INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION

UNIT-I : ADVERTISING -AN INTRODUCTION

Origin and Development - Definition and Classification - Planning Framework - Organizing
Framework - the Advertiser and the Advertising Agency interface STRATEGIC
ADVERTISING DECISIONS - Setting Advertising Objectives The Budget Decision
Preparing the Product and Media Brief
UNIT-II: COPY DECISIONS Visualization of Ad Layout Elements of Ad Copy and
Creation Principles of verbal versus visual thinkers, Styles and Stages in advertising
copy creation - Copy (Pre-) Testing methods and measurements.
UNIT-III: MEDIA DECISIONS - Media Planning and Selection Concepts of Reach, Frequency,
Continuity, and Selectivity Measures of Media Cost Efficiency Media (Readership/ Viewership)
Research. The Internet as an Advertising Medium: Tracking Website visits, page views, hits, and clickstream analysis, permission marketing and privacy, ethical concerns.
UNIT-IV: Measuring Advertising Effectiveness - Control of Advertising by
practitioners, media and the market - Advertising in the International Market- place Advertising and
Principles of Integrated Marketing Communication and Image Building.
UNIT-V: SALES PROMOTION Rationale, Types - Consumer and Trade
Promotions - Sales Promotion Strategies and Practices, Cross Promotions, Surrogate Selling, Bait
and Switch advertising issues.
BRAND EQUITY - Concepts and Criteria, Building, Measuring and Managing Brand Equity,
Linking Advertising and sales promotion to achieve brand-standing Leveraging Brand Values
for business and non-business contexts.
TEXTBOOKS:
1. Belch and Belch, ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION, Tata McGraw Hill
2. The Marketing White Book 2010-2011, Business World Publication
REFERENCES
1. Wells, Burnett &Moriarty: ADVERTISING PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES, Prentice-Hall
2. June Valladares: THE CRAFT OF COPYWRITING, Sage Publications.
3. J V Vilanilam & A K Varghese: ADVERTISING BASICS! A RESOURCE GUIDE FOR
BEGINNERS, Response Books, Sage Publications.
4. Wright, Winter & Zeigler: ADVERTISING;.
5. Sandage, Fryburger & Rotzoll: ADVERTISING; Irwin.
6. Aaker, Batra & Myers: ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT; Prentice Hall, India.

UNIT-I

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION

INTRODUCTION
Advertising is as old as civilization and has been used as the means of communication to
buy and sell the goods and services to the society.
Advertising is an important tool of promotion that can create wonders with beautiful
words to sell product, service and also ideas.
Advertising has, acquired great importance in the modern India characterized by tough
competition in the market and fast changes in technology, and fashion and taste of
customers.
Today as per the changing marketing situation advertising is not the only sufficient
medium of communication.
It has to be integrated with other mediums so as to create the long lasting impact on the
consumers.
Thus the concept of integrated marketing communication is gaining considerable
momentum due to challenges faced by the advertisers in designing and implementing
their advertising communication messages.
MEANING OF IMC
Integrated Marketing Communications ensures that all forms of communications and
messages are carefully linked together.
Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a process of managing customer
relationships that drive brand value primarily through communication efforts.
Such efforts often include cross-functional processes that create and nourish profitable
relationships with customers and other stakeholders by strategically controlling or
influencing all messages sent to these groups and encouraging data-driven, purposeful
dialog with them.
IMC includes the coordination and integration of all marketing communication tools,
avenues, and sources within a company into a seamless program in order to maximize the
impact on end users at a minimal cost.
Ideally, IMC is implemented by developing comprehensive databases on customers and
prospects, segmenting these current and potential customers into groups with certain
common awareness levels, predispositions, and behaviors, and developing messages and
media strategies that guide the communication tactics to meet marketing objectives.
In doing this, IMC builds and reinforces mutually profitable relationships with customers
and other important stakeholders and generates synergy by coordinating all elements in
the promotional mix into a program that possesses clarity, consistency, and maximum
impact.
DEFINITION OF IMC:
According to American Association of Advertising Agencies IMC is a concept of marketing
communication planning that recognises the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates
the strategic roles of a variety of communication discipline
IMC COMPONENTS

The Foundation - is based on a strategic understanding of the product and market. This
includes changes in technology, buyer attitudes and behaviour and anticipated moves by
competitors.
The Corporate Culture - increasingly brands are seen as indivisible from the vision,
capabilities, personality and culture of the corporation.
The Brand Focus - is the logo, corporate identity, tagline, style and core message of the
brand.
Consumer Experience - includes the design of the product and its packaging, the product
experience (for instance in a retail store) and service.
Communications Tools - includes all modes of advertising, direct marketing and online
communications including social media.
Promotional Tools - trade promotions; consumer promotions; personal selling, database
marketing, and customer relations management; public relations and sponsorship
programs.
Integration Tools - software that enables the tracking of customer behaviour and campaign
effectiveness. This includes customer relationship management (CRM) software, web
analytics, marketing automation and inbound marketing software.

TOOLS OF IMC
Advertising :
Advertisement is a non-personal presentation of an idea or a product (where as personal
selling or salesmanship help in personal promotional.)
Advertisement supplements personal selling to a great extent.
Advertising has, acquired great importance in the modern India characterized by tough
competition in the market and fast changes in technology, and fashion and taste
customers.
It creates an active role in integrated marketing communication mix as it creates.
Good image
Top of the mind awareness
Counterclaim the competitors

Publicity :
Publicity is the non-personal presentation.
It originates from the desk of the editor.
It aims at only informing the public about the events, person, firm etc.
There is no control on the publicity by the advertiser as it comes from the media owner.
Publicity can be favorable or unfavorable.
Large firms have separate publicity or public relation department for publicity and cordial
public relation.
The secret of the publicity is to get placement in the desired media.
Thus the use of publicity provides various advantages to the seller they are:
It is available free of cost
It provides more information than advertising as it comes from the editors desk
Consumer believe publicity more than advertising
Public relation :
A Public relations is defined as a management function which identifies, establishes, and
maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics.
Public relations consider multiple audiences (consumers, employees, suppliers, vendors,
etc.) and uses two-way communication to monitor feedback and adjust both its message
and the organization's actions for maximum benefit.
It is used to generate goodwill for the organization.
Public relation help the company and its public by relating each other for mutual benefits.
The main objective of public relation is
To remove misunderstanding, doubts, confusion, and wrong impression in the minds of
different social groups

To maintain good corporate image.

To have the public support to the future of the company.
To fulfill social responsibility.

Sales promotion :
Sales promotions are direct inducements that offer extra incentives to enhance or
accelerate the product's movement from producer to consumer.
Sales promotion constitutes devices like contests, coupons, free samples, premium, and
point of purchase material.
Sales promotion is action oriented.
It motivates customers to buy the goods under incentive plans.
Sales promotion not only covers consumers but also dealers and wholesalers.
It acts as a connecting link between advertising and salesmanship.
Thus in a competitive marketing sales promotion act as a effective tool to an advertiser to
solve several short term hurdles in marketing.
Personal Selling:
Personal selling includes all person-to-person contact with customers with the purpose of
introducing the product to the customer, convincing him or her of the product's value, and
closing the sale.
The role of personal selling varies from organization to organization, depending on the
nature and size of the company, the industry, and the products or services it is marketing.
Many marketing executives realize that both sales and non-sales employees act as
salespeople for their organization in one way or another.
Personal selling is the most effective way to make a sale because of the interpersonal
communication between the salesperson and the prospect.
Messages can be tailored to particular situations, immediate feedback can be processed,
and message strategies can be changed to accommodate the feedback.
Packaging :
A properly designed package can induce the prospects to buy the product.
A well designed package can communicate the type and quality of the product.
Packaging plays an important role in converting the minds of the consumers as it provides
Providing information of the product.
Protection of goods while transportation and handling
Preservation of quality of the products.
Promotion of the product.
Internet :
Just as direct marketing has become a prominent player in the promotional mix, so too
has the Internet.
Virtually unheard of in the 1980s, the 1990s saw this new medium explode onto the
scene, being adopted by families, businesses and other organizations more quickly than
any other medium in history.
Web sites provide a new way of transmitting information, entertainment, and advertising,
and have generated a new dimension in marketing: electronic commerce.
E-commerce is the term used to describe the act of selling goods and services over the
Internet. In other words, the Internet has become more that a communication channel; it

is a marketing channel itself with companies such as Amazon.com, CDNow, eBay, and
others selling goods via the Internet to individuals around the globe.
The interactivity of the Internet is perhaps its greatest asset.
By communicating with customers, prospects, and others one-on-one, firms can build
databases that help them meet specific needs of individuals, thus building a loyal
customer base.
Sponsorships :
Many advertisers heavily rely on sponsorship in order to create positive feelings toward a
company.
Sponsorships increase awareness of a company or product, build loyalty with a specific
target audience, help differentiate a product from its competitors, provide merchandising
opportunities, demonstrate commitment to a community or ethnic group, or impact the
bottom line.
Like advertising, sponsorships are initiated to build long-term associations.
Organizations sometimes compare sponsorships with advertising by using gross
impressions or cost-per-thousand measurements.
However, the value of sponsorships can be very difficult to measure.
Companies considering sponsorships should consider the short-term public relations
value of sponsorships and the long-term goals of the organization.
Sports sponsorships make up about two-thirds of all sponsorships.
Trade shows and Exhibition :
It is one of the oldest forms of promoting the sales of products.
Trade shows and exhibition provide opportunities for face-to-face contact with prospects,
enable new companies to create a viable customer base in a short period of time, and
allow small and midsize companies that may not be visited on a regular basis by
salespeople to become familiar with suppliers and vendors.
Because many trade shows generate media attention, they have also become popular
venues for introducing new products and providing a stage for executives to gain
visibility.
In India, India trade promotion organization (ITPO) has been set up by the government to
organized trade fairs and exhibitions.
IMPORTANCE OF IMC:
1) Awareness: IMC tools play an important role in creating awareness of the products with
respect to brand name and brand availability. It brings to the notice of the potential customer the
new varieties of goods available in the market.
2) Information: Product information is needed when the product is recently launched in the
market. Potential customer must know about the product, features. IMC provides this
information through various techniques so that the buyer can take correct decision while buying
the goods.
3) To increase sales. A proper communication mix tends to increase the sales of the
organization. This is possible as increased sales brings economies of large scale production
which enables the seller to reduce cost and increase profit.
4) To inform the intermediaries. IMC act as a communication channel between the sellers and
the intermediaries like dealer and agents. These intermediaries are regularly informed through
sales literature, pamphlets, brochures, price list etc.

