ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS

CONCEPTUAL STUDY OF PROMOTION MIX

People no longer buy shoes to keep there feet warm and dry. They
buy them because of the way the shoes make them feel masculine,
feminine, rugged, different, sophisticated, young, glamorous, "in"
buying shoes has become an emotional experience . Our business
now is selling excitement rather than shoes. - Francis C. Rooney

Modern marketing calls for more than developing a good product it

attractively and making it accessible to target customers.
Companies must also communicate with their present and potential
customers. Every company is inevitably cast into the role of
communicator and promoter.

What is communicated, however should not be left to change. To

communicate effectively; companies hire advertising agencies to
develop effective ads; sales promotion specialists to design sales
incentive programmes and public relations firms to develop the
corporate image. They train their sales people to be friendly and
knowledgeable. For most companies, the question is not whether to
communicate but rather what to say, to whom.

Promotion influences demand by communicating product and

company message to the market. A promotion Techniques involves
the co-ordination of all communication efforts aimed at a specific
audience; consumer and shareholder. The most critical promotional
question is the proper mix of advertising, personal selling, sales
promotion and publicity. The promotion mix is usually co-
ordinated on a campaign basis, taking the campaign may efforts
include a total campaign with one unified theme. All promotion
messages tie in to this theme in one way or the the, rather than
conflicting with it.

ADVERTISING

The word ‘Advertising’ has its origin from a Latin word

‘Adventure’ which means to turn to. The dictionary meaning of the
word is ‘to announce publicity or to give public concerned to a
specific thing which has been announced by the advertiser
publicity in order to inform and influence them with the ideas
which the advertisement carries. In business world the terms in
mainly used with reference to selling the product of the concern.

The advertising, as Jones defines it is "a sort of machine made

mass production method of selling which supplements the voice
and personality of the individual salesman, such as manufacturing
the machine supplements the hands of the craftsman." It is thus a
process of buying/sponsor/identified media space or time in order
to promote a product or an idea. From a careful scrutiny of the
above definition, the following points emerge :

Advertising is a paid form and hence commercial in nature. This

any sponsored communication designed to influence buyer
behaviour advertising.

Advertising is non-personal. Unlike personal selling, advertising is

done in a non-personal manner through intermediaries or media
whatever the form of advertisement (Spoken, written or visual). It
is directed at a mass audience and not directed at the individual as
in personal selling.

Advertising promotes idea, goods and services. Although most

advertising is designed to help sell goods, it is being used
increasingly to further public interest goals.

Advertising is identifiable with its sponsoring authority and

advertiser. It discloses or identifies the source of opinions and
ideas.

Advertising thus is :

1. Impersonal

2. A communication of ideas.

3. Aimed at mass audience

4. By a paying sponsor.

The two forms of mass communication that are something

confused with advertising are publicity and propaganda. If we
eliminate the elements of the "paying sponsor" (The paid
requirement) we would have the element of publicity left : For
publicity is technically speaking, advertisement without payment.
In a similar manner. If we eliminate the requirement of an
"identified sponsor", the resulting communication is
propagandistic.
It is important for us to emphasize that advertising may involve the
communication of ideas or goods of service. We are all aware that
advertising attempts to sell goods and services. But we may
overlook the more important fact that it often sells ideas.
Advertising may persuade with information; it may persuade with
emotion: more frequently, it endeavours to persuade with some
mixture of both.

(1) Electronic Media

Advertisers use two types of media to reach target consumers over

the airwaves; radio or T.V.

(A) Radio :

Advertisers using the medium of radio may also be classified as

National or Local advertisers. The radio is a prominent vehicle of
advertising in our country and accounts for a large sum of the total
advertising budget.

The radio serves principally local rather than national or large

regional markets. Many small advertisers use the radio. So do
some large organizations.

When T.V. became a factor in the advertising scene, some industry

observers felt that radio advertising might become insignificant or
even disappear. This has not been so, for radio operators have
responded to the challenge by offering programmes that features
music etc. which appeal to local audience consumers have
responded very favourably to this approach. Moreover TV does not
have much coverage in our country.

(B) Television :

Late in India, a growing class of advertising media has been the

TV. In our country, commercial advertising on TV is severely
limited because broadcast timings are only in the evenings. The
TV is a unique combination timing of sight and sound and
achieves a deeper impact than the other media do. This is
particularly advantageous for advertisers whose product require
demonstration. TV advertising offers advantage of impact, mass
coverage, repetition, flexibility and prestigious. In our country not
everyone has a TV set; therefore it does not reach everyone.
Moreover, in rural India where 76.31% of our population lives.
There are hardly any TV sets, except at the community centres
where electricity is available. Moreover, TV programmes in our
country do not offer much selectivity. The translation is limited,
any centers do not have TV towers.

TV appeals to both the senses of sound and of sight . As a result is

combines the two to produce high-impact commercials. Finally,
the fact that product or service is promoted on TV may build a
prestigious image of the product and its sponsor. The pleasure
derived from watching TV is at least potentially transferable to the
advertising message delivered through the medium.

