HOW TO CREATE AN ADVERTISING /COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

..a "to do" list

Whether a marketer employs a professional advertising agency to handle its advertising campaign or chooses to undertake all advertising tasks on its own, a successful campaign requires a number of important decisions including:

Setting the Advertising Objective Setting the Advertising Budget Creating a Message Selecting Media for Message Delivery Evaluating Campaign Results

For major consumer products companies that spend large sums to promote their products each of these decisions will be intensely evaluated. On the other hand, smaller companies with limited budgets may be forced to focus what little money they have on only one key decision, such as selecting media, and give less attention to other areas. In either case, knowledge of all advertising campaign decisions is important and should be well understood by all marketers.
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A strategic plan is comprehensive, covering every likely advertising issue over the course of one or more years. You can cut this strategic plan to a size that fits your budget and needs.

THE THREE MAIN CATEGORIES OF AN ADVERTISING/COMMUNICATIONS PLAN ARE TYPICALLY:

1) What do we want to accomplish? Our objectives or goals. 2) How will we reach those goals? What will we do, and what will it cost, to achieve our objectives. 3) How do we measure results? How do we determine whether we have accomplished our objectives?

Beyond the big three categories common to most advertising plans, the exact nature and details can very significantly depending on the purpose of the plan.

THE ADVERTISING PLAN YOU PREPARE

WILL LIKELY BE INFLUENCED BY SEVERAL BIG ISSUES:
> Advertising strategy
> The Brand

> Positioning
> Direct response offers

CATEGORIES TO CONSIDER IN YOUR ADVERTISING/COMMUNICATIONS PLAN.

Background / Overview:
What is the history of advertising for this company leading up to this plan? What are the chief challenges for this plan or advertising campaign? What are the big opportunities in the market?

Duration of the plan / Review dates:

Is this a launch campaign that will last three months? Or is this an annual plan, with a review and recommendation every three months?

Competitive analysis:
What are the competitors up to? Is there a trend towards price cutting? How do competitor products or services compare?

ADVERTISING/COMMUNICATIONS GOAL:

Your advertising goal can be as simple as one clearly defined objective Or you may wish to broaden your list to include several objectives, and include marketing objectives: Achieve 50% brand recognition with target audience as defined by the ability to:
1) recognize our logo 2) describe at least one of our products, and 3) associate quality products when prompted for brand characteristics.

Achieve a 2% response rate and sales of xxxx per 100 direct mail packages within 30 days of drop. Achieve a lifetime value of xxxx on each customer within five years. 7

Building product awareness, creating interest, providing information, stimulating demand and reinforcing the brand. To achieve one or more of these objectives, advertising is used to send a message containing information about some element of the marketers offerings. For example:

Message About Product Details about the product play a prominent role in advertising for new and existing products. In fact, a very large percentage of productoriented advertising includes some mention of features and benefits offered by the marketers product. Advertising can be used to inform customers of changes that take place in existing products. For instance, if a beverage company has purchased the brands of another company resulting in a brand name change, an advertising message may stress New Name but Same Great Taste.

About Price Companies that regularly engage in price adjustments, such as running short term sales (i.e., price markdown), can use advertising to let the market know of price reductions. Alternatively, advertising can be used to encourage customers to purchase now before a scheduled price increase takes place.
Message

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Message About Other Promotions Advertising often works hand-in-hand with other promotional mix items. For instance, special sales promotions, such as contests, may be announced within an advertisement. Also, advertising can help salespeople gain access to new accounts if the advertising precedes the salespersons attempt to gain an appointment with a prospective buyer. eg: Aquaguard, Bajaj Allianz.This may be especially effective for a company entering a new market where advertising may help reduce the uncertainty a buyer has about a new company.

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Message About Distribution Within distribution channels, advertising can help expand channel options for a marketer by making distributors aware of the marketers offerings. Also, advertising can be used to let customers know locations where a product can be purchased. Eg: Asian Paints Colour World

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RECOMMENDED ADVERTISING ACTIVITIES:

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This could be the longest, most detailed aspect of the plan.

