Corporate

Time, quality and price. Take any two and give one. This is the suggestion of Ranjit Acharya, CEO of Prisma Advertising, to his clients. And those that have made the right combination of options seem to have turned the market in their favour. Resultantly, these companies have preferred having their advertisement and marketing portfolios being handled by this local advertisement agency despite the presence here of such multi-nationals as McCann – Erickson and J Walter Thompson.

The secret lies in direct marketing, a concept that this ad agency claims was the first to introduce in Nepal. Direct marketing includes activities such as road shows, retail display contests, in-shop operations, door-to-door campaigns, van marketing, promotional campaigns in targeted areas like schools, colleges and institutions etc.

Prisma Ad. boasts of a fairly large client portfolio, mostly MNCs with companies and brands as varied as Johnson & Johnson, Samsonite, Perfetti, Henkel and Kodak. Similarly, Indian Houses like Pioma Industries (RASNA), Marico Industries (Hair & Care, Saffola), Elder Pharma (SOLO, AMPM) and Nepali public sector enterprises – Agriculture Inputs Corporation, Dairy Development Corporation – too have been Prisma’s clients. The company has also served Election Commission.Then come social sector organizations like Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Nepal CRS Company, Nepal Fertility Care Center and MCH Products. The last three are USAID funded organizations.

Prisma Advertising was established in 1991 but without prior planning. "In fact the idea of putting up an advertisement agency came all of a sudden", recollects Ranjit Acharya going back to the days when he was involved in his family’s business of medicine distribution. One such item was a glucose product called Glucollin. Acharya says that he approached Farmacia Marketing – which was marketing Glucollin – with an advertisement concept and offered to give free service of direction for the audiovisual spot production. In due course, the ad was ready, and it was a winner in terms of creating good business to the marketing house. But the story did not end there. It occurred to Acharya that he must now release the ad himself since he had directed it and therefore he should retain the credit for that. That meant setting up an ad agency, and thus Prisma Advertising came into being with Acharya and his friend Pawan Pradhan as his partner.

The Glucollin ad’s success gave Acharya’s company its first revenue – Rs. 15,000. Then they set up the office in a room rented at Rs. 1500 a month. "For the next three years, we put all our earnings into establishing the agency," relates Acharya. And then for expansion purpose, Acharya and his partner sought loans amounting to some Rs. 300,000 from friends and relatives. It was mainly used as working capital because, as says Acharya, business here is done largely on credit.

Gradually, multi-national companies began making their entry into Nepal. One such MNC was BrookeBond Lipton, then called Lipton, whose direct marketing campaign was bagged by Prisma Ad. So in 1993, Prisma Ad conducted its first in-shop operation campaign for BrookeBond Lipton’s Taaza Tea, which was also the first of its kind in Nepal, claims the Prisma Ad CEO. "That was a milestone achievement for us. The Indian company was so pleased with our performance that it handed over to us full account of its advertisement", he relates. According to him, the success (productivity) rate of such campaigns in India is about 30%, but in Taaza Tea’s case in Nepal, it was 60%.

And then came Johnson & Johnson for which Prisma Ad is working as a full-fledged advertisement company. Acharya states that with Johnson & Johnson – and so too with many other clients – Prisma Ad is not only involved as an ad releasing medium but is equally involved in marketing, planning, setting new goals, achieving targets and so on. "It is necessary that the clients share full information with us so that it not only gives us space to work with but also enables us both to grow together," Acharya says.

Prisma Ad has even been recognized for its outstanding work in Nepal for Johnson & Johnson by The Johnson & Johnson School of Advertising, New Brunswick and this award will be awarded in November, 2000. "This is in fact only the second occasion that an ad agency serving J&J in Asia has received the honor," relates a beaming Acharya.

