Effectiveness of advertisement

Effectiveness of advertisement

Go to the library and look at recent copies of Business Week, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, PC World, Sales & Marketing Management, and other popular business and trade publications. Look specifically at advertisements aimed at the business market.
Identify two advertisements which include a toll free number or mail response card. Write a report which summarizes your evaluation of the effectiveness of the ad in generating interest and new leads. Try to identify the company’s strategy in placing the ad. Also, describe exactly what the company should do when a lead responds to the ad.

For my assignment I chose two advertisements from PC World Magazine that are targeted at the business market and offering business solutions. In the following discussion I have provided a detailed analysis of the two advertisements.

Advertisement 1: AMD Zen-based CPUs

Toll Free Number: 1-800-234-3498

Evaluation of the Ad: In my opinion the advertisement would be able to generate a potential business interest because the descriptions used in the ad are in a greater detail which compares the Intel and previous AMD CPUs. These details are used by PC Word to convince its potential business customers to purchase AMD Zn-based CPUs because it is much faster and reliable than others. They have also stated that the price is right for the features that come with the product which can have an impact for those business that are small in size and are looking for quality for a lesser price. I think that the language of the details could have been a bit easier as the potential customers are not always computer literate to the level that is expected by the technical language used in the ad. The leads that are addressed in this ad are, in my opinion able to buy the product as the PC Word magazines are usually bought by technology enthusiast individuals and companies. I am not sure if there would be a significant difference between what CPUs businesses have at present and what different would it make if they buy the CPU in the ad. So I cannot speculate on the existence of need.

Company’s Strategy: PC Word has used a large format ad with a full page. These kind of advertisements are usually best for returns on investment (“Newspaper Advertising Strategies | Chron.com,”). The ad has made an approach that attracts customers with high tech details and rich graphics which provide a clear digital highlight of product. Data can be seen flowing in the high graphic image of a CPU in the ad.

Advertisement 2: Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business

Product Available at: http://me.kaspersky.com/en/business-security/small-to-medium-business

Evaluation of the Ad: The advertisement is presented to potential buyers in the form of an article. This article has many details of what are the security risks faced by current business and what they need to do about stopping hackers to reach out to the confidential data on computers that are part of a business network. Businesses always need security when it comes to the data that their computer systems have. So I can surely say that there always exists a need for these kinds of software. The article has been successful in reaching out to customers as it has the technical details in a very user friendly language that would be understood by most of the business owners.

Company’s Strategy: The Company has used the strategy of writing an article about their product in order to attract potential leads. This strategy is useful in attracting both technologically expert and non-expert customers. The fact that the article has provided details about the recent threats that computer data has is enough to create a sense of urgency in my opinion and it would successfully make business owners curious about the security of their computer systems. 

What the company should do when a lead responds?

In both of the above cases, the companies should have a proper system in place to address the concerns of the potential buyers. When a lead responds, the companies must be able to respond back with shorter delays in order to engage the lead. The companies must also have personals in their customer services who are able to provide information to both technically experts and non-experts in a meaningful way. The customer representatives should listen to the leads carefully and provide all the information they need in a friendly manner. They should offer to send detailed emails with the full details of the product so that the potential customers can have a look at it in their free time if they are not still sure about what purchasing decision they should make.

References:

Newspaper Advertising Strategies | Chron.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/newspaper-advertising-strategies-10978.html