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Posts Tagged ‘Online Advertising’

Who Says Kids’ Products Don’t Sell on DRTV?

Author: Tim Hawthorne

Armed with an insatiable appetite for the unique, pretty, ugly, soft and cuddly, today’s kids want more toys, dolls, art kits, pillows, music and entertainment than ever. They don’t even have credit cards yet, but their voices and buying habits are already being heard – and heeded – in many households.

Answering the call is a group of manufacturers and marketers that have their fingers on the pulse of the children’s market. They work in a category that hasn’t historically ranked high on the DRTV charts despite the fact that it racks up millions of unit sales annually.

Targeted to toddlers, pre-teens, teenagers and their parents, fun and educational products often translate into successful retail, web and catalogue plays. That not only helps extend brand life – Kidz Bop, for example, is currently in its 14th version – but also ensures that the products reach multiple generations of children over time.

Market research firm Packaged Facts reports that the kids’ market reached over $21 billion in disposable income in 2010, and that families spent more than $115 billion on kids in key consumer areas, such as food, clothing, personal-care items, entertainment and reading materials.

The fact that kids have a lot to say about how that money is spent translates into major opportunities for marketers who get into the minds of these young buyers and figure out what they want.

Sometimes the answer lies in the simplest of ideas. Bees, ladybugs, dogs and unicorns took on new identities in 2003 when Doug Fowkes introduced the world to Pillow Pets. The folding stuffed animals have since morphed into an entire line of plush products that includes blankets, hats and even bedroom slippers. The concept of an animal-shaped pillow is simple enough, but it took Fowkes’ marketing genius and a boost from DRTV to turn these products into a real goldmine.

John Miller, a pioneer who helped build the kids’ category with Better Blocks, Floam, Bendaroos and Pixos, is current president and creative director at Hutton-Miller in Boca Raton, Fla. Miller says those early products – plus newer innovations like Happy Nappers™ and the Gyro Bowl™ — have all helped to drive the children’s category.

‘We realized early on that success in this category depended on how excited children got over the products, and whether they could get their parents to pick up the phone and place orders,’ says Miller. ‘We call it ‘pester power’ and it works very well with kids’ products.’

However, the children’s category can be fickle:  Kids sniff out inferior products quickly and jettison them to the bottom of the toy box. ‘The key is to produce and advertise quality products that truly excite the child,’ says Miller, who calls DRTV the ‘jumping-off point’ for all other distribution channels. ‘DRTV toy commercials have evolved from simply introducing products to creating categories that everyone jumps in on.’

Robert Yusim, president of Product Counsel DRTV in Winnipeg, helped bring to market DRTV products like Moon Sand, Moon Dough, Air Hogs and Vectron Wave. He says the most successful children’s DRTV shows center on fun creative treatments that include the appropriate balance of product demonstrations, fun displays and ‘magic transformations’ that ooh and ah the young audience. ‘Getting kids to react and then lobby their parents is the hardest part,’ says Yusim. ‘You can only do that through compelling creative.’

The momentum established by the many children’s products that left their mark on the DRTV world has opened doors for companies seeking a direct channel for their youth-oriented products.

Both infomercials and short-form commercials have proven themselves as effective ways to sell kids’ products and to create brand awareness and desire among a diminutive but influential component of today’s households.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/branding-articles/who-says-kids-products-dont-sell-on-drtv-5771232.html

About the Author

Author of over 200 published articles, Tim Hawthorne is Founder, Chairman and CEO of Hawthorne Direct, a full service DRTV and New Media ad agency founded in 1986. Since then, Hawthorne has produced or managed over 800 Direct Response TV campaigns for clients such as Apple, Braun, Nikon,Time-Life, Nissan, Oreck, Bose, and Feed the Children, Tim is a co-founder of the Electronic Retailing Association, has delivered over 100 speeches worldwide and is the author of the definitive DRTV book The Complete Guide to Infomercial Marketing. A cum laude graduate of Harvard, Tim was honored with the prestigious ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA) in 2006.

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Creativity Killers: Early Warning Signs

Author: Jim Kleypas

If you closely examine the relationships involved in creating your marketing communications, you will discover that there are many facets involved. It is of the utmost importance that all parties are in step with each other in order to produce a top-quality product. There are some ‘early warning signs’ that the creative understanding between an Agency and its clients might be, at best, out of sync, and at worst, headed for a train wreck. A few of these points are listed out below – I hope you not only enjoy them but that they provide some serious insights for you:

*Never Explain Rejections – If you keep quiet, and keep your unspoken goals to yourself, you will always have the upper hand on your creative team because they will never even get close to satisfying you.

*Cram Every Product Into Every Ad – You know those creative types – always trying to push a design that leaves so much ‘unused’ space on any given page. Even though a strong presentation on a commanding feature or benefit might actually sell something, don’t let all that space on the page go unused.

*Don’t Bother To Follow Up With Research – You might learn that some creative approach other than your own actually worked and deserved to be repeated or expanded to other product lines – but you would have to give up some control over the creative process and that would never do.

*Nit-Pick – There is nothing – and never will be anything – that cannot be criticized and ‘improved’ by you or your advertising committee. Even though your creative team has worked weeks to perfect a concept, it can always be torn down.

*Never, Repeat Never, Praise Good Work ­– Always keep the creative team on its toes by not telling them they have done good work. After all, you just might get more of the same.

These points were originally written to try to provide guidance to some young, but inexperienced, Account Executives on the Agency side of the business.  They have been in my file, and in the back of my mind, for over thirty years and I am still amazed at the timeless wisdom they represent.  If nothing else, they are a reminder that any successful creative problem solving can only be achieved if the whole team is rowing in the same direction.  If, in the execution of your marketing communications program, you begin to sense that something might be out of sync on the creative side of things, solve that problem first – then tackle the bigger creative issues.   Early warning signs might start small but they will quickly mushroom to proportions that can completely derail a creative effort.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/branding-articles/creativity-killers-early-warning-signs-5737494.html

About the Author

Clients who work with Jim Kleypas on their communications challenges enjoy the advantage of a thoroughly professional, highly experienced team leader. A former corporate ad manager, Jim entered the agency business as an account executive and moved up through the ranks to the position of agency principal and president. Along the way, he repeatedly demonstrated a keen sense for understanding client needs and how to manage his team to produce cost-effective, high-impact solutions.

Jim’s years of experience on both sides of the client-agency relationship gives him a broad perspective of both client needs and innovative marketing strategies. From client to client, Jim demonstrates a consistent ability to increase market share while remaining sensitive to budget guidelines and each client’s unique personality. When it comes to supervision of an agency’s relationship with a client, executives nationwide know they can rely on Jim Kleypas to deliver success-oriented results.

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Managing Social Media Burnout

Social Media Fatigue: the Challenge for Brands
Author: Position2

With so much going on in social media these days, it is natural for both marketers as well as users to feel overwhelmed by the need to keep up. Social media is dynamic; while many companies are considering Google , others are juggling between blogs, tweets and posts. It is not just about what social media platforms to use. For most brands, the bigger challenge is keeping content fresh and coming up with new ways to keep consumers engaged. The increasing pressure to be on top of everything and to keep ahead of the competition can sometimes lead to social media fatigue. From the consumer’s point of view, reading the same content on Facebook, blogs and other channels will only give them a reason to check out your competitor’s webpage. Gartner’s recent study on social media fatigue shows that:

  • One in four young people is ‘bored’ with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
  • 31of the respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 said the fun of social media is wearing off.
  • The study also indicates that social media exhaustion is something that was most commonly associated with the early adopters. For online marketers, this signals the need to keep branded content fresh and capture people’s attention instantly.

Average Corporate Owned Social Accounts

The proliferation of social media platforms can be exhausting for marketers. Yet, many brands believe that the more social media accounts they have, the more web-savvy they are. According to research by the Altimeter group, large corporations averaged a surprising number of social media accounts (178). So much choice and not as much content; what is the best approach? Do you focus or diversify? Do you jump onto every new social media channel that is launched? In our opinion, preventing social media overload is all about finding answers to the too much vs. too little dilemma. Here are some easy-to-follow suggestions:


  • Define Precise Goals

    The key to staying fresh and avoiding a burn out is finding out exactly what you wish to achieve from your social media efforts. Defining precise social media marketing goals is the first step towards understanding what works best for your brand.

