A Television Ad: RAM, Farmer - Assignment Example

A Television Ad: RAM, Farmer Contents Contents 2 Criteria for Evaluation 4 Focus 4 Dynamism 5 Purpose 5 Budgetary Provisions 6 Holding attention throughout the advert 6 Communication of Benefits 7 Credibility 7 Evaluation of a call action 7 Effectiveness of the Farmer 8 Persuasion 8 Implementation of persuasion 8 Laddering 10 The Interview Technique 11 Merits 11 Demerits 12 Conclusion 12 Bibliography 13 Introduction Scholars, among them Kotler, (2001) define advertising as a paid form of presenting and promoting ideas, services, and goods in a non-personal way but using a sponsor. This report presents techniques applied in evaluating an advertising campaign, RAM, Farmer and explains why the television advertisement is effective. Advertising, especially television ads constitute common communication aspects in conjunction with public relations, sales promotional activities, direct market, as well as personal selling. Marketing communication consultants have five important decision-making features they consider while evaluating the effectiveness of an advertising campaign including the Farmer. The factors are essential in identifying the motives of buyers and isolating the target market. Scholars refer to the five aspects as the Five M’s of Advertising. The Farmer is a television-advertising run by RAM using the Richards Agency situated in Dallas. Jimmy Bonner from Creative Group directed the advert while Paul Nelson was the producer. Most advertising managers find difficulty in comprehending consumers within appropriate strategic levels. Furthermore, they find it difficult to apply collected information in developing and creating alternative stands. However, putting using the means-end technique increases awareness on the factors that motivate consumers. The effectiveness of this approach is that it factors goals valued by people relating them to the qualities and features of the product in question. To evaluate RAM’s Farmer, this discourse applies the MECCAS framework. This model analyses a laddering model that is a specific interviewing aspect used by marketing communication consultants to unravel values attached by people on products. The approach is that laddering interviews fit into the means-end approach that the Meccas model applies during analysis. Differentiation does not constitute the only factor that facilitates selling of a product. The desirability of a product or a service depends on the connection that consumers have with their perception towards the same good or service. It is important to mention that the means-end approach is significant because of its ability to identify essential factors that motivate consumers to buy goods and services. In addition, the model explains the relationship between the consumer’s motives and their attributes to products or service in market. Criteria for Evaluation Marketing communication consultants use market research in determining the goals of an advertising campaign in their marketing plans. However, when creating advertising such as, the Farmer, the consultant uses a set of features to evaluate its effectiveness. The effectiveness determines the value of the advert whether it derives maximum return to RAM. Focus We will need to determine if the advertising contains a focused message. A focused message is important to make an advertising campaign effective. Every marketing advert ought to carry only one message. Furthermore, the marketing communication consultant must evaluate if the advert delivers the message precisely and concisely. The analyst shall determine characteristics in the advert that interest the target market. This is important because the designer of the advert applies them to identify the selling points in the promotional campaign. If the advert features a catch phrase, then it must relate to the service or commodity as well as the message under focus in many ways to make it effective. The communication-marketing consultant must identify elements that capture the attention of viewers within the first five seconds in the advertising campaign considering the fact that Farmer is a television advert that does not take a lot of time running. Having the attention-catching element in the first five seconds makes sure that viewers and listeners are concentrating on the advert. To get the attention of viewers and listeners, the designer may use a statement, an image, or a situation outside ordinary or usual circumstances of the target audience. The designer could also employ other general creative technique to capture the attention of viewers and listeners in the earliest time within the advertising campaign. Dynamism A good advertisement must be dynamic. This means that it needs to change constantly. Farmer for that matter, contains a theme derived from an old advertising campaign therefore, the developer required research to help in focusing on areas sensitive to customers. This helps in adding together pieces necessary for generating an effective advertising. Research for instance, helps the marketing planner to eliminate unnecessary elements in the advert. In this case, if the advertising campaign contains a dog yet its use is confusing consumers, then the planner remove it from the advert. The contemporary nature of the advertising helps the designer to make additions and eliminations that make the ad more effective. Clients may give preference to a particular color in the advertising over the other. Therefore, it becomes important for the designer increase the desired color and reduces the other non-preferred one. The marketing communication consultant must constantly change the advertising campaign following inputs from customers to attain the degree that brings adequate returns on investment. Purpose The focus of an advertising campaign is success because it results in returns on investment. Therefore, advertising must have a purpose for consultants to rank it as a successful advert. If the advert aims at penetrating into new markets, then the designer must develop measures of evaluating the extent with which the advert is taking the product into the new market. On the other hand, if the aim is to