15

MANAGING MASS
CHAPTER
COMMUNICATIONS:
ADVERTISING, SALES
PROMOTIONS, EVENTS
AND EXPERIENCES,
AND PUBLIC
RELATIONS
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In this chapter, we will address the following questions:
1. What steps are required in developing an advertising program?
2. How should sales promotion decisions be made?
3. What are the guidelines for effective brand-building events and experiences?
4. How can companies exploit the potential of public relations?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas,
goods, or services by an identified sponsor. Developing an advertising program is a five-
step process: (1) set advertising objectives, (2) establish a budget, (3) choose the
advertising message and creative strategy, (4) decide on the media, and (5) evaluate
communication and sales effects. Sales promotion consists of mostly short-term
incentive tools, designed to stimulate quicker or greater purchase of particular products or
services by consumers or the trade. In using sales promotion, a company must establish
its objectives, select the tools, develop the program, implement and control it, and
evaluate the results.
Events and experiences are a means to become part of special and more personally
relevant moments in consumers’ lives. Well-managed vents can broaden and deepen the
sponsor’s relationship with its target market. Public relations (PR) includes a variety of
programs designed to promote or protect a company’s image or its individual products.
Marketing public relations (MPR), to support the marketing department in corporate or
product promotion and image making, can affect public awareness at a fraction of the
cost of advertising and is often much more credible.
OPENING THOUGHT
Students will be familiar with the major forms of advertising. What might present
challenges to some students will be the ideas surrounding the five-step process involved:
set advertising objectives, establish a budget, choose the advertising message and creative
strategy, decide on the media, and evaluate the effects. The instructor is encouraged to
present examples of differing advertising campaigns and differing forms of

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communication (print, electronic, Web-based, billboards, etc.) to show the various
opportunities and complexities involved.

The instructor is encouraged to use events and experiences (sponsorships of university or

college events are good examples to use) to demonstrate the effectiveness (or
ineffectiveness) of this media to build brand equity.

Public relations and MPR might be new material to students and the instructor is
encouraged to use professional public relations officers (university or college
representatives) as guest speakers to explain current developing practices and procedures
in this evolving specialty.

ASSIGNMENTS
Sponsorships are an integral part of life in America today. The support of college and
university’s teams by various sporting goods companies and local vendors add needed
revenues to colleges and universities. In this project, students are to contact their college
or university’s sports management program and try to discover the dollar amount that
sponsorships add to the university. Secondly, contact as many of these local sponsors as
possible and try to see how these sponsors quantify their expenditures (to the college and
university) in terms of brand awareness, purchase intent, or consumer product decision-
making.

Organizations handle advertising in differing ways. In this assignment, students should

contact different size companies in their community (one large, one medium, and one
small company) and find out who is responsible for working with their ad agencies and
how (and where) did they receive their training in developing advertising messages. Was
or did their training primarily consist of “on-the-job” training? Experience learned from
previous positions in larger firms? Or is their understanding of the operation of
advertising more of a “learn as I go” process? In compiling their data, can the students
identify any common elements? Can we draw any inference from or about advertising
from the data?

In small groups, have the students create an advertising campaign for a product/service of
their choosing, including ad copy and creative execution (mock-up print ads, a
“homemade” television commercial for example). This campaign should contain each of
the elements of the chapter material and most importantly, define the 5Ms objectives.
The remainder of their class members should evaluate each group member as to the
effectiveness of their campaign.

It has been suggested that over 70 percent of all buying decisions are made in the store
and as a result, point-of-purchase advertising has grown in its appeal. Students should
give three examples of point-of-purchase advertising that they have recently come across
(ads in-store, personal selling by a cosmetic counter salesperson, etc.) and comment on
the effectiveness to them of this type of advertising. Did they buy the product? Did the
advertising annoy them? Moreover, in the role of a marketing executive, would the
student recommend spending part of their advertising budget on this form of media?

