SO, IMAGE ISN'T EVERYTHING?  Continued

So what are they going to do about it? Lazarus rallies the troops: "We have serious issues, the world is changing, we need to lead, we need to be active, and we need to be committed. That is not a passive thing".

O yeah?

We have heard that one before, haven't we? But guess who answered the call? Take the case of Gateway, the PC direct marketer. Facing the grim reality that PC sales were grinding to a halt, Vice President Anil Arora came up with a brilliant strategy in 1998 called Your:)Ware. The ads were unspectacular, but the idea of tying in Internet access, a PC, and customized software is suddenly turning a dwindling PC customer base into a profitable marketing solution. (Gateway’s profits grew by 20.7%, even though PC sales dropped 14% !). This had nothing to do with image, and everything to do with infusing new life into a product.

Which brings us to the related problem facing the advertising world which the Umberto Initiative did not mention: it had grown so specialized that it is out of touch with marketing --which is the raison d’être of its existence. Many ad people are technically savvy, but there are far too few who understand the nuts and bolts of the marketplace. Educated in the school of ‘swoosh’, Sony and Absolut, the ‘big idea’ graduates have a rude awakening: Image isn’t everything! It shouldn’t comes as a surprise. Advertising recruitment is so trapped in ‘portfolio evaluation’ that it sends the wrong message: that execution is more important than strategy. Like resumes, portfolios always showcase the end result, rather than the process. "How do we recruit in the face of the dynamic and creative opportunities in media and technology that are springing up before our eyes?" asks Lazarus? The answer is probably staring her in the face: Look outside the pond. Where do we recruit if the adjoining pond is going through a similar drought? Q&E chairman, Vijith Kannangara (who was from ‘outside the pond’, so to speak) has an interesting proposition that cannot be dismissed: Virtual Account teams. The idea here is not to drag in the old multinational idea of a Strategic Planner in the Singapore office and Media Planner in the Bombay affiliate teaming with the Creative Director in Kalubowila. Finding marketing solutions to marketing problems must become a pro-active, agency-led activity; the ad agency should cease to think of ads as their end product. In this scenario, the physical structure of the ‘agency’, in the conventional sense, becomes irrelevant.

In India, an agency called Triton Communications is looking at advertising as "a fully fledged discipline for building a brand". Quintin Coello, VP of Triton bemoans the use of fancy jargon and a lot of hogwash. It once used to lure clients but now drags the ad agency down. "We are witnessing today the demise of the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) as we knew it…we need to start thinking upside down, inside out, back to front, every which way but the obvious." Triton’s solution? A genetic approach to brand building ("fingerprinting") that looks at a wide range of factors governing how it can be marketed.

So as the Umberto Initiative recommends, can an educational campaign with books and videos fix the poverty of talent? I seriously doubt it. Surprisingly, the ad industry is not looking at the larger context of their problem. While they are extremely good at analyzing marketing situations and prescribing cures for products and services from airlines to zoos, they fail to realize that the hostile environment is not something that can be fixed with PR and goodwill. Advertising has taken a corner just as much as Marketing has forced us to alter our speed limits. It’s easy to blame someone else for your problem. It’s difficult to see the problem as something that needs fixing from within.

Speaking of blame, there is a joke about a man in a hot air balloon –adapted for advertising. The poor fellow, drifting for awhile realizes he is lost. When he spots a man below, he lowers his altitude, getting close enough to call out:

"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised some folks I would deliver this balloon to them half an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

"Yes", replies the man below , "you are hovering approximately 30 feet above this field. You are between 40 and 42 degrees N. latitude, and between 58 and 60 degrees W. longitude."

"You must be an strategic planner" says the balloonist, a bit cynical.

"I am" replies the man. "How in heaven did you know?"

"Well" says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost."

To which the man below says "You must be a marketing manager."

"I am" replies the balloonist, "but how on earth did you know?"

"Well", says the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you are going. You launched a product, which you have no idea how to handle, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were in before we met, but now it is somehow my fault."