Evaluation of sales promotional strategy

Sales promotional strategies should be evaluated twice. First at the stages of implementation and secondly after the final performance because implementation control’ will suggest improvements during the application of the promotional strategy, while ‘performance control’ will be a guide for the future. Implementation control covers initial planning, objectives, promotional packages, and printing of special premiums and packaging materials, distribution to retailers, etc. Even though it has proved successful whenever tried, very few firms adopt this strategy.

Many manufacturers believe only in performance control. Performance is evaluated in the light of planned objectives. Consumer surveys and consumer experiments are used to evaluation techniques show how far the sales promotion techniques have been effective in increasing sales through motivating consumers and sellers, and point the way to improvement in sales promotion.

Sales promotion and product life cycle

The promotional tools vary in their cost effectiveness at different stages of the product life cycle. In the introduction stage, advertising and publicity have high cost effeteness, followed by sales promotional to induce trial and personal selling to gain distribution coverage. In the growth stage, all the tools can be toned down because demand has its own momentum through word-of-mouth.

In the maternity stage, sales promotion, advertising and personal selling all become more important in that order. In the decline stage, sales promotion continues strong, advertising and publicity are reduced and sales people give the product only minimal attention.

Cross Promotion

Under this sales promotion strategy, the manufacturer may use all the potential tools such as advertisement, personal selling and sales promotion to hit the market simultaneously so that the buyer will be induced to buy a product. For example when Deccan Chronicle, a daily newspaper, was introduced in Chennai, the management had used all promotional activities, such as display, holding, price off and media to influence the reader to buy the paper. This promotional strategy in called cross promotion.

Surrogate selling

Under this strategy, when the manufacturer is unable to sell his product in the market he may handover the product to a well known organization to sell on behalf of the manufacturer. This strategy is called surrogate selling. For example, shampoo products are manufactured at Puducherry by a number of small and medium manufactures. But they find it difficult in selling the product in the market. What they have done was, handing over the finished product to Hindustan Lever, Proctor and Gample who have sufficient logistics in selling the product, there by relieving the burden of converting the product into cash. They have in fact act as a surrogate in selling their merchandise in the market.

Bait and Switch advertising

Bait means something that is meant to tempt someone. Under this strategy, the marketing manager use AIDAS formula to tempt someone to look the advertisement and influence him to buy a product. For example, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has used 10 paise prominently in its advertisement to bring the attention of its users in mind which will influence them to go for using the BSNL service. This way of tempting the viewer to opt for BSNL is called Bait advertising. Switch means a device that is pressed or turned to stop or start something working especially by electricity. Switch advertising means when an advertisement is released, it should ignite the minds of the buyer to notice the advertisement and take a decision to buy the product. For example during festival times manufacturer may offer some discount on cash price to the buyer on some selected products. So he has put this in the local newspaper-which would have ignited the minds of the buyers. Buyers will certainly be influenced to buy the product. This strategy is called switch advertising strategy.

Sales Promotion Budget

One of the most difficult marketing decisions facing companies is how much to spend on promotion. It is not surprising that industries and companies vary considerably in how much they spend on promotion. It is important to determine sales promotion budgets before resorting to sales promotion activities. The resources and sales potentials are estimated before the formulation of budgets. Sales promotion budgets should be adequate so that they achieve the promotion objective.

Affordable method 

Many companies set the promotion budget at what they think the company afford. This method of setting budgets completely ignores the role of promotion as an investment and the immediate impact of promotion on sales volume. It leads to an uncertain annual promotion budget, which makes long range market planning difficult.

Percentage of sales method

Many companies set their promotion expenditures at a specified percentage of sales or of the sales price. Automobile companies typically budget a fixed percentage for promotion based on the planned can price. A number of advantages are claimed for this method.

1. The percentage-of-sales method means that promotion expenditures are likely to vary with what the company can afford – which satisfies the financial managers, who feel that expenses should bear a close relation to the movement of corporate sales over the business cycle.
2.  This method encourages management to think in terms of the relationship between promotion cost, selling price and profit per unit. The major drawback of this method is that it does not provide a logical basis for choosing the specific percentage except what has been done in the past or what competitors are doing. It also does not encourage building up the promotion budget by determining what each product and territory deserves.