5) Expansion of the market: IMC help the seller to expand the business from local level to
regional level and to national level . This expansion provides his goodwill, recognition through
out the country.
6) More specialized media. It used to be said that mass media was enough to cover any
advertiser's needs. But with ever increasing ad clutter, shorter attention spans and greater
resistance to advertising, customers now tend to be a lot more selective: they shut out the stuff
they feel they don't need, and go with the stuff that they want. Therefore with IMC sellers can
retain the attention of customer by diverting their attention through various Communication Mix.
STEPS INVOLVED IN FRAMING INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION :
It is likely that integrated marketing communication will be expected to make a number of
contributions toward meeting the marketing objectives. Thus the main steps in designing IMC
are :
1) Identification of target audience : Defining the target audience is one of the first steps in
designing the IMC. While thinking about the target audience one must look well beyond
traditional demographic considerations. It is also important to 'think ahead 'and ask the following
question.
What are the relevant target buyer groups?
What are the target group's demographic, lifestyle and psychographic profile?
How is the trade involved?
2) Determining the communication objectives : The next step is setting the communication
objectives. There may be different communication objectives like increase in sales, brand image
and good will, expansion of business. Thus the seller has to evaluate all this objectives and select
the one which he intends to achieve.
3) Determining the message : An effective message should get attention, hold interest, arouse
desire, & obtain action (AIDA model). In practice, few messages take the consumer all the way
from awareness to purchase, but the AIDA framework suggests the desirable qualities of a good
message. In putting the message together, the marketing communicator must decide what to say
and how to say it. , who should say it. Thus the communicator should focus more on message
content, message format and message structure.
4) Selecting the communication channel : There are two broad types of communication
channels - Personal and Non personal.
a. Personal Communication Channels : In personal Communication channels, two or more
people communicate directly with each other. They might communicate face-to-face, over the
telephone, through the mail or even through an internet chat. Personal Communication channels
are effective because they are allowed for personal addressing the feedback.
b. Non Personal Communication Channels : Non personal communication channels include
media at most yearend events.
Media consists of:
1. Print media -newspapers, magazines, direct mail etc.
2. Broadcast media-radio, television etc.
3. Electronic media-audiotapes, videotapes, CD-ROM, web page etc.
4. Display media-billboards, signs, posters, banners, hoardings etc. Most of the non personal
messages come through paid media.
5) Determining the budget: This is one of the most important decisions of IMC process. The
effective IMC depends upon the budget set for communication Mix. The marketer prepares the

budget taking into nature of the customers, objectives, nature of competitions and also
availability of funds.
6) Promotion Mix decision. After determining budget it is essential to determine the
promotional mix. Promotional mix is the combination of various tools like advertising, public
relation, personnel selling and so on. Because of different marketing environment thee has to be
variation in communication mix. One medium which is effective in one market may not be
equally effective in another market.
7) Implementation of promotion mix: The marketer then makes an arrangement to implement
the communication mix. The seller has to select the right media in order to put across the
promotion message.
8) Follow up. Here the advertiser has to review the performance in terms of sales and purchase.
If the performance is as per communication objectives there is nothing to worry. On the other
hand if the performance falls below the communication objectives then certain corrective step
have to be taken.
BARRIERS TO IMC
Following up on past IMC studies, researchers were able to identify perceived barriers to IMC
implementation and application. The following points represent a summary of the most important
barriers to integration.
power, coordination, and control issues;
client skills, centralization, and cultural issues;
agency skills and general time/resource issues;

Figure The integrated communications setting.

flexibility/modification issues;
IMC measurement difficulties;
lack of strategic vision and business culture;
unclear positioning at corporate level;
subcultures within different communication departments;
need for cross-disciplinary managerial skills;
fear of change;
hierarchical organization structure;
turf battles and functional silos;
need to protect status;
need for single budgeting process and shared performance;
need for equal consideration across all functional areas;

 cross-functional training;
inside-out communication planning;
short-term planning;
lack of database development;
media fragmentation;
UNIT-I
ADVERTISING -AN INTRODUCTION:Origin and Development - Definition and
Classification - Planning Framework - Organizing Framework - the Advertiser and the
Advertising Agency interface STRATEGIC ADVERTISING DECISIONS - Setting
Advertising Objectives The Budget Decision Preparing the Product and Media Brief
INTRODUCTION
Adverting is only one element of the promotion mix, but it often considered prominent
in the overall marketing mix design. Its high visibility and pervasiveness made it as an
important social and encomia topic in Indian society.
Promotion may be defined as the co-ordination of all seller initiated efforts to set up
channels of information and persuasion to facilitate the scale of a good or service.
Promotion is most often intended to be a supporting component in a marketing mix.
Promotion decision must be integrated and co-ordinated with the rest of the marketing
mix, particularly product/brand decisions, so that it may effectively support an entire
marketing mix strategy. The promotion mix consists of four basic elements. They are:1. Advertising
2. Personal Selling
3. Sales Promotion, and
4. Publicity
1. Advertising is the dissemination of information by non-personal means through paid
media where the source is the sponsoring organization.
2. Personal selling is the dissemination of information by non-personal methods, like
face-to-face, contacts between audience and employees of the sponsoring organization.
The source of information is the sponsoring organization.
3. Sales promotion is the dissemination of information through a wide variety of activities
other than personal selling, advertising and publicity which stimulate consumer
purchasing and dealer effectiveness.
4. Publicity is the disseminating of information by personal or non-personal means and is
not directly paid by the organization and the organization is not the source.
HISTORY OF ADVERTISING
Advertising is an important element of our culture because it reflects and attempts to
change our life style.
The concept of advertising dates to early civilization.
It had to undertake a long journey through the centuries before- it attained its present
form.
Our knowledge of advertising in ancient times naturally is fragmentary.

The record book tells that history of advertising is about 5,000 years old. There were
three forms of advertisements before the print advertisement:
Trade Mark
Town Criers
Signs
Trade mark
o Artisan and craftsman placed their mark on the goods to get identified with
respect to the skill they possess. Even today we can see this practice.
Town Criers
o The town criers are paid to go around streets of the town and make
announcement. This practice is followed even today in some parts of rural India.
Signs
o In this methods, the product name is displayed on a rock by painting. People who
pass by notice it. This type of outdoor advertising is common even today. See this
while traveling on a highway.

Advertising can be traced back to the archaeological evidences available in Greece and
Rome.
In 3000 B. C. Babylonia merchants hired parkers to hawk their wares (GOODS) to
perspective, customers and placed signs over their doorways to indicate what they sold.
Advertisements were found on walls in the streets of the excavated Roman city of
Pompeii.
Another evidence of a piece of papyrus preserved in the British Museum provides the
earliest and direct reference to written advertisement.
An Egyptian had advertised 3,000 years ago asking for the return of a run-away slave.
The word of mouth or oral advertisement or spoken publicity was still older.
The use of hand bills, posters and newspaper advertisements emerged after Gutenberg
developed movable type in the 15th century.
When Benjamin Franklin established the Philadelphia Gazette in 1729, it soon became a
favorite medium of advertising.
When the weekly Pennsylvania packet and General Advertiser became a daily in 1784, it
featured an entire front page of advertisement.
In ancient India, some of the typical seals used by the Mohanjodaro and Harrapa people
were directly connected.
But formally, the history of advertisement in India parallels the history and development
of the Indian Press during the past 200 years.
In other words we can say that advertising is a father of Journalism.
Because the first Indian newspaper started by James August Hickey on January 29, 1780,
was called the "Bengal Gazette" or "Calcutta General Advertiser".
It was full of informative advertisement.
In 1785, the Bengal Journal published with Government advertisement free of charge.
By the dawn of 19th century the pattern of advertising changed-and the power of
advertising increased rapidly with the growth of trade and commerce.

With the Industrial Revolution in our country, the number of advertisements from British
Business Houses rose considerably.
The Times of India and The Statesman started their own facilities for layout and copy of
the advertisement.
The development of advertising agency was founded due to the development of Indian
industries provided by the Swadeshi Movement of 1907-1977.
The major advertising agencies were, The Calcutta Advertising Agency, Alliance
Advertising Associates, Publicity Society of India, J. .Walter Thompson (Now Hindustan
Thompson).
During the mid-17th Century, newspaper started appearing in Europe and newspaper
advertising was initiated in full swing and large number of advertisement started
crowding the newspaper announcing publication of books, new beverages, travel plans
and matrimonial offers.
But all early advertisements were basically only announcement.
In England, some of the advertisement, which were known as a "Pioneering
advertisements" were Coffee (1652), Chocolates (1657) and Tea (1658).
The Industrial revolution, discovery of the growth of transportation facilities, advent of
radio and television and revolution in printing technology discovery of the steam power
in England and America had a keen role to play in the development of advertising.
After the Second World War and with the independence of India many British advertising
agencies were brought by Indian businessman.
During the above period print advertising had to be used to raise funds.
By 1932 there were 109 advertising agencies in India
Advertisement had become the main source of revenue of print media.
In 1950 the advertisement of cosmetics was on the top of the list of items advertised and
in 1960 consumer goods continued to dominate with textile advertisement.
The 1970 was the important year of the growth of advertising in India, when the 'Vividh
Bharati' and 'Doordarshan' played a great role in the form of commercial broadcasting
and telecasting.
Now radio commercials made a real dent on the rural audience and urban working class.
Besides these many periodicals like 'India Today', 'Bombay'; New Delhi'; Surya' and
various film magazines made their appearance in Indian advertising.
The role of tabloids in English and the Indian languages were very examples in the field
of advertising in India.
The programmes and plans of the government were also publicly announced as those of
the TISCO, DUNCOP, Coltex, Philips, Godrej and Hindustan Lever.
These media gradually started emerging as a mutual competitor for advertising revenue
also.
With the beginning of 21st century, the advertisers themselves became more serious and
their approach becomes more sophisticated.
Print, Radio, T. V. and Internet Commercials have created deep impact on Indian
advertising.

