Resources for Advertising

Advertising Business Guide: Generate Exposure from Traditional and Print to Online Advertising

Advertising is one of the most critical tools of marketing that is available to a business organization. In an increasingly competitive business environment, brand promotion and publicity plays a key role in the establishment and growth of a business. In absence of promotion, even the best product or service may not succeed in a competitive marketplace where customers are flooded with choices. It is important to reach out and communicate with the customer and deliver the business message in an unambiguous and focused manner. This goal can be achieved through various forms of advertising and marketing.

Prior to the arrival of Internet technology, businesses were heavily reliant on the traditional forms of print and electronic media advertising. These traditional forms of business promotion still continue to be the key marketing force for large businesses. However, with the popularity of the Internet, new opportunities in online business promotion have arisen for small and medium businesses. Online marketing is highly affordable, and sometimes more effective than the traditional marketing approaches. It allows a greater scope for customer engagement and interactivity, and has added a whole new dimension to the traditional media promotion.

Benefits

Brand Development and Brand Identity

The core principle of marketing is that a customer does not merely buy a product or service, but also buys the value and image that is associated with it. Branding of a product or service provides that value and image. Advertising plays a key role in cultivating that image and creating value for a brand by presenting its advantages and usage before customers. It creates a strong association between the customer and the brand, and aims at achieving a high brand following and brand loyalty.

Promotion Strategy

Advertising is a specialized field and businesses should hire professional agencies that have the expertise to develop and implement a carefully orchestrated product promotion strategy. Professional consulting firms can provide valuable creative inputs that help to strengthen brand positioning of the product in a competitive marketplace. The goal is usually to outperform the competitors’ products or services by winning the trust of customers.

Online Advertising

The concept of Internet-based marketing and promotion is booming because of the much lower media costs involved. Online promotion may involve both paid and unpaid forms of advertising. Paid forms include online classified advertisements in association with major search engines such as Google, which target a particular segment of customers. A number of free brand promotion avenues and search engine optimization techniques are also used by advertisers, and are highly cost-effective for small and medium businesses.

Competitive Advantage

The American Advertising Federation statistics show that 73 percent of all advertisers in the United States report an increase in their market share following a successful advertising campaign. In a crowded marketplace with various competitors offering very similar products, advertising can help to create a unique brand identity and provide a distinct competitive advantage to the business.

Pitfalls

Confusing the Customers

Sometimes the brand promotion strategies may backfire if they end up confusing the customers rather than delivering a clear and focused message. In an attempt to differentiate the product or service from other competing products in the market, occasionally the advertisers may mislead customers unintentionally and cause a loss of customer confidence and trust.

Overemphasis on Creativity

An award-winning creative advertisement may not necessarily generate great sales for the product. Advertisers may sometimes get too emotionally involved with the creative aspects of the advertisement, and ignore the factor of customer perception. The goal of the business is to generate sales for the product or establish a clear brand positioning in the market. Creative satisfaction is an advertising professional’s goal, but it need not be the primary goal of a business.  

Distorting Established Brand Image

Reinventing a brand image just for the sake of it may not be a good idea for any business. As long as customers associate themselves with a particular brand image, the aim of advertisers must be to build upon the existing image and attract more customers with it. However, if they compromise the existing brand image in the hope of creating a better value, it can be risky proposition for the business.

Creative Conflict

Professional advertisers and the company’s in-house marketing experts may have a clash of opinions on the brand promotion strategy to be followed. If such conflicts are not resolved successfully, it can undermine the campaign and lead to a poorly focused promotion effort.

Pricing

Professional advertising agencies usually charge a commission or percentage of the total media expenditure on a particular campaign. Online advertisers may also charge a fixed fee for their services. The costs of creative development of a campaign, charges of the hired agency, and media costs can add up to a very significant expenditure for a business organization. Therefore, a careful mix of traditional and online media promotion must be developed to confine the campaign within the allocated budget.

Great advertising campaigns can create history for a business organization with dramatic results. It requires a combined effort of creative professionals and the company’s own product and marketing managers who understand their product and the target market intimately.