Task2: how professional advertising agencies can contribute to the success of a marketing campaign
Unit 3 task 2
By Anzal Ali
Task2 A: How professional advertising agencies can contribute to the success of a marketing campaign.
An advertising campaign is normally organised with the services of an advertising agency. The company employing the agency must provide clear guidelines on how the campaign should be developed. This is normally done in a campaign brief which contains the following sections.
> The background of the purposed campaign.
This will include comments about the market and the organisation's current objectives. Why there is need for some promotional activity, and how is it expected to contribute to the overall aims of the organisations.
> The objective of the promotional activity.
Along with any marketing aims it is designed to support. The objective should be clear and measurable, and given a time scale.
> The target market
These are the people the promotional activity is intended to influence. To build a customer profile all the detail about the consumer is required e.g. age, gender, income, ethnic background, where they live, interests and etc. whilst knowing about your market it is also important to keep an eye on the competition.
> All the details about the product
The agency should understand the process involved in the production method and identify the differences from the competitor's products, which give their product an USP (unique selling point).
> The budget
Setting a budget is very difficult, since there is not an obvious direct link between the promotions and sales.
> The time scale of the campaign
The advertising may need to be timed to coincide with a particular event or date e.g. New Year's Eve.
Functions of advertising agencies
Media planning
The media team decides where the advertisement should be shown e.g. radio or Television, or space in the magazine or the newspaper. Their aim is to reach the target audience in a cost effective manner and their knowledge of media enables them to do this.
Designing the advertisements
The creative department develops a promotional idea through effective copywriting (writing words used in an advertisement), distinctive typography (layout and styles of writing) and effective graphic designs e.g. the "Nike tick"
.
Producing the advertisements
The production team task is to design imaginative props, generate computer animation and backdrops.
Help in identifying the target audience
The planning team will help determine the type of consumers at which to target the promotion at e.g. age, gender etc. Planning teams sometimes use market research to discover more about the consumer, which helps them to build a customer profile, or test proposed ideas before making the final decision.
Providing public relation activity
Some full-service agencies also include a public relations service, which writes press releases and organises conferences and exhibitions.
Providing a direct marketing support
Some agencies like The Raft also have a direct marketing ...
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Help in identifying the target audience
The planning team will help determine the type of consumers at which to target the promotion at e.g. age, gender etc. Planning teams sometimes use market research to discover more about the consumer, which helps them to build a customer profile, or test proposed ideas before making the final decision.
Providing public relation activity
Some full-service agencies also include a public relations service, which writes press releases and organises conferences and exhibitions.
Providing a direct marketing support
Some agencies like The Raft also have a direct marketing team, which advises clients on how to use direct personalised mail, direct response advertising in publications such as Sunday supplement, telemarketing and the internet.
Here are two examples of real life advertising agencies
CFA Marketing Communications
Background information
This agency was established in 1986, they employ a highly creative and motivated team of marketing professionals from four offices - Maidstone, South end, Norwich and Hitchin - offering a range of services including PR, Graphic Design, Advertising and Telemarketing.
Today the company operates three distinct divisions - CFA Marketing Communications providing services to a wide range of business to business clients throughout the UK, CFA Media is responsible for media planning, media buying and graphic design for consumer markets, and CFA Community Marketing working alongside clients operating in the public sector.
This marketing agency has resources and expertise to provide the business with marketing support to your business needs.
Panther Interactive Marketing
Background information
Panther Interactive Marketing was formed in 1995 with a small contingent of highly qualified marketers. Now 10 years on Panther includes skilled professionals from a variety of disciplines. Highly qualified E-marketing and IT consultants, Graphic Designers and Research specialists have been added to the team to offer a
Wide range of new services. Panther's chartered marketers provide a unique set of skills that can be used to drive your business forward using a wide variety of tools and approaches. Panther focuses on marketing from the ground upwards, starting looking at the business as a whole, then focusing on the market that a business operates in and assessing the possibilities and successes to date. After careful analysis Panther can then run campaigns involving a wide variety of media to bring the best from your business and take it to the people who matter.
Source: www.google.com
Functions of this advertising agency
Graphic Design
Market Research
Marketing Communications
Marketing Strategy
Public Relations
Web Design
As you can see that both of these advertising agencies have different method of working but provide the similar service. This shows how adverting agencies are divided into many groups to make the marketing campaign a success.
B: How the selection and use of media contributes to a successful campaign
Advertising objectives can be classified according to whether their aim is to inform, persuade, remind or reinforce.
Now I will explain briefly what these advertising objectives mean.
Informative advertising
This type of advertising aims to create awareness and knowledge of the new product.
