LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In this chapter, we will address the following questions:
1. What steps are required in developing an advertising program?
2. How should sales promotion decisions be made?
3. What are the guidelines for effective brand-building events and experiences?
4. How can companies exploit the potential of public relations and publicity?
SUMMARY
1. Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas,
2. Developing an advertising program is a five-step process: (1) Set advertising
3. Sales promotion consists of mostly short-term incentive tools, designed to stimulate
4. In using sales promotion, a company must establish its objectives, select the tools,
5. Events and experiences are a means to become part of special and more personally
C H A P T E R
18
MANAGING MASS
COMMUNICATIONS:
ADVERTISING, SALES
PROMOTIONS, EVENTS
AND EXPERIENCES, AND
PUBLIC RELATIONS
6. Public relations (PR) includes a variety of programs designed to promote or protect a
company’s image or its individual products. Marketing public relations (MPR), to
OPENING THOUGHT
Students will be familiar with the major forms of advertising. What might present
challenges to some students will be the ideas surrounding the five-step process involved:
set advertising objectives, establish a budget, choose the advertising message and creative
strategy, decide on the media, and evaluate the effects. The instructor is encouraged to
in this evolving specialty.
TEACHING STRATEGY AND CLASS ORGANIZATION
PROJECTS
1. At this point in the semester-long project, students should submit their advertising
2. Sponsorships are an integral part of life in America today. The support of college and
university’s teams by various sporting goods companies and local vendors add
3. Sonic PDA Marketing Plan: Advertising, sales promotion, and public relations are
among the most visible outcomes of any marketing plan. These mass communications
tools provide support for branding, product, pricing, and distribution strategies. At
Sonic, you are starting to plan promotional support for launching the new PDA. After
reviewing your earlier marketing mix decisions and your current situation as a new
player in the PDA market, respond to the following questions about your promotion
strategy:
• Should Sonic use advertising to support the PDA introduction? If so, what
advertising goals will you set, and how will you measure your results?
Summarize your answers in a written marketing plan or type them into the Marketing
Mix section of Marketing Plan Pro.
ASSIGNMENTS
Organizations handle advertising in differing ways. In this assignment, students should
contact different size companies in their community (one large, one medium, and one
small company) and find out who is responsible for working with their ad agencies and
how (and where) did they receive their training in developing advertising messages. Was
or did their training primarily consist of “on-the-job” training? Experience learned from
previous positions in larger firms? Or is their understanding of the operation of
advertising more of a “learn as I go” process? In compiling their data, can the students
identify any common elements? Can we draw any inference from or about advertising
from the data?
In small groups, have the students create an advertising campaign for a product/service of
It has been suggested that over 70 percent of all buying decisions are made in the store
and as a result, point-of-purchase advertising has grown in its appeal. Students should
give three examples of point-of-purchase advertising that they have recently come across
(ads in-store, personal selling by a cosmetic counter salesperson, etc.) and comment on
of print advertising. Have the students select two print advertisements, then ask them to
evaluate each of them in regards to the criteria stated in the Marketing Memo.
Events, experiences, and sponsorship advertising is increasing. The chapter outlines eight
reasons given for sponsoring events. Students should choose an event or sponsorship
(recent activity on campus, attendance by students at an event, etc.) and evaluate how
effective they feel the event is/was towards achieving these eight objectives. Students
should also be able to comment on why they feel that the sponsorship event did not
achieve some of these stated objectives.
END–OF–CHAPTER SUPPORT
Marketing Debate: Should Marketers Test Advertising?
Advertising creatives have long lamented ad pretesting. They believe that it inhibits their
creative process and results in much sameness in commercials. Marketers, on the other
hand, believe that ad pretesting provides necessary checks and balances as to whether an
ad campaign is being developed in a way so that it will connect with consumers and be
well-received in the marketplace.
Many advertisers use posttests to assess the overall impact of a completed campaign. If a
company hoped to increase brand awareness from 20 percent to 50 percent and succeeded
in increasing it to only 30 percent, then the company is not spending enough, its ads are
poor, or it has overlooked some other factor, giving them valuable information at a
reasonable cost.
MARKETING DISCUSSION
What are some of your favorite TV ads? Why? How effective are the messages and creative
strategies? How are they building brand equity?
Marketing Excellence: COCA-COLA
1) What does Coca-Cola stand for? Is it the same for everyone? Explain.
Suggested Answer: Because Coke believed early on that to gain worldwide acceptance, it
2) Coca-Cola has successfully marketed to billions of people around the world. Why
is it so successful?
Suggested Answer: Coke has created a highly-current, uplifting global campaign that
3) Can Pepsi or any other company ever surpass Coca-Cola? Why or why not? What
are Coca-Cola’s greatest risks?
Suggested Answer: Student answers will vary based on their personal opinions and “tastes.”
Marketing Excellence: GILLETTE
1) Gillette has successfully convinced the world that “more is better” in terms of
number of blades and other razor features. Why has that worked in the past?
What’s next?
Suggested Answer: The company’s impressive marketing knowledge and campaigns
wide.
2) Some of Gillette’s spokespeople such as Tiger Woods have run into controversy
after becoming endorsers for the brand. Does this hurt Gillette’s brand equity or
marketing message? Explain.
Suggested Answer: In the long-run these spokespeople should not hurt the brand’s equity
3) Can Gillette ever become as successful at marketing to women? Why or why
not?
Suggested Answer: Yes, the strategies, tactics, and communication message used to market to
DETAILED CHAPTER OUTLINE
Although there has been an enormous increase in the use of personal communications by
marketers in recent years, due to the rapid penetration of the Internet and other factors, the fact
remains that mass media, if used correctly, is still an important component of a modern
marketing communications program.
