The Importance of Advertising for Business - Essay Example

Marketing Communication-Exam Questions Table of Contents Advertising 3 Cinema Advertising 3 Television Advertising 4 Sales Promotion 6 Internal Marketing Communication 7 References 10 Advertising Advertising is essential for a business to promote its products as well as services. Advertisement is the means to offer product to the customers by creating awareness about the company and establishing a brand about what it is offering. There are several ways to advertise a product, i.e. word-of-mouth, newspaper, internet, radio, cinema and television (Ilango, 2011). Cinema Advertising Cinema advertising is a medium to promote a product in order to create awareness among the consumers. Cinema advertising presents slide promotion and at times it also offers rolling stock alike to a television commercial. A few theatres present lively digital publicity opportunities in place of slide advertising in the theatre hall (Victor, 2006). The Cinema Advertising Association (CAA) represents the two UK cinema advertising related contractors, Digital Cinema Media (formerly known as Carlton Screen Advertising) and Pearl & Dean which provide advice on various issues related to regulation, research and production. The CAA ensures that all UK cinema commercials are according to British Codes of Advertising (BFI, 2010). Pearl & Dean in the UK controls around 19.9% sites of UK cinema. It includes prominent operators of multiplex such as Showcase, Empire, AMC and Apollo (Getmemedia, 2009). In the UK, there are over 3000 screens showing cinema. Production cost related to cinema adverting is quite low. For example, Pearl & Dean presents tow types cinema advertisements related production for small businesses of the local area (Marketingdonut, 2011). Television Advertising Television advertising allows the advertisers to inform a large audience about a business, service or product. It generally demonstrates how a product or service works so that the consumers will be aware of about what to look on the product at the point of purchase, hence it effectively influences consumers purchasing behaviour. The concept of television advertising is accepted by customers since the television came into existence. The entry of cable television has reduced production costs and created an opportunity to get in touch with target customers and markets which has made a feasible choice for small and medium-size businesses. An effective television advertisement requires a good script that emphasizes a powerful offer. Furthermore, advertisements should be efficiently produced and for this reason it is often better to appoint an advertising agency, which helps to organise an entire operation (All Business, 2011). Advantages of Cinema Advertising: Cinema advertising is designed to target a specific audience and can actively attract the 100% attention of the audience The Digital projector provides high impact on images and sounds, thus the message can be conveyed effectively to the potential customers The cost of cinema advertising is inexpensive; the advertisement can be shown at all possible cinemas or just one local cinema depending upon the budget of an advertiser (NBS Studio, 2010) Advantages of Television Advertising: Television advertising helps to reach large number of audience in a short period of time than radio and local newspapers Message is delivered with picture, sound and action that can provide instant credibility to business. It provides an opportunity to be creative and adds a personality in a business, which can be mainly useful for small businesses that depend on repeat customers (All Business, 2011) The advantages of both cinema and television advertising have been discussed above, however depending upon the target customer the advertising media can be selected. The market segmentation is an important factor while taking an advertising decision. If the company is targeting the mass market than it is better to go for television advertising and if it decides to target a specific customer segment for luxurious product than the cinema advertising can be taken into consideration. Sales Promotion Sales promotion is a part of marketing mix and a method to boost the sales of the product and services. While purchasing, the customers get attracted generally towards those products that provide discounts, gifts and other offers. These are the techniques used by a company to encourage the customer to buy the goods. The sales promotion can be created by thinking creatively as well as acting strategically (National Institute of Open Schooling, n.d.). The Miles and Snow’s strategic typology is a theory to understand the process undertaken to adopt the organisational strategies (Nwankwo & Gbadamosi, 2011). Strategy is a theoretical work and it involves details of planning action such as developing and positioning of product offering, market segmentation for those target customers. The strategies are the direction of the business but tactics are required to implement it practically. Hence it can be stated that sales promotion as a part of marketing strategy is a tactical more than strategic option because it is the day to day activity of the business. Most of the research has shown that marketing is generally highly effective if it is implemented tactically because marketing is not represented as a high level of decision making (Nwankwo & Gbadamosi, 2011). Strategy is considered as primarily theoretical based effort and tactics are considered as the complimenting aspect of strategy in order to implement them in an appropriate manner. Sales promotion is a value chain activity which requires functional tactics that sustain the business’s strategy as well as enables to achieve strategic objectives (Linda, 2009). Example of Tesco: Tesco is a successful retail organisation in the UK due to different store concepts, low prices, and customer loyalty and also for diversifying their business into retailing services, such