ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION MANAGEMENT

WEEK- 6
Lecture 26

OBJECTIVES OF ADVERTISING
There are three primary objectives of advertising:
1. To Inform
2. To Persuade
3. To Remind

1. To Inform
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The primary goal of advertising is to increase brand recognition and visibility within the target
audience. Informing potential customers about the brand, its products, and its services is the
initial step toward achieving business objectives. It raises awareness and provides essential
information that helps consumers make informed decisions.
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2. To Persuade
Another crucial aim of advertising is to convince consumers to take specific actions. These
actions could include purchasing or sampling products, forming a positive perception of the
brand, or adopting a favorable attitude toward the brand. Persuasive advertising works to
influence consumer choices and positioning the brand as the best option.
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3. To Remind
The third objective of advertising is to reinforce the brand’s message and potential customers
about its values and offerings. Advertising helps the brand stay top-of-mind and prevents
competitors from gaining an advantage. This objective supports ongoing brand loyalty and
encourages word-of-mouth promotion.

Some other goals derived from these objectives are as follows:-

1) Introduction of a Product
The most common reason Advertising is used is to introduce a new product. When introducing
new products, advertising is crucial in creating awareness, generating interest, and encouraging
consumers to try the product. The primary advertising objectives in this context are focused on
informing, persuading, and motivating consumers to engage with the product to establish a
strong market presence.

2) Introduction of a Brand
Advertising focuses on promoting the brand rather than just one specific product. It helps
consumers become familiar with the brand, its values, and what it represents. This is especially
common for startups or service-based companies.

3) Awareness Creation
According to the AIDA model, the most important job of advertising is to get attention which
is nothing but Awareness creation. Advertising needs to capture the attention of people and
make them aware of the products or their features in the market.

4) Acquiring Customers or Brand Switching

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One of the major objectives of advertising is to acquire more customers. This is also known as
making the customers switch brands. This can happen by passing on a strong message so that
the potential customer leaves the brand which he is tied up with and comes to another brand.
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5) Differentiation and Value Creation
A most important aspect of the objectives of Advertising is to differentiate the product or the
service from those of the competitor. A customer can only differentiate between services based
on the value the firm provides over that of competitors.In saturated markets, consumers need
clear reasons to choose one product over another. Advertising can communicate what sets the
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brand apart, whether through product features, quality, or values like sustainability.

6) Positioning the Product

One of the key factors in the actual purchase of a product is the product recall and the brand
recall at the time of sale. Amongst advertising objectives, one objective is correctly positioning
the brand in the customers’ minds. Positioning refers to how a product or brand is perceived in
the consumer's mind. Advertising creates a strong association with a particular need, value, or
lifestyle. Product recall and brand recall are critical because they influence purchasing
decisions when consumers are at the point of sale.

7) Increase Sales
With so many steps being taken to advertise the product, there is no doubt that one of the
objectives of advertising is to increase sales. Many times this objective is achieved via
advertising. However, if the campaign is improper or the audience is not targeted properly, then
advertising can fail in its objective. Nonetheless, there are many seasonal products wherein an
immediate increase in sales is observed due to advertising.

8) Increase Profits
With the value being communicated and the brand being differentiated as well as sales being
increased, there is no doubt that advertising can contribute a lot to increasing profits.
Advertising should never be looked at as an expense or a liability. It is an investment for a firm.
Beyond increasing sales, advertising can help improve profits by positioning the brand as
premium or unique, which justifies higher prices. Well-executed advertising can also reduce
the need for deep discounting and attract customers who are willing to pay more for quality or
exclusivity.

9) Create Desire
The objective of advertising is to create a strong emotional desire for the product. Effective
advertising makes the product so desirable that consumers want to own it, even if they don’t
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immediately need it. Desire is what transforms interest into an intention to purchase. If
advertising can evoke strong emotions, it can turn casual viewers into committed buyers.

THE VALUE OF OBJECTIVES

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"Many companies don't set clear objectives for their marketing campaigns because they don't
see how important it is to do so. Also, different people in the company might have different
ideas about what the goals should be, which leads to disagreements." Advertising and
promotional objectives are needed for several reasons, including their functions in
1. Communications,
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2. Planning And Decision-making, And

3. Measurement And Evaluation.

1. Communications
Many people are involved in the planning and development of integrated marketing
communication programs. The advertising and promotional program must be coordinated
within the company inside the ad agency. Any other parties involved in the promotional
campaign, such as public relations and sales promotion firms, research specialists, or media
buying services, must also know what the company hopes to accomplish through its marketing
communications program. Many problems can be avoided if all parties have written, approved
objectives to guide their action and serve as a common base for discussing issues related to the
promotional program
Role of Advertising Objectives in Communication:
• Guiding the Message
• Targeting the Right Audience
• Improved Clarity

2. Planning and Decision Making

All phases of a firm's operational strategy should be based on the established objectives,
including budgeting, creative, and media decisions as well as supportive programs such as
direct marketing, public relations or publicity, sales promotion, and reseller support.
Meaningful objectives can also be a useful right for decision-making. Promotional planners are
often faced with a number of strategic and tactical options in terms of choosing creative options
selecting media and allocating the budget among various elements of the promotional mix.
Choices should be made based on how well a particular strategy matches the firm's promotional
objectives

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Resource Allocation
Strategic Direction
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Role of Advertising Objectives in Planning and Decision-Making:
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• Focus on Priorities
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3. Measurement and Evaluation of Results

An important reason for setting specific objectives is that they provide a benchmark against
which the success or failure of the promotional campaign can be measured. Without specific
objectives, it is extremely difficult to determine what the firm's advertising and promotion
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efforts accomplished. One characteristic of good objectives is that they are measurable; they
specify a method and criteria for determining how well the promotional program is working.
By setting specific and meaningful objectives, the promotional analysis provides a measure
that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing communication program.
Role of Advertising Objectives in Measurement and Evaluation:
• Benchmark for Success
• Adjusting Campaigns
• Accountability
 Lecture 27
COMMUNICATIONS OBJECTIVE
The primary role of an IMC program is to communicate, and planning should be based on
communication objectives. Advertising and other promotional efforts are designed to achieve
such communications as brand knowledge and interest, favorable attitudes and images, and
purchase intentions. Consumers are not expected to respond immediately; instead, advertisers
realize they must provide relevant information and create favorable predispositions towards the
brand before purchase behavior occurs.
Communication-based objectives generally use some form of hierarchical model when setting
advertising and promotion objectives. In all these models, consumers pass through three
successive stages: Conative, Affective, And Cognitive. As consumers proceed through the three
stages, they may move closer to making a purchase.

