5 M’s of Advertising

Definition: Advertising implies the circulation of information regarding the product or service using mass media to achieve the desired result. The 5 M’s of Advertising are nothing but the different important decisions which an organization has to take at the time of drafting the advertising campaign.

The use of 5 M’s of Advertising is for the explanation of advertisement and identification of marketing elements. Companies use advertisement as a medium to exhibit their offerings to a wide audience. These elements are of great importance for any business.

5 M’s of Advertising

Mission

It describes, what an organization would like to complete using advertisement, be it selling the product, promoting a service, developing a brand, and so forth. Hence, it determines the objectives of the advertising campaign. The objective can be commercial or social. Advertising objectives can be divided into three categories which are:

• Informative Objectives
• Persuasive Objectives
• Reminder Objectives

The aim of advertising is to inform buyers about the availability of the products, their price, features, qualities, and performance. Besides, companies also use advertising to convince or persuade buyers by showing them the various advantages. It acts as one of the important tools in surviving tough competition by responding them appropriately. It also helps in achieving sales targets.

Money

It deals with the budgets for overall advertising. That is, it is the monetary expenditure that the company spends on the campaign. Ad budget forms part of the promotional budget. In essensce, we could also say that the maximum portion of this budget is spent on advertising. It indicates the actual amount to be spent for advertising activities for a particular period of time.

Therefore, it estimates the total amount to be spent on advertising, in terms of expenditure, during a given period of time. It covers all the expenses concerning:

• Advertising programme
• Cost of Space,
• Advertising Material
• Media Expenses
• Agency Commission
• Advertising research.

The advertising budget needs to be realistic, flexible and appropriate for the programme.

Message

Oral or written communication is directed toward the target audience. The company’s idea, or point which they should be conveyed. It refers to the lesson or the key idea of advertising which the advertiser wants to convey. Further, the framing of the message should be in such a manner that persuades the audience to buy or try the product. It has different types of appeal:

• Fear Appeal
• Emotional Appeal
• Beauty Appeal
• Confidence Appeal
• Economy Appeal
• Health Appeal
• Personality or Image Appeal

Media

It is the medium through which the message is conveyed to the target audience. While deciding the medium to convey the advertisement, members of the department consider the reach, impact and frequency. It involves the selection of the appropriate medium that will help in reaching the target consumers in an effective manner. It must be attractive, suggestive, convincing, memorable, etc.

Also, the advertiser must pick the right media to carry the message. The selection of the right media depends upon different factors like objectives of the firm, cost, reach (number of people to whom the ad will display), type of buyers, company’s policies, coverage, repetition, past experience, media image, type of message, etc.

The media can be:

• Press Media like newspapers, magazines or journals
• Direct or Mail advertising like sales letters, fax, E-mail, card, greetings, circulars and leaflets, catalogues, booklets, and brochures.
• Outdoor or Mural Media like banners, special signboards, kiosks, billboards, handbills, station posters, hoarding, vehicle, etc.
• Audio-visual media like radio, television, internet, moving slides, films and so forth.

Measurement

Before and After the advertisement goes live, the agencies measure what was the effect of the advertisement on the target audience. This is basically an evaluation of the result in order to ascertain the success of the campaign. Basically, it gauges the communication impact and sales impact on the audience through various tools.

The evaluation of the effectiveness of the advertising campaign is important to prevent further wastage of money. It helps in making necessary changes which are important for getting better responses next time. Besides, there are two ways of measuring the effectiveness of advertising. These are:

1. Pre-testing: Advertisement assessment before it goes public to check its effectiveness and to remove all the bugs from it is pre-testing. Further, it is possible by:
   • Concept Testing
   • Test Commercials
   • Finished Testing
2. Post Testing: Another term for it is a post-mortem of advertising effectiveness. Advertisement assessment that takes place after use to check its effectiveness is post-testing. However, it is performed in two ways:
   • Unaided recall
   • Aided recall

A word from Business Jargons

Above all, advertising is by far the best and most effective tool for promotion. The 5 M’s of Advertising helps in taking crucial decisions relating to advertising.