How to run a successful advertising campaign?

Advertising is a means of a mass communication, which informs and persuades, to achieve mass consumption. An understanding of the role which advertising has to play in the marketing process, would entail, an examination of advertising as a means of promoting and maintaining high volume of sales and an objective assessment of the contribution which advertising can make in relation to its cost.

What is Advertising

Advertising is salesmanship in print, is simple definition by John E Kennedy.

 

In a laymans language the dictionary explains that advertising means to make known to publish to inform to attempt to persuade etc.

 

The dictionary of marketing terms issued by the international chamber of commerce, defined advertising as a non-personal, multiple presentation to the market, of goods services or commercial ideas by an identified sponsor who pays for the delivery of his message to the advertising medium, distinguished from publicity which does not pay the medium and does not necessarily identify the sponsor.

 

Advertisement is a planned sales talk through printed or recorded media. The emphasis is on mass persuasion an extension and a multiplier of personal selling. It is a persuasive force, that makes use of mass communication media and is aimed at creating and changing customers attitude or patterns of behavior towards a product or service in a direction favorable to the advertiser.

 

Function of Advertising

Advertising is intend to promote the following functions

(a) To stimulate either primary demand or selective demand.
(b) To promote the brand or the firm selling that brand
(c) To cause indirect action or direct action and
(d) To benefit the public at large

 

Primary and Selective Demand

Primary demand is the demand for the product or service in general rather than for a particular brand for tea, contraceptives, air travel and other similar broad categories rather than Brooke Bond tea, Nirodh and Air India trips to Middle East. Usually primary demand stimulation is made by the sponsors who are first to introduce a new product. Even organized groups attempt to generate primary demand.

 

So long as the product is new, primary demand stimulation is appropriate. The consumers are informed of the existence of the new item and attempt is made to convince them of its benefits. The proprietors of dynacision had gone in a big way to create demand for their new product Dysicon electronic speed regulator for commercial vehicles.

 

The company has little competition for this product. Later when primary demand has materialized and competitors enter selective demand. This type of advertising attempts establishes differential advantage.

 

Institution or Brand Promotion

Institutional advertising attempts create an image of the organization as whole. It notifies the public that the organization has responsibility that the management is conscious of its role in maintaining social justice. Nationalized banks advertisement comes under this category. The aim is to earn goodwill and enjoy the confidence of the public. This would help introducing a new product or service to the consumers.

 

Brand advertising promoter’s particular products that the organization sells

 

Direct or Indirect action

Direct action advertisements try to bring about a ready response. Such messages request consumers to buy now. Others contain coupons and collections with appeal for redemption soon. MAS a Badam Milk beverage free gift scheme offers stainless steel articles for the purchase of three pockets of MAS within a period of two months.

 

Indirect action advertising aims at creating favorable attitudes towards the sponsors or the products of the sponsor. Through a process of exposure, attention, comprehension, attitude change and behavior, which are possible only in the long run, such advertising at rive can bring about increased sale of products. It is otherwise called delayed action advertisement.

 

Advertising budget

The advertising budget is a systematic plan of how much, when, where and for what purposes advertising funds will be spent. A satisfactory advertising budget should be large enough to accomplish the job expected of advertising. It should be dependable enough to permit continuity of advertising and also flexible enough to permit adjustments in advertisements volume to meet the changing problems and situations.

 

Public Service

Advertising sometimes may be intended to bring benefits to public at large. Philanthropic organizations and like minded people, are behind this type of advertising which promotes some gains to the society. National Council of fire accident prevention issues series of advertisement suggesting what people should do for preventing fire accidents and the consequent loss of life and property.

 

(1) Increase the number of units purchased by the consumers
(2) Maintain and improve confidence of the present customers
(3) Create feed-back mechanisms among the consumers
(4) Give fillip to the morale of advertisers own staff
(5) Project a perfect image about the advertiser in the process of characterizing the product
(6) Introduce new products to the market place
(7) Counteract the effects of competition
(8) Adjust the seasonal effects of sales and
(9) Open new vistas in the arena of consumer welfare

 

The advertising budget involves talking of a two fold problem determining the size of appropriation and control of expenditures to ensure that funds are spent in accordance with the budget plan. The right appropriation is becoming a task since many factors other than mere size, the quality of the advertisement, the quality of the product, activities of competitors and the economic climate and the like have a direct effect on the accomplishment of the advertising objective.

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