Competitive – Parity Method

Some companies set their promotion budget to achieve share-of-wice parity with their competitors. Two arguments are advanced for this method. One is that the competitors’ expenditures represent the collective wisdom of the industry. The other is that maintaining a competitive parity helps prevent promotion wars. There are no grounds for believing that the competition knows better than the company itself what it should be spending on promotion. Company reputations, resources, opportunities, and objectives differ so much that their promotion budgets are hardly a guide. Further more, there is no evidence that budgets based on competitive parity discourage promotional wars from breaking out.

Objective-and-Task-Method

The objective-and-task method calls upon marketers to develop their promotion budgets by defining their specific objectives, determining the tasks that must be performed to achieve these objectives and estimating the costs of performing these tasks. This method has the advantage of requiring management to spell out its assumptions about the relationship between rupees spent, exposure levels, trial rates and regular usage.

Types of Sales Promotion - Dealer Promotion

Dealer Promotion Tools

More sales promotion rupees are directed to the trade than to consumers. Manufacturers seek the following objectives in awarding money to the trade:

i.                    Trade promotion can persuade the retailer or wholesaler to carry the brand.

ii.                  Trade promotion can persuade the retailer or wholesaler to carry more than it normally carries.

iii.                Trade promotion can induce the retailers to promote the brand through featuring, display, and price reduction.

iv.                Trade promotion can stimulate retailers and their sales clerks to push the product.

Manufacturers use several promotion tools. Some of which are mentioned below:

Ø Price – Off: Manufacturers may offer a price – off, which is straight discount off the list price on each case purchased during a stated period of time. The offer encourages dealers to buy a quantity or carry a new item that they might not ordinarily buy. The dealers can use the buying allowance for immediate profit or price reductions.

Ø Allowance: Manufacturers may offer an allowance in return for the retailer’s agreeing to feature the manufacturer’s products in some way. An advertising allowance compensates retailers for advertising the manufacturer’s product. A display allowance compensates them for carrying a special display of the product.

Ø Free Goods: Manufacturers may offer free goods, which are extra cases of merchandise to middlemen who buy a certain quantity of items.

Ø Push Money: Manufacturers may offer push money which is cash or gifts to dealers or their sales force to push the manufacturer’s goods.

Ø Speciality Advertising Items: Manufacturers may offer free specialty advertising items to the retailers that carry the company’s name such as pens, pencil, calendars, paper weights, and memo pads.

As the number of competitive sales promotions have increased, friction has been created between the company’s sales force and its brand managers. The sales force says that the retailers will not keep products on the shelf unless they receive more trade promotion money, while the brand managers want to spend their funds on consumer promotion and advertising.

Types of Sales Promotion - Consumer Promotion

In using sales promotion, a company must fulfill the objectives of the organization. Sales promotion objectives are derived from broader promotion objectives, which are derived from more basic marketing objectives developed for the product. The specific objectives set for sales promotion will vary with the type of target market.

For consumers, objectives include encouraging purchase of larger-size units, building trial among non users and attracting switches away from competitors’ brands. For retailers objectives include inducing retailers to carry new items and higher levels of inventory, encouraging off-season buying, encouraging, stocking of related items, off setting competitive promotions, building brand loyalty of retailers and gaining entry into new retail outlets. For sales force, objectives include encouraging support of a new product or model, encouraging more prospecting and stimulating off-season sales.

Many sales promotion tools are available to accomplish these objectives at the consumer level, and at the middle men level. For the purpose of convenience, the types of sales promotion methods may be grouped under three categories:

1. Types of sales promotion directed at consumers.

2. Types of sales promotion directed at dealers and distributors.

Consumer Promotion Tools

The main consumer promotion tools include samples, coupons, cash refund offers, price packs, premiums, prizes, patronage rewards, free trials, product warranties, tie-ins, and point of purchase displays and demonstrations.

Ø Samples Samples are offers of a free amount or trial of a product to consumers. The sample might be delivered door to door sent in the mail, picked up in a store, found attached to another product or featured in an advertising offer. Sampling is the most effective and most expensive way to introduce a new product.

Ø Coupons Coupons are certificates entitling the bearer to a stated saving on the purchase of a specific product. Coupons can be mailed, enclosed in or on other products or inserted in magazine and newspaper advertisements. Coupons can be effective in stimulating sales of a mature brand and inducing early trial of a new brand.

