Report on Competitive Advertising Analysis of Unitrend Limited

Major focus of this report is to discuss on Competitive Advertising Analysis of Unitrend Limited. Unitrend Limited is an Advertising Agencies plan, create, research, produce and place advertisements in all the traditional media on behalf of their clients. This report is built to make comparison between the particular performance of Unitrend Ltd with the other leading Marketing Agencies. This report show the particular competitive position of Unitrend ltd in the advertising industry of Bangladesh along with the position of the various other leading advertising Agencies.

Introduction

Advertising is a part of contemporary life around us. Most people will receive hundreds of advertising messages daily. Advertising is difficult business of bringing information to great numbers of people through the clutter of competitive voices. An advertisement encourages people to respond to react to an idea or after their understanding about a certain product or service. Unitrend limited tries to define advertising very simply and very clearly: it is their persuasive communication of the positive qualities and benefits of a branded product or service for the purpose of generating sales.

Unitrend limited, one of the leading advertising agencies of the country, originally started out in 1985as a small one room out door shop with only a work force of four people. Having very few employees and even fewer clients, at that time it only did outdoor advertising e.g. they were responsible for placing advertising on the body of BRTA buses. It worked as a space-buying agency until 1988 when they decided to expand their business into other forms of advertising such as media ads. With this view in mind they approached Phillips (which was then a multinational firm) and asked to pitch for their account. They won out the “pitching” and their services were retained to represent Phillips Battery in the media. Phillips Battery was Unitrend’s very first advertising in proper form. This was Unitrend’s very first milestone- after that there was no looking back. The journey had begun.

Their next brand came in the form of Philips Radio. Since the radio used more advanced technology than its competitors, its product was lighter but the rural people perceived a lighter radio as synonymous with a low quality product. In order to convince the consumers of the actual worth of their radios, they decided to place TV and radio ads targeting those specific consumers to try and rid them of their misconception. The advertisement placed by Unitrend emphasized the view that just because a radio is lighter does not necessarily translate that it is not of good quality. Their communication of this message was very effective and sales of Philips Radio gradually picked up. So far Unitrend was making a modest success in the creation of their advertisements but their main coup came when they landed the account of Philips’ main product, Philips Bulb. The advertisement for Philips Bulb was so popular that it almost became like part of our national heritage. This advertisement alone boosted the sales of Philips Bulb by 60% in Bangladesh and by 25% in West Bengal. This marked the beginning of Unitrend’s rise to the top of the advertising hierarchy.

In 1992-93 the firm decided to diversify its advertisement coverage to include “event management”. Unitrend was already doing some work for Coca-Cola in terms of event management such as managing all the advertisements for Coca-Cola sponsored concerts. Coca-Cola was at that time involved with Bitopi, another advertising firm, for all their advertisements other than event management. A significant change was then taking place in the world of advertising with the introduction of affiliations of the local firms with the multinational ad agencies. As this trend of affiliations continued, Unitrend itself was approached by no less than three international advertising agencies, namely, Bates, Leo Bumett and McCann-Erickson. After a proper evaluation of their choices, Unitrend decided to pursue a relationship with McCann-Erickson in 1996 since it was the largest foreign advertising agency around and had the greatest clout. This of course meant that there was a major overhaul in the firm’s accounts as many multinational organizations already associated with McCann-Erickson Worldwide, shifted their work from other ad agencies to Unitrend because of their new connections. One of the biggest of such new additions to the firm’s clientele included Reckitt and Colman, which shifted its entire workload from AdComm to Unitrend. Similarly, Coca-Cola which was for a long time interested to work with Unitrend managed also to shift their account to Unitrend on the pretext that they were affiliated with McCann and Erickson Worldwide. Of course Unitrend did have to pitch to gain Coca-Co1a’s account. This new affiliation with McCann-Erickson provided the platform from which Unitrend was able to prove its worth as a good advertising agency and was thus able to lure even more clients to it. These events took place in 1994-95.

