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Advertising Ideas

Advertising is impersonal, usually paid communication intended to

inform, educate, persuade, and remind.

Advertising is a sophisticated form of communication that must work

with other marketing tools and business elements to be successful.

Advertising must be interruptive — that is, it must make you stop thumbing

through the newspaper or thinking about your day long enough to read or

hear the ad. Advertising must also be credible, unique, and memorable in

order to work.

And finally, assuming the actual advertising is built upon a solid

positioning strategy, enough money must be spent to provide a media

schedule for ad frequency, the most important element for ad memorability.

History of Advertising

1. Introduction

Marketing is more than just distributing goods from the manufacturer

to the final customer. It comprises all the stages between creation of the

product and the after-market which follows the eventual sale. One of these

stages is advertising. The stages are like links in a chain, and the chain

will break if one of the links is weak. Advertising is therefore as

important as every other stage or link, and each depends on the other for

success.

The product or service itself, its naming, packaging, pricing and

distribution, are all reflected in advertising, which has been called the

lifeblood of an organization. Without advertising, the products or services

cannot flow to the distributors or sellers and on to the consumers or

users.

2. Early forms

Advertising belongs to the modern industrial world, and to those

countries which are developing and becoming industrialised. In the past

when a shopkeeper or stall-holder had only to show and shout his goods to

passers-by, advertising as we know it today hardly existed. Early forms of

advertising were signs such as the inn sign, the red-and-white striped

barber's pole, the apothecary's jar of coloured liquid and the

wheelwright's wheel, some of which have survived until today.

3. Effect of urban growth

The need for advertising developed with the expansion of population

and the growth of towns with their shops and large stores; mass production

in factories; roads and railways to convey goods; and popular newspapers in

which to advertise. The large quantities of goods being produced were made

known by means of advertising to unknown customers who lived far from the

place of manufacture.

Advertising grew with the development of media, such as the coffee-

house newspapers of the seventeenth century, and the arrival of advertising

agencies nearly 200 years ago, mainly to handle government advertising.

4. Advertising and the modem world

If one looks at old pictures of horse buses in, say, late nineteenth-

century London one will see that they carry advertisements for products

famous today, a proof of the effectiveness of advertising. Thus the modern

world depends on advertising. Without it, producers and distributors would

be unable to sell, buyers would not know about and continue to remember

products or services, and the modern industrial world would collapse. If

factory output is to be maintained profitably, advertising must be powerful

and continuous. Mass production requires mass consumption which in turn

requires advertising to the mass market through the mass media.

16. Advertising involvement

Although advertising is listed as a single element it is associated

with almost every other element, borrowing from them or interpreting them.

(a) The volume, emphasis and timing of advertising will depend on the

product life cycle situation. For instance, at the introductory or

recycling stages, the weight of advertising will be heavier than at the

maturity or decline stages.

(b) Marketing research will provide evidence of motives, preferences

and attitudes which will influence not only the copy platform or

advertising theme but the choice of media through which to express it.

(c) Naming and branding may be initiated by the advertising department

or agency, and clearly plays an important role in advertisement design.

(d) The product image will be projected by advertising.

(e) The market segment will decide the tone or style of advertising,

and the choice of media.

(f) Pricing can play an important part in the appeal of the copy. Is

the product value for money, a bargain or a luxury? Pricing can be a very

competitive sales argument. People are very price conscious.

(g) The product mix has many applications. In advertising, one product

may be associated with another, or each brand may require a separate

campaign.

(h) Packaging can be a vital aspect of advertising, as when pack

recognition is sought. It is itself a form of advertising, especially at

the point-of-sale, as in a supermarket when the package often has to

identify the product and literally sell it off the shelf.

(i) Distribution involves trade advertising such as by direct mail, in

the trade press and at exhibitions.

(j) The sales force has to be familiarised with advertising campaigns

which will support their efforts in the field.

(k) Market education is a public relations activity aimed at creating

a favourable market situation in which advertising will work.

(1) Corporate and financial public relations often uses institutional

advertising in the business press.

(m) Test marketing requires a miniature advertising campaign

simulating the future national campaign.

(n) Advertising research includes copy-testing, circulation and

readership surveys and statistics, recall tests, tracking studies and cost-

per-reply and cost-per-conversion-to-sales figures.

(o) Sales promotion can augment or even replace traditional

advertising.

(p) The after-market calls for advertising to make customers aware of

post-sales services.

(q) The maintenance of customer interest and loyalty may be achieved

by advertising which promotes additional uses and accessories, or simply

reminds.

ADVERTISING

Advertising is used to create consumer interest in a product and also to

increase the sales of that product. It may be described under three

headings:

1 descriptive advertising;

2 persuasive advertising;

3 both descriptive and persuasive advertising together.

Descriptive advertising

This type of advertising gives the most: important facts about the product.

It is the cheapest form of advertising and is used a lot by the small

trader selling through the local paper. It will usually say:

1 what the product is;

2 how much it will cost;

3 where it may be obtained.

Example: 1972 Ford Escort Ј500. Telephone London 1234.

Persuasive advertising

This type of advertising tries to persuade people that the product which is

being advertised has a special quality or usefulness which makes it much

better than other similar products. It is used a lot in television

advertising where consumers arc persuaded to think that if they buy that

product they will become very popular or very happy. This is a

psychological approach, and it is hoped by the advertiser that people will

be persuaded to buy the product. The method uses 'association of ideas'.

Brand names such as Guinness and Oxo are used in persuasive advertising.

Example: 1983 Ford Capri Ј2000 - good condition - low mileage, a bargain,

first to see will buy this attractive car.

Advertising media

Newspapers

There are both national newspapers and local newspapers. Advertising in the

national press is usually much more expensive than advertising in the local

press. Both types of advertising are sold by the column centimetre, the

half page and the page. A page in a national newspaper may cost many

thousands of pounds for one day. This is because national newspapers have

very large circulations (they are read by a lot of people).

Television

Television advertising in Great Britain is controlled by the Television Act

1954. It is the most expensive kind of advertising and costs many thousands

of pounds (on a national network) for just a few seconds of television

time. Charges are made by the second. If the advertisement is shown at a

time when relatively few people are watching, then it will be cheaper. If

it is shown - at a time when many people are watching (peak viewing time)

then the charges are much higher. Television advertising is mostly used by

large organizations and the nationalized industries.

Radio

This kind of advertising is much cheaper than television advertising. It is

very popular in the United States. The most popular radio station in Europe

is Radio Luxembourg, which carries a lot of commercial advertising. In

Great Britain radio advertising is usually carried by local independent

radio stations.

Hoardings

Hoarding advertisements are usually put up in eye-catching positions at the

side of the road. The cost of the advertisement will depend on where the

hoarding is and how large it is. If it is in a very good position and near

the centre of the city where it will be seen by many potential customers,

then it will probably be quite expensive. The sites are usually rented out

to clients on a monthly basis by an advertising agency.

Handbills

These are quite often used by local traders to advertise their goods and

services. They are expensive in labour costs and are not very effective.

Transport

The inside and outside of buses, trains, vans and other kinds of public

transport are used in transport advertising. The most expensive position is

where the advertisement is most likely to be seen by the public such as the

back of a bus or the inside of a bus, especially at the front where the

potential customer will be seated looking at it. The most inexpensive

position is upstairs on the bus or at the back inside the bus. It is

difficult to tell whether transport advertising is effective.

Cinemas

The cinema screen is used for advertising by local and national traders.

Like transport advertising, it is difficult to judge how effective cinema

advertising is.

Neon displays

These are mostly used by large firms. The signs are usually displayed in

city centres.