Ø Cash Refund Offers or Rebates These are like coupons except that the price reduction occurs after the purchase rather than at the retail shop. The consumer sends a specified “proof of purchase” to the manufacturer, who in turn ‘refunds’ part of the purchase price by mail. Cash refunds have been used for major products such as automobiles as well as for packaged goods.

Ø Price Packs These are offers to consumers of savings off the regular price of a product, flagged on the label or package. They may take the form or a reduced-price pack which is single packages sold at a reduced price (such as two for the price of one) or a banded pack, which is two related products banded together (such as a tooth brush and tooth paste). Price packs are very effective in stimulating short term sales, even more than coupons.

Ø Premiums or Gifts These are merchandise offered at a relatively low cost or free as an incentive to purchase a particular product. Sometimes the package itself, is a reusable container may serve as a premium. A self-liquidating premium is an item sold below its normal retail price to consumers who request it.

Ø Prizes These are offers of the chance to win cash, trips or merchandise as a result of purchasing something. Pepsi-cola offered the chance to win cash by matching numbers under the bottle cap with numbers announced on television. Sometimes the prize is a person, offering the winner either cash or dinner with actor Sharuk Khan.

Ø Patronage Awards These are values in cash or in other forms that are proportional to one’s patronage of a certain vendor or group of vendors. Most airlines offer “frequent flyer plans” providing points for miles traveled that can be turned in for free airline trips. Cooperatives pay their members dividends according to their annual patronage. Le Meridian adopted an “honoured guest” plan that awards points for users of their hotels.

Ø Free Trials Free trails consist of inviting prospective purchasers to try the product without cost in the hope that they will buy the product. Thus, often we see, auto dealers encourage free test drives to stimulate purchase interest.

Ø Product Warranties These are an important tool, especially as consumers become more quality sensitive. When My TVS offered a two year car warranty, substantially longer than other competitors’ customers took notice. They inferred that My TVS quality must be good or else the company would be in deep trouble. Companies must carefully estimate the sales-generating value against the potential costs of any proposed warranty programme.

Ø Tie-in Promotions These are becoming increasingly popular. In a tie in promotion two or more brands or companies team up on coupons, refunds and contests to increase their pulling power. Companies pool funds with the hope of broader exposure, while several sales forces push these promotions to retailers, giving them a better shot at extra display and ad space.

Ø Point-of-Purchase Displays These take place at the point of purchase or sale. Display of visible mark or product at the entrance of the store is an example. Unfortunately many retailers do not like to handle the hundreds of displays, signs and posters they receive from manufacturers. Hindustan Lever often use this tool to promote its products in the retail market.

Ø Product Demonstrations Products are being shown in action. Consumers can visit the store and see the usage of product in live action so that doubts of the consumers can be clarified in the store itself. When a new product is introduced in the market, the sales promotional tool is often used. For example ultra modern grinder mixie being used by the company to demonstrate its speciality than the other product.

Objectives and Rationale of Sales Promotion

Objectives of Sales Promotion

i) To introduce new products

To induce buyers to purchase a new product, free samples may be distributed or money and merchandise allowance may be offered to business to stock and sell the product.

ii) To attract new customers

New customers may be attracted through issue of free samples, premiums, contests and similar devices.

iii) To induce present customers to buy more

Present customers may be induced to buy more by knowing more about a product, its ingredients and uses.

iv) To help firm remain competitive

Sales promotions may be undertaken to meet competition from a firm.

v) To increase sales in off season

Buyers may be encouraged to use the product in off seasons by showing them the variety of uses of the product.

vi) To increase the inventories of business buyers

Retailers may be induced to keep in stock more units of a product so that more sales can be effected.

Rationale of sales promotion

Rationale of sales promotion may be analysed under the following points.

Ø Short-term results

Sales promotion such as coupons and trade allowances produce quicker, more measurable sales results. However critics of this strategy argue that these immediate benefits come at the expense of building brand equity. They believe that an over emphasize on sales promotion may under mine a brand’s future.

Ø Competitive Pressure

If competitors offer buyers price reductions, contest or other incentives, a firm may feel forced to retaliate with its own sales promotions.

Ø Buyers’ expectations

Once they are offered purchase incentives, consumers and channel members get used to them and soon begin expecting them.

Ø Low quality of retail selling

Many retailers use inadequately trained sales clerks or have switched to self service. For these outlets, sales promotion devices such as product displays and samples often are the only effective promotional tools available at the point of purchase.

