Rajagopal. Marketing Dynamics: Theory and Practice

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Marketing Dynamics: Theory and Practice

• Growth of brands and variety of trade

• Growth of service sector

• Growth in marketing finance

Scope of the advertising is very wide and leads to an integrated impact on the planning process.

THE ADVERTISING PROCESS

As stated earlier, advertising is closely associated with marketing variables. Hence, the process of

advertising depends largely on the market environment. The marketing plan enables the advertiser to

set objectives, the advertising budget and the time plan for scheduling the advertisement. In an

advertising process the important determinants are communication strategy and media strategy. The

strategy for communication includes the type of message to be released, its length, contents, audience

interest, product characteristics and frequency of message dissemination. The message tactics also

need to be developed in accordance with the media and media watchers. An appropriate media

strategy needs to be selected by a firm analyzing media responses carefully. Upon selection of an

appropriate media, the firms should work out an operational plan of putting the advertisements to

cater the market objectives. The process of advertising is illustrated in figure 6.1.

Whole advertising process, results in the exposure of the advertising product as an output which

Figure 6.1 Advertising process model

Marketing plan

Communication

strategy

Advertising

objectives

Target

audience

Advertising

planning

Message

style

Media

strategy

Media use

plan

Release of

Measuring

effectiveness of

Research

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needs to be evaluated for its effectiveness in a given marketing situation. The media consultants,

media representatives, and advertising agencies form the organizational structure and within its frame

the process of advertising is made functional. The response analysis of advertisement shows mixed

impacts. Sometimes, the advertisements receive a very positive response from consumer augmenting

the market, for the product while at the same time negative responses also distort the product market.

Such cases need to be further subject to research on the improved communication styles and the

media vehicle in order to recharge the advertising planning process with new inputs.

ADVERTISING CATEGORIES

Advertising is a creative task and varies according to the need and taste of the target group. It can be

categorized into audiences, types of advertiser, mass media and functions. There are three sets of

audience in advertising-business, professionals and consumers. The business-to-business advertising

is directed towards processors, wholesalers and professionals. An advertisement carrying a message

for raw materials, business machines or services to the manufacturing units are categorically of a

business-to-business nature and can be termed as industrial advertising. Similarly when an

advertisement is directed towards a group of professional like engineers, doctors, it is called

professional advertising. The advertising audience may also be categorised as a mass or a class.

An example of advertising for biscuits may be planned for the mass audience while a rich processed

and canned food may be directed towards high class audience.

Volume of the business of a company and the geographical coverage of the product would be

another consideration for classifying advertising strategies. The countrywide coverage of a product

such as automobiles, television sets, refrigerators and the like is called as general advertising.

Advertising for a product limited to regional markets for local consumption is defined as local

advertising. Advertising can be also classified with reference to the medium used to deliver the

message like national TV network, cable TV network, radio, news paper and magazines of national

and regional status.

Functional classifications of advertising are of an illustrative and symbolic nature. The advertising

classification according to functions is given under:

• Product advertising

• Non-product or institutional advertising

• Primary advertising

• Selective advertising

• Direct action advertising

• Indirect action advertising

Product advertising emphasizes the characteristics of the product and other related issues

while the institutional image is build up by non-product advertising. The brand of the company, its

public relation aspects and regulations is based on the theme of the advertising in this category. For

example, we have the Tata steel company which prefers institutional advertising highlighting the

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Marketing Dynamics: Theory and Practice

biographical excerpts of the founder veteran or emphasizing the development nurtured by the company

in rural housing, education, health and sports. Such advertising mentions the product of company as

a secondary message.

Primary advertising attempts to promote a market for indigenous products which are largely

unbranded while selective advertising is done for the products that are branded or that fall in line with

related brands. Selective advertisement is used by individual companies to stimulate a market for

their products after the demand has been established. Direct action advertising generates instant

demand for the product and is found to be an effective stimulus for short-run sale campaigns. The art

of abstract communication is called indirect advertising, which does not seek immediate attention of

the mass audience. However, this type of advertising is appreciated by the class audience to some

extent.

