Creativity plays a crucial role in the success of advertising, especially for graphic design companies. We delve into the significance of creativity in advertising and print media, with a focus on attracting the target audience and driving action to purchase. Why is Creativity Important? Building the Marketing Mix: Creativity acts as a pillar in constructing the marketing mix, influencing personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, and sponsorship. Brand Differentiation: It sets apart products from competitors, steering away from the “me too” mindset by shaping attitudes and feelings to position the brand as the preferred choice. Knowledge and Stimulation: Creativity provides knowledge, stimulating thought processes and encouraging thinking. Persuasion and Relevance: It persuades effectively, ensuring relevance and meaning in the eyes of the audience. Facilitating Purchase and Trial: Creative advertising facilitates the purchase decision and encourages trial usage. Building Loyalty: It contributes to creating loyal customers who connect with the brand on a deeper level. Transforming Ads: Creative advertisements have the power to transform mundane ads into engaging and interesting content. Objective Achievement: Ultimately, creative ads are more likely to achieve their objectives and drive desired actions. Use of Colour in Advertising The incorporation of colour in advertisements, despite contributing to production and placement costs, has proven to be worthwhile. Here’s why: Attention-Grabbing: Colour enhances the holding power of ads, capturing attention more effectively. Psychological Impact: People are conditioned to respond to colour stimuli, making it a powerful tool in conveying messages. Enhancing Product Appearance: Products, especially food items, look...

Branded promotion gifts and clothing are popular for several reasons: Brand visibility: Branded promotional items serve as a mobile advertisement for a company or brand. When people wear or use these items, they act as walking billboards, spreading awareness and increasing visibility for the brand. Positive association: By giving away promotional items, companies aim to create a positive association with their brand. When recipients receive useful or attractive items, they are more likely to have a favourable perception of the brand and feel grateful for the gift. Customer loyalty: Promotional gifts can help foster customer loyalty. By rewarding customers with branded items, companies can strengthen their relationship with existing customers and encourage repeat business. The act of giving a gift can also generate a sense of reciprocity, making customers more likely to choose that brand over competitors. Brand recognition: Branded promotional items help build brand recognition and reinforce brand identity. When people see a company logo or slogan repeatedly on promotional products, it increases their familiarity with the brand, making it more likely that they will remember and recognize it in the future. Cost-effective marketing: Compared to traditional advertising methods, such as TV or print ads, branded promotional items can be a cost-effective marketing strategy. They often have a longer lifespan, providing ongoing exposure for the brand, and can reach a wider audience through their recipients. Tangible and useful: Promotional items are physical objects that people can touch and use in their daily lives. Whether it’s a branded pen, t-shirt, or...

Branded jackets are a great way to promote your brand and create a positive sentiment among your target audience. Jackets are useful and versatile products that can be worn by people of all ages and gender. They are also a perfect choice for outdoor events, sports activities, and corporate gatherings. When people wear jackets with your brand logo on them, they become walking billboards for your brand, helping to increase brand awareness, recognition, and loyalty. Additionally, branded jackets help to create a sense of unity and belonging among employees, students, or members of a group. Overall, branded jackets are an excellent investment for any business looking to enhance their brand’s visibility and reputation, while providing practical and stylish clothing for their customers or employees. 86% of consumers have a positive sentiment towards an advertiser, once receiving a branded jacket.67% of consumers own branded jackets95% recall the advertiser's name6100 impressions throughout its lifetime42% of women wear their branded jacket at least once a weekBranded jackets are kept on average for 16 months68% of recipients are likely to give their branded jacket to someone else, once they have done with it, generating even more impressions down the line. So for all your branding requirements, contact the experts at Red's Advertising!