Technical journals

These are mostly used as an advertising medium by large manufacturing and

distributing companies. They are read by persons and companies who are

interested in this particular kind of product, and the journals will also

contain other information that is useful to the readers. Technical journals

are usually printed once a month. Examples are The Hairdresser, The Radio

and Television Magazine and the Farmers Live Stock Journal. Advertising in

technical journals is a very good method of advertising.

Trade fairs and shows

The Motor Show, the Boat Show, the Radio Show and the Ideal Homes

Exhibition are a few examples of trade fairs and shows. Dairy products may

be advertised at agricultural shows. Aircraft may be advertised and

displayed at the Farnborough Air Show. The disadvantage is that the shows

and exhibitions are expensive to organize.

It is very difficult for advertisers to tell whether a particular

advertisement or method of advertising has been effective, but there is no

doubt that without advertising the customer would never hear of some

products. Perhaps the most effective advertising of all is the

recommendation of the product by a satisfied customer to a potential

customer – advertising by word of mouth.

The language of advertising

Here are some methods used in persuasive advertising. Read them

quickly. Decide which appeal to you and which don’t. Now think of an

example for each type from your country.

persuasive advertising

1. Repetition The simplest kind of advertising. A slogan is

repeated so often that we begin to associate a brand name

with a particular product or service.

2. Endorsement A popular personality is used in the

advertisement.

3. Emotional appeal Advertising often appeals to basics such

as mother-love, sex, manliness, feminity.

4. Scientific authority Sometimes the advert shows a person

in a white coat (i.e. a scientist) telling us about the

product. More often it mentions “miracle ingredients” or

“scientific testing” to persuade us.

5. “Keeping up with the jones’s” An appeal to pure snob

value. You want to appeal to be richer or more successful

than your neighbours.

6. Comparison The advert lists the qualities of a product in

direct comparison with rival products.

7. An appeal to fear or anxiety This type is similar to 3,

but works on our fears.

8. Association of ideas This is usually visual. Until it

became illegal in Britain, cigarette advertising showed

attractive, healthy people smoking in beautiful rural

situations.

9. Information If a product is new, it may be enough to show

it and explain what it does.

10. Special offers/free gifts This is a very simple and

direct appeal – it’s half a price!

11. Anti-advertising This is a modern version which appeals

to the British sense of humour. It makes fun of the

techniques of advertising.

Do you agree that the only background for the problems with brand names

would be:

- wrong pronunciation;

- wrong association;

- wrong translation.

Types of advertising

Introduction

1. Scope of advertising

Advertising serves many purposes and many advertisers, from the individual

who places a small classified advertisement in his local newspaper to the

big spender who uses networked TV to sell popular brands to the nation's

millions.

2. Types

It is possible to identify seven main categories of advertising, namely

consumer, industrial, trade, retail, financial, direct response and

recruitment.

Consumer advertising

3. Different kinds

There are two kinds of goods bought by the general public, consumer goods

and consumer durables, which together with consumer services are advertised

through media addressed to the appropriate social grades.

4. Consumer goods

These are the numerous goods to be found in the shops, those which enjoy

repeat sales like foods, drinks, confectionery and toiletries being called

Fast Moving Consumer Goods, (FMCGs).

5. Consumer durables

Usually more expensive and less frequently bought, consumer durables are of

a more permanent nature than consumer goods and include clothes, furniture,

domestic appliances, entertainment goods like radio, television and video,

and mechanical equipment from lawn-mowers to motor-cars.

6. Consumer services

They include services for security and well-being like banking, insurance,

investment, repairs and maintenance, and those more to do with pleasure

such as hotels, restaurants, travel and holidays.

7. Social grades

The social grades system makes it possible to identify certain groups of

people—prospective buyers—and then to pinpoint the media which will reach

them most effectively.

8. Media of consumer advertising

The media of consumer advertising will tend to be those with wide appeal,

and even when more specialist journals such as women's magazines are used

they will still have large circulations. In fact, the term 'consumer press'

is applied to the publications which are displayed for sale in newsagents

shops, on news-stands and on newspaper vendors' pitches'

Most of the trade, technical and professional journals have other forms of

distribution such as special orders placed with newsagents, postal

subscription or free postal controlled circulation. Controlled circulation

are not to be confused with membership or subscription magazines. They are

mailed (free of charge) to selected readers plus those who have requested

copies.

In Britain there are also hundreds of 'free' local newspapers which are

delivered door-to-door every week. With saturation coverage of urban areas

they provide good advertising media for many local businesses.

The primary media of consumer advertising are the press, radio, television,

outdoor and to a limited extent cinema, supported by sales literature,

exhibitions and sales promotion. We should not forget sponsorship,

especially the sponsorship of many popular sports which in turn can be

supported by arena advertising at the sports venue.

Industrial advertising

9. Purpose

The purpose of industrial advertising is twofold:

(a) to promote sales of equipment and services used by industry—machinery,

tools, vehicles, specialist consultancy, finance and insurance come within

this category;

(b) to promote sales of raw materials, components and other items used in

industrial production—under this heading come metals, timber, plastics,

food ingredients, chemicals and parts for assembly into finished equipment

from watches to aircraft.

Hardly any of these products and services will be bought by consumers,

except as replacements as when a motor-car needs a new battery or tyres.

Unless the formula or specification is stated, consumers will be unaware of

most industrial products.

10. Media of industrial advertising

The suppliers of services, equipment, raw materials and components will

usually advertise in media seldom seen by the general or consumer public.

The media used will consist of trade and technical journals, technical

literature and catalogues, trade exhibitions, direct mail, and technical

demonstrations and seminars. Technical journals will have smaller

circulations than the consumer press, and exhibitions will tend to have

fewer exhibitors and smaller attendances than public exhibitions open to

the general public; in fact, admission is usually by ticket or business

card. The amount of money spent on advertising will be far less, and there

may be more reliance on market education using public relations techniques

such as video documentaries, external house journals and technical feature

articles.

11. Special characteristics

Industrial advertising differs in yet another way. Whereas consumer

advertising may be emotive, industrial advertising has to be more detailed

and informative, although not unimaginative. Trade journals provide

valuable international market-places for thousands of products and

services, maintaining sales of long-established ones and introducing new

ones.

Public relations activities, while not to be regarded as free advertising,

may be more effective and economical, especially when the need is to

educate the market and create knowledge and understanding.

Trade advertising

12. Definitions

Trade advertising is addressed to distributors, chiefly wholesalers,

agents, importers/exporters, and numerous kinds of retailers, large and

small. Goods are advertised for resale.

13. Purpose

The purpose of trade press advertising is to inform merchants and traders

about goods available for resale, whether it reminds them about well-

established brands, introduces new lines or, as is often the case,

announces special efforts to help retailers sell goods, e.g. price

reductions, better trade terms, new packages, consumer advertising

campaigns or sales promotion schemes. Such advertising invites enquiries

and orders and also supports the advertiser's field salesmen when they call

on stockists.

14. Media of trade advertising

The trade press may or may not be used for this kind of advertising. There

could be a mix of two or three media addressed to the trade. Direct mail is

often used, especially when it is necessary to provide a lot of information

such as consumer advertising campaign schedules giving dates and times when

and where advertising will be taking place in the press or on radio and/or

television.

Another useful medium is the trade exhibition, sponsored by a trade

magazine or trade association, which will be attended by distributors. Some

of the larger exhibitions may also be open, or open on certain days, to the

general public as well, e.g. motor-car and furniture exhibitions.

Occasionally, commercial television time may be bought to tell retailers

about new lines, or retailers may be mailed to tell them that consumer

advertising campaigns are about to appear on TV.

