Post Graduate Courses

Lesson I : Marketing

Lesson 2: Communication

Lesson 3 : What is Advertising

Lesson 4 : Advertising Objectives

Contents

Lesson 5: Determination of Target Audience and Positioing

Lesson 6 : Advertising Budget

Lesson 7 : Creativity and Advertising

Lesson 8 : Creative Strategy

Lesson 9 : Media Planning

Editor

Dr. KB. Gupta Written by

Ms. Gitika Jaggi

SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING(Campus of Open Learning)

University of Delhi

1

LESSON 1

MARKETING

According to American Marketing Association (AMA), “Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas , goods and services to

create exchanges that satisfy individual or organisational objectives”

The definition by AMA recognizes exchange a central concept of marketing, for exchange to

take place there has to be more than one party with something of interest or value to others.

Advertising and sales promotion plays an important part in the exchange process by informing

the prospect about the availability of the product or service and persuading him/her of its value in

satisfying his/her need or want.

According to Philip Kotler; “Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups

obtain what they need and want through creating, offering and freely exchanging products or

services of value with others.

Matching of products with what is demanded in the market, requires determining the

requirements of potential customers and then developing and supplying those products which

meet their requirements

According to Stanton, ”Marketing is the total system of interacting business activities designed to plan, price promote and distribute want satisfying products and services to present and

potential customers” In the words of Stanton, Marketing is seen as comprising of all activities from the time a product is conceived to the time it reaches consumer that is planning-this would

include product line to be offered, quality, design, target audience, market segmentation

etc.;price- cost of production including overheads, retail price, discounts, rebates, allowances etc.

promotion- advertising, publicity, personal selling etc., distribution-channel of distribution from

the factory to the consumer, selectivity among wholesalers and retailers etc.

Marketing Mix

A marketer’s job is to build a marketing program to achieve company’s objective. For this he performs various marketing activities, these activities can be classified into four categories viz.

Product, price, place and promotion which are popularly known as 4 P’s of marketing or marketing mix. A marketer has to take various decisions regarding these four tools to pursue its

marketing objectives. The activities performed under each of these P’s are:

Product: This includes all activities relating to conception and planning of the actual product i.e

decision regarding product quality, design, features, size, varieties, brand name, warranty,

guarantee and other services

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Price: This area deals with activities relating to setting the price for a product. Decisions like

retail price, margins of channel members, discounts and allowances, credit terms, credit payment

period etc.

Place: Placement or Distribution refers to all activities involved in getting the product to the final

consumer. Decisions in this category relate to channels, market coverage, location, inventory,

transportation etc.

Promotion: refers to all activities concerned with informing consumers about an organisation’s offering, persuading them to buy it, reminding them about it from time to time. Activities like

advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, direct marketing and other unconventional media

comprise the‘P’ of promotion

Communication

Communication is commonly understood as the imparting, sharing, or exchanging of

information, news, views, thoughts, attitudes or ideas between two or more people.

Communication is a very complex process and it's success depends on factors such as nature of

message, audience’s interpretation and the environment in which it is received. The receivers perception of the source and the medium used to transmit the message may also affect the ability

to communicate as many other factors as words, pictures sound or colors may have different

means ingenious go different audience and people's perception and interpretation of them vary.

Marketing Communication

Involves all activities concerned with effectively communicating product information to select

target audience. (Target audience is the group of consumers to whom marketing communication

messages are directed)

All marketing communication is done with a purpose. The prime purpose of communication is to

seek cognitive, affective or behavioural response. In other words the communicator might want

to imprint something into consumer’s mind (cognitive response), change an attitude (affective response) or get the consumer to act (behavioural response)

Marketing Communication Mix

Just as Marketing mix is the set of tools to market a product, marketing communication mix is

the set of tools to promote a product. A marketing communication manager can choose from

various tools such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, direct

marketing, special events etc.

This marketing communication mix offers organization’s set of tools that facilitate the attainment of long term goals of the organization as well as ensures that the intent of marketer is received by

the target audience in the light that marketer intends it to be.

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Elements of Marketing Communication Mix:

Advertising: is commonly defined as any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion

of ideas goods and services by an identified sponsor

Sales Promotion: It is the collection of tools that stimulate quicker or greater purchase of

products by consumer or trade in the short run.

Consumer Sales promotions are directed to the end user of the product and include tools such as

price discounts, coupons, rebates, contests, sweepstakes, point of purchase material etc. Trade

sales promotions are directed towards the resellers to motivate them to provide special support

for the organization’s product and to market it aggressively. It includes allowances, sales contests, trade shows etc.

Personal selling: is the personal presentation by the representative of an organisation with the

purpose of influencing consumer buying decisions , making a sake, building long term

relationship.

Publicity: comprises non personal communication by third party sources regarding an

organization or its products. It includes activities to provide newsworthy information to reporting

sources like media to build a favourable image. In other words when third party communicates

about an organization’s product, the result is publicity for the said product.

Public relations (PR): is the managerial activity concerned with gathering public opinion and

analyzing public attitude and thereby defining policies and plan of action for an organization to

earn public appreciation and acceptance. The scope of PR is much broader than publicity, it

involves planned effort to positively influence the public opinion

Direct Marketing: is one to one approach that uses advertising media to produce an inquiry, a

transaction and some other immediate response. In direct marketing the marketer and the

prospect interacts directly, without the presence of any intermediary. Direct mail, direct response

television or radio, mail order catalogue, direct email, internet, telemarketing etc are various

vehicles of direct marketing

Unconventional Media: There are many other marketing communication tools that defy the

traditional categorisation for example:

Packaging: is the last marketing message a consumer sees before making a purchase

decision, it serves many functional and promotional purposes

Point of Purchase(POP) or Merchandise Material: POP materials are stationed at retail

outlets and may include fancy dispenser with visuals and brand log, posters , danglers etc,

Prime objective of POP is to capitalise on the impulsive buyer and make one last shot at

influencing the customer

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Advertising Specialities: refers to the items that are imprinted with company or brand

logo or mark to serve as gift items Calendars, diaries, pens, t-shirts etc are popular

speciality items

Trade shows and Exhibits: Trade shows or fairs are exhibitions where companies in a

specific industry get together to showcase their products. Such exhibitions are attended

by the members of the industry, suppliers and buyers media etc. The primary objective is

to provide information to the highly targeted audience and get visibility

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)

IMC is a management concept that brings together all the tools of marketing communications to

send consistent messages to target audience. Instead of dividing communications into several

overlapping areas , IMC unifies each communication element to deliver consistent message with

one voice, one theme and on strategy.

American Association of Advertising Agencies defines integrated marketing communication as:

a concept of marketing communication planning that recognises the added value of

comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic role of variety of communication disciplines-

for example general advertising , direct response, sales promotion, and public relations and

combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communication

impact.

IMC approach at looking at communication tools not as isolated elements that communicate

different elements to consumer but as interrelated parts that jointly go to solving communication

problems this is because consumers perceive various communication messages as information

about a brand from different sources. In effect the principle of integration holds that all

communications originating from a single strategic platform where all the tools cooperate with

on another will create greater impact and synergy than when tools work individually by

themselves.

Promotion managers practicing integration understand the functions, strengths and weaknesses

of each tool and use them to strengthen or add to the work done by other tools. For example if

advertising is used to build brand preference and inform large audience about a new product,

sales promotion is used to generate trials, build excitement and encourage stocking at the retail

level. Public relation is used to get maximum publicity for the new product, build creativity, POP

merchandising can be used to convey ad messages in store and remind consumers at the point of

purchase. Thus each tool serves different purpose but achieves a common goal of promoting new

product. Instead making tools compete with each other, if they are planned and used jointly they

can achieve maximum communication impact.

The advocates of IMC even take a broader perspective and argue that organisation should

integrate all marketing activities so that its entire mix of product, price, distribution and

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communication strategies send consistent messages. This is because a consumer experiences a

brand through various “contact points”. A contact point could be a friendly salesman of the product, a price tag that announces the price, the brand’s website that consumer’s surf for information on brand’s or a brand’s hoarding that consumer’s chance upon at a crossroad. Each of these touch points will deliver some message to the consumer and each consumer will come in

contact with the brand through a unique mix of contact points. If each of these contact points

deliver a consistent message, the message will be reinforced in the consumer’s mind.

Experts opine that the concept of IMC can be broadened even further to consider not just the

impact of marketing messages but also corporate messages, since everything that a company

does eventually affects its image, thus integration is important not just in communication or

marketing but also in overall business management. Consistency at the corporate level is

essential because stakeholders do not distinguish messages intended for them or those intended

for other audiences. An organization’s employee may also be its investor, media reporter or customer. If inconsistent messages are received by that individual about the brand in various

capacities there would be a lot of confusion or distrust.

IMC Planning Process

Marketing communication is one of the four tools of the marketing mix, hence it is based on the

strategies laid down in the marketing plan, which in turn is derived from the overall business

plan. Therefore an organisation begins first by strategic planning of its business, next marketing

function and then of its marketing communication.

Marketing communication managers utilise details from the marketing plan that are relevant in

determining promotional strategy. The IMC objectives are laid down so as to fulfil marketing

goals. The IMC plan selects the right communication tools, integrate them, plans accompanying

media and messages and also allocate communication budget to various tools . In addition IMC

is also responsible for managing how other tools of marketing viz. Product, price, place,

communicate to audiences.

Steps involved in the IMC planning process are:

Situation Analysis: Analysis of the factors that are relevant to the promotion situation for

example review of the past campaigns, assessment of the product’s benefits, promotional strategies by competitors, analysis of target audience-their demographic profile their behavioural

pattern etc.

Determine Problem or opportunity: The situation analysis can identify the problems or

opportunities concerning communications. IMC plan can solve problems like lack of awareness

or knowledge or negative attitudes. Misconception about the product, poor image etc. It can also

aid other tools of marketing viz. product, price and distribution by focussing attention on or away

from them or justifying them.

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Determine Communication Objectives: Communication objectives flow from the marketing

objectives whereas marketing objectives are outlined in terms of sales, market share,

communication objectives talk about specific communication tasks that are to be achieved and

outlined in terms of awareness to be created, attitude or behavior to be changed, image to be built

etc.

Determine Budget: After objectives are set, company has to decide how much it is willing to

spend on promotional program, taking into account programme cost, how much it can afford,

competitive spending etc.

Develop IMC strategies: The most thorough and demanding step of the entire planning process

requires a number of key decisions to be taken relating for example determining the marketing

communication mix- to be decided keeping in mind target audience, product type, promotional

budget., strength the weaknesses of communication tools. Determining media strategy-involves

determining the communication channels that would be used to deliver the messages. Each

promotional tool has set of media vehicles or delivery channels. for example direct marketing

can be done through direct mails, emails, websites etc.

Implement the strategies and monitor activities: Successful implementation calls for breaking

the plan into micro level activities, timing and scheduling them, assigning them to people in

charge, coordinating their efforts and monitoring the execution process.

Evaluating the planning process: Evaluation of IMC is not easy because often communication

effects are difficult to measure. At times they may not have direct impact on sales, effects may

be delayed etc. Therefore it is important to set objectives or standards for measuring performance

in specific, measurable terms to evaluate to make evaluation possible.

Case For IMC:

The prime factor in favour of IMC is its ability to add value to company’s marketing communication efforts by making them more consistent and unified. In addition IMC is the most

effective way of communication because it avoids duplication, selects the best possible tool for a

particular communication task and produce greater returns on communication investment by

making bigger impact.

Apart from IMC’s effectiveness there a number of environmental factors that are compelling companies to adapt, adopt integration as a communication concept.

The reasons for the growing importance and adoption of IMC are:

Decreasing impact of traditional advertising: For a number of reasons consumers are

responding lesser than ever to traditional advertising, which has become more costly and less

cost effective than before. With proliferation of umpteen new brands, real product differentiation

has become small and largely insignificant making it more difficult for advertising to create

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brand identity. Besides consumers are not easily impressed by the concoction of words, visuals

put together for advertising’s sake. In addition the budget allocated to consumer and trade sales

promotion has increased with the growing pressure of generating immediate results. In effect,

much of advertising budget has got diverted to sales promotion.

Proliferation of new ways to reach consumers: The shift to IMC has been bought about by the

increase in the traditional media vehicle and the addition of new and advanced communication

options. The onslaught of digital satellite systems have multiplied the number of channel

options, a number of alternate media like electronic magazines, online journals, news groups,

social networking sites ,, mobile advertising etc. Are also gaining grounds An increasing number

of companies today have an online presence through websites, sponsor interne or mobile games,

create blogs send text messages ads or brand jingle ring tones to consumers. This spurt in

number of low cost , more targeted, niche options of reaching consumers has made a dent in the

large audience coverage that traditional media can offered. Also consumers are increasing

control over what they want to hear, see and read and they are rejecting advertising messages.

Hence, marketers are looking at out of the box ways of communicating to their audience.

Growth of database marketing: Companies have been able to gather sufficient information

about customers and prospects through various survey based and observational devices. This

helps them understand individual consumer preferences, segment and target consumers more

effectively, and customise communication programme for individuals or small groups instead of

spending large amounts on mass communication. The modern day consumer has also become

more demanding –who wants customised, interactive, permission based communication rather

than mass scale advertising or generalised sales promotion offers.

Growth of international marketing: With companies doing more businesses globally, they are

faced with the challenge of marketing their products not just in a region or country but

throughout different markets. This is tricky because the objective is to deliver a consistent image

and message in spite of different departments and diverse cultural settings. Thus it is the task of

IMC to coordinate functions across departments and countries. Another challenge while maintain

consistent image worldwide is to localise certain communication elements taking into account

cultural differences

Emphasis on relationship marketing: Relationship marketing is a marketing practice that aims

at building long lasting relationships with various stakeholders of the company including

customers. Relationship marketers look at the life time value of a customer rather than at

individual transaction. Central to the concept of relationship marketing is customer retention;

since all interactions has prime goal of increasing lifetime value of a customer. Relationship

marketing requires communication to be integerated because only in an synergistic system can a

customer’s various contacts with the brand be monitored. IMC has to coordinate all

communications to customers and also make the process transparent so that managers in all

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departments are aware of a particular customer’s various contacts and experiences with the brand.

Tighter control over communication: Today’s consumers are more aware and informed,

consumer activists forum are constantly scrutinising communications from various brands. In

general consumer’s scepticism towards advertising and mass communication has grown. Also control by regulatory authorities has become more stringent. Thus distrust lies with both the

consumer and the regulators and intrusive and mass marketing communication is faced with

hostile audience. In such a situation IMC has to endeavour to sync al, its communication and

pass it through a common ethical and legal test within the company.

Need for creating brand identity: IMC plays an important role in the process of branding or

brand identity creation. A brand is a name, sign, symbol, logo, trademark or combination thereof

that helps to distinguish an offering from the other. Brand recognition is a result of awareness

regarding the brand in the marketplace and is created by direct experiences with the specific

product and through the influence of advertising, media coverage, word of mouth etc. A brand

serves to create certain associations that come to consumer’s mind when they think about it(name, sign , logo etc.). IMC is responsible for creating and managing consistent brand

associations.

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LESSON 2

COMMUNICATION

Communication is commonly understood as the imparting, sharing, or exchanging of

information, news, views, thoughts, attitudes or ideas between two or more people.

Communication is a very complex process and it's success depends on factors such as nature of

message, audience’s interpretation and the environment in which it is received. The receivers perception of the source and the medium used to transmit the message may also affect the ability

to communicate as many other factors as words, pictures sound or colors may have different

means ingenious go different audience and people's perception and interpretation of them vary.

The function of all elements of integrated marketing communication program is to communicate.

Organizations send communications and messages in variety of ways such as advertisements,

brand names, logos, websites, press releases, packaging designs, promotions and visual images.

Those involved in the planning and implementation of IMC program need to understand the

communication process and how it occurs.

Basic Model of Communication

Communication Process

All messages originate from sender or source of the message. The sender may be an individual,

group or organization that wishes to transmit the message to another individual, group or

organization viz. the receiver. The sender and the receiver are the two communicators in the

communication process.

The process of communication begins when the sender determines how a given message will be

conveyed. He has to select the words, images, symbols, format, tone etc for the message. This

process of transferring the content of message (thoughts, ideas, news) into symbolic form is

known as encoding. The sender should select symbols and languages that the receiver is familiar

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with and would view favorably. The encoding process leads to the development of the message

that contains information or meaning the source hopes to convey.

The sender should also select channel of communication that is best suited for the particular

message and target audience for example local edition of regional newspapers are best suited to

announce limited period sale of local retail shop. Channels are broadly divided into personal and

non personal media. Personal channels of communication are direct or one on one such as

personal selling or word of mouth communication. Non personal channel comprise mass media

where message is send to many audience members simultaneously such as print or broadcast

media.

After the message is encoded and transmitted through right channel the receiver decodes the

message on receipt. Decoding is the process of translating the encoded message from its

symbolic representation back into thought or comprehension. How well, the message is decoded

depends on the receiver's comprehension skills, attitude, profile, knowledge, culture, and social

system among other things. The greater the similarity, understanding or common frames of

reference between the sender and the receiver the more effective the communication would be.

However apart from characteristics of sender and receiver certain extraneous or environmental

factors also determine effectiveness of communication termed as noise or entropy these are the

factors that create interference in message dissemination or reception for example coming up of

better sales offer by competitor at the time of advertiser's offer, the newspaper page on which

the advertiser advertised being full of other ads, power cut at the time an ad is broadcast on

television etc are all noise causing factors that hamper communication process.

The communication process does not end with the receiver receiving the message. The marketer

is also interested in the receiver's response and reactions on getting the message which help him

gauge efficacy of communication feedback completes the exchange process whereby receiver

becomes sender and transmits his response back to original source feedback can be in various

forms verbal posing of question to the salesman, purchase action after seeing an ad, or even total

inaction problem that marketer experience often when mass media is used is that of the indirect

or delayed response which makes it difficult to measure the effectiveness of communication

because of the difficulty in gauging delayed response marketer often conduct consumer

interviews, make store visit, or provide feedback forms to analyze receiver's response,

comprehension, message recall etc.

Analyzing the Receiver

To communicate effectively with the customers, marketers must understand who the target

audience is, what (if anything) it knows or feels about the company’s product or services and

how to communicate with the audience to influence its decision making process. Marketers must

also know how the market is likely to respond to various sources of communication or different

messages before they make decision regarding source, message or channel variables.

Identifying the target audience

The marketing communication begins with identifying the target audience that will be the focus

of the firm’s advertising and promotional efforts.

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The target audience may consist of individuals who have specific needs and for whom the

communication must be specifically tailored. This often requires person to person

communication and is generally accomplished through personal selling.

Second level of audience aggregation is represented by the group. Marketers must communicate

with the group of people who make or influence the purchase decision. For eg. organisational

purchasing often involves buying centres committees, companies marketing their products to

businesses and organisations must understand who is the purchase committee, what aspect of

decision each individual influences and the criteria each members use to evaluate a product.

Advertising may be directed at the each member of the buying centre, multi level personal

selling may be necessary to reach those individuals who influence or actually make the

decisions.

At the next level small and well defined group of customers often referred to as market niches,

can be reached through personal selling or highly targeted media such as direct mail, the level

above is the broad classes of buyers; market segments, who have similar needs and can be

reached with similar messages. As the market segment gets larger marketers often use broader

based media such as newspapers, TV etc to reach them.

Marketers of the most consumer products attempt to attract the attention of the large number of

present and potential customers(mass markets) through mass communication such as advertising

or publicity. Mass communication is one way flow of information from marketer to the

customer. Feedback of the audience’s reaction is generally indirect and difficult to measure.

Unlike personal or face to face communication, mass communication do not offer marketer an

opportunity to explain or clarify the message to make it more effective. Therefore the marketer

must enter the communication situation with the knowledge of the target audience and how it is

likely to react to the message i.e the receiver’s response process.

Levels of Audience Aggregation

Response process

The most important aspect of developing effective communication programs involve

understanding the response process the receiver may go through in moving toward a specific

behavior like purchasing of product and how the promotional efforts of marketers influence

consumer responses. Experts have found that consumer often respond to messages in hierarchical

order of behavior. These hierarchical responses are demonstrated through various models of

consumer response stages.

Mass Markets

Market Segments

Niche Markets

Individual or group Audiences

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Traditional response hierarchy models

Traditional response hierarchy model proposes that consumer typically move through various

stages of responses. A number of models have been developed to depict the stages a consumer

may pass through in moving from the state of not being aware of company, product, or brand to

actual purchase behavior. These responses typically divided into cognitive, affective and

behavioral responses. For each stage of consumer readiness or response communicator must

perform specific actions. for example the communicator need to imprint something into the

consumer's mind (cognitive response),change an attitude(affective response)or get the consumer

to act (behavioral response)

AIDA Model

The AIDA (Awareness -Interest-Desire-Action) model of consumer response hierarchy states

that a consumer passes successively through the following four stages of response:

Awareness: in the initial stage the target audience is unaware of the product or brand hence the

communicators objective is to build awareness maybe just name recognition with simple

message repeating brand name or to give basic information about the product. In a relatively new

product category this function assumes maximum importance.

Interest :In this stage consumers graduate from awareness about the product to interest in it.

Interest in the product can be created by showing some unique feature of the product,

demonstrating how it works, fetching popular celebrities etc.

Desire: Once the target audience is aware about and interested in the product the next function of

advertising is to get them positively inclined towards buying it i.e. create desire and awareness

for advertised product. Desire can be build up by showing how the product addresses a

consumer's specific needs and by creatively promoting quality, value and other significant

features.

Action: Advertising has not played its part until it has achieved the ultimate objective spurring

the target audience into action. In most cases the desired action is to lead consumers to purchase

but in certain cases it can also be generate inquiries, lead to retail visit etc. Brand or image

building advertising will not immediately lead to purchase action but will create preference and

desire that will ultimately translate into purchase.

Hierarchy of effects model

The hierarchy of effects model is 'stair-step and linear models proposed by Robert Lavidge and

Gary Steiner that states that advertising must move people up a series of steps from cognitive

processing to attitude change to purchase behavior. Consumers do not switch from being

disinterested individuals to convinced purchasers in one instantaneous step. Rather they approach

the purchase decision through series of steps ranging from awareness, knowledge, liking,

preference, conviction and purchase.

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A Fundamental assumption of the model, is that advertising effects occur over time hence

advertising must move consumers through the above mentioned five psychological stages before

it can lead to purchase.

Innovation Adoption Model

The Innovation Adoption Model is based on the diffusion of innovations theory, looks at

consumers as adopters of new innovation and classifies them into categories such as innovators,

early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards based on how soon they adopt an

innovation i.e. purchase a product. Innovators are the first whereas laggards are the last to

purchase .This model points out that trying to quickly convince the mass of new, unconventional

idea is futile. It makes more sense in convincing innovators and early adopters and taking other

gradually through the decision making process(awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and

adoption) that occurs when individuals consider adopting a new idea. The adoption process can

be speeded up through demonstration or sampling programme that increase consumer confidence

in the new product

Traditional Consumer Response Hierarchy Models

Information Processing Model

The information processing model of advertising effects developed by William McGuire. The

model assumes the receiver in a persuasive communication situation like advertising is an

information processor or problem solver. McGuire suggest the series of steps a receiver goes

through in being persuaded constitutes a response hierarchy. The stages of the model are similar

to hierarchy of effects; attention and comprehension are similar to awareness and knowledge and

yielding is synonymous to liking. This model includes a stage not found in other models:

retention or receiver’s ability to retain that portion of the comprehended information that he or she accepts as valid or relevant. This stage is important because most promotional campaigns are

designed not to motivate consumers to take immediate action but rather provide information they

may use later when making a purchase decision. Each stage in the response hierarchy is a

dependent variable that must be attained and that may serve as an objective of the

communication process.

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Evaluation of Traditional Consumer Response Hierarchy Models

The response models are useful to communicators in several ways. An understanding of the

consumer response stages explains hoe consumer relate to advertising in terms of their interest in

buying a product when they see an ad. Marketing that accounts for each response stage and

moves customers through each stage can increase the result of advertising.

Understanding the response stage also helps in making strategic decision as to audience in which

phase should be addressed through a specific campaign. for eg: if advertising is targeted at

people who are at the acquirement stage, it should be more persuasive and focus on definite

product advantage and distinct feature or image.