(ii) Print Media

The print media carry their massages entirely through the visual
mode. These media consist of newspapers, magazines and direct
mail.

(A) Newspaper :

A sizable share of the total advertising budget is spent on

advertising in newspapers. Newspapers in our country virtually
reach most of the homes in the cities. Since newspapers are local,
marketers can easily use them to reach particular markets. This
selectivity is easily rigorous. Some are in the twelve-hour range.
From the viewpoint of the advertiser, newspaper offers several
advantage, they are local in content and appeal and provide
opportunity for direct communication between a product and its
local dealers or distributors. Because newspapers supply news,
they offer an atmosphere of factual information and of currency
that may be favourable for some advertising situations. Advertisers
can reach a very broad audience through newspapers which offer
great flexibility. The advertisers may choose the specific area to be
covered and the advertisement can be placed in newspapers at very
short notice as compared with other media.

(B) Magazines :

Magazines are also mean of reaching different market, both

original and matinal and of general and specific interest. An
organisation may approach national markets through such
publication as Business India, Famina, Sportsweek, India Today,
Business World and Filmfare. Some marketers divide their market
on the basis of such variable as age, educational level and interest
magazines. Magazines are divided into those parts that serve
business, industrial consumers, ladies, sports etc. The diversity of
magazines is tremendous. Some offer news or together "General
Interest" content to huge audience. Others are highly specialised,
technical or even exotic. In general, magazines offer advertiser the
opportunity to reach highly selective audience.

The primary advantage of magazine advertising are selectivity of

market targets; quantity reproduction long life; the prestige
associated with some magazines; and the extra service offered by
many publications. The quality of magazines reproduction is
usually high. Consumers sometime keep individual copies for long
period of time; reread them or pass them on to other. Some
magazines have prestige value. The marketer can cover national or
large regional markets at a low cost per contract (per individual
reached). Magazines generally offer high-quality printing of
advertisement.

(iii) OUTDOOR AND TRANSIT MEDIA

(A) Outdoor Advertising :

Outdoor advertising involves the use of sign and bill-boards,

posters or displays (such as those that appear on a building’s wall)
and electric spectacular (large, illuminated, sometime animated
sign and display). The marketers may purchase billboards on the
basis of showings. A showing indicates the percentage of the total
population of a particular geographic area that will be exposed to it
during one month period. The highest showing is 100. Here the
number of billboards is would attract approximately 50% of the
local population about 20 times during a month. Sings are usually
smaller than billboards and are erected and maintained by the
marketer rather than by the advertising media.
This form of advertising has the advantage of communication
quick and simply ideas of repetition and of the ability to promote
products that are available for sales. Outdoor advertising is
particularly effective in metropolitan and other can use this
medium to bring the products to the attention of consumers or to
remaining them of the product, while they are on shopping trips or
area disposed towards shopping. Advertisers may utilize this
medium to economically reach a large mass of people or small
local markets.

(B) Transport Advertising :

Transport advertising appears on the inside or outside of taxis,

buses, railways and other modes of passenger transportation.
Marketers may use transit advertisement to attain high exposure to
particular groups consumers on theory way to and from work and
tourists. Repeat exposure is possible for a majority of the people in
our country use public transport basis. Transport advertising is
useful in reaching consumers at an advantageous point which they
are embarking on a shopping trip. This medium is a low cost
medium.

SALES PROMOTION

According to the American Marketing Association, Sales

Promotion consists of those marketing activities other than
personal advertising and publicity that stimulate consumer
purchasing and dealer effectiveness, such as displays shows and
expositions, demonstration and various non-recurrent selling
efforts not in the ordinary routine.
Sales promotion activities are impersonal and usually non-
recurring and are directed at the ultimate consumers, industrial
consumers and middlemen. These activities tend to supplement the
advertising and personal selling efforts. Examples of sales
promotion are free product samples, trading stamps, store displays,
premiums, coupons and trade shows. For many organisations,
including the marketers of food, toys and clothing, store displays
are an important sales promotion device. Display exposes the
promotion messages to consumers at the time and place of
purchase. Such exposure is especially important for items that are
bought on impulse. Numerous consumers products are purchased
in stores that use self-service selling method's. Marketers of such
items need effective display in order to distinguish their products
from those of their rivals.

PUBLICITY

Publicity is a means of promoting the mass market and is similar to

advertising, except that it is free, is found in the editorial portion of
news media and pertains to newsworthy events. The most common
type of publicity are news release (also know as press release),
photographs and feature stories. Marketers have less control over
the nature of the publicity that their organisation and products
receive than they have over their advertising, personal selling and
sales promotions messages. Upon receiving a news release, for
instance, the editor or broadcast station programme director may
choose to throw the release in the waste paper basket, change the
hording, or print or broadcast it in the original form. The
disposition of the news release is entirely in the hands of the media
and cannot be dictated by the marketer. Publicity may be negative
as well as positive. Some products and brands have received bad
publicity; for example cigarettes, wings, artificial sweeteners have
been branded unsafe or unhealthy in the publicity which they
would rather have done without. Many a companies and trade
association officials attempt to develop favourable working
relationships, with the media in order to minimise bad publicity.
They realize that such communications to the public may have
every adverse impact upon the image of the organisation.

