ADVERTISIGN CAMPAIGN OF NOOR HYPERMARKET

Introduction

Advertising is part of the overall marketing strategy of a business, which

includes public relations, promotional programs, signage, incentives,

newsletters, and word of mouth, among other strategies. The aim of a

marketing strategy is to use advertising, along with these other tools, for

maximum impact. For small campaigns, that involve little creative effort, one

or a few people may handle the bulk of the work.  In fact, the Internet has

made do-it-yourself advertising an easy to manage process and has

especially empowered small businesses to manage their advertising

decisions. (Smith, 2000, Pg. 155)

Drummond & Ensor, (2004, Pg. 155) stated that to advertise means to inform

(seen as the flow of information about a product or service from the seller to

the buyer). However, advertising does not end with the flow of information

alone. It goes further to influence and persuades people to take a desired

action - like placing an order to buy a product.

About the product

Noor Hypermarket is one of the oldest and the most famous hypermarkets of

Oman. This hypermarket is serving the nation with its quality products and

services for more then a decade.

1
Identification of Target Market and Target Audience

Noor Hypermarket must start with a clear target audience in mind. The

audience may be potential buyers or current users, those who make the

buying decision or those who influence it. The audience may be individuals,

groups, special publics, or the general public. The target audience will affect

the communicator’s decisions on what will be said, how it will be said, when it

will be said, where it will be said, and who will say it. Noor Hypermarket

should know their audience very well and should target them so that they can

attract more number of customers. The targeted customers of Noor

Hypermarket will be males and females between the age ranges of 15-70

years old. The main customers are the residents of Muscat city. (Smith,

2000, P. 155)

Choice of Media

The advertising is very important and vital part of a successful business.

Advertising can be of any kind, some of the popular forms of advertising are:

1) Print Media Advertising: This is the advertising in which we promote the

business through Newspapers, Magazines, Journals and books. This

advertising covers all of people who are related directly or indirectly with

above said media. This is very popular form of advertising as print media is

very important. We can further categorize the print media (newspapers) into

Entertainment, Careers, Classifieds, technology (Computers, Electronics,

defense), Real Estate, Lifestyles, Comics and much more. It also includes

hoardings and banners. (John and Nutt, 1980, Pg. 181)

2
2) Television: TV is a very popular platform for advertising. It covers nearly all

kind of audience and of all genders.

3) Internet: The newest and increasingly getting popular form of media is

Internet. As it is the most widest platform for the advertisers. It covers

everything from a needle to a ship. These days more and more companies

are focusing on advertising through Internet. Internet advertising comprises of

websites, portals, gadgets, feeds and search engines.

4) Radio: With the help of radio Noon Hypermarket will be able to attract

more number of customers because it will be able to targeted easily. First, in

many countries there are radio networks that use many geographically distinct

stations to broadcast simultaneously. In the United States such networks as

Disney (children’s programming) and ESPN (sports programming) broadcast

nationally either through a group of company-owned stations or through a

syndication arrangement (i.e., business agreement) with partner stations.

Second, within the last few years the emergence of radio programming

delivered via satellite has become an option for national advertising. (Bhatia,

2000, pg. 111)

With help of advertising the business firms publicize their businesses to make

it more popular and to create brand awareness. Advertising helps them in

increasing revenues, which directly increases the profit of the companies.

Many companies are having separate departments for advertising. The

function of these departments is to make plan and make budgets for

advertising. Advertising helps in forecasting sales of a company. If the

3
company spends more on advertising then definitely the people will be more

aware about the brands of the company. (Graydon, 2003, Pg. 218)

Strategy & Tactics

The main strategy and tactics that will be using are listed below;

Build Relationships

People are very important in business, whether they are customers, suppliers

or employees of the organization. It is not only necessary to form relationships

with one’s customers so that they come again to make repeat purchases, but

also with the employees and all other people that the organization comes in

contact with during its working, so that the Lancer has a positive word of

mouth in the market.

Differentiate from Competition

One of the most successful of advertising strategies and tactics for Lancer is

to create own identity, which is totally different from the rest of the

competitors. A good way to do that is to stay Noor Hypermarket of the

competition by offering innovative technologically advanced products. For this,

a business’ market research should be very strong, so that change is

anticipated in advance and action taken accordingly. (Johnson, 2001, Pg.

128)

Public Relations Tools

Market Monitoring

Monitoring public comment about Noor Hypermarket and its products is

becoming increasingly important especially with the explosion of information

4
channels on the Internet.  Monitoring within Noor Hypermarket includes

watching what is written and reported in traditional print and broadcast media

and also keeping an eye on discussions occurring through various Internet

outlets such as forums, chat rooms, blogs and other public messaging areas. 