As the years progressed Unitrend realized that in order to obtain better quality work from their employees they had to recruit the best possible human resources from the field. In accordance with this observation Unitrend, starting from 1996 began its bid to obtain the most talented and efficient human resources in the field. By paying their new employees 1.5 times more than any other ad agency in the business, Unitrend managed to lure away many an accomplished advertiser who were previously working for their competitors and made them their own. Between the periods of June 1995 to December 1996 the work force of Unitrend increased from a meager 14 to 34-almost more than double of the previous figure. Of late, this practice of obtaining the best personnel from any source available was adopted by some of the other firms in the industry, namely, Asiatic and AdComm, both of which had a substantial financial backing.

Objective of the Study

This Study is made to make comparison between the performance of Unitrend Ltd and with the other leading Advertising Agencies. This comparison is made in the functional areas. The objective of the study is to show the competitive position of Unitrend ltd in the advertising industry of Bangladesh as well as the position of the other leading advertising Agencies.

Methodology of the Study

The study is basically based on secondary data. Data have been obtained from the Annual Review Report of Unitrend LTD as well as from the web portal of McCann-Erickson world group and Ad Net World. In addition to secondary data, primary data have also been collected. A depth interview of the Key personnel of Creative, Media and Client Service department of Unitrend Ltd as well as of other different leading advertising agencies.

The Business of Unitrend

The advertising agency is a service company. To start with, it is appointed by a client to plan, create, research, produce and place advertisements in all the traditional media. It then goes beyond those conventional first steps and seeks to integrate all its clients’ marketing activities in one cohesive effort, to become its partners in a program of total Communication.

Unitrend’s Vision

Unitrend shall endeavor to build brands for their clients through continually offering total communication solutions including Media, Strategy and Creative.

Unitrend’s Mission

“We shall continue to challenge our effort to make effective communication solution that will convert into tangible gain.”

McCann-Erickson Worldwide

Seeing the world through fresh eyes —McCann and Erickson

In only a few years, McCann-Erickson World Group has emerged as one of the world’s leading integrated brand communications organizations–in global size, in professional quality, and in the number of clients we serve with multiple-communications services. Today we operate in more than 130 countries and have global networks across a full range of marketing communications sectors, delivering effective communications solutions for local and international clients of all types. The McCann-Erickson Worldwide Advertising network, the founding member with its rich 98-year-old global history, is only one of the extraordinary companies operating under the McCann-Erickson World Group banner. Today, we are a dynamically expanding organization in the range of communications competencies we can deliver.

How did we achieve this? By staying true to our mission of building individual sector companies that are “best in class” leadership players within their own respective competitive fields while also creating the shared culture and strategic methods and marketplace knowledge base that allow the various disciplines to work together as valued team members in delivering world-class integrated brand communications.

McCann-Erickson World Group was founded in September 1997 as a new worldwide communications firm dedicated to providing a full spectrum of high-quality marketing communications services and currently employs 12,000 people. It operates as an umbrella management company that encompasses McCann-Erickson Worldwide Advertising, the most powerful network of ad agencies in the world, and a rapidly expanding portfolio of marketing communications companies that operate parallel to the ad agencies.

Under Chairman and CEO John Dooner, McCann-Erickson World Group has as its mission the goal of being the worldwide professional-quality leader not only in advertising; but in all of the marketing communications disciplines so essential to its clients’ future growth. As competition grows more intense in both local and global markets and as the information age continues to evolve at an astonishing pace, McCann­-Erickson’s client partners need more and better marketing tools to increase their market share and deepen relationships with their customers.

McCann-Erickson Worldwide Advertising is the largest and most geographically extensive global advertising agency network, with operations in 131 countries and majority or wholly-owned agencies in 67 countries that account for 99 percent of the world’s advertising expenditures. McCann-Erickson is a Top 5 agency in most every market in which it operates, as well as a pan-regional leader in all regions of the world. The agency is also the industry’s most experienced network in multinational advertising, handling more global accounts than any other ad agency.