The Lavidge and Steiner Hierarchy of Effects Model is a well-known framework in

advertising and marketing that describes the stages a consumer typically goes through, from
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becoming aware of a product to eventually making a purchase. It provides a structured
approach to understanding how advertising can influence consumer decision-making. The
model consists of six stages:
1. Awareness
At this stage, the consumer becomes aware of a product or brand for the first time. They may
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not yet know anything about its features or benefits but have simply been exposed to its name
or identity.
2. Knowledge
Once the consumer is aware of the brand, they start to gather more information about it. They
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learn about the product’s features, advantages, and how it can meet their needs.
3. Liking
In this stage, the consumer develops positive feelings or attitudes toward the product. This can
be due to the product’s features, its marketing appeal, or emotional connections established
through advertising.
4. Preference
At this point, the consumer starts to prefer the brand over others, understanding that it offers
more value or better meets their needs compared to competitors.
5. Conviction
At this stage, the consumer is convinced of the brand’s value and is considering making a
purchase. They might feel strongly about the product but need a final push to make the
commitment.
6. Purchase
This is the final stage in the hierarchy, where the consumer takes action and buys the product
or service. At this point, the influence of advertising has effectively moved the consumer
through all previous stages.

Communications Effects Pyramid

Advertising and promotion perform communications tasks in the same way that a pyramid is
built, by first accomplishing lower-level objectives such as awareness and knowledge or
comprehension. Different tasks involve moving consumers who are aware of knowledge about
the product or service to higher levels in the pyramid. At the base of the pyramid, the initial
stages are easier to accomplish than those towards the top, such as trial and repurchase or
regular use. Thus, the percentage of prospective consumers will decline as they move up the
pyramid.

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The communications pyramid can also be used to determine promotional objectives for an
established brand. The promotional planner must determine where the target audience lies with
respect to the various blocks in the pyramid.
If the awareness level of a brand and knowledge of its features and benefits are low, the
communications objective should be to increase them. If these pyramid blocks are already in
place, but liking or preference is low, the advertising goal may be to change the target market’s
image of the brand and move consumers through to purchase.
Several companies have their own versions of the communications pyramid that they use for
planning.
Levels in the Pyramid
• 90% Awareness (Cognitive Stage)
The base of the pyramid focuses on creating awareness about the brand, product, or service. At
this stage, consumers are introduced to the existence of the offering.

 70% Knowledge or Comprehension (Cognitive Stage)

The focus here is on ensuring that the audience understands the product's features, benefits,
and utility this builds interest and clarity. The challenge in this stage is to overcome the
confusion or misunderstanding about the product or the brand.
• 40% Liking (Affective Stage)
Emotional connection starts here. Advertising aims to create a positive feeling or attitude
toward the product or brand. The objective here is to build emotional resonance with the
audience. Marketers create advertisements that evoke positive feelings, such as happiness,

positive in a crowded marketplace.

•
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inspiration, or nostalgia the challenge here is to shift the consumer perception from neutral to

25% Preference (Affective Stage)

Efforts shift to making the audience prefer the product over competitors, emphasizing
differences, differentiation, and value. The objective is to make the product or brand the
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preferred choice over the competitors. Marketers use comparative advertising to show why the
product is better than alternatives and offer testimonials and reviews to build brand trust. The
challenge here is to compete with established brands and prove value to the consumer.
• 20% Trial (Conative Stage)
In this stage, the audiences are encouraged to take action, such as trying the product or service.
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This could be achieved through promotions, free samples, or introductory offers. The objective
here is to encourage the consumers to try any product for the first time. Marketers use
promotion strategies like discounts, free trials, or samples to reduce risk for first-time buyers.
The challenge here is to convince consumers to take the leap and experience the product.
• 5% Use (Conative Stage)
The final stage focuses on converting trials into regular users, aiming to create loyalty and
habitual purchasing. The objective here is to convert trial users into regular customers and build
loyalty. It often creates loyalty programs or offers post-purchase support to encourage repeat
purchases. The use of e-mail or personalized recommendations to maintain engagement. The
challenge here is to retain customers in the face of competing alternatives.
Setting Objectives Using The Communication Effects Pyramid
•To Create awareness among 90% of target audience.
•To Create interest in the brand among 70% of target audience.
•To Create positive feelings about the brand among 40% and preference among 25% of the
target audience.
•To Obtain trial among 20% of the target audience.
•To Develop and maintain regular use of shampoo among 5% of the target audience.

Problems with Communications Objectives

•Not all marketing and advertising managers accept communications objectives. Some say it is
too difficult to translate sales goals into specific communications objectives.
•However, at some point, a sales goal must be transformed into a communications objective.

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•If the marketing plan for an established brand has an aim of increasing sales by 10%, the
promotional planner will eventually have to think in terms of the message that will be
communicated to the target audience to achieve this possible objective.

Possible objectives include the following: -

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•Increase the percentage of consumers in the target market who associate specific features,
benefits, or advantages with the brand.
•Increase the number of consumers in the target audience who prefer the product over the
competitors.
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•Encouraging current users of the product to use it more frequently or in more situations.
•Encouraging consumers who have never used our brand to try it.
•In some situations, promotional planners may gain insight into communications objectives
relationship to sales from industry research.

