Distribution means to spread the product throughout the marketplace such that a large number of people can buy it.

Distribution can make or break a company. A good distribution system quite simply means the company has greater chance of selling its products more than its competitors. The company that spreads its products wider and faster into the market place at lower costs than its competitors will make greater margins absorb raw material price rise better and last longer in tough market conditions. Distribution is critical for any type of industry or service. The best price product, promotion and people come to nothing if the product is not available for sale at the points at which consumers can buy.

In the FMCG industry in India, specially, companies distribute their low-value, high volume products to over 1 million retail outlets, or points of sale. The most successful FMCG companies have the biggest networks, made of factories, stock points, distributors or C&F (Carrying and forwarding agents), wholesalers, retailers and consumers. Nowadays, even direct marketing is considered a feasible distribution channel.

Distribution involves doing the following things:

1. A good transport system to take the goods into different geographical areas.
2. A good tracking system so that the right goods reach at the right time in the right quantity.
3. A good packaging, which takes the wear and tear of transport.
4. Tracking the places where the product can be placed such that there is a maximum opportunity to buy it.
5. It also involves a system to take back goods from the trade.

Importance of Distribution

Distribution is one of the important mix among marketing mixes. Delivery of satisfaction, standard of living, value addition, communication, employment, efficiency and finance are the major role and importance of distribution.

The role and importance of distribution in marketing and in the whole economy can be discussed as follows:-

1. Delivery of satisfaction

Marketing concept emphasizes on earning profit through satisfaction of the customers. Besides market research for the development and sales of goods according to need and wants of consumers, the participants of distribution channel also help producers in production of new goods.

2. Standard of living

Distribution function helps to improve living standard of the consumers in the society. Proper distribution of necessary goods and services to the consumers easily at right time does not only satisfy them but also brings change in their living standard. Distribution brings improvement in living standard of consumers through generation of employment, increase in income and transfer of ownership. Hence, it brings positive effect in the society.

3. Value addition

The functions of distribution such as transportation, warehousing, inventory management etc. increase the importance of products by creating place utility, time utility and quantity utility. Distribution mix plays an important role to increase the value of the products through delivery of goods in right quantity, at right place and right time.

4. Communication

Distribution serves as link between producers and consumers. Producers can make flow of information and messages to consumers about their products, price, promotion etc. through channel members. Similarly, they receive information about customers, competitors and environmental changes from channel members.

5. Employment

The function of distribution creates employment opportunities in society. Market intermediaries work as direct and indirect sources of employment. Different producers need to supply their innumerable products to consumers. Thousands of distributors, agents, wholesalers, retailers, brokers etc. involve in supplying the products to the consumers. Similarly, many persons of the society can get job in the transport and warehouses sectors, etc.

6. Efficiency

Producers produce limited types of goods in mass quantity. but the consumers demand different types of goods in small quantity. When goods are produced in a mass quantity, they can be obtained at lower price. Distribution helps to satisfy the needs of consumers by supplying assortment of different products of different producers. From this, efficiency can be achieved in both production and distribution.

7. Financing

Intermediaries themselves make arrangement to keep reserve and stock of goods. The producers need not make arrangement and management of distribution centers and warehouse. The producers need not do anything except remaining busy in production, the timely payment by intermediaries and financial helps become more important for smooth operation of production. Similarly, the role of finance is also decisive in mobilizing other means of production.

Different types of channel of distribution are as follows:

Manufacturers and consumers are two major components of the market. Intermediaries perform the duty of eliminating the distance between the two. There is no standardised level which proves that the distance between the two is eliminated.

Based on necessity the help of one or more intermediaries could be taken and even this is possible that there happens to be no intermediary. Their description is as follows:

(A) Direct Channel or Zero Level Channels

When the manufacturer instead of selling the goods to the intermediary sells it directly to the consumer then this is known as Zero Level Channel. Retail outlets, mail order selling, internet selling and selling

(B) Indirect Channels

When a manufacturer gets the help of one or more middlemen to move goods from the production place to the place of consumption, the distribution channel is called indirect channel. Following are the main types of it:

1. One Level Channel

In this method an intermediary is used. Here a manufacturer sells the goods directly to the retailer instead of selling it to agents or wholesalers. This method is used for expensive watches and other like products. This method is also useful for selling FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods).

2. Two Level Channel

In this method a manufacturer sells the material to a wholesaler, the wholesaler to the retailer and then the retailer to the consumer. Here, the wholesaler after purchasing the material in large quantity from the manufacturer sells it in small quantity to the retailer.

Then the retailers make the products available to the consumers. This medium is mainly used to sell soap, tea, salt, cigarette, sugar, ghee etc.

3. Three Level Channel

Under this one more level is added to Two Level Channel in the form of agent. An agent facilitates to reduce the distance between the manufacturer and the wholesaler. Some big companies who cannot directly contact the wholesaler, they take the help of agents. Such companies appoint their agents in every region and sell the material to them.

Then the agents sell the material to the wholesalers, the wholesaler to the retailer and in the end the retailer sells the material to the consumers.

Therefore, proper product life cycle strategies are critical. The company needs to pay more attention to its aging products to identify products in the decline stage early. Then, the firm must take a decision: maintain, harvest or drop the declining product.

The main objective in the decline stage should be to reduce expenditure and “milk” the brand. General strategies for the decline stage include cutting prices, choosing a selective distribution by phasing out unprofitable outlets and reduce advertising as well as sales promotion to the level needed to retain only the most loyal customers.

If management decides to maintain the product or brand, repositioning or reinvigorating it may be an option. The purpose behind these options is to move the product back into the growth stage of the PLC. If management decides to harvest the product, costs need to be reduced and only the last sales need to be harvested. However, this can only increase the company’s profits in the short-term. Dropping the product from the product line may involve selling it to another firm or simply liquidate it at salvage value.

In the following, all characteristics of the four product life cycle stages discussed are listed. For each, product life cycle strategies with regard to product, price, and distribution, advertising and sales promotion are identified. Choosing the right product life cycle strategies is crucial for the company’s success in the long-term.

The Organizational Structure of an Advertising Agency

The organizational structure of an advertising agency consists of the same basic elements, regardless of the firm’s size. An account services team manages client relationships, the creative team develops the advertisements and media specialists select the media outlets that will run the ads. A senior management team takes responsibility for the agency’s business and financial operations.

(i) Agency Management

The senior management team may consist of a chief executive and finance director in a small agency. A larger agency may have a management team, including a chief executive and finance director, together with directors responsible for each of the firm’s departments. If an agency belongs to a large group of companies, a member of the management team takes responsibility for relationships with the board of the holding company.

(ii) Account Services

The account services team deals with clients and coordinates the work of the agency’s creative and media teams. A large agency might have three levels of account management: account director, account executive and assistant account executive. Account directors, who report to the agency’s management team, supervise the work of account executives and take responsibility for a group of accounts. They may also maintain a close relationship with the agency’s most important clients. Account executives and assistant account executives report to account directors and manage the day-to-day operations on their accounts.

(iii) Account Planning

Account planners research the needs and preferences of the target market for a product or service. They use their findings to develop an advertising strategy and prepare a brief for the creative team that’s working on an advertising campaign. In smaller agencies, account planning may be part of the responsibility of an account executive. Larger agencies may appoint a specialist as a member of the account management team.

(iv) Media

The media department is responsible for planning where and when advertisements will appear and buying space or time in newspapers, magazines, radio, television, digital media and outdoor media, such as poster sites and billboards. In small agencies, one person may combine the planning and buying roles. Larger agencies have a media department headed by a media director who supervises the work of a team of planners and buyers. The media team may include specialists in print, broadcast or digital media.

(v) Creative Services

The creative services team consists of copywriters and designers, known as art directors, who work together to develop concepts for advertisements. In larger agencies, a creative director manages teams working on different accounts. Smaller agencies may only appoint a creative director who works with freelance writers.

(vi) Production

Larger agencies have a production department responsible for managing advertising campaigns. They set schedules and manage campaign budgets, coordinating the work of the creative and media departments. The production team also interacts with external suppliers working on advertising campaigns, such as printers, photographers and video production companies. In smaller agencies, account executives or creative directors take responsibility for project management.

5 types of advertising agencies.

1. Full-service Agencies

   • Large size agencies.
   • Deals with all stages of advertisement.
   • Different expert people for different departments.
   • Starts work from gathering data and analyzing and ends on payment of bills to the media people.

2. Interactive Agencies

   • Modernized modes of communication are used.
   • Uses online advertisements, sending personal messages on mobile phones, etc.
   • The ads produced are very interactive, having very new concepts, and very innovative.

