65416013 account planning

Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising,Volume 31, Number 2 (Fall 2009).

Padmini Patwardhan (Ph.D., Southern Illinois UniversityCarbondale) is an Associate Professor of Mass Communication,Department of Mass Communication, Winthrop University, RockHill, SC 29708. (email: [email protected])

Hemant Patwardhan (Ph.D., Southern Illinois UniversityCarbondale) is an Assistant Professor of Marketing, College ofBusiness Administration, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC 29708.(email: [email protected])

Falguni Vasavada-Oza (Ph.D. , Sardar Patel University) is AssistantProfessor, Mudra Institute of Communication, Shela, Ahmedabad,Gujarat 380058, India. (email: [email protected])

This study was funded through a research fellowship from the AmericanAcademy of Advertising and a supplementary grant from WinthropUniversity Research Council awarded to the first two authors. The authorswould like to acknowledge and thank journal editors and the threeanonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Insights on Account Planning: A Viewfrom the Indian Ad Industry

Padmini Patwardhan, Hemant Patwardhan, and Falguni Vasavada-Oza

Using a grounded theory approach, this study on account planning is the first to explore its growthin India, a region of increasing importance to global advertisers and ad agencies. Five themes emergefrom interviews with sixteen Indian ad professionals: a glocalized planning ethos, environmentalfactors as primary planning growth drivers, demand-supply issues as developmental constraints,lack of variety in planning roles, and lack of institutionalized measures to evaluate planners’performance. Organizational innovation diffusion and institutional theory paradigms are utilizedto interpret findings and build a conceptual framework of account planning diffusion. Similaritiesand differences with western practice are noted. (Keywords: account planning, advertising,grounded theory, India)

Introduction

Examining global advertising concerns, issues andphenomena constitutes an important area of inquiryfor advertising scholars. Of late, considerable indus-try interest has centered on advertising practices inemerging economies. The reason is obvious: ad spend-ing in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) marketshas grown four times faster than the world average inthe last three years and should continue to grow 53%(or three times the world average) during the nextthree years, hitting $45.7 billion in ‘09 (King 2007).Much of this growth is fuelled by the economic inter-ests of multinational corporations; where they go, theirad agencies follow. With the expansion of agency net-works into these regions, philosophies, techniques andpractices they employ are available to local advertis-ing professionals. One such “best practice” is accountplanning, a cornerstone of ad strategy developmentin western agencies. In mature ad markets, there is

widespread acceptance that strategic planning con-tributes to the success of marketing communicationcampaigns and is an important part of agency opera-tions. To what extent is this reflected in advertisingapproaches in emerging advertising hot spots? Ourstudy investigates the diffusion of planning in majorad agencies in one of the fastest growing advertisingregions in the world—India.

Account planning systematically centralizes thevoice of the consumer in the advertising process andprovides ad agencies with a “thought leadership” roleat the critical intersection of insights, business strat-egy and creativity (Blais 2003). Today, planning isviewed as a distinctive “philosophy” of advertisingdevelopment (Hackley 2003), using research-basedinsight to bring the consumer to the creative strategytable (Meyers 1986; West and Ford 2001) and leads tosignificant and demonstrable impact on the qualityand effectiveness of a brand’s marketing communica-tions (Zambardino and Goodfellow 2003). Accountplanning is well established in mainstream British andAmerican advertising (Morrison and Haley 2003,2006). Its international advancement is also evident inthe recruitment of planners by agencies throughoutwestern Europe (Zambardino and Goodfellow 2003),the formation of professional APG (Account PlanningGroup) chapters in Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Argen-tina and France (in addition to the U.S. and U.K.), aswell as reports of its growth in countries like Austra-lia, Singapore and South Africa, China and Thailand.However, detailed investigation into its adoption in

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culturally dissimilar but fast developing economieslike India has not been examined and little informa-tion is available on its adaptation to localized market,media, consumer and cultural realities.

Events of the last two decades suggest that a closerlook at advertising practice in India is timely. Interna-tional business and trade media report that both ad-vertisers and agencies have zeroed in on the region asa prime growth area for their businesses. As the sec-ond fastest growing economy in the world after China,India’s rise as an economic power is demonstrated bya sustained 6-10 % growth rate since economic re-forms were instituted in the 1990s. This rapid accel-eration has brought about dramatic changes in thecountry’s business and consumer environments, cre-ating major opportunities and challenges for domes-tic and global businesses (McKinsey 2007).Multinational presence on both client and ad agencyside has exploded, bringing larger advertising bud-gets, global agency practices and greater accountabil-ity in client-agency relationships. In 1999, there wereabout 400 registered ad agencies employing about18,000 people (Ciochetto 2004). Today, about 40 ad-vertising agencies handle around 80% of the business;the rest is spread over about 700 advertising agencies.Multinational corporations rank among the largestadvertisers in India and major worldwide agency net-works control a major proportion of the region’s ad-vertising business (Lakshman 2005).

Admittedly, account planning is a western phenom-enon now diffusing globally. Indian media reportssuggest that it has become one of the new “buzzwords” in Indian advertising, especially among largeagencies. Strategically, it seems to be in the right placeat the right time. Many major agencies now employ“planners,” or “strategic thinkers,” as part of accountteams, indigenous books on planning are being pub-lished (e.g., veteran Indian planner Anand Halve’sPlanning for Power Advertising), jobs for planners arebeing advertised, and discussion on the art and sci-ence of planning in trade media and online blogs hasincreased. All this suggests that, today, account plan-ning is becoming serious business in the country’s adindustry and the time is right to explore its adoption.

Research Purpose and Significance

The central goal of our research is to develop in-sights on the diffusion of account planning in anemerging economy. To this end our study has twoclear research objectives:

(i) explore the planning phenomenon in ad agenciesthat employ account planning in India and un-

cover the interplay of global flows and local reali-ties (Kraidy 1999) that shape its growth, and

(ii) develop a theory-based diffusion frameworkto facilitate further inquiry into its industry-wide adoption not only in India, but also otherinternational settings.

Our investigation is important for several reasons.First, it identifies internal and external drivers–bothfacilitators and barriers–to further our understandingof account planning’s growth in India. The resultantframework offers a theory-based structure to analyzeits diffusion in other developing economies. Second,planning has not been explored from the perspectiveof shifting interpenetrations of the global and the lo-cal in today’s environment of high flux and uncer-tainty. Is its adoption an “internal” matter routinizingan institutionalized global agency pattern—an ex-ample of “organizational learning across borders”(Westney 2005)? Or is it shaped by “external” forcesin the agency environment (Beverland, Farelly andWoodhatch 2007), a response to advertisers facing newenvironmental, strategic and organizational challenges(Ghoshal and Westney 2005)? Third, there is a paucityof research on international account planning; thisstudy expands the limited literature beyond the U.S.and U.K. It is one of the first to explore how planningis adopted and practiced in India, a region of consid-erable importance to global advertisers and agencies.Fourth, from a managerial perspective, our findingsare of interest in the context of client-agency relation-ships in India. Is planning’s growth reactive with agen-cies adapting to match client expectations and offeringservices to retain their business (Carroll 1988; So 2005)?Or does it result from relational and collaborative ac-tions whereby agencies have evolved to operate asequal strategic partners? Our findings may interestglobal advertisers and agencies contemplating mar-ket entry and/or expansion in the region; domesticadvertisers and agencies may also value them as abenchmark to assess their own operations and/or re-tain clients who may want to change agencies.

