THE USE OF POLYSEMY, INTERTEXTUALITY, AND SYMBOLISM IN ADVERTISING

The use of polysemy, intertextuality, and symbolism in advertising
The use of polysemy, intertextuality, and symbolism in advertising

The use of polysemy, intertextuality, and symbolism in advertising

Introduction

Advertising has become the most powerful tool in marketing for business and organizations. It’s an essential factor in the creation of brand awareness and enhancing trust among the consumers of advertising products.  It is the process of communicating with current customers and potential buyers about goods and services (Linda Carlson, 2007). Given that the primary objective of advertising is to make people aware of certain products within the market, different companies have various approaches to ensuring they make more profits through advertising and keep off competition (Skorupa and Dubovičienė, 2015; Hackley, 2010). 

These firms, for instance, Coca-Cola, Snickers, and Heinz -use sophisticated strategies and theories of advertising to accomplish their goals. Looking at some of the multinational companies ads, it’s easy to discern the creativity used by directors in making the commercials. Some of the concepts used by these companies include polysemy, intertextuality, and symbolism. The three concepts – as seen in some of Coca-Cola, Heinz, and Snickers advertisements and they offer strategic ways for the firms to ensure people relate well to the message put across in a simple way.

Advertising and polysemy

Advertisers and media practitioners have expressed difficulty in the interpretation of advertisement messages (Mark Ritson,Stepano, & Jonathan, 2010). More so, the current trends in advertising have focused on the ever-growing role of metaphors and its complexity. While the creators of advertisements have one or two messages to all the audiences, different people perceive the information differently (Hackley, 2010).

The perception of the adverts is associated with people’s beliefs, ideas, indoctrination, and attitudes.  Polysemy refers to the presence of varying interpretations of the same advertisement message by the recipients. While advertising meaning refers to the decoding of a commercial that is influenced by the consumer’s culture, polysemy here implies the existence of more than two interpretations in the same advertisement by different audiences over time.

It simply means that two people can consume the same advert and get varying understanding of the message put across. It is, therefore, paramount that companies understand the concept of polysemy in advertising to ensure their advertising objectives have been well understood.

The Coca-Cola “Taste the feeling” commercial is a good example of advertisements that may bring both synchronic and diachronic polysemy’s in interpretation of the meaning. The advert begins with a bottle of Coke which is already full of the product and more coke is being poured until it overfills. There is no narration but a smooth, relaxing song by Swedish musician Avicii.  We are then shown a scene of a lady with the bicycle helmet and eyeglasses.

She looks happy and gives her viewers a smile while sipping coke using a straw. After the drink, she looks even more energetic and starts playing with snowflakes. The interpretation here is that drinking coke makes one happy and lively.  Other scenes from the advertisement follow, and one can see visuals of two young ladies sharing a coke, and immediately after they start smiling. One can also see happy- looking girls taking a ‘selfie’ after drinking coke.

The advert takes the viewers to a beach where a man and a woman are carrying a basket full of Coke filled bottles. Additionally, there is a scene of two people, a lady and a gentleman, who are seen taking a product from the same bottle using straws.  Shortly after sharing the drink, they look directly at each other in an intimate manner. It appears they are going to kiss but the video changes to a different a scene.

Towards the end, viewers can see a well-dressed man using a mobile phone and holding a bottle of Coke in his left hand-likely waiting for someone. It’s then that a lady comes, and the scene again changes to a love-making part. This time the woman making love to the man is holding a bottle of coke.  The last scenes are filed with happy looking people; the lady on the beach and another scene where people are dancing after taking the coke drink. 

The Coca-Cola Anthem advertisement, used with the “Taste the Feeling Slogan,” has multiple interpretations, both synchronic and diachronic. At, first, one would believe that Coca-Cola product makes the consumer energetic, lively and happy. In another form of understanding, one would believe taking the drink makes the consumer active in love making. 

