Outdoor advertising in the form of 'Signages' forms a very important component in the clients' advertising plan. In India, about 10 per cent is outdoor advertising, making India second only to France in this sector. Now, with the economy opening up and with international giants setting up base in India, the signage industry is all set to explode. The industry in the past suffered from being largely unorganized, but now international, outdoor companies are forming alliances and strategic partners in India, to offer more cost effective options and opportunities for customers.

Working towards this is a company called R K Marketing, Indiranagar, Bangalore, with clientele like IBM, Scotia Bank, Oracle, Sun Micro Systems, Motorola, Hewlett Packard and John Brown to name a few. The signage business is not a new concept in India, but following international standards and keeping up with present trends is important.

Rakesh Kingar, the proprietor of
R K Marketing, shared valuable information on the 'signage' market and business. His views about industry trends were indeed insightful and revealing.

On the concept of 'signage' industry" - It is not a new concept at all in India. It is just that we follow the international standards and ethics of the industry very strictly, which should be rightly done in any profession."

On sourcing of his customers in Bangalore and other places" Usually we do this through the Yellow Pages. Apart from this, we also have architects who recommend us to their customers and get us orders. We have been doing business with very famous architects like the Rathi Associates, G & D Associates, RSP Architects, Chandraverkar and Thacker to name a few."

On the exclusive deals and assignments undertaken by R.K. Marketing till date" - We have worked for big names till today. Oracle, Sun Micro Systems, Tata IBM, Motorola, Tektronix, Hewlett Packard, John Brown, Standard Chartered Bank, ANZ Grindlays, Deutsche Bank are a few among many others."

On the trends in 'signage' industry" - There are various categories in this field viz. Dimension signs, Electric signs, Safety signs, etc. Safety signs are further classified into Mandatory / Information signs, Warning signs, Prohibitory signs and Safe condition signs. Every category of sign has a particular colour with a significance too. For example, Yellow and Black colour combination is used to indicate High Voltage, Green and White combination is used for Safe Condition Signs, Red and White combination is used for Prohibitory signs. It is very important that each sign be accompanied by an image or picture so that it communicates clearly even to a layman. Though there are no laws as such pertaining to signages in our country, people always like to get their work done through companies that follow international standards."

What materials are used for making the signages? "We use aluminium sheets usually as these do not corrode easily and then, 'Dupont Paints' are used, which have high durability rate and are available in fast colours. Each shade has a colour coding which is available anytime. For Dimensional letters, rigid integral PVC, which is hardened on both the sides for more durability, is used. Backlit lights or for the Glow signs, 'flex' is fixed as a facia which should be stretched by a special tensioning system to give a look and then translucent vinyl is fixed. Cutting of the letters for the signs is done on the Computer-aided machines by us here."

On the pricing of the signages - "The pricing is decided by the size and materials used for the signages. To date, the most expensive signage made by us, both in English and Kannada, was for Oracle, which cost Rs 2.5 lakhs. Each of the letters in it was 3ft high and 5ft long. All MNCs demand very high quality work. They tell us what their requirements are, and we follow them. Till today, we still have our oldest customers with us. They know that we are expensive but the best."