Insights on Account Planning: A View from 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 growth in India, a region of increasing importance to global advertisers and ad agencies. Five themes emerge from interviews with sixteen Indian ad professionals: a glocalized planning ethos, environmental factors 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 utilized to interpret findings and build a conceptual framework of account planning diffusion. Similarities and differences with western practice are noted. (Keywords: account planning, advertising, grounded theory, India) Introduction
Examining global advertising concerns, issues and phenomena constitutes an important area of inquiry for advertising scholars. Of late, considerable industry interest has centered on advertising practices in emerging economies. The reason is obvious: ad spending in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) markets has grown four times faster than the world average in the last three years and should continue to grow 53% (or three times the world average) during the next three years, hitting $45.7 billion in 09 (King 2007). Much of this growth is fuelled by the economic interests of multinational corporations; where they go, their ad agencies follow. With the expansion of agency networks into these regions, philosophies, techniques and practices they employ are available to local advertising professionals. One such best practice is account planning, a cornerstone of ad strategy development in western agencies. In mature ad markets, there is
Padmini Patwardhan (Ph.D., Southern Illinois University Carbondale) is an Associate Professor of Mass Communication, Department of Mass Communication, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC 29708. (email: patwardhanp@winthrop.edu) Hemant Patwardhan (Ph.D., Southern Illinois University Carbondale) is an Assistant Professor of Marketing, College of Business Administration, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC 29708. (email: patwardhanh@winthrop.edu) Falguni Vasavada-Oza (Ph.D. , Sardar Patel University) is Assistant Professor, Mudra Institute of Communication, Shela, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380058, India. (email: falguni@mica.ac.in) This study was funded through a research fellowship from the American Academy of Advertising and a supplementary grant from Winthrop University Research Council awarded to the first two authors. The authors would like to acknowledge and thank journal editors and the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

widespread acceptance that strategic planning contributes to the success of marketing communication campaigns and is an important part of agency operations. To what extent is this reflected in advertising approaches in emerging advertising hot spots? Our study investigates the diffusion of planning in major ad agencies in one of the fastest growing advertising regions in the worldIndia. Account planning systematically centralizes the voice of the consumer in the advertising process and provides ad agencies with a thought leadership role at the critical intersection of insights, business strategy and creativity (Blais 2003). Today, planning is viewed as a distinctive philosophy of advertising development (Hackley 2003), using research-based insight to bring the consumer to the creative strategy table (Meyers 1986; West and Ford 2001) and leads to significant and demonstrable impact on the quality and effectiveness of a brands marketing communications (Zambardino and Goodfellow 2003). Account planning is well established in mainstream British and American advertising (Morrison and Haley 2003, 2006). Its international advancement is also evident in the recruitment of planners by agencies throughout western Europe (Zambardino and Goodfellow 2003), the formation of professional APG (Account Planning Group) chapters in Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Argentina and France (in addition to the U.S. and U.K.), as well as reports of its growth in countries like Australia, Singapore and South Africa, China and Thailand. However, detailed investigation into its adoption in
Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Volume 31, Number 2 (Fall 2009).

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culturally dissimilar but fast developing economies like India has not been examined and little information is available on its adaptation to localized market, media, consumer and cultural realities. Events of the last two decades suggest that a closer look at advertising practice in India is timely. International business and trade media report that both advertisers and agencies have zeroed in on the region as a prime growth area for their businesses. As the second fastest growing economy in the world after China, Indias rise as an economic power is demonstrated by a sustained 6-10 % growth rate since economic reforms were instituted in the 1990s. This rapid acceleration has brought about dramatic changes in the countrys business and consumer environments, creating major opportunities and challenges for domestic and global businesses (McKinsey 2007). Multinational presence on both client and ad agency side has exploded, bringing larger advertising budgets, global agency practices and greater accountability in client-agency relationships. In 1999, there were about 400 registered ad agencies employing about 18,000 people (Ciochetto 2004). Today, about 40 advertising agencies handle around 80% of the business; the rest is spread over about 700 advertising agencies. Multinational corporations rank among the largest advertisers in India and major worldwide agency networks control a major proportion of the regions advertising business (Lakshman 2005). Admittedly, account planning is a western phenomenon now diffusing globally. Indian media reports suggest that it has become one of the new buzz words in Indian advertising, especially among large agencies. Strategically, it seems to be in the right place at the right time. Many major agencies now employ planners, or strategic thinkers, as part of account teams, indigenous books on planning are being published (e.g., veteran Indian planner Anand Halves Planning for Power Advertising), jobs for planners are being advertised, and discussion on the art and science of planning in trade media and online blogs has increased. All this suggests that, today, account planning is becoming serious business in the countrys ad industry and the time is right to explore its adoption.

cover the interplay of global flows and local realities (Kraidy 1999) that shape its growth, and (ii) develop a theory-based diffusion framework to facilitate further inquiry into its industrywide adoption not only in India, but also other international settings. Our investigation is important for several reasons. First, it identifies internal and external driversboth facilitators and barriersto further our understanding of account plannings growth in India. The resultant framework offers a theory-based structure to analyze its diffusion in other developing economies. Second, planning has not been explored from the perspective of shifting interpenetrations of the global and the local in todays environment of high flux and uncertainty. Is its adoption an internal matter routinizing an institutionalized global agency patternan example of organizational learning across borders (Westney 2005)? Or is it shaped by external forces in the agency environment (Beverland, Farelly and Woodhatch 2007), a response to advertisers facing new environmental, strategic and organizational challenges (Ghoshal and Westney 2005)? Third, there is a paucity of research on international account planning; this study expands the limited literature beyond the U.S. and U.K. It is one of the first to explore how planning is adopted and practiced in India, a region of considerable importance to global advertisers and agencies. Fourth, from a managerial perspective, our findings are of interest in the context of client-agency relationships in India. Is plannings growth reactive with agencies adapting to match client expectations and offering services to retain their business (Carroll 1988; So 2005)? Or does it result from relational and collaborative actions whereby agencies have evolved to operate as equal strategic partners? Our findings may interest global advertisers and agencies contemplating market entry and/or expansion in the region; domestic advertisers and agencies may also value them as a benchmark to assess their own operations and/or retain clients who may want to change agencies.

