Tag: Event Management

An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ideas, beliefs, and concepts into one large media base. Advertising campaigns utilize diverse media channels over a particular time frame and target identified audiences.

The campaign theme is the central message that will be received in the promotional activities and is the prime focus of the advertising campaign, as it sets the motif for the series of individual advertisements and other marketing communications that will be used. The campaign themes are usually produced with the objective of being used for a significant period but many of them are temporal due to factors like being not effective or market conditions, competition and marketing mix.

Advertising campaigns are built to accomplish a particular objective or a set of objectives. Such objectives usually include establishing a brand, raising brand awareness, aggrandizing the rate of conversions/sales. The rate of success or failure in accomplishing these goals is reckoned via effectiveness measures. There are 5 key points at which an advertising campaign must consider to ensure an effective campaign. These points are, integrated marketing communications, media channels, positioning, the communications process diagram and touch points.

The process of making an advertising campaign is as follows:

• Research: First step is to do a market research for the product to be advertised. One needs to find out the product demand, competitors, etc.
• Know the target audience: One need to know who are going to buy the product and who should be targeted.
• Setting the budget: The next step is to set the budget keeping in mind all the factors like media, presentations, paper works, etc which have a role in the process of advertising and the places where there is a need of funds.
• Deciding a proper theme: The theme for the campaign has to be decided as in the colours to be used, the graphics should be similar or almost similar in all ads, the music and the voices to be used, the designing of the ads, the way the message will be delivered, the language to be used, jingles, etc.
• Selection of media: The media or number of Medias selected should be the one which will reach the target customers.
• Media scheduling: the scheduling has to be done accurately so that the ad will be visible or be read or be audible to the targeted customers at the right time.
• Executing the campaign: Finally the campaign has to be executed and then the feedback has to be noted.

Media channels

Media channels, also known as, marketing communications channels, are used to create a connection with the target consumer and influence the behaviour. Traditional methods of communication with the consumer include newspapers, magazines, radio, television, billboards, telephone, post and door to door sales. These are just a few of the historically traditional methods.

Along with traditional media channels, comes new and upcoming media channels. Social media has begun to play a very large role in the way media and marketing intermingle to reach a consumer base. Social media has the power to reach a wider audience. Depending on the age group and demographic, social media can influence a company’s overall image. Using social media as a marketing tool has become a widely popular method for branding. A brand has the chance to create an entire social media presence based around their own specific targeted community.

With advancements in digital communications channels, marketing communications allow for the possibility of two-way communications where an immediate consumer response can be elicited. Digital communications tools include: websites, blogs, social media, email, mobile, and search engines as a few examples. It is important for an advertising campaign to carefully select channels based on where their target consumer spends time to ensure market and advertising efforts are maximized. Marketing professionals should also consider the cost of reaching its target audience and the time (i.e. advertising during the holiday season tends to be more expensive).

Characteristics of Effective Advertising Campaign

Most advertising campaigns can be called effective in their own rights, although they may be absolutely different from each other. Here are some common aspects of effective campaigns that succeed in meeting their goals.

Appeal to the Right of Customers

Each customer and target market has a pain point. And the most effective way to address this pain point is by letting them know how they can take care of it by themselves, and how the product being advertised will aid the process.

Draw Attention

An advertising campaign will only be successful if it is able to draw enough attention. This means high levels of graphics and content becomes an inherent part of the process. But on the other hand, minimalism is also quite capable of drawing audience attention.

Educate the Target Market

If the adverts themselves provide value, then customer trust is easily established. Thus, creating an advertising campaign that provides useful information to the target market opens a communication channel that helps in establishing value to the brand.

Trust is the Key

All successful advertising campaigns bank on establishing trust with their targeted audience. This can be done through various means such as giveaways, trial offers, etc.

Call to Action is a Must

Call to action is basically a command given to the viewer at the end of an advertisement to perform a certain task. The most usual call to action is to ask the viewer to buy the product or service.

Short and Sweet

Advertisement campaigns that drag on for too long are bound to lose mileage and the successful ones usually get the message delivered within a short time. Minimalism can pay off greatly if used by the right person.

Easy to Remember

Memorable advertising campaigns featuring mascots or themes are some of the best examples of successful ads. Creating a memorable advertisement boosts brand recognition as well as sales.

Types:

1. Traditional media campaign

A traditional media campaign is one that relies on traditional media outlets to increase brand awareness and/or promote a product or service. Common traditional media outlets used for this type of campaign include TV, print advertising, radio and direct-mail advertising. An example of a traditional media campaign is placing ads in your local newspaper to let potential consumers know about a sale your store is running.

2. Seasonal push campaign

A seasonal push campaign is a campaign used to promote seasonal sales, products or services. This type of campaign is frequently used by companies that experience a seasonal influx of business such as retail chains and restaurants. For example, a local retail store may create ads on social media informing consumers of a winter sale to increase revenue during the winter months.

3. Product launch campaign

Launching a new product often involves marketing campaigns aimed at spreading awareness of the product and why customers need it. A product launch campaign is executed by the manufacturer in coordination with any distribution partners. For example, consider a shoe company that launches a new pair of women’s sneakers. The marketing campaign would likely focus on reaching women of a certain age group and would include marketing tactics such as social media advertising and emails to existing customers.

