Chapter 16

public relations

A broad set of communication efforts used to create and maintain favorable relationships between an organization and its stakeholders. An organization communicates with various stakeholders, both internal and external, and public relations efforts can be directed toward any and all of them. A firm's stakeholders can include customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, the media, educators, potential investors, government officials, and society in general. Public relations can be used to promote people, places, ideas, activities, and even countries. Public relations focuses on enhancing the image of the total organization. Assessing public attitudes and creating a favorable image are not less important than direct promotion of the organization's products. Because the public's attitudes toward a firm are likely to affect sales of its products, it is very important for firms to maintain positive public perceptions.

media kit

A package of information assembled by a company to provide basic information about itself to reporters. The media kit is a promotional public relations tool that can serve several functions, including promoting the launch of a new company, promoting the launch of a new product or service by an existing company, giving a company a way to present itself as it would like to be seen, and saving time by eliminating the need for a company's employees to repeatedly answer the same questions.

Advertising

A paid nonpersonal communication from a sponsor, manufacturer, retailer, or organization, about an organization and its products transmitted to a target audience though mass media, such as TV, newspapers, Internet, and so on. Effective advertising can influence purchase behavior throughout a lifetime. Advertising is used to promote goods, services, ideas, images, issues, people, and anything else advertisers want to publicize or foster. Depending on what is being promoted, advertising can be classified as institutional or product advertising.

unaided recall

A posttest in which respondents are asked to identify advertisements they have seen recently but are not given any recall clues

aided recall

A posttest that asks respondents to identify recent ads and provides clues such as a list of products, brands, company names, or trademarks, to jog their memories.

Pretesting: consumer jury

A pretest usually attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of one or more elements of the message. A consumer jury is a panel of existing or potential buyers of the advertised product who pretest advertisements. The panel judges one or several dimensions of two or more ads.

reinforcement advertising

Assures current users that they have made the right brand choice and tells them how to get the most satisfaction from that brand. This is often done so that the consumer feels good about their association or purchase of a particular brand. Value propositions like Geico's can provide reinforcement to consumers that they are making a good decision as a new or current customer. Tells current users how to get the most satisfaction from the brand

Competitive advertising

Attempts to stimulate demand for a specific brand by promoting the brand's features, uses, and advantages, and sometimes though indirect or direct comparisons with competing brands. Advertising effects on sales must reflect competitor's advertising activities. The type of competitive environment will determine the most effective industry approach.

pioneer advertising

Focuses on stimulating demand for a product category (rather than a specific brand) by informing potential customers about the product's features, uses, and benefits. Sometimes marketers will begin advertising a product before it hits the market. Product advertising that focuses on products before they are available tend to cause people to think about the product more and evaluate it more positively. Pioneer advertising is also employed when the product is in the introductory stage of the product life cycle.

public relation objective

Generate publicity, educate, inform, sponsorships, philanthropy, lobbying, corporate communication, and multiple stakeholders.

Percent-of-sales approach

In the more widely used approach, marketers simply multiply the firm's past sales, plus a factor for planned sales growth or decline, by a standard percentage based on both what the firm traditionally spends on advertising and the industry average. This approach has a major flaw as well: It is based on the incorrect assumption that sales create advertising rather than the reverse. Though illogical, this technique has been favored because it is easy to implement

Competition-matching approach

Marketers try to match their major competitors' appropriations in absolute dollars or to allocate the same percentage of sales for advertising that their competitors do. This technique should not be used alone because the firm's competitors probably have different advertising objectives and resources available for advertising

objective-and-task approach

Of the many techniques used to determine the advertising appropriation, one of the most logical is this approach. Budgeting for an advertising campaign by first determining its objectives and then calculating the cost of all the tasks needed to attain them. This approach has one main problem: Marketers sometimes have trouble accurately estimating the level of effort needed to attain certain objectives

Institutional advertising

Promotes organizational images, ideas, and political issues. It can be used to create or maintain an organizational image. Institutional advertisements may deal with broad image issues, such as organizational strengths or the friendliness of employees. They may also aim to create a more favorable view of the organization in the eyes of noncustomer groups, such as shareholders, consumer advocacy groups, potential shareholders, or the general public. Enhances a company's image rather than touting a specific product. Another form of institutional advertising:

Product advertising

Promotes the uses, features, and benefits of products. Touts the benefits of the product.

reach

Refers to the percentage of customers in the target audience actually exposed to a particular advertisement in a stated period. New media like social networking sites and mobile advertising are also attracting advertisers due to their large reach. Advertisers often times need multiple channels to reach all targets they want to reach.

Media Plan

Sets forth the exact media vehicles to be used (specific magazines, TV stations, etc.) and the dates and times the advertisements will appear. The plan determines how many people in the target audience will be exposed to the message. The method also determines, to some degree, the effects of the message on those specific target markets. Media planners take many factors into account when devising a media plan. They analyze location and demographic characteristics of consumers in the target audience, because people's tastes in media differ according to demographic groups and locations. Media planners also consider the sizes and types of audiences that specific media reach. The media planner's primary goal is to reach the largest number of people in the advertising target market that the budget will allow. A secondary goal is to achieve the appropriate message reach and frequency for the target audience while staying within budget

reminder advertising

Tells customers that an established brand is still around and still offers certain characteristics, uses, and advantages

Frequency

The number of times these targeted consumers are exposed to the advertisement. If managing communication/promotion with a group, you need to ensure your message is communicated with great frequency.

advertising appropriation

The total amount of money a marketer allocates for advertising for a specific time period. Things to consider when appropriating: Geographic size of market, distribution of buyers within the market, type of product being advertised, and your sale's volume relative to competitor's sales volumes.

comparative advertising

To make direct product comparisons, marketers use a form of competitive advertising called comparative advertising, which compares the sponsored brand with one or more identified competing brands on the basis of one or more product characteristics. Often, the brands that are promoted have low market shares and are compared with competitors that have the highest market share in the product category.

post testing

To measure the ad's effectiveness during a campaign, marketers usually rely on inquiries or responses. Advertising objectives often determine what kind of posttest is appropriate. Sometimes they use consumer surveys or experiments to evaluate a campaign based on communication objectives. Posttest methods based on memory include recognition and recall tests. People are more likely to buy a product if they can remember the ad.

Arbitrary approach

Usually means a high-level executive in the firm states how much to spend on advertising for a certain period. This approach often leads to under or overspending. Although hardly a scientific budgeting technique, it is expedient.

Advocacy advertising

When a company promotes its position on a public issue - for instance, a tax increase, sustainability, regulations, or international trade coalitions - institutional advertising is referred to as advocacy advertising. Such advertising may be used to promote socially approved behavior, such as recycling or moderation in consuming alcohol. This type of advertising not only has social benefits but also helps build an organization's image