advertising

UNIT – 1 INTRODUCTION TO
ADVERTISING

Advertising is always present,

though people may not be aware of
it. In today's world, advertising uses
every possible media to get its
message through. It does this via
television, print (newspapers,
magazines, journals etc), radio,
press, internet, direct selling,
hoardings, mailers, contests,
sponsorships, posters, clothes,
events, colours, sounds, visuals and
even people (endorsements).
DEFINITION OF ADVERTISING: According to Wheeler, “Advertising is any form of paid - non-personal
presentation of ideas, goods or services for the purpose of inducing people to buy.”

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Thus, it may be understood from above explanation that;
Advertising is a marketing tactic involving paying for space to
promote a product, service, or cause.
The actual promotional messages are called advertisements,
or ads for short.
The goal of advertising is to reach people most likely to be
willing to pay for a company's products or services and
entice them to buy.

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 Objectives of Advertising

Informing
Brand Creation Customers about a Promoting a
building Achieve sales and
of Demand Product, Company Particular Feature profit goals
or Service

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History of advertising in India
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 Mission: Money: how Message: Measurement:
what are the much budget what Media: what how should be the
objectives of they required message and type of media results of the
vehicle/s will be advertising
the to achieve message used to deliver campaign or
advertising the strategy will the message? program will be
campaign? objectives? be followed? evaluated?

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Diagram of 5 Ms of advertising

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MISSION – The First M
MISSION: First of all
• Information- when a new product is launched, the purpose
the marketing manager should only be to inform people about the product.
must be clear on the • Persuasion- Persuading people to actually go out and buy the
company’s purpose for product. This objective is of paramount importance because of
advertising. “Increase cut throat competition. Any advertisement must be persuasive
in sales figure” will be a in nature, attracting consumers towards the brand.
very broad and to a • Reminder - This objective is relevant for well-established
certain context a vague companies. These types of advertisements only try to remind
the consumers of the brand existence. For instance whenever
objective. we hear or read ‘yeh dil maange more’, we tend to think about
According to Philip Pepsi. Same way we tend to associate “two minutes” with
Kotler, there can be Maggie noodles. The marketing manager should establish a
clear goal as on the purpose of advertising, information,
three possible persuasion or reminder.
objectives behind
advertising:
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MONEY – The Second M

The next step is to decide upon the budget. There are several methods for
deciding on the advertising budget. The most common among them is the
percentage of sales method. Under this method, a certain percentage of
sales are allotted for advertising expenditure. Though this method is used
widely, there are some problems with this method. The first issue is what
percentage the company should take? Even if a company somehow decides a
percentage figure, this would mean increase in advertising expenditure when
sales are up and less spending when sales are down. This in some ways is
MONEY quite paradoxical, because logically the reverse should happen. The
company needs to spend more on advertising when sales are down. But this
method uses circular reasoning and views sales as cause for promotion. In
fact sales are a result of promotion. Another method suggests that a
company should spend as much as its competitors are spending. This
method claims that it would prevent promotional wars. But then like each
individual each company is also different. It may not make any sense in
spending like your competitor because competitor might be on a different
footing.

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MESSAGE – The Third M

As a common experience, we love some advertisements, while the

others just irritate us. An appealing advertising will win consumers
and will consequently induce them to purchase the product. On the
other hand, irritating advertising will create an adverse effect. This
is why many companies hand over this task to advertising agencies,
which has professionals to make impact -making ads. The message
that company wants to convey should be put in a manner that will
MESSAGE arouse interest. Moreover it should convincingly highlight upon
the products USP. What is said is definitely important but what is
more important is how it is said. The tone should be appealing.
Words used should be catchy and retentive. These days both
electronic as well as print media are overflowing with ads. People
have no time to read or see them, and therefore they have to be
attractive enough to target audience’s attention. This is the job of
message.
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 MEDIUM AND VEHICLE

• Medium is a general category of available delivery systems, which includes broadcast media

(like TV, Radio), print media (like newspapers and magazines), direct mail, outdoor advertising

and other support media.

• Media Vehicle is the specific carrier within a medium category, for e.g. Times of India is Print

vehicle, NDTV India is broadcast vehicle.

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MEDIA – The Fourth M

Selecting the proper media vehicle for communicating the message

goes a long way in the success of any kind of advertising. Each
media vehicle has its positive and negative points with a different
reach and impact. Therefore a company has to be very clear about
its target audience. Choices available are Internet, TV, newspapers,
MEDIA magazines, direct mails, radio and hoardings. Everyone of this has
its advantages and disadvantages. Companies often go in for a
media mix, i.e. they select more than one of the available choices.
Timing is of great significance here. Many industries face seasonal
fluctuations and pass through cycles. Therefore advertising should
be timed that way to take care of these fluctuations.