4. Brand awareness campaign

A brand awareness campaign is one in which marketing efforts focus on building or strengthening the awareness of a company’s brand. Larger brands may implement regular brand awareness campaigns to maintain their popularity.

For example, a company may start a blog and produce high-quality content relevant to its target audience. This ensures that when the target audience searches for an answer to a question that the company has addressed in its blog, the audience is made aware of the company or brand. While they may not make a purchase at that moment, the target audience becomes cognizant of the brand and will likely return to it in the future.

5. Rebranding campaign

A rebranding campaign is when a company uses marketing to promote a change such as a new company name, logo or merger with another organization. This type of marketing campaign is also used by companies that have fallen out of favor with their target audiences or that wish to make a comeback in their industry. For example, a fast-food restaurant has been under scrutiny for its unhealthy meal options. The company could use a rebranding campaign to advertise new healthy options and promote its commitment to encouraging health and wellness among its customers to encourage new sales.

6. Brand launch campaign

Similarly to a product launch campaign, a brand launch campaign is used when a company has created a new brand and wants to increase awareness of it. For example, a large company recently developed a new brand focused on a new market that the company has not been in before. The organization uses a brand launch campaign to advertise its new brand on social media and sends out emails to existing customers offering a discount when making a purchase from the new brand.

7. Contest marketing campaign

Contest marketing campaigns are not a new concept but have become increasingly popular thanks to social media. This type of campaign can encourage new organic website traffic and spread awareness of a company and its products.

For example, a company runs a contest marketing campaign on its social media account to promote a new product. In order to enter the contest, individuals must tag three friends in the comments on the company’s post and follow the company’s account. This gives the company new followers and, thanks to the participants tagging friends who may not know of the brand, spreads awareness of the company.

8. Email marketing campaign

Email campaigns are used by companies to keep in contact with current customers and inform them of sales, coupons, discounts and new products or services. For example, an organization may send out an email campaign to all of its customers informing them of an upcoming sale and offering an additional 10% off coupon.

Advantages of Advertising:

The advantages of advertising are to be analyzed in terms of its advantages which are as follows:

(i) From Viewpoint of Manufacturers:

A well-advertised product is easier to be sold by the salesman in the market. If a brand is popular and well-known, people respond favourably to the salesman’s efforts. It provides a support to salesmanship, as the audience understands the product and its uses more clearly through the advertisement and the salesman’s effort is reduced to convince the buyers.

(a) Increase in Sales:

The main object of the manufacturer in advertising his products is to promote the sale of his products. Goods produced on a mass scale are marketed by the method of mass persuasion through advertising.

Repetition of advertisements, the manufacturers are not only able to retain existing markets but are also able to expand the markets both by attracting more people to their products and also by suggesting new uses for them. Advertising is a helping hand to selling.

(b) Supplementing Salesmanship:

It creates a ground for the efforts of the salesmen. When a salesman meets its prospect, they have just to canvass for a product with which the consumer may already have been familiarised, through advertisements. Therefore, the salesman’s efforts are supplemented and his task is made easier by advertising.

(c) Lower Costs:

Sales turnover and encourage mass production of goods are enhanced by advertising that results in large scale production, average cost of production reduces and results in higher profits. At the same time, when the cost of advertising and selling costs gets distributed over a larger volume of sales, the average cost of selling also lowers down.

(d) Greater Dealer Interest:

Advertising creates demand by which every retailer gets an opportunity to share with others. Hence, the retailers who deal in advertised goods are materially assisted by advertising in the performance of their functions. The retailers have not to bother much about pushing-up the sale of such products. Therefore, they evidence more interest in advertised products.

(e) Quick Turnover and Smaller Inventories:

A highly responsive market is created by well-organised advertisement campaign thereby facilitating quick turnover of the goods. Resulting, in lower inventories in relation to sales and being carried-on by the manufacturers.

(f) Steady Demand:

Seasonal fluctuations on demands for products are smoothened by advertising generally the manufacturer’s tries to discover and advertise new possible uses of which a seasonal product maybe put. The innovation of cold tea and cold coffee for the use during summer has helped in increasing the demand for these beverages even in that season. The same maybe said for refrigeration.

(ii) From Viewpoint of Consumers:

(a) Improvement in Quality:

Usually, goods are advertised under brand names. When a person is moved by the advertisement to use the product, they proceeds on the hope that the contents of the particular brand will be better than the other brands of the same goods.

When his experience confirms his expectation, a repeat order can be expected. Or else, the sales may rise very high once but may drop down very low subsequently when the consumer’s confidence in the quality of the product fails.

(b) Facility of Purchasing:

Purchasing becomes easy for the consumers after advertising. Generally, the re-sale prices (prices at which the goods are to be sold by the retailers) are fixed and advertised. Thus, advertising offers a definite and positive assurance to the consumer that they will not be overcharged for the advertised product. The consumer can make his purchases with utmost ease and confidence.

(c) Consumer’s Surplus:

The utility of given commodities is increased by advertising for many people. It points-out and pays even more for certain products which appear to have higher utility to them. If these products are available at the original lower prices, there will naturally be a certain amount of consumer’s surplus in terms of increased satisfaction or pleasure derived from these products.

(d) Education of Consumers:

Being an educational and dynamic principle, the prime objective of advertising is to inform and educate the customers about new products, their features, prices and uses. It also convinces them to adopt new ways of life, giving up their old habits and inertia and have a better standard of living.