15. Special characteristics

Since the object of trade advertising is to encourage shopkeepers (whether

large chains or one-man businesses) to stock up the product (especially to

achieve adequate distribution in advance of a consumer advertising

campaign), emphasis will be placed on the advantages of so doing. The

advantages will be higher sales and more profits, and the appeal will be to

the retailer's desire to make money. In so doing, trade advertising will

also have to compete with the 'selling-in' activities of rival

manufacturers.

Trade advertising will be seen as part of the total advertising campaign

for the product and so will be produced by the same advertising agency that

handles the consumer advertising. However, whereas consumer advertising

aims to persuade the consumer about the benefits to be gained from buying

the product, trade advertising aims to persuade the retailer about the

benefits which will result from selling the product. Trade advertising

supports distribution. It prepares the way. There is no point in

advertising products and encouraging consumers to buy them if the goods are

not in the shops. The demand created by consumer advertising must be

satisfied by the availability of the goods in the shops. That is what is

meant by 'adequate distribution'. If the advertised goods cannot be bought,

customers will buy either nothing or, worse still, a rival product!

Retail advertising

16. Introduction

Here we have a form of advertising which lies between trade and consumer

advertising. The most obvious examples are those for department stores and

supermarkets, but it can include the advertising conducted by any supplier

including a petrol station, restaurant or insurance broker.

A major form of retailing nowadays is direct response marketing or

retailing without shops. This is the modern form of mail-order trading

which has moved from the traditional club catalogues to sophisticated off-

the-page and direct mail campaigns for products and services, of which

financial houses and department stores have become leading participants.

17. Purpose

The purpose of retail advertising is threefold, as outlined below.

(a) To sell the establishment, attract customers to the premises and, in

the case of a shop, increase what is known as 'store traffic', that is the

number of people passing through the shop. If they can be encouraged to

step inside they may possibly buy something which they would not otherwise

be tempted to buy.

(b) To sell goods which are exclusive to the shop. Some distributors are

appointed dealers for certain makes, e.g. the Ford dealer. Others, such as

supermarkets, sell 'own label' goods, having goods packed by the

manufacturer in the name of the retailer. All the goods in the shop may

bear the same brand, or certain lines such as tea, coffee, biscuits or

baked beans may bear the retailer's own label.

(c) To sell the stock of the shop, perhaps promoting items which are

seasonal, or presenting a representative selection, or making special

offers. The latter could be regular policy, or could be organised as

shopping events such as winter or summer sales.

18. Media of retail advertising

The principal of media for retail advertising are:

(a) local weekly newspapers, including numerous free newspapers which gain

saturation coverage of residential areas by being delivered from door to

door;

(b) regional daily newspapers, of which most are 'evenings';

(c) public transport external posters and internal cards, and arena

advertising at sports grounds;

(d) direct mail to regular or account customers, and door-to-door leaflet

distribution;

(e) regional commercial television;

(f) independent local radio;

(g) window bills and point-of-sale displays within the shop;

(h) window and in-store displays;

(i) catalogues.

The shop itself is a considerable advertising medium, and it may well be a

familiar landmark. Marks &: Spencer rarely advertise, but their shops are

so big they advertise themselves. With retail chains, the corporate

identity scheme will quickly identify the location of a branch.

19. Special characteristics

Retail advertising is characterised by four main aspects: creating an image

of the shop, establishing its location, variety of goods offered, and

competitive price offers. Nearly always, the object of the advertising is

to persuade people to visit the shop, although telephone ordering and the

use of credit accounts and credit cards is a growing feature.

Financial advertising

20. Introduction

It is probably difficult to put a limit on what can be contained under this

heading, but broadly speaking financial advertising includes that for

banks, savings, insurance and investments. In addition to advertising

addressed to customers or clients it can also include company reports,

prospectuses for new share issues, records of investments in securities and

other financial announcements.

Some, like building society and National Savings advertisements, may be

addressed to the general public while others will appear in the financial

and business press only.

21. Purpose

The object of financial advertising may be to borrow or lend money, conduct

all kinds of insurance, sell shares, unit trusts, bonds and pension funds

or report financial results.

22. Classes of financial advertising

The main categories in this field are as follows.

(a) Banks advertise their services which today are not confined to

traditional bank accounts but include deposits, loans, insurance, house

purchase, wills and executorship and advice on investment portfolios. Some

banks specialise in certain areas of banking, and others concentrate on

certain kinds of business.

(b) Friendly societies and private medical care organisations like BUPA

offer schemes to provide insurance in time of illness.

(c) Building societies both borrow money from savers and lend money to

house-buyers. Most of their advertising is directed at not only raising

funds but keeping funds so that they have sufficient money to meet loan

applications. Competitive interest rates are important sales points, and

today in Britain there is rivalry between building societies, banks and

insurance companies for the same kind of business.

(d) Insurance companies exist to insure against almost any risk from big

commitments like ships and aircraft worth millions to covering [he risk

that rain may stop play. Some insurance not only covers risks but provides

benefits to savers or pensions in old age. In the cases of fire and theft,

insurance companies are also selling peace of mind should damage or loss be

suffered.

(e) Investments are offered, not only in share issues but in unit trusts

and other investments in which smaller investors can share in the proceeds

of a managed portfolio of shares.

(f) Savings and banking facilities are offered through post offices which

sell National Savings certificates and various bonds and operate the Giro

and Post Office banks.

(g) Brokers offer insurance, pension and investment schemes and advise

their clients on how to manage such financial commitments. The Automobile

Association acts as a broker for motor insurance.

(h) Credit and charge card companies, such as Access, and Barclaycard,

American Express and Diners' Club, promote plastic money facilities, often

on an international scale.

(i) Local authorities borrow money from the public, usually on short-term

loans which are advertised.

(j) Companies announce their intentions and final dividends, giving

summaries of annual reports, and often offering copies of annual reports

and accounts.

23. Media of financial advertising

Choice of media will depend on the target audience. Building societies

appeal to small savers and therefore use the mass media of the popular

press and television. The big national banks with branches everywhere also

use the national press and television. Investment advertising will appear

in the middle-class and business press. Prospectuses for share issues,

which usually occupy two or more pages, appear in newspapers like The Times

and Financial Times. Banks may take stands at exhibitions. They also

produce sales literature about their services, as do insurance companies

especially in the way of proposal forms.

24. Special characteristics

Financial advertising in the press, and especially the business press,

tends to occupy large spaces and contain detailed information necessary to

explain schemes and achieve confidence. The emphasis is generally on

benefits which are usually represented by figures such as interest rates

and returns on investments. Profit, benefits, security, confidence,

credibility and reputation are the keynotes of the copy appeals.

Recruitment advertising

25. Introduction

This form of advertising aims to recruit staff (including personnel for the

police, armed forces and other services) and may consist of run-on

classified advertisements or displayed classified, although other media

such as radio and television are sometimes used.

26. Different kinds

Recruitment advertising is mainly of two kinds, that inserted by employers

whether identified or using box numbers, and that placed by employment or

recruitment agencies which have been commissioned to fill vacancies.

27. Media of recruitment advertising

Except for the occasional recruitment advertisement on radio and

television, the media are mainly made up of the following categories of

press.

(a) National newspapers. Different newspapers appeal to different target

groups, e.g. the managerial advertisements in the Daily Telegraph and

Sunday Times and the teacher advertisements in the weekly education feature

in the Guardian and the Independent.

(b) Trade, technical and professional journals. These are the more obvious

market-places for recruitment advertising addressed to those with special

skills, qualifications and experience.

(c) Regional press. Local dailies and weeklies are used to advertise jobs

offered by local employers.