McCann-Erickson’s commitment to delivering effective creativity on behalf of its clients has also made it the industry-wide awards leader in creating effective advertising. For the last two years running, the agency has been the overall winner at several important industry award shows that recognize both effectiveness and creativity.

With billings of more than $200 billon and operations in over 130 countries, McCann-­Erickson World Group is the largest marketing communications network organization in the world. It is built on the foundation of McCann-Erickson’s almost century-long history as an international-minded advertising agency McCann first expanded with owned agencies out of its US borders into Canada in 1913, into Europe in 1927, into Latin America in 1935 and into the Asia Pacific region in 1959.

McCann, today, does not confine advertising to the traditional print and broadcast media. It regards any contact with the customer or the consumer as an advertising opportunity Everything talks– and each element must say the same thing, speak with the same voice The communication should be TOTAL.

The McCann-Erickson Worldwide advertising agency network continues its industry leadership in the core areas of overall billings, country coverage, number of agencies top­-ranked in their own markets and global brands handled. Ad Age Global’s most recent analysis of world brand assignments handled by the major global ad agency networks, found that McCann-Erickson handled almost twice as many multinational client assignments in almost 50 percent more countries than the nearest competitor.

Advertising practices have been refined as technologies have changed but the basic premise of helping people make better choices has remained consistent throughout the period. Many agencies have developed unique ways of expressing what they do McCann’s is expressed quite simply in their slogan ‘TRUTH WELL TOLD’.

In an industry known for change, McCann-Erickson has sustained numerous long-term client relationships around the world. They believe that it has something to do with the power of their network, the commitment of their people, and the effectiveness of their work as well as their creative and strategic excellence sustained over a number of years and dedicated knowledgeable client service in every area of the profession. These are some of the reasons why they have represented Exxon for over 80 years, General Motors for over 70 years and Nestle for over 60 years.

McCann’s Power as a global giant in advertising rests on four pillars. These are:

Our Clients:  Our blue-chip client list is second to none. They demand the best and deserve it.

Our Product:  We recognize that there is no power greater than the power of a great idea. Ultimately, only the best ideas will allow us to succeed.

Our People: Our culture fosters an entrepreneurial spirit. We believe an individual can and do make a difference.

Our System:  We have more agencies in more countries than any other agency, a network of strong local agencies and centralized resources. Our growth and profitability gives us superior financial strength

Table-: World’s Top 10 Agency (Source:  Add Net World wide)

Source:  Add Net World wide

Service agency

Large agencies employ, directly or often indirectly, a variety of specialists, musicians, actors, producers and directors. Each client of the agency is served by an account team representing all the departments of the agency and its outside sources of talent and supply. The team’s job is to plan, create, produce and place the client’s advertising. Everything the team does must be approved by the client-the kind of advertising that is chosen, the media that are used and the amount of money that is spent.

All agencies do not structure themselves in exactly the same manner. However, Unitrend organizes itself in the following manner.

Agency Management

The agency management is the person (or persons) in charge of running the agency-its leaders. At Unitrend Ltd, these leaders are Mr. Muneer Ahmed Khan and Mr. Zulfiqar Ahmed. In its early years, the agency leaders were the ones who owns the agency, as well as function as account or creative people and who built and managed the agency nights and weekends. As the agency grew and thrived, more and more people were added to the professional disciplines and a management team evolved to assist the agency leaders in decisions regarding client relationships, new businesses and internal agency management.

Creative Department

As the head of the Creative Department, the Creative Director is responsible for the effectiveness of all advertising produced by the agency. The center of the agency service is the creative work they recommend to address the needs that a client has identified. The creative work is the product of a large number of specialists in creating persuasive communications. The success of the agency depends largely on this department. The Creative Director sets the creative philosophy of the agency and its standard of craftsmanship, and generates a stimulating environment that inspires the best people that seeks work there.

