Advertising Definition
“Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services through mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio by an identified sponsor”
5 M's of Advertising
–
1) Mission: What are the advertising objectives?
Advertising is one part of the promotional mix, and therefore advertising objectives will be set in line with overall Promotional and Marketing Objectives, which in turn will relate to the organisations' overall Corporate Objectives. In general, however, there are three main categories of advertising objectives a business might set itself in terms of whether it seeks to Inform, Persuade or Remind the target audience.
• Inform: Informative advertising
, seeks to tell the market about the product, explain how the product works, provide information on pricing, and build awareness of both the product and the company. Such objectives are normally pursued at the launch of a new product, or re-launch / up-date of an existing product. Example is about Australian rugby player Jacko for energizing batteries.
• Persuade: Here objectives are to encourage the target audience to switch brands, make the purchase, and create a preference in the market for the product as opposed to its competition. Advertising of this nature is required in highly competitive markets, where a range of products compete directly with each other. In such circumstances businesses often seek to differentiate their product through Comparison Advertising – either directly or indirectly comparing its product to that of its competitors. Example is of Visa campaign called “Its everywhere where
you want to be” that showcases desirable locations and events that don’t accept the American card. Or even the ad of Airtel
• Remind Reminder Advertising, is used to maintain interest and awareness of a well established product in the market, often in the latter stages of its product life cycle. It is often used at the Point-of-Purchase
to remind consumers of the Brand. Such advertising is used by the likes of Coca-Cola and other leading brands, to maintain their position in the market
• Reinforcement advertising aims to convince current purchasers
that they made the right choice. Automobile ads often depict satisfied customers enjoying special features of their new car.
2. Money: How much can be spent
?
Having identified advertising objectives, the advertising budget must be set. Determining exactly how much a business should spend on advertising to achieve the desired level of sales, is more an art than a science. Commonly, the decision is based on past experience of expenditure
on advertising, and the sales subsequently achieved. There are however a number of factors that can be considered in setting the advertising budget.
Factors influencing the setting of advertising Budgets
a) Product life cycle stage: New products in the 'Launch' stage of their Product Life Cycle, will normally require greater expenditure on advertising to create product awareness, and encourage consumers to trial the product. Whilst products that have reached 'Maturity' in their product life cycle, will often require smaller advertising budgets
to achieve the level of sales required.
b) Competition: The number of competitors in the market, and their expenditure on advertising competing products, will influence a business to spend to a similar or higher degree.
c) Product Differentiation
: A product very similar to other products on the market may require greater expenditure on advertising to differentiate it from its competitors
d) Advertising Frequency: The number of repetition needed to put across the brand message to consumers has an important impact on the advertising budget.
e) Product Substitutability: Brands in less well differentiated or commodity-like product classes (beer, Soft drinks, banks and airlines) require heavy advertising
to establish a differential image.
“Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services through mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio by an identified sponsor”
5 M's of Advertising
– 1) Mission: What are the advertising objectives?
Advertising is one part of the promotional mix, and therefore advertising objectives will be set in line with overall Promotional and Marketing Objectives, which in turn will relate to the organisations' overall Corporate Objectives. In general, however, there are three main categories of advertising objectives a business might set itself in terms of whether it seeks to Inform, Persuade or Remind the target audience.
• Inform: Informative advertising
, seeks to tell the market about the product, explain how the product works, provide information on pricing, and build awareness of both the product and the company. Such objectives are normally pursued at the launch of a new product, or re-launch / up-date of an existing product. Example is about Australian rugby player Jacko for energizing batteries.• Persuade: Here objectives are to encourage the target audience to switch brands, make the purchase, and create a preference in the market for the product as opposed to its competition. Advertising of this nature is required in highly competitive markets, where a range of products compete directly with each other. In such circumstances businesses often seek to differentiate their product through Comparison Advertising – either directly or indirectly comparing its product to that of its competitors. Example is of Visa campaign called “Its everywhere where
you want to be” that showcases desirable locations and events that don’t accept the American card. Or even the ad of Airtel
• Remind Reminder Advertising, is used to maintain interest and awareness of a well established product in the market, often in the latter stages of its product life cycle. It is often used at the Point-of-Purchase
to remind consumers of the Brand. Such advertising is used by the likes of Coca-Cola and other leading brands, to maintain their position in the market• Reinforcement advertising aims to convince current purchasers
that they made the right choice. Automobile ads often depict satisfied customers enjoying special features of their new car.2. Money: How much can be spent
?Having identified advertising objectives, the advertising budget must be set. Determining exactly how much a business should spend on advertising to achieve the desired level of sales, is more an art than a science. Commonly, the decision is based on past experience of expenditure
on advertising, and the sales subsequently achieved. There are however a number of factors that can be considered in setting the advertising budget.Factors influencing the setting of advertising Budgets
a) Product life cycle stage: New products in the 'Launch' stage of their Product Life Cycle, will normally require greater expenditure on advertising to create product awareness, and encourage consumers to trial the product. Whilst products that have reached 'Maturity' in their product life cycle, will often require smaller advertising budgets
to achieve the level of sales required.b) Competition: The number of competitors in the market, and their expenditure on advertising competing products, will influence a business to spend to a similar or higher degree.
