MARKETING STRATEGY - Modules 1 ( PROMOTIONS )

INFORMATIVE, PERSUASIVE AND REMINDER PRODUCT (PROMOTIONS)

Identify Product Benefits

Second Generation iPods

The iPod wasn't the first mp3 player, but it was the first one that gave consumers the benefits they were searching for.

·         Product features include such factors as form, color, size, weight, odor, material, and tactile qualities.

·         A benefit answers the question, "So What?".

·         The Voice of the Customer is a market research technique that produces a detailed set of customer wants and needs, organized into a hierarchical structure, and then prioritized in terms of relative importance and satisfaction with current alternatives.

·         sample 

A subset of a population selected for measurement, observation, or questioning, to provide statistical information about the population.

·         Voice of the customer 

Voice of the customer (VOC) is a term used in business and Information Technology (through ITIL, for example) to describe the in-depth process of capturing a customer's expectations, preferences, and aversions.

EXAMPLES

·         The success of the iPod and iPhone wasn't related to the innovation of a product that had never previously existed. It was because Apple was able to tap into what consumers saw as benefits as opposed to focusing on product features.

Introduction

It's one o'clock in the afternoon and you're starving. You pass by a deli and see various types of ready-made sandwiches in the window. What will make you by one of them? The whole grain bread? The organic ingredients? Or the benefit to you at the moment? Since they are already made, your hunger will be instantly satisfied. Most likely, your hunger will drive your buying decision.

Features and Benefits

You've just seen the difference between features and benefits. Features tell you what the product is -- a chicken sandwich made with organic ingredients and whole grain bread. The benefit -- I'm starving and I need something to satisfy my hunger -- is what sells it.

Product features include such factors as form, color, size, weight, odor, material, and tactile qualities. A new car can offer thousands of alternatives when one considers the exterior and interior options. Features are important as they may help back up the benefit. But consumers will not buy the car unless it provides them with a benefit.

A benefit answers the question, "So What?" While the development of ultra-high-speed photographic film was a research breakthrough, whether consumers perceive this as a benefit can only be answered by them.Figure 0

In a functional sense, the key question is: "Does the product do what the consumer wants it to do?" Does it get clothes clean? Does it quench your thirst? Does it save you money? Some of these questions can be answered only through product research, but consumer research provides more answers.

Voice of the Customer

Voice of the customer (VOC) is a term used in business and Information Technology (through ITIL, for example) to describe the in-depth process of capturing a customer's expectations, preferences, and aversions.This is the type of research that marketers need to perform to find out what their customers really perceive as benefits.

Specifically, the VOC is a market research technique that produces a detailed set of customer wants and needs, organized into a hierarchical structure, and then prioritized in terms of relative importance and satisfaction with current alternatives.

VOC studies typically consist of both qualitative and quantitative research steps. They are generally conducted at the start of any new product, process, or service design initiative to better understand the customer’s wants and needs, and as the key input for new product definition, Quality Function Deployment (QFD), and the setting of detailed design specifications.

Much has been written about this process, and there are many possible ways to gather the information – focus groups, individual interviews, contextual inquiry, ethnographic techniques, and so on. But all involve a series of structured in-depth interviews, which focus on the customers’ experiences with current products or alternatives within the category under consideration. Needs statements are then extracted, organized into a more usable hierarchy, and then prioritized by the customers.

It is critical that the product development core team are highly involved in this process. They must be the ones who take the lead in defining the topic, designing the sample (i.e. the types of customers to include), generating the questions for the discussion guide, either conducting or observing and analyzing the interviews, and extracting and processing the needs statements.

Qualities of Desirable Voice of Customer Metrics

Talking to customers to determine what they see as benefits is just the first step. The next step is making sure that the data you obtain is useful. The metrics you can use to make this determination are:

·         Credibility: How widely accepted is the measure? Does it have a good track record of results? Is it based on a scientifically and academically rigorous methodology? Will management trust it? Is there proof that it is tied to financial results?

·         Reliability: Is it a consistent standard that can be applied across the customer lifecycle and multiple channels?

·         Precision: Is it specific enough to provide insight? Does it use multiple related questions to deliver greater accuracy and insight?

·         Accuracy: Is the measurement right? Is it representative of the entire customer base or just an outspoken minority? Do the questions capture self-reported importance or can they derive importance based on what customers say? Does it have an acceptable margin of error and realistic sample sizes?

