PLANNING AN ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN,STEPS INVOLVED IN PLANNING

AN ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
An advertising campaign is a systematic effort to achieve some predetermined objectives. It
may be a political campaign for elections or a social campaign to raise money, or a
systematic effort to promote a product or service.

According to Dunn and Barban “An advertising campaign includes a series of ads placed
in various media, that are designed to meet objectives and are based on an analysis of
marketing and communication situation”

A company undertakes an advertising campaign in order to rationally analyse the advertising

opportunities and communication issues to achieve its sales and profit objectives. An ad
campaign is usually guided by the promotion and advertising plans, which evolve from its
marketing objectives and Strategy.

Steps in Planning an Advertising Campaign

There are seven steps involved in planning an advertisement campaign :-

(i) Appraisal of Advertising opportunity – According to Neil H Borden there are five
conditions which govern the advertising opportunity, if these opportunities are present it will
help in achieving advertising objectives if not advertising may not have a positive effect.
These five conditions are:-
 ♦ Presence of positive primary demand – If there is enough primary demand for a product
category i.e. the product is in its growth stage the advertiser is more likely to be successful, if
not then advertising may fail to achieve sales and profit objectives.

♦ Opportunity for product differentiation – If the product has a good chance to be

differentiated from other similar products on the basis of its specific attributes or benefits,
there is a good chance that advertising it will be successful.

♦ Hidden or not readily noticeable qualities of a product – If a product has some hidden
benefits or complex features which are difficult to understand, advertising will help in
successfully communicating these hidden features to the customer and influence their buying
decision.

♦ Presence of powerful emotional buying motives – Products with strong advertising

appeals may address the emotional motives of a consumer and influence them to make a
purchase.

♦ Availability of sufficient funds – A firm must have enough funds to make a noticeable
impact in the competitive market through its advertising, if a firm lacks such funds it does not
make sense to advertise.

An advertiser must carry out a careful assessment different conditions present in a particular
market situation and then decide whether advertising will be fruitful for the company or
not. Sales promotion may be helpful in absence of these conditions.

(ii) Analyzing and defining target market – In order to advertise effectively , advertisers
must have a clear understanding of the market goals and their advertising objectives. They
must explore two basic questions –

 Where we are today?

 How did we get here?
The main task is to find best prospects in respect to demographic characteristics, geographic
location and psychological variables and behaviour patterns. The advertisers must strive to
know about thelifestyle of the consumer and accessibility of the target market in order to
effectively communicate the advertising message reach the right target audience. Defining
a target market requires an advertiser to find out answers to the following questions –

 Who buys the product?

 What do they really buy?
 When do they buy?
 How often do they buy?
 How is the product used?
 What are the perceptions or attitudes regarding the brand or product?

(iii) Setting advertising objectives – Advertisers use the hierarchy of effects model (AIDA,
DAGMAR, Lavidge and Steiner Model) to set up advertising objectives. Objectives must be
set for an advertising campaign as well as for each ad in each medium used. The objectives
set are based on the following factors and any change in these factors may lead to a change in
advertising objectives. These factors are:-

 Consumer needs and wants

 The extent of product or brand reputation
 Changes in economic scenario
 Changes in marketing environment

(iv) Determining the Advertising Budget – The advertising budget is basically a plan to
allocate financial resources to an advertising campaign for future operations and is reviewed
constantly keeping in mind the changing marketing conditions. The budget controls the
expenditures by fixing a limit.

The budget decisions are usually taken by the top management. A “top down” or “build up”
approach may be used by the management for fixing a budget. The advertising activities of
the competitors must also be studied in order to set an appropriate budget and maintain the
existing market position.

(v) Deciding media and Creative Strategy – The media plan involves decisions about target
market, product and its positioning, media and the advertising message in the creation of
advertisements. It is developed simultaneously with the creative plan. Media plan determines
the best way to reach the target audience, the goal is to communicate the message effectively
by finding the perfect combination of media that will cater to a large market at a lower cost.

To develop an effective media plan the advertiser must aim to define the media habits of the
target audience and determine the most appropriate medium in terms of reach and frequency.
The timing, campaign length, media closing dates, exposure desired must be considered.

The Creative strategy is concerned with what message to deliver for achieving the advertising
objectives. The creative process involves development of central theme, idea and image. It is
essential that there is similarity and continuity between different advertisements. Similarity
and continuity may be visual, verbal, aural or attitudinal. The most common techniques that
advertisers use to accomplish similarity and continuity are;-

 In case of print ads using same fonts, logos, pictures, layout

 Using same spokesperson
 Using similar theme, story or character
 Using catch phrases
 Using same music, jingle or voice

(vi) Creating ads, Pre-testing and Releasing ads – After planning an Advertisement
campaign team of copywriters and artists create an advertisement according to the media
plan, creative strategy and the budget.

Pretesting is important to avoid costly mistakes. Firms now focus on the pretesting of ads by
using efficient techniques such as market tests, focus groups, surveys, simulations etc. This is
due to –

 Rising costs of media

 Pool of advertising messages competing to get noticed
 Negative impact of the advertisement

(vii) Evaluating the Final Result or Post-testing – It is done to evaluate the final result of
the campaign for measuring its effectiveness. It determines to what extent the advertising
objectives have been accomplished. It also provides a feedback from the audience which
helps in future planning.