MODULE 6: ADVERTISING ADVERTISING

Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor Advertisers not only include business firms, but also museums, charitable organizations and government agencies that direct messages to general public In small companies it is handled by somebody in the sales and marketing department, a large organization will have its own department handling it

SETTING THE ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES

The advertising decisions must flow from prior decisions on target market, market positioning and marketing mix An advertising goal is a specific communication task and achievement level to be accomplished with a specific audience in a specific period of time Advertising objectives can be classified according to whether the aim is to inform, persuade, remind or reinforce

1. Informative advertising: aims to create awareness and knowledge of new products or new features of existing products

2. Persuasive advertising : aims to create liking, preference, conviction and purchase of a product or service Eg: Chivas regal attempts to persuade consumers that it gives more taste and status than other scotch

3. Reminder advertising : aims to stimulate repeat purchase of products and services Expensive coco cola ads in magazines are intended to remind people to purchase it

4. Reinforcement advertising : aims to convince current purchasers that they made the right choice Automobile ads often depict satisfied customers enjoying special features in their new car

DECIDING ON THE ADVERTISING BUDGET

Advertising is a current expense building up an intangible asset- brand equity

5 factors are to be considered when setting the advertisement budget

1. Stage in the product life cycle- new products has more ad budgets and established brands have lower budgets as a ratio to sales 2. Market share and consumer base- high market share brands less advertising to maintain market share, increase market share more expense 3. Competition- higher the competition more the advertising budget, and a brand needs to heavily advertised to be heard 4. Advertising frequency- the no of repetitions needed to put across the brands message to the consumers decides the budget 5. Product substitutability- brands in commodity class require heavy advertising to establish a differential image

CHOOSING THE ADVERTISING MESSAGE

Advertising campaigns vary in creativity, and just the facts are not enough A great execution must be updated before it gets outdated Advertisers go through 4 steps to develop a creative strategy: 1. Message generation- whatever method is used the creative people should talk to consumers, dealers and experts 2. Message evaluation- a good ad focuses on one core selling proposition and the messages are rated on desirability, exclusiveness and credibility 3. Message execution- the messages impact depends not only on what is said, but how it is said whether rational or emotional positioning 4. Social responsibility review- advertisers and their agencies must be sure their creative advertising does not overstep social and legal norms

DECIDING ON THE MEDIA

Once the budget is decided and the message is chosen the next is choosing the media The steps are as follows:

1. Deciding on the reach, frequency and impact - Media selection is the problem of finding the most cost-effective media to deliverer exposures to the target audience a. Reach is the number of different persons or households exposed to a particular media schedule b. frequency- the no. of times within the specified time period an average person or house hold is exposed to the message

c. Impact- the qualitative value of an exposure through a given medium For eg: a food product ad in a housing complex has more impact than in a police gazette 2. Choosing among major media types- the media planner has to know the capacity of the major media types to deliver reach, frequency and impact a. Target audience media habits- for eg: radio, internet and television are most effective for teenagers b. Product- Womens dresses are best shown in the most subscribed magazines and Polaroid cameras can be effectively advertised on TV c. Message- a message announcing a major sale tomorrow will require radio or newspapers A message containing great deal of technical data may require specialized magazines or mailings d. cost- television and other visual ads are expensive but newspaper is comparatively inexpensive What counts is the exposure per cost incurred than the total cost 3. Selecting specific media vehicles- now the media planner searches for the most cost effective media vehicles In the magazine field there are thousands of special interest magazines Which means its easy to reach special interest groups but hard to reach general audience In the television and radio there are thousands of commercial program vehicles to consider

4. Deciding on media timing- the advertiser faces a macro scheduling problem and a micro scheduling problem a. Macrosheduling problem- the advertiser has to decide how to schedule the advertising in relational to seasonal and business cycle trends Eg: a firm has 70% of sales occurring between June and September, the firm has three options The firm can vary its ad expenses to follow the seasonal pattern, oppose the seasonal pattern or go constant throughout the year

b.Micro scheduling problem- calls for allocating advertising expenditures within a short period to obtain maximum impact The most effective pattern depends upon the communication objectives This is in relation to the nature of the product, target customers, distribution channels etc The timing pattern should consider buyer turnover, purchase frequency and forgetting rate

