The new advertising manager for the Candy Council, Antonella Severino, has to choose among three agencies in order to get the most appropriate one for advertising candy in Italy. Therefore, to choose the best agency among Creative Concepts, New Century Advertising, and Impact Advertising, she must take into consideration some beneficial strategies before making the final decision.
To begin with, she must consider how long each advertising agency has been involved in promoting the consumption of candy in the country. This is because it will assist in gauging a particular advertising agency’s understanding of the candy business in the country. Consequently, this will be mirrored in the marketing and advertising strategy that the ad agency will develop in promoting candy consumption.
For the agencies coming forth, Antonella should critically look at the chemistry they are made of. This implies that she ought to look at the mood and the attitude of the Candy Council and if the coming agency is able to maintain that image in the long run. The agency should also be in a position to understand the objectives of the Council in order to come up with innovative solutions. Another important strategy that she can use is to look at their portfolio.
This will give her an idea of the performance of the agencies when dealing with other clients. Moreover, after scrutinizing their portfolio, she should go ahead and get testimonials from clients that the agencies have served previously in order to know if they delivered the expected results or not (Weilbacher, 1983).
Antonella should consider the type of work environment in the Council and if the employees of the agency to be hired will be able to fit smoothly into the system. Lastly, she has to look if the agency to be hired by Candy Council is employed by another firm or a firm taking part in the candy business or in an industry that is directly competitive to candy manufacture in the country.
Out of the three different advertising agencies, Antonella is planning to employ the services of Impact Advertising Agency to increase the consumption of candy in Italy. This is the best choice that she can make, as there are evidences that support her choice. Impact Advertising is a relatively new company that was formed in 1990 by two enthusiastic women after completing their MBA studies.
This, coupled with its full-time staff of 20, will give Candy Council the creativity it is looking for in spearheading the advertising. Since it is a new agency in the market, Impact Advertising will be able to express creatively candy consumption in Italy. The agency’s insightful marketing thinking, strategic approach to advertising and use of other competitive marketing communication will ensure that the image of candy consumption in Italy is maintained since it will not be able to run wild with the advertising process.
Nonetheless, Creative Concepts and New Century Advertising may have run out of creative potential since they have been in the advertising industry for quite some time. Therefore, they may not be in a position to think up a new idea for promotion of candy consumption in the country (Egan, 2007, p.204).
On the other hand, even though Impact Advertising has no direct experience in the candy business, the agency is professionally operated in which every department pays extra attention to detail.
This will ensure that it makes minimal mistakes. Despite the agency being new, it has been making profits since its first year in business; therefore, it is less likely to fail in promoting consumption of candy. In addition, the agency has special relevant expertise in other areas in business as well as high level of expertise in integrating advertising with other forms of marketing communication.
In terms of conflict of interest, in contrast to the other agencies, no other company employs the services of Impact Advertising either directly or indirectly. This will ensure that it undertakes all the duties of Candy Council without discrimination.
The company has a good reputation meaning that the clients who have been hiring it have all been contented with the services it offers to them. In terms of culture match, the employees of Impact Advertising are able to fit smoothly into the system of operation of Candy Council. This is important since it will create good working relationships and hence minimize conflicts.
Antonella might have given several recommendations to the Council Board in regards to advertising campaigns aimed at encouraging the consumption of candy in Italy. Before inviting tenders for the coming of an advertising agency, Candy Council should analyze its capability to determine if it is ready for it.
Readiness is known by drop in candy consumption in the country or harming the product name due to inadequate publicity like what took place in 1972. The Council Board should always endeavor to choose the right agency. This is essential to avoid losing a lot of money, raising false hope, and increasing the frustration of the Candy Council members.
In making a choice, the Council Board should be driven by a solid grasp of the true purpose of advertising, which is to generate profit for the candy business in the country. The Candy Council should avoid contracting agencies that boast about their award-winning advertisement schemes, instead of speaking of the profitability and growth they have realized when serving previous and current customers.
In Antonella measuring the effectiveness of her choice in the long run, she will be able to determine the extent that Impact Advertising will have attained in meeting the goals of Candy Council. The practice of effective marketing is able to deliver messages to the right audience. Consequently, this is able to create sales at a profit, which is measurable.
Kathleen notes that effectiveness of advertising depends on a number variables, which includes, “the advertising goals, the type of media used, the cost of evaluation, the value that the business or advertising agency places on evaluation measures, the level of precision and reliability required, who the evaluation is for and the budget”(2007, para. 2). Several researchers have proposed different models for measuring the effectiveness of advertisement.
However, in the long run, Antonella can be able to measure the effectiveness of her choice by using a number of methods. These are “recognition test, Gallup Robinson recall test, association test, sale result test, split run test, rating scale test, day after recall test, inquiry test or portfolio test” (Trehan & Trehan, 2007, p.188). It is important to note that the success of this evaluation exercise depends on the involvement of each department within Candy Council.
References
Egan, J. Marketing communications. London: Thomson Learning. Kathleen, J.P., 2007. Measuring the effectiveness of your advertising campaign. [Online] SearchWarp.com.
Trehan, M. & Trehan, R., 2007. Advertising and sales management. New Delhi: V.K. (India) Enterprises.
Weilbacher, W. M., 1983. Choosing an advertising agency. Chicago, IL: Crain Books.