MCM 103: INTRODUCTION TO ADVERTISING 2 Credits

The course deals with the definitions of advertising; types and functions of advertising; history
and development of advertising in Nigeria; structure of advertising industry: agency clients and
media; development of advertising agencies; functions of the advertising manager; the
advertising brief: writing and assessing advertising proposals; advertising process: how ads
work; role of advertising in marketing; career development in advertising and advertising
training and education.

Marketing, Strategy, Tactics, Technique, USP

Marketing is often viewed in terms of individual activities that constitute the overall marketing
process. According to Belch and Belch (2007:7), “one popular conception of marketing views it
as primarily involving sales.” To some other people, marketing may be seen as consisting of
advertising, or related activities, while for some, what comes to mind as marketing is market
research, pricing or product planning and so on. A definition of marketing given by American
Marketing Association (AMA) sees marketing as the “the process of planning and executing the
conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods and services, to create exchanges
that satisfy individual and organisational objectives.”

Strategy can be viewed as a key component of marketing planning. In terms of marketing

planning, once an objective has been set, the means to achieving the objectives must be
determined. This is where strategy comes. Strategy, therefore, is the process of determining how
set objectives can be accomplished through the process of considering the three key elements of:
target market; competitor target markets, and establishing a competitive advantage. There are six
tests of effective strategy: is the strategy based on clear definition of target customers and their
needs? Is it based on competitive advantage? Does it incur some acceptable risks? Is it resource
and managerially supportable? Can it achieve product market objective? And, is it internally
consistent?

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Positioning is the choice of target market, which means, where the manufacturer wants his
product to compete in the market and differential advantage, which means how the company
wants the product to compete in the market place. Another school of thought says that
positioning is simply how the consumer thinks about the product in his mind whenever it is
mentioned or remembered.

Advertising

The word advertising comes from the Latin word "advertere” meaning to turn the minds
towards".

For the common man, advertising means television commercials, radio jingles and print
advertisements. Advertising can be defined as a paid dissemination of information through a
variety of mass communication media to motivate a desired action.

Today, advertising is a part of our everyday life. It is all around us. We cannot escape looking at
it or listening to it. Even if we are not consciously looking at it or listening to it, the message of
advertising reaches and influences us. It is often recorded somewhere at the back of our minds
and is recalled when we are buying something or looking for a particular service. American
Marketing Association AMA defines advertising as: ‘Advertising is any form of non-personal
presentation of goods, services or ideas for action, openly paid for by an identified sponsor’.

The key elements in the above definition are:

Any form

Advertising can take any of the following forms of presentation. It could be a sign, symbol,
illustration, verbal message, etc.

Non-personal

This phrase distinguishes advertising from personal selling; as advertising is an indirect form of
conveying messages.

Goods, services or ideas

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Advertising promotes goods, services and ideas. It also promotes persons and parties, places and
events as well as institutions.

For Action.

This phrase denotes the action-oriented nature of advertising.

Paid for

Advertising is always paid for. It is not free. So it is distinguished from free publicity.

By an Identified Sponsor

By an Identified Sponsor, People or groups who do not identify themselves do a lot of publicity
and propaganda. In such cases a kind of manipulative or malicious intent is associated. However,
in case of advertising no such intent is present as the sponsor is always identified. We always
know who the advertiser is.

Attributes:

Advertising is rated on the following:

Being likeable

Being believable

Being easy to understand

Being unique & distinctive

Providing new information

Having appetite appeal

Offering good deals

Motivating purchase interest

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Advertising can be called a game that is played among five key players. They are: The
Advertisers, the advertising agencies, the support organisation, the media and the
consumers.

Advertisers almost always use advertising agenciesthat are assisted by support organisation-plan,
produce and place the advertisements in the media to persuade the potential consumers.
Advertisers are a varied lot. They could be manufacturers, marketers, retailers, wholesalers,
service organizations, institutions, political parties, governments, etc. they have something to
promote-products, services, candidates, plans, projects, ideas, places, policies, etc.

Advertising agencies employ creative and business talents who plan, produce and place the
advertisements in media. Advertising agencies work for the clients.Agencies vary in size-from
one person looking after everything to thousands of people. These agencies are often helped by
support organisations. Agencies seek help from freelance writers, designers, photographers,
musicians, film directors, etc.

Over the years the various mass media including newspapers, magazines, radio, television, film,
and the Internet have become part and parcel of the advertising world. Some mass media like
radio and television are solely dependent on advertising revenues for their very survival.
Advertising also uses other media like the transit vehicles. There are media exclusively used for
advertising like the outdoors, the printed publicity material, etc. the various media reach a variety
of people in different geographic locations. The demographic reach of various media is also
different.

And finally there are the consumers. With mass production, the consumers now have a wide
variety of choices. With increased income and surplus expendable money, the consumers are
choosy about what they need and want. So marketers try their best to woo more and more
consumers by offering them what they want. They try to reach the consumers by bombarding
highly persuasive advertisements through various media.

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OBJECTIVES OF ADVERTISING

The fundamental purpose of advertising is to sell something - a product, a service or an idea. In

addition to this general objective, advertising is also used by the modern business enterprises for
certain specific objectives which are listed below:

1. To introduce a new product by creating interest for it among the prospective customers.

2. To support personal selling programme. Advertising maybe used to open customers' doors for
salesman.

3. To reach people inaccessible to salesman.

4. To enter a new market or attract a new group of customers.

5. To light competition in the market and to increase the sales as seen in the fierce competition
between Coke and Pepsi.

6. To enhance the goodwill of the enterprise by promising better quality products and services.

7. To improve dealer relations. Advertising supports the dealers in selling the product. Dealers
are attracted towards a product which is advertised effectively.

8. To warn the public against imitation of an enterprise's products.

ACTIVE PARTICIPANT IN ADVERTISING

Following are the group of people who are actively involved in advertising.

