Client agency relationship in advertising

The client agency relationship starts when the client appoints the advertising agency for making an ad. It continues as long as the agency provides services to the client. Such a relation should always be cordial. There should be mutual trust, confidence and understanding between the two parties. This is because the basic objective of both parties is the same, i.e. to make a successful ad.

Lack of mutual trust will be harmful to both the parties. It is, therefore, necessary to maintain cordial relations between the client and agency.

1. Meaningful two-way communication is required for maintaining friendly client-agency relationship.
2. For maintaining a good relationship both parties have to make special efforts.
3. The approach of give-and-take is required for maintaining relations over a long period.

Important guidelines or suggestions for maintaining a cordial client agency relationship are grouped under following three categories:

1. Suggestions for both the parties (client and agency).
2. Guidelines for the client (advertiser), and
3. Advice to the ad agency.

Suggestions for both parties to maintain client agency relationship are as follows:

1. There should be a mutual understanding between client and agency.
2. Misunderstanding or confusion, if any, between the two parties should be improved quickly through direct talks.
3. The agency should work sincerely and honestly to bring a success to the client's ad campaign.
4. Both parties should follow the terms and conditions of the contract properly.
5. There should be a good communication between the two parties. Hence, meetings between client and agency shall be arranged regularly.
6. There should be good relations between them.

Guidelines for the advertiser to preserve client agency relationship:

1. Treat the agency with courtesy at all times and never hurt its ego.
2. Provide all possible information about the product which is advertised and about the organisation. This helps the agency to make a better ad.
3. Don't unnecessarily bargain for the fees charged by the agency.
4. Motivate the agency to do a good work. Its charges such as media bills, fees and other costs must be paid well in time. The client should not wait for the agency to remind him about the payment dues.
5. Don't change the agency without a proper reason.
6. Approve the proposals submitted by the agency. The client should not argue without a proper reason.
7. Give sufficient time to the agency to develop a good ad campaign. The client should not pressurize it to work quickly. He should avoid giving deadlines.
8. Reduce disputes to a minimum.
9. Finalize in advance the charges for a particular ad campaign.
10. Give the agency all necessary information that will help it to make a good ad campaign.

Advice to the agency to keep a good client-agency relationship are listed below:

1. The agency should work hard for the success of the client's ad campaign.
2. It should make a very good advertising plan and must implement it efficiently and effectively. However, first it must get the approval from the client.
3. It is the duty of the account executive of the agency to keep the client happy and satisfied.
4. It should not charge unreasonably high rates.
5. It should not make ads for the client's competitor.
6. It should get all the information from the market that will help to create better ads for the client.
7. Discuss the ad fees with the client in advance to avoid disputes.
8. Disclose to the client the names of the team members (employees) that are working on his ad campaign.
9. Inform the client about any changes at the agency.
10. Never hurt the client's ego. The agency should always provide timely services to the client and try its best to satisfy him.

So keeping a good client agency relationship in advertising is crucial for the success of both parties.

Disable Primary, Social and Promotions Tabs in Gmail

Recently, it came to my notice that the interface of my Gmail account has changed a bit. Earlier, I enjoyed the simplicity of accessing my emails by just logging in and quickly reading every new message with a single-click. However, now, it takes me few more clicks (also few more seconds of my life) to read recent emails in my mailbox.

This has happened so since my emails are now getting categorized or grouped under three new tabs namely;

1. Primary,
2. Social and
3. Promotions.

This change is a result of Google regularly tweaking its free email service, the Gmail. In its recent update, they implemented some new tweaks and abruptly changed the default interface of Gmail.

Now when you login into your Gmail you'll see that, your recent emails are getting grouped under three new tabs called primary, social and promotions. These can be seen at the top of Gmail's interface without any need to scroll in your browser's window.

Click on screenshots given below to see before and after change to Gmail's default interface.

Earlier, before any change was made to Gmail, its default interface looked like this ↓

Later, when the update was made live Gmail's interface changed to this ↓

First of all, I really appreciate Google for their hard work of regularly tweaking and enhancing the Gmail's interface. I sincerely adore them for continuously improving their web services.