In spite of the usefulness of these models, they do suffer from some oversight. All the models

mentioned assume that consumer moves through a hierarchical response of cognitive-affective-

behavioral response. They assume that consumer pass through these stages only in that order .

This sequence is appropriate when the consumer has high involvement with the product category

and the differences among the products are high. However the hierarchy is not always relevant

and has been questioned as a result of extensive research in the fields of marketing.

Alternate Response Hierarchies

Michael Ray developed a model on information processing that identifies three alternative

ordering of these stages based on the perceived product differentiation and product involvement.

These alternative responses are standard learning hierarchy, dissonance/ attribution and low

involvement models.

Standard Learning Hierarchy

In many purchases when the consumer is highly involved in the purchase process and there is

much differentiation among the competing brands, the consumer will go through the response

process as depicted by the traditional communication models which consist of learn-feel-do

sequence. Information and knowledge acquired or learned about various brands are the basis of

developing affect or feelings that guide what the consumer will do(actual trial or purchase). In

this hierarchy the consumer is viewed as an active participant who gathers information through

active learning.

Dissonance/Attribution Hierarchy

Second response hierarchy proposed by Ray involves situations where consumers first behave

then develop attitude or feelings as a result of that behavior that behavior and then learn or

process information that supports the behavior. This model is do-feel-learn model, which occurs

in situations where consumers must choose between two alternatives that are similar in quality

but are complex and may have hidden or unknown attributes. The consumer may purchase the

product on the basis of a recommendation and then attempt to support the decision by developing

positive attitude towards the product or by even developing negative feeling towards the rejected

alternative. This reduces any post purchase dissonance or anxiety the consumer the consumer

may experience resulting from the doubt over the purchase.

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According to this model, the marketers need to recognize that in some situations attitude develop

after purchase. According to Ray, in these situations the main effect of mass media is not the

promotion of original choice behavior and attitude change rather the reduction of dissonance be

reinforcing the wisdom of the purchase or by providing supportive information.

As with the standard learning model, this response hierarchy is likely to occur when the

consumer is involved in the purchase situation.

Low involvement hierarchy

In this response process the receiver is viewed as passing from cognition to behavior to attitude

change. This learn-do-feel sequence characterize situations of low consumer involvement in the

purchase process and there are minimal differences among the brand alternatives and mass media

advertising is important. In the low involvement hierarchy consumer engages in passive learning

and random information catching rather than active information seeking.

In a low involvement situation the consumer do not compare the message with the previously

acquired beliefs, needs or past experiences. The commercials result in subtle changes in the

consumer’s knowledge particularly with repeat exposure. This change in knowledge does not

result in attitude change but is related to learning something about the advertised brand such as

ad theme, slogan logo etc. When the consumer enters the purchase this information may be

necessary to trigger purchase, the consumer will then form attitude towards the purchased brand

as a result of experience with it.(Herbert Krugman’s Theory)

Alternate Response Hierarchies

Perceived

Product

Differentiation

Topical Involvement

High Low

High

Standard Learning Model

Cognitive Learn

Affective Feel

Conative Do

Low involvement Model

Cognitive Learn

Conative Do

Affective Feel

Low

Dissonance/Attribution Model

Conative Do

Affective Feel

Cognitive Learn

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In a low involvement situation the advertiser must recognize that the passive, uninterested

consumer may focus more on the non-message elements and through repletion, the product’s name rises in customer’s awareness bringing a cognitive change of increased product memory which ultimately translates to purchase

Evaluating Alternative Response Hierarchies Models

The various response models presents an insight into the various ways consumers may respond

to the marketing communication. They encourage marketing communication managers to

understand the nature of the product, level of audience involvement, differences between product

alternatives and mass media significance for the product before forming promotional strategies.

If the communicators are successful in determining the type of response process that is most

likely to occur for their product, it helps in setting appropriate advertising objectives and

increasing the effectiveness of the message.

Although traditional and alternative response models posit different ways in which the consumer

may respond , they do not adequately explain all response hierarchies. Also the model does not

talk about the negative cognitive evaluation of an ad , which is possible if the consumer has

formed negative perception for a product based on personal experience. When a negative trial

experience precedes exposure to an ad, hence the cognitive evaluations of the ad are more

negative.

Cognitive Processing of Communication

When ads change consumer attitudes in high involvement situations, it is quite natural to assume

that this occurs because the consumers learn from the advertising message and this change in

attitude towards the brand is the result of learning. However research in 1960’s and 1970’s revealed that there was weak relationship between consumer’s recall of message content and the attitude towards the advertised brand. The response hierarchy models fail to explain the

underlying reasons that causes the resulting reaction. This lead researches to try understand the

nature of cognitive reactions to advertising messages. What appeared to be really relevant in

determining attitude was the nature of thoughts that emerged in the heads of consumer when the

ad was shown.

Cognitive Responses, the thoughts that occur to consumer’s mind while reading, viewing and /or hearing communication. Cognitive response approach has been widely used in research by

both academicians and advertising practitioners. Its focus has been to determine the type of

responses evoked by an advertising message and how these responses relate to attitude towards

the ad, brand attitudes and purchase intentions. The following figure depicts the basic cognitive

response the research has identified.

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Cognitive Response Model

Product/ Message Thought : These thoughts relate to brand or claims made in the message.

There are two types of responses in this context, Support Arguments and Counterarguments.

Counterarguments are the thoughts the recipient has that are opposed to the position taken in the

message, Support Arguments are thoughts that affirm the claims made in the message.

When advertising claims oppose the existing consumer beliefs, the possibility of counter

argument increases If the counter argument are more , the chances of message acceptance

decreases considerably. On the other hand support arguments help message acceptance. The ads

should encourage support arguments and minimize the chances of counter arguments.

Source Oriented Thoughts: Thoughts of this category are directed at the source of the ad

message. Negative thoughts about the endorser or advertiser are called Source Derogations .

Such thoughts generally lead to reduction in the message acceptance. If the endorser is perceived

as unreliable, dishonest or irritating type, the message is likely to be unacceptable. On the other

hand thoughts that are positive and favourable towards the source are termed as Source Bolster.

Advertisers attempt to contract endorsers who are liked by the target audience to increase the

message acceptance and credibility.

Ad- Execution Thoughts: This category of cognitive response consists of individual’s thought about the ad itself. While reading, viewing or hearing an advertisement many of the thoughts that

audience members have that may not relate directly to the message or product. Some of these

thoughts may possibly relate to their own lives and experiences or thoughts may only the ad

execution such as tones, colours, visual quality etc. These thoughts may prove favorable or

otherwise. These aspects of thoughts are important because of their effect on audience member’s attitude towards the brand or the advertising message. These thoughts are affective reactions

representing the consumer’s attitude towards the ad. Much attention has been focused on consumer’s affective reactions to ads especially television commercials. Attitude towards the ad

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represents the receiver’s feeling of favourability or unfavourability towards the ad . Advertisers are interested in consumer’s reactions to the ad because these affective reactions are important in determining the advertising effectiveness since these reactions may be transferred to brand itself

or directly influence purchase intentions.

Many advertisers use emotional appeals in the ad executions to evoke feelings and affective

reactions as the basis of their creative strategy.

The cognitive process model of communication proposed here sees a communication not as the

transmission of information, but as a series of challenges, rewards, and affordances (resources

and constraints) that provoke and guide the receiver’s perception, thought, inference,

recognition, and memory.

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

The model was devised by Ricard Petty and John Cacioppo to explain the process by which

persuasive communication (such as ads) lead to persuasion by influencing attitude. According to

the model, attitude formation or change process depends on the nature and amount of elaboration

or processing of relevant information that incur in response to a persuasive message.

The ELM shows that elaboration likelihood is a function of two elements, motivation and the

ability to process the message. Motivation to process the message depends on such factors as

involvement, personal relevance and individual needs and arousal levels. Ability depends on

individual’s knowledge , intellectual capacity and opportunity to process the process the message

for example an individual viewing a funny commercial may be distracted from the processing of

information about the product.

According to the model, there are two basic routes to persuasion and attitude change viz. the

central route to persuasion and the peripheral route to persuasion. (Figure xx)

The consumer may consciously and diligently consider the information content in the ad

message, in developing or changing the existing attitude towards the advertised brand. In this

situation the attitude is formed or changed as a result of careful consideration, analysis, scrutiny

of message arguments and integration of relevant information with regard to the advertised

product- High Elaboration and Likelihood. Basically the consumer is highly involved in the

processing the advertisement. Information processing of this type is called Central Route to

Persuasion. Predominantly favourable cognitive responses (support arguments and source

bolster) lead to favourable changes in the cognitive structure which lead to positive attitude

change or persuasion. Conversely if the cognitive processing is predominantly unfavourable

and results in counterarguments and or source derogations the changes in cognitive structure are

unfavourable or result in negative attitude change. Attitude

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The ELM Model

change occurring as a result of central processing are relatively enduring and more resistant to

subsequent efforts to change with respect to attitude object.

Under the peripheral route to persuasion, the receiver is viewed as lacking motivation and ability

to process information and is not likely to engage in detailed cognitive processing. Rather than

evaluating the information presented in the message, the receiver relies on peripheral cues that

may be incidental to the main arguments. The receiver’s reaction to the message depends on how he or she evaluates these peripheral cues. The consumer may use several types of peripheral cues

or cognitive shortcuts rather than evaluating the message arguments presented in the ad.

Favourable attitude may be formed if the endorser in the ad is viewed as an expert, or is

attractive or certain executional aspects of the ad such as music, color, or visual effects are liked

by the receiver. These cues may help the receiver form positive attitude towards the brand even

if they do not process the message portion of the ad. However these peripheral cues may also

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lead to rejection of the message for example with the if the endorser is not liked or have

credibility problems or ad is not executed well may lead to rejection of message without any

consideration to the information or message arguments. The ELM views attitudes resulting from

peripheral processing as temporary, so favourable attitude must be maintained by continual

exposure to the peripheral cues such as through repetitive advertising

Implications of the ELM

The elaboration likelihood model has important implications for marketing communications

particularly with respect to involvement. For example if the involvement level of target audience

is low the peripheral cues may be important than the ad message on the other hand if the

involvement level is high the message should present strong arguments that are difficult for the

receiver to refute or counter argue.

ELM also showed the effectiveness of source in presenting the advertising message, if the level

of involvement is low, the endorser has significant effect on the attitude. When the receiver’s involvement is high, the use of endorser has no significant results on brand attitude, the quality

of the arguments used in the ad are more important.

The ELM model suggests that the most effective type of message depends on the route to

persuasion that consumer follows. Many marketers recognize that when the involvement levels

are low for their product categories consumers are not motivated to process advertising in detail,

creative tactics may be employed that emphasize peripheral cues and use repetitive advertising to

create and maintain favourable attitude towards their brand.

Engel Kollat Blackwell Model [EKB Model]

To recognize the decision-making process of the customers purchasing, Engel, Kollat and

Blackwell created the Engel Kollat Blackwell customers’ purchasing model (“EKB model”) to explain customers’ decision-making structure in their purchasing behaviors.

The model was originally developed in 1968 by Engel Kollat and Blackwell but has undergone

several revisions. In 1990 the most recent version has came out by Engel, Blackwell and Miniard

Consumer behavior is a complex process involving the activities people engage in when seeking

for, choosing, buying, using, evaluating and disposing of products and services with the goal of

satisfying needs, wants and desires. Marketers success in influencing purchase behaviour

depends largely on how well they understand consumer behaviour.

According to the model there are five stages in the consumer decision making process

comprising the Problem Recognition, Information Search, Alternation Evaluation, the purchase

Choice and the Outcome

The influencing variables on these variables are stimulus inputs like information from the mass

media, personal contacts and general market source, information processing involves the active

memory where information is stored and from where information can be retrieved next variable

is decision process, this involves search process, evaluation process and deciding process. Fourth

variable influencing the five activities is the environmental influence this variable includes all

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the way exogenous variables crucial for the consumer buying process like income, family,

culture, social class etc of consumer.

Consumer Decision Making Process

EKB Model

Entry to the model is through need recognition when the consumer acknowledges a discrepancy

between their current state and some desirable alternative. This process is driven by an

interaction between processed stimuli inputs and environmental and individual variables. After a

need has been acknowledged the consumer embarks on a search for information, both internally

through the consumers’ memory bank of previous experiences, and externally. The authors argue that the model is suitable for use in explaining situations involving both extended problem

solving and limited problem solving by modifying the degree to which various stages of the

model are engaged in by the consumer. The depth of information search will be highly dependant

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on the nature of problem solving, with new or complex consumption problems being subjected to

extensive external information searches, while simpler problems may rely wholly on a simplified

internal search of previous behaviour. Information is said to pass through five stages of

processing before storage and use, namely: exposure, attention, comprehension acceptance and

retention

The alternative consumer choices are evaluated by the establishment of beliefs, attitudes and

purchase intentions. This process of evaluation is influenced by both the environmental

variables and the individual variables. Intention is depicted as the direct antecedent to purchase

which is the only outcome tolerated by the model. Inhibitors are not explicitly depicted as

mediating between intentions and purchase, however the environmental and individual

influences are again said to act on purchase. Situation is listed as an environmental influence,

and while this factor is not clearly defined, it could include such factors as time pressure or

financial limitations which could serve to inhibit the consumer from realising their purchase

intentions.

Consumption is followed by post-consumption evaluation which serves a feedback function into

future external searches and belief formation

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LESSON 3

WHAT IS ADVERTISING?

The word advertising is derived from its Latin root ad verster which means to ‘to turn towards’ or ‘to attract attention to’. Advertising is the key element in the promotion mix of marketing. It is the tool used by marketers to disseminate information about the product to

reach out to the end user. Advertising is expected to create brand image and loyal customer

base. It is mediated communication which entails buying space and time in mass media such

as television, newspaper, radio to persuade consumers to select a particular brand amidst the

competing brands

Advertising is one of the largest generators of revenue in the world economy. It generates

employment directly and indirectly and influences a large section of people. Advertising

interests, entice, entertains and creates lifestyle.

Advertising is many things at the same time much depend on how a person views it. The

growth of advertising industry in any country is in direct relation to the level of business

activity and the health of the economy.

According of American Marketing Association:

“Advertising is the paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor “

It presents an explanation of what advertising is while offering insights into what advertising

is not. The key words describing advertising are presentation and promotion. Presentation

refers to an offering while promotion involves communication of ideas and persuasion. In

other words advertising offers people ideas, goods and services and persuades them about

their benefits, utility and desirability.

The definition given by the American Marketing Association did not suggest about

persuasive and creative aspects of advertising and indicate functional responsibility. Dorothy

Cohen in 1968 offered the following definition covering these aspects

“Advertising is business activity, employing creative technique to design persuasive communication in mass media that promote ideas, goods and services in manner consistent

with the advertiser’s objective, delivery of consumer satisfaction and development of social and economic welfare”

Promotion is the communication arm of marketing and includes marketing activities used to

inform, persuade, remind the target market about the organisation, its products, services,

and other activities to build a favourable image

Promotion Mix constitutes specific group of marketing activities concerned with the

communication aspect with existing or potential consumers and the relevant public. It

involves activities such as advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing,

publicity/PR , events and sponsorships.

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Cohen’s definition takes care of the aspirational and functional aspects of advertising. She described advertising as business activity that uses persuasive techniques to promote ideas,

goods and services. According to her Advertising has twin function that takes care of both the

sender(the advertiser of product or services whose objectives it must fulfil ) and the receiver

(the consumer , whose satisfaction must be kept in mind) In the end Cohen talks about the

social responsibility and the economic welfare of society.

According to Borden and Marshall(1971), “ Advertising consist of all those activities by which visual or oral messages are addressed to selected public for the purpose of informing

and influencing them to buy product or services or to act or to be inclined favourable towards

ideas, persons, trademarks or institution featured . As contrasted with publicity and other

forms of propaganda, advertising messages are identified with the advertiser either by means

of signature or an oral statement. Further advertising is commercial transaction involving

pay to the publisher , broadcasters and others whose media are employed”

Other Definitions:

According to Dunn and Barban,

“Advertising is paid, non personal communication through various media by business firms , non profit organisations and individuals who are in some away identified in the advertising

message and who hope to inform or persuade members of a particular audience”

According to William J Stanton,

“Advertising consist of all activities involved in presenting to a group, non personal, oral or visual, openly sponsored message regarding a product, service or idea. This message called

an advertisement, is disseminated through one or more media and paid for by the identified

sponsor”

According to Philip Kotler,

“Advertising consist of non personal forms of communication conducted through paid media

under clear sponsorship”

When one closely looks at all the definitions and arguments put forward by various experts,

advertising comes out as an art and to an extent an applied science of persuasive

communication. It informs, incite, interest the prospect about the product and later reinforce

the message over a period of time either by similar positioning or changed one, keeping in

view strategy of competing brands , changing expectations of consumers, changed

environment etc.

Advertising can summed up as:

Advertising is mass paid communication of building brands through persuasive

communication and positioning them in consumers perception with the constant eye on

market environment and consumer expectation.

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Features of Advertising

Paid form: The paid aspect of the definition reflects the fact that the as oppose to publicity

that refers to the stories or brand mention in mass media without any payment, space or time

for an advertising message are usually paid for. For example: many magazines, newspapers

and other media voluntarily donate space and time and also prepares ads for certain public

service announcements and social causes.

Non Personal presentation and promotion: Advertising is non personal offering no

personal interaction, delivered through mass media as oppose to personal selling where there

is face to face personal interaction

Ideas, Goods and Services: Advertising as communication tool is used not only to present

and promote goods and services with the intend of selling them, it is also increasingly used

to further the goals f public interest and social causes For eg: ads discouraging female

infanticide, making people aware of AIDS , asking for donations to help victims of natural

disaster

Identified Sponsor: These words clarify the difference between advertising and propaganda.

Just like advertising propaganda attempts to present certain opinions and ideas which may

influence public attitude and action, however the source of propaganda remains unknown and

therefore authenticity of information available is doubtful. People generally do not know who

is the originator however in advertising the sponsor of ideas, goods or services is known

Controlled: The advertiser controls the content of the advertising message, its time and

direction. Advertisers say what they want to say by selecting appropriate medium, direct the

message to audience whom they want to target. In publicity it is not under the control of the

advertiser.

Mass Communicated Media: The broad group of audience can be best reached by mass

media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio etc.

Persuasion: The major objective of advertising inherent in presentation and promotion of

ideas, goods and services is to achieve pre determined objectives through persuasive

communication or reinforcement of desired attitude or behaviour.

Role of Advertising

Advertising can also be explained in terms of the role it plays in business and society

Marketing Role: Advertising is the most popular marketing tools used by marketers.

The importance of advertising within the marketing function can be interpreted in

terms of the purpose it serves in marketing efforts of the organization.

It helps in building and sustenance of the brand

It facilitates segmentation , targeting , positioning of the offerings of the marketer

It helps in generation of revenues and profits

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Communication Role: Advertising is form of mass communication. Advertising

informs and also create an image that goes beyond the straight forward facts.

Economic Role: There are two points of view about how advertising affects an

economy in the first place advertising is persuasive communication that it decreases

the likelihood that consumer will switch to competing brand regardless of price

change. By featuring other positive attributes and avoiding price the consumer makes

decision on these non price factors.

The second approach views advertising as vehicle for helping consumers assess value

Comment [01]: Check green book.

Societal Role: Advertising also has number of social roles. It informs us about the

improved products helps to compare features and make informed decision. It mirrors

fashion design trends and add to our aesthetic sense

However there is question whether advertising follow trends or does it lead them?

Does it cross the line between reflecting social values and creating social values?

Fucntions of Advertsing Comment [01]: Neeru Kapoor

Publicity

Publicity comprises of non personal communication by third party sources regarding an

organization or its products. In other words when third party communicates about an

organization’s product, the result is publicity for the said product. Most publicity is obtained in the form of media coverage or consumer word of mouth. It includes activities to provide

newsworthy information to reporting sources like media to build a favourable image. A basic

tool of publicity is press release for example a fashion house before launching its new design

of apparel organizes a press preview, it is aiming at publicity, it is possible that some

journalists will write appositive story and others may be critical. As publicity is uncontrolled,

in other words it is up to the media to use the information and at times to selectively pick one

or two pints from the press release or press conference . A prime advantage of publicity is its

low cost since an organisation does not have to directly pay for it. Also publicity has high

credibility among audiences because it is believed to be unbiased reporting by the third party

sources , not sponsored by the organization. For example: we often base our choice of movies

or restaurants on the basis of ratings they get in the local newspaper.

Difference between Advertising and Publicity

Basis Advertising Publicity

Source The message originates from

the advertiser/ sponsor

The message originates from

the media

Sponsor The identity of the sponsor

is clearly known

The identity of the sponsor

is not clear

Control The sponsor has entire

control over the contents and

timing of the message

Media has control over the

contents and timing

Nature of Message Persuasive message designed

to persuade consumer to

favour the product, service or

idea

Informative message

designed to inform public.

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Payment The sponsor/ advertiser pays

to get the message delivered-

paid form

The sponsor/ advertiser does

not have to pay directly-Non

paid form

Credibility Since the message is paid for

by the advertiser- it is

considered less credible

Since it is third party opinion

– it is considered more

credible than advertising

Advertising Management Process

Importance of Advertising

To Business:

Steady Demand: Advertising create steady demand by smoothing out the seasonal or

cyclical fluctuations. By suggesting new and more frequent use of the product advertising

helps to maintain demand throughout the year.

Economies of Scale : Advertising facilitates mass distribution of goods , direct distribution

and rapid sales turnover helps to reduce cost of distribution. Mass distribution and steady

demand further leads to large scale and regular production thus bringing in the scale

economies.

Build Goodwill: Advertising helps in creating good image of the firm and favourable image

of its products, which increases the capacity of the firm to survive completion and develop a

foothold in the market.

Supplements Salesmanship: Advertising makes the job of personal selling easy by making

consumers aware of the firm’s offering. It creates prospective buyer ready for purchase.

Meet Competition: Advertising plays pivotal role in establishing and maintain brands by

creating brand loyalty, it supplements personal selling and sales promotion. It creates

preference for particular product thus helps the firm in meeting growing competition in the

market.

Introduction of New Product: Advertising is helpful in introducing new products by

creating awareness and gaining their acceptance. By informing about the product it stimulates

their interest and persuades them to buy it.

For Consumers

Facilitates Purchasing: Advertising makes purchasing easy by reducing the time and effort

involved in shopping. People become aware of the source and availability of different

products and need not search them out

Wide variety: Consumers get to know about the availability of various brands in the market

with their unique features. This provides them with the wider variety to choose from.

Educates Consumer: Advertising provides education and knowledge to consumers about the

new products and their diverse uses.

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Reduced Price: Due to large scale production and distribution , economies of scale factors in

that lowers the cost per unit of product. As a result consumers get goods at lower price

Middlemen

Quick Turnover: Successful advertising creates increasing and steady demand of the goods

which facilitate the middlemen in the form of quick turnover of the goods and their quicker

margins.

Moe of Communication: Advertising plays important role in informing the consumers about

various features of the product or service, it facilitates the job of middlemen and saves them

the botheration of spending time, energy and effort with each and every consumer in order to

convince them about the product attributes

Low Cost of Doing Business: Because of quick turnover, considerable savings in terms of

inventory costs is achieved.

Society

Employment: Advertising creates not only direct employment in the field of advertising but

also helps in generation of more jobs in production, finance, marketing , research and

development fields

Sustains Media: Advertising provides a major source of revenue to newspapers, magazines,

radio, and television. The benefit is passed on to the society in the form of reduced prices

Encourage art and creativity: Advertising promote the creative energies of the people

involved in designing and developing advertisements.

Stimulate research and development: In absence of advertising many products and

innovations would remain confined to laboratory

Incentive to progress: Advertising is a great motivating factor , it creates desire for better

standard of living. People are induced to work hard and earn more to buy new products

brought to their knowledge through advertising.

Creates Social Awareness: Advertising is an effective medium for spreading awareness and

educating people about their social and cultural values

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LESSON 4

ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES

Objectives could be considered as “ strategic decisions” they serve as the base for much of campaign’s strategy and tactics, as well as basis for measuring the effectiveness of

advertising . Once objectives are clearly in place, the planer can proceed to develop strategic

decisions.