·         Actionability: Does it provide any insight into what can be done to encourage customers to be loyal and to purchase? Does it prioritize improvements according to biggest impacts?

·         Ability to predict: Can it project the future behaviors of the customer based on their satisfaction?

Identify Target Market

Target Market

A target market is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise toward. A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy.

·         Target markets are groups of individuals separated by distinguishable and noticeable characteristics.

·         A company may have identified its target market, but selling its product may entail identifying even smaller, better defined target groups.

·         A target audience and a target market can be formed of people of a certain age group, gender, or marital status.

·         segmentation 

The act or an instance of dividing into segments.

EXAMPLES

·         CVS Caremark's target market is women since they make up 80 percent of the pharmacy chain’s customers. CVS has marketed its stores to aid women who are constantly multitasking. They recently redesigned 1,200 of its 6,200 stores to appeal to women, including shorter wait times for prescriptions, wider and better-lit shopping aisles, and more beauty products.

Identify the Target Market

Target markets are groups of individuals separated by distinguishable and noticeable aspects.Figure 0

Target markets can be separated into:

·         Geographic segmentations (address, their location climate region)

·         Demographic or socioeconomic segmentation (gender, age, income, occupation, education, household size, and stage in the family life cycle)

·         Psychographic segmentation (similar attitudes, values, and lifestyles)

·         Behavioral segmentation (occasions, degree of loyalty)

·         Product-related segmentation (relationship to a product)

In addition to the above segmentations, market researchers have advocated a needs-based market segmentation approach to identify smaller and better defined target groups. A seven step approach proposed by Roger Best is as follows:

·         Select the target audience - The customers are grouped based on similar needs and benefits sought by them through the purchase of a product.

·         Identify clusters of similar needs - Demographics, lifestyle, usage behavior and pattern is used to differentiate between segments.

·         Apply a valuation approach - Market growth, barriers to entry, market access, and switching is used to valuate segments.

·         Test the segments - A segment storyboard is created to test the attractiveness of each segment’s positioning strategy.

·         Modify marketing mix - The segment positioning strategy is expanded to include all aspects of the marketing mix.

Your Target Market and Your Target Audience Might Differ

In marketing and advertising, a target audience is a specific group of people within the target market at which a product or the marketing message of a product is aimed at. (Kotler 2000).

For example, if a company sells new diet programs for men with heart disease problems (target market) the communication may be aimed at the spouse (target audience) who takes care of the nutrition plan for her husband.

A target audience can be formed of people of a certain age group, gender, or marital status. A combination of factors can also make a target audience, as in the case with men aged 20 to 30. Other groups, although not the main focus, may also be interested.

Discovering the appropriate target market(s) and determining the target audience is one of the most important activities in marketing management. The biggest mistake that it's possible to make in targeting is trying to reach everybody and ending up appealing to no one.

Define Campaign Objectives

Advertising Campaign

The objectives of a company will depend on the stage the audience is in and where they want to take them.

·         The model suggests that there are six steps a consumer or a business buyer moves through when making a purchase.

·         It is easier to accomplish ad objectives located at the base of the pyramid than the ones toward the top.

·         Many marketers know the hierarchy-of-effects model, but usually by a different name. Some call it AIDA, others the demand chain, still more the purchase funnel.

·         hierarchy-of-effects model 

It clarifies the objectives of an advertising campaign and for each individual advertisement.

EXAMPLES

·         You may market a certain brand of bottled water. Your target audience may like the water and buy it when other brands are not available, but still prefer others. In this case, the objective of the advertising campaign would be to build consumer preference by promoting the quality of the water.

Introduction

When determining your campaign objectives, you need to consider the state your audience is in and where you want them to be. Among advertising theories, thehierarchy-of-effects model is predominant. It clarifies the objectives of an advertising campaign and for each individual advertisement. Figure 0

Even though it is just one of several theoretical frameworks that is useful in developing an advertisement for an advertising campaign, it shows clear steps of how advertising works.

The Hierarchy-of-effects Model

The hierarchy-of-effects model can be explained with the help of a pyramid. The lower level objectives such as awareness, knowledge or comprehension are accomplished first.

Subsequent objectives may focus on moving prospects to higher levels in the pyramid to elicit desired behavioural responses such as associating feelings with the brand, trial, or regularuse.

It is easier to accomplish ad objectives located at the base of the pyramid than the ones toward the top. The percentage of prospective customers will decline as they move up the pyramid toward more action-oriented objectives, such as regular brand use.

