Cutting through the Clutter

Advertising is a crucial aspect in business plan and it plays a significant role in building relationship and providing effective communication about products and services. Marketing campaign enhances business growth though it requires strategic ways of catching the customers’ attention (Schiffman et al, 2013).  However, there is an increased clutter in advertising and many businesses are unable to achieve competitive advantage as customers are lacking concern and they are unable to pay attention to the large volume of messages.  Marketing clutter affects the business operations negatively and degrades brands.  However, the high competition has created innovative methods which advertiser can use to cut through the clutter.  The following three methods will help the advertisers to promote their business, achieve competitive advantage and maintain their competitive edge in the marketplace.

Guerrilla marketing

            This is a new type of marketing strategy which was established by Jay Conrda Levinson.  It involves unconventional ways and a little amount of money is spent while advertising products and services.  This kind of advertisement takes place in unexpected places and   the methods used should be unique-meaning that the business should   be the first one to do so (Schiffman et al, 2013). Advertisers capture the consumers’ attention by focusing on imagination and personal memorable level. The main purpose of this strategy is to surprise the customers so that they can gain the interest of the brands by using their cognitive ability to understand the message being delivered. The surprise element creates extraordinary stimuli which require spontaneous elaboration on the product thereby creating a greater attention.  Guerrilla marketing strategy has given advertisers the opportunity to move out from traditional media such as TV, direct mail and radio and to enter in a new electronic media (Schiffman et al, 2013). The strategy is very effectively as the advertiser surprises the consumer who then creates interest and increases engagement toward the advertised product. The strategy creates memorable experience and there is a high probability that the customer will forward the information on the product to other people and through face to face communication, the advertisement will reach many people (Schiffman et al, 2013). This type of advertising requires less money but needs a high amount of energy, time and imagination.  It is effective in that customers with unconscious mind are likely to take interest on the product since the advertising is associated with repetition and direct contact to ensure that consumers have emotional response about the product.

Viral marketing

Viral marketing is a strategic method of advertising and the message is delivered in a quick manner.  Business use sites for social networks such as Twitter where advertiser creates unique messages, word of mouth or humorous videos about a product (Schiffman et al, 2013).  In most cases, the message delivered is personal-meaning that it is launched on the company’s webpage or social media websites. Consumers view the advertisement when they visit the website and open the page link. They then copy the advertisement and forward it through e-mail to other webpage. The purpose of viral marketing is to deliver viral messages to consumers who are interested in social networking and who will distribute the information to others in order to create a competitive environment (Schiffman et al, 2013).  Advertisers should note that   in this strategy, there should be a messenger that is - information specialists and this is a person who takes the information to the social network, there should be social hubs and these are individuals who connects the information to the social networks and there must be salespeople who makes the information delivered by information specialists more stronger. In addition, advertiser should ensure memorable and sufficient messages which are unique in order to capture the attention and motivate customers (Schiffman et al, 2013).  Third, the viral marketing must be done in a good environment where timing and context are key factors.  Note that viral campaign is effective since the company will be able to evaluate the consumers’ attitude about the brand by viewing their likes and shares.

Engagement marketing/experiential marketing

  This is a strategic way of marketing which is based on engaging and inviting customers in brand development. This strategy raises awareness, creates memories, encourages interaction and builds relevance. Rather than delivering the information about a product to consumers, they are allowed to participate in creating marketing programs and this is a strategic way of creating brand and consumer interaction (Schiffman et al, 2013).  When the company advertises the product in television or commercial advertising, the customer gains an experience about the product and thus he or she creates trust and builds the interest toward the product.  Rather than delivering the advertisement in media at the first time, engagement marketing allows the customers to have a dialogue thereby creating interaction and cooperation (Schiffman et al, 2013). Advertisers should understand that empathy and emotions are key factors which company should adopt since they create trust. Thus, both advertiser and customer should interact and listen to each other to create higher power and experience.

 

 

 

 

Reference

Schiffman, Leon G, Leslie L. Kanuk, and Joseph Wisenblit (2013). Consumer Behavior Tenth Edition, 2013

ISBN-13: 9780132671842