The creative ideas and designs of good advertisements (which can be in any medium) must be linked to a clear, measurable selling purpose. Ensure that your advertising gives potential customers a good reason to buy your product or services.

• • PLANNING ADVERTISING

Whether you are embarking on an expensive long-term campaign or placing a single advertisement on the recruitment pages of a newspaper, plan your advertisement carefully. All advertisement convey a public message about you are your organization. What you are advertising and the size of your budget will influence the media you choose. Will you choose TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, posters, hoardings, the Internet, or direct mail, for instance? If you use more than one, the messages in different media should reinforce each other. For a big campaign, you should employ a specialized advertising agency.

• • MEASURING AWARENESS

Researching the market is crucial, because the information provides a yardstick for judging whether advertising is working. If necessary, employ market research specialists to provide valuable feedback. For example, a survey can reveal the extent of public awareness about an advertised product before, during, and after a campaign. If appropriate, adapt any follow-up advertising to reach a new target audience.

• • USING THE INTERNET

An increasing number of organizations are successfully advertising on the World Wide Web. One big computer company achieves 10 per cent of its sales from its 24-hour, 7-days-a-week Web “store”. There are various reasons why advertising on the Internet is so popular:

• You can advertise products and direct-sell simultaneously;
• Images can move, which adds to effectiveness;
• Costs are low compared with other media;
• The Web is potentially the largest single medium for advertising many goods and services, in industrial products, as well as in consumer areas.

Tips:

• 1. Make sure your product matches the promise, or advertising will fail.
  2. Target your advertising for maximum impact.
  3. Be as creative as possible – you can succeed on a small budget.
  4.  Use panels of consumes to test advertisements before release.