9.4 Managing advertising
Now is the time to consider each of the main elements of the promotion mix in more detail. We will start with advertising.
Advertising is paid, non-personal communication by a clearly identified sponsor, and examples of it are press ads, TV commercials, billboards and brochures. Its effectiveness depends on the persuasiveness of the message and the accuracy of targeting the consumer via the media. It is a promotional method that consumers are most aware of and is of greatest value to retailers.
Poor planning is the cause of ineffective advertising. It is not sufficient for you as a manager to say that you need some ads. Any advertising campaign must flow from the marketing plan. It is necessary to specify some objectives and these are much more varied than simply getting more sales.
The choice of which promotional medium to use is a complex matter, for each medium has its unique characteristics and costs. Television has colour, shows the product in use, but is transient and expensive. Newspapers have immediacy and magazines have longevity.
Message design is best done by a professional advertising agency, as is also media selection, with the marketer's advertising department acting as liaison. The actual ads are created by copywriters and art directors in the agency working to an advertising brief from the marketer. The advertising campaign can be evaluated both before and after it is run.
Turn now to the next reading to study the detail of the different types of advertising available, the steps involved in developing an advertising campaign, and an international perspective on advertising. Included in the next reading are three articles. The first two articles relate to effective advertising. The first examines how to ensure an advert is attracting the attention of the appropriate target market, whilst the second article offers many ideas on where to advertise to, once again, make sure the target market is seeing the advert. The third is now a much referred to and classic article on advertising for services business. Most research on services advertising tends to be based on the principles outlined in this article.
In your text
Kotler et al. (2004) Chapter 16, pp. 626-641, 'Advertising' and 'Major decisions in advertising'.
Reading 9.2
Rea, E. 2005, 'Making advertising pay', Marketing , January,
pp. 36-37.Reading 9.3
Bowll, G. 2002, 'What the..', Marketing & eBusiness , August,
pp. 56-60.Reading 9.4
George, W. R. and Berry , L. L. 1981, 'Guidelines for the advertising of services', Business Horizons , 24 (4), pp. 52-56.
Activity 9.2
There is a range of advertising media and within each medium one has to decide which vehicle to use: for example, which television channel, which magazine?
Therefore there are many factors to consider, such as media circulation, advertising objectives, media cost, requirements of the message and more. Which medium would be appropriate to advertise a shipping service?