Sun

ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION

ASSIGNMENT ONE

HND Yr. Two

Introduction:

As an education officer for the ASA this report aims to educate the community of the function of marketing communications, and to promote this marketing tool and the methods for its control.

Methodology:

Research for this assignment was carried out mainly on the Internet, including on-line encyclopaedias, research sites and organisation web pages. Other research has been carried out using class notes and referring to books.

A brief history of advertising regulations:

1961 - The Advertising Association establishes the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), introducing a code of advertising for advertisers to follow. The advertising industry and the Advertising Association had decided that this would a good idea, because if there continued to be no form of self-regulation, there would be a threat of fines and court orders, which would ultimately slow trade and development.

1962 - The advertising industry sets up the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ASA is an independent self regulatory organisation for advertising. The ASA is a non-regulatory organisation so it cannot enforce legislation, but its codes of advertising are closely linked to legislation.

1990 - The Independent Television Commission (ITC) creates alongside The Broadcasting Act 1990. The Act requires that the ITC draw up stricter advertising codes to enforce. The ITC was in effect from January 1991 to 28 December 2003.

2003 - The Office of Communications takes responsibility of all codes of advertising when there is a merger between the ITC, the Radio Authority, Office of Telecommunications and Radiocommunications Agency. This takes place under the Communications Act 2003 on 29 December 2003. Ultimately, the ITC no longer exists.

2004 - Control of the regulation of broadcast advertising is handed over to the ASA in November 2004. This is initially on a two year provisional contract, and if all goes well, the view will be to make the move permanent. The ASA's values are are to be a 'one-stop shop' for advertising regulations, and to make sure that advertising is 'legal, decent, honest and truthful'.

Advertising today:

Today, you can no longer advertise tobacco products in the UK. This applies to such medias as TV adverts, billboards and motor-racing sponsorship. Car manufacturers must state the fuel consumption of cars in adverts, and products that claim to help people to stay slim, must have documentary evidence to provide with it.

All these regulations mean that competition can be fair and healthy, and consumers actually get what they are looking for without being mis-lead. The ASA is actually aiding businesses and marketing companies to put advertisements to press. These advertisements are no longer threatened by being banned or re-worked, as long as the people that release them refer to the ASA prior to anything being given the final go-ahead.

Consumerism:

Consumerism is a term used to describe the ever-increasing importance and power of consumers. It recognises that brand-loyalty is the most effective way to profitability.

Consumerism has adapted in several ways. Organisations have changed the way they market products, and introduced new offerings for pre-sales and post-sales support.

Most organisations now apply the following:

Use new technologies to produce global communications twenty four hours a day seven days a week.

Improve overall operations, to increase efficiency and ultimately lower costs.

Access to information is made easier with the introduction of new technologies.

Greater numbers of products and services can be personalised.

Micro marketing is used increasingly to target a small part of society, thus saving great efforts marketing to people who are not likely to buy.

Differentiation is used to make similar products seem completely different, thus attracting the different customers to the same product, and expanding the size of the customer-base.

Advertise the features of a product as benefits to the consumer, which is known as product augmentation.

The difference between B2B and B2C

The exchange of goods and services will more than likely take place between businesses, or between businesses and consumers (You and I). Business-to-business (B2B) differs from business-to-consumer (B2C) in many ways. In B2B there is generally a complex structure to the buying process. Take the following fictional example:

Bob is the IT manager of ABC Ltd, a large multinational corporation. He decides that ABC's computers in the London office are getting old, slow and inefficient. He decides that an upgrade of the entire IT infrastructure is going to be the most effective solution to solve his problem.

If Bob were at home and he decided he needed a quicker PC, he would simply visit his local 'PC World' and buy a new Packard Bell. However, his PC at home is likely to cost less than Ј1000. ABC's overhaul could cost anywhere between Ј750,000 and Ј2m. He is not simply going to visit a well-known vendor of IT equipment and sign a check for a six or seven figure sum, as there are several steps that he must take first.

Firstly, he must do some research to make sure that an entire upgrade is the solution to his problem. Next, if Bob has decided that an upgrade is likely to be viable and effective, his next step would be to have a visit from a local account manager or executive from the large vendor that has been chosen, or indeed compare options by having multiple visits from competing vendors. Once Bob has decided on a vendor and a package, the next stage is to get authorisation from his superiors.

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