Advertising management

Advertising management is how a company carefully plans and controls its advertising to reach its ideal customers and convince them to buy.

Marketers use different types of advertising. Brand advertising is defined as a non-personal communication message placed in a paid, mass medium designed to persuade target consumers of a product or service benefits in an effort to induce them to make a purchase. Corporate advertising refers to paid messages designed to that communicate the corporation's values in an effort to influence public opinion. Yet other types of advertising such as not-for-profit advertising and political advertising present special challenges that require different strategies and approaches.

Advertising management is a complex process that involves making many layered decisions including developing advertising strategies, setting an advertising budget, setting advertising objectives, determining the target market, media strategy (which involves media planning), developing the message strategy and evaluating the overall effectiveness of the advertising effort.) Advertising management may also involve media buying.

Advertising management is a complex process. However, at its simplest level, advertising management can be reduced to four key decision areas:

Target audience definition: Who do we want to talk to?

Message (or creative) strategy: What do we want to say to them?

Media strategy: How will we reach them?

Measuring advertising effectiveness: How do we know our messages were received in the form intended and with the desired outcomes?