Research Questions
Multinational management styles vary widelyfrom more formalized, set policies and standards for American companies to centralized high headquarters control for Japanese companies, to a more personal, locally focused European socialization approach (Bartlett and Ghoshal 1998). Despite these differences, all multinational corporations [including ad agencies] employ a full arsenal of coordinating processes, practices, and tools, and .use those mechanisms in the most

Research Purpose and Significance

The central goal of our research is to develop insights on the diffusion of account planning in an emerging economy. To this end our study has two clear research objectives: (i) explore the planning phenomenon in ad agencies that employ account planning in India and un-

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effective and efficient manner in pursuit of profit in global operations (Bartlett and Ghoshal 1998, p. 192). At the same time, environmental culture is a dominant influence in advertising creation (Taylor, Hoy and Haley 1996; Punyapiroje, Morrison and Hoy 2002) and multinational practices may develop/adapt uniquely to the local culture in which they are situated. To enable richer understanding of the globallocal dialectic in the Indian account planning context, we use an in situ grounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss 1967; Strauss and Corbin 1990). In the spirit of grounded theory investigation, and mindful of criticism about cross-cultural validity of a priori application of western frameworks to study international settings (Taylor, Hoy and Haley 1996), we let the themes emerge from the data. Thus, no hypotheses are pre-formulated, though the following research questions inform the studys scope and direction. (i) How do Indian ad professionals understand and view the account planning function? (ii) To what extent has the Indian advertising industry adopted account planning? What is the role of planners in Indian advertising agencies? What is the impact of culture and context on planning practice and development? (iii) What similarities and differences, if any, exist between Indian and western developments in account planning? We next review growth of account planning in the west, the development of advertising in India, and describe the qualitative data collection process. Subsequently, findings are reported in the form of concepts and themes emerging from data. These are further examined in the light of institutional theory and organizational theory (OT) paradigms to propose a diffusion framework of account planning. The study concludes with acknowledged limitations, implications for international advertising practice, and directions for future research.

Western Developments in Account Planning

Planning first emerged as a separate area of agency activity in the U.K. during the 1960s with two independent attempts to institutionalize it in ad agencies. Stanley Pollit of Boase Massimi Pollitt (BMP) and Stephen King of J. Walter Thompson (JWT) are credited with plannings inception by formally setting up a process to integrate the consumer into the advertising process (Crosier, Grant and Gilmore 2003; Barry, Peterson and Todd 1987). This brought planning, with its heavy reliance on qualitative consumer research,

into their respective agencies, though each viewed its role somewhat differently. The BMP approach emphasized plannings contribution to researching rough creative ideas and working with creative teams (planners were thus unkindly dubbed creative tweakers); JWT viewed the planner as a grand strategist (Steel 1998), more holistically incorporating the voice of the consumer in the entire brand communication process. Today, its demonstrated success in British advertising campaigns has made account planning an integral part of the advertising industry in the region. However, U.K. planning approaches, with heavy focus on qualitative techniques, were not immediately endorsed by the numbers-driven American advertising industry. Though advertising luminaries like Jay Chiat worked to import the discipline to Madison Avenue, it took almost twenty yearsand several British expatriate plannersto create a planning culture in American advertising. In the process, a new version emergeddistinct from the British modelmeshing quantitative and qualitative approaches (Stewart 1987). Hackley (2003) attributes U.S. differences to, among other things, differences in agency culture (more hierarchical) and research traditions (more data-driven). Despite these basic differences, plannings importance is recognized in both countries today. Thus, its diffusion is widespread: both full service advertising agencies as well as smaller agencies/ creative boutiques carry out many of the commonly recognized functions of account planners (Baskin 2001). While there have been several books written on account planning (e.g., Jon Steels Truth, Lies and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning 1998; Lisa Fortini-Campbells Hitting the Sweet Spot 1992, 2001), academic research has been fairly limited (Morrison and Haley 2006) and is largely centered on the two countries where it is most widely practiced: the U.K. and the U.S. Studies have focused on exploring the planning 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) and the planning role (e.g., Hackley 2003; Crosier, Grant and Gilmore 2003), its integration in U.S. agencies (Stewart 1987; Morrison and Haley 2006) and client perspectives on account planning (Moran 1988). There is some evidence that perceptions of the role of planning among professionals by other agency departments still lack clarity. Studies of agency executives in London and New York (Hackley 2003), Singapore (Chong 2006) and Scotland (Crosier, Grant and Gilmore 2003) found a lack of full understanding of the function. Some resentment of planners power over

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the creative process was also noted (Kendrick and Dee 1992). Though not specifically focused on account planning, a study of the influence of culture on overall creative strategy in France (Taylor, Hoy and Haley 1996) found two distinct cultural operation models American and Frenchthat influenced the research/ intuition approach to strategy. Extending this to Thai advertising, Punyapiroje, Morrison and Hoy (2002) discovered that decisions to embrace or resist research were influenced by Western clients while intuition (more consonant with Thai cultural values) was often employed for domestic and Japanese clients. Planning itself is a continually evolving function leading to its adoption in varying forms with different emphases (Crosier and Pickton 2003). In the 1990s, integrated communication in particular, with its focus on customized consumer communications and relationship marketing, raised new challenges for account planning. It was inevitable that planning expanded into other integrated communication areas like public relations and direct marketing (Morrison and Haley 2006), leading to some fuzziness about its role scope. Todays hot debate in the west is about media neutral planning; agency planners are increasingly being expected to generate more formalized upstream influence in marketing communication. In this sense, within agencies in well established markets, planning seems headed for a partnership role somewhat similar to that of marketing in client organizations (Zambardino and Goodfellow 2003).

Indian Advertising Industry

Historically, multinational agencies are no newcomers 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 tap into the business of multinational clients in the region. The first Indian agency (B. Dattaram and Company) was founded in Bombay in 1905 and many major domestic players have been in the country for over a century (Joshi 2002). However, the exodus of foreign businesses during the 60s and 70s as a result of restrictive protectionist policies (e.g., the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of 1974) also affected the agency business. Foreign agencies and corporations that stayed adopted Indianized forms; for example, JWT became Hindustan Thompson Associates. In this period, vibrant domestic agencies (e.g., Ulka, Trikaya, Clarion, Mudra, Rediffusion, etc.) flourished and dominated the Indian advertising scene for several decades (Mazzarella 2003). The simultaneity of eco-

