Advertising is a paid form of communication that uses mass media to reach broad audiences to provide

information about goods, services, and ideas, and interpret the product features in terms of the
customer’s needs and wants.

Functions of Advertising:
1. Identification
2. Introduction
3. Persuasion

Components of Advertising:
1. Strategy
2. Message
3. Medium
4. Evaluation

Types of Advertising:
1. Brand advertising
2. Retail or local advertising
3. Direct-response advertising
4. Business-to-business (B2B) advertising
5. Corporate advertising
6. Nonprofit advertising
7. Public service advertising

Types of Markets:
1. Consumer markets
2. Business-to-business (B2B) markets
3. Institutional markets
4. Channel markets

Basic Types of Research:

1. Primary research
2. Secondary research

Role of Research in Advertising

3. Market research
4. Consumer research
5. Advertising research
6. Strategic research

Strategy

Strategy is a plan of actions to achieve specific objectives. A strategy can focus on branding,
positioning, countering the competition, or creating category dominance. Maybe the strategy is
designed to change consumers’ perception of the brand’s price or price–value relationship. The
strategy may also seek to increase the size of the market or what marketers call share of wallet, the
amount customers spend on the brand. Other marketing efforts might involve launching a new brand
or a brand extension or moving the brand into a new market.

Brand Strategy:
1. brand identity
2. brand personality
3. brand positioning
4. brand image
5. brand promise, preference
6. brand loyalty
1. Brand advertising, the most visible type of advertising, is referred to as national or consumer advertising.
Brand advertising, such as that for the Apple Macintosh in the classic “1984” commercial, focuses on
the development of a long-term brand identity and image.

2. Retail or local advertising focuses on retailers, distributors, or dealers who sell their merchandise in a
certain geographical area; retail advertising has information about products that are available in local
stores. The objectives focus on stimulating store traffic and creating a distinctive image for the retailer.
Local advertising can refer to a retailer, such as T. J. Maxx, or a manufacturer or distributor who offers
products in a fairly restricted geographic area.

3. Direct-response advertising tries to stimulate an immediate response by the customer to the seller. It
can use any advertising medium, particularly direct mail and the Internet. The consumer can respond
by telephone, mail, or over the Internet, and the product is delivered directly to the consumer by mail
or some other carrier.

4. Business-to-business (B2B) advertising, also called trade advertising, is sent from one business to another.
It includes messages directed at companies distributing products as well as industrial purchasers and
professionals such as lawyers and physicians. Advertisers place most business advertising in
professional publications.

5. Institutional advertising, also called corporate advertising, focuses on establishing a corporate identity
or winning the public over to the organization’s point of view. Tobacco companies, for example, run ads
that focus on the positive things they are doing. The ads for a pharmaceutical company showcasing
leukemia treatment also adopt that focus.

6. Nonprofit advertising is used by not-for-profit organizations, such as charities, foundations,

associations, hospitals, orchestras, museums, and religious institutions, to reach customers (hospitals,
for example), members (the Sierra Club), and volunteers (Red Cross). It is also used to solicit donations
and other forms of program participation. The “Truth”R campaign for the American Legacy Foundation,
which tries to reach teenagers with antismoking messages, is an example of nonprofit advertising.

7. Public service advertising provides messages on behalf of a good cause, such as stopping drunk driving
(as in ads from Mothers Against Drunk Driving) or preventing child abuse. Also called public service
announcements (PSAs), advertising and public relations professionals usually create them pro bono (free
of charge) and the media donate the space and time.
Consumer markets consist of people who buy goods and services for personal or household
use. As a student, you are considered a member of the consumer market for companies that
sell jeans, athletic shoes, sweatshirts, pizza, music, textbooks, backpacks, computers, education,
checking accounts, bicycles, and a multitude of other products that you buy at drugstores
and grocery stores, which the marketing industry refers to as package goods (In
Europe these are called fast-moving consumer goods or fmcg.)

• Business-to-business (B2B) markets consist of companies that buy products or services to use
in their own businesses or in making other products. General Electric, for example, buys computers
to use in billing and inventory control, steel and wiring to use in the manufacture of its
products, and cleaning supplies to use in maintaining its buildings. Advertising in this category
tends to be heavy on factual content and information but it can also be beautifully designed as
Peter Stasiowski’s ads for Interprint demonstrate (see the previous Day in the Life feature).

• Institutional markets include a wide variety of nonprofit organizations, such as hospitals,

government agencies, and schools that provide services for the benefit of society. Universities,
for example, are in the market for furniture, cleaning supplies, computers, office supplies, groceries,
audiovisual material, paper towels, and toilet paper, to name a few. Such ads are similar
to B2B ads in that they are generally heavy on facts and light on emotional appeals.

• Channel markets, as discussed earlier, include members of the distribution chain, which is
made up of businesses we call resellers, or intermediaries. Channel marketing, the process
of targeting a specific campaign to members of the distribution channel, is more important now
that manufacturers consider their distributors to be partners in their marketing programs. As giant
retailers such as Walmart become more powerful, they can even dictate to manufacturers
what products their customers want to buy and how much they are willing to pay for them.
Market research compiles information about the product, the product category, competitors,
and other details of the marketing environment that will affect the development of advertising
strategy.
• Consumer research identifies people who are in the market for the product in terms of
their characteristics, attitudes, interests, and motivations. Ultimately, this information is
used to decide who the targeted audience for the advertising should be. In an integrated
marketing communication (IMC) plan, the consumer research also acquires information
about all the relevant stakeholders and their points of contact with the brand.
• Advertising research focuses on all elements of advertising,
including message development research, media
planning research, evaluation, and information about
competitors’ advertising. IMC research is similar, except
that it is used to assemble information needed in
planning the use of a variety of marketing communication
tools. IMC is particularly concerned with the interaction
of multiple messages from a variety of sources to
present the brand consistently.
• Strategic research uncovers critical information that becomes
the basis for strategic planning decisions for both
marketing and marketing communication. In advertising,
this type of research covers all of the factors and steps that
lead to the creation of message strategies and media plans.
Think of strategic research as collecting all relevant background
information needed to make a decision on advertising
and marketing communication strategy. The importance
of finding an adult target audience who appreciated having
fun was important to the Cheetos campaign.