It is said that lifestyle changes in traditional cycles takes 25 to 100 years, but no one would have even thought in today’s modern world, the outbreak of a virus would have such a revolutionary impact in a way that now people’s lives could be divided to pre- and post-Covid era. What is equally important, that just within a few months, the people’s lifestyles in different communities underwent such a radical change.
According to ISNA, the study of this time interval has been done by cultural sociologists and lifestyle experts. Until a few months ago, they believed that this period was much shorter since free access to the social media, but now they consider the global corona outbreak to be a revolution in lifestyle theorizing. Exceptionally, it was able to fundamentally change people’s lifestyles in less than two months (depending on the different societies in East or West Asia, Europe, and North America). An event that has had the greatest impact on people’s lifestyles, especially in the economic sphere, and has led owners of goods or services to think of new ways of persuading public opinion about the how and where of spending their limited financial resources. especially since outbreak negatively affected the income of many small or large business owners.
in the meantime, we should not forget the huge profits that some non-physical economic actors, especially online sellers, have gained; It also highlights the importance of the advertising industry in the struggle to transition from “traditional production of goods and services” to “production of post-Covid goods and services” and to persuade public opinion to “consumers adapting to new conditions”.
According to ISNA, in this situation, Babak (Hassan) Badkoubeh – an advertising and branding specialist and consultant – considers advertising as an operational way and is currently preparing a roadmap for advertising industry activists with the aim of providing new services to producers and consumers in the post-Covid era. we discussed about it:
**Now with the prevalence of the covid-19, not only the amount and quantity demanded by the people has differed, but also the same holds true to the type of requested goods, it seems that the advertising industry must adapt to these new conditions. We saw in the last few months since the outbreak of the virus, how activists been able to link the industry to both the demands of the people and, on the other hand, to manufacturers of goods or service providers?
With the outbreak of Covid-19, people’s behavior changed in various sections such as health, clothing and food, all protocols were put in place for people to survive. Special activities were carried out in the field of health in the country, Masih Daneshvari Hospital was equipped as the main hospital, as well as a number of other hospitals throughout the country. Specialists in various fields of medical sciences gathered to help reduce the number of deaths. If you look at these past months since the outbreak, you can see that there is a range of people from various occupations who contracted the virus, it included people such as peddlers to some of the country’s leaders and officials; with this virus, It does not matter if you are a journalist or a member of parliament or a peddler.
The advertising industry in Iran is far behind its foreign counterparts, in fact, tens of times different from them. That is, even our automakers have done a much better job than our advertisers
This prompted protocols to be developed immediately in order to prevent the virus spread. In departments and organizations that have protocols or have provided disinfectants to the clients, they have actually thought about survival. A number of protocols must also be defined for the survival of businesses. Because businesses, like humans, have been challenged by the spread of the covid-19. As for the survival of human beings, certain health rules have been set. Businesses must also take steps to maintain their livelihoods, as some jobs such as nurses have increased and the market for some businesses has heated up, such as accessible online stores, Digikala, to name one in Iran or Amazon and Apple in the global market.
It should be noted that our advertising industry in Iran is far behind the its foreign counterparts. If our car companies are far from international brands such as Hyundai or Tesla’s electric car, then our advertising industry is decades away from similar foreign industries. This means that even our automakers have done much better than our advertisers, again, for example, our media has is outdated compared to foreign press, but that is still much greater in our field of advertising.
** What is the reason of this severe backwardness in your opinion?
The reason should be the lack of necessary infrastructure for this industry. The most important necessary infrastructure is manpower training, and unfortunately, in our country, we do not have a academic discipline or a university that trains and educates the manpower needed for the advertising industry. Currently, there are people active in the country’s advertising industry who have graduated in journalism or they are movie directors.
With the rise of Covid-19, brands and businesses realized the need to keep themselves alive in any way possible. In fact, in order to businesses be able to survive, it was demanded of advertising agencies and brand makers to come to the forefront and pave the way for businesses survival with new ideas. It is the job of advertising agencies to write the relevant guidelines. For example, what was the correct communicatory action for those online shopping sites currently are doing well, or what communication response should they do to customers when the internet transportation market is collapsing? The same is true in other industries. What kind of customer relationship management program should a hotel holding company do when it breaks down, or what kind of relationship should an airline that is being charged with complains should do in terms of communicating with their clients? All of these cases need a solution.