5. Deciding on geographical media allocation- the company has to decide how to allocate its ad budget over space as well as over time

The company makes national buys when it places ads on national TV networks or nationally circulated magazines It makes spot buys when it buys TV time in just a few TV markets or regional editions of magazines

6. Communication effect research- seeks to determine whether an ad is communicating effectively This is called as copy testing and can be done before an ad is put in to media either broadcasted or printed Advertisers are also interested in post testing the overall communication impact of a completed advertising campaign

7. Sales effect research- Communication- effect advertising research helps advertisers assess ads communication effects, not about its sales impact Advertisings sales effect is harder to measure than its communication effect Sales are influenced by many factors besides advertising such as the products features, price, availability and competition

CLASSIFICATION OF ADVERTISING
Print Advertising - The print media has been used for advertising since long. The newspapers and magazines are quite popular modes of advertising for different companies all over the world. Using the print media, the companies can also promote their products through brochures and fliers. The newspaper and magazines sell the advertising space and the cost depends on several factors. The quantity of space, the page of the publication, and the type of paper decide the cost of the advertisement. So an ad on the front page would be costlier than on inside pages. Similarly an ad in the glossy supplement of the paper would be more expensive than in a mediocre quality paper. Broadcast Advertising - This type of advertising is very popular all around the world. It consists of television, radio, or Internet advertising. The ads on the television have a large audience and are very popular. The cost of the advertisement depends on the length of the ad and the time at which the ad would be appearing. For example, the prime time ads would be more costly than the regular ones. Radio advertising is not what it used to be after the advent of television and Internet, but still there is specific audience for the radio ads too. The radio jingles are quite popular in sections of society and help to sell the products. Outdoor Advertising - Outdoor advertising makes use of different tools to gain customers attention. The billboards, kiosks, and events and tradeshows are an effective way to convey the message of the company. The billboards are present all around the city but the content should be such that it attracts the attention of the customer. The kiosks are an easy outlet of the products and serve as information outlets for the people too. Organizing events such as trade fairs and exhibitions for promotion of the product or service also in a way advertises the product. Therefore, outdoor advertising is an effective advertising tool.

Covert Advertising - This is a unique way of advertising in which the product or the message is subtly included in a movie or TV serial. There is no actual ad, just the mention of the product in the movie. For example, Tom Cruise used the Nokia phone in the movie Minority Report. Public Service Advertising - As evident from the title itself, such advertising is for the public causes. There are a host of important matters such as AIDS, political integrity, energy conservation, illiteracy, poverty and so on all of which need more awareness as far as general public is concerned. This type of advertising has gained much importance in recent times and is an effective tool to convey the message.

STAGES IN ADVERTISING
The following are the steps involved in the process of advertising: Step 1 - Briefing: the advertiser needs to brief about the product or the service which has to be advertised and doing the SWOT analysis of the company and the product. Step 2 - Knowing the Objective: one should first know the objective or the purpose of advertising. i.e. what message is to be delivered to the audience? Step 3 - Research: this step involves finding out the market behaviour, knowing the competitors, what type of advertising they are using, what is the response of the consumers, availability of the resources needed in the process, etc. Step 4 - Target Audience: the next step is to identify the target consumers most likely to buy the product. The target should be appropriately identified without any confusion. For e.g. if the product is a health drink for growing kids, then the target customers will be the parents who are going to buy it and not the kids who are going to drink it. Step 5 - Media Selection: now that the target audience is identified, one should select an appropriate media for advertising so that the customers who are to be informed about the product and are willing to buy are successfully reached. Step 6 - Setting the Budget: then the advertising budget has to be planned so that there is no short of funds or excess of funds during the process of advertising and also there are no losses to the company. Step 7 - Designing and Creating the Ad: first the design that is the outline of ad on papers is made by the copywriters of the agency, and then the actual creation of ad is done with help of the art directors and the creative personnel of the agency. Step 8 - Perfection: then the created ad is re-examined and the ad is redefined to make it perfect to enter the market. Step 9 - Place and Time of Ad: the next step is to decide where and when the ad will be shown. The place will be decided according to the target customers where the ad is most visible clearly to them. The finalization of time on which the ad will be telecasted or shown on the selected media will be done by the traffic department of the agency.