1. Advertiser : Seller who manufacture and market consumer products are the prominent group
of advertisers. Hindustan unilever , proctor and gamble, Seimen and Larson and toubro are the
examples of advertisers. Also the retailers are the second prominent segment among advertisers.
They stock the products . and sell them to the ultimate consumers. Government and social
organization are also the active participant in this category.

2. Target audience : It refers to the recipient of the advertising message. Every message is either
directed to a mass audience and class audience. Advertising desire to cover this target audience
for promoting sales. Advertising message intends to cover the potential user and non user who

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may purchase the product in future. The messages are also directed to the user of the competitor's
product so that they switch over the advertiser's products.

3. Advertising Agencies : An advertiser has two options viz. (i) to design, develop and produce
and advertising message and get it placed in desired media directly through his own sales or
advertising department, or (ii) to entrust the entire job of advertising 6 to a team of highly
professionalised, specialised, independent, advertising agency. An advertising agency is
composed of creative people, who conceive design, develop and produce, advertising message
with creative ideas and place it in the desired advertising media, for and on behalf of its client
(the advertiser). The advertising agencies usually charge a commission of 15% on the media bills
from the media owners. In addition, they charge out-of pocket expenses to their clients, i.e. the
advertisers. They employ copywriters, artists, photographers. Typographers, layout designers,
editors and such other creative people.

4. Advertising Production People (Artists) : The production of impressive and persuasive

advertisements is possible only with the active help and creative spirit of the artists like
copywriters, artists, photographers, typographers, layout designers, editors and such other
creative people. Such people are usually employed by the ad agencies or, their services may be
hired by the ad agencies on job basis.

5. Target Audience (Readers, Listeners, Viewers and Present and Future Buyers) : Advertising
messages are given about products services and ideas to readers, listeners, viewers and actual and
potential buyers, who are known as the audience. The target audience may be classified into the
following three categories, viz., (i) existing or, current consumers, who are reminded and
influenced to continue their patronage and to increase the volume of their buying, (ii) consumers,
who buy and use, a competitor‟s brand; hence they are persuaded to buy the advertised brand,
instead of the competitor‟s brand; and (iii) those consumers, who do not use any such product;
and even then, are persuaded to buy the advertised product.

6. Mass Media : Advertising messages are communicated to the target audience through
different mass media, such as, (i) Print Media : They consist of newspapers, magazines, journals,
handbills, etc. (ii) Electronic Media : They consist of radio, television motion pictures, video,
multi-media and the internet. (iii) Outdoor Media : They consist off posters, hoarding, handbills,

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stickers air balloons, neon sing bill boards, local cinema houses, and transit media. (iv) Direct
Mail : It consist of brouchers, leaflets, pamphlets, letters and return cards addressed to
consumers. The advertising agencies guide their clients (advertisers) in selection of the most
appropriate advertising media, which is known as „media planning‟. Each medium has sits own
merits and demerits.

7. Government Authorities : The business of advertising is regulated by the government

department. The government adopts law and regulation which have a direct or an indirect
bearing on the advertising. Apart from this ASCI (Advertising standards council of India) and
ABC (Audit Bureau of circulation) are also some of authorities regulating advertising. 8.
Advertising Production Firms: Advertising production firms are the support agencies which help
in the production of advertisement. This includes copywriter, artist, photographers, typographers,
producer, editors. These are the people who transform ideas into a finished forms Thus the
success and failure of the advertisement depend on these people.

History of Advertising

The origin of advertising as a public announcement is traceable to the town crier and the village
drummer. They used their lungs to shout out their own or others’ messages. The messages could
relate to government proclamation or even to sales of goods on ‘market days’. Then there were
signs on shops or drinking houses to indicate the name of the shop owner or of the shop.

Excavation in Pompeii and other ancient cities have also thrown up evidence of some form of
advertising. Says one advertisement in Latin found in Pompeii: ‘A copper pot has been taken
from this shop. Whoever brings it back will receive 65 cents. If anyone shall hand over the thief,
he will receive an additional reward’. Such a public announcement has a striking resemblance to
modern ‘classified’ advertisements. Further, an excavation suggests that notices of theater
performances, games, entertainments, and other public events were painted on the walls of the
busy centers of the city. This was also the practice among the ancient Romans: they used
‘albums places on walls made smooth and white for writing or carving, stone tablets and even
playing cards for making announcements of public interest. Public notices were places in the
‘Acta Diurna’, a wall-newspaper that provided daily news of Senate politics.

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Early advertising can be traced back to the archaeological evidences available in Greece and
Rome. In 3000 B. C. Babylonia merchants hired parkers to hawk their wares to perspective,
customers and placed signs over their doorways to indicate what they sold. Advertisements were
found on walls in the streets of the excavated Roman city of Pompeii. Another evidence of a
piece of papyrus preserved in the British Museum provides the earliest and direct reference to
written advertisement. An Egyptian had advertised 3,000 years ago asking for the return of a
runaway slave. The word of mouth or oral advertisement or spoken publicity was still older. The
use of hand bills, posters and newspaper advertisements emerged after Gutenberg developed
movable type in the 15th century. When Benjamin Franklin established the Philadelphia Gazette
in 1729, it soon became a favorite medium of advertising. When the weekly Pennsylvania packet
and General Advertiser became a daily in 1784, it featured an entire front page of advertisement.
During the mid-17th Century, newspaper started appearing in Europe and newspaper advertising
was initiated in full swing and large number of advertisement started crowding the newspaper
announcing publication of books, new beverages, travel plans and matrimonial offers. But all
early advertisements were basically only announcement. In England, some of the advertisement,
which were known as a "Pioneering advertisements" were Coffee (1652), Chocolates (1657) and
Tea (1658). The Industrial revolution, discovery of the growth of transportation facilities, advent
of radio and television and revolution in printing technology discovery of the steam power in
England and America had a keen role to play in the development of advertising. With the
beginning of 21st century, the advertisers themselves became more serious and their approach
becomes more sophisticated. Print, Radio, T. V. and Internet Commercials have created deep
impact on Indian advertising. Indian advertisement has no doubt to register a rapid growth and
has acquired a certain amount of professional character. In India it has played a vital role in the
development process by creating a demand for consumer goods and raising a living of standard
of millions. On the government sector, advertisement of the railways also dominated which was
soon joined by the public sector advertisement.