(iii) From the Viewpoint of Middleman:

(a) Retail Price Maintenance becomes Possible:

The consumers are quite keen on getting quality products at stable prices over a period of time. Each consumer has his or her own family budget where he or she tries hard to match the expenditure to the disposable income for a socially acceptable decent living.

In case the prices go on changing abruptly, these individual budgets are likely to be distorted to such an extent that the consumers will have to think of substitutes for the products they are enjoying at present.

(b) Acts as a Salesman:

What a travelling salesman does for this organisation is done by the advertising at least cost. This is the reason that most of the retail organisations do not employ large army of travelling salesman, rather they are willing to spend on advertising which attracts consumers to the sores where the counter salesmen cater to their needs.

(c) Ensures Quick Sales:

Every retailer having the stock of different producers needs a quick turnover. By bringing the wide range of these products to the notice of the consumers, advertising boosts up of sales.

Faster sales imply the specific advantages such as reduced capital look-up, reduction in losses of holding stock over longer period, increased profits even by reducing the profit margin per unit. Further, advertising gives much leeway and freedom to better serve the needs of the consumers.

(iv) From the Viewpoint of Society:

(a) Change in Motivation:

Radically advertising has changed the basis of human motivation. While people of earlier generations lived and worked mainly for bare necessities of life, the modern generation works harder to supply itself with the luxuries and semi-luxuries of life.

(b) Sustaining the Press:

For support and sustenance the newspapers, periodicals, journals, looks for advertisers, press, look to advertisements. In the absence of income from advertising, the newspapers have to be produced at a higher cost and may not be able to keep themselves free from its competitors.

(c) Encouragement to Artists:

Designing artists, writers to do creative work. They earn their living from preparing advertisements.

(d) Encouragement to Research:

When manufacturers are assured of sufficient profits. They undertake research and discover new products or new uses for existing products. Advertising puts forward this assurance and thereby encouraging industrial research with all its advantages.

(e) Glimpse of National Life:

A glimpse of national life is provided by national life.

Disadvantages of Advertising:

Advertising too have its own limitations. In some case it’s being misused by few people over looking their business interests.

The main weaknesses of advertising are discussed below:

• Deferred Revenue Expenditure:

It is a deferred revenue expenditure, as the results are not immediate. As advertising occupies a substantial portion of the total budget of the organisation. Hence, investing a large sum in it does not necessarily yield immediate results thus limiting its utility.

• Misrepresentation of Facts:

A major drawback of advertising is misrepresentation of facts regarding products and services. Advertisers usually misrepresent unreal/false benefits of a product and make tall claims to excite people to indulge in actions leading to their benefit, but opposed to consumer’s self-interest.

• Consumer’s Deficit:

Advertising creates desires as consumers have low purchasing power. It leads to discontentment. Such discontent is obviously not very desirable from the point of view of society, particularly if it affects a large majority of people. But it is important if it acts as a spur to social change.

• Barriers to Entry:

Advertisements promote industrial concentration to a greater or lesser degree. The extent of such concentration may vary with the character of the individual trade, the advertisability of the product and the technical conditions of its production. Although, studies on this subject are not conclusive. The evidence of positive association between advertising and concentration is weaker than can be expected.

• Wastage of National Resources:

It is objected that advertisement is that it is used to destroy the utility of goods before the end of their normal period of usefulness. Now models of automobiles with nominal improvements are, for example, advertised at such high pressure that the old models have to be discarded long before they become useless, not that merely, the most-advertised products are delicate, fragile, and brittle.

• Increased Cost:

It is much debated whether advertising induces additional cost upon a product which the community has to pay. In a sense, it is true since expenses on it form a part of the total cost of the product. But at the same time, it would be unjust to infer that if the advertising costs were cut down the goods would necessarily be cheaper. Advertising is, one of the items of costs but it is a cost which brings savings in its wake on the distribution side.

• Product Proliferation:

Critics state that advertising encourages unnecessary product proliferation. As it leads to the multiplication of products that are almost identical, resulting in wastage of resources which could otherwise have been used to produce other products.

• Multiplication of Needs:

Advertising compels people to buy things they do not need as it is human instincts, to possess, to be recognized in the society, etc., are provoked by advertiser in order to sell products. At times, various types of appeals are advanced to arouse interest in the product. Sentiments and emotions are played with to gain customers.

An advertising strategy can be defined as a blueprint to help sell a given product to consumers. There are almost as many different advertising strategies are there are products to advertise, and each company follows its own unique strategy plans. However, all forms of advertising strategy follow a few basic principles.

Principles:

Qualities of the Product

Before an advertising strategy can begin in earnest, the company must define the qualities of the product or service, according to U.S. Legal. That means stating what purpose the product fulfils, what features it includes and what advantages it offers over other products intended for the same purpose. These qualities will form the core of the advertising’s branding, helping to define the message of the strategy and the features the company wishes to emphasize in its ads.

State of the Market

With the product now defined, the question becomes who will want to purchase it. According to Adcracker.com, market research can pinpoint the characteristics of key customer demographics, including such elements as age, gender, social standing and interest towards certain forms of advertising (such as how often they watch certain television shows or read certain magazines). It also means defining how much of the market may be open to purchasing that product and what percentage of the market is currently occupied by rival products. It may also try to pin down the current economic climate in order to understand potential sales. For example, selling a luxury product such as a speedboat may be more difficult in times of economic downturn.

