-Effects of advertising

-Major types of advertising

-Creative decisions in an advertising campaign

-Media evaluation and selection techniques

[SLIDE 1]

As defined in previous lessons, advertising is the use of impersonal, one-way, mass communications about a product or organization that is paid by an organization to a company that publishes the advertisements.

Technology is helping companies measure more and more aspects of advertising, but there are still two classifications for advertising: measured and unmeasured. Measured advertising includes spending on network and cable television, newspapers, magazines radio, outdoor advertising (billboards, bus stops, buses, etc.), and Internet ad spending. Unmeasured media spending includes direct marketing, promotions, co-op, coupons, catalogs, product placement and some other forms of marketing.

Global advertising spend continues to grow as more nations provide access to media supported by advertising and the disposable income of consumers grows. Even more important to marketing is that digital advertising continues to expand its footprint. In 2019, it is estimated that digital advertising will total more than $330 billion and will, for the first time, account for more than half of global advertising spending.

Newer brands with small market shares tend to spend a higher percentage of budget on advertising in order to gain market share. Large companies continue to spend on advertising, but the advertising response function is a phenomenon in which spending for advertising and sales promotion increases sales and market share up to a certain level but then provides diminishing returns.

Advertising impacts consumers on a frequent basis. While new technology has changed how companies advertise, the traditional channels have not gone away. While more people watch television programs on the internet and smart phones, they are still watching television. While advertising cannot change a consumer’s deeply rooted values, it can help enhance the perception of a product or organization as better fitting those values.

Advertising can also reflect and affect consumer perceptions of product and brand attributes. In years past, car ads emphasized roominess, speed, and low maintenance. In recent years, advertising has switched to a focus on technology, safety, versatility and customization as consumer preferences have changed.

[SLIDE 2]

A firm's promotional objectives determine the type of advertising it uses. There are two key types of advertising:

-Institutional advertising: a form designed to enhance a company’s image rather than promote a particular product.

-Product advertising: describes the benefits of a specific good or service.

[SLIDE 3]

As mentioned, institutional advertising exists to enhance a company’s image rather than promote a particular product. Institutional advertising has grown as more and more companies have multiple product lines.

This type of ad typically does not have a call to action. The purpose is to create a favorable attitude rather than to directly sell a product.

Advocacy advertising is a form in which an organization expresses its views on controversial issues or responds to media attacks. One of the first examples of advocacy ads came up in the late 1970s, as the previous decade saw the birth of environmental movements that documented pollutants entering the environment. Monsanto, a chemical company, came out with a series of ads with the tagline "Without chemicals, life itself would be impossible."

[SLIDE 4]

As noted, the purpose of advertising is to retain market share or increase sales. That is accomplished by focusing on the benefits of the good or service.

There are three main categories of product ads:

-Pioneering advertising: designed to stimulate primary demand for a new product or product category.

-Competitive advertising: designed to influence demand for a specific brand.

-Comparative advertising: Compares two or more products in order to show specific attributes of a company’s product.

For examples, early computer and smart phone advertisements were pioneering ads, introducing the market to a new product. "Intel inside" was a competitive ad campaign used to get consumers to look at computers that used an Intel CPU rather than a competing product from Motorola or AMD. In 2006, Apple rolled out a comparative ad campaign directly comparing its computers to those running Microsoft's operating system.

[SLIDE 5]

Advertising is typically organized within advertising campaigns -- collections of related advertisements focusing on a common theme, slogan, and set of advertising appeals.

Before creative work can begin, the goals and objectives should be defined. An advertising objective is a specific communication task that a campaign should accomplish for a specific target audience during a specific period.

Once the objectives are defined, there are four key areas where creative decisions can be made:

-Identifying product benefits
-Developing advertising appeals
-Executing the message
-Evaluating effectiveness

[SLIDE 6]

There's an old expression that advertising should "sell the sizzle, not the steak." The idea is that marketers should be describing benefits first, those things the customer gets from the product, not the product itself.

Consider this example: "DogsBestFriend is an all-natural skin care lotion for dogs that combines traditional medicines and Nigella sativa seed oils with the newest extraction technologies." That sentence accurately describes the product features. The question to ask is "so what?" Why should the market care? The sentence describes features without telling prospects why those features matter.

Now consider this: "DogsBestFriend act as a natural replacement for hydrocortisone, antihistamines, and topical antibiotics that is powerful enough to combat inflammation, itching, and pain, yet safe enough to use on dogs of all ages." While features (hydrocortisone)  are mentioned, the benefits are that it combats problems and is safe for dogs.

[SLIDE 7]

An advertising appeal is a reason provided for a person to buy a product. Those appeals usually are at a high level, addressing desirability, exclusiveness, and other product aspects. Believability is important in the appeal, as extravagant claims are noticed and ignored, wasting promotional dollars and creating ill will.

A key term used in marketing is the unique selling proposition (USP). That is a desirable, exclusive, and believable advertising appeal selected as a theme for a campaign to distinguish the product from the competition. The USP often becomes part of the campaign slogan, such as Lay’s potato chips’ famous “Bet you can’t eat just one.”

[SLIDE 8]

The goal of an ad is to immediately draw the attention of the listener or viewer to present the message. There are many different styles.

It is not only the type of product and target market that drives the style, but the channel itself can help define the appropriate style to use in an ad. For instance, a more scientific and descriptive ad style works far better in a print ad than in a short Instagram post. Humor is a style that is often used, but it tends to work better on radio and television than in print, as the verbal and non-verbal visual cues can be lost in print. That is also one reason that emoticons became important on the Internet; they help convey the intended style.

Political ads are an interesting case of varying styles. Depending on a lot of changing variables in a campaign, ads can quickly shift style.

[SLIDE 9]

The slide above shows some of the common styles used in advertising. Note that an ad will often use a combination of styles depending on the audience and what the ad is designed to accomplish.

[SLIDE 10]

Executing a campaign is not encough. Though evaluation can be difficult, a campaign is not complete until you know how well the ad performed. Even successful campaigns need post-campaign analysis to understand why they were successful and how they can be improved.

One way to do so is to survey or test the target market before and after the ad campaign. Did interest change? Did knowledge? Is there a call to action that was remembered and acted on?

Another way to test ads is a technique called A/B testing. Marketing can perform two different campaigns in similar markets and evaluate which better increased awareness or sales. In the Internet age, A/B testing is even more valuable, since the same web site or smart phone app can display different ads to different individuals and then track their actions.