Interview Arrangements and Preparation

For all major interviews, Noor Hypermarket prepares a detailed briefing about

the type of publications, the reporter, the subject, and the types of questions

expected. For especially important or sensitive interviews, Noor Hypermarket

also prepare a set of challenging questions and review with Noor

Hypermarket interviewee the various answers, which would be in Noor

Hypermarket client’s best interests. (Hutton, et al, 2001, Pg. 149)

Program Scheduling

Media planning is the process of choosing a course of action. Media planners

develop yearly plans that list each media outlet--print or broadcast. Planning

then gives way to buying, as each separate contract is negotiated, then

finalized. The media plan is a document in sections. The campaign will be

running for 1 year.

It is very important for the Noor Hypermarket to decide on which media to

select the launching schedule. The process must address all the steps

necessary to start volume production, plan and execute marketing activities,

develop needed documentation, train sales and support personnel (internal

and external), fill channels, and prepare to install and support the product.

The benefits are that an improved product launch process results in faster

5
time-to-market and time-to-profit. Activities are better planned and

coordinated and more tightly integrated. System data requirements are better

understood, and systems may be better integrated. The result is better

production ramp-up, more effective marketing, a sales force better prepared

to begin selling the new product, and a service and support group better able

to service and support the new product, leading to greater customer

acceptance. (Hatch, 1997, Pg. 177)

Television, Radio and print advertisement and handbills have been

selected for Noor Hypermarket and will be advertised as follows

Media used Channels Reach Duration Days Timings Spot Cost

of

week

Radio Big FM 15% 1 year 7 Everyday Major 60,000

Cities RO

of

Oman

Newspaper Oman 40% 1 year Friday- 4th Page Major 25,000

s Observer Monday Quarter cities RO

and Page of

Times of Oman

Oman,

Television MBC, 30% 1 year Sunday Afternoon Oman

40,000
Advertising Oman TV – and RO

Friday evening

6
Program Monitoring and Evaluation

Once the advertising campaign is over, the company should evaluate it

comparing to the established goals. An effective tactic for Noor Hypermarket

in measuring the usefulness of the advertising campaign is to measure the

pre-and post-sales of the company’s product. Different types of testing will be

done. Interim testing will be done in order to make this more effective, the

company should divide up the country into regions and run the advertising

campaigns only in some areas. The different geographic areas are then has

to be compared (advertising versus non-advertising), and a detailed analysis

should be performed to provide an evaluation of the campaign’s effectiveness.

The exit Depending on the results, the Noor Hypermarket should modify

future advertising efforts in order to maximize effectiveness. (Hutton, et al,

2001, Pg. 228)

Conclusion

Advertising campaign is very important for any company. Without advertising

campaign it is not possible to do any business because business will run only

if the people come to know about the business and this is possible only

through advertising. If the company uses right type of advertising media then

the company will get more business and if not the company will face huge

loss. So it can be concluded that advertising is very important for the

company and it has to be used properly to get good results. Successful

advertising campaigns have always shown good profits to the companies.

Successfully managed advertising campaign always have linkages with place,

price and products as the campaigns shows full details about the products,

7
price and place. The campaign should be conducted in different parts of the

country where the product can be successfully distributed to reach the

maximum customers. Also it should clearly display the promoitonal offers and

the prices of the products and service that the company is offering so that the

customers gets attracted, because when the customers reads the

advertisement, they expect and prefer to get the maximum information of the

product advertised and when they are happy and satisfied with the information

displayed on the advertisement, then they think of buying the product.

(Hallahan, 1999, Pg. 274)

References

 P.R. Smith, “Marketing Communications, An Integrated Approach”,

Second Edition, 2000, British Library, UK.

 Henderson, John C., and Paul C. Nutt. “Influence of Decision Style on

Decision Making Behavior.” Management Science. 26.4 (1980).

 Drummond, G. & Ensor, J. (2004). Strategic Marketing: Planning &

Control. 2nd Ed. Butterworth-Heinemann: MA.

 Bhatia, T., K., 2000. Advertising in Rural India: Language, Marketing

Communication, and Consumerism. Institute for the Study of

Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa. Tokyo University of

Foreign Studies. Tokyo Press: Japan.

 Graydon, S., (2003) “Made You Look - How Advertising Works and

Why You Should Know”, Toronto: Annick Press.

 Johnson, J., D.,, “Advertising Today”, Chicago : Science Research

Associates, 2001.

8
  Hutton, J., G., Goodman, M., B., Alexander, J., B., 2001, CM Genest -

Public Relations Review,

Websites

 http://www.advertisingconcepts.com/aboutdvertising.html , Accessed

on 8th September 2011.

 http://www.google.com/Advertisingcampaigns/html , Accessed on 8th

September 2011.

Journals

 Hatch, MJ - European Journal of Marketing, 1997 -

emeraldinsight.com

 Hutton JG, Goodman MB, Alexander JB, Genest CM, 2001, Public

Relations Review

 Hallahan, K., 1999, Journal of Public Relations Research, Lawrence

Earlbaum