PROMOTION (ADVERTISING)
Advertising may be defined as any sponsored, paid communication placed in mass medium vehicle. Frequently purchased, low cost products generally require heavy advertising support. “Product cultures” where global demographic profiles can be prepared based on the growing convergence of tastes. Most affected by cultural differences. Advantages of global advertising include economies of scale and greater access to distribution channels where shelf space is a premium.
The communication process
Information source: product information needs to be communicated Encoding: converting information into effective symbolism Message channel: sales force/advertising media Decoding: interpretation by the receiver Action: consumer action based on the received message Feedback: the feedback of information to the source of evaluation Noise: generally uncontrolled influences detracting from the process Eg. NOVA Chevy car (does not go in Spanish) Pepsi „come alive‟ (come out of the grave in china)
Difficulties in cross border advertising
Message does not get through to the intended recipient The message is not misunderstood or is not understood Reaches the recipient but does not induce the consumer to carry out the desired action Effectiveness of the message is affected noise
Creative challenges
Boundaries are created by: legal: - Whether comparative advertising may be allowed or not eg. Europe - Whether advertising on television is allowed, what timings, what Characters, etc….e.g.. Kuwait - Amount of taxes and whether applicable language - Different dialects, different meanings for slang and idiomatic usage of the language - what happens when no „one‟ language reaches all the target audience
• availability – far too many media or too few as government restricts the availability • coverage – difficulty in reaching some segments – lack of information on coverage – eg. Video vans in India – RTV in South Africa • Lack of market data – accurate information is not available or reliable – eg. TV ratings, newspaper circulation data, etc. – questions about the compositions of the market
• cultural diversity – culture influences the perceptions of the consumers – e.g.. Cake mixes in Japan: requirement was to ensure that the lady did not fail – cake mixes in England: requirement was to assuage / overcome guilt feelings – Pampers advertisement should have shown giant peaches and not stork in Japan • Production and Cost limitation – Lack of good facilities for production, printing, good quality paper, etc. e.g.. China and LCD‟s – Lack of facilities or suitable media to present the advertisements. E.g.. LDCs where Television has static and billboards are too few
• Media limitations • Tactical considerations – Too many media, languages, far too many segments, TV regulations. – Specialized media reaching small segments – Scheduling requirements must be done a year ahead of time – Weird rules like no commercial can be screened within 10 days of each other • Cost – cost influences depending on a lot of factors – some countries of permit bidding with higher prices permitting the rescheduling of previously arranged spots / schedules
Media information
• newspapers – Too many / few…. Sometimes with political affiliations – Sometimes grease is required to obtain ad space – Lag time before advertisement appears – Amount of space on sale varies • Magazines – few international magazines that have dependable circulation figures – even here obtaining space is a problem – coverage may even then be restricted to a few segments
• Radio, television, Satellite and Cable television
– major communications media depending upon level of a development of the country – Availability for advertising varies with controls being exerted by the government eg. Total of 18 minutes in a day, 12 minutes every hour
• competitive commercial broadcasting: minimal regulations • commercial monopolies: managed by local organizations based on rules laid down by government • noncommercial broadcasting: government owed and run
– difficulty in estimating the audience and its composition – governments fear further loss of control with advent of STV – eg. STAR TV estimated audience size 2.7 billion (38 countries)
• Direct mail – viable medium in many countries – where print media is scarce, it might be difficult – also difficult where market research and databases are not available or rather inaccurate – difficult to tailor to meet customers requirements and rather expensive • Internet – useful in both B2B and B2C especially due to versatility – coverage in LDC is low due to low penetration of computers – very few limitations as of now which is bound to change
• Ethnocentric or Polycentric or Geocentric which is the best approach?
– depends upon products – depends upon the motives for buying – depends upon the culture and its acceptance of the product – depends upon the stage in the life cycle – resource allocation
• advertising voice and noise
– extent of advertising out by the organization – extent of advertising bombarded on the consumer
Pattern Advertising
a global advertising strategy with a standardized basic message that allows modification to meet local requirements broad outlines of the campaign are given but the details are not given attempts to meet the motives of purchase rather than only fulfilling the needs of the customer
Sales Promotion
• they stimulate purchases or impulse buys – in store demonstrations, samples, coupons, gifts, tieins, sweepstakes, sponsorships, rebate offers, point of purchase displays, etc… • they are short term efforts with specific objectives – consumer trial – consumer introduction – gaining retail POP displays – encourages stores to stock the products – supporting and augmenting the advertising campaign – eg. Airtel show in Egypt, soft drinks Movie vans in Latin America, Nestle‟s “Le Relais Bebes” in France •