Marketing Strategy
Organizing for Advertising
Written by Samuel Muriithi for Gaebler Ventures
Regardless of the resources that a business chooses to use in the creation of its advertising campaigns, the skills required are basically identical. These are in terms of the creativity needed for effective copy writing, the illustrations and the overall layout of an ad, the selection of the appropriate medium/media to use, and the overall managerial skill needed to oversee the entire activity.
In organizing for advertising a management may decide to make use of its own advertising department's resources. The management may also opt to use an external advertising agency. It may indeed opt to use both of these options.
The use of a company's own advertising department is most applicable to large firms, especially those firms that require heavy advertising as part of the marketing strategy. In these companies there is normally an advertising department whose head is answerable to the marketing manager. Such companies are therefore self-sufficient when it comes to organizing for advertising and they don't require the services of external advertising agencies.
The use of an advertising agency in organizing for advertising is mostly restricted to businesses especially those involved in production. By definition an advertising agency is an independent establishment whose core business is to offer specialized advertising services in particular and marketing services in general. Smaller business setups normally take advantage of these firms to push their marketing agendas forward. The range of services offered by advertising agencies is quite broad. These firms normally take full charge of the planning and execution aspects of advertising campaigns. A firm that is organizing for advertising using media like TV and radio does not have to concern itself with the commercials and accompanying entertainment required - all these will be readily handled by the advertising agency.
We are increasingly seeing the transformation of these advertising agencies into marketing agencies. This transformation has seen these firms add to their range of services to go beyond the advertising scope of marketing.
Some firms use both their internal departments and external agencies in organizing for advertising. These firms' internal advertising agencies serve to link the main management with the advertising agency. In doing so they are involved in approving the agency's plans and ideas and preparing the requisite budget for the effort. The fact that specialized personnel are available on both sides of the divide means that the final advertising campaign settled upon is likely to have superior quality.
Samuel Muriithi is a business owner in Nairobi, Kenya. He has extensive international business experience in the United States and India.
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