The Role of Advertisement in the Rescuing a Brand in Crisis - Research Paper Example

The role of advertisement in the rescuing a brand in crisis Introduction Giving a particular brand hype in the competitive market of goods and services to capture new category of market customers and retaining the loyalty of existing customers is the challenge most businesses experience. Companies use advertising as a promotional strategy of a particular brand, through radio, newspaper ads, door-to door, television, internet promotions among many other means of facilitating ads basically to persuade a customer to purchase a product or service. An advertising campaign entailing a coordinated communication to relay a reasonably integrated and cohesive theme about a brand is the package of course of action towards promoting a company’s product and services (Hansen & Christensen, 2004, 167). A company finds itself in a confined set-up to propagate an advertisement campaign of the complex and dynamic environments within which the company is supposed to convey its communication to different audiences. This research paper is steered on the basis of the analysing the context of advertisement how a company rescues a brand that is in its downward fall within the market performance. The challenge associated with this course of rescuing the brand to reinstate its grounds on the stiff competitive market is appropriateness in decision making in the marketing mix. The paper articulates further with precision the roles and advantages attributed to advertisement. The impact of the ads methodology and resultant outcome towards the company’s stock turn-over with respect to the objectives set. Moreover, this research essay investigates on the promotional strategy towards rescuing the Coke brand of the Coca-Cola Company. This case study is picked on the basis of analysis of scrutinizing the contribution made by making a decision to promote the failing Coke brand through advertisement s in the competitive market of Northern Ireland due to competitive brands impacts and emergence of varied and close substitutes of soft drinks. Advertisement and market segmentation Segmentation involves the process of splitting widely varied and large (heterogeneous) market into segments or submarkets that are homogenous with respect to consumer characteristics. The advertisement keeps into the consumers differ in wants under various circumstances. The Coca-Cola Company critically analyses the market segmentation of the Northern Ireland to deductively induce the most convenient and most efficient method to propel the advertising process. This would involve acknowledging the taste and preference of different consumer category with respect to what most appeal to what group of targeted market. Ads to create product differentiation Creating difference in the consumer’s mind between the brand and its competitive brands through advertisements is achieved by deploying emphasis on the brands performance features and thus creating a distinctive image of the brand. In the respect to differentiation the ad creates consumer perception. The perceived difference of competitive brands impacts on the rationale of decision making by consumers (Hansen & Christensen, 2004, p. 59). The role of ads When a company experiences a low sales turn-over advertisement becomes a vital aspects of seeking to upgrade the performance of that particular brand facing retarding progress. It becomes of essence to find what is hindering the performance of such a brand and seeking the best advertisement strategy to solve it. Definition of the market mix Vis a vie advertisement is another area of concern for a company like Coca-Cola Ltd to make a progressive step. After the identification of the problem associated with the brand having a lower performance an effective marketing objectives and definite strategies are identified to resolve the advertisement link that is just about to bring solution to the brand. According to (Taylor, 2003, p. 253), ads can be of solution to many business performances but still it is not a panacea per se. the fundamentals of the business must be understood to ground the strategy’s course and articulation. Focus on what ads can accomplish and what it cannot accomplish is liberal stance that would help acknowledge the potentials of the ads to be employed as the remedy undertaking. Businesses thrive on profits. Profit maximization becomes the most propelling cornerstone towards the success of the business. The CEO of Coca-Cola in Northern Ireland must at all cost maintain an explicit balance between the company’s revenue and expenses. When expenses exceed the revenue levels unprofitable growth will be experienced or likelihood of being kicked out of business. On the other hand, too little revenue results to render the company unprofitable Further it is acknowledged that it is of no importance advertising in the markets without distribution lest you have intention of gaining the distribution sometime possibly in the near future. Promotion The advertisement may not be the solution the key to solving the brands problem. At times promotion can be the immediate solution to the brands challenge (Okonkwo, 2007, p. 103). Assessing the kind of opportunities that best suit the needs of the brand is packaged in the promotion of a brand. In a scenario in which a company may be marketing a product that a number of customers like so much but still they are put off from purchasing because the customers are strapped from cash. This would call for a short-term price incentive