Also, the two interpretations can occur between two different individuals, resulting to a synchronic polysemy. One can also interpret that the benefit of drinking coke is enhancing a lively and happy mood, but after watching the commercial several times, one might infer that the drink enhances love making, resulting to a diachronic polysemy.

Advertisers can intentionally use polysemy commercials to appeal to different audiences.  Due to the fact that levels of understanding are influenced by variables such as beliefs, geographical location, social, and economic aspects, viewers will tend to interpret adverts differently. 

The Snicker advertisements “You are not you when Hungry” is set in the ancient Chinese context, but with characters who look modern like Mr. Bean. The story in the advert is that of Mr. Bean in the company of Chinese Martial artists who appears to be intruding a highly guarded compound at night. Mr. Beans give the impression that he is a foreigner, and the skills of martial arts do not go well with him. While running on rooftops, he regularly falls and almost makes the team get caught.

After a failed jump from one roof top to the other, he accidentally lands down on the enemy’s chamber. Its then that he gets a snicker to eat. The advert ends by saying that “you lose focus when you are hungry.” So it seems that eating snickers makes one to be more focused. This is the basic and the most common interpretation of the Snicker commercial, but other interpretation can be seen.  For a Chinese brought up into the culture of martial arts, the interpretation is that Snickers makes one an accomplished martial artists. 

According to Punton (2006), consumers of advertisement usually read things that never existed and that were not intended by the creators of the commercials. However, there is a standard interpretation in the market shared by all people, although modern day commercials will always possess difficult rhetorical devices. Also, all forms of commercials encompass polysemy concept. Polysemy can either be synchronic or diachronic. The former refers to advertising that happens to two audiences at a certain point in time. 

As such, the intended meaning is interpreted differently by different consumers. This is usually the case when the audiences have varying cultural backgrounds and beliefs. The latter, on the other hand refers to polysemy that occurs within an individual. The audience may have varying interpretations of the same commercial. The consumer sees the advert firsthand and then tries to decode the meaning, but with time and after watching the advert several times, other interpretations begin to emerge. Both synchronic and diachronic polysemy’s are critical in determining the success of an advert. 

The HEINZ Ketchup, “Game Day 2016” hot dog commercial is extremely difficult to decipher. Dogs are seen running towards a team of men and women. The animals have loads of sack, and they seem to be in a competition. The individuals who stand to wait for the dogs in a finish line, have clothes labeled Heinz. 

It’s not possible to tell whether the dogs are running to the people who have Heinz labels, or they are just competing in a race.  One meaning is that Heinz Ketchup motivates people do compete favorably. Another possible interpretation is that the HEINZ product makes collaboration much easier by triggering a good feeling. The dogs are running together, and people are waiting to embrace them.

Use of Intertextuality

Advertisers have a way of engaging consumers through the application of intertextuality. Intertextuality is an important and very useful technique in advertising that involves a combination of quotations, parody and sometimes allusion. According to Liu and Thao (2013), intertextuality “is a network of textual relation.” Jinxia (2014) defines this concept in advertising as the relations that exist between texts. It refers to how one text depends on each other.

In other words, it explains how different texts in a piece of art refer relate with each other in deciphering a message. To make advertisements effective and for the readers to grasp the meaning, Jinxia notes that “Intertextuality connection in advertising language is important to make an advertisement easy-accepted and understood by the consumers.” The three aspects of intertextuality advertising, parody, allusion, and quotations, are traditional elements of intertextuality.

Citation, parody, and allusion make the consumers relate the texts given with previous ones (Withalm, 2003). Not only do they impress the viewers, but also grab the attention of the audience. The purpose of any advertisement is to persuade the consumers of the commercials into buying the product. This cannot be achieved without relating the advert and the audience in a good manner.