The Classification of Advertising

The nature and purpose of the advertising differ from one industry to another or across situations.
Marketers advertise to the consumers market with national, local and direct-response advertising
which may involve stimulating primary or selective demand. They use industrial, professional

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and trade advertising for business and professional markets. To better understand the nature and
purpose of advertising it can be classified by the following criteria:

1. National Advertising: Advertising done by a company on a nationwide basis or in most

regions of the country and targeted to the ultimate consumer market is known as national
advertising. The companies that sponsor these ads are generally referred to as national
advertisers. Most of the advertisements for well-known brands that we see on TV or in other
major media are examples of national advertising. It informs or reminds consumers of the brand
and its features, benefits, advantages and uses or reinforces its images.

2. Retail/Local Advertising: Another prevalent type of advertising directed at the consumer

market is classified as retail/local advertising. This type of advertising is done by major retailers
or smaller local merchants to encourage consumers to shop at a specific store or use a local
service such as local financial companies, bank, hospitals, fitness club, restaurants, show rooms
etc. While the national advertisers sell their products at many locations, retail or local advertisers
must give the consumer a reason to patronise their establishment. Retail advertising tends to
emphasize specific customer benefits such as store house, credit policies, services, atmosphere,
merchandise assortment and other distinguish attributes.

3. Direct-Response Advertising: Direct-response advertising is a method of direct marketing

whereby a product is promoted through an advertisement that lets the customer purchase directly
from the manufacturer. Direct response advertising has become very popular in recent years
owing primarily to changing life-styles. The convenience of shopping through the mail or by
telephone has led to the tremendous increase in direct-response advertising.

4. Primary and Selective Demand Advertising: Another way of viewing advertising to the
ultimate customers is in terms of whether the message is designed to stimulate either primary or
selective demand. Primary Demand Advertising is designed to stimulate demand for the general
product class or entire industry; Selective Demand Advertising focuses on creating demand for a
particular manufacturer's brands. Primary demand advertising is often used as part of a
promotional strategy to help a new product gain acceptance among customers. Products in the
introductory or growth stages of their life cycles often have primary demand stimulation as a

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promotional objective because the challenge is to sell customers on the product as much as it is
to sell a particular brand.

5. Business to Business Advertising: Sometimes the ultimate customer is not the mass consumer
market but rather another business, industry, or profession. Business-to Business advertising is
used by one business to advertise its products or services to another. It is categorized in three
basic categories like industrial, professional, and trade advertising.

a) Industrial Advertising: Advertising targeted at individuals who buy or influence the purchase
of industrial goods or other services is known as industrial advertising. Industrial goods are those
products that either become a physical part of another product, or used in manufacturing other
goods. Business service, such as insurance, financial services, and health care, are also included
in this category. Industrial advertising is usually found in general business publications or in
trade publications targeted to the particular industry.

b) Professional Advertising: Advertising that is targeted to professional groups-such as doctors,

lawyers, dentists, or engineers-to encourage using the advertiser’s product or specifying it for
other's use is known as professional advertising. Professional groups are important because they
constitute a market for products and services they use in their businesses. Also, their
recommendations influences, many consumer purchase decisions.

c) Trade Advertising: Advertising with in a trade to attract the wholesalers and retailers and
motivate them to purchase its products for resale is termed as trade advertising. Company sales
representatives call on resellers to explain the product, discuss the firm's plans for building
demand among ultimate consumers, and describe special programs being offered to the trade,
such as introductory discounts, promotional allowances. Trade advertise usually appears in
publications that serve the particular industry. These classifications of the various types of
advertising demonstrate that this promotional element is used in a variety of ways. Advertising is
a very flexible promotional tool whose role in marketing program will vary depending on the
situation facing the organization and what information needs to be communicated.

ROLE OF ADVERTISING IN SOCIETY

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Advertising is an integral part of everyday life. It is a pervasive method of marketing in society.
Though the methods by which marketers advertise have changed over the decades, the role and
purpose of advertising has changed over the period of time.

A peculiarity of the mass communication system is that advertising pays most of the bills. All
advertising contains both information and persuasion. It influence in the mass media market
place. The classified advertisements in the daily newspaper are almost pure information. Their
primary intention is to advise the readers of the availability of a product-telling where, when, and
for how much. The audience either wants it or they don't. Actually advertising is omnipresent
and is basically persuasive in nature. It pays most of the bills. It accounts for around two thirds of
the revenue of the print-media and nearly all the revenue for electronic media (Television and
Radio). It has both marketing and communication. Advertising is a message industry that plays a
major role in shaping the content and operation of the mass media. It plays an important role in
our popular culture because it shapes and reflects our life styles. It is one step ahead of other
elements in our culture and is usually the first to reflect social trends.

Now the scenario is that the average adult is exposed to uncounted number of advertisements
each day. It plays two following broad roles in the socio-economic landscape of a country. 1.
Economic roles 2. Social roles

Here are some of the economic role and benefits of advertising:

1. Advertising encourages/ promotes economic growth.

2. Providing information utility.

3. Advertising and Brand name.

4. Media support.

5. Distribution costs

6. Effects on business cycles.

7. Providing product utility.

8. Advertising and monopoly.

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9. Encouraging new product.

10. Maintain Competition

Encourage Purchasing

2. At social level advertising plays upon, derives from and contributes to the social texture of a
country. Advertising reflects society and socie1y reflects advertising. Various social changes are
brought about or helped by advertising. It makes role models who can create societal change.
Adult education, family planning and pulse polio campaign also used to sell the concept of social
advertising. It is a positive force in our society. It makes to the nation's social welfare. Reflect
cultural trends.

