1.0 INTRODUCTION
In modern times
advertising prevails in all walks of life. It has acquired the distinction of
being the most visible and glamorous method of marketing communication. You
would recall that advertising
was defined as any paid form of non-personal
presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified
sponsor. Some of the major marketing and communication functions performed by
advertising today include informing, entertaining, persuading, influencing,
reminding, reassuring and adding value to the product or service advertised.
Before going to the role of advertising, let us acquaint ourselves with how advertising
works and what are the various types of advertising. First, let us look at the
objectives of this note.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this note, you will be able to:
·
list the roles and types of advertising
·
list different kinds of advertising objectives
·
explain how media planning is done
·
explain the need for planning publicity.
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 How Advertising Works In order to perform
the various marketing and communication functions listed above, according to
Paul E.J. Gerald, advertising moves through the following stages before
accomplishing its purpose:
·
It gets planned and brought into existence
·
It is reproduced and delivered and exposed to people
·
It is received and assimilated
·
It affects ideas, intentions and attitudes
·
It affects buying and the buying process
·
It responds to time (situation and repeated expose)
·
It affects trade effort and supply
·
It changes sales and profits it changes the market (size, quality
mix, intensity of competition, trade relations, consumerism, etc.)
3.2 Types of Advertising
Depending upon the nature of the task involved, type of product represented
or the focus of activity transacted, advertising efforts are grouped into
various types. Let us take a few examples. Advertisements for machinery and machine
tools form part of industrial advertising, and the ones for footwear,
cornflakes or edible oil, form consumer advertising. The advertisements
aimed at improving the corporate image are forms of institutional advertising
and ones promoting a company’s products, product advertising.
Likewise, advertisements promoting the consumption of tea or
carpets are called primary demand creating advertisements whereas those
relating to say spare parts and coffee are selective brand advertising.
Advertisement aimed at effecting immediate sale of the product advertised is
called direct advertising, and the ones performing tasks like announcing
the launch of the new product, building purchase intentions, creating interest
in customers or changing their attitudes towards the product, are termed indirect
action advertising.
The advertisements which are sponsored and paid for by the
manufacturers are manufacturer advertising, and such advertisements
whose costs are shared by the manufacturer and wholesales or retailers are co-operative
advertising. Co-operative advertisements aim at increasing the demand of a
specific product of a manufacturer through a particular wholesale or retailer.
On the other hand, when a retailer advertises for his shop entirely on his own,
to attract traffic to his shop it is retail advertising. In short, the
major types of advertising are: industrial and consumer, product and
institutional, primary demand and brand-demand, direct (sales) demand and
indirect (awareness, intentions and attitudes) action advertising, and
manufacturer, co-operative and retail advertising.
3.3 Role of Advertising
In the pursuit of its purpose, the economic and social effects of advertising
have become the subject of continuing debate. A quick flavor of the arguments put forward on both sides can
be had from Table 14.1. The table presents two viewpoints, one considering advertising
as an information disseminating utility function and the other viewing
advertising as a source of market power. On balance, advertising has carved out
an indispensable place for itself in the marketing mix of a firm. Phillip
Kotler very aptly refers to the following situations where advertising is
likely to make greater contribution. The situations are:
·
When buyer awareness is minimal
·
When industry sales are rising rather than remaining stable or declining
·
When the product has features normally not observable to the buyer
·
When Opportunities for
product differentiation are strong
·
When primary instead of secondary motives can be tapped.
Are there some limitations to the role of advertising? The answer
is obviously is in the affirmative. Advertising, in the words of Richard H. Stansfield,
cannot do the following:
·
Sell a bad product twice.
·
Sell an overpriced or otherwise non-competitive product.
·
Sell a poorly distributed product.
·
Sell a seasonal product out of season (significantly).
·
Sell products to persons having no use for them.
·
Work overnight.
·
Do the selling job alone.
The usefulness of advertising, which has for long been accused of
being a capitalist tool and a bane of the market economy, is now being realized
by the planned and communist economies too. While Yugoslavia, USSR, Poland and
Hungary shed their hostility to advertising quite a few years ago, China is
welcoming advertisements propelled marketing now.
3.4 Advertising
Management Advertising constitutes one of the four components of a firm’s promotion
mix, which in turn forms an integral element of the firm’s marketing mix. In
order to implement the marketing concept and to achieve the objectives of
integration among different elements of marketing mix, it is necessary that the
advertising functions be systematically planned.
In particular, the link of advertising with the promotion and
marketing objectives of the firm on the one hand, and with factors like product
positioning objectives, role of sales force, dealer support plan and the buying
habits of consumers, on the other hand, must be clearly established. This link
helps a firm to achieve the desired push-pull strategy objectives, and enables
the product to have a distinct personality. The task involved in advertising
is, therefore, complex and its management requires systematic decision-making.
Table 1: Advertising Campaign: Questions and Answers
.
