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ADVERTISING:Message Frequency and Customer Awareness, Message Reinforcement

<< ADVERTISING:Developing advertising, Major responsibilities
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Brand Management (MKT624)
VU
Lesson 34
ADVERTISING
Introduction
This lecture emphasizes on evaluation of advertising campaign before it is launched. Some
basic considerations are discussed, which if followed, give you a decent level of confidence
about the effectiveness of your campaign. Having been done with developing advertising, the
lecture also addresses fundamentals of executing advertising.
Evaluating new advertising campaign
This evaluation does not mean assessing the impact of a campaign. It is pre-launch evaluation
on the basis of five fundamental points:
A strong single basic idea: A good campaign revolves around a strong single idea. This
single idea is a reflection of brand's positioning. Brand's positioning rests on one strong
benefit, you will recall! You have to ensure that good advertising contains a single idea and
is not simply a listing of the virtues of the product. Selling idea can be based on the
following factors when you plan development and execution of advertising:
·  It's new ­ you can talk about newness.
·  It offers a solution to a problem. Your punch line can be based on this aspect.
·  It is thought-provoking; it should cause the consumer to think about your product
and develop some attitude and feelings towards that.
Natural growth of the idea: You have to make sure that it grows naturally out of the nature
and character of the product. It should capitalize on the virtues of the product, which the
consumer will readily see in the product. It must not try to artificially create an interest that
may not be readily related with the product.
Appeal to self-interest: It should appeal quickly to the self-interest of the consumer. The
consumer should associate the product with some service to him. If not, then he is not going
to have feelings and attitude toward your brand.
Your own custom-made approach: The campaign should follow an approach that sounds
and looks like your own. It should be distinctive in relation to your positioning and brand
persona. It should be memorable in that it can be readily associated to your brand and not
those of competitors.
It must not wander off: In its execution, it must stick to the positioning, main selling idea.
It must not wander off the main selling point into different directions? In sticking to the
main selling idea, you may point out the significance of the promise, offer reasons why this
promise is possible, or relate various attributes to the basic promise. You will recall from
lecture 20 how to assess the main attribute/benefit for positioning from customer's
standpoint.
Miscellaneous considerations: A few straightforward considerations must be taken into
account while you evaluate advertising for its effectiveness. Some of the following
questions provide valuable insights and build up your confidence about the relevance of the
campaign:
·  Is it simple?
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Brand Management (MKT624)
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·
Does it reflect the character of the product?
·
Is it interesting enough to get readership?
·
Does it take advantage of the medium?
·
Does it demonstrate it point?
·
Is it specific and thought-provoking?
If all the points really represent themselves as campaign constituents, it is a good campaign and
reflects your strategy statement and copy strategy. And, that is a reflection that your positioning
and persona are well translated.
Executing advertising is all about ensuring a high level of customer response effects. It
deals with:
·  Target
market
Advertising Effectiveness
reach
and
Customer Response
·  Media selection
100%
Figure 41
·  Media coverage
·  Message
frequency
80%
·  Ad  content  or
copy, and value
proposition.
60%
What we need to learn here is
the "why-not" factor, that is,
40%
why  may  campaigns  not
generate the required level of
customer  response?  Let's
20%
take a look at that.
For any level of awareness,
the levels of comprehension,
Purchase
Awareness
Comprehension
Intention
intention, and purchase are
consecutively  lower.  The
Customer Response
higher the level of awareness,
Market-Based Management by Roger J. Best
the higher is the level of
purchase. It is also important to note again that purchase level does not increase as much as
does the awareness. The accompanying graphics illustrate this fact.
To have a higher level of purchase, we have to work hard to jack up awareness. Building
awareness, therefore, is the first step toward building profits. Sustained loyalty depends on
customer retention and his coming back and back for purchasing. It is this repeat purchasing
that has a direct relationship with profitability.
The basic objective of communication is to increase awareness among the target market and not
general public. A well known and memorable campaign is no good if it does not generate the
required response.
Target Market Reach - Media Selection and Customer Awareness
In order to reach your target customers effectively, you have to have a good understanding of
their media habits, like
·  What TV channels they watch?
·  What newspapers and which parts they are interested in?
·  What magazines they prefer?
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Brand Management (MKT624)
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·  What radio stations and at what time?
·  How do they go to work and get exposed to the outdoor media?
·  Are they internet users?
All of the factors have to be considered before you buy a combination of media to reach your
target customers. Everything adds to cost and the incremental cost has to be related to the
increment of economic benefits.
Message Frequency and Customer Awareness
Once you have chosen the media mix, the next question is how many times you should expose
your target customers to your message. Doing it too few times is not going to serve the
purpose, for the message may not make inroads into their memories.
You have to decide about the right frequency to make the message meaningfully effective in
terms of its registration. It could be "concentrated communication strategy" or "distributed
communication strategy"1. You concentrate generally for seasonal products and distribute for
the ones that generally sell round the year.
Ad Copy and Customer Response
We have learned quite a bit about the role of the ad copy toward creating awareness and
comprehension. We must be sure that the message is rightly received and interpreted at the
customers' end. One approach is to test the copy before running it nationwide, especially if it is
a TV commercial.
Fragmented media has given us the advantage of testing. If the results are positive in terms of
comprehension by the target market, you should go ahead with the campaign. Needless to say
that ad copy is best able to attract customers when it is really based on customer needs and
situations familiar to customers.
Message Reinforcement
One hard fact of communication is that it has to be continuous, repetitive and reinforcing.
Building awareness, comprehension, and intention will bring in a good customer response, but
will diminish if the message is not reinforced. That is precisely the reason that you see
advertising for soaps, ice cream, and cell phone services almost round the year.