c) Product Differentiation
: A product very similar to other products on the market may require greater expenditure on advertising to differentiate it from its competitorsd) Advertising Frequency: The number of repetition needed to put across the brand message to consumers has an important impact on the advertising budget.
e) Product Substitutability: Brands in less well differentiated or commodity-like product classes (beer, Soft drinks, banks and airlines) require heavy advertising
to establish a differential image.3. Message: What message should be sent?
Advertising Message
An advertising campaign, no matter how much money is spent, no matter what media is used, will only be successful if the Message appeals to the target audience. Given the level of advertising which bombards the average consumer, a successful advertising message must stand out amongst the advertising clutter. Thus marketing professionals are required to be creative, imaginative and innovative in developing the advertising message, both in terms of What is said, and How it is said.
What is said...?
This is often referred to as the ‘Big Idea
’, and will normally address the key benefits sought by the target audience, motivating the audience to pay attention. Given the constant search for new ways to appeal to target audiences, it is difficult to categorise the content of advertising messages which a business may send, below is an example
Gillette: The best a man can get
Is an example of a message which draws attention to the brand’s position
as the market leader, and the emphasis it places on quality, reminding and reassuring the audience.
How it is said
These examples underline the fact that how things are said, is often just as important as what is said. Creating attention grabbing and memorable advertising is increasingly vital, given the amount of advertising clutter in the marketplace. As with message content, advertising is constantly generating new styles of advertising, to achieve this Sony recruited the services of David Lynch, a film director whose credits include ‘Twin Peaks’. Below we include examples of some of the more established message styles.
Personality Symbol: Many businesses will use a ‘character’ be it an actual person, or animated character, to represent the product, or the company.
Advertising Message
An advertising campaign, no matter how much money is spent, no matter what media is used, will only be successful if the Message appeals to the target audience. Given the level of advertising which bombards the average consumer, a successful advertising message must stand out amongst the advertising clutter. Thus marketing professionals are required to be creative, imaginative and innovative in developing the advertising message, both in terms of What is said, and How it is said.
What is said...?
This is often referred to as the ‘Big Idea
’, and will normally address the key benefits sought by the target audience, motivating the audience to pay attention. Given the constant search for new ways to appeal to target audiences, it is difficult to categorise the content of advertising messages which a business may send, below is an exampleGillette: The best a man can get
Is an example of a message which draws attention to the brand’s position
as the market leader, and the emphasis it places on quality, reminding and reassuring the audience.How it is said
These examples underline the fact that how things are said, is often just as important as what is said. Creating attention grabbing and memorable advertising is increasingly vital, given the amount of advertising clutter in the marketplace. As with message content, advertising is constantly generating new styles of advertising, to achieve this Sony recruited the services of David Lynch, a film director whose credits include ‘Twin Peaks’. Below we include examples of some of the more established message styles.
Personality Symbol: Many businesses will use a ‘character’ be it an actual person, or animated character, to represent the product, or the company.
Lifestyle: Here the advert will link the product with a particular lifestyle to which the target audience is thought to aspir
Musical:Tunes can stick in the mind, and many adverts are built around a song or piece of music.
In addition the tone of the advertisement will need to be established, which can be either positive or negative. The advert may therefore promote positive feelings of fun, contentment, and happiness or take on a more negative, somber, or even threatening tone. Unfortunately the reality of advertising is such that recent research has claimed that even the best planned
, and executed advertisements may only be noticed by less than 50% of the audience, and only approximately 30% will actually recall the main message of the advert.
4. Media: What media should be used?
In addition to deciding upon the content, style and tone of the advertising message
, the media through which the message will be communicated to the target audience must also be selected, be it television, newspaper, magazine, radio or other.
In order to select the most appropriate media, consideration should be given to the advantages and disadvantages of each of the available types of media..
Media planners make their choices by considering the following variables:
• Target Audience Media Habits: Radio and television are the most effective media for reaching teenagers
• Product Characteristics: Media types have different potential for demonstration, visualization, explanation, beleiveliability and color. Women’s dresses are best shown in color magazines and Kodak cameras are best demonstrated on television.
• Message Characteristics: Timeliness and information content will influence media choice. For e.g. an announcement for a major sale tomorrow will need a radio or television but a message containing more of technical data might require specialized magazines or mails.