      • Creating a Social Media Footprint: For brands that are relatively new to social media, gaining visibility and establishing a solid online presence is imperative. If these are your objectives, then we recommend focusing on the big three (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) before considering the other options available. This will prevent your brand from getting lost in the social media blur and keep you from getting exhausted in the initial stages.

    L\

    • Knowing your Audience: If you have a target audience in mind, then the right approach will be to focus only on those channels where your prospective customers are most likely to be present. For instance, cosmetics brand L’Oreal launched its recent digital campaign on Facebook after research showed that women, who are the biggest consumers of their products, were highly active on the networking site. Posting the same content all over the social space, hoping it reaches your target market can be exhausting and time-consuming.
    • Improving Customer Satisfaction Rates: Our advice to brands looking to improve their customer satisfaction rates is ‘less focus on fancy campaigns and more focus on helping customers.‘ Although a well-thought out, creative campaign is sure to attract new customers, it may not exactly be what existing customers are looking for. @dellcares Twitter Account
      Instead of launching one campaign after another, while simultaneously trying to keep up with the flood of queries from customers, it would be wiser to work towards being a customer-centric brand. Offer advice, demonstrate how you can be of service, and show your customers that you care. Satisfied customers mean your brand can now breathe easy, plan ahead and eventually launch those great campaigns. Dell, which lists customer-service as one of its top priorities, has an exclusive team that focuses on helping customers via the @DellCares twitter account.

    Defining precise goals will give you a great sense of direction, helping you plan ahead. The ‘let’s get on board and decide as we go along’ approach sounds tempting; however, like everything new, the novelty of social media can wear off, leaving all those fans and followers wondering about the unexpected dip in activity. Our advice? Fight social media fatigue by getting a S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed) plan.

  • The Balancing Act
    As an online marketer, information overload can be overwhelming not only for you, but also for your customers. There is a fine line that divides too much content from too little; this can either convert customers to brand advocates, or will drive them to completely stop following your brand. Although achieving the right balance can be challenging, it is nevertheless, vital for long term success.

      • The Importance of Give & Take: Many companies use social media as a platform to talk about or promote corporate activity. Yes, it’s true that social media is a place for this kind of a thing, but not all the time. Uploading or posting promotional material incessantly will give your audience a case of editorial fatigue, giving them the impression that you are too self-absorbed. Welcome those who respond to your marketing messages, engage with them and listen to what they have to say. Keeping the ‘social’ in social media is all about having a balanced brand-customer relationship.
      • To Tweet or not to Tweet: The plethora of networking channels out there can sometimes be confusing for marketers, who do not know if they should tweet, blog or constantly update their Facebook page. The pressure to be present everywhere or be left behind has seen many brands experiment with various channels. After a while, this can be overwhelming and tiresome. Here’s what we think: a) If you tweet more than 25 times a day, then it would be best to blog b) Try Groupon or Livingsocial instead of Twitter if ‘deal-of-the-day’ is your thing c) Not much to say? Then you should just tweet. As quoted by the Global Director of Digital and Social Media for PepsiCo, Bonin Boug, ‘Do only as much as your resources will allow. If you don’t have the means to have a person on Twitter 24/7, then don’t do it that way….Have [something like] Follow Fridays were you spend two hours talking to the community if that’s all you have to work with. There really are no set rules.‘

    Old Spice Ad

    • Integrate Social Media with Traditional Marketing: For brands that prefer social media in small doses, integrating social media marketing with traditional advertising campaigns is a good way to get the best of both worlds. Many companies believe that a well-balanced mix of social and traditional media can avoid a marketing burnout. One of the companies to have successfully experimented with this approach is P&G. While continuing to advertise on TV, the personal care brand has also managed to create several memorable social media campaigns.

  • Running Out of Ideas? Listen to Your Audience

    One of the most common indicators of fatigue creeping into your social media activity is when you don’t know what to do next. Marketers who are highly active on social media are on the constant search for fresh ideas and content in order to keep people interested in their brand. In a world where users are easily turned off by information that is dated and dull, this can be quite a challenge. To stand out in a highly competitive environment, brands need to create content that takes into account the real world environment and the day-to-day events that influence people. This is where social media monitoring tools prove to be highly useful. Here’s why we think media monitoring tools like Brand Monitor should be a ‘must have’ in every digital marketer’s tool kit:

      • It Pays to Listen: Refreshing content regularly is necessary for brands looking to keep people interested in their social media pages. However, delegating this responsibility solely to the marketing or creative department may not always be the best approach. The answer? Listen to your customers for content ideas. Media monitoring will help you sift through the conversations, pick out the most important ones and help sow the seed for some great content.

    Brand Monitor Volume Graph

    • Creating a Campaign? Look Out for the Trends: Measuring the impact of an online campaign is one of the most important reasons why brands use social media monitoring tools. How about using the same monitoring tools to help generate ideas for a new campaign? Using these tools will not just save time and effort, but also identify the current trends. Brands can then design marketing messages accordingly and create a unique brand or company angle. According to Harvard Business Review Analytics Services Report, 55effective users are using social media to monitor trends or look for new product ideas. Here’s what we suggest; monitor the buzz pertaining to trend, topic, or specific keywords before creating a campaign. You are less likely to burn out while learning new things that interest your consumers.
    • Testing the Waters: The best way to check if an idea is likely to work is by asking questions. Post that blog, ask your readers what they think, seek opinions, even opposing point of views. While some audiences jump into conversations willingly, others need to be prodded and asked for ideas and suggestions. This is a smart way to test the waters. Monitoring conversations, analyzing the sentiment associated with the topic of discussion etc, will help you alter your marketing messages and content accordingly, saving time as well as effort.

    My Starbucks Idea
    The Starbucks formula for social media success is quite simple; monitor the trends and communicate with customers for new ideas. The caffeine-giant, through its social media pages, asks fans for suggestions, encourages discussions and requests for ideas on anything related to the company. Prior to launching a campaign for a new or an existing product, Starbucks picks out the most relevant conversations (mostly by listening to what the influencers are saying) and ideas, making users feel that they have some role in the decision making process of the company. By doing this, the company not only generates new ideas and fresh content at regular intervals, but also keeps social media fatigue at bay.

  • Smart Solutions

    You have done your homework, equipped yourself with the required social media tools and have a great brand-customer relationship; yet, your efforts to go ‘social’ are running out of steam. What you need are a few simple, yet smart-solutions to make certain you don’t run around in social media circles.

      • Automate Some of Your Posts: For marketers with profiles on multiple networking sites, updating them all the time for routine ‘broadcast’ messages can be a tiresome task. This is true, especially, in case of smaller brands that do not have the necessary resources to refresh their social media content frequently. Automating the posting of some content is a smart way of saving time and energy, at the same time keeping content up-to-date.

    Facebook, Twitter Accounts Link

    • Linking Accounts: Linking key social media accounts saves time for marketers who want to post a common message across profiles without having to log in and out several times. For instance, tying your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts with Twitter, means every time you update something on Twitter it will appear on all three accounts.
    • Appoint a Dedicated Social Media Team: A large number of companies have their marketing or PR staff also overseeing their social media activities. This works fine for small to mid-size companies that have limited resources. However, for brands that consider social media an integral part of their marketing strategy, it is important to have a dedicated social media team to manage posts, tweet on behalf of the company and monitor the buzz surrounding the brand. This will not only reduce fatigue, but will also ensure the core marketing team has the time to focus on their content creation and campaign management tasks.

Conclusion:

Marketers have moved beyond seeing social media as a fad and have started to include it as a crucial part of their overall marketing strategy. While this certainly has its benefits, it also means the possibility of getting caught in the social media vortex is high. After the initial excitement to post, blog, tweet or 1 wears off, brands are confronted with the question of ‘what next?’ Also, the fact that social media never stops means companies are increasingly pressurized to keep up. Our research shows that online marketers with an organized approach to social media have been more successful at beating the exhaustion that eventually follows.