Many marketers know the hierarchy-of-effects model, but usually by a different name. Some call it AIDA, others the demand chain, still more the purchase funnel. Whatever the name, it invariably begins with the total potential market for your brand. This pool of potential customers then progress through a series of stages that can include awareness, preference, purchase and, hopefully, loyalty.

The Six Steps

Awareness

If most of the target audience is unaware of the object, the communicator’s task is to build awareness with simple messages repeating the product name. Consumers must become aware of the brand. This isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Capturing someone’s attention doesn’t mean they will notice the brand name. Thus, the brand name needs to be made focal to get consumers to become aware.

Knowledge

The target audience might have product awareness but not know much more, so this stage involves creating brand knowledge. This is where comprehension of the brand name and what it stands for becomes important. What are the brand’s specific appeals, its benefits? In what way is it different than competitor’s brands? Who is the target market? These are the types of questions that must be answered if consumers are to achieve the step of brand knowledge.

Liking

If target members know the product, how do they feel about it? If the audience looks unfavorably toward the product, the communicator has to find out why. If the unfavorable view is based on real problems, a communication campaign alone cannot solve it. It would be necessary to first fix the problem and only afterward communicate its renewed quality.

Preference

The target audience might like the product but not prefer it to others. In this case, the communicator must try to build consumer preference by promoting quality, value, performance, and other features. The communicator can check the success of the campaign by measuring audience preference before and after it.

Conviction

A target audience might prefer a particular product but not develop a conviction about buying it. The communicator’s job is to build conviction among the target audience.

Purchase

Finally, some members of the target audience might have conviction but not quite get around to making the purchase. They may wait for more information or plan to act later. The communicator must get these consumers to take the final step, perhaps by offering the product at a low price, offering a premium, or letting consumers try it out. This is where consumers make a move to actually search out information or purchase.

Advertising is thus thought to work and follow a certain sequence whereby the prospect is moved through a series of stages in succession from unawareness of the brand to purchase of its product.

Informative, Persuasive and Reminder Advertising

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is an established brand which uses reminder advertising.

·         Reminder advertising reinforces previous promotional activity by keeping the name of good, service, person, or cause before the public.

·         Marketers use persuasive advertising to increase the demand for an existing good, service, or organization.

·         Informative advertising is often used when launching a new product or for an updated or relaunched product.

·         demand 

The desire to purchase goods and services.

·         differentiate 

To show, or be the distinction between two things.

EXAMPLES

·         Coca-Cola is a well-established brand that uses reminder advertising to maintain its position in the market. It brings back past packaging as well as advertisements that go back to the beginning of the brand.

Introduction

Advertising objectives should always be in line with promotional and marketing objectives, as well as the business strategy or mission of the organization. Group advertising objectives fall into three categories:

·         To Inform

·         To Persuade

·         To Remind

Informative Advertising

Informative advertising is often used when launching a new product, or for an updated or relaunched product. The objective is to develop initial demand for a good, service, organization, or cause. It is used when a new product is put on the market on when an old product has been re-launched or updated.

Informative advertising will tell the consumer and marketplace about the product, explain how it works, provide pricing and product information, and should build awareness for the product as well as the company. The image of the product and the company should be compatible and complementary. There should be enough information to motivate the consumer to take some sort of action.

Persuasive Advertising

Marketers use persuasive advertising to increase the demand for an existing good, service, or organization. The idea is persuade a target audience to change brands, buy their product, and develop customer loyalty. After the purchase, the quality of the product will dictate whether or not the customer will remain loyal or return to the previous brand.

Persuasive advertising is highly competitive when there are similar products in the marketplace, and products are competing for their share of the market. In this situation, the winning product will differentiate itself form the competition and possess benefits that are superior to, or compete strongly with, the competition. Comparative approaches are common place, either directly or indirectly.

Reminder Advertising

Reminder advertising reinforces previous promotional information. The name of the product, testimonials of past customers, public response, and sales techniques are repeated in the hopes of reminding past customers and garnering new ones. It is used to keep the public interested in, and aware of, a well-established product that is most likely at the end of the product life cycle. Figure 0

Focus of Advertisements

The FCB Grid

With this model, messages are categorized by "thinking" and "feeling", "low" and "high".

·         The Unique Selling Point or Proposition (USP) is a marketing concept that was first proposed as a theory to understand a pattern among successful advertising campaigns of the early 1940s. It refers to any aspect that differentiates one object from similar objects.

·         Positioning is an attempt to place a product into a certain category in consumers' minds.