to draw consumers to the product. Advertising a product that customers have no idea of using may call for promoting the brand with additional complementary brands. It is of note that the answer to a brand failure may not necessarily be advertisement even after running the traps towards other marketing levers. Persuading customers to try a brand Ads can be convincing to getting consumers to give a try to something new in the market. Advertising can offer approaches and incentives that can be persuasive enough to lure customers to try a product. The ancillary benefit of these incentives is to remind the potential consumers to either purchase or use the brand. Associating the brand with an image The emotional connection of a brand with its consumers is a key aspect in creating appeal to the public. Advertisement taps the emotional connection by evaluation the state of the needs of the consumers. For instance fashion brands identify with an image and therefore ads would reinforce the connection. This association would enable accomplishment of an ultimate of ads of addition of value to a brand. The image created when we see ads of Coca-Cola brands being advertised by great personalities is an association to the personalities that would be appealing to people from the respective angles of the line of the individuals area of fame. Marketing mix appropriate for ads Brand awareness Generation People are unlikely to buy brands they haven’t heard of before. Advertisements classically solve the problem arising from the unawareness of the individuals about a particular product to make them be aware of the product. The name of the brand and the company associated with it isn’t enough to propel the required brand progress in the market but also the peculiar benefits that are associated with the brand to the potential consumer. Inform and Educate Any fresh information or anything new or just an initiative to educate users about an already performing brand in the market is can be conveyed with effectiveness through advertisements. This involves conveying of new news to the brand consumers and also to those who are not very familiar with the brand. The influence of advertising The campaign to market a brand in the market as rolled out by advertisement incentives are categorized with appropriateness to help the brand carve out a specific niche within the market so that the image of the brand is unique and outstanding (Morton, 1995, p. 34).  The market mix for the successful application of advertisements is snarled into the objectives of the business. By trailing through the stages involved in the whole advertisement process, for instance; identification of the business problem to be solved, assessment of the possible marketing strategy to curb the problem vis a vie the role played by ads in the context of marketing-one would clearly deduce the what must the ad accomplish. Who is buying the Coca-Cola brand? An evaluation of the concept of which market segment does the Coca-Cola Company targets so much was carried through a one-one interview across the state of Northern Ireland. The interview questionnaires tackled at the inquiry on who are actually the soft drink –Coke brand’s buyers? We targeted again the analysis of their purchasing g trends towards the brand. What were their reasons towards buying the brand was not left uncovered. Further we inquired on the relationship of the customers to the brand. The question of who buys the products was a crucial aspect to be covered in this research as the brand is driven in progress through the percentage of those consuming the brand. The market segment actually offers the consumption background to a brand-from which we categorize the performance of the particular brand and possibly the overall progress of the company. The segmentation of the target market would ease of offering a descriptive course of action to stabilize and reinstate back the level of performance of the brand. The knowledge of who is buying your brand is of great significance towards evaluation of the performance of the brand and also offers an informed basis in which rationalized decision are formulated. The interview deduced that, the most forward way to facilitate the growth of the brand is get those who already use and like your brand to buy more of it. It was seen so easy enough to convince someone who already have liked the brand before to do it once again. The basics that the Coca-Cola Company should bank on are the point that a number of brands create emphasis on the most loyal customers because they do represent a disproportionate quantity of brand’s sales. This is argued out that a slight increment in the purchase frequency would mean great sales returns to the company. It is further necessary for brands to initiate loyalty programs- the Coke brand is not an exception towards applying this strategy in the pursuit to optimize sales output. Conversely, focussing on the current buyers of a particular brand would make a company not replenishing its customers’ base. This could forge the challenge of just having fewer consumers buying your brand and gradually when the loyal customers leave, the company is left with no customers to buy the brand. The strategies to employ Extrapolation of the market to raise the market penetration of the Coke brand is the target option of the advertisement method. Every brand reaches a point where consumers begin to portray interest in it or possible show need of the company’s services and goods (Kahn, 2006, p. 73). In the case of Coke brand it is the point in