It is much cheaper to reach a business customer through advertising than through a salesman’s visit, a letter, or a phone call. But even a very effective advertisement is not likely to close a sale. Follow-up action is necessary. But advertising pre-sells the product and when a salesman visits a business customer, the latter is positively predisposed towards the salesman’s product if he has liked what he has seen in the advertisement. Advertisements also generate inquiries from business customers. Advertising of business products is also important because there are many people in the buyer’s organization who influence the buying decision and the salesman cannot know who they all are, and what are their respective interests in the purchase.

The media planner has the choice of using TV, press, cinema, outdoor, radio, internet, mobile phones, or some combination of media classes.

Creative Factors:

The key question is whether the medium allows the communication objective to be realized. If the objective is to position the brand as having high status aspirational personality, TV would be a better option than posters. If the communication objective is to remind the target audience of a brand’s existence, a poster campaign may suffice. Size of advertising budget: Some media are more expensive than others.

Relative Cost Per Opportunity to See:

Target audience may be reached much more cheaply using one medium rather than another. The calculation of opportunity to see differs according to media class which making comparisons difficult.

Competitive Activity:

Two conflicting philosophies are to compete in the same media or to dominate an alternative medium. The decision to compete in the same medium is taken because of a belief that the medium chosen by major competition is most effective and to ignore it would be to hand the competition a massive communication advantage.

Various media are:

Television: Advertisers can demonstrate the product in action. The capability of TV to combine color, movement, and sound means that it is often used when brand building is required.
Press: Factual information can be presented effectively. Readers are in control of how long they take to absorb the information.
Posters: Simplicity is required in the creative work because people will have the opportunity only to glance at a poster.
Cinema: Advertisements can benefit from color, movement, and sound. Exposure is high due to the captive nature of the audience.
Radio: Creativity is limited to sound. It is better suited to communicating factual information than attempting to create a brand image.

Print Advertisement:

A print advertisement comprises the headline, the body copy and the illustration. Readers first see the illustration, and then read the headline and then the body copy. An advertisement should follow the same sequence-the illustration at the top, followed by the headline and then the copy after the headline. Overuse of colors may distract consumers. The advertisement should contain a headline which might promise a benefit, deliver news, offer a service, identify a problem, or quote a satisfied customer.

A longer headline has better chances of being read than a shorter headline. The headline or the illustration should contain the brand name noticeable, which must subsequently be repeated as many times as possible in the advertisement. Most people who read a press advertisement read the headline but not the body copy. The company or brand name should appear in the headline otherwise the reader may not know the advertiser. The benefit should be communicated in the same line as well. Even if no more of the copy is read, the advertiser has got the message across by means of a strong headline.

TV Commercials:

TV commercials are of short duration. Most communicate only one major selling appeal called the single minded proposition, which is the single most motivating and differentiating thing that can be said about the brand. TV advertising uses one of the three creative approaches. The second approach is subtle. No overt benefit is mentioned. The intention is to involve the viewer by telling a story. The third appeal attempts to register the brand as significant in the market and is called salience advertising.

The assumption is that advertising which stands out as being different will cause brand to stand out as different. Humorous advertisements sell but not many writers can write funny commercials. Therefore it should not be attempted unless the advertiser has real talent for it. In slice of life advertisements an actor argues with another about the merits of a product, in a setting which approximates real life. Such realistic and charming slice of life advertisements are effective.

Products are embedded with increasing amount of technology. Products like personal computers and mobile phones are supposed to make customers more efficient, entertain them, and connect them with others. But customers accuse the very same products of wasting their time, confusing them, and isolating them. Customers have an uneasy relationship with technology and this uneasiness affects the way they shop for, buy, and use technology products. There are eight paradoxes that govern the relationship between customers and technology.

Control-chaos and Freedom-Enslavement:

Many technology products are supposed to bring order to the lives of the customers. But they have the capability to disrupt everyday routines. A family dinner can be ruined by malfunction in an over’s automatic timer; a corporate presentation can be disrupted by the equipment’s malfunctioning. Products that promise freedom to the customer also put new restrictions on them. The availability of the voice mail lets customers be in a meeting without being disturbed, but makes them feel obligated to constantly check messages and respond to them.

New-Obsolete an and Intelligence-Stupidity:

Some products have cutting edge technologies embedded in them but owners of such products always have the fear that their products will be rendered obsolete by the introduction of a more advanced model. Customers feel smarter when they use sophisticated products to solve complex problems. But they also feel stupid because they find it difficult to master the new technology or because they lose old skills.

Efficiency-Inefficiency and fulfilling needs-Creating new needs:

Customers are able to do certain tasks faster but they are not saving time as they have to do time-consuming new chores that the new product imposes on them. Numerous kitchen appliances were supposed significantly less time in the kitchen than they were doing earlier. Many technology products create new needs even as they serve others. A customer may be able to make a beautiful report using color printer but he will have to spend hours to get the fonts and the colors just right.

Assimilation-Isolation and Engagements-Disengagements:

Many technologies connect customers among themselves either by creating direct communication links or by providing shared experiences. But these technologies also become a substitute for face-to-face meeting and other social activities. A technology may enable an activity to be done faster but the customer does not feel sufficiently engaged in the activity and the technology may suck the fun element from the activity.

Marketing mix is a particular combination of the product, its price, the methods to promote it, and the ways to make the product available to the customer. Based upon its understanding of customers, a company develops its marketing mix of product, price, place and promotion. The elements of the marketing mix are intricately and sensitively related to each other. Product decision involves deciding what goods or services should be offered to customers. The product or service serves the basic need of the customer. The product provides the primary value to the customer. The customer got interested in the company primarily because of the product or service it was producing or proposed to produce.

All other elements should be reinforcing the value proposition of the product. Price is the cost that customer is willing to bear for the product and the way it is made available to him. Price represents on a unit basis what the company receives for the product which is being marketed. All other elements of the marketing mix represent costs. Marketers need to be very careful about pricing objectives, methods to arrive at a price and the factors which influence setting of a price. Decisions have to be made with respect to promotional mix: advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, and exhibition, sponsorship and public relations.

By these means the target audience is made aware of the existence of the product and the benefits that it confers to customers. The type of promotional tool used has to gel with other elements of the marketing mix. An expensive product, like machinery, with limited number of customers should be promoted through personal contacts between buyers and salespersons. Place involves decisions concerning distribution channels to be used, the location of outlets, methods of transportation and inventory levels to be held. Product should be available in right quantity, at right time and place. Distribution channels consist of independent intermediaries such as retailers, wholesalers, and distributors through which goods pass on their way to customers.

A free society needs both-high standard of individual wealth and clean environment. The private enterprise system has to develop the capability of providing the elements of an improved quality of life. Industries have to meet environmental demands and yet maintain their capacities to compete internationally. There are two different types of opportunities. The first opportunity comes from the fact that the companies will not be allowed to pollute the environment. Companies will have to identify processes whose outputs are being released in the environment and hence polluting it.

Companies have believed that to reduce the emissions or make them harmless before releasing into the environment, is always going to cost more. But this is not the case. When companies use new technologies to carry out their emission-producing processes, they find that the effectiveness and efficiency of the process is improved, in addition to reduction of emissions from them. The second opportunity will come to those companies which will develop the technologies that will enable companies to carry out their processes in environment-friendly ways. These companies will have to invest heavily in research and development, but they can be assured of a huge success when they come up with technologies that reduce or eliminate polluting emissions from processes.