·         A Brand Character Statement sets the tone for an entire campaign by defining the target audience and how the product or service will benefit that audience.

·         USP 

A unique selling proposition or unique selling point.

·         Nine-Wheel Logic 

the use of specious information in an advertisement when real information is too awkward to use. 

·         Combination 

when two or more benefits are demonstrated in an advertisement. 

EXAMPLES

·         A example brand character statement: Advertising will convince artistic types age 18-35 that Apple computers are hip and cool. Support will be two men discussing Macs and PCs. Tone will be humorous.

The Harris Grid

The Harris Grid measures a product's level of interest in consumers versus the level of interest in mass media.

The Ladder

Types of advertising messages can be arranged in a hierarchical ladder, based on what perspective they use to discuss the product.

Introduction

Advertisements make propositions to consumers. They are not just words, product puffery, or window dressing. Each advertisement must say: "Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit."

The proposition must be one that the competition cannot or does not offer. It must be unique, relative to the brand, or make a claim not otherwise made in that particular field of advertising. It must differentiate. The proposition must be strong enough to move the masses, pulling new customers to the product. This is known as the "unique selling point or proposition."

The Unique Selling Point or Proposition

The Unique Selling Point or Proposition (USP) is a marketing concept that was first proposed as a theory to understand a pattern among successful advertising campaigns of the early 1940s. The term was invented by Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates & Company and states that certain campaigns make unique propositions to customers to convinced them to switch brands. Today the term is used in other fields to refer to any aspect that differentiates one object from similar objects.

The term USP has also been largely replaced by the concept known as a Positioning Statement. Positioning determines what place a brand (tangible good or service) should occupy in the consumer's mind in comparison to its competition. A position is often described as the meaningful difference between the brand and its competitors.

Focus on the USP

When preparing an advertisement, the product's USP must be defined. To find a USP, ask "How is this product different?" By making a list of the product's pros and cons the message that the ad should communicate will become clear.

Positioning is an attempt to place a product into a certain category in consumers' minds. Types of positioning are Best, Against (Hertz vs. Avis, 7-Up vs. Coke),Niche (a sub-division of a category), New, and Traditional.

Brand Character

A brand character statement sets the tone for an entire campaign. A simple way to start preparing an advertisement is with this statement: "Advertising will (A) (B) that (C) is (D). Support will be (E). Tone will be (F)." In this case, A is a verb, B is a target demographic, C is the product, D is an adjective or phrase, E is the core of the ad, F is the "attitude." For example, "Advertising will convince artistic types age 18-35 that Apple computers are hip and cool. Support will be two men discussing Macs and PCs. Tone will be humorous."

The next part of this strategy statement is the target audience. Advertisers use many methods to gain information about this group, including demographics, psychographics (how the target thinks), and focus groups.

Next is the product itself. Important questions to ask are "Why would anybody buy this?" "What is the product's advantage?" and "What is the client's image?" The last one is important to consider in order to make sure the ad coincides with the public perception the company has created for itself. For example, hip or edgy ads probably won't go over well with a company that has a public image of being "conservative" and/or "family friendly."

Support is anything that demonstrates or otherwise backs upthe premise presented in the first sentence. Some examples are facts, images, or a scenario, such as the following:

·         Reason Why: How a product delivers a benefit.

·         Combination: Two or more benefits are demonstrated.

·         Permission to Believe: A clever story or characters make claims that are believable.

·         Nine-Wheel Logic: Specious support used when real support would be too awkward.

·         Image: An attitude or lifestyle that advertiser attempts to link to product.

Advertising Focus Models

Several models help define the focus of advertisement. The FCB Grid, created by Richard Vaughn, categorizes messages as "thinking" and "feeling", "low" and "high."Figure 0

·         A Low Feel commercial demonstrates the pleasure obtained by using the product. This approach is popular for foods.

·         A High Feel commercial emphasizes how the product makes the consumer hip or cool. This approach is popular for advertising products like clothing, shoes, or sports cars.

Tom Harris created the Harris Grid for measuring a product's level of interest in consumers versus the level of interest in mass media. Figure 1 The Ladder type of advertising messages are arranged in a hierarchical ladder, based on what perspective they use to discuss the product. Figure 2

Determine a Budget

Top 6 Pharma Advertising Budgets

A company's advertising budget depends on various factors such as profit objectives, target market, business age, and industry.

·         Percentage of sales is probably the most popular technique used to determine an advertising budget.