Sales as an Advertising Objective

In an advertiser's world, every advertisement would trigger an immediate sales response. Sales
are a convenient and attractive advertising objective for many managers, but they are usually
unsuitable for most advertising except for direct action advertising. In the case of sales as the
advertising objective, it would be simple to evaluate the advertisement campaign results.
However, sales objectives may not be operational in some instances because advertising is just
one factor among many others that influence sales, and identifying the contribution of
advertising a loan may be difficult.
Factors Influencing Sales
There are numerous factors that influence sales, and Advertising and Promotion play an integral
role in driving these factors. These factors are both internal (within the company) and external
(in the market environment). Here's a breakdown of the key factors that influence sales,
alongside how advertising and promotion strategies interact with each of them:
1. Price
Price is one of the most direct and powerful factors influencing consumer decisions. The
perceived value of a product in relation to its price often dictates whether a customer will make
a purchase.
2. Distribution
Distribution refers to how a product is made available to consumers, whether it's through
physical stores, online platforms, or direct sales. It’s vital because even the best product won't
sell if it isn't accessible.
3. Packaging
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Packaging serves as both a protective mechanism and a marketing tool. It communicates the
product’s brand identity, quality, and appeal to the consumer.
4. Product Quality
High-quality products generally lead to better customer satisfaction, repeat purchases, and
positive word-of-mouth, all of which contribute to sales.
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5. Economy
The state of the economy influences consumers' purchasing power and willingness to spend.
In a thriving economy, consumers are more likely to spend freely, whereas economic downturns
may make consumers more price-sensitive.
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6. Technology
Advances in technology often lead to new products or better ways to reach and engage
consumers. Technological improvements in production, marketing, and distribution channels
also significantly impact sales.
7. Consumer Tastes and Preferences
Consumer tastes, preferences, and trends are continually evolving. Advertisers must keep a
pulse on these shifts to ensure their products and messaging resonate with their target audience.
8. Competition
The level of competition in the market directly impacts a brand's strategy and sales. When
competition increases, brands may need to work harder to stand out.
9. Personal Selling
Personal selling involves direct interaction between a salesperson and a potential customer. It
can be an important component of a sales strategy, especially for high-involvement or complex
products.

Situations where Sales Objectives can be Appropriate

• Some direct action advertising attempts to induce quick responses from the members of the
target audience, such as advertisements offering some incentives, announcing contests, or
encouraging prospects to place orders by phone or through the Internet.
• In most such cases, the evaluation is based on sales results. Advertising is rarely the only form
of communication used in direct marketing, and it is appropriate to set objectives in sales terms.
• In the case of companies where advertising plays a dominant role in marketing programs and
where other elements are relatively stable, sales-oriented objectives are helpful.

Problems with Sales Objectives

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• In the business world, where sales results can be due to any of the other marketing mix
variables, including product design, quality, packaging, distribution, or pricing. Advertising
can make consumers aware of and interested in the brand, but it can't make them buy it
particularly if it is not readily available or is priced higher than the competing brand.
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• Another problem with sales objectives is that the effect of advertising can often occur to an
extent. Many experts recognize that advertising has a carryover effect, monies spent on
advertising do not necessarily have an immediate impact on sales.
• Advertising may create awareness, interest or favorable attitudes toward a brand but these
feelings will not result in an actual purchase until the consumer enters the market for the
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product, which may occur later in diversity.

 Lecture 28
SETTING COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES

• Category Need,
• Brand Awareness,
• Brand Attitude,
• Brand Purchase Intention

1. Category Need
Category need refers to the target audience's feeling that it would like a particular product or
service to satisfy a specific need. It is important to remember here that category need is a
perception, which can be established by the advertiser. By successfully establishing a belief in
the minds of the target audience that links the product category and a felt need, the advertiser
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can stimulate primary demand for the product category.
Category need is the communication effect that causes primary demand. Category need, and
the primary demand it can stimulate in the marketplace, apply to all brands in the category. To
stimulate secondary or selective demand, the advertiser must also influence brand-level
communication effects such as brand awareness, brand attitude, and brand purchase intention.
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How do you decide when category needs should be a communication objective?

• Category need must be present at full strength before the purchase of a brand within that
category can occur. In other words, the potential consumer must be in the market for the product
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category.
• Category need is not very often required as a communication objective because most brands
are marketed in categories where the perceived need is well established. But when
circumstances dictate it, it is essential.
• There are two cases when category need must be a communication objective: when it is
necessary to remind the target audience of its need for products in the category, or when you
must sell the target audience the need for the category.
Selling the Category Need
• When a category need has not yet been established in the minds of the target audience, the
advertising campaign, often with promotional support, must sell the need. Selling category
need is a communication objective for all new products and also for established products aimed
at new users. if the target audience has not bought within the category before, advertising must
include selling the category need as a communication objective.
• While it is easy to see that new product categories must be sold to the consumer, one should
also see how it is important to sell the category to anyone who has not yet purchased products
in the category. This is why advertising always relies upon category need as an effect in
communication, but selling category need becomes an objective only when the target audience
is made up of people who have no experience with the category.
• To sell the category to someone new to it, the content of the advertising requires the selling
of category benefits in addition to brand benefits. Selling the category involves creating, in the
potential consumer's mind, category communication effects. As a result, just as we have brand
communication effects, we will have category awareness, category attitude, and category
purchase intention. When selling category needs, these category-level communication effects
must be addressed in addition to brand-level communication effects. This is not an easy job,
and almost impossible within a single execution. It requires a campaign.
• Category awareness, category attitude, and category purchase intention, which must be
addressed when selling the category, are no different conceptually from their brand
counterparts-brand awareness, brand attitude, and brand purchase intention. However, they are
separate communication objectives, which must be decided along with brand-level
communication objectives.

2. Brand Awareness
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Brand awareness is the target audience's ability to identify a brand within a category in
sufficient detail to purchase or use it. There are at least two ways in which to identify a brand.
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You can either recognize the brand or you can recall it.
For the consumer, brand awareness may be stimulated by a familiar package or an even more
general stimulus such as colour. You may not even need to remember beforehand the brand
name or be able to describe the package or colour. Instead, brand awareness may occur through
simply recognizing it at the point of purchase. When a package is recognized in a supermarket
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or when a fast-food restaurant sign is recognized on a trip (for example, McDonald's golden
arches), brand awareness does not require brand recall.
The product category level consumers will not buy unless there is a perceived category need.
At the brand level, consumers cannot buy unless they are first made aware of the brand. As a
result, brand awareness must always be considered first, before any other communication
effect.