ADVERTISING AND BUYER PERCEPTION

Advertising of a product or services has direct concern with the buyers. The communication that

reaches buyers has varied response depending on the time span of advertising, the type of message

and the intensity of the exposure. Thus, its essential for an advertiser to map consumer perceptions

on an advertised product or service to increase its effectiveness. A study of the consumer’s state of

mind and market segmentation would supplement the creativeness in developing the messages exposure

style, media use and related matters. The perceptual mapping of consumer needs to be done considering

many human factors for effective advertising. These factors are:

• Structural factors

• Mind set

• Expectations

• Previous experience

• Latent needs

• Role

• Social status

• State of mind

• Perceptual consistency

• Selectivity

• Retrieval and action

• Cultural and group factors

An advertising strategy needs to be developed in close association with the social status and

cultural factors of the consumers. Perceptions are built depending upon the role of an individual in

conceiving and understanding communication. His state of mind, latent expectations, his consistency

in perceiving the message and other related factors substantially contribute to advertising strategies.

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STRATEGIES IN ADVERTISING

Advertising strategies for a product for an agency and in the media are different in the long term

as compared to short term perspectives as the objectives of organizations also vary. However,

theoretically, an effective advertising strategy needs to comprise of the creative use of media,

budget, message strategy, exposure strategy research and public relations. The right message to

the right audience at right time is the fundamental principle of advertising and strategies need to be

formulated accordingly.

ADVERTISING STYLES

Different styles of advertising are an art form and can not be limited to theoretical boundaries. The

advertising manager is always at liberty to design the message in an appropriate manner for achieving

the best results. However, some common techniques are observed in the product advertising. They

are:

• Comprehensive advertisement

• Positive advertisement

• Negative advertisement

• Social theme based techniques

• Future project base techniques

• Entertaining and family oriented

• Gender sensitive

• Product-customer age cohesive

• High frequency insertion - drive

• Average frequency insertion cue

• Scientific message

• Abstract message

• Indicative and symbolic for segment customer

• Influence leader oriented

• Comparative product profit oriented

These techniques change according to the behavioral changes in the customers towards products.

All techniques may not be appealing but are equally expensive. Hence, an advertising manager

should be very selective in adopting the appropriate technique, as the advertisement / communication

expenditure also reflects in the total cost of a product. The message strategy should match with any

of the four advertising objectives - psychological pull, action, marketing and institutional oriented. The

application of any of these objectives would help in generating messages ideas. These ideas however,

need to be tested with different components of the ‘creative – mix’. This mix consists of verbal and

non-verbal elements. Table 6.1 exhibits the components of ‘creative-mix’ in advertising.

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Table 6.1 Creative-mix in Advertising

Verbal elements Non-Verbal elements

• Copy writing • Visuals and Illustration

• Headlines • Layout

• Slogans • Typography

• Brand names • Trade mark

• Performance statements • Colour combination

• Institution reports • Dynamics

• Music

• Special effects

Decision making in the “creative-mix” is based on the advertising objective and the audience. In

developing an advertisement, thinking feeling has a high importance among other behavioral variables.

An advertising objective for long lasting effectiveness should posses the following characteristics:

• Continuity : For a hierarchical order of advertising

• Precision : To educate the consumer in a short time span

• Measurability : Enabling the performance of the monitoring exercise and feed back analysis

effectively

• Realism : Presenting the facts and market experience of the product or a firm

• Flexibility : Convenient for all ethnic groups, age, class and literate groups to understand

and retrieve

• Impression : Should possess symbiosis of product and company with consumer

Advertising objects should have three determinants of product. They are dissemination of message;

decision making and the evaluation of the advertisement or advertising strategy.

DEVELOPING A MEDIA PLAN

Media Planning

Media planning is an essential exercise to be performed in advertising management. In developing

a media plan, five basic dimensions need to be assessed. They are - ( i) media objectives (ii) target

market (iii) media types (iv) media vehicle and (v) media scheduling . Besides these factors, continuity

is also an important indicator which relates to time scheduling of messages on media. At the introductory

stage, it is necessary to allocate an advertising budget for higher media time that can be gradually

reduced as per the stand of merchandise as the market advances. However, the life cycle of the

merchandise also needs to be considered while setting objectives.

Setting Target Markets

It is necessary to take the help of a media specialist in identifying target markets for the

merchandise to be identified and the type of advertisement required thereof. Market segmentation

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principles have to be considered deciding upon a target market for the physical distribution of

merchandise and accordingly, the type of media has to be selected.

Media Selection and Budgeting

Data on effective media response has to be analyzed for the selection of a particular media. The

cost of advertising on media is worked out on the basis of frequency and continuity that need to be

set for allocating an advertising budget. While selecting media for advertising the following factor

combinations have to be ensured by the advertising agency:

• Perfect match of media type to target market

• Perfect match of media type of advertising objectives

• Match of media type to advertising budget, and

• Match of selected media to competing advertisement

It is necessary to make substantial budgetary provisions in the media plan, if the advertising has

to be done in more than one media type. However, the relative weights of the media have to be

decided upon on the basis of analyzing the “efficiency indicators” for the media in particular.