Indian advertisement has no doubt to register a rapid growth and has acquired a certain
amount of professional character.
In India it has played a vital role in the development process by creating a demand for
consumer goods and raising a living of standard of millions.
On the government sector, advertisement of the railways also dominated which was soon
joined by the public sector advertisement.
The massive government campaign for family planning was a new attempt to penetrate
into the conservative psyche and practice of Indian massive.
In 20th century advertisement bloomed to its full form.
More emphasis was laid on advertisement copy.
Art services and advertisement production became more and more important.

SOME IMPORTANT MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF ADVERTISING

1704 1st newspaper ad, seeking buyer for an Oyster Bay was published.
1843 1st Ad. Agency set up in Philadelphia
1882 Advertising of a soap brand was done with a huge budget of 11000 US$.
1893 A famous beverage brand was registered as a trade mark.
1899 J. Walters: 1st agency opens an office in U.K.
1923 1st entertainment program was sponsored by an advertiser.
1947 J .Walter Thompson 1st agency to cross 100Mil $ in billing.
1976 Indian commercial TV launched.
1978 1st TV commercial is launched.
1990 A new Medium Internet is born.
1993 5 million internet users get on line.
1999 Internet advertising breaks 2 Billion US$ mark.
2003 TV show with built in advertising is planned.
Today, there are professional bodies at home which represent the advertiser, the agency and the
media. They are:
1. Indian Society of Advertisers ISA
2. Indian Newspapers Society INS
3. Advertising Agencies Association of India AAAI
OVERVIEW OF ADVERTISING INDUSTRY IN INDIA
The structure of the advertising industry in Asia Pacific has been affected by globalisation
and international alignments creating a smaller number of very large agencies and the
growth of independent major media buying houses.
Very sophisticated software optimisation and planning systems are now integral to the
industry, enabling agencies to offer a unique positioning in the marketplace to attract new
business.
The Indian advertising industry is talking business today.
It has evolved from being a small-scale business to a full-fledged industry.

It has emerged as one of the major industries and tertiary sectors and has broadened its
horizons be it the creative aspect, the capital employed or the number of personnel
involved.
Indian advertising industry in very little time has carved a niche for itself and placed
itself on the global map.
American companies are discovering the appeal of marketing their products in India.
With a population of approximately one billion, and a middle class that's larger than the
total population of the United States, there's definitely money to be made.
Local retailers in apparel, food, watches and jewellery have all increased their average ad
spending by almost 50% in the past two years.
Coupled with many other local players big retailing brands are spending to the tune of Rs
12,000 crores annually on advertising and promotional activities.
This figure, according to industry estimates, was less than Rs 400 crores about 3 years
ago which means the growth has been a whopping 40%.
The local firms are using all the available advertising tools from electronic to print,
outdoor advertising and even models.
The advertising and promotional spending by local brands is substantial during the
festival season and almost 70% of the spending is done between September to January.
The advertising industry in India is growing at an average rate of 10-12% per annum.
Over 80% of the business is from Mumbai and Delhi followed by Bangalore and
Chennai.
Indian advertising industry with an estimated value of Rs.13,200-crore has made jaws
drop and set eyeballs gazing with some astonishing pieces of work that it has given in the
recent past.
The creative minds that the Indian advertising industry incorporates have come up with
some mindboggling concepts and work that can be termed as masterpieces in the field of
advertising.
Advertising agencies in the country too have taken a leap. They have come a long way
from being small and medium sized industries to becoming well known brands in the
business.
Mudra, Ogilvy and Mathew (O&M), Mccann Ericsonn, Rediffussion, Leo Burnett are
some of the top agencies of the country.
Indian economy is on a boom and the market is on a continuous trail of expansion. With
the market gaining grounds Indian advertising has every reason to celebrate.
Businesses are looking up to advertising as a tool to cash in on lucrative business
opportunities. Growth in business has lead to a consecutive boom in the advertising
industry as well.
The Indian advertising today handles both national and international projects.
This is primarily because of the reason that the industry offers a host of functions to its
clients that include everything from start to finish that include client servicing, media
planning, media buying, creative conceptualization, pre and post campaign analysis,
market research, marketing, branding, and public relation services.
(a) Online Ad Spending in India
Online advertising spending is holding its own and will continue to grow steadily over
the next several years.

Marketers are responding to the economic challenges with new techniques and strategies,
along with research data to prove their effectiveness.
According to statistics, online ad spending has reached $23 billion.

(b) Scope of Advertising Industry in India

The advertising industry in India has several competitive advantages:
India has a rich pool of strategic planning, creative and media services personnel.
Indeed, Indian advertising industry has been exporting senior-level talent to many
countries, particularly to the Gulf, South-East Asia, China, the UK and the US.
Indian talent is recognised and respected in global agency networks.
No other country has access to so many trained management graduates who can provide
strategic inputs for brand and media planning.
Indians are multicultural: we learn at least two languages and that gives us a head start in
understanding cultural diversity.
Most of the top 20 agencies in India have a global partner or owner, which should
provide an immediate link to global markets.
Our production standards in TV and print have improved: With a vibrant animation
software industry, we have access to this area of TV production.
India's advanced IT capabilities can be used to develop Web-based communication
packages for global clients.
The Indian advertising industry is a very upcoming and promising sector.
However there is severe competition and survival is for the fittest and the best.
In this sector what matters the most is knowledge and experience of the work and the
industry and its functioning.
The more the knowledge you can provide the better the productivity you give.
MEANING OF ADVERTISING
Advertising is an activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid
announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media.
Advertising is a paid form of a non-personal message communicated through the various
media by industry, business firms, nonprofit organisations, or individuals.
Advertising is persuasive and informational and is designed to influence the purchasing
behaviour and/or thought patterns of the audience.
Advertising is a marketing tool and may be used in combination with other marketing
tools, such as sales promotions, personal selling tactics, or publicity.
WHAT ADVERTISEMENT IS?
Advertisement is a mass communicating of information intended to persuade
buyers to by products with a view to maximizing a companys profits. The
elements of advertising are:
It is a mass communication reaching a large group of consumers.

It makes mass production possible.

It is non-personal communication, for it is not delivered by an actual person, nor is
it addressed to a specific person.

It is a commercial communication because it is used to help assure the advertiser of

a long business life with profitable sales.
Advertising can be economical, for it reaches large groups of people. This keeps the
cost per message low.
The communication is speedy, permitting an advertiser to speak to millions of
buyers in a matter of a few hours.
Advertising is identified communication. The advertiser signs his name to his
advertisement for the purpose of publicizing his identity.

DEFINITION OF ADVERTISING
Advertising is defined differently by different people, some of the definitions are as follows:
According to Richard Buskirk, "Advertising is a paid form of non-personal presentation of
ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor."
According to Wheeler, "Advertising is any form of paid non-personal presentation of ideas,
goods or services for the purpose of inducting people to buy."
According to William J. Stanton, "Advertising consists of all the activities involves in
presenting to a group, a non-personal, oral or visual, openly sponsored message regarding
disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by an identified sponsor."
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines advertising as,
Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an
identified sponsor.
This definition suggests the following features of advertising.
1. Advertisement is a paid form of communication. Advertiser exercises a control over it.
2. It is non-personal selling. It is a medium of mass communication for large-scale selling.
3. It acts as an important marketing tool for presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and
services.
4. It needs the sponsor of the message known. Advertising will be meaningless if the
advertiser is not clearly identified.
What is Included in Advertising?
i The information in an advertisement should benefit the buyers. It should give them a
more satisfactory expenditure of their rupees.
ii It should suggest better solutions to their problems.
iii The content of the advertisement is within the control of the advertiser, not the
medium.
iv Advertising without persuasion is ineffective. The advertisement that fails to
influence anyone, either immediately or in the future, is a waste of money.
v The function of advertising is to increase the profitable sales volume. That is,
advertising expenses should not increase disproportionately.

Advertising includes the following forms of messages: The messages carried in Newspapers and magazines;
On radio and television broadcasts;
Circular of all kinds, (whether distributed by mail, by person, thorough
tradesmen, or by inserts in packages);
Dealer help materials,
Window display and counter display materials and efforts;
Store signs, motion pictures used for advertising,
Novelties bearing advertising messages and Signature of the advertiser,
Label stags and other literature accompanying the merchandise.
What is excluded from Advertising?
i Advertising is not an exact science. An advertisers circumstances are never identical
with those of another; he cannot predict with accuracy what results his future
advertising efforts will produce.
ii Advertising is not a game, because if advertising is done properly, both the buyer
and the seller benefit from it.
iii Advertising is not a toy. Advertiser cannot afford to play with advertising.
Advertising funds come from sales revenue and must be used to increase sales
revenue.
iv Advertisements are not designed to deceive. The desire and hope for repeat sales
insures a high degree of honesty in advertising.
The activities excluded from advertising are:
The offering of premiums to stimulate the sale of products;
The use of exhibitions and demonstrations at fairs, show and conventions;
The use of samples and activities, involving news releases and the activities of
personal selling forces;
The payment of advertising allowances which are not used for advertising;
The entertainment of customers
OBJECTIVES OF ADVERTISING;
Informative
Objective of advertising is to inform its targeted audience/customers about introduction of new
product, update or changes in existing products or product related changes, information
regarding new offers and schemes. Informative advertising seeks to develop initial demand for a
product. The promotion of any new market entry tends to pursue this objective because
marketing success at this stage often depends simply on announcing product availability. Thus,
informative advertising is common in the introductory stage of the product life cycle.
Reminder