However, the recent change of grouping new emails under primary, social and promotion's tabs somewhat annoyed me. It is taking few more seconds to read my emails than before. This is slightly affecting my productivity. I think this has also now set as a default setting. All I can remember is that I was not asked for any confirmation as Google usually does. It seems that this change was made default without a Gmail user's consent.

Right now, I still prefer the old good look and want to reset my Gmail's interface back to its earlier simple mode. Like me, if you also want to disable primary, social and promotion's tabs (now possibly default) from your Gmail's interface, then follow and try out instructions (or steps) given below:

1. First, open the Gmail.com. Now enter your username and password to login into your inbox.
2. After logging in, now click on ‘Settings’ (look for a wheel-like icon) which is at the top-right corner of your Gmail's interface.
3. Click on ‘Configure inbox’.
4. Uncheck or deselect the social and promotion's choice options.
5. Finally, click Save.

Viola! You have successfully disabled the primary, social and promotion's tab. Now you shall see your inbox is reverted back to its earlier simple mode. Your emails are no longer getting grouped, and all fall under one common category.

You may also see that Gmail is now displaying an alert-message at the top-right corner beside your account name. This message says something like this,

“Inbox tabs are switched off. Click the ‘Settings’ button and choose ‘Configure inbox’ to bring them back.”

Note: To enable new tabs again, you can simply go back to configure inbox and check the same.

Alternate method to disable the primary, social and promotion's tabs in Gmail:

1. First, open the Gmail.com. Now enter your username and password to login into your inbox.
2. After logging in, now click on ‘Settings’ (look for a wheel-like icon) which is at the top-right corner of your Gmail's interface.
3. Click on Settings.
4. Now under settings, click on ‘Inbox’.
5. In ‘Categories’, uncheck the Social and Promotions choice.
6. Finally, click on the ‘Save’ button to make changes effective.

Note: To enable new tabs again you can simply go back to inbox (under settings) and the tick or check the tabs you want.

I hope these instructions helped you to enhance your Gmail experience.

Organizational structure of advertising agency

Advertising agency must have a suitable internal organizational structure to keep functioning properly with a smooth workflow.

When an advertising agency decides to establish its organizational structure, it must ask itself important questions like:

1. What is the suitability and/or requirement of a department?
2. How the span of control should be within an agency?
3. Is there any mechanism or provision to make communication and coordination more effective within an agency? So on.

All advertising agencies don't have a same organizational structure. Their structure varies from one agency to another. It is so, since, all organizations are unique and their objectives, requirements, functional areas and specialized departments are not common.

Diagram, an example of organizational structure of advertising agency.

The organizational structure of an ad agency becomes more complex with its expansion and growth. Smaller agencies usually have a simple organization-structure compared to giant ones who have ample funds and resources to carry out their large and growing operations in the field of advertising.

Departments of advertising agency

The main functional departments of advertising agency:

1. Contact department,
2. Media department,
3. Copy department,
4. Art department,
5. production department
6. Research department,
7. Accounting and finance department,
8. Public relations department and
9. Office management.

Now let's discuss these important functional departments of an advertising agency along with specialized-functions assigned to them.

1. Contact department

Contact department of advertising agency keeps contact with their prospective clients, who are mostly advertisers.

The functions of contact department are as follows:

1. Contact department supplies necessary information to the clients.
2. It tries to increase and retain the number of clients of agency.
3. It brings new clients to the agency which is crucial for increasing revenue, expansion and growth.
4. It acts as a liaison authority (connection) between the advertising agency and its clients.
5. It acts as a sales promotion department of the ad agency.
6. It finds out new clients and promotes the business of agency.

The contact department of ad agency comes under accounting services. Account Executive is the head of it.

Efficient working of this department results in quick growth of ad agency.

2. Media department

Media department of advertising agency selects the best-media for advertising the products of the clients.

While selecting a media for advertising it must consider the following:

• Nature of the product,
• Competition in the market,
• Advertising budget of the client,
• Media trends, etc.

The functions of media department are as follows:

1. Select and use the best media possible to communicate the ad message to the consumers. This is very important function because a wrong selection will result in the failure of product.
2. Prepare a media plan for clients.
3. Media scheduling.
4. Supervise the execution of the schedule.
5. Buy or book an advertising time and space in media for client.
6. Keep contact with various media.

