Analyzing the Marketing Strategy of J. Walter Thomson Asiatic to Strengthen the Advertising Industry of Pakistan

Abstract

The human life in general and the business world in particular has been profoundly affected by the service industry. Today, Information technology and communication networking systems have revolutionalized the functioning of businesses thus providing them more opportunities to offer diversified, unique & more effective services often independently or as a part of the product being offered.The history of advertising can be traced back to the city of Babylon 5,000 years ago. Advertising agencies were first formed in Britain in the early 1800s. The primary source of income of the advertisement agencies still remains the traditional 'discount', the 'commission in today's advertising jargon’. Today no facet of our lives remain untouched by advertising.There are some who call advertising the second oldest profession. The pun is intended to highlight the importance of advertising which has existed through the antiquity though the art has been honed into a science with the all-encompassing dawn of the communications era which leaves no life untouched today. The advent of PC, Internet, e-commerce, desk-top publishing, and computer-assisted designing has changed the way of advertising today. It is important for tomorrow's professionals to understand how this rapidly changing global environment influences communication decisions about research, strategy, media, execution, and so on. Like the rest of the world the communications revolution has changed the face of the advertising industry in Pakistan. Pakistani advertising industry has come along in last 53 years when its annual expenditure added up to mere few hundred thousand rupees to touch the Rs.5 billion mark this year. The industrialized world producing mass goods and services was forced to find greater markets to absorb these products necessitating the need to look for overseas markets. The overall fallout of this tendency on the part of the developed world ultimately spilled out to developing countries such as Pakistan where the multinational companies in particular, and local competitors in general, geared up their advertisement campaigns.Today Pakistani advertising industry comprises over 200 agencies of all shapes and sizes. However, the term advertising industry is used for some six dozen members of Pakistan Advertising Association (PAA) which include the major media and research based agencies. There are no institutes to create such academic qualified professionals as script writers, directors, modeling, editing, film making, production, etc. It is imperative that the government should establish, or encourage establishing, such institutions to impart basic electronics media advertising to improve the quality of advertising on the electronics media, the main beneficiary is the state-owned Pakistan Television. Several external factors affect the expected performance of the advertising industry.• Technology • Governmental Regulation • Tax • Demographics 2 First, increases in technology have enabled firms to collect vast amounts of data regarding demographics, spending patterns, consumer demand, and expectations. Also, website “hit counters” helps agencies obtain information on consumer response. Second, governmental regulation is also a factor in agency performance. Domestic and international governments have the ability to decide what can be advertised, for instance tobacco advertising on television is illegal. Federal regulatory agencies such as the Pakistan Association of Advertising Agencies have developed a code of conduct that the industry must follow. This nongovernmental agency can be used to persuade or discourage federal agencies in taking legal action. Third, national tax regulations can have either a positive or negative impact on agencies. The imposition of the 10 per cent presumptive tax last year is destabilizing the business in terms of lay-offs and predicted that it would result in the closures, takeovers and mergers. The practice is also resulting in the failure to improve the production, creativity and quality of the advertisements which can be improved if the advertisers choose not to demand for it.Last, demographic trends have produced further segmented markets and new challenges.3 The major competitors of JWT Asiatic are Orient McCann Erickson Pvt Ltd, Interflow Communications Pvt. Ltd and Manhattan Communications Pvt Ltd.