Marketing guru Jack Trout, renowned as the co-author of books like Positioning, carried the baton of making rules into the final lap of AdAsia 2003.
Trout began his early morning address to a packed audience by saying, "Before you break the rules, know the rules."
Taking the United States market as a "marketing laboratory", Trout pointed to several companies that had made crucial marketing mistakes.
According to Trout, the first rule for attaining success is to be different. "Effective strategy is all about differentiation," he said.
Referring to the growing number of brands in every market as the tyranny of choice, Trout stressed that brands needed to create a real reason to buy and not a meaningless slogan.
He urged the advertisers to ensure differentiation by attributes, which was the only characteristic that would make products unique.
Taking examples of automobile manufacturers like BMW, Volvo, Mercedes and Jaguar, Trout pointed out how each of them were able to stand for attributes like the ultimate driving experience, safety, engineering and styling respectively. Consumers want to believe that products can contain a magic ingredient that will improve performance.
"Understanding how the ingredient works is not important," referring to products like the Sony Trinitron, where most consumers did not bother to know what Trinitron was all about.
Taking examples of international giants like copier company Xerox, telecom giant AT & T and car maker, General Motors, Trout pointed out how the gods made a mess of their dominant market situation.
Some lessons: Do not ignore the competition, focus and differentiation are critical in a competitive world and CEOs must be willing to encourage sacrifice instead of growth.
The responsibility of bringing the curtain down on the 23rd Asian advertising congress , however, was thrust on author and former London Business School professor Charles Handy.
Handy predicted the future shape of work by sounding a warning to the ad agencies. Pointing out that middlemen were disappearing in many industries like publishing for instance, Handy said, "The ad agency structure will be threatened."
And Handy's observation on the various thoughts that have been floated by the 30 speakers throughout the week, "It can be a confusing thing if you listen to everything."
India's best export to the international advertising scene, filmmaker Tarsem Singh and the country's arguably best creative director, Piyush Pandey, also put some of their best work on the videowalls of the Birla Auditorium.