IAP: IMPORTANCE OF INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING

There are several reasons why advertising is such an important part of many international marketers’ promotional mix. Belch and Belch (2003), identified the following key ones:

First, it can be a very cost-effective method for communicating with large audiences. For example, the average 30-second spot on the four major networks during prime-time network television reaches nearly 10 million households. The cost per thousand households reached is around $14.27.

Advertising can be used to create brand images and symbolic appeals for a company or brand, a very important capability for companies selling products and services that are difficult to differentiate on functional attributes. For example, since 1980 Absolute has used creative advertising to position its vodka as an upscale, fashionable, sophisticated drink and differentiate it from other brands. The advertising strategy has been to focus attention on two unique aspects of the product: the Absolute name and the distinctive shape of the bottle. Most of the print adverts used in this long running campaign are specifically tailored for the magazine or region where they appear. The campaign, one of the most successful and recognizable in advertising history, has made the Absolute brand nearly synonymous with imported vodka. While all other spirits sales have declined by more than 40 percent over the past 15 years, Absolute sales have increased 10-fold and the various Absolute brands have a combined 70 percent market share.

Another advantage of advertising is its ability to strike a responsive chord with consumers when differentiation across other elements of the marketing mix is difficult to achieve. Popular advertising campaigns attract consumers’ attention and can help generate sales. These popular campaigns can also sometimes be leveraged into successful integrated marketing communications programs. For example, Eveready used the popularity of its Energizer Bunny campaign to generate support from retailers in the form of shelf space, promotional displays, and other merchandising activities.

Consumer promotions such as in-store displays, premium offers, and sweepstakes feature the pink bunny. Pictures of the Energizer Bunny appear on Energizer packages to ensure brand identification and extend the campaign’s impact to the point of purchase.

In a nut shell, importance of global advertising can be summed up as follow:

Promotion of Sales: It promotes the sale of goods and services by informing and persuading the people to buy them. A good advertising campaign helps in winning new customers both in the national as well as in the international markets.

Introduction of New Product: It helps in the introduction of new products in the market. A business enterprise can introduce itself and its product to the public through advertising. A new enterprise can’t make an impact on the prospective customers without the help of advertising. Advertising enables quick publicity in the market.

Creation of Good Public Image: It builds up the reputation of the advertiser. Advertising enables a business firm to communicate its achievements in an effort to satisfy the customers’ needs. This increases the goodwill and reputation of the firm which is necessary to fight against both local and foreign competition in the market.

Mass Production: Advertising facilitates large-scale production. Advertising encourages production of goods in large-scale because the business firm knows that it will be able to sell on large-scale with the help of advertising. Mass production reduces the cost of production per unit by the economical use of various factors of production.

Research: Advertising stimulates research and development activities. Advertising has become a competitive marketing activity. Every firm tries to differentiate its product from the substitutes available in the market through advertising. This compels every business firm to do more and more research to find new products and their new uses. If a firm does not engage in research and development activities, it will be out of the international market in a short while.

Education of People: Global advertising educate the people about new products and their uses. Advertising message about the utility of a product enables the people to widen their knowledge. It is advertising which has helped people in adopting new ways of life and giving-up old habits. It has contributed a lot towards the betterment of the standard of living of the society.

Support to Press: Global advertising provides an important source of revenue to the publishers and other media houses with broader coverage. For instance, it enables the publishers to increase the circulation of their publication by selling them at lower rates. People are also benefited because they get publications at cheaper rates. Advertising is also a source of revenue for TV network. For instance, AIT, Channels, and NTA insert adverts before, in between and after various programmes and earn millions of naira through adverts. Such income could be used for increasing the quality of programmes and extending coverage.

 SOURCE:NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA