MBA Distance education / Advertising Management

Q 1: Define advertising?

Ans: Advertising is a promotional tool where a seller uses media to communicate about its products, services or organization.

Sellers like Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance .Bata, Lux etc.

Media are Television, newspaper, magazines, internet, hoardings etc.

Communicates to inform, remind and reinforce the product.

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Q 2: What are the Types of advertising?

Ans: There are five types

1) Brand advertising

2) Corporate advertising

3) B2B advertising

4) Retail advertising

5) Co-operative advertising

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Q 3. Describe the functions of advertising?

The basic functions of advertising are

• To identify products and differentiate them from others.
• To communicate information about the product , its features ,and its location of sale.

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Q 4 What is DAGMAR approach of management?

Ans: DAGMAR stands for Defining Advertising Goals for Measuring Advertising Results. It is a model developed by Colley in 1961 to measure the effectiveness of an ad. It measures the impact of an ad through the various stages of unawareness to purchase action. 

Q 5: What are effects of Advertising on economy?

Ans: Advertising has the following effects on economy

1. Since advertising is a promotional tool it boosts the sales of the products and services and,hence economy experiences growth.
2. It makes economy cost effective by:

* Reducing cost 0 of distribution

* Eases the tasks of personal selling

* Vital for industrial market

C) Reduces monopoly in the marketing.

D) Promotes innovation in the economy. 

Advertising’s effects on society

1. it is a mass-marketing system that improves the standard of living of country.
2. It creates consumer base society.
3. It creates awareness in the society towards innovative products and services.
4. Its contributions towards the social welfare are significant.

Q 5: Management Tutorial, Advertising Management

What is an advertising campaign ?

An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement m

essages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication. Advertising campaigns appear in different media across a specific time frame.

Explain campaign planning process?

Phases in campaign planning process are as follows

Phase-1: Technology & problems identification and information needs assessment

Phase 2: Campaign objectives formulation

Phase 3: Strategy development and information positioning

Phase 4: Audience analysis and segmentation

Phase 5: Multi-media selection

Phase 6: Message design, development, and retesting and materials production

Phase 7: Management planning

Basic Media strategy

It concerns decisions on how many media dollars to spend on an advertising campaign.

The decision involves consideration of the following factors:

1) Potential buyers

2) Market for a product: Local plan, Regional Plan, National Plan and Selective Plan

3) Budget availability

4) Competitive advertising

5) Nature of copy

6) Reach Vs Frequency Vs Continuity

7) Timings: Seasonal Programs, Steady Program 3) Pulsation

8) Distribution System

9) Media Combination 

Media selection

Factors affecting media selection are:

1) Market coverage area

2) Availability of budget

3) Size of the Organization

4) Location of the market

5) Features of the market 

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Q 6 What is advertising Objective? Explain in Detail.

Ans: Advertising Objectives state what target audience responses the marketer hopes to elicit with an advertising message. 

Hierarchy-of-Effects Model

AIDA

Attention------- Interest--------Desire---------Action

DAGMAR

Awareness-----Comprehension----Conviction---Action 


Explain the characteristics of the different media? 

Let us start with print media

1) NEWSPAPER

Types of Newspaper: it is classified based on

1. Frequency of publication
2. Page size
3. Audience
4. Market

Types of Newspaper advertisements are:

1. Display advertisements
2. Classified Display
3. Preprinted inserts

Advantages of Newspaper advertising

1. Market penetration
2. Geographical selectivity
3. Response Timings
4. Creative flexibility
5. Audience interest

Limitations of Newspaper advertising

1. Reproduction constraints
2. Limited targeting capability
3. Short life span
4. Clutter

2) Advertising in magazines

Three broad audiences they serve are:

1. Consumer
2. Business
3. Farm

Advantages of advertising in magazines

1. Geographical selectivity
2. Audience selectivity
3. Creative flexibility
4. Audience interest
5. Short life span

Limitations of advertising in magazines

1. Limited reach and frequency
2. Lack of sound and motion
3. Long lead time

Characteristics of Electronic media

Let us start with Television 

1) Broadcast television

* Network Television

* Local Television

2) Cable Television

3) Television syndicate 

Types of television advertising

• Sponsorship
• Participation
• Spot announcement--national and local spot

Q 1: Name and describe the four main types of markets, and discuss characteristics of advertising targeted towards each market, respectively.

