Advertisement Management (1)

8/6/2019 Advertisement Management (1)

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Advertisement Management

Module-I:

Introduction: What is advertisement all about?

“Adverting is the means by which we make known what we have to sell or what we want

to buy.”

We most people use advertising at some time, either privately or in business. And we too

respond to advertisements and so enjoy the choices available to us in every sphere of life.

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Facilitating

InstitutionsControl

Institutions 1.AdvertisingAgency

1. Government

Advertiser 2. Media2. Competition

3. Research

Suppliers

Markets & Consumer

Behavior

Major Institutions involved in the field of Advertising Management

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Definition: Advertisement is to persuade and sell.

A better definition is: Advertising presents the most persuasive possible

selling message to the right prospects for the product or service at the

lowest possible cost.

This professional definition emphasizes that advertising should be planned and created to

achieve the most results for the least costs.

Many accept the observation that ‘Advertising is the lubricant which helps wheels of

industries kept turning’.

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Defining Advertisement:

Don E. Schultz, an authority in advertising reported that consumers tend to think virtuallyevery form of commercial activity, from concert sponsorship to telemarketing, is a form

of “advertising”

John E Kennedy, an earliest copy writer year back in 1904 defined: “Advertising is

salesmanship in print”.

Since the early days attempts have been made to define advertisement. One such attempt

led to the following definition:

“The dissemination of information concerning an idea, service or product tocompel action in accordance with the intent of the advertiser.”

In 1963, the America Marketing Association proposed the following definition of

advertising:

“Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, and services by an identified sponsor.”

Many experts based on various surveys and studies observe that there is no universally

accepted single definition of advertisement. However, there are some recurringelements in all the definations like 1. paid, 2. non-personal, 3. identified sponsor, 4. mass

media, and 5. persuade or influence. In view of this, the essence of most advertisement

can be put in a single typical example which is – advertising is a paid, non-personal

communication by an identified sponsor, using mass media to persuade or influence

an audience.

1. Paid

The paid aspect of the advertisement definition reflects the fact that the space or times for

advertising messages are bought. However, there are exceptions like media institutionsvoluntarily donating space and time, and also prepare ads for certain public service

announcements and social causes.

2. Non-personal

Advertising is totally non-personal, offering no personal interaction as it is delivered

through media.

3. Ideas, goods and services

Advertising being a powerful mass communication tool not only present and promote

goods and services with intent to sell but also help promote social harmony amongdifferent community and discourage harmful human habit like smoking, unsaved sex, etc.

4. Identified sponsor

In case of advertising, the sponsor is known.

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5. Mass media

The large spectrum of audience can be easily reached by mass media such as print

(newspapers, magazines, outdoor displays, etc.) and electronics media (radio, television,etc.)

6. Persuade and influenceThe most important inherent objective of advertisement is to persuade and influence the

targeted audience to accept the sponsor’s ideas, goods, or services for consumption.

7. Not neutral; not unbiased

Rightly, adverting can not be claimed to be neutral and not unbiased for simple reason

that this is controlled by the advertiser and is intended to serve the advertiser’s interest.

Advertising is a very powerful communication force, highly visible, and one of the most

significant tools of marketing communication which a marketing organization can hardly

ignore. It is also strongly recognized that advertising reflects the need of the times.

Whether we like it or not it is everywhere. It has been part of human civilization. It isthere on the walls, on the back of the buses, in the play grounds, in the newspaper pages,

in the stores, and in the televisions programme. It seems it is very difficult to remainneutral and not to take notice of present day advertisement. Again, it has been an

accepted fact that advertising reflect one civilization’s social, cultural and business

environment.

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Advertising Objectives

Advertisement objectives provide a platform to the client and the ad agency’s account

executive, the creative team members, copy writers, media specialists, media buyers and professional advertising researchers. The other function of objective is to provide

opportunity for decision making at a time when two alternative advertising

campaigns are developed. The objective criteria helps select the most appropriate onethat will readily achieve the objective.