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MEASUREMENT – The Fifth M

An ad can be judged on the basis of its reach and impact on

sales. Good advertising is one that generates brand
awareness and consequently brand preference. How much
of sales can be attributed to advertising, is a difficult
MEASUREMENT question to answer. Sales are influenced by many factors
(Finding the besides advertising. It is not easy to isolate the impact of
effectiveness of an advertising on sales. Nonetheless there are some advanced
ad) statistical techniques available that can be used with the
help of computer software like SPSS. Thus a systematic and
balanced understanding of these five Ms’ of advertising will
help in designing better advertising campaigns that create a
favorable impact on the target audience.
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 encourage
increase generate interest customers to ask
Increase the
explain the awareness of new from your target for information
demand from
build the image of benefits of your products and market, as well as about your
customers and
your business products and services before, a new audience of business and
increase your
services when and after prospective provide options for
sales.
they are launched customers how they can
contact you

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SOME 2020 MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/advertising/t
op-ad-campaigns-in-2020-part-9/80062683

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Advertising is an effective way of promoting your products and services to your target audience
and is usually a paid form of promotion. When you advertise you tell prospective customers who
you are, where you are and what you can do for them.

Understanding the wide range of advertising strategies available will allow you to use the one
that is best for your business. You may find that using a combination of strategies gives you the
strongest results.

There are different types of advertisements that helps increasing the sales, introduce new
products, maintain brand image, increase brand value of the products and so on….

On the basis of geographical spread, target audience, for what is to be advertised, objectives etc
there are different types of advertising options available to an advertiser.
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 TYPES OF ADVERTISING

TARGET WHAT IS BEING

GEOGRAPHICAL SPREAD OBJECTIVE OTHERS
AUDIENCE ADVERTISED

NATIONAL CONSUMER PRODUCT PRIMARY POLITICAL

ADVTG DEMAND/
GENERIC ADVTG
LOCAL SERVICES
FINANCIAL
RETAIL ADVTG
SELECTICVE
GLOBAL IDEA

INDUSTRIAL SURROGATE
ADVTG DIRECT
INSTITUTIONAL
RESPONE
CLASSIFIED
PLACE ADVTG
INDIRECT
RESPONE
DISPLAY
ADVTG
PUBLIC
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SERVICES
Geographical Spread:

a. National Advertising:
• Advertising done by large companies on a nation wise basis or
in most regions of the country is called as National advertising.
Apparently the term NATIONAL ADVERTISING conveys MASS
MARKETING effort. In reality this does not necessarily mean
that the product is sold nationwide. National advertising
emphasises brand introduction of new products and greater
brand loyalty for established products. This type of advertising
is done by a manufacturer and is in contrast to that done by a
retailer whose objectives are totally different.
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Geographical Spread:

National Advertising contd…

• Here, the advertising is done through national television
or radio networks, cable television stations with national
or regional distribution, nationally circulated newspapers
and magazines, and substantially concurrent advertising
on radio or in a series of regional or metropolitan
newspapers or other
• Large established firms belongs to this category. Example:
Lux Soap, Sunsilk Shampoo, Colgate Toothpaste, etc.
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Geographical Spread:
b. Local / Retail Advertising
• Advertising done by retailers or local merchants to encourage
consumers to shop at a specific stores, use a local service or
patronize a particular establishment. Retail or local advertising
tends to emphasize specific patronage motives such as price, hours
of operations, service, atmosphere, image or merchandise
assortment. Retailers are concerned with building store traffic, so
their promotions often take the form of direct-action advertising
designed to produce immediate store traffic and sales.

