Effective Promotion

Introduction

       Advertising “is a paid for form of non-personal communication that is transmitted through mass media” (Dibb, et al (2006) p538). This report will discuss advertising media which are means used to communicate the message to targeted audience. Moreover it will give examples to show how different companies use advertising media to make their promotion effective.

Model/theory

        According to Adcock, et al (2001) major advertising media are television, radio, newspapers, magazines, business and professional journals, outdoor/transport and cinema. This report specializes on four media which are newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Good use of Media is important because it makes advertisement effective by making buyers pay attention to it, then get interested to it, and have a desire on the product and finally decide to buy the product.

Discussion

        According to Brassington and Pettitt (2003), newspaper enable advertisers to communicate quickly and flexibly to large population. Newspaper advertisement is relatively cheaper compared to other media. There fore an advertiser who have small budget and want to communicate to large population should use newspapers. For example, home comfort care advertised scooters on Times & citizen in order to communicate quickly and cheaply to Bedford citizens. However newspapers have short life and once someone read it he will never read it again. Furthermore some of the newspaper readers are skim readers, so there is the possibility of the message being undelivered. Newspapers are not applicable to illiterates and blind people, so advertiser who their target is blind peoples should not use newspapers.

           

              According to Adcock, et al (2001) magazines make easier for advertisers to be selective by dividing and targeting the audience. For example men who want to lose weight will be interested in health magazines. Therefore advertisers should use different magazines in order to make their promotion effective. For example Nike sports clothing which have been advertised on the back page of the athletics weekly magazine (sport magazine) in order to attract people who are engaging themselves or like sports to buy those clothes. Moreover, magazines have longer life than newspapers. However it is more expensive than newspaper and cheaper than television.

            Chee and Harris (1993) said radio has an ability to reach new and old consumers wherever and whatever they may be doing. Radio can persuade and communicate to prospective buyers cheaply compared to television within its transmission area due to its objectives of entertaining and informing. Therefore advertisers who want to communicate with buyers within the area limit should use radio in order to make its advert effective. For example Michael Jackson show which advertised on radio Heart in order to communicate with people within Bedford and around it. However, radio is unsuitable for nation and worldwide advertisement and to children below 10 years because most of them like visual advertisements.

           Brassington and Pettitt (2003) argued that television is the most important non-personal communication channel which has a wide coverage to its audience. Through television messages can be delivered through combination of sound, colour, motion and entertainment. Advertiser used different channels and programmes to communicate their message, thus it is expected to see advert of sports equipments on sports channels such as Setanta and sky sports in order for that advert to be effective. For example lucozade sport which has been advertised on Setanta. That advert is effective because most of the people who watch Setanta either like or engage themselves in sport activities, therefore they may need lucozade sport drink. However television is expensive compared to other media and there is wastage of message in television. For example Mazda advert on BBC, that advert was targeted to over 18 but the message is being communicated to both under and over 18 which is wastage of message.

Conclusion

          in the light of above arguments, it can be concluded that advertising media are among factors which should be taken in to consideration when producing an advertisement in order to make that advert effective. However through advertisement it is difficult to concentrate all efforts to effective buyers like personal selling do. Furthermore advertisement sometimes is does not create unique approaches which matches the prospective buyer’s mood and need. For example Mazda advertisement on BBC to all audience regardless you have already bought one or not, or you have money to buy it or not.

Reference

Adcock, D. and Halborg, A. and Ross, C. (2001) Marketing: Principles & practice. 4^th ed. Harlow, Pearson education limited

Baker, M. J. (1996) Marketing: An introductory text. 6^th ed. London, Macmillan press ltd

Brassington, F. and Pettitt, S (2003) Principles of marketing. 3^rd ed. Harlow, Pearson education limited

Chee, H. and Harris, R. (1993) Marketing: A global perspective. London, pitman publishing

Dibb, S. and Simkim, L. and Pride, W. M. and Ferrell, O. C (2006) marketing concepts and strategies. 5^th Ed. New York, Houghton Mifflin