The client’s overall marketing plan decides promotional objectives from which

advertising objectives are derived. The promotional objectives help focus what is to beachieved and where the advertising fit in. These situations’ focused analyses are

expected to provide relevant information and data about:

• The target market segment and the target audience profile

• The brand’s main attributes and benefits

• Market share of the client and its competitors. Besides, their product

positioning, strategies and other relevant information and data

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• Some ideas on how the client’s brand should be positioned and behavioural

response on brand trial, repeat purchase, increased usage rate, etc.

Now, we shall discuss the objectives of different focused advertising

campaign:

1. The advertising focused at immediate sales

Objectives:

• Perform the complete selling function

• Close sales to prospects already partly sold

• Announce special reason for buying now

• Remind consumers to buy

• Tie in with special buying event

• Stimulate impulse purchase

2. The advertising focused at near-term sales

Objectives:

• Create brand awareness

• Provide information or develop attitude

• Rebut or offset competitive claims

• Correct false impressions, or wrong information

• Build familiarity and easy recognition

3. The advertising focused at long-range sales

Objectives:

• Build confidence in company and its brand

• Stimulate consumer demand

• Secure increased distribution

• Establish reputation as an innovator for lunching new products

• Establish brand recall, recognition and acceptance

4. The advertising focused at helping to increase sales

Objectives:

• Hold present customers

• Convert other brand users to client’s brand

• Convert non-user to users

• Convert occasional customers to regular users

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• Advertise new uses and use occasions

• Persuade customers to buy more or larger sizes

• Remind users to buy

• Encourage greater use frequency or more quantity per use.

5. The advertising focused at some specific step that leads to brand sales

Objectives:

• Persuade prospect to return a coupons, enter a contest, or ask for more

information

• Persuade prospect to visit dealership and ask for demonstration

• Induce customer to try the product

6. The advertising communicating information that would help close sales and

build consumer satisfaction

Objectives:

• “Where to buy” advertising

• “How to use the product” advertising

• Announce new models, features, or package

• Announce price change

• Trade-in offers or special terms

• New policies regarding guarantee or warranties

7. The advertising aim to build confidence and goodwill for corporation

Objectives:

• Customers and potential customers

• Distributors, dealers and retailers

• Employees and potential employees

• Financial institutions

• Public at large

8. What kind of image does the company wish to build?

Objectives:

• Product quality and dependability

• Service

• Corporate citizenship

• Growth, progressiveness and technical leadership

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Functions of Advertising

Advertising is a form of mass communication. It is used by the advertisers to persuadethe consumers to buy its products or services by changing mental states. The function of

advertising is better explained in Hierarchy-of-Effects Model because, as per the

researchers, the audience members pass through a series of sequential steps leading to purchase of product or service. From being unaware the steps lead to awareness,

knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and purchase.

Hierarchy-of-effects model

According to Jagdish N. Sheth the advertising has four sequential functions. They are: 1.

Precipitation, 2. Persuasion, 3. Reinforcement, and 4. Reminder.

1. Precipitation: The ad’s precipitation function helps stimulate needs and wants

besides creating awareness and educating consumers about the new product or

service. Ads usually highlight the product or service’s usefulness which could nothave been done, offered, or provided by any product before.

2. Persuasion: Persuasion is the ultimate goal of all product or service

advertising. In order to persuade the consumers, the ad appeal may be emotional

or rational with humor, love, fear, shame, price, quality, quantity, etc. Example:

Concept sellers mostly use these types of advertising.

3. Reinforcement: Reinforcement through feel good effect is another important

function of advertisement. It is mostly designed to reassure consumers that they

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made the wise decision by buying a product or service. Family planning ads

displaying the concept of ‘small family; happy family’ is one such example.

4. Reminder: The reminder ads’ are mostly given to keep the company or brand

name fresh in the consumers mind so that the objective of repeat purchase is

accomplished. FMCG products advertisements are example of such

advertisements.