A number of solutions are provided to industries by government laws, directives, and regulations, such as an insurance company, or the tax on what services they should provide to companies. But we are talking about solutions for each brand here. It is true that this year has been named “national production and production leap”, but I believe that national production is nothing but branding.
Today, the situation is not the same as in WWII when foreign troops, such as the Allies, came to Iran, it’s not about conquering third world countries anymore. Today, cell phones, air conditioners and cars are Korean soldiers, in fact, the face of colonialism has changed. As a result, if we want our country to be developed and national production to take place, we must have national brands, and for that to happen, we must first make sure that the existing brands survive. To achieve that we also need to design protocols for production, marketing and sales in this pandemic era.
On the other hand, in order to have protocols, technicians have to work to find out why a brand that was active in the field of online sales did to improve their business. Or what should businesses like schools and the education services, whose buildings are no longer worthwhile, do? Imagine Covid19 happened in Iran while we did not have an infectious disease specialist or that only two people had this specialty; what would have happened then? While now the force in this area is enough. But in the field of advertising, we have two or three professionals who also are not able to serve everyone, so brands are trained and work with the inherent talent of their managers. That is, the manager tells what to do it or not.
National production is nothing but branding. Today, Iran claims that they too – though with a slight delay, will produce a Covid-19 vaccine; But in the field of branding the same is not yet true, we have not been able to achieve such an achievement and claim that we also have a global brand
Therefore, I believe that there is no specific roadmap or protocol and brands have survived only based on the opinions of their managers. Now our country uses this method for branding and its marketing industry is managed; That is why home appliance brands such as SNOWA, Emerson, Steel Alborz, Himalayas and other brands do not have a serious and stable market in other countries. Our maximum influence is the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan. As long as no other country comes to these markets. That is, if Turkey, Russia or Germany enter the markets, we will definitely have to leave. Why can make our Football team joins the World Cup but not our industry? Because the scope of influence of our brands in our own country is not scientific either. Today, Iran says that I am producing the Covid19 vaccine all over the world, though with a slight delay; But in the field of branding, we have not been able to achieve such an achievement and claim that we have a global brand.
**Is it due to lack of specialists?
Yes, because we do not train experts in the advertising and branding industry in our universities. We do not believe in it, in fact we do not think about it at all. This is like not even thinking about training an infectious disease specialist. Our industry needs its own branding, advertising and marketing experts. As a result, in the absence of these specialists, our brands get sick. If in the meantime, the brand stays healthy, it’s either because of chance or it has a good manager. Like the CEO of the Kaleh brand, who tries to do it himself, or the owner of the Mihan brand and the like. In this situation, I believe that marketing and advertising in Iran is more of a kind of self-medicating. They say we should produce this ad or do it.
**If the advertising industry is to become academic, under what disciplines should it be categorized?
Graduates and experts in the fields of graphics, art, theater, film directing and the like are currently working in the field of advertising, while in the world we see specialists in advertising graphics, a specialist in advertising writing and even a branding specialist. That is, it is so specialized. Of course, the Iran Broadcasting University is taking steps to create such a specialized field, but it is fruitful in about five to six years, so when we do not have an advertising specialist and we face the Covid19 outbreak, the production and sales of domestic products suffer the most.
So just as human behavior changes during the Covid19 era, so must the behavior of brands. Increasing the amount of communication with the customer and sending the messages that the audience is waiting for are helpful things to do. Note that after the University of Oxford announced that it was preparing the Covid19 vaccine, Russia announced that it was ready to do the same thing, in fact this is intended to do propaganda work, or companies like Apple, which is worth eight times Iran’s GDP, designed his own advertising protocol for the Covid19 era.
In the food industry, it is also seen that with the advent of the Covid19, the type of products, advertising, marketing and how they were sold also changed; Like McDonald’s or Pizza Hut and Donuts. General American Donut Company has a revenue close to the sale of Iranian oil; What have they done? Its only comes to branding and establishing branches in different countries. What it produces is a “donuts” that everyone can make like the bread that people made at home during the Covid19 days, but they buy donuts and the money goes to the country that owns the donut brand, i.e. the United States.
What do we have in this situation? Sohan, Gaz, Qatab, Yazdi sweets, or Kashani and Tabrizi sweets. Almost all cities in Iran produce very tasty traditional sweets that are special and unique but they are not as known as donuts. The brand “Haj Khalifa Rahbar” has only two branches in Yazd; Now suppose that “Hajj Khalifa Rahbar” opens two thousand more branches in the UAE, London, the Netherlands, etc., and each of them sells for one hundred million tomans a day, this wealth will come to Yazd. Following that, think how much Yazd would grow because of it. Now multiply this amount of income in Gaz Kermani, Baklava and Sohan, you will see that each can be profitable as the total amount of Iranian oil.
