Advertising And Promotion

Chapter-2: Developing Effective Communication and Promotion
Developing Effective Communications:
In developing an effective communication requires the following steps are to be followed.
Step-1: Identify the target audience:
The process must start with a clear target audience in mind, for example, potential buyers of the company’s products, current users, deciders, or influencers, individuals, groups, particular publics, or the general publics. The target audience is a critical influence on the communicator’s decisions on what to say, how to say it, when to say it, where to say it, and to whom to say it.
i). Image analysis: Image is the set of beliefs, ideas, and impressions a person holds regarding an object. A major part of audience analysis is assessing the current image of the company, its products, and its competitor.
Familiarity scale (Never heard, heard only, know a bit, know a fair amount, know very well), Favorability scale (Very unfavorable, somewhat unfavorable, indifferent, somewhat favorable, very favorable)
ii). Semantic differential: Semantic differential involves the following steps:

1. Developing a set off relevant dimensions
2. Reducing the set of relevant dimensions
3. Administering the instrument to a sample of respondents
4. Averaging the results
5. Checking of the image variance.
   Management must decide which image gaps it wants to close first. What would it cost to close a particular gap and how long would it take.
   Step-2: Determine the communicative objectives:
   The marketer might want to put something into the consumer’s mind (cognitive response), change an attitude (affective response) of get the consumer to act (behavioral response). There are different models of consumer-response stages. Following are some of them.
   (i) AIDA Model: (Attention—Interests—Desire—Action)
   (ii) Hierarchy-of-Effects Model: (Awareness-knowledge-liking-preference-conviction-purchase)
   (iii) Innovation-Adoption Model:(Awareness—Interest—Evaluation—Trial—
   Adoption)
   (iv) Communications Model:(Exposure-Reception-Cognitive response-Attitude-Intention-Behavior)
   All these models assume that the buyer passes through a cognitive, affective and behavioral stage. Learn-feel-do sequence is appropriate when the audience has a high involvement with a product category with high differentiation (automobile).
   Alternatively, do-feel-learn sequence is appropriate when the audience has a high involvement but little or no differentiation (aluminum siding). A third sequence learn-do-feel is relevant when there is little involvement and low differentiation (salt).
   Step-3: Design the message:
   Having defined the desired response, the communicator moves to developing an effective message. Ideally, the message should gain attention, hold interest, arouse desire, and elicit action. Formulating the message will require solving four problems: what to say (message content), how to say it logically (message structure), how to say it symbolically (message format), and who should say it (message source).
   i). Message content: There is a need for an appeal, theme, idea, or unique selling proposition (USP). There are three types of appeals:
6. Rational appeals: They claims that the product will produce certain benefits (quality, economy, value, or performance). E.g. industrial buyers.
7. Emotional appeals: Attempts to stair up negative or positive emotions that will motivate purchase.
8. Moral appeals: Directed to the audience’s sense of what is right and proper (silence = death, AIDS).
   ii). Message structure: Effectiveness depends on structure as well as content. One sided and two sided arguments and order of presentation are important.
   iii). Message format: The message format needs to be strong. The communicator has to decide on headline, copy, illustration, and color. Words for radio message and voice as well.
   iv). Message source: Message delivered by attractive or popular sources achieves higher attention and recall. Three factors (expertise, trustworthiness, likability) bear source credibility. A most highly credible source would be a person who scores high on all dimensions.
   Step-4: Select the communication channels
   The communicator must select efficient channels to carry the message. Communication channels may be personal and non-personal.
   i). Personal communication channels: This involve two or more persons communication directly with each other, face-to-face, person to audience, over the telephone or through e-mail. PCC derive their effectiveness through individualized presentation and feedback.
   a). Advocate channels consist of company salespeople contracting the target market.
   b). Expert channels consist of independent experts making statements to target buyers.
   c) Social channels consist of neighbors, friends, family members, and associates talking to target buyers. Social channel is effective in two situations: (i). Expensive, risky, or purchased frequently; and (ii). Status and taste.
   Steps to stimulate personal influence channels to work on their behalf:
9. Identify influential individuals and companied and devote extra effort to them (market leader)
10. Create opinion leaders by supplying certain people with the product on attractive terms
11. Work through community influential
12. Use influential or believable people in testimonial advertising (cricket player)
13. Develop advertising that has high conversation value (slogan)
14. Develop word-of-mouth referral channels to build business (professionals)
15. Establish an electronic forum (online service)
16. Use viral marketing (a form of word of mouth to draw attention).
    ii). Non-personal communication channels: These include media, atmospheres, and events.
    a). Media consist of print media (newspaper, magazines, direct mail), broadcast media (radio, TV), network media (telephone, cable, satellite, wireless), electronic media (audiotape, videotape, videodisk, CD-ROM, web page), and display media (billboards, signs, posters).
    b). Atmospheres are packaged environments that create or reinforce the buyer’s learning toward product purchase (tangible signs of luxury).
    c). Events are occurrences designed to communicate particular messages to target audiences (news conference, grand openings).
    Step-5: Establish the total communication budget
    One of the most difficult marketing decisions is determining how much to spend on promotion. “I know that half of my advertising is wasted, but I don’t know which half”.
17. Affordable method: Many companies set the promotional budget at what they think the company can afford. [Easy and simple], (ignores role of promotion as an investment, uncertain, difficult to long run planning)
18. Percentage of sales method: Set promotional expenditure at a specified percentage of sales or of the sales price. [Vary from year to year so that company can afford, encourage management to think the relationship among promotional cost, selling price and profit per unit] (Sales as a determinant of promotion rather result, budget by funds rather market opportunity, dependent on year to year sales)
19. Competitive parity method: Some company set their promotion budget to achieve share-of-voice parity with competitors. [Collective wisdom of the industry, no promotion war], (there is no ground to believe that competitors know better and no evidence that it prevents promotion war).
20. Objective and task method: Developing promotional budget by defining specific objectives, determining the task that must be performed to achieve these objectives and estimating the cost. [Relationship among trial rates, $ spent, exposure level, regular use], (What weight to price, service, product improvement). The steps to be followed:
    a). Establish the market-share goals
    b). Determine the percentage of market share that should be reached
    c). Determine the percentage of aware prospects should be persuaded
    d). Determine the number of advertising impresses per 1% trial rate
    e). Determine the number of gross rating points that have to be purchased
    f). Determine the necessary advertising budget on this basis.
    Step-6: Deciding on the marketing communications mix:
    Companies must allocate the promotional budget over the five promotional tools- advertising, sales promotion, public relations and publicity, sales force, and direct marketing.
    i). Advertising:
    Because of the many forms and uses of advertising, it is difficult to make generalizations.
    a). Public presentation (legitimacy on the product and standardized offer),
    b). Pervasiveness (permits the seller to repeat the message many times and allows the buyer to receive and compare messages),
    c). Amplified expressiveness (artful use of print, sound, and color to dramatize the product and the company),
    d). Impersonality (the audience does not feel obligated to pay attention or respond).
    Advertising can be used to build up a ling-term image for a product or trigger quick sale. Advertising can reach geographically dispersed buyers. Consumers might believe that a heavily advertised brand must offer good value.
    ii). Sales Promotion:
    Companies use sales-promotion to draw a stronger and quicker buyer response. They offer three distinctive benefits:
    a). Communication (gain attention and may lead the consumer to the product), b). Incentive (incorporate some concession, inducement, or contribution that gives value to the consumer),
    c). Invitation (invitation to engage in the transaction now).
    iii). Public Relation and Publicity:
    a). High credibility (something more important than advertising),
    b). Ability to catch buyers off guard (reach prospect who prefer to avoid sales people and advertisement), and
    c). Dramatization (potential to dramatize the company).
    iv). Personal Selling:
    Helpful in building up buyer preference, conviction, and action
    a). Personal confrontation (an immediate and interactive relationship),
    b). Cultivation (from merely selling to deep personal friendship),
    c). Response (obligation for having listened to the sales talk).
    v). Direct Marketing:
    Direct marketing is nonpublic (normally addressed to specific person), customized (message can be prepared to appeal to the addressed individual), up to date (very quickly), and interactive (message can be changed depending on the person’s response).
    Factors in Setting the Marketing Communication Mix:
    i). Type of product market: Consumer marketers spend on sales promotion, advertising, personal selling, and public relations in that order. Business marketers spend on personal selling, sales promotion, advertising, and public relations in that order. Personal selling is used more with complex expensive and risky goods and in markets.