Other than the above function the advertisings help stimulating demand of product or

service, build brand image, develop brand preference, strengthen other promotional mixelements, cuts costs, lower prices, and also used as competitive weapons.

1. Stimulates demand: By way of informing prospective consumers about the

availability of a particular product, the ad stimulates needs. It has also been an

accepted fact that ad. has some effect on aggregate consumption.

2. Brand image building: Brand sells. Brand has a perceived value. In view of

this thinking, a consumer may choose to buy an expensive car because it

symbolizes status and wealth. A youth may buy a Royal Enfield Bullet todemonstrate that he is really strong man. Ad is the most effective way of

nurturing a brand’s image in the long run.

3. Develops brand preference: Research has revealed that consistent and

repeated persuasive advertisements help stimulate brand trial or purchase. The

customers satisfied with promised quality and service spread an approving word-

of-mouth. Satisfied customers also develop brand preference which gets

reinforced by repeated ads. Products with strong brand franchise provide

protection against existing and up-coming competition. Brand royal customers

are otherwise unaccounted assets.

4. Strengthen other Promotion-mix Elements: Advertising is

‘salesmanship in print’, says John E. Kennedy. Being a form of masscommunication, it helps reach relatively large audience at shortest period. It too

performs the pre-selling function besides evoking quick response.

5. Cuts cost: It is often recognized that ad helps cutting down selling cost. There

is scope of selling costs decrease in view of fall in wasted calls, and less pressure

on sales people.

6. Lowers prices: During these days of liberalized and globalize economy, the

fall of unit cost of product compel companies to lower the product selling price tothe advantage of customers. This move has direct contribution in deepen market

penetration.

7. Competitive weapons: When the advertising helps build a brand image withdefinite identity of its own, it provides a shield against competitors’ aggressive

marketing blitz.

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Classification of Advertising

There are a vast variety of advertisings. And scholars have taken various approaches to

classify this. This classification helps managers both in the advertiser companies and in

ad agencies to choose the most appropriate type of advertising in order to achieve themarketing objectives.

Broadly speaking, advertising can be classified into three categories. This is based ontarget audiences. They are: 1. Advertising to general consumers, 2. Advertising to

Business and Profession and 3. Non-Product advertising.

1. Advertising to general consumers:

a) Classified Advertising

Most classified ads are simple text set in small type in newspaper pages and

telephone yellow pages. Such ads provide information about community market

place for goods, services, and opportunities like real estate, autos, matrimonial,domestic help, coaching, employment, business opportunities, etc. Classified

ads are substantial source of revenue of print media.

b) Display Advertising

All non-classified advertising are display advertising. These types of advertising

usually have headlines, illustrations, white space, and other visual presentation

besides the copy text. As per the majority of studies on source of revenue of printmedia, display advertising contribution is 70% of total revenue. Again these types

of advertising are categories into two. They are: national and local advertising.

c) National Advertising

This title itself says the advertising is meant for entire nation’s audience, not

confined to any geographical region. The term ‘national advertising’ conveys

mass marketing effort. This type of advertising is mostly persuaded by marketer of branded product or service, available through distribution channel spread all

over the nation. Of course, the ads may have target segment, not restricted to a

particular region. Both classified and display advertising can be national. Thistype of ads. mostly seen in media having whole nation circulation or telecast.

d) Local Advertising

This title itself says the advertising is meant for regional or local market,confined to a particular geographical area. And its advertisers are marketers of

products or service available locally and local consumers as target. However,

sometimes national advertisers realize ads, and even with regional language, for a particular region under certain marketing conditions. Media for this type of

advertising are local or vernacular newspapers, local cable channels, etc.

e) Retail Advertising

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The standard approach in retail advertising is buy at our store. Usually, the sales

of any particular brand are not the objective of retail ads. However, there is

deviation when the retailer wants to clear a particular brand or to meet the salestarget sometimes imposed by producer in order to avail any specific retailer

related promotional incentives. The message in this type’s ad is like buy brand

‘B’ at our store. The other important objective of this type of ad is to encourage patronage of consumers and store loyalty among them.