Seven years ago, I wrote a letter to the President, the content of which is in the news agencies. In that letter I stated that “Mr. President! What saves Iran’s economy is branding; Not the type branding that we call it today, but scientific and principled branding “, he also wrote a letter and issued an order to Mr. Nematzadeh, who was the Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade at that time; Mr. Nematzadeh also knows branding well, but nothing serious happened.
We can do something that is called “place branding” to attract tourists and earn tens of times more income than what Turkey earns from tourism, but for this we need specialized advertising and branding specialists, we can even brand our food
We can do something that is called “place branding” to attract tourists and earn tens of times more income than what Turkey earns from tourism, but for this we need specialized advertising and branding specialists, we can even brand our food. There is now at least one “Sushi Bar” in every country. Sushi is the exclusive food of the East. We have so many delicious foods that foreigners enjoy them. Why are these foods not represented in the world? At best, in some European countries where the population of Iranians is higher, someone has a restaurant for Iranians there, but they are not like an international business like McDonald’s to officially sell and bring this money to the country.
I emphasized that “we need branding” but nobody paid attention, because the age of officials and decision makers is high, they are the silent generation, but we are the X generation. Now the generation that is taking over the country from us is the Y generation. These are the generations in sociology that are important to consider in the field of advertising. Today, students under the tenth grade are called the Cyber or Z generation, who also have different needs and beliefs. We have Y generation who are getting a diploma, and they question it, they are always faced with a question and cannot be ignored. Generation X is another generation. But our generation that has seen the revolution or the Iran-Iraq war and currently is running the country is a silent generation.
Today, we see that in other countries, young prime ministers or ministers are trying to connect with their predecessors. However, it should not be forgotten that we also have a young minister who at least understands what it means when they say that an operator gets added value; Because it is the connecting link between these generations. On the other hand, we also need the Y generation to be included in the administration body.
** We do not have more than a few companies in Iran that have done franchise branding; Some either succeeded like the “Ofogh-e-Koroush or failed like the “Ice Pack”; What do you think is the reason of this?
I know the managers of these companies who branded. If the company failed in this direction, it was because it did not have a top specialist. You brand, you build ten branches, then you build a hundred branches. So far your progress is good but it will suddenly go big. If you are going to be a thing in other countries, you must have an expert. A very successful brand has several different experts. It’s not like the company’s executives had it out of thin air.
Can these brands compete with similar franchise companies in other countries?
I believe that they have the ability to do this and they will be very effective, of course, if they do it the scientific way. The only thing is that in the time of Covid19 crisis, just as we bring an infectious disease specialist to educate citizens, we must also bring an advertising specialist to train brands. But it is interesting that our people do not believe in infectious disease specialists either. The same is true in advertising. In the first two months of the outbreak, when they realized that self-medication was not working, they all waited for the vaccine. No one claims to be self-medicating now.
Bad words are said in a crowded market, but in a quiet market, the right word must be said. The same is true in advertising, only something like Covid19 causes them to say that some is right who is an expert. America understands this and scientifically does branding.
For several years now, the theme has been, “Why are we still celebrating March 20?” What good is oil anymore? Today, oil consumption in the world has halved. The reason the United States is imposing sanctions on Iran is that it can sell its own oil; so that they can be able to sell oil extracted from Iraq. In today’s world, oil consumption is decreasing every day. In 2005, compared to today, this consumption has halved and is gradually decreasing. Exactly a number of countries are in the middle of this and should not sell so that other countries can sell their oil and keep the price balanced.
Infrastructure and value chain are very important along with advertising. If Covid19 is widespread today, businesses should have the appropriate communications and support package.
