Every business or product needs promotion for reaching out to the consumers. Advertising strategy is created to fulfill this very purpose. The period of an advertising strategymay range from a few months to a year.
Steps to develop an advertising strategy:
- Defining the Product or Service – Before developing the plans and strategies for advertising, the product or service offered by the company is clearly defined. This means that the position of the product in the market is determined. You have to understand the product and its customer base for effectively marketing it to the people at large. It is also important to understand the primary objective of the product or company.
- Understanding the target audience – This is an important step in creating a strategy for advertising. Various factors are to be considered for determining the target audience such as demographic factors, psychographic factors, behavioral patterns, etc. The advertising plan is created after considering these factors. For e.g. cosmetic and beauty products are aimed at the women audience. The advertising strategy is derived accordingly.
- Market research – Once the target market is determined, the next step is to study the market for that particular product. Research about the products already available in the market, what problems are faced in getting those products, what does the consumer desire from such products and such other issues. A marketing and advertising plan can be derived with the help of this study. Also, find out the latest trends in the market.
- Developing a marketing plan – The strategies formed with the help of market research can be put down as the plan of action for marketing the product. This means, a marketing plan is created after determining the current trends in the market. The marketing plan aims to create a niche of the product so that it stands out among the competition. The plan of action also helps to establish the positioning of product.
- Deciding communication media – The marketing plan is put to action using various channels of communication. It is important to choose the right media or a media mix for advertising. This depends on the product or service that is being marketed. The choice of the medium is made after considering the target audience and market research. If a physiology equipment is to be marketed, its advertisement will be put up as flyers or brochures in a doctor’s clinic or hospitals; in health magazines and websites and so on.
- Budget – The budget may be determined either before or after creating an advertising strategy. It can be based on the resources available to the company. If the company has an expensive budget, they can carry out high impact advertising extensively. They can create effective advertising strategy without worrying about the finance. On the other hand, if the company has limited budget, that alone dictates the advertising strategy. Because, at every step of the market plan and advertising strategy, they have to consider the budget.
- Marketing methods – Company can consider from among two types of methods to advertise while creating the strategy. They are push method and pull method. They can decide to go with either depending on their strategy and objective. Push method aims to convince the retailers or sales person to promote the product, whereas pull method is directly aimed at the consumers.
- Modifying advertising strategy – This process does not end on creating and implementing the advertising strategy. One has to stay in touch with the trends in marketing and modify the marketing strategy time to time.