Using the brief that the account planner and account executives provide, these people explore alternative solutions until finally the team agrees on the recommended advertising ideas that will best help the client’s brand achieve its objectives. Once these ideas are approved, the creative people oversee the execution into finished advertisements and commercials.

Techno-structure

To assist the creative people there art artists, cartoonists, who draw sketches to give a creative idea a visual outlook. There is a typographer who develops fonts both in English and Bangla to give the creative team a competitive edge over other creative teams of other agencies. Apart from these people there is a professional photographer to do urgent still photo shooting. Last but not the least there is the Production house that takes care of printing needs.

Client Services

The account service or client service are those people who are responsible for all aspects of the client-agency relationship. These people work directly with the client on the client briefing to help translate that briefing into a creative briefing for each of the communications media.

At Unitrend, client services are expected to approach a client’s business in a holistic way. They must be knowledgeable enough about a client’s business to serve as their #1 counselor in marketing communications.

Client Service people get engrossed in their clients’ business. They go on sales calls. They visit stores and wholesalers. They get to know, the research and development people. They are committed to research and facts. Good advertising people thrive on information about products, consumers and the marketplace. Information is fuel for creativity in all aspects of advertising. They rely on client service to dig facts and provide clear, concise, creative briefs for the advertising. There are no shortcuts; it’s hard work.

Client Service people are intensely service-driven. They know that in a service business the relationship is of paramount importance and they spend time providing the kind of service that a client expects. They not only serve expressed client needs; they anticipate needs and get out ahead of the process. They know when to push and when to hold back.

They respect that the client finally has the authority, makes the decisions, takes the risks and pays the invoices. They do what agencies have always been hired to do think, plan, create and execute advertising. The best client service people always add value In fact, the rule at Unitrend is never be content with giving the client only what he or she asked for. Always bring something more than expected or something better.

Media

The other cornerstone to the agency service is media- the planning, negotiating and buying of media vehicles in which the advertising is to appear. The media person works closely with other members of the team- the account people, planners and creative people- to determine the most effective and efficient way to reach the target group. They also determine the size, position and dates of appearances for printed advertisements, the time periods for broadcast commercials and the costs in both cases. At Unitrend, the aim is to build Total Communication programs for the clients. Their theory is that Everything Talks, not just radio, TV, magazines and newspapers; but packaging, delivery trucks, catalogues, corporate letterheads-everything.

Line Decisions

The three core departments of Unitrend Limited are Client Service, Creative and Media. These three departments are directly related with the Advertising service given to the clients.

Finance department

This department has to work closely with the three core departments for granting money needed to finance various marketing works undertaken by the different brand teams. The personnel of this department have to scrutinize the legitimacy of monetary investments by the teams and hold the power and authority to deny providing money that they think is of unreasonable amount.

Staff Decisions

New Business Development

This team scans the market for potential clients. After making the preliminary list of potential clients, they discuss this with the top management. Their role is not advisory as. These include the market surveys both for finding out the performance of a potential client’s product and also for the effectiveness of the advertisement and promotional services provided by Unitrend. The results have a direct and strong bearing on the activities of the three core departments. So when the result of research is used for measuring the effectiveness of the advertisements and incorporating those results into the practice, it is a line function.

On the contrary, when the results of research are inputs to the New Business Development team’s activities, it becomes a staff function.

Analysis of Unitrend’s Competitors_________

Grey & G3 Communications

Background

Grey, first set up in Bangladesh in August of 1997 is an advertising agency with a work force of only twenty-three people. It is, in truth, a branch of the larger New York based advertising firm called Grey. When Grey moved to India it joined up with an ad agency called Trikaya to become Trikaya-Grey, which in turn set up a branch in Bangladesh. Trikaya-Grey is a joint venture with Apex Tannery with a 60/40 ownership respectively. The office in our country is called simply “Grey”. This branch office reports its activities to dual foreign offices. It reports to the Asia Pacific Head Office in Hong Kong, which is in control of all the branches, situated in the Asia Pacific region (such as Sri Lanka, Mauritius) and also to the offices in Delhi, India where the original Trikaya-Grey office is located.

