Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e

16. Advertising and Sales
    Promotion

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

Advertising and Sales Promotion 469

attitudes in the target market may help uncover such strongly felt unsatisfiedneeds.

Appealing to important needs can get more action and also provide the kind of

information buyers need to confirm their decisions. Some customers seem to read

more advertising aftera purchase than before. The ad may reassure them about the

correctness of their decision.

Many international consumer products firms try to use one global advertising

message all around the world. Of course, they translate the message or make other

minor adjustments—but the focus is one global copy thrust. Some do it to cut the

cost of developing different ads for each country. Others feel their customers’ basic

needs are the same, even in different countries. Some just do it because it’s

fashionable to “go global.”

This approach works for some firms. Coca-Cola and IBM, for example, feel that

the needs their products serve are very similar for customers around the world. They

focus on the similarities among customers who make up their target market rather

than the differences. However, most firms who use this approach experience terri-

ble results. They may save money by developing fewer ads, but they lose sales

because they don’t develop advertising messages, and whole marketing mixes, aimed

at specific target markets. They just try to appeal to a global “mass market.”

Combining smaller market segments into a single, large target market makes

sense if the different segments can be served with a single marketing mix. But when

that is not the case, the marketing manager should treat them as different target

markets and develop different marketing mixes for each target.^22

Can global messages

work?

An advertising manager manages a company’s advertising effort. Many advertising

managers—especially those working for large retailers—have their own advertising

departments that plan specific advertising campaigns and carry out the details. Oth-

ers turn over much of the advertising work to specialists—the advertising agencies.

Advertising agenciesare specialists in planning and handling mass-selling details

for advertisers. Agencies play a useful role—because they are independent of the

advertiser and have an outside viewpoint. They bring experience to an individual

client’s problems because they work for many other clients. As specialists they can

often do the job more economically than a company’s own department. And if an

agency isn’t doing a good job, the client can select another. However, ending a rela-

tionship with an agency is a serious decision. Too many marketing managers just

use their advertising agency as a scapegoat. Whenever anything goes wrong, they

blame the agency.

Some full-service agencies handle any activities related to advertising, publicity,

or sales promotion. They may even handle overall marketing strategy planning as

well as marketing research, product and package development, and sales promo-

tion. Other agencies are more specialized. For example, in recent years there has

been rapid growth of firms that specialize in developing websites and Internet ban-

ners ads. Similarly, creative specialists just handle the artistic elements of

advertising but leave media scheduling and buying, research, and related services

to other specialists or full-service agencies.

The vast majority of advertising agencies are small—with 10 or fewer employ-

ees. But the largest agencies account for most of the billings. Over the past decade

many of the big agencies merged—creating mega-agencies with worldwide networks.

Advertising Agencies Often Do the Work

Ad agencies are

specialists

The biggest agencies

handle much of the

advertising