Advertising and promoting - Essay Example

? Marketing Insert of Introduction Marketing techniques are of very great importance in the promotion ofvarious products at the local as well as in the international spheres. The mode of marketing and the medium used to market these products often play a key role in determining the number of people reached by these advertisements. However, the cost of airing certain advertisements in certain media is also a factor to be considered in this case. Moorthy (1988) argues that the type of medium chosen should therefore be that which can be accessed by most people as well as cheap in terms of the funds required to air an advertisement for a given period of time as compared with other media options. Some media house cover only limited areas and are not therefore suitable for an advertisement that requires a large number of people to reach (Moorthy, 1988). Depending on the type of promotion one wants to make and the target population, the choice of a media house is of prime importance to this task. For an international promotion, the channel that is viewed by the international community should be the better option. On the contrary, a local promotion expected to reach just a few selected population should make use of a local channel that reaches most people in the region targeted. This paper will look at the choice of various media channels in carrying out marketing promotions over the others depending on the type of promotion to be made and the number and location of target population Marketing Communications (Advertising & Promotion: Media) As has been mentioned earlier, the choice of a media channel to be used in carrying out any type of promotion really matters a lot as far as the cost, location and target population is concerned. To illustrate this, I will use the choice of making promotions for a major launch of a new environmentally friendly, ‘greener’ car from a renowned vehicle manufacturing company in the world, the Toyota Company. Here the choice of the channel may be very difficult given the large number of the target population to be reached by these advertisements. Being an international promotion therefore, the channel hat is to be used in this case should be that which is common among most people across the globe. For this reason, my choice for this particular advertisement is preferably the current leading world news broadcasting television, The BBC Channel. Given her long standing existence as a world news broadcasting channel, the BBC channel has gained world wide fame as a reliable news house across the world. It therefore has the largest number of viewers across the globe giving the company a good number of people to reach with the news (Heard, 2004). The Toyota Company is known to have had a long history in car manufacturing in the world history. The company’s products are consumed by a large number of buyers in all the continents of the world. In order to reach her widely scattered myriad of customers and the available amount of money she has planned to se for airing the adverts, 50 million pounds, the company needs to select the channel that has a large area of coverage too and which is actually popular among the world populations. Using the BBC news channel therefore would be the best option in this case. Even though making advertisements on this channel may prove quite expensive, the amount of money the company has channeled towards this is certainly enough to accomplish the task and realize the target the end of the day. However, n most of the third world and developing countries, only a few homesteads will bin a position to afford the expensive gargets for transmitting the BBC news and so will be potentially left out. Besides, most people do not speak English as their first language while others do not understand English at all and therefore may not be catered for during the promotion since BBC uses only English as a medium for communication. For small scale businesses for instance a small scale restaurant which wants to re- open her business in Lincoln and has only a minimal budget of around 4000 pounds which she plans to use in making her advertisements, the most suitable channel to use is the local U.S news channel which is dominant among the youth who are her main target. The news channel which is the youths’ favorite in the United States is the Fox News channel which airs a lot of music and movies common with the youths who are of course the main target for the restaurant. Cuprisin notes that, the Fox News Channel has gained popularity in America of late with over one hundred and two million viewers in the United States (Cuprisin, 2011). Besides this being a local television channel broadcasting mainly at her capital stations in the New York City, the channel has also a number of viewers across the world which can as well be reached with the news. Being a local broadcasting house, the Fox News Channel is the most relevant for the customers at the local level as well as being cheaper as compared with the other international broadcasting stations in the region. The problem is whether this restaurant is only a reserve of the young population. The more influential and the old who are the greatest owners of wealth in the society are not brought on board making the targeting of the intended populations quite irrelevant In the case of a promotion aimed at raising money to help in protecting cats as endangered animal species, but does not have the funds to attract the prospective sponsors for this, they can liaise with one of the international media channels which is popular world wide in order t be able to attract a large number of sponsors from all over the world. Form this many people would be reached and many interested parties concerned by the kind of advertisements made. The most appropriate channel that can be utilized in this case is the channel which airs several movies on animals. Certainly, this is where the parties interested in the protection of animals can be reached. A number of techniques can therefore be used in this case in order to be able to attract funds from these parties, among these include the use of movies which shows the level at which the cats have been endangered and the need to protect them by outlining their important roles in the movies as well as in the adverts that would follow. In this way therefore the people viewing the advert and the movies will be easily lured to join in the fight to protect the cats based on what they ha seen being aired. Some f the donations can then be used to promote the advertisements on other media channels as well as be used on the ground campaigns for the protection of the animals. The disadvantage with tis method is that most people do not identify themselves with any pet or just do not have time to watch these programs. These people will therefore not be reached by these advertisements making the promotion only a reserve for those who like pet animals and who like watching animal movies or just have time to watch television programs. Sponsorship and use of Celebrities Some companies have also ventured on the use of certain prominent people or celebrities popular among many people across the domain in making advertisements in order to catch the attention of a large number of people who are fans to such celebrities. Many people would like to be identified with certain other people who are considered very prominent in the society based on what they do. Most o these celebrities are famous sportsmen and musicians ho have shown exemplary demonstration of their talents in doing what they are best at. An example that we can use to illustrate this is the Samsung Company that is sponsoring most of the matches played by Chelsea soccer team, one of the very performing soccer teams in Europe. Owing to the fact that the team has a large number of supporters form all over the world, many people can be reached by the advertisements made by the Samsung company during the matches between Chelsea and other teams. This method of advertisements is rather cheaper on the part of the company as it doesn’t require any additional funds to air her advertisements apart from that spent on the team during the games. Samsung has been sponsoring the same team for around ten years to date and has always got the opportunity to promote her products from whose sakes they accrue more money to support the team and carry out their promotions.as a result, large sales have been made from this making it the second largest mobile selling company in the world after Nokia. However, this method of advertisement is group biased as it only reaches those that are utter fans of soccer. The question is, whether they are the only people who are suppose to buy the product. The assumption is that most people re reached through this method but non- soccer fans who forms the majority of the populations around he globe are left out thus not reaching a large number of prospective customers that are actually reached. Social Marketing Social marketing campaigns usually have a very large audience since social problems cut across the cultural borders. Various social malpractices such as smoking is carried out in all continents of the world and therefore is a problem for the whole globe. Such campaigns therefore require media channels that cover that entire continents and which can reach as many affected people as possible. In order to be able to reach as many people as possible, these campaigns need to use both the local as well as the international channels including the television networks, the newspapers and magazines, the internet sources and any other social media sources where interpersonal relations is possible. The only disadvantage with this method is the cost of carrying out the campaigns which is often very high and can curtail the entire exercise. Conclusion As has been seen above, the choice of a media source or channel that is used in marketing promotions is of very great concern in determining the number of people that are reached by the advertisements. The choice of these channels on the other hand are dependent on the cost for airing out the advertisements for a given period of time and the characteristics of the target population such as location, language or languages spoken and their likes and dislikes. The best choice always lead the most relevant outcome hence all the above mentioned factors must be put into consideration before one settles on one channel. References Cuprisin, T. (2011, june 9). The Fox News Fear Factory. Rolling Stone, 54- 64. Heard, C. (2004, July 5). “BBC News”. 3 April 2007. Fifty years of TV news, 19(7), 15- 25. Moorthy, K. S. (1988). Marketing Science. Product and price competition in a duopoly, 7(2), 141- 168. Read More