·         Marketers may base budget on personal experience, business philosophy, and marketing intuition.

·         Marketers may use the amount competitors are spending on advertising to determine their advertising budget.

·         profit margin 

The ratio of net income to net sales of a company expressed as a percentage.

EXAMPLES

·         Using the percentage of sales method means that if your sales were 1,000,000, you decided to spend 70,000 a year on advertising.

Introduction

How do marketers decide on their advertising budget? Figure 0

1.      Set a preliminary budget based on chosen tasks.

2.      Estimate the budget of competitors and adjust accordingly.

3.      Prepare a budget document with the rationale of expenses.

4.      Use a percentage of sales.

The most common method is using a percentage of sales. However, what happens if sales go down? The problem you are trying to correct already has less money to begin with. However, it is used time and time again.

Instead of making such a cut-and-dry calculation, marketers should ask themselves a series of questions that will help them create an effective and realistic advertising budget that is in line with their sales and marketing goals.

What to Consider

Who are you targeting?

The best way to determine the answer to this question is to create a profile of your customers. How are old are they? Where do they work? Are they male, female, or both? What are their beliefs and attitudes? Be specific. Everyone can't be your audience, so knowing who is can help you choose the best message and media to reach your goals.

What type of media does your target audience pay attention to?

These days marketers have a myriad of media choices to choose from. But it is very unlikely that you are going to reach a senior citizen using the same media you need to reach a teenager. See why it's important to know who your real target audience is?

What type of appeal is needed to persuade your target audience to buy?

Emotional or rational? Using the wrong one will not give you the sales you want no matter how much you spend on producing and airing it.

How much profit is likely to be generated for each dollar spent on advertising?

This will keep you from advertising just for the sake of advertising.

How old is your business or product?

An unknown business is going to have to spend much more on advertising than one that is already established in the mind of its customers.

What is your product or service?

Sometimes word of mouth works better than a full page spread in the Financial Times.

What are your profit margin expectations?

Even once your business is established, you may continue to want to spend a lot on advertising to keep your product in the mind of your target market.

Creating the Budget

After analyzing the market situation and identifying corporate goals, marketers can proceed to determine how much to spend on advertising. Marketers tend to use several techniques to determine an advertising budget. Here's a list of the most common ones.

Arbitrary allocation - Management bases the budget on personal experience, business philosophy, and marketing intuition.

Affordability - The upper limit of the budget is based on the availability of company resources.

Ratio-to-sales - The amount budgeted is based on some portion of past or forecasted sales.

Competitive comparisons - The budget is based on the amount spent by major competitors.

Experimental approach - The budget is based on test market results.

Objective-task method - The budget is determined by calculating the costs of reaching specific promotional objectives and sum amounts.

Create a Media Plan

The Five Senses

Media which delivers ads involving multiple senses will cost more than those delivering ads involving one sense.

·         Media objectives are normally stated in terms of three dimensions.

·         There are definite inherent strengths and weaknesses associated with each medium so many advertisers rely heavily on the research findings provided by the medium, by their own experience, and by subjective appraisal when deciding which media to use.

·         The media planner must make media mix decisions and timing directions, both of which are restricted by the available budget.

·         media 

The mass media are all those media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience by mass communication.

·         A C Nielsen 

A.C. Nielsen is a global marketing research firm, with worldwide headquarters in New York City, United States of America.

EXAMPLES

·         When choosing the media, you not only need to know which media outlets exist, but also which ones suit your product. You probably will not want to contact local business publications if you want to advertise the authors and schedule of the new reading program you are creating. However, if you want to focus on the support of the business community in pulling this off, then this is exactly who you would want to contact.

Developing the Media Plan

Advertising media selection is the process of choosing the most cost-effective media for advertising to achieve the required coverage and number of exposures in a target audience.

Although the media plan is placed later in this process, it is in fact developed simultaneously with the creative strategy. This area of advertising has gone through tremendous changes; a critical media revolution has taken place.

The standard media plan covers four stages: (a) stating media objectives; (b) evaluating media; (c) selecting and implementing media choices; and (d) determining the media budget.

Stating Media Objectives

Media objectives are normally stated in terms of three dimensions:

1.      Reach: The number of different persons or households exposed to a particular media vehicle or media schedule at least once during a specified time period.

2.      Frequency: The number of times within a given time period that a consumer is exposed to a message.

3.      Continuity: The timing of media assertions (e.g., 10% in September, 20% in October, 20% in November, 40% in December and 10% the rest of the year).