a). Consumer Goods: Relative importance b). Industrial Goods: Relative importance
ii). Buyer-readiness stage: Promotional tools vary in cost-effectiveness at different stages of buyer readiness. Advertising and publicity play the most important roles in the awareness building stage.
Promotional
Cost Effectiveness Sales Promotion

Personal Selling

                                    Advertising &
                                         Publicity

Awareness Comprehension Conviction Ordering Reordering
Customer conviction is influenced mostly by personal selling, closing the sale and reordering are influenced mostly by personal selling and sales promotion.
iii). Product life cycle stage: In the introduction stage, advertising and publicity have the highest cost-effectiveness, followed by personal selling to gain distribution coverage and sales promotion to induce trial.
Promotional
Cost Effectiveness Sales Promotion

                                Advertising &
                                    Publicity
                                Personal Selling


Introduction          Growth          Maturity         Decline

In growth stage, demand has its own momentum through word of mouth. In the maturity stage, sales promotion, advertising, and personal selling all grow more important in that order. In the decline stage, sales promotion is important.
iv). Push vs pull strategy: A push strategy involves manufacturer marketing activities directed at channel intermediaries to induce them to order an carry the product and promote it to end user. A pull strategy involves marketing activities directed at end users to induce them to ask intermediaries for the product.
Measuring the Communications’ Results:
After implementing the promotional plan, the communicator must measure its impact on target audience. Members of the target audience are asked whether they recognize or recall the message, how many times they saw it, what points they recall, how they felt about the message, and their previous and current attitudes toward the product and company.
The communicator should also collect behavioral measures of audience response, such as how many people bought the product, liked it, and talked it to others about it. This will allow the communicator to understand the effectiveness of the communication program and whether there is a need to strengthen the communication program.