5 M s of Advertising

MISSION: What are the Advertising objectives? MONEY: How much can be spent? (Advertising budget) MESSAGE: What message should be sent? MEDIA: What media should be used? MEASUREMENT: How should the results be evaluated?

1. MISSION OR SETTING THE ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES Advertising Objectives can be classified as to whether their aim is: To inform: This aim of Advertising is generally true during the pioneering stage of a product category, where the objective is building a primary demand. This may include: Telling the market about a new product Suggesting new uses for a product Informing the market of a price change Informing how the product works Describing available services Correcting false impressions Reducing buyers fears Building a company image To persuade: Most advertisements are made with the aim of persuasion. Such advertisements aim at building selective brand. To remind: Such advertisements are highly effective in the maturity stage of the product. The aim is to keep the consumer thinking about the product.

2. MONEY This M deals with deciding on the Advertising Budget The advertising budget can be allocated based on: Departments or product groups The calendar Media used Specific geographic market areas There are five specific factors to be considered when setting the Advertising budget. Stage in PLC: New products typically receive large advertising budgets to build awareness and to gain consumer trial. Established brands are usually supported with lower advertising budgets as a ratio to sales. Market Share and Consumer base: high-market-share brands usually require less advertising expenditure as a percentage of sales to maintain their share. To build share by increasing market size requires larger advertising expenditures. Additionally, on a cost-per-impressions basis, it is less expensive to reach consumers of a widely used brand them to reach consumers of low-share brands. Competition and clutter: In a market with a large number of competitors and high advertising spending, a brand must advertise more heavily to be heard above the noise in the market. Even simple clutter from advertisements not directly competitive to the brand creates the need for heavier advertising. Advertising frequency: the number of repetitions needed to put across the brands message to consumers has an important impact on the advertising budget. Product substitutability: brands in the commodity class (example cigarettes, beer, soft drinks) require heavy advertising to establish a different image. Advertising is also important when a brand can offer unique physical benefits or features.

3. MESSAGE GENERATION Message generation can be done in the following ways: Inductive: By talking to consumers, dealers, experts and competitors. Consumers are the major source of good ideas. Their feeling about the product, its strengths, and weaknesses gives enough information that could aid the Message generation process. Deductive: John C. Meloney proposed a framework for generating Advertising Messages. According to him, a buyer expects four types of rewards from a product: Rational Sensory Social Ego Satisfaction. Buyers might visualize these rewards from: Results-of-use Experience Product-in-use Experience Incidental-to-use Experience

The Matrix formed by the intersection of these four types of rewards and the three types of experiences is given below.
Potential Type of Reward (Sample Messages) Rational Result-of-Use Experience 1. Gets Clothes Cleaner Sensory 2. Settles Stomach upset completely Social 3. When you care enough to serve the best Ego Satisfaction 4. For the skin you deserve to have

Product-in-Use Experience

5. The flour that needs no sifting

6. Real gusto in a great light beer

7. A deodorant to guarantee social acceptance

8. The store for young executive

Incidental-to-Use Experience

9. The plastic pack keeps the cigarette fresh

10. The portable television thats lighter in weight, easier to lift

11. The furniture that 12. Stereo for the man identifies the home of with discriminating taste modern people

Message evaluation and selection The advertiser needs to eval-uate the alternative messages. A good ad normally focuses on one core selling proposition. Messages can be rated on desirability, exclusiveness and believability. The message must first say something desirable or interesting about the product. The message must also say something exclusive or distinct that does not apply to every brand in the product category. Above all, the message must be believable or provable. Message execution. The message s impact depends not only upon what is said but also on how it is said. Some ads aim for rational positioning and others for emotional positioning. While executing a message the style, tone, words, and format for executing the message should be kept in mind.