• Cost: Television is very expensive while newspaper advertising is relatively inexpensive. What counts is cost per thousand exposures.
Below are commonly accepted advantages and disadvantages of each of the major media
Media Strengths and Weaknesses
a) Television:
Strengths:
• Dynamic attention getting media
, combining visual, sound and animated stimulus
• Strong potential Impact & High market coverage
• Good at demonstrating products
• Enabling targeting through selection of viewing channels and slots between specific programmes
Weaknesses
• High level of initial expenditure required
• ‘Now you see it, Now you don’t’ media, in that commercials are on the screen and gone within seconds
• Poor at communicating lengthy technical information
b) Newspaper
Strength:
• The coffee table effect – advert can be referred
back to several times
• Targeting is possible through profiling readership
• Good level of market coverage
Weaknesses
• Static media, not suitable for product demonstration
• Potential for poor reproduction, sometimes limited to black and white print
• Possibility of an individual advert being lost on a page of adverts
• Short-life span, i.e. todays newspapers become tomorrows rubbish
c) Radio
Strength
• Mass use of radio by audience, particularly in cars on the way to work and home
• High geographic and demographic
reach
• Targeting is possible through selection of channel and programme
Weaknesses
• Audio communication only
• Now you hear it, Now you don’t
• Lower attention levels
than television from the audience
d) Magazines
Strength
• High quality reproduction, of colour images
• Targeting is possible through specialist publications
• Coffee table effect – advert can be referred back to
• Good pass on readership
Weaknesses
• Static media, not suitable for product demonstration
• Control of the positioning of adverts is often under the control of magazine editor, rather than the sponsor
• Lengthy lead time between advert being placed and magazine being published
e) Outdoor
Strength
• High repeat exposure to advert
• Relatively low cost
• Low levels of competition, in terms of advertising clutter
Weaknesses
• Limited audience selectivity / targeting possible
• Static media, not suitable for product demonstrations
• Difficult to monitor effectiveness
• Potential for damage, via weather etc.
5. Measurement: How should the results be evaluated?
Measuring the results on a continuing basis
can help to see that the ads keep business’s name before the public and play a role in increasing sales.
Planning is important. Before evaluating results, the first thing to do is to decide what purpose the ads should accomplish. Advertising is necessary today. Whether you have a small business or a large one, you must tell people who you are, what you sell, and where you are. You must tell them when they wish to hear or read about it. So you must place ads in newspaper, on radio, television and outdoor posters, or send out direct mail.
As a small business owner-manager, you know the money that you spend on advertising must return enough sales and profits in added business to justify the cost of the advertising. Small firms have neither enough time nor money to engage in complicated ad measurement methods.
There are basically two methods they are as follows:
1) Communication Effect Research:
It seeks to determine whether an ad is communicating effectively. It can be done before an ad is put on newspaper or broadcasted. There are 3 methods
a. Consumer Feedback: Consumers are asked questions about the proposed advertisement
. They respond to questions like this:
• What is the min message you get from this ad
• How does the ad make u feel?
• What works in the ad well and what works poorly?
And like his many more.
b. Portfolio Tests: in this consumer
is shown number of ads and then asked to recall the all the ads and their contents. Recall level indicates the ad’s ability to stand out and to have its message understood and measured.
c. Laboratory test: In this equipments are there to measure physiological reactions like heartbeat, blood pressure, skin response to an ad or the consumer may be asked to turn on the knob which indicated their movement- movement liking towards the ads.
2) Sales Effect Research: What sales are generated through an ad? Advertising sales is much harder to measure then its communication effect. Sales are influenced by many factors such as features, price, availability as well as competitor’s actions. The sales effect is easier to measure in the direct selling and hardest to measure in corporate image-building. In this research the companies are interested to know whether they are overspending or under spending on advertising. Researches try to measure the sales impact by 2 ways
• Historical Approach: It involves correlating past
sales to past advertising expenditure by using advanced statistical techniques.
• Experimental Data: Here the companies use an experimental design to measure advertising sales impact. For e.g. Information resources offers services called behavioral scan that provides marketers in United States with data about advertising effectiveness by tracking consumer purchases tied to specific advertising.
In addition the tone of the advertisement will need to be established, which can be either positive or negative. The advert may therefore promote positive feelings of fun, contentment, and happiness or take on a more negative, somber, or even threatening tone. Unfortunately the reality of advertising is such that recent research has claimed that even the best planned
, and executed advertisements may only be noticed by less than 50% of the audience, and only approximately 30% will actually recall the main message of the advert.4. Media: What media should be used?
In addition to deciding upon the content, style and tone of the advertising message
, the media through which the message will be communicated to the target audience must also be selected, be it television, newspaper, magazine, radio or other.In order to select the most appropriate media, consideration should be given to the advantages and disadvantages of each of the available types of media..