Ans: 1. Consumer market: All the individuals and households who purchase goods and services for personal use.

Well, if we assume that the the product is some software or that at least the advertising agency is an online one, there are many ways. 

Maybe the most popular way to sell something is to give other people (affiliates) to sell it for you. Or to sell it to someone and give them reseller rights, if we are talking about digital product. 

Mostly, techniques that advertisers (marketers) use are free and available to everyone. They just know better how to use some things in their advantage. 

Money can also play a big role in advertising. It all depends what is the most appropriate for the product. 

It's also important to find techniques that will bring some targeted traffic which will sell the product.

2. Industrial market: Consumer group composed of companies or organizations that purchase goods and services for use in the production of other goods and services that are sold, rented, or supplied to others.

For example, the clothing manufacturing industry purchases fabric that is used in the production of dresses and other apparel.

3. Global market: When a companies stars selling and marketing its products to other countries to get economies of scale, market expansion etc. is a global market for the company.

TVC, International brand ambassador, internet advertising etc are practiced.

4. Rural market: The part of the consumer and industrial market which resides in the rural areas of the economy and characterized by unique and distinct buying behavior is called Rural market. 

Q 2: Define deceptive advertising and explain the three basic elements of the current FTC policy on deception.

Ans: The FTC defines this as being a representation, omission, act or practice that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances. To be regulated, however, a deceptive claim must also be material. 

Advertising that makes false claims or misleading statements, as well as advertising that creates a false impression. 

As noted by our Supreme Court in 1972,(23) the Commission had by then identified three elements of unfairness: whether the practice offends public policy; whether it is immoral, unethical, oppressive, or unscrupulous; and whether it causes substantial injury to consumers (or competitors or other businessmen) 

Q 3: Explain the differences among the market research, advertising research, IMC research and strategic research.

Ans: Marketing research is a process of searching vital information about market, consumer, demand, and competition and so on, to develop a marketing strategy and its application. 

It can be also learnt as the process of collecting information, analyzing the result and presenting the findings and implications.

So the basic activities performed are:

1. Collection
2. Analysis
3. Presentation

Thus marketing research is the link between the consumer and the marketer.

Advertising Research:

Advertising research is a specialized form of marketing research conducted to improve the efficiency of advertising. 

According to MarketConscious.com, “It may focus on a specific ad or campaign, or may be directed at a more general understanding of how advertising works or how consumers use the information in advertising. 

IMC Research: Although integrated marketing communications is more than just an advertising campaign, the bulk of marketing dollars is spent on the creation and distribution of advertisements. Hence, the bulk of the research budget is also spent on these elements of the campaign. Once the key marketing pieces have been tested, the researched elements can then be applied to other contact points: letterhead, packaging, logistics, customer service training, and more, to complete the IMC cycle. 

Strategic research

Research designed to help decide and develop the basic strategic plan for a brand or advertising campaign - what is stands for, what its offer to the customer will be, how it will stand in relation to its competition and so on. All further development of the brand and advertising should serve this strategy and be evaluated against it.

Strategic research is mission-oriented and involves the application of established scientific Knowledge and methods to broad social or economic objectives, often extending over a considerable period. 

Q 4: Rohan is training to become a media buyer at an advertising agency. Describe what he should know regarding daily and weekly newspapers and national advertiser’s use of each.

Ans: Buying media is a specialized skill.

which requires knowledge of your

1. Target clients, 2. Consumer behavior, 3. the media, and the criteria used to measure the value of TV and radio programming. Station sales reps can be very persuasive in proposing advertising packages and will offer to serve as your media advisors. A broadcast station sales rep's advice can be very helpful, but never let a media sales rep talk you into buying a package. Instead of relying on the sales rep, one may wish to hire a professional media buyer at no cost since the station pays the media buyer's commission. 

Even if you hire a media buyer, you must learn enough about the key buying criteria to be in control and make the purchase decisions based on the proposals. Since you are buying media only for your company, it is feasible for you to learn enough about the key factors applicable to the tax industry to buy your own media.

The following is a summary of the most important considerations:

1. Go for the numbers: National mass-market firms buy TV and radio on a "tonnage" basis. Determine you market and then attempt to reach as many people in that market as is possible. Your efficiency goal is to get the lowest cost-per-thousand ("CPM") for your target market while also satisfying your other media buying requirements. If you can determine the demographics of your most lucrative customers, you may wish to advertise to them first.