Objectives and Major Clients of Grey

As an advertising firm, Grey advertises in a number of media, namely, press, television and outdoors. Grey is most noted for its advertisements in press media such as newspapers and magazines. Television work comes second, followed by some minor work done in outdoor advertising such as billboards, neon signs and outdoor events. Since it is a relatively new organization, its regular clientele list is still quite short. Given below is a list of its clientele

• British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB)
• City Cell
• Pantene
• Rahimafrooz
• TM International.
• Apollo Hospital
• American Chef
• KDS Group
• Glaxo-Smith Kline

British American Tobacco is the primary reason that Grey is in Bangladesh. BATB markets its brand- Gold Leaf exclusively through Grey and is in the habit of taking Grey along with them when they set up offices in foreign soil. Grey has a more or less permanent working relationship with BATB with contracts renewed on a yearly basis. But an organization cannot exist with only one client and hence Grey’s concern is to capture as many high profile clients as possible”, which it does against stiff competition from its competitors in the field. Lately Grey obtained the right to represent Rahimafrooz as its client after winning out against Unitrend.

Unlike some other ad firms in the business, Grey’s main objective is to provide quality work above all else. Consequently they have established themselves as a firm for which quality comes first. They place advertisements in newspapers, magazines and TV channels such as A TN Bangla for their client BATB.

Marketing Strategies of Grey

Pricing and promotion are the two marketing activities used by Grey to secure and retain its clientele. Grey almost always land their clients through the process of personal presentations to the clients who they think will be interested to retain the services of an ad firm Before making this presentation they carry out a survey about the potential client to find out as much as possible about their products and organization, because it is this knowledge which will ultimately help the firm to secure its clients

Placement

The question of placing to Grey involves the extent to which it is accessible to its clients. By placing itself in a close working relationship with the client with frequent follow-ups and information exchange, Grey has managed to keep itself close to its customers

Basic Differences and Similarities between Grey and Unitrend

Differences

This agency has a formal approach to marketing plan as opposed to Unitrend’s informal one.

Similarities

Both Grey and Unitrend try to use innovative media.

Both the agencies produce similar Ads in terms of sho”,1ng creative efforts and are very competent in making presentations The Ads are also similar in:

1. Copy Approach
2. Copy Twist (e.g. Kodak 7 new born baby)

The concept of copy testing is that instead of advertising (in case of press ads) a product in a straightforward manner, the wording and animation of the ad is set up in a somewhat more imaginative collage. An ad for Kodak announcing the release of 7 new types of film instead of stating the obvious chose to do so by striking an analogy between the emergence of the new types of film with the birth of 7 new babies By going for this more creative approach, the agency ensures that its ads are more “striking” in appearance thus attracting a “second look” every time And as we all know, the more an ad gets noticed, the more successful it is in creating buyer awareness, interest and ultimately purchase decision.

Event management is a major part of the advertising services that Grey provides. These include musical concerts, games and dealer conferences.

Grey’s Competitive Edge over Unitrend

A formal approach to marketing plan

This agency is probably more creative and professional in their approach than Unitrend They have a very solid competitive base

Media planning is better Through a better understanding of media planning, Grey has developed an efficient set of strategies to manipulate and utilize the media tools more successfully

Media planning is better Through a better understanding of media planning, Grey has developed an efficient set of strategies to manipulate and utilize the media tools more

More than 70% of Grey’s ads are creative (has copy twists) whereas only 40% of Unitrend’s ads are creative.