ROLE OF ADVERTISING

Economic Social

New product life-style

New usage values

Competition Family life

Price Self-image

Functions of the advertising manager

Advertising managers are responsible for promoting, marketing and advertising a company's
products. They maintain close working relationships with all departments within a company as
well as working intimately with the marketing department.

Advertising managers direct a company’s advertising activities and staff members to develop
creative, consistent brand-specific ad campaigns. They supervise and work with other employees,
establish project goals, and monitor, approve, and evaluate a project’s status and impact.

Advertising managers have fast-paced and creative jobs! They are in charge of planning and
directing the advertising campaigns for companies - their main goal is to promote interest in a
product or service. Working together with art directors, sales agents, and financial staff, advertising
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 managers develop and bring these campaigns to life, often acting as the go-between for agencies
and clients.

Advertising Manager Responsibilities:

 Overseeing advertising department operations and staff members.

 Working with staff members, clients, or an ad agency to establish and meet project goals, budgets,
and timelines.
 Developing advertising strategies to increase buyer interest in products or services.
 Monitoring project progress, from planning to execution, to ensure it remains focused and effective.
 Negotiating contract specifications and terms with clients or other external parties.
 Initiate market research studies and analyse their findings
 Collecting and analysing data and presenting it to other parties, including management and clients.
 Participating in the hiring and evaluation of employees within the advertising department.
 Providing expert advice on marketing and advertising methods for new or existing products or
services.
 Meet with clients to provide marketing or technical advice

Publicity

Publicity Like advertising which was defined as ‘non-personal’, publicity is also a non-personal
communication process to a mass, anonymous audience. The two concepts are closely related by
that simple fact. However, unlike advertising, when publicity is applied, the benefitting
organisation does not openly pay for the space or time. The term publicity involves placing
factual and newsworthy information presented in an editorial or journalistic style in a news
medium at no direct cost. The editor of a newspaper, for example, controls (determines) whether
or not a publicity release will be published and how much of it is used (space) and when. On the
contrary, the sponsor of an advertisement has almost complete control over its content, format
and date of publication because it is a paid contract. The technique publicity assumes the form of
news items, or editorial comments about an organisation, its products and services or causes it
advocates. It could also be in form of photo placements, special interviews of key spokes persons
or articles and features on the organisation’s offering. In most cases, these items receive free
print space or broadcast airtime (in Nigeria, it has become difficult to get free air time spots in
radio and television stations due to deregulation since 1992). The free space accorded to these
news items is because the media people consider the information content to be newsworthy for
their audience. Above all, the news content is usually at the discretion of the editor to format it to

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the media organisation’s accepted standard. This differs from an advertisement which is usually
brought into the media house as a finished advert copy/artwork and must be published as it is,
subject to ethical/legal regulations. For advertisements, any alteration from the original concept
would be rejected by the sponsor. On the contrary, the originator of the publicity material has no
control over how the material would eventually be published. This is why, it is usually said in
some PR circles that “advertising is paid for, while publicity/press release is prayed for.” Public
relations firms or the internal PR personnel in organisations usually have the responsibility to
create publicity materials in the form of press releases, interviews, articles and features, which
they now pass on to their preferred media houses as news.

Public Relations

Another related concept to advertising is public relations. Broadly speaking, public relations are
organisational activities involved with fostering goodwill between an organisation and its various
publics. Various individuals have defined public relations in various ways. According to
Newsome and Carrel, even practitioners of the profession do not agree on just what the term
means, which gives credence to the fact that the definition various from individuals and groups.
The British Institute of Public Relations (BIPR) defines public relations (PR) as “the deliberate,
planned, and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an
organisation and its publics.” Another definition, which appears more accepted across board is
that given at the World Assembly of National Public Relations Associations, in Mexico City,
Mexico, in 1978: “the art and social science of analysing trends, predicting their consequences,
counseling organisation’s leaders and implementing a planned programme of action which will
serve both the organisation and the public interest.” Unlike advertising, the purpose of PR is
usually to be perceived positively by the relevant publics. PR efforts are usually aimed at various
corporate groups, also known as ‘publics.’ These include: a. consumers b. employees c. suppliers
d. stockholders e. government f. labour groups g. competition h. pressure groups, and many
others.

PR is concerned with establishing good relations with all stakeholders. It has, however, been
argued that the overall objective of developing a good relations with the public is to enhance the
organisation’s business prospects in the short or long run. There are several public relations firms

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in Nigeria and they operate as professionals under the auspices of the Public Relations
Consultants of Nigeria, PRCAN with headquarters in Lagos.

Lobbying

Lobbying can also sometimes be confused with advertising. Lobbyists are generally perceived
as mysterious, obscure and unscrupulous influence peddlers, fixers and five per centers
(Daramola, 2010). Those who practised it in the early days were called lobby agents as they
frequented the lobbies of government buildings in order to speak to public officials on behalf of a
cause, a group or an issue. Lobbying can be defined strictly as a specialist activity which
attempts to influence legislation through direct contact with legislators. In a broader sense, the
concept is used interchangeably with ‘pressure group’. It can therefore, be surmised that any
person or group that conducts activities with the aim of influencing public policy or programme
is lobbying. The precise role of lobbyists may be unclear; the key objective, however, is to
influence the course of legislation for the benefit of the sponsor of the lobby. Unlike advertising,
however, lobbying uses personal and non-personal media such as: a. Letters b. Telephone calls c.
Speeches and others to advance their activities.

