TV advertising emerging as effective tool for SMEs

Since liberalisation, when the Indian economy underwent major changes, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were the ones that pushed India’s technical and service expertise in various industries. By being operational in every tier of workmanship, SMEs have successfully found space for themselves in the economy. But now the question that arises is that what happens when such SMEs displays keenness to grow? Is it possible for them to create an appeal for acceptance across India?


At such a point, SMEs should consider innovative, affordable advertising methods that will not only push their growth but also enhance their overall presence and visibility. They enjoy the opportunity to strike gold in non-metro markets due to the fact that majority of the population have poor brand loyalty today.


In the past several years, television has emerged as a medium which is mostly used by companies to promote their values, products, services and offers.
Advertising is considered as a favorable representation of product or a service, aimed at creating awareness and familiarising the brand among the desired set of audiences consisting of existing and potential customers, general public, etc.


But, TV advertising is considered as an expensive option, affordable for companies with significant budget allotted for promotion. It is one of the primary reasons why the SMEs had prefered to keep out of this domain until now. Big companies with multi-million dollar budgets can choose expensive mediums to strengthen presence, but SMEs with limited budgets need to stay cautious about how, where and when they spend their marketing funds.


What is TV Advertising
TV Advertising is defined as a paid form of non–professional but positive display of goods/ services of any company/brand. It does not comprise distribution of free samples or bonuses as these are part of sales promotion.
Many people often feel that the primary aim of advertising is to sell products/services. But the actual aim of advertising is to develop awareness about any particular product or service available under a brand.
While talking about advertising, it is important to know about its various mediums consisting both electronic and non-electronic means of communication.
It is believed that advertising by electronic means of communication is more popular as compared to other forms such as print, TV, radio, Internet and outdoor. It has potential to cover a complete range of audiences of different age groups, gender and other demographics. Since TV viewers are available in every home, if any product/service is advertised, the brand’s popularity increases manifolds due to its wide reach as compared to the traditional means.
The non–electronic advertising is usually carried out in newspaper, pamphlets, brochures, magazines, journals and books. Banners and posters are also part of non-electronic advertising. Advertising in print media is comparatively cheaper as against TV.
In the past few years, Internet has also emerged as a viable option for enterprises to create awareness along with mobile advertising. There are several SMEs reaping its benefits today.


What makes TV advertising an option for SMEs now
To attain success in any business, creating brand awareness is an important process and it can be carried out effectively with advertising. It helps increase the selling power of products and services.
As the penetration of TV is quite high in India, advertising on TV as a marketing tool could be used by any type of business efficiently to its advantage.
With the emergence of cable and regional television, it is possible for any small business to benefit from TV advertising just like the large corporations. The industry is booming, new cable stations are coming up every year along with the growing requirement of advertising to attract consumers. As TV advertising is becoming competitive, many stations are providing affordable packages to the small businesses.
SMEs need to understand that TV advertising is powerful and it can help any business attain instant credibility. It has potential to position the small businesses in the same league of MNCs, which enhances the visibility factor.
In India, there are many regional SME brands engaged in different sectors like pharma, FMCG, steel, cement, beverages, household appliances and dairy products. It is often found that the regional SMEs enjoy better understanding of the domestic needs as compared to the big brands. Hence, the advertising need for SMEs is bigger as they have better capability to cater in regard to cost, quality and specific needs of their marketplace. TV advertising makes it possible for the small businesses to convert more potential buyers into paying customers.


TV advertising usage by SMEs in India
The usage of TV advertising platform by SMEs is still at a nascent stage as ‘high marketing costs’ often hinders their brand building process. Regional TV advertising comes handy here to position the company in local regions.
Reports suggest that on an average, hours watched per viewer per week in case of TV stands at 36, while in case of online the figure is close to 10. It clearly shows that TV’s popularity continues to grow despite the presence of online video content.
TV holds the title of the largest mass medium used for advertising for over 60 years and that designation is still retained by it while Internet  has also picked up on popularity. Television is a significant part of a media plan due to its pervasiveness, effect and targeting abilities.


TV advertising platforms in India
As Indian SMEs are slowly adopting the concept of TV advertising, there are firms offering solutions to help the small enterprises.
One such company is Bangalore-based advertising player Amagi Media Labs that realised the needs of SMEs and developed a unique platform for these units to advertise their brands. Currently, Amagi has over 700-SME customers on board and its 'Smart TV Advertising platform' helps small businesses to advertise by spending a not-so high amount.
In an interview to SME News about the growing need of TV advertisements among the SMEs, KA Srinivasan, co-founder, Amagi Media Labs, said, “We are seeing an increased shift towards TV for SMEs - television has always been perceived as expensive medium by most SMEs - but with success stories of the likes of Fevicol, Lion dates, Ghari Detergent, we are seeing a fundamental mindset change. This has been further aided by increasing availability of targeted content (more niche channels coming up targeting specific demographics, language or regions) as well as new platform options like Amagi which provide zero-spillage TV by targeting on national TV channels.”
Reports suggest that the regional SMEs developed brand campaigns on multiple National TV channels with the help of Amagi platform at the low budget of just Rs 2 lakh per month. Amagi said that over 500 advertisers across the country benefited by using the platform and it is available across 14 states.
MAS Financial Services Ltd, a retail financing organisation and also a client of Amagi, said that this platform has helped in effective branding of the company. Saumil Pandya, vice president, MAS Financial Services Ltd, said, “Amagi’s Smart TV Advertising platform is a boon for regional brands like us. I can now get the best of both worlds - national TV and local rates. Coupled with Amagi’s creative services, this platform has helped me get both branding and response at a reasonable budget.”


