In$-$Class Activity $15-1$: Advertising objectives and kinds of advertising

Introduction

It is claimed that back in the $1800$ s$,$ Philadelphia retailer John Wanamker said, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." Today, there are many business executives who share Mr$.$ Wanamker's feelings. Billions of dollars are spent each year creating cleverand sometimes annoying $-$ ads which often appear to be poorly designed and largely ineffective.

Actually, because companies often lack clearly defined advertising obje$$ives$,$ it is extremely difficult to measure the effectiveness of advertising. In hopes of remaining competitive, advertisers often budget some fixed percent of their sales dollars to advertising without any specific objectives in mind$-$other than to just "promote the product."

Like all business expenditures, however, there is no reason for making advertising expenditures unless the company has some specific purpose in mind. Since the advertising objectives selected will largely determine the kind of advertising that is needed, companies should set specific advertising objectives that are tied to their overall marketing strategies.

Assignment

This exercise will give you some practice determining the kind of advertising that may be needed to obtain some specific advertising objectives. Described below are several situations in which some kind of advertising may be necessary or desirable. For each situation:

Accessibility: Good to go

Focus

Weather al