Propaganda

Propaganda just like advertising whose ultimate goal is to change people’s views in order to
influence them, propaganda is sometimes likened to advertising. Propaganda is defined as a
clever presentation of selected information and ideas arguing in favour of one viewpoint while
obscuring the others (Daramola, 2010). In its crudest form and stripped of its cloaks, some
people consider propaganda as simply a lie, falsehood, or misinformation designed to conceal the
truth, especially the real motives or hidden agenda of the source. On the other hand, some
scholars hold the view that propaganda does not necessarily have to be falsehood always,
pointing to the (Propaganda of Deeds) as evidence that propaganda does not always have to be or
described as a lie. Similarly, John-Kamen, (2006:66) says it is any institution or scheme for
propagating a doctrine or system; an effort directed systematically toward the gaining of public
support for an opinion or cause of action; and the tenets, views, etc, put forward by the
propaganda. Propaganda is associated with the Society of Cardinals, the overseers of foreign

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mission, also the college for the propagation of faith, founded by Pope Urban VIII in 1627 for
the education of missionary priests, John-Kamen (2006).

Types of Propaganda

Propaganda is of three types: 1. Black propaganda: This is practice or act of deliberately sending
out false information or misinformation for the selfish interest of the sponsor. For instance, in a
contest between PDP and APC, each party tries to outdo each other by either overstating their
strong points or understating their weak points or both.

2. White propaganda: This involves information given out for the benefit of a target group and
not necessarily for pecuniary benefits for the sponsoring organisation.

3. Grey propaganda: This is also known as great propaganda. It is falsehood told and which has
endured through the ages and evolved into an accepted tradition. Advertising is a kind of prey
propaganda which has long been accepted as a way of doing business in modern times. It is great
propaganda because it combines some elements of black and white propaganda as it benefits
both the sender and the receiver of the message. Advertising is said to be a form of propaganda,
in the sense that it hides some of the truths, such as the weakness or the bad aspects of the
products (Daramola, 2010).

The AIDA Model

AIDA is an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action which represent the stages a
consumer passes through with a salesperson in the personal selling process or with an advert
copy in an advertising process. In simple terms, the salesperson or advertisement copy must first
get the attention of the consumer, and then arouse his/her interest. This interest should create a
desire and subsequently an action would follow. Action in this process, involves making the
customer to make a purchase decision. For the marketer, this stage is very important as well as
very difficult. Every piece of advertising, whether in print, radio, or television, is designed to
take the customer through all these stages with the ultimate aim of extracting purchase
decision/commitment which should ultimately lead to a purchase action. The various stages of
the model are further explained thus:

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A: This stands for Attention, and belongs to the cognitive stage – whereby the consumer is
expected to recognise clearly the message being passed at him. In our mediated world, you need
to be quick and direct to grab people's attention. Powerful words or pictures tend to catch the
reader's eye; make them stop and read what you have to say next.

I: This stands for Interest and it is one of the most challenging stages in the AIDA model.
Having got the attention of your target audience, but can you engage with them enough so that
they'll want to spend their precious time understanding your message in more detail? That is the
purpose of interest. Gaining and retaining the reader's interest is a deeper process than just
grabbing their attention. They will give you a little more time to do it, but you must stay focused
on their needs. This means helping them to pick out the messages that are relevant to them
quickly. So, in writing headlines of advertisements, use bullets and subheadings, and break up
the text to make your points stand out.

D: This stands for Desire which means the individual is receiving some effect on him due to the
message content. The Interest and Desire parts of the AIDA model go hand-in-hand. As
communicator (advertiser) is building the reader's interest, he/she is also expected to help them
understand how what they are offering can help them in a real way. The main way of doing this
is by appealing to their personal needs and wants.

This stands for action. At this concluding stage, you need to be very clear about what action you
want your readers to take. For example, "visit our experience centre now for more information"
rather than just leaving people to work out what to do for themselves.

Purpose of Advertising

The purpose of advertising depends on whether you are a consumer or a marketer of the product.
For the marketer/advertiser or product owner, advertising helps to sell products, build the
company and brand reputation. On the other hand, for the consumer, advertising helps to identify
the meaning and role of products by providing information about available brands, companies
and organisations. It also provides information on the prices, where the product can be found and
what the consumer stands to benefit by buying/consuming the brand. The central purpose of
advertising is to make sales. But it goes beyond that.

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In summary, advertising practitioners say that the function of advertising can be captured under
four actions/things which appear to be an abridged form of the above. According to Clyde
Bedell, these are: 1. To grab Attention

2. To raise Interest

3To generate Desire or create conviction

4. To push for Action

Another advertising creative man, Victor Schwab, (1962) says there are five fundamentals in the
writing of a good advertisement: 1. Get attention 2. Show people an advantage 3. Prove it 4.
Persuade people to grasp this advantage 5. Ask for action

Good advertisement, whether run on print, broadcast or Internet should be able to achieve the
above purposes for it to be considered successful.

Media Plan

Media plan can be defined as the various ideas and decisions necessary for delivering the
promotional message to the prospective user of the brand or product. It is a process which
involves various types of decisions; these decisions are usually not cast in stone as they may
change or be abandoned as the plan develops. The media plan is usually a guide to enable the
planners and users to make the best selection of available media within budget constraints.

The Requirements for a Media Plan. A good media plan requires the following:

1. Setting media objective: Here, it is necessary to begin with the question: what do we want to
achieve? To answer this question is to design a media objective. This requires developing
specific media objectives and specific media strategies (plans of action) designed to achieve
these objectives.

2. The Medium: Another factor to consider in developing the media plan is the medium to be
used to deliver the message. This can be termed as the general category of delivery systems for
the promotional messages. These include: broadcast media (such as TV and radio), print media
(such as newspapers and magazines), outdoor (such as billboards) and other support media. Note

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that media vehicle refers to the specific carrier within a medium category. For instance, ThisDay
and The Sun are print vehicles while Channels News at 10 PM and Sunrise on Channels are
broadcast vehicles. Each vehicle/medium has specific characteristics and relative advantages. It
is the duty of the planner to consider these factors before making a decision which of them to
choose.

