Advertising & Sales Management

Assignment A

1.    What discourages clients from hiring their own specialized experts instead of employing of full-service agency?    

2.    While adhering to the Prime Direction, what is the false assumption behind "targeted" advertising agencies only working on advertising for their demographic groups?

    
3.    The communications model states that there must be an overlap in experiences between a communicator and audience. Yet "affluent, well paid, college educated, white collar job holding, largest cities living, relatively young people," the description of the typical mass communications managers, is not a description of the typical advertising audience members. If targeted agencies are unnecessary attempts to create overlap between communicators and audiences, how does being different from an audience not foreclose a person's ability to communicate with those people?    

4.    What does an advertising/promotional planner sees as the primary purpose of the mass media?    

5.    Message strategy and tactics is known as the "creative function." Does this mean that successful and creative movie makers be given free rein to plan message strategy and write/ produce the resulting television commercials? Why or why not?

6.    What is meant by the distinction between sales promotions moving the product toward the consumer while advertising moves the consumer toward the product and how does this distinction help guide determining the "value" of a planned sales promotions effort?    

7.    How does a publicist measure his or her effectiveness in the job and how is this comparable to advertising time or space buyers' reach estimates?    

8.    What determines if communications strategy can make use of publicity as an effective sales tool? Explain.

Assignment B

Case Detail:  
Clutter has become synonymous with the advertising industry in recent times and this extends to all realms of marketing, offline and online. There is an increasing trend of being greeted with an explosive assortment of ads when one logs onto a website. These ads transcend genres of -commerce, consumer goods, tourism, hospitality, and more. While views on these ads may be relatively high, the recall seems to be questionable in many cases. In this scenario, tracing the consumer’s preferences for brand advertisements becomes extremely difficult.

Herein, we aim to address the simple question of how a brand must aspire to break clutter and switch to view ability of the content rather than served impressions, which has been the conventional way of running ads within the industry.

To transform the way ads have been programmed so far, one will need to pay close attention to the existing metrics and re-evaluate different brand strategies. The traditional route for marketers adopting online ads has been banners, images, audio, and video. The measurement was based on served impressions, i.e., the countable times that an advertisement gets fetched from the source, irrespective of whether it was clicked or not.

Viewable impressions, on the other hand, are measurable to a more accurate degree. For an impression to be counted as viewable, at least 50 percent of it must be visible to the user for a minimum of one second. This provides for ‘some versus no’ value, but does it justify the money spent behind it? According to a study conducted by ComScore, 54 percent of the display ads that are up on the website are actually not seen and this is despite the fact that some of them cost a lot.

It is implicit that advertisers would be interested in posts which guarantee a decidedly higher view ability, so publishers offering such inventory will be at an advantage too. There’s another bonus to this because measurable data of this sort will make it easier for rate comparison of different brands among multiple publishers. While served impressions have been working well towards adding higher numbers to charts and creating a presumption over the total awareness created through it, there are three primary concerns: If the targeted user leaves the page before it loads completely, he/she will miss the ad.
A lot of search and display ads are placed at the bottom of the webpage, so if the user does not scroll all the way down, it’s a lost cause for the advertiser.
If a proxy server, crawler or spider opens the page, there is no certain way to ascertain the measures. In order to ensure visibility and derive the right returns on your investments, you must plan your advertisements with the right placement and communication.

With advertisement forms rapidly evolving, your strategy is incomplete without researching what works for your target audience and delivering a customised plan of action. To break away for the clutter of advertisements and to ensure you receive eyeballs and recall, the right amount of innovation and creativity must be put in to produce content that goes a long way in giving you the right bang for your buck.

Question
1.    How would you use advertising to break the clutter? What impact does clutter-free advertising play in increasing brand acceptance? 

2.    What does the author mean by "To transform the way ads have been programmed so far, one will need to pay close attention to the existing metrics and re-evaluate different brand strategies"? 

 

3.    Can you use clutter to your advantage? If yes, how? If No, why not? Support your answer with relevant examples.

Answer: - It's true that clutter comes with a lot of baggage, both literally and figuratively. When I look at my messy closet I definitely feel some type of way. I feel stressed at the lack of organization, I feel guilty that I don't wear half of what I own, and I feel confused as to what kind of style I'm even going after. Really, a closet shouldn't elicit all of those emotions, but it can.