Conclusion
As business challenges are never-ending and act as persistent interruptions, SMEs must understand the basic advertising norms that will prove beneficial in making sound choices.

India is seeing considerable improvement in purchasing power in small cities. It is time for the SMEs to reap benefits from the growing trend of TV advertising to stay afloat. SMEs should aim to build regional presence and also push growth. It is time for them to think out of the box that will enable them to spread their word far and wide.

Incubation: A cutting-edge tool for self employment

Increasing number of entrepreneurs in a country outshines the nation in the global arena and growing importance and visible impact of entrepreneurship in employment-generation in developing economies gives birth to an idea of business incubation. An entrepreneur not only charts on his/her own course but also pursues growth while generating wealth, employment and social good.
Entrepreneurs hold potential to transform a city, region and a country as entrepreneurship increases opportunities for employment, introduces and disseminates new methods and technology and also drives overall economy.


What is Business Incubation?
Incubation is a novel concept primarily gestated to help budding entrepreneurs to launch and develop their business with an intellectual assistance of experienced players. Business incubation is a contributive environment created to foster the sustainable growth potential and development of an enterprise. An incubation center offers various forms of assistance to entrepreneurs, including technical knowledge, market studies, access to loans and training programmes. Some also provide office space, meeting rooms and printing, photocopying, fax and Internet infrastructure.
In brief, a business incubation centre is a supportive environment being provided to the budding entrepreneurs aimed to foster their entrepreneurial ideas before they step into venture capital. In this age of globalisation, incubation centres are highly required as they fulfill an entrepreneur's dream of building his/her own company. These centres provides a helping hand to entrepreneurs via assisting in early capital, infrastructure and expert counselling which turn ideas into tangible business models. Besides supporting an entrepreneur, an incubation centre also drives nation's economy by generating new job opportunities.


Objective of Incubation Centre:
An incubation centre is not only aimed to create self-employment but also to convert a person, having a innovative business idea but less resources, into an entrepreneur by way of providing all support services. These incubation centres are playing a vital role in emerging a country as an economic powerhouse as they create high value jobs through fostering newbie and high potential firms.


Globally, the incubation centres have been classified into Tecnology Incubators and Business Incubators. The array of business support resources and services, developed and engineered by incubator management extend support to the successful development of entrepreneurial companies.


Advantages of Incubation:
Incubators are a boon for entrepreneurs. These centres come in all forms, like innovation centres, technopoles and science parks. Although this practice is widely accepted in industrialised countries, but now-a-days such activities are gaining momentum in developing countries as well. Some major advantages are :


Promoting newbie ventures of young entrepreneurs
During initial gestation period, offering a broad range of entrepreneurship development initiatives such as training, nursery incubator space
Central common machining facilities
Systems and networking support
Catalogue library
Extending financial aid
The facilities such as workshops, computer networks with Internet facilities etc. have proven to be a blessing for upcoming enterprises. Some entrepreneurial incubation centers also provide the availability of online consultancy in the form of management professionals' team. After analysing various business propositions, this team helps to develop best-suited business plans thereby providing greater impetus to newbie entrepreneurs.


Why India needs to promote Incubation programmes?
Gone are the days when a decent well paying and 9-5 desk job was all that one aspired for. Economic growth, globalisation are some of the factors spurting the need of having more and more entrepreneurs in the country. Incubations promote entrepreneurship spirit which not only creates successful businesses but also increases employment rate of a country.
Knowledge acts as a catalyst for change and the initial step to promote incubation programmes is to disseminate information with regard to business brooding. Further, the private sector involvement in this regard is also important. It has been found that financial lenders are often disinclined to provide loans and support research and technology innovation and modernisation in such programmes. But the encouragement to applied research can lure banks. Moreover, the business environment should be encouraged in order to stimulate young budding graduates to start up their own business.


Incubation centers in India
National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), a miniratna company facilitating the growth of small enterprises since 1955, has created a Rapid Incubation Programme. The programme offers integrated support through rapid incubation of unemployed people in its technical and incubation centres. NSIC's Rapid Incubation Programme prepares unemployed persons for entrepreneurship and capacity building. It provides all needful facilities for potential entrepreneurs to learn product manufacturing and all its processes.
Besides NSIC's Rapid Incubation Programme, there are various incubation centres in India, such as -
Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), IIM-Ahmedabad
SIDBI Innovation & Incubation Centre (SIIC), IIT-Kharagpur
Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, IIT- Bombay
National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), Wadhwani Foundation
Technology Business Incubator (TBI), BITS Pilani
National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai


Conclusion

Although, an incubator does not guarantee success, but it can act as a nursery which will supervise and mentor the early mistakes of a new startup so that an entrepreneur could not end up causing financial or motivational loss in business.