Revised by: Mark Abel

April 2003

1.0Course Title:Principles of Advertising

2.0Catalog Number:MR106T

3.0Credit Hours:3 Semester Hours

3.1Lecture Hours:3

3.2Lab Hours:0

4.0Course Description:Acquaints the student with the philosophy of advertising, historical concepts and practical applications of advertising at the local and national levels. Includes media and media selection, copywriting and layout, with an emphasis on product selection for advertising.

5.0Prerequisites:None

6.0General Course Competencies

  1. Explain the role of advertising and its goals in today’s economy.
  2. Apply the principles of good advertising preparation.
  3. Design advertisements of various types using proper layout and creative design.
  4. Select media based on budget and target market desired.
  5. Develop an advertising campaign.

7.0Major Units of Instruction

  1. Introduction to Advertising
  1. The Marketing Process
  2. Advertising Agencies
  3. The Consumer Audience
  1. Media Strategy

2.1 Advertising Works

2.2 Media Buying

2.3 Print and Other Media

2.4 Broadcast Media

2.5 Electronic Media (Digital, Internet, and Satellite Technology)

2.6 Sales Promotion

III.Strategic Research

3.1 The Creative Process

3.2 Print Advertising

3.3 Creating Broadcast Advertising

3.4 Creating Direct-Response Advertising

3.5 Yellow Pages and Out-of-Home Advertising

3.6 Public Relations

IV.Advertising Campaigns

4.1 Corporate, Business-to-Business, and Retail Advertising

4.2 International Advertising

4.3 Environment: Ethics and Regulation

4.4 Evaluative Research

8.0Unit Objectives

  1. Introduction to Advertising
  2. Define advertising and discuss its component parts.
  3. Identify the five types of advertising.
  4. Explain the four roles of advertising.
  5. Identify the three key players in the advertising world.

Explain the impact on advertising of the invention media forms such as print, radio and television.

  1. Relate key figures in the history of advertising to their contributions to the field.
  2. Understand the different between “hard-sell” and “soft-sell” advertising messages.
  1. The Marketing Process
  1. Understand the marketing concept and how it differs from production-oriented marketing.
  2. Explain how a company’s market philosophy is expressed.
  3. Identify four types of markets.
  4. Define and explain the 4 Ps of the marketing mix.
  5. Explain the four stages in a product’s life cycle.
  6. Identify the key elements involved in establishing a brand.
  7. Advertising Agencies
  1. Explain the four primary functions in an agency: account management, creative services, media services, and research.
  2. Explain what support services are provided by departments such as traffic, print production, accounting, and personnel.
  3. Explain the difference between the commission and the fee systems.
  4. Explain why advertisers hire agencies rather than do the work themselves.
  5. Analyze the pros and cons of the trend toward megamergers.
  6. Analyze the impact of high productivity on agencies.
  7. The Consumer Audience
  1. Understand the different factors that affect the responses of consumers to advertisements.
  2. Define the concept of culture as it applies to advertising and consumers.
  3. Distinguish between psychographics and demographics and explain how advertisers use each one.
  4. Relate such concepts as family, reference groups, and VALS to the practice of advertising.
  1. Media Strategy
  2. Explain how planners use communication aperture to give direction to media planning strategy.
  3. Understand the central position of media planning in campaign development and how this function utilizes information from numerous sources, including product sales performance, competitor surveillance, and message creative strategy, to form the campaign design.
  4. Explain how the media’s qualitative features (atmosphere and environment) are blended with their quantitative dimensions (reach, frequency, and efficiency) to provide the needed profile for selection.
  5. Understand the organization and purpose of the media plan, and to see how each decision on selection and scheduling is coordinated with the client’s sales objectives.
  6. Identify the key elements of a marketing plan and an advertising plan.
  7. Understand how marketers allocate funds among advertising and other marketing functions.
  8. Explain the difference between product-centered and prospect-centered strategies.
  9. List the key elements of a creative platform.
  10. Advertising Works
  1. Understand the barriers that an effective advertisement must overcome.
  2. Be familiar with the different levels on which a viewer or reader will react to an ad.
  3. Explain the different functions of an ad.
  4. Explain what “breakthrough advertising” is and how it works.
  5. Media Buying
  1. Explain how media buying is different from media planning and how it complements media planning.
  2. Understand the major duties of a media buyer: research analyst, expert evaluator, negotiator, and troubleshooter.
  3. Explain how buyers translate media-plan objectives into target-directed advertising schedules.
  4. Understand why media pricing and negotiating skills will have even greater roles in the advertising strategies.
  5. Print and Other Media
  1. Understand the similarities and differences between newspapers and magazines.
  2. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of newspaper, magazine, and other forms of media advertising.
  3. Distinguish among direct mail, direct-response advertising, and mail order catalogs.
  4. Understand which forms of advertising would work best for different products.
  5. Explain the major trends in print advertisements.

