Advertising - Case Study Example

To Darla From You Re Deciding whether to employ an advertising agency or not April 28, Advertising is an essential function of a business to create product awareness among its intended market. Advertising is defined as “the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media."(Bovee, 1992, p. 7 cited in Taflinger, 1996). Deciding whether to employ an advertising agency is indeed a tough choice especially if you are working on a tight budget of £10,000.

To help you decide whether you should hire an ad agency or not, it will prudent to determine first your need for advertising as a business. Should I’ll Cook for You is a start-up company wanting to raise your target market’s consciousness about your product with the ultimate objective of increasing your sales and widening your market base. Since the business is also a start-up, it cannot afford to fail. It is imperative therefore that this advertising campaign should work because to expand the business and pay the loan.

Should I’ll Cook for You serves a particular niche in the market which are the busy professionals, elderly neighours, people advised to eat healthy by their doctors and health buffs. The geography of the target market is also within your community. These factors must be considered in the formulation of your advertising campaign. Having enumerated these functions, a Limited-Service Advertising agency is more appropriate for Should I’ll Cook for You for a variety of reason. Limited-Service Advertising agency is an advertising agency that supply only one or two basic services such as creative advertising but will also provide strategic planning service (www.

adworld2020.blogspot, 2014). Hiring a Limited-Service Advertising agency is more appropriate for Should I’ll Cook for You because of several reasons. First consideration is the avoidance of failure of the campaign which your business cannot afford. This is best remedied by resorting professional ad agencies which has records of high degree of success in raising consumer awareness. Second important consideration of employing a third party advertising agency is for you to focus on your core business while the campaign is running.

Your input and engagement in the strategic planning of the campaign may be invaluable but you should leave the execution to the professionals and focus on your core business. If you opt to prepare an in-house advertising agency, this may be cheaper in the short run because there will be no third party agency that would be charging you for their services but this is very risky. You may learn from the experience which you may be able to use in future advertising campaigns but it could also mean no more future advertising campaigns if you fail in your first try because your business cannot absorb the loss.

The positive anticipated consequences of preparing your own in-house advertising agency can easily be defeated by its negative anticipated consequences. The biggest worry of handling an advertising campaign of a start-up business is its inefficacy due to the sheer fact that you are not an advertising professional but a nutritionist. At this stage, you cannot afford to fail because your business is still in its start-up phase where you have very little or no buffer for losses. Start-up phase is critical because this can spell the difference between the success and failure of the business.

If you will lose money due to the badly managed advertising campaign, you may not be able to recover from it and may be forced to close the business. Handling an in-house advertising campaign will also take your attention from your core business of preparing the meals and the business. Worst, the effort you undertook may become pointless because it is beyond your specialization. Now, consider the other option of hiring an external advertising agency. Advertising agencies may be costly but there are ways to cut cost so that your 10,000 budget will suffice.

This can be done by utilizing a Limited-Service Advertising agency whereby some of the advertising function such as planning and strategic functions may require your greater involvement. Unlike in a full service advertising service where you only need to state your objective, Limited Advertising Agency would require greater involvement from you (www.smallbusienss.cron.com, 2014). You would assume a greater responsibility for the strategic function of campaign which is advantageous to you because you can personally include your input which is a very valuable aspect of the campaign since it is you who know the nuances of your market being your nearby neighbourhood.

You would have the best of both worlds in this approach because your inputs will be guided by a professional that would help determine if the formulated strategy will work or not. The 10,000 budget may be just enough considering the size of your target market. You will not need a television advertisement because your intended audience is not that big. The removal of advertising in television medium will also save you cost in terms of production cost and airing them. Other mediums will instead be utilized which would be more appropriate for your intended market.

It is also not advisable to pit the products of Should I’ll Cook for You against the direct competitor in the advertising campaign to avoid additional pressure for the business. These pressures could include a retaliatory and intensified advertising campaign from the competition which would raise the cost of advertising and ultimately, the cost of doing business itself. The competitor can also use other strategies to make business difficult for start-ups such as offering predatory prices in the intended market making it impossible for Should I’ll Cook for You to survive.

It is better if the advertising campaign will only focus on increasing market awareness and to confront competition. Thus to implement this recommendation, you could begin scouting for advertising agencies which specializes on start-up business like you. You can then compare their track records and cost. It is important to know their track record because it will foretell the success rate of your advertising campaign. You can also check how many start-up businesses they have handled and the rate of success of those businesses whose advertising they have handled.

This is important to know not only to determine the efficacy of the ad agency in handling marketing campaigns for start-up businesses but also has a bearing on cost. Advertising agencies who handle start-up business usually have more reasonable charges knowing all too well that start-up business does not much funds to go around with. They are more flexible and more receptive to customized advertising campaign designed for a specific market such as Should I’ll Cook for You whose market are busy people, elderly, advised to eat healthy and health buffs within the area of your community.

Summary of Table of Decision Consequences Prepare advertising in-house Positive anticipated consequences Negative anticipated consequences Cost effective May be ineffective due to the fact that Darla is inexperienced in advertising Darla can learn from the experience May take Darla’s attention from core business and defeat the business Could be costly in the long run because Darla has to hire additional personnel for the campaign which she would not need in the long run Darla could not monitor the progress Ultimately, could become a waste of time and money if the campaign will not result to its market’s awareness Prepare advertising outside agency Positive anticipated consequences Negative anticipated consequences High probability of efficacy of creating awareness to Darla’s target market Could be expensive Will allow Darla to focus on her core business Could be difficult to monitor since it is a third party Could be customized to serve a particular market References Advantages and Disadvantages of Full Service Advertising Agencies. (n.d.).Small Business.

Retrieved April 27, 2014, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-full-service-advertising-agencies-17486.html Advertising agency. (n.d.). : Limited-Service Advertising Agencies. Retrieved April 27, 2014, from http://adworld2020.blogspot.com/2010/07/limited-service-advertising-agencies.html Taflinger, R. (n.d.). A Definition of Advertising. A Definition of Advertising. Retrieved April 27, 2014, from http://public.wsu.edu/~taflinge/addefine.html