(d) Free publications. A number of freely distributed publications gain

their revenue chiefly from recruitment advertising, e.g. those which are

distributed in the street to office workers such as secretaries.

Recruitment advertising is also featured in the free newspapers delivered

weekly to homes.

28. Special characteristics

The art of recruitment advertising is to attract the largest number of

worthwhile applications at the lowest possible cost. The advantage of using

a recruitment or selection agency is that applications can be obtained

discreetly and they can be screened to provide employers with a short list

of the best candidates. Two skills have to be applied. The advertisements

must be so worded that they both sell the job and attract the best

applicants, while correct choice of media will bring the vacancy to the

notice of the largest number of good applicants as economically as

possible.

The Higher Purpose of Marketing

What is the higher purpose of marketing? What should an enlightened

marketer try to accomplish?

This question is raised because managers sometimes lose sight of their

ultimate goals and settle for short-term gains of dubious benefit to

themselves and others. When they lose a sense of higher purpose, their work

becomes unsatisfying and their attitude cynical.

The most common view is that the marketer's goal is to maximize the

market's consumption of whatever the company is producing. In this view,

the marketer is a technician who engineers sales gains. Marketing success

means selling more and more gum, cars, and ice cream bars as if the

consumer were a huge consumption machine that must constantly be stuffed

with goods and services. Even if consumers don't want this much

consumption, it is good for the economy and creates jobs. Yet Adam Smith

observed that hunger is limited by the size of the human stomach. More

generally, people will eventually run out of time to consume all that they

could buy. They may rebel against overeating and overdressing, and start

thinking "enough is enough" or even "less is more." Frederick Pohl wrote a

science-fiction short story, "The Midas Touch," in which factories are

completely automated and the goods roll out continuously and people consume

as much as they can in order not to be buried under the goods. In the

story, ordinary people are given high consumption quotas, while the elite

are excused from having to consume so much. Furthermore, the elite are

given the few jobs that are still left to do, so that they don't have to

face the bleakness of no work.

A sounder goal for the marketer is to aim to maximize consumer

satisfaction. The marketer's task is to track changing consumer wants and

influence the company to adjust its mix of goods and services to those that

are needed. The marketer makes sure that the company continues to produce

value for the target customer markets.

Even consumer satisfaction, however, is not a complete goal for the

marketer. The act of creating "goods" to satisfy human desires also creates

some "bads" in the process. Every car that is produced satisfies a

transportation need and at the same time contributes to the level of

pollution in society. The economist Kenneth Arrow noted that high gross

national product also means high gross national pollution. The sensitive

marketer has to take responsibility for the totality of outputs created by

the business. First, the marketer is a member of the public and therefore

victimizing himself to some extent. Second, the society has spawned

consumerists, environmentalists, and other public-action groups, who make

life difficult for those firms that are indifferent to the "bads" they

create in the process of pursuing profits.

Ultimately, the enlightened marketer is really trying to contribute to the

quality of life. The quality of life is a function of the quantity and need-

satisfying quality of goods and services, the quality of the physical

environment, and the quality of the cultural environment. Too often the

firm rests its case on its ability to produce great quantities of goods and

services and does not pay enough attention to its impact on the other

components of life quality.

Marketing

Marketing is the cornerstone discipline of some of the most successful

companies in America and a discipline of growing interest to companies and

nonprofit organizations throughout the world. All organizations face the

problem of how to increase value for target markets that are undergoing

continuously changing needs and wants. Organizations must thoughtfully

define their products, services, prices, communications, and distribution

in a way that meets real buyer needs in a competitively viable way. That is

the task of marketing.

Although selling is a very old subject, marketing is a relatively new

subject. It represents a higher-order integration of many separate

functions - selling, advertising, marketing research, new-product

development, customer service, physical distribution - that impinge on

customer needs and satisfaction. Many organizations at first resist

marketing because it threatens vested interests within the organization and

their own concepts of how to manage the organization effectively. Marketing

gradually gets established, however, first as a promotion function, later

as a customer service function, still later as an innovation function, then

as a market positioning function, and ultimately as an analysis, planning,

and control function. Few companies understand and install marketing in its

full form when first considering it. Even after marketing is effectively

implemented in an organization, there is a tendency for many managers to

forget its main principles in the wake of success.

Marketing's task in the organization is not only to help it recognize

business opportunities and serve the various publics but also to harness

the organization's energy to enhance the quality of life in society.

Marketing is human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through

exchange processes.

Human Needs and Wants

The starting point for the discipline of marketing lies in human needs and

wants. Mankind needs food, air, water, clothing, and shelter to survive.

Beyond this, people have a strong desire for recreation, education, and

other services. They have strong preferences for particular versions of

basic goods and services.

There is no doubt that people's needs and wants today are staggering. In

one year, in the United States alone, Americans purchased 67 billion eggs,

250 million chickens, 5.5 million hair dryers, 133 billion domestic air

travel passenger miles, and over 20 million, lectures by college English

professors. These consumer goods and services led to a derived demand for

more fundamental products, such as 150 million tons of steel and 3.7

billion pounds of cotton. These are a few of the wants and needs that get

expressed in a $1.3 trillion economy.

A useful distinction can be drawn between needs, wants, and intentions,

although these words are used interchangeably in common speech. A need is a

state of felt deprivation of some generic satisfaction arising out of the

human condition. People require food, clothing, shelter, safety, belonging,

esteem, and a few other things for survival. People actually need very

little. These needs are not created by their society or by marketers; they

exist in the very texture of human biology and the human condition.

Wants are desires for specific satisfiers of these ultimate needs. A person

needs food and wants a steak, needs clothing and wants a Pierre Cardin

suit, needs esteem and buys a Cadillac. While people's needs are few, their

wants are many. Human wants are continually shaped and reshaped by social

forces and institutions such as churches, schools, corporations, and

families.

Intentions are decisions to acquire specific satisfiers under the given

terms and conditions. Many persons want a Cadillac; only a few intend to

buy one at today's prices.

These distinctions shed light on the frequent charge by marketing critics

that "marketers create needs" or "marketers get people to buy things they

don't need." Marketers do not create needs; needs preexist marketers.

Marketers, along with other influentials in the society, influence wants.

They suggest to consumers that a particular car would efficiently satisfy

the person's need for esteem. Marketers do not create the need for esteem

but try to point out how a particular good would satisfy that need.

Marketers also try to influence persons' intentions to buy by making the

product attractive, affordable, and easily available.

Products

The existence of human needs and wants gives rise to the concept of

products. Our definition of product is very broad:

A product is something that is viewed as capable of satisfying a need or

want.

A product can be an object, service, activity, person, place, organization,

or idea. Suppose a person feels depressed. What might the person do to get

out of his or her depression? What products might meet the need to feel

better? The person can turn on a television set (object); go to a movie

(service); take up jogging (activity); see a therapist (person); travel to

Hawaii (place); join a Lonely Hearts Club (organization); or adopt a

different philosophy about life (idea). All of these things can be viewed

as products available to the "feeling depressed." If the term product seems

unnatural at times, we may substitute the term resource or offer or

satisfier to describe that which may satisfy a need.

In the case of physical objects, it is important to distinguish between

them and the services they represent. People do not buy physical objects

for their own sake. A tube of lipstick is bought to supply a service:

helping the person look better. A drill bit is bought to supply a service:

making a needed hole. Every physical object is a means of packaging a

service. The marketer's job is to sell the service packages built into

physical products.

Exchange

Marketing exists when people decide to satisfy needs and wants in a certain

way that we shall call exchange. Exchange is one of four ways in which a

person can obtain a product capable of satisfying a particular need.

