Brands in India believe to reach their target consumers they have to invest in traditional marketing and advertising; television, print, electronic, events etc. It is probably true.

However, they often and more times ignore the impact that word of mouth marketing creates on their consumers. Here’s one such story that made waves in India last year and continues to do so in 2009.

We’ve all heard of Polo, Ralph Lauren and we all know how their Rugby/Polo Pony’s with the single digit number on the sleeve became the biggest ‘style’ statement in India for 2008.

There was no advertisement in print or television. There is no Polo store in India. There is no marketing tactic that Polo used for the Indian market. So then how and why did this story become such a big rage? I decided to ask around and see how the Poly Pony tee became the most talked about and worn brand in India last year?

“Most advertising tends to be”, Edward Kosner once said, "a trailing indicator of popular culture". 

This might have been true 30 years ago, but the scene today is different. Advertising is actually CREATING culture(s) and is more and more targeted at changing the basic psyche of the target customers.

John Wanamaker the man who invented department stores and price tag in 1870 famously said “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is, I don't know which half.” More than a century later the proverb still holds true and more so for the internet based advertisements. According to a Mckinsey research internet advertisements going to the wrong audience accounts for $332 billion of wasted resources of which $112 billion is spent in America alone. For any marketer this waste of resources is a night mare. In the following article we will try to look at the various tolls and technique which companies and agencies are using world wide to track their advertisement so that it reach the correct audience.