An important reason for setting advertising objectives is that they provide benchmark against

which the success or failure of the promotional program is measured. Without specific objectives

it would be extremely difficult to determine what the advertising and promotion efforts

accomplished.

Defining clear objectives helps in taking operational decisions about advertising, These decisions

are:

o How much to spend on advertising?

o What media mix to be used?

o What should be the frequency of display of advertisement or campaign?

o What should be the content and presentation of advertisements?

o What methods should be used for evaluation the accomplishments of the advertisings?

Without clear objectives, it is not possible to take correct decision concerning advertising copy

and media. Advertising objectives help coordinate the efforts of media planners, copywriters and

others involved in the advertising campaign.

To summarise some of the main considerations in setting of advertising objectives can by

illustrated as:

WHAT What role is the total marketing effort is advertising expected to fulfil?

WHY Why is it believed that advertising can achieve its role-what assumptions are

necessary?

WHO Who should be involved in setting advertising objectives, who should be

responsible for coordinating, implementing and subsequent evaluation? Who are

the audience?

HOW How are the advertising objectives are put into practice- what are the precise sub-

objectives and how they are intended to be attained and subsequently evaluated for

the level of achievement?

WHEN When is the implementation for various parts of the program be achieved ? When

can response be expected to each stage of implementation

Functions and Nature of Advertising Objectives:

Some of the important objectives of setting advertising goals are

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Provide direction to advertising decisions by serving as criteria: Since planning and

execution of advertising campaign involve large number of decisions , setting advertising

objectives draws attention to many specific elements in the campaign.

Provide bases for evaluation of results: Since setting objectives assist marketers in making

explicit what they seek to accomplish through a particular campaign. It also permits to assess the

success and failure of certain strategies and task put into action for accomplishment of the

objectives.

Guides decision makers to seek understanding of the working of the entire campaign process:

The decision maker of the promotional campaign want to know not only the factors that are a

part of the campaign but also relationships among the factors.

Enhance Communication within the organisation: Proper setting of the advertising goals serves

to make known to various managers the kinds and degrees of responsibility for specific tasks.

Types of Advertising Objectives

Advertising Objectives

Communication Objectives: As means of communication advertising aims at following:

Create Awareness: One of the primary objective of advertising message is to create awareness

amongst the target audience. People are stopped by communication message either because they

see they see it some promise of reward or because it is easier to notice the communication than to

ignore it(principle of least effort)

Communication Objectives

Create Awareness

DevelopComprehension

Create

Conviction

Create

Desire

Secure Action

Marketing Objectives

Increase

Sales

Increase Marketing share

Buld

Goodwill

Intoduce New Product

Enter new Market

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Develop Comprehension: Second communication objective of advertising is to create

understanding. Audience seek either consciously or subconsciously for certain information but

they usually do not work too hard to find it. Advertising educates customers by providing

knowledge about the product.

Create Conviction: Advertising seek to convince target audience that the captioned product will

meet their needs or requirements. Superiority of the brand is highlighted and attempt is made to

develop positive attitude towards the advertised product and enhance the image of the brand in

the mind of potential consumers.

Create Desire: Advertising see to convert the dormant or unstated needs, wants or urges into

desires through persuasive communication.

Secure Action: No advertising can compel anyone to act but it an impel people towards

purchase or favourable image of the product. An impulse to act generally comes from basic two

forces:

a) belief that what advertisement says is true

b) conviction that product will satisfy consumer’s prime motivating forces

Marketing Objectives: can be elaborated as following:

Increase sales: An advertising campaign attempts to increase demand by increased use of

product, frequency of use, variety of use and so on new customers are created and existing one

are induced to use the product extensively subsequently adding to the sales or revenue of the

advertiser.

Increase Market Share: Advertising seek to overcome competition, it is used to capture larger

part of total market thereby increasing the market share.

Build Goodwill: Advertising also aims at creating favourable image or reputation for the firm

thus builds goodwill.

Introduce New Product: Another marketing objective of advertising is to facilitate launch of

new product special feature and benefits are highlighted so that it is quickly accepted by the

buyers.

Enter New Market: Advertising facilitates entry of the firm into new territories by making

people aware about their offering. Advertising also supports personal selling.

Marketing versus Communication Objectives

Marketing objectives are generally stated in the company’s marketing plan and are usually defined in terms of specific, measurable outcomes such as sales, market share, profits or return

32

on investment. Good marketing objectives are quantifiable. Too be effective objectives must be

realistic and attainable.

Many promotional planners approach promotion from communication perspective and believe

that objective of advertising and other promotional mix elements is to communicate information

or selling propositions about the product.

The two perspectives have been a topic of considerable debated and have been elaborated in the

following sections.

Sales as Advertising Goal

For many promotional spending represents an investment of firms scarce resources that require

economic justification. Rational managers generally compare investment option on a common

financial basis such as Return on Investment (ROI)

Many managers believe that money spent on advertising and other form of promotion should

produce measurable results such as increasing sales volume or increasing brand’s market share. The success and failure of advertising should be evaluated on the basis of achievement of sales

results. They prefer sales oriented objectives to make individuals involved in advertising and

promotion think in terms of how the promotional program will influence sales

Problem with Sales Objective

Poor sales result can be due to any of the marketing mix variables including quality, distribution ,

technology, pricing etc(As shown in fig.). Advertising can make consumer aware and interested

in the brand but it can’t make them buy it particularly if it is priced too high , it is not readily available

There is an adage “ No amount of advertising can sell bad product”

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Factors Affecting Sales

Another problem associated with sales objective is that the effects of advertising often occur over

an extended period. Many experts recognize that advertising has lagged or Carry Over Effect.

Money spent on advertising do not necessarily has immediate impact on sales. Advertising may

create awareness, interest or favourable image but these feelings will not result in actual

purchase until the consumer enters the market, which may occur later. The carry over effect adds

to the difficulty of determining the precise relationship between advertising and sales.

Another problem with sales objective is that they provide little guidance to those responsible for

planning and developing of promotional program. The creative people working on the account

need some direction as to the nature of the advertising message company intends to communicate

the target audience and the particular effects of response sought.

Where Sales objectives are appropriate: While there can be many problems attempting to use

sales as objective for promotional campaign, there are situations where sales objectives are

appropriate.

Direct Response Advertising- in one type of advertising that evaluates its effectiveness

on the basis of sales. Product is advertised through materials mailed to the customers in

newspapers and magazine, through internet through internet or television, consumer

purchase the product by mail or through net or by calling toll free number. This form of

advertising generally sets objectives and measures success in terms of sales generated by

the ad.

Technology

Economy

Product

quality

CompetitionPrice

Distribution

Advertising

and

Promotion

Sales

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Retail Advertising: also seeks direct response particularly when sales or special events

are being promoted. Foe eg: special discounts and other sales promotional schemes

announced by the retailer that invokes the consumer to make immediate purchase, rush to

the store,. In this case also sales criteria is used as basis of determining the effectiveness

of advertisements

Communication Objectives

Advertising and other promotional efforts are designed to achieve such communication as

awareness, brand knowledge , favourable attitude, image and purchase intention. Consumers are

not expected to respond immediately rather advertisers realize they must provide relevant

information and create favourable predispositions towards brand before purchase behaviour will

occur

Proponents of communication based objectives generally use Communication Response

Hierarchy models(Refer section on Communication Response Hierarchy) when setting

advertising and promotion objectives.

In all the models the consumer pass through three successive stages : Cognitive, Affective,

Conative .

Communication Effects Pyramid: Advertising and promotion perform communication task in the

same way a pyramid is build, by first accomplishing lower level objectives such as awareness

and comprehension, Subsequent tasks involve moving consumers who are aware and

knowledgeable about the product or service to higher levels of the pyramid. The initial levels of

pyramid as relatively easier to accomplish as compared to the towards the top such as trial or

purchase Also the percentage of prospective customers will decline as movement up to the

pyramid (Refer fig.)

The communication pyramid can be used to determine promotional objectives for brand, the

promotional planners must determine where target audience lies with respect to the various

blocks of the pyramid. If awareness level for brand and knowledge for its features is low, the

communication objectives should be to increase them. If people are aware about the product and

its features but liking or preference is low the advertising goal may be to create image of the

brand and move the consumer to purchase.

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Communication Effects Pyramid

Problems with Communication Objectives: Many experts do not accept communication

objectives some say it is too difficult to translate sales goal into specific communication

objectives. In attempting to translate the sales goal into specific communication objectives

promotional planners often are not sure of what constitutes adequate level of awareness,

knowledge, liking, preference or conviction. The promotional manager through his personal

experience and judgment can determine these levels. Also average scores on various

communication measures for the advertised and similar products should be considered along

with the levels achieved by the competitor’s products.

At some point the sales oriented objectives must be translated into what the company expects to

communicate and to whom it hopes to communicate. For example if the objective for a brand is

to increase the sales by 10 percent, the promotional planners should think in terms of message

that will be communicated to the target audience to achieve this. Possible objectives may be:

Increase the percentage of consumers in the target market who associate specific feature,

benefit or advantage with the brand

Encourage the current consumers to use the product more frequently

Encourage the consumers who have never used the product to try it

DAGMAR Approach

In 1961 Russell H. Colley prepared a report under the sponsorship of Association of National

Advertisers titled Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results(DAGMAR).The

major thesis of DAGMAR model is that communication objectives are the logical basis for

setting advertising goals and objectives against which the results should be measured.

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Colley’s Rationale for communication objectives was:

“Advertising’s job is purely and simply to communicate to defined audience information and

frame of mind that stimulates action. Advertising succeeds or fails depending on how well it

communicates the desired information and attitude to the right people at the right time and at

the right cost”

Communication Task

Advertising is mass, paid communication that is intended to create awareness, develop

comprehension, develop attitude and induce action .

According to DAGMAR approach the advertising objective involve communication task as

opposed to marketing and it is specific , involving defined task, among defined audience, in a

given time period.

Colley propose that communication objectives be based on hierarchical model through which the

brand or objects must climb to gain acceptance. The hierarchy of effects model consist of four

stages:

Hierarchy of Effects model of communication process

Awareness: Involving target audience aware of the existence of the brand or company

Comprehension: developing an understanding what the product is what are its specific

characteristics, how it differ from the competitors and what it would do for them

Conviction: developing mental disposition in the minds of the consumer to buy the

product

Action: Getting the consumer try the product for the first time, visiting the showroom or

requesting information

There is no significant difference between Colley’s proposed model and other hierarchy of effects models .

Colley also studied other specific tasks that advertising might be expected to perform in leading

to the ultimate objective of sale. He developed a checklist of 52 advertising tasks to characterize

the contribution of advertising and serve as starting point for establishing objectives

Another important contribution of DAGMAR was to clarify what constitutes good objective.

According to Colley the objectives should have the following feature:

Stated in terms of concrete and measurable communication task

Specify target audience

Awareness →Comprehension→ Conviction →Action

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Indicate benchmark or starting point and the degree of change sought

Specify time period for accomplishing the objectives

Concrete, Measurable Tasks: The communication tasks specified in the objective should be

precise written statement of what message or appeal advertiser wants to communicate to the

target audience. It should be specific and clear enough to guide the creative professionals to

develop the advertising message. Also objective must be measurable; there must be a way to

determine whether the intended message has been communicated properly

Target Audience: The key tenet of DAGMAR approach is specification of well defined target

audience for whom the advertising message is to be addressed for eg: target audience of a luxury

and premium car could be defined as Corporate Executive, Self Employed, Businessman. If the

target audience is not well defined the entire promotional effort may go waste.

Benchmark and the degree of change sought: it is important to know the target audience’s present status with respect to response variables i.e awareness , knowledge, attitude etc and then

determine the degree of change sought by the advertising campaign for eg: the objective

statement may include to increase awareness level of brand X from current 10% to 40% amongst

the target audience. Determining target market’s present position regarding various response stages require marketing research and without a benchmark measure quantitative assessment of

the result could not be ascertained. Benchmark is also a prerequisite to the ultimate measurement

of results an essential part of the DAGMAR is generation of well conceived benchmarks before

the advertising goals are determined.

Time Period: The final consideration in setting advertising objectives is to specify the time

period to accomplish the objectives. The period may could be a month or a year or more. With

the time period specified, a survey to generate a set of measures can be planned and anticipated .

All the parties involved in the campaign will understand that the results will be available for

evaluating which may result modification or change in the current effort

Assessment and Criticism of DAGMAR Approach

The DAMAR approach focussed advertiser’s attention on the importance and value of using

communication based objectives vis a vis marketing or sales based objectives to measure the

impact and success of advertisement campaign.

Colley’s work led to the improvement in the advertising and promotional planning process by providing a better understanding of the advertising objectives towards which the planners effort

should be directed that usually results in less subjectivity and better communication and

relationship between client and agency

However this approach has been questioned on the following grounds concerning its value as

advertising planning tool:

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Sales as Advertising Goal: Many believe that sales measure is the only relevant measure

of advertising objectives according to them if the communication task for example to

increase brand awareness does not affect sales positively what is the point even

measuring it and if there is no close relationship then sales must be measured directly i.e

Sales effect is the appropriate measure of evaluation of advertising campaign as

advertising is effective only if it induces consumer/customer to make purchase.

Problem with Response hierarchy: the hierarchical model that postulates a set of

sequential steps of awareness , comprehension, conviction leading to action. The fact that

the consumer do not always go through this sequence of communication effects before

making purchase decision , there are alternative response models depending on the

purchase situation for example: action may precede attitude formation and

comprehension may result with the impulse purchase of low involvement product 1

Practicality and Cost: Another criticism of DAGMAR concerns the difficulties involved

in implementing it . Expensive research is required to establish quantitative standards and

measure changes in response hierarchy and is also time consuming . Many argue that

DAGMAR is practical only for large companies with big advertising and research budget

and is beyond the means of small and medium sized firms

Inhibits Creativity: DAGMAR approach is a planned and rational approach to setting

advertising objectives , it impose too much structure and may restrict the creativity of the

people engaged in and responsible for developing of advertising campaign. It is too

concerned with the quantitative assessment of campaign’s impact on awareness, recall or specific persuasion measures. The emphasis is on passing number of tests rather than

developing a message that is creative and contributes to brand equity.

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LESSON 5

DETERMINATION OF TARGET AUDIENCE AND POSITIONING

Market Segmentation: Concept

Market segmentation is the process of dividing the total market into total heterogeneous market

into relatively distinct homogeneous sub groups of consumers with common needs and

characteristics and selecting one or more segments to target with distinct marketing programme.

Market segmentation is the extension of the marketing concept . The central idea of this concept

is customer value and must be the core element of the business decisions.

When marketers provide range of product or service options to serve diverse consumers interest,

consumers are more satisfied.

Effective Segmentation

The following five conditions must exist for effective market segmentation:

1. Firm must determine whether the market is heterogeneous, if the product needs of

consumers are homogeneous, then it makes no sense to segment the market.

2. There must be logical basis to identify and divide the population in relatively distinct

homogeneous groups, having common needs and will respond to a marketing action.

3. The total market should be so divided so that comparison of estimated sales potential,

costs and profits of each segment are estimated.

4. Segments must have enough sales potential that would justify developing and maintain

marketing programme.

5. It must be possible to reach the targeted segment effectively.

Bases for Market segmentation: A segmentation variable is characteristic of individuals ,

groups or organizations that marketers use to divide and create the total market into segments.

Variables such as geographic location, age, gender, educational level, income, personality

characteristics, usage rate or product benefits sought are frequently used to segment markets.

Geographic Segmentation: Geographic units are the basis to divide the markets. These units

may be nations, states, regions, areas of certain climatic conditions or urban or rural divide. For

example Business houses engaged in import and export often divide the market as European

market, Asian market etc.

Demographic Segmentation: Market segmentation can be based on demographic variables such

as age, gender, education, family size, income and social class

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Producers of washing machines, microwave etc take family size as one of the variable in

segmenting the market. Toy manufacturer such as Funskool, Fisher Price segment the market on

the basis of age of the children

Behaviouristic Segmentation: dividing the market on the basis of variables such as benefit

sought, use, occasion, user status, usage rate, loyalty, consumer readiness stage is termed as

behaviouristic segmentation .For example: there are distinct groups of automobile buyers who

look for economy, status, value for money, luxury etc. Archies greetings cards are for various

occasions.

Psychographics Segmentation: When segmentation is based on personality or lifestyle

variables it is called psychographic segmentation.

Personality can be described as an individual view about himself(self image) and how others

views an individual. There are people who are ambitious , aggressive, confident, impulsive,

conservative, modern , gregarious, introvert or extrovert Some motor bikes manufacturers

segment the market on the basis of personality variables such as macho image, independent etc.

Lifestyle indicates how people live spend their time and money for example:

Based on the personality of adopting new products Rogers has classified consumers as

Innovators, Early Adopters. Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards

Determining How many segments to enter

There are three strategic options available to marketers

a) Concentrated Marketing: In this strategy the organisation focus on only one sub group

and develop marketing programmes directed to it.

b) Differentiated Marketing: The marketer decides to enter several market segments or

develop special offerings for each .For example: Maruti Udyog is producing cars for

various segments, Nike offers athletic shoes for different sports.

c) Undifferentiated Marketing: This involves ignoring the differences among consumers

and offer just one product for the entire market. This strategy focuses on what is common

in needs of consumers rather than what is different . For example Coca Cola offered only

one product version for over ninety years for the whole market and hoped it would appeal

to everyone. Undifferentiated marketing strategy provides cost economies.

Target Audience

Marketer should focus on those customers for which the product is best suited. Any group of

people can be called a market only when they feel need for the product are interested in it and

have money to buy it and are willing to spend on it. The selection of target market helps the

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marketer to identify the audience and group of customers to whom the advertising message

should be directed.

Audience selection is the process of comparing and evaluating different market segments and

then selecting one or more segments as the prospects with highest potential.

Target audience are the people who can be reached with a particular message and a certain

medium.

Audience can be profiled in terms of their demographic categories, personality, lifestyle,

geography etc(Refer Bases for segmenting the market)

Identification of Target Audience is helpful in advertising planning in the following ways:

Designing Advertising Copy: Advertising copy is the entire message and appeal which the

advertiser wants to convey to his prospects , it consist of all the written or spoken material in it,

including the main body , headline, sub heads, all the printed material such as captions , pictures

, slogans, brand names , advertisers name etc.

It is the heart and subject matter of the advertising. The content, design , layout of the copy

largely depends on the profiling of the target audience.

Determining Advertising Appeal: Advertising Appeal is defined as the approach used to attract

the attention of the prospective consumer . It is viewed as something that moves people. What

types of message is to be communicated and how it is to be presented entirely depends on the

type of target audience

Determining Media Mix and Media Vehicle: “Medium” is the general category of available delivery system such as broadcast media(T.V or radio) print(newspaper, magazine), direct mail ,

outdoor advertising and other support media. “Media Vehicle” is the specific carrier within the medium category such as Hindustan Times and Times of India are print vehicles.

The selection various medium of advertising and specific carrier of the advertising

message(media vehicle) depends entirely on the type of the target audience to be reached.

Determining Message Source: Message source refers to the spokesperson involved directly or

indirectly in delivering the advertising message. Who presents and portrays the advertising

message plays an important part in the effective execution of advertising campaign. A key

source, the endorser in an advertisement can be celebrity, announcer, spokesperson or common

consumer etc. Who endorses or demonstrates the product in the advertisement

Positioning

A product cannot exist unless it finds a place in the in the consumer’s perception . Any product or brand is noticed only when it occupies a particular point or space in the individual consumer’s

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mind relative to the other brands in the same product category. This perception of the product is

subjective and is governed by individual ‘s needs, values, beliefs, experience and environment. “Position” is the way the product or the brand is defined by consumers on important attributes. Positioning is the perception of brand or brand it brings about in the mind of target consumer and

reflects the essence of that brand or product in terms of its functional or non functional benefits

judged by the consumer.

Thus a brand’s position is the set of associations the consumer has with the brand. A brand’s position develops over years through advertising , publicity and word of mouth and usage

experience and can be sharp or diffuse depending on consistency of brand’s advertising over the years. For example: HUL’s “Lux” is the beauty soap, Maggi brand of noodles is “ two minute noodle”, BMW is positioned as “ the ultimate driving machine”

Brands can be expected to create a loyal feeling only when they are perceived as different in

some way , which is convincingly important and persuasive for the members of the target

segment, and this is what positioning is meant to accomplish. It is not really what the product

is or does but actually what the marketer does to the mind of the consumer

Positioning strategy is vital to provide focus on the development of an advertising campaign. The

strategy can be conceived and implemented in a variety of ways that derive from attributes,

competition, specific application, type of consumers involved or the characteristics of the

product class.

Positioning Approaches

Positioning by Corporate Identity: Companies that have become tried and trusted brands use

their corporate identity to imply competitive superiority of their brands such as Tata , Sony,

Godrej etc. Corporate credentials are added as a y line. This offers strong positioning and is used

in product line extensions or brand extensions.

Positioning by Product Attributes and Benefits: This is the most common approach to

positioning and involves setting brand apart from the competitor based on the specific brand

attributes and benefits offered. For example in case of toothpaste brands are positioned on

cosmetic, medicinal, taste or economy dimension. Close up is positioned as fresh breath and

cosmetic benefit, Pepsodent is positioned as gum care, Colgate is positioned as fresh breath,

decay prevention and taste

Positioning by occasion and time: the idea behind this positioning approach is to find an

occasion or time of use for example Vicks Vaporub is to be used for cold, Iodex for muscle pain

and sprains.

Positioning by Price Quality: This approach is quite powerful proposition and has two

dimensions One for consumers looking for value of money as purchase consideration, An

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excellent example in this category is of Nirma detergent powder , in early 70’s ad of good quality detergents such as Surf had strong demonstration effect on middle class housewives, they wanted

o use it but were unable to buy because the price was high , Nirma positioned itself as quality

product that lathered well, clean well and the price was much less than Surf.

Another dimension of price-quality positioning is that product is positioned on high quality and

the price is kept high to communicate high quality. In many product categories such as Perfumes

it is not possible to assess quality , high price becomes an indicator for high quality

Positioning by Product Category: This positioning approach is used so that the brand is

perceived as belonging to another product category. For example: Dove brand of soap from HUL

is positioned away from the toilet soap category , it is not cleansing soap but moisturising cream.

This strategy is often used when the product category is overcrowded.

Positioning by Product User: The brand manager can determine a target segment for which the

product will be positioned. Various segment bases can be considered .For example: cars are

positioned on economy, safety, luxury, comfort, status etc.

Positioning by Competitor: This approach is used because marketer wants consumers to

believe that the brand is superior or at least as good as offered by the competitor. Earlier

advertisements by Apple computers wherein they compared their G3 processors against Pentium

III showing that G3 processor of 400 MHz is powerful than 750 MHz of Pentium III. This

strategy is often seen in case of comparative advertising

Determining Positioning Strategy…………. Comment [01]: p-57 belch and belch

The exercise of determining poisoning strategy is not easy and could prove to be difficult and

quite complex. However it becomes more manageable if it is supported by marketing research

and decomposed into the following process:

Identify the Competitors

Determine the competitors are perceived and evaluated

Determine Competitor’s position

Analyze the customers

Select the Position

Monitor the position

The first step is to identify the competition, identification of completion is not an easy task

because brand faces competition not only from the products in the same product class but others

also for example Times of India may compete with other news shows and channels than with the

Hindu(another newspaper)Next thing is to determine how competitor products re perceived , it is

necessary to choose an appropriate set of product attributes for comparison. Attributes may not

only include product characteristics and customer benefits but also product associations such as

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product uses or product users. Another useful exercise is to determine how competitors are

positioned, the primary focus of interest is how they are positioned with respect to relevant

attributes. Next identify the segments or cluster of customers, determining which attributes or

customer benefits are most important and then identify groups of customers who value similar

attributes or benefits. These steps should be analyzed prior to making actual positioning decision.

Once the positioning statement selected and applied, it should be monitored for any changes

which may be required because of some emerging opportunities or change in the product features

or line extensions etc

Repositioning ……………….. Comment [01]: More

No matter how well the product appears to be positioned, the marketer may be forced to decide

on its repositioning in response to new opportunities or threats. A brand’s repositioning is usually considered when there are attractive opportunities or the brand’s sales stagnate or

decline. The product may be provided with some new features or it may be associated with some

new uses and offered to the existing or new markets.

