DISCUSSION STARTERS
Discussion Starter 1: Dove Campaign for Real Beauty
ASK: How many of you feel that most beauty advertising conveys an impossible standard for women to
achieve?
Unilever, Dove’s parent company, conducted a study about women’s attitudes toward their own physical
appearances and found that less than two percent of women who responded thought they were
“beautiful.” Using this information, Unilever began the Campaign for Real Beauty centered on the
company’s Dove product line. The campaign sought to reframe the discussion about what is beautiful by
Discussion Starter 2: BMW Advertising Movies
ASK: How is the Internet driving new advertising concepts?
For example, luxury brands such as BMW have embraced the Internet to display their products in unique
ways. Because the Internet allows for direct-to–consumer distribution of advertising messages, it allows
Discussion Starter 3: Truthful but Misleading Advertisement
ASK: Should marketers be able to make truthful claims if those claims might mislead consumers?
Regulatory agencies and consumer groups are concerned about the possibility that an ad may be literally
truthful but still misleading. Unfortunately, once consumers have an idea of what a product description
Discussion Starter 4: Marketing on School Property
As school budgets decrease, many districts are contracting to allow advertising on permission slips,
lockers, cafeteria tables, and the outside of school buildings. The Kentucky House has voted to allow
school districts to permit advertising on buses. Some argue that children see too much advertising as it is.
ASK: Should schools draw the line on this issue, or should they allow advertising to support important
programs?
CLASS EXERCISES
Class Exercise 1: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Advertisements
The objective of this exercise is to recognize the purpose and uses of advertising and to evaluate the
effectiveness of various advertisements.
You can present this exercise in various ways. One way is to bring in copies of magazines or newspapers.
A second way is to show the class videotapes of commercials that you supply. Either approach makes for
an interesting class discussion. Instructor flexibility is required because your students’ answers depend on
what medium you select.
Prompt for students:
Review the advertisements and complete the following:
1. Identify ads that represent:
a. Institutional advertising
b. Product advertising
c. Pioneer advertising
d. Competitive advertising
e. Comparative advertising
f. Reminder advertising
g. Reinforcement advertising
2. Evaluate the effectiveness of each advertisement:
a. Does it have a clear objective?
b. Are the issues or selling points important to the target audiences?
Class Exercise 2: Advertising Slogans—How Memorable Are They?
The purpose of this exercise is to assess the effectiveness of advertising slogans regarding what they
communicate and how memorable they are. After discussing the answers, ask students to consider the
factors that help to make a slogan more easily recalled.
Identify the company or brand that is associated with each slogan.
Slogan
Company
1.
“We love to see you smile”
McDonald’s
2.
“Like a rock”
Chevrolet
3.
“Just push play”
Dodge Ram
4.
“Always a Low Price. Always”
Walmart
5.
“It’s the Cheesiest”
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese
6.
“We’ll leave the light on”
Motel 6
7.
“Maybe She’s Born with It”
Maybelline
8.
“Eat Fresh”
Subway
9.
“You’re in Good Hands”
Allstate
10.
“Think Different”
Apple
11.
“For all your 2000 body parts”
Lever 2000
12.
“Drivers Wanted”
Volkswagen
13.
“Eat More Chicken”
Chick-fil-A
14.
“Think outside the bun”
Taco Bell
15.
“M’m M’m Good”
Campbell’s
Class Exercise 3: Type of Publicity
Read the following examples. Describe whether the example is a new release, feature article, captioned
photograph, or press conference.
1. An oil and gas company just experienced a major oil spill. It is important that the CEO personally
address the media to give a statement and provide reassurances.
2. The Atlanta Zoo wants to market a benefits concert, so it writes up a short blurb and sends it to
the local radio station.
3. Lululemon paid to have a large picture of its newest yoga outfit placed on the front page of the
newspaper, accompanied by a brief description to explain what it is.
4. An article on Square’s credit card reader and how it can change the banking industry appeared in
Bloomberg Businessweek.
5. PR Newswire works with Kraft to develop and distribute a 300-word story about how it has
performed in the last quarter.