Distinguish between Recognition or Recall

Brand awareness is widely misunderstood even by the most experienced people in advertising.
The difficulty relates to the essential difference between recognition and recall, a difference
that is fundamentally important to advertising and all other forms of marketing communication.
• Brand recognition and brand recall are two fundamentally different types of brand awareness.
The difference depends upon which communication effect occurs first in the consumer's mind:
• The need for the product (that is, category need) or seeing the brand in the store (that is, brand
awareness).
• Recognition of brand awareness is when the awareness of the brand reminds you of the
category need, whereas Recall brand awareness is when the category need occurs and you must
remember brands that will satisfy that need.

3. Brand Attitude
Like brand awareness, a positive brand attitude must always be a communication objective. If
there is no brand attitude present among the target audience, there is very little likelihood they
will want to purchase the product. Unless we believe that brand choices are made randomly
from among the brands people are aware of, there must be something about the brands that
leads a person to purchase one rather than another. That something is a brand attitude.
The study of attitudes is really based on psychology, but those who work in the area of
consumer behaviour have adapted various theories of attitude as to why people behave as they
do. It is from this body of knowledge that we borrow our definition of attitude.

4. Brand Purchase Intention

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Brand purchase intention is the communication response that relates to the target audience's
decision to purchase a brand or use a service. It refers not to the actual behaviour of buying the
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brand or using the service, but only to the intention. The target audience, as a result of
processing an advert or promotion, says to him or herself: 'I think I'll try that brand' or 'I want
to pick that up again next time I shop.’
In the communication response sequence, the final step after the communication effect is the
actual behaviour. All marketing communication can do if correctly processed, is generate either
a low-level curiosity to try (with low-involvement product decisions) or a definite intention to
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buy (for a high-involvement product decision).

Brand purchase intention is not often a communication objective for advertising, but it is
always the primary communication objective for promotion. In developing a brand's
communication strategy, the manager will use promotion when it is necessary to accelerate
brand purchase intention to immediate action.

Importance of Involvement and Motivation

The critical elements affecting purchase and usage behaviour, and as such must be taken into
account when creating advertising and other marketing communication. In terms of
involvement, we need to know whether or not the target audience sees any risk in the decision
to buy or use a product or service. This perceived risk can be seen in either fiscal or
psychological terms and is dependent upon the target audience.
If we do not know why someone wants to purchase a product or use a service, we will not be
able to identify effectively the appropriate brand attitude and associated benefits. And, if we
cannot identify these, we will not be able to come up with tactically optimal creative.

Fundamentally, motivation can be divided into negative versus positive motives.

Psychologists talk about 'negative' motives they do not mean 'bad'. What they mean is that the
motivation is negatively originated. Negative motives generally concern solving or avoiding
problems. Positive motives generally involve seeking more personal satisfaction.

Rossiter and Percy Grid

Rossiter and Percy suggest that brand attitude strategy is a function of the two fundamental
considerations.
(1) whether there is low or high involvement with the purchase or use decision, based primarily
upon the target audience's perceived risk either in fiscal or psychological terms;

negative.
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(2) whether the underlying motivation that drives behaviour in the category is positive or

Combining these two considerations produces the four brand attitude strategy quadrants of the
grid:
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1. Low involvement with Negative Motives.
2. Low involvement with Positive Motives.
3. High involvement with Negative Motives.
4. High involvement with Positive Motives.
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Source: https://www.warc.com/fulltext/jar/images/6569f01.htm

The Rossier-Percy grid begins with the distinction between recall and recognition awareness,
reminding the manager that, whatever the brand attitude strategy, it must be associated with the
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correct brand awareness strategy. But the real strength of the Rossiter-Percy grid in planning is
that it helps focus the manager's thinking about a product or service in terms of the target
audience's involvement with the choice decision and the motivation that drives its behaviour.
This in turn alerts the manager to specific tactical requirements for creative execution.
Low-Involvement Informational Brand Attitude Strategy
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Low-involvement informational brand attitude strategies deal with low-risk purchase decisions
driven by negative motivations. Because the motivation is to solve or avoid a problem in some
way, we must supply information about the brand, in terms of the benefit, that will resolve the
problem and provide 'relief' through the brand. To implement this the message should be
concerned with benefit claim support and how it is resolved. The obvious format to accomplish
this is to present the problem first, solved by the brand.
An effective creative tactic to use with low-involvement informational advertising is to present
the benefit claim in the extreme. This is possible because there is little or no risk involved in
the purchase, so you do not need to actually believe the claim is true, only that it might be true.
Low-Involvement Transformational Brand Attitude Strategy
With low-involvement transformational brand attitude strategies we are again dealing with a
low-risk purchase decision, but the motivation is positive, based upon a 'reward' for using the
product. Unlike when dealing with informational strategies, here the key is in the emotional
portrayal of the benefit to arouse the correct emotional response; not in providing information.
In effect, the benefit is in the execution. For this reason, when dealing with positively motivated
behaviour the target audience must like the advertising, because it is the execution itself that
elicits the emotion, not the information in the message. This is often difficult for advertisers to
accept. There is a strong temptation to include a more tangible benefit when advertising a low-
involvement product purchased from positive motives, a kind of benefit that would be more
appropriate when dealing with negative motivations.
High-Involvement Informational Brand Attitude Strategy
High-involvement informational brand attitude strategies deal with purchase decisions where
there is a perceived risk involved in buying because of cost or psychological considerations;
and where the motivation to buy or use the product is negative. Just as with low- involvement
informational brand attitude strategies, because there is a problem to be solved, information
must be provided. However, because of the risk attached to the decision, more information
must be provided. Remember, the target audience must be convinced.
To ensure this happens, the target audience's existing attitude must be understood and taken
into consideration: attitudes towards the brand (if they exist) and attitudes associated with the
product and product category.
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The reason is that is necessary to understand the target audience's attitudes towards the brand
is obvious. The more negative the brand attitude, the more difficult it will be for someone to
accept anything the brand has to say. In most cases, people with stray negative attitudes towards
a brand would not be in the target audience. But people with moderately unfavorable attitudes,
or those just indifferent to the brand, could very well be targets. If the moderately negative
attitude is not firmly held, perhaps because of a perception related to an important category
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benefit ('They just don't last'), because of a general 'sense' that it is not one of the better brands
in the category, or because of something heard about the brand, a well-positioned message that
utilizes an important, believable benefit could help overcome this moderately negative initial
attitude.
Many people in the target audience may have only a vague understanding of the brand and as
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a result, may not really have formed much of an attitude towards it. But if they are familiar
with it, and in the absence of any other contrary information, simply because they have never
considered it, at an implicit level of memory they are as likely as not to hold a mildly positive
attitude towards the brand." Others may have a good 'feeling' about the brand, even if they
know very little about it, for many of the same reasons people may hold somewhat negative
attitudes towards the brand. .
In a high-involvement decision, much more cognitive activity will be involved in processing
the message. Assuming the target audience pays attention, it will take the information provided
in the message and integrate it with its existing knowledge base in the conscious or declarative
memory. These associations in memory will create new thoughts about the brand in relation to
the links formed in memory between existing beliefs, and the new information. " These new
thoughts will be favourable or unfavourable towards the brand relative to the information
already in memory. This is why understanding the target audience's existing attitudes towards
the product and category are so important.
High-Involvement Transformational Brand Attitude Strategy
High-involvement transformational strategies deal with purchase decisions that involve risk,
and that are made to satisfy an underlying positive motivation. This means that, again, because
of the perceived risk involved with the purchase, the message must be accepted as true. And,
while the underlying motivation driving the decision is positive because the decision involves
some level of fiscal or psychological risk, there may sometimes be a need to provide
information to help overcome potential problems associated with that risk.
Just as in the low-involvement transformational case, the critical concern is emotional
authenticity, but at the high-involvement level, the target audience must also personally identify
with the brand as it is portrayed in the execution and the benefit is in the execution. The target
audience wants the product in order to feel the thrill of driving a new sports car or the sense of
glamour that goes with wearing high-fashion clothes. The execution must arouse those feelings.
Because of this, the target audience must like' the advertising. But, that liking must go beyond
simply liking the execution itself. The liking must be product and brand-based.
Because it is a high-involvement decision, in processing the message the target audience must
really believe that the brand, as portrayed in the advertising, is the one that will satisfy the
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sensory gratification or social approval motivation underlying its need. The brand must be
portrayed in such a way that it elicits from non-declarative emotional memory the correct
emotions, the feelings the target audience wants to experience in using the product
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 Lecture 29

