Advertising

ADVERTISING IN CLOTHING INDUSTRY Presented to Mr. Phillip D. Thomas Santa Monica College Prepared by H. Umit Atamer June 4, 2007 TABLE OF CONTENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 Purposes of the Study 3 INTRODUCTION 4 Advertising from 19th Century to Today 4 Scope of the Study 5 Sources and Methods 5 DEFINITION AND TYPES OF ADVERTISING 6 Advertising in Clothing Industry 6 MEDIA ADVERTISING 8 T.V Broadcast 8 Radio 9 Newspapers 9 Magazines 10 OUTDOOR ADVERTISING 11 Billboards 11 WEB ADVERTISING 12 E-mails and Web Sites 12 GUERILLA MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES 14 CONCULUSIONS 16 RECOMMENDATIONS 17 WORKS CITED 18 LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Top 10 U.S Imports 7 1.2 Calvin Klein Billboard 12 1.3 Online Shopping Rates in the United States 13 1.4 Ikea’s Guerilla Marketing Strategy 15 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Purposes of the Report The purpose of this formal report is to analyze and report the best suitable advertisement techniques for my clothing store called Miti’s. Our store’s target customers are between the ages of 15-30. Miti’s store is similarly as Abercrombie which serves for younger generation. In addition to that, the store sells jeans, shirts, watches, shoes etc. Therefore, the focus will be on the businesses which are successful in promoting their products and other various advertising methods. In addition, investigating the important similarities and differences between web and other advertising, in terms of content, design, and most importantly, cost, will be significant for this particular formal research. Moreover, the task will be to develop specific criteria for each type of advertising, used by clothing firms, and when using each is appropriate. Advertising should be quick because companies have limited time; therefore, many approaches in promoting goods through advertising fail. For this reason, positive and negative affects related to advertisement procedures will be an important part of this report. In addition, recent and old sample advertisements from companies will be discussed in order to find the most appropriate and efficient way. In today’s business world many small companies use guerilla marketing, which is an unconventional way of performing promotional activities on a very low budget. This approach has many methods and rules in order to reach to target customers; therefore, analyzing and gathering information regarding guerilla marketing will be another important component of this report. For all business in the world, including the clothing industries, word of mouth is the first principal for the quality and to stabilizing the success. For that reason, tips and key ideas how to reach consumers and satisfy them will be the impact of this report. INTRODUCTION Advertising from 19th Century to Today In today’s business world, advertising take a big role in order to promote goods and get customers’ attention. Each day, companies come up with different ways to reach their target audience depending on their budget. During the 19th century, economy in United States got larger and larger. Thus, firms started to advertise their products by filling pages of newspapers with small print messages. This method led to the growth of advertising industry in many various ways. In United States, the first advertising agency was established in 1841. The company was charging commission for firms who wanted to advertise their products in the newspapers. Therefore, many agencies started to compete in each other in this industry. In 1920s, radio stations began to broadcast in the United States. The radio programs weren’t allowed to advertise because it was established by radio equipment manufacturers. Basically, they wanted to sell more radios to consumers by offering only their programs. However, the owners of the radio stations realized that, they could earn more money by selling sponsorship to many businesses instead of one. As a result, the potential of radio advertising and promotions went high in the late 1920s. In the early 1950s, television broadcasting companies began to sell advertising to many sponsors. As a result, many countries followed with the same idea of advertising on T.V. called commercials. T.V advertising grew more during 1960s with the visual color and aspect of advertising. Marketing and advertising reached to its highest rate in 1990s with the “dot-com” invention. Many small and big business started to use this approach because it was cheap and effective. The promotions were taken place online and many companies were operated only for advertising revenue. Today, companies reach to their customers in different various methods by using from the least expensive to the most expensive ways. Advertising is an important part of marketing; therefore, firms compete in the advertising industry in order to find the best suitable and efficient way to reach their consumers. (Advertising) Scope of the study This formal research investigates the most successful advertising methods and specific criteria used by clothing firms. In this particular report, both small and big businesses’ advertising approaches are included. In addition, even tough my company has a low budget for advertising, every method from cheapest to highest will be clarified and take place in this report. On the other hand, examples and tips from company’s different plans will also be incorporated. Sources and Methods Updated advertising journals and official web sites have been used to gain more accurate information. Moreover, magazines and articles from United States and through out the world, helped to see the different ways of advertising methods. Other company’s approaches and different advertising methods have been observed and used as an example in order to make the report more appropriate. In addition, survey graphs used to see how American’s are related to online shopping and most American imports. Guerilla marketing advertisement visuals took place to give a better opportunity to think widely and creatively. DEFINITION AND TYPES OF ADVERTISING In today’s world, when we watch T.V or travel around, we see advertising through commercials, billboards or in different ways. Advertising is way of communicating with people through selected various media or other advertisement