by Gary Dewyn

Created on: November 28, 2008   Last Updated: November 25, 2010

When you market, an ad is the last part of any advertising campaign, but it is the start of the planning process. For example, if you are planning a major sale for the Christmas shopping season, November and December, you may have to reserve advertising space by September, which means you must have the products committed to your inventory during the summer.

Once you know what products will be available, you must design your campaign to effectively reach the target market. Working with advertising professionals you decide on the look or sound of the campaign. What should be said, what should not be included. If you want to use a logo you must secure those rights.

Conduct a trial campaign. Produce a mock-up of the ads and expose them to shoppers at a mall. I was asked to do this by a marketing research firm to see how I remembered an antacid television ad. Let me just say that I prevented all of you from seeing a very boring ad. See what price point people will still purchase. If you sell an item normally at $24.00, do not jack it up to $40.00 then say it's on sale for $16.00 off. Bundle slow moving yet related items with better selling items. Your $24.00 widget could be matched with a $10.00 gewgaw and bundled for $30.00.

Some advertising campaigns, however, are not for any particular reason. They exist just to keep the name in front of consumers. That is why McDonald's keeps advertising. It also is the reason why you must decide what you want out of the ad buys. Do you want to keep the same market share or increase your share? Are you trying to stave off a competitor's attempt to reach your customers? One should never make a hasty advertising decision. Advertising is not done as an answer to an emergency. It is well thought out and planned. One should make a Gantt Chart to plan the process, and do not e surprised by the lead time to launch the campaign. You may find that a major campaign could take a year to plan and produce before it's launched. If your campaign is to be coordinated with another company that will increase the lead time. You know how fast food places often tie-in with the release of a movie? That process could take two years for a three-week promotion.

Also, be certain to have in hand all the rights and licensing for every aspect of the campaign from logos and imagery to on-air talent. If you have the license to use a vendor's logo, but you also include an image of their product and did not license it, then you are in violation of copyright law.

It is always best to have too much lead time than not enough. Your advertising calendar may look like it's backwards with your Summertime campaigns being planned in January and your Christmas/Holiday ads being planned in the summer.

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