Media department of ad agency comes under marketing services.

3. Copy department

The main function of a copy department of advertising agency is to prepare an attractive copy-of-ad.

The copy of advertisement is very crucial. It is called the Heart of the AD. It is so, since it directly communicates the ad-message to the consumers.

The staff of this department includes copywriters, copy-supervisors, and others. They use their talent of imagination, skill of putting flair and fluent language while preparing a copy.

The advertising will be a failure if the copy is not appealing to consumers. The copy-staff works in close co-operation with the staff of the art and visualization branch.

The head of copy department is a Copy Chief. He directs the functioning of it.

The copy branch is perhaps the largest department of ad agency. It comprises of a hard-working team of qualified professionals and experienced staff.

Some agencies have a creative branch instead of it that does the entire work of preparing an advertisement. Here, preparing an ad copy, artwork and actual production of ad are all linked together and executed completely by this department alone.

4. Art department

Art department of advertising agency uses the power of creativity and to make ad more appealing and agreeable. Its activity is not a mechanical one. It uses the principles of real art (that works) as a guideline or base to present a product to the targeted audience.

Generally, the art department carries out following work:

1. Transform the ad-message into a self-communicating and mind-stimulating imagery.
2. Prepare visuals and layouts for press advertisement.
3. Make painted bulletins, posters, car cards, illustrations, slogans, etc.

Art Director heads this department of ad agency. He is assisted by an assistant-art director, artists, visualizers and layout men.

The artists of art department work together with copywriters to make the final copy of advertisement more attractive.

Both departments of art and copy operates under the overall guidance and supervision of vice-president of creative services.

Not all ad agencies have a separate art department. Some prefer to outsource their art-related work to freelance artists.

5. Production department

The copy of advertisement is finalized by artists and copywriters. It is then sent to the production department of an advertising agency for its further processing.

As the copy reaches this department, its proper mechanical production begins.

The main role of a production department is to process & produce a final ad.

This department's traditional work activities usually are as follows:

1. Keep in contact with printing press, typographers, photo engravers, etc.
2. Assemble the typographic design patterns, engraved photos, illustrations, copy, etc. and prepare the final advertisement.
3. Show it to the client (advertiser) and get his approval for its release.
4. Send it (after approval) to print media like magazines, newspapers, etc. for advertising.

With advancements in technology, the use of print media is gradually slowly down. The digital media is now an emerging trend. As a result, some production houses have started adapting to this change. Now their work also includes activities like:

1. Keep in contact with digital artists, web designers, etc.
2. Assemble the work of digital art and prepare a final digital-ad.
3. Seek approval of it from an advertiser.
4. Send it (after approval) to digital media like the Internet, e-magazines, web videos, etc. mainly for online advertising.

This department is headed by a production manager.

Production department of ad agency comes under creative services.

Not all ad agencies have a separate production department. Some prefer to outsource their production-related work to others.

6. Research department

The success of an advertising agency greatly depends on the success of the client's ad campaign. Today, achieving success is not an easier task. It is getting very difficult now-a-days because of rising market competition. With so many alternatives and choices at hand, already well-established goodwill and trust on older brands, it is now tougher to attract and convince consumers. However, against all odds hope still exists.

To stand out from the plethora of availability and make the client's products and/or services attractive, needs not only huge amount of tedious work but also some good amount of research to begin with.

One must remember that without knowing, What to do? How to do? When to do? And where to do? Nothing can be achieved. However, with right direction and approach, everything can be made possible.

Therefore, the importance of research department in advertising is rising.

The main function of research department of advertising agency is to:

1. Carry out research and obtain the necessary information.
2. Engage in a rigorous and critical analysis of the obtained information.
3. Use the findings (results) in different ways to achieving objectives.

Generally, this department collects information about:

• Market,
• Market competition,
• Market trends,
• Products and/or services,
• Competitors,
• Consumer behavior,
• Media trends,
• New trends in advertising, so on.

Agency makes use of above information for executing a good ad campaign.