Research Questions

Multinational management styles vary widely–frommore formalized, set policies and standards for Ameri-can companies to centralized high headquarters con-trol for Japanese companies, to a more personal, locallyfocused European socialization approach (Bartlett andGhoshal 1998). Despite these differences, all multina-tional corporations [including ad agencies] employ“… a full arsenal of coordinating processes, practices,and tools, and ….use those mechanisms in the most

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effective and efficient manner” in pursuit of profit inglobal operations (Bartlett and Ghoshal 1998, p. 192).At the same time, environmental culture is a domi-nant influence in advertising creation (Taylor, Hoyand Haley 1996; Punyapiroje, Morrison and Hoy 2002)and multinational practices may develop/adaptuniquely to the local culture in which they are situ-ated. To enable richer understanding of the global-local dialectic in the Indian account planning context,we use an in situ grounded theory approach (Glaserand Strauss 1967; Strauss and Corbin 1990). In thespirit of grounded theory investigation, and mindfulof criticism about cross-cultural validity of a prioriapplication of western frameworks to study interna-tional settings (Taylor, Hoy and Haley 1996), we letthe themes emerge from the data. Thus, no hypoth-eses are pre-formulated, though the following researchquestions inform the study’s scope and direction.

(i) How do Indian ad professionals understandand view the account planning function?

(ii) To what extent has the Indian advertising in-dustry adopted account planning? What isthe role of planners in Indian advertising agen-cies? What is the impact of culture and con-text on planning practice and development?

(iii) What similarities and differences, if any, existbetween Indian and western developmentsin account planning?

We next review growth of account planning in thewest, the development of advertising in India, anddescribe the qualitative data collection process. Sub-sequently, findings are reported in the form of con-cepts and themes emerging from data. These arefurther examined in the light of institutional theoryand organizational theory (OT) paradigms to proposea diffusion framework of account planning. The studyconcludes with acknowledged limitations, implica-tions for international advertising practice, and direc-tions for future research.

Western Developments in Account Planning

Planning first emerged as a separate area of agencyactivity in the U.K. during the 1960s with two inde-pendent attempts to institutionalize it in ad agencies.Stanley Pollit of Boase Massimi Pollitt (BMP) andStephen King of J. Walter Thompson (JWT) are cred-ited with planning’s inception by formally setting upa process to integrate the consumer into the advertis-ing process (Crosier, Grant and Gilmore 2003; Barry,Peterson and Todd 1987). This brought planning, withits heavy reliance on qualitative consumer research,

into their respective agencies, though each viewed itsrole somewhat differently. The BMP approach em-phasized planning’s contribution to researching roughcreative ideas and working with creative teams (plan-ners were thus unkindly dubbed “creative tweakers”);JWT viewed the planner as a “grand strategist” (Steel1998), more holistically incorporating the voice of theconsumer in the entire brand communication process.Today, its demonstrated success in British advertis-ing campaigns has made account planning an inte-gral part of the advertising industry in the region.However, U.K. planning approaches, with heavy fo-cus on qualitative techniques, were not immediatelyendorsed by the numbers-driven American advertis-ing industry. Though advertising luminaries like JayChiat worked to import the discipline to MadisonAvenue, it took almost twenty years–and several Brit-ish expatriate planners–to create a planning culture inAmerican advertising. In the process, a new versionemerged–distinct from the British model–meshingquantitative and qualitative approaches (Stewart 1987).Hackley (2003) attributes U.S. differences to, amongother things, differences in agency culture (more hier-archical) and research traditions (more data-driven).Despite these basic differences, planning’s importanceis recognized in both countries today. Thus, its diffu-sion is widespread: both full service advertising agen-cies as well as smaller agencies/ creative boutiquescarry out many of the commonly recognized func-tions of account planners (Baskin 2001).

While there have been several books written on ac-count planning (e.g., Jon Steel’s Truth, Lies and Adver-tising: The Art of Account Planning 1998; LisaFortini-Campbell’s Hitting the Sweet Spot 1992, 2001),academic research has been fairly limited (Morrisonand Haley 2006) and is largely centered on the twocountries where it is most widely practiced: the U.K.and the U.S. Studies have focused on exploring theplanning process (e.g., Barry, Peterson and Todd 1987),evaluation of work of planners (e.g., Maxwell, Wanta,Sheehan and Bentley 2000; Morrison and Haley 2003),agency perspectives about research (Chong 2006) andthe planning role (e.g., Hackley 2003; Crosier, Grantand Gilmore 2003), its integration in U.S. agencies(Stewart 1987; Morrison and Haley 2006) and clientperspectives on account planning (Moran 1988). Thereis some evidence that perceptions of the role of plan-ning among professionals by other agency depart-ments still lack clarity. Studies of agency executives inLondon and New York (Hackley 2003), Singapore(Chong 2006) and Scotland (Crosier, Grant andGilmore 2003) found a lack of full understanding ofthe function. Some resentment of planners’ power over


the creative process was also noted (Kendrick andDee 1992). Though not specifically focused on accountplanning, a study of the influence of culture on over-all creative strategy in France (Taylor, Hoy and Haley1996) found two distinct cultural operation models—American and French–that influenced the research/intuition approach to strategy. Extending this to Thaiadvertising, Punyapiroje, Morrison and Hoy (2002)discovered that decisions to embrace or resist researchwere influenced by Western clients while intuition(more consonant with Thai cultural values) was oftenemployed for domestic and Japanese clients.

Planning itself is a continually evolving functionleading to its adoption in varying forms with differ-ent emphases (Crosier and Pickton 2003). In the 1990s,integrated communication in particular, with its fo-cus on customized consumer communications andrelationship marketing, raised new challenges for ac-count planning. It was inevitable that planning ex-panded into other integrated communication areaslike public relations and direct marketing (Morrisonand Haley 2006), leading to some fuzziness about itsrole scope. Today’s hot debate in the west is about“media neutral” planning; agency planners are in-creasingly being expected to generate more formal-ized upstream influence in marketing communication.In this sense, within agencies in well established mar-kets, planning seems headed for a partnership rolesomewhat similar to that of marketing in client orga-nizations (Zambardino and Goodfellow 2003).

Indian Advertising Industry

Historically, multinational agencies are no newcom-ers to India. L.A. Stronach Ltd., Bomas Ltd., and J.Walter Thompson in the 1920s (Mazzarella 2003),Lintas in the 1930s and McCann Erikson in the 1950s(Pashupati and Sengupta 1996) all set up shop to tapinto the business of multinational clients in the re-gion. The first Indian agency (B. Dattaram and Com-pany) was founded in Bombay in 1905 and manymajor domestic players have been in the country forover a century (Joshi 2002). However, the exodus offoreign businesses during the 60s and 70s as a resultof restrictive protectionist policies (e.g., the ForeignExchange Regulation Act of 1974) also affected theagency business. Foreign agencies and corporationsthat stayed adopted “Indianized” forms; for example,JWT became Hindustan Thompson Associates. In thisperiod, vibrant domestic agencies (e.g., Ulka, Trikaya,Clarion, Mudra, Rediffusion, etc.) flourished anddominated the Indian advertising scene for severaldecades (Mazzarella 2003). The simultaneity of eco-

nomic reforms and a communication revolution inthe 1990s led to major expansion of the Indian adver-tising industry. Large advertising budgets, increasedmarket competition, and growth in media vehiclesleading to higher media penetration (“Radio Indus-try” 2007) were all factors in exploding the advertis-ing business. Much of this growth was fuelled byentry (or re-entry) of multinational corporations andglobal ad agencies—the latter through strategic alli-ances with domestic agencies to overcome equity re-strictions. As foreign ownership rules relaxed, thesedomestic agencies were taken over by global networks;today the top 20 agencies in India are either part ofthese networks or have strategic global partnerships.