One of the business handled by Prisma Ad was the pre-launch test-sampling for Shikhar Menthol for Surya Tobacco Company (P) Ltd. The company has pulled off the product but Acharya claims that the launching campaign was a total success, as he was out of stock within 2 days whereas the company had handed over 15 days stock for the sampling campaign. In fact because of the success of the campaign in Kathmandu, Prisma was also asked to conduct the same campaign in Biratnagar, Pokhara, Butwal, Dharan and other palces too. Prisma was also involved in the launching of Marlboro, an international cigarette in Nepal. That raises a question of ethic: Is it ethical for an ad agency to work for two brands that are competitive? Acharya says, it is unethical to handle two similar products by a single advertising agency for full services and ad campaigns, but it is ethical in case of direct marketing, in which every campaign is conducted with a specific objective and comes to an end within a specific time. Other brands for which Prisma was involved in direct marketing included Fair & Lovely of Nepal Lever (finding out why retailers were reluctant in pushing the brand and to change the perception of consumers towards Nepal made brand), Pepsi-Cola (school campaign and in-shop operation to generate trials by the consumers), and launching of Jumbo Coke. Even the other ad agencies recommend Prisma now for direct marketing campaigns. To conduct such operations, Prisma has in contact over 40 boys and girls, all trained in the job.

Explaining his company’s business, Acharya reveals that the work in his agency comprises of three parts. One aspect is ATL (Above the Line) which calls for creativity. Here the ad agency is involved in creating as well as releasing advertisements. The second aspect is that of direct marketing. This component consists of product launching, in-shop operations, school campaigns and the like. The third wing is that of BTL (Below the Line) operations under which the agency undertakes production of materials, to service the clients. Gillette is one of the major clients for which Prisma works for BTL activities. Prisma has the credit of restarting the popular sports based program Gillette World of Sports on Nepal Television.

At a time when there is a clamor for clients and ad agencies are undercutting their rates and offering, in some cases, as much as 10 percent discount (while the ad agencies themselves only get 15 percent as commission from the media), Prisma Advertising seems to be contented with the clients it already has and is making no effort to woo local companies. "I don’t believe in offering discounts. I have never done that and in fact, most of the agencies which are seriously into this profession are now concentrating on their services which definitely is a good sign for the future of this business", comments Acharya. As for local clients, he explains that the working culture associated with MNCs is completely missing with many of the Nepali companies. MNCs believe in making advertising expenses as their long term investment, whereas local company’s advertising budget gets reflected by their sales figures. MNCs work with annual planning based on the research data and figures they receive, business plans are drafted, discussed, revised, pre-tested and then implemented, quarterly assessments are done and research work is carried out to find out the success of a product and what changes could be necessary. "Such aspects are yet to develop in Nepali companies. At the moment, I am more concerned with providing quality service to the clients, I already have companies to serve, now I have to increase their product’s market share. I am not marketing for new companies but will always welcome a challenging job where I have to prove my credentials", he says.

Acharya’s clients also seem happy with him since, as Acharya claims, all of his clients are backing up his ideas and are continuing their support for him. A reason for this could be the ease with which Prisma Ad generates or implements new ideas from time to time for its clients. The examples are the Johnson’s Healthy Baby Contest and the Kodak Photogenic Face Contest. And more recently, it has been involved in setting up a free counseling skin care clinic in Khichhapokhari called the Johnson’s Skin Care Clinic where customers, every Wednesday, can have free consultation with a leading doctor on skin problems. Acharya is proud that his agency was the first one to initiate a Hotline Telephone Service on reproductive health and family planning services sector branded under Pariwar Swastha Sewa Network.

As of now, Acharya is happy with where Prisma Ad stands. He also feels that the Nepali market is maturing up and becoming more professional. Because, he reasons, local companies that used to say that they did not have to advertise, have now begun advertising and those companies that preferred writing their own copies and creating their own story boards are now coming to the ad agencies for better creative work.

He is satisfied also personally as this profession has awarded him in so many ways. Today he is not only a CEO of this agency but is also a Management Committee member of Pariwar Swastha Sewa Network (a USAID funded program) Joint convenor of Ad Club Of Nepal set up by AAAN, an active member of Nepali Swayam Sewak Sewa Kendra, an NGO which is fully running with local resources and funding and is not dependant on donor money. "It is my dedication and experience which has paid me in such a way", says Acharya, who has started sharing his knowledge and experiences with other professionals by conducting training programs like SUCCESS MANTRA etc.

To conclude Acharya says, " I believe in a quote which says – The person who tries something and fails is infinitely better than a person who tries nothing and succeeds".

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Direct Marketing

Specializing in direct marketing, this ad agency is creating a niche for itself