There are four central tasks facing managers in the service industry:  * Managing quality * Managing productivity * Managing service staff * Achieving differentiation Managing Quality The single most important factor of a service is its quality. This determines the long-term profitability and market share of the firm. However, quality is very hard to define in the service sector. Many have suggested doing it right the first time or having zero defects, but few have achieved these objectives on a consistent basis. Firstly, it's hard to measure quality because there is nothing physical to measure. There is no fuel consumption or music power to rate. Secondly, heterogeneity means that consistency can rarely be achieved. Thirdly, the inseparable nature of production and consumption make it difficult for firms to control the quality process. Lastly, the interaction of staff and customers means that customers evaluate not only the outcomes but also in terms of the process or manner in which the service is delivered. The difference can be a smiling waitress as opposed to a frowning one. Managers have to focus on the determinants of quality as follows; * Reliability - how consistent is the service? * Access - is the service easily accessible? * Credibility - can consumers trust the company? * Security - is the service free from risk and danger? * Knowledge - is every effort made to understand the needs of the customer? * Responsiveness - how willing are employees to provide service? * Competence - do staff have...

Most companies today are structuring their new product development process to accelerate results and control costs. Step 1 Corporate strategy and innovation A corporate plan should make provision for the research and the development of new ideas. The innovation will be orchestrated by senior management and will dictate the resources made available to new development. Step 2 New product ideas Lots and lots of ideas are needed. After 50 new ideas maybe number 51 will be the winner. Many innovations are small improvements and line extensions and not complete breakthroughs. The team should focus on projects that are consistent with the overall strategy. New ideas can originate from: * Employees - front line people are the closest to the customer. Toyota receives 2 million suggestions per annum. * Customers - innovative customers are opinion leaders who are generally willing to talk about their requirements. * Research and Development - scientists play a pivotal role in hi-tech business. * Competitors - systematic comparison of products and a search for best practices. * Distributors - They know the end-user and competition which can be valuable allies. * Psychologists and market researchers - to find new gaps in the market * Outside sources - ideas are bought Step 3 Screening To select the maximum available number of ideas that are compatible with the firms' objectives. Step 4 Concept development The idea is developed as a consumer proposition and tested on potential customers. Customers buy solutions to their problems and not products. It is important...

How to change prices To change prices once the product has been established is a very important strategic decision as inevitably the brand loses market share through consumer resistance to the price increase. The main determinants of price changes are: The price paid by the customer: an increase for the dealers' margin budget for advertising and promotion an increase in fuel and inflation adds to the cost of selling and distribution carrying extra inventory costs in the hope of selling more over holidays, i.e. Christmas Price received by manufacturer: ability to buy bulk raw materials increase in manufacturer margin marketing paid by the manufacturer for selling and advertising to double the awareness for the brand research and development is ongoing with new capital search other suppliers for procurement possibilities How to increase prices There are four ways in which your company can increase total profit:             Increase sales volume through aggressive advertising and promotion             Cutting costs - economies of scale             Raising prices for the market - a market leader can increase prices without jeopardizing market share             Raising prices for resellers - increase prices or reduce reseller mark-ups, discounts and allowances To increase internet marketing prices: Identify supply and demand imbalances. To take full advantage of the Internet's flexibility, companies need to spot the shifts in supply and demand that could trigger profitable price changes. Many companies already collect this information for operational purposes, but it's rarely passed along to the pricing group quickly enough to be useful. There...

How to obtain higher prices: Many firms reduce prices since the experience curve, increasing competition and rising customer price sensitivity stimulate such actions. The other side of the coin is that inflation, stock market expectations for growing profits and the difficulty of finding enough products to replace established ones create pressure to increase margins. There are six ways to increase prices: 1. Influencing the psychology of the sales team The sales training would focus on: Profit rather than orders The benefits rather than the price. Instil courage in the sales force to take risks in pushing for a justified price increase Salesforce incentives to encourage a focus on prices Professional negotiating skills 2. Contracts and terms The shift towards long-term relationships favours such an approach and can have an enormous influence on profit margins. The common type of contract is that which has an escalation clause built in. The cost-plus formula also protects the margins. A reduction in discount acts as a price increase. 3. Demonstrating values rather than products. The aim is to demonstrate how the product differs from others in the market rather than selling a product. Sell packages that include services, technical support, terms and guarantees. Show the economic value to the customer. Build the brand to reduce the risk and confidence involved in buying a well-known brand. 4. Segmentation and positioning Recognise that customers differ greatly in the levels of price sensitivity. For some, it's the dominant criterion whilst, for others, it's the service, quality and image....