2.4Broadcast Media

  1. Understand the basic nature of radio, television, and cable.
  2. Describe the audience for each medium and explain how that audience is measured.
  3. List the advantages and disadvantages of using radio and television commercials
  4. Electronic Media (Digital, Internet, and Satellite Technology)
  1. Understand the Basic nature of the medium
  2. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of this medium.
  3. Sales Promotion
  1. Distinguish between sales promotion and advertising.
  2. Explain how promotion and advertising work together within the marketing mix.
  3. List several types of promotions, both for consumers and resellers.
  4. Understand why advertisers are spending increasing sums of money on sales promotion.
  5. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of sales promotion as compared to advertising.
  1. Strategic Research
  2. Explain the difference between qualitative and quantitative research.
  3. Develop a research program using all four types of fact-finding; marketplace, consumer, corporate, and product.
  4. Distinguish between primary and secondary research.
  5. Understand how and when to use the six basic research methods: surveys, experiments, observation, content analysis, in-depth interviews, and focus groups.
  6. Develop an outline of the steps in the research process.
  7. Understand how research is used in the development of the creative message.
  8. The Creative Process
  1. List various characteristics of creative people.
  2. Explain what advertisers mean by a creative concept.
  3. Describe the various stages involved in creating an advertisement.
  4. Understand how the various elements in an advertisement work together to create impact.
  5. Distinguish between effective copywriting..
  6. Print Advertising
  1. Distinguish between the key features of newspaper and magazine advertising.
  2. List the various elements of a print ad and their function.
  3. Understand the process by which print ads are created.
  4. Distinguish between letterpress, offset, gravure, and silk-screen printing.
  5. Broadcast Advertising
  1. Identify the critical elements in radio and television commercials.
  2. Read and understand a radio script and a television script.
  3. Compare and contrast radio ads and television commercials.
  4. Understand the roles of the various people associated with television commercials, including the producer, director, and editor.
  5. List the various stages in the production of a television commercial.
  6. Creating Direct-Response Advertising
  1. Define direct-response advertising.
  2. Distinguish between direct-response advertising, direct marketing, and mail order.
  3. Evaluate the various media that direct-response advertising can utilize.
  4. Explain how modern technology has transformed the nature of direct response.
  5. List the three types of firms that produce direct-response advertising.
  6. Yellow Pages and Out-of-Home Advertising
  1. Understand how consumers use the Yellow Pages to search for information about stores, products, and services.
  2. Describe the characteristics of a well-written and well-designed Yellow Pages ad.
  3. Explain the importance of graphics in poster design.
  4. Understand the effect of a moving audience on the design of a billboard.
  5. Explain the difference between interior and exterior transit advertisements.
  6. Identify innovative media to use to deliver sales, reminder, and action messages.
  7. Public Relations
  1. Understand what public relations is, how it differs from advertising, and what its advantages are.
  2. Explain how public relations, advertising, and other marketing communications can work together to achieve greater benefit for an organization.
  3. Identify the areas in which public relations operate and some of the activities performed in those areas.
  4. Understand the value and importance of measuring the results of public relations effort.
  1. Advertising Campaigns
  2. Understand the role of the situation analysis in identifying key problems to be solved by the advertising.
  3. Understand how the basic strategy decisions are developed for an advertising campaign.
  4. Analyze how the message strategy solves the key problem.
  5. Explain how the media plan relates to advertising objectives and message needs.
  6. List and explain the items found in a campaign budget.
  7. Explain how the effectiveness of an advertising campaign is evaluated.
  8. Corporate, Business-to-Business, and Retail Advertising
  1. Distinguish between corporate and business-to-business advertising.
  2. Explain business-to-business advertising objectives.
  3. List the different markets in the business arena and the various media used in business advertising.
  4. Understand how local retail advertising differs from national brand advertising.
  5. Understand how cooperative advertising works.
  6. International Advertising
  1. Distinguish between local, regional, international, and global brands.
  2. Explain how international advertising is created and executed.
  3. Understand how international agencies are organized.
  4. List the special problems that international advertisers face.
  5. Environment: Ethics and Regulation
  1. Explain the current judicial position concerning the First Amendment rights of advertisers.
  2. List the major federal agencies that regulate advertising.
  3. Define the concept of self-regulation as it applies to advertising.
  4. Discuss the major ethical issues that advertisers and government regulatory agencies must address.
  5. Explain the remedies available to different groups when an ad is judged deceptive or offensive.
  6. Evaluative Research
  1. Explain why advertisers devote time and money to research.
  2. Distinguish between evaluative and diagnostic research.
  3. Identify the three major evaluative research methods and what each one clams to test.
  4. Evaluate the strengths of various forms of testing.
  5. Understand the concerns surrounding the issues of validity and reliability.

9.0Course Bibliography:

1.Advertising Procedures, Kleppner, 14th Edition

2.Current periodicals

3.Selected handouts