In short, the basic decision-areas in advertising are:
·
setting advertising objectives
·
determining the advertising budget
·
developing advertisement copy and message
·
selecting and scheduling media
·
measuring advertising effectiveness.
3.5 Setting Advertising Objectives
An advertisement is
either good or bad in its ability to achieve its objectives. Though advertising
is largely informative and persuasive in nature, yet to do a good job, the
objectives of each advertising campaign need to be clearly spelt out in
measurable terms, in order to focus clearly on the target audience, and on the
period over which these are to be achieved.
Russel H. Colley called for the need to provide an explicit link
between advertising goals and advertising results in his pioneering approach nicknamed
DAGMAR - Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results. Colley
distinguished 52 advertising goals that might be used in connection with a
single advertisement, a year’s campaign for a product or a company’s entire advertising
philosophy. Some of such goals are as
follows:
·
announce a special reason for ‘buying now’ (price, premium and so
on)
·
build familiarity and easy recognition of the package or trademark
·
place advertiser in position to select preferred distributors and dealers
·
persuade prospect to visit a showroom, ask for a demonstration
·
build up the moral of company sales force
·
correct false impression, misinformation and other obstacles to sales
·
implant information or attitude regarding benefits and superior features
of brand.
According to DAGMAR, the communication task of the brand is to
gain (a) awareness, (b) Comprehension, (c) Conviction, (d) Image and, (e) Action.
Advertising goals should, therefore, be specific to the communication task(s)
to be performed. The process of advertising goal setting thus, should begin by
understanding the dynamics of marketing communication effectively.
Further, let us also understand that improving sales is not the
only objective of advertising. Advertising is only one of the factors influencing
sales, the other being: (a) different elements of the marketing mix, (b) the
competitive position of the firm, and (c) the purchasing power and the need of
buyer. Also, the impact of advertising often occurs over the long run and not
necessarily immediately, since consumers may belong to different stages of the
product adoption process at a point in time.
The advertising objectives are to:
·
inform and build awareness
·
create brand knowledge
·
reinforce position attitudes about the brand
·
precipitate buying action
·
increase sales build up an image.
3.6 Publicity Let us recall that publicity is non-personal stimulation of demand
for a product, service or business note by placing commercially significant news
about it in a published medium or obtaining favorable presentation of it upon
radio, television, or stage that is not paid for by the sponsor.
The crucial aspect of publicity is that it should emanate from a
neutral and impartial source such as editorial material and is not paid for by
the sponsor. To achieve the aim of credibility it should not raise any doubts regarding
interested sponsorship. Publicity and public relations have a lot in common. In
fact, publicity is one of the tools of public relations.
Uses of Publicity Publicity, which is essentially aimed at building position image, goodwill
or favorable visibility, has acquired a sound footing to assist a company in
its marketing efforts. Specifically, it has a vital role in disseminating
information regarding new products; warranty terms; product replacement
policies and customer service arrangements; new R & D findings; successful
bids or contracts won; contributions made to the promotion of sports, culture,
and technology; employees’ welfare, policies; dealer training and promotion
activities; membership of top and senior employees in governmental and
international bodies; community development
programmes; promotion of company trademark and slogans; and issues of public
interest and welfare from time to time.
Measuring Effectiveness
of Publicity Rating received on corporate image studies carried out by
independent bodies, awareness of the company’s efforts, and the change in
attitudes of the public towards the company are the major methods through which
the effectiveness of publicity can be measured. Both periodic surveys as well
as before and after-event surveys can be conducted to gauge the level of
exposure, awareness and the type of opinions and attitudes held by public. Publicity
when used in an integrated way with other elements of the promotion mix adds
punch and provides considerable mileage to a firm’s promotion efforts.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Advertising is an
impersonal mass selling and communication method. It makes use of various types
of media to reach the target public in a short time. Being persuasive in
nature, advertising broadly aims at gaining exposure, creating awareness,
changing attitudes of target customers in favor of sponsor’s products and
services, and is also an effective/defensive tool in managing competition.
Measurement of effective advertising requires that the process be initiated
by setting of measurable and realistic goals. Identification and knowledge of
the economic, demographic, cultural and psychological characteristics of the
target customers should trigger the process of advertising planning. This
should be followed by selection of appropriate appeals, proper illustrations
and unique copy themes in the language, which the audience understands and
should be transmitted to them through media vehicles, which have a meaningful
reach and desired credibility.
The spread of a good word through editorial space of neutral
agencies, i.e., publicity, adds significant credibility to a firm’s efforts in
building and strengthening its image. Organization of newsworthy events and good
relations with media can help. Organized publicity and public relations
activities help in correcting misinformation and providing an opportunity to
the public to view a firm in its right perspective.
5.0 SUMMARY In modern terms, advertising prevails in all aspects of human behavior.
It has been reported that some of the major marketing and communication
functions performed by advertising today include informing, entertaining,
persuading, etc., while publicity is seen as non personal stimulation of demand
for a product, service or business note by placing commercially significant
news about it in a published medium. In this note, we examined how advertising
works, types of advertising,
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