f) Co-operative Advertising

This type of ads is also realized locally, mostly by dealers or distributors in

collaboration with manufacturer. To help identify dealers selling a particular

brand of product in particular local or regional market, dealers put the ads. The

manufacturer often provides the materials and guidelines for development of ads besides sharing the cost of ads.

g) End-Product or Branded-ingredient Advertising

There are many products sold in the market (example: Intel Processor) whichare rarely and directly purchased by consumers. Such product advertising is

called End-Product or Branded-ingredient advertising. Manufacturer of such products undertake advertising because successful end-product advertising helps

create demand for the ingredient that helps in the sale of another product. The

prolonged consumer demand for such ingredients encourages companies to use

them in their consumer products.

2. Advertising to Business and Profession

The target audiences of this type of advertising are re-sellers and professionals

such as masons, architects, doctors, etc. The media used is professional journalsor direct mails in which brochures and leaflets are mostly sent.

a) Trade Advertising

The target of trade advertising are retailers and distributors to keep the stock andfor wide area distribution. The objectives are to achieve maximum distribution

and so also maximum sales. This types of advertising is also sometimes

accompany incentive to retailers and distributors with a hidden objective of getting prime shelf space in retail outlets.

b) Industrial or B2B Advertising

Industrial advertising mostly for sales of machinery, equipment and rawmaterials used in producing finished products is directed at a specialized and

relatively small target audience who are mostly experts in the related field. But

the fact is although the buyers are small in numbers yet the consumption volume per buyer is much bigger. Media used are industry publications, direct mail,

telephone, and internet and trade fairs.

c) Professional Advertising

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Professional advertising is directed towards professionals such as architect,

doctors, engineers, tailors, etc. who are may not be direct consumers of the

products but make the final-decision on behalf of their clients. The professional journals, direct mails, and in rare instances mass media are used for advertising.

d) Corporate or Industrial AdvertisingThis type of advertising is meant for corporate image that the general publics

perceive when the name of the company or its product is seen or heard. The

important objectives of corporate adverting include: to create and maintaincorporate identity in public, to counter negative attitudes towards company, to

enhance company image, to associate company with some worthwhile national

and social cause and to overcome negative company image. The target groups

of corporate advertising are consumers, stockholders, employees, financialinstitutions, political leaders and government or otherwise all stakeholders.

3. Non-Product Advertising

a) Idea Advertising

Advertising is a powerful communication tool to influence the public opinion besides reshaping public attitude towards issue concerning environment

degradation, population explosion, road safety measure, human rights, dowry,

etc. Both audio and visual media of all types are used for these types of ads.

b) Service Advertising

Services although can not be seen as physical products yet its advertising

fundamentals are same as in case of product advertising though experts defer.Mainly the quality of service is largely depending upon the quality of company

employees. And ads highlight this aspect more emphatically besides servicenetworks as customers show high concern for convenient, caring, and professional services.

c) Political Advertising

Political advertisings are mostly given in the mass media by political parties to

promote their party concern on political issues. As we have seen these types of

ads are mostly biased and attacking.

d) Social Advertising

Advertisings concerning social causes are mostly given in mass media by

different government departments and agencies, NGOs and even corporate onsome social issues in order to inform and educate the population on some issues

affecting society at large.

e) Surrogate Advertising

Surrogate means delegate. In advertising, it means the kind of advertisement

which is promoting a product, many of which are banned, using anther product.

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Example: advertising of alcoholic drinks (Bagpiper soda, McDowell Soda, etc.) in

India.

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Advertising Agency: Functions & Structure of Modern

Agency

Functions of Ad. Agency

Advertising agency is the facilitator of advertising. It is an independent organization

which provides specialized advertising and promotional services to assist companies indeveloping, preparing and executing their advertising and promotional programmes for a

cost.