Answers:
Class Exercise 4: Steps in the Advertising Process
Read the following examples of advertising. For each example, determine the step in the advertising
process.
1. Walmart adopted the basic selling point of “every day low prices” as part of its major marketing
campaigns
2. Procter & Gamble set aside $20 million for its advertising campaign to market a new product
3. Janice works at an advertising agency, where her job is to take the concepts and draft the copy for
advertisements
4. Petco has determined a schedule for its advertisements on major networks; it will also place ads
on the Internet
5. Yum Brands developed a new advertising campaign for Taco Bell in hopes the campaign will
increase sales by 20%
6. Fred conducts pre-tests and post–tests to see how well an advertisement impacted a group of
consumers
7. Dyson vacuum cleaner advertisements focus more on affluent home owners.
Answers:
1. Creating the advertising platform
2. Determining the advertising appropriation
SEMESTER PROJECT
In this chapter, you learned how advertising and public relations can be used by marketing managers to
achieve strategic marketing goals. In this exercise, you will examine how advertising and public relations
tools can assist you in achieving the goals for your product, you.
Step 1: Setting an advertising objective for your product. What do you hope to achieve through your
advertising campaign?
Step 2: Choose your media. What media outlets will you use for your advertising campaign?
Step 3: Create your advertising message. What do you want the advertising to say about you?
Step 4: What public relations tools can you use to assist in meeting your strategic goals? How can you
implement a public relations campaign?
1. What class and type of advertising would be most appropriate for your product?
Students’ answers will vary. They must consider whether institutional or product advertising would
2. Discuss the different methods for determining the advertising appropriation.
Determining advertising appropriation is not an easy task. It is the amount of money a marketer
allocates for advertising for a given time period. Many factors affect a firm’s decision about how
much to appropriate for advertising, including size of geographic market, distribution of buyers
within the market, type of product advertised, and the firm’s sales volume relative to competitors’.
3. Using Table 17.1 as a guide, evaluate the different types of media and determine which
would be most effective in meeting your promotional objectives (from Chapter 16).
4. What methods would you use to evaluate the effectiveness of your advertising campaign?
There are many different ways to evaluate advertising effectiveness. Basically, the three main ways of
5. Review Table 17.3 and discuss possible uses for publicity in your promotional plan
ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION AND REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What is the difference between institutional and product advertising?
2. What is the difference between competitive advertising and comparative advertising?
Competitive advertising attempts to stimulate selective demand, which is demand for a specific brand.
3. What are the major steps in creating an advertising campaign?
The major steps in the creation of an advertising campaign are the following:
a. Identify and analyze an advertising target.
b. Define the advertising objectives.
4. What is a target audience? How does a marketer analyze the target audience after identifying
it?
The target audience is the group of people toward whom the advertisements are aimed. After
identifying the target audience, the marketer generally analyzes it with regard to location and
5. Why is it necessary to define advertising objectives?
6. What is an advertising platform and how is it used?
7. What factors affect the size of an advertising budget? What techniques are used to determine
an advertising budget?
The size of the geographic market and the distribution of the buyers within it influence the amount of
an advertising budget. Also, the type of product—industrial, consumer durable, or consumer
convenience—affects the proportion of revenue appropriated for advertising.
8. Describe the steps in developing a media plan.
9. What is the function of copy in an advertising message?
Copy is used to attract readers’ attention and create interest. It also identifies a specific desire or
problem of consumers, suggests the advertised product as the best way to solve that problem, states
10. Discuss several ways to post test the effectiveness of advertising.
Post-test evaluation of advertising may be performed in several ways, and the specific dimensions to
be tested are determined by the advertising objectives. If the objectives are set in communication
terms, posttests may include consumer surveys and experiments. If the objectives are stated in terms
11. What role does an advertising agency play in developing an advertising campaign?
If a firm uses an advertising agency, the development of the advertising campaign is usually a joint
effort, with the agency performing such functions as copywriting, artwork, technical production, and
12. What is public relations? Whom can an organization reach through public relations?
Public relations is a broad set of communication efforts used to create and maintain favorable
relationships between an organization and its stakeholders. Through public relations, organizations
13. How do organizations use public relations tools? Give several examples that you have observed
recently.
