The apportionment of funds between mass media advertising and sales promotions has always been a function of marketing strategy. The details vary each year with market conditions, the status of the company's brand, sales targets, and brand share objectives in comparison to the previous year.

Brand advertising is the 'pull' factor of marketing. It encourages customers to go into showrooms in a single-minded pursuit of that particular brand. Sales promotion is the 'push' factor. It catches the attention of the customer at the point of sale and helps clinch the deal.

Being a major player in the industry, it is easier for VK Appliances to achieve volumes, once it develops a strategy to support its brands and products in the 'push' area, and ensures that the customer's mind is attracted towards the bargain of the day. It is with tactics like these that the bigger brands get better responses, because the offers are made under an umbrella of a major player, and that provides its own comfort zone for the customer.

That explains why VK has been securing continuous improvements in growth as compared to its competitors. Such improvements, even if incremental, are valuable from the viewpoint of keeping the motivation levels high among dealers, sales executives, and even consumers. It is true that, over time, customers get used to promotions. D'Costa's concerns in this regard are well-founded. It is also true that the marketing department of the company and its executives have their own take on sales promotions.

They see them as continuous selling aids. The self-perpetuation factor operates at many levels. But, clearly, for each year that passes with such promotions, the value of the overall brand erodes. The dealers begin to question the strength of the brand. And the comfort zone of the customer diminishes.

This is where reinforcements become vital. Like any other intangible resource, corporate identity and brand values need constant nourishment. A single bite does not affect marketshare, but put together, year after year, the bites add up to hefty morsels, which erode the equity built on decades of hard work.

The most critical parameter in my view is how the profit share of the brand has moved. Has it gone up, come down, or remained the same? After all, the new mantra of recession is, ''Forget volumes, value, even marketshare. Expand the share of the total profit in the market and you will be there tomorrow, fighting fit.'' Becoming lean is fine. Retrenching and cost-cutting are fine too. But you will reign supreme only if you enhance your share of industry-profits year after year. That is something that D'Costa and his team should ponder over.

D'Costa is faced with a 'positive' problem-of a sales promotion that is working well. The dilemma before him is clear. Are the company's marketing resources being deployed to build long-term brand equity? Are its promotion schemes, aimed at driving short-term sales, weaning away funds from the more enduring activity of image-building advertising? These are valid concerns.

The purchase of a consumer durable in developing countries like India is still a high-involvement activity. D'Costa has personally witnessed this during his brief stay at the showroom. But it is erroneous to conclude that the purchase is purely rational. It is more dangerous to conclude that all purchases of durables are driven by salesmen's recommendations. While it is true that consumers look for a number of critical variables like quality, after-sales service, power consumption, it is equally true that they are influenced by non-critical variables like free gifts.

Given the fact that durables are bought at very long intervals-usually only three or four times in an entire lifespan of the consumer-the role of advertising becomes crucial. Advertising should not only generate sales, but also build brand salience, originate enquiries, and drive traffic into dealer showrooms. Advertising for durables often falls into two broad categories: 'feel good' image advertising and 'news' advertising. D'Costa believes that image advertising is all that is needed to drive consumer enquiry. That, in my view, is incorrect. In a fast-changing marketplace with over six active competitors, he needs to also look at advertising that is news-oriented: a new feature, a new benefit, or a new model.

Sales promotion schemes cannot sell high-value durables in the absence of quality, value, and image perceptions. But VK seems to have devised a scheme that works. The free offer of a product with high perceived value has helped grow sales of its washing machines.

Having secured results, the questions facing VK are two-fold. Both are tricky. The steroids, as D'Costa says, will have to be slowly withdrawn. No brand can be sustained on the long haul on promotions alone. The issue here is how to divide a limited advertising budget across various inputs. VK should split the budget across image-building advertising and promotion schemes. A judicious mix will ensure that the company achieves the desired impact.

The more difficult question concerns keeping the brand vibrant and attractive to customers. This calls for a closer examination of the product range, identification of unique features and benefits offered by each product, and using them as a powerful weapon against competitors who seem to be busy flogging the singular avenue of sales promotion.

Brand salience is a critical success factor in the consumer durables business. In fact, it is the most important attribute to be driven by the management. Brand salience becomes particularly relevant in a competitive market like India, where the number of brands is high, and several of them are easily-recognisable, international names supported by heavy advertising. Every study conducted among consumers in this country bears out that top-of-mind recall is a major influencing factor when it comes to the purchase decision.

Clearly advertising per se has to take pride of place over other forms of attracting attention in the marketplace. And advertising must be a continuing and ongoing exercise. The elements that drive brand salience can best be consolidated only through a good advertising campaign. In fact, it is actually from these elements that good promotions will draw their strength.

One must also remember that consumer durables marketing must take into account the fact that not all consumers are in the market to buy at all points in time. This is unlike FMCG products and soft drinks, for example, where impulse purchases are common. Brand advertising itself is, therefore, conducted in a selective manner, involving specially selected media vehicles aimed at achieving top-of-mind recall.

Pandey's light-hearted remark about the usual debate relating to advertising versus promotional expenditure is correct in the sense that such discussions are common at certain times of the year. Consumer durables like refrigerators and air-conditioners have highly pronounced seasonal sales cycles, with July-September being a traditional 'low' period (and, therefore, a period when sales promotions should usually be employed).

Paradoxically, though, the 'festival' time in October-November is when manufacturers and dealers try and drive a feel-good factor by offering gifts and other allures.

The accepted norm is a 60:40 or 70:30 split in the budget between advertising and promotions. Very often, it goes up to 80:20. But it is always the advertising that gets the larger share. VK Appliances seems to be doing things a little differently, with a much larger spend on promotions for the washing machines than would normally be thought safe. Why would it draw away resources from advertising to sales promotion?

Perhaps, this is why D'Costa has felt it necessary to put on a false beard and wander around the city's largest home appliances showroom incognito. But the undercurrents it portrays do not seem to augur well for the company. Does D'Costa mistrust the advice and instincts of his advertising agency and his marketing VP? And why would he want to escape the attention of the owner of the showroom?

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