Interviewer - Can you provide me with a description of your business?
Anand Ingle - Quantastic (noun): Designing fantastic marketing campaigns to give quantitative results
Unlike thousands of advertising agencies in India, Quantastic believes in the principle that "in the business of communication number is the only universal language". Even though we provide full-service advertising solutions to our clients we ensure that our solutions impact significantly in their sales figures. We work with many clients on the performance-based model where our revenue is linked with clients' sales figures.
Our services can be categorised into four parts.
1. Brand identity: We help formulate brand positioning through market research, design the logo and brand guidelines to showcase the use of the logo on brand collaterals
2. Sales collaterals: We design important sales collaterals like website, brochure, sales presentation, POS collateral etc.
3. Advertising Campaign: We conceptualize and execute traditional as well as digital marketing campaigns along with media planning
4. High Impact Advertising: We enable clients with high impact advertising avenues thorugh Events, Video and Photo shoots and activation's.
Hence, we are a complete 360-degree advertising company.
Interviewer - How did you get started in this business?
Anand Ingle -
There are two levels to answer this question.
1. When I started I already had couple of clients to support me. I think that boosted my confidence as an individual and geared me to start Quantastic. I knew that the entry barriers for the advertising business are comparatively less but the competition is way too high. Hence we started focusing on mid level companies which were facing serious marketing challenges and not design challenges. We brainstormed with them and helped them formulate their marketing strategies which has helped us acquire quantum of business in our initial days. The most important factor here was having a right team. My initial team comprised of people with whom I have worked with in the past. Client focused mindset and recruiting the right tea, helped us to grow in our early days.
2. The another reason for getting into the advertising industry. Post my MBA from IIM Lucknow, I realised that most of my batch mates will be on the other side of the table in the brand management roles for leading brands. And my experience as an advertising professional would help me to partner with them and deliver excellent results.
Interviewer- Why do your customers select you over your competitors?
Anand Ingle - Most of our clients are with us since the day we acquired them. And even if you ask this question to them the answer will be our business ethics. Our clients have been vocal about this in past where they said they found us very honest and hence they get a sense of partnership and not the typical client-agency relationship while working with us.
We have a thumb rule for our employees, think like you are not working for a client but for your own brand and then things fall into places. We reject our own work untill we feel it will actually have a substantial business impact for our clients. I think that's truly what Quantastic means.
Interviewer- What are the biggest issues for running this business?
Anand Ingle - Long payment cycle is the issue with most of the service based companies in India. Having said that I feel to maintain the right team structure is the biggest challenge in advertising industry. As the industry is creativity driven you will always have to be on your toes to solve the marketing challenges of diverse set of clients. And to do so your working hours are extended most of the time which has became an issue of advertising industry. Other challenge I feel is that you can't settle in this business as things are continuously evolving here. New technology and techniques are continuously coming up your way and you have only two choices - perform or perish!
Interviewer- What suggestions would you like to give to the young budding entrepreneurs?
Anand Ingle - When I started up my mentor Amar Sukhi (MD, SPS India) had given me an important mantra for sustaining in the business. He said "ask yourself what new you have learnt today?" Further he said it is not important to do different things but think about how you can do same things differently. Always focus on your core strengths and learn to utilize them to its maximum for your business. And if you ever feel like giving up, remember why you have started. Happy journey!