3. Creative Boutiques

   • Very creative and innovative ads.
   • No other function is performed other than creating actual ads.
   • Small sized agencies with their own copywriters, directors, and creative people.

4. Media Buying Agencies

   • Buys place for advertise and sells it to the advertisers.
   • Sells time in which advertisement will be placed.
   • Schedules slots at different television channels and radio stations.
   • Finally supervises or checks whether the ad has been telecasted at opted time and place or not.

5. In-House Agencies

   • As good as the full service agencies.
   • Big organization prefers these type of agencies which are in built and work only for them.
   • These agencies work as per the requirements of the organizations.

There are some specialized agencies which work for some special advertisements. These types of agencies need people of special knowledge in that field. For example, advertisements showing social messages, finance advertisements, medicine related ads, etc.

Importance of Advertising: For Manufacturers, Middlemen, Consumer and Society

Advertising is an integral part of our economic and social life. As a power­ful technique of promoting sales, it has been doing wonders in the area of distri­bution. The role of advertising can be analyzed from five different angles namely, manufacturers; middleman; sales force; customer and society.

1. Importance of Advertising to Manufacturers:

Every manufacturer and producer, who wants to make available his goods to people at profit, do take full advantage of advertising to popularize their products and services.

The major benefits that are available to manufacturer are:

(a) Increasing Sales: Even the best product cannot be sold on its own, unless people know about the product. In today’s highly sensitive and competitive market, a firm cannot maximize its profit, unless it multiplies its sales turnover. A regular and frequent advertising helps the producer to obtain this objective.

(b) Helps in maintain existing market and explore new market: Every forward looking company eyes on future prospects without losing its current position. A company’s success is reflected by how it maintains its current position and future expansion. Advertising helps the manufacturer, in this regard, to face competition effectively.

(c) Helps to control price of product: Through advertising, it is possible to control price of the product especially in retail market. Very often greedy retailer charge higher price from the customer. The manufacturer can help them by printing the price on the packages.

2. Importance of Advertising for Middlemen:

Middlemen are essential link between producer and consumer.

The benefits which advertising offers to middlemen are:

(a) Quick Sale: Every retailer holds stock of different producer. Advertising, by making the range of products known to customer, helps the retailer to quickly sell its stock.

(b) Act as Salesmen: Advertising has been rightly described as salesmanship in print. Advertising perform task of travelling salesmen at least cost. That is why; most of the retail organizations do not employ large number of travelling salesman. Instead, they spend on advertising, which attracts customers to the shops, where counter salesmen cater to their need.

3. Importance of Advertising for Consumer:

Ultimate aim of all marketing efforts is to satisfy the needs of the customer by providing the goods and services.

Advertising is essential for consumer due to following reasons:

(a) Quick decision making and saves time: In today’s competitive world market is full of different types of product which satisfy needs and want. Every producer claims his product to be superior one. In such situation, advertising helps the consumer in comparing features; price; utility; quality etc. of the product, and select the best.

(b) Better Quality Product at Reasonable Price: Advertising promotes good quality product by printing their image in the minds of consumer. Due to this, bad product goes out of the market. Moreover, it increases competition in the market, which helps consumer in getting the product at reasonable price.

4. Importance of Advertising for Society:

Advertising is not only beneficial for manufacturer; retailer and customer but also for the society.

Various benefits offered by advertising to the society are:

(a) Uplift Standard of Living: Advertising has made it possible for general public to use those products which were luxuries of yesterday. Advertising increases the consumption pattern, it results in more production at least cost, which in turn increases earning of the society and thus, standard of living of the society.

(b) Generates Employment: Advertising generates gainful employment opportunities both directly and indirectly. It directly generates employment painters; artist; photographers; technician etc. Indirectly, it gives employment by supporting all those industries like paper; colour; electronic etc. which supply inputs for the advertising activities.

Importance of Advertising as a Promotional, Marketing and Business Activity

For an organization, advertising is important both as a promotional and as a marketing activity. As a business activity it holds its importance for an economy.

1. As a Promotional Activity:

Advertising could have following effects:

1. To generate awareness for the product.
2. To impart knowledge about product to the customer.
3. To cause the change in attitude.
4. To induce trial behaviour for the product.
5. To have direct purchase action.