The first option is self-production. A hungry person can relieve hunger

through personal efforts at hunting, fishing, or fruit gathering. The

person does not have to interact with anyone else. In this case there is no

market and no marketing.

The second option is coercion. The hungry person can forcibly wrest food

from another. No benefit is offered to the other party except the chance

not to be harmed.

The third option is supplication. The hungry person can approach someone

and beg for food. The supplicant has nothing tangible to offer except

gratitude.

The fourth option is exchange. The hungry person can approach someone who

has food and offer some resource in exchange, such as money, another good,

or some service.

Marketing centers on that last approach to the acquisition of products to

satisfy human needs and wants. Exchange assumes four conditions:

There are two parties.

Each party has something that could be of value to the other.

Each party is capable of communication and delivery.

Each party is free to accept or reject the offer.

If these conditions exist, there is a potential for exchange. Whether

exchange actually takes place depends upon whether the two parties can find

terms of exchange that will leave them both better off (or at least not

worse off) than before the exchange. This is the sense in which exchange is

described as a value-creating process; that is, exchange normally leaves

both parties with a sense of having gained something of value.

Market

The concept of exchange leads naturally into the concept of a market:

A market is the set of all actual and potential buyers of a product.

An example will illustrate this concept. Suppose an artist spends three

weeks creating a beautiful sculpture. He has in mind a particular price.

The question he faces is whether there is anyone who will exchange this

amount of money for the sculpture. If there is at least one such person, we

can say there is a market. The size of the market will vary with the price.

The artist may ask for so high a price that there is no market for his

sculpture. As he brings the price down, normally the market size increases

because more people can afford the sculpture. The size of the market

depends upon the number of persons who have (1) an interest in the object,

(2) the necessary resources, and (3) a willingness to offer the resources

to obtain it. These three things make up the level of demand.

Wherever there is a potential for trade, there is a market. The term

"market" is often used in conjunction with some qualifying term that

describes a human need or product type or demographic group or geographical

location. An example of a need market is the relaxation market, which

exists because people are willing to exchange money for lessons on yoga,

transcendental meditation, and disco dancing. An example of a product

market is the shoe market, so defined because people are willing to

exchange money for objects called shoes. An example of a demographic market

is the youth market, so defined because young people possess purchasing

power that they are willing to use for such products as education, bikinis,

motorcycles, and stereophonic equipment. An example of a geographic market

is the French market, so defined because French citizens are a locus of

potential transactions for a wide variety of goods and services.

The concept of a market also covers exchanges of resources not necessarily

involving money. The political candidate offers promises of good government

to a voter market in exchange for their votes. The lobbyist offers services

to a legislative market in exchange for votes for the lobbyist's cause. A

university cultivates the mass-media market when it wines and dines editors

in exchange for more publicity. A museum cultivates the donor market when

it offers special privileges to contributors in exchange for their

financial support.

The Marketing Concept

The marketing concept is a management orientation that holds that the key

task of the organization is to determine the needs and wants of target

markets and to adapt the organization to delivering the desired

satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than its competitors.

In short, the marketing concept says "find wants and fill them" rather than

"create products and sell them." This orientation is reflected in various

contemporary ads: "Have it your way" (Burger King); "You're the boss"

(United Airlines); and "No dissatisfied customers" (Ford).

The underlying premises of the marketing concept are:

Consumers can be grouped into different market segments depending on their

needs and wants.

The consumers in any market segment will favor the offer of that

organization which comes closest to satisfying their particular needs and

wants.

The organization's task is to research and choose target markets and

develop effective offers and marketing programs as the key to attracting

and holding customers.

The selling concept and the marketing concept are frequently confused by

the public and many business people. Levitt draws the following contrast

between these two orientations:

Selling focuses on the needs of the seller; marketing on the needs of the

buyer. Selling is preoccupied with the seller's need to convert his product

into cash; marketing with the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer

by means of the product and the whole cluster of things associated with

creating, delivering and finally consuming it.

The marketing concept replaces and reverses the logic of the selling

concept. The selling concept starts with the firm's existing products and

considers the task as one of using selling and promotion to stimulate a

profitable volume of sales. The marketing concept starts with the firm's

target customers and their needs and wants; it plans a coordinated set of

products and programs to serve their needs and wants; and it derives

profits through creating customer satisfaction

Among the prime practitioners of the marketing concept is McDonald's

Corporation, the fast-food hamburger retailer.

In its short, twenty-year existence, McDonald's has served Americans and

citizens of several other countries over 27 billion hamburgers! Today it

commands a 20 percent share of the fast-food market, far ahead of its

closest rivals, Kentucky Fried Chicken (8.4 percent) and Burger King (5.3

percent). Credit for this leading position belongs to a thoroughgoing

marketing orientation. McDonald's knows how to serve people well and adapt

to changing needs and wants.

Before McDonald's, Americans could get hamburgers in restaurants or diners,

but not without problems. In many places, the hamburgers were poor in

quality, service was slow, decor was poor, help was uneven, conditions were

unclean, and the atmosphere noisy. McDonald's was formulated as an

alternative, where the customer could walk into a spotlessly clean outlet,

be greeted by a friendly and efficient order-taker, receive a good-tasting

hamburger less than a minute after placing the order, with the chance to

eat it there or take it out. There were no jukeboxes or telephones to

create a teenage hangout, and in fact, McDonald's became a family affair,

particularly appealing to the children.

As times changed, so did McDonald's. The sit-down sections were expanded in

size, the decor improved, a very successful breakfast menu featuring Egg

McMuffin was added, and new outlets were opened in high-traffic parts of

the city. McDonald's was clearly being managed to evolve with changing

customer needs and profitable opportunities.

In addition, McDonald's management knows how to efficiently design and

operate a complex service operation. It chooses its locations carefully,

selects highly qualified franchise operators, gives them complete

management training and assistance, supports them with a high-quality

national advertising and sales promotion program, monitors product and

service quality through continuous customer surveys, and puts great energy

into improving the technology of hamburger production to simplify

operations, bring down costs, and speed up service.

A marketing orientation is also relevant to nonprofit organizations. Most

nonprofit organizations start out as product oriented. Thus many colleges

facing declining enrollments are now investing heavily in advertising and

recruitment activities. These organizations begin to realize the need to

define their target markets more carefully; research their needs, wants,

and values; modernize their products and programs; and communicate more

effectively. Such organizations turn from selling to marketing.

Marketing

In recent years marketing has become a driving force in most companies.

Underlying all marketing strategy is "The Marketing Concept", explained in

this diagram:

THE MARKETING CONCEPT (We must produce what people want, not what we want

to produce) - This means that we PUT THE CUSTOMER FIRST (We organize the

company so that this happens) - We must FIND OUT WHAT THE CUSTOMER WANTS

(We carry out market research) - We must SUPPLY exactly what the customer

wants.

We can do this offering the right MARKETING MIX "The Four P's". The right

PRODUCT at the right PRICES available through the right channels of

distribution: PLACE, presented in the right way: PROMOTION.

Nowadays, all divisions of a company are used to "Think Marketing". To

think marketing we must have a clear idea of:

what the customer needs,

what the customer wants;

what cruses them to buy.

What the product is to the customer: functional, technological, economical,

aesthetic, emotional, psychological aspects.

"FEATURES" (what the product is) + "BENEFITS" (which means that a company

that believes in marketing is forward thinking and doesn't rest its past

achievements: it must be aware of its strengths and weaknesses as well as

the opportunities and threats it faces in market (remember the letters

"SWOT")).

More about "The marketing Mix" and the "Four P's"

PRODUCT: the goods or service that you are marketing. The product is not

just a collection of components, but includes its design, quality and

reliability.