The team of a typical research department usually comprises of:

• Investigators,
• Field workers,
• Analysts,
• Marketing assistants,
• Statisticians,
• Librarian and the staff of library, etc.

This team works under the guidance and direction a Research Director, who is the head of research department.

Research department comes under marketing services of ad agency.

Although research activities are highly beneficial, they do consume an ample amount of time, money and resources. Generally, small ad agencies can't afford such resource-intense activities and therefore, prefer not to keep a separate research-branch. They either do research on a smaller scale or use the data obtained by others. On its contrary, large-agencies prefer to maintain their own research-subsidiaries and don't take the risk compromising with the quality and genuineness of the obtained data.

7. Accounting and finance department

The main duty of accounting and finance department of advertising agency is to look after its financial and accounting matters.

The work activity of this department is usually as follows:

1. Generate or raise invoices (bills) on clients (parties).
2. Send regular reminder to the client for collection of unpaid dues.
3. Book the expenses of vendor parties on a timely basis.
4. Issue payments to vendor parties within or on the due date.
5. Doing reconciliation (compare) of banks, vendors and customers' ledger accounts regularly.
6. Deposit government dues on a timely basis in authorized banks.

The main staff of this department usually comprises of:

1. Chief financial officer (CFO),
2. Accounts receivable manager,
3. Accounts payable manager,
4. Accounts supervisors and
5. Accounts executives.

This staff works under the guidance and supervision of vice-president of accounting services. He is the head of this department.

8. Public relations department

The main responsibility of a public relations (PR) department is to maintain cordial relationship between advertising agency, clients and media.

Generally, the PR department carries out following work:

1. Address the complaints of the customers.
2. Solve their complaints as soon as possible.
3. Be a link between ad-agency, clients, media and society.
4. Create goodwill and maintain the reputation of ad agency.

Public Relations Officer (PRO) is the head of this department, and his subordinates assist him regularly to maintain a cordial environment.

The PR department functions under the authority of management.

9. Office Management

The definition of office management according to Mills and Standingford,

“The art of guiding the personnel of the office in the use of materials, methods, machines and equipment appropriate to their environment in order to achieve its specified purpose.”

Generally, office management involves following important activities:

1. Recruit office staff.
2. Training and development of new joined staff.
3. Promotion of an existing staff.
4. Transfer of a timely salary and perquisites (perks) to staff.
5. Providing welfare facilities to staff.
6. Correspondence to various internal and external parties.
7. Filing and record keeping of all the important documents.

Office-management of advertising agency operates under its management services.

Is marketing research scientific or not?

Marketing research is not a pure science like physics and chemistry. It is a social science. It uses scientific methods for solving marketing problems. It uses an observational and experimental method for collecting data. These methods are very scientific. MR is very practical and systematic. It doesn't use trial or error method or guess work.

We can find out whether marketing research is scientific or not by answering following important questions:

1. Qualification of researchers involved.
2. Is the process ending or never-ending?
3. Is it using the available knowledge?
4. Whether it is open to self-correction or not?
5. Is it based on systematic approach or not?
6. Whether decisions taken are accurate or not?
7. Whether the objective of the study is less or more?

Based on above points let's briefly explain whether MR is scientific or not?

1. Qualification of researchers :
   1. Scientific method is conducted by highly qualified, trained and experienced people.
   2. Marketing research is also conducted by highly qualified, trained arid experienced people.
2. Continuous process :
   1. Scientific method is a continuous and never-ending process.
   2. Marketing research is also a continuous process.
3. Use of available knowledge :
   1. Scientific method uses the available knowledge to discover new knowledge.
   2. Marketing research also uses the available knowledge to solve problems.
4. Self-correction :
   1. Scientific method encourages doubts, criticism, and it is open to correction.
   2. Marketing research also encourages doubts, criticism, and it is open to correction.
5. Based on systematic approach :
   1. Scientific method has a well-defined procedure. It is conducted step-by-step.
   2. Marketing research also has a well-defined procedure. It is conducted step-by-step.
6. Quality of decisions :
   1. The decisions based on the scientific method are very accurate.
   2. The decisions based on Marketing research are less accurate compared to decisions based on the scientific method.
7. Objective study :
   1. Scientific method is very objective.
   2. Marketing research is also objective. However, it is less-objective compared to a scientific method.