For example: Nestle’s milkmaid was Milkmaid Condensed Milk a convenient form of milk for use as tea or coffee creamer, the sales of milkmaid in 80’s reached plateau and the company repositioned the product as ideal for preparing sweets and desserts. The packaging was also

changed to suit the repositioning, which lead to substantial gain in sales volume.

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LESSON 6

ADVERTISING BUDGET

After determining the advertising objectives a company has to estimate how much it is willing to

spend on promotional programme. Although in an ideal situation budget should be determined

by the objectives laid out for the communication function , in constraining situations often it is

the budget which leads to revision of company’s objectives .

According to Cohen, “Translation of advertising plan into currency unit is advertising budget”

Advertising budget is a financial document that shows the total amount to be spent on

advertising and list the way this amount is to be allocated. It is prepared for a specific future

period of time. It is limiting factor which determine the size of advertising campaign. It shows

the allocation of available funds to various advertising activities.

One of the most critical decision facing marketing managers is to determine how much to spend

on promotional effort. Many consider the amount of money spend to advertising as current

business expenditure cutting into the profits rather than an investment , For this reason when a

firm faces turbulent times the axe falls at first on the advertising expenditure, even though there

is a strong evidence that exactly the opposite should occur (refer Sales Response Models). Thus

maximizing the effectiveness of promotional spending of company is hence the prime

importance especially in times of spiralling media cost , increasing completion, consumer apathy

towards promotion and increased pressure on communication productivity.

As an element of the marketing communication mix advertisement should be viewed as an

investment in future sales. Marketers often use advertising to generate immediate sales; however

its greatest power is in the cumulative long term reinforcement effect, it builds consumer

preference and goodwill which helps enhance the reputation and value of the company and the

brand name. Thus considering advertising as expenditure is short sighted view and may affect

the brand’s image.

Setting advertising budget is not an easy task, there is no way to be absolutely certain that the

company is spending the right amount Some critics say that large FMCG companies spend too

much on image advertising without really knowing its effects , they “overspend” as an

insurance against not spending enough . Industrial companies on the other hand spend less on

advertising, underestimating the power of company and product image and rely too heavily on

their sales force to bring in sales. Overspending leads to waste of resources and under spending

can lead to opportunity loss , while there is no single best way to determine the budget

theoretical approaches to budgeting, situational factors as well as methods to determine budget

serve as useful guide.

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Sales response Models

Most marketing managers believe that sales and promotions are related in one of the following

two manners:

The Concave Downward Function- As shown in fig a) as the promotional expenditure

increases, sales increases at decreasing rate up to certain point in other words additional

promotional rupee bring in lesser and lesser sales. The reason that sales follow concave

downward curve pattern is that when the initial communication expense is made the most

lucrative prospects (innovators) or heavy users buy the product. The task of bringing

laggards and light users with communication is more difficult and has little impact on the

total sales. According to the model the highest response rate occur after the first exposure

and it diminishes there after. This model is based on the Law of Diminishing Returns .

Thus budgeting under this model suggest that lesser advertising money may be needed to

produce optimal sales effect.

S- Shaped Response function- As shown in figure a, The S- shaped curve is

characterized by slow start , followed by steep growth and then a plateau. Initial

advertising and promotion expenditure has little impact on the on sales in the range A. In

range B additional promotion expenditure bring in increased sales, up to a point . In

range C, the benefits of additional promotion expenditure taper off. The model suggests

that until a company has minimum share of voice its advertising brings in no benefit.

Share of Voice is the advertising weight of the brand/company as a percentage of the

advertising weight of a given market or market segment. Expenditure in range B brings in

returns first at an increasing rate and then at diminishing rate. The optimal level of

expenditure is at a point in range B where marginal revenue and marginal cost are equal .

Money spend in range C does not have much noticeable impact on sales as the product

already reached its market potential.

Fig a) Concave Downward Function Fig b) S-Shaped Response Function

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Marginal Analysis- The logical process of arriving at advertising budget is inspired by

the marginal analysis , which is widely used in business decision making to allocate

scarce resources such as advertising spending in order to maximize output such as sales.

Marginal analysis focuses on studying whether the promotion budget be increased by one

more unit or not so as to maximize profit. As illustrated in fig.c) as promotion

expenditure increases , sales and gross margin also increases up to a point after which

they start to levelling off . Profit which is the difference between gross margin and

advertising or promotion expense, is maximum when marginal revenue is equal to

marginal cost (point A)

Marginal revenue is the increase in the gross revenue by the addition of one more unit of

promotional expenditure. Whereas Marginal cost is the increase in total cost with the

addition of one more unit of promotional expenditure. When marginal revenue is greater

than the marginal cost there is scope for increasing promotional expenditure as it would

add to the profit. On the other hand when marginal cost is greater than marginal revenue,

the promotional expenditure should be reduced.

Fig. C) Marginal Analysis

While the analysis is logical, it suffers from the following limitations:

Considering Sales as a direct result of Promotion- Advertising has delayed or carry

over effect(discussed in Advertising objectives) Also measurement of impact of

communication on sales is nearly an impossible task because promotion is one of the

factor that influence sales there are other factors also (refer section on advertising

objective) . In the words of David Aaker and James Carman, “Looking at the relationship between advertising and sales is somewhat worse than looking for a needle in haystack” Thus to try to show the size of the budget will directly affect sales of the product is

misleading . A more logical approach would be to examine the impact of promotional

budget on attainment of communication objectives. Sales is not the only goal of

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promotional effort awareness, interest, attitude change and other communication

objectives are often sought and while the bottom line is may be to sell the product, these

objectives may serve as basis on which the promotional effort is directed.

Difficulty in predicting the marginal sales function: Estimating the exact rate at which

sales will change as response to advertising and promotion is a difficult task.

Because of these limitations the use of marginal analysis is not popular in budget

determination, however a conceptual understanding of the model helps in comprehending

how promotional expenditure and its results are related and in determining how

budgeting can be planned.

Budgeting Approaches

The theoretical approaches to budgeting are rarely used. Instead a number of methods

developed though practice and experience are implemented. Some companies use more

than one method and approaches to budgeting vary among the companies depending on

size and sophistication of the company.

In practice companies use two totally different approaches to budget setting Top Down

Approach and Build Up Approach

In case of Top- Down Approach the budgetary amount is established by the higher

management and passed down to various departments. Top down methods of budgeting

include affordable method, arbitrary allocation, percentage of sales, competitive parity

and return on investment. These top-down methods are judgemental in approach and the

budget is apparently not linked to the objectives and the strategies decided to attain them.

The Build- Up Approach takes into account the company’s advertising objective and budget is allocated on the basis of what is considered essential to accomplish the goals

ascertained. Build- Up methods of budgeting includes object and task method, payout

planning method and quantitative models.

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The Affordable Method (All you can afford Method)

After all allocations have been made to cover other relevant company expenditures whatever is

left is allocated to advertising ,that this is what the firm can afford to spend on advertising after

making allocations for various other investment and expenditure decisions .

No consideration is given to what is expected of advertising. This approach is fairly common

amongst the small firms particularly highly technologically oriented firms focus on new product

development and engineering and believe that if the product is good it would sell on its own.

Surprisingly this method often produce good results as if the company is doing proper allocation

to other elements of business then probably the amount lest out for advertising is adequate to

meet firm’s advertising objectives. The basis premise behind this method is “ we can’t be hurt

with this method as we are allocating what we can afford and not get into any financial

problems” However the chances of overspending and under spending are high with this method

Competitive Parity Method

Many advertisers base their advertising budget allocation on competitor’s expenditure . Such information is available in trade journals and business magazines. According to this approach

manager decides budget amount by matching competitor’s advertising spending (generally percentage of sales allocation). The logic behind this approach is that the collective wisdom of

firms probably generates advertising budgets that are quite close to optimal . Not everyone

would be too far from what is adequate in a given industry. This method also takes into

consideration the competition leading to stability in the market place and minimizing the

chances of promotional wars.

There are disadvantages of using this method First it ignores the fact that each firm allocates

budget to accomplish specific objectives to solve certain problems or to take advantage of the

present or emerging opportunity. The inherent assumption is that all firms have similar

advertising objectives ad their allocations are correct, which may not to reality. Second, the

method assumes that all firms have equally effective advertising programmes because the

expenditures are similar and therefore it ignores the contribution of media and creative

executions.

Third there information on completive spending is available only after the money has been spent

and there is no reason to believe that competitor will not increase or decrease its own expenditure

regardless of what other firms do.

Fourth there is simply no guarantee that what firms in the industry spend on advertising is the

optimal level and they will continue to pursue their existing strategies. The situations of

individual firms are quite likely to be sufficiently unique and therefore the practices of

competitor should not be followed.

This method is typically employed in conjunction with other methods like percentage of sales

method. It is never wise to ignore competition ; manager must always be aware of what

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competitors are doing but they should not just emulate them in setting goals and developing

strategies

Arbitrary Allocation Method

The management determines the budget on the basis of what is felt to be necessary however

there is no criteria for defining what is defined as “necessary” in the context of advertising budget allocation. This method lacks the systematic thinking that may reflect some relationship

with advertising objectives. Probably the manager believe that some amount should be spend on

advertising and picks up a figure as advertising budget. This method of budget allocation has no

theoretical basis and its applicability is not recommended

Percentage of Sales Method

This is the most commonly used method especially by the medium and large sized firms. The

basis for budget allocation is the total sale of the brand or product.

In its simplest application affixed percentage of last year’s sales figure is allocated as budget. A variation of this method is to use a percentage of the projected sales figure of following year as

base. Yet another variation is to calculate average sales of last several years to decide budget

allocation.

In another different approach affixed amount of the unit product cost is taken as advertising

expense and multiplied by the number of projected unit of sales.

For example: If the total sales in 2005-2006 were Rs 10 lac(10,00,000), the advertising budget

may be decided as 10% of this figure for 2006-2007 which would be Rs 1 Lac(1,00,000)

For instance the projected sales for 2006-2007 is Rs 12 lac(12,00,000) the budget allocated

would be Rs 1.2 Lac(1,20,000)[Assuming the basis of allocation i.e percentage of sales remain

same at 10%]

Assuming the total manufacturing cost of an article is Rs 20 per unit and advertising money

allocated per unit is Rs 2 and the projected sales figure for the year is fifty thousand

units(50,000) for the coming year then the total advertising budget would be Rs.1 Lac

(1,00,000)[50,000*2=1,00,000]

The percentage figure selected is industry standard , and it varies from industry to industry and

also among different firms in the same industry. Some companies allocate a small percentage of

sales as advertising budget while others decide a higher percentage.

Actual rupee spend vary considerably depending on individual company’s total sales figure.

Advantages of this method are: it is simple, straightforward, and easy to implement method and

expenditure is directly related to the fund available. If the company’s sale were more in the previous year that means it has more funds available to be spent on advertising this year.

Regardless whether last year sales figure or projected sales figure is is taken as base it is easy to

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arrive at budget figure. Unless unprecedented changes in sales managers will have a fair idea of

the budget parameters

Disadvantages of this method are

The basic premise of this method that sales is cause of advertising or it is advertising that helps

generate sales. Letting the level of sales determine the amount of advertising to be spent reverses

the cause and effect relationship between advertising and sales. It treats advertising as expense

associated with making a sale rather than an investment

Another problem associated with this method is stability , proponents say that if all firms use a

similar percentage, it will bring stability to the marketplace. The problem is this method does not

allow for changes in strategy either internally or from the competitors . An aggressive firm may

wish to allocate larger sum for advertising budget , a strategy that is not possible with percentage

of sales method unless manger is willing to deviate from the industry standard.

In the event of introduction of new innovative product , no sales histories are available and

projecting of future sales may be difficult employing this method is not only difficult but risky as

well.

Since the advertising budget is dependent on sales only, decrease in sales decreases the budget at

a time when increase in budget is probably more required. Reduced advertising spending may

further push the sales trend downwards.

Problem with forecasting, cyclical growth and uncontrollable factors limit the effectiveness of

this method.

Objective and Task Method

Setting objectives and budget decision are linked together and should be considered

simultaneously.

The objective and task method is based on build-up approach .Steps involved in objective and

task method are:

Establish Advertising Objectives

Determine specific strategies and tasks necessary to achieve them

Estimate cost associated in putting these strategies and tasks in operation

Implementation of this method requires higher degree of managerial involvement . The whole

process must be monitored throughout keeping in view how well the objectives are attained and

suitable changes in strategies made, if deemed necessary.

Major difficulty associated with this method is to determine which are those specific tasks

required and the costs associated with each. For instance if the objective is to accomplish

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awareness level of 50% among target audience , what specifically are those tasks that are

required to achieve this level if awareness? How much will it cost to perform these tasks?

Though, Past experience serves as good guide in case of existing product .

The most fundamental advantage of this method is that it develops the budget from the ground

up which is the proper managerial approach. It does not rely on past sales figure, forecasted

sales, competitor’s spending and considers only the factors which are under the advertiser’s control.

Payout Planning

Payout planning is a useful technique to develop budget when a new product is introduced . It is

used in conjunction with other budgeting methods to estimate the investment value of

advertising.

Mangers have keen interest in knowing how much money is to be invested in advertising and for

how long before the brand gets established and generate profit flow. Projection of revenue

stream that the product will generate and the cost it will incur over the projected period are

ascertained.

Preparing payout depends on the accuracy of sales forecast over time, factors that affect market,

estimated costs. Advertising expenditure during the introductory stage of the product will be high

to move the target audience through various stages leading to purchase, growth in sales will is

expected to be low and company would lose money(incur loss)

Assuming everything goes according to the plan the advertising expenditure will gradually

decline and sales will increase.

It is useful and logical planning tool when used in conjunction with objective and task method

for setting advertising budget, but it has certain limitations it cannot account for all

uncontrollable factors such as competition, changes in government policies and other factors that

may influence the plan.

Quantitative Models

Mathematical models and statistical techniques such as multiple regression analysis ,

econometrics are used to determine the relative contribution of advertising expenditure to sales.

Some models reflect about how advertising might interact in different ways with other marketing

variables and consumers.

Mathematical models have not been able to get wide acceptance in the industry using these

models require experimentation and formal analysis. Many firms lack such capabilities and also

the process is expensive and time consuming.

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Factors influencing advertising budget

1. Product Life cycle stage: New products typically require large advertising budget to

create awareness, develop preference and induce product trial and purchase. Mature

brands usually require lower budget as ratio to sales

2. Market size : the size of the market influences the budget allocation decision

comparatively it is easier and less expensive to reach target audience in smaller markets.

Too much of advertising expenditure in such markets may be unnecessary and wasteful.

Target audience may be dispersed in larger market areas and it would be more expensive

to reach them

3. Advertising Tasks to be accomplished: larger amount of advertising spending will be

required if the task is to create brand awareness and brand persuasion to generate

trial/purchase in case of new brand. However in case of established brands where

consumers have already tried and tested the brand and are satisfied only reminder

advertising will suffice.

4. Intensity of Competition : In a market with many competitors a brand needs to advertise

more heavily to be mark its recognition amongst the competing brands

5. Financial resources: Budget is a limiting factor which determines the size of advertising

campaign. The availability of financial resources with the advertiser is the constraining

factor influencing the amount to be spent on advertising

6. Unexploited Sales Potential: Higher the available sales potential higher is the need for

advertising to tap it.

7. Advertising Frequency: When many advertising repetitions are required to

communicate the brand’s message to the to the target consumers, the advertising budget must be large.

8. Product differentiation: when a brand cannot be differentiated significantly and

resembles other brands in the product category, it requires heavy advertising to set it

apart from the competitors.

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LESSON 7

CREATIVITY AND ADVERTISING

What Is Creativity?

Advertising is called as a creative profession, ads are often called creative, people who develop

and create commercials are known as creative people and advertising agencies gain reputation

for their creativity.

Perspectives on what constitutes creativity in advertising differ. Artists when they create a new

painting or poets when they pen a new verse are often giving expressions to their innermost

thoughts which may be based on perceptions or fantasies. The outcome may be realistic or

surreal. However when creativity is referred to in context of advertising, it is purposive that is the

creative input is expected to achieve the desired response as delineated in the marketing

objective.

In coming up with dimensions along which define creativity, we drew on social and educational

psychology literature that defines creativity as divergent thinking—that is, the ability to find

fresh, unique and appropriate ideas that can be used as solutions to a communication

problem. Creativity is about giving birth to something that did not exist before. It is the

application of past experiences or ideas in a novel and unexpected way. It is being innovative,

original and different.

Creativity requires qualities like imagination, expressiveness, openness to change. These skills

may be genetic, acquired or situational. Stephen Baker in his book “Systematic Approach to Advertising Creativity” talked about the “pyramid principle”, the pyramid is divided into three

equivalent parts (figure a). The first part, the base of the pyramid represents initiation of the

creative process – the gathering of information , the second part represent analysis that would

cover a number of activities, the third or the upper part is culmination of all efforts of the brain-

when an idea is born. According to Baker, fortunately the human mind is eminently flexible and

can stretch, dissect, combine, compare, backtrack, juggle the thought components with amazing

flexibility. When it comes to reasoning the brain surpasses even the smartest computers which

admittedly can ingest several billion bits of information but unless told what to do with all that

fodder, produce nothing of value

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Facts P I Media

Audience

Figure-a) The Pyramid Principle Figure-b) Bernstein’s model of Creative process

David Bernstein’s model of creative process is like a double ended funnel with a wide mouth into which all facts and figures are poured(Figure b), they are eventually concentrated into the

“proposition or the offer” to be made to the reader, listener, viewer that is the target customer This according to Bernstein, goes into the narrow central tube and emerges as creative idea. The

proposition according to the author is arrived at through reason and P becomes I through

imagination. Thus idea become an ad largely as a result of craft.

The creative process model developed by English sociologist Graham Wallas, outlined the four

stages of creativity namely:

Preparation: Gathering back ground information needed to solve the problem through

research and study

Incubation: Getting away and letting ideas develop

Illumination: Seeing the solution

Verification: Refining and polishing the idea, validating if it is an appropriate solution

Also advertising creativity is not the exclusive domain of those who work on the creative side of

the advertising . The nature of business requires creative thinking from everyone involved in the

promotional planning process. Agency people such as account executives, media planners,

researchers as well as those on the client side such as marketing and brand managers must all

seek creative solutions to the problems encountered in planning, developing and executing an ad

campaign.

Idea Generation

How are ideas generated? Is the generation of an idea an individual activity or the outcome of

teamwork? The views amongst various writers in this regard vary but for all writers, the idea

stage is invariably the most challenging and at the same time most rewarding. According to

Bovee and Arens “it is the long, tedious and difficult task of assembling all pertinent information, analyzing the problem and searching for some verbal or visual concept of how to

communicate what needs to be said. It means establishing the mental picture of the ad,

commercial or campaign before any copy is written or the art work begun.”

Analyst differentiate between Analytical Thinking and Creative Thinking, this can be elaborated

through figure c)

An

Idea is born

Analysis

Information Gathering

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Figure c) Analytical and Creative Thinking

Analytical Creative

Logic Imagination

Unique Answers Many Possible Answers Convergent Divergent

Vertical Lateral

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is the process of coming up with the creative idea in a group. This concept was

introduced in 1989 by Alex Osborn, an advertising professional. The technique which is widely

used by the corporate sector, the government and the armed forces. Brainstorming is a

conference technique by which group attempts to find a solution for a specific problem by

amassing all the ideas spontaneously by its members. It is technique where participants put social

inhibition and rules aside and temporarily suspend their judgement with the aim of generating

maximum new ideas.

According to David Kech, brainstorming in which people work on a problem is based on four

basic rules:

No ideas are criticised

Freewheeling is encouraged

Quantity is preferred that is more the ideas greater the probability of finding the “big idea”

“Cross fertilisation” or hitch hiking is encouraged; participants are encouraged to improve the ideas of others to form new and complex one

Following are some of the characteristics of brainstorming

Unpredictable: One does not know, where the discussion is going to lead

Analytical

Thinking

Creative

Thinking

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Playful: Brainstorming is a fun process; one can let creativity run wild without any checks and

control

Collaborative: It is a group process, wherein participants discuss, argue

Surprising: Since there are no bounds within which one play, it can unfold many surprising

solutions

Challenging: It taxes the brain to come up with the innovative, imaginative and different

solutions

Unstructured: It is a random process in which ideas are not discussed in a structured fashion

Rapid: one after the other the ideas keep on flowing freely

Spontaneous: In this process there is no premeditation, ideas are not held back

Imaginative: Not all ideas need to have rational edge; creativity springs from the irrational and

the unthinkable

Preparing for Brainstorming

Although brainstorming is a group activity the preparation can begin individually before the

group session’s .It is important to identify the need for brainstorming, it must serve the purpose. The person in charge of conducting the brainstorming session must research, observe and

explore, in other words pre thinking is imperative. Many advertising personnel keep a file,

portfolio or soft board with clippings interesting quotes, product description, photographs etc.

The objective of this exercise is not to copy other’s creative idea but to use these ideas as spring board for new ideas.

When the process begins the first pre-empt is not to think in terms of advertising but in terms of

ideas. Environment conducive for the free flow of ideas, collaboration and comfort should be

spawn.

While there is no standard outlined process of coming up with the ideas, following are some

variables that can be considered:

Competitor’s Advertising Appeal: Often competition can be a source of creative ideas that can

be used at least at a tactical level if not at strategic level. “Coke, the official drink” was the was the Coca – Cola’s slogan for Wills Cricket World Cup 1996 , Pepsi rebuffed it as “Nothing official about it. Enjoy Pepsi” Nestle’s Pole “The mint with the hole” was countered by Mint –O

as “ All mint no hole”

Target Audience: The target audience profile is not mere a number or a statistics , such

demographic profiling is valuable input in designing the advertising. Hero Honda brand of

scooty- pleasure targeted young girls with the tagline why should boys have all the fun, TVS

Scooty also targeted young girls with the tagline – Go Babelicious

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Product name and definition: Create new names or definitions for the product, tell something

about the product, intrigue the audience. Livon call itself as silky potion rather than as “hair conditioner” Dove is not a soap but moisturising cream and a beauty bar.

Current affairs: Current events quickly occupy people’s mind and catch attention. Amul is forerunner in such type of ads, it always kept its promotion up to date with current events, with

this approach Amul, always keeps the communication fresh with the new and challenging ads.

Strategy: Strategy tells about what to do, it speaks volumes about the vision and mission of the

organisation ,its customers , the message to be conveyed etc. For eg: Tata tea launched Jago Re

campaign, to raise awareness for specific causes like voting driving, anti corruption.

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Personification: How would the product be if it was a living person? For eg: Pillsbury Atta

personified the flour in the form of Pillsbury Doughboy, who is soft and white like dough and

dressed like a chef. Yamaha India recently launched a maiden mascot to connect with children

and parents to promote road safety. The Yamaha Children Safety Program (YCSP) is a first of its

kind social initiative by the company to educate and influence both parents and children about

vital road safety measures. The Mascot has been developed to arouse interest among kids about

the program. Fido Dido, cartoon character was used to position 7 Up as cool drink for

youngsters.

Analogy: An analogy is the comparison of two unrelated things though which is derived that

something is like something else in some respects but not in others. Analogies can be arrived at

by breaking down the product into various characteristics, components, functions, uses, effects,

benefits etc. And then creating a list of items may be people, situations, objects, processes,

actions etc that are like these things in some way. For eg: Garnier Anti wrinkle cream compares

wrinkle with the loose skin of the bulldog ‘s face. Mahindra XUV convey the message that

Mahindra XUV 5oo is really the beast by comparing it with cheetah.

Creative Execution

The effect of the message in governed by not only what is said but also by how it is said. The

advertiser now has to turn that idea into the real ad that captures the audience’s attention and interest.

Good creative strategy and execution can often be central to determining the success of a product

or reversing the fortunes of the struggling brand, conversely an advertising campaign that is

poorly conceived or executed is a liability

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Advertising Appeal refers to the approach used to attract the attention of consumer, or to

influence the feelings towards the product, service or cause. Appeal can be said to form the

underlying content of the advertisement, it can be viewed as something that moves people ,

speaks of their needs or wants and excites there interest

Numerous different appeals can be used as the basis for advertising message . At the broadest

level these approaches are generally broken into two categories; Rational or Informational

Appeals and Emotional Appeals.

