If we want to answer the stated question it is necessary to define two basic expressions, forms of advertising and effectiveness.

According to the marketing literature there are several forms of advertising. The most often used ones are the following:

• Local Broadcasting,
• Nation-wide broadcasting,
• Cinema adverts,
• Newspapers, magazines,
• Directiories, classified ads,
• Flyers,
• Brochures, catalogues,
• Posters,
• Online, Banners,
• Pay Per Click,
• Outdoor, Billboards,
• Eye-catchers,
• Advertising in motion and others.

The above-mentioned division is based prevailingly on particular media types. In the recent research we did in January 2007 among Irish respondents both Newspapers, magazines and Directories, classified ads categories were used most frequently. In 2006 they were used by 82 % of 28 respondents answering this question. Most of them inserted in both media categories 2-5 times in the researched year. Irish respondents did not use eye-catchers nor advertising in motion at all in 2006.

However, it is not that easy to define advertising effectiveness. In fact, there is another term which is quite often mixed up with this one. It is efficiency. What is the difference? Well known managerial expert Peter Drucker states, that effectiveness means „doing things right“, while efficiency means „doing the right things.“ As you can see, it is essential to draw your attention to the efficiency because otherwise you could end up spending unnecessarily too much time on doing correctly those things which are absolutely useless.

Now let’s put this piece of theory into advertising practice. Advertising effectiveness means how successful the advertising is in communicating the message. On the other hand advertising efficiency means the financial return on the advertising expenditure.

It is very complicated to assess the advertising efficiency of any mediatypes or advertising campaigns. Nevertheless, there are some forms of advertising which are easier to measure. I mean especially those with direct response, such as direct mail, for instance. There you can state how many people responded to the mail you had sent to them. The efficiency of other forms of advertising could be measured dividing net profits from the campaign by the amount of the advertising costs. Anyway, you have to keep in mind the fact of the combined influence of various elements of the surrounding at the particular time on your campaign results. Since your advertising is not the only issue that can raise your profits. There are seasonal effects, price changes, and what about the advertising of your competitors?

That is why we do not dare to mark any advertising form as more or less efficient. It depends also on the type of product or service being promoted and, what is more essential, on the budget of which you dispose. If we choose the services of a small language school in Dublin City Centre, for example, there are different possible ways of promotion. One of them is going the so called Guerrilla Marketing way. This means, according to Jay Conrad Levinson, the founder of this amazingly simple marketing concept, that you use very cheap ways of telling peoples about your existence and profficiency. Instead of money you use your creativeness and time. There are hundreds of various techniques applicable to this approach. I print here just few of these guerrilla marketing weapons:

• business cards,
• hours of operation,
• word-of-mouth,
• community involvement,
• telephone demeanor,
• customer mailing lists,
• testimonials,
• brochures,
• flyers,
• public relations,
• referral programme,
• satisfied customers and others.

As they are very cheap or even in some cases do not create any spending, these tools can be of the highest efficiency – the only thing you care about is the profit they create, you do not have to worry about their costs.

Applying this approach to our language school, it is useful to combine as many of these tools as possible, to implement them and to measure them followingly, as Mr. Levinson says: „You can actually double your profits by measuring the results of your marketing. Some weapons hit bullseyes. Others miss the target. Unless you measure, you won’t know which are which.“

Another very useful thing is the webpage. Of course, there are special kinds of businesses where a website is not so useful, especially in the area of business-to-business. On the other hand customer oriented companies need to pay great attention to their internet presentation. There are various recommendations but I will mention them in the article dealing with „Online“.

Anyway, you can visit our website, where you will find more on the Advertising Effectiveness and Efficiency.
Just click here to read my previous article on this topic.