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Yes Sonic should use advertising to promote its product. Advertising is a cost effective way to disseminate messages, whether, for example, to build brand preference for Coca-Cola or to educate people to avoid hard drugs. Therefore, Sonic should advertise its shelf-stereos to simply make the consumer more aware of the existence of such products. In advertising their shelf-stereo, Sonic must first identify a target market for their products and design an advertisement suitable for that market. In choosing to advertise the products, Sonic must then set advertising goals and then after measure the results of the advertising campaign. What advertising goals should Sonic set?
First Sonic should set a goal of reaching a certain audience, namely people that would most likely be interested in purchasing shelf stereos. Sonic should, considering the audience, aim to reach a certain amount of people as it pertains to the amount of sales that Sonic intends to generate as a result of such advertising. That brings up another goal that Sonic should set, Sonics advertising should be designed to increase the sales of its shelf stereos. Advertising can encourage this as it causes consumers to be more aware of a product as it educates them about the product and, according to how effective the advertisement is, may convince the consumer to purchase Sonics shelf stereo. Another advertising goal that Sonic can set is to make the advertisement for shelf stereos better than that of other shelf stereo companies. Sonic can do research on other companies advertising campaigns for shelf stereos and compare them to their own and aim to make a better advertisement.
After implementing the advertising plan, Sonic, as the communicator, must measure the impact that results on the target audience. First, Sonic can measure results by communicating with the target audience and asking them about the advertisement. The consumer is questioned on whether they recognize or recall the message, how many times they saw it, what points they recall and how they felt about the message. In measuring the results in this manner, Sonic should also question the previous and current attitudes of the consumer towards the product and the company and how they have changed as a result of the advertisement. This can be achieved by surveys, telephone calls, online questionnaires at the companies website, direct mail and simply asking consumers as they go about their daily routines.
In doing this however, Sonic must consider the present state of the audience when measuring the results of its advertisement in this manner. If the audience is simply in a bad mode, they may not respond as well as they would if they were in a good mood. Also, in measuring the results of such advertising, Sonic should also encourage the truth, as it is important to know exactly what the consumer thinks about the product. An additional way of measuring the results of the advertising campaign is to measure the effect on sales.
How were the sales before the advertisement and after the advertisement? Did sales increase or decrease? Sonics goal in advertising would be to increase sales; therefore an increase in sales would mean that the advertisement was effective in a positive way. 2) What message should Sonic want to communicate to its target audience? What media are most appropriate and why? Sonic should want to communicate to its target audience, a message saying that their products are better than those of other companies.
But how should their message be created? Sonic should first choose a message that is more suitable for the target audience as there are many different types of messages that can potentially not be as affective as others. This process is one that requires a lot of research and preparation. First, Sonics message should be decided as a part of developing the product concept.
That is, the message should be adapted from the actual product that Sonic is offering and should not stray from what the product actually is. There is, however, usually latitude for a number of possible messages. Overtime, the marketer might want to change the message, especially if the consumers seek new or different benefits from the product. For example, if Sonic sends out a message of having the cheapest shelf stereos in town, after a period of time, another company is going to have prices that are just as low or lower. In this case, Sonic would have to re-evaluate the message and adjust it so that it is appropriate for the target audience, as they may want even lower prices along with additional benefits like better quality. In addition to this, Sonic also has to consider the impact of the message.
The impact of the message depends not only upon what is said but also on how it is said. Some ads aim for what is known as rational positioning whereas others aim for emotional positioning. For example, American ads typically present an explicit feature of benefit designed to appeal to the rational mind like, gets clothes cleaner where as in Japan for instance, their ads appeal more to emotional positioning like, Brings relief faster. Sonic can apply this by choosing a message that appeals to both emotional and rational positioning when the target audience is considering their shelf stereos. For example, the message could state, We sound better and make you relax easier. Other elements that Sonic should consider in creating a message or messages, is the style and tone of the message (s).