These are ignored and we are still celebrating the nationalization of the oil industry. We have good cheese, butter or curd. We have a brand in the field of dairy products whose factory is in Khorasan Razavi province. The cattle farms of the province are not responsible for supplying milk to one of their factories, while the per capita consumption of dairy products is low in our country. For example, 70 kg is needed for each person per year, which reaches 77 kg with advertising, while this index is 120 kg in other countries. This means that now that we have been able to increase 70 kg to 77 kg through advertising, what has happened is that we do not have a dairy farm to supply milk. This shows that infrastructure and value chain are very important along with advertising. **
If Covid19 is widespread now, businesses need to have the appropriate communications and support package. Like a news agency that has a building worth about 10 billion tomans. Apart from the reporters of this media, how many other people visit this building? 10 or 20 people; 50 people at all. Now you have a website that costs 300 million tomans to launch, but 500,000 people enter it daily. You see that there is no balance in this regard; Everything is the other way around. If you spend 20 billion tomans for that website and you do not have a building and the reporters of that media are remote, this media will be more effective. So this is what happens when there is no expertise in branding.
** Perhaps the reason for this is due to our traditional view of business, that is all employees should be present at the company center?
This is exactly the point. Like in regard to treatments where the views of traditional and modern medicine are always in conflict. You can compare business with therapy and see that business is science. The brands that we created from the beginning, we also determined their position, we named them, their communication program was determined. They started with 500 million Tomans, but now they are worth seven thousand billion Tomans in the stock market. We also have brands that have not listened to this and are happy, like someone who practices traditional medicine and is happy, but could not work in the current Covid19 situation; Therefore, these brands can not do anything when faced with the challenges of the market.
I believe that just as human behavior changed during the Covid19 outbreak, so should business behavior and economic activity. If one does not change these behaviors, one becomes ill and may even die. If a business behaves like it did before the outbreak, its economy will either run into trouble or collapse. So he has to know what to do, he really needs an expert.
Just as human behavior changed during the Covid19 outbreak, so must business behavior and economic activity. If a business behaves like it did before the outbreak, its economy will either run into trouble or collapse. So you have to know what needs to be done and it needs an expert
So far, your main criticism has been that we did not have an expert in the Covid19 era to define guidelines for brands; Now, as someone who owns a business in the advertising industry, have you ever been able to define such protocols and take them to similar unions, associations or trade unions in the industry and approve them?
We have formed an association, our union is not yet fully formed, but the process is nearing completion, still this has not happened. My solution for brands is to ask someone other than yourself, such as your advertising manager or a university professor in the field of advertising, to think about the Covid19 effects on your economic activity and give a solution. Study the international examples and check out similar brands. It is not true to think that there is no problem if you do not do such things. When something like Covid19 occurs, you should tell your public relations manager, consultant and advertising manager, or a professor from outside your industry or service, to look at your brand from the outside, study it, and then offer a solution.
Today I work with several cellulose companies that make dry paper towels but are as antibacterial as wet wipes; So manufacturing companies are thinking about staying out of the market in Covid19 situation. I suggest that businesses ask people who know the industry (advertising), or who are in marketing and public relations, or who teach at the university, to observe domestic competitors and foreign examples, and then offer solutions for the Covid19 era. But it should not happen that the association of advertising companies does this. Of course, as one of the major media outlets, IRIB offered a large number of solutions to brands; Offers such as freebies, big discounts and the like can be emulated in other media. That’s why the TV conductor is now full of ads. This is not out of chance; Instead, the directors of the General Directorate of Commerce of the IRIB, who has been the director of this department for about seven or eight years, have received advice from 40 people. Advertising companies have called on university professors and brand owners, consulted with them, and finally came up with a plan. The result was that in the Covid19 era, instead of advertising entering a recession, it peaked. In fact, this is what I say should be done.
Now hotels, airlines, restaurants and news agencies have to do the same. Invite an expert and their managers to hear their opinions; What the Deputy Press Secretary of the Ministry did; He invited the directors of the advertising agencies and listened to they said. This is the whole story that brands need to pursue and focus on. This is not a normal time. They should go to a specialist.
We worked with businesses that we managed to increase sales by about 6 to 7 times during the Covid19 era; Regardless of what kind of product or service they produce or offer. A threat can be turned into a opportunity, something that many countries around the world used as an opportunity. The government must also believe that if there is a business and it get rich, that means, by doing so, Iran will get rich. Today, if brands in Iran get rich, they pay taxes. Brands on the stock exchange are transparent, so government revenue increases. But some do not see this. If brands get rich, they pay more taxes; So the government should support these businesses, but unfortunately this does not happen. We might even say that we are upset that a company gets rich, we say it has grown too big! But we do not think it pays taxes also. It’s like the US government is upset that Apple has grown up and said that now that the company has grown eight times as much as Iran, then let’s confiscate it and knock it down, while Apple’s revenue goes to the US and pays taxes.
