Advertising Planning

The Advertising Plan

As pointed out earlier, advertising plan and decision making focus on three crucial areas; objectives and target selection, message strategy and tactics, and media strategy and tactics. Let us elaborate on these points:

1. Objectives and Target Selection

Objectives in advertising can be understood in many ways. An important part of the objective is the development of a precise, disciplined description of the target audience. It is often tempting to direct advertising at a broad audience; but everyone is a potential customer. It is best to consider directing the advertising to more selected groups to develop stimulating copy. It is quite possible to develop several campaigns, each directed at different segments of the market, or to develop one campaign based on multiple objectives.

2. Message Strategy and Tactics

Messages strategy must decide what the advertising is meant to communicate — by way of benefits, feelings, brand personality, or action content. Once the content of the campaign has been decided, decisions must be made on the best-most effective-ways of communicating that content. The decisions, such as the choice of a spokesperson, the use of humor or fear or other tones, and the selection of particular copy, visuals, and layout, are what we call “message tactics”

3. Media Strategy and Tactics

Message strategy is concerned with decisions about how much is to be allocated to create and test advertising copy, media strategy concerns decisions on how many media dollars to spend on an advertising campaign. Media tactics comprise the decisions on which specific media (television, radio magazines, etc.) or media vehicles to spend these dollars.

External Factors

The external factors in the advertising planning framework are environmental, social and legal considerations. To a considerable extent, these exist as constraints on the development of an advertising plan and decision making. In developing specific advertisement, there are certain legal constraints that must be considered. Deceptive advertising is forbidden by law. What is deceptive is often difficult, because different people can have different perceptions of the same advertisements. Thus, an advertiser who attempts to provide specific, relevant information must be well aware of what constitutes deception in a legal and ethical sense and of other aspects of advertising regulation.

Even more difficult consideration for people involved in the advertising effort is broad social and economic issues as stated below.

  • Does advertising raise prices or inhibit competition?
  • Is the use of sex or fear appeals is appropriate? Women and minority groups are exploited in advertising by casting them in highly stereotyped roles.
  • Is it more irritating than entertaining?
  • Is an intrusion into an already excessively polluted environment?
  • Advertising directed at children.

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