The size of the Indian ad industry is relatively smallcompared to the U.S. or U.K. with ad spending at a low0.34 percent of GDP as compared to other developedcountries whose average is about 0.98 percent. How-ever, according to Zenith media, the dynamic BRICeconomies contribute more to global advertising growththan G7 countries (“Worldwide Ad Spending” 2005). InIndia, advertising expenditure grew at nearly 15% in the1980s to reach $896 million by the early 1990s (de Mooij1994), $1.7 billion by 2001 (Ciochetto 2004), and, in 2005,revenues reached $2.6 billion (“Up, Up, Up” 2005). To-day, although the figure representing the Indian adver-tising industry may be a modest US $3.5 billion or a mere0.4 percent of GDP, the industry is growing briskly at20%—twice the GDP rate (Turakhia 2007).

The winds of change are evident in the operation(more professional), structure (more integrated, holis-tic) and practices (more modern, streamlined) of majoragency players in India. In the last few years, manyhave undergone complete makeovers in terms of roles,reporting structures, and operations to spearhead bet-ter understanding of the consumer-brand process anddevelop more integrated approaches to the advertiser’sbrands (Razdan 2006). However, an inherent dichotomyoffers an interesting opportunity to examine Indianadvertising’s adoption and adaptation of account plan-ning. According to Joshi (2008), while Indian advertis-ing has absorbed the structure and form of operatingfrom western agencies, it appears to have largely re-tained a unique Indianness in its creative products.

The Study

An inductive, grounded theory approach to gener-ate theory from data first proposed by Glaser andStrauss (1967) is employed, systematically identifyingkey elements and then categorizing relationships be-tween those elements to explain the phenomenon(Glaser 1992, 1998; Strauss and Corbin 1990). Semi-struc-

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tured, in-depth personal interviews with senior agencypersonnel in India (including planners, creatives andaccount management) are meshed with review of plan-ning literature and media/research reports on Indianadvertising to identify key concepts and themes. Sinceaccount planning in India has never been examined,and our purpose is to seek explanations rather than testhypotheses based on prior research, this approach isparticularly well suited to our investigation.

Participants

The sampling frame was the top twenty ad agenciesin India, based on information from our Indian researchpartner, a premier marketing communication institutewith strong ties to industry. As an exploratory study,we wanted to focus on the planning phenomenon wheresome direct evidence of organized occurrence was avail-able. Participants were recruited through phone/emailand representation from various agency operational ar-eas was sought to provide diverse internal perspec-tives. Sampling was purposive: all were either directlyinvolved in the planning function or had strong con-nections to its use in advertising, making them crediblecommentators on its development in India.

Sixteen advertising professionals (four women andtwelve men, all Indian, all graduates in diverse disci-plines) were interviewed, and included ten planners,four senior account management executives, and twocreative directors. Planner designations ranged from vice-president to planning director, senior planner to brandcommunication manager. Senior agency management/ac-count management was represented by a president, aformer president with a planning background, a chief op-erating officer and an executive vice-president/ branchhead. Two creative directors made up the remainder ofour sample. All sixteen participants had significant In-dian industry experience ranging from five to twenty-five years. They represented seven different agencies,either part of global networks or with global agencypartnerships, ranked in the top ten in India in terms ofbillings, and had a mix of multinational and domesticclients (including some of the country’s largest adver-tisers). While a limited number of agencies were repre-sented, all but one of the participants had significantprior experience at multiple agencies. Four had alsopreviously worked with smaller domestic agencies.

Location

Interviews were conducted over a period of threeweeks in summer 2007 in two major cities–Mumbaiand Ahmedabad. Mumbai is India’s equivalent of

Madison Avenue and houses country headquartersof multinational corporations that are among thecountry’s largest advertisers. Ahmedabad is home toseveral high spending domestic advertisers; the headoffice of one of the top five agency networks in Indiais also located in the city. Thirteen participants wereinterviewed at their place of work, i.e., in natural pro-fessional settings. Two were interviewed at the inte-grated marketing communication training institutenear Ahmedabad and one reached via email wheninclement weather resulted in cancellation of aMumbai interview.

Method

Defining Research Situation. The first step in groundedtheory research is to identify the “substantive area” ofinvestigation. We defined our research situation sim-ply as “examining diffusion of account planning inIndian advertising.” As recommended by Strauss andCorbin (1990), review of literature prior to data collec-tion was restricted to background information ratherthan as a source of pre-formulated hypotheses or re-search questions.

A logical starting point for inductive research isobservation of an activity related to the phenomenonor in-depth interviews with key individuals involvedin the phenomenon. We chose the interview methoddue to its suitability. Investigation progressed on thebasis of emergent ideas and themes; a previous inter-view shaped selection of subsequent interviewees aswell as direction of questions. A basic interview guidewas created with both general probes (allowing par-ticipants to expand on their own) and focused prompts(to follow specific lines of questioning) drawing on ex-isting literature. Participants were told to share theirpersonal thoughts and opinions about the subject aris-ing from their career experiences and not the positionsof their employers. Interviews opened with an investi-gator providing a brief introduction to the study and aconfidentiality statement. The actual interview was in-formal and unstructured—a format that lends itself to aperspective of action rooted in the experience of partici-pants rather than that of investigators. Participants wereencouraged to explore divergent and convergent linesof thought related to the topic. Most interviews were of45-70 minutes duration. Audio-taping consent was ob-tained; tapes were later transcribed verbatim.

Note Taking, Memoing, Coding and Sorting. Duringeach interview, keyword notes were maintained andlater verified against transcripts. After each interview,investigators compared notes to identify key ideas.This discussion was crucial to identify concepts and


generate categories, variables and emergent themes.Dominant concepts or patterns were then coded asresearch notes and elaborated as thematic memos tobe examined against other data sources (literature,media and industry research reports). While codinghelped identify key category variables of underlyingthemes, memoing uncovered inter-relationships thatlinked them together. During the final sorting stage,memos were grouped into interpretive sequences thatbest explained the structure of the phenomenon andprovided a structure for reporting findings (Glaserand Strauss 1967). Data collection and interpretationcontinued until a point of saturation was reached, i.e.,no new information was obtained through additionalinterviews or other forms of data appraisal.

Once all sixteen interviews were completed andevaluated, we constructed themes grouping interpre-tive sequences under broader propositions. Valida-tion checks were employed during and at the end ofthe process and included investigator triangulation,constant comparison, and respondent validation (Pe-ters, Amato and Hollenbeck 2007). First, three experi-enced investigators continually reviewed anddiscussed data and findings. Second, constant com-parison—moving back and forth between data parts—was used to categorize, compare, analyze and refinedata bits and categories (Dye, Schatz, Rosenberg andColeman 2000). Third, at the conclusion of the study,participants were emailed a summary of findings forcomment; no misstatements were reported.