The objective of advertising is to remind customers about existence of product, and ongoing
promotional activities. Reminder advertising strives to reinforce previous promotional activity by
keeping the name of a product before the public. It is common in the latter part of the maturity
stage and throughout the decline stage of the product life cycle.
Inform
An informative ad is used to introduce a brand new company, product or service to the
marketing. Before you can convince customers that you have the best option, they have to know
what your product does on a basic level. Additionally, companies with complex solutions might
benefit from informing customers of how their products work and how the products help the
customers. Informative ads normally have more copy centered on explaining features of the
solution and benefits to the customer.
Persuade
Persuading customers is a prominent ad objective of companies in competitive markets. Once
customers have a basic understanding of the industry and its product offerings, the agency must
show them why its brand is elite. Companies use a variety of approaches, including emphasis on
product quality, service, unique features, environmental friendliness, the cool factor, cutting-edge
technology and low costs. Emotional appeals are common in persuasive ads because you want to
tug at the heart strings of customers by building up their experience.
Building Brand Awareness
Small companies also advertise to build brand awareness, which is when people know a
particular brand is yours. Brand awareness is usually calculated as a percentage. For example, if
1,000 people out of 10,000 in a market can identify your brand, your brand awareness is 10
percent. Your primary objective in building brand awareness is to make people think of your
brand first when they are ready to purchase.
To change social attitude
Attempts are made to change the social attitude by advertising in order to sell products never
sold before. So it facilitates to create market attitude in a public.
To induce the public
It aims to induce the public to purchase advertised products as against competing products.
To convince customers for direct purchase
Mail order business may be made popular by advertising. Under this arrangement, the buyers get
goods through the post office. No personal contact is made between the buyers and sellers. So it
convinces customers for direct purchase.
To encourage salesman
Salesman generally finds ready buyers at his business centre which are convinced by advertising.
So it assists the Salesman greatly and he has not to face any problem in realizing the goods
Specific

Companies also use a variety of more specific goals. Increasing brand awareness, developing
more favorable customer attitudes, overcoming negative publicity, driving revenue, expanding
the customer base and increasing sales volume are common examples. For effective goal-setting,
marketers should set quantified, measurable criteria. For instance, don't just say your goal is to
increase brand awareness. State that your goal is to increase brand awareness by 25 percent in
your primary target market within six months. Follow up with awareness studies to see if you
met the objective.
Trial: The companies which are in their introduction stage generally work for this objective.
The trial objective is the one which involves convincing the customers to buy the new product
introduced in the market. Here, the advertisers use flashy and attractive ads to make customers
take a look on the products and purchase for trials.
Continuity: This objective is concerned about keeping the existing customers to stick on to the
product. The advertisers here generally keep on bringing something new in the product and the
advertisement so that the existing customers keep buying their products.
Brand switch: This objective is basically for those companies who want to attract the customers
of the competitors. Here, the advertisers try to convince the customers to switch from the
existing brand they are using to their product.
Switching back: This objective is for the companies who want their previous customers back,
who have switched to their competitors. The advertisers use different ways to attract the
customers back like discount sale, new advertise, some reworking done on packaging, etc.
Getting Attention
One short-term goal and objective in advertising is getting people's attention. Use highly
readable print in your ads. Color, diagrams and pictures can also attract the attention of users,
particularly if they are highly relevant. For example, gold is often used to represent a premium or
expensive brand of liquor. One of the best ways to attract attention in print advertising is to use a
strong headline. Make a statement that attracts the right type of reader, and include at least one
benefit in the heading to pull the reader into the ad. For example, the heading "Start Earning a
Higher Salary Today" appeals to readers who feel they aren't making enough money. Use sounds
and jingles to attract attention in your radio and television ads.

Prompting Immediate Action

Your print and other types of advertising must also prompt people to act immediately. Include a
coupon in your ad to get people to try your product at the store. Include a deadline on your
coupon so people know the offer is only good for a short time period. Offer a free trial of your
product, or provide something free along with the product. For example, a small mail order
publishing company may offer a free book on investing if you buy its financial newsletter. Offer
multiple products for the price of one. Another strategy is to state that you have a limited supply
of products available.

Replacing Lost Customers

Small companies use advertising to replace lost customers. Your customers may switch brands,
move away, or die, which is why advertising on a continuous basis is imperative. Increase the
advertisements that are producing customers and orders, and drop ineffective ads. Look for new
ways to advertise, including social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Building Sales and Profits
Advertising is designed to increase sales and build profits gradually. People must try your
products or services before they become repeat users. They may also tell their friends and family,
which is additional advertising for you. The key to building sales and profits is to gradually
increase your advertising over time. Many small companies budget their advertising by
allocating a certain percentage of sales toward it.
TYPES OF OBJECTIVES:
Management of advertising and marketing communications involves multiple types of
objectives. Some may be very broad and define major accomplishments that may take years to
achieve. For example, when you are managing a brand, you may set objectives that focus on
long-term changes in attitude among a specific target audience.
Others objectives may be very specific and focus on detailed action plans. For example,
when you are developing a media plan, you may set specific reach and frequency objectives.
In general, these broad objectives fall into two categories: direct and indirect.
Direct objectives are focused on achieving some kind of action-oriented results. For example,
direct objectives might focus on increased sales, development of new distribution channels,
increased profitability, etc.
Direct objectives are sometimes also called marketing objectives. This is because many elements
of the marketing mix (e.g. price, product, and place) can be measured directly. However, many
aspects of the promotion mix need to be measured indirectly.
Indirect objectives focus on pre-action steps on the hierarchy of effects. For example, indirect
objectives may focus on changing attitudes, increasing awareness, etc.
Indirect objectives are also sometimes called communication objectives. Communication alone is
rarely enough to stimulate action. All the communication in the world will not lead people to
purchase a product that is unavailable through distribution channels.
ADVANTAGES OF ADVERTISING:
The advantages of advertising can be divided into two main groups. One group denotes benefits
to manufactures and other group denotes benefit to consumers. Let's find out how each of them
gets benefited by advertising.
The advantages of advertising for manufacturers:
1. Large-scale production & marketing : Advertising is useful as a sales promotion
technique. It gives information to consumers and encourages them to purchase more.
Manufacturers expand their production base due to higher market demand created
through advertising.
2. Introduction of new products : Advertising facilitates the introduction of new products.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Due to advertising, information about new products is given to the prospects. This creates
demand and the manufacturer is able to sell new products along with the existing ones.
Creates new demand : Advertising spreads information and encourages consumers to
purchase new products. Such advertising leads to the creation of new demand. Various
concessions are offered to consumers in the initial period. This gives positive response
from the consumers. Thus, advertising creates new demand from non-users.
Effective personal selling : Advertising creates a proper background for personal selling.
It gives advance information to the prospects. They visit the shop in order to purchase a
particular product which they know through advertising media. The job of a salesman
becomes easy as consumers develop affinity to specific products. In brief, it supports and
supplements personal selling.
Builds brand image : Manufacturers introduce branding for making their products
popular with distinct personality. The brands are made popular through advertising. As a
result, consumers develop loyalty towards a specific brand. Advertising builds brand
image and this develops consumer loyalty towards a specific brand.
Reduces cost of production : Advertising creates demand and promotes sales. This
enables a manufacturer to conduct production on a large scale. This leads to reduction in
the cost of production and distribution. As a result, the profit margin of the manufacturer
increases.
Facing competition : A manufacturer can face market competition effectively and can
make his products popular through advertising. He can remove misunderstanding among
consumers about his products through appropriate advertising.
Sales promotion : A manufacturer can make his sales promotion campaign successful by
using the support of advertising. He can prepare proper background for the success of
such an ad-campaign as it facilitates direct communication with consumers.
Goodwill builder : A manufacturer can build up goodwill and good image in the business
world and also among the consumers through advertising. The social welfare programs
and community service activities can be given wide publicity through advertising. Even
the progress of the Organisation can be brought to the notice of the public through it.

THE ADVANTAGES OF ADVERTISING FOR CONSUMERS:

1. Information and guidance : Consumers get information and guidance from advertising.
They can study the advertisements of competitors and select the products which are
profitable to them. This avoids their cheating and exploitation at the hands of middlemen.
2. Acts as reminder : Advertising acts as a reminder to consumers. They remember what is
urgently required to be purchased through advertising.
3. Attracts consumers : Advertising leads to competition among manufacturers and
retailers. They have to offer something special in order to attract consumers. Such
attraction offers benefits to consumers. For example, manufacturers have to bring down
the price in order to attract customers. They have to supply quality goods in order to
attract more customers. All this is beneficial to consumers in terms of price and quality of
goods.
4. Raises living standards : Advertising raises the standard of living of people by
supplying information about goods and services, which can offer convenience and
pleasure to them. It guides consumers in the selection of most suitable goods for their

daily life. Thus, it provides higher standard of living to consumers as a social group.
5. Effective product use : Consumers get information about uses or benefits of different
products through advertising. They also get guidance as regards the right manner of using
the product. This avoids possible damage of the product purchased. Even the product can
be used for different purposes because of the information supplied through
advertisements.
6. Removes misunderstanding : Advertising helps consumers in removing their
misunderstanding about certain products. They change their attitudes towards products
and services due to it.
BENEFITS TO WHOLESALERS AND RETAILERS:
1. Easy sale of the products is possible since consumers are aware of the product and its quality.
2. It increases the rate of the turnover of stock.
3. It supplements the selling activities.
4. The reputation created is shared by the wholesalers and retailers like.
5. It enables them to have product information.
6. It ensures more economical selling.
BENEFITS TO SALESMEN:
Salesmanship is incomplete without advertising. It is a forerunner of a salesman in the
distribution of goods.
1. Introducing the product is made easy.
2. It prepares the necessary ground for a salesman to begin his work. Hence sales efforts are
reduced.
3. The contact established with the customer by a salesman is made permanent through
advertising.
4. The salesman can weigh the effectiveness of advertising when he makes a direct contact with
the customer.
BENEFITS TO THE COMMUNITY :
1. Advertising is educative in nature.
2. Advertising leads to large-scale production creating more employment opportunities.
3. It initiates a process of creating more wants and their satisfaction resulting in a higher standard
of living.
4. Newspapers would not have become so popular and so cheap if there had been no
advertisements.
5. It assures employment opportunities for the professional artists.
Drawbacks or Objection or Criticisms: Economic Objections:
1. Advertising is not productive.
2. Advertising faces people to desire and buy things which, in fact, are not within their means.
3. Advertising simply multiply the needs.
4. Advertising increases the cost of goods.
5. The monopoly argument. It usually lays emphasis on brands. This emphasis makes the
consumer to become a slave of the particular brand.