Asiatic & Mindshare

Background

Asiatic is one of the oldest and leading advertising firms in Bangladesh It has established as one of the prominent organizations in marketing communications It was established on the 1^st March 1967 in the name of East Asiatic. On 11 August 1994 they transposed into This agency is probably more creative and professional in their approach than Unitrend They have a very solid competitive base the name of Asiatic Presently the organization has total of 48 employees

At the dawn: 1967 to 1987

Before Independence very little was there in advertising in Bangladesh There was not much advertising firms could do also industrialization was not very significant then. In the inception Asiatic wanted to set them in a respectable niche in the market. From then till late nineteen eighties their focus remained in positioning themselves in the market Though they took a lot of time to go through this introduction stage but they made no drastic changes, they believed in a slow start Also since advertising still did not make a significant standing their scope to grow at the very was not facilitated.

They made clients like Lever Brothers, which was major boost for them Lever increased their range of products and they went for broader advertising so Asiatic flustered product range. In the long run their plan was to grow with the clients they already have rather than increasing their number of clients. Till now their competitors were Bitopi and Interspeed who were one of the pioneering in advertising.

In the midst: 1988 to 1995

Asiatic was growing fine and they had made a lot of new clients with whom they planned to make to for a long-term relationship. But within a year only that is in 1989 they experienced their first setback.

Lever Brother decided to give their product for advertising to various other upcoming advertising agencies. “Mushrooming of more and more advertising firms each day was the reason for the setback” says the Executive Director. It was depressing situation of Asiatic. At this point Asiatic made a drastic strategic shift, they moved from working exclusively with few clients to working with other companies. Their strategy was to focus at companies who were new in the market and also they charged high price on them. They were quite successful in this strategy because they had already built up an image in the business world. This also helped them to recover from the slight fall they suffered. During early 90s, Asiatic found itself in a very comfortable plight in the market PEPSI became their client, which was an addition to their main framework of few permanent clients. By this time firm image was there was their main strength. They were not much worried about their market share. Competition was still a problem, but for organization it was like a challenge Asiatic’s regional networking was another strength for their secret behind their success.  But they faced problems in keeping the companies exclusively in their hands.

Maturing: 1996 to 1999

In the very beginning of 1996 Asiatic faced with problems with Lever Brothers Lever Brother’s when they shifted their main products to agencies like Adcom.  It was major setback.  Nevertheless Asiatic was pulled up very soon. They were increasing at a decreasing rate. This was in 1997.  The personality of the founder and image they had build up through the years played a significant role for their success. In addition to that affiliation with large corporate houses was important positive factor. They also have new ventures in the whole operations of the business. Till now their main clients were MNC’s because they are very prompt in billing. But they have not become rigid in their decision they have enough room for other lucrative ventures.

Social marketing

Earlier Asiatic did little social marketing they worked with BRAC and Helen Killer International. But recently they have given special emphasis on this issue. They got major share with Shabuj Chata, Iodine promotion programs, they worked with organizations like UNDP, UNICEF. They had done very well in these campaigns. Their main focus was innovativeness. They had very less problems in getting such clients, for local companies it was their image, which attracted them towards Asiatic, and for foreign companies it was experience that paid off. The competitive price that they charged paid off for their substantial market share. This helped them gaining the momentum.

Strategic Planning Section

It is a new section that they have opened which they think is very unique in nature. This department is involved in research and development. It identifies the problems underlying an important issue that need attention. They have gone for FDS (Focused Group Discussion). Their new strategy is now to find what be best for the client and provide him with it. So that ultimately they benefit from the benefit of the client. Creativity plays an important role in the happening of the whole thing. In marketing communications it is the most important thing. Creativity is a difference that makes differences in the performance.

Present Status

Presently Asiatic is going steady and on rise.

Focus MNC’s, since they are paymasters as opposed to local clients. So they want to be with them

Sleeping beauties: There are few companies who have entered the market but have not yet started the advertising on a large scale Asiatic looks forward to be a part a cause of they want to deliver a satisfaction and benefit which becomes the companies as well as our Success”.