MARKETING OBJECTIVES

Marketing objectives are generally stated in the firm's marketing plan and the statements of
what the overall marketing program is to accomplish within a given period of time. Marketing
objectives are usually defined as specific, measurable outcomes such as sales volume, market
share, profits, or return on investment. Good marketing objectives are quantifiable; they
delineate the target market and note the time frame for accomplishing the goal.
Once the marketing communication manager has received the marketing plan, they should
understand where the company hopes to go with this marketing program, how it intends to get
there, and the rules advertising and promotion play.
Marketing goals defined in terms of sales, profit, or market share increases are usually
inappropriate promotional objectives. They are objectives for the entire marketing program,
and achieving them depends on the proper coordination and execution of all the marketing mix
elements, including not just promotion but product planning and production, pricing, and
distribution.- EL
Integrated Marketing Communications Objectives
Integrated marketing communications objectives are statements of what various aspects of the
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IMC program will accomplish. They should be based on the particular communications tasks
required to deliver the appropriate messages to the target audience. Managers must be able to
translate general marketing goals into communications goals and specific promotional
objectives.
Some guidance in doing this may be available from the marketing plan, as the situation
analysis should provide important information on:-
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• The market segments the firm wants to target and the target audience, such as demographics,
psychographics, and purchase motives.
• The product and its main features, advantages, benefits, uses, and applications.
• The companies' and competitors' brands, which include sales and market share in various
segments, positioning, competitive strategies, promotional expenditures, creative and media
strategies, and tactics.
• Ideas on how the brand should be positioned and specific behavioral responses being sought
are the trial repurchase, brand switching, and increased usage.
• After reviewing all the information, the promotional planner should see how Integrated
Marketing Communications fits into the marketing program and what the firm hopes to achieve
through advertising and other promotional elements. The next step is to set objectives for
specific communication goals or tasks.
• Many promotional planners approach promotion from a communications perspective and
believe advertising and other promotional mix elements usually aim to communicate
information or a selling message about a product or service.
• Some managers argue that sales or some related measure, such as market share, is the only
meaningful goal for advertising and promotion and should be the basis for setting objectives.
Critical Incident Technique
The critical incident technique (CIT) is a qualitative research method that is used to obtain a
depth of knowledge and understanding of subjects’ responses to selected situations. The
method was first developed by John C. Flanagan in 1954 in his work to identify pilots suitable
for combat missions. Since that time, the Critical Incident Technique has been further
developed and applied to a range of contexts, including the growth of small businesses in the
service sector, the service firm life cycle in the hospitality industry, and various marketing and
management issues in service contexts. This entry describes the Critical Incident Technique
method in more detail, showing how it may be used in research and describing the important
features of reliability and generalizability.

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Theory Of Critical Incident Techniques In the Context of Advertising Objectives
In the context of advertising, the Critical Incident Technique can be used to analyze key
moments or "critical incidents" that influence consumer behavior, brand perceptions, and
advertising effectiveness. While the Critical Incident Technique is generally used for
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understanding customer experiences or service quality, it can be adapted to setting advertising
objectives by focusing on the significant moments in the advertising process that influence a
consumer’s decision-making. The theory of the Critical Incident Technique can provide a
deeper understanding of how certain advertising messages or events drive consumer reactions,
and how those reactions can inform advertising goals.
The Critical Incident Technique and Advertising Objectives:
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1. Identification of Critical Incidents in Advertising

2. Understanding Consumer Reactions to Critical Incidents
3. Setting Advertising Objectives Based on Critical Incidents
4. Measuring Advertising Effectiveness Using CIT (Critical Incidents Technique)
5. Refining Future Advertising Strategies
Advertising Objectives should be Operational
Advertising objectives should be operational. When we say an objective is "operational," we
mean that it is clearly defined, measurable, and actionable, ensuring that the advertising
campaign can be effectively implemented, monitored, and evaluated. In other words,
operational objectives provide a clear roadmap for what needs to be achieved and how success
can be measured. Two main reasons are:-
• 1. Advertising is only one of many influencing factors
• 2. Contributory role of Advertising occurs over a long period of time