increase unit sales of products and services, then a threshold must exist so that once achieved the company pulls out the advert. In this case, the company is ad liberty to use parts of the advert in future promotional activities. Achieving the outcome based on set goals marks the success of the advertising campaign therefore, ends of the campaign. Budgetary Provisions Generation of revenue within the set budget indicates ultimate success of any promotional activity. A marketing budget must be developed within the planning process and operations of the same advertising campaign ought to remain within the budget. A successful campaign process gives room to the marketing communication expert to venture into related advertising campaigns using issues from the successful one. Instead of increasing budgets on successful advertising ideas, the planner should generate and develops new plans with different budgets considering the possible returns o investment. Holding attention throughout the advert Analysts will need to assess whether the advert is eye-catching in entirety. Can the promotional campaign hold the attention of listener or viewer throughout the time the commercial runs? To achieve, the advert needs to run along the main and first theme throughout. This is because keeping the attention-getting lines through makes it possible for the advertising campaign to hold the viewer or listener conceivably. The more the advert holds the consumer, the higher the ability for the advert to demonstrate the good idea. The promotional campaign cannot deliver the message if the customer does not listen or watch it in entirety. Communication of Benefits It is important for the consultant to be sure that the advertising campaign communicates benefits that the consumer is likely to draw by buying the advertised product or service. Through this, the advertising will create a desire in the consumer of having the service or product on offer. Failure of the advert to create a desire in the consumer to have the product of service on offer results in a loss to the company even if the advert caught the attention of the viewer or listener throughout the commercial time. Credibility The marketing communication consultant shall determine elements of credibility in the commercial advert. The advertising campaign must contain accurate information about the product to convince potential buyers that it is appropriate to try the use of the service or product. This means that before taking the advert on air, the designer must make sure that information about the product or service comes from a trusted source. Associating the name of a trusted company or organization with the product or service is enough to make the information credible. An advertising campaign on toothpaste may for instance, contain approval from a trusted dental hospital. This would convince potential buyers that information contained in the advert is credible and in the process derive satisfaction to consumers. Evaluation of a call action It is important to examine the advertising campaign for call-requesting customers to make immediate calls for a particular offer. Such phrases include among others hurry up while stocks last, call now for a twenty percent discount, and the first one hundred customers get free delivery. These statements motivate viewers and listeners to respond immediately. A call of action phrase ignites the desire among consumers to own the product or use the service. Failure of including a call to act may make the advertising campaign less precise. This is because the client may have interest in the product or service but the advert may fail to give important directions. Effectiveness of the Farmer Persuasion To a marketing communications consultant, persuasion constitutes an effective advertising campaign. The Farmer achieves this precisely. The advert persuades a person to do a particular activity or believe in what the promotional activity carries. The Farmer comes between Super Bowl advertisements for two minutes carrying a Chrysler brand ending the common flow of animals, babies, as well as celebrities. This comes in a good way because it breaks what would otherwise be monotony. The advertising campaign brings something bigger in the same way the Eastwood advertising campaign did in the past (Cialdini, 2001, p. 77). Initially the advert was not simulative and artful. This rhymes with the scientific definition of persuasion. People who study human behavior define persuasion as a vigorous trial to influence attitudes and believe held by people. The marketer who designed the Farmer succeeded in creating and developing a persuasive advertising campaign. It is clear from the advertising campaign that, the marketing expert conducted research prior to developing the campaign. The research covered development of persuasive knowledge, nature of the knowledge, and use of knowledge. Applicability entails evaluation, interpretation, and response in the process of influencing the potential clients. Implementation of persuasion Marketing communication consultants use the persuasion knowledge model (PKM) in implementing persuasion within advertising campaigns. The agent and target framework contains a presumption that the persuasion knowledge among people continues to grow and develop in their entire life. The persuasion knowledge model constitutes three sources of persuasion to individuals. An individual experience in the measure of social interactions with peers, colleagues, and family members constitutes the first source of persuasion. These groups are the most powerful sources because they are the most trusted people that individuals look up to when doping anything. The second source is the way in which an advertising campaign can influence people’s feelings, thoughts, as well as behavior. The third source entails observations by marketers as well as other agents that in turn persuade consumers albeit passively. This is in contrast to what the firsthand experience offers. Functions of persuasion knowledge are similar to those of the schema. They include among others driving the attention of consumers to various features of an advertising campaign, guiding aspects of