Key Findings

Five broad themes emerged from the experientialperspective of Indian ad professionals: (i) glocalizedplanning ethos, (ii) environmental factors as primarydrivers of planning diffusion, (iii) demand-supply is-sues as major developmental constraints, (iv) lack ofvariety in planning roles, and (v) lack of institutional-ized measures to evaluate planners’ performance.

Glocalized Planning Ethos

The classic western consumer orientation of accountplanning was widely reflected in our participants’choice of terminology to describe planners as “thevoice of the consumer,” “finder of consumer insights,”and “consumer’s alter ego.” Somewhat different fromthe definitional confusion reported in prior researchfindings in the U.S. and U.K. (Hackley 2003), Singapore(Chong 2006) and Scotland (Crosier, Grant andGilmore 2003), considerable clarity was evident in theirunderstanding of its western origins, as well as the

current debates swirling around it. In fact, severalparticipants volunteered a more organic view of therelationship between planning, consumers and brands,focusing on its bridge-building role. Two plannersused the term “brand custodian” to describe theiractivities; several talked about consumer attachmentto their brands. A senior planner referred to brands as“bundles of meaning” and account planning as a“meaning making mechanism” to build consumer-brand relationships. Thus, planning was seen not onlyas a process of delivering consumer insights, but alsoas a broader process of safeguarding and growingbrands. A planning director described it as follows:

“I’m very protective about my brands and viewmyself as a steadfast soldier that keeps them goingstrong. I’m the voice of the brand as well. Some-times brand managers may not see long termideas… and agency creative may not be right forthe brand. You’re talking to the brand and theconsumer at the same time. Sometimes you hold amirror to the consumer and sometimes you get theconsumer to aspire in a certain way. What the con-sumer wants, desires, aspires are three differentlevels and you need to find the right bridge orconnection. So you must immerse in both the brandand consumer universe. ”

The term “glocal,” derived from the Japanese con-cept of dochakuka which means to adapt the global tolocal conditions, came up several times in the discus-sion. While basic account planning concepts were seenas being western in origin, the planning process wasnot. There was considerable emphasis on the adap-tive, rather than imitative, nature of planning in In-dia. A senior planner said:

“ I’d say we’ve adapted significantly…a lot of thewestern models usually don’t apply in India be-cause India is a set of 29 different countries….everystate, every region has its own nuances…rituals thatare sacred in the north are disrespectful in thesouth…. Converting planning tools to relevant con-sumer communication is still a very Indian process.”

U.S. account planning has long been seen as differ-ent from the U.K. model (Stewart 1987; Hackley 2003),and Indian participants were well aware of it. In thewords of a planning director:

“…globalization is not necessarily synonymouswith standardization…. I mean… look at differ-ences in British and American planning traditionsrooted in the culture of their respective regions. Itoffers historical evidence to support the localiza-tion of planning. That’s happening here as well. ”

A vice president of planning described going local anecessary response to the reality of Indian conditionsand needs. An agency president used the term “an

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Indian way” to describe adaptation of planning to theIndian environment. What exactly was this Indianway? Emergence of the planning discipline in Indiawas seen as an opportunity to bring advertising closerto Indian culture. A creative director describedplanning’s role as “a return to Indian roots… a wayfor Indian agencies to reconnect with India….” Manysaw the discipline as a tool to move away from elitistimitations of “Madison Avenue” type advertising. Sev-eral planners talked about their agency’s efforts tocreate a culture of planning with an Indian touch.Many top agencies in India mandated cultural immer-sion in “the sounds and smells of real life” to infuseunderstanding of local culture into consumer research.At one agency, planners who failed to “get their handsdirty” were banned from participating in future meet-ings until they did so. Others were encouraged to have“pet consumer research projects” outside their comfortzone to help sharpen their cultural acuity.

While planners in our study appeared very wellinformed about proprietary planning tools and prac-tices of their global agency networks and competi-tors, several participants made references todevelopment of indigenous planning tools more suitedto Indian culture. For example, JWT India has createda proprietary brand chakras tool kit based on a 2,000year-old system from the Indian Upanishads(www.brandchakras.com). A former agency presidentresponsible for setting up planning at his agency’sIndian operations also mentioned techniques initiatedat his agency’s New Delhi office being adopted atother international locations.

Another interesting observation was the focus onemotions in the Indian planning process. Despite a domi-nant view of planning as an analytic, intellectual activ-ity, centrality of emotion was evidently important forIndian professionals in both the process of developingconsumer insights as well as the end-result. Repeat-edly, planners discussed their engagement in terms ofboth thinking and feeling, talking about the role of“imagination and passion,” planning as an explosiveengagement of “logic and magic” and as a “sparkplugthat makes new things happen for brands based onsound consumer knowledge.” A senior planner said:

“Planners realize that they need to look at the worldcreatively and imaginatively in its entirety. We’restill at the stage in India where we’re workingtoward acceptance of planning. Currently, we’rein an adaptive phase….riding the crest of creatingand defining what account planning in India willbe. We’re all playing a small role in that so weapproach it both objectively and with passion.”

Environmental Factors as Drivers ofPlanning Growth

Environmental factors have been observed as keydrivers in the growth of account planning in the west(Barry, Peterson and Todd 1987; Butcher andMcCulloch 2003). In India, the spread of a planningculture was perceived as a product of a changing mar-ketplace in which advertising processes needed tobalance new forms of business culture as well as in-corporate systems to monitor changes in consumerculture. Three factors were identified as drivers ofgrowth (i) global marketers’ organizational culture,(ii) changes in consumer culture, and (iii) globaliza-tion of Indian ad agencies and professionals.

Global Marketers’ Organizational Culture. Culturalexpectations of business often impact the processesby which advertising is produced (Taylor, Hoy andHaley 1996). A senior planner observed that Indianadvertising has been “very client satisfactiondriven…and agencies are seen as suppliers.” Grant,Gilmore and Crosier (2003) observe that companieswith high propensity for systematic overall planningdemand added value from their agencies in terms ofstrategic inputs. This systems driven approach is char-acteristic of multinational corporations. Participantsregarded global rather than domestic marketers asprimary influencers of planning growth. Represent-ing the country’s largest advertisers, they exercisedconsiderable pressure on ad agencies to stay competi-tive and develop more organized approaches to con-sumer research as reflected in this comment from asenior VP-planning:

“Planning is client driven rather than agencydriven. Clients who have well detailed, docu-mented processes and systems of thinking…they’rethe ones who ask for account planning…when youlook at MNC clients for example…they come witha heritage of great planning inputs around theglobe. They expect the same robust rigor here aswell and unless that is followed they are not reallycomfortable with the creative.”

The external impetus for planning’s growth wasalso presented as a demand and supply issue by anagency president: “….multinationals who were usedto planning input from their agencies in more devel-oped countries demanded it here and we had no choicebut to supply it.” A former creative director added:“…setting up an account planning department is en-tirely client-driven. If an agency wins a big client, andthe client is looking for planning services, then theagency will hurry up and set a department in place.”These comments, as well as discussions with other


participants, reinforce the perception that planning’sinitial induction into the agency was more reactive (tothe process driven business culture of western cli-ents) than pro-active. However, planners working withmultinational clients also suggested that their role isgradually evolving into team players working closelywith marketing/brand teams. By contrast, plannersworking for many domestic clients displayed a moreproject-based, short term approach.