Products have a life cycle, and forward-thinking companies are continually

developing new products to replace products whose sales are declining and

coming to the end of their lives. A "total product" includes the image of

the product as well as its features and benefits (see below). In marketing

terms, political candidates and non-profit-making public services are also

"products" that people must be persuaded to "buy" and packaged attractively

(see Promotion below).

PRICE: making it easy for the customer to buy. The marketing view of

pricing takes account of the value of a product, its quality, the ability

of the customer to pay, the volume of sales required, the level of market

saturation and the prices charged by the competition. Too low a price can

reduce the number of sales just as significantly as too high a price. A low

price may increase sales but not as profitably as fixing a high, yet still

popular, price. As fixed costs stay fixed whatever the volume of sales,

there is usually no such thing as a "profit margin" on any single product.

PLACE: getting the product to the customer. Decisions have to be made about

the channels of distribution and delivery arrangements. Retail products may

go through various channels of distribution:

1. Producer - sells directly to end users via own sales force, direct

response advertising or direct mail (mail order).

2. Producer - retailers - end-users.

3. Producer - wholesalers/agents - retailers - end-users.

4. Producer - wholesalers - directly to end-users.

5. Producer - multiple store groups/department stores/mail order houses -

end-users.

6. Producer - market - wholesalers - retailers - end-users.

Each stage must add, "value" to the product to justify the costs: the

middleman is not normally someone who just takes his "cut" but someone

whose own sales force and delivery system can make the product more easily

and cost-effectively available to the largest number of customers. One

principle behind this is "breaking down the bulk" the producer may sell in

minimum quantities of, say, 10000 to the wholesaler, who sells in minimum

quantities of 100 to the retailer, who sells in minimum quantities of 1 to

the end-user. A confectionery manufacturer doesn't deliver individual bars

of chocolate to consumer: distribution is done through wholesalers and then

retailers who each "add value" to the product providing a good service to

their customers and stocking a wide range of similar products.

PROMOTION - presenting the product to the customer. Promotion involves

considering the packaging and presentation of the product, its image, the

product name, advertising and slogans, brochures, literature, price lists,

after-sales service and training, trade exhibitions of fairs, public

relations, publicity, and personal selling's, where the seller develops a

relationship with the customer.

Every product must process a "unique selling proposition" (USP) - features

and benefits that make it unlike any other product in its market.

In promoting a product, the attention of potential customers is attracted

and an interest in the product aroused, creating a desire for the product

and encouraging customers to take prompt action ("AIDA").

Direct Mail and Direct Response

Direct Mail

Shopping without shops or direct marketing has become very big business,

aided by direct mail, TV commercials and teletext, off-the-page selling,

the telephone, the computer, and the credit card. Mail order nowadays

better known as direct or direct response marketing. In Britain, direct

mail takes third place to press and television and takes up 10 per cent of

the total advertising expenditure. It is also an excellent medium for

international advertising when it is more economical to airmail selected

prospects than to advertise in the press which may be very limited anyway.

Confusion of terms can be avoided by remembering that direct mail is an

advertising medium but mail order (or direct response) is a form of

distribution, that is, trading by mail whatever medium is used for

advertising sales offers. Consequently, direct mail is not limited to

direct marketing: a retailer can use direct mail to attract shoppers to his

store.

Characteristics of direct mail

It is addressed to selected, named recipients or at least to chosen people

at selected addresses whether they be householders or managing directors.

The quantity can be controlled, the message can be varied to suit different

groups of people, and the timing can be controlled or at any rate estimated

within postal limits.

Because of the controls mentioned above, it is economical in the sense that

even the selected lists can be culled of unwanted addresses. De-duplication

can be applied when a number of lists are being used in which certain names

are repeated. It is also economical because in a mail shot more copy and

illustrations can be used than would fill a whole page broadsheet

newspaper, and at a fraction of the cost.

Unlike any other medium, except possibly the telephone, it is a one-to-one

personal medium, like a conversation on paper. Generally, people like

receiving mail, and if the recipient is well-chosen the mail shot will be

welcomed. This medium is also personal in the sense that sales letters and

envelopes can be addressed by name (personalised). Using special techniques

like laser printing, dramatic and colourful effects can be achieved with

the recipient's name inserted at various points in the body of the letter

itself.

A direct mail campaign can be mounted very quickly, in a few hours if

necessary given the facilities to write and reproduce a sales letter, and

pack and post it with or without an enclosure. It is therefore a very

flexible medium which can be used in an emergency.

For those advertisers who (a) have or can hire a reliable mailing list and

(b) need to supply considerable information, direct mail can be their first

line or primary advertising medium. In fact, they may use no other, except

perhaps sales literature as enclosures. Others may use press advertising to

produce enquiries or initial orders which provide a mailing list for future

use.

A direct mail shot is usually consists of sales letter and enclosures. A

sales letter is not just a business letter. It is a special form of

copywriting with its own techniques. The length of the letter will depend

on the extent to which the reader's interest can be sustained The letter

may present a complete selling proposition, or it can be a covering letter

referring the reader to an enclosure. The latter should not laboriously

repeat the contents of the enclosure but highlight special features of it.

Writing a sales letter we have a pattern to follow.

The main parts of a sales letter.

Introductory opening paragraph needs to capture reader’s attention.

The proposition is the heart of the letter.

Convincing the reader. There may be a price concession if the offer is

taken up quickly, or the offer may have a time limit.

Final paragraph consists of instructions on how to respond or order.

Adopting the above four-point formula, here is an example of how a sales

letter might be written.

Dear Mr. Brown

What do you do when your wife says the lawn needs cutting? Do you turn over

a new leaf in the book you are trying to read? Or maybe you take the dog

for a walk? If you haven't got a dog perhaps you pray that it will rain?

That's if you have an old back-breaker of a lawnmower that's agony to push

up and down the lawn on a hot day.

With the new Smith and Jones electric lawnmower you don't have to push. You

simply steer! The machine does all the work. It's a pleasure, really.

Your wife will be surprised how willingly you take your Smith and Jones out

of the garden shed. She'll probably have a drink waiting for you

afterwards, not that you'll be hot and weary. It will just be nice to sit

down with her in the deckchairs and admire that neat, trim lawn. Nice work,

Mr. Brown!

You can see the new Smith and Jones electric lawnmowers at the New Town

Garden Centre – open all weekend sо you can call in when it suits you. It

comes in a box you can put in the boot, and it's very easy to assemble. Why

not bring the wife along?

Yours sincerely John Donaldson

Manager

When writing a sales letter it is necessary to use language which is

appropriate to the medium, the product and the reader. The contents of the

envelope should be kept to a minimum. Some mailings consist of so many

items of different shapes and sizes that the recipient is bewildered and

may well discard the whole lot! Good enclosures are those which supplement

the sales letter. Some of the best examples of well-planned shots are the

one-piece mailers which contain all the necessary information and the order

form, making an accompanying sales letter unnecessary.

A printed envelope can be an advertisement just like the packaging of a

retail product. It is the first thing people see. It can attract attention

and invite curiosity about the contents, and if sufficiently interesting to

the recipient the printed envelope could achieve priority over other

correspondence received at the same time.

The size of envelopes can be controlled by the format of printed

enclosures. Large leaflets in large envelopes can arrive in a very battered

state whereas smaller leaflets in smaller envelopes are more likely to

arrive in the same condition as when packed. So it’s better to use the

small ones.

In order to send direct mail shots the company should create mailing lists.