techniques to promote products, services, brands or goods. For communicating with target costumers, there are certain criteria in order to clarify advertising. It should be, • Paid for it • Persuasive • Informative • Designed to influence people • Reminder-oriented It’s important to choose the best advertising for specific products and services. Therefore, no matter how good the product or service is, advertising should be done to persuade and to inform people, other wise it will fail with a result of financial loss. There are many different ways to advertise products, services, brands, stores and goods. Depending on the financial spending, firms choose to advertise through media (T.V, newspapers, magazines and radio etc.), outdoor advertising (billboards, flyers etc.) and web advertising (e-mails, web pages etc.). (Taflinger) Advertising in Clothing industry Many American companies in clothing industry use advertising in order to reach their target costumers. In addition, advertising is the best way to introduce their new and existing products. For clothing industry, media advertising is one of the best ways to promote goods. For example, Abercrombie uses teenage magazines to reach their young target audience. On the other hand, many companies who are selling watches are mostly introducing their products in the magazines. Watch sellers put their advertisement on different magazines for different buyers. United States, as a country, is strong in clothing industry but their exportation in this business is weak. According to the International Trade Administration’s chart shown in figure 1.1, there are top 10 products imports shown. Importing clothes from other countries to United States is in the fourth place with $64 million. Imports are from countries where textile and clothing industry are very strong. Those countries are mostly Middle Eastern countries with textile and European countries where clothing market and fashion is strong. FIGURE 1.1 TOP 10 U.S IMPORTS (BILLIONS) |Top 10 U.S Imports |  | |  |  | |Vehicles |$157 | |Electrical Machinery |$85 | |Computers and office equipment |$75 | |Clothing |$64 | |Telecommunications equipment |$63 | |Miscellaneous manufactured articles |$58 | |Power-generating machinery |$36 | |General industrial machinery |$33 | |Organic chemicals |$29 | |Transport equipment |$24 | | Source: Data from U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration |  | | Office of Trade and Economic Analysis, "U.S. Manufacturers Trade 1996-2001 |  | | Top 10 Product Imports Balances in 2001. January 15,2004 |  | To improve the clothing industry, Italian organizations promote their fashion abroad by advertising and inviting other countries buyers. Many people around the world including American buyers are invited to fashion shows not only for the purpose of selling but taking them to their textile and clothing factories to show how they produce. (Merlo and Polese) MEDIA ADVERTISING Most efficient way to advertise products and services is advertising through media. These are including T.V, radio, magazines, newspapers etc. Marketers choose on of the advertising methods for their promotions. However, cost is the most important consideration of choosing one or another. In addition, the best way to communicate with their customers is another selection to be considered. T.V Broadcast Television is one of the most expensive advertising techniques. There are also different ways to advertise on T.V such as shows, sports games and movies. In addition, television is classifies as national, network, local and cable advertisement. However, there are advantages and disadvantages of T.V advertising. First of all, T.V advertising is visually attracting people. Not only visual, it also captures the attention with motion and sound. Today, people watch T.V in everyday life and through shows, and other programs, there are always commercials. Television reaches to every house whether people want it or not. Companies choose T.V advertising because they can also choose the time for advertising. Why is the time important' The time for the television advertising is important because there are prime times for specific hours of the day. For example, cosmetic and cleaning products are usually shown in day time because the audiences are women. This makes T.V advertising the second fastest growing advertising medium after internet. Even though television reaches too many consumers at once, it is one of the most expensive advertising medium. For example, on the weeknight prime time, 30 seconds of advertising on television reaches up to $100.000 to $500,000 (Boone and Kurtz). In addition, it’s essential to see apparel store or clothing advertisings on television but it is mostly for companies that are financially strong and famous. Radio Radio advertising offers the opportunity to deliver a simple and powerful message to a targeted group of consumers that may be interested in some company’s products or services. Most of the U.S household owns radio whether at home or in their car. It’s also capturing attention but only with sound. For this reason, the advertising slogans must be memorable and reminder-oriented. In addition, the top advertisement rate on radio is morning and evening time. This result is mainly because people are going to and coming back from work. There are also tips for advertising on radio. First of all, the very first five seconds of the advertising is important because people mostly listen to music on radio, not the advertisements. Another key point is that, the brand name should be said many times because mostly people daydream in their car while driving. Newspapers Newspaper advertising is the oldest process and it’s visual and catches attention if it’s used effectively. In addition, it’s also one of the most efficient advertising methods. From 1840s to today, people use newspaper advertising. Generally, newspapers reach to people by national and locally. However, it’s also an expensive advertising medium compare to other advertisement mediums. Mostly, retailers and automobile dealers rank first among newspaper advertisers. According to the journal, “What do excellent service promoters do differently'”, by Kim Shyan Fam and Bill Merrilees, “traditionally retailers of fashion merchandise relied heavily on newspaper advertising and personal selling to promote