Sales Promotion - Introduction

Introduction

Sales promotion is one of the most loosely used terms in the marketing vocabulary. We define sales promotion as demand. Stimulating devices designed to supplement advertising and facilitate personal selling. In other words, sales promotion signifies all those activities that supplement, co-ordinate and make the efforts of personal selling and advertising more effective. It is non recurrent in nature which means it can’t be used continuously.

Concept of Sales Promotion

Sales promotion consists of diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly short-term designed to stimulate quicker and / or greater purchase of a particular product by consumers or the trade. Where as advertising offers a reason to buy, sales promotion offers an incentive to buy. Sales promotion includes tools for consumer promotion (for example samples, coupons, prizes, cash refund, warranties, demonstrations, contest); trade promotion (for example buying allowances, free goods, merchandise allowances, co-operative advertising, advertising and display allowances, dealer sales contests); and sales-force promotion (for example bonuses, contests, sales rallies).

Sales promotion efforts are directed at final consumers and designed to motivate, persuade and remind them of the goods and receives that are offered. Sales persons adopt several techniques for sales promotion. Creative sales promotion can be very effective. It is the marketing manager’s responsibility to specify promotion objectives and policies.

Definitions of Sales Promotion

According to American Marketing Association “ Those marketing activities other than personal selling advertising and publicity that stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness such as display shows and exhibitions, demonstrations and various non-recurrent selling efforts not in the ordinary routine.”

W.J. Stanton defines sales promotion as all those activities other than advertising, personal selling, public relations and publicity that are intended to stimulate customer demand and improve the marketing performance of sellers.

Purpose of sales Promotion

Sales promotion tools vary in their specific objectives. A free sample stimulates consumer trial, while a free management advisory service cements a long-term relationship with a retailer. From the marketer’s perspective, sales promotion serves three essential roles it informs, persuades and reminds prospective and current customers and other selected audiences about a company and its products. The relative importance of those roles varies according to the circumstances faced by a firm.

The most useful product or brand will be a failure if no one knows it is available! Because distribution channels are often long, a product may pass through many lands between a producer and consumers. Therefore, a producer must inform middlemen as well as the ultimate consumers or business users about the product. Wholesalers, in turn must inform retailers and retailers must inform consumers. As the number of potential customers grows and the geographic dimensions of a market expand, the problems and costs of informing the market increase.

Another purpose of sales promotion is persuasion. The intense competition among different industries, puts tremendous pressure on the promotional programmes of sellers. In India, even a product designed to satisfy a basic physiological need requires strong persuasive promotion, because consumers have many alternatives to choose from. In the case of luxury product, for which sales depend on the ability to convince consumers that the products benefits exceed those of other luxuries, persuasion is even more important.

Consumers also must be reminded about a product’s availability and its potential to satisfy. sellers bombard the market place units hundreds of messages every day in the hope of attracting new consumers and establishing markets for new products. Given the intense competition for consumers’ attention, even an established firm must constantly remind people about its brand to retain a place in their minds. Much of a firm’s sales promotion may be intended simply to offset competitors marketing activity by keeping its brand in front of the market.

Various Elements Involved in IMC Campaign.

I Situation Analysis

• Product and company research
• Consumer and stakeholder research
• Market analysis
• Competitive situation
• Industry analysis
• Marketplace analysis

II SWOT Analysis

• Internal factors: strengths and weaknesses
• External factors: opportunities and threats
• Problem identification

III Campaign strategy

• Objectives
• Targeting
• Positioning
• Scheduling strategy

IV Communication strategy

• Message development research
• The creative theme
• Creative tactics and executions

V Media plan

VI Other Marketing communication activities

VII The appropriation and budget

Situation Analysis

The first step in campaign plans is a situation analysis that summarizes all the relevant information available about the product, the company, the competitive environment, the industry, and the consumers. Sometimes called a business review, this information is obtained using primary and secondary research techniques. The six most important research areas are

• product and company research,
• consumer and stakeholder research
• market analysis,
• competitive analysis,
• industry analysis, and
• market place analysis.