More so, the advertisers always seek to arouse people’s desire for the product promoting attention.  This concentration value is made possible through intertextuality, where the consumers can relate certain aspects of the advertisements to their daily environmental conditions (Karlsson, 2007). This, in the long run, ensures that the audience remembers the advertisements. Most advertisements usually contain memes such as idioms, phrases, songs and other works that the consumers can relate to.

In the Snicker advertisement that features Mr. Bean’s, the characters seem to possess martial artistry. For an Asian audience, the advertisement uses the culture of Chinese martial arts to impress Asian audience. For a person outside China who does know of martial arts, the advert may look impossible to relate with. However, any Chinese person will always remember the commercial as it appeals to their way of living.

 “Brotherly love business”- part of Coca-Cola global ‘Taste the Feeling’ campaign uses a version of Avicii song “Hey Brother.” To people who love Avicii songs, they will more likely relate with the advertisement and end up remembering the commercial. The theme of the initial Avicii “Hey Brother” is about love among family members, and especially the one between two brothers.

The song is calling for brothers to believe in their families, as “blood is thicker than water.” Likewise, the commercial by Coca-Cola depicts a brother who is being protected from bullies by his brother. The lyrics of the song used in the advertisement are also inter-texts of Avicii “Hey Brother Song.” The concept of using two related works in ads makes it easier for the advertisers to achieve their intended objectives; creation of a memorable and easy to remember advert.

Symbolism usage in ad commercials

Advertisers convey complex meanings by the use of symbols (Homes, 2008).  Most of these symbols are visuals and they are usually are polysemy in nature. They therefore have the potential of inferring different messages to the consumers. While some are easy to interpret, others will require a comprehensive analysis (Percyand Elliott, 2009). Companies and organizations use logos as a way of branding. Symbols are things used to represent other things. They are signs and fall under the broad topic of semiotics (Holmes 2008).

In his book, “Fallibilism, Continuity, and Evolution” Pierce referred to semiotics as the analysis of the structures of meaning in verbal and non-verbal forms (Akpan, 2013). One of the most fundamental components of semiotics, according to Holmes (2008), is a sign. While a sign stands for something else, it is usually connected to an idea that it represents. This concept of the sign is interpreted by the person consuming the artwork and the sign, the object it represents, and the interpreter.

Some symbols are just simple logo-types like Coca-Cola and Siemens while others are complex like Subaru car manufacturers. The Subaru logo seen in most of the firm’s adverts contains six stars, with one bigger than the rest. The meaning of the stars requires an understanding of Japanese culture, and it’s difficult just to look at the logo for the first time and decrypt the meaning. 

The stars are also symbolic. In astronomy and Japanese belief systems, there is a cluster of seven stars in the sky that is made up of seven sister stars. They are the nearest to the earth, and one of the seven stars is invisible. The Subaru logo, therefore, has seven stars, but visually there are six since one is invisible.

There are three categories of signs, icons, index and symbols. An icon represents an object by virtue of the features it has to the object. This includes a curved a drawing of stones falling to warn people that the area has stones that fall. An index sign, on the other hand, shows the connection that exists between the object and the sign. An example of index sign is smoke that is used to represent fire.

Finally, symbolism sign represents an object with the acceptance that the individual’s beliefs portrayed in the object (Elliott, and Wattanasuwan, 1998.). One good example is the use of color to represent different ideas and agendas of the advertisers. Black represents darkness and evil, while red represents blood and danger. One of the most important types of symbols used in advertising is use of color to.

For a good advertisement, the symbols used must relate to the company’s brand (Meenaghan, 1995; Jenkins, 2008). The Coca-Cola’s “A Coke for Christmas” commercial uses a character dressed like Father Christmas to symbolize the period and event of Christian’s 25th celebrations of Jesus Christ. To the Christian audience, the colors, and dressing of the character relates to Christmas.

There are also Christmas trees, and people are seen preparing in a similar version for Christmas season. The meaning of these symbols used in advertising will transfer to a brand, and the consumers will therefore desire to purchase the goods and services hoping to experience some of the emotions communicated in the advertisements.

“The brotherly love advertisement” by Coca-Cola where an older brother always bullies the younger one is full of symbols. However, the signs are not easy to relate and interpret. The story is a conflict between two brothers, where one is using his physical attributes to harass the smaller one. In most of the scenes, the older brother is dressed in blue whereas the smaller one is in red outfits.

While the choice of the color of cloth may look unimportant when interpreting the advertisements, it’s good to understand that the branding color of coca cola is red. Consumers of the product are always aware that red is the brand color for Coca-Cola. On the other hand, a rival company, Pepsi, uses blue as its brand color. As such, the colors symbolizes lack of formality in society (Leigh, and Gabel, 1992)

It therefore seems that the creators of the advertisement had the unintended message by giving the older brother blue colors and letting the younger one have a red color. In reality, both Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been for years been in a conflict which is also similar to the one depicted in the advertisements. If this statement is the true, the colors used imply that Coca-Cola is a “well behaved” company, younger brother, while Pepsi is the bully.

Interestingly, towards the end, the older brother saves the boy from other bullies yet he had been harassing in the beginning of the advert. In this last scene, the color of the older brother’s cloths changes to red, while the three boys harassing the smaller one are dressed in blue. While the roles have changed and there is harmony, the idea of the conflict between Coca-Cola and Pepsi is still intact.

The antagonist in the advertisement is in blue which symbolizes Pepsi while the protagonist is in the red symbolizing Coca-Cola. Finally, the opponents are trying their best to steal the drink from the young boy. This expresses the concept that Coca-Cola rivals are always trying to steal the firm’s ideas and intelligence. The fact that the bottle of coke is worth fighting for, the young boy feels bad when it’s taken away from him, signifies the idea and belief that coca-cola is something worthy possessing.

Conclusion

The purpose of any advertisement commercial is to create more awareness about a product and therefore increase sales revenue. However, the messages being portrayed in the advertisements are subject to varying interpretation and consumers are likely to react differently. There are key variables that are determinants of how people perceive meaning, ranging from education, age, beliefs, location, and attitudes.

For this reason, advertisers are forced to use a combination of different strategic concepts to drive their point home and subsequently achieve their objectives (Jenkins, 2008). These strategies include polysemy, intertextuality, and symbolism.  The three strategies are meant to give the audience an effective advert that is memorable, engaging and relates to their way of living. They are used with powerful audios, a visual and technical device to sell the commodities and relate with consumer’s cultural settings. How well companies make use of these advertising concepts serves as a critical determinant of how far the advertisement will go in winning people’s loyalty to a firm’s brands.

References

Akpan, I. 2013. A Semiotic Deconstruction of Symbols in Print Advertising Contents: Implications for Consumers Purchase Decisions. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 3(13). http://citeseerx.ist.p su.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.458.8913&rep=rep1&type=pdf

.Elliott, R. and Wattanasuwan, K., 1998. Brands as symbolic resources for the construction of      identity. International Journal of Advertising, 17(2), pp.131-144.Jingxia, l. and painting, c., intertextual analysis of rhetorical devices in advertising.

Holmes, G.R., 2008. Symbolic Visuals In Advertising: The Role of Relevance. ProQuest

Hackley, C. and Hackley, R.A. (2015) .Advertising and Promotion 3rd Edn, London, https://study.sagepub.com/hackley

Hackley, C. (2010) “Theorizing Advertising: Managerial, Scientific and Cultural Approaches”, Chapter 6

Jenkins, H. (2008) Convergence Culture- where old and new media collide. NYU.Cook, G. (2001) The Discourse of Advertising, London, Routledge.

Karlsson, L., 2007. Advertising Theories and Models-How well can these be transferred from text into reality?

Liu, J. and Thao, L., 2013. Intertextual techniques in advertisements. International Journal, 21, pp. 11-19.

