Purpose The problem of differentiation and creating a unique selling proposition is higher in the banking sector, as, any new service or product introduced is very quickly imitated by the competitors. The benefits of advertising have been seen to have long-term effects on the firm’s performance and debate is still on whether the expenses of advertising should be amortized or expensed immediately has been the area of concern for many years. The purpose of this paper is to carry out a comparative analysis of advertising effectiveness on private and public sector banks in India. Design/methodology/approach This study has included 33 listed commercial banks out of 41 listed on S&P BSE 500. Out of 33 banks, 14 banks belong to private sector and 19 banks are public sector banks. Data are extracted for a period of 14 years from 2004 to 2017 from Ace Equity. In total, there are 462 firm-year observations. Interest income, operating income and return on assets are the accounting measures considered in this paper. All the variables are deflated by total assets at the beginning of the period. To assess the effect of advertising on financial measures, distributed lag model is used. Findings The results of Koyck model suggest that it takes lesser time for private sector banks to see a significant change in interest income and return on assets with a change in advertising expenses whereas in case of operating income, the results achieved are opposite. Originality/value This study may be useful from accounting point of view to find out whether advertising creates long-term or short-term impact on financial measures. The study would help in determining the number of years for which advertising expenses can be amortized. With the help of these results, it can be said that advertisement expenses can be capitalized and then expensed over coming years. This means, to some extent advertisement has some long-run impact on financial measures considered in the study. In order to achieve more robust results, this study can be performed on different sectors.

Purpose Companies are looking for certain employability attributes and personality traits while recruiting and selecting suitable candidates for their organizations and there is a mismatch in what the higher educational institutes are grooming the graduates. There is therefore a need for proactive management of career development of students. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This research involved an exploratory study on a database of 445 students enrolled and passed out from the five batches of two years business management course from 2012 to 2016 in a business school in India, to identify the parameters which led to generating good placement package for them. The impact of independent variables of live industry projects, communication skills, academic performance, classroom attendance and co-curricular activities on the placement package was studied using stepwise regression analysis. Findings The study revealed that industry projects, co-curricular activities, communication skills and academic performance were the key enablers which helped the students become industry ready and employable. Research limitations/implications This research involved the study of effect of only four independent variables- academic performance, communication skills, participation in live industry projects and co-curricular activities on the placement package received by the students. There is a scope of extending this study by considering the effect of other variables such as educational background (graduation stream, performance in that stream, scores attained in competitive exams, etc.), family background (family income, occupation of parents and their qualification, family size, etc.), geographical background (rural, urban or semi-urban) and work experience on the final placement package received by the student. Practical implications Employability depends on a multitude of factors which can be broadly put under three categories of knowledge, skills and attitude (Khare, 2014). Universities need to work right from the first year toward developing a wider range of employability skills rather than focusing only on developing generic competencies in the students. The results of regression analysis indicate that the impact of different predictors for a good placement package vary in strength and a student needs to focus on balancing all of them in order to get a good placement. Educational institutes can replicate this study to identify the overall employability of their students. Originality/value With the increase in demand from industry for work ready graduates, there is a huge pressure on educational institutes to prepare their students for the corporate world. Such studies would help the institutes in focusing on various parameters which would ultimately assist students pursuing courses in post graduate level like business management or other master courses in getting good placements.

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Subject area Marketing management, consumer behaviour, digital marketing. Study level/applicability This case can be used for students studying marketing management courses and also for elective courses on consumer behaviour, digital marketing and strategic management in an MBA programme. Case overview This case is about Anju Pharmaceuticals which dealt in the manufacture and sale of ayurvedic/herbal products such as Panchsudha, Zalim Lotion, Ruz, Vama, Mekado etc. in Madhya Pradesh, India. Started in the year 1983, the company had still not been able to make a mark in the market. For quite some time now Mitesh, the third-generation proprietor of the company, was continuously reading articles which discussed how there has been a positive shift in the consumer preferences for products having herbal ingredients. Indian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies such as Patanjali, Dabur, Marico were banking on herbal components in their various key products such as toothpaste, shampoo and hair oil to expand their market share and some of these Indian companies seemed to be growing faster than bigger multinationals including Hindustan Unilever and Procter & Gamble. With the changes in consumer perception towards herbal products, Mitesh was hopeful that if he could gear up his distribution it would result in improving the bottom-line of the company. He had also started receiving queries from interested clients for third-party manufacturing and packaging of the ayurvedic products under the desired brand name. Mitesh was very much aware that to improve his bottom-line, just relying on efficient distribution would not suffice and he would need to come up with strategic alliances and newer ways of doing the business rather than just following what had been the norm for the last few years. The idea of becoming a third-party manufacturer somehow did not excite Mitesh because he felt that by going in for third-party manufacturing he would never be able to establish the brand identity of Anju Pharmaceuticals. He wanted his company to ride the FMCG herbal wave but how and at what cost were the big questions facing him. Expected learning outcomes After the successful completion of this case, the readers would be able to accomplish the following: gain insights into the problems faced by small businesses when they want to scale up their business. Get insights into the challenges/difficulties of adopting e-commerce by a small organization. Be aware of the changing consumer preferences for herbal and ayurvedic products and how companies are gearing up to cash on to the changing market opportunities. Comprehend the problem situation. Suggest ways of taking advantage of the current scenario to expand and grow the business. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 8: Marketing.