Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Benefits and Role of Advertising

Advertising is often considered as the 'senior' element of marketing communications. This view is perhaps an historic one but is firmly entrenched in the mind of many. Those who jobs are primarily focused on other elements of the promotional mix would challenge this with justification. what is unequivocal is the fact that advertising accounts for huge proportions of promotional spends. Whether it is important or less important than the other elements should really not been an issue. Its relative importance is something that should be determined in each individual case as the marketing communication plan is developed. Each promotional element,...however, should be selected for those things that it is good at doing. And has as been identified previously, the elements should be placed together to achieve the benefits of integrative synergy.

Principal benefits of advertising are:
It can reach mass audience (large coverage).
It, increasingly, is able to reach mass audiences selectively (better targeting)It has low unit cost (low cost per thousand).
It is economical, efficient and effective at reaching large audiences.
It is successful at brand maintenance (and many argue that it is successful in brand development).

However, how well an advertising campaign is planned and implemented will have a significant bearing on whether or not the above benefits are achieved.

Although anything from religious and political beliefs to government and charitable services can be advertised, the most money be far spent around the world is on corporate and brand advertising by such global giants as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Philip Morris, General Motors to name but a few.

What role advertising should play will be affected by the overall intentions of the advertising plan although it is generally agreed that advertising is better at achieving some things rather than others. It is considered, for example, to be capable of reaching large audiences and being effective and cost efficient at achieving high levels of awareness, creating brand differentiation, informing and reminding and, over the longer term, developing and maintaining brands. Some argue that once started, advertising should be continuous activity. Although there maybe a decay effect of advertising ( if stopped, previous advertising will have a diminishing effect over a period of time), it is argue that advertising needs to be continuous if a market presence and share of voice is to be maintained. Because of the competitive nature of the marketplace, advertising should be used to maintain competitive advantage or, at least, maintain the brand in costumers' brand repertoires or consideration sets. That is to say, encourage customers to include or maintain the brand as a possible purchase along with others that they usually buy.

Reference: Integrated Marketing Communication, David Pickton and Amanda Broderick.

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