The main purpose of promotin is to attract customers and stimulate them to act in the desired manner. The need for promotional activities has been recognized by the marketer for the following reasons:
i) The physical separation of the consumers and producers and an increase in the number of potential customers.
ii) Improments in physical distribution facilities have expanded the area limits of the markets
iii) Availability of a large number of wholesaling and retailing middlemen in the market
iv) To restore the demand for the existing product when sale begin to decline.
A company’s promotional program – called promotion mix- consists of the specific blend of advertising, personal selling and sales promotion.
MEANING
The term ‘advertising’ originates from the Latin word ‘adverto’, which means to ‘turn around’. Advertising, thus, denotes the means employed to draw attention towards any object or purpose. In the marketing context, advertising has been defined as “an paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor”. It is a component of firm’s promotional mix. It is a common technique of mass selling. Publicity is different from advertising. Publicity is not normally paid for and sponsor could not be identified. It is not easily controlled by the firm. Advertising can have both long-term and short-term objectives.
OBJECTIVES OF ADVERTISEMENT
1. To inform and influence the buyers to buy the product and thereby increase the sales.
2. To introduce a new product to potential customers
3. To influence the middlemen to store and handle the product.
4. It helps build up brand image and brand loyalty to the products
5. Advertising may be necessary to publicize the changes made in prices, channels of distribution, any improvement made in the quality, size, weight and packing of the product.
6. It may be issued, sometimes, to compete with or neutralize competitor’s advertising.
7. It helps build up corporate image.
8. In the case of mail order business, advertising does the selling job by itself.
9. By supplementing personal selling, advertising makes the job of sales force easier.
10. It helps increase the effectiveness of sales promotion campaign.
11. Finally, it encourages the creative arts and the artists.
Decision Areas in Advertising
The decision areas in advertising comprises of:
1. Identifying the target audience
2. Determining the response sought
3. Deciding the advertising objectives
4. Deciding the advertising budget
5. Deciding on the advertisement copy
6. Deciding the media
7. Evaluating the effectiveness of advertisement
IDENTIFYING TARGET AUDIENCE
A marketing communicator starts with a clear target audience in mind. The audience may be potential buyers or current users, those who make the buying decision or those who influence it. The audience may be individuals, groups, special publics or the general public. The target audience will heavily affect the communicator’s decisions on what will be said, how it will be said, when it will be said, where it will be said, and who will say it.
DETERMINING THE RESPONSE SOUGHT
The stages involved in purchase-processes are awareness, knowledge, linking, preference, conviction or purchase. The target audience may be in any of the six stages and the marketing communicator needs to know where the target audience now stands and to what stage he needs to be moved. This helps the marketer to develop a suitable promotional programmes.
DECIDING THE ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES
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DECIDING THE ADVERTISING BUDGET
Deciding how much money to be spent on advertising is not an easy task. The type of products involved the competitive structure of the industry, legal constraints, environmental conditions etc. influence advertising expenditure. The decision cannot be taken a standard formula. The answer varies from industry to industry and from company to company within the same industry. The same company’s advertisement expenditure may differ from time to time.
Methods of Advertising Budget
(1) Affordable method
(2) Competitive parity method
(3) Percentage of sales method
(4) Objective and task method
Affordable Method
This method as the name indicates rests on the principle that a firm will allocate for whatever it can afford. Usually small firms follow this method. Even the limited funds provided for advertising may get reallocated for other items depending upon the emergent requirements.
Competitive Parity Method
Under this method, the firms make their advertising budget comparable to that of their competitors. They simply do what others are doing.
Percentage on Sales Method
Under this method, the advertising budget is set in terms of a specified percentage of past year sales anticipated. The fact that different products brands at different stages of their life cycle will require varying levels advertisings support which is not taken into account by this method.
Another limitation is that the level of sales determined the level of advertising budget but the actual ‘functional relationship’ would seem to be reserve. Hence it is advisable that percentage of projected sales be allocated rather than percentage of previous year’s sales.
Objectives and Task Method
In actual practice, marketers usually blend some of the well accepted methods to afgjhk at a compromise budget which is logical. In other words, the budget decision is closely linked up with the advertising objectives, the media decisions and copy decisions. These four decisions areas in advertising interact among themselves and influence each other. The decision-making is an integrated process, which takes into account the total task of advertising to be performed.
DECIDING ON THE ADVERTISEMENT COPY
The term ‘copy’ includes every single feature that appears in the body of advertisement such as the written matter, picture, logo, label, and designs.
Developing the copy is a creative process. It is an area where not rigid rules can be applied. Some essential qualities that must be present in a good advertisement are that it must be able to (i) attract the attention of audience (ii) afggfsd interest (iii) create desire and (iv) stimulate the actions of buying. This is known as AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action).
Formulating the copy requires the consideration of the following:
(1) Message content – what to say?
(2) Message structure – how to say it logically?
(3) Message format – how to say it symbolically?
(4) Message source – who should say it/
Message Content
The advertiser has to decide ‘what do say’ to the target audience to produce the desired response. The basis is ‘advertising objectives’. Depending on the nature of the product and the target market, the message can have rational value, emotional value, moral value, educational value, attention value, humour value, etc.
Message Structure
The structure deals with the organisatoin and arrangement of the various elements of a message. The communicator must decide how to handle three message-structure issues. The first is whether to draw a conclusion of leave it to the audience. The advertiser is better off asking question and letting buyers come to their own conclusion. The second message structure issue is whether to present a one-sided argument, or to two-sided argument. Usually one-sided arguments are more effective in sale presentations – except when audiences are highly educated. The third message-structure issue is whether to present the strongest arguments first or last. Normally presenting them first gets strong attention.
Message Format
The marketing communicator also needs a strong format for the message. In a print advertisements, the communicator has to decide on the headlines, copy, illustration, and color. To attract attention, advertisers can use novelty and contrast; eye-catching pictures and headlines; distinctive formats; message size and position; and color, shape and movement. If the message is to be carried over the radio, the communicator has to choose words, sounds and voices.
If the message is to be carried on television or in person, then all these elements plus body language have to be planned. Presenters plan their facial expressions, gestures, dress, posture and hair style. If the message is carried on the product or its package, the communicator has to watch texture, scent, color, size, and shape.
Message Source
The source of the message has great deal of persuasive influence on the buyers. The persuasive influence depends mainly on the credibility of the source.
Source factors such as a level of expertise, trust worthiness and likability usually decide the source’s credibility with audience. Expertise is the degree to which the communicator has the authority to back the claim. Doctors, Scientists, and Professors rank high on expertise in their fields. For example, when a doctor is seen to render a message about a paid reliever, the receiver of a message is tempted to accept it as authentic information. Trustworthiness is related to how objective and honest the source appears to be. If an audience perceives the source as sincere, honest and trust worthy, the source will be effective in communicating the message. Likability is how attractive the source is to the audience; people like open humorous and natural sources. The most highly credible source is a person who source high on all three factors.
DECIDING ON MEDIA
The communicator now must select channel of communication. There are two broad types of communication channels – personal and nonpersonal.
In personal communication channels, two or more people communicate directly with each other. They might communicate face to face, over the telephone, or even through the mail. Personal communication channels are effective because they allow for personal addressing and feedback.
Nonpersonal communication channels are media that carry messages without personal contract or feedback. They include major media, atmosphere and events. Major media include print media (newspapers, magazines, direct mail); broadcast media (radio, television); and display media (billboards, signs, posters).
Events are stages occurrences that communicate messages to target audiences. For example, public relations departments arrange press conferences, grand openings, shows and exhibits, public tours and other events.
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