‘Know our Customer’ is a very special initiative for releaseMyAd. It is one of the favourite sections of our entire team. This is simply because, “Know our Customer” helps us solve issues faced by our clients, make amends in our system, highlight the strengths and features of a medium of advertising, improve our services and above all communicate on one-to-one basis with our customers. Through this section we understand our customers and attempt to convey that how newspaper as a medium has aided their purpose or need for advertising.’
Many people across India are firm believers in luck and astrology and more often than not, they seek help from certain Astrology Consultants or Experts. Unlike popular belief that astrology is simply based out of myth and superstitions, modern researches have proved that Astrology is an organised scientific subject. A number of institutes in India provide courses based on Astrological Sciences. Mr. Ramakrishnan, owner of Mega Star Astrological Centre which is located in Bangalore, is a renowned Astrology Professor and Consultant. He has expressed immense faith in the newspaper as a medium for advertising and getting loyal clients though his faith in the administration of certain publishing houses seem to be a little shaken.
He narrates his story through the queries raised by us as an essential part of our Case Study.
Q. Help us know about the services you provide.
A. Mega Star Astrological Centre is an Astrological Consultancy Firm with its head office located in Bangalore, Karnataka. We
provide individual Astrological consultations and our charges are made based on per seating. I, being the owner of the centre, also deliver lectures, teach classes and conduct workshops in different institutes and cities. We have offices across India and I have to travel to those locations quite often to attend seminars and also conduct workshops, I also have many individual clients across the country whom I have to visit, for which I travel frequently.
Q. What was your marketing objective when advertising?
A. Since I have to travel to different cities at different times, it is essential for people or rather prospective clients to know that I am in town. Advertising and promotions through mass communication mediums is essential to help my work grow and expand and of course for more client acquisition. Letting people know of an Astrological Consultant’s presence in their own town who is a well-known individual of his field is extremely necessary. We also wanted to promote our pan India presence as well as call-on-requirement for face-to-face interactions policy.
Q. Who was your target audience?
A. I wanted to reach out to everyone across India, be it the middle class, upper middle class or upper class people. All those people who are in need of help from the astrological viewpoint are welcome to seek a consultation from me. People in service or who own their own business, politicians should know about our consultancy. Since I also deliver lectures in institutes, we also promoted ourselves to colleges, universities where astrology is taught or may be where we can hold a seminar or workshop on Astrological Studies.
Q. How was your experience with newspaper advertising for promotional purposes?
A. I have to book newspaper ads quite frequently and regular as I travel to different towns and cities quite often for consultation. The responses received from newspaper ads are all genuine but I have faced quite a few issues with certain publishing houses. Quite a few times my ad was missed, especially by Malayala Manorama and my entire trip has gone to waste. Responses also vary based on different days as timing is very important for the adverts we publish.
A lot of money is involved and at stake when we make these trips to different towns for seminars and workshops, but since the publication missed out on the adverts and did not publish them on time, I have has to cancel many such ventures. This is simply unacceptable as they do not understand the significance of such mistakes. Even the ad rates for this particular newspaper are too high. I hadn’t faced any such issues with any other newspaper. But again, barring a few publishing houses, newspaper as a medium is an excellent podium for communicating to clients in a particular region. A mass of people can be reached out to through newspaper ads.
A. In one word, convenience! Having a travelling job, I cannot afford to have an individual booking agent everywhere I travel. I can book my newspaper ads sitting anywhere at any time through the internet. Even if I send or ask an employee of my firm to go to a publishing house and book the ad, it would waste a lot of time in travelling and would be an unnecessary hassle for the person.
Q. How was your experience with releaseMyAd?
A. Though I faced some issues with certain newspapers as they missed my advertisement quite a few times, releaseMyAd helped me get a full refund of my money for the advertisements booked. On certain occasions they convinced the publications to rerelease the advertisement immediately.
At times the payment gateways have also given me trouble but even then I received complete support and help from the releaseMyAd customer support team to complete my payments. Your efforts are really commendable, only if the publishing houses could be more responsible and sensible when it comes to getting the ads released in time.
We sympathize with Mr. Ramakrishnan for the problems he has faced with the newspaper ads booked by him. His understanding of our position between the advertiser and publishing houses is really helpful and motivating for us. Wish we could have more people like him to understand that when newspapers miss ads, we try our best to solve the issue and not disappoint the customer.
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