Advertising effects differ in different market situations. For a ‘less expensive frequently purchased product’ the use of repetitive advertising may cause trial purchase. In case the trial experience is satisfactory, it is expected to result into final purchase of a product. For routine or habitual kind of purchases like purchase of glucose biscuits, the mere exposure to an advertisement is likely to trigger a direct purchase action.

On the other hand, for the purchase of a product like automobile advertising is primarily used to generate awareness and impart knowledge about the product. Since such decision-making situation requires more of buyer’s deliberations, it is less likely that attitude change occurs due to advertising only. The use of repetitive advertising, however, provides reassurance like in the case of Surf Excel ads and helps in reinforcing the product choice.

2. As a Marketing Activity:

Advertising holds its significance for decisions concerning other promotion tools as well as other marketing decisions concerning product, price, and place. The nature and scope of advertising for a product in turn depends upon the mix of various marketing tools in a given situation.

Product is at the very heart of an advertising programme. A, successful advertising programme requires knowledge about product attributes and a clear notion about its positioning. Packaging, trade mark and various other attributes of product as its taste, colour, texture, aroma, style and design are other essential elements of effective advertising.

The potential of these attributes in affecting product sale is analyzed before incorporating them in the advertising message. Though advertising does not add any intrinsic value to the product, it makes possible selling the product by informing the consumers. Advertising is one of the major parts of brand building exercise.

In case advertising carries a price tag, it helps in comparison between various brands also. Otherwise the media choice, the message content, and its execution for an advertising activity do convey a certain notion about the product price to the consumer. There is a perception about positive relationship between the product price and the level of advertising activity for a product.

Brands with relatively high advertising budget are presumed as charging premium prices and brands that spend less than their competitors on advertising charge lesser price. At each product life cycle stage, the level and the kind of advertising is related to its price strategy. The positive relationship between high relative advertising and price level is supposed to be stronger for products in the later stages of PLC. This is especially found true for market leaders and for low cost products.

The level of advertising exposure is related to distribution objectives and strategies. Product distribution can be intensive or selective or exclusive. Advertising as a mass communication mode facilitates an intensive distribution of product. It works as a pull factor in the market and creates demand for the product. In case of selective or exclusive distribution strategy adopted for the product, advertising is mainly used to provide information about the product availability.

Advertising is often regarded as ‘salesmanship in print which pre-sells the product verbally and makes it comfortable for sales personnel to approach the target audience. Advertising facilitates the implementation of various sales promotion techniques in the market. Quite often, marketers make use of sales promotion tools like gifts, coupons, discounts, etc. to give immediate boost to the declining product sales or to counter the competitive strategy.

Advertising creates awareness about these tools and makes the environment conducive to bring success in terms of increase in product sales. Similarly, for public relation and publicity to be effective in their goals, advertising provides a viable platform to make people aware of such promotional initiatives.

In a nutshell, advertising appears to be one among many marketing activities being taken up to communicate with the customers. An insight into the interdependencies between advertising decisions and those on product design, pricing and dealer’s choice. Thus, the ability of advertising decisions to contribute to the goals of an organization depends on other decisions and also the coordination with these decisions.

The productivity of advertising decisions increases when the quality of decisions in other areas of marketing mix improves. There is some kind of communication which occurs at every phase of marketing and at the end product itself performs the principal and decisive act of communication.

But when advertising is used it generally assumes a dominant position in the overall marketing and promotional strategy of an organization. The actual aim of advertising is therefore not to ‘sell’ but to induce people to try the product or service offered and to prepare them for satisfaction in its use by ‘pre-sampling’ it verbally.

Over the years, advertising industry has witnessed the annual growth of over 15 per cent and it reflects the buoyancy and optimism in Indian economy. The booming stock market, price rationalisation across categories, exploding real estate and entertainment industry has opened up new markets for the advertisers.

Along with Telecom and Auto sectors the growth of advertising industry is driven mainly by advertising for new product categories including Mutual Funds, IPO’s, Aviation and also the increased ad spend for rural markets and the markets with low price points. There is reported an increase of 45.5 per cent in inbound traffic and additional earnings of Rs 8,274 crores in the year 2005 over that in the year 2003.

Advertising is often regarded as the most important means of marketing a company’s services and tools. The scope of advertising is to communicate a message to current customers or potentially target new customers. It helps a company get a message or a piece of information across to their customer base regarding a new product or special deal.