Style. Any message can be presented in any of the following different execution styles, or a combination of them: Slice of life: Shows one or more persons using the product in a normal setting. Example: Coke 1litre ad, showed a family enjoying Coke, with a game of antakshari when there is a power failure. Lifestyle: Emphasizes how a product fits in with a lifestyle. Example: Collection, Asmi and Platinum ads, that focus on lifestyle of persons using their products. Fantasy: Creates a fantasy around the product or its use. Example: VIP Frenchie ads, showing a woman thinking of the Frenchie man saving her from a villain. Mood or image: Evokes a mood or image around the product, such as beauty, love, or serenity. No claim is made about the product except through suggestion. Example: Kingfisher Beer ads, saying the King of Good Times. Musical: Uses background music or shows one or more persons or cartoon characters singing a song involving the product. Example: Ads of Old Spice After Shave Lotion Personality symbol: Creates a character that personifies the product. The character might be animated Example: Ronald McDonald for McDonald s Technical expertise: Shows the company s expertise, experience, and pride in making the product. Example: GE and Skoda ads Scientific evidence: Presents survey or scientific evidence that the brand is preferred over or outperforms other brands. This style is common in the over-the-counter drug category. Example: DuraCell Ads, claiming the battery lasts 6 times longer than ordinary batteries Testimonial evidence: This features a highly credible, likable, or expert source endorsing the product. It could be a celebrity or ordinary people saying how much they like the product. Example: In ads for Sunsilk, they had hair expert Coleen, endorsing the product.

Tone: The communicator must also choose an appropriate tone for the ad. Example: Procter & Gamble is consistently positive in its tone its ads say something superlatively positive about the product, and humor is almost always avoided so as not to take mention away from the message. Other companies use emotions to set the tone particularly film, telephone, and insurance companies, which stress human connections and milestones. Words: Memorable and attention-getting words must be found. The following themes listed on the left would have had much less impact without the creative phrasing on the right:

Theme You wont have to stay at home because of bad hair

Creative Copy Get Out, Get Going

FORMAT: Format elements such as ad size, color, and illustration will make a difference in an ad s impact as well as its cost. A minor rearrangement of mechanical elements within the ad can improve its attention-getting power. Larger-size ads gain more attention, though not necessarily by as much as their difference in cost. Four-colour illustrations instead of black and white increase ad effectiveness and ad cost. By planning the relative dominance of different elements of the ad, optimal delivery can be achieved.

4. MEDIA The next M to be considered while making an Advertisement Program is the Media through which to communicate the Message generated during the previous stage. The steps to be considered are:

5. MEASUREMENT Evaluating the effectiveness of the Advertisement Program is very important as it helps prevent further wastage of money and helps make corrections that are important for further advertisement campaigns. Researching the effectiveness of the advertisement is the most used method of evaluating the effectiveness of the Advertisement Program. Research can be in the form of: Communication-Effect Research Sales-Effect Research There are two ways of measuring advertising effectives. They are: Pre-testing It is the assessment of an advertisement for its effectiveness before it is actually used. It is done through Concept testing how well the concept of the advertisement is. This is be done by taking expert opinion on the concept of the ad. Test commercials test trial of the advertisement to the sample of people Finished testing Post-testing It is the assessment of an advertisement s effectiveness after it has been used. It is done in two ways Unaided recall a research technique that asks how much of an ad a person remembers during a specific period of time Aided recall a research technique that uses clues to prompt answers from people about ads they might have seen

Case Study : Sundrop Mission: Sales goals: Leadership in the edible refined oil segment Advertising Goals: Communication task 1. Position Sundrop as the healthy oil for healthy people 2. Ensure that this did not erode the delivery of the taste benefit. Positioning had to be perceptually as far away from Saffola. Young, modern and premium feel Execution had to be distinct and original to stand out from the clutter Money: Stage in PLC: Introductory, therefore relatively large expenditure Market share: new product Competitors: Saffola (Safflower oil) also used the health platform but was associated with heart patients and less taste Flora and Sunola (Sunflower oils)

Message: Health was chosen as the platform, along with a supporting claim for taste. People who were healthy and energetic were concerned about the longterm prospects of their health. Thus Health Was related to maintenance of good health Was applicable to all members of the family Was characterized by lively energetic people Thus the message and (positioning): The Healthy Oil for Healthy People Media: Primary media: Television ad 30 seconds. Print ad Measurement: Within 6 months, Sundrop became the largest selling refined sunflower oil. Redefined the category and expanded the Sunflower oil segment from 2.71% to 23% in 6 months, and 42% in 1997 Still the largest selling sunflower oil brand holds 15% of branded oil market. The ad was shown for over 10 years as the main theme film.