Consumer Culture. Multi-cultural, multi-religious,multi-lingual diversity in India means advertisers needto know consumers a lot better. There was wide con-sensus that the effect of globalization on Indian con-sumers has been culturally transformative. Accordingto a senior account director,

“Indian consumers are complex, evolving targets.We need more professional tools to negotiate thegrowing complexity of Indian consumer cultureso planning’s value has grown for both advertisersand ad agencies.”

In recent years, rising levels of consumerism drivenby increased urbanization, higher incomes, greaterchoice, better education and elevated awareness havealtered consumer dynamics. Attractive new segmentshave emerged driven by individualism and a self-gratification trend unseen till now in Indian consum-ers, redefining strategies of communication andpromotion. Emergence of “power” consumer seg-ments, including women, youth (teens and youngtwenty-somethings), adolescent and pre-adolescentkids have created new decision makers and influencersin categories from clothes to cars, from music to fash-ion, from durables to media (CII Marketing SummitProgram 2006).

Though signs of the growing influence of Westernculture and lifestyles are evident, the situation is some-what misleading. On the one hand, a former presi-dent and planning head of McCann Erickson Indiadescribes the Indian woman as wife and mother break-ing out of the traditional role (Desai 2003). On theother hand, even though 70% of today’s Indians areunder 40 (with at least half “post liberalization ba-bies”), their relative modernity and youthfulness dis-guises a significant fact that younger Indians are stilldeeply rooted in Indian tradition. A McKinsey reportdescribes the co-existence of multiple Indias, eachmoving at its own pace. Global India, a small minorityof affluent households atop the Indian income andconsumption pyramid, is similar in taste and lifestyleto counterparts in developed markets. Deprived Indiaat the bottom consists of poor (including rural) seg-ments that can only afford the bare necessities. Thereal drivers of consumption occupy the center of the

pyramid: middle-income households constitutingAspiring, Striving and Seeking India, a group increas-ingly courted by global corporations and likely to in-crease substantially in the next decade (McKinsey2007). What makes Indians tick and what is the opti-mum way of reaching out and communicating withthem? Addressing these paradoxes is being increas-ingly viewed as a major advertising challenge thatcan be addressed through planning insights. An ac-count director commented:

“…planning has made Indianness chic, in a modernway. Planning has made us closer to ourselvesculturally…given us tremendous amount of freedomto uncover Indian values, new Indian outlooks….”

Also, as major corporations transition internation-ally developed brands to Indian markets, the chal-lenges of calibrating international brands to localpreferences and ensuring that local consumer insights,preferences and tastes are incorporated into brandmarketing communications (not generally deliveredthrough traditional market research programs) havereinforced the importance of strategic planning. Anagency president put it thus:

“Planning gives us a system to back up intuition….The marketing requirements in this country are farmore demanding …. This is an incredibly hetero-geneous market, an extremely fragmented mar-ket, an incredibly diverse market and not just atthe obvious level of language or culture. The localretailer understands Indians better than big mar-keters. He will cut and sell an aspirin in two pieces,a cigarette in half if consumers need it. This is thekind of detail and depth that agency planning needsto systematically uncover.”

Globalization of Indian Ad Agencies and Professionals.Structurally, formalized planning entered the Indianadvertising industry at a time when affiliations withglobal agency networks grew into partnerships and,in most cases, majority stake holdings. It was inevi-table that a range of standardized agency practiceswould permeate agency culture as Indian agenciesunderwent major restructuring to align with new part-ners. An account manager said:

“We had to learn new stuff in a hurry to keep up.Of course we were both excited and scared by newopportunities. But Indians are good at absorbingnew ideas. Planning was something they wantedand we embraced.”

Account planning was adopted fairly early by globalagencies in India, the early adopter being HindustanThompson Associates (now JWT India), the country’slargest and most profitable agency. Today, top agenciesin India all have specialist planners though not all may

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have separate planning departments. Acquisition ofproprietary global planning tools such as Ogilvy’s “But-terfly,” JWT’s T square or similar was also seen as aform of “branded planning” helping business develop-ment. An agency vice-president and branch head de-scribed planning as a weapon to maintain professionalcompetency and establish competitive parity:

“It is a good thing to have planners on our staff.We present a better image to prospective clients.Besides, if other agencies have planners then weshould have them too, just to create a more levelplaying field.”

At the same time, globalization is as much aboutmindset as an economic force. Liberalization has sharp-ened the need to be internationally recognized as a hubof talent, experience and thinking power. A senior plan-ner captures the new outward looking approach:

“…every time we must raise standards to interna-tional norms and practices….I mean we want to beboth Indian and globally competitive…. we wantto show our unique Indian creativity is backed upby strategic thinking. We have the same moderntools as you, and can compete with any new ideasanywhere….”

According to a planning director, receptivity to newideas like account planning was primed by Indiansociety’s historical openness to western ideas. In-creased exposure through international travel, com-petitive participation (e.g., Cannes, One Show, Effies),and interactions with ad professionals across globalnetworks have created an “openness of mind and akeen desire to catch up on the world stage.”

Demand—Supply Issues in IndianAccount Planning

While changes in the marketing environment andthe rapid growth of Indian advertising have created ademand for planners, supply constraints are evident.When asked about the number of planners currentlyworking in India, estimates ranged from “no idea” to“perhaps twenty-five” to “over a hundred.” This widevariability in responses suggests that planning is in anearly adoption phase in the Indian ad industry. Despitesome discussion about setting up an APG-modeled as-sociation in India, it is evident that the number of plan-ners in the country has yet to reach critical mass.

Interviewees identified several roadblocks. Thebooming Indian economy has resulted in growth of avariety of promising sectors, and advertising is nolonger seen as a “hot” profession by many graduatesand attracts fewer recruits. Another major concernwas the high rate of attrition among planners. The

industry still copes with cut-throat competition, lowagency compensation and frequent discounting of itsservices. As a result, planners are not being paid top-dollar salaries. A senior planner at one of the topagencies in India commented that only those whowere passionate about account planning remained inadvertising. Another planner talked about the needfor commitment and intellectual curiosity as the keyto longevity in a planning career:

“Planning is a great job to have…a superb job…ifyou’re a curious fellow and if you like to under-stand why people think the way they do…it’s thejob for you.”

Agency heads observed that exportability of plan-ning expertise to other more lucrative sectors was amajor headache. Frequently, planners took up betterpaying positions with client organizations, joinedconsultancies or moved out of advertising altogether—notably into the booming banking and financial ser-vices sectors.

Despite a growing demand, lack of training opportu-nities to source new recruits is evident. No schools offercourses in account planning (the exception is MudraInstitute of Communication—an industry supportedelite IMC institute) with the result that a few graduatesare chasing many jobs. The president of a top agencyrecruiting planners at the time of the interview said:

“Finding the depth of talent [in India] isdifficult….there are more marketing issues andproblems than there are people to solve them.”

Two strategies were mentioned as being used toaddress this shortfall: (i) internal reshuffling of em-ployees and retraining them for planning roles—usu-ally account management or research personnel, and(ii) hiring new recruits with no planning expertise assenior planners’ understudies to learn on the job.