Instead of the ‘do-it-yourself’ approach, brands are now looking at customers for inspiration by monitoring for trends and listening to conversations. It is also important to keep in mind that social media fatigue is not something that is restricted to marketers. With so much content and so many platforms to choose from, consumers are also susceptible to a burnout. Though it is not always possible to hold their attention all the time, innovating and diversifying can ensure that people are interested in your webpage. Easy-to-understand, fresh content has proven to be effective in preventing digital fatigue for both brands as well as consumers.

That said, for brands that are plugged in 24/7, instances of fatigue can occur occasionally. Take a deep breath…you don’t need to be a social media maven to avoid an overload; preventing a burnout is all about achieving that perfect balance, knowing what works for you and applying smart solutions.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/social-marketing-articles/managing-social-media-burnout-5212743.html

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Is Facebook Advertising Different from Advertising on Google’s PPC Platform?

Author: John Hammond

Is Facebook Advertising Different from Advertising on Google’s PPC Platform?

Yes it is..

And at this point in time many advertisers are getting it wrong.

Get it right and not only will you get cheaper clicks but also an avalanche of targeted traffic to your business and website.

Recently Google stated that the only company they fear in their internet domination is Facebook.

Why?

Because Facebook is now bigger than Google with over 500,000,000 registered users, that’s right there are more people registered on Facebook than there are men, women and children in the USA. Imagine the potential of this market place to advertisers?

Before we even consider this it is worth analysing the development of Facebook and their data collection techniques. What I find intriguing about Facebook is the data that is compiled on each individual is given over freely by that individual and in great detail too.

When people register on Facebook they are happy to list their main interests, the TV programmes and movies they love and the books they read, the activities they enjoy and even what religion they are associated with. All this data and information means that the advertiser is able to laser target their marketing campaigns.

Let me give you an example, lets say someone has listed Star Trek as their favourite programme, I would assume there are many ‘Trekies’ the world over registered on Facebook or even a Facebook group or a Fan Page that is dedicated to the Final Frontier itself! Ok?

Let’s say I am a promoter of Star Trek Conferences, what I can now do is place an advert up on Facebook and advertise to all of the people who have listed Star Trek as one of their favourite programmes. (I will go into this in more detail later on) but you get the idea?

What this means to Google is that there is now a rival platform where advertisers can spend their money and at this point in time get cheaper clicks. The price of Facebook Advertising is one twentieth the cost of advertising on Google at the time of compiling this article.

However there is a major difference in the type of paid advertising you should execute on both platforms. Google as we know and love it has the two advertising opportunities of Google Ad words and Ad sense..

Ad words is where we can bid on some keywords and put up our own advertising either in the top 3 positions or on the right hand side of the page when someone enters a Google search, Ad sense is where we can incorporate our advert into Googles Content Display Network. Now the key to remember here is that this advertising is search based, we are trying to identify keywords that people are searching under within the Google so that we can have our ad appear in front of them.

With Facebook we have much more detailed data on an individual and in fact on many individuals, but there is not a complex search system on Facebook. What Facebook will do is place your ad in front of people relating to the interests, activities, TV programmes and movies that they have detailed in their personal profiles. So the Keywords to search under within Facebook are the detailed words within the personal profiles of people who have registered on Facebook.

Facebook advertising allows the advertiser more characters within their advert and also and more importantly a picture that can be displayed with the advert. This is where Facebooks advertising differs to Google.

Even though Facebook advertising can be executed with keywords which are peoples interests or activities that they have already told us they are interested in and we can utilise, the picture we place with the ad turns Facebook into ‘Display Advertising’ rather than Google’s ‘Search Advertising’. So the choice of picture and the impact that picture has on the viewer is of paramount importance.

So let’s go back to our Star Trek Conference example.. what picture do you think would immediately say ‘Star Trek?’ For me it would be a head and shoulders picture Mr. Spock making his Vulcan greeting sign.. you know the one where he splits the fingers of his hand. This would almost instantly grab the attention of a Trekkie.. pair that with a headline of ‘Wanna Meet Mr.Spock? I know I could be onto a winner!

So think about the niche you are in what picture depicts that niche and what image might you use to stand out from the norm to get noticed within that niche? Start to look at ads that are running on Facebook and look for images that stand out for you to give you some ideas.

What we must take further into consideration now is that Google has proclaimed that in the future they will really only be interested in big corporate clients who have over $100,000 a month to spend on their PPC search advertising, the knock on effect for the small internet entrepreneur is that clicks in Google will cost a lot more and there will be possibly even more hurdles to jump through to get a good quality score with your advert.

All you have to do is compare how easy it was to advertise when Google was in its infancy, essentially anything was OK, where as now advertising with Google is much more complex and of course the dreaded ‘Google Slap’ sits prominently waiting for its next victim!

So yes advertising on Facebook is definitely different from advertising on Google. Facebook is ‘Display Advertising’ whereas Google is ‘Search based’. When we talk of Display think magazine style advertising..

A picture paints a thousand words, research magazines and make a note of pictures that stand out to you. Look at adverts that include pictures within them and decide why that picture has been placed with that ad, then incorporate this strategy into your Facebook advertising.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/is-facebook-advertising-different-from-advertising-on-googles-ppc-platform-3920505.html

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The Seven Deadly Sins of Advertising

Author: Paul Ashby

Sin No. 1

And in many ways this is the biggest sin of them all!
The total lack of genuine accountability and effectiveness. More and more evidence is emerging that there is ample justification for questioning a major advertising pretension that it does, indeed, work at all!

The repetitious cry and certain belief that “creativity” is the answer to all marketing problems – it isn’t and frankly never really has been.

It’s a given that all human knowledge is provisional but it is also incremental, the sum of what we know to day is far greater than thirty years ago – with, possibly, the sole exception of marketing/advertising. Nothing new has been added to the armory of advertising…no debate is taking place as to where to go next! Perhaps that is because there is no place else to go!

However to day it is still an article of faith among advertising people that advertising will not change because ‘it works’!

Facing the painful truth is the first essential step in devising a sensible strategy for the perpetuation of advertising. And the painful truth is “Advertising no longer works”!

Sin No 2.

Is it because that, for financial reasons, you do not want to address the problem of clutter…because it is a huge and growing problem which contributes to the declining effectiveness of all advertising.
The poor old customer, or in advertising speak, Consumer, does not want to take delivery of even more messages, after all they do not appear to be taking much notice of the messages that exist already!
The advertising world has dehumanized and depersonalized the process of communication and very little evidence of consideration of the consumer exists.

Sin No.3

You just don’t listen, whenever some well meaning person dares to question the “Advertising Works” article of faith, down comes a torrent of abuse, and the fact is it can only be a torrent of abuse because you do not have a solid fact to support your spurious claims. Listen to your Clients:
As one large Client recently explained: ‘In to day’s marketing landscape, building a brand is about a whole lot more than advertising. An advertising agency alone cannot deliver everything we need – even though agencies may claim to deliver this, it’s a myth’.
Or even listen to people closer to home:
Derek Morris, Chairman and chief executive of ZenithOptimedia attended ‘Media 360 Conference’ in Wales. In a long letter in MediaWeek, he said, among other things, ‘But what are the lessons to bring home from South Wales? What should we actually do? And there, in the final session, reality caught up when the Client told us to ‘Change before you are dead’.

Sin No.4

If you don’t want to listen then for Heavens sake forget the glorious past.
Your current model of advertising was developed in the Sixties when product choice was much more limited and people were easier to stereotype into categories like income, sex and class. It was much easier for advertisers to target people and bombard them with sales messages.

Today’s marketplace is different and all the old certainties are gone. To be effective in your communications it is sound advice to start with the premise that you know nothing about the people that you believe your product is aimed at.

You all have become too parochial, too introspective, too convinced by your on hyperbole.

Sin No.5

Stop this insane rush onto Web 2.0 it is not a medium intended for mass advertising, and, as has been recently established, “Users became more or less desensitized to the Advertising”

That was recently said of advertising on social networking sites.

Clients are experiencing fast diminishing returns on their social networking ad investments.