SWOT Analysis

Situation analysis evaluates the significance of the research. During the situation analysis planners compile all the information they can about the brand and its competitive situation, marketplace factors such as the health of the category, and the behavior of consumers toward this brand and some recast this information in terms of internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (opportunities and threats). Once the information is gathered and sorted into SWOT categories, the analysis begins. In this stage, the key areas on which the campaign strategy has to be built are identified. Problem Identification focuses on a set of serious communication problems that this campaign must address. These problems differ from year to year and situation to situation. For example in one year's marketing plan, a brand may be launching a line extension, which means the advertising will address the problem of launching a new product under a familiar brand name. The next year the marketing plan may focus on increasing distribution, so the advertising probably address opening up new territories where the brand is unknown. Each type of problem calls for a different advertising and marketing communication strategy. Different audiences are reached with different messages; different marketing communication tools may be used: and different communication objectives are set.

Campaign Strategy

After the situation analysis and the SWOT analysis, most advertising campaign plan focus on the key strategic decisions that will guide the campaign. The strategy section of a campaign plan identifies the objectives that will solve the key problems identified at the end of the SWOT analysis. It will also specify the target stakeholder audiences and how the strategy will handle competitive advantage and the product's position. Other strategic decisions revolve around the scheduling and timing of the different phases of the campaign act.

Objectives

As objectives provide the goal, they can then be used at the end of the process to measure the campaign's results. These objectives are established based on an understanding the hierarchy of effects and the various ways advertising can affect its audience.

Targeting

Potential target markets are pinpointed and segmented into groups identified by certain demographic or psychographic characteristics, such as environmentalists, bike riders, or mall teens. These target audiences (that is, groups of people to whom a marketing communication message is directed) shift with each campaign, its situation, key problems, and objectives. For example, if you are launching a line extension, you will probably target current users of the brand. However, if you are opening up new territory there aren't current users, so you will have to target competitors' users. For both audiences, however, the objective may remain the same, which is to convince the target audiences to try a new product.

Positioning

Although objectives and targeting differ from campaign to campaign, the product's positioning remains the same. Does the position mean the same thing to familiar brand users considering a new line extension? What would it mean to entirely new users in a new market territory who are un-familiar with the brand? They may not respond to the position in the same way, which means that the way the position is presented in the message strategy may need to be adjusted to the target audience's needs, interests, and level of knowledge.

Scheduling

Timing and scheduling are an important part of the media plan and are also tied into the over-all campaign strategy. Many campaigns have phases, such as the launch, the continuing campaign, and the close. In some cases, particularly with campaigns that continue for a number of years, such as the classic "Milk Mustache" campaign, the campaign may be launched with one strategy that evolves into another strategy as the campaign matures.

Media Plan

The media plan and the creative plan are equally important and are developed simultaneously. The overall appropriation, or available money for the campaign, determines the media. Initial decisions about which media to use usually reflect the availability of a budget big enough to use television, which is the most costly of all media. The media mix is created by selecting the best combination of media vehicle traditional media, and marketing communication tools to reach the targeted stakeholder audiences. If a product has an awareness problem, widespread mass media will probably used to increase the general level of awareness. If the problem is one of trial, Sales promotion may be the most important tool. However, if the product only appeals to a small target such as martial arts clothes for aikido devotees, direct mail (assuming, of course, that '' –can find a list or build one) and the Internet may be more effective ways to reach that target. In fact, although there may be a lead tool, such as advertising, often a mix of supporting media is used to reach different stakeholder groups. Media planners allocate media dollars to accomplish reach and frequency objectives. In a high-reach campaign, money is spent to get the message to as many people as possible. In a high-frequency campaign, the money is spent on fewer media reaching fewer people, but repetition of the message is increased. The media plan includes media objectives (reach and frequency), media strategies (targeting, continuity, timing), media selection (the specific vehicles), geographic strategies, schedules, and the media budget. Usually a pie chart is used to show how the budget is allocated to the various media activities.

Other Marketing Communication Activities

The decision about which tools to use is based on an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the various marketing communication tools. The tools are then matched to the problem identified in the situation analysis. In other words, which area can best reach a mass audience (advertising), involve an audience (events), or build credibility and believability (public relations)? This is a process called zero-based planning. Subsections of the plan are devoted to these other important marketing communication areas. A competitive sales campaign targeted business owners and managers during competitors' sales canvassing periods.

The Appropriation and Budget

The amount of money available from the client, or advertiser, governs all strategic decisions. Some sense of the amount of money that has been appropriated for the campaign is used at the beginning of the planning to determine the general scope and scale of the campaign effort. Then, after the plan has been developed, a budget is developed that costs out the various recommendations. If this budget is much higher than the appropriation, either costs have to be shaved or the appropriation has to increase. The budget size for advertising and marketing communication programs has a tremendous range. If you are working on a campaign for a major marketer, you may have plenty of money {or the most expensive form of television advertising. Most campaigns are somewhere in between and their planners rarely have as much money as they feel they need to do the job right. Once the appropriation is set, the money can be allocated among the various advertising and marketing communication activities.

