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This report analyses the advertising decisions made by Marketing Team OFF. In reticular it will focus on the choice in advertising mediums throughout steps 1 to 2 during the initial phase of product launch as these are often deemed the most critical when launching a new product into any chosen market. Background Team OFF had an Inhalant key focus on the advertising aspect In the launch of our product. The team had a trial and error approach to the early stages of our marketing.
Due to the changes made in the design throughout the simulation combined with the little research conducted into our target market it proved to be a crucial mistake in the overall simulation which left the team with less than 20% of the racket costs to begin turn 2 (See Appendix, Page 1, Turn 1: Market Costs & Media Spending). Whilst our target market was school children few have the funds to purchase products on their own, thus an important factor overlooked when marketing to school children was the importance of also targeting ‘Stay at home Mum’s’ as a second target demographic.
When reviewing the simulation advertising decisions the Team should have recognized ‘Luxury Target Market’ as a secondary audience and In turn reached a larger portion of the overall Influencing target market. Further to this an understanding of the associated costs and reach of hoses advertising mediums would have assisted In the decision making process from Turn 1 to 2. Analysis Understanding your Target Market when employing an Advertising Strategy “To develop an effective advertising program advertisers must identify the target audience.
All aspects of an advertising program are likely to be influenced by the characteristics of the potential consumer” (Kerri & McDonnell, 2008). If Team OFF reflected on the target consumer ‘School Children’ in greater depth they would have uncovered a secondary target audience, ‘Parents’. By understanding that school hillier were unlikely to be the purchaser the advertising program would have altered to include marketing to both school children and parents.
In turn the selection of media would have been different, for example: rather than focus solely on typical mediums like cartoon shows and comic books, a greater focus on an overall reach of people with children and children could have been applied. The Impact of Advertising Decisions made by Team OFF in Turn One’ In Turn One Team OFF selected the following platforms for advertisement: ; Channel Comic Book ; Newspaper Cartoon The above came to a total cost of $8,100. 00 and only reach the key target consumer rather than the overall target audience.
While these platforms were successful in visually presenting the product to the target consumer, there was a lack of reach to the overall target audience and the cost effectiveness of the overall advertising campaign. Marketing to children was still an important component of the advertising strategy employed as youths also shape the buying patterns of their parents (Calvert, 2008). A better strategy in turn 1 would have been to employ a low cost platform like radio to each parents during the commute to school and billboards strategically placed around local schools to being marketing to children.
The combined mediums would have provided a visual and audio element for audiences to align with the product. While outdoor advertising is described by Warner as weak due to the lack of messaging that can be displayed; it has quite the opposite effect when marketing to the target consumer; the concept of simplistic yet animated messaging is an effective means of engaging school children. On the other hand radio is personal medium that lids loyalty over time, an effective platform when targeting parents as it builds trust with the audiences; trust being a key factor when considering a purchase for children (Barrow, 1990).
Additionally radio provides many ways to promote a message, allows an advertiser to reach people 24 hours a day and also change a message quickly should the product or strategy change (Barrow, 1990). Round two saw the team remove the television and comic book advertising resulting in a significant saving in market costs yet the frequency of the advertising message in market was dismal. The advertising was not consistent nor run over a long enough periods, particularly for the target audience, to have consumers take action.