What advertising is not

Advertising has always been an important part of any communication strategy. But what does that mean in practice when deciding on marketing strategy?
I was recently asked to look through some university notes meant to help students prepare for their state exam. As I read I realized that there was a serious problem. It seems that many consider commercials to be the center of any marketing activities. And this is what they are not.

Stakeholder Management: behind the commercial

 

A commercial is designed not just according to the desire to sell certain product to certain target group. A commercial is designed as a visible end of a long marketing process. That is because even before designing a product or a service one should make sure that there is market for such product or service. That includes a comprehensive analysis of consumer needs and desires, of competition, of resources, of market tendencies. A successful product is usually designed in collaboration with target groups. Communication specialists always advise that consumers and other stakeholders are empowered when it comes to decision making. And this is a reasonable advice as practice shows that empowered stakeholders are more involved and thus less likely to switch to another company/brand. This implies that potential consumers along with all other stakeholders will be involved in the design and production of a product. Therefore they will not need to be informed about the new product through commercials.

A very good example of empowered consumers are brand communities as the Apple community. There we talk about much more than a product or a consumer need. What drives sales is the brand community’s culture. It is a question of pride to own an Apple product and it is always desired to have the latest model. The same we observe with the Harry Potter community. What can make a 10-year-old spend a night in front of a book store in order to get the new book as the first? It is not advertising. It is much more. Behind Harry Potter we can find a whole industry bringing the characters to life making them important part of the children’s lives through producing dolls, posters, creating stories, online communities, myths, etc. Thus it is superficial to regard advertising as a central marketing activity.

Kotler says that marketing is as an iceberg – what you see on the surface is just the tip of the iceberg. And this is where some less experienced companies stumble. Not understanding the importance or scope of marketing is fatal.
 

Advertising and types of commercials

Advertising offers good possibilities for reaching out to wider consumer segments, for establishing status or class, for promotion, for additional information, for keeping up interest, for comebacks. And used as such it will serve its purposes. Especially if designed accordingly and distributed through the right channels.

There are three general types of commercials – rational, based on promoting quality, stability, and price; emotional, designed to prompt an emotional response; and class-establishing, promoting luxury and exquisite lifestyle. There are furthermore commercials meant to accompany a product’s launch, to stabilize market positions and reach new consumer segments, to remind of the existence or characteristics of a product and finally to announce a comeback.

Media Strategy 

The media we choose for a commercial depends on the marketing strategy just as much as the commercial itself. Everything starts with analysis, mapping publics, budget, status, goals, and strategy. Nowadays typically used media as TV, radio and newspapers are no longer as effective as they have once been. This is mainly because of the enormous impact internet has on our lives today. Most people use it to get informed about products, read reviews, contact consumer communities. That is why it is almost useless promoting quality or other characteristics. People have the power to find the very truth about a product. For that reason today it makes much more sense to advertise the existence of a product, especially valid in the case of small or new companies, the class of the product and its superiority – why should we consider buying it.

However, we should not forget that today’s society is flooded by products and services and it becomes more and more obvious that other differentiators are needed to turn consumers’ attention towards one self and their product. It is advised that as long as you cannot provide a product impossible to copy, you have to invest in building an image that will make your product more desirable than the products of competitors. Doing so includes different types and mixes of activities as CSR, brand communities, partnerships, welfare, support of causes or science/medicine/sport/culture/etc., discussion groups, company outreach, transparency, reporting and many more depending on the branch.

That is why I will say it once again – advertising has its purpose, goals and results when used as a part of a thorough marketing strategy. It should not be underestimated, but even more importantly, it should not be overestimated.

DIDI