Page 248 - DMGT507_SALES AND PROMOTIONS MANAGEMENT

Sales and Promotions Management

Notes Indicate a benchmark or standard starting point and the degree of change sought, and
Specify a time period for accomplishing the objective or objectives

14.1.1 Concrete, Measurable Tasks

The communications task in objective should be spelled out and written in a precise statement
of what appeal or message the advertiser wants to communicate to the target audience. It should
be specific and clear enough to guide the creative specialists in developing the ad message.
The DAGMAR approach requires that the measurement procedure should also be specified.
There must be a way to determine whether the intended ad message has been communicated
properly to the target audience. If the ad message communicates that brand X is the best on Q
attribute, then a questionnaire may include the request, “Rank the following brands on best Q
attribute.” The responses could be quantified to mean the percentage of audience who rated
brand X as the best on Q attribute.

14.1.2 Target Audience

Another important feature of good objectives is the specification of a well-defined target audience.
Though the primary target audience for a company’s product or service is described in situation
analysis, yet it may need some refining. For example, users of a product may be further categorized
as heavy, medium, or light users.
14.1.3 Benchmark and Degree of Change Sought

It is important to know the target audience’s present status with respect to response variables
(awareness, knowledge, image, attitudes, or intentions), and then determine the degree of change
desired by the advertising campaign.

Example: The objective statement may include, “increase awareness level about brand
X from the present 10% to 40% in the target audience.”
Determining the target market’s present position regarding various response stages may require
marketing research. If a company is introducing a new product or service, no initial research
may be required assuming the starting conditions are generally very low for all the variables.
Quantitative benchmarks are important in establishing advertising goals and in determining
the degree of campaign success or otherwise. In the example cited above, the pre-campaign
awareness level is specified as 10%. A pre-campaign awareness level of 30% would lead to
different interpretation of campaign results than would a 10% level.

14.1.4 Specified Time Period

The final consideration in setting ad objectives is to specify the time period to accomplish the
objective(s). The period may be short, just a month, or it could be a year or more. All the people
involved in the campaign will understand that the results will be available for evaluation and
could lead to modification or change in the current effort. Increasing brand awareness can be
accomplished fairly quickly compared to changing consumer perceptions about a brand. Much
depends on the situation advertiser is facing and the nature of response being sought. For
example, repositioning a brand needs change in consumers’ perceptions and takes longer to
manifest results than informing the audience about the price change.

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