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 Image
Local /
Retail Advertising

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c. Global Advertising

Gillette has used the “Best a man can get” as

The discussion of differences in the marketing its global advertising theme for over a decade
and has launched a number of new razor
environments of various countries suggests that each products including the Sensor, Mach3 &
Fusion using a global approach. Gillette uses
market is different and requires a distinct marketing the same advertising theme in each country
and advertising program. Here, a company uses a and maintains websites with similar content
and layout with only language differences. In
common marketing plan for all countries in which it 2007 Gillette launched a global integrated
For marketing campaign to promote its
operates, thus selling the product in essentially the E.G. revolutionary six-bladed Fusion razor
same way everywhere in the world. Global featuring three of most prominent athletes in
the world – golfer Tiger Woods, Swiss tennis
advertising falls under the umbrella of global champion Roger Federer, and French soccer
star Thierry Henry. The integrated campaign
marketing as a way to implement this strategy by was part of Gillette Champions program, a
using the same basic advertising approach in all global sports marketing initiative for the
brand, and includes television, print and
markets. online advertising; consumer and trade
promotions; and a public relations program.
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 Global Advertising contd..
Very few products lend themselves to
global advertising. Differences in
culture, market and economic
development; consumer needs and
usage patterns; media availabilities;
and legal restrictions make it
extremely difficult to develop an
effective universal approach to
marketing and advertising.

Also, advertising may be

particularly difficult to
standardize because of cultural
differences in circumstances,
language, traditions, values,
beliefs, lifestyle and so on.

When a company
Also, when a brand or a
launches High-tech
message which can be Brands that are
Globalisation of an products and new
adapted for a visual promoted with image
products coming to
ad is appropriate the world for the first
appeal, avoiding the campaigns that play to
problem of trying to universal needs, values,
mainly: time, not stepping in
translate words into and emotions.
the cultural heritage of
dozens of languages.
a company.
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One Concept In Three Countries - Coca-Cola
Supermarket Ads

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 Target
Audience Consumer advertising is directed
Consumer Advertising to the end of the consumers. It
takes place to those products that
Example: Soaps, Shampoos, are used by the consumers. Such
cosmetics, washing machines, advertisements appear in the
refrigerators, televisions, etc. media such as television, radio,
magazine and newspaper.

Retail advertising is all advertising by

the stores that sell goods directly to
consumer. It has a number of
Retail advertising: objectives. The primary objective is to
build store traffic, focussing on variety,
friendly and knowledgeable salesperson
and prestige brands.

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Industrial Advertising:
The most popular terminology used for industrial advertising is Business to Business advertising.
This type of advertising generally includes a company advertising its products or services for the
companies which actually uses same or similar products or services or we can say that the
advertising company should produce the products which the other company needs for its
productions or functions. For e.g. some mineral water companies which work on a smaller scale
outsource the packaging bottles, the caps for bottles, the cover with name printed on it, etc. so for
this, the advertisements of the manufacturers of bottles, caps and outer packaging paper can work.

A smaller to smaller and largest of all, every company has to do industrial advertising. Thus
companies manufacturing any products can be advertised to the other companies, like raw
materials, the machineries used by other companies, spare parts of the machines which makes it
work, anything. The media generally used in the industrial advertising is print media and direct
marketing. This type of advertisement is given by the manufacturers of Industrial goods and is
targeted towards industrial buyers only.

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Industrial Advertising contd…

• It minimizes the hunt for buyers.

• It helps in increasing sales of the company.
Role of • It helps in making more and more
distribution channels.
Industrial • It makes company work more efficiently to
produce the desired product or service.
Advertising: • It creates awareness among the customers
or other companies about the products
and services.
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Industrial Advertising example

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What is being advertised:
b. Service Advertising
• This type of advertising tries to
promote the sale of services
which are intangible,
inseparable and perishable.
Example: Advertisements by
banks, hotels, airlines, insurance
a. companies, mobile phones, etc.
Product
adverti
sing:

Product advertising communicates the features and benefits of a

product to customers and prospects. Companies use product
advertising when they want to launch new products, announce
changes to existing products or increase sales of those products.
Product advertisements must reflect the interests of the target
audience. An advertiser developing a campaign for a food product, for
example, would create messages and select media that appeal to a
wide consumer audience. A campaign for a business product, such as a
machine tool, would use media that appeal to different groups
influencing the decision to buy, including plant managers, production
engineers and finance directors.
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SAMSUNG AD

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What is being advertised contd….

c. Idea • Idea advertising is to achieve the further goals of public interests and social
causes apart from promoting goods and services. Example Save electricity,
HIV awareness programme, quit smoking, Save the girl child, beti bachao
Advertising abhiyan by BJP Government is the recent example on idea advertising.