Social Objections:
1. Misrepresentation of facts.
2. The press is influenced by advertisers because they provide the major source of revenue for
the existence of newspapers.
Ethical Objections:
1. Advertising appeals make people to such articles as might affect their health, for e.g. liquors
and cigarettes.
2. Consumer deficit. People with less purchasing power cannot afford to buy many articles
though the advertisements create a strong need in them for the product.
Advertising is important for the society
Advertising helps educating people. There are some social issues also which advertising
deals with like child labour, liquor consumption, girl child killing, smoking, family
planning education, etc. thus, advertising plays a very important role in society
CLASSIFICATION AND TYPES OF ADVERTISING:
1) Product Related Advertising
a. Pioneering Advertising
b. Competitive Advertising
c. Retentive Advertising
2) Public Service Advertising
3) Functional Classificaiton
A. Advertising Based on Demand Influence Level.
i.
Primary Demand (Stimulation)
ii.
Selective Demand (Stimulation)
B. Institutional Advertising
C. Product Advertising
a. Informative Product Advertising
b. Persuasive Product Advertising
c. Reminder-Oriented Product Advertising
4. Advertising based on Product Life Cycle
A. Consumer Advertising
B. Industrial Advertising
5. Trade Advertising
A. Retail Advertising
B. Wholesale Advertising
6. Advertising Based on Area of operation
A. National advertising
B. Local advertising
C. Regional advertising
7. Advertising According to Medium Utilized
1. Product Related Advertising:
It is concerned with conveying information about and selling a product or service. Product
advertising is of three types, viz,

A. Pioneering Advertising
B. Competitive Advertising
C. Retentive Advertising
A. Pioneering Advertising:
This type of advertising is used in the introductory stages in the life cycle of a product. It is
concerned with developing a primary demand. It conveys information about, and
selling a product category rather than a specific brand. For example, the initial
advertisement for black and white television and colour television. Such
advertisements appeal to the consumers emotions and rational motives.
B. Competitive Advertising:
It is useful when the product has reached the market-growth and especially the marketmaturity stage. It stimulates selective demand. It seeks to sell a specific brand rather
than a general product category. It is of two types:
A. Direct Type: It seeks to stimulate immediate buying action.
B. Indirect Type: It attempts to pinpoint the virtues of the product in the expectation that
the consumers action will be affected by it when he is ready to buy.
Example: Airline advertising.
Air India attempts to bid for the consumers patronage either immediately - direct
action-in which case, it provides prices, time tables and phone numbers on which the
customer may call for reservations; or eventually indirect action when it suggests that
you mention Air Indias name when talking to your travel agent.
C. Retentive Advertising:
This may be useful when the product has achieved a favourable status in the market
that is, maturity or declining stage. Generally in such times, the advertiser wants to keep his
products name before the public. A much softer selling approach is used, or only the name
may be mentioned in reminder type advertising.
2. Public Service Advertising:
This is directed at the social welfare of a community or a nation. The effectiveness of
product service advertisements may be measured in terms of the goodwill they generate in
favour of the sponsoring organization. Advertisements on not mixing drinking and driving
are a good example of public service advertising. In this type of advertising, the objective
is to put across a message intended to change attitudes or behaviour and benefit the public
at large.
3. Functional Classification:
Advertising may be classified according to the functions which it is intended to
fulfill.
(i)
Advertising may be used to stimulate either the primary demand or the
selective demand.
(ii)
It may promote either the brand or the firm selling that brand.
(iii)
It may try to cause indirect action or direct action.

i. Advertising Based on Demand Influence Level.

a. Primary Demand Stimulation
Primary demand is demand for the product or service rather than for a particular brand.
It is intended to affect the demand for a type of product, and not the brand of that product.
Some advertise to stimulate primary demand. When a product is new, primary demand
stimulation is appropriate. At this time, the marketer must inform consumers of the
existence of the new item and convince them of the benefits flowing from its use.
When primary demand has been stimulated and competitors have entered the market, the
advertising strategy may be to stimulate the selective demand.
b. Selective Demand Stimulation
This demand is for a particular brand such as Charminar cigarettes, Surf detergent
powder, or Vimal fabrics. To establish a differential advantage and to acquire an
acceptable sort of market, selective demand advertising is attempted. It is not to stimulate
the demand for the product or service. The advertiser attempts to differentiate his brand and
to increase the total amount of consumption of that product. Competitive advertising
stimulates selective demand. It may be of either the direct or the indirect type.
ii. Institutional Advertising
Institutional Advertising may be formative, persuasive or reminder oriented in
character. Institutional advertising is used extensively during periods of product shortages
in order to keep the name of the company before the public. It aims at building for a firm
a Positive public image in the eyes of shareholders, employees, suppliers, legislators, or the
general public. This sells only the name and prestige of the company. This type of
advertising is used frequently by large companies whose products are well known. HMT
or DCM, for example, does considerable institutional advertising of its name,
emphasizing the quality and research behind its products.
Institutional advertisements are at consumers or focus them upon other groups,
such as voters, government officials, suppliers, financial institutions, etc. If it is effective,
the target groups will respond with goodwill towards, and confidence in the sponsor. It is
also a useful method or introducing sales persons and new product to consumers. It does
not attempt to sell a particular product; it benefits the organization as a whole.
It notifies the consumers that the company is a responsible business entity and is
patriotic; that its management takes ecologically responsible action, is an affair- motiveaction employer, supports the socialistic pattern of society or provides employment
opportunities in the community.
When Indian Oil advertisements describe the companys general activities, such
as public service work, this may be referred to as institutional advertising because it is
intended to build an overall favorable attitude towards the company and its family of
products. HMT once told the story of the small-scale industries supplying it with
component parts, thus indicating how it aided the development of ancillary industries.
iii. Product Advertising
Most advertising is product advertising, designed to promote the sale or reputation

of a particular product or service that the organization sells. Indanes Cooking Gas is a
case in point. The marketer may use such promotion to generate exposure attention,
comprehension, attitude change or action for an offering. It deals with the non-personal
selling of a particular good or service. It is of three types as follows:a. Informative Product Advertising
b. Persuasive Product Advertising
c. Reminder-Oriented Product Advertising
a. Informative Product Advertising:
This form of advertising tends to characterize the promotion of any new type of product
to develop an initial demand. It is usually done in the introductory stages of the product life
cycle. It was the original approach to advertising.
b. Persuasive Product Advertising:
Persuasive product advertising is to develop demand for a particular product or brand. It
is a type of promotion used in the growth period and, to some extent, in the maturity period
of the product life cycle.
c. Reminder-Oriented Product Advertising:
The goal of this type of advertising is to reinforce previous promotional activity by
keeping the brand name in front of the public. It is used in the maturity period as well as
throughout the declining phase of the product life cycle.
4. Advertising based on Product Life Cycle:
a. Consumer Advertising
b. Industrial Advertising
a. Consumer Advertising
Most of the consumer goods producers engage in consumer product advertising.
Marketers of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, scooters, detergents and soaps, cigarettes and
alcoholic beverages are examples. Baring a few, all these products are all package goods
that the consumer will often buy during the year. There is a heavy competition among the
advertisers to establish an advantage for their particular brand.
b. Industrial Advertising
Industrial executives have little confidence in advertising. They rely on this form of
promotion merely out of fear that their competitors may benefit if they stop their advertising
efforts. The task of the industrial advertiser is complicated by the multiple buying
influence characteristics like, the derived demand, etc. The objectives vary according
to the firm and the situation. They are:
To inform,

To bring in orders,

To induce inquiries,

To get the advertisers name on the buyers list of sources,

To provide support for the salesman,

To reduce selling costs,

To help get items in the news column of a publication,

To establish recognition for the firm or its product,

To motivate distributors,

To recognition for the firm or its products,

To motivate distributors, to create or change a companys image,

To create or change a buyers attitude, and

The basic appeals tend to increase the rupee profits of the buyer or help in
achieving his non-monetary objectives. Trade journals are the media most generally used
followed by catalogues, direct mail communication, exhibits, and general management
publications. Advertising agencies are much less useful in industrial advertising.
5. Trade Advertising:
a.Retail Advertising
b. Wholesale Advertising
a. Retail Advertising
This may be defined as covering all advertising by the stores that sell goods directly to the
consuming public. It includes, also advertising by establishments that sell services to the
public, such as beauty shops, petrol pumps and banks.
Advertising agencies are rarely used. The store personnel are usually given this
responsibility as an added task to be performed, together with their normal functions. The
result is that advertising is often relegated to a secondary position in a retail store. One
aspect of retail advertising is co-operative advertising. It refers to advertising costs between
retailers and manufacturers. From the retailers point of view, co-operative advertising
permits a store to secure additional advertising that would not otherwise have been
available.
b. Wholesale Advertising
Wholesalers are, generally, not advertising minded, either for themselves or for their
suppliers. They would benefit from adopting some of the image-making techniques used
by retailers the need for developing an overall promotional strategy. They also need
to make a greater use of supplier promotion materials and programmes in a way
advantageous to them.
6. Advertising based on Area of Operation:
It is classified as follow:
a. National Advertising
b. Regional Advertising
c. Local Advertising
a. National advertising
It is practiced by many firms in our country. It encourages the consumer to buy their
product wherever they are sold. Most national advertisements concentrate on the overall
image and desirability of the product.
The famous national advertisers are:
Hindustan Levers
DCM ITC
Jay Engineering