Maintaining a high level of awareness is expensive. One approach to reinforcement that
maintains awareness and reduces copy wear-out is "pulsing", which is use of alternating
exposure periods. Other approach is "heavy-up" for seasonal items.
You go for pulsing to maintain a base awareness of your product throughout the year, while
heavy-up its message frequency before and during the high sales periods.
Summary
Advertising should be developed keeping brand positioning in mind. If positioning has been
chosen right after assessing all the product benefits from customer's standpoint, then chances
are that campaign will be based on the most appealing benefit and character of the product. It
will be simple and straight forward with no ambiguities. It should be very natural not
communicating anything that does not belong to the product.
While executing advertising, the customer response effects should be kept in mind and
campaign devised accordingly. Awareness must be created at a very high level in order to
achieve a decent level of purchase by customers.
The factors of considering the target market, message frequency, and reinforcement should be
considered carefully to execute the campaign effectively.
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Brand Management (MKT624)
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Bibliography:
1. Roger J. Best: "Market-Based Management ­ Strategies for Growing Customer Value
and Profitability"; Prentice Hall (304-309)
Suggested readings:
2. Roger J. Best: "Market-Based Management ­ Strategies for Growing Customer Value
and Profitability"; Prentice Hall (302-322)
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Table of Contents:
  1. UNDERSTANDING BRANDS – INTRODUCTION:Functions of Brand Management, Sales forecast, Brand plan
  2. INTRODUCTION:Brand Value and Power, Generate Profits and Build Brand Equity
  3. BRAND MANIFESTATIONS/ FUNDAMENTALS:Brand identity, Communication, Differentiation
  4. BRAND MANIFESTATIONS/ FUNDAMENTALS:Layers/levels of brands, Commitment of top management
  5. BRAND CHALLENGES:Consumer Revolt, Media Cost and Fragmentation, Vision
  6. STRATEGIC BRAND MANAGEMENT:Setting Objectives, Crafting a Strategy, The Brand Mission
  7. BRAND VISION:Consensus among management, Vision Statement of a Fast Food Company, Glossary of terms
  8. BUILDING BRAND VISION:Seek senior management’s input, Determine the financial contribution gap
  9. BUILDING BRAND VISION:Collect industry data and create a brand vision starter, BRAND PICTURE,
  10. BRAND PICTURE:Brand Value Pyramid, Importance of being at pinnacle, From pinnacle to bottom
  11. BRAND PERSONA:Need-based segmentation research, Personality traits through research
  12. BRAND CONTRACT:The need to stay contemporary, Summary
  13. BRAND CONTRACT:How to create a brand contract?, Brand contract principles, Understand customers’ perspective
  14. BRAND CONTRACT:Translate into standards, Fulfill Good Promises, Uncover Bad Promises
  15. BRAND BASED CUSTOMER MODEL:Identify your competitors, Compare your brand with competition
  16. BRAND BASED CUSTOMER MODEL:POSITIONING, Product era, Image Era, An important factor
  17. POSITIONING:Strong Positioning, Understanding of components through an example
  18. POSITIONING:Clarity about target market, Clarity about point of difference
  19. POSITIONING – GUIDING PRINCIPLES:Uniqueness, Credibility, Fit
  20. POSITIONING – GUIDING PRINCIPLES:Communicating the actual positioning, Evaluation criteria, Coining the message
  21. BRAND EXTENSION:Leveraging, Leveraging, Line Extension in detail, Positive side of line extension
  22. LINE EXTENSION:Reaction to negative side of extensions, Immediate actions for better managing line extensions
  23. BRAND EXTENSION/ DIVERSIFICATION:Why extend/diversify the brand,
  24. POSITIONING – THE BASE OF EXTENSION:Extending your target market, Consistency with brand vision
  25. DEVELOPING THE MODEL OF BRAND EXTENSION:Limitations, Multi-brand portfolio, The question of portfolio size
  26. BRAND PORTFOLIO:Segment variance, Constraints, Developing the model – multi-brand portfolio
  27. BRAND ARCHITECTURE:Branding strategies, Drawbacks of the product brand strategy, The umbrella brand strategy
  28. BRAND ARCHITECTURE:Source brand strategy, Endorsing brand strategy, What strategy to choose?
  29. CHANNELS OF DISTRIBUTION:Components of channel performance, Value thru product benefits
  30. CREATING VALUE:Value thru cost-efficiency, Members’ relationship with brand, Power defined
  31. CO BRANDING:Bundling, Forms of communications, Advertising and Promotions
  32. CUSTOMER RESPONSE HIERARCHY:Brand-based strategy, Methods of appropriations
  33. ADVERTISING:Developing advertising, Major responsibilities
  34. ADVERTISING:Message Frequency and Customer Awareness, Message Reinforcement
  35. SALES PROMOTIONS:Involvement of sales staff, Effects of promotions, Duration should be short
  36. OTHER COMMUNICATION TOOLS:Public relations, Event marketing, Foundations of one-to-one relationship
  37. PRICING:Strong umbrella lets you charge premium, Factors that drive loyalty
  38. PRICING:Market-based pricing, Cost-based pricing
  39. RETURN ON BRAND INVESTMENT – ROBI:Brand dynamics, On the relevance dimension
  40. BRAND DYNAMICS:On the dimension of knowledge, The importance of measures
  41. BRAND – BASED ORGANIZATION:Benefits, Not just marketing but whole culture, Tools to effective communication
  42. SERVICE BRANDS:The difference, Hard side of service selling, Solutions
  43. BRAND PLANNING:Corporate strategy and brands, Brand chartering, Brand planning process
  44. BRAND PLANNING PROCESS:Driver for change (continued), Brand analysis
  45. BRAND PLAN:Objectives, Need, Source of volume, Media strategy, Management strategy