Step 10 - Execution: finally the advertise is released with perfect creation, perfect placement and perfect timing in the market. Step 11 - Performance: the last step is to judge the performance of the ad in terms of the response from the customers, whether they are satisfied with the ad and the product, did the ad reached all the targeted people, was the advertise capable enough to compete with the other players, etc. Every point is studied properly and changes are made, if any.

ETHICS IN ADVERTISING
Ethics means a set of moral principles which govern a persons behaviour or how the activity is conducted. And advertising means a mode of communication between a seller and a buyer. Thus ethics in advertising means a set of well defined principles which govern the ways of communication taking place between the seller and the buyer. Ethics is the most important feature of the advertising industry. Though there are many benefits of advertising but then there are some points which dont match the ethical norms of advertising. An ethical ad is the one which doesnt lie, doesnt make fake or false claims and is in the limit of decency. Nowadays, ads are more exaggerated and a lot of puffing is used. It seems like the advertisers lack knowledge of ethical norms and principles. They just dont understand and are unable to decide what is correct and what is wrong. The main area of interest for advertisers is to increase their sales, gain more and more customers, and increase the demand for the product by presenting a well decorated, puffed and colourful ad. They claim that their product is the best, having unique qualities than the competitors, more cost effective, and more beneficial. But most of these ads are found to be false, misleading customers and unethical. The best example of these types of ads is the one which shows evening snacks for the kids, they use colouring and gluing to make the product look glossy and attractive to the consumers who are watching the ads on television and convince them to buy the product without giving a second thought. Ethics in Advertising is directly related to the purpose of advertising and the nature of advertising. Sometimes exaggerating the ad becomes necessary to prove the benefit of the product. For e.g. a sanitary napkin ad which shows that when the napkin was dropped in a river by some girls, the napkin soaked whole water of the river. Thus, the purpose of advertising was only to inform women about the product quality. Obviously, every woman knows that this cannot practically happen but the ad was accepted. This doesnt show that the ad was unethical. Ethics also depends on what we believe. If the advertisers make the ads on the belief that the customers will understand, persuade them to think, and then act on their ads, then this will lead to positive results and the ad may not be called unethical. But at the same time, if advertisers believe that they can fool their customers by showing any impractical things like just clicking fingers will make your home or office fully furnished or just buying a lottery ticket will make you a millionaire, then this is not going to work out for them and will be called as unethical.

Recently, the Vetican issued an article which says ads should follow three moral principles Truthfulness, Social Responsibility and Upholding Human Dignity. Generally, big companies never lie as they have to prove their points to various ad regulating bodies. Truth is always said but not completely. Sometimes its better not to reveal the whole truth in the ad but at times truth has to be shown for betterment.

Pharmaceutical Advertising - they help creating awareness, but one catchy point here is that the advertisers show what the medicine can cure but never talk about the side effects of that same thing or the risks involved in intake of it. Children - children are the major sellers of the ads and the product. They have the power to convince the buyers. But when advertisers are using children in their ad, they should remember not to show them alone doing their work on their own like brushing teeth, playing with toys, or infants holding their own milk bottles as everyone knows that no one will leave their kids unattended while doing all these activities. So showing parents also involved in all activities or things being advertised will be more logical. Alcohol - till today, there hasnt come any liquor ad which shows anyone drinking the original liquor. They use mineral water and sodas in their advertisements with their brand name. These types of ads are called surrogate ads. These types of ads are totally unethical when liquor ads are totally banned. Even if there are no advertisements for alcohol, people will continue drinking. Cigarettes and Tobacco - these products should be never advertised as consumption of these things is directly and badly responsible for cancer and other severe health issues. These as are already banned in countries like India, Norway, Thailand, Finland and Singapore. Ads for social causes - these types of ads are ethical and are accepted by the people. But ads like condoms and contraceptive pills should be limited, as these are sometimes unethical, and are more likely to lose morality and decency at places where there is no educational knowledge about all these products.

