Business Marketing

Communications: Advertising
 Introduction
 Why marketing communication is important?
 Marketers have learned that not even the best products
sell themselves.
 Benefits, problem solutions and cost efficiencies need
to be sold through effective communication from users
to influencers to decision makers.
 In B2B market, communication is more important due
to:
◦ Product complexities (technical),
◦ The small number of buyers,
◦ The high price of several products/services, and
◦ Extensive negotiation process
 Introduction
 The primary communications tool for selling business
products/services is the:
 Personal Selling
 Other Non-personal communication tools are:
 Advertising
 Catalogs
 Internet/social media
 Trade shows
 Sales promotion
 All tools have a unique way of getting the message out,
however, they don’t close deals similar to personal
selling.
 Integrated Marketing Communication
 Integrated Communications is the integration of all
communication tools to achieve desired objectives.
 In B2B Marketing, primarily focus is on personal
selling and integration of all non-personal
communication tools to enhance its effectiveness and
efficiency.
 For example,
◦ Advertising creates awareness
◦ Tradeshow generate quality sales leads.
◦ Sales promotion offers an incentive to buy
◦ Public relation build credibility of the claim
◦ Personal selling – customize the product, persuade the
customer, handle objections, and close the sale.
 Role of Advertising in IMC
 Enhancing Sales Effectiveness
 Combining advertising and personal selling makes the
selling job easier and more efficient.
 People who were aware of the ad thought the
salesperson was more knowledgeable than companies
that don’t advertise.
 Profits and gross margins also increase when
advertising is employed.
 Enhancing Sales Efficiency
 Educate the customers and serves as a reminder
 Informs the market about new product or service.
 Reduce sales person’s burden – most expensive
compare to advertising.
 Role of Advertising in IMC
 Business advertising creates:
 Awareness
 Brand preference
 Conviction that a brand will meet their requirements
 Facilitate purchase
 Create 2 way communication
 The Internet has created a two-way communication
process, permitting the marketer to rapidly exchange
information. E.g. Toll free No., E-mail, WhatsApp.
 This flexibility has allowed the marketer to personalize
communications and customize solutions.
 What B2B Advertising Can’t Do!
 Cannot create product preference for many products
e.g. commodity products.
 Cannot close a sale!
 Cannot substitute for personal selling.
 Can supplement personal selling but not replace it.
Managing B2B Advertising
 Advertising Objectives
 Marketing managers realize that advertising’s
objectives flows directly from the marketing strategy.
 Advertising’s job is to:
 Create awareness, and provide information
 Influence attitudes, and remind buyers about product
 Advertising objectives must be realistic, measurable,
and specific.
 Example: To be effective, the advertising campaign
shall increase awareness from 15% to 30% during the
period from April 1st to June 31st.
 Advertising should improve the customers attitude
from negative to neutral or neutral to positive (e.g. on
the scale of 1 to 5)
 Defining the Target Market
 Marketers must understand who the target market is
and how to reach them for an advertising campaign to
be effective.
 Target market consists of all the people involved in the
purchase decisions.
 Target market selection has important implications for:
◦ Media selection
◦ Message formulation
 E.g. Specific trade journal (print media), and message
should be rational – attributes and benefits that solve
customers problem.
 Advertising Expenditures
 How much to spend on the advertising?
 Several methods are available:
 1. Percentage of sales method
 E.g. Advertising budget (2021) = 5% of sales (2020)
 Highly used method – simple and easy to implement.
 Problems:
 It makes advertising a consequent rather than a
determinant of sales and profits.
 It suggests that marketer should reduce the advertising
when sales volume declines – just when advertising may
be more appropriate.
 The purpose of advertising is to inform and influence
sales, but it is not to create sales.
 Advertising Expenditures
 2. Competitive matching
 Focus on competitors but ignore firm’s financial
conditions and other factors.
 3. Objective and Task method
 A better approach for allocating advertising costs is to
relate them to advertising objectives.
 The Objective-Task Method focuses on the
communications effects of advertising.
 Objective-Task Method
 Establish marketing objectives in terms of sales
volume, market share, and profit contribution.
 Assess all communication functions to realize these
objectives. E.g. awareness, education, attitude,
persuasion etc.
 Define specific goals required to meet these objectives
such as market share.
 E.g. 60% awareness level, 45% of the customers should
have positive attitude and knowledge, 20% should
believe that new product has extra benefits.
 Select appropriate media for achieving above goals e.g.
print advertising.
 Estimate the budget needed to accomplish them.
 Developing the Message
 Advertising message should focus on purchase criteria:
Benefits
 Benefits: Solving customers problem- Faster delivery
time, cost reduction or performance improvement, and
other competitive advantage.
 Message should have direct appeal to customers and
should trigger their actions e.g. Toll free number,
website and distributor information, product
demonstration.
 If product is new, marketers should conduct research to
identify the buying criteria.
 Analyze most appropriate language, format and style to
present message.
Developing the Message
 Selecting Media
Manager should select media based on message
budget and access to target audience.
Several options are available:
1. Print media e.g. news paper, trade journals etc.
2. Online media e.g. micro-website, social
networking site, you tube, LinkedIn etc.
3. Direct mail – Email and Mail through courier.
 Print Media
 There are more than 2700 business publications—
selecting the right ones is another difficult task.
 2 type of publications
 Horizontal Publications are directed at the specific task,
function or technology regardless of industry.
 E.g. targeted to multiple industries and product is
useful in all industries (general purpose)- office
furniture.
 Vertical Publications are oriented to readers in a
specific industry.
 Directed towards specific industry/profession.
 E.g. medical products are advertised in medical
marketing journals.
 Online Media
 B2B marketers are always looking for ways to
communicate better with customers & prospects.
 Use of Internet microsites (specialized web pages that
prospects jump to from an email that contain videos) is
providing excellent results. E.g. vertical net.
 Videos are particularly effective for telling the story
and producing serious leads.
 Search engine - use of proper key words or key phrases
within the site is an absolute necessity for driving leads
to that site. E.g. google
 Direct Mail & E-mail
 Direct Mail is commonly used for:
 Sales force support by providing leads
 Distribution channel communications
 Getting pertinent information directly to influential.
 Direct mail is efficient providing the list is good.
 Direct mail is 10 times more expensive than e-mail
 Email:
 E-mail campaigns often yield more responses and results
are quicker.
 Example: 1/3 of all responses were generated within 24hrs.
 Many firms integrate their CRM programs with e-mail.
 Several firms provide an e-mail alert service and/or an e-
mail newsletter.
 Measuring Effectiveness
 How to measure effectiveness of communication?
 Direct communication is measured by: “percent
awareness.”
 Indirect communications are measured by: “word-of-
mouth”.
 Awareness and Knowledge
 Recognition and Recall
 Preference and Motivation
 It is not always possible to measure effects on actual
sales.
Measuring Effectiveness
Thanks