Organizations can use public relations tools for a single purpose or for several purposes. Public
relations tools are used by organizations to make people aware of their products, brands, or activities,
14. Explain the problems and limitations associated with publicity-based public relations.
Limitations of publicity-based public relations arise from requirements of media personnel that the
messages be newsworthy, timely, and accurate. Many communications a firm wishes to present
15. In what ways is the effectiveness of public relations evaluated?
Organizations evaluate the effectiveness of public relations in a variety of ways. Environmental
monitoring, public relations audits, communications audits, and social audits are all research methods
16. What are some sources of negative public relations? How should an organization deal with
unfavorable public relations?
Although public relations is a planned activity, uncontrolled events can result in negative public
relations. Some sources of negative public relations can include news stories about unsafe products,
COMMENTS ON THE CASES
VIDEO CASE 17.1: SCRIPPS NETWORKS INTERACTIVE: AN
EXPERT AT CONNECTING ADVERTISERS WITH PROGRAMMING
Summary
Scripps Networks Interactive uses product placement and integration, use of social media platforms, and
promotion to get around advertising challenges such as people fast-forwarding through commercials or
using Internet platforms such as Netflix or Hulu. Scripps Networks Interactive is unique in that their
programming appeals to similar target markets with similar interests. Product placement and integration
work well with the lifestyle content of the company’s programming because viewers are interested in the
content being provided. Scripps has also found a way to integrate product placement into brick and mortar
locations as well as on digital space. A benefit of this integration is that the company and the advertiser
become cooperative marketing partners, where both are working from different directions to promote both
the show and the product simultaneously.
Questions for Discussion
1. Why is the Food Network such an important venue for many advertisers?
Advertisements on the Food Network do not often seem like advertisements, which help consumers
view them as less intrusive. Because the Food Network is targeted toward a specific market,
advertisers that target this market (such as restaurants) have an advantage. Even marketers from other
2. Describe some of the ways that Scripps using product placement on the Food Network.
Scripps uses partnerships between celebrities and brands, in which the celebrities promote the brand,
as an effective form of product placement. For instance, Alex Guarnaschelli, a judge on Chopped,
was approached by Fisher Nuts to share recipes containing their product. Recipes from restaurants or
3. Why do you think even non-food advertisers are attracted to the Food Network?
Students’ answers may vary. However, product placement on the Food Network allows even non-
CASE 17.2: GREENWASHING IN ADVERTISING HURTS
CONSUMERS AND COMPANIES
Summary
Greenwashing occurs when companies deceptively market products as environmentally-friendly.
Greenwashing does not have to be completely untrue. In the past, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
has cracked down on companies whose advertisements were inaccurate. The FTC issued a revised set of
Green Guides in 2012 for businesses to use as they marketing their products. One of the changes includes
advising marketers not to make broad claims about the green attributes of their products. Although these
guidelines do not carry the force of law, they better enable the FTC to pursue companies that violate
standards by engaging in deceptive marketing practices. Greenwashing hurts all businesses in the
industry, even those whose claims are accurate and honest. Some companies are taking a unique approach
to prove to consumers that they are indeed concerned about their environmental impact. Other companies
are taking external measures to substantiate their green claims by developing a certification system to
help consumers make informed decisions when buying supposedly green products.Questions for
Discussion
1. Why does greenwashing have such a negative impact?
Greenwashing has a negative impact because it is deceptive to consumers. Deceptive promotion tricks
consumers into purchasing products that do not meet their intended needs. In this case, a consumer
2. What are some ways that stakeholders have dissuaded greenwashing?
Government stakeholders are passing guidelines such as Green Guides that companies can use to
Pinocchio Awards.
3. What are some actions organizations are taking to demonstrate a genuine commitment toward
sustainability?
Unilever has developed a sustainable campaign on Facebook and YouTube for its Axe product line
called “Showerpooling” that encourages consumers to take showers no longer than five minutes. It