Basic Differences and Similarities between Asiatic and Unitrend

Differences

They do not use innovative media 

Similarities

1. The personnel of this agency hold meetings from time to time regarding “Brand Planning”, although Unitrend does this on more regular intervals.
2. Event management is a major part of Advertising services that Asiatic provides. These include musical concerts, games and dealer conferences. Even Asiatic has slightly different flavor as aside from the usual components mentioned above, Asiatic also manages events such as beauty contests.

Asiatic’s Competitive Edge over Unitrend

1. Social image carries the agency forward in terms of recognition and client contact.
2. Asiatic is probably one of the few agencies that have a superb connection with the glamour world. As a result, it helps them to cast “Stars” as models in their advertisements at a moment’s notice, something which Unitrend, with its limited connections, can’t.

AdComm

Background

Adcomm, established in 1974 in Bangladesh, is now the largest advertising agency in terms of total billing. Although it started on its own, it is now affiliated with two renowned foreign ad agencies Lintas (USA) and Bates (UK). Adcomm perceives itself as a quality service provider and they position their service mainly on quality.

Major Clients of AdComm

1. Lever Brothers
2. BATB
3. ACI
4. Social Marketing Company (SMC)
5. GQ ballpen
6. AP

 Media Coverage

This agency produces ads for various media such as Newspapers, magazines, Television, Cinema, Video and Outdoor. AdComm gives 60% of all the ads Television channels.

Scope of the Business

• Event marketing. They often sponsor various shows or functions at prestigious hotels like Sonargaon, Sheraton.
• Marketing Consultancy.

Client Handling

• The agency seeks information on the client’s budget. The budget dictates in a large part as to which media is chosen for advertising the product.
• The agency is in watch out for special events over the who1e year.

Basic Differences and Similarities between Adcomm and Unitrend Ltd.

Differences

1. Adcomm is not very innovative (eg Copy twist) in terms of their advertisements.
2. No Event Management.
3. They do not use innovative media

Similarities

The personnel of this agency hold meetings from time to time regarding “Brand Planning”, although Unitrend does this on more regular intervals.

Adcomm’s Competitive Edge over Unitrend

2. Adcomm is the largest advertising agency in our country. Their sheer size in financial terms is a big threat to all other advertising agencies in the industry.
3. Another edge that Adcomm holds over Unitrend and every other agency is their media strength. This agency can virtually buy all the spaces in newspaper and any of the spots in Television & Radio.

Bitopi

Background

One of the oldest ad agencies around, Bitopi was first established in 1967 with only 25 to 30 employees. It has now grown substantially in the thirty odd years that it has been around and can now call itself the employer of at least 60 to 65 people. Through this many years, Bitopi has faced many ups and downs and in recent years it has fallen on some hard times. It has lost a number of its top clients to other agencies (such as Coca-Cola, which shifted to Unitrend) and some of them have set up their own in-house agencies (e.g. Square and Grameen Bank).

Nevertheless, Bitopi can still boast an impressive list of clientele which include among others, the following national and multinational organizations:

1. Singer
2. Grameen Phone (Djuice)
3. SMC
4. Bata Shoes
5. Procter & Gamble
6. Mobil
7. Philip-Morris Marlboro
8. Bengal Carbide (makers of Olympic Battery)

Of the above clients, there is the possibility that Procter & Gamble and Philip-Morris Marlboro will become large clients of Bitopi if they increase their operations in this region of the world. Bitopi advertises in all the available media such as television, radio and press. Currently it is responsible for placing all the ads for Philip-Morris Marlboro, which has started operations in Bangladesh since the October of 1999 and as mentioned before, this could turn out to be potentially large money earner for Bitopi.  Bitopi is affiliated with the US advertising agency Leo Burnett Worldwide.