Media planners make their choices by considering the following variables:
• Target Audience Media Habits: Radio and television are the most effective media for reaching teenagers
• Product Characteristics: Media types have different potential for demonstration, visualization, explanation, beleiveliability and color. Women’s dresses are best shown in color magazines and Kodak cameras are best demonstrated on television.
• Message Characteristics: Timeliness
and information content will influence media choice. For e.g. an announcement for a major sale tomorrow will need a radio or television but a message containing more of technical data might require specialized magazines or mails.• Cost: Television is very expensive while newspaper advertising is relatively inexpensive. What counts is cost per thousand exposures.
Below are commonly accepted advantages and disadvantages of each of the major media
Media Strengths and Weaknesses
a) Television:
Strengths:
• Dynamic attention getting media
, combining visual, sound and animated stimulus • Strong potential Impact & High market coverage
• Good at demonstrating products
• Enabling targeting through selection of viewing channels and slots between specific programmes
Weaknesses
• High level of initial expenditure required
• ‘Now you see it, Now you don’t’ media, in that commercials are on the screen and gone within seconds
• Poor at communicating lengthy technical information
b) Newspaper
Strength:
• The coffee table effect – advert can be referred
back to several times • Targeting is possible through profiling readership
• Good level of market coverage
Weaknesses
• Static media, not suitable for product demonstration
• Potential for poor reproduction, sometimes limited to black and white print
• Possibility of an individual advert being lost on a page of adverts
• Short-life span, i.e. todays newspapers become tomorrows rubbish
c) Radio
Strength
• Mass use of radio by audience, particularly in cars on the way to work and home
• High geographic and demographic
reach • Targeting is possible through selection of channel and programme
Weaknesses
• Audio communication only
• Now you hear it, Now you don’t
• Lower attention levels
than television from the audienced) Magazines
Strength
• High quality reproduction, of colour images
• Targeting is possible through specialist publications
• Coffee table effect – advert can be referred back to
• Good pass on readership
Weaknesses
• Static media, not suitable for product demonstration
• Control of the positioning of adverts is often under the control of magazine editor, rather than the sponsor
• Lengthy lead time between advert being placed and magazine being published
e) Outdoor
Strength
• High repeat exposure to advert
• Relatively low cost
• Low levels of competition, in terms of advertising clutter
Weaknesses
• Limited audience selectivity / targeting possible
• Static media, not suitable for product demonstrations
• Difficult to monitor effectiveness
• Potential for damage, via weather etc.
5. Measurement: How should the results be evaluated?
Measuring the results on a continuing basis
can help to see that the ads keep business’s name before the public and play a role in increasing sales.Planning is important. Before evaluating results, the first thing to do is to decide what purpose the ads should accomplish. Advertising is necessary today. Whether you have a small business or a large one, you must tell people who you are, what you sell, and where you are. You must tell them when they wish to hear or read about it. So you must place ads in newspaper, on radio, television and outdoor posters, or send out direct mail.
As a small business owner-manager, you know the money that you spend on advertising must return enough sales and profits in added business to justify the cost of the advertising. Small firms have neither enough time nor money to engage in complicated ad measurement methods.
There are basically two methods they are as follows:1) Communication Effect Research:
It seeks to determine whether an ad is communicating effectively. It can be done before an ad is put on newspaper or broadcasted. There are 3 methods
a. Consumer Feedback: Consumers are asked questions about the proposed advertisement
. They respond to questions like this:• What is the min message you get from this ad
• How does the ad make u feel?
• What works in the ad well and what works poorly?
And like his many more.
b. Portfolio Tests: in this consumer
is shown number of ads and then asked to recall the all the ads and their contents. Recall level indicates the ad’s ability to stand out and to have its message understood and measured.c. Laboratory test: In this equipments are there to measure physiological reactions like heartbeat, blood pressure, skin response to an ad or the consumer may be asked to turn on the knob which indicated their movement- movement liking towards the ads.
2) Sales Effect Research: What sales are generated through an ad? Advertising sales is much harder to measure then its communication effect. Sales are influenced by many factors such as features, price, availability as well as competitor’s actions. The sales effect is easier to measure in the direct selling and hardest to measure in corporate image-building. In this research the companies are interested to know whether they are overspending or under spending on advertising. Researches try to measure the sales impact by 2 ways
• Historical Approach: It involves correlating past
sales to past advertising expenditure by using advanced statistical techniques.• Experimental Data: Here the companies use an experimental design to measure advertising sales impact. For e.g. Information resources offers services called behavioral scan that provides marketers in United States with data about advertising effectiveness by tracking consumer purchases tied to specific advertising.