Understanding Cultural Differences and Values is vital while setting advertising

objectives.
Many studies have used content analysis to examine advertising executions from different
cultural locations to explore the values portrayed and have compared them with elements of
the theoretical value structures above. A comparison of Chinese and American TV advertising
found that Chinese advertisements utilized the following cultural values more often than US

appeals.
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advertisements: a soft-sell appeal, veneration of the elderly, group consensus, and status

In contrast, the US advertisements used the following cultural values more frequently: a hard-
sell appeal, individualism/independence, time orientation, and product merit. This finding of
Chinese advertising being more consensual and family-oriented is a common one across many
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studies about East Asian countries.
Similar findings about traditional cultural values being expressed have also been found in
comparisons between Arab and American advertising. Less extreme differences have been
found between the USA and France and despite a shared language even between the USA and
UK. However, with globalized communications there are indications that traditional values are
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becoming less ubiquitous in some East Asian societies, for example, values of modernity and
individualism are becoming prevalent in advertising aimed at younger, affluent Chinese people.
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 Lecture 30

PROBLEMS IN IMPLEMENTING IMC

• Decision Making Structure
• Manager Perceptions
• Compensation
• Trends in Marketing
There are a number of potential roadblocks to the implementation of IMC. Perhaps the single
biggest problem involves the decision-making structure of most companies. The structure or
organizational make-up of a company, and the way managers think or approach marketing
questions, often create problems in trying to implement IMC programs. While the decision-
making structure is by far the biggest problem, there are at least three other areas that can cause
problems: managers' perceptions of IMC, compensation considerations, and current marketing
trends
1. Decision-making structure
IMC requires central planning expertise in communication agencies and vendors and lacks
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incentive to cooperate, it is no wonder there are problems when it comes to trying to develop
and implement IMC. Several aspects of a company's decision-making structure contribute to
these problems. Basically they reflect an organizational structure and what we might call
organizational character or the way an organization 'thinks’.
Organizational Structure
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There is broad agreement among marketing managers over the need for IMC, but the very
organizational structure of many companies stands in the way of effective implementation. At
the heart of this problem is an organization's ability to manage the interrelationships among
information and materials between the various agencies and vendors involved in developing
and creating marketing communication. There are a number of specific structural factors that
can make this difficult.
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The Low Standing of Marketing Communication in an Organization

Unfortunately, for too many companies, marketing communication has a very low priority
within the organization. For many in top management, spending money on marketing
communication is seen as a luxury that can be afforded only when everything else is going
well. One of the fastest ways for a company to send a lot of money to the bottom line is not to
spend budgeted marketing communication money. When companies frequently employ this
tactic, it is not surprising that those most responsible for marketing communication occupy
lower-level positions within the organization.
Specialization
To manage IMC effectively, those in charge should ideally be marketing communication
generalists. Unfortunately, there are very few people like this holding marketing
communication positions. In fact, what you are most likely to find are people specializing in
particular areas; and, even more problematic, these specialists rarely talk with each other. They
have their own budgets and their own suppliers and jealously guard the areas they control.
Given the narrow focus and understanding of such specialists, it is very difficult to bring them
together in the first place, let alone expect them to have a broad understanding and appreciation
of the many marketing communication options necessary for effective IMC planning. But, even
if they did have this understanding, getting them to give up control, especially when it is
unlikely to be financially advantageous.

2. Manager Perceptions of IMC

Managers with different backgrounds or different marketing communications specialties, either
within the company organization or at marketing communication agencies or vendors, are
likely to have different perceptions of what constitutes integrated marketing communication
and what roles different people should play in the planning and implementation of IMC.
Different perceptions of IMC will certainly influence its effective implementation. But even
more troubling is the natural resistance to change that the idea of IMC is likely to trigger,
making it difficult if not impossible to implement even though IMC's benefits are generally
accepted.
Perhaps the most serious problem associated with this is a fear that the manager responsible
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for IMC planning will not fully appreciate someone else's area of expertise. This is
compounded when advertising takes the lead (which it should in most cases), because of long-
held feelings that advertising managers simply do not understand or even consider other means
of marketing communication (which, unfortunately, is all too often the case). This is aggravated
by the conflict, for example, between the short-term tactical experience of those working in
promotion and the longer-term thinking of advertising managers.
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Politics and Power

Another way of looking at this tendency to resist change is in terms of both intra-organizational
and inter-organizational politics. It does not matter if the motivation is individual self-interest
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or an actual belief by managers or employees in the superiority of their way of doing things:
the result is the same. People, departments, and organizations want power and the rewards that
go with it. Too often managers and their staff believe they will be giving up too much personal
responsibility if they are part of more broadly based IMC planning. When lines of responsibility
are blurred, it is easy for individuals to feel that their prestige and position, in many cases hard
won, is threatened and made difficult to overcome

3. Compensation
While compensation issues are less of a direct problem with companies than with agencies and
vendors working in marketing communication, they can still be a problem. When managers are
worried about the importance of their positions in a realigned IMC-oriented marketing
communication group, this leads quite naturally to worries about salaries and promotion, which
lessens interest in IMC. However, the real concern about compensation is with agencies and
vendors involved in the marketing communication needs of the company. Management at
agencies working in the marketing communication field is traditionally rewarded on the basis
of the total size of their business with companies.
This means they are very unlikely to suggest to their clients that they might be better off
spending more of their money on some other form of marketing communication. Somehow
these managers must be compensated in terms of their contributions rather than of how much
is spent on their particular specialty. Without such a scheme, effective IMC is impossible
because those managing one type of marketing communication will be more concerned with
'selling' it, not with how their specialty will best contribute to an overall IMC program.

4. Trends in Marketing
Several trends in marketing have also created problems for effectively implementing IMC. One
recent trend in marketing is niche or micro-marketing, an increasingly popular way of
addressing complicated markets. One of the problems here is that too often managers feel that
each segment or niche requires its distinct communication program. But, if a single brand is
involved, the most effective course is still likely to be one IMC program.

