Advertising

Advertising

What is advertising?

Advertising is a very popular method of promotion. Advertising refers to the use of any paid-for space or time in the media that is used to meet the aims and objectives of a business. Advertising can be used to achieve a range of objectives.

Advertising is designed to sell or to carry a message to an audience. It can be presented in many highly creative ways and can be seen in a range of different media.

Examples of advertising can be found:

• On television
• In newspapers and magazines
• In the street
• In shops and town centres.

Advantages:

• Gets details about products to consumers.
• Helps businesses stay ahead of the market.
• Lets consumers know all their different choices so they realise what is the best option for them.

Disadvantages:

• Creates competition.
• Creates problems for smaller businesses that don't have the necessary resources to advertise on larger scales.
• Can be deceiving to consumers.

The main types of media available to most marketing teams can be grouped as:

• Print, such as newspapers, magazines and posters.
• Audio, such as radio and recordings
• Moving image, including television or cinema
• Ambient media, a wide range of non-traditional media and branding opportunities
• New media, includes texts, SMS, screen pop-ups, and other web-based opportunities

Factors to consider when planning advertising:

Media profile:

• This is a description of the reading, viewing or listening market for a particular medium.
• The description will take the form of a geographic a d psychographic segmentation.
• When planning advertising for a product, it is important to match the profile of advertising media used as closely as possible to the profile of the target market for the product.
• If the profiles match, advertising is more likely to be successful.
• If the profiles do not match, the advertising may not achieve the marketing objectives.
• There will be a lot of wastage and expenses as a result of advertising to people that are not in the market for the product.

Example:

If a new computer game is advertised in a gamer’s magazine the profiles of the reader of the magazine and buyers of the game will be very close. If that same new game was advertised in a national daily newspaper, it may have the same number of games buyers among its readers, but the advertisement could be wasted on the majority of readers who are not in the market for computer games.

Coverage:

• This is the percentage of the target audience that will be reached by a particular advertisement.
• Coverage can be increased by repeat advertising because each time an advertisement is shown the individuals within the percentage that are exposed to the advertisement will be different.
• Another way of increasing coverage is to advertise across a mix of different media.

 Example:

A business may use television advertising to reach a mass audience and support the television advertising with posters. This mix will increase the exposure to heavy television viewers and also pick off the part of the target audience that does not watch much television.

Frequency:

• This refers to how often an advertisement appears.
• It may be once a month or once a week in newspapers and magazines or, in the case of television and radio advertising, the number of times during a day the advertisement is broadcast.
• It can also be used to describe how often an individual in the target audience is likely to see a particular advertisement during an advertising campaign.
• Advertising plans often compare the likely effects of short, high frequency campaigns with longer, low frequency advertising.
• The decision about which to choose will be a balance of the cost and the impact of both campaigns against the objectives for advertising in the first place. 

Timing:

• A business needs to consider when advertising will be launched to make sure that it makes a big impact and maximises its potential.
• When planning the advertising of a product that has a definite start date, such as the opening of a new film, the timing of the advertisement is vital.
• Starting too soon could mean that the target audience may be stimulated, but frustrated that it has to wait before the film is launched.
• Starting too late could mean that the advertising may not have a sufficient time to achieve full coverage of the target audience and will be wasted.
• It is important to plan the timing of advertising at the same time as other marketing plans to make sure that they co-ordinate and support each other.
• Equally, it is important to have to cut off date in advertising plans, to decide when not to advertise.

Reasons for stopping advertising may depend on:

• The budget
• The overall marketing plans, aims and objectives
• The product life cycle
• Seasonal factors

Example:

It would be a waste of money to continue advertising an old product that has been replaced by a newer version. Like production processes, advertising will be subject to lead times, the time it takes to produce the advertisement and book it into media ahead of a start date. The lead-time must be built into the marketing plan.