Logica, Dialogica, Ideologica. I Segni Tra Funzionalitá ed Eccedenza. Mimesis, pp.425-36.

Leigh, J.H. and Gabel, T.G., 1992. Symbolic interactionism: Its effects on consumer behavior and implications for marketing strategy. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 9(1), pp.27-38.

Ritson., M, Jonathan,.S, and Stefano, P. 2010. Meaning Matters: Polysemy in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 39(2): 51-64. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255602160_Meaning_Matters_Polysemy_in_Advertising

Meenaghan, T., 1995. The role of advertising in brand image development. Journal of Product      & Brand Management, 4(4), pp.23-34.

Pauline MacLaran, Michael Saren, Barbara Stern and Mark Tadajewski (Eds) The Sage Handbook of Marketing Theory, London, Sage, pp. 89-107 ISBN 9781847875051

Percy, L., and R. Elliott (2009) Strategic Advertising Management, 3rd ed, Oxford, Oxford University Press

Puntoni, S., Schroeder, J.E. and Ritson, M., 2006. Polysemy in Advertising. ERIM Report Series Reference No. ERS-2006-043-MKT Withalm, G., 2003. Commercial intertextuality.

Skorupa, P. and Dubovičienė, T., 2015. Linguistic Characteristics of Commercial

Social Advertising Slogans. Santalka: Filologija, Edukologija, 23(2), pp.108-118.

Want help to write your Essay or Assignments? Click here

Media: Marketing in the food industry

Media: Marketing in the food industry
Media: Marketing in the food industry

Background Analysis and insights into media consumption

Fast food industry is one of the most competitive markets as there are several of them across the UK and the world respectively. Every year there are new firms entering the market however the ones that sustain the customers interest are the old ones such as KFC, MacDonald’s, pizza hut among others. Most of the companies are creating marketing campaigns in order to attract new customers, create brand awareness and sustain the interest of the consumer.

Harland Sanders is the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken; he started this business sixty-five years back. It started as fried chicken restaurant but later started offering other products like grilled and roasted chicken, sandwiches and desserts. The company has opened its branches in other parts of the world where they sell the same products and use the same brand name. The spices used and methods of preparing the chicken is the same all over the world.

KFC is getting competition from all areas; some of the common competitors include, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, CHICK-FILA, INC and CAJUN OPERATING COMPANY. Popeyes delicacies comprise of fried chicken and biscuits. They also sell Cajun –style fried chicken and seafood. The company has several branches in twenty-five countries across the globe. They are the biggest competitors of KFC since they offer the same products as the company but what keeps the KFC at the top of the competition is their secret recipe combined with their marketing strategies.

Marketing campaigns mostly include media such as Television, radio and social media. Social media are broken down into various different platforms such as Facebook, instagram, Twitter, Linked in and YouTube which are the most successful ones in our days, with billions of monthly users (Kallas, 2017). KFC’s YouTube channel has more than 270 thousands of subscribers and views of their videos are reaching over million viewers per video on average. YouTube is a source of media that has high reputation over all generations therefore KFC couldn’t be a step back.

Additionally KFC uses platforms that are friendly to young professionals such as deliveroo. Facebook is the biggest social network on the web, both in terms of recognition and total number of users. With nearly 1.8 billion users, Facebook is a great media for connecting people from all over the world and can positively or negatively affect companies (Guide, 2017). Further on another social media that KFC uses is twitter. With twitter short texts can be shared of 140 characters or less with the combination of videos, images, links polls and some other options.

KFC can easily interact with users by mentioning usernames and re-twitting posts. Therefore, twitter is a great way to interact and quickly state your point all around the world (Kallas, 2017). Instagram is another platform that more artistic niches take place and may not be the best fit for every business however KFC advertisements have artistic background therefore instagram is a very good method of promotion. In addition to social media another key media is TV however it is an expensive method of advertisement therefore due to the fact that it attracts different age groups it has an effect on consumers.