Rational/ Informational Appeal

Rational appeal focus on the consumer’s need, practical or functional utility of the product. The content of these messages emphasize facts, logic, technical and analytical aspects of the

advertising message. Rational based appeals tend to be informative and advertiser using them

generally attempt to convince the consumers that their product or service have specific attributes

or would provide certain benefits that that satisfy their requirements.

Several types of advertising appeals fall under the category of rational appeals among them

features, competitive advantage, favourable price, news, product/service popularity appeal.

Feature Appeal focus on the dominant traits of the product or service. Technical and high

involvement product often uses this type of advertising appeal. These ads tend to be highly

informative and present the customer with a number of important attributes or features that will

lead to a favourable attitude towards purchasing the product featured. for eg: Toyata’s Prius is the world’s first hybrid car. In one of an ad Maruti highlighted the new features in the New

Wagon R and also make a comparison with the old variant. Colgate Active has salt content that

fights germs.

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Competitive Advantage Appeal where advertiser makes direct or indirect comparison to

another brands and usually claims brand’s superiority on one or more attributes. Epson printer make comparison with other printers while claiming its superiority as the lowest cost per print

page, Most of the automobile advertisements in print medium claim their superiority by

comparing with other automobiles in the segment

Product/ Serve Popularity Appeal: stresses the popularity of the product or the service by

claiming he number of customers who use the brands, the number who have switched to it, the

number of experts who recommend it. For eg: Honda City claims how many happy customers

they have worldwide

Olay Campaign- Olay Total Effects, the ad highlighted how women were urged to take the Olay

challenge and how it made a difference to their skin

News Appeal: are those in which some type of news or announcement about the product, service

or organisation dominates the ad. This type of appeal can be used for new product or service or

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to inform consumers about significant modifications or improvements. For eg: Quaker Oats are

now available in different flavour with real fruits and vegetables. Maggi has introduced new Oats

Maggi.

Favorable price appeal: makes price offer as the dominant point of the message. It is often used

by retailers to announce sales, special offers or low every day price . For g: Big Bazar, retail

chain is positioned as the retailer offering lowest price to its customers, on certain occasions of

national importance it announce special offers. Online E-tailer Flipkart recently announced

special discounts for the upcoming festival season and has garner huge response.

Emotional Appeal

Emotional appeals relate to the customer’s social and or psychological needs of purchasing a

product or service. Many consumer motives for purchase decision are emotional and their

feelings towards the brand can be more important the features or attributes. These appeals are

based on the psychological states or feelings directed to the self such as pleasure an well as those

with more social orientation such as status or recognition. For eg: Johnsons and Johnsons

highlights the motherly concern and bonding between the mother and the child, though the

advertisements also highlight the features of the product but it is essentially the motherly love

that is highlighted in its advertisements. Emotional appeals can be used in many ways to depict

creative strategy. Advertisers depict characters on the ad or commercials experiencing some

emotional or transformational benefit or outcome from using the product or service. This

approach is referred to as economic integration. These appeals are believed to put audience in a

favourable frame of mind. For eg: Google’s advertisement invoking a searing and traumatic

period of partition and “reunion” portray of two friends struck cultural chord and how search engine enable to track down the childhood friend.

Emotional appeals are used to evoke positive feelings that may be transferred to the brand.

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Combination of rational and emotional appeals

In most purchase situations, consumer decisions are based on combination of both rational and

emotional motives , only the degree of each varies depending upon the product or service

category and the buying situation. Advertising professor, Michael Ray and Mc Cann Erickson

Worldwide in conjunction developed a research technique known as Emotional Bonding(figure

d) . This technique evaluates how consumers feel about the brands and the nature of emotional

rapport they have with the brand compared to the ideal emotional state they associate with the

product category.

The basic concept of emotional bonding is that consumers develop three level of relationship

with the brand . The most basic relationship indicates how consumers think about the brand in

respect of the product benefits , this primarily occur as a result of rational learning process and

can be measured by how well advertising communicates the product information. Consumers at

this stage are not very brand loyal and brand switching is common. At the next stage the

consumer assigns a personality to a brand , the consumer’s judgement of the brand has now moved beyond its attributes , in most cases consumers judge the personality of the brand based

on the assessment cues found in advertising. The strongest relationship that develops between

the brand and the consumer is based on the feelings or emotional attachment to the brand.

Consumers develop emotional bonds with certain brands which result in positive psychological

movement towards them

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Figure d) Level of relationships with brands

Advertising Execution

Once advertising appeal that will be used as the basis of advertising message has been

determined , the creative team begins its execution. Creative Execution is the way advertising

appeal is presented. While it is important for an ad to have a meaningful appeal or message to

communicate to the consumer, the manner in which the ad is executed is also important,

Advertising execution is the way of presentation of the desired message or appeal to the target

audience. There are many ways in which an advertising message can be presented:

Straight sell/ factual message

Testimonial

Comparison

Animation

Humor

Scientific or technical evidence

Slice of life

Demonstration

Fantasy

Dramatization

Combination

Straight sell/ factual message: This type of presents a straight forward presentation of

information concerning the product or service. This execution style often use rational or

informative appeals. The main focus is on the product or service and the ad attempts to

communicate specific attributes or benefits to the target audience. For eg:

Testimonial: to present the advertisement message, some advertisers prefer to use a satisfied

customer who praises the product or service based on the personal experience of its usage. Such

Emotions

Personality

Product attributes/benefits

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an ad execution can use well known personalities or satisfied customers. This style of execution

is particularly effective when target audience can identify with the person delivering such

testimonial For eg: Dove brand of soap, shampoo, oil have used the testimonials from the

satisfied customers , who have used its product and testifies it is worth it and it actually works .

Olay, pentene are other classic examples in this category.

Comparison: Comparison (direct or indirect) communicates a brand’s particular advantage over its competitors. Advertiser also use this execution approach to position a new, less known brand

by comparing it with the industry leader . For eg: Pepodent claim that it is the better than colgate

in terms of germ attack . Most of the advertisements of automobiles especially cars in print

medium, often highlight the comparison amongst the competing brands in the same segment to

claim their superiority.

Animation: Cartoons, puppet characters and demonstration with computer generated graphics

are used to communicate ad messages for eg: Kit kat recently started putting forward its

advertising message through this execution style.

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Humor: Humor has been a popular technique in ad execution and it makes the commercial more

interesting and entertaining. Humor evokes feelings of amusements and pleasure and favourably

affect the information processing by audience. For eg: Pidilite’s Fevicol have mostly approached

humorous execution in its advertising style

Scientific or technical evidence: Technical information, scientific evidence and endorsements

by well known agencies or scientific bodies to support the product or service claims . For eg: It is

the Indian Dental Association that claim the Colgate is the number one recommended toothpaste

and is also used by dentists in India.

Slice of life : this execution style is based on the problem- solution approach . This ad type

portrays a problem and conflict the consumer might face in their daily lives and how the

advertiser’s product can solve their problem. For eg: Head and shoulders, how it help fight the problem of dandruff and hair fall. How Clean and Clear face wash help fight skin problems

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\

Demonstration : the product may be demonstrated in actual use or it may be shown in some sort

of staged demonstration with the explicit purpose of highlighting the key advantage of the

product or service. For eg: Vanish stain removal, how the product is to be used so as to remove

all stains on clothes was highlighted in its advertisements.

Fantasy : This approach is based on the need of the consumer to find emotional escape to offset

daily routine. Certain cosmetics ads often use fantasy appeal to create pleasant images and

symbols consumers associate with the product or service . Fantasy execution is well suited for

television medium.

Dramatization : Another execution technique particularly suitable for television is

dramatization, where focus is on telling a short story with the product or service, it is some what

like slice of life execution – that relies on the problem solution approach but it use more

excitement and suspense in telling the story

Combination: In actual practice, most commercials use combination of various execution

techniques to present the advertising message.

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LESSON 8

CREATIVE STRATEGY

Creating Print Advertising

The key format elements in the print advertising are: Headlines, Sub-Heads, Body-Copy,

Slogans, Seals , logos, signatures, visual elements and layout.

Headline

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The headline contains the words in the leading position of the advertisements. These are the

words that are read first and are positioned with the intent to draw the reader’s attention. The fundamental function of the headline is to attract the reader’s attention, get them interested and lead them to the entire ad message, it must give the reader good reason to read the copy portion

of the ad, to do this the headline must put forth the main theme , appeal or proposition of the ad

in few words. Some print ads the body copy is totally absent, the headline along with illustration

must communicate the entire ad message. Headlines are usually set in larger type and are often

set apart from the body copy or the text portion of the ad to give them prominence.

There is no formula that can recommend how a good headline should be, however the following

factors need to be considered:

The headline should be short, simple words

It should include an invitation to the prospect, primary product or service benefits, name

of the brand and an interest provoking idea to induce the readers to the rest of the

advertisement

It should furnish enough information so that consumers who read only the headline

should learn something about the product or service

Types of Headlines: There are numerous headlines possibilities. The type used depends upon

several factors such as creative strategy, other components of the ad etc. Headlines can be

categorized as direct and indirect

Direct Headlines are straightforward and informative in terms of the message they present.

Common type of direct headlines include those offering specific benefits , making promise or

announcing a reason the reader should be interested in the product or service.

Benefit Headlines: promise the prospect some rewarding experience with the product or service.

Such headlines put forth the product’s most important benefit.

News/Information Headline: announces news or promises information

Indirect Headline: are not straightforward about identifying the product or service or getting to

the point. But they are often more effective in attracting reader’s attention and interest because they provoke curiosity and lure readers into the body copy to learn an answer or to get an

explanation. These type of headlines often use questions, provocations, how to statements or

challenges .

Subheads: While many ads have only one headline , but one or more secondary heads or

subheads are also common. Subhead is additional smaller headline that appear mostly above or

below the headline. When the subhead is above the headline it is referred to as kicker or overline.

Subheads sometimes appear in the body copy. Subheads are usually smaller than the headline

and may appear in bold or italic type. Subheads often enhance the readability by highlighting key

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sales points and support that content presented in the headlines. Subheads are usually longer than

the headline and serve as stepping stone from headline to the body copy and their content

reinforces the headline and he advertising slogan or theme.

Body Copy: The main text portion of the print ad is called body copy or sometimes just copy.

The body copy contains the complete story and is the logical continuation of the headlines and

the subheads . It covers the attributes , benefits and the utility of the product or service but

getting the audience to read the body copy is often difficult. The body copy must belong enough

to accommodate the complete message and short enough to retain the reader’s interest. Body

copy can be written to go along with the various types of creative appeals and executions like

comparison, demonstration, humor etc. . Copywriters choose a copy style that is appropriate for

the type of appeal being used and effective for executing the creative strategy and

communicating the advertiser’s message to the target audience.

Visual Elements: The illustration or the visual element is often the dominant part of the print ad

and plays an important role in determining its effectiveness. In some ads the visual portion of the

is essentially the message itself. It must attract the attention, communicate the idea or message

and works in a synergistic fashion with the headline and body copy to produce an effective

message. The visuals capture a mood and evoke a feeling , a context for consumer’s perception of the product or service. Many decisions need to be made in this regard i.e. what identification

mark need should be included: brand name, company or trade name, trademarks, logos, etc.

Seals, Logos and Signatures: A seal is awarded when a product meets standards established by

a particular agency. Such as ISO 9001 or Energy Star etc.

Logos and signatures are special designs of the advertiser’s brand /product name or advertiser’s company. Logo is distinctive mark that identifies a brand or the company.

Signature is the name of the company or brand , they appear in all their company ads , and are

immediately recognised for eg: Apple, Tata, Intel etc.

Essentially the purpose of the visual element is to:

Capture the reader’s attention

Clarify claims made by the advertising copy

Identify subject of the advertisement

Show the product in actual use situation

Convince the readers about copy claims

Arouse the reader’s interest Emphasize on brand’s unique features

Create a positive impression of the brand or advertiser

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Qualify readers by stopping those who are legitimate prospects

Layout: A layout is an orderly arrangement of headline, subheads, body copy , slogan , seal,

logo, signature and the visual element in an advertisement. It shows where each component of

the ad will be placed and gives guidelines to the people working on the ad creation. Copywriters

learn how much space is available to work and how much copy should be written.

During the creative phase the designer use thumbnails, roughs, dummies and comprehensives.

A thumbnail is a very small sketch, rough and rapidly created drawing to visualise the layout

approach without any details. Blocks of lines indicate the text position, and boxes show the place

of the visual. The best sketch resulting from this exercise is then developed further.

The artists draw the actual size of the advertisement in a Rough Layout.

Comprehensive layout is a highly refined exact copy of the finished ad . It is quite detailed with

photos, font style ad size etc. Generally the comprehensive is the typeset on computers.

A dummy is prepared to get the look and the feel of the brochure and the point of purchase

material. All the elements of the dummy are hand assembled, mounted on sturdy paper, and then

cut and folded to the size to appear exactly like the finished product.

Examples of few types of layout:

Frame: The copy is surrounded by the visual or the visual may be surrounded by the copy

Picture Window: This is the most common layout format. It has one single dominant visual that

occupies about sixty or seventy percent of the area. The headline and copy may appear above or

below the window.

Circus: this type of layout combines lots of elements to bring the ad alive and make it interesting

by art, type or color. It is created deliberately to create a busy, jumbled image.

Band: Series of elements arranged in one column with usually one major element outside this

band.

Design Principles

Ads must be designed to capture the reader’s attention immediately as the advertiser has only a second or two to capture the reader’s attention. Good design should not only commands attention

but also holds it and communicates as much information as possible in the shortest amount of

time and makes the message easier to understand. The basic design could be:

All creative advertising should have a unified design. The complete layout (copy, headline,

subheads etc) should appear as a single unified composition.

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The ad should be arranged in an orderly manner so that the consumers can read it from left to

right from top to bottom. Arrangement of elements in a sequence helps direct the reader’s eye in a structured position.

The division of space amongst the layout elements, should accentuate and focus on the element

or group so that they stand out among the rest. The ad designer should decide whether to put

more stress on illustration, headline or logo etc.

Using Color

Color is another element of the layout and can be used with impact. Print advertising has the

potential to contend with the television . Print has the ability to generate astonishing, eye

catching colors in the advertisement. Use of color suits many product categories such as food

items, fashion items etc.

Colors adds attention capturing value to the advertisement

Colors can help in imparting emphasis on important elements of the ad

Colors can add a sense of realism and atmosphere

Colors can help easy identification of brand name, package and trademark

Colors imparts a feeling of prestige and quality to the advertisement

Creating Television Commercials

Television is a powerful advertising medium combining the unique ability of sight, sound and

motion. With high levels of advertising clutter in the medium, producing a commercial that

communicate effectively is complex . Television can be used to produce a variety of appeals and

executions, which is not possible in the print medium. However, the viewers cannot control the

pace of the ad message as in the case with the print medium.

There are two basic components of the TC commercials the audio and the video. The video

consist of the sight or the visual part and the audio part includes the spoken words ,music or

other sounds to communicate the ad message. These two components needs to used in

synergistic manner to produce the desired impact.

Video Element: The visual portion generally dominates the commercial and include all those

elements that are seen on the television screen. It is important that these visual elements are

successful in attracting the viewer’s attention and communicate the message or the idea . It may

be required to carefully combine a number of visual elements to produce an effective commercial

for eg: the decision may concern the product, the presenter, action sequence, close ups, customer

interview, comparison, graphics, characters, colors, symbols etc.

Audio Element: the audio portion of the commercial includes voice, music, sound effects. The

voice could include two or more people appearing in the commercial who are involved in a

conversation, or it could be a single presenter appearing as spokesperson or it could be

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voiceover; where message is delivered or action on the screen is narrated or described by the

narrator not visible. In many commercial background score or background music helps to create

appropriate mood or atmosphere for the audience . In many other commercials , music is often

used to break through the advertising clutter and attract the audience’s attention, evoke feelings and communicate the ad message. Jingles are catchy songs built around the product or service

that communicates the advertising theme or messages and are another important music element

of the commercials.

Planning and production of television commercials

In planning for television commercial the major decision is to focus on the type of appeal and the

execution style to be used. Television is well suited to both rational and emotional advertising

appeals or combination of the two. Various execution styles such as dramatization, slice of life,

humor, testimonial etc work well on television. Advertiser’s recognise that they need to do more

than talk about , demonstrate or compare their product or service. Their commercial have to

break through the clutter and grab the viewer’s attention , they must often appeal to emotional as well as rational buying motives. Television is an entertaining medium, most TV audience watch

TV programmes for their entertainment value and commercials that are capable of primarily

entertaining and providing information are more successful.

A written down version of television commercial is called a Script, it brings together various

elements of the commercial and provide detailed description of the audio and the video portions.

The video portion covers the camera actions, angles, scenes, special techniques and other

important description. The audio portion includes the copy to be spoken by voices, the music and

the sound effects.

Once the basic script has been conceived, the writer and the art director get together to produce a

storyboard , a series of drawings to show the layout or the visual plan of the proposed

commercial. The storyboard presents the drawings of different video scenes and the detailed

description of the audio part that is associated with each scene. Those involved in the production

and approval of the commercial get a clear picture from storyboard as to what the finished

commercial would look like. “Animatic” is the videotape of the storyboard along with the

soundtrack. This is sometimes used for client presentation or pre-testing of commercial.

The production phase of the commercial starts after the client approves the storyboard or

animatic. There are three phases involved and the activities in each stage are

Pre-Production Phase Production Phase Post-Production Phase

All the activities undertaken

before the actual shooting or

recording of the commercial

Selection of director

Set construction

Period during which filming

and videotaping of the

commercial is done

Location or set shoots

Activities undertaken after

the commercial has been

filmed and recorded

Editing

Processing

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Location

Casting

Agency and client

approval

Pre production

meetings etc.

Talent arrangements Mixing audio and

video

Client or agency

approval

Release

Creating Radio Commercial

Radio advertising is different and difficult because unlike print and television advertising it

cannot use visuals for attracting and captivating the audience, it requires awakening images in

the listener’s mind by using sound, music and voices. There is no visual or colors to attract the

audience only the sound. The scriptwriter has to be sure that the listener believes in the message.

It must deliver the right words; the writer can create a picture in sound (Mental Imagery). The

copywriter use words, sounds and music to create image and influence recall. The warmth of

human voice is another factor in communicating the message. Sound has an ability to generate

the mood desired by the advertiser, it can be used to create effects of footsteps, laughter,

moaning and many others. Music is the universal language and can be a powerful source in

grabbing the listener’s attention. Jingles are the popular means of helping people remember the slogan.

The basic ingredient in the radio commercial is to promise an important and persuasive benefit

from the listener’s point of view. After determining the key promise to be communicated, the writers use select words and sound to communicate the desired message. Some points taken into

consideration while developing advertising copy for radio are:

Keep it short and simple: Use simple words and short sentences, copy needs to be

conversational

Maintain clarity: delete unnecessary words, the message should flow in a logical

sequence

Create rapport : the tone of the voice should create a rapport with the prospective

listeners

Make it believable: Avoid making overstatements and exaggerations

Make it interesting: manner of presentation of the message should be interesting

Create distinctiveness : give the commercial distinct character

Creating Internet Advertisements

The aim of marketer is to create ads that will ensure high involvement of consumers and

interactive advertising on the internet promotes more customer involvement.

Designing Web site: Web pages can combine elements and designs styles from all different

media: print, film, sound etc. In addition, the need to search and navigate creates entirely new

design from whose major challenge is the ease of use.

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Web pages should be attractive and appealing. Navigation is the critical factor to move through

the web pages, it should be convenient for users to move through the site and find easily the

information they are looking for. Interactivity is the another important issue , to take advantage

of the special strength of his medium , there will be interactive elements that facilitate contacting

with the company with questions, complaints, suggestions, comments etc. Internet derive its

major advantage as the advertising medium through feedback communication , which is

important input as strategic planning also the copy testing methods are developed to evaluate the

site’s potential to motivate click through behaviour.

MEDIA PLANNING

Targeting the communication message to the right audience, through the right medium with the

right strength is as important as the development of the message itself. Any advertiser who uses

mass media advertising needs to have competent services in the area of media planning.

Essentially, media planning answers the following fundamental questions:

How much money to be spend on mass media?

Across what media should the spends be allocated?

At what point of time in the campaign period should these monies be spent?

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Thus ,Media Planning refer to the series of the decisions involved in delivering the promotional

message to the prospective purchaser and or user of the product or brand. Media Planning is a

process which means a number of decisions are made each of which may be altered or

abandoned as the plan develops.

Media planning has become fairly complex with the increase in the cost of various media and the

proliferation of media choices . The media planners have to critically analyse the choice of media

class and media vehicles.

Media plan is the guide for the media selection. It requires development of specific media

objectives and specific media strategies designed to attain those objectives. Once the decisions

have been made and the objectives and strategies formulated, the information is organised into

media plan.

Medium is the general category of the available delivery system, which includes broadcast

media(TV, radio)Print media(newspaper, magazine), direct mail, outdoor advertising and other

support media.

Media Vehicle is the specific carrier within the medium category. For eg: Hindustan Times is

carrier of he advertiser’s advertisement in the newspaper category.

Media Mix: refers to various advertising channels through which a company communicates

with its target audience.

Coverage refers to the potential audience that might receive the message through the vehicle

Reach is the measure of the number of different audience members exposed at least once to

the media vehicle in a given period of time. Reach is normally expressed in percentage terms. It

is important to note that reach takes into account different and distinct individuals exposed to a

given medium, thus for two different publications it is possible for one individual to reading both

these publications, in media terms it is referred to as duplication , when calculating reach care

has to be taken to ensure that such reader is taken into account only once for the purpose.

Frequency: In order that advertising be effective the audience must be exposed to the

advertisement more than once. The number of times the advertisement appear in a given

publication or over a particular television program is known as frequency of exposures of the

advertisement. For eg: if the ad is released 10 times in a publication , the target audience reached

by that publication would have an opportunity to see that ad 10 times this is called as

OTS(Opportunity To See) in media terms.

Gross Rating Point(GRP) when reach and frequency is multiplied it is known as gross exposure

of a given campaign. This is a numerical figure indicating how many potential audience

members are likely to be exposed to a series of commercials. It does not measure the size of

the audience reached. Rather, GRPs quantify impressions as a percentage of the target population

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It stands for reason that for a finite amount of advertising expenditure over the mass media ,

reach and frequency have an inverse relation with each other. In other words if we try to

maximize reach, frequency gets compromised on the other hand if we maximize frequency reach

will get compromised

Developing media plan

Figure a) Media Planning Process

The process as shown in figure a) involve a series of stages : Market Analysis, Establishment of

Media Objectives Media strategy development and implementation and evaluation and follow

up.

Market Analysis and Target Market identification

The key questions at these stages are :

To whom shall we advertise?

What internal or external factors may influence the media plan?

Where and When should efforts must be focussed?

The market analysis may reveal more than a few target markets , to decide which group of target

market should be addressed the media planners may need some additional data regarding the

audience size, composition of target audience for eg: users among adults(males and females),

heavy users/light users etc. The index number is considered as good indicator or market potential

as the planners are more interested in the percentage figure rather than the absolute number.

Index = Percentage of users in the demographic segment

----------------------------------------------------------------- * 100

Percentage of population in the same segment

Use of index numbers is helpful but it should be combined with percentage and product usage

figures to get a clearer and more accurate picture of the market. Media strategies are influenced

by both internal and external factors operating at any given time. Internal factors may involve

size of the media budget, managerial and administrative capabilities of the organization or the

agency. External factors may include cost of media, competitive factors, changes in technology

etc.

Market AnalysisEstablishment

of media objectives

Media strategy development

and implementation

Evaluation and Follow up

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The next concern is where to promote relates to the geographic consideration. Companies may

find that the sales are stronger in one segment or market over the rest and may allocate

advertising expenditure according to the market potential of the area. Obviously those markets

should be the priority areas that are most likely to meet the desired objectives.

Use of Indices to determine where to promote: Brand Development Index (BDI) and Category

Development Index (CDI) may be used to determine where to focus advertising efforts as the

figures provide media planners insight into the relative value of markets.

BDI = Percentage of brand’s total country sales in the area/segment -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*100

Percentage of total country population in the area/segment

The BDI compares the percentage of brand’s total sale in the market segment for eg: in Rajasthan with the percentage of the total population in Rajastan to determine the sales potential

for the brand in Rajasthan.