Clients are expressing disillusionment.

Web marketers, ranging from Google at the apex of the ad triangle to the mass of small companies are showering social-networking sites with ad dollars without getting their hoped-for returns.

The question is not ‘Has the advertising model broken’? The question now is ‘What are we going to replace it with’?

The complacency of the IPA is overwhelming, they appear not to be doing anything to answer the increasingly strident complaints.

Complaints such as, clutter, and here the irony is that advertising agencies appear to think that placing more advertisements is the way to solve clutter!

Complaints such as lack of accountability, to day, and after fifty years of extensive advertising, there are no reliable figures available on audience measurements.

And most certainly there are no effective studies as to the effectiveness of advertising…on sales…. As a return on ROI…and much more.

To day it is more important that a close investigation as to the suitability of advertising on Web 2.0 be undertaken instead of rushing onto the Net and ignoring all the signs. These are that it is a highly unsuitable medium for advertising.

After all it is ‘The Wild West’ where anything goes!

Sin No.6

Your inability to move very rapidly into the post-advertising mindset is caused by you being unable to recognize Sins 1 through 5 above.

Astonishingly, a sizable percentage of marketers and marketing-service leaders seem mired in the advertising mind-set.

The Cannes Lions Festival still celebrates ads-a position, one suspects, roughly equivalent to the Cannes Film Festival honoring silents. The One Show held two concurrent programmes this year-one for conventional ads, another for on line. (One wonders who in this mix felt like a second-class citizen).

In a transparent world, the power of an “ad campaign” to change minds is strictly limited, and getting more so every day. It’s way past time for the industry’s leaders to get naked and reinvent advertising…it they can!

Sin No.7
Your complete and utter lack of understanding of the word “communication” together with a lack of appreciation as to what can, and does, stifle effective communication.

All advertising is a form of learning whereby the advertiser is asking people to change their behavior after learning the benefits of the products or services on offer. However, we all tend to filter out information, which we do not want to hear. This clearly alters the effectiveness of conventional advertising in quite a dramatic way.

The final purchase decision is invariably a compromise and this leads to a certain amount of anxiety; the worry that perhaps the decision was not the best or the right one. In order to minimise this anxiety the purchaser seeks to reinforce their choice and begins to take more notice of their chosen product’s marketing communications.

Due to a lack of understanding of the communication process we have created a media society during the past 40 or 50 years, where the whole process has been de-humanized.

There is now an extraordinary reduction in interaction because conventional advertising and marketing have become a one-way practice whereby information is disseminated in a passive form.

So what are you going to do about this?

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-advertising-333101.html

About the Author

Having invested over $10 million in independent research, Paul Ashby is ideally suited to present the case for the widespread use of interactive marketing communication. The research investment has proved conclusively that one exposure to an interactive ‘event’ is far more effective in all key measurements, than traditional advertising. Paul made this investment because his company, Effective. Accountable. Communication is predicated on being totally accountable to its Clients.
Discover more on http://interactivetelevisionorinteractivetv.blogspot.com

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Listen Here to Our Radio Interview with Jim Fried on 9/01/2011

On this week’s segment our President/CEO speaks about the role of opt-in email marketing along side of Social Media. 

FriedonBusiness-09-01-2011

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Top 10 Excuses Why Marketing Is Not For You

As a marketing coach, I’ve probably heard every excuse in the book why people can’t market their businesses. You wouldn’t believe some of the whoppers people tell when they’re trying to justify their failure to attract clients.

Now don’t get me wrong; it’s not that failing to attract clients makes one a bad person. Not at all. It’s just that when I hear the following excuses I feel compelled to call ‘em as I see em: Baloney!

If you have the mistaken notion that any of these lame excuses are the reason that your business isn’t successful, get a clue. These are just EXCUSES for people who fail, not reasons not to succeed (a subtle, yet important, difference).

1. ‘I’m too honest to market.’ OK, this little gem is at the top of my list because it is both a lie AND an insult! I am a marketer by trade, and I am honest, so I know for a fact that marketing is not a dishonest process or practice, nor does it have to be dishonest to be effective. What’s dishonest is when you overstate your results, or if you truly don\’t believe that your product or service is worth what you charge, or if you deliberately intend to defraud people. In that case, the problem is with you, not marketing, so stop insulting the rest of us.

2. ‘I’m too modest to market myself.’ Listen up, princess, every word out of your mouth doesn’t have to be about YOU. Think about what your clients want, need and actually get, and that’ll keep the conversation going for as long as you need it to go. Hey, if you’re not comfortable saying great things about yourself, start saying great things about what your clients get out of working with you. Or better yet, let them say it for you in the form of testimonials. But don’t think that you have to be the subject of every fascinating conversation you have with prospects.

3. ‘I’m too shy to market myself.’ As a highly sensitive person myself, you’d think I\’d have more sympathy for this excuse, but I don’t. If you want to be successful, know right now that it may not always be comfortable, and you have to be willing to do what it takes to succeed, even if that means going outside your comfort zone. Shyness is a habit that can be overcome with practice, so join Toastmasters, or see a therapist if that’s what it is going to take, but get over yourself. I promise you will be glad you did.

4. ‘I’m too creative to market myself.’ This excuse is really lame! Marketing is a very creative process, and since you have literally thousands of options when structuring your marketing plans, creativity is an asset, not a liability. Unless you’re one of those I-am-a-self-indulgent-whiner-who-refuses-to-accept-any-responsibility-for-my-actions-and-masks-that-character-flaw-with-claims-of-misunderstood-or-excessive-creativity kinds of people, in which case I say, grow up, and while you’re at it, think up a more creative excuse.

5. ‘I don’t have enough time to market my business.’ OK, this excuse sounds good at first, but in reality it doesn’t wash. Either you are already marketing but not acknowledging your marketing activities as such, or your business is so busy that you don’t need to market at all, which makes this excuse unnecessary. So if you haven’t got all the business you want but you don’t have time to market, you need to reevaluate how you’re spending your time, and make some tough decisions about when you are going to do what you need to do to get those clients.

6. ‘I don’t have enough money to market my business.’ Again, you get points for trying, but this is still just an excuse, because good marketing isn’t about money, it’s about relationships. You can start very modestly with your marketing plans, and spend nothing but your time. And let me tell you, if you can\’t get some traction spending 40 hours a week trying to build your business relationships, maybe you should rethink your decision to be an entrepreneur.

7. ‘I have no personal network to market to.’ Oh please, you’ve got to have a better excuse than this! If you truly have no family, no friends, no colleagues, no acquaintances or no former co-workers, then start meeting some. I don’t care if you’ve been on a desert island for the past 20 years, you can always meet people through networking meetings, trade associations, classes, social clubs, or at the gym! Just pick up the phone and call the people you want to know, get out there and mingle, and your personal network will grow quickly.

8. ‘My product or service is too hard to explain to people.’ Fine. Quit explaining what you do, and start talking about what your customers GET from working with you. Do you help your customers get thinner, smarter, married, fitter, their first home, or what? Seriously, nobody cares about what you do, really; people care about what they get. Get it?

9. ‘My product or service is so good that it should sell itself.’ Sure, that’s probably true if your product is a talking monkey, or your clients are all telepaths, but other than that, it’s going to take a little effort on your part, bucko, so start creating some momentum in the marketplace and you’ll find that your product needs less and less of your efforts to sell, until one day it almost seems like it DOES sell itself!

10. ‘My niche is too narrow and I can’t find my customers.’ Hogwash. What this usually means is that you haven’t yet defined your customer, because you can’t find what you haven’t identified (and don’t give me that you’ll-know-them-when-you-see-them line). Start with a matrix of situation and need to identify that client. For example, let’s say you’re a financial planner, and you think your clients are ‘people who want to get their financial affairs in order.’ Think instead about who needs to get their financial affairs in order, and you’ll probably come up with something like ‘married couples with children who have $X in assets and need to protect those assets with planning.’ And you can certainly find those people, can’t you?

So we’ve blasted all these lousy excuses, but we haven’t yet addressed the biggest excuse of all: fear. Most of the time I’ve found that the more excuses my clients offer for not moving forward with their businesses, the more fearful they are.