The main reason of companies using the services of advertising agencies is because the

later provide the more specialized and highly skilled services which the companies may

not have in-house. All most all ad agencies whether small or large may have personnelcomprising writers, artists, media specialists, market research specialists, etc. with

specific knowledge. Besides, there are some agencies which may have industry specific

expertise.

A Full-service Agency comprises department like Creative Services, Account Services,

Marketing Services, and Office Management and Finance for accomplishing various

functions designated, and ultimately, to serve clients better.

Creative Services Department:

Usually this department of the agency is headed by a Creative Director whose

responsibilities comprises production of advertisements, supervision of copywriters and

artists works besides setting the creative philosophy and standard of the organization. Toa great extent the success of ad agency depends on creative services department

responsible for the creation and execution of the advertisements. The experts in the

department conceive the ideas for the ads and write the headlines, subheads and the body

copy keeping in mind the basic appeal of the advertising campaign.

Creative services department has functional sub-departments like art, production and

traffic departments.

Creation of ad message is the work of copywriters. The Art Departments how the ad

should look with the message placed. The arts director and the graphic designerscoordinate their work and prepare the layouts for print ads. The layouts for TV

commercial is a sequence of frames showing the commercial in still form and is called

storyboard. Production Department takes over the work after completion and approval

of the copy, layout, illustrations and mechanical specifications. Sometimes, the

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production department hires outside experts to transform the creative concept into a

commercial. The Traffic Department responsibility is to coordinate all phases of

production and ensure that the ads are completed on time in order t meet the mediadeadlines.

Account Services Department

This departments and its staff main responsibility is to keep relationship between the

agency and the clients. The account executive working under the department headrepresent the client and explain the client’s view to all the agency personnel working on

the account and also the agency’s point of view to the client. This job requires high

degree of knowledge on functioning of advertising agency along with diplomacy and tact because any misunderstanding and communication gap may lead to loss of the account or

client. Other important responsibility of the account executive is to obtain the client’s

approval for media schedules, budget, and rough ads.

Marketing Services Department

This department is sub-divided into Research, Media and Sales Promotion department.

Research Department main responsibility is to gather relevant marketing data from all

sources like published data (secondary data), primary data through field observation andsurvey, and from independent research firms. Besides, the researchers in the department

also conduct ad’s pre-launch copy testing to learn how the ad is likely to be interpreted

and perceived by the audience. After gathering the data, the research personnel analyses

and interpret the data and furnish the same to the account department which places thesame before the client or advertiser.

The Media Department develops media plan to reach target audience effectively.Besides it does analysis, selection, and contract media times and spaces for delivery of ad

message in a cost-effective manner. Media specialists are supposed to consider the media

reach and frequency, their rates, and media habits of audiences before actually making purchase decision because a significant amount of client’s budget is spent in this activity.

Many ad agencies provide additional services like Sales Promotion to clients. In it

includes designing contest and publicity materials, packaging materials, and even web-sites.

Office Management and Finance

This is mostly an in-house activity department which is to provide logistic support to

above three departments so that they can perform their work smoothly. Some of itsfunctions are finance, accounting, human resource and office management.

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Structure of Modern Agency

There are two types of structures are seen in Modern advertising agencies. One is

Departmental System and other is Group System. There is no hard and fast rule on the

part of agencies to adhere this or that. The selection of one structure or other depends onorganization work philosophy envisioned by the promoter.

Departmental System

In this system, the departments are grouped around designated functions. For example,

creative services unit is asked to prepare copy writing, layouts, and production servicesfor all clients. These types of practice existing in medium and large size agencies provide

exposures to employees in the department to develop expertise in servicing different

types of clients.

Group System

The Group System structure is very popular in the large agencies. Individuals with clientspecific expertise are drawn from different functional areas and work under account

executive in a group to serve particular client. Agencies using group system believe that

employees become very knowledgeable about client’s business and there is continuity inserving the account.

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Functions of the Advertising Department and

Advertising Manager

Usually in large business concerns, there may have an exclusive Advertising Department

headed by an Advertising Manager or Marketing Manager with advertising departmentresponsibility. This department’s primary responsibility is advertising, publicity and sales

promotion.