nomic reforms and a communication revolution in the 1990s led to major expansion of the Indian advertising industry. Large advertising budgets, increased market competition, and growth in media vehicles leading to higher media penetration (Radio Industry 2007) were all factors in exploding the advertising business. Much of this growth was fuelled by entry (or re-entry) of multinational corporations and global ad agenciesthe latter through strategic alliances with domestic agencies to overcome equity restrictions. As foreign ownership rules relaxed, these domestic agencies were taken over by global networks; today the top 20 agencies in India are either part of these networks or have strategic global partnerships. The size of the Indian ad industry is relatively small compared to the U.S. or U.K. with ad spending at a low 0.34 percent of GDP as compared to other developed countries whose average is about 0.98 percent. However, according to Zenith media, the dynamic BRIC economies contribute more to global advertising growth than G7 countries (Worldwide Ad Spending 2005). In India, advertising expenditure grew at nearly 15% in the 1980s to reach $896 million by the early 1990s (de Mooij 1994), $1.7 billion by 2001 (Ciochetto 2004), and, in 2005, revenues reached $2.6 billion (Up, Up, Up 2005). Today, although the figure representing the Indian advertising industry may be a modest US $3.5 billion or a mere 0.4 percent of GDP, the industry is growing briskly at 20%twice the GDP rate (Turakhia 2007). The winds of change are evident in the operation (more professional), structure (more integrated, holistic) and practices (more modern, streamlined) of major agency players in India. In the last few years, many have undergone complete makeovers in terms of roles, reporting structures, and operations to spearhead better understanding of the consumer-brand process and develop more integrated approaches to the advertisers brands (Razdan 2006). However, an inherent dichotomy offers an interesting opportunity to examine Indian advertisings adoption and adaptation of account planning. According to Joshi (2008), while Indian advertising has absorbed the structure and form of operating from western agencies, it appears to have largely retained a unique Indianness in its creative products.

The Study
An inductive, grounded theory approach to generate theory from data first proposed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) is employed, systematically identifying key elements and then categorizing relationships between 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 agency personnel in India (including planners, creatives and account management) are meshed with review of planning literature and media/research reports on Indian advertising to identify key concepts and themes. Since account planning in India has never been examined, and our purpose is to seek explanations rather than test hypotheses based on prior research, this approach is particularly well suited to our investigation.

Participants
The sampling frame was the top twenty ad agencies in India, based on information from our Indian research partner, a premier marketing communication institute with strong ties to industry. As an exploratory study, we wanted to focus on the planning phenomenon where some direct evidence of organized occurrence was available. Participants were recruited through phone/email and representation from various agency operational areas was sought to provide diverse internal perspectives. Sampling was purposive: all were either directly involved in the planning function or had strong connections to its use in advertising, making them credible commentators on its development in India. Sixteen advertising professionals (four women and twelve men, all Indian, all graduates in diverse disciplines) were interviewed, and included ten planners, four senior account management executives, and two creative directors. Planner designations ranged from vicepresident to planning director, senior planner to brand communication manager. Senior agency management/account management was represented by a president, a former president with a planning background, a chief operating officer and an executive vice-president/ branch head. Two creative directors made up the remainder of our sample. All sixteen participants had significant Indian industry experience ranging from five to twentyfive years. They represented seven different agencies, either part of global networks or with global agency partnerships, ranked in the top ten in India in terms of billings, and had a mix of multinational and domestic clients (including some of the countrys largest advertisers). While a limited number of agencies were represented, all but one of the participants had significant prior experience at multiple agencies. Four had also previously worked with smaller domestic agencies.

Madison Avenue and houses country headquarters of multinational corporations that are among the countrys largest advertisers. Ahmedabad is home to several high spending domestic advertisers; the head office of one of the top five agency networks in India is also located in the city. Thirteen participants were interviewed at their place of work, i.e., in natural professional settings. Two were interviewed at the integrated marketing communication training institute near Ahmedabad and one reached via email when inclement weather resulted in cancellation of a Mumbai interview.

Method
Defining Research Situation. The first step in grounded theory research is to identify the substantive area of investigation. We defined our research situation simply as examining diffusion of account planning in Indian advertising. As recommended by Strauss and Corbin (1990), review of literature prior to data collection was restricted to background information rather than as a source of pre-formulated hypotheses or research questions. A logical starting point for inductive research is observation of an activity related to the phenomenon or in-depth interviews with key individuals involved in the phenomenon. We chose the interview method due to its suitability. Investigation progressed on the basis of emergent ideas and themes; a previous interview shaped selection of subsequent interviewees as well as direction of questions. A basic interview guide was created with both general probes (allowing participants to expand on their own) and focused prompts (to follow specific lines of questioning) drawing on existing literature. Participants were told to share their personal thoughts and opinions about the subject arising from their career experiences and not the positions of their employers. Interviews opened with an investigator providing a brief introduction to the study and a confidentiality statement. The actual interview was informal and unstructureda format that lends itself to a perspective of action rooted in the experience of participants rather than that of investigators. Participants were encouraged to explore divergent and convergent lines of thought related to the topic. Most interviews were of 45-70 minutes duration. Audio-taping consent was obtained; tapes were later transcribed verbatim. Note Taking, Memoing, Coding and Sorting. During each interview, keyword notes were maintained and later verified against transcripts. After each interview, investigators compared notes to identify key ideas. This discussion was crucial to identify concepts and

Location
Interviews were conducted over a period of three weeks in summer 2007 in two major citiesMumbai and Ahmedabad. Mumbai is Indias equivalent of

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generate categories, variables and emergent themes. Dominant concepts or patterns were then coded as research notes and elaborated as thematic memos to be examined against other data sources (literature, media and industry research reports). While coding helped identify key category variables of underlying themes, memoing uncovered inter-relationships that linked them together. During the final sorting stage, memos were grouped into interpretive sequences that best explained the structure of the phenomenon and provided a structure for reporting findings (Glaser and Strauss 1967). Data collection and interpretation continued until a point of saturation was reached, i.e., no new information was obtained through additional interviews or other forms of data appraisal. Once all sixteen interviews were completed and evaluated, we constructed themes grouping interpretive sequences under broader propositions. Validation checks were employed during and at the end of the process and included investigator triangulation, constant comparison, and respondent validation (Peters, Amato and Hollenbeck 2007). First, three experienced investigators continually reviewed and discussed data and findings. Second, constant comparisonmoving back and forth between data parts was used to categorize, compare, analyze and refine data bits and categories (Dye, Schatz, Rosenberg and Coleman 2000). Third, at the conclusion of the study, participants were emailed a summary of findings for comment; no misstatements were reported.

current debates swirling around it. In fact, several participants volunteered a more organic view of the relationship between planning, consumers and brands, focusing on its bridge-building role. Two planners used the term brand custodian to describe their activities; several talked about consumer attachment to their brands. A senior planner referred to brands as bundles of meaning and account planning as a meaning making mechanism to build consumerbrand relationships. Thus, planning was seen not only as a process of delivering consumer insights, but also as a broader process of safeguarding and growing brands. A planning director described it as follows:
Im very protective about my brands and view myself as a steadfast soldier that keeps them going strong. Im the voice of the brand as well. Sometimes brand managers may not see long term ideas and agency creative may not be right for the brand. Youre talking to the brand and the consumer at the same time. Sometimes you hold a mirror to the consumer and sometimes you get the consumer to aspire in a certain way. What the consumer wants, desires, aspires are three different levels and you need to find the right bridge or connection. So you must immerse in both the brand and consumer universe.

