Advertising Strategy, Branding, and Promotional Mix

Advertising Strategy and Brand Awareness

In correlating the advertising strategy with the branding strategy, several elements must be considered. First, this is both a new company and a niche company. The primary objective of a successful advertising strategy is to align with the characteristics of the brand and to identify how best to reach the targeted group of consumers. Because the company is new and operates in a niche, the first priority of the advertising strategy needs to be increasing brand awareness. Brand awareness is not only essential for ensuring that targeted consumers hear about the company's products, but it also differentiates the brand from competitors (Gustafson & Chabot, 2007).

With this in mind, and given the nature of the company, an advertising strategy aimed at promoting brand awareness should focus on the sexual content of the products. Sexuality in advertising is attention-grabbing and could eventually lead to "top of mind" awareness, whereby consumers immediately associate the company's products with its brand name.

Another way of increasing brand awareness is to adopt a strategy similar to the one Victoria's Secret employs — namely, hiring well-known models and other public figures such as actresses and singers to advertise the company's products. This may prove more difficult for some of the more overtly sexual products the company sells, since public figures are careful about protecting their image, but it could be effective in the case of lingerie items.

Measuring Advertising Effectiveness

Measuring how effective advertising is remains essential for any organization, this company included. It enables a proactive, dynamic decision-making process whereby the efficiency of the advertising strategy is evaluated, leading to potential alternative approaches being tested and an analysis of whether results justify costs.

Despite its importance, measuring advertising effectiveness presents significant challenges. Among the complicating factors, researchers have noted that large budgets would be required for effective measurement, including sufficiently large sample populations for analysis, and that the signals from marketing activity in this area are generally weak (Lewis & Rao, 2013).

For this company, the effectiveness of the advertising strategy can initially be measured using simple metrics such as the number of consumers, the number of returning clients, and total revenue. One can argue for a direct correlation between these metrics — as expressions of how the business is performing — and the advertising campaigns that have been run.

Subsequently, a more in-depth analysis can be undertaken. This would attempt, for example, to determine whether actual consumers match the targeted groups identified as potential clients during the marketing analysis. Such a measurement would segment the company's clients according to demographic or socioeconomic variables. If the actual client profile does not reflect the initial marketing strategy, the strategy would need to be reconsidered.

A potential obstacle in measuring advertising effectiveness is the difficulty of managing a comprehensive client database and collecting meaningful information about customers, such as contact details and demographic data. To address this, the company could explore the use of advertising instruments such as newsletters, which would provide contact information and additional data points about buyers.

Promotional Strategy Categories

Brassington and Pettitt (2000) proposed five main categories of promotional strategy. In addition to advertising, these include sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing. Each is discussed below and assessed for its relevance to this company.

Sales promotion has, as Meidan (1996) pointed out, the quality of drawing attention to a particular product or service. Although it does not necessarily support the brand in the long run — since clients who respond to sales promotions are not particularly brand-loyal — an initial sales promotion could significantly help this company build brand awareness. Because the company and its products are not yet well known, an introductory promotion could introduce the product to new customers in an especially favorable way, namely through a lower price point. However, this carries a risk: if overused, it may cause consumers to associate the company's products with low quality or habitually discounted goods.

Public relations will also be important as a promotional strategy, especially given the particular nature of the company and the products it sells. A well-executed public relations campaign will both reinforce the existing client base and help deflect potentially negative publicity. The company should consider a range of PR channels, including erotic magazines for certain product categories and mainstream magazines and fashion shows for its lingerie collection.

Direct marketing can also serve as an effective promotional strategy. The company should work to build a database of client contacts, which can be achieved through various means including an opt-in newsletter sent exclusively to subscribed participants. Through the newsletter, the company can then promote its products directly to recipients — both existing and prospective clients.

References

Gustafson, T., & Chabot, B. (2007). Brand awareness. Cornell Maple Bulletin.

Lewis, R., & Rao, J. (2013). On the near impossibility of measuring the returns to advertising. Retrieved from http://www.justinmrao.com/lewis_rao_nearimpossibility.pdf

Brassington, F., & Pettitt, S. (2000). Principles of marketing (2nd ed.). Pearson Education Limited.

Meidan, A. (1996). Marketing financial services. Macmillan Press Ltd.