Marketing Methods & Vehicles 4: Paid Advertising

This continues our series outlining marketing methods and vehicles to increase your revenues

Advertising constitutes the third marketing method outlined by Bryan Waldon Pope in The 7 Pillars of Successful Marketing. We already discussed the first two pillars: promotions and publicity/public relations. Today, we will separate the method “advertising” from the “vehicles” of TV, radio, print, or other.

A Definition and Purposes of Advertising

Dictionary.com defines advertising “the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, service, need, etc., especially by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, etc.: to get more customers by advertising.”

Entrepreneur lists the purposes of advertising:

• “Make customers aware of your products or service”
• “Convince customers that your company’s product or service is right for their needs”
• “Create a desire for your product or service”
• “Enhance the image of your company”
• “Announce new products or services”
• “Reinforce salespeople’s messages”
• “Make customers take the next step (ask for information, request a sample, place an order and so on)”
• “Draw customers to your business”

While discussing advertising, we should also emphasize the consequences of false advertising. The Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1125(a) defines false advertising as "Any advertising or promotion that misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities or geographic origin of goods, services or commercial activities". Legal consequences for false advertising include financial liability, fines, and possibly imprisonment.

Tips to Enhance Your Advertising

All Business provides 10 tips to make your advertising more effective:

• Go after your target audience
• Highlight your competitive advantage
• Establish an image
• You have to spend money to make money
• Advertise in the right places
• Don't allow your budget to run your advertising campaign
• Diversify your vehicles
• Don’t try to be everything to everyone
• Test, test, test your ads in advance
• Monitor your ads

In addition, Buzz Marketing provides excellent tips for 8 advertising vehicles: the Internet, direct mailings, writing your advertising copy, TV, print, radio, and word-of-mouth or buzz advertising techniques. I strongly suggest you read the article.

Thursday we will highlight the pros and cons of the  marketing through the vehicle Television