1. Scope of advertising by budget

There is always a budget allocated for advertising and promotion within the marketing budget. The budget allocated should be in coordination with the type of advertisement the organization wants. The resources and other requirements are to be kept in mind for the budget allocation.

2. Scope of advertising by deliverables

Once the budget is decided, the marketing plan can be projected further. A detailed scope of work that deliverables require can be outlined. Agencies can now develop a proposed resource plan.

3. Scope of advertising by allocating deliverables

For creative work, allocating the type of deliverables (TV, online, mobile, press, magazine,​etc.) based on the previous campaign requirements can be more insightful after the previous plan.

4. Scope of advertising by strategy

Once the deliverables are allocated, advertising agencies can define the strategic requirements by brand or category and develop a scope of work based on past requirements and remuneration for similar strategic deliverables.

important features of advertising are listed below:

1. Paid Form:

Only that attempt of the seller on which he/she has spent some money to communicate information to the consumer is called advertising. If without incurring any expenditure some information relating to some product or service is published, it will not be called advertising.

For example, if an editor of some magazine, on his own, publishes news about a particular product, it will convey to the consumers necessary information regarding that product but no expenditure has been incurred by the seller for this publication.

As such, it cannot be called advertising. It may be called propaganda or publicity. Thus, any information about a product communicated free of cost cannot be termed as advertising.

2. Impersonal Presentation:

Advertising is non-personal presentation of information. In other words, the advertiser and the consumer do not come into personal contact. Advertising is a monologue and not a dialogue.

3. Speedy and Mass Communication:

Advertising is a speedy medium of communication. Besides being speedy, its operational area is very vast. In other words, it reaches millions of people simultaneously.

4. Identified Sponsor:

Another feature of advertising is that its sponsor can be identified. Whenever we come across an advertisement, its sponsor is easily recognized. Obviously, its sponsor can be either the seller or the producer of that product or service. If due to some reason it is difficult to identify the sponsor, then that information cannot be called advertising. It will be called propaganda or publicity.

Important benefits of advertising are listed below:

(1) Introduces a New Product in the Market:

Advertising plays significant role in the introduction of a new product in the market. It stimulates the people to purchase the product.

(2) Expansion of the Market:

It enables the manufacturer to expand his market. It helps in exploring new markets for the product and retaining the existing markets. It plays a sheet anchor role in widening the marketing for the manufacturer’s products even by conveying the customers living at the far flung and remote areas.

(3) Increased Sales:

Advertisement facilitates mass production to goods and increases the volume of sales. In other words, sales can be increased with additional expenditure on advertising with every increase in sale, selling expenses will decrease.

(4) Fights Competition:

Advertising is greatly helpful in meeting the forces of competition prevalent in the market. Continuous advertising is very essential in order to save the product from the clutches of the competitors.

(5) Enhances Good-Will:

Advertising is instrumental in increasing goodwill of the concern. It introduces the manufacturer and his product to the people. Repeated advertising and better quality of products brings more reputation for the manufacturer and enhances goodwill for the concern.

(6) Educates The Consumers:

Advertising is educational and dynamic in nature. It familiarizes the customers with the new products and their diverse uses and also educates them about the new uses of existing products.

(7) Elimination of Middlemen:

It aims at establishing a direct link between the manufacturer and the consumer, thereby eliminating the marketing intermediaries. This increases the profits of the manufacturer and the consumer gets the products at lower prices.

(8) Better Quality Products:

Different goods are advertised under different brand names. A branded product assures a standard quality to the consumers. The manufacturer provides quality goods to the consumers and tries to win their confidence in his product.

(9) Supports The Salesmanship:

Advertising greatly facilitates the work of a salesman. The customers are already familiar with the product which the salesman sells. The selling efforts of a salesman are greatly supplemented by advertising. It has been rightly pointed out that “selling and advertising are cup and saucer, hook and eye, or key and lock wards.”

(10) More Employment Opportunities:

Advertising provides and creates more employment opportunities for many talented people like painters, photographers, singers, cartoonists, musicians, models and people working in different advertising agencies.

(11) Reduction in the Prices of Newspapers and Magazines Etc:

Advertising is immensely helpful in reducing the cost of the newspapers and magazines etc. The cost of bringing out a newspaper is largely met by the advertisements published therein.