2. Adequate Reach and Frequency: You want to reach the majority of viewers with adequate frequency to make an impression. Remember the AIDA model of consumer behavior: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action. A prospect may need to see your ad several times just to become aware of your company and the services you offer. Another couple of impressions may be necessary to create interest. Your commercial should, ideally, reach 100% of the audience with an average frequency of at least five times. This goal will not likely be accomplished by advertising only on one broadcast station. At least two of the four major TV stations (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX) should be included. (Cable TV is discussed in Chapter 4 of this handbook, "Targeted Marketing".) If all network stations are competitive, you should buy time on all four. Your reach and frequency can be amplified through radio and other media, as well as your office sign exposure.

3. TV Program Schedules:You can buy time in specific programs (higher price), and you can buy "Run of Station" (ROS) spots within pre-determined time periods (lower cost). Prime time (7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) is very costly because of high demand. You should allocate no more than ten percent of your spots to prime time. At least 1/2 of your spots should be run during "Fringe Time", the hour immediately before (6:00 - 7:00 p.m.) and after (11:00 - 12:00 p.m.) prime time. About 20 percent of your spots might be run during morning news programs. Other departs with high adult audiences and good cost efficiencies could be added such as daytime soaps and talk shows, and weekend movies and sports programs. Given your goal of reaching your audience at the lowest possible cost per thousand and knowing that he or she is competing for your business against the other stations, your sales rep should be able to identify the most efficient programs. You may want to reserve part of your budget to take advantage of specials caused by late cancellations of prime spots.

4. Rating Services: TV programs are rated by rating services (e.g.: Nielson) subscribed to by all stations. New ratings are published in February, May, and November. You should require that all stations quote from the most recent book, adjusted for February. If the TV coverage area extends beyond the metro area where your offices are located, you should ask all stations to provide figures on a metro area basis. 

5. Negotiating the Best Price: An effective strategy is to ask for proposals from each of the four major TV stations for a schedule that would use about 1/2 of your total TV budget over a five-week period. Instruct each station of your acceptable programming parameters and the maximum allowable ratio of 10 to 30 second spots (e.g. no more than 20% 10s). Ask that the proposed schedule be quoted on a weekly basis. For example, if your total budget is $20,000, request a proposal that uses $10,000 in five weeks, or $2,000 per week.

Compare all four proposals and ask the stations with the less competitive proposals to sharpen their pencils and resubmit. Unless you know the station with the best proposal has given you its best price, also ask it to resubmit. It's not unusual for a station to be asked to resubmit 3-4 times before it tells you that's the bottom line. Don't be shy; tough negotiating is part of the game! After you believe all proposals are final, you must decide how to allocate your budget.

The station with the best rates gets the largest piece of the pie. The station with the worst rates usually gets nothing. (Next year they may be more competitive.) Usually you should buy three stations, but if one station is high-priced compared to the other two, you should buy only two more affordable stations. If you buy three stations, the allocation might be something like this: station #1 - $10,000, station #2 - $6,000 and station #3 - $4,000. Reductions can be achieved by reducing the #2 and $3 stations to 3 or 4 weeks and/or by cutting out less desirable spots.

The cost of TV varies from market-to-market. Some cities are very inexpensive and some are high-priced TV markets. Radio is higher priced, up to twice as much as TV. However, radio is more targeted and it can compliment and reinforce TV. Besides increasing reach and frequency, twice as much information can be provided by radio commercials. Since mass-market radio is passive, the best day parts are drive times when listeners in their cars are a captive audience. Sponsoring the local metro traffic report can get your name and a brief message aired on several radio stations during drive time with great frequency at a modest cost. 

Q 5: a) Name and describe the five types of internet advertising.

Ans: Here's the lowdown and a comparative look on the cheap and expensive internet advertising methods: 

The Expensive: 

1. Pop-ups. Not only is this expensive, but also outright annoying that visitors close pop-up windows without even bothering to know what they're all about. This is an internet advertising method that you can do without. 

Fly ads are derivatives of pop-ups which are also equally irking to the visitors. 

1. Pop-ups. Not only is this expensive, but also outright annoying that visitors close pop-up windows without even bothering to know what they're all about. This is an internet advertising method that you can do without. 

Fly ads are derivatives of pop-ups which are also equally irking to the visitors. 

