Algos (2010) defines advertising as an art of bringing goods to the attention of a customer. A good advertising incorporates elements of typography inspired by ideas, recognises the importance and value of message. Media requirements reveal significance of an advertisement to the reader and sluices information effortlessly and memorically into the reader’s mind.
Heavily weighted in product and customer characteristics as well as target market size, advertising reveals the significant of a product to a potential client, selling the idea visibly, by image manipulation which induces the reader to take some action.
Media requirements as dictated by advertising briefs also include factors such as time factors, creative dimension and aspects of the message, merchandise objective as well as legal and ethical considerations that relates to products such as alcohol.
The medium used in this research will be advertisements using internet protocol due to the large number of households that have access to the internet, availability of products to choose from and how the availed products are used. The study linked the increased numbers of Internet shoppers over the years to be related to the increased access to internet use by many households and increased use of household products.
The studies also recognized the increased numbers of household online buyers in the past few years to be linked to diversification of products and increased access. It was however concluded that online advertisers have provide a wide array of good and services for consumers to choose from as earlier experienced and has the ability to reach wider audiences including teenagers, stay at home parents and urban men.
Conclusively, growth of e-consumers has been attributed to increased numbers of internet services and existing internet users. Despite increased usage and range of products for which internet purchases are required to chose from, growth in access is likely to slow if consumer buying behaviour is not carefully assessed (Lowe 2002, p.7).
Radio advertising may not be a suitable advertising media since most advertisements last up to 30-60 seconds which may make it impossible to cover all the key points including product use and target audiences (AllBusiness 2011).
Primary advertising are outdoor campaigns such as billboards and door to door sales. Primary advertising has the characteristics of displaying visual material to the potential buyer (Primary Media Outdoor Advertising 2008). Secondary advertising on the other hand includes aspects such as radios, internet, newspapers and television.
The internet
Slowly moving from door to door sales, marketing, promotion, notice, message and testimonials, internet advertising is recommended to be the best and fast media gaining recognition in advertising industry.
Lycourgos and Christou (2006) analysis argue that “online retailing has provided a successful medium for consumer spending, and therefore the technology used should be able to match the utility provided by the retailing formats” (p.2). Utilities mentioned to facilitate online business include facilities such as immediate delivery, choice of payment methods, personal assistant in selecting goods, credit facilities and return policies.
The mentioned utilities are particularly significant in building consumer satisfaction and trust in an online environment. To do this, Lycourgos and Christou (2006) advices advertisers to implement strategies that will sufficiently motivate online consumers to place orders.
E-consumers driven by internet communication have revolutionized the way people use, access and share information.
Internet services has been credited for facilitating the economy and transforming organisation by eliminating paper based functions and integrate global operations. Benefits attributed from e-commerce are listed to include; online advertisers and consumers have access and low-cost, consumers can access information through diverse forms of technology including mobile phones.
Advertisers also don’t spend so much time doing marketing campaigns and suffer no geographical constraints. Organisations get the opportunity for rationalizing operations and downsizing and can easily adapt to new payment schemes. Online business had eliminated middlemen, minimized stockholdings and reduced transaction costs.
E-commerce introduces a consumer to interaction rules, procedures, and safe mechanisms and provides consumer with recovery methods such as money back guarantees when trust breaks down. Trust has been viewed as the cornerstone to of any successful online trading because without it, no one will be able to trade (Sweeney 2008, p.3).
Newspapers
Newspaper advertising is the use of print to entice readers into purchasing a product. Its advantages include;
- wide audiences in a given geographical area.
- Readers can cut out the advertisement for future references.
- The advertisement image can be large to communicate the required information to the reader.
Radio Advertising
- Radio advertisements are always creative and listeners can call in and get instant answers on how the product is used.
- A vast array of listeners can be reached worldwide including web portals (Pleshette 2003).
According to Ruane (2008), internet advertising should adhere to privacy laws and provide truth, clear and fair information to its users.
Pirelli Tyres Company, Pepsi and Coca cola companies have used online advertising, more specifically to the internet and applied the true and clear information to its potential customers.
Advertising Media Plan
Two basic tasks of media planning are message creation and message dissemination. This helps an advertiser to know which media to use-be it internet, television or the internet. It simply entails the selection of media time and space to display the advertising message to order to accomplish marketing objectives.
Advertising turns features of products into benefits, reasonable for someone to try the product, while typographers convert the story into strategy and execution by positioning the product against competitor products, and by giving an identifiable look
Many businesses depend on modern technology and its promised miracles as a way of expanding their business. Modern technology has opened up new generation of visual designers. The most recent innovative developments such as e-banking, social marketing and YouTube are extensively used to expand businesses across different spectrums.
Composed of text that is readable, coherent and visually satisfying many advertisers are forced to search for very professional corporate look and attract customers (Algos 2010). Evidently, websites offer plenty of information on the product intended to be sold and clarity and transparency of information presented should be of paramount importance.
Offline advertising such as radios and television, print mediums such as brochures, catalogs and post cards have been very effective when designed with good graphics and language approach in mind. Although immediate profits may not be realised, advertising both off and online should be regarded as long term investment (Algos 2010).
While many advertising options that are relevant to online advertising exist, individual aspects such as lifestyle and personal characteristics, psychological and trying to embrace, are all important in determining the type of advertising to be used.
A successive advertiser should carefully assess how the website is facilitating consumer information searches and examining how their organisation is offering consumer value (Lycourgos and Christou 2006, p.2; Sexton 2010; Lacan 1978).
Market Evidence for using internet advertisement
Soft drink companies have long been dominated by two companies; Pepsi and Coca cola. Both companies have spent significant huge amounts of money on advertising and promotion and have been reported to create brand loyalty that has made it difficult for other competitors to enter the market.