 TISCO
b. Regional advertising
It is geographical alternative for organizations. For example, Amrit Vanaspati based in
Rajpura claims to be the leading hydrogenated oil producer in the Punjab. But, until
recently, it mainly confined itself to one of the vegetable oil brands distribution to
Malihabad district (in U.P. near Lucknow).
c. Local advertising
It is generally done by retailers rather than manufacturers. These advertisements
save the customer time and money by passing along specific information about
products, prices, location, and so on. Retailer advertisements usually provide specific
goods sales during weekends in various sectors.
7. Advertising According to Medium:
The most common classification of advertising is by the medium used. For
example: TV, radio, magazine, outdoor, business periodical, newspaper and direct mail
advertising. This classification is so common in use that it is mentioned here only for the
sake of completeness.
ADVERTISING PLANNING FRAMEWORK
Plans are nothing, planning is ever ything. - Dwight D. Eisenhower
The advertising management is mainly concerned with planning and decision
making. The advertising manager will be involved in the development, implementation,
and overall management of an advertising plan. The development of an advertising plan
essentially requires the generation and specification of alternatives. Decision making
involves choosing from among the alternatives. The alternatives can be various levels of
expenditure, different kinds of objectives or strategy possibilities, and kinds of options
with copy creation and media choices. Thus, the essence of planning is to find out the
feasible alternatives and reduce them to decisions. An advertising plan reflects the
planning and decision making process and the decisions that have been arrived at in
a particular product and market situation.
PLANNING FRAMEWORK:
Advertising planning and decision making depends on internal and external factors.
Internal factors are situation analysis, the marketing program, and the advertising plan.
The three legs of advertising planning concern are the
Objective setting and target market identification,
Message strategy and tactics, and
Media strategy and tactics.
The advertising plan should be developed in response to a situation analysis, based on
research. Once developed, the advertising plan has to be implemented as an advertising
campaign, in the context of social and legal constraints and with the involvement of various
facilitating agencies. Let us discuss these factors one after another.
1. Situation Analysis
It involves an analysis of all important factors operating in a particular situation.

This means that new research studies will be undertaken on company history and
experience.
AT&T, for example, developed a new strategy for its long-distance telephone
services based on five year of research. The research encompassed market
segmentation studies, concept testing, and a field experiment. The field experiment
increased on testing a new advertising campaign called Cost of Visit. An existing Reach
Out campaign although successful, did not appear to get through to a large group of
people who had reasons to call but were limiting their calls because of cost. Research
based on annual surveys of 3,000 residential telephone users showed that most did not
know the cost of a long-distance call or that it was possible to make less expensive calls in
off-peak periods.
Five copy alternatives were subsequently developed and tested, from which Cost of
Visit was chosen. This campaign was credited with persuading customers to call during times
that were both cheaper for them and more profitable for AT&T and, overall, was more
effective that the Reach Out campaign. One estimate was that by switching 530 million in
advertising from Reach Out to Cost of Visit, an incremental gain in revenue of $22
million would result in the first year and would top $100 million over five years.
This example highlights that a complete situation analysis will cover all marketing
components and involve finding answers to many questions about the nature and extent of
demand, competition, environmental factors, product, costs, distribution, and the skills and
financial resources of the from.
2. Consumer and Market Analysis.
Situation analysis begins by looking at the aggregate market for the product, service, or
cause being advertised, the size of the market, its growth rate, seasonality,
geographical distribution. Whereas Consumer and Market analysis is concerned with the
following factors:
* Nature of demand
- How do buyers (consumer and industrial) currently go about buying existing
products or services?
- Can the market be meaningfully segmented or broken into several homogeneous
groups with in respect to what they want and how they buy?
* Extent of demand
- What is the size of the market (units and dollars) now, and what will the future
hold?
- What are the current market shares, and what are the selective demand trends?
- Is it best to analyze the market on an aggregate or on a segmented basis?
* Name of competition
- What is the present and future structure of competition?
- What are the current marketing programs of established competitors?
- Why are they successful of unsuccessful?
- Is there is opportunity for another competitor? Why?
- What are the anticipated retaliatory moves of competitors?
- Can they neutralize different marketing programs we might develop?

* Environmental climate
- What are the relevant social, political, economic, and technological trends?
- How do you evaluate these trends? Do they represent opportunities or problem?
* Stage of product life cycle
- In what stage of the life cycle is the product category?
- What market characteristics support your stage-of life-cycle evaluation?
* Cost structure of the industry
- What is the amount and composition of the marginal or additional cost of
supplying increased output?
Skills of the firm
- Do we have the skills and experience to perform the functions necessary to be in the
business?
- How do our skills compare with those of competitors?
* Financial resources of the firm
- Do we have the funds to support an effective marketing program?
- Where are the funds coming from, and when will they be available?
3. Competitive Analysis:
Advertising planning and decision making are affected by competition and the
competitive situation facing the advertiser. Competition is such a pervasive factor that it
will occur as a consideration in all phases of the advertising planning and decision making
process. It should include an analysis of what current share the brand now has, what shares
its competitors have, what share of a market is possible, from which competitors the
increased share of a market is possible? The planner also has to be aware of the relative
strengths and weaknesses of the different competing companies and their objectives in the
product category. It is important to look at competition as a precursor to the planning
process.
THE ADVERTISING PLAN
As pointed out earlier, advertising plan and decision making focus on three crucial areas;
objectives and target selection, message strategy and tactics, and media strategy and
tactics. Let us elaborate on these points:
1. Objectives and Target Selection
Objectives in advertising can be understood in many ways. An important part of the
objective is the development of a precise, disciplined description of the target audience. It
is often tempting to direct advertising at a broad audience; but everyone is a potential
customer. It is best to consider directing the advertising to more selected groups to
develop stimulating copy. It is quite possible to develop several campaigns, each directed
at different segments of the market, or to develop one campaign based on multiple
objectives.
2. Message Strategy and Tactics
Messages strategy must decide what the advertising is meant to communicate by way of
benefits, feelings, brand personality, or action content. Once the content of the campaign
has been decided, decisions must be made on the best-most effective-ways of
communicating that content. The decisions, such as the choice of a spokesperson, the use of
humor or fear or other tones, and the selection of particular copy, visuals, and layout, are

what we call message tactics

3. Media Strategy and Tactics
Message strategy is concerned with decisions about how much is to be allocated to
create and test advertising copy, media strategy concerns decisions on how many media
rupees to spend on an advertising campaign. Media tactics comprise the decisions on
which specific media (television, radio magazines, etc.) or media vehicles (Readers Digest,
etc.) to spend these dollars.
EXTERNAL FACTORS
The external factors in the planning framework are environmental, social and legal
considerations. To a considerable extent, these exist as constraints on the development of
an advertising plan and decision making. In developing specific advertisement, there are
certain legal constraints that must be considered. Deceptive advertising is forbidden by
law. What is deceptive is often difficult, because different people can have different
perceptions of the same advertisements. Thus, an advertiser who attempts to provide
specific, relevant information must be well aware of what constitutes deception in a legal
and ethical sense and of other aspects of advertising regulation.
Even more difficult consideration for people involved in the advertising effort is
broad social and economic issues as stated below.
Does advertising raise prices or inhibit competition?
Is the use of sex or fear appeals is appropriate? Women and minority groups
are exploited in advertising by casting them in highly stereotyped roles.
Is it more irritating than entertaining?
Is an intrusion into an already excessively polluted environment?
Advertising directed at children.
ADVERTISER AND THE ADVERTISING AGENCY INTERFACE
From a situation analysis point of view, the advertiser needs to know what kinds of
facilitating agencies exist and the nature of the services they provide. From a planning point
of view much local advertising is done without the services of an advertising agency or a
research supplier. On the other hand, a national advertiser may have under contract many
different agencies and research suppliers, each serving one or more brands in a product
line. Many advertising decisions involve choosing facilitating agency alternatives.
What advertising agency should be chosen?

What media should be used?

What copy test supplier will be best for our particular situation?

Concerning the question of agency selection, characteristics such as the quality of

personnel, reputation, integrity, mutual understanding, interpersonal compatibility and
synergism were very important.
Advertising Industry
The advertising industry consists of three principal groups:
(a)
Sponsors;
(b)
Media ; and

(c)
Advertising agencies or advertising departments.
Advertising agencies are of two basic types, viz., Independent; and House clients.
An independent agency is a business that is free to compete for and select its client.
A house agency is owned by its major client. A house agency is not
completely free to serve other clients.
The advertising department an integral part of the organization it serves.

The advertising agency provides for the client a minimum of:

(i)
Media information, such as the availability of time and space ;
(ii)
Creative skills, such as campaign planning and appeal planning and
(iii)
Research capabilities, such as providing brand preference data.
ADVERTISING AGENCY AND ITS FUNCTIONS
Definition of Advertising Agency
According to American marketing Association, "An Advertising agency is an independent
business organisation composed of creative and business people who develop, prepare and place
advertising in advertising media for sellers seeking to find customers for their goods and
services."
Advertising Agency is an independent business organisation specialised in advertising related
work which undertakes the work of planning, preparing, and executing advertising campaign for
its clients. Advertising Agency is a body of experts specialised in advertising. Advertising
Agency performs following activities for its clients:
1. Planning: Advertising agency studies the product or services of clients to identify the
inherent qualities in relation to competitor's product or services, analyses competition and
marketing environment to formulate advertising plan.
2. Preparing: After the study of product, competition, and marketing environment the
experts of agency has to write, design, and produce the advertisement, it is also called
formulation of ad-copy.
3. Executing: Now, media is selected for time or space, ad is delivered to media, checked,
verified, and released in media. After ad release payment is done to media and client is
billed for the services provided.
Functions of Advertising Agency
Advertising agency performs following functions:
1. Contacting Clients: Advertising agency first of all identify and contact firms which are
desirous of advertising their product or services. Ad-agency selects those firms which
are financially sound, makes quality products or services, and have efficient
management.
2. Planning Advertisement: Advertising agency's next function is to plan ad for its client.
For ad planning following tasks are required to be performed by ad-agency:
o Study of clients product to identify its inherent qualities in relation to
competitors product.
o Analysis of present and potential market for the product.

