BBA 304 - ADVERTISING AND SALES

ASSIGNMENT

DRIVE	SUMMER 2015
PROGRAM	Bachelor of Business Administration- BBA
SEMESTER	3
SUBJECT CODE & NAME	BBA 304 - ADVERTISING AND SALES
BK ID	B1598
Credit & Marks	4 CREDITS & 60 MARKS

Note – Answer all questions. Kindly note that answers for 10 marks questions should beapproximately of 400 words. Each question is followed by evaluation scheme.

Q. 1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of television advertising. Also explainwhat do you understand by Internet Advertising and Social Media Networkadvertising?

Answer:Television and internet advertising:Today everyone has TV and advertising on TV is one the best options to promote your products. The ad coming on TV also put high impact on the customers. There will be more positive effects in building brands. Advertisers are innovating new ways for their campaigns on high definition televisions. India Advertising agencies are coming up with glitzy, smart and tailored type ads targeting the middle classes. Besides, a number Hindi India media news channels have been launched and they are reaching to the masses both in urban and rural parts of the country. Indian television news channels are now have become more effective as advertising agency.

With the advent of the ad server, marketing through the Internet opened new frontiers for advertisers and contributed to the "dot-com" boom of the 1990s. Entire corporations operated solely on advertising revenue, offering everything from coupons to free Internet access. At the turn of the 21st century, a number of websites, including the search engine Google, started a change in online advertising by emphasizing contextually relevant ads based on an individual's browsing interests. This has led to a plethora of similar efforts and an increasing trend of interactive advertising.

Advantages and disadvantages of TV advertising

Advantages of Television Advertising: Some advantages of television advertising include the following:

·         Television reaches very large audiences – usually much larger than the audience your local newspaper reaches, and it does so during a short period of time.

·         Since there are fewer television stations than radio stations in a given area, each TV audience is divided into much larger segments, which enables you to reach a larger, yet, more diverse audience.

·         It has the ability to convey your message with sight, sound and motion, and can give a product or service instant validity and prominence.

·         You can easily reach targeted audiences. Children can be reached during cartoon programming, housewives during the afternoon soap operas, and insomniacs after midnight.

Disadvantages of Television Advertising

·         When you advertise on TV, your commercial is not only competing with others, it is also competing with the viewer’s environment as well.

·         Even if your commercial is being aired, viewers may never see it unless it is intrusive enough to capture their attention.

·         A minimum amount of airtime provides limited length of exposure and ad clutter.

·         The message comes and goes, and that’s it! Unless you buy additional time, the viewer doesn’t see your commercial again.

Social media network advertising:Social network advertising, also social media targeting is a group of terms that are used to describe forms of Online advertising that focus on social networking sites. One of the major benefits of advertising on a social networking site (e.g. Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, Bebo, Orkut, etc.) is that advertisers can take advantage of the users demographic information and target their ads appropriately.  Social media targeting combines current targeting options (like geotargeting, behavioral targeting, socio-psychographic targeting, etc.), to make detailed target group identification possible.

Q. 2. Explain the consumer buying decision process.

Answer:Find out the 5 stages of Consumer Buying Decision Process that guide shoppers in their decision and purchase process when buying a product. And learn how to improve your marketing strategy to create a need, strengthen your relationship with your customers and increase your sales.

I. Need recognition / Problem recognition:The need recognition is the first and most important step in the buying process. If there is no need, there is no purchase. This recognition happens when there is a lag between the consumer’s actual situation and the ideal and desired one.

However, not all the needs end up as a buying behavior. It requires that the lag between the two situations is quite important. But the “way” (product price, ease of acquisition, etc.) to obtain this ideal situation has to be perceived as “acceptable” by the consumer based on the level of importance he attributes to the need.

II. Information search: Once the need is identified, it’s time for the consumer to seek information about possible solutions to the problem. He will search more or less information depending on the complexity of the choices to be made but also his level of involvement. (Buying pasta requires little information and involves fewer consumers than buying a car.)

III. Alternative evaluation: Once the information collected, the consumer will be able to evaluate the different alternatives that offer to him, evaluate the most suitable to his needs and choose the one he think it’s best for him.

In order to do so, he will evaluate their attributes on two aspects. The objective characteristics (such as the features and functionality of the product) but also subjective (perception and perceived value of the brand by the consumer or its reputation).

IV. Purchase decision: Now that the consumer has evaluated the different solutions and products available for respond to his need, he will be able to choose the product or brand that seems most appropriate to his needs. Then proceed to the actual purchase itself.