Hey, I understand, and I’ve been there myself. But what it comes down to is this: Are you more afraid of succeeding (or failing) than you are of going back to work for that idiot boss you always end up working for? If the answer is that you’re more afraid of facing the personal responsibility of entrepreneurship than of any garbage your boss could throw at you, then good-bye entrepreneur, and hello wage-slave.

But if you think that the worst possible scenario is working for some moron again, and that you’ll happily work like a dog if that’s what it takes just so you don’t have to slink back into that stinking office with your tail between your legs, good for you. It’s time to forget about excuses, and start figuring out how to make this whole self-employed thing work for you.

The first thing to understand is that fear is OK. Yes, we’ve all been fearful (and yes, I include myself in that ‘we’ statement). It can be scary picking up the phone. It can be scary going to a sales meeting.

But at the end of the day, isn’t your product or service of value to someone? Aren’t people glad (or going to be glad) that you’ve solved a problem for them? So stop worrying and fearing the marketing process, and remember this: Marketing is really nothing more than the process of developing relationships, and you, my friend, can do that in your sleep.

Veronika (Ronnie) Noize, the Marketing Coach, is a successful Vancouver, WA-based entrepreneur, author, speaker, and Certified Professional Coach.  Through coaching, classes and workshops, Ronnie helps small businesses attract more clients. For free marketing resources including articles and valuable marketing tools, visit her web site at http://www.sohomarketingguru.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/top-10-excuses-why-marketing-is-not-for-you-847776.html

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Public Relations, Corporate Advertising, and Non-Commercial Advertising

Author: Vasco Doves

1. THE ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public relations (PR) is a term that is widely misunderstood and misused to describe anything from selling to hosting, when in fact it is a very specific communications process. Every company, organization, association, and government or says. They might be employees, customers, stockholders, competitors, suppliers, or Just the general population of consumers. Each of these groups may be referred to as one of the organization's publics. The process of public relations manages the organization's relationships with these publics.

As soon as word of the Valdez Spill got out, the PR staff at Exxon assumed responsibility for handling the barrage of phone calls from the press and the public and for managing all company communications with the media.

Simultaneously, other company departments had to deal with numerous local, state, and federal government agencies and with the community at large – not just in Valdez, Alaska, but anywhere in the world where someone was touched by the disaster. In addition, myriad other publics suddenly popped into the spotlight demanding special attention and care: Alaskan fishermen, both houses of congress, local politicians, the financial community, stockholder, employed, the local press, national networks, Exxon dealers, and environmental groups, for starters.

Companies and organizations know they must consider the public impact of their actions and decisions because of the powerful effect of public opinion. This is especially true in time of crisis, emergency, or disaster. But it is just as true for major policy decisions concerning changes in business management, pricing policies, labor negotiations, introduction of new products, or changes in distribution methods. Each of these decisions affects different groups in different ways. Conversely, effective administrators can use the power of these groups' opinions to bring about positive changes.

In short, the purpose of ever using labeled public relations is to influence public opinion toward building goodwill and a positive reputation for the organization. In one instance, the PR effort might be to rally public support; in another, to obtain public understanding or neutrality or in still another, simply to respond to inquiries. Well-executed public relations is a long-term activity that molds good relationships between an organization and its publics. Put yourself in the position of Exxon's top public relations manager at the time of the Valdez accident. What do you suppose was the major thrust of the PR staff's efforts in the days immediately following the discovery of the oil spill? What might they have been called on to do?

We will discuss these and other questions in this chapter. But first it is important to understand the relationship between public relations and advertising they are so closely related but so often misunderstood.

2. CORPORATE ADVERTISING

As mentioned earlier, corporate advertising is basic tool of public relations. It includes public relations advertising, institutional advertising, corporate identity advertising, and recruitment advertising. Their use depends on the particular situation, the audience or public being addressed, and the message the firm needs to communicate.

2.1 PUBLIC RELATIONS ADVERTISING

Public relations advertising is often used when a company wishes to communicate directly with one of its important publics to express its feelings or enhance its paint of view to that particular audience. The Claris ad in exhibit 18-7, for example, targets customers investors, and stock analysts. Public relations ads are typically used to improve the company's relations with labor, government, customers, or suppliers.

When companies sponsor art events, programs on public television, or charitable activities, they frequently place public relations ads in other media to promote the programs and their sponsorship. These ads are designed to enhance the company's general community citizenship and to create public goodwill. The ad in Exhibit 18-8 promotes an art exhibit ant southwestern Bell\'s sponsorship role.

2.2 CORPORATE/INSTITUTIONAL ADVERTISING

In recent years the term corporate advertising has come to denote that broad area of non-product advertising used specifically to enhance a company's image and increase lagging awareness. The traditional term for this its institutional advertising.

Institutional or corporate ad campaigns may serve a variety of purposes – to report the company's accomplishments, to position the company competitively in the market, to reflect a change in corporate personality, to shore up stock prices, to improve employee morale, or to avoid a communications problem with agents, suppliers, dealers, or customers.

Companies and even professional advertising people have historically questioned, or simply misunderstood, the effectiveness of corporate advertising. Retailers, in particular, have clung to the idea that institutional advertising may be pretty or nice, but that it ' doesn't make the cash register ring '. However, a series of marketing research studies sponsored by Time magazine and conducted by the Jankelovich, Kelly & White research firm offered dramatic evidence to the contrary.

In the first of these studies, 700 middle- and upper-management executives were interviewed in the top 25 U.S. markets. The researchers evaluated five companies that were currently doing corporate advertising and five that were not. They found that the companies using corporate advertising registered significantly better awareness, familiarity, and overall impression than companies using only product advertising. In fact, the five corporate advertisers in the study drew higher ratings in every one of 16 characteristics measured, including being known for quality products, having competent management, and paying higher dividends. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the research was the fact that the five companies with no corporate advertising spent far more for total advertising than did the firms engaged in corporate advertising.

David Ogilvy, the founder and creative head of Ogilvy & Mather, has been an outspoken advocate of corporate advertising. However, he has been appalled by most corporate advertising, characterizing it as filled with ' pomposity ', ' Vague generalizations,' and ' fatuous platitudes'. Corporate advertising has also been criticized for oblivious to the needs of the audience.

Responding to such criticisms and to other forces in the marketplace, corporations have made policies and campaigns. Expenditures for this type over the last decade. The primary medium used for corporate advertising is consumer (primarily business) magazines, followed by network television.

A change in message strategy has also accompanied this increase in corporate ad spending. In the past, most corporate ads were designed primarily to create goodwill for the company. Today with many corporations diversifying and competition from for ling advertisers increasing, these same firms find their corporate ads must do much more. Their ads must accomplish specific objectives- develop awareness of the company and its activities, attract quality employees, tie a diverse product line together, and take a stand on important public issues.

Another category of corporate advertising is called advocacy advertising. Corporations use it to communicate their views on issues that affect tailors its stand to protect its position in the marketplace.

Corporate advertising is also increasingly being used to set the company up for future sales. Although this is traditionally the realm of product advertising, many advertisers have instituted ' umbrella ' campaigns that simultaneously communicate message about the products and the company. This has been termed market prep corporate advertising a GTE umbrella campaign, for example, emphasized the company\'s products and services in a way that pointed up its overall technological sophistication.

Of course, no amount of image advertising can accomplish desired goals if the image does not match the corporation. As noted image consultant Clive Chajet put it, 'You can't get away with a dies enounce between the image and the reality – at least not for long '. If, for example, a sophisticated high-tech corporation like IBM tried to project a homey, small-town family image. It would lose credibility very quickly.

2.3 CORPORATE IDENTITY ADVERTISING

Companies take pride in their logos and corporate signatures in fact, the graphic designs that identity corporate names and products are considered valuable assets of the company, and great effort is expended to protect their individuality and ownership. The corporate logo may even dominate advertisement. What does a company do, though, when it decides to change its name, logos, trademarks, or corporate signatures, as when it merges with another company? How does it communicate that change to the market it serves and to other influential publics? This is the job of corporate identity advertising.