(12) Higher Standard of Living:

The experience of the advanced nations shows that advertising is greatly responsible for raising the living standards of the people. In the words of Winston Churchil “advertising nourishes the consuming power of men and creates wants for better standard of living.” By bringing to the knowledge of the consumers different variety and better quality products, it has helped a lot in increasing the standard of living in a developing economy like India.

The 5 M’s of advertising are as follows:

1. Mission
2. Money
3. Message
4. Media
5. Measurement

1. Mission:

Advertising Objectives can be classified as to whether their aim is:

• To inform: This aim of Advertising is generally true during the pioneering stage of a product category, where the objective is building a primary demand.
• To persuade: Most advertisements are made with the aim of persuasion. Such advertisements aim at building selective brand.
• To remind: Such advertisements are highly effective in the maturity stage of the product. The aim is to keep the consumer thinking about the product.

2. Money:

This M deals with deciding on the Advertising Budget

The advertising budget can be allocated based on:

• Departments or product groups
• The calendar
• Media used
• Specific geographic market areas

There are five specific factors to be considered when setting the Advertising budget.

1. Stage in PLC: New products typically receive large advertising budgets to build awareness and to gain consumer trial.  Established brands are usually supported with lower advertising budgets as a ratio to sales.
2. Market Share and Consumer base: high-market-share brands usually require less advertising expenditure as a percentage of sales to maintain their share. To build share by increasing market size requires larger advertising expenditures. Additionally, on a cost-per-impressions basis, it is less expensive to reach consumers of a widely used brand them to reach consumers of low-share brands.
3. Competition and clutter: In a market with a large number of competitors and high advertising spending, a brand must advertise more heavily to be heard above the noise in the market. Even simple clutter from advertisements not directly competitive to the brand creates the need for heavier advertising.
4. Advertising frequency: the number of repetitions needed to put across the brands message to consumers has an important impact on the advertising budget.

Product substitutability: brands in the commodity class (example cigarettes, beer, soft drinks) require heavy advertising to establish a different image. Advertising is also important when a brand can offer unique physical benefits or features.

3. Message:

Message generation can be done in the following ways:

1. Inductive: By talking to consumers, dealers, experts and competitors. Consumers are the major source of good ideas. Their feeling about the product, its strengths, and weaknesses gives enough information that could aid the Message generation process.
2. Deductive: John C. Meloney proposed a framework for generating Advertising Messages.

According to him, a buyer expects four types of rewards from a product:

• Rational
• Sensory
• Social
• Ego Satisfaction.

Buyers might visualize these rewards from:

• Results-of-use Experience
• Product-in-use Experience
• Incidental-to-use Experience

4. Media:

The next M to be considered while making an Advertisement Program is the Media through which to communicate the Message generated during the previous stage. The steps to be considered are:

5. Measurement:

Evaluating the effectiveness of the Advertisement Program is very important as it helps prevent further wastage of money and helps make corrections that are important for further advertisement campaigns. Researching the effectiveness of the advertisement is the most used method of evaluating the effectiveness of the Advertisement Program. Research can be in the form of:

1. Communication-Effect Research
2. Sales-Effect Research

Consumer advertising is messages paid for by companies and delivered through mass media. The objective is to inform or persuade consumers of the merits of your brand and products. Consumers are a large and common target of ads presented through several traditional types of media. Consumer advertising is distinct from trade market or business-to-business ads presented to business buyers.

Television

Television is the most heavily expended advertising medium used to target household consumers. Companies pay TV networks to place 30- to 60-second spots during a certain part of the day or during particular programs watched by people in the target audience. TV ads typically offer an advertiser the largest possible audience reach if that is the objective. You can also present creative messages and show off products or services to effectively persuade customers. Negative attitudes toward commercials and the high cost are challenges of delivering TV ads to consumers.

Radio

Radio ads also target consumers. They are commonly used by retailers in local markets because of their affordability and targeted geographic reach. Because of their affordability, you can often influence consumers over time with radio ads through repetition, making radio a good advertising medium for a small business. Audience attitudes and disinterest in radio ads are detractors. People are commonly driving and often turn the channel when ads come on. Radio messages are also fleeting and creating a memorable impact is a difficult.