His decision will depend on the information and the selection made in the previous step based on the perceived value, product’s features and capabilities that are important to him.

But his Consumer Buying Decision Process and his decision process may also depend or be affected by such things as the quality of his shopping experience or of the store (or online shopping website), the availability of a promotion, a return policy or good terms and conditions for the sale.

V. Post-purchase behaviour: Once the product is purchased and used, the consumer will evaluate the adequacy with his original needs (those who caused the buying behavior). And whether he has made ​​the right choice in buying this product or not. He will feel either a sense of satisfaction for the product (and the choice). Or, on the contrary, a disappointment if the product has fallen far short of expectations.

Q. 3. Observe any newspaper advertisement of any consumer durable company. What is the target audience and what are benefits of choosing newspaper for advertisement.

Answer:Target Audience:When you place an ad in a target-specific magazine, you are marketing directly to a specific target audience rather than a general one. In other words, by simply placing the ad you’ve zeroed in on a market niche that is probably already interested in the type of product or service you’re offering.

If you’re selling a hair product, an ad placed in a fashion or hairstyling magazine will attract potential consumers who are looking for just this type of product. If you place the same ad in a general-interest magazine with a less specific readership, you reduce the likelihood that most readers will be interested in your product. When choosing which publication will attract the right consumers, consider not only the focus of the magazine but the age and gender of its readers as well.

Selection of appropriate advertisement:

Step 1:Top the ad with an attention-getting headline. A bold, well-worded headline will draw people to your ad. In the absence of a strong headline, newspaper readers will be more likely to just skip over your section of the paper.

Step 2:Use a clear, easy-to-read font. Select a bold font in a simple print. Consider the use of Arial or another clear font to ensure that an overly complicated font does not deter potential customers.

Step 3:Include no more than two or three sentences explaining the good or service. Do not overload your ad with text. You only want to include the most important information in two to three simple sentences.

Step 4:Use simple vocabulary, and avoid jargon. Potential customers are not likely to consult a dictionary to discover the meaning of a complex or overly technical word.

The Advantages of newspaper advertising are:

1. Reach:Nearly 7 out of 10 adults have read a newspaper in the past week – that’s 147 million Americans!

2. Engagement:Readers are highly engaged with newspapers in print, online, smart phones and tablets because they value the news, advertising and local feature coverage.

3. Local coverage:No other medium has the in depth community coverage that newspapers offer.  Over two-thirds of the dollars spent in newspaper advertising is from local advertisers.  This is one of the newspaper advertising advantages that advertisers looking to target local communities should pay attention to.

4. Targeting options:One of the strong benefits of newspaper advertising is that newspapers offer a variety of ways to target a particular audience.  Whether it’s zoning inserts by zip code or using a niche publication to target a certain ethnic group or behaviourally targeting a certain group on a newspaper website.

5.Convenience:Newspaper companies offer their readers a variety of platforms to choose from in which to receive their news and advertising content.  Readers highly value the ability to consume newspapers in the format that is most convenient and useful depending on the time and place.

Q. 4. Explain the AIDAS model in detail.

Answer: If you've ever been motivated to take action due to an advertisement, you've likely been influenced by a technique called A.I.D.A, which stands for "attention, interest, desire, action." This process is used by many marketers in their communications to entice prospects to make a purchase or take a desired action. The technique is commonly used in advertising vehicles such as television commercials and direct mail pieces.

Attention

The attention portion of the marketing message occurs at the beginning and is designed to give the prospects a reason to take notice. Presenting a shocking fact or statistic that identifies a problem which can be solved by the product or service is one common method of gaining attention. Other methods can include asking a thought-provoking question or using the element of surprise. The purpose is to give the prospects a reason for wanting to learn more.

Interest

Once you've gained the prospects' attention, the next step is to maintain interest in your product or service to keep the recipients engaged. Explain to the recipients how the problem you've identified in the attention step is adversely affecting their lives. A demonstration or illustration can help the recipients to further identify with the problem and want to actively seek possible solutions. By personalizing the problem, you're making it hit closer to home.

Desire

In the desire stage, your objective is to show the prospects how your product or service can solve their problem. Explain the features of the product or service and the related benefits and demonstrate how the benefits fulfill the need. A common advertising process is the "before and after" technique, such as when a cleaning product makes a soiled item look brand new. If done effectively, the prospects should now have the desire to make a purchase.

