efore undertaking an advertising ca mpaign, marketers should be abl e t o a n s we r t w o k e y questions: (1) Why are we advertising?

(2) What are we advertising? On the face of it these seem like two fairly obvious questions. But they are significant.A d v e r t i s i n g c a n b e a v e r y e x p e n s i v e p r o m o t i o n a l t o o l . I t i s w i d e l y b e l i e v e d t h a t m u c h a d v e r t i s i n g s p e n d i s wa s t e d . S o c a r e f u l c o n s i d e r a t i o n a b o u t W h y a n d W h a t c a n p a y dividends. Why advertise? The following may be good reasons why a business is advertising: To create awareness, customer interest or desire To build brand loyalty (or to maintain it at the existing level) To launch a new product To support the activities of the distribution channel (e.g. supporting a pull strategy) To build the company or brand image What to advertise? Factors that help answer the what are we advertising? focus on what the advertising messageshould be. In general, there are really only two kinds of effective advertising message:Firstly, does the business/product have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)A unique selling proposition is a customer benefit that no other product can claimIn reality these are rare, although that does not stop marketers from claiming them for their products.Secondly, does the thing that is being advertised add value and if so, how?F o r e xa m p l e , a d v e r t i s i n g f o r wa s h i n g p o wd e r s wi l l f o c u s o n t h e a d d e d v a l u e c r e a t e d b y whitening agents or the fact that a particular formulation will last longer than the competition(take a look at the Fairy web site to see if you can spot the other added value features claimedfor its products)Whatever is advertised, it is important that message is: Seen 1