Key Findings
Five broad themes emerged from the experiential perspective of Indian ad professionals: (i) glocalized planning ethos, (ii) environmental factors as primary drivers of planning diffusion, (iii) demand-supply issues as major developmental constraints, (iv) lack of variety in planning roles, and (v) lack of institutionalized measures to evaluate planners performance.

The term glocal, derived from the Japanese concept of dochakuka which means to adapt the global to local conditions, came up several times in the discussion. While basic account planning concepts were seen as being western in origin, the planning process was not. There was considerable emphasis on the adaptive, rather than imitative, nature of planning in India. A senior planner said:
Id say weve adapted significantlya lot of the western models usually dont apply in India because India is a set of 29 different countries.every state, every region has its own nuancesrituals that are sacred in the north are disrespectful in the south. Converting planning tools to relevant consumer communication is still a very Indian process.

Glocalized Planning Ethos

The classic western consumer orientation of account planning was widely reflected in our participants choice of terminology to describe planners as the voice of the consumer, finder of consumer insights, and consumers alter ego. Somewhat different from the definitional confusion reported in prior research findings in the U.S. and U.K. (Hackley 2003), Singapore (Chong 2006) and Scotland (Crosier, Grant and Gilmore 2003), considerable clarity was evident in their understanding of its western origins, as well as the

U.S. account planning has long been seen as different from the U.K. model (Stewart 1987; Hackley 2003), and Indian participants were well aware of it. In the words of a planning director:
globalization is not necessarily synonymous with standardization. I mean look at differences in British and American planning traditions rooted in the culture of their respective regions. It offers historical evidence to support the localization of planning. Thats happening here as well.

A vice president of planning described going local a necessary response to the reality of Indian conditions and needs. An agency president used the term an

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Indian way to describe adaptation of planning to the Indian environment. What exactly was this Indian way? Emergence of the planning discipline in India was seen as an opportunity to bring advertising closer to Indian culture. A creative director described plannings role as a return to Indian roots a way for Indian agencies to reconnect with India. Many saw the discipline as a tool to move away from elitist imitations of Madison Avenue type advertising. Several planners talked about their agencys efforts to create a culture of planning with an Indian touch. Many top agencies in India mandated cultural immersion in the sounds and smells of real life to infuse understanding of local culture into consumer research. At one agency, planners who failed to get their hands dirty were banned from participating in future meetings until they did so. Others were encouraged to have pet consumer research projects outside their comfort zone to help sharpen their cultural acuity. While planners in our study appeared very well informed about proprietary planning tools and practices of their global agency networks and competitors, several participants made references to development of indigenous planning tools more suited to Indian culture. For example, JWT India has created a proprietary brand chakras tool kit based on a 2,000 year-old system from the Indian Upanishads (www.brandchakras.com). A former agency president responsible for setting up planning at his agencys Indian operations also mentioned techniques initiated at his agencys New Delhi office being adopted at other international locations. Another interesting observation was the focus on emotions in the Indian planning process. Despite a dominant view of planning as an analytic, intellectual activity, centrality of emotion was evidently important for Indian professionals in both the process of developing consumer insights as well as the end-result. Repeatedly, planners discussed their engagement in terms of both thinking and feeling, talking about the role of imagination and passion, planning as an explosive engagement of logic and magic and as a sparkplug that makes new things happen for brands based on sound consumer knowledge. A senior planner said:
Planners realize that they need to look at the world creatively and imaginatively in its entirety. Were still at the stage in India where were working toward acceptance of planning. Currently, were in an adaptive phase.riding the crest of creating and defining what account planning in India will be. Were all playing a small role in that so we approach it both objectively and with passion.

Environmental Factors as Drivers of Planning Growth

Environmental factors have been observed as key drivers in the growth of account planning in the west (Barry, Peterson and Todd 1987; Butcher and McCulloch 2003). In India, the spread of a planning culture was perceived as a product of a changing marketplace in which advertising processes needed to balance new forms of business culture as well as incorporate systems to monitor changes in consumer culture. Three factors were identified as drivers of growth (i) global marketers organizational culture, (ii) changes in consumer culture, and (iii) globalization of Indian ad agencies and professionals. Global Marketers Organizational Culture. Cultural expectations of business often impact the processes by which advertising is produced (Taylor, Hoy and Haley 1996). A senior planner observed that Indian advertising has been very client satisfaction drivenand agencies are seen as suppliers. Grant, Gilmore and Crosier (2003) observe that companies with high propensity for systematic overall planning demand added value from their agencies in terms of strategic inputs. This systems driven approach is characteristic of multinational corporations. Participants regarded global rather than domestic marketers as primary influencers of planning growth. Representing the countrys largest advertisers, they exercised considerable pressure on ad agencies to stay competitive and develop more organized approaches to consumer research as reflected in this comment from a senior VP-planning:
Planning is client driven rather than agency driven. Clients who have well detailed, documented processes and systems of thinkingtheyre the ones who ask for account planningwhen you look at MNC clients for examplethey come with a heritage of great planning inputs around the globe. They expect the same robust rigor here as well and unless that is followed they are not really comfortable with the creative.