Appropriateness:

• It is important to consider how appropriate a particular medium is for the product being advertised. 
• A particular medium may appear to match the profile of the target market.
• Also may appear to be cost effective.
• However, if it is not appropriate the image and reputation of the product may be affected.
• A small classified advertisement in a magazine, that has the right profile for car buyers, may not be as appropriate for a new model as full-page advertisement in the same magazine.
• It is also important to consider what the audience can do as a result of seeing the advertisement.
• It would be no good advertising a direct sell product in a cinema where the audience will find it difficult to use their mobile phones to call and buy the product.
• In this case it would be better to advertise to people in their homes.
• Here they will have access to the telephone, light to see to dial and are less likely to disturb the rest of the audience.

Cost:

• All advertising costs money.
• Advertisers are likely to have a limited budget to spend on advertising.
• Balancing the two to get the most effective advertising out of a given budget is an important part of planning promotional activity.
• The cost of advertising can be divided into two areas.

The cost of production

• This is how much it costs to create and put together an advertisement before it can be used.
• At the one extreme is the cost of producing a television advertisement, which is likely to be many tens of thousands of pounds.
• This will include not just the creation of the ideas and concepts for the advertisement, but the writing of the script, the hiring of actors, production crew, the film studio and the skilled technicians that make the film.
• During an evening’s viewing of any commercial television channel there are many advertisements that vary in the cost of production, from lavish mini films with actors, through animated commercials to simple commercials that just show products on a simple set.
• The production of advertisements for other media is relatively less expensive as they require fewer resources for production. 

The cost of media space:

• This is how much it costs to actually show the advertisement to the target audience.
• Like production cost the cost of media space varies according to how many people will see the advertisement, the proportion of the target audience that is reached and the impact it makes.
• Its own market and competitive forces also affect the cost of media space.
• Newspapers and magazines compete with each other for advertisers as much as they compete for readers.
• As a result, they will use promotional tactics to attract advertisers, price being one of the most common.
• There is similar competition for advertisers between commercial television channels and commercial radio stations.
• Media space is also subject to supply and demand.
• This means that when demand is high the price of advertising space rises.
• For example – at the time of important sporting events, when demand falls, the cost of advertising will fall to attract advertisers back into the market. 

Business objectives:

• The most important consideration when planning any advertising is ‘Will this advertising help meet the aims and objectives for this product or for the business in a cost-effective way?’
• If the answer is yes, the advertising is a marketing plan to consider.
• If not, then another marketing strategy may need to be found.

Advertising controls:

• All advertisements should be legal, decent, honest and truthful.
• In addition to the terms and conditions laid down by individual media owners, all broadcast advertisements, sales promotions, direct marketing communications and other marketing communications concerned with promotion in the UK are subject to the British code of advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing.
• This code is like a rulebook for the industry and for any business that is involved in promotion.
• The code is revised and enforced by a self-regulatory industry body, the committee of advertising practice (CAP)
• The rules of the CAP code apply not only to the advertisements in newspapers, magazines and on posters, but to many other methods by which companies communicate with consumers, including direct mail, emails and text messages, cinema commercials, special offers and prize promotions.
• Advertising is also subject to consumer protection legislation, the most important being the Trade Description Act, 1968 that protects the customer against false claims.

Control	Effect
The BCAP Radio Advertising Standards Code	Sets out the rules that govern advertisements on any radio station licensed by Ofcom
The BCAP Television Advertising Standards Code	Sets out the rules that govern advertisements on any television channel licensed by Ofcom.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)	The independent body that endorses and administers the CAP code. It is also responsible for investigating and adjudicating on complaints about advertisements by enforcing the BCAP code.
Ofcom	The UK’s communications industry regulator with wide ranging responsibilities across the UK’s communications markets. At the end of 2003 Ofcom inherited the duties of the five existing regulators it replaced – The Broadcasting Standards Commission, the Independent Television Commission, Oftel, the Radio Authority and the Radio communications Agency.