PERSONAL SELLING

Personal selling consists of persons to communication between the

sales persons and their prospects. Unlike advertising, it involves
personal interactions between the sources and the destination.
Advertising aims at grouping the shotgun approach, while personal
selling aims at individuals the right approach. Sales persons are in
the position to tailor their messages according to the unique
characteristics of each prospect. Further, by observing and
listening, sales persons receive immediate feedback on the extent
to which their messages are getting across. If feedback indicates
that the message is not getting across, the sales person may quickly
adjust it or the method of its presentation.

Personal selling may be a very intense means of promotion.

Consumers can easily leave the room-during a TV commercial,
ignore a store display. The most effective method of promotion
probably is to have sales person provided that the organisation has
sufficient funds. The most effective method of promotion probably
is to have sales person call upon every target consumers, for many
institutions, especially those that appeal to the mass market, this
would be terribly inefficient. As a result, they employ mass
marketing techniques such as advertising, personal selling is very
important in industrial marketing.
PUBLIC RELATIONS

Marketers engage in public relations in order to develop a

favourable image of their organisation and products join the eyes
of the public. They direct this activity to parties other than target
consumers. These "other" include the public at large labour unions,
the press and environmental groups. Public relations activities
include sponsoring, lobbying and using promotion message to
persuade members of the public to take up a desired position. The
term public relations refers to a firm's communication and
relationships with the various sections of the public. These sections
include the organisation customers, suppliers, share holders,
employees, the government, the general public and the society in
which the organisation operates. Public relations programme may
higher be formal or informal. The critical point is that every
organisation, whether or not it has a formalized (organised,
programme, should be concerned about its public relations.

ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS

Advertising is an art not a science. Effectiveness of which cannot

be measured with a mathematical or empirical formula some
advertisers argue that advertising efforts go to waste, but every
advertiser is keenly interested in measuring or in evaluation of ad.
effectiveness. Testing for the effectiveness of ad. will lead
advertisement testing must be done either before or after the ad has
done in the media. It is of two types, pretesting which is done
before the ad. has been launched and one is referred to as cost
testing which is done before the ad. has been launched and one is
referred to as cost testing which is done after launching the
advertising campaign. The basic purpose of advertising
effectiveness is to avoid costly mistakes, to predict the relative
strength of alternative strength of alternative advertising strategies
and to increase their efficiency. In measurement of ad.
effectiveness feed back is always useful even if it costs some extra
expenditure to the advertiser.

Sales-Effect :

Communication-effect advertising research helps advertisers assess

advertising's communication effects but reveals little about its sales
impact. What sales are generated by an ad that increases brand
awareness by 20% and brand preference by 10%?

Advertising's sales effect is generally harder to measure than its

communication effect. Sales are influenced by many factors
besides advertising, such as the product's features, price,
availability and competitors' actions. The fewer or more
controllable these other factors are, the easier it is to measure
advertising's effect on sales. The sales impact is easiest to measure
in direct-marketing's effect on sales. The sales impact is easiest it is
to measure in direct-marketing situations and hardest measure in
brand or corporate-image-building advertising.

PROGRESS TESTS

These assess the various stages of buyer awareness, preference,

buying intention and the actual purchase in relation to ad. effort.
They are called sales effect tests.
Measuring Sales Response to Advertising :

Though increase in sales in the true measure of advertising

effectiveness, in reality it is difficult to measure the increase that is
due to a particular advertisement. It is rather difficult to correlate
the response in sales with the advertising programme. However, a
few methods have ben discalled in the following paragraphs which
are generally used to measure the sales response to advertising.

The Netapps Method :

The term Netapps has been framed from the term net-ad-produce-
purchases. This method, which has been developed by Daniel
Starch and Staff company, requires the measurement of both
readers and non-readers who purchased and who did not purchase
the brand under investigation. The netapps method is useful in the
relative measurement of the sales-effectiveness of various
advertising approaches. But the method is subject to a high level of
false reporting and open to interviewer bias. Moreover, we have
considered advertising influence as the only factor which results in
a purchase. There may be, and often are, other variables which
affect purchases.

Sales Results Tests :

The additional sales generated by the ads are recorded, taking

several routes.
Past Sales before the ad and sales after the ad are noted. The
difference is attributed to ad impact.

Controlled Experiment : In experimental market, any one element

of marketing mix is changed. It is compared with the sales of
another similar market. The element's presence observance is a
reason for difference in sales.

Instead of two markets, the experiment can be carried on the two

groups of consumers.

The inventory audit is dealers inventory before and after the ad is

run.

Attitude Tests

This is an indirect measurement of the post-testing effects of ads

on attitudes towards the advertised product or brands. The change
in attitude as a result of advertising is assessed. The assumption is
that favourable attitude towards the product may lead to purchases.

Most ads are designed to either reinforce or change existing

attitudes. An attitude is a favourable or unfavourable feeling about
a product.