Evaluating the Campaign Plan

The final step in campaign plan is to prepare a proposal stating how the campaign will be evaluated. The key part of an evaluation plan is to measure a company or brand's effectiveness against its stated objectives. If not done formally through a research project, some sort of evaluation is always done informally to determine whether the effort was successful. This information is concerned with questions of effectiveness: Is the campaign working? What were the results? It is also concerned with questions of taste and judgment. Is the campaign fair and accurate? Is it building the brand or corporate reputation?

THE INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION

Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is the practice of unifying all marketing communication tools and corporate and brand messages to communicate in a consistent way to and with stakeholder audiences (that is, those who have a stake or interest in the corporation). An IMC campaign plan is even more complex than a traditional advertising plan because it considers more message sources, more communication tools, and more audiences. IMC programs are designed to coordinate all the various communication messages and sources.

We can group these messages as planned (or controlled) messages by the company and unplanned (or uncontrolled) messages. In addition, unconsidered messages-those delivered by other aspects of the marketing mix (price, product, and distribution) and other contact points (such as the appearance of the parking lot outside the store)-communicate important information to stakeholders that can negate the advertising.

The Tools of IMC

The tools used in an IMC campaign include traditional marketing communication tools such as advertising and sales promotion. However, the IMC approach recognizes that other areas of the marketing mix too. The price of the product signals a level of quality. The cleanliness of the store and helpfulness of the customer service department send powerful messages. The product's reliability also communicates. IMC planners should consider all message sources and marketing communications that reach stakeholder audiences.

Stakeholder Audience

In addition to managing the total communication program, IMC campaigns also address a wide variety or stakeholder, all of whom have a different stake or interest in a company and its brand messages. The different stakeholder audiences are as follows:

Corporate Level

• Employees
• Investors
• Financial Community
• Government Regulators

Marketing Level

• Consumers
• Target markets
• Retailers
• Distributors
• Competition
• Suppliers
• Vendors

Marketing Communication Level

• Consumers
• Target audiences
• Trade audiences
• Local community
• Media
• Interest groups
• Activist groups
• General Public

Why is IMC concerned with all these audiences? The support (or lack of it) that each stakeholder group gives to the company can affect that company's brands positively or negatively. Maintaining consistent communications from all message sources to stakeholders is particularly difficult. It works only if a company or brand has a focused business philosophy or mission, clearly understood core values, and a strong corporate culture. Even though different areas of the company may be sending messages, the person the receiving end is an individual who has to make sense of all the messages, impressions and experiences. As IMC experts Don Schultz, Starley Tannenbaum, and Robert Lauterborn explain, IMC realigns marketing communication "to look at it the way the consumer sees it as a flow of information from indistinguishable sources. If the messages don’t reflect some central core values and deliver a consistent image, they may conflict and ate confusion.

Coordination

Coordinating all these messages is an organizational problem best solved through cross- functional management which means using teams of people who are from different parts of the company, outside agencies, or both. These teams manage the planning process and monitor the way the plan is implemented. Cross-functional management may even mean getting different agencies together who are producing the marketing communication.

The Structure of A Campaign Plan

A campaign, whether advertising or IMC, is a complex set of interlocking, coordinated activities. A campaign results from a comprehensive plan for a series of different but related marketing communication efforts that appear in different media and marketing communication areas across a specified time period. The campaign is designed strategically to meet a set of objectives and to solve some critical problem.

It is short-term plans that usually run for a year or less. Many advertisements are single-shot ads. In other words, they are free-standing ad unrelated to ads that preceded or followed them. Companies that create one ad at a time and constantly change the core message are not involved in a campaign process. However, a great deal of national advertising is developed as part of a campaign with an umbrella theme that extends across time, different stakeholder audiences, and different advertising vehicles or marketing communication opportunities. A campaign may focus or one specific product attribute or one audience, or it may cover a variety of attributes and reach all the audiences. A campaign plan summarizes the marketplace situation, the underlying campaign strategy, the main creative strategies and tactics, media, and the other marketing communication.