Unit-1 Introduction to Advertising, Functions and Benefits Introduction___________________________________________________

Everyday we are bombarded by messages in visual or audio form, coaxing us to buy a particular product or service. Whether it is a brand of soap, a computer, the latest model of a car, or a service that transports you to exotic locations, the message always is that of persuasion. It is the appeal and the grasp of advertising, which reaches out to people with the intent of influencing their acceptance or purchase of an idea, product or service. With the proliferation of television programmes, glossy magazines, and a plethora of information from all sources in an increasingly competitive market place, advertising has gained unprecedented buoyancy. Advertising serves three basic purposes. One is to persuade people to buy a particular product or service or to attend an event. Secondly, it also serves to create a positive image of a company, organisation or activity. And thirdly, advertising seeks to inform people about certain matters of public interest, to create awareness, or attempts to influence social attitudes on matters of general concern. Advertising agencies vary in size as well as in the scope of services handled. Often, the range and extent of services depends on the agency's size and infrastructure. All, however, are equipped to plan, create and launch an advertising campaign with professionals from different disciplines working together for this purpose.

Advertising Defined______________________________________________

Advertising is a paid form of non personal presentation of goods or services for

promotion by an identified sponsor. It can be done using any form of media like television, radio, print media, etc. A firm has the flexibility of choosing the target market while advertising. It can advertise its product/service in the local newspaper to reach a small geographical area. If it is looking for national reach, the firm can advertise its product/service on the television through a national channel like Doordarshan or any other television channel depending on the target audience. Advertising allows firms to communicate with the intended audience in the most interesting format using actions

and dramas. It helps in generating faster response in the form of increased sales. However, the interactivity with the audience is negligible and their feedback is indirect. The major advantage of advertising is its ability to reach a large audience at a very

low cost. It helps marketers reach the maximum number of potential customers at a very affordable cost. Moreover, the different channels available if the marketers choose to advertise on television helps them significantly in reaching the most appropriate target audience. Advertising is primarily used to reach consumers and is suitable for marketing low cost, and low involvement products. In case of higher priced products or in case of products that require considerable amount of explanation to be given by the marketer, advertising plays a supporting role to personal selling. Other Definitions A paid, mediated form of communication from an identifiable source, designed to persuade the receiver to take some action, now or in the future The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the body which represents advertising agencies, defines advertising as: "The means of providing the most persuasive possible selling message to the right prospects at the lowest possible cost". Kotler and Armstrong provide an alternative definition: "Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services through mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio by an identified sponsor".

Three criteria must be met for a communication to be classified as advertising: The communication must be paid for The communication must be delivered through mass media The communication must be attempting to persuade

SMS Advertising A New Media Mix Tool In the early 21st century, the cellular telephony revolution had radically transformed the global telecommunications industry. Cellular phones offered a whole new experience to people desirous of keeping in touch with their close ones any time, any where. Cell phones (or mobile phones) became more popular, largely due to the emergence of the Short Messaging Service (SMS) facility. The popularity of SMS took even industry experts by surprise, as the service had always been looked down upon as a low-end option offered by a cell phone. According to Strand Consult[1], the global market for SMS doubled from USD 7.5 billion in July 2000 to USD 15 billion by December 2001, and was still growing at a scorching pace. The firm expected the revenues from SMS advertising to soon exceed those from Internet advertising. Considering this huge pool of mobile-savvy customers, marketers could not ignore the potential that advertisements directed towards SMS senders had. Thus was born the concept of SMS advertising, which grabbed the attention of many companies and influenced their media mix plans. The huge user base encouraged corporates to tap the medium for advertising. SMS advertising was soon seen as the hot new tool for media mix planners. The concept is rather simple. It is all about combining electronic and mobile commerce methods to capitalize on the exponential, worldwide growth of the mobile phone market. Generally, a company that wishes to advertise its products on a mobile network, ties up with a service provider, who allows the company to use his SMS centers to send out advertisements to subscribers of the network. Realizing the potential of this service, the companies involved finally devised methods to formally offer SMS as a service and set up a billing mechanism for it. When SMS was made a paid service, the user base across many networks declined initially. However, as using an SMS still worked out to be much cheaper than a voice-call using cell phones, the momentum picked up again, and the usage and popularity of SMS kept growing.