The external impetus for plannings growth was also presented as a demand and supply issue by an agency president: .multinationals who were used to planning input from their agencies in more developed countries demanded it here and we had no choice but to supply it. A former creative director added: setting up an account planning department is entirely client-driven. If an agency wins a big client, and the client is looking for planning services, then the agency will hurry up and set a department in place. These comments, as well as discussions with other

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participants, reinforce the perception that plannings initial induction into the agency was more reactive (to the process driven business culture of western clients) than pro-active. However, planners working with multinational clients also suggested that their role is gradually evolving into team players working closely with marketing/brand teams. By contrast, planners working for many domestic clients displayed a more project-based, short term approach. Consumer Culture. Multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-lingual diversity in India means advertisers need to know consumers a lot better. There was wide consensus that the effect of globalization on Indian consumers has been culturally transformative. According to a senior account director,
Indian consumers are complex, evolving targets. We need more professional tools to negotiate the growing complexity of Indian consumer culture so plannings value has grown for both advertisers and ad agencies.

pyramid: middle-income households constituting Aspiring, Striving and Seeking India, a group increasingly courted by global corporations and likely to increase substantially in the next decade (McKinsey 2007). What makes Indians tick and what is the optimum way of reaching out and communicating with them? Addressing these paradoxes is being increasingly viewed as a major advertising challenge that can be addressed through planning insights. An account director commented:
planning has made Indianness chic, in a modern way. Planning has made us closer to ourselves culturallygiven us tremendous amount of freedom to uncover Indian values, new Indian outlooks.

In recent years, rising levels of consumerism driven by increased urbanization, higher incomes, greater choice, better education and elevated awareness have altered consumer dynamics. Attractive new segments have emerged driven by individualism and a selfgratification trend unseen till now in Indian consumers, redefining strategies of communication and promotion. Emergence of power consumer segments, including women, youth (teens and young twenty-somethings), adolescent and pre-adolescent kids have created new decision makers and influencers in categories from clothes to cars, from music to fashion, from durables to media (CII Marketing Summit Program 2006). Though signs of the growing influence of Western culture and lifestyles are evident, the situation is somewhat misleading. On the one hand, a former president and planning head of McCann Erickson India describes the Indian woman as wife and mother breaking out of the traditional role (Desai 2003). On the other hand, even though 70% of todays Indians are under 40 (with at least half post liberalization babies), their relative modernity and youthfulness disguises a significant fact that younger Indians are still deeply rooted in Indian tradition. A McKinsey report describes the co-existence of multiple Indias, each moving at its own pace. Global India, a small minority of affluent households atop the Indian income and consumption pyramid, is similar in taste and lifestyle to counterparts in developed markets. Deprived India at the bottom consists of poor (including rural) segments that can only afford the bare necessities. The real drivers of consumption occupy the center of the

Also, as major corporations transition internationally developed brands to Indian markets, the challenges of calibrating international brands to local preferences and ensuring that local consumer insights, preferences and tastes are incorporated into brand marketing communications (not generally delivered through traditional market research programs) have reinforced the importance of strategic planning. An agency president put it thus:
Planning gives us a system to back up intuition. The marketing requirements in this country are far more demanding . This is an incredibly heterogeneous market, an extremely fragmented market, an incredibly diverse market and not just at the obvious level of language or culture. The local retailer understands Indians better than big marketers. He will cut and sell an aspirin in two pieces, a cigarette in half if consumers need it. This is the kind of detail and depth that agency planning needs to systematically uncover.

Globalization of Indian Ad Agencies and Professionals. Structurally, formalized planning entered the Indian advertising industry at a time when affiliations with global agency networks grew into partnerships and, in most cases, majority stake holdings. It was inevitable that a range of standardized agency practices would permeate agency culture as Indian agencies underwent major restructuring to align with new partners. 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 new opportunities. But Indians are good at absorbing new ideas. Planning was something they wanted and we embraced.

Account planning was adopted fairly early by global agencies in India, the early adopter being Hindustan Thompson Associates (now JWT India), the countrys largest and most profitable agency. Today, top agencies in India all have specialist planners though not all may

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have separate planning departments. Acquisition of proprietary global planning tools such as Ogilvys Butterfly, JWTs T square or similar was also seen as a form of branded planning helping business development. An agency vice-president and branch head described planning as a weapon to maintain professional competency 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 we should have them too, just to create a more level playing field.

industry still copes with cut-throat competition, low agency compensation and frequent discounting of its services. As a result, planners are not being paid topdollar salaries. A senior planner at one of the top agencies in India commented that only those who were passionate about account planning remained in advertising. Another planner talked about the need for commitment and intellectual curiosity as the key to longevity in a planning career:
Planning is a great job to havea superb jobif youre a curious fellow and if you like to understand why people think the way they doits the job for you.

At the same time, globalization is as much about mindset as an economic force. Liberalization has sharpened the need to be internationally recognized as a hub of talent, experience and thinking power. A senior planner captures the new outward looking approach:
every time we must raise standards to international norms and practices.I mean we want to be both Indian and globally competitive. we want to show our unique Indian creativity is backed up by strategic thinking. We have the same modern tools as you, and can compete with any new ideas anywhere.

According to a planning director, receptivity to new ideas like account planning was primed by Indian societys historical openness to western ideas. Increased exposure through international travel, competitive participation (e.g., Cannes, One Show, Effies), and interactions with ad professionals across global networks have created an openness of mind and a keen desire to catch up on the world stage.

Agency heads observed that exportability of planning expertise to other more lucrative sectors was a major headache. Frequently, planners took up better paying positions with client organizations, joined consultancies or moved out of advertising altogether notably into the booming banking and financial services sectors. Despite a growing demand, lack of training opportunities to source new recruits is evident. No schools offer courses in account planning (the exception is Mudra Institute of Communicationan industry supported elite IMC institute) with the result that a few graduates are chasing many jobs. The president of a top agency recruiting planners at the time of the interview said:
Finding the depth of talent [in India] is difficult.there are more marketing issues and problems than there are people to solve them.

DemandSupply Issues in Indian Account Planning

While changes in the marketing environment and the rapid growth of Indian advertising have created a demand for planners, supply constraints are evident. When asked about the number of planners currently working in India, estimates ranged from no idea to perhaps twenty-five to over a hundred. This wide variability in responses suggests that planning is in an early adoption phase in the Indian ad industry. Despite some discussion about setting up an APG-modeled association in India, it is evident that the number of planners in the country has yet to reach critical mass. Interviewees identified several roadblocks. The booming Indian economy has resulted in growth of a variety of promising sectors, and advertising is no longer seen as a hot profession by many graduates and attracts fewer recruits. Another major concern was the high rate of attrition among planners. The

Two strategies were mentioned as being used to address this shortfall: (i) internal reshuffling of employees and retraining them for planning rolesusually account management or research personnel, and (ii) hiring new recruits with no planning expertise as senior planners understudies to learn on the job.