There are a lot of ways of creating or obtaining mailing lists. The

information may be took from sales bills bearing the names and addresses of

purchasers, from the response to advertisements, from yearbooks, annuals,

directories and membership lists. They may be created by using a direct

mail house or by hiring a list from list-brokers who specialize in this

service. There are also firms which specialize in client's lists on

computerized databases, adding and deleting names as requested, and so

managing and maintaining a client's own list.

It is important to have an up-to-date mailing list, and it is bad policy to

build a continuous mailing list which is never checked or revised. People

do move, change their names or die. A mailing list of customers can be out-

of-date after two years and in some cases in six months.

Not all direct advertising, or distribution of materials, is sent by post.

A large volume is delivered door-to-door to houses, shops or offices. There

are three types of mail-drop service:

by specialist door-to-door distributors;

by the Post Office;

in conjunction with the delivery of free newspapers.

Direct Response Marketing

Direct response is a form of distribution as I’ve mentioned above. The

reasons for its growth and success are lack of personal services in self-

service stores and supermarkets, problems of car-parking and road

congestion near shopping centres, popularity of credit and charge cards.

Today the variety of means by which 'armchair' shopping can be conducted

are only limited by the ability of modern mail order traders to conceive

yet another technique of what is now called direct response marketing. We

have moved a long way from the mail-order bargains of the popular press or

the mail order club catalogues, although both still exist. It is now a

sophisticated business extending rapidly into the realms of alternative

television, micro-computers and videodisc catalogues. At the same time,

traditional media continue to be used, but this does now include commercial

television, as with recorded music producers. The largest single user of

direct response is insurance.

Direct response has become a very substantial area of agency business,

conducted either by specialist agencies, or by specialist subsidiaries of

well-known agencies. A major reason for the expansion of direct response

marketing has been the demand from clients for 'accountable advertising'

where they can measure the response in enquiries, sales leads or sales.

From small black and white ads in the popular press to full-colour, full-

page ads in the weekend colour supplements, a huge variety of goods and

services arc sold off-the-page. Most hobby and enthusiasts magazines carry

ads offering goods by post, from foreign stamps to computer software. The

business pages offer unit trusts, and even the popular papers offer life

insurance, motor-car and private hospital insurance. Correspondence courses

have long been sold this way. Even the sale of shares is conducted by

prospectuses published in The Times and Financial Times.

A number of commercial and non-commercial organisations sell from

catalogues which may be advertised in the press and on TV or sent to

regular customers, members or donors, or direct mailed against selected

mailing lists. Such catalogues are usually distributed annually or

seasonally, but some are issued more frequently. They may be for specific

products or services such as garden seeds, bulbs or roses; foreign stamps

or coins; fashion goods; wines; pipes; or perhaps tour holidays.

There are two kinds of clubs, those for club agents who enrol a circle of

members, with the agents earning commission on the sales; and clubs for

individual members who usually undertake to buy a minimum number of books,

records, cassettes or CDs a year. Some airlines operate mail order clubs

for passengers.

The first group enrol agents by means of ads in the women's press and in

family magazines like TV Times and Radio Times. The reader should note the

special wording of the application coupons in these ads. Particular

information is requested such as whether the applicant has a telephone, and

there is generally an age limit and perhaps geographical limits.

Also television, telephone and teletext may be used as the method of

distributing. Advertisers quote the Teledata (ВНР) number to make enquiries

or order goods. It is a 24-hour personalised telemarketing service, making

it unnecessary for customers to mail coupons and for advertisers to handle

them. All the sales information is held in a computer. For example, an

advertisement for the Hyundai Stella 1.6 motor car, concluded with: 'phone

Teledata 071-200-0200 for a brochure and the name and address of your

nearest dealer'. The teledata receptionist gives the addresses of the

nearest dealers, and note the caller's address in order to send the

brochure, and asks where the advertisement has been seen and the make and

year of the caller's present car.

Electronic mail is a system whereby mail is received on a Telex or non-

Telex computer terminal with a modem which permits a print-out on a

printer. This system is limited to recipients who have the necessary

receiving equipment. But the growth of such office facilities is making

electronic mail a viable direct response medium especially since there is

the interaction facility to respond directly and quickly.

Direct marketing relies on trust. Customers have to send money in advance

and do not see the goods until they arrive. That is why this form of

trading is less common in developing countries. In Britain, the Mail Order

Protection Scheme means that customers are protected by the publishers who

do not wish to receive complaints from readers.

In Britain there are many laws which could concern the direct response

marketer, and some may be of general application wherever the goods are

sold. To these may be added the common law of contract. Most of these laws

apply to off-the-page direct response, some apply to all forms of direct

response marketing.

Exhibitions

Importance of exhibitions

Exhibitions are popular throughout the world and have a long history,

originating with old trading markets such as the 'marts' in what are today

Belgium and the Netherlands, where British merchants sold their wool and

woollens in the fourteenth century. The exhibition developed into the show

attended by either the trade or the general public. London for many years

became a major exhibition centre, to mention only the Great Exhibition of

1851, the Wembley Exhibition of 1924, and the Festival of Britain in 1951.

In recent years the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham has rivalled

London although many events are held at Olympia, Earls Court, the

Horticultural Halls and the Barbican Centre in the City.

Throughout the world there are major exhibition centres, often government

supported (unlike Britain!), the chief ones in Europe being Frankfurt,

Basle and Milan. Many exhibitions are nowadays held in the Gulf states, an

indication of the need to develop their emergent economies. Permanent trade

exhibition centres exist in developing countries such as Malaysia and

Nigeria.

Types of exhibition

1. Public indoor

Usually held in specially built halls, the public show is based on a theme

of public interest such as food, the home, do-it-yourself, gardening or

holidays and travel.

2. Trade or business indoor

A more specialised type of exhibition, this will probably have a smaller

attendance consisting of bona fide visitors who are invited, given tickets

in their trade journal or admitted on presentation of their business card.

3. Private indoor

These are usually confined to one sponsor, but occasionally consist of a

few sponsors with associated but not rival interests Venues are usually

hotels, local halls, libraries, building centres or company premises if

suitable.

4. Outdoor

Certain subjects lend themselves to outdoor exhibitions, for instance

aviation, farm equipment (at agricultural shows) camping and large

construction equipment. Exhibition stand may also be available at outdoor

or tented events like flower shows and horse shows. In hotter countries

exhibitions normally held indoors in the northern hemisphere will be held

out-of-doors.

5. Travelling

Mobile exhibitions can be transported by caravan, specially built

exhibition vehicles, converted double-decker buses, trains aircraft and

ships. British Rail has its special Ambassador exhibition train which can

be used by a single client and taken to a choice of railway stations

throughout the country where visitors can be received. It can also be taken

to European countries Mobile van shows are common in developing countries,

travelling from town to town and village to village.

6. In-store

These are popular with foreign sponsors who organise weeks in different

towns to display foods, wines, fabrics, pottery, glassware or tourist

attractions. The displays are usually in appropriate stores, but a special

entertainment evening may be organised for the public in a theatre or hall,

when singers, dancers and/or films may constitute the programme.

7. Permanent exhibitions

Some large organisations may hold exhibitions within their premises or in

special halls or parks. A particularly attractive one is Legoland, a

children's park at Billund, Denmark, which demonstrates Lego toys.

The following are well worth visiting, combining as they do well mounted

exhibits with video shows:

The Thames Barrier Exhibition, near Woolwich. The Mary Rose Exhibition,

Portsmouth Dockyard. The Eurotunnel Exhibition, Folkestone.

8. Conferences

In association with annual conferences there is often an exhibition

supported by suppliers which delegates may visit between and after

conference sessions. Some of them are quite small, perhaps arranged in an

ante-room or in the foyer of the hotel, but others are as big as the

conference itself. The larger exhibitions are usually held at venues like

Brighton or Harrogate where there are combined conference and exhibition

facilities.

