Advertising and Promotions Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright 1997-2008. Adapted from the Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation. (The book includes more comprehensive and detailed information about advertising and promotions, along with the broader activities of marketing. Although the publication addresses nonprofits, the marketing information pertains to for-profits, as well.) Before you learn more about advertising, you should get a basic impression of what advertising is. See What's "Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and Sales?". Advertising is a major "phase" of overall product or service development and management. Advertising is specifically part of the "outbound" marketing activities, or activities geared to communicate to the market, eg, advertising, promotions, public relations, etc. ("Inbound" marketing activities are geared to communicate from the market, and include, eg, market research about the market.) Therefore, after reviewing this topic "Advertising and Promoting", you might also benefit from scanning the topic Product/Service Management to get more perspective on the role of advertising. Later, you might scan some of the related topics referenced in the section to get an even larger perspective on advertising and promotions. In particular, be sure to look at information in the closely related topics Marketing and Public and Media Relations. Table of Contents Basics of Advertising and Promotions Advertising Law (take a quick look to see what you should avoid) Basics and Planning (always start with a basic plan -- goals, methods, etc.) Preparing for Advertising and Promotions Positioning (including writing your positioning statement) Writing Your Ad Various Methods of Advertising and Promotions Major Methods of Advertising and Promotion Using Direct Mail (this includes mailings directly to your customer) - - -Mailing Lists (it's useful to have lists of people who are likely to buy your product) Signs and Displays Classifieds of Newspapers and Magazines Advertising on Radio and T.V. Telemarketing Online Advertising and Promotions Evaluating Advertising and Promotions Measuring Results of Advertising General Resources Glossary of Advertising Media another glossary Advertising Myths A Primer on Advertising Advertising Blueprint-Drawing the Blueprint BASICS OF ADVERTISING AND PROMOTIONS Advertising Law Advertising / Marketing Laws Basics and Planning Introduction Advertising and promotions is bringing a service to the attention of potential and current customers. Advertising and promotions are best carried out by implementing an advertising and promotions plan. The goals of the plan should depend very much on the overall goals and strategies of the organization, and the results of the marketing analysis, including the positioning statement. The plan usually includes what target markets you want to reach, what features and benefits you want to convey to them, how you will convey it to them (this is often called your advertising campaign), who is responsible to carry the various activities in the plan and how much money is budgeted for this effort. Successful advertising depends very much on knowing the preferred methods and styles of communications of the target markets that you want to reach with your ads. A media plan and calendar can be very useful, which specifies what advertising methods are used and when. For each service, carefully consider: What target markets are you trying to reach with your ads? What would you like them to think and perceive about your products (this should be in terms of benefits to them, not you)? How can you get them to think and perceive that? What communications media do they see or prefer the most? Consider TV, radio, newsletters, classifieds, displays/signs, posters, word of mouth, press releases, direct mail, special events, brochures, neighborhood newsletters, etc. What media is most practical for you to use in terms of access and affordability (the amount spent on advertising is often based on the revenue expected from the product or service, that is, the sales forecast)? You can often find out a lot about your customers preferences just by conducting some basic market research methods. The following closely related links might be useful in preparation for your planning. Basic Methods to Get Customer Feedback Major Methods of Advertising and Promotion

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