Limited Planning Roles

While acknowledging some early tension betweenaccount management and planning due to turf issues,similar to the reported resentment of planners’ powerover the creative process in the U.S. (Kendrick andDee 1992), an agency president observed that agen-cies that had worked hard to reduce this friction hadnegotiated this successfully. Many interviewees,whether in planning, creative or management, be-lieved that most top agencies in India had progressedbeyond the turf war phase. One agency successfullyresolved the issue through adoption of a team (ratherthan department) approach; teams on specific brandswere staffed by servicing, planning and creative.


Another agency president explained that resourceconstraints often led to a policy to use the limitedsupply of planners predominantly for new businessdevelopment, major pitches and key clients. It alsodepended a great deal on the agency’s proactive orreactive stance to planning as is seen in this comment:

“Agencies in troubleshooting mode use them ashit men or hit women to come in and solve a prob-lem. But industry practice is now moving towardassigned planners on brands.”

There is little doubt, however, that planners con-sider themselves overworked. At an agency with alarge planning contingent, planners frequently workedon many brands and on many accounts simulta-neously; three worked on more than five brands orclients. With so many accounts demanding their at-tention, more effort was focused on the best payingaccounts and mostly in the pre-campaign planningand research phase. Planners also repeatedly ex-pressed a growing concern that planning quality waslikely to suffer if supply issues were not resolved inthe near future.

Interviews also suggested that planners’ role wasmostly advertising-focused. When asked if they wereregularly involved in other marketing communica-tion areas like direct marketing and public relations,all agreed that this was desirable but not always thecase. This finding is similar to Morrison and Haley(2003, 2006), who found that planners’ involvementin other areas like sales promotion, PR, etc. was lim-ited. On probing, several participants attributed thisto a chronic shortage of planners, and the fact thatthey were overworked and spent most of their timeon activities with the greatest potential revenue. How-ever, from a management perspective, a former agencyhead saw lack of integration more as a structural issue:

“This is something that the industry really struggleswith…there is so much talk about medianeutrality…but the agency financial model is struc-tured very poorly for that…people are trying tomove outside mass media but instinct and struc-tural constraints are preventing them from think-ing integrated.”

Two dominant planning roles appeared to be inpractice: the creative strategist and developmentalresearcher, similar to roles played by American coun-terparts (Morrison and Haley 2006).

Planner as Creative Strategist/Catalyst. Indian plan-ners combine both the “grand strategist” role definedby Stephen King to describe JWT planning and the “adtweaking” developmental role that was part of the BMPapproach. Interviewees viewed the planning task asboth broad and specific. A senior planner observed:

“I think the beauty is when you find connectionsbetween history or culture to something in thepresent. Sometimes the toughest of problems hasthe simplest of solutions. Sometimes it’s serendip-ity, sometimes you have to work at it. When theend product gives you that aha or wow, that’swhen it’s worth it.”

Creative directors talked about the “excitement ofideas” that planning brought to the table and affirmedthat it made their job easier to have someone provideimpetus to new creative thinking. They believed thisdynamic exchange environment led to stronger briefs,greater understanding and better advertising cam-paigns in India. A former creative director (now aconsultant) illustrated the broad scope of the planner’scontribution through this anecdote:

“An account planner can offer a different perspec-tive on issues…give a 360 degree view of the sce-nario around the client’s product/service….Iremember seeing Anand Halve (who was calledthe Planner), sitting in his dark cabin, crouchedover reams and reams of data…performing strangemysterious calculations. Clients believed in themand acted upon them. The creative team was con-vinced and our campaigns were created keepinghis views in mind. [the planner] has to keep inmind social, technology and media trends…(andpredict) the evolution of the brand and the chang-ing needs of consumers. Youngsters consideringAccount Planning as a career may also want toconsider Scientific Astrology!”

However, the creative brief, an important formal strat-egy document created by the planner, was not seen asthe most important planning output. As a soundingboard, discussant and moderator, the continuous inter-action between planner and creative department preand post-brief stage was considered of greater value asevident in this comment from a senior planner:

“The briefing process is more important than thesheet of paper itself. You need to be able to engagecontinuously with creatives. I try and build ongo-ing connections with them since the spark can comefrom anywhere.”

Planner as Researcher. The other important planningrole articulated was research. Awareness of key dif-ferences between British and American research tra-ditions was high among participants. Repeatedreferences were made to the “touchy-feely” nature ofBritish planning and a more data driven Americanapproach. When asked about use of research method-ology, most planners expressed high degree of com-fort with both quantitative and qualitative data.However, research was frequently outsourced andthe planner focused on interpretation. Involvement in

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qualitative data collection was much greater and mul-tiple methods (focus groups, interviews, observation,participation in cultural experiences and “coolhunting”)were used to collect information. Several planners com-mented that generating insights was an ongoing pro-cess of environment scanning. Both unstructured andstructured research approaches were evident in prac-tice. For example, a former planning director saw theprocess as more intuitive and imprecise:

“To my mind, insights are like ether…they areomnipresent. You just need to have your antennaup to understand them and use them at the rightmoment to light the creative spark.”

On the other hand, a VP- Strategic Planning at anagency with well defined planning roles offers a morestructured description:

“Yes, man…there are a lot of softer issues that theplanner brings to the table…understandingculture…understanding relationships…which hasa huge impact on how consumers interact withbrands…but insight is the systematic applicationof both logic and magic to the creative develop-ment process.”

However, planners were not involved at all stagesof the advertising process: research and involvementwas more intense in the pre-campaign stage and re-duced progressively thereafter, a condition similar toU.S. planners who reported greater involvement in cre-ative strategy development research (Morrison andHaley 2006). Most planners—and agency manage-ment—acknowledged that planner involvement dur-ing the campaign evaluation phase was, at best, minimal.

Lack of Evaluation Measures

In a 2006 study, Morrison and Haley identified threemeasures to evaluate planners’ performance: stan-dard campaign measures, feedback, and awards andpress. In Indian advertising, evaluation was often re-ferred to as a “grey area” by many participants inplanning and management. From “no formal evalua-tion” to more “systematic internal and client review”to “if the campaign succeeds, planning is consideredsuccessful,” responses varied widely. Some mentionedthat planners’ inputs were evaluated by their peers inservicing and creative using general questions like“how would you judge the contribution of this plan-ner in the campaign” or “how well does this plannerget along with the team.” This appears to be similar tothe finding that agencies are more inwardly-focusedthan client-centered in their evaluation practices ofaccount executives (Franke, Murphy and Nadler 2003).However, most participants acknowledged that there

was no formal evaluation system. If account execu-tives are assessed on their contribution to the bottomline and creative staff on originality and execution ofcreative ideas, planners seem to operate in a safe zonethat currently insulates them from direct accountabil-ity. Many agency heads—and planners—acknowl-edged this as a problem agencies would have to dealwith more effectively as planning gets institutional-ized in the industry. The recent introduction of theEffies in India—advertising effectiveness awardsbased on both strategy and execution—was seen asan industry attempt to address this issue.

Discussion

The final step in grounded analysis is to interpre-tively link emergent themes and create a “theory ofthe phenomenon” (Corbin and Strauss 1990). At thisstage, assistance may be sought from literature to helpunderstand conceptual/theoretical implications thatmay impact the issue (Eisenhardt 1989; Pandit 1996).Our research interest was exploring the institutional-ization of account planning in Indian agencies andproposing a diffusion framework to frame the inter-play of processes and factors that impact its growth.Two paradigms focusing on innovation in organiza-tions—organizational innovation diffusion and insti-tutional theory—provided assistance in interpretingfindings emerging from our data.