Some difficulties in applying scientific methods to marketing research:

1. Science draws accurate conclusions. Marketing research cannot draw accurate-conclusions. This is because MR studies human behavior. The behavior of humans is unpredictable. It goes on changing.
2. Science makes accurate measurements. Marketing research cannot make such accurate-measurements. This is because MR studies human behavior. It is very difficult to measure behavior of human. There is no devise to measure behavior of human accurately.
3. Science conducts experiments in the laboratory under controlled conditions. This is impossible in case of marketing research because human behavior cannot be studied inside a laboratory.
4. Science studies each factor independently. However, this is impossible in case of marketing research because human behavior cannot be studied separately. The behavior of human is influenced by many factors such as his interest, values, attitudes, etc. All of these factors have to be studied together and not alone.
5. Science gives accurate results. It gives identical results at different times and places. For e.g., the law of gravity is the same at various times and places. However, this is impossible in case of marketing research. This is because human beings give distinct responses at varied times. A person may give different answers for the same question at different-times.
6. In science, the researchers are not biased. However, in marketing research, the researchers may be biased. That is, they may manipulate (change) the data in order to get a favorite result.

Based on the above discussion, we can conclude that:

1. Marketing research is very systematic.
2. It uses a scientific method.
3. It is not a pure science like physics and chemistry.
4. It is a social science.

Difference Between Market Research vs Marketing Research

Following image shows five important points of comparison used to find out the difference between Market Research vs Marketing Research (MR).

Image credits © Prof. Mudit Katyani.

Distinguish between market research and marketing research is based on following five points:

1. Meaning of market research and marketing research (MR).
2. Their prime or main objective.
3. Limited or wide scope.
4. Their relation or is a branch of.
5. Independent or not, narrow or broad term.

Now let's differentiate market research and marketing research (MR) on above points.

1. Meaning :
   1. Market research collects data about market, market competition, market trends, market demand and supply, etc. It finds out answers for the following questions:
      • What to sell?
      • Where to sell?
      • When to sell? and
      • How much to sell?
      It also does sales forecasting. It estimates the demand for new products. It also fixes sales territories and sales quotas.
   2. Marketing research collects and analyses data for solving marketing problems. It also aids in taking marketing decisions. It facilitates in controlling the marketing activities. It is very systematic, scientific and objective.
2. Objective :
   1. The main objective of market research is to:
      • Study the entire market, i.e. its nature, size, location, demand potential, etc.
      • Fix sales territories and sales quotas.
   2. The main objective of marketing research (MR) is to:
      • Solve the marketing problems.
      • Find out present and future marketing opportunities.
3. Scope :
   1. The scope of market research is limited. It only studies the market.
   2. The scope of marketing research (MR) is very wide. It covers all areas of marketing. It includes:
      • Product research,
      • Packaging research,
      • Pricing research,
      • Market research,
      • Sales research, etc.
      It is used:
      • For solving marketing decision,
      • For taking marketing policies,
      • To select marketing channels, advertising agency, sales promotion measures, etc.
4. Relation :
   1. Market research is a branch of marketing research.
   2. Marketing research is a branch of Marketing Information System (MIS).
5. Independent :
   1. Market research is not independent. It is a narrow term.
   2. Marketing research is independent. It is a very broad and wide term.

Steps in marketing research process

Following image depicts the steps in a marketing research process.

Image credits © Prof. Mudit Katyani.

The twelve stages or steps in a marketing research process are:

1. Problem identification,
2. Problem definition,
3. Research design,
4. Determining data needs,
5. Determining data sources,
6. Sampling design,
7. Designing questionnaire,
8. Field staff selection,
9. Collection and processing of data,
10. Analysis and interpretation of data,
11. Project reporting and
12. Follow up.

Now let's discuss above steps involved in a marketing research process.

1. Problem identification

The first step in a marketing research process is to identify the problem or opportunity. The problem may be about decrease in sales, increase in competition, expansion of market, etc.

2. Problem definition

The second step in a marketing research process is to define the problem. In this stage, the researcher must understand the problem correctly. He must find out the scope of the problem, the type of information needed, etc. If the problem is not defined properly, then it will result in waste of time, money and resources.