2. Pod casts. 

Broadcast is to TV as pod cas is to internet. It's one sophisticated internet advertising method that can somehow hamper your budget. But if you're thinking results, pod casting is worth the money. 

3. Paying the search engines. 

How does this one work? When someone types in a keyword related to your site, your URL is automatically included in the first page of the top results. Fixed payment for the search engine allows just that. Expensive, yes, but if we're talking about Google and Yahoo search engines here, then don't give it a second thought. 


This is associated with another internet advertising method: the pay-per-click system. 

The Cheap: 

1. Blogging. 

Go along the bandwagon and blog about your website. This is an internet advertising method that is popular as of the moment, so you never have to worry that this will never spur outcome. All you have to do is sign up for a blogging account, post and voila! You don't even need to pay! 

2. Submit to not-so-big search engines. 

This is cheap and dependable. If you submit your site to smaller search engines, you have bigger chances to get bigger results. Remember that the search engine giants can dwarf and overlook your site easily, so this internet advertising method might just be the right one for you. 

3. Text links. 

This is not just cheap...this is virtually free! Let someone text link your site and return the favor. 

Cheap versus expensive, that's always the question that hounds on whenever we're trying to get something. In the field of internet advertising, just be wise enough to figure out what will suit your needs. Go for what you want as long as there are visible results.

b) Explain why and how e-mail is used as an advertising medium. Critically comments on the issues surrounding its use.

Ans: EmailBrain has powerful newsletter management features that enable you to easily manage your brand image. 
EmailBrain includes a full suite of tools within the template library for on-line content creation and on-line content storage.

EmailBrain offers one of the most advanced deliverability platforms available today. Marketers who want to ensure that their email campaigns reach the inboxes of their recipients use EmailBrain to achieve some of the highest deliverability rates in the industry.

The EmailBrain platform includes tools designed to help you determine the exact demographics of your customers. Through real-time web based reports and analytics you'll get a high level view of your campaign results. 

Q 6: Write short note on:

(a) Steps in creative process

Good decision-making is not the most important intellectual process. That distinction belongs to creating better alternatives. Toward that effort we should recognize the importance of creativity. I recently came across a sequence of steps that seems an appropriate creative process.

Preparation. The left brain does its homework.

Absorption. The right brain images the groundwork and the goal.

Incubation. A period of gestation and maturation of ideas that takes place at the subconscious level.

Illumination. The "Eureka!" factor. The idea explodes into our conscious when we least expect it.

Verification. A logical left brain process that eliminates extraneous ideas and checks the final conclusion. 

(b) Direct and indirect headlines

Headlines are essential for sales copywriting and are the very first things that give off an impression to a reader. It draws in people to actually read the content, so it has to be good. But headlines should do more than just grab attention. What it must also do is to relay the message of the whole article into a simple, yet concise package. 

Direct headlines are straightforward and without any embellishments. It tells readers about its objective right away. 

Indirect headlines take a more subtle approach and usually use double meaning to make readers curious about the content. This is an intricate part of online article writing as it grabs browsers into reading further. Figures of speech and symbolism are sometimes used for best effect.

(c ) Types of advertising

Advertising is the promotion of a company’s products and services carried out primarily to drive sales of the products and services but also to build a brand identity and communicate changes or new product /services to the customers 

Print Advertising – Newspapers, Magazines, Brochures, Fliers 

The print media have always been a popular advertising medium. Advertising products via newspapers or magazines is a common practice. In addition to this, the print media also offers options like promotional brochures and fliers for advertising purposes. 

Outdoor Advertising – Billboards, Kiosks, Tradeshows and Events 

Outdoor advertising is also a very popular form of advertising, which makes use of several tools and techniques to attract the customers outdoors. The most common examples of outdoor advertising are billboards, kiosks, and also several events and tradeshows organized by the company.

Broadcast advertising – Television, Radio and the Internet 

Broadcast advertising is a very popular advertising medium that constitutes of several branches like television, radio or the Internet. Television advertisements have been very popular ever since they have been introduced.