d. Institutional • Also known as corporate advertising, institutional advertising is done by

institutions to build their image and goodwill. Focus is not on a product or a
advertising service of the organization. (in detail given later)

e. Place • Advertising or places to done to promote tourism to

such places.
advertising
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Example tourism advertising.
Primary demand advertising / generic advertising
When an entire product category is advertised instead of a particular
brand, it is known as Primary demand stimulation. Here, the effort is
made to promote the merits of a product category rather than a
particular brand. It contrasts select demand stimulation where
advertisers pay to promote their brand as superior to competitors.
Though not as common, primary demand ads do serve a purpose in
specific instances.
The major purpose of primary demand ads is either to inform
customers about a brand new product or technology that they are
unfamiliar with, or to persuade customers that they haven't
recognized the benefits of a given product. Primary advertisement is
without a brand, much like an advertisement that is mentioned
above. When we see above ad, it mentions us the benefits of eating
an egg.
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Objectives: ‘Sunday ho ya
Monday, roz
khao ande’

This ad campaign was created by the National Egg Coordination

Committee in India, this campaign was launched with the objective
to increase egg consumption.

• Primary demand advertising /

generic advertising:

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Selective advertising:

Selective advertising which sometimes is also known as

secondary demand advertising, aims to stimulate the
demand for a particular brand of a product. While the
efforts in primary demand advertising is to convert the
non-users into users, selective demand advertising
attempts to convert the users of brand “A” into users of
brand “B”. Selective demand advertising involves the
placement of advertising messages intended to
persuade customers about the benefits of your specific
brand. This is different from primary demand
advertising, which involves messages promoting the
benefits of a general product category.
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Primary Demand
Motivations

Primary demand typically occurs less often than selective demand

advertising. This is because companies typically pay for advertising
to sell their own brands. Primary demand usually occurs in a few
specific situations - One is when a new or innovative product is first
introduced to the market. Rather than focusing a message on brand
differentiation, the advertiser focuses on informing the market
about what the new product does. Another common scenario that
leads to primary demand is when associations made up of industry
members collaborate to generate interest for the product category.
This is often done when industries are struggling
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When to use Primary demand ads

To garner more
attention to a
Primary demand product or product
To launch an entirely
ads are mainly category that
new product or
used in one of two already exists, but
product category.
scenarios: isn’t well-known or
has lost popularity
over time

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Direct Response
advertising

Promotional method in • These devices (called direct response

which mechanisms) includes a
a prospective customer is • Coupon to cut and mail,
urged to respond
• Business reply card,
immediately and directly
to the advertiser, through • Toll-free telephone number, or, on
the use of a 'device' the internet.
provided in the • Most retail sale advertisements are direct
advertisement. response ads in one way or the other.

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Indirect response
advertising
Such advertising stimulates demand for a product for a longer time. Such ads are not meant to induce the demand immediately.
The idea is to share information at that moment, create positive image about the brand and believe that the customer will buy a
product when they are ready for it and they will look for a particular brand. Sale of a refrigerator may not induce a person to go
and buy it quickly but a viewer who has noticed various ads may buy it in some time when it is required by them.

Indirect response ads are about creating general awareness of your name or brand, and the idea is that
when a consumer needs your service, he will think of you and reach out to you. In other words, the
response to the ad is not direct, but rather indirect.

Some people call this type of advertising “branding” because it is intended to build your brand.

The main purpose in case of an indirect advertising is to make a positive effect in the mind of a reader /
viewer. The viewer develops a favourable image of the ad and later on buy the product when he /she
requires it.
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Public Service
advertising
Unlike traditional commercials, Public Service Advertisements (PSA) are primarily designed to inform and educate
rather than sell a product or service. The goal of a PSA is not to make a big sale, but rather to change public opinion
and raise awareness for a problem. However, sometimes money is solicited, although usually not for profit.

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OTHERS:

Political Advertising

Political advertising: is advertising that attempts to influence or comment

upon a matter which is currently the subject of extensive political
debate. Political advertising includes advertising or marketing communications
about a political party, representative or candidate, advertising about political
issues or issues of public interest, and advertising in relation to government
policies (whether published/broadcast by the government or someone else).
Advertising by Government, political parties, lobby groups and other interest
groups may fall into this category.

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Surrogate advertising

Surrogate advertising is a form of advertising which is used to promote banned products,

like cigarettes and alcohol, in the disguise of another product. This type of advertising uses a
product of a fairly close category, as: club soda, mineral water in case of alcohol, or products of a
completely different category (for example, music CD's or playing cards) to hammer the brand
name into the heads of consumers. The banned product (alcohol or cigarettes) may not be
projected directly to consumers but rather masked under another product under the same brand
name, so that whenever there is mention of that brand, people start associating it with its main
product (the alcohol or cigarette). In India there is a large number of companies doing surrogate
advertising, from Bacardi Blast music CD's, Bagpiper Club Soda to Officers Choice playing cards.