KFC can use TV advertisements through Netflix as it is going to interact with the target audience which is young professionals and teenagers. In addition to these, the company also uses print media to market their products, they use the newspapers or magazines to advertise what they offer and their services. The print media is appropriate for those who cannot have time to watch the online adverts and those who cannot access the electronic media.

Media objectives:

Over 40% of the chicken products sales come from the students. The goal of this campaign is to increase the chicken sales by 30 % among the students. The company will reach over 10 million in 200 markets using social media and print media.

The company will launch the campaigns in September with the television at a level of 400 GRPS which is the best level for launching new campaigns. The media campaigns include social media, magazines and newspapers. The company will launch these promotional campaigns in the month of November in all the leading markets.

The use of Facebook as a campaign media helped in gaining more audience since facebook users always use it every day thus increasing the frequency of how much the product is viewed. The company can reach several people with one advert on Facebook thus it lowers the frequency with the audience.

To increase the market share by 10%

In terms of market share, McDonald’s is ahead of KFC in the globe market. A survey on which fast food chain provides the best burger and fries concluded that 34% of the respondents noted that they prefer McDonald’s and 10% choose KFC (Lang, & Heasman 2015). On burgers, KFC was the most preferred choice with 15% followed by McDonald’s at 10%.  When it comes to globe market share of the MacDonald’s takes the lead with a market share of 17% followed by KFC with 10.8% (Lang, & Heasman, 2015).

KFC should focus on increasing market share to become a leader in the global market share. The company intends to attract teenagers and young adults who are the main fast food consumers.  The marketing campaign should increase market share by 10% to put KFC ahead of McDonald’s and make it the leading fast food company in the globe.

To increase awareness about KFC products on burgers, and fried chicken

KFC must create awareness about products it is offering. Market analysis indicates that Starbucks and McDonalds have managed to make products known around the globe. KFC must generate interest in their products mainly the teenagers and adults.  The marketing campaign will focus on creating awareness and improving KFC brand awareness in the globe.

Increasing awareness means that more people will get to know the brand or never forget about it thus customers will be kept informed about new products that are arising the market and products that are already in the menu. This can also help the company through the word of mouth. By keeping the customers informed, this might lead to people talking about the brand and this can positively affect the company.

To create brand loyalty

KFC campaign aims at retaining 80% of the target market. In the past, KFC has employed various media marketing strategies that have increased the market share, but this time the company will also be looking for a way to retain market share. They will heavily rely on using various forms of media to reach this objective. The marketing campaign will focus on showing the customer experience and explaining to customers why they should continue visiting KFC. The marketing campaign will introduce KFC loyalty cards which will be used to reward customers who visit KFC many times.

Target Audience specification:

Target audience are young teens and adults at the age of 16-28. Those people are the ones that grew up in an electronics-filled and increasingly online and socially-networked world. They are the generation that has received the most marketing attack/attention from huge firms, medium and small ones (Anon, 2017). In addition to that young adults-professionals and teenagers spend a lot of time during the day on social media and online platforms such as Netflix and thus KFC would have the ability to sustain the interest and attract the attention of them.

Further to that young generation depend on social media because it’s their communication method, and also it’s the place where they share their opinions, posts and pictures about everyday life. However, young generation receives every day huge amount of advertisement on social media therefore KFCs advertisement has to be considered as friendly and enjoyable by the young generation in order to take it into consideration.

The target audience are mostly female non- vegetarian who have money to spend on our delicacies. Most of these people are working and may not have time to prepare meals at home. They are people who mostly dwell in the urban centres and families who may sometimes decide to go out for a treat. Another target group is that f students who mostly buy lunch from restaurants since they are not in a position to make their lunch due to little time or lack of interest.

