Question

According to Prof. Philip Kotler, marketers should make the five major decisions (known as 5Ms) in developing advertising program. What are they? and briefly summarize the 5Ms.

Answer 1

Answer

Advertising is a paid, non personal communication from an identified sponsor using mass media, to persuade or influence an audience. The term "Advertising" was derived from a Latin word "Advertere" meaning to turn (the mind) to.

Prof. Philip Kotler defined advertising as "any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services, by an identified sponsor" . That is, advertising is a means of informing and communicating informations or ideas.

The three fundamental objectives of advertising are :

1. To inform
2. To persuade
3. To remind the target audience.

To develop an advertising program , one should correctly identify and choose the target market and must have a clear clarity on the buying motives of a buyer. To design and implement an successful advertising program marketers should make the five major decisions known as 5 M's formulated by Prof. Philip Kotler. The 5 M ' s are:

1. Mission
2. Money
3. Message
4. Media
5. Measure

1. Mission - This defines the main objective the company wants to achieve by the end of its advertising program. The mission of every company is to increase the sales of its goods or services and also to create a brand name and thus familiarise the company and its products within the users.

2. Money - This is an important decision to be taken regarding how much money can be spent or budget within which the company has to execute its advertising program. Every type of media has different cost packages for advertisements, so the company must choose a media that will be apt for its budget as money is a crucial factor.

3. Message - The decisions relating to message includes the contents of the message, What the company wants to communicate through its advertisement etc must be decided upon. The advertising program includes ideas, information, theme and literature that the company wants to communicate with its intended audience. Also , selection of a media have an effect on your message as a picture advertisement cannot be played on a radio advertisement .

4. Media - The channel through which the message can be communicated to the intended target users must be decided upon. The managers should also make decisions regarding scheduling of media . The channel is called as medium and the medium of communication for advertising can be -

• Print media - newspaper, magazines etc
• Broadcast media - radio , televisions etc
• Outdoor media - posters, pamphlets, boardings etc
• Direct advertising media - direct mails , free gifts/ offers etc

Selection of media should be made according to the budget set for advertising.

5. Measure - This include estimating and evaluating the impact the advertisement would have upon the company's sales and profit. Measurement also depends on media selection. Only if the company measure, it can ensure whether the it has achieved its mission or not and will have a correct sight on how the customers oversee its products or services.