There are a number of conflicting reports and discussions about the merit of using advertising in your marketing activities so I thought I would outline my some of my thoughts on this subject and you can then judge for yourself.
Personally, I feel that there are difficulties assessing the effectiveness of advertising as a lot depends on their content and aims especially as some campaigns can have a delayed impact. For example, the message within an advertising campaign can be to invite prospects to apply for further information. In addition, certain advertising campaigns are run purely to create brand awareness of a service or product.
There are ways, however, of testing advertising and the main one is to run what is called ‘direct response’ advertising. By this I mean, running advertisements that make a straightforward appeal. A classic example of this is the retail sector advertising a specific product like a sofa at a given cost.
I see the objectives of advertising as possibly 7 things:
- To support – an existing brand by stressing its advantages
- To attack – directly or indirectly, a competitor and attempt to increase market share
- To increase sales – via maintaining and then increasing market share
- To co operate – with producers of jointly used products (e.g the automotive industry)
- To appeal – to a new market segment
- To convey – an image of the business rather than the actual product (e.g Green companies)
- To support – a particular marketing strategy (i.e. run in conjunction with other initiatives)
- To support (2) – a decision to buy after the purchase has been made
Some people argue that advertising is something that can be very fundamental to a marketing campaign. Others would say that it is pointless.
In my opinion, I think there will always be a place for advertising, but its costs may make it a thing of the past especially when comparing it to online marketing like SEO and SEM.
What do you think? email me at Bath Marketing Consultancy or leave me a comment below.