Limited Planning Roles

While acknowledging some early tension between account management and planning due to turf issues, similar to the reported resentment of planners power over the creative process in the U.S. (Kendrick and Dee 1992), an agency president observed that agencies that had worked hard to reduce this friction had negotiated this successfully. Many interviewees, whether in planning, creative or management, believed that most top agencies in India had progressed beyond the turf war phase. One agency successfully resolved the issue through adoption of a team (rather than department) approach; teams on specific brands were staffed by servicing, planning and creative.

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Another agency president explained that resource constraints often led to a policy to use the limited supply of planners predominantly for new business development, major pitches and key clients. It also depended a great deal on the agencys proactive or reactive stance to planning as is seen in this comment:
Agencies in troubleshooting mode use them as hit men or hit women to come in and solve a problem. But industry practice is now moving toward assigned planners on brands.

I think the beauty is when you find connections between history or culture to something in the present. Sometimes the toughest of problems has the simplest of solutions. Sometimes its serendipity, sometimes you have to work at it. When the end product gives you that aha or wow, thats when its worth it.

There is little doubt, however, that planners consider themselves overworked. At an agency with a large planning contingent, planners frequently worked on many brands and on many accounts simultaneously; three worked on more than five brands or clients. With so many accounts demanding their attention, more effort was focused on the best paying accounts and mostly in the pre-campaign planning and research phase. Planners also repeatedly expressed a growing concern that planning quality was likely to suffer if supply issues were not resolved in the near future. Interviews also suggested that planners role was mostly advertising-focused. When asked if they were regularly involved in other marketing communication areas like direct marketing and public relations, all agreed that this was desirable but not always the case. This finding is similar to Morrison and Haley (2003, 2006), who found that planners involvement in other areas like sales promotion, PR, etc. was limited. On probing, several participants attributed this to a chronic shortage of planners, and the fact that they were overworked and spent most of their time on activities with the greatest potential revenue. However, from a management perspective, a former agency head saw lack of integration more as a structural issue:
This is something that the industry really struggles withthere is so much talk about media neutralitybut the agency financial model is structured very poorly for thatpeople are trying to move outside mass media but instinct and structural constraints are preventing them from thinking integrated.

Creative directors talked about the excitement of ideas that planning brought to the table and affirmed that it made their job easier to have someone provide impetus to new creative thinking. They believed this dynamic exchange environment led to stronger briefs, greater understanding and better advertising campaigns in India. A former creative director (now a consultant) illustrated the broad scope of the planners contribution through this anecdote:
An account planner can offer a different perspective on issuesgive a 360 degree view of the scenario around the clients product/service.I remember seeing Anand Halve (who was called the Planner), sitting in his dark cabin, crouched over reams and reams of dataperforming strange mysterious calculations. Clients believed in them and acted upon them. The creative team was convinced and our campaigns were created keeping his views in mind. [the planner] has to keep in mind social, technology and media trends(and predict) the evolution of the brand and the changing needs of consumers. Youngsters considering Account Planning as a career may also want to consider Scientific Astrology!

However, the creative brief, an important formal strategy document created by the planner, was not seen as the most important planning output. As a sounding board, discussant and moderator, the continuous interaction between planner and creative department pre and post-brief stage was considered of greater value as evident in this comment from a senior planner:
The briefing process is more important than the sheet of paper itself. You need to be able to engage continuously with creatives. I try and build ongoing connections with them since the spark can come from anywhere.

Two dominant planning roles appeared to be in practice: the creative strategist and developmental researcher, similar to roles played by American counterparts (Morrison and Haley 2006). Planner as Creative Strategist/Catalyst. Indian planners combine both the grand strategist role defined by Stephen King to describe JWT planning and the ad tweaking developmental role that was part of the BMP approach. Interviewees viewed the planning task as both broad and specific. A senior planner observed:

Planner as Researcher. The other important planning role articulated was research. Awareness of key differences between British and American research traditions was high among participants. Repeated references were made to the touchy-feely nature of British planning and a more data driven American approach. When asked about use of research methodology, most planners expressed high degree of comfort with both quantitative and qualitative data. However, research was frequently outsourced and the planner focused on interpretation. Involvement in

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qualitative data collection was much greater and multiple methods (focus groups, interviews, observation, participation in cultural experiences and coolhunting) were used to collect information. Several planners commented that generating insights was an ongoing process of environment scanning. Both unstructured and structured research approaches were evident in practice. For example, a former planning director saw the process as more intuitive and imprecise:
To my mind, insights are like etherthey are omnipresent. You just need to have your antenna up to understand them and use them at the right moment to light the creative spark.

was no formal evaluation system. If account executives are assessed on their contribution to the bottom line and creative staff on originality and execution of creative ideas, planners seem to operate in a safe zone that currently insulates them from direct accountability. Many agency headsand plannersacknowledged this as a problem agencies would have to deal with more effectively as planning gets institutionalized in the industry. The recent introduction of the Effies in Indiaadvertising effectiveness awards based on both strategy and executionwas seen as an industry attempt to address this issue.

On the other hand, a VP- Strategic Planning at an agency with well defined planning roles offers a more structured description:
Yes, manthere are a lot of softer issues that the planner brings to the tableunderstanding cultureunderstanding relationshipswhich has a huge impact on how consumers interact with brandsbut insight is the systematic application of both logic and magic to the creative development process.

Discussion
The final step in grounded analysis is to interpretively link emergent themes and create a theory of the phenomenon (Corbin and Strauss 1990). At this stage, assistance may be sought from literature to help understand conceptual/theoretical implications that may impact the issue (Eisenhardt 1989; Pandit 1996). Our research interest was exploring the institutionalization of account planning in Indian agencies and proposing a diffusion framework to frame the interplay of processes and factors that impact its growth. Two paradigms focusing on innovation in organizationsorganizational innovation diffusion and institutional theoryprovided assistance in interpreting findings emerging from our data. At an organizational level, innovation diffusion is defined as the adoption of an idea or behavior that is new to the organization adopting it with the intention of benefiting the organization (Daft 1978, p. 197). A decision to innovate is widely regarded as a thrust to create differentiation, enhance performance, and gain competitive edge. West and Farr (1990) point out that the element need not be entirely novel or unfamiliar to members of the unit; it must however involve some discernable change or challenge to the status quo (King 1992, p. 90). Within organizational settings, diffusion stages may be represented sequentially to include agenda setting, matching an innovation to the agenda, redefining-restructuring, clarifying, and routinizing the innovation (Rogers 1983, 1995). Zaltman, Duncan and Holbeck (1973) conceptualize two diffusion stages, each with corresponding actions. The initiation stage involves knowledge-awareness, attitude formation, and decision; the implementation stage involves initial implementation and continued-sustained implementation during which the innovation is routinized. The rate at which the innovation is adopted depends not only on the characteristics of the innovation but also on various environmental factors impacting the process.

