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 Trends : 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 Technique :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
What is 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 nonpersonal 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 : T.V. - Advertising Media :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 :Outdoor advertising involves the use of sign and bill-boards, posters or displays (such as those that appear on a buildings 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 :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.