sales presentation, and offering references regarding the likely primary factors influencing decisions of agents. Persuasion knowledge provides an opportunity for marketers to study factors that influence the behavior of consumers in addition to their interaction characteristics in the society. Marketers use five principles provided by Robert Cialdini to develop and create persuasive as well as effective promotional advertisements considering the significance and processes of persuasion knowledge. Traditionally, information asymmetry gave marketing communication consultant an advantage in convincing consumers because in those days, customers depended on information provided by sales representatives. However, change ensued following developments in information and communication technology. Currently, the internet brings a shift in the sense that it gives consumers an opportunity to get information from other sources apart from that provided by marketers. This is a threat to companies because it breaks the traditional methods as such; consumers can access abundant information concerning what the companies send to the market. Companies and institutions only have two options of deciding their matrix strategy, which is differentiation and price. It is essential to mention at this moment that, in spite of the availability of tremendous information, clients still use only one piece of information to make a decision. This is as opposed to using different pieces of information in making analysis. The value system under various circumstances and limitations guide people’s decisions in making trade-offs pitting their chances of finding lower prices and personal time. Scholars posit that reference of some customers as price-sensitive emanates from the fact that the stalls or shops in question offers goods and services at the cheapest end of the price scale. Consumers do not have time to search for information from other sources as long as they trust their sales representatives or other professionals in the field in which the product falls. In this case, the consumer simply trusts information offered by the people he or she trusts. Consumers use the reliable piece of information as a trigger but must correspond with primary and strong qualities of social studies and psychology. The trigger helps in matching the idea to choose and the process of persuading the consumer. Concession processes fall under reciprocation during a negotiating exercise. Laddering The interview technique method identifies the chains of the means-end of the consumer. The method is semi-structured and qualitative where respondents must answer assigned questions regarding a specific service or products. Answers remain in a descriptive format but must carry what they consider important attracting them to the service or product under investigation. The framing of questions contains an ultimate agenda that the research must achieve. Furthermore, the questions also incite the respondent to explain what motivates him or her to buy a specific product. The difference between normal research interviews such as focus groups and the laddering technique arises from the perspective that the latter goes for abstract reasons used by consumers in selecting a particular brand. Consumers mostly cite benefits and attributes as reasons for using products and services. The Interview Technique Identifying essential attributes of a product constitutes the first stage in a laddering interview. Products contain attributes. A case in point includes using the quantity of sugar in a soft drink as a reason toe ether buy or reject a soft drink. The researcher then takes the initiative to move the interviewee to the next level of gathering information by asking another element of abstraction. A question in this category may involve finding out how the quantity of sugar in a soft drink affects the respondent. This level entails effects of the attribute. The value of sugar to the respondent may be a medical prescription. A response at this level leads to the topmost part of the interview ladder. Values are at the top and constitute targeted high-level achievements. Responses in this grade could be self-satisfaction or satiability. Merits The laddering technique gives an opportunity to the interviewee to make a choice and differentiate between hate she or he considers put the services or products in question apart. This becomes the starting point of the interview exercise (Kotler, 2001, p. 67). The method allows separation of differences into various circumstances attaching to categorical competitive options. By the fact that the respondent provides an answer in the best context, it qualifies the methodology as the most appropriate. The laddering method defies the assumption that attributes link with choices directly. This is a complex problem in most other research techniques. This is because the method evaluates consumer attitudes and beliefs. Demerits The biggest threat to having a successful interview using the laddering method is when situations arise that block a respondent from moving to the next level of the interview process. The researcher can address the issue by prompting the interviewee. However, they need utmost care to avoid affecting responses from respondents. Conclusion Many factors that persuade a person to use a certain product or consume a particular service in the environment exist. It is important for marketing communication consultants to understand these qualities in the process of designing, developing, and releasing an advertising campaign. Experts behind the RAM advert understood these elements precisely. Farmer is an advert that fulfilled all aspirations of an effective advert. The advert contains themes developed from a past media campaign. This means that the designer of the advert was aware of the value of the previous advert and opted to pick aspects of the promotional campaign to include in the new release. All the qualitative factors mix appropriately. Bibliography Cialdini, Robert B, (2001). Harnessing the science of persuasion. Harvard Business Review. 72-79. Kotler, Philip, (2001). A Framework for Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Read More