It's good to know there is a connection between junk and other problems. We can all feel it when our desks are messy, or our kitchens out of sorts. It's unsettling, and can hold you back from getting stuff done in life.

Assignment C

Question No.  1    
Which of the following terms best fits the activity of marketing communications?    
 
Options    
Making products available    
Convenience of location    
High level of regulation    
Communication between stakeholders    

Question No.  2    
The marketing communications strategy of the marketing mix deals exclusively with    
 
Options    
personal selling and advertising    
advertising and public relations    
advertising, publicity, and pricing    
personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, and public relations

Question No.  3    
Organizations plan, design, implement, and evaluate their marketing communication activities. These activities involve the delivery of messages either to or with target audiences, through various communication tools and media. This is known as    
 
Options    
campaigns    
personal selling    
public relations    
publicity

Question No.  4    
This is a hierarchy of effects or sequential model used to explain how advertising works:    
 
Options    
ADD    
AIDA    
PESTLE    
SWOT    
 

Question No.  5    
Marketing communications is used to achieve one of two principal goals. The first concerns the development of brand values. What is the other goal?    
 
Options    
Increasing sales    
Informing about products    
Changing the behaviour of target audiences    
Channelling communication tools

Question No.  6    
This is the sharing of meaning created through the transmission of information    
 
Options    
Communication    
Noise    
Transfer    
Understanding    

Question No.  7    
This is a series of economic transactions between parties, who have a long-term orientation towards, and are primarily motivated by, concern for each other:    
 
Options    
Partner exchanges    
Collaborative exchanges    
Co-operative transfer    
Partner exchange    

Question No.  8    
The role of marketing communications is to engage audiences and there are four main tasks that it can be used to complete. Which of the following is not part of the four main tasks?    
 
Options    
Differentiate    
Participate    
Reinforce    
Inform

Question No.  9    
_____________is an important element in the communication process. It recognizes that successful communications are more likely to be achieved if the source and the receiver understand each other.    
 
Options    
The realm of understanding    
Personal selling    
Noise    
Feedback

Question No.  10    

This is part of the communication process where receivers unpack the various components of the message, and begin to make sense and give the message meaning    
 
Options    
Encoding    
Decoding    
Transfer    
Noise

Question No.  11    

This is a part of the communication process where the sender selects a combination of appropriate words, pictures, symbols and music to represent a message to be transmitted    
 
Options    
Encoding    
Decoding    
Transfer    
Feedback

Question No.  12    
This is part of the communication process and refers to the responses offered by receivers:    
 
Options    
Encoding    
Decoding    
Transfer    
Feedback

Question No.  13    _______________ is concerned with the development of knowledge that is specific to the parties involved and is referred to as 'learning together'    
 
Options    
Dialogue    
Personal influencer    
Feedback    
Message

Question No.  14    

This approach has been used to convey particular information and help educate large target audiences through television and radio programmes. This approach is referred to as:    
 
Options    
Opinion followers    
Opinion formers    
Public relations    
Opinion leaders    

Question No.  15    

AIDA stands for awareness, ________, desire and _________.    
 
Options    
interest; action    
intensity; appeal    
involvement; action    
Involvement; appeal

Question No.  16    

They are not part of the same peer group as the people they influence. Their defining characteristic is that they exert personal influence because of their profession, authority, education, or status associated with the object of the communication process. This is referred to as:    
 
Options    
Opinion aggregators    
Opinion followers    
Opinion formers    
Opinion gatherers

Question No.  17    

The success of marketing communication depends upon the extent to which messages engage their audiences. These audiences can be seen to fall into three main groups    
 
Options    
Customers, general public, and sales personnel    
Customers, channel members, and general stakeholders    
Customers, general stakeholders, and club members    
General public, club members, and general stakeholders    

Question No.  18    

Each organization is part of a network of other organizations such as suppliers, retailers, wholesalers, value added resellers, distributors, and other retailers, who join together, often freely, to make the product or service available to end users. This is referred to as:    
 
Options    
Channel members    
Customers    
Stakeholders    
Community

Question No.  19    

Which of the following is the communication model that depicts information flowing via various media channels, to particular types of people to whom other members of the audience refer for information and guidance?    
 