3. Reach: This refers to the number of different audience members that are exposed at least once
to a media vehicle in a given period of time. Within the term ‘reach’, there is another term
known as ‘coverage’ which refers to the potential audience that might be exposed to the message
via the vehicle. While coverage refers to potential audience, reach refers to the actual audience
delivered. Frequency refers to the number of times the receiver is exposed to the media vehicle
in a specific period.

Developing the Media Plan

The media plan determines the best way to get the advertiser’s message to the market. It’s goal
is basically to find that mix of media that would enable the marketer/producer/advertiser to
communicate the message in the most effective manner to the largest number of potential
customers at the most effective cost. The process of developing a media plan involves the
following:

1. Market analysis

2. Establishment of media objectives

3. Media strategy development and implementation

4. Evaluation and follow-up

Market Analysis In the development of media plan, a market analysis involves the review of
internal and external factors in relation to the media. It involves asking the following key
questions:

1) To whom shall we advertise, (i.e. who is the target market)?

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2) What internal factors (for instance, size of the media budget or managerial and administrative
capacity)

3) What external factors (such as rising cost of media buying and other competitive factors) may
influence the media?

4) Where to promote our products (geographical considerations – north, south, east, west, etc)
and

5) When shall we focus our efforts (what time of the year, what season, etc.)? In many cases, the
situation analysis can lead to a number of target markets which helps to decide which specific
groups to focus. It is important, however, for the media planner (the executive in charge of
putting the media plan together at the advertising agency side), to work closely with the client,
account representative, market department and creative directors in order to decide which
specific groups to go after. There are so many factors that can assist the media planner to make
these decisions. In most cases, a proper primary research is required and in some cases,
secondary sources would be sufficient.

Establishing Media Objectives

Media objectives are designed to assist the media planner to help to attain the larger
communication and marketing objectives. In specific terms, media objectives are the goals set
for the media programme and should be limited to those that can be accomplished through media
strategies. Media objectives should always be as specific as possible. It can follow the rule of the
thumb known generally as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely).
For instance the media objective for Maltina (NB Plc, Nigeria) brand of soft drinks can look like
this: Create awareness in the target market through the following: i. Use broadcast media to
provide coverage of 70 per cent of the target market over a three-month period. ii. Reach 45 per
cent of the target audience at least four times in the period. iii. Concentrate advertising during
early Christmas period (November-January) and reduce emphasis from February/March the
next year. This will be followed with explicit rationale for each of the key decisions made above.
In this example, the objective is measurable – (provide 70% coverage); it is measurable – (when
you cover 70%, reach 45 %); it is also achievable (the whole activity is not too heavy for the
organisation to achieve); it is also realistic (it does not sound like a story from the blues) and it

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is timely (a three month campaign with emphasis around February and March the following
year). 3.4 Developing and Implementing Media Strategies The next stage after deciding what is
to be accomplished under media objective is to determine how to go about doing those identified
actions.

The media planner, as usual, makes these decisions regarding:

1. The media mix

2. Target market coverage

3. Geographic coverage

4. Scheduling

5. Reach versus frequency

6. Creative aspects and mood

7. Flexibility

8. Budgeting

The media mix Media mix means the combination of various media categories and media
vehicles that can best deliver the client’s message to the largest audience at the lowest possible
cost. There are usually a wide variety of media categories and media vehicles to choose from. At
any point in time only one medium may be employed. At some other time, a number of
alternatives may be necessary. To decide which medium or media vehicles or combination of
them to be used, some factors need to be considered. The factors to be considered include: •
objectives sought • characteristics of the product or service • size of the budget • individual
preferences among other considerations. To explain further, assume that a promotional situation
requires some part be visually demonstrated in order to achieve an effective communication. In
this case, TV may be the most appropriate medium in order to achieve success in
communication. On the other hand, if a telephone company wants to promote a ring tone, radio
may be the best while newspaper would be most preferable if the promotional strategy calls for
coupons to stimulate trials. By combining media, i.e. TV, radio, print etc an advertiser stands to

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increase coverage, reach and frequency which may not be achieved with a single medium.
Ultimately, by employing a mix of media, advertisers can add more versatility to their media
strategies, because each medium will then be contributing its own unique attribute. It is,
however, important to add that the more media channels are brought into the mix, the more likely
the cost of the entire campaign. Therefore, budget must be a major consideration. Target market
coverage Part of the goals of media strategy planning is to determine which target markets
should receive the most emphasis. Developing media strategies involves matching media and
market.

Social Effects of Advertising

Much as advertising is known to perform many functions both for the advertiser and the
consumer, there are also many criticisms against advertising. Some of these include criticism that
adverts are misleading or untruthful and as such it deceives consumers. Proponents of
advertising, however, have also countered the accusation of deception leveled against it with a
number of reasons as we will see in this section.

Untruthfulness or Deceptive Nature of Adverts

Many criticisms have been leveled against advertisement but one of the major ones is that many
adverts are misleading and full of untrue and halftruth information. Because of these criticisms
that advertisements are deceptive, a lot of people tend to disbelieve advertising. Many studies
conducted especially in the United States, showed that consumers felt that less than 2.5 per cent
of television commercials are honest and believable (Banwan , 2007). Similarly, many other
researches have been conducted to determine the attitude of the general public to advertisement.
In one of such researches, Sharitt, Pamella Lowry and James Haefrer conducted a major national
survey of more than 1,000 and found that Americans do not trust ads except when such ads focus
on their actual purchase decisions. The research further found out that consumers tend to
disbelieve advertisement but tend to rely or trust word of month from friends or families as the
trusted source of information (Belch and Belch).

