George E. Belch & Michael A.
Belch define advertising as any paid form of non-personal presentation and
promoting of ideas, goods and services through the mass media with an
identifiable sponsor.
The place of advertising in marketing
cannot be under estimated since of all the marketing mix; product, price, place
and promotion, advertising plays an important function in the promotion mix. It
is the communication tool usually adopted by marketing to reach out to its
targeted audience especially those institutions targeting mass consumers.
Promotion here refers to the
coordination of all seller initiated efforts to set up channels of information
and persuasion in order to sell goods and services or promote an idea.
According to the Business Dictionary
continuous advertising is a marketing strategy in which the consumers of goods
or services are continuously reminded of it even during periods its sales are
insignificant or unlikely.
With this in mind, it will be unwise
for companies especially well established ones with well known brand names like
Coca cola with many years of experience to seize advertising because continuous
advertising comes with a lot of advantages to the company.
Among them include:
Increase awareness. There are many
more individuals out there that the company needs to reach out to increase
sales. Besides competition is getting keener by the day with new competing
products being introduced into the market, hence need to keep reminding
consumers of the existence of the coca cola brands of products.
Secondly, continuous advertising is
important to introduce new products. Coca cola has more than one product and
continue to add more to its range of products. It is therefore reasonable to get
the public informed any time the company introduces new products. Advertising
is therefore designed to suit and appeal to the targeted consumers.
Furthermore, it is used to announce a
change. Continuous advertising is important to provide information to customers
about changes in quality of existing products designed to respond better to their
needs and for which reason they should even purchase the product more.
Another reason is to alter the
attitudes of people. An effectual advertisement results in a swift change in
the attitudes and habits of the people.
Take care of customers. Advertising
takes care of customers. It helps in holding on to the loyal customer,
decreasing the number of lost customers and enlisting new customers. Thus the
overall effect of advertising is increase in the number of customers that will
gradually become loyal to the product.
It also worth noting that, every
responsible company should be interested in the welfare of its customers and
must put in measures to protect consumers. Intense competition and quest for
money has led introduction of imitation of products and the worse hit are
famous brands like Coca-Cola hence consumers who trust the Coca-Cola brand for
example is obliged to educate its consumers of the features that help them to
differentiate quality from fake products.
Advertising is also used to provide
information on other undertakings the company is engaged in. Coca-Cola is
without doubt a big brand with several branches across the world. Their publics
therefore expect them to also do well with their social responsibilities as a
way of giving back to society. This also attracts a lot of customers to them
hence they need to inform the public about it through advertisement and to
attract beneficiaries. Example of this is the involvement of MTN, a
communication provider in Ghana in its “21 days of Yellow” where they assist
schools with classroom blocks.
These reasons provided above among
others therefore provide a strong case for companies especially those with
strong financial base to make budget for continuous advertising though the cost
involved may be huge.
Reference
George E. Belch & Michael A.
Belch, 8th Edition, Advertising and
Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective.
http://inventors.about.com/od/advertisingmedia/a/effective_marke.htm
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