Sora, K. Haley, E., and Gi-Yong Koo. (2009). Comparison of the paths from consumer involvement types to ad responses between corporate advertising and product advertising. Journal of Advertising, 38(3): 67-80.

The authors discuss the role of consumers and how they respond to advertising for a particular product as opposed to how consumers respond to corporate advertising. The consumer response to product advertising appears to be stronger because of the way that the advertising campaign is designed for the consumers. Product advertising may used more visual media to appeal to its audience and they may even throw in a catchy jingle that will stick in the consumer's mind. Depending on the type of corporation, this blend of media will not be appropriate. For instance, a pharmaceutical corporation would not want to use the same media mix as a fast food restaurant chain.

Heath, R., Nairn, A., and P. Bottomley. (2009). How effective is creativity? Emotive content in TV advertising does not increase attention. Journal of Advertising Research, 49(4): 450-463.

Creativity is important in any type of advertising. The type of creativity used in corporate advertising may be different from any other type of advertising. The authors of this article state that emotive creativity has the effect of decreasing consumer interest in a product rather than increasing attention. Studies show that most people leave the room or find some other small task to do while a television commercial is on. Because of this, it might be best for corporations to rely heavily on information and persuasion to be effective.

Berte, K. And E. De Bens. (2008). Newspapers go for advertising! Challenges and opportunities in a changing media environment. Journalism Studies, 9(5): 692-703.

Before television, radio and the internet, the main way that people got their news and other information was from newspapers. With so many changes in technology, people can now practically read an entire newspaper online. One thing that a person cannot do while reading an online newspaper is take advantage of the circulars and advertisements contained in the hard copy version. In order for newspapers to continue to compete with other types of media, the authors say that the inclusion of circulars as well as changing the format helps.

Pfeiffer, M. And M. Zinnbauer. (2010). Can old media enhance new media? How traditional advertising pays off for an online social network. Journal of Advertising Research, 50(1): 42-49.

The authors say that a media mix of old and new types of media is effective. The internet has become the popular mode of communication for many in the past few years because of its ability to allow users to get fast, accurate information. However, traditional media such as television, radio and newspapers are still important for a segment of the population and the authors feel that a mixture of both should be used when designing an advertising campaign.

McKenzie, K. And M. Royne. 2009. Defining and understanding communications planning: A current assessment and an exploratory study. Journal of Promotion Management, 15(3): 341-356.

The communications planning of the corporation Proctor and Gamble is discussed. The authors say that Proctor and Gamble is successful because of the careful planning of its advertising and media mix. They also state that many corporations do not do any type of communications planning when designing their advertising campaigns.

Goby, V. 2008. Radio commercial listening behavior: Barriers and avoidance. Australian Journal of Communications, 35(1): 27-39.

The radio is another form of media that a corporation could use in an advertising campaign. The author questions the effectiveness of radio advertising stating that much like television, people find other small tasks to engage in while a commercial in one. The author says that men will listen to the radio commercial more than women, but that both sexes have a tendency to either daydream or focus on something else into their program resumes.

van den Putte, B. 2009. What matters most in advertising campaigns? The relative effect of media expenditure and message content strategy. International Journal of Advertising, 28(4): 669-690.

This article examines the effect of message content strategy, advertising expenditure and previous consumer behavior as they relate to an advertising campaign. All three of these are important components to an advertising campaign and they are all interrelated.

Research Question and Hypothesis

The research question posed is: Does re-examining the brand of a corporation determine the method and media mix used in advertising campaigns?

The hypothesis or assumption with this research is that...

The corporation must first work with internal stakeholders to increase awareness in order to the external stakeholders or customers. It will be easier for external stakeholders to express interest in the products and services a corporation is offering if they are familiar with the company logo and slogans.
Methods

In order to get a clearer picture of the media mixes to use for the corporate advertising campaign, a survey will be sent via Survey Monkey to current customers of Wal-Mart and Target. Customers will be asked to fill out a short survey included in the Sunday newspaper circulars and will be required to include a working e-mail address in order to be sent the survey. The insert in the circular will run long enough to get at least 1,000 working e-mail addresses in order to gather a good sampling. Customers who provide a working e-mail address and who respond to the survey will receive a valuable coupon for a product or service offered at the corporation sponsoring the survey.

Once enough email addresses have been received, they will be coded by numbering them from one to one thousand. Every odd numbered survey will be used with will give us a sample of five hundred (500) responses. Two hundred and fifty people will receive a survey asking questions regarding Wal-Mart and the other two hundred and fifty respondents will receive a survey with questions regarding Target. This is done to differentiate between the two competitors to find out what makes the consumer decide to shop at either store. The survey will consist of Likert style questions and each of the two groups will have the same questions except half will be name the store Wal-Mart and the other half of the surveys will reference Target. Below is a sample of the questions that will be asked on the survey.

Sample Survey Questions

1. I shop at Wal-Mart/Target based on the following types of advertisement. (Please rank the following from 1 to 4 with 1 being the highest and 4 being the lowest).

a. ____ Television advertisements

b. ____ Radio advertisements

c. ____ The company's Web site

d. ____ Newspaper circulars

2. I prefer to shop at Wal-Mart/Target because of the following: (Choose all that apply):

a. ____ Prices

b. ____ Location

c. ____ Services offered such as pharmacy, photo, optical, etc.

d. ____ The convenience of shopping for groceries, electronics, clothing and other merchandise in one store.

3. Please give your opinion of Wal-Mart's/Target's logo. Is it easily identifiable?

4. What is it about Wal-Mart/Target that makes you a loyal customer?

The survey will consist of several more questions similar to these. Careful attention will be taken not to make the questions leading. It is hoped that a 100% response rate is achieved. In any case, an equal amount of the Wal-Mart and Target surveys will be used to get a fair assessment. Surveys will be coded and entered into a database and analyzed. From the analysis, a determination can be made as to what attracts customers to each company. Once this has been determined, an effective advertising campaign can be developed that will improve on what has been successful with both Target and Wal-Mart.

In addition to the surveys, research will need to be done on pricing, products and services to determine how the corporation can used advertising to place its products and services in a prime position to encourage customers to want to become loyal customers. Marketing and research will need to be done to come up with a logo and slogan that customers can identify with based on responses to survey questions. Also, if it is decided that a celebrity will be used to promote the corporation, a determination will have to be made on whether or not an internationally known celebrity will be used or an up and coming celebrity. A radio commercial done by the celebrity may be used first along with the person's likeness on the corporate Web site. If these methods are successful, a 30 or 60 second television ad would be used to gain even more interest and increase business.

Both Wal-Mart and Target have been successful in their television advertisements without using celebrities. Wal-Mart's approach is to use an everyday looking person that most people can relate to. Target usually uses attractive, yet unknown models that are appealing to us and are the types of people most of us aspire to look or be like. Both ideas are clever and have worked well for both of these corporations.

Limitations

The first limitation to this study might be getting enough responses to complete research based on…