Advertisers find print still stronger than electronic media | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Advertisers find print still stronger than electronic media

LAHORE: The significance of the print medium can never be overlooked because other advertising channels, including the electronic media, do not have such strength and flexibility as the newspapers and magazines do. A printed message gives information to readers with more convenience than other means of communication do.

These observations were made by Manhattan Pakistan’s Resident Director Brig (r) Muhammad Zubair Rehan, while talking to The Post during an interview here the other day.

Zubair maintained that with the increase in the literacy rate the printed-message would. assume even more importance. He said that although the penetration of the electronic media was more, it was not suitable for certain products. For example, he pointed out, there would be very low response if one advertised a commercial of a luxury product on a satellite channel because research revealed that buyers of luxury goods would hardly had time to watch TV, adding that they prefer to read only leading newspapers to update themselves.

He said as the world was changing, coming forth was an era of the media and advertisement. New advertising and communication channels were being introduced while a major shift was seen in the use of old mediums, he noted.

Talking about the training of human resource, Zubair said a master’s degree in mass communication was a must as advertising was risky which should not be used without proper education and training. He said a lot of investment was involved even in a single advertisement, which could either increase the graph of the product or put the advertiser’s money in trash.

Responding to a query, he said no ad agency could launch any product in the market without proper market research, the study of weakness and strengths of the product and a comparative analysis of competitors’ strategy and products. Otherwise, he believed, there was a chance that the product would not get the required feedback, no matter how useful be the product.

He said the majority of advertisers had graduated as the next generation of seths (top level) businessmen was entering the market.

He said the new generation was dynamic and educated and knew what the advertising research was and how it could help in getting better returns.

He gave an example of some local advertisers who had transformed their products into well known brands over a period of a few years just because of proper market research and effective marketing and advertisement.

Mr Zubair, who was quite optimist about the future of advertising, said currently the market size stood at around Rs 2 billion, which could be doubled in the next few years. He said the advertising budgets of both public and private sector campaigns were swelling as new satellite channels and newspapers were entering the market.

Zubair belongs to the third generation as his grandfather started the venture about 54 years ago. It was the time when only a few people knew about the tricks of the trade as there were a few advertising agencies operating at that time.
Source: The Post
Date:9/20/2007