Media mix and supporting rationale:

Media mix uses various communication channels to achieve the marketing objectives. Using a combination of media channels enables accompany to effectively communicate products. An effective media mix ensures that the right message gets to the right audience (Babin, & Zikmund, 2015). In marketing, a company identifies the target market. For instance, the main strategy audience for KFC is the young adults and teenagers. It is important to use media mix to ensure that the company reaches a maximum number of the target market.

An effective marketing mix aligns with buying stage of the consumers. Once a company creates rawness of products it must convince consumers to make the buying decision.  For instance, KFC can create awareness by placing an advert on movies but can further influence the buying decision by providing detailed information about products in the fast food magazines.

The main media channel that KFC will use is placing advertisements on various Netflix movies. The channels will be used to reach global consumer since Netflix is online television that is watched by consumers around the globe. KFC will use social media to market products. The company will establish interactive shows on YouTube to provide young people with an opportunity to ask questions about the products. The company will increase presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, and Twitter. It will use fun video and photos to attract young people to read posts about the company and attract many people to like the pages as well. The social media will be an effective way of reaching out to young adults and teenagers. Research indicates that young adults and teenagers are likely to access the social media at least once per day (Babin, & Zikmund, 2015).

.           The company can further use mobile phones to text young people and communicate with them directly on announcement and offers. Research indicates that the young people like texting hence the company can use texts to further influence the purchasing decisions of the young adults and teenager (Pelsmacker, & Kitchen, 2014). The use of print media like the magazines and the newspapers will also attract the customers to the restaurant.

These types of media were selected since they were the best that could fit the company’s requirement. Television is effective since many people can access it and it can also make also help in creating awareness among the target group and lure them into buying the products. The print media like the magazines are appealing to the eye and thus can attract people to read it hence make the target group learn more about KFC and visit the restaurant.

The magazines also give reasons why the people should try the products and this arouses their interest in buying the products. Social media is a platform used by many people therefore the company will be in a position to reach several people at the same time. Through likes from the available customers and their positive comments, the target group will have the urge to have a taste of what the others are praising thus increasing the customers hence increase in revenue.

Media schedule:

Scheduling is used to show the patterns of time in which advertisements will run. Scheduling is used to allocate time slots to ensure that an advertisement reaches the target audience. There are three main models of scheduling that are used in advertising continuity, flighting and pulsing. Continuity model is used for advertisements that run throughout the year (Licciardello, 2013). The flighting model advertises products in intervals. For instance, advertisements activities are increased during the season that the demand for the products is increasing.

The pulsing model employs the continuity and flighting schedule aspects. KFC will make use of the pulsing model. It will use heavy advertisement during the peak period.  KFC will make use of heavy advertisements such as placing adverts on movies during peak periods such as festive period but also use social media and high school media to advertise products through the year.

In Addition to that the advertisement on Netflix will also be played at the KFCs website after a few weeks’ time. It has been decided to exclude August from the time table as it is a holiday period for most of the people plus students therefore the respond during that period would have been low. The adverts will be launched in September when the students resume school since they comprise of the largest population among the target groups.

Timeline

Activity                                               Time                                          Frequency

Launching of television campaigns   September-December 2017        Weekly

Launching of internet ads                   January- February      2018         Daily

Launching of newspaper ads               March                        2018         Weekly

Magazine Launching                           April                          2018         Monthly

MediaTimeDuration/SpaceFrequency
Adverting on NetflixSummer Period (June and September). Fast food thrive during summer periodThe advertisement will run for one minutesThe advertisements should run in all popular shows.
 Festive period (December) Festive periods cause a decline in fast food sales hence it is important to advertise to attract more customers during festive periods.One minute advertisementsThe advertisements should appear on every commercial break.
High School AdvertisementsMay-June during football seasonWhole  DayKFC will interact with students and hand them flyers throughout the day.
High School and College publicationsJanuary-DecemberOne pageOnce per month.
Social MediaJanuary-December Update social media pages everyday.
Social Media (Youtube)October Once a post and keep uploading youtube video to social media such us Facebook.
KFC websiteAfter the end of the Netflix TV ad.Main page of the website.Free- and can be used to remind the customers about the advertisement.