Evaluating Media

There are definite inherent strengths and weaknesses associated with each medium. In addition, it would require extensive primary research, either by the sponsoring firm or their advertising agency in order to assess how a particular message and the target audience would relate to a given medium. As a result, many advertisers rely heavily on the research findings provided by the medium, by their own experience, and by subjective appraisal.

Selection and Implementation

The media planner must make media mix decisions and timing directions, both of which are restricted by the available budget. The media mix decision involves putting media together in the most effective manner. This is a difficult task and necessitates quantitatively and qualitatively evaluating each medium and combination thereof.

Unfortunately, there are very few valid rules of thumb to guide this process, and the supporting research is spotty at best. For example, in attempting to compare audiences of various media, we find that A C Nielsen measures audiences based on TV viewer reports of the programs watched, while outdoor audience exposure estimates are based on counts of the number of automobile vehicles that pass particular outdoor poster locations.

The timing of media refers to the actual placement of advertisements during the time periods that are most appropriate, given the selected media objectives. It includes not only the scheduling of advertisements but also the size and position of the advertisement.

Setting the Media Budget

The media budget is a subset of the advertising budget, and the same methods used to create advertising budget will be used to create the media budget.

In general, remember that:

·         Media outlets which deliver messages involving multiple senses (sight, sound, touch, and smell) will be more expensive than those involving just one sense (sound).Figure 0

·         The quality expectations of the media outlet will influence the cost. For example, the quality of ads for national television stations tend to be higher than those for local outlets. Creating a text ad on the Internet, however, can be free or cost next to nothing.

Media Types and Scheduling

Mobile Phones

Mobile phones are a form of media for advertising.

·         In terms of overall advertising expenditures, media advertising is still dominated by press and television.

·         Scheduling refers to the pattern of advertising timing, represented as plots on a yearly flowchart.

·         The classic scheduling models are continuity, flighting, and pulsing.

·         media 

The mass media are all those media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience by mass communication.

EXAMPLES

·         Product categories that are sold year round but experience a surge in sales at intermittent periods are good candidates for pulsing. For instance, under-arm deodorants, sell all year, but more during the summer months.

Media Types

In terms of overall advertising expenditures, media advertising is still dominated by press and television. Posters and radio follow some way behind, with cinema representing a very specialist medium.

Press

In the United Kingdom, spending is dominated by the national & regional newspapers, the latter taking almost all of classified advertising revenue. The magazines and trade or technical journal markets are about the same size as each other, but are less than half that of the newspaper sectors.

Television

This is normally the most expensive medium and thus is generally only open to the major advertisers. Some regional contractors offer more affordable packages to their local advertisers. It offers by far the widest coverage, particularly at peak hours (roughly 7.00 to 10.30 p.m.) and especially of family audiences.

Offering sight, sound, movement, and color, it has the greatest impact, especially for those products or services where a "demonstration" is essential. Since it combines the virtues of both the "storyteller" and the "demonstrator." To be effective, these messages must be simple and able to overcome surrounding family life distractions.

Radio

Radio advertising has increased greatly in recent years, with the granting of many more licenses. It typically reaches specific audiences at different times of the day—adults at breakfast, housewives during the day, and commuters during rush hours. Additionally, many people only listen to the radio when they are stuck in traffic, whereas other listeners may only listen in the evenings. The 24-hour availability of radio is helpful to reach a variety of customer sub-segments. In addition, it is a well-established medium to reach rural areas.

It can be a cost-effective way of reaching audiences—especially since production costs are much cheaper than for television, though the lack of visual elements may limit the message.

Cinema

Though national audience numbers are down, this may be the most effective medium for extending coverage to younger age groups, since the core audience is age 15 to 35.

Internet Advertising

This rapidly growing marketing force borrows much from the example of press advertising, but its most effective use—adopted by search engines—is interactive.

Mobile Advertising

Personal mobile phones have become an attractive advertising media to network operators, but are relatively unproven and remain in the sidelines of media buying. Figure 0

Advertising-free Media

Advertising-free media refers to media outlets whose output is not funded or subsidized by the sale of advertising space. It includes in its scope mass media entities such as websites, television and radio networks, and magazines.

The public broadcasters of a number of countries air without commercials. Perhaps the best known example of this is the United Kingdom's public broadcaster, the BBC, whose domestic networks do not carry commercials. Instead, the BBC, in common with most other public broadcasters in Europe, is funded by a television licence fee levied on the owners of all television sets.