Print

Several print media are used to reach consumers, with newspapers and magazines being the most common. Direct-mail pieces are also sent to consumers. Businesses are also targeted through business newspapers and industry-specific magazines. However, consumers purchase lots of daily or weekly newspapers and any of the hundreds of weekly consumer magazine publications. High perceived credibility, geographic targeting in newspapers, visual appeal in magazines and high audience interest in print media are among advantages in reaching consumers through these formats. Newspapers don’t allow you to reach niche audiences, though, and magazines have a high cost per contact. However, advertising your small business in your local newspaper can allow you to reach a large audience for a moderate cost.

Support

A number of support media are used to reach consumer audiences. Billboards are placed on highways and in metro areas to hit local consumers or those in the midst of travel. Directories target consumers in select markets. Transit ads are placed on public transportation vehicles to target urban consumers in cities. Aerial ads are often used to reach consumers in cities or attending outdoor sporting events.

Digital/Interactive

Digital and interactive ads have picked up since the emergence of the Internet in homes in the mid-1990s. Companies use online ads, mobile messaging and other digital formats to reach tech-savvy and “on the go” consumers. Affordability, ease in tracking and audience selectivity are among the appeals of digital ads. Plus, as people continue to do more with their mobile devices, companies are attempting to reach consumers through them. Digital advertising is often a good choice for small businesses because it is inexpensive and allows targeting of niche audiences.

Sales Promotion

Whereas other traditional consumer ads are intended to build and maintain long-term brand image, sales promotions are used to induce consumers to make immediate purchases. Discounts, rebates and coupons are among the promotions used to lure in customers. This short-term-oriented ad approach is used to convey value to the consumer by offering a quality product a reduced price. Overuse can detract from other consumer advertising,

The most popular terminology used for industrial advertising is Business to Business advertising. This type of advertising generally includes a company advertising its products or services for the companies which actually uses same or similar products or services or we can say that the advertising company should produce the products which the other company needs for its productions or functions. For e.g. some mineral water companies which work on a smaller scale outsource the packaging bottles, the caps for bottles, the cover with name printed on it, etc. so for this, the advertisements of the manufacturers of bottles, caps and outer packaging paper can work.

A smaller to smaller and largest of all, every company has to do industrial advertising. For e.g. if a company is making coffee powder, it will sell its powder to the distributors who in turn will sale it to the retailers and wholesalers and also to the big companies who has a coffee machine for their employees. Thus companies manufacturing any products can be advertised to the other companies, like raw materials, the machineries used by other companies, spare parts of the machines which makes it work, anything.

Role of Industrial Advertising

• It minimizes the hunt for buyers.
• It helps in increasing sales of the company.
• It helps in making more and more distribution channels.
• It makes company work more efficiently to produce the desired product or service.
• It creates awareness among the customers or other companies about the products and services.

Process of Industrial Advertising

The strategies used in industrial advertising differ from company to company, as different companies have different products to be advertised. So, a single rule cannot work for all the companies’ advertisements. But the basic process which can lead to a successful advertisement is: knowing the objective for advertising – identifying the target companies researching about the market conditions and the competitors creating the ad to be delivered selecting media to be used what should be the budget allotted execution of the advertisement getting the feedbacks from the customers.

Media types in Industrial Advertising

The media generally used in the industrial advertising is print media and direct marketing.

Print Media includes business magazines, trade publications, newspapers, technical journals, etc. To make print media work efficiently, there are some do’s and don’ts to be kept in mind:

• Visual image of the ad should be very sharp and prominent
• The ad should be so impressive that readers get attracted towards reading it
• The highlight should be on the service or product offered and not the source by which it is being offered
• Let the ad be simple to be read (with no difficult fonts)
• The picture shown should not be irrelevant with the product.
• The ad should reflect the company’s image.
• The ad should to be in logical sequence if it is of two or more pages.
• Headlines should be catchy and suiting the product image.
• And lastly, at the bottom of the page, the company name, address and phone number of the respected office should be mentioned clearly without fail.

Direct Marketing includes:

1. Direct Mail: Here, the newsletters, data sheets, and the brochures of the company are directly mailed to the customers’ postal address.
2. Telephonic Advertising: The advertising is done by calling up the customers on their telephones, giving messages on mobile phones, etc.
3. Online Advertising: Includes companies sending e-mails to the customers or other companies enclosing information about their products and services, putting online banners, providing e-shopping options, etc.

The advertisers also use other ways for promoting their products like participating in trade shows, trade expos, and fairs.

Thus, the companies can use any or every type of advertising, the important motto being increase in sales, producing best quality products, maintaining good relations with the customers, and achieving the desired goal.