Covert Advertising – Advertising in Movies 

Covert advertising is a unique kind of advertising in which a product or a particular brand is incorporated in some entertainment and media channels like movies, television shows or even sports.. Some of the famous examples for this sort of advertising have to be the appearance of brand Nokia which is displayed on Tom Cruise’s phone in the movie Minority Report. 
Surrogate Advertising – Advertising Indirectly 

Surrogate advertising is prominently seen in cases where advertising a particular product is banned by law. Advertisement for products like cigarettes or alcohol which are injurious to heath are prohibited by law in several countries and hence these companies have to come up with several other products that might have the same brand name and indirectly remind people of the cigarettes or beer bottles of the same brand. 
Public Service Advertising – Advertising for Social Causes 

Public service advertising is a technique that makes use of advertising as an effective communication medium to convey socially relevant messaged about important matters and social welfare causes like AIDS, energy conservation, political integrity, deforestation, illiteracy, poverty and so on. 

Celebrity Advertising 

Although the audience is getting smarter and smarter and the modern day consumer getting immune to the exaggerated claims made in a majority of advertisements, there exist a section of advertisers that still bank upon celebrities and their popularity for advertising their products.

( d) Common advertising budgeting methods.

Ans: 1. A fixed percentage of sales;

Percentage-of-sales Approach sees the determination of the advertising budget as a percentage of past or expected sales. 

2. All-you-can-afford Approach.

This is an approach to the determination of the advertising budget, which is most widely used where executives would admit is for a company to spend on advertising all that it can afford.

This amount is sometimes a predetermined share of the profits.. 

This method is however, helpful in some ways in determining the advertising appropriation.

(1) It produces a fairly defensible cyclical timing of that part of advertising outlay that has cumulative, long-run effects.

(2) When marginal effectiveness of advertising can be guessed, it budgets well for firms operating effectiveness of advertising can be guessed, it budgets well for firms operating short of the point where incremental advertising costs and profits are equal.

(3) When nothing can be known about the effects of advertising, it sets a reasonable limit on the gamble. Actually, everything above a respectable return on capital might be spent on advertising, since excess earnings could be considered to have low utility to management compared with the possible contribution of continuous advertising toward eternal life for the firm. 

3) Return-on-investment Approach.

Advertising has two effects:

(1) It increases sales today. The first involves primarily problems of selecting the optimum output rate for maximizing short-run profits

(2) It builds goodwill to increase sales tomorrow.. The second involves selection of the pattern for investment of capital funds that will produce the best scale of production and maximum long-run profits. 

3) Objective-and-task Approach. The objective-and-task method of determining the advertising appropriation was emerged during The Second World War and the postwar survey says that this was the most widely used method. The popularity of this approach during the war apparently came partly from the need to justify advertising expenditures as business expenses (for purposes of taxes and contracts) during a period when a low percentage of civilian. 

4) Competitive-parity Approach. The essence of the competitive-parity approach is comparative with that of the competitors advertising outlay.

Specifically, the company's percentage of total competitive advertising might be made equal to its share of the market. (A variant, which is quite different conceptually, is to spend as much as necessary to retain a desired market share. 

Q 7: a) What is advertising copy. Should the media selection be made before or after the copy is first developed.

Ans: Text of a print, radio, or television advertising message that aims at catching and holding the interest of the prospective buyer, and at persuading him or her to make a purchase all within a few short seconds.

Most advertising copy is based on advertising/consumer research and is composed by professional copywriters hired by advertising agencies. Also called advertisement copy, ad copy, or just copy. 

Q 7: b) Which is more effective, an emotional appeal or rational appeal? Are emotional appeals relevant for all consumer products?

Ans: Rational Motives imply the goals that are the result of cognitive process (objective criteria) like consideration of size, design, functional benefits, weight, and price of the product to meet the purpose of buying product.

Emotional motives imply the selection of goals according to personal or subjective criteria such as pride, fear, affection, status etc.

Like a person wants to enjoy status motive will buy BMW. 

The relative effectiveness of emotional versus rational appeals in advertising services to potential new customers. Moreover, there was a desire to explore the impact of the following cues on post-exposure attitude toward an unfamiliar service brand: employees or customers portrayed in the advertisement, pricing information and documentation strategy emphasizing service excellence. The results of this quasi-experimental study suggest that appealing to a novice consumer’s emotional responses may be highly desirable in terms of creating a favourable attitude toward a service brand. Advertisement-invoked emotions appear to strongly influence postexposure attitudes and service quality expectations among consumers with limited personal experiences with a service category. Finally, the findings of this study suggest that employing tangible cues of service excellence may be a more effective strategy in promoting an initial liking of a service brand among potential customers than focusing on price information.