“Online advertising is important to us since we are an online entity and the products and services that we offer are all available online. At present, we advertise offline in local trains, TV channels and other mediums. It is difficult to say how much we spend on each medium but it does amount to a few crores.
All the four P’s of marketing- product, price, placement and promotion-can be implemented online, which is not possible offline
Vibhas Mehta, Group Partners Relation Manager, Shaadi.com
“In online advertising, we can clearly set our target audience as we know their interests, age and gender. This is not possible in offline advertising as we do not know who exactly we would be catering to. A mixture of online and offline advertising is necessary, which is enabled by technology.
“In online advertising, we can be sure that the user has a need and there is the option of offering him exactly what he wants. Online, we can customise what we offer to the shopper. Just a few basic questions to understand his needs and we can offer him a deal accordingly. Moreover, the online method is measurable. We can know where the customer learnt about us. For online customers, more information is just a click away. They can go to a specific option, click on it and get additional data. Even when we offer something to the customer online, we can ask him some details such as his interests and spending limit and then offer a product.
“We cannot afford to ignore offline advertising totally though, because the older age group of the population who try and fix alliances still prefer to scan matrimonial ads in newspapers-and this is quite a large number. Besides, there are a few drawbacks with online advertising, the major one being inadequate penetration of the Internet. Internet usage in villages is much lesser than in metros, which makes it difficult to reach that segment. Bandwidth problems in India make matters worse. We use Flash and interactive media in our online ads that are data-heavy and may not load properly if the bandwidth is not supportive.”
The advantages of offline advertising lie in the placement of ads
Creative has been in the Indian market for the past 16 years. Initially, we produced only sound cards but today, we have a wide range of products from sound cards to multimedia kits, CD-ROMs, speakers and even MP3 players. Creative be credited for converting the PC from a calculating device to an entertainment unit.
“Strategically, we do not allocate any budget for online or offline advertising. However, we advertise offline in a major way as we have been getting good results from it. We advertise in IT magazines and to a certain extent, in lifestyle magazines. It wouldn’t be useful for us to advertise in glamour magazines as their readers are not our target audience.
Rajshekhar Bhatt, Sales and Marketing Manager (India), Creative Technologies
“I think combining offline and online advertising would provide the desired results as we would be able to reach out to a wider group. In India, people still use dial-up connections to access the Internet and more so for checking e-mails. If online advertisements are data-heavy, it may be a problem to view them.
“The advantages of offline advertising lie in the placement of the ads. If an ad is placed in an IT magazine, you can be sure that it will reach your desired audience. If you advertise in a particular magazine regularly and there is a set pattern or way of presenting your ads, you can be sure that the customer would definitely notice the ad whenever he flips through the magazine.
“The drawback in offline advertising is that if the customer have missed your ad in the newspaper t oday, he has probably missed it forever. Besides, if he were to see an ad with some offer for a particular time period, he would not be eligible for it at a later date. Hence, the impact of the ad is lost.
“Also, once printed, the ad cannot be changed. If you want a different ad to appear, it means an additional expenditure. On the other hand, if you have a 30-day contract with a portal, you have an option of changing ads every 10 days at no extra cost.”
I feel innovation is required in offline advertising. It is very essential to educate the reader about the product and the more ways you do that, the better