Advertisements are the most powerful means for communicating the marketing message to the target audience. The presence of likeable attributes in ads has profound effect on the mindset of the audience and results in creating a positive image about the ads and consequently, the brands. This article focuses on understanding and using likeability in television commercials.

The need for soft skills has increased manifold over the last few years. Professionals need to possess a high soft skills quotient, apart from the domain knowledge in order to succeed in this competitive era. Research findings have quite often shown that professionals with better soft skills were able to create a marked difference not only in the marketplace, but also within the company. Success at the workplace calls for altogether different skill sets and understanding which might even lead to the academic toppers taking a back seat vis-à-vis their `below average' peers in terms of domain knowledge taking a better position. The need of the hour for professionals is to understand the importance of learning, unlearning and relearning, which in turn calls for above average soft skills quotient. This paper is a compilation of research findings from a business school of central India, which proved that the students having diverse aptitude, attitude and command on domain areas were ultimately segregated on the basis of their blending capability of soft skills with that of the domain know-how.

Soft skills have gained much importance in the modern day world. Professionals from different sectors including managers, entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, technocrats, physicians, or even researchers succeed in their chosen field not only on the basis of domain know-how, but rather on the basis of a balanced ingredient comprising soft skills and subject knowledge. The challenges offered in a professional environment calls for more of the soft skills quotient rather than text book concepts of any subject. The students become mature professionals in the long-run not only on the basis of their command on any specific discipline, but rather on their ability to be prepared to tackle the unforeseen situations. Hence, there is a need for an integrated approach on the part of faculty members and soft skills trainers especially in a business school set-up.

Let us see some instances from a business school. Ashok has passed MBA with distinction and got an excellent offer from a leading Blue-chip company. However, he had to quit the organization owing to the lack of competitive spirit to create the difference in the marketplace. Sandya, a student in HR with sound theoretical knowledge in labor laws, joined an IT major with a lucrative package. But she somehow could not measure up to the expectations of her superior as she lacked good interpersonal skills, while functioning in a team. David Wilson joined an FMCG giant in the logistics department after securing a gold medal at the postgraduation level in management. His employer was happy with his performance till it was noticed that he did not have a balanced approach leading to his overreaction most of the times, which further created lot of rift amongst his group of subordinates.

Cocktail of Domain Know-How with Soft Skills, skills, professional, knowledge, business, competitive, interpersonal, management, marketplace, modern, professionals, programs, environment, employer, entrepreneurs, Bluechip, functioning, characteristics, logistics, Marketing, managers, organizational, package, performance, communication