When software publisher Productivity Products International changed its name to Stepstone Inc., it faced an interesting dilemma. It needed to advertise the change. But in Europe, a key market for the firm, a corporate name change implies that the business has gone bankrupt and is starting over with a new identity. So, rather than announcing its new name in the print media, stepson used a direct-mail campaign. It mailed an announcement of its name change to customers, prospects, investors, and the press. The campaign was a success: within days of the mailing, almost 70 customers and prospects called Stepstone to find out more about the company and its products. More familiar corporate name changes from the recent past include the switch from America of Western Bank corporation to First Intestate Bankcorp; the change of Consolidated Foods to replace the pre-merger identities of Boroughs and Sperry.

2.4 RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING

When the prime objective of corporate advertising is to attract employment applications, companies use recruitment advertising such as the Chiat/Da ad in Exhibit 18-10. Recruitment advertising is most frequently found in the classified sections of daily newspapers and is typically the responsibility of the personnel department rather than the advertising department. Recruitment advertising has become such a large field, though, that many advertising agencies now have recruitment specialists on their staffs. In fact, some agencies specialize completely in recruitment advertising, and their clients are corporate personnel managers rather than advertising department managers These agencies create, write, and place classified advertisements in news papers around the country and prepare recruitment display ads for specialized trade publications. So far in this chapter, we have discussed only the advertising of commercial organizations. But nonprofit organizations also advertise. The government charities, trade associations, and religious groups, for example, use the same kinds of creative and media strategies as their counterparts in the for-profit sector to convey messages to the public. But unlike commercial advertisers whose goal is to create awareness, image, or brand loyalty on the pan o\' consumers, noncommercial organizations use advertising to affect consume! opinions, perceptions, or behavior–with no profit motive. While commercial advertising is used to stimulate sales.

3. NON-COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING

Used to stimulate donations, to persuade people to vote one way or another or to bring attention to social causes.

If a specific commercial objective for a new shampoo is to change people\'; buying habits, the analogous noncommercial objective for an energy conservation program might be to change people\'s activity habits, such as turning off the lights. The latter is an example of demarcating, which means the advertiser is actually trying to get consumers to buy less of a product 01 service. Exhibit 18-11 compares objectives of commercial and noncommercial advertisers.

3.1 EXAMPLES OF NONCOMMERCIAL ADVERTISING

One example of noncommercial advertising conducted on a large scale is the anti-drug campaign created by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. In 1987, this coalition of more than 200 ad agencies, the media and many other companies in the communications business launched an all-out attack on drug abuse. The coalition set its goal as the 'fundamental reshaping of social attitudes about illegal drug usage.' The $1.5 billion program entails the efforts of ad agencies across the country, each developing components of the campaign at their own cost.

The anti-drug program includes hundreds of newspaper and magazine ads as well as 200 different commercials and print ads. The space and time allotted for the ads, all donated by the media, are worth an estimated $310 million per year.24 Similarly, most of the creative and production suppliers have donated their services.

The wide variety of ads have been created to reach specific target groups. Some are aimed at cocaine users, some at marijuana smokers; some are aimed at parents, some at children. Most ads present hard-hitting messages about the dangers of drug abuse, depicting drug use as a sure route to the hospital or the cemetery. In a TV commercial targeted at teenaged marijuana smokers, for example, the Ayer agency suggests that pot smokers are subjecting themselves to the risk of physical and mental health problems. Other commercials compare the brain on drugs to an egg in frying pan or show dead rats that have succumbed to cocaine abuse. Print ads have also emphasized the dangers of cocaine abuse, including a series of ads developed by DDB Needham Worldwide that enumerate cocaine's effects. Exhibit 18-12 is from that series of ads. In addition, some ads speak to parents who use drugs ('If parents stop, kids won't start'), to women tempted to use cocaine ('What to do if he hands you a line'), and to parents who have put off talking to their children about drugs ('If everybody says it can\'t happen to their kids, then whose kids is it happening to?').

The effort is being billed as the 'largest and most ambitious private-sector, voluntary peacetime effort ever undertaken.' Believing that the United States cannot succeed as a drug culture and that advertising can 'demoralize' drug use, the organization wants nothing less than a drug-free America.

Not all public service advertising is done on such a massive scale. We see advertisements daily for intangible humanitarian social causes (Red Cross), political ideas or issues (political candidates), philosophical or religious positions (Church of Latter Day Saints), or particular attitudes and viewpoints (labor unions). In most cases, these advertisements are created and placed by nonprofit organizations, and the product they advertise is their particular mission in life, be it politics, welfare, religion, conservation, health, art, happiness, or love.

Research conducted by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America proves that noncommercial advertising does change consumer attitudes. Specifically, the coalition\'s ads have changed attitudes about drug use. Thus, by providing information to the public on issues such as health, safety, education, and the environment, noncommercial advertising helps build a better society. Public service announcements emphasizing the dangers of unsafe sex and drunk driving and those stressing the virtues of recycling and continuing education demonstrate that noncommercial advertising can help to enhance the quality of life.

3.2 TYPES OF NON-COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING

One way to categorize the various types of noncommercial advertising is by the organizations that use them. For instance, advertising is used by churches, schools, universities, charitable organizations, and many other non-business institutions. We also see advertising by associations, such as labor groups, professional organizations, and trade and civic associations. In addition, we witness millions of dollars' worth of advertising placed government organizations: the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine, Corps, and Postal Service; the Social Security Administration; the Internal Revenue Service; and various state chambers of commerce. In addition, in election years we are bombarded with all sorts of political advertising that qualifies as noncommercial. The Advertising Council Most of the national PSAs you see on television have been placed there by the Advertising Council, a private, nonprofit organization that links noncommercial campaign sponsors with ad agencies. The sponsors pay for production costs, while the ad agencies donate their creative services.

3.3 ADVERTISING COUNCIL

The Ad Council's policy today is basically the same as when it began during World War II: 'Accept no subsidy from government and remain independent of it. Conduct campaigns of service to the nation at large, avoiding regional, sectarian, or special-interest drives of all kinds. Remain nonpartisan and nonpolitical. Conduct the Council on a voluntary basis. Accept no project that does not lend itself to the advertising method. Accept no campaign with a commercial interest unless the public interest is obviously over riding.'

Among familiar campaigns created by the Ad Council are those for the United Negro College Fund ('A mind is a terrible thing to waste'); child abuse prevention ('Help destroy a family tradition'); the United Way ('It works for all of us'); crime prevention ('Take a bite out of crime'); and the U.S. Department of Transportation ('Drinking and driving can kill a friendship'). Exhibit 18-17 shows frames from an Ad Council commercial that advocates a healthy diet. The Ad Council's two longest-running campaigns are those for the American Red Cross and forest fire prevention. According to the Ad Council's research, the number of forest fires has been cut in half over the life of the Smokey Bear campaign.29 The council is currently playing a role in overseeing the Partnership for a Drug-Free America effort.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-articles/public-relations-corporate-advertising-and-noncommercial-advertising-4578973.html

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Advertising – Precious Information Or Vicious Manipulation?

Author: Boyan Yordanof

Is advertising the ultimate means to inform and help us in our everyday decision-making or is it just an excessively powerful form of mass deception used by companies to persuade their prospects and customers to buy products and services they do not need? Consumers in the global village are exposed to increasing number of advertisement messages and spending for advertisements is increasing accordingly.

It will not be exaggerated if we conclude that we are \'soaked in this cultural rain of marketing communications\' through TV, press, cinema, Internet, etc. (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). But if thirty years ago the marketing communication tools were used mainly as a product-centered tactical means, now the promotional mix, and in particular the advertising is focused on signs and semiotics. Some argue that the marketers\' efforts eventually are 'turning the economy into symbol so that it means something to the consumer' (Williamson, cited in Anonymous, Marketing Communications, 2006: 569). One critical consequence is that many of the contemporary advertisements 'are selling us ourselves' (ibid.)