MEDIA SCHEDULING

An advertising planner has to decide the scheduling of advertisements in the media with reference to

its periodicity in a day, hour, month and year. When an advertisement, should be aired on the media

and during which hour on the day should be planned audience considering behavior while watching

the media and the nature of the product. For example, breakfast foods are scheduled to be advertised

during the breakfast hours to have an effective impact. Scheduling advertising with respect to media

time, periodicity in a month and the number of months in a year would be helpful in allocating

resources in advertising budgeting and for media buying. The advertising planner needs to develop a

media time, flowchart once the scheduling exercise is completed. Although the media schedule plan

is not a permanent document as some elements like type of merchandise, style of copy, media policy

are subject to change without notice, the flowchart would be the right guiding bird’s-eye-view for the

planner.

DIRECT RESPONSE ADVERTISING

Media advertising largely attempts to generate an indirect response towards the merchandise or

services advertised. Direct response advertising includes mail-media advertising, catalogues,

departmental store’s advertising yellow pages, handouts, and window displays. Media marketing is

an effective buyer-seller interactive system in which the merchandise advertised is brought close to

the buyer using one or more advertising styles, and the response is measured with reference to the

location and volume of transaction. Mail-media advertising involves promoting the merchandise market

by establishing contact with potential and existing consumer through mail orders, publicity materials

and telephone service. In this process no personal selling is performed. Direct mail advertising has

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many advantages. It attempts to build goodwill between sellers and buyers. Hence, mail advertising

is often identified as productive advertising technique.

Numerous advantages of this system are listed below:

• It is highly selective

• This form of advertising is elastic as retailer can add or delete the name of consumer

at his discretion

• A wide variety of merchandise or services can be advertised to the same consumer

• Privacy on consumer preference/order can be maintained

• Market competition can be avoided instantly

• Direct mail advertising is personal specific

• Home delivery of goods and service can be assured

• Performance of merchandise/service sales can be monitored and evaluated

Despite the many advantages of the direct mail advertising, there exist some demerits also. The

most commonly observed problem in mailing business orders is the high expenditure involved in the

process. The periodical updating of the mailing list is a major task in direct-mail advertising and

consumes large business time. Besides these advantages, it sometimes becomes disinteresting and

irritable to the persons addressed and they feel offended as the ‘copy’ the mail-order may not match

with the profile of person to whom it is sent. The different types of mail-order advertising comprise

of a comprehensive text and a visual copy which attempts to make the interesting reading. The

various types of mail-order advertising are:

• Business reply mail with pre-paid postage fee

• Information enclosures, circulars etc

• Postal cards without an order form

• Self-mailing folders and

• Booklets and catalogues

Mail-order advertising is a quantitative exercise and requires the systematic processing of data.

Hence, computerization is the basic requirement to handle the data with reference to classifying

consumers, sorting types of orders, making a record of compliance to order and other functions.

DISPLAY ADVERTISING

Window display is the most prominent style of direct response advertising as it establishes ready information,

product impression, and impulse of buying that helps in decision making. Display advertising can be indoor

and outdoor. Indoor display advertising consists of showcase advertising and indoor displays in departmental

stores. There are some common kinds of indoor display of merchandise. They are :

• Display of merchandise in showcase of departmental stores

• Display of merchandise in a decorative style in the showcase/window

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• Display of prestige copy under a simulated environment

• Display of merchandise on a dummy

• Theme display and

• Demonstration of the use of the merchandise

Outdoor display of merchandise or services may be done in the form of sign boards, commercial

hoardings, posters, neon signs, vehicle sign boards, train posters, electronic sign boards, balloons,

fibre optical billboard and other special effects. Merchandise advertising on vehicles is called transit

advertising which carries the message from place to place. It is a good way to reach specific markets

and can be tailored according to the geographical market segmentation.

Advocacy advertising on the other hand, attempts to highlight contemporary arguments directed

at specific general clients like political activists, consumer groups, and media and government agencies.

Advocacy advertising consist of:

• Ideological advertising which is principle oriented and attempts to highlight the ethics of

an institution

• Defense advertising which argues to protect the image of institution against contemporary

controversies.