which either more outlet retail deports are increased and therefore a show of more supplies or in the case where the weather conditions are favourable enough for the consumption of the drink. Again when the businesses in the retailing the Coke brand expand results to increased sales turn-over. All these avenues offer an opportunity to target the new consumers for the product. The company’s target is to attract the new consumers before the users get the opportunity to fall in love with the specific competing brand. There is undisputed essence by the Coca-Cola Company to spent a good quantity of resources towards cultivating the youth because the strategy to persuade the consumers to adopt the Coke brand at an early stage and therefore they have a long time to stay with the brand. In addition, another strategy towards increasing the brand’s penetration is by selling additional product to the same client. Again offering of diverse products to meet to varied consumers’ taste is another mechanism to increase the customer base to the products of the company. Furthermore the Coca-Cola Company can gain new users by adding the consumers of the competing brands like Pepsi. This is more applicable to a stage in the products life’s cycle where there is overwhelming maturity. The strategy can be of success at times but it comes with a price. Convincing someone already consuming a brand to shift to your brand may be challenging and definitely calls for the product to have extremely compelling benefit. When not monitored with curiosity this strategy can lead to promotional slugfest, a discount or price war can erupt wherein no side wins (Gupta, 2009, p. 46). Another way of raising the market penetration is through increasing the pie or expanding the category. This is a call on the category leaders to grow their less performing brand within a framework of reaching the category of nonusers and appealing to them substantially enough that they opt to be part of the group consuming the brand. Influence Consumer Purchases The affinity some consumers have for specific celebrities can significantly influence their purchases. People develop the attitude, "If the product/service is good enough for him/her, its automatically good enough for me." This philosophy is every so often the impetus behind advertisements for skin creams, hair products, makeup and attire (Dobkin, 2008, p. 94). Local consumers can desire the similar soft drink as that used by their teams best football player. Basically, the testimonial of the particular local celebrity adds instantaneous credibility to the companys product. The celebrity aspect in advertisement Build Awareness Celebrities featured in advertisement help in building the brand awareness, conferring to "Supermarket News," a publication giving wrap up of the food distribution industry. It notes that the celebrities build it much faster than traditional kinds of advertising. Brand awareness validates the proportion of people familiar with a specific brand. Upcoming businesses employ lots of time and money for exposure to incrementally upsurge brand awareness in the midst of consumers. Carrying out the ad by use of a local celebrity helps achieve much to enhance consumers understanding and awareness of what a small business offers. Position a Brand Through advertising various small companies employ celebrities to position their brands. According to (Collins & Porras, 2002, p. 237), product positioning is introducing the companys products in the finest possible limelight in the minds of the group targeted. For example, the Coca-Cola Company can use a well-respected football player to who have a rest after a stiff game and thus quenches his thirst and relaxes with a coke. The fact that the football game falls among the consumers good number of preferred games and has a noble reputation within the community makes the companys message and product more believable. Attract New Users One specific challenge companies face is how to find new users for the products they supply. Local celebrities in ads tend to appeal to the day-to-day customers as well as those individuals who have never had a taste of the brand. The latter could be consumers of competitive brands. Nevertheless, those who frequently see the celebrity in a commercial for a particular product can be influenced to give the product a try. Breathe Life into Dying Brand Using renowned celebrity in advertisement can also assist as far as breathing life into a brand, which doesn’t performing well in the market, is concerned. For example, a product manufacturer might think of the option of dropping a product or a brand particularly if production costs and overhead costs are leaving very less or no profit. Though, the use of a celebrity to advertise the benefits of the specific brand could help build new excitement and interest in consumers. Elimination of middlemen By making regular advertisement about the Coke brand by the Coca-Cola Company helps the company to sell the goods directly to reach the consumers without dependence on middlemen. This eliminates the Middlemans charges and therefore higher profits to the manufacturer and consequently lower pricing to the consumers. References List ARF ADVERTISING AND SALES PROMOTION EFFECTIVENESS WORKSHOP. (1992). Transcript proceedings: researching the power of brands : measuring brand equity : the role of brand loyalty : long-term brand-building through advertising and promotion : leveraging the brand name : building successful new brands. 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