till Chandraat Campaign through Radio Today

Spot Duration             : 20 sec

Period                         : 10 October-Chand Raat, 13 October’07(4 days)

                    Media Buying for BATA: Press

Newspaper Schedule for Eid-Ul-Fitre Campaign 2007

 Financial terms of Response Ltd.

The business billing of Response ltd

Response started its business with a very high ambition. The growth rate was very high. Within very short time it achieved huge success. But, ultimately, it failed to retain its good position in the industry. From the following graph we can say that in its first year operation it earned Tk.150 million. Up to 2004, the growth rate was upward. From 2005, the growth rate started to downward. There are a number of reasons for this downward rate. High competition, lack of expert employees and not having enough capital are the main reasons for this bad condition.

Fig

The profit of Response Ad limited

There is a standard rate of margin for the advertisement firm which is 15% of the total bill. The profit of the advertising firm comes from the commission which gets from the company for which the ad is made.

But, now a day’s, because of intensive completion the commission rate is decreasing day by day. Response imposes different commission rate to different companies. From some clients, it takes 15%, from others 10% and also takes 5% commission. On average its commission is 10%.

 Contribution to Business world

Advertising agencies are on of the most important part of today’s business world. These firms are directly related with the marketing of products or services. The business organizations only produce the products or services but to reach to the ultimate customers they need to depend on Ad agencies. The ad agencies are playing vital role in the business world through the following ways:

Introduce the Products or Services to customers

After producing the product or services, the business organizations need to inform the customer about the products or services. Unless the customers get the information about any new product or service, the business firms can not do any business. The ad agencies perform this task successfully. The firms make the advertisement for product. They make advertisements on the basis of customer psychology. A single successful advertisement can greatly influence the customers and can change the total scenario of the business organization. The response advertising Ltd. has produced many ads for a number of new business organizations.

Expansion of Business

Now a day, in the competitive market, the success of a business firm mostly depends on the advertisements. Sine can greatly influence the customers and prospects, so ad can help to increase the sale of products or services. When the sale increases, the organization needs to expand their business. Ultimately, if we look deeply we see that the ad agencies are playing the major role for the expansion and development of the business organization. “The Multiplan business Organization” is now one of the top business organizations in our country which is the contribution of Response Advertising Ltd.

Improving living Standard of People

Ad agencies improve the living standard of people by creating proper advertisements. When a countries business condition is in good position, the economic condition of the people becomes better. People can buy more things since they have enough money in their hands. Each and every day, the ad agencies are informing the customers about new products and services and also influencing the customers to buy these products which can make life easier and more comfortable.

Cerate Employment Opportunities

With the expansion of business, more employment opportunities create to the country. When all the people get a good job, their income will increase as well as country’s total income will also increase.

Practical and theoretical aspects

It’s true that there are a number of differences between the theoretical and practical knowledge. In real life, the theoretical knowledge is not always applicable in the practical field. So, when we do work in a firm, we face the real situation. This situation tells what needs to do.

Theoretically, we gather some knowledge about advertising and advertising agencies, which are not always found in practical. Some examples are given below-

• Client Gaining features are not appropriate for all firm.

• 15% compensation may not work all time.

• Syndicate buyers capture media. That’s why sometimes the agency buy media easily.

• All ad parts are not maintain all time

Recommendations and Conclusion

Maintaining good relationship with the clients and electronic and press media is the key functions of Advertising agencies. After doing my internship in this organization, I Have come to know some real scenery of the form. On the basis of my knowledge, few recommendations are given below:

ð The internal relation among all of the staffs and the director should improve.

ð The director needs to take more care about the employees.

ð The necessary information should be easier for the third person like us.

ð The organization needs arrange more fund to run the business more smoothly.

ð The form should to hire and encourage qualified women employees to make a healthy gender balance.

ð It should take more steps to be well known in the market.

Conclusion

Response Advertising Ltd. is indeed a very fast growing ad agency. After the successful establishment, it has been doing profitable business up to now. It has already produced advertisements for many national and multinational companies such as Bata shoe, Monno Ceramics, Multiplan and Houqe brothers etc. The firm has introduced many new and modern ideas in the ad industry.

Since the form has a very strong creative team, it can make exceptional advertisements very quickly. The firm has already achieved large number of rewards from different companies. Years of experience has made the firm expert in producing strong and customer influencing advertisements very quickly and smoothly.

It has always been sincere to give the best to its clients. Its unique efforts and cordial nurture of the brands have made them prominent in market. It is a full service agency provides number of services alongside producing advertisements. Its expert media, Creative and Communication teams are playing a vital role for the firm as well as for the ad industry. Its contribution to the country’s business sector is very much crucial.

Bibliography

1. Different Books of advertisement.
2. Leaflets and
3. Brochure of the agency.
4. Internet.
5. Employees of the firm.