Marketing update 3/31-4/14

Marketing principles update for 3/31 and 4/14 no class on 4/7 for E-Week

For class on 3/31 we covered the elements of promotion. There are 4 elements to promotion. The first is advertising, which is impersonal one-way mass marketing paid for by a marketer in which the name of the company or organization that is paying for the advertisement is identified. The next part of promotion is public relations, this a marketing function that evaluates the publics attitude toward the company and identifies areas within the company that the public may be interested in, they also try to contain any media crisis where the company is receiving bad publicity. The third element of promotion is Sales promotion which is somewhat a catchall for promotion, it is anything besides advertising, public relations and personal selling that is used to stimulate consumer buying. This can include coupons, rebates, point of purchase displays, sampling, premiums, loyalty reward cards and much more. We also covered what communication is, it is the process by which we exchange or share meanings through a common set of symbols, sounds and words. An interesting concept the we also covered is the A.I.D.A. Concept model which is an acronym for Attention Interest Desire and Action which is most often the steps that consumers follow when making a decision to make a purchase. This model also outlines the process for achieving promotional goals.

4/14
During this class we focused on advertising and the desired results for why companies use advertising. Advertising is most often used to create a value proposition which is primarily focused on Price and Value of a good or service. New brands with a smaller market share spend more proportionally than do larger companies with greater market share. Advertising can also change a negative attitude or perception to a positive one. There are three different types of product advertising. Pioneering advertising is used to create a new demand for a product which is usually during the introductory stage. Then competitive advertising is used in the growth stage and generally is used to influence demand. Lastly comparative advertising in when you compare two or more products and you compare the the differences and weakness of your competitions products to your own product. An advertising campaign is a series of advertisements focusing on a common theme, slogan and set of advertising appeal.  A method we use to set and measure advertising goals is by using DAGMAR "defining advertising goals for measured advertising results" we do this by defining target audiences, defining a desired percentage change and a period of time to achieve the results. When we advertise we need to sell the benefits not the attributes, benefits should answer the question "Whats in it for me?" when we do advertising we need a unique selling proposition which is a desirable,exclusive and believable advertising appeal selected as the theme for the campaign. The steps for creating an advertising campaign are to determine your objectives, sell the benefits, develop the appeal, execute the message and the last is to evaluate the results. We went over the purpose of public relations which is to evaluate public attitudes, identify issues of public concerns and execute programs to gain public understanding and acceptance. Some of public relation tools are new product publicity, press relations, corporate communication, public affairs, lobbying, employee/investor relations and crisis management. Crisis management is a coordinated effort to handle all the effects of unfavorable publicity or of an unfavorable event.