Looking at all these above mentioned points, advertisers should start taking responsibility of self regulating their ads by:
design self regulatory codes in their companies including ethical norms, truth, decency, and legal

points
Keep tracking the activities and remove ads which dont fulfil the codes. Inform the consumers about the self regulatory codes of the company Pay attention on the complaints coming from consumers about the product ads. Maintain transparency throughout the company and system.

When all the above points are implemented, they will result in:
making the company answerable for all its activities Will reduce the chances of getting pointed out by the critics or any regulatory body.

 Will help gain confidence of the customers; make them trust the company and their products.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD ADVERTISEMENT

Advertising is one of the major factors for the success of any company. The success of advertising depends very much upon the copy of advertisement. The aim of the advertisement is to attract the customer and create an urge in his mind to have that product and if the advertisement does not fulfil this objective, the expenditure done on advertising is quite useless. While preparing the advertisement copy the person in charge should be imaginative enough to think of words and patterns which would produce desired effect on the prospect. The good advertisement copy should possess some of characteristics like: Awareness value: The advertisement should bring the awareness for the product or services. It should attract the attention of the readers. Problem-solving: After creating the awareness for the product, next step should be problem solving, the advertisement should provide the information regarding the use and the utility of the product that may remain in the minds of customers Recall value: The advertisement should be so effective, that the product should stick to the memory of the customers. Sincerity: An advertisement must gain the confidence of the customers, the advertising should avoid bold claims and the product should deliver the results as per claims made by the company. Advertising is introduction. Quality is retention. Enlightening: A good advertisement copy should educate the general public about uses of the products. It should possess the educative value. Instinctive value: A good advertisement must possess natural value so that customers are induced, persuaded and motivated to think well of a product and take to its use. To increase the effectiveness of the advertisement, the above qualities should be incorporated to make it a best advertisement.

PUFFERY IN ADVERTISING
Advertising or sales presentation relying on exaggerations, opinions, and superlatives, with little or no credible evidence to support its vague claims. Puffery may be tolerated to an extent so long as it does not amount to misrepresentation (false claim of possessing certain positive attributes or of not possessing certain negative attributes). Advertisers try to persuade people to buy a product or service through various methods. A company may deliver an entertaining message about its product, compare the product to a similar item, list facts about the product, or make vague claims about the product which cannot be proved or disproved. This last method is known as "puffery" the advertiser "puffs up" the product to seem like more than it is. Puffery is not illegal and is a common method used in advertising.

Proof and Puffery The claims made by puffery may be false, but they are not really lies because no one can disprove them. No one can prove them either. A company may claim that its hamburger is the best hamburger in the world. No one can prove the hamburger is really the best, but no one can prove it is not. However, if the advertiser says that its hamburger contains ingredients that help to prevent cancer that is something science could prove or disprove. Trying to persuade someone that hamburgers prevent cancer would be a false claim. Hyperbole Puffery is characterized by exaggeration and hyperbole. "The best hamburger in the world" is so beyond belief that a reasonable person would not take the claim seriously. Advertisers use exaggeration and hyperbole to get people's attention and make their message memorable. Because the claims in puffery are obviously exaggerated, and because exaggeration works to get people's attention, puffery is an accepted advertising technique. Subjective vs. Objective Puffery claims are subjective and are a matter of opinion. A hair salon may say it offers "the best" service, but "best" is a matter of opinion. But if the salon claims that is has won more awards than any other salon in the city, this is something that can be measured -- it is an objective claim and not puffery. Puffery often uses superlatives such as "best," "fastest," "tastiest" and "freshest," for instance. Deception Puffery does not intend to deceive. Advertising that deliberately misleads or makes false claims is illegal, while puffery is legal. Comparing your product to that of a competitor without scientific studies to substantiate your claims could lead to charges of deception. Saying you make a better pizza is puffery. Saying two out of three people prefer your pizza when you have no studies to substantiate the claim crosses the line to deception.