However, planners were not involved at all stages of the advertising process: research and involvement was more intense in the pre-campaign stage and reduced progressively thereafter, a condition similar to U.S. planners who reported greater involvement in creative strategy development research (Morrison and Haley 2006). Most plannersand agency managementacknowledged that planner involvement during the campaign evaluation phase was, at best, minimal.

Lack of Evaluation Measures

In a 2006 study, Morrison and Haley identified three measures to evaluate planners performance: standard campaign measures, feedback, and awards and press. In Indian advertising, evaluation was often referred to as a grey area by many participants in planning and management. From no formal evaluation to more systematic internal and client review to if the campaign succeeds, planning is considered successful, responses varied widely. Some mentioned that planners inputs were evaluated by their peers in servicing and creative using general questions like how would you judge the contribution of this planner in the campaign or how well does this planner get along with the team. This appears to be similar to the finding that agencies are more inwardly-focused than client-centered in their evaluation practices of account executives (Franke, Murphy and Nadler 2003). However, most participants acknowledged that there

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Figure 1 Conceptual Framework of Account Planning Diffusion in India

INITIATION
High Knowledge/ Awareness of AP Positive Attitude towards AP Acceptance/ Decision to Adopt AP

I M P L E M E N TAT I O N

Initial Implementation

Adaptation/ Routinization

Individual Factors -Perceptions -Beliefs -Familiarity

Organizational Factors -Size -Affiliation - Institutional beliefs

Coercive Environmental Factors -Client pressures -Agency network pressures -Changing Indian consumer culture

Mimetic Environmental Factors - Keep up with competition

Constraints -Demand/supply issues - Training

Planning Features - Indianization - Limited roles - Lack of evaluation measures

Institutional theory stresses the importance of organizational beliefs and institutional environments in the adoption of new ideas. Organizations look to adopt forms, processes, outlooks or competencies (Selznick 1957, 1996) that are collectively believed to enhance their value, legitimacy, and stability over time through a process of adaptation and integration (Scott 1987; Zucker 1983). After a new practice is introduced by early adopters, successive adoption by others helps it acquire a rule-like status making it an institutionalized feature of organizational activity (DiMaggio and Powell 1983; Meyer and Rowan 1977). Innovation diffusion within early adopter organizations (intra-organizational) is usually driven by competitive benefits. Subsequent inter-organizational diffusion may be a result of isomorphismconsiderable pressure to inculcate ideas that have gained legitimacy within the field (DiMaggio and Powell 1983). This (rather than a desire to innovate) may, therefore, hasten further diffusion of industry practices (DiMaggio and Powell 1983). Three types of environmental factors are seen as promoting isomorphism: coercive pressures from authority or organizations on which a firm is resource-dependent, mimetic pressures that lead to copying of successful forms during high uncertainty, and normative pressures from professional groups and

associations that promote homogeneity. Together, innovation diffusion and institutional theory provide a useful framework to interpret the extent to which forces of innovation and conformity co-exist in plannings diffusion in India, as well as beliefs and environmental factors that affect the process. Based on our findings, we propose the following conceptual framework of account planning development in India and 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 and implementation of planning in global ad agencies in India appears to be fairly complete; account planning is an institutionalized practice in this agency group. However, differences in structure are evidentfrom formally established departments or teams to smaller, more informal units to individual planners assigned across clients as needed. Some interesting comparisons can be made with western planning history. In U.K. and U.S. based agencies, plannings growth was largely spurred by smaller, less hierarchical organizations with greater entrepreneurial spirit and flexibility to change. Its gradual adoption was mostly a

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bottom-up phenomenon, and it took several years before it became established industry practiceand over two decades for it to travel from the U.K. to large U.S.-based agencies. By contrast, its growth in India is mostly restricted to large ad agencies with global affiliations doing business with high spending multinational or domestic clients, though anecdotal evidence suggests that medium sized agencies are gradually moving in that direction. As one of our participants an agency headobserved: only big agencies today can afford the luxury of planners. It will take time to percolate. Thus, planning has a top-down growth pattern in India, suggesting an early adoption phase in the overall Indian advertising industry. This restricts the numeric growth of the discipline; to emerge as a sizable force in Indian advertising, it needs to grow both laterally and vertically.

Factors Impacting Diffusion

Institutional theorys explanation of the role of organizational beliefs and institutional environments in innovation diffusion may explain its near-complete adoption in global agencies in India. At the pre-adoption initiation stage, individual, organizational and environmental factors exert strong influence on adoption decisions. All three were observed in our study. Participants revealed high individual familiarity and knowledge with planning as well as positive beliefs and perceptions regarding its use. Collectively, these may be seen as coalescing into (i) shared awareness that planning is good for clients, brands and the agency itself, (ii) positive attitudes across all related agency departments (planning, creative, account servicing), and (iii) overall acceptance of plannings value within the organization. Organizational factors like agency size (large) and affiliation (global agency networks) have ensured greater exposure to western advertising models, global ad agency culture and planning practices. Early planning adopters in India represent the biggest agencies in the industry with global connections, servicing large multinational and domestic clients. The exposure has enhanced favorable attitudes to planning as a critical innovation to develop insightful, research-based advertising, as agencies to be taken seriously by large process-driven multinational clients, to generate new business, and maintain stability and relative permanence of the agency. Its perceived value to agency operations and reputation has likely led to resource investment in the induction, creation and staffing of planning positions and its application in communication campaigns. In India, the major impetus for diffusion of planning appears to be environmental. To a larger extent,