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This assignment should be a favorite one for the students to complete. Breaking the class
up into groups, assign a different television channel (cable and network) to each group.
Have the students’ record all the television commercials shown during prime time for a
particular night (say for a Thursday night). After watching the commercials, students
should list their favorite ones, their not so favorite ones, and the ones that annoyed them
the most. Have the students share their commercials with the other class members and see
if the other members share the same opinion(s). Finally, in light of the advertising
objectives presented in this chapter, can the students “pick out” the
message of the ad?

Events, experiences, and sponsorship advertising is increasing. The chapter outlines eight
reasons given for sponsoring events. Students should choose an event or sponsorship
(recent activity on campus, attendance by students at an event, etc.) and evaluate how
effective they feel the event is/was towards achieving these eight objectives. Students
should also be able to comment on why they feel that the sponsorship event did not
achieve some of these stated objectives.

DETAILED CHAPTER OUTLINE

Opening vignette: To generate consumer interest and sales, mass media must often be
supplemented and carefully integrated with other communications (like P&G’s “Thank
You Mom” campaign).
I. Developing and Managing an Advertising Program
A. Advertising can be a cost-effective way to disseminate messages, whether to
build a brand preference or to educate people.
B. In developing an advertising program, marketing managers must always start
by identifying the target market and buyer motives.
C. Then they can make the five major decisions known as “the five Ms”:
i. Mission: What are our advertising objectives?
ii. Money: How much can we spend and how do we allocate our
spending across media types?
iii. Message: What should the ad campaign say?
iv. Media: What media should we use?
v. Measurement: How should we evaluate the results?
D. Setting the Advertising Objectives
i. An advertising objective (or goal) is a specific communications task
and achievement level to be accomplished with a specific audience in
a specific period of time.
ii. We classify advertising objectives according to whether they aim to
inform, persuade, remind, or reinforce.
1. Informative advertising aims to create brand awareness and
knowledge of new products or new features of existing
products
2. Persuasive advertising aims to create liking, preference,
conviction, and purchase of a product or service.

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 3. Reminder advertising aims to stimulate repeat purchase of
products and services.
4. Reinforcement advertising aims to convince current purchasers
they made the right choice.
iii. The advertising objective should emerge from a thorough analysis of
the current marketing situation.
E. Deciding on the Advertising Budget
i. Factors affecting budget decisions:  
1. Stage in the product life cycle
2. Market share and consumer base
3. Competition and clutter
4. Advertising frequency
5. Product substitutability
F. Developing the Advertising Campaign
i. Advertisers employ both art and science to develop the message
strategy or positioning of an ad—what it attempts to convey about the
brand—and its creative strategy—how it expresses the brand claims.
ii. They use three steps: message generation and evaluation, creative
development and execution, and social-responsibility review.
iii. Message Generation and Evaluation
1. A good ad normally focuses on one or two core selling
propositions.
2. As part of refining the brand positioning, the advertiser should
conduct market research to determine which appeal works best
with its target audience and then prepare a creative brief.
3. The more themes explored, the higher the probability of
finding an excellent one.
4. Marketers can also cut the cost of creative dramatically by
using consumers as their creative team, a strategy sometimes
called “open sourcing” or “crowdsourcing.”
iv. Creative Development and Execution  
1. The ad’s impact depends not only on what it says but, often
more important, on how it says it.
2. Every advertising medium has advantages and disadvantages.
a. Television is generally acknowledged as the most
powerful advertising medium and reaches a broad
spectrum of consumers at low cost per exposure.
b. Print media can provide detailed product information
and effectively communicate user and usage imagery.
c. Radio’s main advantage is flexibility—stations are very
targeted, ads are relatively inexpensive to produce and
place, and short closings for scheduling them allow for
quick response.
v. Legal and Social Issues  