the stores and their merchandise”. The key point is that, according to the findings, excellent promoters have higher awareness of the importance of promotions and advertising than non-excellent promoters. As a result, it seems that excellent promoters spend more and more on promotion and advertising. In addition, they are more concentrated on wide advertising such as newspapers, broadcast, public relations and direct mail. In contrast, non-excellent advertisers are less relatively use wide advertising tools and more pre-occupied with price markdowns and price related promotions in stores (Fam and Merrilees). In newspaper advertisement words count as money; therefore, people should use brief and newsworthy announcements to get attention. Many advertisements in newspapers include sales, opening new stores and introducing new products. There are also advantage and disadvantages of advertising in the newspaper. The most important thing to remember is that newspapers have short life span. Today people don’t read all sections of newspapers. They only read the parts where they are mostly interested in such as politics and sports etc. On the other hand, newspapers like local ones reach people easily. In addition, most people have memberships of many newspapers which reach to their houses every morning or every week. Tips for advertising on newspapers are mainly photographs that directly look in to reader’s eyes. Moreover, using bullets and lists would make it easier for reader to understand and remember. Magazines Magazines are another easy way of reaching target customers and people from the other parts of the country. By using the demographics, today, companies approach to their aim customers. In today’s magazine industry, there is virtually something for everyone. From teenager magazines to political, people buy magazines. If the company with a product aimed to young women would choose to advertise in Glamour or Cosmopolitan; another company with a product that targets business and entrepreneurs might choose to advertise in Success or Entrepreneur. The clothing company which aimed for young generation normally chooses the magazine Teen or Cosmo girl. Some of the magazines are also international which makes advertising go worldwide. The right way to post an advertisement on magazine is color advertisements because they are more memorable than black and white ads. Furthermore, as a saying, a picture worth 1000 words but it will have greater responses if it has story appeal. The advantage of magazines are strong visual and easy to approach target people. On the other hand according to the target media 2000 the average person spends %5 of his or her daily media time reading magazines. OUTDOOR ADVERTISING Billboards Outdoor advertising contains many different types such as transit station, stores, airports, and sports stadiums. In addition, outdoor advertising is increasingly used by companies and it’s also growing very fast. However, the most known and efficient way of outdoor advertising is billboards. In today’s world, billboards are not only visually attractive paper advertisement anymore. Advertisement agencies are widely giving services with more technologies ways such as moving billboard, computerized painting and video billboards. Even though outdoor advertising is increasingly used and growing fast, billboards and animated signs takes only %2 of the total advertising expenditures. This rate is very low among other advertising methods; however, many clothing companies including the famous ones use billboards for their promotions and advertisement. Depending on its size, color and illumination, it attracts people’s attention. Figure 1.2 shows one of the most famous clothing company’s (Calvin Klein) outdoor advertising by using billboards. Calvin Klein is an international company which has stores all around the world. Outdoor advertising suffers from many disadvantages. The advertising usually requires brief massage or attention getter photograph because people most of the time read the advertising while they are driving. In addition, weather circumstances sometimes make the advertising invisible if it’s rainy or foggy. Moreover, in United States, “Highway Beautification Act regulates the placement of outdoor advertising near interstate highways” (Boone and Kurtz). Also, it’s still being undecided that whether billboards should be allowed or not. FIGURE 1.2 CALVIN CLEAN JEANS BILLBOARD ADVERTISING [pic] WEB ADVERTISING E-mails and Web Sites Web advertising contains e-mails and web sites change the nature of the advertising. These types of advertising also command on %2 spending of the all other advertising methods but it is the number one fastest growing media segment. E-mails and Web sites have been changed in the last decade. After innovation of internet, many companies started to use this way as an advertising tool. However, in the beginning of 1990s, people started to experiment internet and how to use it. Even tough it’s only the %2 of spending, many big companies in every industry including famous people themselves, use internet by creating a web site. Internet is one of the cheapest advertising techniques and it’s reachable in most of the world. Therefore, people take advantage of today’s fastest growing technology. Official web sites are making it easy for customers to see products before they go to store. In addition, this also includes with the food industry. For example, many restaurants and fast food places offer delivery by signing up and ordering online. So, how does web advertising help to clothing industry' In this way, people can see the new and existing products online and on time. Now a days, most of the clothing companies offer internet shopping. However, in this way, stores can cut the labors and concentrate on the internet buyers because it has been increased in the recent years. Besides the internet shoppers, the regular internet users have showed a big growth for the past couple years. In United States about six out of 10 people access internet every day. Furthermore, eight out of 10 has a computer access either at work or at home. According to a research result shown in Figure 1.3(PhillyBurbs), in 2003, researchers ask Americans’ opinion on what ways they use internet shopping. As a result, %81, said they used online shopping for any products. In