Advertising Functions_______________________________________________
In its role as a form of mass communication, advertising delivers relevant messages to target audience and by changing mental states, it can perform a number of functions.

Informing(Precipitation) Making consumers aware of new brands. Increasing TOMA (Top of Mind Awareness) Teaching new uses for existing brands (called usage expansion advertising)

Influencing(Persuasion) Getting prospective customers to try advertised products and services: Creating primary demand Building secondary demand

Reminding and Increasing Salience(Reminder) Enriching the memory trace for a brand so that the brand comes to mind in relevant choice situations Increasing customers interest in mature brands and the likelihood of choosing brands that might have otherwise not been chosen. Influence brand switching by reminding consumers that the brand is available and that it possesses favorable attributes.

Using Advertising to Assist Other Company Efforts To deliver coupons To assist sales representatives To pre-sell a firms products by introducing the product and legitimizing salespeoples claims To augment the effectiveness of price deals

THE OBJECTIVES OF ADVERTISING - Why advertise? To create awareness, customer interest or desire .The long-term objective of advertising, as of every other business activity, is to increase the firm's net profits over what they would be without it. In some cases, increased profits are also immediate objectives; but in others, they are not. Perhaps the most important short-term objective of advertising is to provide support for personal

selling and other methods of promotion. Advertising is almost never used alone; generally it is cast in a supporting role to other means of promotion. However, advertising is an extremely versatile communications tool. Depending upon the marketing situation, companies use advertising to achieve various To boost sales (moving the demand curve to the right) To build brand loyalty (or to maintain it at the existing level) To launch a new product To change customer attitudes perhaps trying to move a product more upmarket or to dispel some widely held perceptions about the product To support the activities of the distribution channel (e.g. supporting a pull strategy) To build the company or brand image To reminds and reassure customers To offset competitor advertising businesses may defend market share by responding to competitors campaigns with their own advertising To boost public standing: companies can boost their public standing with advertisements that link them with generally approved campaigns such as care for the environment To support the sales force advertising can make the job of the sales force easier and more effective by attracting leads from potential customers and perhaps motivate them by boosting the profile of the business What to advertise? Factors that help answer the what are we advertising? focus on what the advertising message should be. In general, there are really only two kinds of effective advertising message: Firstly, does the business/product have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) A unique selling proposition is a customer benefit that no other product can claim

In reality these are rare, although that does not stop marketers from claiming them for their products. Secondly, does the thing that is being advertised add value and if so, how? For example, advertising for washing powders will focus on the added value created by whitening agents or the fact that a particular formulation will last longer than the competition (take a look at the Fairy web site to see if you can spot the other added value features claimed for its products) Whatever is advertised, it is important that the message is: Seen Read Believed Remembered Action upon by target customers

BENEFITS OF ADVERTISING Some important benefits of advertising are Advertisements create awareness, interest and desire for products and services in

customers to buy them. Advertising is cost efficient as advertisements can reach a vast number of audiences

simultaneously The message can be repeated several times, thereby creating an impact on the mind of a

customer. For example, Its the coolest one, reminds us of Kelvinator refrigerators. Advertising a product in a certain way can add to its value It helps in boosting the sales of the company. Once a product/service is purchased, it (advertising) reassures the customer about the

purchase decision, thus helping in reducing the post purchase dissonance, if any.

Advertising helps in changing the customer's perception of a product. It supports the activities of the distribution network of the firm by creating demand and

encouraging purchase through pull strategy. It helps in making the job of the sales force easier, by crating awareness among

potential customers. Advertisements help in offsetting the competitors' advertisements. The company may

defend its market share or position by responding to competitors advertising campaigns. The Coca-Cola's punchline in 1996 was, The official soft drink of the world cup, which was countered by Pepsi's Nothing official about it. Advertisements also help compare a companys product features with those of the competitors. Sometimes, companies themselves compare the features of their products with those of the competitors product through advertisements. Quite often, television and automobile manufacturers (Hyundai, Tata motors etc.) advertise their products in this fashion. Advertising can be very expressive and therefore, can dramatize the whole concept. For

instance, Kinleys TV commercial with a baseline Boondh Boondh Mein Vishwas (confidence in every drop) is a dramatization of the purity of Kinleys water. Advertisements also help in building a strong image of a product or brand, apart from

increasing its sales.