Pricing is the key to a firm's profitability in the short and long term. Many markets are not pricing sensitive and the price is only one dimension of value, so the concept of creating superior value lies at the heart of the offering, and not the price. Low prices rarely provide a basis for sustainable competitive advantage. A pricing strategy should begin with an assessment of price competitiveness and the formulation of pricing objectives. The first task is to determine which competitors in the market are perceived as offering the best value. Value is a mixture of price and perceived quality. Assessing the value, therefore, requires research into how customers perceive the quality of alternative offers. There are various methods of researching such perceptions; * a} Identifying the dimensions of quality       Determine the product or service qualities or attributes that customers look for when choosing suppliers. * b) Weight quality dimensions       Establish which dimensions customers perceive as the most important. * c) Measure competitors dimensions        Customers are then asked to rate competitors offers along the dimensions of identified qualities. * d) Discover price/quality preferences The Influences on pricing decisions Underlying business objectives -the initial pricing decision will be influenced by the underlying marketing and financial objectives of the business. * Stage of the evolution of the market - introduction, young or mature stage. * Target market segments - increasing in number, becoming difficult to define, are continually evolving and are dynamic. * Competitor targets - prices are never set...

Once you have decided on the distribution channels, the next step would be to design and operate a physical distribution system that will deliver products and services effectively and efficiently. Physical distribution or marketing logistics starts by asking how customers want to receive the product and then work backwards to the design of materials, final goods, inventory scheduling, transportation, warehousing and customer service to meet those needs. There are five key determinants of distribution costs and service levels. 1. Customer service Identify what customers want and estimate the benefits and costs of meeting these wants. Remember that the higher the service level the more it cost. * Availability - meet needs from existing stock. * Speed of delivery - customers will pay more for expeditious delivery. * Reliability - customers need to be informed of delivery and their expectation is met. * Lot size - number of units that customers are permitted to buy in one single purchase occasion, small lot sizes add to the cost. * Product variety - greater range for more convenience and choice for the customer. * Convenience - more till points and outlets. * Service and support - financial support, installation, maintenance and after-sales service. 2 Communications and order processing The re-engineering of order processing and internal communications is offering companies major sources of competitive advantage and cost savings. Modern computer systems can offer major opportunities in this area such as SAPS. 3. Production and warehousing location decisions The key determinant of stock availability is the...

There are four central components of a service marketing strategy. 1. Target market segmentation This entails breaking down the potential market into segments; * Matching the customer needs and price sensitivity * Choosing the most attractive segment by its size, average profit and fitting into the firm's capabilities. * Researching the latent wants of customers and identifying the problems they face i.e. good quality service, and how well your competitors are servicing the expectations of customers. 2. Differential advantage After defining the market, a positional concept has to be created. The concept should be based on the most important attribute: will the customer acknowledge the difference immediately from your competitor. For example Outsurance - "you will always get something out" or KFC 'Finger-licking good" or a simple one "customer satisfaction". The concept should have sustainability as services are easily copied and improved by stronger firms. 3. Operating strategy This should transform a marketing opportunity into high performance for the firm. A few points to consider; * Search for value-cost leverage - maximise the offering and the cost in providing the service * Develop the design for service delivery * Create a strategy system that integrates the delivery system and the positioning strategy * Create a central vision with employees to build performance quality 4. Service marketing mix The last step is to create a marketing mix using product, price, place /distribution and promotion. Product Services are intangible, therefore is often difficult to understand the service being offered and the quality of...