Consumer and Market Analysis

              A situation analysis often begins by looking at the aggregate market for the product, service, or cause being advertised: the size of the market, its growth rate, seasonality, geographical distribution; the possible existence of different segments; and trends in all of these aggregate market characteristics.

Competitive Analysis

                  Advertising planning and decision-making are heavily affected by competition and the competitive situation the advertiser faces. Competition is such a pervasive factor that it will occur as a consideration in all phases of the advertising planning and decision-making process. A type of market structure analysis that involves the development of perceptual maps of a market, for example, attempts to locate the relative perceptual positions of competitive brands.

          Situation analysis should usually include an analysis of what current share the brand now has, what shares its competitors have, trends in these shares, reasons for these trends, what share of a market is possible for the brand, and from which competitors an increase in share will come. The planner also has to be aware of the relative strengths and weaknesses financial, production, and marketing of the different competing companies, and the history of competitive moves and objectives in the product category.

The Marketing Plan

           Advertising planning and decision making take place in the context of an overall marketing plan. The marketing plan includes planning, implementation, and control functions for the total corporation or a particular decision-making unit or product line. The marketing plan will include a statement of marketing objectives and will spell out particular strategies and tactics to reach those objectives. The marketing objectives should identify the segments to be served by the organization and how it is going to serve them. The needs and wants of consumers on which the firm will concentrate, such as the needs of working men and women for easily prepared meals, are identified and analyzed in a marketing plan.

                         There are several marketing tools that can be used to help an organization achieve its marketing objectives. Most people are familiar with the “4 Ps” the marketing mix which includes product, price, place, and promotion. A marketing plan formulates the strategy and tactics for each of these.

Advertising Communication System

                  Advertising communication always involves a perception process and four of the elements shown in the model: the source, a message, a communication channel, and a receiver. In addition, the receiver will sometimes become a source of information by talking to friends or associates. This type of communication is termed word-of-mouth communication, and it involves social interactions between two or more people and the important ideas of group influence and the diffusion of information.

An advertising message can have a variety of effects upon the receiver. It can

•  Create awareness
•  Communicate information about attributes and benefits
• Develop or change an image or personality
•  Associate a brand with feelings and emotions
• Create group norms
•  Precipitate behavior

Message Strategy and Tactics

              The actual development of an advertising campaign involves several distinct steps. First, the advertising manager must decide what the advertising is meant to communicate by way of benefits, feeling, brand personality, or action content. Once the content of the campaign has been decided, decisions must be made on the best and most effective ways to communicate that content.

Media Strategy

               Although there are many rules of thumb often used to decide how much money to spend on advertising, the soundest rules involve beginning with a detailed specification of what a corporation is attempting to accomplish with advertising, and the resources necessary. It is only when the job to be done is well specified that the amount and nature of the effort the amount of money to be invested in advertising can be really determined

International advertising

              It entails dissemination of a commercial message to target audiences in more than one country. Target audiences differ from country to country in terms of how they perceive or interpret symbols or stimuli, respond to humor or emotional appeals, as well as in levels of literacy and languages spoken. How the advertising function is organized also varies.

             International advertising can, therefore, be viewed as a communication process that takes place in multiple cultures that differ in terms of values, communication styles, and consumption patterns. International advertising is also a business activity involving advertisers and the advertising agencies that create ads and buy media in different countries. The sum total of these activities constitutes a worldwide industry that is growing in importance. International advertising is also a major force that both reflects social values, and propagates certain values worldwide.

The Communication Process

                  The process of communication in international markets involves a number of steps. First, the advertiser determines the appropriate message for the target audience. Next, the message is encoded so that it will be clearly understood in different cultural contexts. The message is then sent through media channels to the audience who then decodes and reacts to the message. At each stage in the process, cultural barriers may hamper effective transmission of the message and result in miscommunication.

International Advertising as a Business Practice

                   International advertising can also be viewed as a business activity through which a firm attempts to inform target audiences in multiple countries about itself and its product or service offerings. In some cases the advertising message relates to the firm and its activities, i.e. its corporate image. In other cases, the message relates to a specific product or service marketed by the firm. In either case, the firm will use the services of an advertising agency to determine the appropriate message, advertising copy and make the media placement.