Basic Differences and Similarities between Bitopi and Unitrend

Differences

1. Bitopi is not very innovative (e.g. Copy twist) in terms of their advertisements.
2. They do not take part in any Event Management.
3. They do not use innovative media.

Similarity

Bitopi has a formal approach toward the marketing plan and spends a lot of time on it.

Bitopi’s Competitive Edge over Unitrend

1. This is the first advertising agency of our country, thus it has a traditional background.
2. Because of their background, they have a lot of personal connections with important people, which helps them to land new clients. Because of their long standing existence in the advertising industry they find it more convenient to create a favorable impression on both current and potential client-in short, name recognition is a big plus point that Bitopi has that Unitrend, a relatively new agency, does not.

Interspeed

Back Ground

Of the top agencies in Bangladesh, Interspeed is probably the smallest among them, with an employee base of some where within 30 to 35. Initially set up in 1970s it is also one of the oldest advertising agencies after Bitopi. Interspeed is affiliated with an American agency – Ogilvy and Mather. It is mostly associated with airing advertisements in the press and in Bangla television channels such as ATN Bangla and Channel i. Some of the major clients of Interspeed can be listed as follows:

1. Dano Milk Powder
2. Lakme
3. Bangla Link
4. Lever Brothers (Lipton Taaza Tea)
5. Fay Tissue

Basic Differences and Similarities between Interspeed and Unitrend

Differences

1. Interspeed is not very innovative (e.g. Copy twist) in terms of their advertisements.
2. They do not take part in any Event Management.
3. They do not use innovative media.
4. They are good in rural advertising.

Similarity

Interspeed has a formal approach toward the marketing plan and spends a lot of time on it.

Unitrend’s edge over others 

Originality: ‘made in unitrend’

All work that come out of the Unitrend house can be labeled as ‘Made in Unitrend.’ Though we handle a number of multinational clients, we never adopt blindly what has been done internationally. Unitrend believes in thinking global but acting local.

Consistency ‘satisfaction guaranteed’

Over the last seven years, Unitrend has hardly lost an account out of dissatisfaction. The shifts were either due to strategic alliance or due to the policy of not dealing with competitive brands.  We can proudly say that the quality and sincerity of our work guarantees client satisfaction.

Diversified Portfolio: ‘from banking to cola drink’

Unitrend’s portfolio is marked by a horizontal growth. We refrain from over dependency on one single client like many of our competitors.

Total Communication Company: ‘working with clients not for them’

With a comprehensive range of services, Unitrend strives to be a communication partner to the clients, sharing joint responsibility to build brands

Suggestion

Though Unitrend Ltd is doing fine with its competitive edge over its competitors but advertising industry becoming competitive day by day so as client’s expectations. I have made the following recommendation where Unitrend need to be really care of.

• Unitrend Ltd should give more concentration on innovative creative design. The recent TVC like Lab Aid, PHP Floating Glass giving us the message that newly individual or newly starter can also give the industry a major thrust. Therefore Unitrend should concentrate more on innovative creative.
• The Media Buying Rate of the Unitrend Ltd is sometimes little higher than other leading advertising agency. This is the area where Unitrend Need to care.
• In this Days Media Innovation is a Common terminology in the advertising industry. More and More media innovation needed therefore.
• Clients are not only clients in these days. Now a days Client Agency relationship building is so much essential. A complete team needs to be build comprising of Agency and client people.
• At last what Unitrend need is to concentrate more on inter department coordination so that the total communication solution come smoothly on time.

Conclusion

As the years progressed Unitrend realized that in order to obtain better quality work from their employees they had to recruit the best possible human resources from the field. In accordance with this observation Unitrend, it began its bid to obtain the most talented and efficient human resources in the field. By paying their new employees 1.5 times more than any other ad agency in the business, Unitrend managed to lure away many an accomplished advertiser who were previously working for their competitors and made them their own.

Improvement is still on going process here. Therefore we must expect to see some more outstanding performance in the coming years from Unitrend Ltd.