Promotion: Advertising

• To advertise is to describe or draw attention to (a product, service, or event) in a public medium in order to promote sales or attendance
• Advertising involves the use of various media to relay promotion messages
• It is non-personal and directed towards large  numbers of people (mass communication)
• It uses media that is paid for by the advertiser
• Only successful advertising results in increased sales
• For advertising to be called successful the increase in sales as a direct result of that advertising has to exceed the amount spent in pursuing that advertising campaign
• Advertising should always be in line with promotional and marketing objectives, as well as the business strategy or mission of the organization
• Advertising campaigns take many forms but they can be grouped by their intention
• There is informative advertising which is intended to inform
• Persuasive Advertising
• Comparative Advertising and
• Reminder advertising

Informational advertising

• The main aim is to inform the consumer/customer about the product in terms of:
• The features of the product
• The benefits of the product
• What the product does and what it can do
• How much it costs
• Where it can be bought

Persuasive advertising

• Is a type of promotion aimed at influencing the consumer/customer to purchase a given product
• A business may engage in this type of advertising to convince potential customers to purchase the product although it might also be used to remind existing customers to renew/repurchase
• They also aim to sway the customer into believing the advertiser’s products are of higher quality

Comparative advertising

• Also known as comparison advertising
• Promotional technique in which an advertiser claims the superiority of its product over competing product(s) by direct or indirect comparison.
• Due legal pitfalls the competing product is usually not named in the comparison with a generic term used for example: Our soap is better than all the other brands. Or it lasts longer etc.
• The implication in the message is that the advertiser’s product is superior to competing brands

Reminder Advertising

• marketing strategy typically consisting of brief messages sent with the objective of reminding a target consumer group about a product or service or of introducing a new theme into an existing marketing program.
• The principle aim is to refresh the memory of the audience

NB Most of the forms of advertising above are often used in conjunction with one another

Advertising and the Product Life Cycle

• The extent and nature of advertising will change during each stage of the product life cycle

Advertising during the launch phase

• During the launch and introduction phase there is a lot of expenditure and intensive advertising
• Advertising will mostly be informational for example telling people what the product does, where to buy, how much it costs and what it is called
• It might also involve a little bit of persuasion for example why the customer should buy the product
• Since the product might have no imitations there is no need to compare

Advertising during the growth phase

• Focus moves merely providing information to persuading potential customers about the benefits of the product
• A little information advertising is carried out to inform those who have heard about the product about it

Advertising during the saturation stage

• Advertising is mainly persuasive with the aim being to convince customers that the advertiser’s product is of higher quality
• Comparison advertising is carried out to convince the customer that the advertiser’s product is superior to imitations
• Reminder advertising is carried out to constantly refresh the minds of customers and inform them that the product still exists and is available for sale for example Coke adverts

Advertising during the decline stage

• To combat decline the business might advertise the product extolling new uses that it might have
• With the continual decline in sales and profit the business might even choose to discontinue advertising the product

To access more topics go to the O Level Business Notes