MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE, MURSHIDABAD

Advertising Management
(Elective Course)

Course Philosophy

Advertising as we knew it just a decade back has undergone a metamorphosis in the sense that there
is a general decline in the relative effectiveness of mass-media advertising. This has resulted from a
change in the marketing context like – increase in competition, increasing brand parity (reduced
differentiation), increases in the touch-points for audience where brand information is available and
changes in channel power. On the other side, technological developments like instant communication
have thrown open new opportunities in marketing communications.

Integrated marketing communications is therefore the new approach evolving in substitution to

There are many definitions of advertising and similarly there are many approaches to the advertising
process in business. Loosely structured, advertising is a tool that businesses deploy for communicating
in the market-arena. The foundations for the process integrate an organisation’s major goals, policies,
decisions and sequences of action into a cohesive whole. It can apply at all levels in an organization
and pertain to any functional area of management. Thus there can be advertising to customers,
advertising to investors, advertising to potential employees, advertising to vendors and so on. While
marketing in general is dealt with in detail in other courses, this course is designed to provide an in-
depth understanding of the nature of competitive marketing communications management and
points to the need to adopt new communication practices in order to meet the demands of business
opportunities emerging.

The course will focus exclusively on consumer markets and will address in greater depth many of the
consumer marketing communication concepts introduced in the core marketing course(s). Cases will
focus primarily on consumer products and technologies, services, fashion and entertainment.

The skills and insights developed through this course will be of practical value to you as a business
decision maker regardless of your future direction. The skills and insights transfer well to other
subjects. To help you develop and test your understanding and skills. The course centres on class
discussion and participation, rather than simple lecturing. This course proceeds using a combination
of lectures, conceptual discussions problems & case assignments. Active and meaningful class
participation is encouraged and expected.

The onus of making the learning experience rewarding would lie with the participants, which would
require continuous work and prior preparation. The participants are required to ensure looking up at
the prescribed readings in advance. They should analyze cases before coming for the class.

Objectives of the course

This elective course in the Marketing Area is designed to

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Develop an understanding of the role and importance of advertising and marketing communication
functions in the marketing mix.
Familiarise participants with the concepts and techniques involved in market-focussed
communication and advertising efforts and help them in developing a framework for such decisions.
Improve the quality of decision-making in these areas within the operational and environmental
constraints.
Expose the participants to the working of the ad. agencies and media and develop an understanding
of relationships with them.
Provide an opportunity to experience the integrated marketing communications campaign planning
process for real situations; and
Expand the perspectives on advertising to Integrated Marketing Communications.
Pedagogy

The course will involve a first hand exposure to the process of campaign planning. This will be
accomplished though the perusal of a real life project.

To gather a wider conceptual and contextual understanding of the subject matter, old cases (to avoid
asymmetry of information amongst participants) will be used from the Indian scenario.

Reading assignments are to be completed prior to and in preparation for class discussion. They are
critical to the success of the course and to your comprehension of advertising management.

The course format will comprise:

 Formal lectures
 In class discussion of readings
 Analysis and discussion of cases
 Advertising Campaign Development as a project

The onus of making the learning experience rewarding would lie with the participants, which would
require continuous work and prior preparation. The participants are required to ensure looking up at
the prescribed readings in advance. They should analyse the designated case before coming for the
calss.

Career Focus

In terms of Career focus this course is designed for participants who plan to work in firms that market
to consumers or who plan to work in companies that offer support to these firms (e.g. consulting).
This course is not targeted towards ad-agency careers though agencies could offer positions in client
servicing and account planning roles.

Additional Texts & Readings

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 David Ogilvy - Ogilvy on Advertising

Subrato Sengupta - Brand Positioning

Russell & Lane - Advertising Procedure

Manendra Mohan - Advertising Management

Weilbacher - Advertising

Betch & Betch - Integrated Marketing Communications Perspectives

Schultz, Martin & Brown - Strategic Advertising Campaigns

Kelly & Jugenheimer - Advertising Media Planning. A Brand Management Approach

Shah & D’Souza - Advertising & Promotions: An IMC Perspective

Clow & Baack - Integrated Advertising, Promotion and Marketing

Batra, Myers & Aaker - Advertising Management

Kazmi & Batra - Advertising & Sales Promotion

Evaluation and Weightage

Major component in the course is the project that involves development of a complete advertising
plan for a product or service. The final outcome of this project will be a report consisting of a well
integrated and carefully documented proposal for what strategies, expenditures and research are to
be followed. As a part of this project, the participants are to prepare three written and two oral
presentations besides a final comprehensive report.

Participants will also be making presentations of case analysis submitting reports thereen and
critiquing other presentations, all of which will be graded for the final evaluation. The evaluation
would be based on following weightage.

* Refer to the guidelines appended

1. Group Assignments (50% of the final marks)

(a) Case assignments (20% of the final mark)

The course has eleven cases to be analysed of which ten are designated for presentation to the class
by designated groups.

The participants would form into ten groups (equal members) of their own choice (as also stated
below under ‘Project Work Assignment’). Please submit your group composition as soon as possible

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(no later than the first session) and one or more groups would be assigned the task of presenting their
analysis to the scheduled case in the class. Please elect a group leader.

The participants would work in groups and each would be assigned the task of presenting their
analyses to the scheduled case in the class (20 minutes max and another 10 minutes max for rebuttal
of review).

There would be another group assigned to each case that would be required to review (10 minutes
max) the presentation made. For this purpose, the reviewing group is encouraged to make their own
presentation if they so like.

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