Think and Act Out of the Box
..........Pages copy pasted here from my Diary
By SaNaTomBi *
(An article I wrote one year back when I first tried my hand in copywriting....well am no more a copywriter but then would love sharing some gyaans I could accumulate so far)
I haven't defined my target audience while writing this particular article and hence every layman is highly welcome to go through this article which I have constructed with my own personal experiences and know- how. To begin with let me provide a sneak preview about myself.
I am a Copywriter making my second home somewhere in the capital city of India. Life in a Metro and the struggle to survive and sustain have been the norms I have been keeping on track so far. Working with an online media house I sustain myself with that not so much not so less five-figure salary which I receive at the beginning of every month.
I earnestly have that deep urge from within to convey one simple message through this particular article. Every individual is not a student of literature or advertising like me and to make it a point I am putting the very article in a plain language so that it is beyond the ability of every normal person to read and digest.
My article starts with a punch line Think and Act Different (for those with no background knowledge of advertising please do not get confused of what a punch line is) My area of interest which is also my present bread-earning job is for sure a kind of profession which everyone acknowledges yet is hardly given an insight into.
When someone asks me what do you do? I replied back telling oh I am a copywriter. And then the next moment the individual comes up with his own mode of understanding what is a copywriter. Copywriter is most often mixed up with Copyright for those who do not belong to advertising and I wish to shed light upon this particular notion also.
We, Meitei, mostly stick ourselves to our own made up norms and modes in almost every field. However, I don't wish to offend any one of them since we have made it a tailor-made custom of living with the faults even after knowing it's a fault.
Hence, I would rather not find-fault with my fellow beings since I also belong myself in that very community. However, I take this maiden opportunity to highlight the significant differences between Copywriter and Copyright.
Copywriter is a professional who writes ad copy and comes up with creative and innovative ideas to promote a particular brand, service, idea etc. Copyright is more or less a legal term and it is associated with both print and electronic media. It means that the content of this particular column on this website or on this page is reserved and protected by some rightful site owner (etc etc)
Coming to the right track let me share you the best and most crispy ideas about advertising as a science in day to day life. How many of us are aware that every single day we use at least 20 brands with no ifs and buts? I can bet hardly 5 out of 100 know the fact.
We have not noticed yet we are unconsciously aware of how advertising affects our day to day life as a whole. Advertising just add colors to our colorless life. Here let me cite an example from the perspective of a typical Manipuri society. Whenever one goes to a shop to get toothpaste we are used to asking for Colgate. One often says "get me a Colgate please".
Now I seek your attention here. This is all because of the high-end result of advertising which leaves in our mind a certain norm of brand loyalty. Earlier in Manipur Colgate was the only toothpaste brand in use and close-up, pepsodent etc all these come after Colgate.
And for quite a long time and even at present many Manipuris are still loyal to the image of a tooth paste with the brand name as Colgate. Same condition is applicable to various other brands.
We still call any detergent powder SURF since surf was the only brand which was available long time back. Now one honest question here don't you think advertising is a way of adding a new tang to our life. Advertising has been carried on a trend since time immemorial in each and every part of the world including Manipur.
The only thing we haven't noticed is how it has affected us in one way or the other. Well, in a North Indian context it would be a different cup of tea for discussion hmm.
(Hmm, more articles to come ahead later....moreover copy pasting doesn't take much time too lol..... Adieu for the day!)
* Sanatombi Angomcha contributes regularly to e-pao.net. The writer can be reached at eben(dot)poktales(at)gmail(dot)com . This article was webcasted on April 04th, 2009
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