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 a. Advertisers must not make false claims, use false
demonstrations, or create ads with the capacity to
deceive, even if no one is actually deceived.
b. Sellers in the United States are legally obligated to
avoid bait-and-switch advertising that attracts buyers
under false pretenses.
G. Choosing Media
i. Deciding on desired reach, frequency, and impact; choosing among
major media types; selecting specific media vehicles; and setting
media timing and geographical allocation.
ii. Reach, Frequency, and Impact
1. Media selection is finding the most cost-effective media to
deliver the desired number and type of exposures to the target
audience.
2. Reach (R) is most important when launching new products,
flanker brands, extensions of well-known brands, and
infrequently purchased brands or when going after an
undefined target market.
3. Frequency (F) is most important where there are strong
competitors, a complex story to tell, high consumer resistance,
or a frequent-purchase cycle.
4. Impact (I) is the qualitative value of an exposure through a
given medium.
5. A key reason for repetition is forgetting. The higher the
forgetting rate associated with a brand, product category, or
message, the higher the warranted level of repetition.
iii. Choosing Among Major Media Types
1. Media planners make their choices by considering factors such
as target audience media habits, product characteristics,
message requirements, and cost.
iv. Place Advertising Options
1. Place advertising, or out-of-home advertising, is a broad
category including many creative and unexpected forms to grab
consumers’ attention where they work, play, and, of course,
shop.
a. Billboards, public spaces, product placement, and point
of purchase reach consumers where buying decisions
are made.
b. Mobile marketing reaches consumers via smart phones
when in store.
v. Evaluating Alternate Media  
1. Nontraditional media can often reach a very precise and
captive audience in a cost-effective manner, with ads anywhere
consumers have a few seconds to notice them.
2. The message must be simple and direct.

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 3. Ad placements designed to break through clutter may also be
perceived as invasive and obtrusive, however, especially in
traditionally ad-free spaces such as in schools, on police
cruisers, and in doctors’ waiting rooms.
vi. Selecting Specific Media Vehicles
1. The media planner select the most cost-effective vehicles
within each chosen media type, relying on services that
estimate audience size, composition, and media cost and then
calculate the cost per thousand persons reached.
2. Marketers need to consider audience quality, audience-
attention probability, the medium’s editorial quality, and extra
services.
3. Media planners are using more sophisticated measures of
effectiveness and employing them in mathematical models to
arrive at the best media mix.
vii. Selecting Media Timing and Allocation
1. The advertiser makes both a macroscheduling and a
microscheduling decision.
a. The macroscheduling decision relates to seasons and
the business cycle.
b. The microscheduling decision calls for allocating
advertising expenditures within a short period to obtain
maximum impact.
2. In launching a new product, the advertiser must choose among
continuity, concentration, flighting, and pulsing.
a. Continuity means exposures appear evenly throughout a
given period.
b. Concentration calls for spending all the advertising
dollars in a single period.
c. Flighting calls for advertising during a period, followed
by a period with no advertising, followed by a second
period of advertising activity.
d. Pulsing is continuous advertising at low levels,
reinforced periodically by waves of heavier activity.
H. Evaluating Advertising Effectiveness
i. Communication-effect research, called copy testing, seeks to
determine whether an ad is communicating effectively.
ii. A company’s share of advertising expenditures produces a share of
voice (proportion of company advertising of that product to all
advertising of that product) that earns share of minds and hearts and
share of market.
iii. Sales-effect research can use a historical approach or experimental
data.
II. Sales Promotion
A. Sales promotion, a key ingredient in marketing campaigns, consists of a
collection of incentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate quicker

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 or greater purchase of particular products or services by consumers or the
trade
B. Advertising versus Promotion
i. Sales promotion expenditures increased as a percentage of budget
expenditure for a number of years, their growth has recently slowed.
ii. Some sales promotion tools are consumer franchise building,
imparting a selling message along with the deal, such as free samples,
frequency awards, coupons with a selling message, and premiums
related to the product.
iii. Sales promotion tools that are typically not brand building include
price-off packs, consumer premiums not related to a product, contests
and sweepstakes, consumer refund offers, and trade allowances.
iv. Sales promotions in markets of high brand similarity can produce a
high sales response in the short run but little permanent gain over the
longer term. In markets with high brand dissimilarity, they may be
able to alter market shares permanently.
v. The fastest-growing area in sales promotions is digital coupons,
redeemed via smart phone or downloaded to a consumer’s printer.
C. Major Decisions
i. Establishing Objectives  
1. Sales promotion objectives derive from communication
objectives, which derive from basic marketing objectives for
the product.
2. Objectives for consumers include encouraging more frequent
purchases or purchase of larger-sized units among users,
building trial among nonusers, and attracting switchers away
from competitors’ brands.
3. Retailer objectives include persuading retailers to carry new
items and more inventory, encouraging off-season buying,
encouraging stocking of related items, offsetting competitive
promotions, building brand loyalty, and gaining entry into new
retail outlets.
4. For the sales force, objectives of promotion include
encouraging their support of a new product or model,
encouraging more prospecting, and stimulating off-season
sales.
ii. Selecting Consumer Promotion Tools
1. Include samples, coupons, cash refunds, price packs,
premiums, frequency programs, prizes, patronage awards, free
trials, warranties, tie-in promotions, cross promotions, point-of-
purchase displays and demonstrations
iii. Selecting Trade Promotion Tools
1. Award money to the trade to
a. Persuade the retailer or wholesaler to carry the brand
b. Persuade the retailer or wholesaler to carry more units
than the normal amount

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 c. Induce retailers to promote the brand by featuring,
display, and price reductions
d. Stimulate retailers and their sales clerks to push the
product
iv. Selecting Business and Sales Force Promotion Tools
1. To gather leads, impress and reward customers, and motivate
the sales force
v. Developing the Program
1. In deciding to use a particular incentive, marketers must first
determine its size, conditions for participation, the duration of
the promotion, the distribution vehicle, the timing, and the total
sales promotion budget.
vi. Implementing and Evaluating the Program  
1. Marketing managers’ implementation and control plans must
cover lead time and sell-in time for each individual promotion.
2. Manufacturers can evaluate the program using sales data,
consumer surveys, and experiments.
III. Events and Experiences
A. Events Objectives
i. To identify with a particular target market or lifestyle
ii. To increase salience of company or product name
iii. To create or reinforce perceptions of key brand image associations
iv. To enhance corporate image
v. To create experiences and evoke feelings
vi. To express commitment to the community or on social issues
vii. To entertain key clients or reward key employees
viii. To permit merchandising or promotional opportunities
ix. The result of an event can still be unpredictable and beyond the
sponsor’s control.
B. Major Sponsorship Decisions
i. Choosing event opportunities: Because of the number of sponsorship
opportunities and their huge cost, many marketers are becoming more
selective.
ii. Designing sponsorship programs: Many marketers believe the
marketing program accompanying an event sponsorship ultimately
determines its success.
iii. Measuring sponsorship activities: It’s a challenge to measure the
success of events.
C. Creating Experiences
i. Experiential marketing not only communicates features and benefits
but also connects a product or service with unique and interesting
experiences.
ii. Many firms are creating their own events and experiences to create
consumer and media interest and involvement.
IV. Public Relations

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 A. A public is any group that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on a
company’s ability to achieve its objectives
B. Public relations (PR) includes a variety of programs to promote or protect a
company’s image or individual products.
C. PR departments counsel top management to adopt positive programs and
eliminate questionable practices so negative publicity doesn’t arise in the first
place and perform the following five functions:
i. Press relations—Presenting news and information about the
organization in the most positive light
ii. Product publicity—Sponsoring efforts to publicize specific products
iii. Corporate communications—Promoting understanding of the
organization through internal and external communications
iv. Lobbying—Dealing with legislators and government officials to
promote or defeat legislation and regulation
v. Counseling—Advising management about public issues as well as
company positions and image during good times and bad
D. Marketing Public Relations
i. Support corporate or product promotion and image making and serves
the marketing department
ii. Used to be called publicity, the task of securing editorial space—as
opposed to paid space—in print and broadcast media to promote or
hype a product, service, idea, place, person, or organization.
iii. MPR goes beyond simple publicity and plays an important role in the
following tasks:
1. Launching new products 
2. Repositioning mature products 
3. Building interest in a product category 
4. Influencing specific target groups 
5. Defending products that have encountered public problems 
6. Building the corporate image in a way that reflects favorably
on its products 
E. Major Decisions in Marketing PR
i. Establish the marketing objectives, choose the PR messages and
vehicles, implement the plan, and evaluate the results.

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