Pepsi for instance devised a strategy of cutting down prices soon a new competitor tries to enter the market thus forcing them to curtail expansion plans. In brand recognition through billboards and newspaper advertising, Pepsi changed its brand to blue, consumers viewed it as modern and cool as it was exciting and dynamic and communicated refreshment.
Pepsi another advertising strategy included the introduction of variety soft drinks clients to choose from and also, reinforce the name as stated by Dehmardan 2008 as “Coca-cola Classic., a name that reflects image of value, reliability and old time values” ( p.22).
Pirelli Tires Company on the other has been a true multinational corporation that has maximised on internet advertising to reach worldwide audiences.
With a presence in 160 countries as leader in car production, internet advertisement strategies enabled the company reach greater efficiency and effectiveness, developed new networks sites directed at consumers while increasing its performance and technology.
For example, the new portal Oracle WebLogic Server is currently reported to have more than 34 million users in 40 countries. Its success is strongly linked to delivering extensive and timely company information. The quantity of pages visited during a session are all clear indication that its ability to attract interest of anyone who access the website.
The Java 2 environment typology and the introduction of dynamic website that enables easy development of core structure applications such as interactive calendar, dealer locator, product catalogue and fitment chart are all clear indications of Pirelli Tires market dominance through advertisements (Oracle 2009).
It has been evidenced here that customers are more influenced by advertisements they see even if they only see a small portion of the video. E-consumer behaviour can also be analysed by using psychological measures which include examining consumer responses as a way of forecasting positive impacts (Bellinson 2006).
Tracking customers’ shopping behaviours during certain seasons helps an online advertiser study customer shopping trends, levels of interest and likings and plans when to avail certain products and certain periods. Sweeney (2008) states that “tracking product performance over time gives a advertiser guidance as to which products are effective and which ones are not” (p.1) It’s also important to note that e-consumer behaviour can also be linked to external environment that relate to cultures and subcultures.
Advertising can influence consumer buying behaviour by recognising the importance and value of message. Since culture is something learned rather than something being born with, an online advertiser should learn morals of his marketing demographics and try to accommodate various cultures when considering for international consumers.
This research argues here that advertisement should aim at achieving both legibility and readability. Since advertisement campaign vary in price and effectiveness, measure of its effectiveness should include aspects such as conducting a comprehensive customer service and support that will help establish consumer shopping behaviours (Naples 1979).
Customers feel secure for an organisation that provides online assistance 24 hours and 7 days a week. It’s also important to design software that would formulate answers to customers’ most critical issues like FAQ.
In some instances, a company should also engage in human talk to solve more complicated problems. Its evidenced that information-driven websites embedded in graphics tends to convert window shoppers to potential customers (Canada’s Office of Consumer Affairs 2008).
Holly (2009) studies states that “consumers prefer to start their online shopping through search engines and social media sites rather than going directly to the site to establish an advertiser” (p.1).
Advertisers that consider these aspects in their marketing campaigns gain competitive advantage over others. For internet shopping, possible measures for its effectiveness could include social media services such as facebook and twitter networks.
Just like twitter, face book provides an attractive platform that studies consumer behaviour through online interactions. Advertisements may also be placed on individual profiles pages aimed at targeting certain demographic consumers.
Since registered face book users have no problem providing personal information such as date of birth, religion, sex, and e.t.c, online advertisers use this information to their advantage by advertising only on their target demographic (Holly 2009).
Therefore, Algos (2010) recommends that advertisers should always find an advertising program that fits his customers’ data base. In this regard, long term and short term perspectives such as simple solutions for advertising special offers and one-off events such as product promotions, banners, posters and flyers that put marketing into words should be considered.
A planned budget in deciding what advertising medium to be used should be considered. Measuring campaign’s success at the end of a campaigning period is important to determined continued relationship with new customers if any (Algos 2010).
List of References
Algos, A., 2010. Innovative and Modern –Technology Logos. Ezine Articles, 1, pp.1.
AllBusiness. 2011. Radio Advertising Pros and Cons. Web.
Apple. 2010. Apple Customer Privacy Policy. Web.
Bellinson, R. L., 2006. Theory in Culture: Toward a Psychoanalytic Criticism of Advertising. Georgia: Georgia State University.
Canada’s Office of Consumer Affairs., 2008. The consumer trends report. Web.
Dehmardan, J., 2008. Pepsi Blue. Marketing classes, 1, pp.1-50.
Holly, A., 2009. Tracking consumer behavior. Web.
Lacan, J., 1978. Seminar Eleven: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. NY & London, W.W: Norton and Company.
Lowe, R., 2002. E-commerce and consumer behaviour. International working Group on Price indices, 36, pp.1-12.
Lycourgos, H., & Christou, L., 2006. The role of e-commerce on consumer behaviour. Journal of Business Administration online, 4, pp.1-8.
Napples, J., 1979. Effective frequency: The relationship between Frequency and Advertising Awareness. Association of National Advertisers, 1, pp.1.
Oracle., 2009. Pirelli Group Drives Improved Communication with Interactive Web Presence. Oracle customer Case study, 1, pp.1-5.
Ruane, K.. 2003. Privacy Law and Online Advertising: Legal Analysis of Data.
Gathering By Online Advertisers Such As Double Click and NebuAd. Congressional Research Service, 12, pp.1-15.
Sexton, T., 2010. Jacques Lacan, Helene Cixous and Phallocentric Flaws in the Mirror Stage of Psychological Development. Journal of Psychology, 1, pp.1-11.
Sweeney, S., 2008. 101 Ways to promote your Web Site. Florida: Maximum Press.
Primary Media Outdoor Advertising. 2008. Web.
Pleshette, Lyve., 2003. Choosing the Right Advertising Medium for Your Small Business. PowerHomeBiz, 1, pp.1.