as banking and insurance. The adaptation of “pay day discount strategy” was to attract the customers who were struggling from the credit crunch. It is a method to convince the customer to spend a little extra amount when they are in credit crisis and to stop them from moving out of Tesco and enter into a rival store (Evans, 2009). Internal Marketing Communication Internal marketing communication is a strategy to communicate with the internal customers. It determines about what, when and how it should be communicated. According to Dr EJ Sarma, CEO of Hurmist, communication plays a significant role to make an employee more participative. Communication helps to plug the gap between employees and managers and brings more transparency in an organisation. The idea and perception of employee should be considered while taking a decision which will be helpful for an organisation (Sarma, 2000). Adequate flow of information helps to increase productivity and minimises the conflict related to unproductive, duplication and confusion. The integration of employee’s personal objectives and business objectives are to be defined clearly to make them more interested in their works. There should be good communication between the employee and mangers in order to get the work done by the employees on time (Shah, n.d.). Good and effective communication is necessary not only for good human relationship but also for successful business. It is a basic tool to motivate an employee to boost their contribution in an organisation (Sarma, 2000). Effective process of internal marketing communication can have a positive impact upon the products prepared by an organisation. It enables to create superior product awareness among the employees and also creates greater anticipation and interest. It also ensures that sales teams of an organisation is better equipped and well briefed about a product to tackle the questions of the consumers with confidence (SnapComms, 2011). A recent survey conducted by IABC and PR News has shown that improving communication with the senior executives, chiefly the CEO is one of the cost-effective ways to enhance satisfaction of employees in an organisation (Gray & Robertson, 2005). “Finding the Right Direction,” in 2004 issue of CW, shows that a research conducted in Australia had found that effective senior executive communication is usually one of the high connections of satisfaction with internal communication (typically around 0.7 out of 1.0), i.e. communication with senior executives influences or motivates the employee of an organisation (Gray & Robertson, 2005). The internal customers such as management, executives and other workforce are simultaneously recipients of message from the organisation. In the service business, there is a high level of connection between the employees and the customers. Therefore, there is a need for the employees to understand the value of the business as they are the medium to deliver the appropriate message to the customers. There may be difference in perception of employees and the customers which creates a problem for the business, hence to avoid the misunderstanding and conflict the organisation should create good relation with the internal customers (Hughes & Fill, 2007). References All Business, 2011. Television Advertisement Pros and Cons. Sales & Marketing. [Online] Available at: http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/advertising-television-advertising/2592-1.html [Accessed May 07, 2011]. BFI, 2010. Cinema Advertising Associates. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/researchers/directory/details.php?id=80 [Accessed May 07, 2011]. Evans, S., 2009. New Tesco offers will Catch Customers on Pay Day. News. [Online] Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/new-tesco-offers-will-catch-customers-on-pay-day-1628625.html [Accessed May 07, 2011]. Gray, R. & Robertson, L., 2005. Effective Internal Communication Starts at the Top. Employee-communication. [Online] Available at: http://www.employee-communication.com.au/util/doc.jsp?i=86&f=blob2&c=2 [Accessed May 07, 2011]. Getmemedia, 2009. Pearl & Dean. At a Glance. [Online] Available at: http://www.getmemedia.com/DB/market-insight/cinema.html [Accessed May 07, 2011]. Hughes, G. & Fill, C., 2007. Marketing Communications 2007-2008. Butterworth-Heinemann. Ilango, U. A., 2011. Why Advertising Is Important For Your Business. Auto & Vehicles. [Online] Available at: http://www.webink.org/why-advertising-is-important-for-your-business/ [Accessed May 07, 2011]. Linda, 2009. Strategic Planning Process: Implementation. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.strategicmarketsegmentation.com/strategic-planning-process-implementing-tactics/ [Accessed May 07, 2011]. Marketingdonut, 2011. Cinema Advertising. Marketing. [Online] Available at: http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/advertising/radio-tv-and-cinema-advertising [Accessed May 07, 2011]. Nwankwo, S. & Gbadamosi, T, 2011. Entrepreneurship Marketing: Principles and Practice of Sme Marketing. Taylor & Francis. National Institute of Open Schooling, No Date. Sales Promotion. Objectives. [Online] Available at: http://www.nios.ac.in/Secbuscour/24.pdf [Accessed May 07, 2011]. NBS Studio, 2010. Cinema Advertising Company. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.nbs-studio.com/cinemaadvertisingcompany.php [Accessed May 07, 2011]. Sarma, E. T., 2000. Good Communication Channels, Builds Dedicated Employees. Management. [Online] Available at: http://www.itpeopleindia.com/20020805/management1.shtml [Accessed May 07, 2011]. Shah, P., No Date. Importance of Communication in an Organization. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.citehr.com/170321-importance-communication-organization.html [Accessed May 07, 2011]. SnapComms, 2011. Internal Marketing Communications. Business Units. [Online] Available at: http://www.snapcomms.com/markets/marketing-communications.aspx [Accessed May 07, 2011]. Read More