Advertising Goals

A knowledge of the possible market; including competitors, customer preferences and conditions for selling; and an understanding of the product itself can then lead to developing a specifics set of goals for the advertising. According to Rex Stewart’s “Building an Advertising Strategy,” the company can state what they hope to accomplish through the advertising (such as “increase sales by 15 percent,” or “promote further sales to women ages 24-39”) and the timetable in which they intend to meet those goals. That forms a road map by which the company can gauge the advertising’s success as the strategy continues.

Methodology

The company must decide upon the methods by which the advertising will be implemented. This includes the overall tone of the advertising, the particular qualities emphasized, the specifics medium (magazine ads, television commercials, product placements, and the like) and the geographic location of the ads (specific cities where billboards will be placed, television stations and/or programs where ads will run, and so on). In addition, the company must draw up a budget covering the resources they are prepared to spend on the advertising strategy and the specific ways in which those resources will be used. With the methodology firmly in place, the company can then go about implementing the strategy.

Types:

Seasonal advertising

This type of advertising strategy is used for the advertising of seasonal products or advertising of your business or products during a particular season. Several huge companies swear by this advertising strategy and advertise their products right before the beginning of the season and through the season. This advertising strategy proves to be beneficial as it provides a high return on investment. Because companies spend their money on advertisements when there is a need for their products in the market rather than wasting money on ads throughout the year.

For example, during important festivals like Diwali, Dussehra, Christmas, companies like Amazon and Flipkart run-heavy advertising, which results in the revenue generation of millions to these companies. Seasonal advertising is not only adopted by giant companies, but it is also popularly used by small businesses to attract customers.

Social media advertising

Social media advertising is one of the most popular advertising strategies used by companies to advertise their products and services and to stay in touch with their customers. Companies create their social media handles on different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc. and share information about their business on these platforms. People can not only learn about the products and services offered by companies but can also interact with the markets through these platforms.

Companies run their advertising campaigns on these platforms and also take the help of social media personalities to promote their products. For example, Olay Company advertise their face cream with the help of social media influencers and mobile companies like Redmi and Oppo also support the latest models of their mobile phones on their social media handles and even with the help of social media influencers.

Social media has become the first choice of advertising of both small as well as large businesses. Businesses are not required to spend millions on advertising using social media advertising strategies like they are required to pay when promoting their business on other advertising platforms.

Moreover, using social media advertising, they can learn about the response of people towards their advertising campaign and can make changes as per their reaction.

Ownership advertising

In an ownership advertising strategy, you make your customers participate in your ad campaign. For example, coke asked their customers to share their selfies with a coke bottle on their social media platforms and tag them in their posts.

In this way, they indirectly made people buy their product, and by sharing on their social media platform, they make their customers advocate their product to their friends and family.

Modelling the advertising strategy

The modelling advertising strategy is when companies make the use of celebrities or renowned personalities to advertise their products. It is an effective advertising strategy as the followers of the superstar will be influenced to buy your product.

Utility advertising strategy

The utility advertising strategy is a unique advertising strategy where you advertise your product by helping people achieve their goals.

Evocation advertising strategy

This type of advertising strategy to attract the attention of people by evoking strong emotions in them. You create a positive image of your brand and product by connecting with people at an emotional level.

Steps to implement:

1. Determine the purpose of advertising

The first step is to determine the purpose of advertising. There can be different purposes for which you want to advertise. For example, to boost the sales, to promote your newly launched product, to attract foot traffic in the store, to increase traffic on the website, to make people aware of the benefits of the product.

Having the clarity of the purpose of advertising is a step forward in the direction of creating an effective advertising strategy. You can select media platforms on which you want to advertise your product and services and can also decide how much you want to spend on your advertising campaign.

2. Determine your target audience

The second and even a crucial step in creating an effective advertising strategy is to determine the audience that you want to target using your advertising strategy. Knowing the audience that you want to focus on makes your advertising strategy more effective. You will create content that will grab the attention of your target audience.

Determining your target audience is not as easy as it seems. It is a complex process to identify your target audience. Your target customer is a person who will ultimately buy your product. You can determine your target audience by creating a profile of the customer who will buy your product. Next, you should evaluate the influence of the people around your target customer, such as family members, colleagues, friends, etc. who will influence the decision of your target customer. For Instance, if you are into the business of selling cars, then your target audience will be the people with regular income. The people who have a stable job or who run a successful business. The decision of these people will be influenced by the people they are working with, their friends, their children, and their spouse. Therefore, make sure that when you are creating an advertising strategy, then don’t forget to target this group of people.

3. Decide your advertising budget size

The next important step is to determine the budget for your advertising campaign. It is essential to decide your advertising budget before you decide on your advertising strategy. Your strategies will be ineffective if it does not match your budget.

Sometimes low budget advertising can do wonders for your business if you choose the right strategy that fits your budget.

