Advertising Strategies

Described as one of the most common tool companies use to direct persuasive communication to target buyers and public advertising is any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of idea, goods and services by an identified sponsor. Ads are cost effective way to disseminate message, whether to build brand preference or to educate nation.

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Marketing mangers must always start by identifying target market and buyers motives while developing ad program. Five major decisions in developing ad program known as 5 Ms. Mission Money Message Media Measurement.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Setting the Marketing Objective (Mission)

Objectives must flow from prior decision on target market, market positioning and marketing mix. a) Informative advertising: Figures heavily in the pioneering stage. The objective is to build primary demand.

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b) Persuasive advertising: Important in competitive stage. Companys objective is to build selective demand. Most advertising fall under this category. Many times involve comparative advertising.

Setting the Marketing Objective (Mission)

c) Reminder advertising: Highly important with matured products. A related form of advertising is reinforcement advertising. Often depicts satisfied customers enjoying special features. The choice of advertising objective should be based on thorough analysis of current marketing situations.

Deciding On the Advertising Budget (Money)

The role of advertising is to increase demand for the product. If company spends too little, the effect will be insignificant If the company spends too much, at times it becomes more than required and that money is blocked.

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Five specific factors to be considered when setting the advertising budget. a) Stages in product Life Cycle: New product typically receive large budget to build awareness and to gain consumer trial Established brands are supported with lower budgets.

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b) Market share and consumer Base: High market share brands usually require less ad expenditure. To build share by increasing market size requires larger advertising expenditure. It is less expensive to reach consumers of a widely used brands than to reach customers of low share brands.

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c) Competition and Clutter: In a market with a large number of competitors and high advertising spending a brand needs to advertise more heavily. Even simple clutter from advertisement not directly competitive to the brand crates a need for heavier advertising.

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d) Advertising Frequency: The number of repetitions needs to be put across the brands message to consumer has an impact on the advertising budget. e) Product Substitutability: Brand in a commodity class Advertising is important when a brand can offer unique physical benefits.

Choosing the advertising Message

Advertising campaigns differ in the creativity. Only after gaining attention the brand sales. Advertising go through three steps to develop creative strategy a) Message Generation b) Message Evaluation and Selection c) Message Execution

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a) Message Generation: The major benefits the brand offer should be decided as part of developing the product concept. There may be latitude for a number of possible messages. If the consumer is seeking new or different benefits from the products, the message may be changed without changing the product. Many creative people proceed by talking to consumers, dealers, experts & Competitors.

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b) Message Evaluation and Selection: Advertiser needs to evaluate the alternative message. A good advertisement normally focuses one core selling proposition. It is suggested that message should be rated on desirability, exclusiveness and believability. The advertiser should conduct market analysis and research to determine which appeal is most likely to succeed with the target audience.

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c) Message Execution: The message impact depends not only upon what is said but also on how it is said. Some ads aim at rational positioning and others for emotional positioning. Message execution can be decisive for products that are highly similar. Creative people must find a style, tone, words and format for executing message.

Deciding on the Media

It involves three steps a) Deciding on Reach, Frequency and Impact b) Choosing among major media types. c) Selecting specific Media Vehicle.

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a) Deciding on Reach, Frequency and Impact: It involves most cost effective media to deliver the desired number of exposures to the target audience. Reach: The no. of different persons or households exposed to a particular media scheduled at least once during the specified time period. Frequency: The no. of times within the specified time period an avg. person is exposed to the message Impact: The qualitative value of Exposure

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b) Choosing among major media types: The media planner has to know the capacity of the major media types to deliver reach, frequency and impact. The important variables here are Target audience media habits product Message Cost.

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c) Selecting Specific Media Vehicle: Media planner must search for the most cost effective media vehicle. Media planner relies on media measurement services that provide estimates of audience size, composition, and media cost. Audience size has several possible measures.. Circulation Audience Effective audience: Target audience. Effective ad exposed audience.

Evaluating Advertising Effectiveness (Measurement)

Good planning and control of advertising depends critically on measures of advertising effectiveness. Most of the money is spent by the agency in pretesting ads. Many companies develop an advertising campaign, put into the national market and then evaluate its effectiveness. Most advertisers try to measure the communication effect of an ad (awareness, knowledge, preferences)