Deccan Herald Advertising Seminar, Harvest 2006

I attended the advertising seminar, Harvest 2006 (held at the Taj West End Hotel, Bangalore on the 4th of Jan) out of pure curiosity about the Advertising industry. There has been tremendous growth and transformation in the media and advertising landscape in sync with India's rapid growth in the Globalization age. Not surprisingly, the theme of this year's seminar was "Advertising on the Global Stage". The event on paper had a decent line up of speakers, but their true quality was evident when they took the stage to deliver some very informative and inspirational speeches. I will summarize the 3 speeches that I believe stood out for their insight into the marketing and advertising industry.

1. Lalith Seth, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, Raj Tours and Travels.

Raj Travels is the biggest Indian success story in the Travel industry. They hold a market share larger than their next 3 competitors put together and are all set to monopolize the industry in India. They also plan to get into aviation by launching their own airline very soon. Raj tours was rated as the no. 1 foreign tours and travel company in India by BBC last year. The speaker founded this company from scratch whose climb to the top as the most successful entrpreneur in the Indian travel industry is extremely inspirational. The sound bites from his speech follow:

• Have an indepth understanding of what your competitors are doing and see where you can improve.
• Do a lot of goodwill marketing - Raj travels provided free refreshments to the people waiting in queues for visa interviews outside the US consulate. They also pushed the government for the creation of a pavilion outside the counsulate to shelter these people. Great marketing at little cost for a travel agency!
• Understand the consumer and all his/her intricacies.
• Marketing is the whole package - The quality of product and service are part of the marketing package.
• Respect and value your entire team - keep them happy.
• Be proud of the Indian brand. We need to get over the myth that foreigners can deliver better than us.
• Engage the best ad agency for you advertising but remember that no one understands your business better than you yourself. Therefore you should provide in depth information about it to the agency. The script of the ad should be written by you personally.
• Remember that today's consumer is very smart and you should advertise nothing but the truth.
• Always deliver more than your consumer expects. This will result in great mouth to mouth marketing.
• Advice to youngsters planning to startup: Remember nothing is impossible, Read as much as possible and have a desire to better than the best in the world.