4. Selecting media for advertising and deciding the schedule

Once you have determined your product and target audience, the next step that you are required to take is to choose the type of media that you want to use to reach your audience. There are many advertising media such as

1. Print media: Newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, posters, banners, etc.
2. Digital media: Website advertising, social media advertising, World Wide Web, email advertising, YouTube ads, Television ads.
3. Direct mails
4. Word of mouth
5. Outdoor advertising: Billboards, Advertising on public transportation like public buses and cabs.
6. Trade shows.
7. Radio advertising

All of these advertising mediums have their advantages and disadvantages. You can choose one or a group of advertising mediums to implement your strategy. For example, if your target audience is older people than advertisement medium like television ads and newspaper ads will be the right choice of medium to advertise your product.

On the other hand, if you are targeting youngsters, then to reach them, you should opt for social media advertising, YouTube ads, and the world wide web. Because nowadays, most youngsters spend their time on these platforms and spend less time watching television or reading newspapers.

Therefore, the right advertising medium can help increase the return on investment on your advertising strategy.

5. Implementation of the advertising program

The next step is to implement your advertising strategy as planned. The implementation of advertising strategies is referred to as an advertising campaign. An advertising campaign is a different concept from an advertising strategy, but an advertising strategy is used as guidelines to create an advertising campaign. As it is crucial to achieving across the board consistency. Everything that is part of your advertising campaign such as music, artwork, images should be as it is decided in the advertising strategy. It is essential to achieve consistency when you are advertising your product through several advertising mediums. Make sure to use one slogan, image, or a music track that creates the coherency of your advertisement on different advertising platforms.

6. Measure the effectiveness of advertising

The last step is to measure the effectiveness of your advertising strategy. Whether your advertising strategy was successful or not will depend on the return on investment that you get by the implementation of an advertising strategy.

Check whether your objective is met or not. For example, if you aimed to boost sales, then check how much your advertising strategy was successful in achieving the desired number.

Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

Strategic planning involves an analysis of the company’s strategic initial situation prior to the formulation, evaluation and selection of market-oriented competitive position that contributes to the company’s goals and marketing objectives.

Strategic marketing, as a distinct field of study emerged in the 1970s and 80s, and built on strategic management, that focuses on strategies, that preceded it. Marketing strategy highlights the role of marketing as a link between the organization and its customers.

Marketing strategy leverages the combination of resources and capabilities within an organization to achieve a competitive advantage and thus enhances firm performance.

A clear marketing strategy should revolve around the company’s value proposition, which communicates to consumers what the company stands for, how it operates, and why it deserves their business.

This provides marketing teams with a template that should inform their initiatives across all of the company’s products and services. For example, Walmart (WMT) is widely known as a discount retailer with “everyday low prices,” whose business operations and marketing efforts are rooted in that idea.

Importance of Marketing Strategy

• Marketing strategy provides an organization an edge over it’s competitors.
• Strategy helps in developing goods and services with best profit making potential.
• Marketing strategy helps in discovering the areas affected by organizational growth and thereby helps in creating an organizational plan to cater to the customer needs.
• It helps in fixing the right price for organization’s goods and services based on information collected by market research.
• Strategy ensures effective departmental co-ordination.
• It helps an organization to make optimum utilization of its resources so as to provide a sales message to its target market.
• A marketing strategy helps to fix the advertising budget in advance, and it also develops a method which determines the scope of the plan, i.e., it determines the revenue generated by the advertising plan.

Process:

• Identify your goals: While sales are the ultimate goal for every company, you should have more short-term goals such as establishing authority, increasing customer engagement, or generating leads. These smaller goals offer measurable benchmarks for the progress of your marketing plan. Think of strategy as the high-level ideology and planning as how you accomplish your goals.
• Know your clients: Every product or service has an ideal customer, and you should know who they are and where they hang out. If you sell power tools, you’ll choose marketing channels where general contractors may see your messaging. Establish who your client is and how your product will improve their lives.
• Create your message: Now that you know your goals and who you’re pitching to, it’s time to create your messaging. This is your opportunity to show your potential clients how your product or service will benefit them and why you’re the only company that can provide it.
• Define your budget: How you disperse your messaging may depend on how much you can afford. Will you be purchasing advertising? Hoping for a viral moment on social media organically? Sending out press releases to the media to try to gain coverage? Your budget will dictate what you can afford to do.
• Determine your channels: Even the best message needs the appropriate venue. Some companies may find more value in creating blog posts for their website. Others may find success with paid ads on social media channels. Find the most appropriate venue for your content.
• Measure your success: To target your marketing, you need to know whether it is reaching its audience. Determine your metrics and how you’ll judge the success of your marketing efforts.

Advantage:

Promotes Your Business to a Target Audience

You can’t sell your products or services without appealing to the people most likely to buy those products and services. That group is known as your target audience, and a marketing strategy is the most effective way to reach that all-important group. If you have targeted this group correctly, you know their habits, behaviors, wants, and needs, and you also know where they like to hang out on social media. This information shapes the methods you will use to promote your business. For example, if you own a comic book store, online marketing can be more beneficial than traditional advertising to help you reach your audience on social media platforms.

Helps You Understand Your Customers

You have to do market research before you develop a marketing strategy, and that research can provide you with reams of data that you can use over and over to help refine your product development and to keep up with trends and shifts in your target audience’s behavior. With the evolution of digital information, even small businesses have access to hyper-detailed information about prospective customers. This is known in the digital world as “big data,” large data sets that give you a deep analysis into customer behavior based on factors such as online activity, buying activity, mobile activity, and interactions at stores and shops.