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Classified advertising:

Classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly

common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold
or distributed free of charge. Classified advertisements are much
cheaper than larger display advertisements used by businesses,
although display advertising is more widespread.

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Display Advertisement
Display advertising is advertising on websites or apps or social media through banners or other ad formats made of
text, images, flash, video, and audio. The main purpose of display advertising is to deliver general advertisements and
brand messages to site visitors.

A display ad, also known as a banner ad, is a form of online paid advertising that is typically a designed image or a
photo and copy. Viewers can then click on the image with the promotion to then be taken to the corresponding
landing page.

Display ads can be spotted on websites and can feature interactive displays or some type of animation to engage the
user.

Retargeting can also be used for these ads. For example, on ecommerce or shopping site a user may place something
in his or her cart and then leave the site without purchasing. Ads can then be used to advertise exactly what that user
placed in his or her cart to get them to complete the purchase that they left before.

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Online display ads are like print ads in the digital world – they can
feature text, full-color graphics, logos, promotions, anything it takes
to present your business. And they’re clickable. They direct
customers to exactly where you want to take them.

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Theories of Advertising
Advertising has numerous objectives which includes communicating with potential customers as
well as persuading them to adopt a particular product or develop a preference towards the
product for repeat purchase which ultimately results in brand loyalty.

Advertising Theory or theories therefore try to explain how and why

advertising is effective in influencing behaviour and accomplishing its
objectives.
There are numerous theories on advertising. Most theories of advertising generally propose if you
want a consumer to like a product or a brand continuously then simply expose the consumer to a
product or brand advertising such that there are certain feelings and expectations attached for the ad
itself. Advertising theories also make use of content specification, Specific message and media
characteristics, consumer characteristics, product/service characteristics, and competitive actions.

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Theories of Advertising

Following are the theories of advertising:

•AIDA
•Hierarchy Effects model
•Stimulus Theory
•Means-End Theory
•Visual Verbal imaging
•Cognitive Dissonance
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 1. The AIDA model:

The AIDA model suggests

that for an advertisement to
be effective it has to be one
that:
1. Commands Attention
2. Leads to Interest in the
product
3. And thence to Desire to
own or use the product.
4. and then finally leads to
Action

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• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moRXlROyIWA&t=11s

(fevicol ad link)

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1. The AIDA model contd…

This model was developed to represent the stages a salesperson /an advertiser
must take a customer through in the personal-selling process. This model depicts
the buyer as passing successively through attention, interest, desire, and action.
The salesperson must first get the customer's attention and then arouse some
interest in the company's product or service. Strong levels of interest should create
desire to own or use the product. Developed during the 19th century, AIDA – an
acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire & Action – is a mantra that’s been widely
adopted by the marketing & advertising industry. Over time, AIDA evolved into
AIDAS, with the ‘S’ denoting ‘Satisfaction’. The action stage in the AIDA model
involves getting the customer to make a purchase commitment and closing the
sale. To the marketer, this is the most important stage in the selling process, but it
can also be the most difficult. Companies train their sales reps in closing techniques
to help them complete the selling process.
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1. The AIDA model contd…

Getting attention takes many steps – we might view an

advertisement many times before we find ourselves
sufficiently interested to pay explicit attention to it. Once
we have done that it may take many more exposures, or
even many more campaigns, to elicit our interest, evoke our
desire for the brand, and finally to provoke us into actually
acting on the message by purchasing the advertised brand.

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2. Hierarchy of Effects model:

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Hierarchy of Effects model

This model aids the marketing team in identifying the best message strategy. The hierarchy of effects model is
a model which tells advertisers to make an advertisement in such a way that the customer goes through all these six
stages namely awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and purchase.

The steps in this model is sequential. A consumer will spend a period of time at each step before moving to the next. Thus, before a
person can develop a liking for a product, he or she must first have sufficient knowledge of the product. Once the individual has the
knowledge and develops liking for the product, the advertiser can try to influence the consumer to favour a particular brand or company.

This model is known as a "hierarchy" because the number of consumers moving from one stage to the next reduces, as you
move through the model. There may be a lot of consumers that see the product advert but not everyone will make a
purchase. It takes a lot of work to take a consumer from awareness to the final stage of purchase, so businesses need to
ensure that they try their utmost to get customers from conviction to complete the final stage of purchase.

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Awareness

The customer becomes aware of the product through advertising. This is a challenging step, there is no guarantee that the customer will be aware of
the product brand after they view the advert. Customers see many adverts each day but will only remember the brand of a tiny fraction of products.