At an organizational level, innovation diffusion isdefined as “the adoption of an idea or behavior that isnew to the organization adopting it” with the inten-tion of benefiting the organization (Daft 1978, p. 197).A decision to innovate is widely regarded as a thrust tocreate differentiation, enhance performance, and gaincompetitive edge. West and Farr (1990) point out thatthe element need not be entirely novel or unfamiliar tomembers of the unit; it must however involve somediscernable change or challenge to the status quo (King1992, p. 90). Within organizational settings, diffusionstages may be represented sequentially to includeagenda setting, matching an innovation to the agenda,redefining-restructuring, clarifying, and routinizing theinnovation (Rogers 1983, 1995). Zaltman, Duncan andHolbeck (1973) conceptualize two diffusion stages, eachwith corresponding actions. The initiation stage involvesknowledge-awareness, attitude formation, and decision;the implementation stage involves initial implementa-tion and continued-sustained implementation duringwhich the innovation is routinized. The rate at whichthe innovation is adopted depends not only on thecharacteristics of the innovation but also on variousenvironmental factors impacting the process.


Constraints

-Demand/supplyissues- Training

Planning Features- Indianization- Limited roles- Lack of evaluationmeasures

OrganizationalFactors

-Size-Affiliation- Institutionalbeliefs

CoerciveEnvironmentalFactors-Client pressures-Agency networkpressures-Changing Indianconsumer culture

MimeticEnvironmentalFactors

- Keep up withcompetition

IndividualFactors

-Perceptions-Beliefs-Familiarity

HighKnowledge/Awareness ofAP

PositiveAttitudetowardsAP

Acceptance/Decision toAdopt AP

I N I T I A T I O N

InitialImplementation

Adaptation/Routinization

I M P L E M E N T A T I O N

Figure 1Conceptual Framework of Account Planning Diffusion in India

Institutional theory stresses the importance of orga-nizational beliefs and institutional environments inthe adoption of new ideas. Organizations look to adoptforms, processes, outlooks or competencies (Selznick1957, 1996) that are collectively believed to enhancetheir value, legitimacy, and stability over time througha process of adaptation and integration (Scott 1987;Zucker 1983). After a new practice is introduced byearly adopters, successive adoption by others helps itacquire a rule-like status making it an institutional-ized feature of organizational activity (DiMaggio andPowell 1983; Meyer and Rowan 1977). Innovation dif-fusion within early adopter organizations (intra-or-ganizational) is usually driven by competitive benefits.Subsequent inter-organizational diffusion may be aresult of isomorphism—considerable pressure to incul-cate ideas that have gained legitimacy within the field(DiMaggio and Powell 1983). This (rather than a de-sire to innovate) may, therefore, hasten further diffu-sion of industry practices (DiMaggio and Powell 1983).Three types of environmental factors are seen as pro-moting isomorphism: coercive pressures from author-ity or organizations on which a firm isresource-dependent, mimetic pressures that lead tocopying of successful forms during high uncertainty,and normative pressures from professional groups and

associations that promote homogeneity. Together, in-novation diffusion and institutional theory provide auseful framework to interpret the extent to whichforces of innovation and conformity co-exist inplanning’s diffusion in India, as well as beliefs andenvironmental factors that affect the process. Basedon our findings, we propose the following conceptualframework of account planning development in Indiaand factors that influence its diffusion (Figure 1).

Institutionalization of Planning

If diffusion is viewed as a two stage process(Zaltman, Duncan, and Holbek 1973), initiation andimplementation of planning in global ad agencies inIndia appears to be fairly complete; account planningis an institutionalized practice in this agency group.However, differences in structure are evident—fromformally established departments or teams to smaller,more informal units to individual planners assignedacross clients as needed. Some interesting compari-sons can be made with western planning history. InU.K. and U.S. based agencies, planning’s growth waslargely spurred by smaller, less hierarchical organiza-tions with greater entrepreneurial spirit and flexibil-ity to change. Its gradual adoption was mostly a

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bottom-up phenomenon, and it took several years be-fore it became established industry practice—and overtwo decades for it to travel from the U.K. to largeU.S.-based agencies. By contrast, its growth in India ismostly restricted to large ad agencies with global af-filiations doing business with high spending multina-tional or domestic clients, though anecdotal evidencesuggests that medium sized agencies are graduallymoving in that direction. As one of our participants—an agency head—observed: “only big agencies todaycan afford the luxury of planners. It will take time topercolate.” Thus, planning has a top-down growth pat-tern in India, suggesting an early adoption phase inthe overall Indian advertising industry. This restrictsthe numeric growth of the discipline; to emerge as asizable force in Indian advertising, it needs to growboth laterally and vertically.

Factors Impacting Diffusion

Institutional theory’s explanation of the role of or-ganizational beliefs and institutional environments ininnovation diffusion may explain its near-completeadoption in global agencies in India. At the pre-adop-tion initiation stage, individual, organizational andenvironmental factors exert strong influence on adop-tion decisions. All three were observed in our study.Participants revealed high individual familiarity andknowledge with planning as well as positive beliefs andperceptions regarding its use. Collectively, these may beseen as coalescing into (i) shared awareness that plan-ning is good for clients, brands and the agency itself, (ii)positive attitudes across all related agency departments(planning, creative, account servicing), and (iii) overallacceptance of planning’s value within the organization.

Organizational factors like agency size (large) and affili-ation (global agency networks) have ensured greater expo-sure to western advertising models, global ad agencyculture and planning practices. Early planning adopt-ers in India represent the biggest agencies in the indus-try with global connections, servicing large multinationaland domestic clients. The exposure has enhanced fa-vorable attitudes to planning as a critical innovation todevelop insightful, research-based advertising, as agen-cies to be taken seriously by large “process-driven” mul-tinational clients, to generate new business, and maintainstability and relative permanence of the agency. Its per-ceived value to agency operations and reputation haslikely led to resource investment in the induction, cre-ation and staffing of planning positions and its applica-tion in communication campaigns.

In India, the major impetus for diffusion of plan-ning appears to be environmental. To a larger extent,

in the early adoption phase, planning’s growth maybe interpreted as a response to coercive pressures frommultinational clients’ organizational culture, thechanging Indian consumer culture, and to a limitedextent from agency headquarters. Planning’s growthalso appears more reactive than proactive: time andagain client demands were cited as a chief reason forhiring planners. This suggests that smaller and mid-size agencies/domestic agencies will not hire plan-ners unless their clients begin to demand them. At thesame time, mimetic pressures to incorporate an indus-try best practice during a time of turbulent economicgrowth are also evident. Planning’s almost completediffusion in leading Indian agencies may be interpretedas an effort to copy a successful practice during a periodof high uncertainty. Normative pressures exerted by pro-fessional groups or associations were not evident in thisstudy. In the absence of an APG (Account PlanningGroup) chapter in India, the role of Ad Clubs and otherprofessional bodies merits further investigation. By con-trast, in the U.S. and U.K., planning is seen more as aproactive practice spurred by greater competition andagency efforts at differentiation rather than as a responseto coercive client pressures.