Study of trade and economic conditions in the market.

o Study of seasonal demand of the product
o Study of competition, and competitors spending on advertising.
o Knowledge of channels of distribution, their sales, operations, etc.
o Finally, formulation of advertising plan
3. Creative Function: Creative people like - the copywriters, artists, art-directors, graphicspecialists have to perform the creative function which is most important part of all
advertising function.
4. Developing Ad-Copy: Ad-agency with the help of their writers, artists, designers,
animators, graphic-designers, and film-directors prepares and develops Ad-copy.
5. Approval of Client: Ad-copy is shown to the client for his approval
6. Media Selection and scheduling: It is very important function of ad-agency to select
appropriate media for its clients. Ad-agency has to consider various factors like- media
cost, media coverage, ad-budget, nature of product, client's needs, targeted customer, and
etc while selecting media.
7. Ad-Execution: After approval, verification, and required changes, the ad-copy is handed
to the media for ad-execution.
8. Evaluation Function: After execution, it is the responsibility of ad-agency to evaluate
the effectiveness of ad to know how beneficial the ad is for its client.
9. Marketing Function: The advertising agency also performs various marketing function
like- selecting target audience, designing products, designing packages, determining
prices, study of channel of distribution, market research, sales promotion, publicity, etc.
10. Research Function: Ad-agency performs various research functions like- research of
different media, media cost, media reach, circulation, entry of new media, information
regarding ratings, and TRP's of TV programmes, serials.
11. Accounting Function: Accounting function of ad-agency includes checking bills,
making payments, cash discounts allowed by media, collection of dues from clients,
payment to staff, payment to outside professionals like- writers, producers, models, etc.
o

TYPES OF MODERN ADVERTISING AGENCY :

According to American marketing Association, "An Advertising agency is an independent
business organisation composed of creative and business people who develop, prepare and place
advertising in advertising media for sellers seeking to find customers for their goods and
services."
Advertising Agency is an independent business organisation specialised in advertising related
work which undertakes the work of planning, preparing, and executing advertising campaign for
its clients. Advertising Agency is a body of experts specialised in advertising.
Types of Advertising Agency:
Following are the different types of advertising agencies:
1. Full Service Agency
2. In house Agency
3. A Creative boutique
4. Media Buying Service
5. La Carte Agency
6. Special Service Agency

7. Sweet Shops
1. Full Service Agency - Such Advertising Agencies offers its clients a full range of marketing,
communication,and promotion services including research, planning, creating, producing the ad,
and selecting media. Full service agency also offers other services like- strategic market
planning, sales promotion, direct marketing, package design, public relation, and publicity.
2. In House Agency - In house Agency is the advertising department of the firm which is
responsible for planning and preparation of advertising materials. Big organisations like- Gap,
Calvin Klein, Revlon, and etc can manage in house advertising department and can take the
advantage of proper coordination and greater control in all phase of advertising and promotion
process.
3. Creative Boutique - Creative boutiques are known for their creative concept development,
and artistic services to their clients. Any advertiser wants to infuse greater creativity into the
message theme or individual advertisement can approach a creative boutique. Such agency
provides only creative services.
4. Media Buying Services - They are independent companies specialised in media buying.
Media Buying service agencies particularly deals in buying radio time and television time.
5. La Carte Agency - Some advertisers prefer to order a la carte rather than using all the services
of an agency. A la carte can be purchased from a full service agency or from an individual firm
deals in creative work, media, production, and or research.
6. Special service agency - Some agencies focuses on some selected areas, and gains
specilisation or expertise in those areas, such agencies collectively are called special service
groups.
7. Sweet shops - Such agencies are small agencies operates only in one city. Small clients who
want advertisement in local media like- local cable, banners, posters, pamphelets
etc, approaches such agencies.
SELECTION OF ADVERTISING AGENCY :
The Advertiser looks for an advertising agency whose services and expertise meets his
requirements. Following factors should be considered while selecting an advertising agency:Services offered by Ad-agency - There are different agencies provides different services, some
provides all the services, some provide selected services, some provides only media services. It
depends on the requirement of advertiser whether he need a fulls service agency, creative
boutique, media buying service agency, or a sweet shop.
Experience of Agency - An experienced agency performs better then a new agency because it is
familiar with different components of marketing environment like- competitors' policies, taste of
consumer, income of consumer, consumer responses, fashions and trends, reputation of different
media etc.
Location - A major factor to be considered while selecting ad-agency is location of office of
agency. A considerable amount of communication is required at different level of ad planning,
creation and execution. So, a local or near by ad-agency should be preferred which is easily
accessible.
Size of Agency - There are both large size agencies and small size agencies, both have their own
advantages and disadvantages. Large agencies serves big clients, provides wide variety of
services, and charges higher but, cannot give personal attention because of having large number

of clients, also cannot give much attention to small clients because of having large number of big
clients.
Competitors' Agency - Agency which is working for competitors must be avoided otherwise
agency will not prepare ads which help the advertiser to take an edge over competition.
Image of Agency - While selecting ad-agency the advertiser should enquire the image, integrity,
ethical standards, and relations of agency with its clients.
Creativity and other skills - Ad-agency must be creative enough to generate new ideas to gain the
attention of target audience.
Rates Charged by Agency - The rates of agency must suit the pocket of client. Advertiser
should select agency whose rates are reasonable and within the ad-budget.
Financial Strength of Agency - A financially strong ad-agency have better turnover and better
contacts with media owner, and afford better infrastructure, well-equipped-ad labs, and quality
staff.
Past Records of Agency - It is necessary to know who were the past clients of agency, how long
were they with agency, why they left the agency, brand image of products of clients, etc.
GETTING THE BEST OUT OF AN AGENCY:
The agency should be given all possible information if good service is expected
from it.
The advertiser should go as far as possible to keep the agency on its toes.

The agency should be challenged to produce results.

Criticism, when it is handed out, should not be only unfavourable. It should also be
favourable.
Unnecessary details should not be fussed over.
The advertiser should appoint a special person for liaison work between his company
and the agency, and not expect the agency to contact the junior staff.
The advertiser should allow the agency, where necessary, to break away from
convention in its presentations.
The agency should be paid extra, if it does any extra work.
The advertiser should examine the work his agency does for other parties to get new
ideas.
It is about time that the top management looked upon advertising as a basic capital
investment a long-term investment which does not necessarily always bring in
immediate returns.
The management should realize that advertising has two functions to perform. It has
to sell products today and sell the name of the company, so that tomorrows products,
too, will sell.
ADVERTISING BUDGET
Definition of Advertising Budget
"Advertising budget is an estimated amount an organisation decides to invest in its promotional
expenditures over a period of time. An advertising budget is the money a company set aside to
accomplish its marketing objectives."

It is difficult to measure the effect of advertising on business sales. Advertising is just one of the
variables that affects sales in a period of time. As a percentage of sales, advertising expenditure
varies from business to business. Because of such complications it is very difficult for business
organisations to decide the size of advertising budget. There are various approaches that can be
used to set advertising budget.
METHODS OF FRAMING THE ADVERTISING BUDGET
Actually there are no scientific methods available which can be employed in determining
the amount of the advertising fund to be spent during a given period. However, there are several
approaches which may serve as guidelines to advertising appropriation decisions. These
approaches are called methods. The various methods are as follows.
1. Affordable Method
2. Percentage of Sales Method
3. Competitive Parity Method
4. Objective and Task Method
5. Return on Investment Method
6. Judgement Method
7. Fixed Sum Per Unit Method
These should not be employed blindly because there is no single method which is
applicable to all the situations and may provide correct results. The popular methods which are
commonly used in determining advertising appropriation or for framing the advertising budget
are as follows :
1. Affordable Method :
In this method one has to find out what the company can afford in a given business
situation.
The companies which have limited resources use this method.
When funds availability is a constraint, a limited fund is allocated after other unavoidable
expenses have been duly met.
Under this method it is usually assumed that advertisers do not spend too heavily.
Under this method, advertising activity is blocked-up at last.
Merits:
Since the company does not spend more than it can afford and, therefore, there is an element of
financial discipline in this method.
Demerits (Weaknesses) :
This method suffers from the following weaknesses:
(i) The budget decisions are left to the whim of the management and thus are not based on
rational business needs. Whims are most irrelevant and subjective rather than based on an
objective approach.
(ii) It overlooks the contributory rule of advertising in the achievement of marketing objectives.
(iii) It also ignores the need, importance, nature of advertisement and other factors like longrange planning of advertising investment.
On the whole, affordable method is not a scientific one and hence is used by small companies
only.
2. Percentage of Sales Method :

 Under this method, the amount to be appropriated to advertising is arrived at by

multiplying the value of past years sales or the projected sales for the budget period with
a pre-determined percentage.
The sales on which advertising appropriation is based may be historical immediate past
years or an average of past years or anticipated or both.
Percentage figures, on the other hand, may be arrived at on the basis of managements
historical experience, judgement or industry practice.
Merits : This method is most popular with managements on account of the following reasons :
(i) It is a very simple, workable and relatively safe method.
(ii) Since it directly relates advertising expenditure to sales, it seems to be very satisfactory for
many advertisers.
(iii) It encourages management to think in terms of the relationship between advertising
expenses, prices and profits.
(iv) By relating appropriation to sales, this method ensures that the advertiser will spend only
what he can afford. Advertising will earn its share out of sales.
(v) It helps the industry in preventing advertising wars because advertising expenses are
proportional to market share/sales.
Demerits or Weaknesses : Inspite of being the most popular method of framing advertising
budget, this method is subject to criticism on account of the following weaknesses :
(i) It considers advertising as the result of sales whereas the fact is that it is the cause of sales.
(ii) It discourages experimentation with counter-cyclical advertising and aggressive selling.
(iii) It does not provide a logical basis for the choice of a multiplier, i.e., percentage.
(iv) It militates against the planning of long range advertising programmes.
(v) It represents a static approach to advertising and does not allow it to repond to market needs
and advertising opportunities. For example, when sales decline for some reasons a better course
of action might be to maintain the level of promotional activity until the sales decline can be
corrected.
(vi) It is not a scientific method.
Inspite of the above weaknesses and criticism, percentage of sales method is very popular and is
widely used in Indian industries also.
3. Competitive Parity Method:
This method envisages determination of advertising appropriation in such a way that a
company maintains a parity with its competitors advertising outlays.
This method is based on the principle that you are at par with competitors. Spend as
much as the competitors do.
So advertising is taken as a defensive device and not an offensive tool to achieve
marketing objectives.
Advertisers want to spend as much as their competitors are spending so that they are not
placed at any disadvantage.
For this purpose, company has to collect relevant data about competitors advertising
appropriation, for example, previous years absolute figures, advertising/sales ratios etc.
Merits :

