Answer – Advertising

Advertising planning diagram covering objectives, budget, message, media and evaluation

Advertising Is Paid, Non-Personal Communication Aimed at a Target Audience

Kotler and Armstrong (2018) define advertising as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services, aimed at a defined target audience. Advertising planning normally moves through setting objectives, setting a budget, developing the message, choosing media, and evaluating results – in that order, because each later stage depends on the one before it.

Setting the Objective First

Worked example

A sensible objective for this campaign is awareness, not immediate sales: generate recognition of the e-mountain-bike among readers of regional outdoor and cycling publications ahead of the launch date, measured by a follow-up survey of ad recall. Setting this objective first matters because it determines what “success” even means before any money is spent – without it, Colorado Ricardo has no way to judge whether the campaign worked, only whether the ad ran.

Questions Before Booking Media

Belch and Belch (2021) note that media buyers should ask specific questions before a campaign is booked: what audience does this publication actually reach, and does it overlap with the e-mountain-bike’s target riders; how is the space historically charged for; and how does the rate and format vary depending on how it is booked and billed, since regional outdoor titles often negotiate very differently from national media.

Key point

Kotler and Armstrong (2018) treat advertising as one tool within the wider promotion mix, not a stand-alone activity. Belch and Belch (2021) add that media decisions should always follow from a clear objective and audience fit, not from which publication happens to have space available – booking media before setting the objective risks paying for reach that never gets evaluated against anything.

This objective should be set consistently with the wider promotion plan in the Promotion exercise.