GEC324
TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION
(Advertisement)
Dr. E. E. Alagbe & Dr. A. A. Ayoola
Department of Chemical Engineering
2023/202 Academic Session
1
Advertizing
Advertizing is a type of marketing communication and it is a process.
On the other hand, Advertisements are the end results of the process
of advertizing. It is defined as a paid-for communication intended to
inform and/or persuade one or more people. That is, advertisements
must communicate an information to whoever sees or hears them.
While some people view advertising as immensely powerful to increase
economic prosperity, others view it as a immensely wasteful and
morally questionable.
From the definition of advertisements, there arise other marketing
communications that cannot be classified as advertisements. They
include:
- Packaging
- Sales promotion
- Brand placements in Tv programmes and films
- Commercial emails
- Brand names on clothes or other goods
- Commercial websites and blogs
- Telephone selling
All these are termed marketing communications that are targeted at
increasing sales. Therefore, within the advertising industry, they are not
considered as advertisements.
Purpose of advertisements
Advertisements are erroneously assumed to be selling things. This can be seen in adverts
such as Charity advertizng for funds, government advertising to stop smoking or reckless
driving, recruitment adverts, …etc.
Advertizing is intended to inform and/or persuade people but it covers a multitude of
diverse types of communication with equally diverse objectives.
The intention of an advert may be justified in:
- Launching of a new product
- Launch a new product into an existing one
- Persuading people who know the brand but haven’t tried it to try it
- Creating awareness to people who have not heard of the brand
- Persuading current users to continue in known ways or other ways
- Persuading a different target market
- Persuading former users to return ……etc
Campaign objectives
A campaign may well have more than one single objective, as long as
the different objectives are consistent with each other and are in no
way mutually contradictory. Indeed, recent research has shown that
most successful campaigns have, on average, approximately two-and-a-
half overlapping objectives, for example ‘ To build awareness among
affluent prospective customers of an exclusive new brand which they
will find only in top-quality retailers’. That particular objective includes
no fewer than four overlapping objectives essential to achieve the
brand ’s entire goal. They include:
- to build awareness
- among affluent customers
- of an exclusive brand
- only available in top-quality retailers
The Advertizing Strategy
The advertizing strategy is a document in which the objectives of the campaign are clearly
defined. It is a key blueprint in the creation of new campaigns. They are presented as
headings and sub-headings with contents such as:
i. Objectives of the campaign
ii. Facts about the brand that align with the reality of the objectives
iii. The brand’s competitors – with details of their advertizing and marketing campaigns
iv. Relevant market research (summary)
v. Why consumers use or do not use the brand
vi. The campaign message to be communicated
vii. Outlets for communication (media)
viii. Budget that would include advert preparation and media campaign
ix. Timeline for campaign preparation to conclusion
x. Duration of the media campaign
xi. Target market
Brands and Target market
While brands are the products or services being advertised, the target
market include all potential purchasers or users. None is more important
than the other. Rather, they are symbiotic in nature and inextricable
entwined.
Three factors are responsible for this symbiotic nature, viz:
a. Brands are used by a fraction of the population eg solar power systems,
shoprite, …etc
b. Market research helps advertizers to know the population to target. Eg
through the use of questionnaires.
c. Media audiences are segmented, eg Newspaper advert versus TV
adverts, in terms of reading and watching audiences.
The outcome of these three factors has been that products and services are
no longer designed and formulated for 100% of the population. They are
designed for specific target markets: clearly defined population sectors, large
and small. This is the basis of the symbiosis between the brand and its target
market.
The Media Spectrum
The media is the channel through which impressions/advertisements
are conveyed to the senses. The media include: newspapers,
magazines, television, radio stations, direct mail, posters and transport,
cinema and the internet.
The advertising media come under the spotlight for the following
reasons:
a. Size of the target market: this includes the kind and population of
the target market.
b. Cost of advertizing through the media. Here, value for the money is
the focus for the advertizer.
c. The power and persuasiveness of the advertizing medium –
particularly for specific goods or services being advertised.
Advertizing outlets/channels
i. Press: This represents the biggest media sector involved in advertizing and include
- national newspapers which provides advertizers with a myriad of unparalleled choices.
Advertizing cost varies directly with the circulation size and can provide advertizers with
more affluent and influential readers. This outlet can be flexible in terms of cost
depending on the colour/gray adverts, size of adverts (bigger versus smaller spaces) and
a variety of newspaper to choose from.
ii. Magazines: are divided broadly into:
- General interest and women’s magazines
- Special interest and hobby magazines
The former has a relatively higher readership levels than the latter.
iii. Trade journals and directories: They have generally low readership because they are not
seen as general advertizing media.
iv. Television: This is the predominant and most researched advertizing
medium but are subject to government control globally. Control involves
areas such as content, duration and timing. The presence of multiple TV
station fragments the audiences and this is a major concern to advertizers.
v. Minor media: This includes direct mail, radio, outdoor and transport and
cinema. Their strength lie in their specificity. Unfortunately, they lack the
mass impact of the major advertizing media. Hence, they tend to carry less
advertizing.
• vi. The internet: This is the prime interactive medium as it gives consumers
the platform to respond to adverts via chat rooms and other online
discussion fora. online behaviours and interactivity differ greatly between
different socioeconomic groups. Consequently the Internet is highly
effective for targeting defined demographic groups, both by special
interests and activities, and at different times during the day and night. For
example, online behavior differs markedly according to age, sex, and class.
Assignment
Discuss the advantages of the print media over the digital media or vice
versa.
