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UNIT 13. ADVERTISING
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After you have read and studied this unit, you should be able to Analyze the different kinds of sales promotions Discuss what makes a successful advertising campaign KEY TERMS Advertorial : A paid-for advertisement which includes editorial content; normally identified in a print magazine with the word "Advertisement" printed as a head across the top of the page to distinguish it from genuine (in theory unbiased) editorial content Advertising agency : The organization that takes care of advertising for clients. Advertising campaign : A time-limited set of ads - campaigns may run across different media, and for one month or ten years, but can be categorized together as they are the execution of a central idea Demographics : Describing an audience by age, gender, ethnicity, or location – i.e the facts about them Focus Groups : Small, select groups representing a target audience who are paid to answer questions at the behest of a market research organization Product Placement : The practice of paying for a branded product to be used by a character in a movie – e.g James Bond driving a BMW Z Product Positioning : Establishing the market niche of a product - which may not be as the brand leader - and advertising to the appropriate segment of the audience USP : Unique Selling Proposition/Point - a highlighted benefit of a product which makes it stand out from all rival brands. LEAD- IN To what extent do you think your purchases are influenced by advertising? How many advertising messages do you think you see or hear on an average day? How many times do you think you have to see an ad or a brand name before you remember it? When has advertising ever persuaded you to buy things you don't need or even things you don't want? READING 1: Read the text below and on the next page and decide which paragraphs should be given the following headings: A. Advertising spending and sales B. How companies advertise C. Word-of-mouth advertising and viral marketing D. Potential drawbacks of advertising
Advertising and viral marketing ____________ Advertising informs consumers about the existence and benefits of products and services and attempts to persuade them to buy them. Most companies use advertising agencies to produce their advertising for them. They give the agency a statement of the objectives of the advertising campaign, known as a brief, an overall advertising strategy concerning the message to be communicated to the target customers, and a budget. The agency creates advertisements (often abbreviated to adverts or ads) and develops a media plan specifying which media - newspapers, magazines, the Internet, radio, television, cinema, posters, mail, etc. - will be used and in which proportions. ____________ It is always difficult to know how much to spend on advertising. Increased ad spending can increase sales, but many companies just spend a fixed percentage of current sales revenue, or simply spend as much as their competitors (the comparative-parity method). On the other hand, lots of creative and expensive advertising campaigns, including television commercials that lots of people see and remember, and which win prizes awarded by the advertising industry for the best ads, don't lead to increased sales. ____________ Advertising is widely considered to be essential for launching new consumer products. Combined with sales promotions such as free samples, price reductions and competitions, advertising may generate the initial trial of a new product. But traditional advertising is expensive, it doesn't always reach the target customers, and it isn't always welcome if it does reach them. People might choose to look at posters in the street or on public transport (and virtual ones in computer and video games) or look at the ads in newspapers and magazines, but many other ads interrupt them when they're trying to do something else, like read a web page, listen to the radio, or watch a TV programme or a film. ____________ This is why the best form of advertising has always been word-of-mouth advertising: people telling their friends about good products and services. For example, at the end of the last century, more and more people were saying to their friends Have you used Google? It's great. Today, word-of-mouth has developed into viral marketing: companies succeed in getting people to spread commercial messages, like a virus, via peer-to-peer (P2P) networks on the Internet. The classic example is Hotmail, which added a little advertisement for itself at the bottom of every email sent using a Hotmail address. In the mid-1990s, the number of users increased from 500,000 to 12 million within a year. More and more companies are trying new strategies like setting up blogs or online forums, commenting on other people's blogs and social networking websites, making podcasts, and putting videos on YouTube, and hoping that people will use the 'Share' function to send a link to all their contacts. Viral marketing allows companies to inform and persuade, and create a buzz', so that an idea spreads very quickly, at very little cost. Comprehension: Read the text again and answer these questions.
- What are the two functions of advertising?
- What is the role of advertising agencies?
- What three different methods of determining advertising spending are mentioned?
- What does the text describe as the disadvantages of traditional advertising?
The campaign's developers- including Channel 4's in-house creative team, Wieden + Kennedy, Starcom, Collective and Hicklin Slade & Partners spent more than a month pushing the Honda slogan of “difficult is worth doing” before Thursday night's slot. A poster campaign, a series of television “teaser” advertisements and a website have been backed up by digital advertising and press coverage. All are building up to a traditional 30- second advertising campaign, starting on June I, said Ian Armstrong, Marketing Manager of Honda UK. “The 30-second ad is alive and well,” Mr Barnes said. pointing to data released this week which showed that commercial television had enjoyed its best April in five years. For Honda, however, the elements surrounding the core 30-second campaign are designed to generate the intangible buzz of word-of-mouth advertising, Mr Barnes added. Thursday night’s skydive would almost certainly go on YouTube, Mr Amstrong predicted. “Commercially, that's a fantastic result, as it means our marketing investment becomes more efficient because consumers are doing our marketing for us.” B. Read the article again and answer the questions.
- Why did Honda need a new publicity stunt with skydivers?
- Why was the Honda advert unique?
- Why are Sky+ and Tivo a problem for advertisers?
- What happened in the Honda advert?
- What happened in LG's 'Scarlet' campaign?
- What did the Honda campaign's developers do?