Unpredictable setbacks and surprises are inevitableduring the implementation phase of diffusion(Schroeder et al. 1989). One of the biggest roadblockswas a growing demand for planners and a very limitedsupply. These supply constraints directly impactplanning’s routinization in agencies. Often only accountsthat expect / demand services of planners for whichthey are willing to pay have an account planner as-signed to them. Planners also handle several brandssimultaneously and their involvement is generally re-stricted to the campaign planning process and massmedia advertising. Lack of training facilities and oppor-tunities is a major impediment, as is attrition in thesmall community of planners whose skills are assidu-ously courted by other high growth sectors with betterpaying offers. A case in point—two of our interviewees,both very senior level agency executives, recently lefttheir advertising jobs in search of new challenges, oneto join a financial services company and the other abrand consultancy. Interestingly, almost all senioragency personnel in our study commented that Indianadvertising consistently undervalued itself to its owndetriment. Hence, job turbulence appears to have nega-tively impacted growth of the planning discipline inIndia. As the account planning concept (and subsequentpractice) gradually percolates beyond global agenciesto mid-size and smaller domestic Indian agencies—lackof training also leads to questions of quality controlwith credibility and competency implications.


Indianization of Planning

While there was wide agreement that the spread ofa planning culture was driven by global clients andagency networks, its acceptance by ad professionalsreveals both a cultural openness to new ideas and adesire to make them their own. A shared belief in theimportance of emotion as an Indian trait, as well aspride in being Indian, has led to planning’s institu-tionalization as a western concept with an Indian ava-tar. Advocacy of both emotion and passion in theplanning process suggests the importance of emotionin the Indian psyche: planners repeatedly referred tothe process as both left brained and right brained,unlike western counterparts who emphasize a disci-plined, analytical approach to distill consumer in-sights. Historically, advertising executives in topIndian agencies tended to be English educated, oftenwith “no sense of the India that lay outside their up-scale neighbor[u]rhoods” (Joshi 2002). This is fastchanging in today’s advertising environment with agreater need to understand local consumers and de-liver localized results. As a maze of cultures, religionsand languages, the Indian market has so much diver-sity that “if you don’t know your customer, you don’tget it right” (Pandey 2005, p. 1). Planning is viewed asa tool to bring agencies and clients closer to the realIndia. Unlocking insights across a complex culturalspectrum unlike any other in the world, planning’slocal rootedness attempts to deliver simplicity andcultural pride to the advertising strategies of globaland domestic brands. The adaptive nature of Indianplanning is also demonstrated through agencies’ de-velopment of indigenous tools (e.g., McCann India,JWT India) to supplement global proprietary plan-ning techniques.

While there is little doubt, at least among our par-ticipants, that planning is here to stay in Indian ad-vertising, restricted role scope, limited trainingopportunities and lack of established assessment measuresto evaluate performance are obvious deterrents to itsmaturity. It is also evident that while “media neutral-ity” is considered the right and desirable direction instrategic planning, Indian planners still largely oper-ate within traditional media advertising environments.This is similar to recent findings in U.S. contexts(Morrison and Haley 2006). Assessment continues tobe a grey area: appropriate measures to evaluate ROIas well as planners’ specific contribution still need tobe established in India. Planning’s ability to impactthe bottom line and deliver results in an evidentiarymanner may help to further establish its credentialsamong both agencies and clients in the domestic sector.

Conclusion

Given account planning’s proliferation and its in-creasingly visible role in the advertising process, in-sights into its development in different regionsadvances knowledge of international advertisingtrends. Our study is the first to explore its diffusion ina current Asian (and global) advertising hotspot—India—one of the fastest growing economies in theworld and an extremely attractive market for foreignbusinesses. It reveals multinational client and agencyinfluence on domestic advertising practices in Indiaand provides information on how Indian ad profes-sionals view planning’s role in the creative process.

On the academic level, our study (i) provides atheory-based, conceptual framework for further em-pirical investigation into the planning adoption pro-cess in India as well as in other settings; (ii) enlargesthe overall body of knowledge on this practice; and(iii) furthers our understanding of how account plan-ning is understood, interpreted and adapted in a rap-idly emerging economy. We hope this stimulatesfurther efforts to study other international markets.

From an industry perspective, planning’s near-totaldiffusion in global ad agencies in India is a finding ofparticular interest to (i) multinational advertisers whowish to expand into the region and benefit from anestablished practice they have been accustomed to intheir home country; (ii) domestic advertisers who maywant to change ad agencies to benefit from accountplanning or force their existing agencies to offer thisservice; (iii) global ad agencies who may want to en-sure that their Indian counterparts follow best prac-tices as also possibly benefit from a reverse migrationof account planning tools; and (iv) domestic ad agen-cies seeking to benchmark their operations.

Due diligence was exercised in following the tenetsof interpretive research, with a focus on depth ratherthan breadth. Our purpose was to study the phenom-enon where it occurs most frequently in India andinvolve participants with some connection to accountplanning. Thus, participants were selected to repre-sent professionals with experience, expertise and cred-ibility. Several—as agency heads—were also in aposition to shape or influence its development withintheir organizations. At the same time, the exploratorynature of this investigation, based on sixteen inter-views with Indian advertising professionals workingfor agencies with global connections, calls for cautionin generalizing findings to the advertising industry inIndia. We acknowledge this limitation. Also, our re-search goal was restricted to examining planning’sdiffusion as an innovation. We did not compare plan-

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ning with other agency roles with which it has a strongorganic connection (e.g., creative, account management).Unlike planning, they are not “new phenomena” inIndian advertising. Certainly, they have been impactedby changes in the advertising environment and a com-parison offers an interesting line of questioning to un-derstand changing agency structure/functions in India.

The logical next step is an empirical test of the frame-work in India to identify factors that significantly in-fluence planning’s adoption and test for their relativestrengths on an industry-wide scale. As our findingsare limited to ad agencies with global connections,measuring awareness, knowledge levels, perceptionsand attitudes amongst smaller, medium-sized domes-tic agencies may be a useful line of inquiry to trackdiffusion. Indian advertisers’ perspectives on accountplanning would be another promising area of research.Such a study would reveal gaps, if any, between clientand agency perceptions and expectations. Research link-ing adoption of account planning with brand relatedmetrics like market share, sales, other brand equity mea-sures and client satisfaction may establish whether ac-count planning is effective in its role at present. From acultural perspective, investigating the role of values andcultural meaning transfer in advertising creative strat-egy and execution in India also holds considerable prom-ise. Finally, international advertising research wouldbenefit through more detailed comparisons of accountplanning in mature and maturing markets.

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Fall 2009 121

AppendixGuiding Questions for Interviews

Account Planning Interviews in India

Perceptions:

1. What does “account planning” mean to you?

2. Do you feel that account planning is an essential function in an ad agency? Why or why not?

3. What contributions does account planning make which are not specifically brought in by the otherusual functions in an ad agency?

Adoption and Integration:

4. What has motivated account planning’s use in agencies?

5. How much do you think ad agencies in India have adopted account planning? How is it used?

a. What is the planner’s role in the campaign development process? At what stage are they involvedand why?

b. Is the planner also involved in non-traditional areas like Sales Promotion, PR, Events, DirectResponse, etc.? What is his/her extent of involvement? Why?

6. What are the roadblocks (if any) to the development of account planning in Indian ad agencies? Whydo they exist and how can they be overcome?

7. How do other agency departments feel about the account planning function? Are there tensions re:roles and how do agencies resolve them?

Effectiveness:

8. What are your perceptions of effectiveness of account planning?

9. Are account planners satisfied with their present roles?

10. How do ad agencies evaluate the roles of account planners?

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