Advertisers Cause Mistrust Among Consumers. Some of the ways advertisers have succeeded
in putting mistrust in the minds of consumers include making out false or misleading claims, or
failure to award prizes that have been promoted/and won in a contest. It has been said by critics

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that advertisers should endeavour to have reasonable basis for claim about their product. In fact
some argue that advertisers should do well to provide evidence to support their claim. Many
believe that much of the claims of untruthfulness or deceptions usually occur with smaller
companies. It is claimed, however, that most advert messages are not designed with the intention
to deceive or mislead consumers as these practices are clearly unethical. Several attempts have
been made to control or regulate deceptive advertising

Advertising is Manipulative Critics charge that advertising creates unrealistic ideals about
appearance and social identity and by so doing influences buyer behaviour. On the other hand,
advertisers themselves also reason that if it is so easy to manipulate people into buying what they
do not want, why then do some products still fail in the market place? They conclude that instead
of being manipulated, consumers indeed have control over the market place by the choices they
make (Bearden, Ingran, Lafforge, 2007:410).

Advertising is Intrusive

Intrusion in this context means that advertising messages are thrown to people from all angles
whether they want it or not, whether they like it or not. It tends to threaten consumers’ privacy as
they have no choice of when, how or where the advert will meet them. Advertisers, however,
claim that the market place is so cluttered with advertising message, that no single advert has the
ability to influence consumers. In Nigeria, there have been so many issues of unsolicited, most
times, irritating SMS and e-mail advertising messages from companies promoting their business
to the consumers. There is a need for government to intervene to control the spate of unsolicited
adverts and the tendency of advertisers to invade consumers’ privacies. Using advertising for
harmful products In many countries, cigarettes and alcohol are considered harmful and in fact are
outlawed from being agency advertised; therefore using advertising to market such products is
frequently attacked by critics. While regulation exists in some places about sale, advert and use
of these types of products, there is still need for stricter regulation. In fact where there are no
regulations or regulation are merely loose, tobacco and alcohol are usually portrayed as
glamorous, exciting outdoor activities. In Nigeria, sale and advertising of cigarettes have since
been outlawed; hence the dealers have resorted to below-the-line strategies to promote the
business.

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Advertising Affects Children

It is common knowledge that children influence their parent’s decision significantly hence
advertisers cash in on this strong/weak points. There are three key concerns about advertising to
children (LaForge et al. 2007). These include: i. Children’s inability to understand that
advertising is intended to persuade. ii. The nutritional value of some kind of foods such as candy,
ice cream, soft drink, marketed to children is not healthy for them. The influence of advertising
on children’s demands from parents for advertised products. Opponents of this however counter
each of the above concerns as follows: i. That parents are better positioned to help their children
interpret information, (including ads) to make useful decisions. ii. Children know that fruits and
vegetables are more nutritious than sugared foods, and therefore should decide which to go for.
iii. Banning advertisement to children is a direct attack on freedom of speech and freedom of
communication.

ETHICAL CRITICISMS OF ADVERTISING

Advertising Causes Materialism One main concern of critics about advertising effect has to do
with its effect on the social-cultural fabrics of the social system. In specific terms, arguments
against advertising relates to its social effect, specifically that advertising causes materialism.
Critics are of the view that advertising images have a profound effect on society and values.
Materialism, which is preoccupation with material things, leads many people to want and in fact,
go for such things as luxury cars, expensive electronics or other luxurious consumer items like
wrist watches which they really do not need. In this way advertising promotes and encourages
the wrong values in the society. Another criticism is that advertising has the tendency to work on
human foibles such as the need to belong and achieve status in the society. By using status
symbol (emotive) appeals to market a car, rather than its functional appeal, the impression is
given that people should be judged based on what they own – the car they drive, watch they
wear, etc, rather than who they really are – character, professionalism, integrity, family men, etc.

How does advertising cause materialism among the people?The Counter Argument

The above argument is however countered by supporters of advertisement who argue that the
urge to belong or assume a social status is not human frailty but simply basic psychological
characteristics of human beings. They also argue that even in societies not exposed to

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advertisement, the issue of acquiring social status symbol is practiced. For example, in some
African localities the possession or ownership of a number of cows could determine a man’s
status in the locality (David Jobber, 2007).

Advertising as Offensive or in Bad Taste

Many consumers complain about the ethical dimension of advertising. They say that adverts are
rather offensive, tasteless, irritating, boring obnoxious and so on. Researchers have studied
consumers’ reaction to advertisement content and discovered that half of the respondents have
that same view of advertising, while some feel that advertising insults their intelligence and that
many of such adverts are in poor taste as many of them use explicitly provocative costumes to
deliver their campaign messages (Shavitt et al. 2004). These studies also indicate that consumers
consider some advertisements as insulting and some in bad taste. One way advertising can be of
bad taste to consumers is when products such as contraceptives or personal hygiene are
advertised. For instance in the US, most media houses did not accept condom ads until the crisis
forced them to do so, (Belch and Belch, 2007).

Another way in which advertisement can offend consumers is by the type of appeal or the
manner of presentation. Many consumers consider adverts that are anchored on fear as being
offensive. Such adverts are said to exploit consumers’ anxieties, or fear of social rejection to sell
their products. The advertising appeals which have been most condemned are those that use sex
appeal or nudity. These techniques are often employed to ‘grab’ consumers’ attention and many
cases may not be appropriate or even related to the product being advertised. One key criticism
of sexually explicit advertisement is that they can demean women and even men, by depicting
them as sex objects.

Advertising and Stereotyping

The way and manner certain groups or races of people are portrayed in advertising is known as
stereotyping - women, children, ethnic minorities and some less privileged. Advertisers are
criticised for perpetuating certain stereotypes about these groups and classes of people. Many
times, advertising portrays women as being more often preoccupied with little things like beauty,
entertainment, and motherhoods. Sometimes, advertisements portray women as decorative,
attractive bets and sexually provocative figures. Such ways of portraying women does not allow

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for the recognition of women as intellectuals and professionals. This stereotype has continued to
prevail over time without any sign of abetting, even with the clear changing role of women in
many societies worldwide. As some researches in this direction has shown, it is said that adult
women in US television adverts are portrayed as passive, indifferent, lacking in intelligence and
credibility. On the other hand, their men counterparts have been shown to be constructive,
powerful autonomous and achievement driven (Belch and Belch, 2007). The same criticism
against stereotyping women is also said to be observed in many adverts targeted at children.

