Brands and metaphors: the Indian context

Abstract

The key objective of this project is to understand the receptivity of Indian consumers to Metaphor based advertisements in the Indian context. This was done by studying the use of metaphors in advertisements. A set of Indian advertisements were studied out of which 10 advertisements having strong metaphor content were selected. These advertisements were analyzed with the help of literature survey and identified books. Further to this analysis an additional refinement was done and five advertisements from different brands were identified. These advertisements were studied in the back drop of linking advertising metaphors with brand positioning and brand associations. The methodology used was identification of three respondents for each brand and advertisement category and analysis of responses thru ZMET (Gerald Zaltman and Robin Higie Coulter -1995) technique. These responses were studied to give a comprehensive understanding of advertising metaphors and their receptivity among Indian consumers. Based on this a set of recommendations were provided. The scope of this project is to help marketers with recommendations on the feasibility and effective use of metaphors in advertisements for brand positioning. An attempt was made to comment on the impact of metaphor based advertisements on consumer purchase decision process. The scope was restricted to study of Indian advertisements available in print media and Television commercials.