DEVELOPING AN ADVERTISING PROGRAM

An advertising campaign involves developing a series of advertisements and targeting them at the potential customers through different media like the print and broadcast media. Steps involved in an advertisement program, as seen in Figure, can be broadly classified as (a) Identifying the target audience, (b) Specifying advertising objectives, (c) Setting the advertising budget, (d) Developing the advertising message,

(e) Selecting the right media, (f) Scheduling the advertisement and (g) Measuring advertising effectiveness. a. Identifying the target audience Identifying the target audience is the first step in developing an advertising campaign. The target audience is a market segment to which a marketer wants to communicate a product or brand message. Advertising can be targeted towards mass markets or towards niche markets. For instance, an advertisement of Amrutanjan pain balm is targeted at the mass market, while the advertisement of Mercedes Benz is targeted at a niche market of status conscious, high income group customers. For Indian Defense Ministry, the youth is the target audience and it aims to attract them to join the armed forces. Therefore, it develops advertising campaigns to attract the youth of India. Exhibit shows how the defense ministry attracts its target audience. The composition of the target audience and their specific needs must be identified before developing an advertising program. Marketers must gather information on the geographic location, demographic variables (like age, sex, education, income level etc.) and consumer attitude towards the company products and competitor products. Certain other variables like the type of the product to be marketed, nature of demand for the product, characteristics of the target audience and the amount of competition are of equal importance for creating a desired advertising campaign. A marketer who pays little heed to information gathering system regarding the target audience, may find his advertising campaign to be a fiasco
Figure : Advertising program

Spot This: They Want You Indian Defense Ministry released a mix of advertisements both in the print media and the electronic media to attract the youth of the country to serve the motherland. This advertising campaign was launched with the help of Lowe & Partners Worldwide. The objective of the advertisements was to convince the target audience (the youth) to join the defence services. It reinstated the fact that a soldier lead s his life with pride, respect and determination, with baselines like Be an army man. Be a winner for life. Lowe created nine print advertisements for the defense ministry, which coaxed the youth with catchy baselines like 18 years. Take charge of your life. 23 years. Take charge of 30 lives, and The only career where the perks include excitement, adventure, honor and glory. These advertisements also communicated the emoluments and other benefits provided to a soldier. Television commercials on the other hand tried to depict the fact that a soldier is respected by his fellow Indians. Adapted from Gupta, Ritesh, Spot This: They Want You, Ad Age Global, July 2002, Vol. 2, Issue 11

b. Set Advertising Objectives

According to Russell H. Colley, The objective of an advertising campaign is to achieve a specific communication task for a specific target audience during a specified period of time.

An advertising objective is a specific communication task to be achieved with a specific target audience during a specified period of time. Advertising objectives fall into three main categories: (a) To inform - A company can use advertising to (a) inform its existing and potential customers about the launch of a new product, (b) communicate the benefits of its existing products in the market, (c) inform about the services provided by the company. For example, MUL's TV advertisement on their wide network of service stations across India shows two guys searching for a food outlet in Ladakh. They cant find one, but come across a Maruti service station even at such a deserted and abandoned place. (d) inform a price change, (e) correct the false impression about a product and build the company's image, etc.