(i) This method is most appropriate where competition is rigorous as the management is
supposed to keep itself in line with its competitors. Under this method, the management always
keeps himself alert.
(ii) It reduces considerably the possibilities of advertising wars amongst competitors.
(iii) It enables the management to maintain or increase its share of the market in accordance with
the objectives of the company.
(iv) It enables the management to monitor the marketing programmes of its competitors. Thereby
the marketing strategy may be changed accordingly.
Demerits or Weaknesses :
(i) It is not a rational method because the need, size, problem, opportunities and resources of
every company vary considerably from each other. These are hardly similar to each other.
(ii) There is no empirical or other evidence to suggest that competitive parity in advertising
appropriations has prevented advertising wars.
(iii) The use of competition as a yardstick for appropriation makes it easy for a company to
ignore the needs of analyzing the realities of its own competitive situation and to visualize the
possibility of other and better available strategies.
4. Objective and Task Method :
Objective and Task Method for framing the advertising budget is considered to be the
most desirable and realistic method.
It is also known as research objective method.
It imagine appropriation of advertising funds on the basis of objectives to be achieved
and the task involved therein.
It means advertising objectives are set for the coming budget period and the cost of
achieving these objectives are calculated in details in terms of task to be performed, the
total of which indicates the appropriation level.
In short, this method includes :
(i) Defining advertising objectives as far as possible in quantitative terms.
(ii) Outlining and listing tasks to be performed in achieving these objectives.
(iii) Estimating the cost of performing these tasks. This method takes into consideration the fact
that advertising is an investment and an effective vehicle of achieving companys objectives.
Merits :
(i) This method is more realistic, imaginative, objective, and replaces the rule of thumb and
customary thinking.
(ii) It forces the management to think in terms of advertising objectives and awakens it to the
need for their achievement.
(iii) It is flexible and may be adapted to changing company needs.
(iv) This method has a special merit in the introduction of a new product.
(v) It does not operate on the inaccuracies of the percentage of sales basis.
Demerits or Weaknesses :
(i) This method is difficult to use, for it calls for adequate research data and past experience.
(ii) This method is objective-oriented. However, its objectives are ill defined, the whole
expenditure and the efforts will then go to waste.
(iii) It is difficult to translate objectives into task that will lead to objective achievement.

On the whole, this Objective and Task Method is more rational, realistic, pragmatic and need
based as compared to other methods.
5. Return on Investment Method :
In this method money spent on advertisement is considered as an investment and not an
expenditure.
It is an investment in the sense that a certain return in terms of profit is expected under
this method.
The advertising budget is prepared; under this method by taking into account the
increased profits generated by an increase in sales and goodwill on account of
advertising.
If sales and profits are higher, the excess may be assumed to the result of advertising.
The major problem in this method, however, is that the return is very often spread over a
period of time, hence it may be difficult to arrive at an appropriate budget appropriation
on the basis of this method.
Inspite of this problem, the return on investment method is no doubt a realistic way of
approaching the problem because it correlates the sales and profits generated by
advertising.
6. Judgement Method :
Judgement method of framing an advertising budget is based upon the judgement of
experienced managers of the company.
This method is also referred as the arbitrary method because it is based on the arbitrary
thinking of some experienced managers only, this not based on any scientific lines.
This method involves no clerical or statistical or field work.
It is solely based upon the experience and judgement of some old and experienced
managers. They frame the advertising budget considering all situations, i.e., objectives,
anticipated behaviour of the customers and the competitors, market to be covered, types
and cost of media etc.
Although this method is very cheap and simple but is not reliable as it is based on the
subjective approach of its experienced managers and is subject to bias and error.
7. Fixed Sum Per Unit Method :
This method is similar to the percentage of sales method except that a specific amount
per unit
is appropriated rather than a percentage of the value of sales.
The advertising appropriation may be based on units of a product sold in the previous
period or on a forecast of unit sales in future period.
This method is most suitable in advertising appropriations for industrial and durable
consumer products.
The most important advantage of this method is that despite price changes advertising
appropriation may be kept unaltered.
From the above study, it is evident that no single method is perfect and free from defects.
Hence a mix of the above methods may be used in accordance to the requirements and
need of the company for framing the budget keeping in view the marketing objectives of
the company.
MEDIA BRIEF:

 Each medium has its merits and its handicaps.

The suitability and profitability of any one type varies from manufacturer to
manufacturer and may vary for a single manufacturer too.
Changes are the only rule.
The buyers constitute his market; they are to receive his advertising coverage
consists of the advertisers reaching the maximum number of these buyers
include both his current and prospective customers.
The advertiser has to determine how many there are and where they are.
Then the selection process involves how to send an effective advertising
message economically to the group of buyers, the length of the campaign
period and the cost which he can afford-at a figure which will make the advertising
effort profitable.
DIFFICULTIES IN SELECTION OF MEDIA TYPES:
Audience Measurement:
The media sell circulation or the opportunity to develop circulation. There is a gross
aspect to circulation (how many products were bought last month) and a net aspect (how
many of those purchasers are prospects for the product saw the advertisement in the
broadcast media). Measurement of the same is not so easy as advertisers would think.
Difficulty of Cost Comparisons:
There is a cost per thousand concept in every medium type such as cost per thousand
homes or thousand viewers, cost per thousand passersby, cost per page per thousand copies
sold. How does the reaction of a thousand housewives, who read a food advertisement about
Magi noodles, compare with that of a different thousand housewives who watch the same on
TV?
Reliance on a Particular type of Medium:
How much of his promotion effort should a manufacturer place in
magazines and how much on TV, how mach in outdoor or point of purchase?
Which should be dominant and which are supplementary?
These factors play a key role in selection of a particular type of media.
Media costs, the costs of space and time, are the largest single expense item in most
advertising budgets.
The selection of media types to be used in an undertaking, therefore, deserves and
even demands, the very best thought and judgment of on the part of the top
management.
The points to be considered are:
(i) Availability: Regional markets may be so limited that national circulation of
magazines should not be used. A product may have so slight a market that a medium
such as the radio would not be indicated for use.
(ii) Selectivity: Some ideas demand visual presentation and others demand oral
presentation. The radio cannot accommodate stories requiring a physical form and
outdoor advertising cannot accommodate long stories.
(iii) Competition is a matter which the advertiser cannot ignore. A company may

select media types not used by its competitors, based on distinctiveness and domination.
SELECTION OF INDIVIDUAL MEDIA:
Selection of individual media to carry advertising requires the consideration of the points
like circulation; the quality and quantity of a mediums circulation, Prestige, Influence,
Readership, etc.
The Advertising Schedule
What is the optimum schedule?
There is no agreement; there is no formula: there is only judgment.
It appears that more advertisers make the mistake o f using too many than the
mistake of using too few.
The manufacturers proposed advertising plans are consolidated into a schedule which
contains the following information.
- List of publications, broadcast stations, markets ;
- Dates of appearance of advertisements ;
- Size of advertisements (space or time ) ;
- Costs of advertisements.
Duplication
An advertiser must have coverage or else his message will not reach as many
buyers as he must reach.
As an advertiser adds magazine after magazine to his list to increase his
coverage; he finds duplication inevitable.
One way of averting duplication is to use only one of the magazines; another is to run
a different advertisement.
The duplication limits an advertisers coverage. The points in favour of duplication
are repetition and frequency.
Frequency
The term frequency refers to the number of advertisements of the same size
appearing in an individual medium for a given period such as per day, per week, per
month, or per campaign. There is no formula to determine the ideal frequency.
The two factors are the size of the advertising fund and the size of the advertisement
to be run. If these are known, frequency can be derived.
The two other factors are the number of media and the advertising period.
As the number of media increases, there is pressure for a lower frequency, or to
shorten the advertising period.
The other possibilities are to enlarge the fund, or to reduce the size of the
advertisement. Manufacturers cannot ignore the fact that what the competitors are
doing in respect of frequency.
The more often a message is repeated, the greater the proportion of it the consumer
remembers.
Size of advertisement
The size of an advertisement is influenced by
the size of the advertising fund,

the numbers of individual media to be used, and

the number of advertisements to appear during the advertising period.
The purpose of the advertisement ; a large space is used to announce, a small
space is used to remain.
The amount of copy, the number of products included in one advertisement and the
illustration needs of the advertisement all help to determine size.
Salesmen and dealers may also decide how large advertisements should be.

Colour
Colour is a factor which influences frequency.
Colour influences the size of the advertisement and size in turn determines
frequency.
I t commands a premium price.
Re-run on Advertisement
Repetition has a considerable effect on advertising costs, and its frequency.
Re-run is considered unless it has performed well on its first appearance.
It is most common in mail order business and advertising that uses small space.
It is not common for large advertisements. Indirect action advertisements should be
re-run. The reinforcement of consumer memory is another benefit of a re-run.
There are savings on a re-run. New readers are added whenever and advertisement is
re-run.
Timing
The crucial questions under timing is when should a campaign start, and when
should it shop?
For this purpose the seasonal angle and festival seasons should be considered.
Advertising can be scheduled heavily just before and during the heavy buying
season.
Off-season advertising is used profitably during the off- season to level out the.
For example, tourists can be motivated through advertising to visit tourist areas
during the off-season.
Positioning
It involves the development of a marketing strategy for a particular segment of the
market.
It is primarily applicable to products that are not leaders in the field.
These products are more successful if they concentrate on specific market segments
than if they attack dominant brands.
It is best accomplished through an advertising strategy, or theme, which positions
advertisements in specified market segments.