Evaluating alternative types of advertysing

Advertising, when properly understood, is a powerful tool for marketing. It can be most effective with products that can be differentiated from similar products based on consumer-accepted quality differences. However, regardless of the quality of a product’s advertising, it is important to remember that a product has to compete on its own. For example, brand preference cannot be established if the product fails to meet consumer expectations.

Below are forms of advertising you may want to consider:

1. Newspapers

Advantages – short lead time, flexible, reach large audience, community prestige, intense coverage, reader control of exposure, coordination with national advertising, merchandising service, segment consumer by geography.

Disadvantages – short life span, may be expensive relative to other media, hasty reading, poor reproduction, lack of creativity.

2. Radio

Advantages – audio capacity, short lead time, low cost relative to other media, reach demographic and geographic segmented audience, reach large audience.

Disadvantages – no visual capacity, fragmented and inflexible, temporary nature of message.

3. Magazines and Journals

Advantages – selectivity for demographic and geographic segments, high in quality reproduction, lasts as long as magazine is kept, prestigious advertisement if credibility of magazine is high, extra services, issue may be read by more than one person.

Disadvantages – long lead time, lack of flexibility in gaining attention, often limited control over location of advertisement.

4. Outdoor Advertising

Advantages – inexpensive relative to other media, quick communication of simple ideas, repetition of exposure to customers, ability to promote products available for sale nearby.

Disadvantages – brevity of the message, short exposure time, cannot target customer, public concern over esthetics.

5. Television

Advantages – impact mass coverage, repetition, flexibility in getting attention of consumer, prestige, visual and audio capabilities, short lead time.

Disadvantages – temporary nature of message, high cost relative to other media, high mortality rate for commercials, evidence of public distrust, lack of selectivity, hard to target customer, requires production specialists.

6. Direct Mail

Advantages – flexibility in reaching target audience, short lead time, intense coverage, flexibility of format, complete information, easy to personalize.

Disadvantages – high cost per person, dependency on quality of mailing list, consumer resistance, may be considered as junk mail, may be difficult and expensive to access mailing lists (Захарова Е.В., Ульянищева Л.В. Public relations and advertising in close-up. Пособие по английскому языку для гуманитарных вузов. М.: Изд-во ИМПЭ-ПАБЛИШ, 2008).

III. Define the following notions, use them in the same context as in the text:

1) consumer-accepted quality differences

2) short lead time

3) community prestige

4) intense coverage

5) public concern over esthetics

6) impact mass coverage

7) high mortality rate

8) public distrust

9) consumer resistance

10) junk mail

 

V. NETWORKING: use the internet, search for the information about unconventional types of advertising and find the answers to the following questions:

• What phenomenon is called “Extreme Advertising”?
• When should a company resort to EA?
• What type of ads can be called the best one?
• What are the design challenges of EA?
• Why is EA so powerful?
• Why is EA popular among marketers?
• What is called “guerrilla marketing”? What is the purpose of it?
• Why can GM be considered as shocking?
• Is GM sure to be successful? Why?
• Why can GM backfire?
• What is “product placement”? “advertisement placement”?
• Where is PP often used?
• What products are advertised in this way?
• Why can the films with PP be subject to criticism?

 

VII. PROJECT WORK:

Describing target markets

Marketing and advertising specialists must carry out research to determine what customers want and to develop products which satisfy customer needs. A group of customers which shares a common interest, need or desire is called a market. Companies must determine which market would be most likely to buy a certain product and aim all their marketing activities at this target. Specialists use many different methods to divide markets into precise groups.

1. find some advertisements from magazines or newspapers and decide what the target market is. Use the following questions to help you:

Where does the target live? (town, suburbs, rural area, etc.)

What is the target’s age?

sex?

marital status?

income?

occupation?

level of education?

What is the target’s social class? (working, middle, upper class, etc.)

How would you describe the target’s personality and lifestyle?

What benefits do you think the target looks for in the product? (comfort, safety, esteem, luxury, etc.)