The abovementioned process is influenced by the commoditisation of products and blurring of consumer\'s own perceptions of the companies\' offering. In order to differentiate and position their products and/or services today\'s businesses employ advertising which is sometimes considered not only of bad taste, but also as deliberately intrusive and manipulative. The issue of bad advertising is topical to such extent that organisations like Adbusters have embraced the tactics of subvertising – revealing the real intend behind the modern advertising. The Adbusters magazine editor-in-chief Kalle Lason commented on the corporate image building communication activities of the big companies: 'We know that oil companies aren\'t really friendly to nature, and tobacco companies don\'t really care about ethics' (Arnold, 2001). On the other hand, the 'ethics and social responsibility are important determinants of such long-term gains as survival, long-term profitability, and competitiveness of the organization' (Singhapakdi, 1999). Without communications strategy that revolves around ethics and social responsibility the concepts of total quality and customer relationships building become elusive. However, there could be no easy clear-cut ethics formula of marketing communications.

ADVERTISING – PRESCIOUS INFORMATION OR VICIOUS MANIPULATION?

In order to get insights into the consumer perception about the role of advertising we have reviewed a number of articles and conducted four in-depth interviews. A number of research papers reach opposed conclusions. These vary from the ones stating that 'the ethicality of a firm\'s behavior is an important consideration during the purchase decision' and that consumers 'will reward ethical behavior by a willingness to pay higher prices for that firm\'s product' (Creyer and Ross Jr., 1997) to others stressing that 'although consumers may express a desire to support ethical companies, and punish unethical companies, their actual purchase behaviour often remains unaffected by ethical concerns' and that 'price, quality and value outweigh ethical criteria in consumer purchase behaviour' (Carrigan and Attalla, 2001). Focusing on the advertising as the most prominent marketing communication tool we have constructed and conducted an interview consisting of four themes and nine questions. The conceptual frame of this paper is built on these four themes.

THEME I. The Ethics in Advertising

The first theme comprises two introductory questions about the ethics in advertising in general.

I.A. How would you define the ethics in advertising?

The term ethics in business involves 'morality, organisational ethics and professional deontology' (Isaac, cited in Bergadaa\', 2007). Every industry has its own guidelines for the ethical requirements. However, the principal four requirements for marketing communications are to be legal, decent, honest and truthful. Unfortunately, in a society where the course of action of the companies is determined by profit targets the use of marketing communications messages 'may constitute a form of social pollution through the potentially damaging and unintended effects it may have on consumer decision making' (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999).

One of the interviewed respondents stated that 'the most successful companies do no need ethics in their activities because they have built empires.' Another view is that 'sooner or later whoever is not ethical will face the negative consequences.'

I.B. What is your perception of the importance of ethics in advertising?

The second question is about the importance of being moral when communicating with/to your target audiences and the way consumers/customers view it. In different research papers we have found quite opposing conclusions. Ethics of business seems to be evaluated either as very important in the decision making process or as not really a serious factor in this process. An example of rather extreme stance is that 'disaster awaits any brand that acts cynically' (Odell, 2007).

It may seem obvious that the responsibility should be carried by the advertiser because 'his is the key responsibility in keeping advertising clean and decent' (Bernstein, 1951). On the other hand the companies\' actions are defined by the 'the canons of social responsibility and good taste' (ibid.). One of the interviewees said:

'The only responsible for giving decent advertising is the one who profits at the end. Company\'s profits should not be at the expense of society.'

Another one stated that 'our culture and the level of societal awareness determine the good and bad in advertising'.

The increased importance of marketing communications ethics is underscored by the need of applying more dialogical, two-way communications approaches. The 'demassification technologies have the potential to facilitate dialogue', but the 'monologic' attitude is still the predominant one (Botan, 1997). Arnold (2001) points out the cases of Monsanto and Esso which had to pay 'a price for its [theirs] one-way communications strategy'. In this train of thought we may review ethics in advertisements from two different perspectives as suggested by our respondents and different points of view in the reviewed papers. The first one is that it is imperative to have one common code of ethics imposed by the law. The other affirms the independence and responsibility of every industry for setting its own standards.

THEME II. Which type of regulation should be the leading one in the field of advertising?

The next theme directs the attention towards the regulation system which should be the primary one. Widely accepted opinion is that both self regulation and legal controls should work in synergy. In other words the codes of practice are meant to complement the laws. However, in certain countries there are stronger legal controls over the advertising, e.g. in Scandinavia. On the other hand the industry\'s self regulation is preferred in the Anglo-Saxon world. Still, not everyone agrees with the laissez-faire concept.

One of our respondents said:

'I believe governments should impose stricter legal frame and harsher punishment for companies which do not comply with the law.'

Needless to say, the social acceptability varies from one culture/country to another. At the end of the day 'good taste or bad is largely a matter of the time, the place, and the individual' (Bernstein, 1951). It would be also probably impossible to set clear-cut detailed rules in the era of Internet and interactive TV. Therefore, both types of regulation should be applied with the ultimate aim of reaching balance between the sacred right of freedom of choice and information and minimizing possible widespread offence. Put differently, the goal is synchronising the 'different ethical frameworks' of marketers and 'others in society' in order to fill the 'ethics gap' (Hunt and Vitell, 2006).

THEME III. Content of Advertisements.

Probably the most controversial issue in the field of marketing communications is the content of advertisements. Nwachukwu et al. (1997) distinguish three areas of interest in terms of ethical judgment of ads: 'individual autonomy, consumer sovereignty, and the nature of the product'. The individual autonomy is concerned with advertising to children. Consumer sovereignty deals with the level of knowledge and sophistication of the target audience whereas the ads for harmful products are in the centre of public opinion for a long time. We have added two more perspectives to arrive at five questions in the conducted interviews. The first one concerns the advertisement that imply sense of guilt and praise affluence that in the most cases cannot be achieved and the second one is about advertisements stimulating desire and satisfaction through acquisition of material goods.

III.A. What is your attitude towards the advertisement of harmful products?

A typical example is the advertisement of cigarettes. Nowadays we cannot see slogans like 'Camel Agrees with Your Throat' (Chickenhead, accessed 25th September 2007) or 'Chesterfield – Packs More Pleasure – Because It\'s More Perfectly Packed!' (Chickenhead, accessed 25th September 2007). The general advertisement, sponsorship and other marketing communications means are already prohibited to be used by cigarette producers. Surprisingly, most of the answers of the respondents were not against the cigarettes advertisement. One of the respondents said:

'People are well informed about the consequences of smoking so it is a matter of personal choice.'

As with many other contemporary products the shift in communications messages for cigarettes is oriented towards symbol and image building. The same can be said for the alcohol ads. A well-known example of emotional advertising is the Absolut Vodka campaign. From Absolut Nectar, through Absolut Fantasy to Absolut World the Swedish drink actually aims to be Absolut… Everything.

Advertising of hazardous products is even more harshly criticised when it is aimed at audiences with low individual autonomy, i.e. children. Two main issues in this respect are the manipulation of cigarettes and alcohol as 'the rite of passage into adulthood' and the fact that 'sales of health-hazardous products (alcohol, cigarettes) develop freely without much disapproval' (Bergadaa, 2007).

III.B. What is your attitude towards the advertisement to children?

Children are not only customers, but also consumers, influencers and users in the family Decision-Making Unit (DMU). Additional difficulty is that they are too impressionable to be deciders in the DMU. At the same time it is not a secret that marketers apply 'the same basic strategy of trying to sell the parent through the child\'s insistence on the purchase' (Bernstein, 1951). It is not a surprise then that 'spending on advertising for children has increased five-fold in the last ten years and two thirds of commercials during child television programs are for food products' (Bergadaa 2007). In the US alone children represent a direct purchases market of $24 billion worth (McNeal cited in Bergadaa, 2007) which certainly is on the top of the agendas of many companies. While exploiting children\'s decision-making immaturity advertisers often go too far in dematerialising their products and 'teleporting children out of the tangible and into the virtual world of brand names' (Bergadaa 2007). Teenage virtual worlds like Habbo where snack food brands run advertising campaigns are already a fact of life (Goldie, 2007). The imaginative worlds are popular not only online. Hugely successful for creating a fantasy world is Mc Donald\'s. The company tops the European list of kids\' advertisers while more than half of the children\'s adverts are for junk food.

In some countries there are harsher restrictions to the children advertising.