Action

Now that you've created the desire to make a purchase, the final step is to persuade the prospects to take immediate action. In a one-on-one sales process, this is the time to ask for the sale. In the advertising world, techniques involve creating sense of urgency by extending an offer for a limited time or including a bonus of special gift to those who act within a specific time frame. Without a specific call to action, the prospect may simply forget about your offer and move on.

Q. 5. What do you understand by Public relations? What is the difference between PRand advertising?

Answer: Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) and the public. Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. This differentiates it from advertising as a form of marketing communications. The aim of public relations is to inform the public, prospective customers, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders and ultimately persuade them to maintain a certain view about the organization, its leadership, products, or of political decisions. Public relations professionals typically work for PR and marketing firms, businesses and companies, government, government agencies, and public officials as PIOs, and nongovernmental organizations and nonprofit organizations.

Difference between advertising and PR

Advertising: The difference between advertising and public relations is pretty straightforward. Essentially, advertising is paid for, meaning that companies purchase ad space in a magazine or a blog or on a billboard and then put the ad they have designed into the space they paid for. By paying for space, the company has total control over what is placed – both the image and message. Offline advertising like magazine ads or billboards are measured by how many impressions (views) the advertisement is projected to get. Online advertising like banner ads on blogs or a dedicated (paid for) email newslwtters are often measured by how much traffic theygenerates to the website, and how many people purchase from that link. Owned vs. Earned Media

The nature of advertising means that it is often referred to as owned media, because the company essentially owns both the content and the space where the ad is placed. In contrast, the media relations function of public relations, the part where we pitch the media to cover clients in a newspaper, morning show, magazine, and so on, is  referred to as earned media. Companies don’t purchase a story in the style section of the New York Times. Instead they pitch a reporter, editor, or news producer on the idea that the company or product has enough value or relevancy to merit coverage. And, unlike advertsing, outreach through public relations means that neither the publicist or the brand she represents has control over how the story is written or the product is portrayed.

Public Relations: Fashion public relations often focuses primarily on securing media coverage for clients, through a variety of strategies and tactics. PR is also the communication function responsible for nurturing the relationship between a company and well, anybody who is interested. For practitioners, this may mean interfacing directly with customers or shareholders, performing crisis communication (the actions a company takes when something goes wrong), social media management, community outreach, and planning events, in addition to working with the media.

Q. 6. Write short notes on:

a) Sales quota:Sales Quota is the sales goal set for a product line, company division or sales representative. It helps the managers to define and stimulate sales effort.Sales quota is the minimum sales goal for a set time span.

Generally sales quotas are set slightly higher than the estimated sales so as to stretch the sales force effort.

Sales quotas are developed through the study of annual territory marketing plan. In this the plan for developing new accounts and expanding existing accounts is given by the representatives.

Example: -

New business goal: - $1,000,000

Average sales size: - $50,000

Total sales needed to achieve the goal: 20

Significance: Sales objectives serve as the foundation for an overall sales plan. Without clearly understood sales objectives, individual sales representatives may not be able to reach their goals, causing the company to fall short of its revenue projections.

Features: Sales objectives can contain quotas, the number of sales calls expected during a specific period, territory assignments and other key metrics.

Time Frame: Managers will often establish sales objectives during the sales planning process, which begins several months before the fiscal or calendar year.

b)sales force:Generating income and revenue are the primary roles of the sales force. A sales team must work together to increase brand awareness and drive sales forward. Small businesses hiring salespeople for the first time must overcome the challenges of finding a cohesive team to work well together.

Significance: In addition to generating income, the sales force builds trust with customers. Sales representatives engage customers at all stages of the relationship. New customers need interaction and opportunities to learn about the brand.

Types: Businesses can decide between two types of sales teams or use a combination of both. Outside sales representatives, also called field reps, work independently to generate sales. This type of sales force structure works best with responsible, self-starters who need little supervision.

Benefits: The benefits of hiring a competent sales team include increased brand awareness, heightened company loyalty, and increased revenues. It may take some trial and error during the hiring process, but finding effective salespeople takes patience.

Overcome Objections: Efficient salespeople need to overcome the three main types of objections without feeling rejected or intimidated. Customers conditionally decline a product or service when they say they do not need or cannot afford it.

Warning: Salespeople can make or break a business, depending on their level of professionalism, commitment, and integrity. When first hiring a sales force, businesses must check references and use effective interview techniques to find people who best fit the company culture and its goals.