Media Schedule Time Table

 SeptemberOctoberNovember
MediaW1W2W3W4W5W6W7W8W9W10W11W12
Netflix            
High School Advertisements            
High School and College publications            
Social Media( YouTube ad)            
Video of the ad on KFC website            
Social Media            
DecemberJanuaryFebruaryMarch
W13W14W15W16W17W18W19W20W21W22W23W24W25W26W27W28
                
                
                
                
                
AprilMayJuneJuly
W29W30W31W32W33W34W35W36W37W38W39W40W41W42W43W44
                
                
                
                
                

Budget allocation:

The company will mainly use three channels of advertising the social media, supporting high school football and advertising on Netflix. The estimated average cost of advertising using the Twitter is 2325 British Pound per month, and Facebook is 1940. British Pound per month (Percy, 2015). The average price of advertising on Netflix is 270 pounds per advertisement. However, the costs of advertising on Netflix will vary depending on the duration of time the advertisements will take place and on the shows that the company chooses. The budget allocations are indicated in the table below

MediaEstimated Costs
Advertising on Netflix ( placing advertisements in popular shows and advertisements run for 1 minute)  £90,000,000
Social media£51180
Supporting High school football£450,000
Other advertisements such as putting flyers in high school and colleges and advertising on high school and college publications£61,200
Total£111507,380

The company estimates that the average cost of advertising on Netflix is 270 pounds per advertisement. The company plans to introduce advertisement that will run for one minute and the advertisement will be played on the most popular shows such as The House of Cards. The company has budgeted 9million pounds to run advertisements. The estimated cost of advertising on Facebook and Twitter per month is 4255 pounds. Since it will run for 10 weeks and the total cost is 51180 pounds. The company intends to contribute 450thousand pounds to support high school football.

Media Evaluation:

Media evaluation determines the effectiveness of the media tools that are used by a company. Media evaluation determines if the media that was used to communicate the message was effective in getting the message to the target audience. KFC will make use qualitative and quantitative media evaluation to measures the effectiveness of campaign (Christensen, 2015).

KFC is the biggest chicken company in the whole world; this is as a result of the consumers’ satisfaction and hence came back for more goods from the restaurant. The employees are also satisfied with their jobs because they get good salaries. The employees should be made happy since it results in better performance and productivity among them. The company also considers corporate social responsibility to the community; this has also resulted to the company’s success.

References:

Anon. 2017. What is Millennials (Millennial generation)? – Definition   

Babin, B.J. and Zikmund, W.G., 2015. Exploring marketing research. Cengage Learning.

Christensen, M. 2015. Be a Network Marketing Superstar: The One Book You Need to Make

More Money Than You Ever Thought Possible. Sage.

Guide, S. 2017. Social Media for Business: A Marketer’s Guide. Business News Daily.[Online].[Accessed 15 May 2017]. Available from: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7832-social-media-for-business.html.

Kallas, P. 2017. Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites (and 10 Apps!). DreamGrow. [Online].[Accessed 15 May 2017]. Available from: https://www.dreamgrow.com/top-15-most-popular-social-networking-sites/.

Lang, T. and Heasman, M., 2015. Food wars: The global battle for mouths, minds and markets.

Oxford: Psychology Press. Percy, L. 2015. Strategic Integrated Marketing Communication:

Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.

Pelsmacker, P., & Kitchen, P. J. 2014. Integrated Marketing Communications: A Primer.

Routledge. Licciardello, S. 2013. MLM Success Secrets- NLP techniques for multilevel marketing success. London: Sage.

WhatIs.com. WhatIs.com. [Online]. [Accessed 9 May 2017]. Available from: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/millennials-millennial-generation.

Want help to write your Essay or Assignments? Click here.