Helps Brand Your Business

Your marketing strategy isn’t just about boosting leads and converting them into buyers, it’s also about expressing the culture, values, and purpose of your business. The process of communicating that vision to your audience is the essence of branding. For example, Apple’s marketing strategy is all about simplicity, elegance, design, and function. Their products are sleek, simple, beautiful, and offer multiple functionalities. When people think of Apple, they think of a company whose products are always on the cutting-edge of technology, design, and physical attractiveness.

Disadvantages:

Costs of Marketing

Although the digital revolution has somewhat evened the playing field, the truth is that small business is still at a disadvantage, when it comes to grabbing their share of eyeballs through their marketing efforts. Big data has great value, but accessing that data is expensive, and you have to keep analyzing that data to stay abreast of buyer trends. Launching a marketing campaign on your website can also be expensive, especially if you’re using a pay-per-click strategy to attract more prospects. Television and radio advertising spots are also costly, and even local advertising space is at a premium, because there is so much competition for the local audience.

Time and Effort May Not Yield a Return

Big brands can afford to spend time and effort working on a marketing campaign that fails, because they have the resources to regroup and move on. As a small business owner, however, the return on investment on a marketing campaign may be low, and that means you have spent months crafting a strategy that did nothing to help your bottom line. Even the most well-planned marketing campaigns fail, and at the small business level, that can set you back for months.

Advertising media is the medium through which an advertisement is delivered to the public. It carries messages, stories or points regarding the product that is being advertised. It is a highly informative way to reach the masses and ask them to buy the product or avail of the service.

Advertising Media plays a significant role in binding the direct communication relationship between the seller and the buyer.

With the help of right types of advertising, there is not a single speck of doubt about the fact that you will be able to make your brand known to people in the best way.

Advertising is a parallel universe. It is the most powerful medium through which anything in our mind, thoughts, and dreams, can be conceptualized and presented in the world, and most importantly to the target audiences and beyond.

Significant Features of Media

• Space for interactivity: New media constructions frequently promote more interaction as compared to old media. It gives space to the audience to engage with the information received from the media and interact with it.
• Power of users: Interactivity also grants more power to its audience. Admittedly, in some new media compositions, the audience is reasonably better defined as users since there is a decrease in the gap between the media producers and their consumers. The audience can use streaming services to follow the various television programmers they desire to watch according to their convenience.
• Better accessibility: New media can be termed as open media. When people have the means and broadband internet access, they can get instant access to the many media content (much of which is free). It allows media producers to make money, moving towards the various subscription services and increasing the significant amounts of advertising to attract more viewers.

Role:

Many companies spend a lot of money on advertising, relying on the various forms of media out there to spread awareness about their products and increase their sales. Here is a breakdown of the role of advertising in the media.

Spreading Awareness through Advertising

Advertisements alert people about new products and services in the market that could potentially fulfil their needs or solve their problems. A typical advertisement will tell you what the service or product is, where it can be bought, for how much, by whom, and why it should be bought. This is possible through the power of the media to reach millions of people at the same time.

Popularizing a Brand

Think of all the popular brands you know, such as Coca-Cola or McDonald’s. These brands are where they are today because they utilized the phenomenon of advertising well. Through constant republishing and replay to large groups of people, the media popularizes the brand. Many people see it multiple times, and it sticks in their heads. Eventually, when they see it out there, they will recognize it and are more likely to buy it.

Increasing Customer Demand

The target audience of advertisements is typically large, whether you’re advertising in social media, print media, radio, or television. A well-crafted advertisement will convince the public that they should buy the product or subscribe to the service being advertised. As a result, whatever is already in the market becomes exhausted or oversubscribed, leading to an increase in demand for the product or service.

Increased Company Profits

This one works for the same reasons as the previous one on demand. Advertisements are usually displayed to large groups of people at the same time. This means that, even with a low conversion rate, many people will end up buying your products eventually. If you execute your advertisement well, you will get a good conversion rate and great sales. Increased sales, of course, mean increased profits.

It all boils down to how well you do your advertisement. A badly executed ad will not do any good for your company, no matter how many people see it. A well-executed ad, on the other hand, can do wonders for your bottom line and turn your brand into a household name. Ultimately, it can’t be denied that advertising in media is the fuel that drives global business.

Advantages of Media

• Education: Media educates the mass. With the help of television or radio shows, the mob discovers various facts about health affairs, environmental preservation, and many more topics of relevance.
• Updated: People receive the latest news in a short time. Distance does not make a barrier in distributing information to people from any place on earth. People get daily news updates from media outlets, which keeps them updated on the current trends and happenings worldwide.
• Exercise innate potentialities: People get to exercise their hidden talents through media. Media helps to showcase their hidden skills such as comedy, performing, singing, recitation, etc.
• Gather knowledge: Media helps to increase knowledge about various subjects.
• Mass production: Media acts as a great tool in promoting mass consumer products, increasing sales of the assets.
• Entertainment: Serves as a good source of entertainment. People get entertained through music and television programs.
• Cost reduction: Electronic media promotes electronic duplication of information, reducing the production cost and making mass education achievable.
• Cultural immersion: Media allows the diffusion of diverse cultures by showcasing different cultural practices. It helps people around the world to be understanding of each other and welcome their differences.