CDI = Percentage of product category’s total sales in the area/segment ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*100

Percentage of total country population in that area/segment

CDI is computed in the same manner as BDI except it uses information regarding the product

category as opposed to the brand in the numerator

CDI provides information on the potential for development of the total product category rather

than specific brands. When this information is combined with the BDI a much more insightful

promotional strategy can be developed

Cate

gory

Dev

elop

men

t in

dex

(CD

I)

Hig

h

Brand Development Index (BDI)

High Low

High market share

Good market potential

Low market share

Good market potential

Low

High market share

Monitor for sales

decline

Low market share

Poor market potential

High BDI and High CDI : This market usually represents good sales potential for both the

product category and the brand

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High BDI and Low CDI: The category is not selling well but the brand is , probable a good

market to advertise it but should be monitored for declining sales.

Low BDI and High CDI: the product category shows high potential but the brand is not doing

well , the reason should be determined

Low BDI and low CDI: Both the product category and the brand are doing poorly, not likely to

be a good place for advertising

Establishing Media Objectives

Media objectives are the goals for the media program and should be limited to those that can be

accomplished through media strategies. Media objectives are formulated to help accomplish the

advertising communication task and marketing objectives. Media objectives are translated into

specific goals for the media programme. For eg: media objective is o create awareness in the

target market through :

Use of print media to provide coverage of 90% of the target market in six months

Reach 60% of the target audience at least three times(frequency) over six months

Media strategy development and implementation

Having established what is to be accomplished, media planners consider how to achieve these

objectives that is they develop and implement media strategies which evolve directly from the

actions required to meet objectives.

Criteria considered in the development of the media plans are:

The Media Mix

Target Market coverage

Geographic Coverage

Scheduling

Media reach and frequency

Creative Aspects and Mood / Qualitative Aspect of Media Vehicle Source

Budget Consideration

Media Mix: A wide variety of media and media vehicles are available to the advertisers. The

objective sought, the characteristics of the product, size of the budget and individual preferences

etc. may be the factors that determine the combination of media used.

For eg: a situation in which the product requires a visual demonstration for communicate

effectively, in such a case TV may be the most effective medium. If the promotional strategy

calls for to stimulate sale by trial by coupons print medium may be employed.

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By employing media mix, advertiser can add more versatility to their media strategies since each

medium contributes its own distinct advantages. By combining media marketers can increase

coverage, reach and frequency levels by improving the likelihood of achieving overall

communication and marketing goals.

Target Market Coverage: The media planners determines which target market should receive

the most media emphasis, this requires matching the media and media vehicles most suitable to

the target audience. The optimal goal is the full market coverage but this is a very optimistic

scenario and in real situation the coverage of the media does not allow for total market coverage,

some potential customers are left without exposure to the advertised message. It is also true that

media coverage reaches non targeted audience who are not considered as potential customers and

the advertiser is faced with the problem of overexposure referred to as waste coverage or media

over exposure

The media planners objective is to reach as many members of the target market as possible and

at the same time minimizing the extent of any waste coverage. The situation usually involves

trade-offs, however waste coverage is justified because the media employed are likely to be the

most effective means of delivery available and the cost of waste coverage is exceeded by the

value gained from their use.

Geographic Coverage: Geography is another important consideration for the media planning

process, the demand for certain types of products depends on the geographic locations of the

market for eg: heavy woollens are unlikely to have significant demand in Southern Indian States

, thus the marketers would have no inclination to advertise such products in such geographic

locations. The use of BDI and CDI may be quite helpful in determining the media strategy for

different geographic locations.

Scheduling

Companies would like to keep their advertising in front of the target audience at all times as a

constant reminder of its product or brand name however in reality it is not possible for a variety

of reasons such as the funds availabity rather it may not be necessary. The primary objective of

scheduling is to time the promotional efforts so that they coincide with the highest potential

81

buying times. The scheduling methods available to media planners are: Continuity, Flighting

and Pulsing.

Continuity refers to the continuous pattern of advertising which may mean every day, every

week, or every month. The key is that a regular or continuous pattern of advertising is developed

without gaps or non advertising periods. Such strategies might be used for advertising of

products that are used or consumed on an ongoing basis without regard to seasonality(FMCG

goods)

Flighting, employs a slightly less regular schedule with intermittent or irregular period of

advertising and non advertising. At some time period there may be heavier promotional

expenditures and at others there may be no advertising. For eg:

Pulsing is actually combination of Continuity and flighting . In pulsing strategy continuity is

maintained but at certain times the promotional efforts are stepped up.

Thus, Media schedule is the calendar of the advertising plan and is concerned with the timing of

the insertion of ads in the selected media. The decisions in this area are essentially based on the

certain assumptions concerning how the target audience will respond to the presence or absence

of the advertising message

Media Reach and frequency: Advertiser’s have variety of objectives and face budget constraints; they usually trade off between reach and frequency. They must decide whether to

82

have the message be seen or heard by more people (reach) or by fewer people more

often(frequency)

As per the response hierarchies the more people are aware are likely to move to each subsequent

stage, achieving awareness requires-Reach that is exposing potential buyers to the message. New

brands need a high level of Reach, since the objective is to make all potential buyers aware of the

new entry. High reach is also desired at later stages of the hierarchy for eg: at the later stage of

adoption, promotion strategy might be to use coupons or free samples, an objective of the

marketer to reach large number of people with these samples or coupons, in an attempt to make

them learn about the product, try it, develop favourable attitude towards it and in turn lead to

actual purchase.

The problem arises because there is no known way of determining how much reach is required to

achieve levels of awareness, attitude change or buying intentions nor can we sure an ad placed in

a vehicle will actually reach the intended audience.

The next question is about what frequency of exposure is necessary for the ad to be seen and

have an impact. Frequency is the number of times one is exposed to the media vehicle, not

necessarily the ad itself. While advertisement may be placed in a certain vehicle, the fact that the

consumer is exposed to that vehicle does not ensure that he also has seen/ read or viewed your

advertisement. As a result the frequency level expressed in the media plan overstates the actual

level of exposure to the ad. This overstatement led some media buyers to refer to the reach of the

media vehicle as “Opportunities to See” (OTS) an ad rather than actual exposure to it.

Because the advertisers has no sure way of knowing whether exposure to a vehicle results in

exposure to the ad, it is accepted hat one exposure to a media vehicle constitutes reach provided

that this exposure must occur for the audience member to offer an opportunity to see the ad. This

approach though, does not help in determining what frequency level is needed to create the

desired impact , decisions in this regard are not always based on hard data. It is often quoted that

establishing frequency goals for an advertising campaign is a mix of art and science but with a

definite bias towards art.

Media planners often compromise and strike a balance between reach, frequency and the number

of advertising cycles in the planning period. In most cases the advertising budget is fixed and the

planners cannot spend more on say increasing frequency without decreasing expenditure on

reach or the number of advertising cycles. The tradeoffs are generally governed by the principle

that it is better to sell some people completely than many people not at all. The trade-off between

reach and frequency is most common , if it is advantageous to maintain advertising continuity or

plan more advertising cycles as with the frequently purchased products or services then reach

should be sacrificed. For infrequently purchased products such as consumer durables goods it is

advised to increase reach and advertise only occasionally in cyclic pattern, this may suffice to

maintain audience interest without having to reach them more frequently. The best trade offs

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depend on the media strategy, the type of the product . It is also possible that audience members

are exposed to more than one media vehicle carrying the same ad, resulting in repetition For eg:

if an ad of fairness cream is placed in two magazines say Femina and Star Dust, a number of

target audience will be exposed to both vehicle resulting in duplicated reach . If an ad is placed

in one magazine only the total number of audience exposed only once is un-duplicated reach .

Figures of both duplicated and unduplicated reach are important . Un- duplicated reach

represents potential new exposures and duplicated reach provides an estimate of frequency

Programme Rating: is a measure of potential reach of broadcast media/programme expressed

in percentage for eg: the number of households that on TV sets is 100 and a certain programme is

viewed in 30 of those households , the programme rating would be 30.

Programme Rating = Number of households viewing the programme

------------------------------------------------------------------------ * 100

Total number of households owning the TV sets

Gross Rating Point(GRP) : The media buyers typically use a numerical indicator to know how

many potential audience members may be exposed to a series of commercials. A summary

measure combines the program rating and the average number of times the home is reached

during the period (frequency) is commonly used reference point known as Gross Rating

Point(GRP)

GRP = Reach * Frequency

Advertisers also use GRP as the basis for examining the relationship between reach and

frequency

Frequency = Gross Rating Point (GRP)

--------------------------------------

Reach

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Reach = Gross Rating Point (GRP)

--------------------------------------

Frequency

Qualitative Aspect of Media Vehicle Source

This concept refer that the ad exposure in one vehicle might have more impact on the audience

than if the same ad is placed in another vehicle . For example if the ad for a cosmetic brand is

placed in women magazine say Femina, it might produce more impact on the target audience

than if the same ad is placed in another magazine say Reader’s Digest even if the audiences were the same. The difference in the ad message impact may be the result of audience

involvement , editorial fit or the physical reproduction qualities.

Media Vehicle’s degree of expertise associated with its area of interest is important, for eg: magazines related to computer say PC Quest, Digit or Computer ‘s @ Home etc. Are seen by their target audience as reliable sources of information on the subject. Media vehicle can

enhance the creativity of the message by creating a mood that affect the impact of the

commercial communication. Sports channels are believed to generate excitement and fun loving

moods, ads of soft drinks, sportswear is usually seen on these channels .Women and lifestyle

magazines are used cosmetics brand. Certain media vehicle have image that may carry over to

the perception of the ad message placed within them. It makes sense to think that involvement of

the target member in the media vehicle should generate more impact of an ad message compared

to another vehicle that is less interesting to the audience. Commercials that interrupt the high

involving TV programmes may benefit because of the spill over of involvement to ad

comprehension.

Budget Consideration

One of the most important decision in the development of media strategy is the cost estimation.

The value of any strategy can be determined by how well it delivers the message to the audience

with the lowest cost and the least waste.

Advertising and promotional costs can be categorized in two ways: The Absolute Cost of the

medium or vehicle and the Relative Cost of the medium or the vehicle. For eg: If it cost Rs 10 lac

to furnish a full front page advertisement in a national newspaper , the absolute cost of the media

vehicle is Rs 10 Lac., with the same advertisement the reach is 10 lac audience members the

relative cost of the medium is one rupee per reach , thus the relative cost of the medium is

always in relation to the absolute amount paid for advertising time or space and the size of the

audience delivered.

Determining the relative cost of the media

85

To evaluate the alternatives, advertisers compare the relative cost of the media as well as

vehicles within these media. However the broadcast, print and out of the home media does not

always provide the same cost breakdown.

Cost per thousand(CPM): Magazine space is sold primarily on the basis of pages or some

increment of the page. CPM has been used by the magazine industry as a standard method to

provide cost breakdowns on the basis of cost per page per thousand circulations and is used to

compare media cost if different vehicles

CPM = Cost of ad space

------------------------------- * 1000

Circulation

For eg: if the cost of placing one full page advertisement in Star Dust is Rs fifty thousand and

the circulation of the magazine is five lac copies , the CPM calculation would be

CPM = 50,000

----------------- * 1000 = 100

5,00, 000

Cost Per Rating point (CPRP) : the broadcast media provide a different comparative figure

referred to as cost per rating point or cost per point calculated as:

CPRP = Cost of Commercial time

-------------------------------------

Programme Rating

For example if the cost of a ten second spot on Star Plus is Rs one lac and fifty thousand and the

programme rating is 30, the CPRP would be:

CPRP = 1,50,000

------------- = 5000

30

Relative Cost comparison of media is important, however the inter media comparison can be

misleading for eg: television combine sight and sound with motion and magazine provide

longevity . Attributes of different media make direct comparison difficult other than cost

comparison advertiser must also look for specific characteristics of each medium and the vehicle

within each medium.

Evaluation and Follow up:

Evaluation is essential to assess the performance of any activity Two factors are important in

evaluating the media plan:

How successful were the strategies in achieving the media objectives? Did the media plan was

successful in accomplishing the desired objectives?

86

Successful strategies help build confidence and serve as reference point in developing media

strategies in future and the failure is thoroughly analysed to learn about the shortcomings.

However there are certain problems with the measurement that limit the degree to which one

assess the relative effectiveness of advertising strategies

45

LESSON 6

ADVERTISING BUDGET

After determining the advertising objectives a company has to estimate how much it is willing to

spend on promotional programme. Although in an ideal situation budget should be determined

by the objectives laid out for the communication function , in constraining situations often it is

the budget which leads to revision of company’s objectives .

According to Cohen, “Translation of advertising plan into currency unit is advertising budget”

Advertising budget is a financial document that shows the total amount to be spent on

advertising and list the way this amount is to be allocated. It is prepared for a specific future

period of time. It is limiting factor which determine the size of advertising campaign. It shows

the allocation of available funds to various advertising activities.

One of the most critical decision facing marketing managers is to determine how much to spend

on promotional effort. Many consider the amount of money spend to advertising as current

business expenditure cutting into the profits rather than an investment , For this reason when a

firm faces turbulent times the axe falls at first on the advertising expenditure, even though there

is a strong evidence that exactly the opposite should occur (refer Sales Response Models). Thus

maximizing the effectiveness of promotional spending of company is hence the prime

importance especially in times of spiralling media cost , increasing completion, consumer apathy

towards promotion and increased pressure on communication productivity.

As an element of the marketing communication mix advertisement should be viewed as an

investment in future sales. Marketers often use advertising to generate immediate sales; however

its greatest power is in the cumulative long term reinforcement effect, it builds consumer

preference and goodwill which helps enhance the reputation and value of the company and the

brand name. Thus considering advertising as expenditure is short sighted view and may affect

the brand’s image.

Setting advertising budget is not an easy task, there is no way to be absolutely certain that the

company is spending the right amount Some critics say that large FMCG companies spend too

much on image advertising without really knowing its effects , they “overspend” as an

insurance against not spending enough . Industrial companies on the other hand spend less on

advertising, underestimating the power of company and product image and rely too heavily on

their sales force to bring in sales. Overspending leads to waste of resources and under spending

can lead to opportunity loss , while there is no single best way to determine the budget

theoretical approaches to budgeting, situational factors as well as methods to determine budget

serve as useful guide.

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Sales response Models

Most marketing managers believe that sales and promotions are related in one of the following

two manners:

The Concave Downward Function- As shown in fig a) as the promotional expenditure

increases, sales increases at decreasing rate up to certain point in other words additional

promotional rupee bring in lesser and lesser sales. The reason that sales follow concave

downward curve pattern is that when the initial communication expense is made the most

lucrative prospects (innovators) or heavy users buy the product. The task of bringing

laggards and light users with communication is more difficult and has little impact on the

total sales. According to the model the highest response rate occur after the first exposure

and it diminishes there after. This model is based on the Law of Diminishing Returns .

Thus budgeting under this model suggest that lesser advertising money may be needed to

produce optimal sales effect.

S- Shaped Response function- As shown in figure a, The S- shaped curve is

characterized by slow start , followed by steep growth and then a plateau. Initial

advertising and promotion expenditure has little impact on the on sales in the range A. In

range B additional promotion expenditure bring in increased sales, up to a point . In

range C, the benefits of additional promotion expenditure taper off. The model suggests

that until a company has minimum share of voice its advertising brings in no benefit.

Share of Voice is the advertising weight of the brand/company as a percentage of the

advertising weight of a given market or market segment. Expenditure in range B brings in

returns first at an increasing rate and then at diminishing rate. The optimal level of

expenditure is at a point in range B where marginal revenue and marginal cost are equal .

Money spend in range C does not have much noticeable impact on sales as the product

already reached its market potential.

Fig a) Concave Downward Function Fig b) S-Shaped Response Function

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Marginal Analysis- The logical process of arriving at advertising budget is inspired by

the marginal analysis , which is widely used in business decision making to allocate

scarce resources such as advertising spending in order to maximize output such as sales.

Marginal analysis focuses on studying whether the promotion budget be increased by one

more unit or not so as to maximize profit. As illustrated in fig.c) as promotion

expenditure increases , sales and gross margin also increases up to a point after which

they start to levelling off . Profit which is the difference between gross margin and

advertising or promotion expense, is maximum when marginal revenue is equal to

marginal cost (point A)

Marginal revenue is the increase in the gross revenue by the addition of one more unit of

promotional expenditure. Whereas Marginal cost is the increase in total cost with the

addition of one more unit of promotional expenditure. When marginal revenue is greater

than the marginal cost there is scope for increasing promotional expenditure as it would

add to the profit. On the other hand when marginal cost is greater than marginal revenue,

the promotional expenditure should be reduced.

Fig. C) Marginal Analysis

While the analysis is logical, it suffers from the following limitations:

Considering Sales as a direct result of Promotion- Advertising has delayed or carry

over effect(discussed in Advertising objectives) Also measurement of impact of

communication on sales is nearly an impossible task because promotion is one of the

factor that influence sales there are other factors also (refer section on advertising

objective) . In the words of David Aaker and James Carman, “Looking at the relationship between advertising and sales is somewhat worse than looking for a needle in haystack” Thus to try to show the size of the budget will directly affect sales of the product is

misleading . A more logical approach would be to examine the impact of promotional

budget on attainment of communication objectives. Sales is not the only goal of

48

promotional effort awareness, interest, attitude change and other communication

objectives are often sought and while the bottom line is may be to sell the product, these

objectives may serve as basis on which the promotional effort is directed.

Difficulty in predicting the marginal sales function: Estimating the exact rate at which

sales will change as response to advertising and promotion is a difficult task.

Because of these limitations the use of marginal analysis is not popular in budget

determination, however a conceptual understanding of the model helps in comprehending

how promotional expenditure and its results are related and in determining how

budgeting can be planned.

Budgeting Approaches

The theoretical approaches to budgeting are rarely used. Instead a number of methods

developed though practice and experience are implemented. Some companies use more

than one method and approaches to budgeting vary among the companies depending on

size and sophistication of the company.

In practice companies use two totally different approaches to budget setting Top Down

Approach and Build Up Approach

In case of Top- Down Approach the budgetary amount is established by the higher

management and passed down to various departments. Top down methods of budgeting

include affordable method, arbitrary allocation, percentage of sales, competitive parity

and return on investment. These top-down methods are judgemental in approach and the

budget is apparently not linked to the objectives and the strategies decided to attain them.

The Build- Up Approach takes into account the company’s advertising objective and budget is allocated on the basis of what is considered essential to accomplish the goals

ascertained. Build- Up methods of budgeting includes object and task method, payout

planning method and quantitative models.

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The Affordable Method (All you can afford Method)

After all allocations have been made to cover other relevant company expenditures whatever is

left is allocated to advertising ,that this is what the firm can afford to spend on advertising after

making allocations for various other investment and expenditure decisions .

No consideration is given to what is expected of advertising. This approach is fairly common

amongst the small firms particularly highly technologically oriented firms focus on new product

development and engineering and believe that if the product is good it would sell on its own.

Surprisingly this method often produce good results as if the company is doing proper allocation

to other elements of business then probably the amount lest out for advertising is adequate to

meet firm’s advertising objectives. The basis premise behind this method is “ we can’t be hurt

with this method as we are allocating what we can afford and not get into any financial

problems” However the chances of overspending and under spending are high with this method

Competitive Parity Method

Many advertisers base their advertising budget allocation on competitor’s expenditure . Such information is available in trade journals and business magazines. According to this approach

manager decides budget amount by matching competitor’s advertising spending (generally percentage of sales allocation). The logic behind this approach is that the collective wisdom of

firms probably generates advertising budgets that are quite close to optimal . Not everyone

would be too far from what is adequate in a given industry. This method also takes into

consideration the competition leading to stability in the market place and minimizing the

chances of promotional wars.

There are disadvantages of using this method First it ignores the fact that each firm allocates

budget to accomplish specific objectives to solve certain problems or to take advantage of the

present or emerging opportunity. The inherent assumption is that all firms have similar

advertising objectives ad their allocations are correct, which may not to reality. Second, the

method assumes that all firms have equally effective advertising programmes because the

expenditures are similar and therefore it ignores the contribution of media and creative

executions.

Third there information on completive spending is available only after the money has been spent

and there is no reason to believe that competitor will not increase or decrease its own expenditure

regardless of what other firms do.

Fourth there is simply no guarantee that what firms in the industry spend on advertising is the

optimal level and they will continue to pursue their existing strategies. The situations of

individual firms are quite likely to be sufficiently unique and therefore the practices of

competitor should not be followed.

This method is typically employed in conjunction with other methods like percentage of sales

method. It is never wise to ignore competition ; manager must always be aware of what

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competitors are doing but they should not just emulate them in setting goals and developing

strategies

Arbitrary Allocation Method

The management determines the budget on the basis of what is felt to be necessary however

there is no criteria for defining what is defined as “necessary” in the context of advertising budget allocation. This method lacks the systematic thinking that may reflect some relationship

with advertising objectives. Probably the manager believe that some amount should be spend on

advertising and picks up a figure as advertising budget. This method of budget allocation has no

theoretical basis and its applicability is not recommended

Percentage of Sales Method

This is the most commonly used method especially by the medium and large sized firms. The

basis for budget allocation is the total sale of the brand or product.

In its simplest application affixed percentage of last year’s sales figure is allocated as budget. A variation of this method is to use a percentage of the projected sales figure of following year as

base. Yet another variation is to calculate average sales of last several years to decide budget

allocation.

In another different approach affixed amount of the unit product cost is taken as advertising

expense and multiplied by the number of projected unit of sales.

For example: If the total sales in 2005-2006 were Rs 10 lac(10,00,000), the advertising budget

may be decided as 10% of this figure for 2006-2007 which would be Rs 1 Lac(1,00,000)

For instance the projected sales for 2006-2007 is Rs 12 lac(12,00,000) the budget allocated

would be Rs 1.2 Lac(1,20,000)[Assuming the basis of allocation i.e percentage of sales remain

same at 10%]

Assuming the total manufacturing cost of an article is Rs 20 per unit and advertising money

allocated per unit is Rs 2 and the projected sales figure for the year is fifty thousand

units(50,000) for the coming year then the total advertising budget would be Rs.1 Lac

(1,00,000)[50,000*2=1,00,000]

The percentage figure selected is industry standard , and it varies from industry to industry and

also among different firms in the same industry. Some companies allocate a small percentage of

sales as advertising budget while others decide a higher percentage.

Actual rupee spend vary considerably depending on individual company’s total sales figure.

Advantages of this method are: it is simple, straightforward, and easy to implement method and

expenditure is directly related to the fund available. If the company’s sale were more in the previous year that means it has more funds available to be spent on advertising this year.

Regardless whether last year sales figure or projected sales figure is is taken as base it is easy to

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arrive at budget figure. Unless unprecedented changes in sales managers will have a fair idea of

the budget parameters

Disadvantages of this method are

The basic premise of this method that sales is cause of advertising or it is advertising that helps

generate sales. Letting the level of sales determine the amount of advertising to be spent reverses

the cause and effect relationship between advertising and sales. It treats advertising as expense

associated with making a sale rather than an investment

Another problem associated with this method is stability , proponents say that if all firms use a

similar percentage, it will bring stability to the marketplace. The problem is this method does not

allow for changes in strategy either internally or from the competitors . An aggressive firm may

wish to allocate larger sum for advertising budget , a strategy that is not possible with percentage

of sales method unless manger is willing to deviate from the industry standard.

In the event of introduction of new innovative product , no sales histories are available and

projecting of future sales may be difficult employing this method is not only difficult but risky as

well.

Since the advertising budget is dependent on sales only, decrease in sales decreases the budget at

a time when increase in budget is probably more required. Reduced advertising spending may

further push the sales trend downwards.

Problem with forecasting, cyclical growth and uncontrollable factors limit the effectiveness of

this method.

Objective and Task Method

Setting objectives and budget decision are linked together and should be considered

simultaneously.

The objective and task method is based on build-up approach .Steps involved in objective and

task method are:

Establish Advertising Objectives

Determine specific strategies and tasks necessary to achieve them

Estimate cost associated in putting these strategies and tasks in operation

Implementation of this method requires higher degree of managerial involvement . The whole

process must be monitored throughout keeping in view how well the objectives are attained and

suitable changes in strategies made, if deemed necessary.