Options    
Two-step    
Three-step    
Multi-step    
One-step

Question No.  20    

Which of the following is the interpersonal communication about products or services where a receiver regards the communicator as impartial and is not attempting to sell products or services?    
 
Options    
Word of Mouth (WOM)    
Personal Selling (PS)    
Direct Marketing (DM)    
Customer Service (CS)    

Question No.  21    

Promotion technique for consumers according to which demonstrations and displays of products made at place of sale is called    
 
Options    
point of purchase promotion    
Discounts    
sales premium    
advertising specialties

Question No.  22    
Personal selling step in which sales person asks for an order to customer is classified as    
 
Options    
shipper approach    
handling shipment    
closing    
follow up

Question No.  23    

Sales force structure in which a sales representatives works to sell specific items of product line is classified as    
 
Options    
indirect sales force structure    
territorial sales force structure    
customer sales force structure    
product sales force structure

Question No.  24    
Third step in personal selling process after completion of pre-approach step is to    
 
Options    
prospecting and qualifying    
handling objections    
approach    
presentation and demonstration    

Question No.  25    

Step in personal selling process which consists of first meeting first meeting between customer and sales person is called    
 
Options    
qualifying    
prospecting    
follow up    
approach

Question No.  26    
Type of sales person who work from their offices through internet or telephone are classified as    
 
Options    
channel intermediaries    
nominal sales force    
inside sales force    
outside sales force

Question No.  27    
In personal selling process, step which consists of identifying potential customers is classified as    
 
Options    
presenting quota    
demonstrating quota    
prospecting    
qualifying

Question No.  28    
Sales promotion tools used to stimulate purchase, motivate salespeople and generate business leads are classified in category of    
 
Options    
event promotion    
off deal promotion    
trade promotions    
business promotions    

Question No.  29    

Consumer promotion technique through which brand marketing event is created by company or it participates in other sponsored event is classified as    
 
Options    
event marketing    
sponsored marketing    
branding    
premium marketing

Question No.  30    
Consumer promotion technique according to which seller sells two or three units of product at reduced price is classified as    
 
Options    
price packs    
Discounts    
advertising specialties    
Both 1 and 2

Question No.  31    
'Particular communication that must be achieve within definite target audience within specific time is classified as    
 
Options    
message decision    
media decision    
advertising objective    
advertising evaluation    

Question No.  32    
Possible objectives of advertising includes    
 
Options    
persuasive advertising    
reminder advertising    
Information advertising    
All of the above

Question No.  33    
Approach of message execution which follows format of style, tone, words and format to execute message of advertising is classified as    
 
Options    
rational style    
persuasive style    
creative style    
execution style    

Question No.  34    
Resources and dollars allocated to company's or products promotional program are classified as    
 
Options    
advertising messages    
advertising budget    
advertising strategy    
advertising objective

Question No.  35    
Strategic media planning is a complex challenge because advertises must use their knowledge of    
 
Options    
Psychographics    
Behavioural characteristics    
Demographics    
All of the above

Question No.  36    
Addressable media are used    
 
Options    
to deliver customised marketing messages to identifiable prospects    
for two-way communication    
for social media
none of the above    

Question No.  37    
Media strategy is making media decisions based on    
 
Options    
Whims of the market    
Understanding customers’ wants and needs    
Brand awareness    
The client’s wishes

Question No.  38    
Interactive media can be best described as    
 
Options    
Customized Marketing Messages    
Marketing Communications Mix    
Marketing Mix    
Media that allow two-way messages between company and consumer    

Question No.  39    
Extensive local penetration and coverage is indicative of    
 
Options    
Magazines    
Online Advertising    
Social Media    
Newspapers    

Question No.  40    
One weakness in using out-of-home media is    
 
Options    
Demographic Flexibility    
Relatively Low Cost    
Delivers Excellent Reach    
Difficult to Measure and Control