Disadvantages of media

• Difficulty to Access: Some media topics are unsuitable for children; limiting access to such content can be challenging for elders in specific scenarios.
• Fraudulence and Cybercrime: The Internet opens up avenues for imposters, criminals, and hackers, or such predators with the possibility to commit criminal acts without any knowledge of the victims.
• Individualism: People spend an excessive amount of time on the internet, watching or binging content. As a result, their relationship with friends or family and neighbours may be affected.
• Addiction: Some television programs and internet media can be very addictive to most children and adults, leading to a drop in productivity.
• Faulty advertisement tactics: It often makes the use of drugs and alcohol appears cool, which can be harmful to the nations’ youth.
• Health Concerns: Prolonged television watching or internet binging can lead to vision problems, and exposure to loud noises by using headphones or earphones can lead to hearing defects.
• Personal Injury: Some people decide to try the stunts that have been showcased in the media, which lead to severe injuries.
• Malware and Fake Profiles: An individual can create an anonymous account and pretend to be someone else. Anyone can use such profiles for malicious reasons, such as spreading lies, which can ruin the reputation of any targeted individual or company.

Advertising research is a systematic process of marketing research conducted to improve the efficiency of advertising. Advertising research is a detailed study conducted to know how customers respond to a particular ad or advertising campaign.

Objectives of Advertising Research

• To Enhance Awareness: Through research, it is easy to plan the marketing strategy of any product/service.
• To Know Attitudinal Pattern: A thorough research predicts the people’s attitude. It analyses the changing attitudinal pattern of a geographic area. Knowing the consumers’ attitude is very important before launching a new product and its advertisement.
• To Know People’s Action/Re-action: Research also records and analyzes people’s action or re-action regarding a particular product/service.
• Analysis: Based on deep research and analysis, it is simple to design and develop a creative ad, effective enough to influence consumers.

Types

There are two types of research, customized and syndicated. Customized research is conducted for a specific client to address that client’s needs. Only that client has access to the results of the research. Syndicated research is a single research study conducted by a research company with its results available, for sale, to multiple companies. Pre-market research can be conducted to optimize advertisements for any medium: radio, television, print (magazine, newspaper or direct mail), outdoor billboard (highway, bus, or train), or Internet. Different methods would be applied to gather the necessary data appropriately. Post-testing is conducted after the advertising, either a single ad or an entire multimedia campaign has been run in-market. The focus is on what the advertising has done for the brand, for example increasing brand awareness, trial, frequency of purchasing.

Pre-testing

Pre-testing, also known as copy testing, is a specialized field of marketing research that determines an ad’s effectiveness based on consumer responses, feedback, and behaviour. Pre-testing is conducted before implementing the advertisement to customers. The following methods can be followed to pre-test an advertisement:

• Focus group discussion
• In-depth interview
• Projective techniques
• Checklist method
• Consumer jury method
• Sales area test
• Questionnaire method
• Recall test
• Readability test
• Eye movement test

Campaign pre-testing

A new area of pre-testing driven by the realization that what works on TV does not necessarily translate in other media. Greater budgets allocated to digital media in particular have driven the need for campaign pre-testing. The addition of a media planning tool to this testing approach allows advertisers to test the whole campaign, creative and media, and measures the synergies expected with an integrated campaign.

Post-testing

Post-testing/Tracking studies provide either periodic or continuous in-market research monitoring a brand’s performance, including brand awareness, brand preference, product usage and attitudes. Some post-testing approaches simply track changes over time, while others use various methods to quantify the specific changes produced by advertising either the campaign as a whole or by the different media utilized.

Overall, advertisers use post-testing to plan future advertising campaigns, so the approaches that provide the most detailed information on the accomplishments of the campaign are most valued. The two types of campaign post-testing that have achieved the greatest use among major advertisers include continuous tracking, in which changes in advertising spending are correlated with changes in brand awareness, and longitudinal studies, in which the same group of respondents are tracked over time. With the longitudinal approach, it is possible to go beyond brand awareness, and to isolate the campaign’s impact on specific behavioral and perceptual dimensions, and to isolate campaign impact by media.

Essentials of Advertising Research

• Research Equipment: It is the basic requirement of advertising research. It includes a skilled person, computer system with internet, and relevant newspapers and magazine. However, field research is also important. For example, interviewing people in the market or their residential places.
• Marketing Trends: Knowledge of marketing trends help advertisers to know what products people are buying and what are the specific features of the products, which compels people to buy. With this information, manufacturers can modify their product according to the trend on competitive price.
• Media Research: To determine, which media is the most effective advertisement vehicle, media research is necessary. It helps to reach the potential customers in a short period of time and at lower cost.
• Target Audience: For any advertising research, it is very important to identify target audience and geographic location.

Benefits of Advertising Research

• Develops creative design and strategy: Once, all information is available, it is very simple to develop an eye-catching design. It also helps in making a well-defined strategy to develop your business.
• Identifies Opportunity in the Market: Research suggests: what is the right time to launch the product. It also tells which geographical location is the best for the product.
• Measures Your Reputation: It is always beneficial to know your competitor’s reputation and credit in the market. It helps to develop faultless strategy.
• Identifies Major Problems: Research helps to identify the potential problems.
• Analyzes Progress: It helps to analyze the performance of your product. Likewise, you can monitor your progress.
• Minimize the Risk: If you have done a thorough market research, there is least chance of failure.