Functions

1. Party to major policy decision

The department and its head participate and is party to major policy decisions in

the company like new product launch, modification in existing product, changes

in distribution methods, entry into new markets or market segment, etc. They are

also responsible for product pre-tests and test marketing exercises to decidewhether the product, the marketing strategy or the advertising media and

techniques are likely to be successful. In large company, the advertising manager use to work with marketing and market research executives; in smaller company

he himself initiate market research work.

2. Interpreter of the company policy to advertising agency and other service

providers

This is a very delicate function. Without having intimate inside knowledge of the

company and its policies, it is very difficult on the part of concern person in thedepartment to present in easy and understandable terms the company’s objectives

to service providers. The wrong presentation may cause huge financial loss aswell as damage company image in the public.

3. Advertising budget preparation or appropriation

Alike many other department, this department has to prepare the budget andsubmit the same for approval of the top executive or board. While preparing the

same the aspects like competitors advertising, percentage of anticipated turnover,

cost per head of target population, corporate evaluation, ideal campaign plan, new

product investment, gross margin, etc. are taken into consideration. There is notext book practice in preparing the ad. company’s budget.

4. Expenditure controlWith expenditure spread over a diversity of campaign, media and techniques, the

advertising manager and his department has to be master of budgetary control. In

doing so they use face conflicting challenge mostly from product managers.

5. Coordinating with Ad Agencies

Agencies are not miracle workers. They can not work in vacuum. The advertisingdepartment and its staff from manager to executives must be responsive in feeding

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the agency with all the facts, samples and other back ground materials on which

agency can go to work. Works visits, invitations to sales conferences, and social

functions and regular supply of the house journal can help to foster good agencyrelation.

6. Production of Ad MaterialsThey control the production of all other advertising materials like packaging

materials, competition coupons, stationeries, gifts, etc., not assigned to the

agency.

7. Media relation

This activity in majority of organization is done by the PRO who work under the

overall supervision or in close consultation of Ad Manager.

These seven responsibilities indicate something of the breadth of the ad manager and

his department functions. It calls for a liberal education, business experience and

sound traing in advertising. The cry today is for cost-effectiveness and he has toknow what he is recommending and buying.

Client – Agency Relationship

Business partnerships play a significant role in the preparation of the strategy of

leading firms, large or small. Success of business partnership highly depends on trust,confidence and understanding among the parties. The parties are supposed to be pro-

active to sustain the relationship, which is very complex in the business environment,

for mutual benefit.

The state of Business Partnership today:

In spite of mutual agreed promise, many partnerships fail to meet the expectation.This fact has confirmed by numerous studies which have been conducted on the issue.

The trend in client-agency relationships is to terminate those that under-perform. In

1984, the average tenure of client-agency relationship was 7.2 years. It reduced to 5.3years by the end of 1997. Many forecast if the above trend will continue then by 2010

every client on an average will search for new agency in every 4 years.

Why do clients terminate agency relationships?

• Change at the top level in client’s organization

• Lack of understanding of client’s business

• Lack of synergy in company strategy and advertisement creativity

• Outgrowth of one of the partner

• Research score consistently below norms

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• Creative stubbornness and arrogance

• Mandated consolidation

• Loose attention to budget

Distinguishing Qualities of great clients:

Evidently, every successful and profitable relationship is not one way traffic. Both the

client and agency have to exert all the efforts available to them. There are a large

number of simple attitudes and behaviours that facilitate proper communication andcreate a long-term and successful clients-agency relationship.

• Inspire a spirit of partnership

The best advertising is only created in the absence of fear. Avoid the

superior/subordinate relationship and fear of dismissal while dealing with an

ad agency. A successful joint effort is achieved only through mutual respect of

intelligence and expertise.

• Agree on a clearly defined objective of the advertising

The clients must come up with clear answers to the three questions before

briefing the agency:

a. What precisely is the client asking the agency to do? b. What kind of information does the agency need?

c. What questions is the agency mostly to ask?