Characteristics of exhibitions

Exhibitions are unlike any other forms of advertising and can include

selling direct off-the-stand to visitors. The special characteristics of

exhibitions are summarised in 16-21.

The chief value of an exhibition is that it draws attention to it subject

and so attracts people, often from great distances. Thus the exhibitor has

the opportunity of meeting people he would never meet nor have time to

contact. The message of the exhibition, and often that of individual

exhibitors, spreads far beyond the even itself, and coverage is possible

throughout the appropriate media at home and abroad.

An exhibition requires a lot of time for its preparation, and for manning

the stand. It is essential that the stand is manned by knowledgeable people

capable of answering visitors' questions.

Exhibitions provide opportunities to display prototypes of new products,

and to receive visitors' comments and criticisms.

Confidence, credibility and goodwill can be established by meeting

potential customers face-to-face. This applies to both distributors and

consumers.

There are ideal opportunities actually to show the product which is more

authentic than describing and illustrating it in advertisements, catalogues

and sales literature. Similarly, sampling provides a good sales promotion

opportunity.

The atmosphere of an exhibition is very congenial, even though a long visit

may be hard on the feet. For many people it is an outing to be enjoyed and

there is an atmosphere of entertainment like going to the circus or the

theatre.

Using exhibitions

There are many trade papers which give forward dates of exhibitions, the

most complete details appearing in Exhibition Bulletin. Other publications

which announce some exhibition details are British Rate and Data,

Conferences and Exhibitions International and Sales and Marketing

Management.

The following points should be borne in mind before booking space in an

exhibition,

(a) Organisers. Is the event organised by a responsible firm? Are they

members of the Association of Exhibition Organisers? Have they run this or

other shows before?

(b) Date. What is the date, is it convenient and does it clash with any

other event?

(c) Venue. Is it a good venue, that is one likely to attract a good

attendance? Is it a convenient one for transporting exhibits to and from?

Some foreign venues may impose transportation and customs problems. Does it

have good transport links? Is there adequate car-parking? Are there nearby

hotels?

(d) Cost of sites. What is the charge per square metre and are, perhaps,

modestly priced shell schemes available?

(e) Facilities. Are all the necessary facilities available such as water,

gas or electricity, if they are required?

(f) Publicity. How will visitors be attracted?

(g) Build-up and knock-down. Is there adequate time allowed before and

after the show for erection and dismantling of stands?

(h) Public relations. What press office and press visit facilities will

there be?

This is an aspect of exhibitions which is overlooked by many exhibitors. It

pays to co-operate with the exhibition press officer months before the

event. Valuable press, radio and television coverage can be gained from

exhibitions, and this is a valuable bonus. Hundreds of journalists visit

shows, looking for good stories and pictures. They do not carry suitcases

and will shun clumsy press kits packed with irrelevant material.

(i) Associated events. Are there any associated events like a conference or

film/video shows?

(j) Is it justified? Is the cost of designing and constructing a stand,

renting space, printing sales literature, providing hospitality (especially

at a trade show) and taking staff away from their regular work justified?

Has the company something new to show, does it need to meet distributors

and/or customers, must it compete with rival exhibitors? What value may be

anticipated for the money spent—in goodwill or sales, including perhaps the

finding and appointing of new agents or distributors?

In his very useful book, Exhibitions and Conferences from A to Z, (Modina

Press, 1989) Sam Black makes the following comment:

'Exhibitions are visited by people expecting to see actual objects.

Photographs, diagrams and illustrations play an important part in conveying

technical or general information but they should be subsidiary to the three-

dimensional exhibits. People will read quite detailed explanatory copy on

an exhibition stand if it explains an exhibit which has attracted their

curiosity, but isolated panels of text will rarely be read.'

Sponsorship

Sponsorship consists of giving monetary or other support to a beneficiary

in order to make it financially viable, sometimes for altruistic reasons,

but usually to gain some advertising, public relations or marketing

advantage.

The beneficiary could be an organisation or individual. While some sponsors

may simply wish to be philanthropic, this is seldom so today when the

object is more often deliberately commercial.

At present, the bulk of sponsorship money is spent on sport, and while this

support is given mainly to the major sports of motor-racing, horse-racing,

football, cricket, tennis, golf, a number of other sports have become

popular through sponsorship and television coverage, to mention only bowls,

snooker, and darts. For example, Canon were the origional sponsors of the

football League and at the end of their three - year sponsorship, costing f

3mln they were able to boast that there was hardly an office in Britain

which didn't have a Canon machine. The strength of this sponsorship was

that British football is played of many months of the year by 92 teams,

this producing constant media coverage.

What can be sponsored?

a) Books and other publications such as maps.

b) Exhibitions which may be sponsored by trade associations and

professional societies.

c) Education, in the form of grants, bursaries and fellowships.

d) Expeditions, explorations, mountaineering, round-the-world voyages and

other adventures.

e) Sport.

f) The arts such as music, painting, literature and the theatre.

g) Charities, especially by helping them to promote their activities.

The aim of a sponsorship is to gain results associated with the

advertising,

public relations or marketing strategy.

Advertising objectives:

a) When media advertising a banned. The product may be banned by certain

media, e.g. cigarettes cannot be advertised on British TV, although this

may not apply in other countries. Cigarette manufactures have succeeded in

gaining considerable TV programme coverage by sponsoring cricket, golf and

motor-racing.

b) In association with sponsorship, arena advertising in the form of boards

and bunting can be displayed at racecourses, sports stadiums, motor-racing

circuits and other venues so that they are inevitably picked up by the TV

cameras covering the event, apart from being seen by spectators on the

spot.

Public relations objective:

Public relations objectives do not seek to advertise in order to persuade

and sell, but aim to develop knowledge and understanding of the

organisation. An important public relations objective may be to create

goodwill towards the company, locally, nationally or internationally. A

large corporation, making big profits, may adopt a social conscience by

donating funds or gifts to society. It might give financial aid to a

library, college, theatre, hospital or medical research fund. When a

foreign company enters export markets, where it may be unknown or greeted

with prejudice or suspicion, sponsorship can help create a friendly

attitude without which it would be impossible to sell.

Very popular is the presenting the awards to journalists for their skill

and knowledge when writing about the sponsor's subject or industry. At to

marketing objectives sponsorship helps to position a product, to support

dealers, to establish a change in marketing policy, to launch a new

product, to establish the product in international markets.

Types of stores

Retailers can be classified by the length and breadth of their product

assortment. Among the most important types are specialty stores, department

stores, supermarkets, convenience stores and superstores.

A specialty store carries a narrow product line with a deep assortment

within that line. Examples include stores selling sporting goods,

furniture, books, electronics, flowers or toys. Today, specialty stores are

flourishing for several reasons. The increasing use of market segmentation,

market targeting, and product specialization has resulted in a greater need

for stores that focus on specific products and segments. And because of

changing consumer life styles and the increasing number of 2-income

households, many consumers have greater incomes but less time to spend

shopping. They are attracted to specialty stores which provide high quality

products, nearly locations, good store hours, excellent service and quick

entry and exit. The shopping centre boom has also contributed to the recent

growth of specialty stores, which occupy 60 to 70% of the total shopping

centre space.

A department store carries a wide variety of product lines-typically

clothing, home furnishing, and household goods. Each line is operated as a

separate department. The first department stores appeared and grew rapidly

through the first half of the century. But after World War II, they began

to lose ground to a growing list of other types of retailers, including

discount stores, specialty stores, and *off-price* retailers.

Department stores are today waging a *comeback war*. Most have opened