(b) To persuade - A company uses advertising to (a) persuade customers to purchase their product/service by announcing special offers or discounts, (b) persuade customers to take a sales call (phone call or a personal visit by a member of the sales force). For example, Eureka Forbes advertisements show a customer service or sales executive giving a demo at a customers residence and giving a dial free number. (c) encourage customers to switch from other brands. For example, Eno's antacid advertisement makes a comparison between the company's product and liquid antacid medicine like Gelusil and digestion aiding tablets like Dabur's Pudin hara to highlight the effectiveness of the product. (c) To remind - A company uses advertising to (a) remind customers that a product will yield benefits in the future. For example, insurance companies repeat advertisements to remind and convince customers that their products will yield benefits in the future, (b) retain a product in the customer's mind during the off-season (c) remind buyers where to find a product. c. Set the Advertising Budget After setting the objectives, the next task is to set the budget for the advertising campaign. Advertising budget is the amount of money allocated by a firm for its advertising campaigns for a specific period of time. It is influenced by various factors like the type of products advertised, the size of the market, the geographic distribution of customers within the market and the sales volume as compared to the competitor's sales volume. Marketers believe that advertising helps in increasing the demand for a product in the market. The amount of money spent on an advertising campaign should be in accordance with the sales it generates. The budget of an advertisement varies depending on the stage of lifecycle of the product. For example, a new product may need a larger share of the advertising budget, as the advertising has to create awareness about the product and encourage the potential customers to buy it. Setting an advertising budget is a difficult task because marketers cannot quantify the benefits accruing from an advertisement or determine the exact sales an advertisement has generated. Very often, businesses use some thumb rules (like advertising/sales ratio) to guide them set the budget. Some common methods followed by firms are (1) objective

and task method, (2) percentage of sales method, (3) affordability method, and (4) competitive parity method. However, none of the methods is completely fool proof. Objective and task method Objective and task method is considered as one of the rational approaches to setting advertising budget. This method calls upon the advertisers to develop their advertising budget by (a) defining their specific advertising objective (b) determining the tasks that must be performed to achieve those objectives and (c) estimating the cost of performing those tasks. The sum total of all these costs determines the advertising budget. The major disadvantage of using this method is that marketers cannot accurately estimate or quantify the efforts required to achieve an objective. For instance, it is very difficult to set the advertising budget for PMCG (Packaged Mass Consumption Goods) products, since it is not easy to calculate the response rates to advertisements on soaps, detergents, toothpastes, and biscuit packets etc. Also, owing to a highly volatile competitive environment, it is difficult to allocate a set budget. For example, when a player heightens his advertising efforts, it would have an impact on the advertising efforts of other firms in the market.

Percent-of-sales method Percent of sales method is used quite often by companies to determine their advertising budgets. The percentage of sales method can be expressed by means of a formula as shown below: (Spending on advertisements in rupees/Sales in rupees) 100. The percentage of sales method can be developed by studying the past sales figures and relative budget allocations and understanding the pattern. Allocating the budget on similar lines without any major changes would be assuming a repetition of the past performance. However, it may be necessary to increase or decrease the budget to attain a projected sales figure. Projecting the products sales for the current year is very important and for doing so, understanding the market scenario and predicting competitor strategies is vital. These projections can be made by observing the past sales records and assessing all the

controllable and uncontrollable variables. The controllable variables include internal factors such as capacity of production, product development, sales promotional activities and so on, while uncontrollable variables include external factors such as government policies, economic status of the country, the consumer tastes and preferences and so on

Affordability method In this method, a marketer, after allocating all other expenses in his budget, allocates the remaining funds to advertising. This method does prevent a drain on cash flow, but it disregards the correlation between the advertising expenditure and the sales results. Moreover, during recession, funds are not available with the marketers and therefore, they reduce the advertising expenditure. Insufficient advertising further reduces future sales. Although this is a method of choice for many small companies, the results are neither predictable nor sustainable. Let's do something (create a brochure or a web site, advertise or hire new sales team), becomes the battle cry. Though there's nothing wrong in using any of these media, the results might not usually be as productive as desired by the firm because the decision to advertise is dependent only on the financial capability. And that can sometimes result in the production of the wrong tool at the right time. Competitive parity method Companies sometimes determine their advertising budget by comparing with competitors advertising budgets. The advertising budget of a company may match with that of a competitor either in rupee terms or in terms of percent-of-sales. It is based on the fact that if a company follows this method, it is using the collective knowledge of the industry to arrive at a figure for its advertising budget. However, companies need to be careful when they allocate their advertising budget on the basis of competitors expenditure or budgets because their objectives and/or available resources may be totally different. If companies follow this approach blindly, they may end up spending too much or too little on advertising. In this method, it is

assumed that the advertising budget reflects a company's expected sales, which many a time is not true. Another wrong assumption is that if two companies spend the same amount on advertising, their advertisements are going to be equally effective. Advertisement budget in this method is allocated on the basis of what competitors have spent in the past. However, it cannot be ascertained that the competitors will follow the same strategy in the future also. Similarly, by the time a company comes to know about the expenditure that competitors have made on their advertising, there will always be a delay and the competitors would have already reaped the benefits.

d.Determine the key Advertising Messages Spending a lot on advertising does not guarantee success. Research suggests that the clarity of the advertising message is often more important than the amount spent. The advertising message must be carefully targeted to impact the target customer audience. A successful advertising message should have the following characteristics: (a) Meaningful - Target customers should find the message of an advertisement relevant and meaningful. Marketers must pay due attention to the message (what is said, who has said it and how it is said) delivered to make it more meaningful to the customer. (b) Distinctive - An advertisement message needs to be unique so that it captures the customers attention. For example, the Liril toilet soap advertisement combined a visual a girl in the waterfall with a unique sound track. The soap could create distinct brand image and maintained a leadership position in premium toilet soap category. (c) Believable The message should convince the customers about the features of the product. For example, 'Vim' bar advertisements demonstrate people cleaning the stained and greased vessels with a very small amount of the product. The clean and spotless vessels convey the effectiveness of the product as well as the ease of using the product. Another example is the Health Ministry's advertisement on 'oral re-hydration' (popularly known as ORS). Making the customers believe the message is a difficult task because, in general most consumers doubt the claims made by the marketer in an advertisement.

e. Decide which Advertising Media to Use Advertisers have a wide variety of advertising media to choose from. Before selecting the appropriate medium, the firm wanting to advertise has to find answers to four important questions. 1. Who are the target audience? 2. Where are they located? 3. What is the message that has to be delivered? 4. When do we run the advertising campaign? Who should be reached? Identification of the target segment is dependent on market segmentation. Segmentation on the basis of customer demographics, psychographics, social class, product usage and so on will help the media planner reach the maximum number of customers in those segments, within the budget constraints. However, there is always an amount of wastage in advertising, that is, these advertisements also reach those customers who are not in the target group. Where are they located? About 70 percent of over 1 billion population of India lives in more than 5,50,000 villages and the remaining lives in towns and cities. Advertising must ideally be targeted at places where most of the potential buyers are located. Differences in tastes and preferences exist for various products, based on the geographic location. For instance, demand for Tea is higher than for coffee in North India and the reverse is true for South India. Availability of a medium also has some geographic limitations. For instance, in print media, we have some newspapers and magazines that are limited to particular geographic locations. The advertiser should identify the location of his target audience and accordingly advertise in local or national media. Which medium is appropriate? The message that has to be delivered is very critical for the selection of the medium. A particular type of message requires a particular type of medium. If a new product is to be introduced in the market, a feeling of something new and exciting should be created and that can be effectively done by using the newspaper, the radio and the television. If the product or service needs a demonstration, then a television ad would be more appropriate

than a print ad. If a high quality output in color is required, then multicolored magazines would do the job better when compared to newspapers. If there has been a controversy and the company wants to rebuild the lost confidence of customers in its brand or product, it can communicate its stand through the print media to show the proof or evidence (by a competent authority) certifying the quality of the product. If there is a need to build the brand image of a company on the basis of some personality traits, then they can be advertised during relevant programs on television or radio. For instance, ads relating to chocolates and biscuits are aired on cartoon network, ads relating to cosmetics are aired during primetime on television when soaps are being telecasted, ads relating to sports goods are aired on sports channels and so on. The advantage in following such a method is that these brands will be easily identified with the image the program is trying to create such as feminine, masculine, trendy, old fashioned and so on. Finally, the message should be relevant to the medium that is being used. For advertising IPOs (initial public offerings), for instance, media related to financial world would be most appropriate, such as CNBC on television, Economic Times or Business Standard in newspapers and so on. When do we run the advertising campaign? Advertising messages can be aired any time during the year depending upon the product or service. Normally the timing of the ad can be decided on the basis of seasons, months, weeks, days and even minutes and seconds. For example, marketers of woolen clothes advertise during the winter season when the demand for their products is the highest. Similarly, cool drinks, air conditioners, air coolers, and refrigerators ads are normally run during the summer season. Apart from seasonal products, there are a host of other products that would benefit from differently timed advertisements. For instance, Britannias 50-50 biscuit ads are aired on the television during cricket matches when the decision of the third umpire is pending. MRF ads are aired when Sachin Tendulkar, its major endorser is batting. While deciding, when to advertise, the type of audience also plays a significant role. To select the right type of medium, media planners need to have a good knowledge of the different media that are available to reach the target audience. Information regarding the media is available in government and private publications, audit bureau circulations and so

on. Table gives an outline of who uses advertising, for what purpose, targeted at whom and desiring what objective.
Table : Advertisers and various aspects of selecting the right medium Users Advertising of Target audience Individual Customers Media Newspapers, Magazines, Journals, Mailers, Brochures, Pamphlets, Yellow pages Print media and broadcast media Objective For attaining sales for the product, brand or service

Manufacturers of products and/or services

Individual consumers, governments, social groups and its employees Manufacturers of products and/or services for resale. Retailers wholesalers and

To maintain good public relations

Trade magazines, Newsletters and Direct mail

For attracting wholesalers and retailers to stock the products and then promote them to end users For attracting retailers continuous patronage For attracting customers to a particular retail outlet or a chain of outlets

Wholesalers

Retailers

Print media, newsletters, direct mail Regional newspapers, Television, magazines, hoardings, transit and direct mail Newspaper classifieds, posters, cable television Radio, Television, newspapers, outdoor media

Retailers

Individual customers

Individuals

Other individuals

For selling individual property, used vehicles, matrimonial, etc. For creating awareness about social, environmental, health

Governments social groups

&

Individual customers, other social groups and government

departments.

and family issues and so on

Adapted from C.H. Sandage, Vernon Fryburger and Kim Rotzoll, Advertising Theory and Practice, All India Traveller Book Seller, Eleventh Edition, New Delhi, p 70.

There are a variety of advertising media from which to chose. A campaign may use one or more of the media alternatives. The key factors in choosing the right media include: (a) Reach - what proportion of the target customers will be exposed to the advertising? (b) Frequency - how many times will the target customer be exposed to the advertising message? (c) Media Impact - where, if the target customer sees the message - will it have most impact? For example does an advert promoting holidays for elderly people have more impact on Television (if so, when and which channels) or in a national newspaper or perhaps a magazine focused on this segment of the population? Another key decision in relation to advertising media relates to the timing of the campaign. Some products are particularly suited to seasonal campaigns on television (e.g. Christmas hampers) whereas for other products, a regular advertising campaign throughout the year in media such as newspapers and specialist magazines (e.g. cottage holidays in the Lake District) is more appropriate. Evaluate the results of the Advertising Campaign The evaluation of an advertising campaign should focus on two key areas:

(1) The Communication Effects - is the intended message being communicated effectively and to the intended audience? (2) The Sales Effects - has the campaign generated the intended sales growth. This second area is much more difficult to measure. Advertisers primarily evaluate the effectiveness of an advertisement because firms spend crores of rupees on advertising. And no marketer would like to spend such huge amounts without having any clue about the resultant effects of such expenditure. However, one might raise a question about the necessity of advertising itself. Although a marketer can perform his business activities without advertising, he will definitely lose the opportunity of increasing his sales. Therefore, to measure the effectiveness of advertisements, marketers use several methods like intermediate measures. They are called intermediate measures because the target audiences are tested after they are exposed to the ad and before they take any action (purchase). In this method, the researchers question the respondents to analyze their receptiveness, their comprehension of the ad and their response towards the ad. Receptiveness: Whether the audiences have clearly received the message. Comprehension: Whether the audiences have understood the message. Response: Whether the audiences have accepted the message. Other intermediate methods include recognition and recall tests, where the audience is put to test on whether they can recognize and recall a particular ad. In case of the recognition test, the interviewer shows a copy of the advertising message to the customer and asks whether he recognizes it? If the answer is positive, the advertiser asks further questions with regards to the advertisement. Recall test can be either an aided or unaided recall test. In an unaided recall test, the respondents are not shown any copy of the advertising message and are simply asked what they have seen recently. Whereas in an aided recall test, respondents are shown a list of products, brands, company trademarks, logos, etc. to test their memory of the ad. A persuasion test is another method where the respondents are asked whether they have been influenced by a particular advertisement, rather than asking them whether they remember the ad.

Advertising and other Promotional Tools Sales Promotion

Advertising and sales promotion are supplementary to each other as the ultimate objective of both these tools is to promote sales. If sales promotion and advertising programme are well coordinated, they can be enhanced they can have significant effect on sales. Announcement of sales-promotion schemes in advertisement copy makes it more eye-catching. Sales promotion is a form of attracting the consumers by offering them various benefits in the form of incentives or by adding value to the products .Sales promotions are generally aimed at resellers and final consumers. The various kinds of sales promotional tools include coupons, discounts, rebates, samples, etc. Most often organizations spend more money on sales promotions than on advertising. Although sales promotion is often considered a short-term tool to achieve immediate benefits in the form of increased sales, sales promotional activities like event sponsorships, trade shows and such are used for attaining long-term benefits in the market.

Publicity
Publicity is a non-paid form of communicating information about the company or the product or both as a news article in newspapers or television or radio. Studies have shown that people attach a lot of importance to news articles and read them with greater attention as compared to advertisements in newspapers. Also, people give much more importance to the product or service details given in a news report than in an advertisement, because they perceive news report to be more credible. Efforts like generating repeated exposures will also help marketers effectively communicate the desired message. Therefore, managing the marketing communication mix with appropriate and timely publicity through newspaper articles, coupled with attractive public relation campaigns helps marketers to a great extent.

Personal selling
Personal selling is the form of selling a product or a service directly to the consumer by explaining or demonstrating the features of the product to him/her. Personal selling is highly specific, with regard to the target audience. The costs involved are high as the salesperson has to personally meet every potential customer.

Personal selling has a high impact on the consumers and the feedback is also almost immediate. This form of marketing is the most effective way of communicating a companys marketing message, because it involves direct interaction between the marketer and the customer. It helps the marketer receive immediate feedback from the customer. Being a high cost marketing tool, personal selling is usually implemented for high cost products and services that need detailed demonstrations of product usage and have limited target markets. Personal selling is normally done for industrial products and is used as a support activity for advertising in consumer goods marketing.

Direct Marketing
In direct marketing, organizations communicate directly with the customers through mail or telemarketing or marketing through the Internet. This is a popular form of communication for certain types of services like real estate. Amway is the global giant in direct marketing with a product portfolio of 450 products and operations in over 80 countries. In direct marketing, there is a non face-to-face interaction with customers, to persuade them to immediately respond to the marketing effort and initiate an action. Direct marketing activities such as telemarketing, mailers, catalogs, etc. Have been gaining popularity over the years. The greatest advantage of direct marketing is that it is highly cost effective and gives the maximum mileage. Unlike other marketing tools like advertising, the response can be easily measured with accuracy in direct marketing since it persuades the customer to take immediate action. So, the success or failure of the marketing effort can be immediately known. Direct marketing tools are used to communicate with both consumer markets and industrial markets through telemarketing, mailers, catalogs, etc

Assignment questions
Section-A Q1. State and explain the meaning of Advertising. What are its objectives? Q2. Enumerate the function of advertising. Q3.What is meant by publicity how it is differ from advertisement Section-B

Q4. Consider any two product advertisements one a TV commercial & the other a print media advertisement and answer the following:a) What was your cognitive response? Elaborate the product/message thoughts, counter arguments and/or support arguments, advertisement execution thoughts. b) Comment on the brand names of these products.

References Advertising Management Concepts and Cases by Manendra Mohan 2007 Advertising and Sales Promotion 3rd edition By S H H Kazmi,Satish K Batra 2008 Advertising Management, By Rajeev Batra, John G. Myers & David A. Aaker, 2009