Creative people must find a cohesive style, tone, words and format for executing the message. Any message can be presented in a number of execution styles: slice of life, lifestyle, fantasy and others. The communicator must choose an appropriate tone for the ad. For example, Procter & Gamble is consistently positive in its tone. Its ad could say something superlatively positive about the product, and humor is almost always avoided so as not to take attention away from the message. Therefore Sonics message should include not stray away from what the product really is, it should be consistent with the products benefits and also it should appeal to both the emotional and rational senses of the target audience.
Take for example, At Sonic, we offer a system that houses a strong but smooth sound that is relaxing to the ear and the wallet. The media that sonic should use depends on its budget and again what target audience they are trying to reach. The most widespread media today for the age groups of 18 - 50 as stated by surveys and consumer reports is television and the Internet. Sonic can use a television commercial to spread their message to their target audience. This, according to how well it is structured could boost their sales. Take for example, in 1994 Taco Bell ranked fourth in fast-food chains and its revenues were sagging.
Then in 1997, the chain introduced television spots with a talking Chihuahua. The little dog, famous for saying Yo Quiero Taco Bell (I want some Taco Bell) struck a chord with 18 - 35 year olds and boosted Taco Bells revenue by over four percent in 1997. Also the Internet would be a suitable media for the target audience the Sonic is trying to reach. Many young people search the Internet for shelf stereos and other electronic information. If Sonic uses the Internet as a medium, their target audience is likely to see the ad more than once a day. This would then result in the exposure of Sonics message in advertising its shelf stereo and may lead to the increase in the sale of its products. 3) Sales promotion consists of two different forms, which are, consumer and trade promotions.
The concept of these promotions is to stimulate quicker or greater purchases of particular products or services in a short term. As mentioned in appendix A there are 7 major objectives for consumer promotion and 4 for trade promotion. After looking at these objectives you can clearly see that both promotion concepts are needed to effectively promote Sonics products. Starting with consumer promotion tools, the one concept I think that would effectively promote Sonics products, and they are cash refund offers (rebates, ) and product warranties.
A rebate is a cash refund, after the purchase of the product, rather than in the retail shop. On the shelf at of retail stores Sonics shelf system could be sitting on the shelf with a sign underneath of it stating for example, $ 299 with a $ 50 mail in rebate. The consumers like to see this and as seen on appendixes B& C from one of Sonics competitors, there is a simple 3 -step process to go through for the consumer to get their money back. The second consumer promotion tool is product warranties, which is explicit or implicit promises by sellers that the product will perform as specified or that the seller will fix it or refund the consumers money during a specific period of time. Trade promotion tools work a little more with the retailers to help with the promotions. An important reason for using trade promotion is to simulate retailers and their sales clerks to push their product rather then another brand.
The best tool to raise sales, is to offer free goods after the purchase, everyone likes free money or things. As seen in appendix D, Sony offers 5 free DVDs with the purchase of certain models. Sonic can look into making some agreement with record companies to give certain CDs away with the purchase of certain units. By implementing all of this Sonic is trying achieve a few goals. They are to reach new customers, hold and load current customers.
In return this will increase product usage, and consumption while making better profits. Lastly this is an excellent way to introduce new products, because customers may be a little hesitant to try a new product without getting a little in return. 4) Public relations are a key attribute needed in Sonics Company. Public relations involve a variety of programs and designed to promote or protect a companys image or its individual product. One of the objectives for Sonics PR should first to build a better one-to-one relationship with customers.
Sonic can do this by having 800 numbers, but concentrating more on the internet since that is where technology is taking us today. The second objective should be to build a good core consumer base; this is staying loyal to those loyal customers. Lastly Sonic should build marketplace excitement before media advertising even breaks. By accomplishing this objective, when Sonic introduces a new product line consumers will already be intrigued about the product. Reviewing Sonics action programs for the up and coming year, they have a good start for marketing public relations. Sonic should try to use more events when introducing new products, maybe funding mini concerts across the United States.
Important media vehicles Sonic should use are newspaper ads, television, mail, radio, and magazines. Sonic should have more speeches and seminars for marketing public relations to introduce and explain demonstrate their existing products. Seminars can help to introduce new products and intrigued questionable customers. Lastly event publication will help improve product image and even sometimes brand switchers.
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Research essay sample on Why Sonic Should Promote Its Advertising Effort