in the early adoption phase, plannings growth may be interpreted as a response to coercive pressures from multinational clients organizational culture, the changing Indian consumer culture, and to a limited extent from agency headquarters. Plannings growth also appears more reactive than proactive: time and again client demands were cited as a chief reason for hiring planners. This suggests that smaller and midsize agencies/domestic agencies will not hire planners unless their clients begin to demand them. At the same time, mimetic pressures to incorporate an industry best practice during a time of turbulent economic growth are also evident. Plannings almost complete diffusion in leading Indian agencies may be interpreted as an effort to copy a successful practice during a period of high uncertainty. Normative pressures exerted by professional groups or associations were not evident in this study. In the absence of an APG (Account Planning Group) chapter in India, the role of Ad Clubs and other professional bodies merits further investigation. By contrast, in the U.S. and U.K., planning is seen more as a proactive practice spurred by greater competition and agency efforts at differentiation rather than as a response to coercive client pressures. Unpredictable setbacks and surprises are inevitable during the implementation phase of diffusion (Schroeder et al. 1989). One of the biggest roadblocks was a growing demand for planners and a very limited supply. These supply constraints directly impact plannings routinization in agencies. Often only accounts that expect / demand services of planners for which they are willing to pay have an account planner assigned to them. Planners also handle several brands simultaneously and their involvement is generally restricted to the campaign planning process and mass media advertising. Lack of training facilities and opportunities is a major impediment, as is attrition in the small community of planners whose skills are assiduously courted by other high growth sectors with better paying offers. A case in pointtwo of our interviewees, both very senior level agency executives, recently left their advertising jobs in search of new challenges, one to join a financial services company and the other a brand consultancy. Interestingly, almost all senior agency personnel in our study commented that Indian advertising consistently undervalued itself to its own detriment. Hence, job turbulence appears to have negatively impacted growth of the planning discipline in India. As the account planning concept (and subsequent practice) gradually percolates beyond global agencies to mid-size and smaller domestic Indian agencieslack of training also leads to questions of quality control with credibility and competency implications.

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Indianization of Planning
While there was wide agreement that the spread of a planning culture was driven by global clients and agency networks, its acceptance by ad professionals reveals both a cultural openness to new ideas and a desire to make them their own. A shared belief in the importance of emotion as an Indian trait, as well as pride in being Indian, has led to plannings institutionalization as a western concept with an Indian avatar. Advocacy of both emotion and passion in the planning process suggests the importance of emotion in the Indian psyche: planners repeatedly referred to the process as both left brained and right brained, unlike western counterparts who emphasize a disciplined, analytical approach to distill consumer insights. Historically, advertising executives in top Indian agencies tended to be English educated, often with no sense of the India that lay outside their upscale neighbor[u]rhoods (Joshi 2002). This is fast changing in todays advertising environment with a greater need to understand local consumers and deliver localized results. As a maze of cultures, religions and languages, the Indian market has so much diversity that if you dont know your customer, you dont get it right (Pandey 2005, p. 1). Planning is viewed as a tool to bring agencies and clients closer to the real India. Unlocking insights across a complex cultural spectrum unlike any other in the world, plannings local rootedness attempts to deliver simplicity and cultural pride to the advertising strategies of global and domestic brands. The adaptive nature of Indian planning is also demonstrated through agencies development of indigenous tools (e.g., McCann India, JWT India) to supplement global proprietary planning techniques. While there is little doubt, at least among our participants, that planning is here to stay in Indian advertising, restricted role scope, limited training opportunities and lack of established assessment measures to evaluate performance are obvious deterrents to its maturity. It is also evident that while media neutrality is considered the right and desirable direction in strategic planning, Indian planners still largely operate within traditional media advertising environments. This is similar to recent findings in U.S. contexts (Morrison and Haley 2006). Assessment continues to be a grey area: appropriate measures to evaluate ROI as well as planners specific contribution still need to be established in India. Plannings ability to impact the bottom line and deliver results in an evidentiary manner may help to further establish its credentials among both agencies and clients in the domestic sector.

Conclusion
Given account plannings proliferation and its increasingly visible role in the advertising process, insights into its development in different regions advances knowledge of international advertising trends. Our study is the first to explore its diffusion in a current Asian (and global) advertising hotspot Indiaone of the fastest growing economies in the world and an extremely attractive market for foreign businesses. It reveals multinational client and agency influence on domestic advertising practices in India and provides information on how Indian ad professionals view plannings role in the creative process. On the academic level, our study (i) provides a theory-based, conceptual framework for further empirical investigation into the planning adoption process in India as well as in other settings; (ii) enlarges the overall body of knowledge on this practice; and (iii) furthers our understanding of how account planning is understood, interpreted and adapted in a rapidly emerging economy. We hope this stimulates further efforts to study other international markets. From an industry perspective, plannings near-total diffusion in global ad agencies in India is a finding of particular interest to (i) multinational advertisers who wish to expand into the region and benefit from an established practice they have been accustomed to in their home country; (ii) domestic advertisers who may want to change ad agencies to benefit from account planning or force their existing agencies to offer this service; (iii) global ad agencies who may want to ensure that their Indian counterparts follow best practices as also possibly benefit from a reverse migration of account planning tools; and (iv) domestic ad agencies seeking to benchmark their operations. Due diligence was exercised in following the tenets of interpretive research, with a focus on depth rather than breadth. Our purpose was to study the phenomenon where it occurs most frequently in India and involve participants with some connection to account planning. Thus, participants were selected to represent professionals with experience, expertise and credibility. Severalas agency headswere also in a position to shape or influence its development within their organizations. At the same time, the exploratory nature of this investigation, based on sixteen interviews with Indian advertising professionals working for agencies with global connections, calls for caution in generalizing findings to the advertising industry in India. We acknowledge this limitation. Also, our research goal was restricted to examining plannings diffusion as an innovation. We did not compare plan-

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ning with other agency roles with which it has a strong organic connection (e.g., creative, account management). Unlike planning, they are not new phenomena in Indian advertising. Certainly, they have been impacted by changes in the advertising environment and a comparison offers an interesting line of questioning to understand changing agency structure/functions in India. The logical next step is an empirical test of the framework in India to identify factors that significantly influence plannings adoption and test for their relative strengths on an industry-wide scale. As our findings are limited to ad agencies with global connections, measuring awareness, knowledge levels, perceptions and attitudes amongst smaller, medium-sized domestic agencies may be a useful line of inquiry to track diffusion. Indian advertisers perspectives on account planning would be another promising area of research. Such a study would reveal gaps, if any, between client and agency perceptions and expectations. Research linking adoption of account planning with brand related metrics like market share, sales, other brand equity measures and client satisfaction may establish whether account planning is effective in its role at present. From a cultural perspective, investigating the role of values and cultural meaning transfer in advertising creative strategy and execution in India also holds considerable promise. Finally, international advertising research would benefit through more detailed comparisons of account planning in mature and maturing markets.

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Appendix Guiding 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 other usual functions in an ad agency?

Adoption and Integration:

4. What has motivated account plannings 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 planners role in the campaign development process? At what stage are they involved and why? b. Is the planner also involved in non-traditional areas like Sales Promotion, PR, Events, Direct Response, 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? Why do 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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