• Reply bound advertising seeking quick and ready response to issues highlighted in the

• Position taking advertising emphasizing the point of view of an institute of and thus an

emerging issue with a strong arguments to seek public acceptance or a referendum

• Ally recruitment advertising asking interested persons to present their views in support

of the ethics of an institution in order to strengthen its position before their joining a position

in the institute

Advocacy advertising has the advantage of exhibiting the message in a controlled situation,

which then helps in dealing with complex issues. An institution can plan a series of advertisements

for a campaign, supporting its views and an image building simultaneously among the clientele group.

Institutional advertisements are generally released on multi-media and cover a substantially larger

segment of the target audience. Table 6.2 has categorically listed out all the details that need to be

checked by both advertiser and the client company before launching into product promotion in

international markets.

BRAND POSITIONING AND ADVERTISING EVALUATION

Positioning of a brand or product is an art. This involves selecting the best selling propositions that

help in realizing sales targets to a large extent. The position of a brand and its perception among the

target consumers is based on functional advantages and the emotional association of the buyer with

the product of a specific brand. Hence, a brand manager should look into these behavioral aspects

while considering brand positioning in the market. Brand positioning is using the consumer preferences

backed by a strong psychographic logic regarding branded products of similar nature. It is essential

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to measure the intensity of the brand impact of close substitute brands in the market. Broadly, brand

positioning constitutes the framework of market structure. There are four major components having

an integrated impact on brand positioning. They are:

• structure of the market where the brand has to be positioned

• characteristics of consumer segmentation

• consumer perception on competing brands and the one that is to be introduced and

• benefits offered by the brand that suits the perception of consumer

Table 6.2 The Advertising Checklist

Checklist for International Market Promotion

• Advertising restriction • Check legal environment

• Collaboration • Check the support given by distributors /

manufactures

• Direct mail • Check response level

• Distribution • Check guarantee of the product well before

distribution and then advertising the product

• Franchising • Select a right brand for business contract for

franchising

• Global brands • Assess their response

• Language and literacy • A common language is beneficial to generate

brand image across the countries. Right

translation of the message needs to be ensured .

• Use universal names

• Attractive and cost effective

• Names • Local language is always preferable with

• Packaging emphasis on vital life style variables

• Public relation • Guard against such marketing evils

• Rumor / defamation • Choose the right time and the right vehicle in

the right media at the right place

• Media planning • Right interpretion of cultural signs in advertisements

• Simple and effective

• Broad customer networking for direct trading

• Semiotics in advertising

• Message style

• Telemarketing

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These components, closely associated with one an other , need to be studied in an integrated

manner while considering brand positioning. Market segmentation and positioning strategies are to

be planned simultaneously as both factors are involved in either process. However , it can be stated

that the success of brand positioning is based on the differential advantage offers of competing

brands in the market. Brand positioning theory specifies that distances among competing brands and

product differentiation are the dynamic factors that develop clarity in consumer perception and help

the positioning of product brands successfully in the market.

POSITIONING METHODS

Brand positioning is an important activity in advertising management as it provides a platform on

which to develop advertising and media strategies. There are some logical approaches used in positioning

brands in the market. They are :

• Using corporate identity

• By brand endorsement

• Category-related positioning

• Advantage-related positioning

• Time related positioning and

• Price quality positioning

Corporate identity oriented positioning would be identical to that of the company over a

considerable period which has been recognized by the consumer. The brands are endorsed by the

identity of the company for each of new product-entry following a success of the previous product.

Example may cited of toilet soaps of the same company - Hindustan Lever, with product names such

as Lux, Lesancy etc. These products are endorsed as - “A quality product from Hindustan lever”.

Such endorsements of brands would help in positioning the products effectively in the market.

Category-related brand positioning refers to the physical product in different incarnations.

One product in different physical designs is promoted through advertising in the market all at the

same time. A brand manager is required to modify the functional features of existing brands to make

it close to the category related positioning exercise. Advantage-related positioning usually decides

where products can provide multiple benefits to the consumers. Hence, a brand manager has scope

for differentiation of similar products based on the benefits extended. The time-related brand

positioning exercise is based on the promotion of merchandise with reference to time and age. This

is another factor that decides another differentiating strategy to establish brand identity. For instance,

a mosquito repellent is used at night while room freshener is sprayed in the morning hours. These

characteristics can be used for devising an advertising strategy to help positioning the brand of

merchandise. The price -quality positioning approach is simple and effective for oligopolistic market

conditions. The satisfaction of consumers is the principal indicator in positioning a brand of merchandise

based on the relative satisfaction ratio of the price and quality of the brands.

There are some other approaches of brand positioning based on factors like product line, technology

and research. The major scientific brand positioning methods are stated below: