Introduction
This paper discusses about the critiques involved in advertisement. Advertising is one of the important aspects to be kept in mind while marketing products and services. Without proper ad/campaign, marketing of products and services will be difficult. Advertising involves certain important aspects. Targeting the market is the most important aspect. Next important aspect is effectiveness of the ad/campaign and the last is adopting the most appropriate model for making the advertisement more effective. These aspects are discussed in the following sections.
Target Market
Effective marketing is essential to reach a particular product or service to the consumers. For this, a target market is to be set. The target may be a group of people or firms who use the product or service. “Target marketing involves breaking a market into segments and then concentrating your marketing efforts on one or a few key segments.” (Ward, 2009, Definition, para.1).
All the phases of effective marketing can be attained through target marketing. By knowing the target group to whom the product or service has to reach at the consuming end, effective steps can be taken which will increase the demand, sale and yield. Target marketing helps to determine the target groups which are to be concentrated while advertising. Accordingly, the advertisements can be planned.
Advertisements are planned based on various factors like demographical aspects, socio-economic surroundings and psychographic aspects. Demographical aspects include gender, age, income, occupation, home town etc of the target group. Social and economic surroundings of people in the target group influence the advertising method. The people want that the product should not affect their social status as well as their budget. “Psychographic segmentation groups the customers according to their lifestyle. Some psychographic variables include:
- Activities
- Interests
- Opinions
- Attitudes
- Values” (Gerba, 2006, In-store advertising: should psychographic studies play a role, para.3).
Effectiveness of Advertisements
The effectiveness of advertisements is a key factor to be taken into consideration in the marketing field. The demand and sale of the products and services are highly dependent on the effectiveness of advertisements. The method of approach in conveying the marketing techniques should be absorbable by the target groups.
Copying an advertisement mode, title and similar characters will adversely affect advertising. Headlines should be catchy quotes that attract the attention of the target groups. Entrusting the job of advertisement to a famous and efficient advertising organization adds to the positive results of advertisements. Experience matters and it adds to success.
The advertisements on products and services are to be made with a different approach. The services rendered will be used only by the people who are actually in need of those services. But, advertisements on products will influence the people to buy a product even if they are not in need of it. Another factor that influences the effects produced by advertisements is the mood of the advertisements. A pleasant and gaily disposition creates constructive results. A colourful but not extreme advertisement attracts the attention of the target group easily. Colour and mood are related to a certain extent. Animated advertisements can influence the people with more ease than stills. Music is a simple tool that can attract the attention of the people. Music adds to the mood of the advertisements and the target group.
Noticeable differences in the advertisement of an organisation from those who market similar goods and services increase the possibility of reaching the target groups. The contrast observed can result in more attraction due to its variety of presentations. Advertisement symbols also play a key role in adding to the effectiveness of the advertisement.
Shock value is the indicator that specifies the degree of depressing emotions produced by anything. Though it is a negative emotional approach, it produces an attention-grasping capability. “Internationally, United Colours of Benetton has become synonymous with shock advertising.” (Shock value advertising, 2007). Since the advertisement is given with a shock, the theme and name of the product or service are labelled firmly into the minds of the people which results in spreading the fame of those products or services.
Theoretical platform for the ad/campaign
The ad/campaign platform enables the advertisers to promote their products and make their products reach to the people by adopting various methods and strategies. The methods and strategies adopted by the marketing people vary depending on the nature of the products sold or the services rendered. It also depends on the market conditions, the geographical conditions, and the behaviour of the people towards the product or service. The agencies that are marketing the products can distribute their advertisements through different media, such as interactive TV, internet etc (Ad campaign platform, 2009).
Before going for advertising, one should be familiar with the basic steps to be followed in connection with advertising his product or service. The steps include marketing plan, creating a plan of action, defining the budget for advertisement, finding the opportunities, and targeting the audience (Duncan, 2009).
Marketing plan is an important step which one needs to keep in mind while advertising. One should know the basic needs, the competitors, and the goals of the company. Only after knowing these things, one should adopt the marketing plan. Once the marketing plan is decided, one should determine the plan of action which is another important step in marketing. Next is financial resource; one should have very clear idea about the allotted budget for advertisement expenses. Only then, one can determine how wide the advertisement should be. Opportunities mean finding the best method for placing the ads. Lastly, knowing the target audience means one must be having clear idea about the audience before starting the advertising; otherwise advertising won’t reach the target audience and there will be financial loss for the marketing people.
Background to the ad/campaign, basis for segmentation
The background of the advertisement has to be created with keen observation and care. This contributes much to the desired output. This depends on the segmentation process. “Market segmentation is the process of segmenting the market for the demand of a product or a service into different groups of customers on the basis of their similar characteristics and differences.” (Advertising & marketing, 2009).
The benefits of market segmentation are vast when the results from advertisements and marketing are considered. The real targets can be defined through this, enabling an effective approach to the consumers. Getting the actual situational aspects can result in efficient advertising of the products and services.
The positioning strategy
Once the target market is selected, the next step is to position in the market. “Positioning refers to ‘how organizations want their consumers to see their product’.” (Positioning, n.d., para.1). “Developing a positioning strategy depends much on how competitors position themselves.” (Positioning, n.d., Developing a positioning strategy, para.1). This is very important for the sellers to mark a place among the consumers. The positioning strategy also includes attracting the consumers by offering gifts, discounts, coupons etc. The market mix strategy, pricing strategy and promotion strategy are important factors that are to be kept in mind while developing the positioning strategy.
Consider a theory or model that can be used to support your critique of the ad/campaign
Building and following a proper model is one of the major techniques one should adopt while placing the ad/campaign. One such model used in the ad/campaign is Customer Based Brand Equity (CBBE). This model says is that there are certain steps to be followed to build a strong model. The steps included in this model are: first step is to establish the proper brand identity; second step is to create a proper brand meaning; third step is to consider the responses to the brand that are received from the consumers, and the last step is to have effective communication with the customers regarding the brand. The steps mentioned above are important and also there are six other building blocks, namely, brand salience, brand performance, brand imagery, brand judgments, brand feelings and brand resonance. (Keller, 2001). This model also facilitates brand building in the market. This is one of the important models in ad/campaign.
Overall comment on your evaluation of this ad
The whole section placed above comments about ad/campaign, i.e. the different strategies to be adopted with regard to ad/campaign to target the market. The last section describes the model or the platform used to make the ad more attractive among the consumers.
Reference List
Ad campaign platform. (2009). Online Education Guides about Interactive TV.
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Duncan, A. (2009). 10 ways to run your own advertising campaign. About.com: Advertising.
Gerba, B. (2006). The digital signage insider: In- store advertising: should psychographic studies play a role. Wire Spring: Hardware, software and expert advice for digital signage and Kiosks.
Keller, K L. (2001). Building customer-based brand equity: A blueprint for creating strong brands. MSI: Marketing Science Institute. Web.
Positioning. (n.d.). Learn Marketing. net. Web.
Positioning: Developing a positioning strategy. (n.d.). Learn Marketing. net. Web.
Shock value advertising. (2007). Cutting the Chai. Web.
Ward, S. (2009). Target marketing: Definition. About.com: Small Business: Canada.