Persuasive advertising
This type of advertising aims to create fondness, preference and conviction that their target market will buy their product.
Reminder advertising
This advertising aims to stimulate the repeat purchase of products and services.
Reinforcement advertising
This type of advertising aims to convince current purchasers that they have made the right choice in buying their product.
Before in choosing the correct media the Media Planning department have to consider the following variables, which are the targeted audience, product characteristics, message characteristics and cost.
Listed below are the media variables:
Types of media habits
This talks about the most effective way in reaching the target market e.g. TV, Radio or Newspaper etc.
Product characteristics
Media types have different potentials for demonstration, visualization, explanation, believability and colour. This is another way to advertise your product where it would be promoted best e.g. latest fashion trends would be explained in Glamour Magazine.
Message characteristics
Timeliness and informative content will influence media choice. This talks about the message that you are conveying to your audience e.g. "Buy 3 for 2" this is catchy yet small and concise.
Cost
This is the main element in choosing the media for promotion because even though you might want to advertise your product on TV or National newspaper, but might not have the budget, therefore according to your budget you have to select the media to promote your product.
Types of media
There are many types of media that you can select from in order to promote your product. All the types of media that you select from have advantages and drawbacks. Here are the following examples of the types of media
Here are the most commonly types of media that are currently being used
Types of media
Examples
Advantages
Drawbacks
Regional
Newspaper (e.g. The Western mail), Billboards, Posters, Magazines (e.g. Lincolnshire life) and Radio (e.g. BRMB).
* Can reach a regional market.
* Reasonable costs.
* Can provide an effective support for regional TV company.
* Not easy to pick a medium that speaks to a particular targeted audience,
National
Newspapers (e.g. The Sun), Magazines (e.g. Hello), Radio (e.g. Classic FM), Billboards and Posters.
* Covers a big audience.
* Builds quality brands through TV.
* Proven record of success.
* Expensive to buy space and air time,
International
Newspapers (e.g. The Financial times) and Magazines (e.g. The Economist).
* One advert can cover several international markets.
* Not many media options available,
* Tend to be in English languages publications.
Terrestrial television
Includes ITV, channel 5 and other cable companies like NTL.
* Larger numbers of audience can be reached.
* High proportion of the audience is likely to see the advert.
* Use of colour, sound and movement to make the advert attractive.
* Time to deliver the message is very short so has to be repeated often.
* High absolute cost.
* Difficult for advertisements to be noticed with so many other commercials.
Satellite television
Sky.
* Large numbers of channels to help target the right audience.
* Full of commercial breaks.
* May need to use larger number of channels to reach the target audience.
Local
Newspapers (e.g. Metro in London), Magazines (e.g. Breeze), Radio (e.g. Sunrise radio in Southall), Billboards and Posters.
* Can reach a local target market.
* Reasonable costs.
* Can reinforce a national or even international campaign locally.
* Difficult to make impact with so many advertisements being presented to the consumer at the same time.
* Not easy to pick a medium.
C: The advantages and drawbacks of using a professional agency in promoting a product.
When using professional agencies the company has to consider advantages and drawbacks, which could effect the company and the product itself. They are as follows.
The Advantages are:
* They would do the work legally.
* Do all the work up to a professional standard.
* Provide clear message.
* Work done through correct procedure.
* Captures the target market.
* They have more resources.
* More experience.
* More labour.
* Able promote the product in minimum time scale.
* They do the work for you.
The Drawbacks are:
* It is more cost effective.
* Advertising agencies usually deal only with accounts of a certain minimum size.
* It could fail.
* Risk.
* Information leaking to other companies.
Conclusion
For this task I had to find out how professional advertising agencies can contribute to the success of a marketing campaign and the advantages and drawback of using a professional agency when promoting a product.
Whilst carrying out this particular task I have learnt that advertising is one of the main element, which can be used to promote the product in a short term and also increase the brand awareness. I think advertising is a key to success, which can increase the amount of sales a company produces only if they know what they are doing and use the right type media
I think that it would benefit Tesco from having a professional advertising agency because from this task I have learnt that there are more advantages in using a professional agency then drawbacks.
Recommendations
I think that it is important for Tesco to explore the market and select an advertising agency that will be able to effectively articulate Tesco's message and help them to promote their products, if they want to dominate the market that they are in.
Bibliography
Websites:
www.google.com
www.approvedagencies.co.uk
Also lecturer's notes had been used
Dates of the lectures notes on creative product and promotion
24/10/05 (advertising agencies)
26/10/05 (types of media)
7/11/05 (examples of media)
Unit 3 creative product and Promotion
