Heavy advertising influences consumers' product choices.
Products that sell in high volume to consumers tend to encourage heavy advertising compared with products that sell to smaller specialist niche markets. A domestic laundry product, for example, would have a larger advertising budget than a cleaning product for hiking boots. Organizations selling high-volume products in competitive markets also spend heavily on advertising to protect market share.
Frequency
Products that consumers buy frequently encourage heavy advertising. The aim of heavy advertising is to remind consumers of the brand name so that they recall the name first when they are in a store. According to a research paper, "How Consumers Evaluate Store Brands," reliance on a brand name had a strong influence on consumers' expectations of a product.
Invest
Organizations launching a new mass market product advertise heavily to build market share. As an example, the website Admedia.org reported that consumer products company Procter & Gamble was advertising heavily as an investment to deliver future profits from a new product launch. Procter & Gamble uses its targets for sales and market share to assess advertising effectiveness.
Expand
When organizations want to expand the market for their products, they advertise heavily to attract new customers and increase purchasing levels. The Institute of Alcohol Studies reported that alcohol companies' aim in advertising was to encourage consumption and recruit new drinkers, as well as increasing their own brand share. Individual alcohol companies would benefit from the general expansion of the market.
New
According to the website Admedia.org, heavy advertising is appropriate when an organization wants to make consumers aware of a new product characteristic. The new characteristics could include improvements to the product, new features, changes in packaging or distribution or new promotional offers.
Target Audience
Heavy advertising is not always suitable for high-volume consumer products. Management Consulting Case Interviews reported the experience of a pharmaceutical manufacturer that sold a quality branded product through well-established retail channels. The manufacturer spent heavily on consumer advertising at a level that was much higher than the industry average. However, sales did not improve in line with the advertising expenditure. The advertising failed to deliver results because it was reaching the wrong target audience. Patients could not request the product by brand name. It was the responsibility of a doctor to prescribe the brand.
Tags: heavy advertising, brand name, market share, advertise heavily, alcohol companies, consumer products, encourage heavy