addition, it also shows that %54 of the respondents compare other stores prices online before they go to one or another. Moreover, %50 percent of the Americans used the web to find out what stores are nearby to them (PhillyBurbs). FIGURE 1.3 ONLINE SHOPPING RATES IN UNITED STATES IN 2003 [pic] What makes the web advertising different from others' The major difference is that it combines two types of communications. First of all, it contains the parts of mass communication by being unidirectional and it combines the characteristics of interpersonal behavior (Janoschka). For example, Nike has an official web site that can be reached from www.nike.com. The company also provides internet shopping for their customers. For example, Nike ID is a new innovation for their customers where the shoppers can go online and create their own shoes by choosing the color and type. The director of Nike states that, they give a chance to their customers to brand experience relevant to them. In addition, by getting the information of the customers who shop online, the companies can reach to their customers by sending e-mails about their new products. For every company, one e-mail, containing a simple advertisement can be reached to their entire customers in the world. Besides the advantages, web advertising and internet usage has disadvantages. The major one is spam and pop-ups which are hard to ignore or delete. While surfing on the internet, these kinds of advertisements appear on the screen unintentionally. However, most of them are ignored by internet users because of the possibility containing viruses. GUERILLA MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES Guerilla marketing is an unconventional way of performing promotional activities and advertising on a very low budget. This approach is very creative and effective which gets the attention of target customers wherever they are. In addition, guerilla marketing also includes good relationship, willingness to try many different approaches and public relations. Public relations are part of marketing management. Therefore, public relations help the people to understand the company’s products and services. It is considered as one of the primary activities including in promotions and advertising. Guerilla marketing is designed for small businesses but today increasing used for big businesses also. Big companies which have a high budget on advertising, consider this way of advertising because it’s cheap, and does the same affect as big advertising and promotion methods. In daily life, people see many advertisements while driving in their car or for some reason on the streets. Basically, the unusual and attention getter advertisements are mostly used and designed by guerilla marketing strategy. For example, Apple’s ipod product is used in the subways which painted the trains. Furthermore, Ikea is another example of a company that uses guerilla marketing. They are one of the big companies that use guerilla marketing for some of their advertisements. Figure 1.4 shows their creative and effective advertising way for their products. This cleverly created advertisement was in New York and people were very surprised the first time they saw it. Ikea’s designs for the bus stop, illustrated with their products of curtains, carpet, night stand, pillows and couch. FIGURE 1.4 IKEA’S GUERILLA MARKETING STRATEGY [pic] CONCLUSIONS Based on the information in this report, and the research findings through journals and internet, following conclusions are drawn: • Advertising should be creative and persuasive in order to get the required amount of attention. • If advertising is going to be done with nonverbal communications tool such as newspapers, magazines, web and billboards, it has to be brief and newsworthy. • Many companies including the small ones use advertising accordingly to their budget. • Every advertising method can be efficient if used properly. • Television broadcast is the most expensive advertising medium but reaches widely many people. • Many businesses related to clothing usually uses newspaper advertising. • The fastest growing advertising medium is web advertising because it’s the cheapest way and reaches people all around the world. • Guerilla marketing is declaimed to small businesses because it’s the most innovative and creative way for financially weak companies. RECOMMENDATIONS According to the information in this report, following recommendations would help our company to understand and approach to the best advertising medium: • Spending more money on advertising would help to increase sales. • Create a group of promoter team with an idea of new innovations and projects. That way we can catch more attention. • Following other successful companies advertising approaches and methods, gives us more opportunities to plan our promotions. • Use web advertising by getting customers e-mail addresses. Therefore, we can reach them with our new products and sales. • Creating an official web site and starting online shopping would be significant for our company. • Work on price markdowns and price related promotions in stores. As a result, more customers would come inside the store for shopping. WORKS CITED Advertising. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, 1 Jun 2007. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php'title=Advertising&oldid=135172692 Boone, E. Louis, Kurtz L. David. “Chapter 14: Advertising”. Contemporary Business, 2006, Eleventh Edition ISBN 0-324-5333-0. Fam, K. Shyan, Merrilees, Bill. “What do excellent service promoters do differently'” The Service Industries Journal, London: Oct 2001 Vol. 21, Iss. 4, p. 1-16 (16 pp.) Janoschka, Anja. “Web Advertising: New Forms of Communication on The Internet” Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamin. 2004 Merlo, Elisabetta, Polese, Francesca. “Turning Fashion into Business: The Emergence of Milan as an International Fashion Hub” Business History Review, Boston: Autumn 2006 Vol.80, Iss. 3; pg. 415, 34 pgs Phillyburbs, “Want to Reach Shoppers” American Opinion Research, 2003. http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/page.cfm'name=advertise_pb&tmpl=advertise Taflinger, F. Richard “A definition of Advertising” 28 May 1996, Washington State University, http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~taflinge/addefine.html