It might be divided by month. It could also be divided by target audience.

January:
Launch TVC in top 10 urban markets to introduce our new brand character. Email to current customers with upgrade offer, save 50%. Test direct mail with Order now or get more info offer to select list of small business owners in Ahmedabad,Bangalore, Kolkatta,Delhi. Send video CD with 25% off promo letter to top 100 prospects in our international contact database from Singapore, Shanghai and Sydney.

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NON-ADVERTISING, OR OFF-SCREEN ACTIVITIES:

This category can include anything that will help achieve goals:

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PR, Special events, Seminars, Trade shows, Customer relations

Such activities as PR may or may not be within the scope of your department, and therefore your plan. If they are, then your plan becomes a Communications plan not an ad plan.
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DESCRIPTION OF TARGET MARKETS:

Business type, size and location. Career stage. Think about the person who will receive your message. Is this an owner who sees the big business picture and would be more likely to consider a new software program to enhance overall company efficiency vs someone in purchasing or human resources who is focused on their departments. Consumer location. Define, as best you can, where your targets live, work and play. Then put a little more effort into defining where you target live work and play.
Age. Gender. Marital status. Income.

Life stage. Are your prospects retired? Or is their a mix of say, 60% retirees 55 to 65, and 40% young urban professionals 30 to 45. Psychographics: How will the prospect approach the purchase decision. Is it high or low involvement. Rational or emotional? Are 15 they looking for security? Or a thrill?

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PERSUASIVE STRATEGY:

What is the main thing we going to say, to offer, to our target audience, to get them to think what we want, to feel what we want, or do what we want?

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CREATIVE STRATEGY:

You dont want to dictate creative in the advertising plan. In fact, you may not want creative strategy included at all. But if you do, here are some of the things you would want to cover:
How are we going to present the message? Through a celebrity? A brand character? Will the copy be friendly? Or dramatic? Should we use music to communicate emotion? If so, what songs?

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Research: Customer feedback:

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MEDIA PLAN:

Here are some choices:

Direct Mail. Collateral: brochures, single sheet flyers, in-store take-one displays and brochures, posters. Broadcast: Radio, TV spots or infomercials. Video on tape or CD / DVD. Print: magazines, newspaper, specialty publications, inserts. Outdoor: billboards. Internet Marketing : Web site optimization, pay per click search engine listings, affiliate or associate relationships, paid banner placements, email. Digital communications: digital video on Web, multimedia CD.
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MEDIA STRATEGY:

The simple answer to media strategy is to identify your target audience then find the best media, at the best time, to reach them. For many advertisers the options will be obvious. If not, consider one of the large media buying services. MindShare, Carat, Zenith etc. Keep in mind that you will get the best return on your advertising by getting your message in front of people during the decision making and buying cycle. That also means it costs more to buy customers during off seasons or economic downturns. Divide your budget by 12 months if people buy all year long. Spend more to launch new products or compete for a larger share of a season cake.
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BUDGET:

Some budgeting methods:

Task method of budgeting: spend what it takes to do the job, and do it right. Annual allocation. Start with a base, which could be anywhere from 1,000 to 100 million, and increase it by x% each year.

Percent of sales. Aggressive marketers, especially in consumer markets, can spend 20 to 30 % of sales on advertising and marketing. Sometimes even more. What is Affordable Many smaller companies find spending of any kind to be constraining. In this situation, advertising may be just one of several tightly allocated spending areas and, thus, the level spent on advertising may vary over time. For these companies, advertising may only occur when extra funds are available. Best Guess Companies entering new markets often lack knowledge of how much advertising is needed to achieve their objectives. In cases where the market is not well understood, marketers may rely on their best judgment (i.e., executives experience) of what the advertising budget should be.
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EVALUATION:
How will you track sales? How will you link sales to advertising? Who, in your company or with the client, will do that?

Direct response and Internet advertising is easy to track. Branding focused campaigns may not be easy to link to sales. Have to coordinate with a research company if you want to do that.

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