DEVELOPING AND MANAGING AN ADVERTISING PROGRAM
Advertising can be a cost-effective way to disseminate messages, whether to build a brand
preference or to educate people.
A) In developing an advertising program, marketing managers must always start by
identifying the target market and buyer motives.
B) They can then make the five major decisions known as “the 5Ms”:
1) Mission: What are the advertising objectives?
Setting the Objectives
The advertising objectives must flow from prior decisions on target market, brand
positioning, and the marketing program.
A) An advertising objective (or goal) is a specific communication task and
achievement level to be accomplished with a specific audience in a specific period
of time.
B) Advertising objectives can be classified according to whether their aim is to:
1) Inform
2) Persuade
3) Remind
4) Reinforce
Deciding On the Advertising Budget
How does a company know if it is spending the right amount?
A) Although advertising is treated as a current expense, part of it really is an investment
in building brand equity.
Factors affecting budget decisions
Here are five specific factors to consider when setting the advertising budget:
1) Stage in the product life cycle
Advertising Elasticity
The predominant response function for advertising is often concave but can be S-shaped.
Developing the Advertising Campaign
In designing and evaluating an ad campaign, marketers employ both art and science to
Message Generation and Evaluation
Advertisers are always seeking “the big idea” that connects with consumers rationally
and emotionally, sharply distinguishes the brand from competitors, and is broad and
flexible enough to translate to different media, markets, and time periods.
Creative Development and Execution
The ad’s impact depends not only on what is said, but often more importantly, on how it says
it.
Execution can be decisive.
A) The wide reach translates to low cost per exposure.
B) From a brand-building perspective, TV advertising has two particularly important
strengths:
1) It can be an effective means of vividly demonstrating product attributes and
persuasively explaining their corresponding consumer benefits.
C) Television advertising also has its drawbacks.
3) TV advertising has high costs in production and placement.
D) Properly designed and executed TV ads can improve brand equity and affect sales and
profits.
Print Ads
Print media offers a stark contrast to broadcast media.
A) Print media can provide much detailed product information and can also effectively
communicate user and usage imagery.
B) However, the static nature of the visual images makes it difficult to provide dynamic
presentations or demonstrations.
E) Format elements such as ad size, color, and illustration affect a print ad’s impact.
F) Researchers studying print advertisements report that the:
1) Picture
3) Copy (are important in that order)
Marketing Memo: Print ad evaluation criteria
This marketing memo lists the 7 questions marketers should consider when evaluating
whether or not their printed ad was executed for effectiveness: 1) Is the message clear at a
glance? Can you quickly tell what the advertisement is all about? 2) Is the benefit in the
headline? 3) Does the illustration support the headline? 4) Does the first line of the copy
support or explain the headline and illustration? 5) Is the ad easy to read and follow? 6) Is the
product easily identified? 7) Is the brand or sponsor clearly identified?
Radio Ads
Radio is a pervasive medium.
A) Radio’s main advantage is flexibility:
C) The obvious disadvantages of radio are:
1) The lack of visual images.
2) Relatively passive nature of the consumer processing that results.
Legal and Social Issues
To break through clutter, some advertisers believe they have to be edgy and push the
boundaries of what consumers are used to seeing in advertising.
Advertisers and their agencies must be sure advertising does not overstep social and legal
norms. Public policy makers have developed a substantial body of laws and regulations to
govern advertising.
A) Under U.S. law, advertisers:
1) Must not make false claims
service announcements for non-profits and government agencies.
DECIDING ON MEDIA AND MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS
After choosing the message, the advertiser’s next task is to choose media to carry it. The steps
here are deciding on desired reach, frequency, and impact; choosing among major media
Deciding On Reach, Frequency, and Impact
Media selection is finding the most cost-effective media to deliver the desired number and
type of exposures to the target audience.
A) What do we mean by the desired number of exposures?
1)) The advertiser is seeking a specified advertising objective and response from the
target audience.
C) The effect of exposures on audience awareness depends on the exposures.
1) Reach
There are important tradeoffs among reach, frequency, and impact, namely budget dollars.
D) The relationship between reach, frequency, and impact is captured in the following
concepts:
A) Total number of exposures (E) is reach times the average frequency: E = R x F
2) Weighted number of exposures (WE) is the reach times average frequency times
average impact: WE = R x F x I
G) Frequency is most important where:
1) There are strong competitors
2) A complex story to tell
3) High consumer resistance
4) A frequent-purchase cycle
H) A key reason for repetition is forgetting.
1) The higher the forgetting rate associated with a brand, the higher the warranted
level of repetition.
Choosing Among Major Media Types
The media planner has to know the capacity of the major advertising media types to
deliver reach, frequency, and impact.
A) Media planners make their choices by considering the following variables:
1) Target audiences’ media habits
4) Cost
B) Given the abundance of media, the planner must first decide how to allocate the
budget to the major media types.
C) The distribution must be planned with the awareness that people are increasingly time-
starved.
Alternative Advertising Options
In recent years, reduced effectiveness of traditional mass media has led advertisers to
increase their emphasis on alternate advertising media.
Place Advertising
Place advertising, or out–of-home advertising, is a broadly defined category that captures
many different alternative advertising forms.
A) Marketers are using creative and unexpected ad placement to grab consumer’s
attention.
C) Some of the options available include:
1) Billboards
2) Public places
There are many ways to communicate with consumers at the point of purchase (P-O-P).
In-store advertising includes ads on shopping carts, cart straps, aisles, and shelves, as well as
promotion options such as in-store demonstrations, live sampling, and instant coupon