• Agency must be given the opportunity to be totally absorbed in client’s

product, people and culture• Create an environment of experimentation and be prepared to pay for

failure

• Be cautious of change for change’s sake

The success in advertising is achieved by finding a long-term positioning and

sticking with it

• Treat agency people well

Great clients know it is human nature for people to work harder for friends

than for business associations.

• Great clients are honest in their praise and polite in their disapproval .

Be honest. If you don’t like something, say so.

Be specific. Don’t ask for a new execution simply because this one ‘does not do it for me’.

• Make the agency responsible for the advertising and give them the

authority it needs to do it.

Too much involvement consistently denies the agency the ability to realize itsvision. Some clients use lack of involvement to avoid sharing responsibility

for a poor end result.

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Great clients tell precisely why they disagree, then challenge the agency to

find a solution both the parties can agree upon.

• Make sure the agency makes a fair profit.

•Performance evaluations of each other at least annually

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Selection of Agency

Selection of Agency by the Advertisers is not simple act. This is one the most difficult

assignment on the part of the Advertising Manager, and the Advertising Department he

heads in the advertiser’s company. A wrong choice may cost dearly to the advertiser inmany ways including damage to brand image and sales. And in the process, helps in

providing winning edge to competitor who so far hard fought for a space for survival, andfor the advertiser, a never recovering situation.

The selection of ad. agency can be made on the basis of following questions:

1. Does the ad agency understand your business objectives?

The advertising agency’s understanding of the client’s business objectives briefed by the client in the initial discussion must be reflected in the agency’s response

and strategy developed. If response is not matching the objectives it may be due

to absence of right people with right kind of experience in the agency for theassignment.

2. Can the ad agency differentiate your business?

Every client has its own differentiation quality and core essence. Can the ad

agency develop big idea to fulfill client’s brand potential. Can the agency producea single-minded proposition that your target audience will find irresistible.

3. Is the ad agency producing results for its existing clients?

Verification of the agency’s existing client’s help in great extent in this regards.

4. Does the ad agency have the right credential?

Does the agency have clients and brands that fit the advertiser’s profile?

5. Will you be dealing with the directors of the ad agency?

Ensure with whom in the agency the clients will deal with after the deal isfinalized. Whether the agency people assigned by the agency to deal with client

matter while important issues like creativity, media decision, etc. are finalized.

6. Will your account be important to the ad agency?

It is important that the client’s account is seen as being significant and special on

every level.

7. Does the agency realize that advertising is not always the ‘solution’?

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“Advertising is the solution, now what is the problem” is a widely held view

accepted by the traditional agencies. A modern, and progressive advertising

agency must demonstrate that it has full working knowledge of the mostappropriate options available to meet the objectives of its clients in present

context and in future too.

8. Is the agency capable of integrating traditional and new media?In the present scenario, a single media agency might not help the clients achieves

the desired result. In fact, media mix strategy defer from product to product and

from objective to objective.

9. Does the agency offer high level strategy and creativity?

The strategy and creativity are two interdependent disciplines. Within a campaign,

there must have proper synergy between strategy and creativity.

10. Is the agency’s motivation to take your business to the next higher level or to

win awards?

Check whether the agency is enthusiast with the assignment.

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Module – II:

Advertising as Mass Communication

Mass Media through mass communication have an important role in modern society as

the main channel of communication. Competition has become increasingly keen in thearea of the mass media as they keep fighting for the attention of the readers, listeners, andTV-viewers.

Newspapers get more than half of their revenues from advertisers, and most radio and TVstations get all their revenues from advertising and sponsoring. Obviously, the advertisers

have a strong influence on news contents. Such an influence is usually considered

unethical, but is nevertheless difficult to avoid. In order to attract advertisers, the mediaoften generate a “buying mood” by discussing topics of relevance to the advertised

products and avoiding any criticism of commercial products or of consumerism in

general.