3. Research design

The third step in a marketing research process is to prepare research design.

Research design is a plan for conducting a research. It guides the researcher in data collection. It gives proper direction to the research.

There are three types of research designs:

1. Exploratory research,
2. Descriptive Research and
3. Experimental Research.

All three types are used for marketing research.

4. Determining data needs

The fourth step in a marketing research process is to determine the data needs. The researcher must consider the following issues:

1. Whether to use primary data or secondary data or both.
2. The accuracy and reliability of the data.
3. The availability of accurate and reliable data.
4. The cost and time required to collect the data.

5. Determining data sources

The fifth step in a marketing research process is to determine the data sources.

The researcher decides the sources of collecting data. The two main sources are secondary data and primary data.

The researcher first collects secondary data. This is because it is easily available and less costly. It is collected by Desk Research. Desk Research can be internal for e.g. collected from company's records or external i.e. acquired from libraries, trade journals, government sources, etc. If the secondary data is not sufficient to solve the marketing problem, then primary data is wheeled.

Collecting primary data is very costly and time consuming. It can be collected by using survey methods, i.e. by doing personal interviews, telephone interviews and mail surveys. It can also be collected by using observational method and experimentation method.

So in this step the researcher decides what source and what method to use for collecting data.

6. Sampling design

The sixth step in a marketing research process is of sampling design.

The Researchers has limited time and other resources. So he cannot contact the total population. That is, he cannot collect information from all the people in the market. Therefore, he selects few persons from the population. These handful persons are called sample respondent. They are considered to represent the total population. The researcher collects data from the sample respondents.

Sampling helps to save time, efforts and cost. It is used to collect primary data. The researcher has to decide about method of sampling, the size-of-sample, etc.

7. Designing questionnaire

The seventh step in a marketing research process is of designing a questionnaire.

In this stage, primary data is collected with the help of a questionnaire. So the researcher has to prepare a questionnaire. A questionnaire is a list of questions. These questions are asked to the respondents for collecting data. The questionnaire must be suitable so that the require data is collected easily, quickly and correctly. It is used for conducting person interview, telephone interviews and mail survey. The researcher must decide about the type of the information required, the type of questioned to be asked, the wordings of the questionnaire, its order, etc.

8. Field staff selection

The eighth step in a marketing research process is of selecting field staff.

After preparing the questionnaire, the researcher selects field interviewers. The field interviewers collect information from the respondents. They must be property trained. Students of psychology and statistics are good for this job.

9. Collection and processing of data

The ninth step in a marketing research process is of collection and processing of data.

In this stage, the data is collected from the respondents. The questionnaire is used for collecting data. In case of mail surveys, the questionnaire is sent to the respondents by post. In case of telephone interviews, the data is collected through telephone. In case of personal interviews, the data is collected by the field interviewers. The researcher can also use observation method and experimentation method for collecting data. The data collected must be reliable and complete. It must also be collected quickly. Secondary data is also collected. The data collected is raw. It cannot be used directly. It has to be processed and organised neatly. That is, the data must be edited, coded, classified and tabulated. Editing helps to remove the unwanted data. Coding, classification and tabulation make the data ready for analysis and interpretation.

10. Analysis and interpretation of data

The tenth step in a marketing research process is of analysis and interpretation of data.

In this stage, the researcher analyzes and interprets the data. That is, he studies the data very careful and draws conclusions from it. These conclusions are then used to solve the marketing problem.

11. Project reporting

The eleventh step in a marketing research process is to prepare a project report.

In this stage, the researcher prepares the final research report. This report contains a title of the report, method used, findings, conclusions and suggestions about how to solve the marketing problem. The language of the report must not be very difficult. The report must be submitted to the marketing executives for recommendations and implementation.

12. Follow up

Finally, the last step in a marketing research process is to do a follow up.

In this stage, the marketing executive makes changes in the product, price, marketing policies, etc. as per the recommendations of the report. Here, the researcher should find out, whether his recommendations are implemented properly or not. He should also figure-out, whether the marketing problem is solved or not.

So these are the twelve steps in a marketing research process.