Advertising is just one method or strategy in an integrated marketing plan. While it's important to communicate a consistent message to consumers through the various pieces of your integrated marketing plan, advertising typically is very time sensitive and very specific in the message that's being delivered. Two clear examples of advertising are an ad in the phone book (promoting a solution to an immediate need or problem) and a newspaper circular for a department store's weekend sale (also promoting a solution to an immediate need or problem).

Here are a few basic questions we would ask before designing an ad:

What do you want to accomplish with this ad? Knowing what you want to accomplish will drive the ad's content and visual image. It will also determine what type of ad is created and what medium is used for it.

Who are you trying to reach with this ad and is this the best way to reach them? Different market segments prefer different ethods of getting information, so the best way to reach one won't be the best way to reach another. For example, if your target market is young people in Generation Y, a newspaper ad is not the best way to reach them since, as a group, they generally don't read the newspaper.

Who exactly is your target market and what are their demographics and psychographics?Demographics are basics like gender, geography, age, ethnicity, and income. Psychographics are how they think, behave, and make choices. For example, some segments are driven to select some products or services by price and other products or services by emotional issues such as exclusiveness.

All advertising should be tracked to see if you're accomplishing your objectives. It may be worthwhile to run the same basic ad with a few minor changes (in ABC newspaper using one headline and in XYZ newspaper using a different headline). Develop a way to track responses and see which one gets better results. Unfortunately, advertising isn't an exact science.

Any advertisement should accomplish four things: Gain ATTENTION Generate INTEREST Promote DESIRE Drive ACTION

People are bombarded with messages every day. Yours has to get the person's attention to allow their brain to focus and process the information. Although we may walk out to the kitchen for a snack during a commercial, our brains are still picking up the audio from that commercial and the information is registering in our heads. The advertiser has gotten our attention on a very basic level.

An advertisement must either generate interest or capitalize on a potential customer's existing interest in the product or service. A commercial for a new car is a good example of how this works.

A commercial comes on for a new car and the potential customer finds herself starting to think about how old her current car is, how many miles are on it, and maybe it's time to consider getting a new one.

Perhaps she's already been thinking about those things, so she's already interested in getting a new car. Now when she sees the commercial, perhaps she starts wondering about that specific car. What's the gas mileage? What's the safety record? What's the reliability? What would be the sticker price with the features she wants?

Closely tied to interest is desire and here's where emotions and other sensory information come into play. You may have gained the attention of the potential customer by running a commercial during the 6pm newscast (you bought that more expensive time slot because you know your target market gets the news this way). She's in the market for a new car (women make 80% or more of the choices in this product category), so it shouldn't be too hard to generate interest. Does the commercial help her see herself driving that vehicle? Do you use a woman in her age category, who resembles her in other ways? Is it an attractive vehicle that won't make her feel older than she is? Does the color appeal to women In her demographic and psychographic categories? If you can answer yes to many or most of those questions, you may have generated some desire for your product.

You'll never know what made her stop in your showroom (or store, or office) unless your staff is trained to ask questions about her motivation. Most consumers will play down the response to an advertisement because they don't like to feel they're influenced by such obvious attempts to get their business, but if you help your staff develop their patience and questioning ability, they can narrow the possible motivators and influences for that customer. This information is incredibly important because advertising decisions should be based on factors that influence customer behavior, not what you guess may work. A particular advertisement may be expensive to develop, but if it fulfills all of the components including driving the customer to the desired action, then that's money well spent.

In our next issue, we'll share our thoughts on expanding your marketing -- and perhaps your revenue -- into the 24 / 7 world of the internet.