Advertising efforts represent only one spoke in the wheel of the marketing mix. It is one of the four Ps of marketing mix namely, product, price, place and promotion. That is why, advertising coordination implies establishing unity of thought, purpose and action between the advertising efforts and those of others having bearing on his efforts.

It is building of internal and external relations to his department and vertical and horizontal within the organisational set-up.

Advertising agency brings a good coordination between the advertiser, itself, media and distributors. This is a very important function. If coordination is proper, it will increase the sales of the product.

Recognition and identifying performance obligation

An entity should assess the goods or services promised in a contract and identify as a performance obligation each promise to transfer either:

• Good or service or
• A series of distinct goods or service that are similar and have the same pattern of transfer

Contract with the customer can include promises that are implied by an entity’s business practice apart from those explicitly stated in the contract. Performance obligation does not include activities undertaken an entity to execute the contract which does not result in a transfer of goods or services.

Distinct Goods or Services

Goods or services that are promised to a customer are distinct if both the conditions are met:

Distinct goods or services include the following:

Sale of goods produced by an entity

• Resale of goods produced by an entity
• Performing a contractually agreed-upon task
• Resale of rights to goods or services purchased by an entity
• Constructing, manufacturing or developing an asset on behalf of a customer etc

Goods or services (not distinct) can be combined with other goods or services and in some cases, an entity might account for all the goods or services in a contract as a single performance obligation.

Satisfaction of Performance Obligation

Revenue should be recognised when (or as) the entity satisfies a performance obligation by transferring a promised goods or services to a customer (customer obtains control). For each performance obligation, an entity should determine the following:

Goods and services are assets even when they are received and used momentarily. Control over an asset is the ability to direct the use of and obtain substantially all of the remaining benefits from the asset. To evaluate whether the customer has the control over an asset, the entity should consider any agreement or repurchase the asset.

 Measuring progress of satisfaction: Revenue Recognition

Each per performance obligation satisfied over time, revenue should be recognised by measuring the progress of complete satisfaction at the end of every reporting period. An entity should use the single method consistently for such measurement.

Two types of methods used are input method and output method which an entity should consider based on the nature of the goods or services. Following points to be noted:

• When applying method, excluding goods or services for which control is not transferred.
• Update the measure of progress to reflect any changes in the performance obligation outcome.
• Recognise revenue only if the entity can reasonably measure its progress, if not recognise only the cost incurred.

Measurement

An entity shall recognise the amount of allocated transaction price as revenue once a performance obligation is satisfied. Transaction price which can be fixed or variable amount is determined based on the terms of contract and entity’s customary practice.

a) Variable Consideration

If the consideration includes a variable amount, an entity should estimate the amount of consideration to which it will be entitled in exchange for transferring the promised goods or services to a customer. Estimation can be done using any of the two methods being:

The expected Value: The sum of probability-weighted amounts in a range of possible consideration

The Most Likely Amount: Single most likely outcome of the contract

b) Constraining estimates of Variable Consideration

In assessing the uncertainty related to variable consideration, an entity should consider both the likelihood and the magnitude of revenue reversal. Following are the factors that indicate the high probability of revenue reversal related to the amount of consideration:

• High susceptibility to factors outside entity’s control
• Uncertainty exists and it’s expected to resolve for a long time
• Entity’s experience has limited predictive value
• Has a large range of possible consideration amounts etc.

c) The existence of a significant financing component

In determining the transaction price, an entity should adjust the promised amount of consideration for the time value of money if significant financing components exist.

In assessing if a contract contains a significant financing component; an entity should consider the relevant facts including both of the following:

• Difference between the amount of promised consideration and the cash selling price of the goods or services.
• The combined effect of the prevailing interest rate in the market and expected length of time between when the transfer of goods or services and the time when the customer makes the payment.

d) Non-Cash Consideration

When customer promises to pay consideration other than in cash form, an entity should measure it at fair value. If fair value cannot be reasonably measured, then entity should measure the consideration indirectly by reference to the stand-alone selling price of the goods or service in exchange for consideration.

e) Consideration payable to Customer

Consideration payable to the customer includes cash amounts, credits or other items (voucher or coupon) and entity account it as a reduction of transaction price (revenue). An entity should recognise the reduction of revenue when (or as) either of the following events occurs:

• Recognises revenue for the transfer of related goods or service to the customer
• Pays or promises to pay the consideration

Allocation of Transaction Price to Performance Obligation

Entity should allocate the transaction price to each performance obligation identified in a contract on a relative stand-alone selling price basis (It is the price at which an entity would sell a promised good or service separately to a customer). If this price is directly not available, it should be estimated using methods such as:

The adjusted market assessment approach

• Expected cost plus margin approach
• Residual approach
• Contract Cost

Incremental cost of obtaining a contract with a customer – Entity should recognise as an asset if the entity expects to recover those costs. These are expenses which an entity would not have incurred if the contract had not been obtained (eg. sales commission)

Cost to fulfil a contract: Entity should recognise an asset from the cost incurred to fulfil a contract if those costs:

• Relate directly to a contract that an entity can specifically identify
• Generate or enhance resources of the entity used in satisfying the performance obligation in future.
• Is expected to recover