A threat can be turned into a opportunity, something that many countries around the world used as an opportunity. The government should believe that if a business gets rich over time, it means that the country gets rich, but some do not see this. If brands get rich, they pay more taxes; So the government must support these businesses
Basically, the life of governments is with the growth of businesses and the increase of their taxes and products, something that has not yet taken root in our country. Of course, it is customary in the judiciary not to close a factory, for example, if they are mortgaged, the banks will not take it as property, however, we are still a long way from being happy with the growth of a certain company or a certain brand. The growth of a brand like Ofogh-e-Korush means that its buyers pay VAT and the company itself pays taxes, it no longer matters that oil is sanctioned.
** There is a lot of talk in business, but if the curtains are removed, it will be clear whether business and branding is scientific or not?
The answer to the question why branding does not work in Iran is that because advertising specialists do not work for the branding of these companies. It is the CEO himself who promotes the work in a certain brand. Now, if he is a good manager, he can be, for example, Kaleh, and if he is not a good manager, he will not succeed, and no advertising agency can say that it was I who succeeded in that brand. You are wrong to think that systematic marketing thinking is behind these types of brands; These brands have been made successful by their owners with their marketing thinking, which of course is scary. Because if the owners of these brands die or not, everything will change. For example, when the CEO of Samsung was arrested, its stock fell 10% for a short time and returned to its position, or nothing changed when Steve Jobs died; Even when Mr. Cook joined the company, things got better.
** It seems that this thinking can be extended to all economic, political and cultural sectors of the country.
Yes, this can happen. Sohrab Sepehri has a poem that says “My father became beautiful when my sister died” Businesses are the same; If something happens at the top of its management, the organization will move forward again and the brands will move forward, the only point is to succeed at the right pace, which unfortunately does not happen. A brand like Ofogh-e-Kourosh now has 2,000 branches in the country, but it could have 4,000 branches, even in Germany. How did Janbo come to Iran from Turkey and want to support Turkish brands by using their store branches? However, sanctions did not allow it. Now, why don’t we go and feed the Iraqi people? Why shouldn’t the money of the Iraqi and Afghan people come to Iran? What’s wrong? Why does the money of all car manufacturers go to Germany? The money of all the verses goes to America.
In fact, as long as businesses do not believe that Corona has come and do not believe that this is a scientific and specialized work and that other traditional methods do not work, they cannot succeed. There was a time when production was in the country. Everyone who produced and sold. This period was in Iran in the 1940s; Then there was the broadcast era in the ’50s; Whoever owned the distribution company sold, after that came the advertising era. That is, if one were both producing and distributing, one had to advertise, going back to the 1970s. In the next period, production, distribution, advertising had to be done together, on the other hand, there was a need for branding to be successful in sales.
But now, in addition to producing, distributing, advertising and branding, value creation must be created so that they can sell. Because brands have increased. For example, there are several brands for mobile phones. Your phone will be sold when it has a rating. Or, for example, today the production of biscuits is high and everyone is a brand, but I prepare a brand that has created value, for example, with dill or barley flour. Once upon a time, a brand like Minoo sold everything it produced, but now if a business in the food industry wants to succeed, it must create value.
I saw a restaurant or ice cream parlor in my neighborhood that went bankrupt due to the Corona outbreak, and I saw a restaurant or ice cream parlor that became a billionaire at the same time. As an article in this ice cream parlor, he designed an application and closed the ice cream parlor, dressed all his employees in anti-corona clothes, and produced ice cream in front of the people. Then he said we do not give ice cream to anyone. You shop online and it just comes in a packed box with ice cream in it. People lined up because they saw that they were wearing masks and no one was going inside the shop. Ice cream is also inside the package. There is still a queue in front of this ice cream parlor.
The story of those restaurants was the same, one argued with the shop owner and said to return my money and the other took two months to renovate the restaurant. Until May, it was able to whiten the entire restaurant, while previously it was brown and dark; Customers also eat safely when they see that they are in a restaurant that follows all health protocols; There is also a candle under the dishes and it stays hot; This initiative was also very well received.
We have all seen different models in this situation that have either become rich or gone bankrupt. This success may at times be due to the talent of the business manager and may at times speak to an expert or specialist. I say something worthwhile that has been achieved with expertise, because this formula can be generalized to everyone. This brand can go beyond the borders because it has a formula and structure and there is no chance.