• 'Sweden and Norway do not permit any television advertising to be directed towards children under 12 and no adverts at all are allowed during children\'s programmes.
• Australia does not allow advertisements during programmes for pre-school children.
• Austria does not permit advertising during children\'s programmes, and in the Flemish region of Belgium no advertising is permitted 5 minutes before or after programmes for children.
• Sponsorship of children\'s programmes is not permitted in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden while in Germany and the Netherlands, although it is allowed, it is not used in practice.' (McSpotlight, accessed 20th September 2007).

According to a research by Roberts and Pettigrew (2007) the most frequent themes in children advertising are 'grazing, the denigration of core foods, exaggerated health claims, and the implied ability of certain foods to enhance popularity, performance and mood.' But the junk food is not the only reason for parents\' preoccupation. According to a study of Kaiser Family Foundation (Dolliver, 2007) parents are concerned about the amount of advertising of the following products (in order of importance): toys, video games, clothing, alcohol/beer, movies, etc.

The interviewed respondents were unanimous: 'The advertising to children should be strictly monitored.' Similar results were obtained in surveys by Rasmussen Reports and Kaiser Family Foundation. Nevertheless, the legal means are just one part of the children\'s protection. The other part involves 'the decision-making responsibility of parents and teachers' which is 'to assist their children in developing a skeptical attitude to the information in advertising' (Bergadaa 2007). The marketers themselves should also be involved in shaping the moral system of our future and 'each brand should have its own deontology – a code of practice regarding children – rather than rely on industry codes' (Horgan, 2007).

III.C. Do you think there are many misleading, exaggerating and confusing advertisements. Are many ads promising things that are not possible to achieve?

It will not be exaggerated to state that advertising is in a sense 'salesmanship addressed to masses of potential buyers rather than to one buyer at a time' (Bernstein, 1951). Since 'salesmanship itself is persuasion' (ibid.) we cannot merely blame advertisers for pursuing their sales goals. However, in the last twenty years or so advertisers have increasingly applied semiotics in their messages and as a consequence ads have begun to function more and more as symbols. One extreme case in this stream of advertising is the creation of idealised image of a person who uses the advertised product. Bishop (2000) draws our attention to two 'typical representatives of self-identity image ads' which entice consumers to project the respective images to themselves through use of the products:

- 'The Beautiful Woman';
- 'The Sexy Teenagers.

Through setting of such stereotypes advertisers not only mislead the public and exaggerate the effects of products but also provoke low self-esteem in consumers. At the same time they promise results that in most cases are simply impossible to achieve. Instead of promoting '\'glamorous\' anorexic body images' communication messages should use 'varied body types' and should drop the idea of the 'impossible physical body images' (Bishop, 2000).

To question III.C one of the respondents commented:

'The customers of these products [the ones advertised through thin models] are mostly people who do not have the same physical characteristic. For me, this type of advertising is deliberately aimed at people to make them feel not complete, far from attractive social outsiders.'

However, another interviewed stated that: 'every person has his own way of evaluating what is believable and what is misleading. Consumers are enough sophisticated to know what is exaggerated.'

Similarly, Bishop (2000) concludes that 'image ads are not false or misleading', and 'whether or not they advocate false values is a matter for subjective reflection.' The author argues that image ads do not interfere with our internal autonomy and if people are misled, it is because they want it. It is all about our free choice of behaviour and no advertisement can modify our desires. Perhaps, the truth lies somewhere in-between the two extreme positions.

III.D. What is your attitude towards advertisement that imply sense of guilt, and praise affluence that in the most cases cannot be achieved?

A more specific case of controversial advertising is the one used to 'promote not so much self indulgence as self doubt'; the one that 'seeks to create needs, not to fulfill them: to generate new anxieties instead of allaying old ones' (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). A response of our interviewee reads:

'It is not only a matter of advertising. It has to do with the social inequality and the desire to possess what you can not.'

Hackley and Kitchen (1999) refer to this discrepancy as to 'when reality does not match the image of affluence and the result is a subjective feeling of dissonance'. The issue could be elaborated further through the next question.

III.E. Are advertisements stimulating desire and satisfaction through acquisition of material goods moral?

We live in a society which is more or less marked by materialism. Advertisements are often blamed to fuel consumption which is allegedly leading to happiness. The role of promoting satisfaction through acquisition of material goods has become so important that currently the 'media products are characterised by relativism, irony, self referentiality and hedonism' (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). Is the popular saying 'those who die with most toys win' really a motivator in consumers\' behavior and could consumption be the cure of emotional dissonance? This seems to be the case provided a brand succeeds to enter in the evoked set of consumer choices. This new 'kind of materialism' goes hand in hand with 'the emergence of individualism via sheer hedonism along with narcissism and selfishness' (Bergadaa 2007).

THEME IV. Is the quantity of advertisements justified?

IV.A. Do you think there is too much advertising?

An audit of food advertising aimed at children in Australia by Roberts and Pettigrew (2007) revealed that '28.5 hours of children\'s television programming sampled contained 950 advertisements.' Actually, we all are being bombarded by ads on TV, Internet, print media, etc. The amount and content of marketing communications messages puts the consumer\'s information processing capacity to a test. The exposure to marketing data overload often leads to diluted consumer\'s selective perception. Whether our responses are circumscribed by 'confusion, existential despair, and loss of moral identity' or we 'adapt constructively to the [communications] Leviathan and become intelligent, cynical, streetwise' (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999) is a question open to debate.

Two opposite streams of attitudes were produced in our research. One stance is concerned with the undue quantity of advertisement. The other stream proclaims that 'If there is an advertisement, so it is justified by a need.' We agree that the communications overload may indeed have 'pervasive effect on the social ecology of the developed world' (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). If the increasing communication pollution is not managed properly by both legal and industry points of view yet again the advertising will manage 'to hoist its foot to its own mouth and kick out a couple of its own front teeth' (Bernstein, 1951).

CONCLUSION

In preparation of this paper we have used qualitative depth interviews in order to get insights for what actual customers opine. We have also substantiated our presentation with references to a number of influential articles in the field of ethics in marketing communications. Generally, our respondents as well as various authors have taken two opposing stances. The first one affirms that ethics in marketing communications matters considerably, whereas the other one downsizes the importance of ethics, thereby stressing the role of other factors in consumer decision-making, i.e. price, brand loyalty, convenience, etc.

Marketers should understand their 'responsibility for the emerging portrait of future society' (Bergadaa 2007). Not only there is a need of legal ethical frame but also professional ethical benchmarks and deontology should be in place. One of the main challenges is to avoid creating 'a happy customer in the short term', because 'in the long run both consumer and society may suffer as a direct result of the marketer\'s actions in \'satisfying\' the consumer' (Carrigan and Attalla, 2001).

The strength of the advertisement influence exerted on consumers is only one part of the equation. On the other hand we may affirm that consumers are not morally subservient and according to the information process models there is a natural cognitive defense. The communications tools 'offer us a theatre of our own imagination' (Hackley and Kitchen, 1999). Consequently, we accept the reality in terms of our own experiences. In this sense marketers do not create reality – they are simply a mirror of the society. We may argue that unfortunately this is not always the case.

Advertising is often deservedly seen as the embodiment of consumer freedom and choice. Notwithstanding this important role, when the choice is 'between one candy bar and another, the latest savoury snack or sweetened breakfast cereal or fast food restaurant' (McSpotlight, accessed 20th September 2007) it represents anything else but not an alternative and certainly not a healthy one.

The words of Bernstein (1951), said fifty-six years ago are still very much a question of present interest: 'It is not true that if we \'save advertising, we save all,\' but it seems reasonable to assume that if we do not save advertising, we might lose all.'

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Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/branding-articles/advertising-precious-information-or-vicious-manipulation-603772.html

About the Author

Boyan Yordanof is in the tourism business since 1996. His main interests are in Internet Marketing and more specifically Service Branding in the Hospitality Industry. Boyan is an Internet Marketing Executive at RIU Seabank Hotel Malta.

Author Links

Business URL:
http://www.seabankhotel.com

Personal URL:
http://www.yordanof.com

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