Advertising is a non-personal form of mass communication, paid for by an identified

sponsor. Advertising through mass media communicates information to a large number of

recipients. It has three main aims:

1. To pass on information

2. To develop attitude3. To provoke action beneficial to the advertiser

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An advertisement for motor bike is paid for by the manufacturer to achieve greater sales;

an advertisement on insurance promote the benefit of policy while in distress; anadvertisement with slogan “Small family; happy family” educate people advantage of

small family; a party broadcast aims to increase votes. It must be remembered that

advertising is only one element of the communication mix, but it does perform certain parts of the communicating task faster and with greater economy and volume than other

means.

What significant role advertising as an element of mass communication does play

depends on the nature of the product and its frequency of purchase. It contributes the

greatest part when:

1. Buyer awareness of the product is low

2. Industry sales are rising rather than remaining stable or declining

3. The product has features which are not clear to the buyer

4. The opportunities for product differentiation are strong5. Discretionary incomes are high

6. A new product or new service or idea is being launched

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The Communication Mix

Communication is crucial to the success of any organization. The advertisers need to use

the different elements of the communication mix to communicate their message, their product value and any benefits to customers.

The main elements that make up the communication mix include:

1. Advertising: General information of interest to the wider customer groups

(a) Radio, (b) Newspapers & Magazines, (c) Leaflets, (d) Directories, (e)

Packaging, (f) Posters, (g) Trade magazines, (h) Brochures and (i)

Internet.

2. Direct Mail: Information to a specific audience.

(a) E-mails and (b) Letters.

3. Direct Response: Designated to solicit a direct response, which is specific and

quantifiable, direct from the customer to specific product.

(a) Questionnaire, (b) Surveys, (c) E-mail, (d) Letters, (e) Conference, (f)Seminars, (g) Workshops, (h) Meetings.

4. Word of Mouth: Communicating directly with individual and specific groups of

customers.

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(a) Personal communication (telephone, visits & interviews), (b)

Presentations and (c) Meetings.

Steps to develop a Communication Programme include:

A) Identify target audienceWho? Where? What do they require?

B) Determine communication objectives

Possible objectives for the communication may be to create awareness, obtainenquires, obtain information and improve product’s image.

C) Set communication budget

This must be realistic; it must be affordable. It is very important to allocate the

budget wisely; money spent on a bad communication is worse than spending nomoney on communication.

D) Decide suitable timeframe

A decision must be reached on the timeframe of the communication process. This

will depend on the specific objectives of the project, the medium used and allocated budget.

E) Design the message

What to say? How to say it? Where to say it?

The ‘AIDAS’ model can illustrate this process:

Attention Interest Desire Action Satisfaction

Ideally the message should get the attention of the customers and take them throughthe stages until satisfaction reached. In practice few messages take customers

through the whole process, but are pitched at a certain level that meets the required

objective.

The message content should include benefit, information, etc. that appeals to the

audience. This appeal could be: rational (show benefit such as quality, economy,and value that is proposed changes in a product or in service), emotional (stir up

positive emotion that will motivate action) and moral (directed to the audience’s

sense of what is right that is anti-social behavioural action).

The message format depends on the communication medium used. For printed ads,

the careful decision for headline illustration, colour, etc. For personal selling,

decision as to choice of words, portfolio, dress and body language.

F) Deciding on the Communication Mix :

Each element of the mix has a different communication capacity, is effective at

different stages in the communication process and we have a different level of control

over each one. Therefore, the decision for choice of communication mix will depend

upon:

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1. Who the target audience is

2. The agreed objectives3. The timing of the communication

4. The complexity of the product

5. Legal restraints6. Monetary restraints

G) Carry out Communication Plan

Implementation, coordination and control of the entire communication plan.

H) Measuring and Analyzing Results:

It is important to measure the effectiveness of each communication campaign. This

should be done against the objective(s).

Measuring and analyzing the outcome of a specific interaction will help in the

development of future communications and in evaluating the best methods to use.

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Documents

Advertisement Management (1)