Advertising Media Scheduling

Scheduling refers to the pattern of advertising timing, represented as plots on a yearly flowchart. These plots indicate the pattern of scheduled times advertising must appear to coincide with favorable selling periods.

The classic scheduling models are continuity, flighting, and pulsing.

Continuity

This model is primarily for non-seasonal products, yet sometimes for seasonal products. Advertising runs steadily with little variation over the campaign period.

There may be short gaps at regular intervals and also long gaps—for instance, one ad every week for 52 weeks, and then a pause. This pattern of advertising is prevalent in service and packaged goods that require continuous reinforcement on the audience for top of mind recollection at point of purchase.

Advantages:

·         Works as a reminder.

·         Covers the entire purchase cycle.

·         Cost efficiencies in the form of large media discounts.

·         Positioning advantages within media.

·         Program or plan that identifies the media channels used in an advertising campaign, and specifies insertion or broadcast dates, positions, and duration of the messages.

Flighting

In media scheduling for seasonal product categories, flighting involves intermittent and irregular periods of advertising, alternating with shorter periods of no advertising at all. For instance, all of 2000 Target Rating Pioneered in a single month, "going dark" for the rest of the year. Halloween costumes are rarely purchased all year except during the months of September and October.

Advantages:

·         Advertisers buy heavier weight than competitors for a relatively shorter period of time.

·         Little waste, since advertising concentrates on the best purchasing cycle period.

·         Series of commercials appear as a unified campaign on different media vehicles.

Pulsing

Pulsing combines flighting and continuous scheduling by using a low advertising level all year round and heavy advertising during peak selling periods. Product categories that are sold year round but experience a surge in sales at intermittent periods are good candidates for pulsing. For instance, under-arm deodorants, sell all year, but more during the summer months.

Advantages:

·         Covers different market situations.

·         Advantages of both continuity and flighting possible.

Create Advertisements

The Creative Process

Once all of the relevant facts have been obtained, one can start creating the ad.

·         The creative strategy concerns what you are going to say to the audience.

·         Creative tactics outline the means for carrying out the creative strategy.

·         The place to begin the creative strategy is to ascertain the proper appeal to employ in the ad.

·         tactics 

The achievement of objectives through strategy.

EXAMPLES

·         Offering a product at a reduced price or under some special deal arrangement (e.g. buy-one-get-one-free) may be the only viable appeal in a particular ad.

Developing the Creative Strategy

Once all the relevant facts are gathered and evaluated, the process of actually creating the advertisement is appropriate. Figure 0 This process is very complex and a complete description of it is well beyond the scope of this unit. However, it is possible to highlight the primary parts of this process.

More than likely, the development and approval of advertising creation is the responsibility of the senior advertising manager within the company. If an advertising agency is used, the responsibility belongs to the senior account person, in conjunction with the senior creative person assigned to the account.

The advertising effort can be divided into two elements: the creative strategy and creative tactics.

The creative strategy concerns what you are going to say to the audience. It flows from the advertising objectives and should outline what impressions the campaign should convey to the target audience.

Creative tactics outline the means for carrying out the creative strategy. This includes all the various alternatives available, which will help reach the advertising objective.

The place to begin the creative strategy is to ascertain the proper appeal to employ in the ad. Identifying the appropriate appeal is just the first part of the advertising design process.

The second part is to transform this idea into an actual advertisement. To say that there are a large variety of ways to do this would be a gross understatement. The number of techniques available to the creative strategist are not only vast, but the ability of more than one technique to successfully operationalize the same appeal makes this process even more nebulous.

Primary Advertising Appeals

Service Features of a Product

Many products have such strong technology or performance capabilities that these features can serve as a primary advertising appeal.

Competitive Advantage of a Product

When an advertiser can determine that his product is superior, either in terms of features, performance, supporting services, or image, emphasizing a competitive advantage has proved to make a successful appeal.

Price Advantage of a Product

Offering a product at a reduced price or under some special deal arrangement (e.g. buy-one-get-one-free) may be the only viable appeal in a particular ad.

Popularity of a Product

Although the manner varies, the notion of claiming that a product is "number one" or the most popular is an appeal that has been around for a long time.

Generic Approach

In such advertising, a product or service category is promoted for its own sake, but individual makes or brands of product are not singled out.

News about a Product

When a truly new product is developed, or when an existing product is changed or improved in a substantial manner, highlighting this single element can be the core appeal.