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The executions will not necessarily be the same, but the overall look and feel must be if you
are to maximize the impact of your communication expenditure. Even if it may be better to
position a brand differently to different segments under certain circumstances, within each
segment one should still be approaching the strategic development of the communications
within the same IMC framework
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Monitoring the Campaign
To ensure that the creative execution will deliver the desired message effectively, assuming it
has proper exposure among the target audience and proper attention is paid to the advertising.
Whether or not the advertising works, however, is another question. Once the finished
executions have been placed and are running in the market, to be certain they are actually
working requires tracking.
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Tracking a campaign is a good idea, even if every indicator an individual has suggests the
advertising is working well. Without tracking one can never be sure if it is the advertising that
is causally responsible for sales or usage in the market, or whether other factors in the
marketing mix, such as competitor's activity or even unusual market conditions, are mediating
sales. Tracking can be expensive, but it is money well spent.
For tracking to be successful one must measure not only responses to their own advertising and
other marketing communication (such as promotions or direct marketing activity), but
responses to your competitors as well. Unlike pre-testing, when we are concerned only with
specific executions, now we are concerned with how executions perform within the overall
context of the market. This means that we must also measure not only our brand and
competitors' brand advertising but any marketing activity that might influence target audience
behaviour.
Another way of tracking advertising is to utilize a panel of consumers who are questioned about
their purchases and recall of advertising. This does have the advantage of measuring causality
at the individual level, but it has its own problems. Using a panel of consumers may sensitize
those participating and influence their purchase behaviour over time. The most common way
of tracking the effectiveness of a campaign is to take a series of measures over time, 'tracking'
the results.
With waves of interviews, a benchmark is established prior to a campaign and additional
measures are taken at various points in time. These measures generally correspond to the end
of major periods of advertising, providing a 'before-after' comparison. The biggest problem
with taking periodic measures is that you do not know what is going on between the
measurements.
The best way to track advertising is with continuous tracking. Continuous tracking utilizes
ongoing interviewing of small samples of consumers; 'rolling' the results, with moving
averages for weekly, fortnightly, or four-week periods. This permits a relatively continuous
measure of what is going on in the market, offering a sensitive measure of actual advertising
effects. Because the measures are ongoing, it is possible to read the result for any period, at any
time. This provides the manager with a powerful diagnostic tool and avoids the danger inherent
in other methods of misreading the effects of a campaign.
The measures used in tracking a campaign reflect the four stages of the communication
response sequence :
•
•
Exposure Measure,
Processing Measure,
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• Communication Effects,
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• Target Audience Action.
In tracking a marketing communication campaign, the manager is not only interested in the
'results' (i.e. the target audience action), but also in each step that led to that result. It is only by
looking at the entire sequence that one is able to understand the result, and to be in a position
to correct any aspect of the campaign that is not working as planned.
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1. Exposure Measures
Exposing the message is the job of the media, so measures of exposure reflect the media plan
and may be measured in several ways. Perhaps the most frequently used measure is GRP (gross
rating points), within the time period being addressed. This will include the audience figures
for all of the media vehicles used during that period. A better measure would be some kind of
estimate of the minimum effective reach or the number of people exposed to the campaign
during that period at the minimum level of frequency required for the advertising to be
effective. Measures of exposure are usually related to sales, but may also be looked at
concerning measures of the other steps in the communication response sequence. This can be
especially useful when compared with specific communication effects such as increases in
brand awareness or shifts in brand attitude.
2. Processing Measures
There are four stages involved in the processing of an advertisement: attention, learning,
acceptance (for high-involvement decisions), and emotion.
While it is impossible to measure processing when it occurs, in campaign tracking indirect
measures are used. For attention, this usually means some measure of recognition or recall of
the campaign, which would suggest that at least some attention was paid, and some level of
learning achieved. If it is a high-involvement category, acceptance is inferred by appropriate
measures of communication effects. If the campaign is remembered, it is possible to ask about
any emotion associated with it. Campaign recognition is generally measured by showing a
member of the target audience the advertising or promotion from a campaign and asking if they
remember seeing (or hearing it on the radio).
Recall of the campaign is measured by asking if they remembered seeing (or hearing) any
advertising or promotion for the brand. If they do, they are asked to describe it. Only if the
description matches the actual content of the executions is it considered an indication of
processing. A more rigorous variation of this, pioneered by Market Mind, is to prompt with the
category, not the brand. A category cue asks for what advertising or promotion the target
audience remembers seeing for the category, and to describe it. If the brand is not mentioned
in the description, they are asked what brand it was for. This provides a very sensitive measure
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of how well the components of the campaign were processed, both in relation to category need
as well as its link to the brand, and the salience of the outcome of the processing."

3. Communication Effects
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In measuring the communication effects of a campaign, one uses the same measures as those
used for communication effects in the pre-test. The only difference is in the order in which the
questions are asked. While brand awareness measures are at the end or even delayed in a pre-
test, they are measured first in tracking a campaign. This is because the brand must be either
recognized or recalled first before it can be purchased.
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4. Target Audience Action

The measure of target audience action is asking what items were purchased during the tracking
period, or what action was taken if the objective was something else such as going to a concert,
calling an investment banker, visiting a trade fair, sending for 'more information'; or in social
marketing, making the desired behavioural change

Campaign Wear out

What we mean by 'wear out' is that the current campaign is not performing up to expectation,
in the absence of external causes (such things as poor distribution or changes in market
dynamics). If there are external factors that are adversely affecting the expected results of an
advertising and promotion campaign, this would call for a careful review of both the marketing
and advertising strategy. Otherwise, the manager must look to the campaign itself. This means
either the media plan or the executions, reflecting the first two steps of the communication
response sequence. Problems with the media plan would directly affect exposure and the
opportunity to process the messages; problems with the execution would reduce the likelihood
of successfully processing the message.
The first step is to check for problems with the media plan. The manager should determine if
the plan is still delivering the necessary reach to be effective. This will require a careful
examination of the specific vehicles being used, or specific programs in broadcast, for target
audience delivery. Tracking measures of advertising and promotion recognition and frequency
can help provide a check on whether the required minimum effective frequency is being
obtained, and the frequency level required for successful processing. If the media plan checks
out, attention must then turn to the executions being used.
Even though pre-tests of the executions indicated they 'worked', over time there is the
possibility of processing wearout. This may occur at any stage of processing: attention,
learning, acceptance, or with the emotional responses associated with them. A common cause
of processing wearout occurs after an advert has been exposed several times, as a result of
diminished attention. This is especially true of print advertising where attention may be easily
diverted. To help prevent this, one can use a number of variations of the execution (always with
the same consistent look and feel).