Major difficulty associated with this method is to determine which are those specific tasks

required and the costs associated with each. For instance if the objective is to accomplish

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awareness level of 50% among target audience , what specifically are those tasks that are

required to achieve this level if awareness? How much will it cost to perform these tasks?

Though, Past experience serves as good guide in case of existing product .

The most fundamental advantage of this method is that it develops the budget from the ground

up which is the proper managerial approach. It does not rely on past sales figure, forecasted

sales, competitor’s spending and considers only the factors which are under the advertiser’s control.

Payout Planning

Payout planning is a useful technique to develop budget when a new product is introduced . It is

used in conjunction with other budgeting methods to estimate the investment value of

advertising.

Mangers have keen interest in knowing how much money is to be invested in advertising and for

how long before the brand gets established and generate profit flow. Projection of revenue

stream that the product will generate and the cost it will incur over the projected period are

ascertained.

Preparing payout depends on the accuracy of sales forecast over time, factors that affect market,

estimated costs. Advertising expenditure during the introductory stage of the product will be high

to move the target audience through various stages leading to purchase, growth in sales will is

expected to be low and company would lose money(incur loss)

Assuming everything goes according to the plan the advertising expenditure will gradually

decline and sales will increase.

It is useful and logical planning tool when used in conjunction with objective and task method

for setting advertising budget, but it has certain limitations it cannot account for all

uncontrollable factors such as competition, changes in government policies and other factors that

may influence the plan.

Quantitative Models

Mathematical models and statistical techniques such as multiple regression analysis ,

econometrics are used to determine the relative contribution of advertising expenditure to sales.

Some models reflect about how advertising might interact in different ways with other marketing

variables and consumers.

Mathematical models have not been able to get wide acceptance in the industry using these

models require experimentation and formal analysis. Many firms lack such capabilities and also

the process is expensive and time consuming.

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Factors influencing advertising budget

1. Product Life cycle stage: New products typically require large advertising budget to

create awareness, develop preference and induce product trial and purchase. Mature

brands usually require lower budget as ratio to sales

2. Market size : the size of the market influences the budget allocation decision

comparatively it is easier and less expensive to reach target audience in smaller markets.

Too much of advertising expenditure in such markets may be unnecessary and wasteful.

Target audience may be dispersed in larger market areas and it would be more expensive

to reach them

3. Advertising Tasks to be accomplished: larger amount of advertising spending will be

required if the task is to create brand awareness and brand persuasion to generate

trial/purchase in case of new brand. However in case of established brands where

consumers have already tried and tested the brand and are satisfied only reminder

advertising will suffice.

4. Intensity of Competition : In a market with many competitors a brand needs to advertise

more heavily to be mark its recognition amongst the competing brands

5. Financial resources: Budget is a limiting factor which determines the size of advertising

campaign. The availability of financial resources with the advertiser is the constraining

factor influencing the amount to be spent on advertising

6. Unexploited Sales Potential: Higher the available sales potential higher is the need for

advertising to tap it.

7. Advertising Frequency: When many advertising repetitions are required to

communicate the brand’s message to the to the target consumers, the advertising budget must be large.

8. Product differentiation: when a brand cannot be differentiated significantly and

resembles other brands in the product category, it requires heavy advertising to set it

apart from the competitors.

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LESSON 7

CREATIVITY AND ADVERTISING

What Is Creativity?

Advertising is called as a creative profession, ads are often called creative, people who develop

and create commercials are known as creative people and advertising agencies gain reputation

for their creativity.

Perspectives on what constitutes creativity in advertising differ. Artists when they create a new

painting or poets when they pen a new verse are often giving expressions to their innermost

thoughts which may be based on perceptions or fantasies. The outcome may be realistic or

surreal. However when creativity is referred to in context of advertising, it is purposive that is the

creative input is expected to achieve the desired response as delineated in the marketing

objective.

In coming up with dimensions along which define creativity, we drew on social and educational

psychology literature that defines creativity as divergent thinking—that is, the ability to find

fresh, unique and appropriate ideas that can be used as solutions to a communication

problem. Creativity is about giving birth to something that did not exist before. It is the

application of past experiences or ideas in a novel and unexpected way. It is being innovative,

original and different.

Creativity requires qualities like imagination, expressiveness, openness to change. These skills

may be genetic, acquired or situational. Stephen Baker in his book “Systematic Approach to Advertising Creativity” talked about the “pyramid principle”, the pyramid is divided into three

equivalent parts (figure a). The first part, the base of the pyramid represents initiation of the

creative process – the gathering of information , the second part represent analysis that would

cover a number of activities, the third or the upper part is culmination of all efforts of the brain-

when an idea is born. According to Baker, fortunately the human mind is eminently flexible and

can stretch, dissect, combine, compare, backtrack, juggle the thought components with amazing

flexibility. When it comes to reasoning the brain surpasses even the smartest computers which

admittedly can ingest several billion bits of information but unless told what to do with all that

fodder, produce nothing of value

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Facts P I Media

Audience

Figure-a) The Pyramid Principle Figure-b) Bernstein’s model of Creative process

David Bernstein’s model of creative process is like a double ended funnel with a wide mouth into which all facts and figures are poured(Figure b), they are eventually concentrated into the

“proposition or the offer” to be made to the reader, listener, viewer that is the target customer This according to Bernstein, goes into the narrow central tube and emerges as creative idea. The

proposition according to the author is arrived at through reason and P becomes I through

imagination. Thus idea become an ad largely as a result of craft.

The creative process model developed by English sociologist Graham Wallas, outlined the four

stages of creativity namely:

Preparation: Gathering back ground information needed to solve the problem through

research and study

Incubation: Getting away and letting ideas develop

Illumination: Seeing the solution

Verification: Refining and polishing the idea, validating if it is an appropriate solution

Also advertising creativity is not the exclusive domain of those who work on the creative side of

the advertising . The nature of business requires creative thinking from everyone involved in the

promotional planning process. Agency people such as account executives, media planners,

researchers as well as those on the client side such as marketing and brand managers must all

seek creative solutions to the problems encountered in planning, developing and executing an ad

campaign.

Idea Generation

How are ideas generated? Is the generation of an idea an individual activity or the outcome of

teamwork? The views amongst various writers in this regard vary but for all writers, the idea

stage is invariably the most challenging and at the same time most rewarding. According to

Bovee and Arens “it is the long, tedious and difficult task of assembling all pertinent information, analyzing the problem and searching for some verbal or visual concept of how to

communicate what needs to be said. It means establishing the mental picture of the ad,

commercial or campaign before any copy is written or the art work begun.”

Analyst differentiate between Analytical Thinking and Creative Thinking, this can be elaborated

through figure c)

An

Idea is born

Analysis

Information Gathering

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Figure c) Analytical and Creative Thinking

Analytical Creative

Logic Imagination

Unique Answers Many Possible Answers Convergent Divergent

Vertical Lateral

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is the process of coming up with the creative idea in a group. This concept was

introduced in 1989 by Alex Osborn, an advertising professional. The technique which is widely

used by the corporate sector, the government and the armed forces. Brainstorming is a

conference technique by which group attempts to find a solution for a specific problem by

amassing all the ideas spontaneously by its members. It is technique where participants put social

inhibition and rules aside and temporarily suspend their judgement with the aim of generating

maximum new ideas.

According to David Kech, brainstorming in which people work on a problem is based on four

basic rules:

No ideas are criticised

Freewheeling is encouraged

Quantity is preferred that is more the ideas greater the probability of finding the “big idea”

“Cross fertilisation” or hitch hiking is encouraged; participants are encouraged to improve the ideas of others to form new and complex one

Following are some of the characteristics of brainstorming

Unpredictable: One does not know, where the discussion is going to lead

Analytical

Thinking

Creative

Thinking

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Playful: Brainstorming is a fun process; one can let creativity run wild without any checks and

control

Collaborative: It is a group process, wherein participants discuss, argue

Surprising: Since there are no bounds within which one play, it can unfold many surprising

solutions

Challenging: It taxes the brain to come up with the innovative, imaginative and different

solutions

Unstructured: It is a random process in which ideas are not discussed in a structured fashion

Rapid: one after the other the ideas keep on flowing freely

Spontaneous: In this process there is no premeditation, ideas are not held back

Imaginative: Not all ideas need to have rational edge; creativity springs from the irrational and

the unthinkable

Preparing for Brainstorming

Although brainstorming is a group activity the preparation can begin individually before the

group session’s .It is important to identify the need for brainstorming, it must serve the purpose. The person in charge of conducting the brainstorming session must research, observe and

explore, in other words pre thinking is imperative. Many advertising personnel keep a file,

portfolio or soft board with clippings interesting quotes, product description, photographs etc.

The objective of this exercise is not to copy other’s creative idea but to use these ideas as spring board for new ideas.

When the process begins the first pre-empt is not to think in terms of advertising but in terms of

ideas. Environment conducive for the free flow of ideas, collaboration and comfort should be

spawn.

While there is no standard outlined process of coming up with the ideas, following are some

variables that can be considered:

Competitor’s Advertising Appeal: Often competition can be a source of creative ideas that can

be used at least at a tactical level if not at strategic level. “Coke, the official drink” was the was the Coca – Cola’s slogan for Wills Cricket World Cup 1996 , Pepsi rebuffed it as “Nothing official about it. Enjoy Pepsi” Nestle’s Pole “The mint with the hole” was countered by Mint –O

as “ All mint no hole”

Target Audience: The target audience profile is not mere a number or a statistics , such

demographic profiling is valuable input in designing the advertising. Hero Honda brand of

scooty- pleasure targeted young girls with the tagline why should boys have all the fun, TVS

Scooty also targeted young girls with the tagline – Go Babelicious

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Product name and definition: Create new names or definitions for the product, tell something

about the product, intrigue the audience. Livon call itself as silky potion rather than as “hair conditioner” Dove is not a soap but moisturising cream and a beauty bar.

Current affairs: Current events quickly occupy people’s mind and catch attention. Amul is forerunner in such type of ads, it always kept its promotion up to date with current events, with

this approach Amul, always keeps the communication fresh with the new and challenging ads.

Strategy: Strategy tells about what to do, it speaks volumes about the vision and mission of the

organisation ,its customers , the message to be conveyed etc. For eg: Tata tea launched Jago Re

campaign, to raise awareness for specific causes like voting driving, anti corruption.

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Personification: How would the product be if it was a living person? For eg: Pillsbury Atta

personified the flour in the form of Pillsbury Doughboy, who is soft and white like dough and

dressed like a chef. Yamaha India recently launched a maiden mascot to connect with children

and parents to promote road safety. The Yamaha Children Safety Program (YCSP) is a first of its

kind social initiative by the company to educate and influence both parents and children about

vital road safety measures. The Mascot has been developed to arouse interest among kids about

the program. Fido Dido, cartoon character was used to position 7 Up as cool drink for

youngsters.

Analogy: An analogy is the comparison of two unrelated things though which is derived that

something is like something else in some respects but not in others. Analogies can be arrived at

by breaking down the product into various characteristics, components, functions, uses, effects,

benefits etc. And then creating a list of items may be people, situations, objects, processes,

actions etc that are like these things in some way. For eg: Garnier Anti wrinkle cream compares

wrinkle with the loose skin of the bulldog ‘s face. Mahindra XUV convey the message that

Mahindra XUV 5oo is really the beast by comparing it with cheetah.

Creative Execution

The effect of the message in governed by not only what is said but also by how it is said. The

advertiser now has to turn that idea into the real ad that captures the audience’s attention and interest.

Good creative strategy and execution can often be central to determining the success of a product

or reversing the fortunes of the struggling brand, conversely an advertising campaign that is

poorly conceived or executed is a liability

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Advertising Appeal refers to the approach used to attract the attention of consumer, or to

influence the feelings towards the product, service or cause. Appeal can be said to form the

underlying content of the advertisement, it can be viewed as something that moves people ,

speaks of their needs or wants and excites there interest

Numerous different appeals can be used as the basis for advertising message . At the broadest

level these approaches are generally broken into two categories; Rational or Informational

Appeals and Emotional Appeals.

Rational/ Informational Appeal

Rational appeal focus on the consumer’s need, practical or functional utility of the product. The content of these messages emphasize facts, logic, technical and analytical aspects of the

advertising message. Rational based appeals tend to be informative and advertiser using them

generally attempt to convince the consumers that their product or service have specific attributes

or would provide certain benefits that that satisfy their requirements.

Several types of advertising appeals fall under the category of rational appeals among them

features, competitive advantage, favourable price, news, product/service popularity appeal.

Feature Appeal focus on the dominant traits of the product or service. Technical and high

involvement product often uses this type of advertising appeal. These ads tend to be highly

informative and present the customer with a number of important attributes or features that will

lead to a favourable attitude towards purchasing the product featured. for eg: Toyata’s Prius is the world’s first hybrid car. In one of an ad Maruti highlighted the new features in the New

Wagon R and also make a comparison with the old variant. Colgate Active has salt content that

fights germs.

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Competitive Advantage Appeal where advertiser makes direct or indirect comparison to

another brands and usually claims brand’s superiority on one or more attributes. Epson printer make comparison with other printers while claiming its superiority as the lowest cost per print

page, Most of the automobile advertisements in print medium claim their superiority by

comparing with other automobiles in the segment

Product/ Serve Popularity Appeal: stresses the popularity of the product or the service by

claiming he number of customers who use the brands, the number who have switched to it, the

number of experts who recommend it. For eg: Honda City claims how many happy customers

they have worldwide

Olay Campaign- Olay Total Effects, the ad highlighted how women were urged to take the Olay

challenge and how it made a difference to their skin

News Appeal: are those in which some type of news or announcement about the product, service

or organisation dominates the ad. This type of appeal can be used for new product or service or

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to inform consumers about significant modifications or improvements. For eg: Quaker Oats are

now available in different flavour with real fruits and vegetables. Maggi has introduced new Oats

Maggi.

Favorable price appeal: makes price offer as the dominant point of the message. It is often used

by retailers to announce sales, special offers or low every day price . For g: Big Bazar, retail

chain is positioned as the retailer offering lowest price to its customers, on certain occasions of

national importance it announce special offers. Online E-tailer Flipkart recently announced

special discounts for the upcoming festival season and has garner huge response.

Emotional Appeal

Emotional appeals relate to the customer’s social and or psychological needs of purchasing a

product or service. Many consumer motives for purchase decision are emotional and their

feelings towards the brand can be more important the features or attributes. These appeals are

based on the psychological states or feelings directed to the self such as pleasure an well as those

with more social orientation such as status or recognition. For eg: Johnsons and Johnsons

highlights the motherly concern and bonding between the mother and the child, though the

advertisements also highlight the features of the product but it is essentially the motherly love

that is highlighted in its advertisements. Emotional appeals can be used in many ways to depict

creative strategy. Advertisers depict characters on the ad or commercials experiencing some

emotional or transformational benefit or outcome from using the product or service. This

approach is referred to as economic integration. These appeals are believed to put audience in a

favourable frame of mind. For eg: Google’s advertisement invoking a searing and traumatic

period of partition and “reunion” portray of two friends struck cultural chord and how search engine enable to track down the childhood friend.

Emotional appeals are used to evoke positive feelings that may be transferred to the brand.

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Combination of rational and emotional appeals

In most purchase situations, consumer decisions are based on combination of both rational and

emotional motives , only the degree of each varies depending upon the product or service

category and the buying situation. Advertising professor, Michael Ray and Mc Cann Erickson

Worldwide in conjunction developed a research technique known as Emotional Bonding(figure

d) . This technique evaluates how consumers feel about the brands and the nature of emotional

rapport they have with the brand compared to the ideal emotional state they associate with the

product category.

The basic concept of emotional bonding is that consumers develop three level of relationship

with the brand . The most basic relationship indicates how consumers think about the brand in

respect of the product benefits , this primarily occur as a result of rational learning process and

can be measured by how well advertising communicates the product information. Consumers at

this stage are not very brand loyal and brand switching is common. At the next stage the

consumer assigns a personality to a brand , the consumer’s judgement of the brand has now moved beyond its attributes , in most cases consumers judge the personality of the brand based

on the assessment cues found in advertising. The strongest relationship that develops between

the brand and the consumer is based on the feelings or emotional attachment to the brand.

Consumers develop emotional bonds with certain brands which result in positive psychological

movement towards them

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Figure d) Level of relationships with brands

Advertising Execution

Once advertising appeal that will be used as the basis of advertising message has been

determined , the creative team begins its execution. Creative Execution is the way advertising

appeal is presented. While it is important for an ad to have a meaningful appeal or message to

communicate to the consumer, the manner in which the ad is executed is also important,

Advertising execution is the way of presentation of the desired message or appeal to the target

audience. There are many ways in which an advertising message can be presented:

Straight sell/ factual message

Testimonial

Comparison

Animation

Humor

Scientific or technical evidence

Slice of life

Demonstration

Fantasy

Dramatization

Combination

Straight sell/ factual message: This type of presents a straight forward presentation of

information concerning the product or service. This execution style often use rational or

informative appeals. The main focus is on the product or service and the ad attempts to

communicate specific attributes or benefits to the target audience. For eg:

Testimonial: to present the advertisement message, some advertisers prefer to use a satisfied

customer who praises the product or service based on the personal experience of its usage. Such

Emotions

Personality

Product attributes/benefits

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an ad execution can use well known personalities or satisfied customers. This style of execution

is particularly effective when target audience can identify with the person delivering such

testimonial For eg: Dove brand of soap, shampoo, oil have used the testimonials from the

satisfied customers , who have used its product and testifies it is worth it and it actually works .

Olay, pentene are other classic examples in this category.

Comparison: Comparison (direct or indirect) communicates a brand’s particular advantage over its competitors. Advertiser also use this execution approach to position a new, less known brand

by comparing it with the industry leader . For eg: Pepodent claim that it is the better than colgate

in terms of germ attack . Most of the advertisements of automobiles especially cars in print

medium, often highlight the comparison amongst the competing brands in the same segment to

claim their superiority.

Animation: Cartoons, puppet characters and demonstration with computer generated graphics

are used to communicate ad messages for eg: Kit kat recently started putting forward its

advertising message through this execution style.

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Humor: Humor has been a popular technique in ad execution and it makes the commercial more

interesting and entertaining. Humor evokes feelings of amusements and pleasure and favourably

affect the information processing by audience. For eg: Pidilite’s Fevicol have mostly approached

humorous execution in its advertising style

Scientific or technical evidence: Technical information, scientific evidence and endorsements

by well known agencies or scientific bodies to support the product or service claims . For eg: It is

the Indian Dental Association that claim the Colgate is the number one recommended toothpaste

and is also used by dentists in India.

Slice of life : this execution style is based on the problem- solution approach . This ad type

portrays a problem and conflict the consumer might face in their daily lives and how the

advertiser’s product can solve their problem. For eg: Head and shoulders, how it help fight the problem of dandruff and hair fall. How Clean and Clear face wash help fight skin problems

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\

Demonstration : the product may be demonstrated in actual use or it may be shown in some sort

of staged demonstration with the explicit purpose of highlighting the key advantage of the

product or service. For eg: Vanish stain removal, how the product is to be used so as to remove

all stains on clothes was highlighted in its advertisements.

Fantasy : This approach is based on the need of the consumer to find emotional escape to offset

daily routine. Certain cosmetics ads often use fantasy appeal to create pleasant images and

symbols consumers associate with the product or service . Fantasy execution is well suited for

television medium.

Dramatization : Another execution technique particularly suitable for television is

dramatization, where focus is on telling a short story with the product or service, it is some what

like slice of life execution – that relies on the problem solution approach but it use more

excitement and suspense in telling the story

Combination: In actual practice, most commercials use combination of various execution

techniques to present the advertising message.

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LESSON 8

CREATIVE STRATEGY

Creating Print Advertising

The key format elements in the print advertising are: Headlines, Sub-Heads, Body-Copy,

Slogans, Seals , logos, signatures, visual elements and layout.

Headline

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The headline contains the words in the leading position of the advertisements. These are the

words that are read first and are positioned with the intent to draw the reader’s attention. The fundamental function of the headline is to attract the reader’s attention, get them interested and lead them to the entire ad message, it must give the reader good reason to read the copy portion

of the ad, to do this the headline must put forth the main theme , appeal or proposition of the ad

in few words. Some print ads the body copy is totally absent, the headline along with illustration

must communicate the entire ad message. Headlines are usually set in larger type and are often

set apart from the body copy or the text portion of the ad to give them prominence.

There is no formula that can recommend how a good headline should be, however the following

factors need to be considered:

The headline should be short, simple words

It should include an invitation to the prospect, primary product or service benefits, name

of the brand and an interest provoking idea to induce the readers to the rest of the

advertisement

It should furnish enough information so that consumers who read only the headline

should learn something about the product or service

Types of Headlines: There are numerous headlines possibilities. The type used depends upon

several factors such as creative strategy, other components of the ad etc. Headlines can be

categorized as direct and indirect

Direct Headlines are straightforward and informative in terms of the message they present.

Common type of direct headlines include those offering specific benefits , making promise or

announcing a reason the reader should be interested in the product or service.

Benefit Headlines: promise the prospect some rewarding experience with the product or service.

Such headlines put forth the product’s most important benefit.

News/Information Headline: announces news or promises information

Indirect Headline: are not straightforward about identifying the product or service or getting to

the point. But they are often more effective in attracting reader’s attention and interest because they provoke curiosity and lure readers into the body copy to learn an answer or to get an

explanation. These type of headlines often use questions, provocations, how to statements or

challenges .

Subheads: While many ads have only one headline , but one or more secondary heads or

subheads are also common. Subhead is additional smaller headline that appear mostly above or

below the headline. When the subhead is above the headline it is referred to as kicker or overline.

Subheads sometimes appear in the body copy. Subheads are usually smaller than the headline

and may appear in bold or italic type. Subheads often enhance the readability by highlighting key

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sales points and support that content presented in the headlines. Subheads are usually longer than

the headline and serve as stepping stone from headline to the body copy and their content

reinforces the headline and he advertising slogan or theme.

Body Copy: The main text portion of the print ad is called body copy or sometimes just copy.

The body copy contains the complete story and is the logical continuation of the headlines and

the subheads . It covers the attributes , benefits and the utility of the product or service but

getting the audience to read the body copy is often difficult. The body copy must belong enough

to accommodate the complete message and short enough to retain the reader’s interest. Body

copy can be written to go along with the various types of creative appeals and executions like

comparison, demonstration, humor etc. . Copywriters choose a copy style that is appropriate for

the type of appeal being used and effective for executing the creative strategy and

communicating the advertiser’s message to the target audience.

Visual Elements: The illustration or the visual element is often the dominant part of the print ad

and plays an important role in determining its effectiveness. In some ads the visual portion of the

is essentially the message itself. It must attract the attention, communicate the idea or message

and works in a synergistic fashion with the headline and body copy to produce an effective

message. The visuals capture a mood and evoke a feeling , a context for consumer’s perception of the product or service. Many decisions need to be made in this regard i.e. what identification

mark need should be included: brand name, company or trade name, trademarks, logos, etc.

Seals, Logos and Signatures: A seal is awarded when a product meets standards established by

a particular agency. Such as ISO 9001 or Energy Star etc.

Logos and signatures are special designs of the advertiser’s brand /product name or advertiser’s company. Logo is distinctive mark that identifies a brand or the company.

Signature is the name of the company or brand , they appear in all their company ads , and are

immediately recognised for eg: Apple, Tata, Intel etc.

Essentially the purpose of the visual element is to:

Capture the reader’s attention

Clarify claims made by the advertising copy

Identify subject of the advertisement

Show the product in actual use situation

Convince the readers about copy claims

Arouse the reader’s interest Emphasize on brand’s unique features

Create a positive impression of the brand or advertiser

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Qualify readers by stopping those who are legitimate prospects

Layout: A layout is an orderly arrangement of headline, subheads, body copy , slogan , seal,

logo, signature and the visual element in an advertisement. It shows where each component of

the ad will be placed and gives guidelines to the people working on the ad creation. Copywriters

learn how much space is available to work and how much copy should be written.

During the creative phase the designer use thumbnails, roughs, dummies and comprehensives.