- What different types of advertising did Honda use? CASE STUDY 1: Focus Advertising Background Focus, a large advertising agency based in Paris, has a reputation for creating imaginative and effective campaigns. At present, Focus is competing for several contracts. It has been asked to present ideas for advertising campaigns to the management of the companies concerned. Concepts are required for the following advertising campaigns. A chain of eight restaurants in your country The restaurants are in prime locations. Low-fat and vegetarian dishes served in a clean, simply furnished, non-smoking environment. Reasonably priced, but not attracting enough customers. Target consumer: health-conscious people of all ages. Aim: A creative campaign to improve sales. A perfume An upmarket perfume. Produced by a well-known fashion house.
Will be endorsed by a famous personality. Target consumer: aged 25-40 who enjoy luxury and sophistication. Aim: Launch the perfume in an English-speaking country. A sports car A high-priced, hand-finished model with a classic design. Originally popular in the 1950s and 60s. Available in both coupé and soft-top versions. Target consumer: high-income executives with a sense of fun and style. Aim: An international press and TV campaign. You are a member of an advertising team at Focus. Prepare an advertising campaign for one of the products or services, Use the Key questions below to help you. KEY QUESTIONS (ADVERTISING TEAM) What is the campaign's key message? What special features does the product or service have? What are its USPs (Unique Selling Points)? Who is your target audience? What media will you use? Several, or just one or two? If you use: an advertisement - write the text and do rough artwork. a TV commercial - use a storyboard to illustrate your idea. a radio spot - write the script, including sound effects and music. other media - indicate what pictures, text, slogans, etc., will be used. What special promotions will you use at the start of the campaign? CASE STUDY 2 A. Tribes Travel Core business: fair trade, ecotourism and responsible travel We use a Fairtrade travel mark for all our eco-tourism. This involves: paying people a fair wage for the services they provide, making sure these people aren't exploited, and ensuring our tourism (and money generated from this) has a positive effect on local people and the environment. We promote learning about each other's cultures through local guides and involve local people in the trips. Our tourist groups are small to ensure minimum impact on the wildlife, environment and local communities. We have an affiliated charity which supports poverty reduction, education, cultural preservation and conservation projects within areas affected by tourism. B. Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Core business: selling ice cream
Advertising informs consumers about the existence and benefits of products and services and attempts to persuade them to buy them. The best form of advertising is free (1) ____________ advertising, which occurs when satisfied customers recommend products or services to their friends, but very few companies rely on this alone. Large companies could easily set up their own advertising departments, but they tend to hire the services of a/an (2) ____________. A contract to produce advertisements for a specific company, product, or service is known as a/an (3) ____________. The client company generally decides on its advertising (4) ____________ the amount of money it plans to spend in developing its advertising and buying media time or space. It also provides a (5) ____________, or a statement of the objectives of the advertising, as well as an overall advertising strategy concerning what (6) ____________ is to be communicated. The choice of how and where to advertise (newspapers and magazine ads, radio and television commercials, cinema ads, posters on hoardings (GB) or billboards (US), point-of-purchase displays in stores, mailings of leaflets, brochures or booklets, and so on), and in what proportions, is called a (7) ____________. The set of customers whose needs a company plans to satisfy, and therefore to expose to an advertisement are known as the (8) ____________ market. The advertising of a particular product or service during a particular period of time is called an advertising (9) ____________. Favourable mentions of a company's products or services, in any medium read, viewed or heard by a company's customers or potential customers, that are not paid for, are called (10) ____________.
- a. mouth-to-mouth b. mouth-to-ear c. word-of-mouth
- a. advertising agency b. advertising company c. public relations company
- a. account b. arrangement c. deal
- a. campaign b. budget c. effort
- a. brief b. dossier c. message
- a. facts b. message c. opinions
- a. medium plan b. medias plan c. media plan
- a. aimed b. segmented c. target
- a. campaign b. mix c. plan
- a. promotions b. publicity c. public relations EXERCISE 3. Match the terms on the left with the definitions on the right
- brand-switcher
- brand image
- brand loyalty
- free sample
- industrial buyer a. a certificate offering consumers a price reduction on a particular product b. a consumer who shows no loyalty to a particular brand, but changes among competing products c. a popular product sold with no profit, in order to attract customers to a store
- initial trial
- loss leader
- price-conscious (adjective)
- purchasing cycle
- redeemable coupon d. a small amount of a new product given to consumers to encourage them to try it e. someone who purchases goods or services that will be used in the production or supply of other goods or services f. strongly influenced by the price when goods or services g. the average length of time between a consumer's repeat purchases of the same product h. the commitment of consumers to a particular brand i. the first time a consumer buys a product to see what it's like j. the public's beliefs and perceptions about particular product UNIT REVIEW
- What do you think makes an advertisement memorable: humour? originality? the use of famous actors or personalities? endless repetition? nudity? other elements?
- Do you find the advertisements on television generally: informative? persuasive? amusing? well made? artistic? worth watching? an annoying interruption to the programmes? sometimes better than the programmes?
- Give examples of ads that you have enjoyed.
- Give examples of ads that have persuaded you to buy the product.
- Have you ever passed on advertising material by email or discussed products in blogs or online forums, thereby helping advertise an organization's products or services? REFERENCES
- Mackenzie, I., 2010, English for Business Studies , Cambridge University Press.
- Stimpson, P., & Farquharson, A, 2021, Business for Cambridge International AS&A level , Cambridge University Press.
- Mackenzie, I., 1997. Management and Marketing , Thomson.
- Cotton, D., Falvey, D., Kent, S., 2016, Market Leader Intermediate , Pearson.
- Duckworth, M., Turner, R., 2008, Business Result , Oxford University Press.