Consumer Service

A popular appeal is to illustrate how the product may be used to best serve the needs of the consumer.

Savings Through Product Use

An opportunity to save time, money, or energy is always very appealing to consumers.

Self-enhancement

Helping us feel better about ourselves (e.g. personal care, clothing, automobiles) is an appeal that many people cannot resist.

Embarrassment or Anxiety

Situations that represent a threatening situation, either physically or socially, can provide the basis for an effective appeal.

Product Trial

When this appeal is used, the advertiser offers a free sample, a price reduction, or some other purchase incentive to encourage consumer use or trial.

Corporate

This type of appeal presents a company or corporation in a favorable light in order to create a favorable impression or image.

Marketing Metrics

Marketing metrics allow companies to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.

·         Reach and frequency are terms generally used when planning advertising campaigns. However, the concept of reach and frequency applies to any promotional activity you undertake: direct mail, direct selling, and even networking.

·         Reach without Frequency = Wasted Money.

·         Marketing is the process of building a business relationship with potential customers.

·         reach 

Measurement of the size of the audience to whom you will communicate.

·         frequency 

The quotient of the number of times n a periodic phenomenon occurs over the time t in which it occurs: f = n / t.

EXAMPLES

·         When faced with the decision of mailing one direct mail piece to 10,000 people or mailing to 2,500 people four times think about the fate of those 100 seeds you can water only once. Unless you have water rights and can obtain additional water, opt for less reach and more frequency.

Advertising Metrics

This unit discusses seven popular advertising metrics that measure what you did, as well as where and how you spent your budget. Figure 0

Media planners use these seven metrics before a campaign. They also use them after a campaign for analytical purposes. The metrics remain part of the permanent record of the campaign.

They are navigational metrics. They can help you steer your program toward higher profitability but they can't help you measure your profitability (for that you need evaluative metrics). Here are the seven metrics:

1.      Reach is a measurement of the size of the audience to whom you will communicate.

2.      Frequency is the average number of times your ads will be shown to an individual or household.

3.      Gross Rating Points (GRPs) equal Reach times Frequency.

4.      Target Rating Points (TRPs) equal Gross Rating Points times the ratio of the specifically targeted audience to the total audience.

5.      Impressions equal the number of exposures of an ad or commercial to the people or households in your audience.

6.      Cost per Thousand (CPM) is the cost to reach 1,000 people or households.

7.      Cost per Point (CPP) is the cost to reach one percent of the audience.

The Relationship Between Reach and Frequency

Reach and frequency of exposure are also two of the most important statistics used in advertising management. When reach is multiplied by average frequency a composite measure called Gross Rating Points (GRPs) is obtained. Reach can be calculated indirectly as: reach = GRPs / average frequency.

Sometimes, reach and frequency are terms generally used when planning advertising campaigns. However, the concept of reach and frequency applies to any promotional activity you undertake: direct mail, direct selling, and even networking.

For example, an air conditioning repair service who has decided to do a direct mail piece has to decide whether to mail the entire Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex once or to mail a quarter of the Metroplex four times. An attorney who receives many of her clients through networking may have to decide whether to attend one weekly networking meeting or four different monthly meetings.

When faced with decisions of reach vs. frequency, this rule of thumb is helpful to remember: Reach without Frequency = Wasted Money

Marketing is the process of building a business relationship with potential customers. Have you ever established a lifelong friendship with someone you had contact with only once? Probably not. Generally friendships (and all relationships for that matter) grow as a result of frequent contact over time. Even when the potential to form a great friendship is there at the first encounter, it is unlikely it will grow without nurturing.

Seth Godin in his book Permission Marketing uses an analogy of seeds and water to demonstrate the importance of assuring adequate frequency in your promotional campaigns. If you were given 100 seeds with enough water to water each seed once, would you plant all 100 seeds and water each one once? Or would you be more successful if you planted 25 seeds and used all of the water on those 25 seeds?

While intuitively and even conceptually we understand the importance of frequency to successful promotional and sales campaigns, somehow when it comes to actually implementing the campaign, we opt to sacrifice frequency for reach. And then we complain about the ineffectiveness of our promotional efforts. Undoubtedly one of the biggest wastes of marketing dollars is promotional activities that are implemented without adequate frequency.

When faced with the decision of mailing one direct mail piece to 10,000 people or mailing to 2,500 people four times think about the fate of those 100 seeds you can water only once. Unless you have water rights and can obtain additional water, opt for less reach and more frequency.

Source : http://www.boundless.com