A thumbnail is a very small sketch, rough and rapidly created drawing to visualise the layout

approach without any details. Blocks of lines indicate the text position, and boxes show the place

of the visual. The best sketch resulting from this exercise is then developed further.

The artists draw the actual size of the advertisement in a Rough Layout.

Comprehensive layout is a highly refined exact copy of the finished ad . It is quite detailed with

photos, font style ad size etc. Generally the comprehensive is the typeset on computers.

A dummy is prepared to get the look and the feel of the brochure and the point of purchase

material. All the elements of the dummy are hand assembled, mounted on sturdy paper, and then

cut and folded to the size to appear exactly like the finished product.

Examples of few types of layout:

Frame: The copy is surrounded by the visual or the visual may be surrounded by the copy

Picture Window: This is the most common layout format. It has one single dominant visual that

occupies about sixty or seventy percent of the area. The headline and copy may appear above or

below the window.

Circus: this type of layout combines lots of elements to bring the ad alive and make it interesting

by art, type or color. It is created deliberately to create a busy, jumbled image.

Band: Series of elements arranged in one column with usually one major element outside this

band.

Design Principles

Ads must be designed to capture the reader’s attention immediately as the advertiser has only a second or two to capture the reader’s attention. Good design should not only commands attention

but also holds it and communicates as much information as possible in the shortest amount of

time and makes the message easier to understand. The basic design could be:

All creative advertising should have a unified design. The complete layout (copy, headline,

subheads etc) should appear as a single unified composition.

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The ad should be arranged in an orderly manner so that the consumers can read it from left to

right from top to bottom. Arrangement of elements in a sequence helps direct the reader’s eye in a structured position.

The division of space amongst the layout elements, should accentuate and focus on the element

or group so that they stand out among the rest. The ad designer should decide whether to put

more stress on illustration, headline or logo etc.

Using Color

Color is another element of the layout and can be used with impact. Print advertising has the

potential to contend with the television . Print has the ability to generate astonishing, eye

catching colors in the advertisement. Use of color suits many product categories such as food

items, fashion items etc.

Colors adds attention capturing value to the advertisement

Colors can help in imparting emphasis on important elements of the ad

Colors can add a sense of realism and atmosphere

Colors can help easy identification of brand name, package and trademark

Colors imparts a feeling of prestige and quality to the advertisement

Creating Television Commercials

Television is a powerful advertising medium combining the unique ability of sight, sound and

motion. With high levels of advertising clutter in the medium, producing a commercial that

communicate effectively is complex . Television can be used to produce a variety of appeals and

executions, which is not possible in the print medium. However, the viewers cannot control the

pace of the ad message as in the case with the print medium.

There are two basic components of the TC commercials the audio and the video. The video

consist of the sight or the visual part and the audio part includes the spoken words ,music or

other sounds to communicate the ad message. These two components needs to used in

synergistic manner to produce the desired impact.

Video Element: The visual portion generally dominates the commercial and include all those

elements that are seen on the television screen. It is important that these visual elements are

successful in attracting the viewer’s attention and communicate the message or the idea . It may

be required to carefully combine a number of visual elements to produce an effective commercial

for eg: the decision may concern the product, the presenter, action sequence, close ups, customer

interview, comparison, graphics, characters, colors, symbols etc.

Audio Element: the audio portion of the commercial includes voice, music, sound effects. The

voice could include two or more people appearing in the commercial who are involved in a

conversation, or it could be a single presenter appearing as spokesperson or it could be

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voiceover; where message is delivered or action on the screen is narrated or described by the

narrator not visible. In many commercial background score or background music helps to create

appropriate mood or atmosphere for the audience . In many other commercials , music is often

used to break through the advertising clutter and attract the audience’s attention, evoke feelings and communicate the ad message. Jingles are catchy songs built around the product or service

that communicates the advertising theme or messages and are another important music element

of the commercials.

Planning and production of television commercials

In planning for television commercial the major decision is to focus on the type of appeal and the

execution style to be used. Television is well suited to both rational and emotional advertising

appeals or combination of the two. Various execution styles such as dramatization, slice of life,

humor, testimonial etc work well on television. Advertiser’s recognise that they need to do more

than talk about , demonstrate or compare their product or service. Their commercial have to

break through the clutter and grab the viewer’s attention , they must often appeal to emotional as well as rational buying motives. Television is an entertaining medium, most TV audience watch

TV programmes for their entertainment value and commercials that are capable of primarily

entertaining and providing information are more successful.

A written down version of television commercial is called a Script, it brings together various

elements of the commercial and provide detailed description of the audio and the video portions.

The video portion covers the camera actions, angles, scenes, special techniques and other

important description. The audio portion includes the copy to be spoken by voices, the music and

the sound effects.

Once the basic script has been conceived, the writer and the art director get together to produce a

storyboard , a series of drawings to show the layout or the visual plan of the proposed

commercial. The storyboard presents the drawings of different video scenes and the detailed

description of the audio part that is associated with each scene. Those involved in the production

and approval of the commercial get a clear picture from storyboard as to what the finished

commercial would look like. “Animatic” is the videotape of the storyboard along with the

soundtrack. This is sometimes used for client presentation or pre-testing of commercial.

The production phase of the commercial starts after the client approves the storyboard or

animatic. There are three phases involved and the activities in each stage are

Pre-Production Phase Production Phase Post-Production Phase

All the activities undertaken

before the actual shooting or

recording of the commercial

Selection of director

Set construction

Period during which filming

and videotaping of the

commercial is done

Location or set shoots

Activities undertaken after

the commercial has been

filmed and recorded

Editing

Processing

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Location

Casting

Agency and client

approval

Pre production

meetings etc.

Talent arrangements Mixing audio and

video

Client or agency

approval

Release

Creating Radio Commercial

Radio advertising is different and difficult because unlike print and television advertising it

cannot use visuals for attracting and captivating the audience, it requires awakening images in

the listener’s mind by using sound, music and voices. There is no visual or colors to attract the

audience only the sound. The scriptwriter has to be sure that the listener believes in the message.

It must deliver the right words; the writer can create a picture in sound (Mental Imagery). The

copywriter use words, sounds and music to create image and influence recall. The warmth of

human voice is another factor in communicating the message. Sound has an ability to generate

the mood desired by the advertiser, it can be used to create effects of footsteps, laughter,

moaning and many others. Music is the universal language and can be a powerful source in

grabbing the listener’s attention. Jingles are the popular means of helping people remember the slogan.

The basic ingredient in the radio commercial is to promise an important and persuasive benefit

from the listener’s point of view. After determining the key promise to be communicated, the writers use select words and sound to communicate the desired message. Some points taken into

consideration while developing advertising copy for radio are:

Keep it short and simple: Use simple words and short sentences, copy needs to be

conversational

Maintain clarity: delete unnecessary words, the message should flow in a logical

sequence

Create rapport : the tone of the voice should create a rapport with the prospective

listeners

Make it believable: Avoid making overstatements and exaggerations

Make it interesting: manner of presentation of the message should be interesting

Create distinctiveness : give the commercial distinct character

Creating Internet Advertisements

The aim of marketer is to create ads that will ensure high involvement of consumers and

interactive advertising on the internet promotes more customer involvement.

Designing Web site: Web pages can combine elements and designs styles from all different

media: print, film, sound etc. In addition, the need to search and navigate creates entirely new

design from whose major challenge is the ease of use.

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Web pages should be attractive and appealing. Navigation is the critical factor to move through

the web pages, it should be convenient for users to move through the site and find easily the

information they are looking for. Interactivity is the another important issue , to take advantage

of the special strength of his medium , there will be interactive elements that facilitate contacting

with the company with questions, complaints, suggestions, comments etc. Internet derive its

major advantage as the advertising medium through feedback communication , which is

important input as strategic planning also the copy testing methods are developed to evaluate the

site’s potential to motivate click through behaviour.

MEDIA PLANNING

Targeting the communication message to the right audience, through the right medium with the

right strength is as important as the development of the message itself. Any advertiser who uses

mass media advertising needs to have competent services in the area of media planning.

Essentially, media planning answers the following fundamental questions:

How much money to be spend on mass media?

Across what media should the spends be allocated?

At what point of time in the campaign period should these monies be spent?

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Thus ,Media Planning refer to the series of the decisions involved in delivering the promotional

message to the prospective purchaser and or user of the product or brand. Media Planning is a

process which means a number of decisions are made each of which may be altered or

abandoned as the plan develops.

Media planning has become fairly complex with the increase in the cost of various media and the

proliferation of media choices . The media planners have to critically analyse the choice of media

class and media vehicles.

Media plan is the guide for the media selection. It requires development of specific media

objectives and specific media strategies designed to attain those objectives. Once the decisions

have been made and the objectives and strategies formulated, the information is organised into

media plan.

Medium is the general category of the available delivery system, which includes broadcast

media(TV, radio)Print media(newspaper, magazine), direct mail, outdoor advertising and other

support media.

Media Vehicle is the specific carrier within the medium category. For eg: Hindustan Times is

carrier of he advertiser’s advertisement in the newspaper category.

Media Mix: refers to various advertising channels through which a company communicates

with its target audience.

Coverage refers to the potential audience that might receive the message through the vehicle

Reach is the measure of the number of different audience members exposed at least once to

the media vehicle in a given period of time. Reach is normally expressed in percentage terms. It

is important to note that reach takes into account different and distinct individuals exposed to a

given medium, thus for two different publications it is possible for one individual to reading both

these publications, in media terms it is referred to as duplication , when calculating reach care

has to be taken to ensure that such reader is taken into account only once for the purpose.

Frequency: In order that advertising be effective the audience must be exposed to the

advertisement more than once. The number of times the advertisement appear in a given

publication or over a particular television program is known as frequency of exposures of the

advertisement. For eg: if the ad is released 10 times in a publication , the target audience reached

by that publication would have an opportunity to see that ad 10 times this is called as

OTS(Opportunity To See) in media terms.

Gross Rating Point(GRP) when reach and frequency is multiplied it is known as gross exposure

of a given campaign. This is a numerical figure indicating how many potential audience

members are likely to be exposed to a series of commercials. It does not measure the size of

the audience reached. Rather, GRPs quantify impressions as a percentage of the target population

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It stands for reason that for a finite amount of advertising expenditure over the mass media ,

reach and frequency have an inverse relation with each other. In other words if we try to

maximize reach, frequency gets compromised on the other hand if we maximize frequency reach

will get compromised

Developing media plan

Figure a) Media Planning Process

The process as shown in figure a) involve a series of stages : Market Analysis, Establishment of

Media Objectives Media strategy development and implementation and evaluation and follow

up.

Market Analysis and Target Market identification

The key questions at these stages are :

To whom shall we advertise?

What internal or external factors may influence the media plan?

Where and When should efforts must be focussed?

The market analysis may reveal more than a few target markets , to decide which group of target

market should be addressed the media planners may need some additional data regarding the

audience size, composition of target audience for eg: users among adults(males and females),

heavy users/light users etc. The index number is considered as good indicator or market potential

as the planners are more interested in the percentage figure rather than the absolute number.

Index = Percentage of users in the demographic segment

----------------------------------------------------------------- * 100

Percentage of population in the same segment

Use of index numbers is helpful but it should be combined with percentage and product usage

figures to get a clearer and more accurate picture of the market. Media strategies are influenced

by both internal and external factors operating at any given time. Internal factors may involve

size of the media budget, managerial and administrative capabilities of the organization or the

agency. External factors may include cost of media, competitive factors, changes in technology

etc.

Market AnalysisEstablishment

of media objectives

Media strategy development

and implementation

Evaluation and Follow up

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The next concern is where to promote relates to the geographic consideration. Companies may

find that the sales are stronger in one segment or market over the rest and may allocate

advertising expenditure according to the market potential of the area. Obviously those markets

should be the priority areas that are most likely to meet the desired objectives.

Use of Indices to determine where to promote: Brand Development Index (BDI) and Category

Development Index (CDI) may be used to determine where to focus advertising efforts as the

figures provide media planners insight into the relative value of markets.

BDI = Percentage of brand’s total country sales in the area/segment -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*100

Percentage of total country population in the area/segment

The BDI compares the percentage of brand’s total sale in the market segment for eg: in Rajasthan with the percentage of the total population in Rajastan to determine the sales potential

for the brand in Rajasthan.

CDI = Percentage of product category’s total sales in the area/segment ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*100

Percentage of total country population in that area/segment

CDI is computed in the same manner as BDI except it uses information regarding the product

category as opposed to the brand in the numerator

CDI provides information on the potential for development of the total product category rather

than specific brands. When this information is combined with the BDI a much more insightful

promotional strategy can be developed

Cate

gory

Dev

elop

men

t in

dex

(CD

I)

Hig

h

Brand Development Index (BDI)

High Low

High market share

Good market potential

Low market share

Good market potential

Low

High market share

Monitor for sales

decline

Low market share

Poor market potential

High BDI and High CDI : This market usually represents good sales potential for both the

product category and the brand

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High BDI and Low CDI: The category is not selling well but the brand is , probable a good

market to advertise it but should be monitored for declining sales.

Low BDI and High CDI: the product category shows high potential but the brand is not doing

well , the reason should be determined

Low BDI and low CDI: Both the product category and the brand are doing poorly, not likely to

be a good place for advertising

Establishing Media Objectives

Media objectives are the goals for the media program and should be limited to those that can be

accomplished through media strategies. Media objectives are formulated to help accomplish the

advertising communication task and marketing objectives. Media objectives are translated into

specific goals for the media programme. For eg: media objective is o create awareness in the

target market through :

Use of print media to provide coverage of 90% of the target market in six months

Reach 60% of the target audience at least three times(frequency) over six months

Media strategy development and implementation

Having established what is to be accomplished, media planners consider how to achieve these

objectives that is they develop and implement media strategies which evolve directly from the

actions required to meet objectives.

Criteria considered in the development of the media plans are:

The Media Mix

Target Market coverage

Geographic Coverage

Scheduling

Media reach and frequency

Creative Aspects and Mood / Qualitative Aspect of Media Vehicle Source

Budget Consideration

Media Mix: A wide variety of media and media vehicles are available to the advertisers. The

objective sought, the characteristics of the product, size of the budget and individual preferences

etc. may be the factors that determine the combination of media used.

For eg: a situation in which the product requires a visual demonstration for communicate

effectively, in such a case TV may be the most effective medium. If the promotional strategy

calls for to stimulate sale by trial by coupons print medium may be employed.

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By employing media mix, advertiser can add more versatility to their media strategies since each

medium contributes its own distinct advantages. By combining media marketers can increase

coverage, reach and frequency levels by improving the likelihood of achieving overall

communication and marketing goals.

Target Market Coverage: The media planners determines which target market should receive

the most media emphasis, this requires matching the media and media vehicles most suitable to

the target audience. The optimal goal is the full market coverage but this is a very optimistic

scenario and in real situation the coverage of the media does not allow for total market coverage,

some potential customers are left without exposure to the advertised message. It is also true that

media coverage reaches non targeted audience who are not considered as potential customers and

the advertiser is faced with the problem of overexposure referred to as waste coverage or media

over exposure

The media planners objective is to reach as many members of the target market as possible and

at the same time minimizing the extent of any waste coverage. The situation usually involves

trade-offs, however waste coverage is justified because the media employed are likely to be the

most effective means of delivery available and the cost of waste coverage is exceeded by the

value gained from their use.

Geographic Coverage: Geography is another important consideration for the media planning

process, the demand for certain types of products depends on the geographic locations of the

market for eg: heavy woollens are unlikely to have significant demand in Southern Indian States

, thus the marketers would have no inclination to advertise such products in such geographic

locations. The use of BDI and CDI may be quite helpful in determining the media strategy for

different geographic locations.

Scheduling

Companies would like to keep their advertising in front of the target audience at all times as a

constant reminder of its product or brand name however in reality it is not possible for a variety

of reasons such as the funds availabity rather it may not be necessary. The primary objective of

scheduling is to time the promotional efforts so that they coincide with the highest potential

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buying times. The scheduling methods available to media planners are: Continuity, Flighting

and Pulsing.

Continuity refers to the continuous pattern of advertising which may mean every day, every

week, or every month. The key is that a regular or continuous pattern of advertising is developed

without gaps or non advertising periods. Such strategies might be used for advertising of

products that are used or consumed on an ongoing basis without regard to seasonality(FMCG

goods)

Flighting, employs a slightly less regular schedule with intermittent or irregular period of

advertising and non advertising. At some time period there may be heavier promotional

expenditures and at others there may be no advertising. For eg:

Pulsing is actually combination of Continuity and flighting . In pulsing strategy continuity is

maintained but at certain times the promotional efforts are stepped up.

Thus, Media schedule is the calendar of the advertising plan and is concerned with the timing of

the insertion of ads in the selected media. The decisions in this area are essentially based on the

certain assumptions concerning how the target audience will respond to the presence or absence

of the advertising message

Media Reach and frequency: Advertiser’s have variety of objectives and face budget constraints; they usually trade off between reach and frequency. They must decide whether to

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have the message be seen or heard by more people (reach) or by fewer people more

often(frequency)

As per the response hierarchies the more people are aware are likely to move to each subsequent

stage, achieving awareness requires-Reach that is exposing potential buyers to the message. New

brands need a high level of Reach, since the objective is to make all potential buyers aware of the

new entry. High reach is also desired at later stages of the hierarchy for eg: at the later stage of

adoption, promotion strategy might be to use coupons or free samples, an objective of the

marketer to reach large number of people with these samples or coupons, in an attempt to make

them learn about the product, try it, develop favourable attitude towards it and in turn lead to

actual purchase.

The problem arises because there is no known way of determining how much reach is required to

achieve levels of awareness, attitude change or buying intentions nor can we sure an ad placed in

a vehicle will actually reach the intended audience.

The next question is about what frequency of exposure is necessary for the ad to be seen and

have an impact. Frequency is the number of times one is exposed to the media vehicle, not

necessarily the ad itself. While advertisement may be placed in a certain vehicle, the fact that the

consumer is exposed to that vehicle does not ensure that he also has seen/ read or viewed your

advertisement. As a result the frequency level expressed in the media plan overstates the actual

level of exposure to the ad. This overstatement led some media buyers to refer to the reach of the

media vehicle as “Opportunities to See” (OTS) an ad rather than actual exposure to it.

Because the advertisers has no sure way of knowing whether exposure to a vehicle results in

exposure to the ad, it is accepted hat one exposure to a media vehicle constitutes reach provided

that this exposure must occur for the audience member to offer an opportunity to see the ad. This

approach though, does not help in determining what frequency level is needed to create the

desired impact , decisions in this regard are not always based on hard data. It is often quoted that

establishing frequency goals for an advertising campaign is a mix of art and science but with a

definite bias towards art.

Media planners often compromise and strike a balance between reach, frequency and the number

of advertising cycles in the planning period. In most cases the advertising budget is fixed and the

planners cannot spend more on say increasing frequency without decreasing expenditure on

reach or the number of advertising cycles. The tradeoffs are generally governed by the principle

that it is better to sell some people completely than many people not at all. The trade-off between

reach and frequency is most common , if it is advantageous to maintain advertising continuity or

plan more advertising cycles as with the frequently purchased products or services then reach

should be sacrificed. For infrequently purchased products such as consumer durables goods it is

advised to increase reach and advertise only occasionally in cyclic pattern, this may suffice to

maintain audience interest without having to reach them more frequently. The best trade offs

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depend on the media strategy, the type of the product . It is also possible that audience members

are exposed to more than one media vehicle carrying the same ad, resulting in repetition For eg:

if an ad of fairness cream is placed in two magazines say Femina and Star Dust, a number of

target audience will be exposed to both vehicle resulting in duplicated reach . If an ad is placed

in one magazine only the total number of audience exposed only once is un-duplicated reach .

Figures of both duplicated and unduplicated reach are important . Un- duplicated reach

represents potential new exposures and duplicated reach provides an estimate of frequency

Programme Rating: is a measure of potential reach of broadcast media/programme expressed

in percentage for eg: the number of households that on TV sets is 100 and a certain programme is

viewed in 30 of those households , the programme rating would be 30.

Programme Rating = Number of households viewing the programme

------------------------------------------------------------------------ * 100

Total number of households owning the TV sets

Gross Rating Point(GRP) : The media buyers typically use a numerical indicator to know how

many potential audience members may be exposed to a series of commercials. A summary

measure combines the program rating and the average number of times the home is reached

during the period (frequency) is commonly used reference point known as Gross Rating

Point(GRP)

GRP = Reach * Frequency

Advertisers also use GRP as the basis for examining the relationship between reach and

frequency

Frequency = Gross Rating Point (GRP)

--------------------------------------

Reach

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Reach = Gross Rating Point (GRP)

--------------------------------------

Frequency

Qualitative Aspect of Media Vehicle Source

This concept refer that the ad exposure in one vehicle might have more impact on the audience

than if the same ad is placed in another vehicle . For example if the ad for a cosmetic brand is

placed in women magazine say Femina, it might produce more impact on the target audience

than if the same ad is placed in another magazine say Reader’s Digest even if the audiences were the same. The difference in the ad message impact may be the result of audience

involvement , editorial fit or the physical reproduction qualities.

Media Vehicle’s degree of expertise associated with its area of interest is important, for eg: magazines related to computer say PC Quest, Digit or Computer ‘s @ Home etc. Are seen by their target audience as reliable sources of information on the subject. Media vehicle can

enhance the creativity of the message by creating a mood that affect the impact of the

commercial communication. Sports channels are believed to generate excitement and fun loving

moods, ads of soft drinks, sportswear is usually seen on these channels .Women and lifestyle

magazines are used cosmetics brand. Certain media vehicle have image that may carry over to

the perception of the ad message placed within them. It makes sense to think that involvement of

the target member in the media vehicle should generate more impact of an ad message compared

to another vehicle that is less interesting to the audience. Commercials that interrupt the high

involving TV programmes may benefit because of the spill over of involvement to ad

comprehension.

Budget Consideration

One of the most important decision in the development of media strategy is the cost estimation.

The value of any strategy can be determined by how well it delivers the message to the audience

with the lowest cost and the least waste.

Advertising and promotional costs can be categorized in two ways: The Absolute Cost of the

medium or vehicle and the Relative Cost of the medium or the vehicle. For eg: If it cost Rs 10 lac

to furnish a full front page advertisement in a national newspaper , the absolute cost of the media

vehicle is Rs 10 Lac., with the same advertisement the reach is 10 lac audience members the

relative cost of the medium is one rupee per reach , thus the relative cost of the medium is

always in relation to the absolute amount paid for advertising time or space and the size of the

audience delivered.

Determining the relative cost of the media

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To evaluate the alternatives, advertisers compare the relative cost of the media as well as

vehicles within these media. However the broadcast, print and out of the home media does not

always provide the same cost breakdown.

Cost per thousand(CPM): Magazine space is sold primarily on the basis of pages or some

increment of the page. CPM has been used by the magazine industry as a standard method to

provide cost breakdowns on the basis of cost per page per thousand circulations and is used to

compare media cost if different vehicles

CPM = Cost of ad space

------------------------------- * 1000

Circulation

For eg: if the cost of placing one full page advertisement in Star Dust is Rs fifty thousand and

the circulation of the magazine is five lac copies , the CPM calculation would be

CPM = 50,000

----------------- * 1000 = 100

5,00, 000

Cost Per Rating point (CPRP) : the broadcast media provide a different comparative figure

referred to as cost per rating point or cost per point calculated as:

CPRP = Cost of Commercial time

-------------------------------------

Programme Rating

For example if the cost of a ten second spot on Star Plus is Rs one lac and fifty thousand and the

programme rating is 30, the CPRP would be:

CPRP = 1,50,000

------------- = 5000

30

Relative Cost comparison of media is important, however the inter media comparison can be

misleading for eg: television combine sight and sound with motion and magazine provide

longevity . Attributes of different media make direct comparison difficult other than cost

comparison advertiser must also look for specific characteristics of each medium and the vehicle

within each medium.

Evaluation and Follow up:

Evaluation is essential to assess the performance of any activity Two factors are important in

evaluating the media plan:

How successful were the strategies in achieving the media objectives? Did the media plan was

successful in accomplishing the desired objectives?

86

Successful strategies help build confidence and serve as reference point in developing media

strategies in future and the failure is thoroughly analysed to learn about the shortcomings.

However there are certain problems with the measurement that limit the degree to which one

assess the relative effectiveness of advertising strategies