Advertising can erode the Independence of the Media. The role of advertising in funding the
media has fueled the concern that advertisers may be directly or indirectly influencing and in fact
controlling the media. One of the commonly known charges against the media is economic
censorship whereby the media deliberately avoids certain news topics or even presents a one-
sided view of the news, in difference to advertisers’ demand. Many have argued that the media’s
dependence on advertisement makes them susceptible to influence from the advertisers. This
could also be in form of control to the extent of influencing their editorial content. This charge
however, has been contested by media houses. who argue that it is in their (media’s) best interest
not to be influenced too much by advertisers. They argue that news media flourish on their
fairness and objectivity which the public (media consumers) are attracted to and any attempt by
the media to waste this goodwill by way of biased reporting could have a damning consequence
on their own business.

Regulation in Advertising and Sales Promotion

Regulatory concerns play a major role in decisions preceding the approval or disapproval of
many advertising copies. Advertising managers or agency people must review some of the
claims made in the commercial in terms of the legal implications, competitor concerns and errors
of fact among others. All these are necessary in order to ensure that the company avoids
unnecessary legal battles that could cost it much both in term of cash and reputation. Advertising
is controlled and regulated at national, state and individual levels to minimise the threat of
misleading consumers. In this unit, we will examine the various levels of advertising and sales
promotion regulations, including self-regulation, state regulation and federal regulation.

Self-regulation in Advertising

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Self-regulation is seen by companies, advertisers, their agencies and the media as a way of
adopting voluntary self-regulation to maintain consumer trust and confidence, limit government
interference and other unwanted external regulations. According to Chude Okonkwo (1990),
unless practitioners themselves ensure that the highest professional standards are maintained, the
government may be compelled to enact such enabling regulations. According to Belch and Belch
(2007),there are four types of self-regulation available within the advertising service. These are:

• self-regulation by advertisers and agencies

• self-regulation by trade association

• self-regulation by business

• self-regulation by media

i. Self-regulation by Advertisers and Agencies Many companies know that the nature of their
advertisements has a way of reflecting back on them; this makes it mandatory for them to
carefully scrutinise and critically preview all the claims in the message, including the
illustrations used. They also review their adverts to ensure that the messages are reasonable,
verifiable, not misleading and not deceptive to consumers. To achieve this, major adverts are
examined by corporate attorneys/lawyers to avoid potential legal problems and the attendant time
wastage, expenses, negative publicity and loss of reputation. ii. Self-Regulation by Trade
Association In many industries whose advertisements are likely to provoke controversy, they
have proactively developed self-regulating programmes. Such industries include: alcoholic
beverages, liquor, drugs and children-centred products. In this case, such industries develop
advertising codes and standards which their members are expected to abide by. iii. Self-
Regulation by Business In order to control advertising practices and avoid external regulation,
the business community has also devised a number of measures. In the US, the largest and
perhaps, the best known of such mechanism is the Better Business Bureau. This bureau promotes
fair advertising and selling practices across all industries. Its primary role is to handle complaints
emanating from people against local business practices especially advertising in the country. iv.
Self-Regulation by Media As important players in the advertising industry, the media recognise
their role in ridding the country of advertisements that cause concern for the public; for this
reason, therefore, they practice self regulation. In this way, some media maintain some form of

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advertising review process such that any advert that goes contrary to the approved codes, may be
rejected on the basis that some members of the public may object to it or kick against it. For
instance, it is possible that some media organisations have a rule not to accept any advertisement
concerning some types of products, for example, alcohol; some may reject some adverts based
on their perception of the advert as being offensive to some groups of people in the society.

Federal Regulation

We have seen that in many cases, advertising is controlled and regulated through self, state and
now federal laws and regulations. These laws and regulations are enforced by agencies
empowered to do so. In many countries such as Nigeria and US, the federal government stands
as the most significant source of external regulation. In Nigeria, the federal government uses
agencies such as Advertising Practitioners’ Council, (APCON) Advertising Standards Panel,
National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration, among others to regulate advertising. In
the US, the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communication Commission, the Food and
Drug Administration, the US Postal Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms may
also have regulations that affect advertising. In a nutshell, the following legislations in Nigeria
deal with advertising or cognate issues:

1. The Foods and Drugs Decree, 1974: This makes provision for the regulation of the
manufacture, sale and advertisement of food, drugs, cosmetic and devices. It repealed the
existing state laws on those matters

2. The Copyright Decree of 1970: This law became operational from December, 1971 and was
defined as (a) the right of an author to prevent others from publishing or reproducing his/her
work without his/her consent. Such works could be

(i) Literary works such as novels, stories, poems, plays, films, etc;
(ii) (ii) Musical works such as any musical composition; or
(iii) Artistic works such as paintings, drawings, etchings, engravings and prints.
3. Patents and Designs Decree 60, 1970: This says that invention is patentable if: (i) it is
new, (ii) it results from inventive activity; and (iii) it is capable of industrial application.
4. Trademarks Acts, 1965: As the name suggests, this is used or meant to be used in
relation to goods to indicate a connection between the goods and some person having the

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 right either as proprietor or as registered user to use the mark. Typically, the trademark
could be in form of a name, a letter, a symbol, or even a signature as long as it is attached
to goods by manufacturers to ensure distinction from others of the same nature (Chude
Okonkwo, 1990).

The role of research in advertising.

 Evaluating advertising effectiveness.

 Importance of research in advertising.
 Types of research copy. .
 Pre-testing and post testing methods of evaluation: - Pre-testing methods - methods for
concept testing and copy testing - Post - testing methods - sales and response rates, recall
tests, recognition tests and attitude and opinion test
 Demographic studies. Focus - groups

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