As products become established, advertising stages must change. During the growth stage, Persuasive Advertising can influence customers to buy the company’s products, not those of its rivals. For example, during its growth stage, Advil used this approach to attract buyers of Tylenol & other pain relievers. Persuasive advertising is also important during the maturity stage to maintain the product’s level of sales. In addition, Comparative Advertising may help to steal sales away from the competition. After proclaiming that «most people in Ford country drive Chevy pickups», the ad then discusses specific features of the two brands, in a classic example of the comparison approach.

Finally, during the latter part of the maturity stage and all of the decline stage, Reminder Advertising keeps the product’s name on the tip of the consumer’s lips. And so Atari continues to advertise its home video games, even though attention has shifted over to a newer competitor, Nintendo.

Whatever the product’s life cycle stage, advertising strategies must consider timing. Should the organization advertise throughout the year on a continual basis, or seasonally? Companies such as commercial banks space ads evenly throughout a year.

In developing advertising strategies, marketers must also consider the best

Advertising Medium for their message. IBM, for example, uses television ads to keep its name fresh in consumers' minds. But it uses newspaper & magazine ads to educate consumers on the product’s abilities & trade publication to introduce new software. Each advertising medium has its own advantages & disadvantages.

Newspapers. Newspapers are the most widely used advertising medium, accounting for about 27% of all advertising expenditures. Newspapers offer excellent coverage, since each local market has at least the daily newspaper & many people read the paper ever day (Like you are).This medium offers flexible, rapid coverage, since ads can change from day to day. It also offers believable coverage, since ads are presented side-by-side with news. However, newspapers are generally thrown out after one day, often cannot print in color, & have poor reproduction quality. Moreover newspapers don’t usually allow advertisers to target their audience very well.

Television. Television accounts for about 22% of all advertising expenditures. In addition to the major networks, cable television is becoming a major advertising medium. Cable ad revenues have increased from $ 58million in1980 to $ 1.4billion in1988, & are projected to be over $ 2billion by1990.

Television allows advertisers to combine sight, sound, & motion, thus appealing to almost all the viewer’s senses. National advertising is done on television because it reaches more people than any other medium.

One disadvantage of television is that there are too many commercials, causing viewers to confuse products. Most people for example, can’t recall whether a tire commercial was for Firestone, or Goodrich. Viewers of VCR tapes of shows often fast-forward past the ads. Another disadvantage, is that the normal «Commercial spot» lasts only a short time (usually 30sec), & then its gone. If the viewer is not paying attention, the impact of the commercial is lost. Brevity also makes television a poor medium in which to educate viewers about complex products. Finally television is the most expensive medium. A 30sec commercial during the Super Bowl costs about $ 750.000!

Direct Mail. Direct Mail advertisements account for 17% of all advertising expenditures. As the name implies, direct mail often involves fliers mailed directly to consumers' homes or places of business. Direct Mail allows the company to select its audience & personalize the message. Consumers are also exposed to far less direct mail than to other advertising media. Moreover, although direct mail incurs the largest advance costs of any advertising technique, it also appears to have the highest cost effectiveness. These features have helped to make direct mail a fast-growing advertising medium.

Radio. About 7% of all advertising expenditures are for radio time. A tremendous number of people listen to the radio each day, and radio ads are very inexpensive. In addition, since most radio is programmed locally, this medium gives advertisers a high degree of customer selectivity. For example, radio stations are already segmented into listening categories such as rock & roll, country & western, jazz, talk shows, news & religious programming.

Like television however, radio ads are over quickly. And radio permits only an audio presentation. Also people tend to use the radio as a background while they’redoing their things, paying little attention to the advertisements.

Magazines. Magazine advertising accounts for roughly 5% of all advertising. The many different magazines on the market provide a high level on consumer selectivity. Magazine advertising also allows for excellent reproduction of photographs & artwork that not only grabs buyer’s attention, but may also convince them on the product’s value. And magazines allow advertisers plenty of space for detailed product information Another advantage of magazines is that they have a long life & tend to be passed from person to person, thus doubling & tripling the number of exposures.