Knowledge

The customer begins to gain knowledge about the product for example through the internet, retail advisors and product packaging. In today's digital
world this step has become more important as consumers expect to gather product knowledge at the click of a button. Consumers will quickly move to
competitor brands if they do not get the information they want. The advertiser's job is to ensure product information is easily available.

Liking

As the title states, this step is about ensuring that the customer likes your product. As an advertiser what
features can you promote to encourage the customer to like your product?

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Preference
Consumers may like more than one product brand and could end up buying any one of them. At this stage advertisers will
want the consumer to disconnect from rival products and focus on their particular product. Advertisers will want to
highlight their brand's benefits and unique selling points so that the consumer can differentiate it from competitor brands.

Conviction
This stage is about creating the customer's desire to purchase the product. Advertisers may encourage conviction by
allowing consumers to test or sample the product. Examples of this are inviting consumers to take a car for a test drive or
offering consumers a free sample of a food product. This reassures consumers that the purchase will be a safe one.

Purchase
Having proceeded through the above stages, the advertiser wants the customer to purchase their product. This stage needs
to be simple and easy, otherwise the customer will get fed up and walk away without a purchase. For example a variety of
payment options encourages purchase whilst a complicated and slow website discourages purchases.
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Six Steps and
Behaviour

the six steps can be split

• Cognitive (thinking) so that the consumer becomes
into three stages of
product aware and gathers product knowledge
consumer behaviour:
• Affective (feeling) so that the consumer likes the
cognitive, affective and product brand and has conviction in it
conative. The job of the • Conative (behaviour/do/act) so that the consumer
advertiser is to promote buys the product brand
the three behaviours.
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory:
• Advertisers, marketers, and public relations purposely create cognitive dissonance to try
to sway your beliefs and behaviors. What’s your best defence? Awareness.

• You’ve likely experienced cognitive dissonance as a result of media or marketing influences,

but you may not have recognized it.

• Most of the time, cognitive dissonance seems like an internal battle: You believe one thing
but act in opposition to that belief, or you believe two contradictory things and are forced to
reconcile the inconsistencies within your mind. (1) But, there may be external forces — such
as advertising, marketing, or public relations — responsible for creating the dissonance, too.

• After all, the main job of these industries is to influence the views and behaviors of
consumers like you. (2) Like it or not, you’ve likely experienced cognitive dissonance as a
result of media or marketing influences, you just may not have recognized it.

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Cognitive Dissonance in Advertising
• Advertisers try to paint a picture that your life isn’t complete without their product or their
service. Many use cognitive dissonance to point out the inconsistencies between the idealized
version of you and the real-life you. You experience dissonance because you want to see
yourself in that idealized way, but you don’t necessarily use that product or service.

• Cognitive Dissonance is a tool that marketers and advertisers use all the time. A lot of
advertisements are set up where they’ll make this explicit claim that you’re only cool or
beautiful or worthy (or some other positive attribute) if you own this product or service.

• Think about a shampoo commercial. A beautiful woman’s hair blows in the wind. She looks
happy, healthy, and gorgeous. The underlying message is that you too could look happy,
healthy, and gorgeous if you use the same shampoo she uses. You experience dissonance
because you want to look and feel happy, healthy, and gorgeous, but you don’t necessarily use
that shampoo.

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Cognitive Dissonance in Advertising
• You, the consumer, are left with a few options.

• You can reject the claim completely (which is what very strong-minded people do).

Or

• You can resolve the dissonance by accepting the message and changing your behavior, meaning
you buy the shampoo.

Or

• You can resolve the dissonance by accepting the message and changing your belief. You may
start to see yourself as less beautiful and healthy because you don’t use that product.

• “You can modify your original belief system or you can resolve the cognitive dissonance by
actually buying what they’re selling,”

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Cognitive Dissonance in Advertising
The advertiser, of course, wants you to do the latter. And if you choose the former, your self-esteem will
likely take a hit since you must acknowledge you don’t possess these positive qualities.

The more persuasive and more compelling the advertisement, the stronger the dissonance and the
more urgently you’ll need to resolve it.

You may have seen this tactic used by luxury companies who set out to sell a lifestyle more than a
specific product. You may not even see what the product is within the advertisement, What they’re
doing is marketing a lifestyle and marketing a status or a mentality that’s associated with the brand.

Their goal is to get you to believe in and support that brand because you want to attain that lifestyle.

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