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Processing wearout may also occur when learning is interfered with by better or increased
numbers of executions for competitive brands. A change in competitive executional content or
emphasis, or a change in media schedule, could interfere with the processing of a brand's
message. Interference can also result from a brand's own advertising, when new executions are
introduced into a campaign. Carry-over from existing or previous advertising, especially when
there is not a consistent look and feel, can interfere with the building of new associations in
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memory for weeks, or even months.

Ratchet Effect
The mutual reinforcement between advertising and promotion works has been offered by Bill
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Moran, a marketing consultant. He calls his explanation a 'ratchet effect' and it reflects the
following discussion:
• One of the behavioural consequences of most promotions is that they 'steal' purchases, either
by moving forward purchases by a consumer who would eventually be buying the brand
anyway or by taking a regular purchase away from a competitor.
• One of the reasons for a brand to promote, even when it enjoys a strong positive brand attitude,
is to maximize the brand's purchase by the occasional brand-switcher. As a result, when a brand
is promoted, it should generate more sales than usual. But our objective is to increase sales not
temporarily (except for an occasional short-term tactical reason), but permanently. Without
advertising, after the promotional period sales will drop below average levels for a while, then
slowly return to normal as consumers return to their regular purchase patterns.
• This is where advertising comes in. When advertising is used together with promotion, the
effect of promotion within or following a period of advertising is to stimulate the overall growth
rate for the brand faster than with advertising alone. This is what is meant by a 'ratchet effect'.
• A well-conceived promotion, one that also addresses brand attitude, helps to reinforce the
positive brand attitude of regular users. The occasional user of a brand who is attracted by the
promotion will be more likely to stay with the brand, buying it more often after the promotion
because of the effect of the advertising that ran along with or after the promotion, building upon
the advertising-driven brand attitude that existed prior to the promotion. As this cycle
continues, the regular base of consumers grows, 'ratcheting up' with each advertising-
promotion cycle.
• When only promotions are used, a brand experiences a short-term spike in sales, followed by
a steady decline until sales return to relative equilibrium and normal purchase cycles resume.
• Unless the promotion attracts new loyal users, the promotion will not have added incremental
business. Over time, nothing has been gained. When only advertising is used, we see that sales
generally build steadily if not dramatically over time as the effect of positive brand attitude
develops more interest in the brand.
• But, when advertising and promotion are used together, we experience Moran's ratchet effect.
Promotion accelerates purchase, but ongoing advertising helps sustain and build a customer
base so that over time the overall effect on sales is greater than when advertising is used alone.?
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Moran has suggested that this ratchet effect can be explained in terms of two kinds of demand
elasticity: 'upside' and 'downside' elasticity. These are important considerations in
communication planning because they help focus a manager's thinking on how the relationship
between advertising and promotion that we have been talking about influences sales, and not
simply on the overall price elasticity of a brand.
These notions of upside and downside elasticity relate to a brand's pricing strategy as well as
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competitor brand pricing strategy. When prices are cut, either directly or via promotion (our
interest here) and sales go up, we have upside elasticity; when sales decline as a result of a
price increase, we have downside elasticity.
• It is important for the manager to remember that, when competitors aggressively promote,
they in effect 'raise' the price of our brand.
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As this discussion should make clear, the best defence against an aggressive promotion
campaign by a brand's competitors is not necessarily to match their promotion spending, but to
maintain a strong advertising presence to ensure strong brand equity, while promoting tactically
as necessary. Effective advertising stimulates high upside and low downside elasticity by
building and maintaining strong brand equity through a positive brand attitude.
Advantages of Using Advertising and Promotion Together
• There is no doubt that using advertising and promotion together offers real advantages over
using advertising or promotion alone. Nevertheless, while a brand's marketing communication
profits from using advertising and promotion together, for most brands traditional advertising
will almost always be more important. This stems primarily from advertising's brand attitude
strength, and the fact that brand attitude should be the central communication effect for all
brand marketing communication.
• This may seem surprising given the fact that traditional advertising receives only about one-
third of all marketing communication spending. Unfortunately, too often brands get caught up
in short-term competitive marketing and rely too heavily upon promotion.
• What makes using advertising and promotion together so strong is the interaction between
the long-term effects of brand attitude on building brand equity and the tactical advantages of
promotion. Without a strong brand attitude, promotion effectiveness suffers. When advertising
has been effective in generating a strong brand attitude, all the brand's uses of promotion
become that much more effective. There are two principal reasons for this:
• When a strong positive brand attitude is developed through advertising it means that when a
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brand does use promotion the target audience will see the promotion as a better value, and
• A strong positive brand attitude also means that when a brand's competitors use promotion,
the brand's target audience will be less likely to respond.
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REFERENCES
• Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2017). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing
Communications Perspective (11th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
• Keller, K. L., Parameswaran, M., & Jacob, I. (2015). Strategic Brand Management: Building,
Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity (4th ed.). Pearson.
• Shimp, T. A. (2013). Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing
Communications (9th ed.). South-Western Cengage Learning.
• Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing Management (15th ed.). Pearson.
• Schiffman, L. G., Wisenblit, J., & Kumar, S. R. (2011). Consumer Behavior | By Pearson.
Pearson Education India.
• Percy, L., & Elliott, R. H. (2020). Strategic advertising management. Academic.
• Kazmi, S. H. H., & Batra, S. K. (2008). Advertising and sales Promotion. Excel Books India.
• Shah, K., & D’Souza, A. (2009). “Advertising and Promotion: an IMC Perspective”.
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• Percy, L., & Elliott, R. H. (2020). Strategic advertising management. Academic.
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commodity market. In Consumer Brand Relationships: Meaning, Measuring, Managing (pp.
198-223). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
• Shah, K., & D'Souza, A. (2009). Advertising & promotions an IMC perspective (skimming
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and scanning).
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• https://www.ogilvy.com/
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