L26: Determining Promotional Objectives

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Lecture 26 of MGA-304 and to our new unit — Unit III: Media Buying, Planning and Evaluation. We have successfully completed Unit II, where we covered advertising agencies, communication theory, consumer psychology, creative strategy, and design. Today we start from the beginning of the planning process: Determining Promotional Objectives. Before any medium is chosen, before any creative brief is written, before any budget is allocated, you must know precisely what you are trying to achieve. [0–10 min: Introduction] Here is a scenario that happens too often in marketing. A brand manager calls their agency and says: 'We need a big campaign for Diwali. Something exciting. We have a budget of Rs. 5 crore.' The agency asks: 'What do you want the campaign to achieve?' The brand manager says: 'We want it to be big and exciting. Something that goes viral.' The agency asks again: 'But what is the specific business or communication objective?' The brand manager looks frustrated: 'Just make it good.' That conversation — and it happens constantly — is a guarantee of wasted money. Without clear, specific, measurable objectives, there is no way to design an appropriate communication strategy, no way to allocate budget rationally, and no way to evaluate whether the campaign worked. Objectives are not bureaucratic formalities. They are the navigational instruments of the entire marketing communications plan. Today we learn how to set objectives properly. [10–40 min: Core Content] Let us begin with the distinction between Marketing Objectives and Communication Objectives. This is a critical distinction that many marketing students confuse. Marketing objectives are expressed in commercial terms — they describe what the business wants to achieve. Sales targets, market share goals, distribution expansion targets, revenue objectives. 'Increase market share from 12% to 15% in the yoghurt category within twelve months.' That is a marketing objective. Communication objectives describe the changes in consumer awareness, knowledge, attitudes, or behaviour that the advertising and promotional activity should produce. 'Increase unaided brand awareness of Amul Yog among urban mothers aged 25-40 from 18% to 35% within six months.' That is a communication objective. The distinction matters for two reasons. First, advertising cannot directly control sales. Sales are affected by advertising, yes, but also by pricing, distribution, product quality, competitive activity, and macroeconomic conditions. Holding advertising accountable for sales is often unfair and misleading. Second, communication objectives give the agency a specific, achievable target that they can design toward and be evaluated against. Now, what are the types of communication objectives? Based on the response hierarchy models from Unit II, we can identify several categories. Awareness objectives: 'Achieve 60% unaided awareness of our new product among target consumers within three months.' Awareness is the first stage of the consumer journey. Without awareness, nothing else happens. Awareness objectives are most relevant for new product launches and for established brands entering new markets or target segments. Knowledge or comprehension objectives: 'Ensure that 70% of target consumers who have seen our advertising can correctly identify the key feature that differentiates our product.' Knowledge objectives are relevant for high-involvement products where consumers need information to make a considered choice — insurance, healthcare, financial products, technology. Attitude objectives: 'Shift the proportion of target consumers who describe our brand as 'modern and aspirational' from 30% to 50% within one year.' Attitude objectives address the affective stage of the hierarchy — changing how consumers feel about the brand. These are the long-term brand-building objectives. Asian Paints pursuing greater emotional warmth associations, or Tanishq building stronger associations with women's empowerment, are attitude-level objectives. Behavioural objectives: 'Generate 500,000 trial purchases among non-users within six months' or 'Achieve 100,000 clicks to the product landing page within ninety days.' Behavioural objectives are the most commercially proximate — they describe specific consumer actions. Digital advertising is particularly powerful at achieving measurable behavioural objectives. Trial and usage objectives: Specific to FMCG and new product launches — getting consumers to try a product for the first time, or to increase usage frequency among existing users. Now, how do you set good objectives? Belch and Belch and most management literature align on the SMART framework applied to communication objectives. Specific: The objective must clearly state what change is desired. 'Increase awareness' is not specific. 'Increase unaided brand awareness among SEC A women aged 25-35 in metro cities' is specific. Measurable: There must be a metric and a baseline. You cannot measure an objective you have not defined in quantitative terms. Pre-campaign research establishes the baseline; post-campaign research measures the change. Achievable: The objective must be realistic given the budget, timeline, and market conditions. A budget of Rs. 2 crore will not achieve awareness results equivalent to a Rs. 50 crore budget. Objective setting must be grounded in industry benchmarks and past campaign performance. Relevant: The objective must connect meaningfully to the brand's business goals. If the business objective is to drive trial of a new product, a relevant communication objective is awareness and knowledge — not attitude change, which is a longer-term objective. Time-bound: Every objective must have a deadline. 'By end of Q3' or 'within six months of campaign launch.' SMART objectives are the bridge between strategic intent and tactical execution. They give the agency a target, give the media plan its direction, and give the client a measurable basis for evaluating the investment. A related concept is the Communication Effects Pyramid, which illustrates how objectives at different levels of the hierarchy build on each other. At the base — the widest and requiring the most resources — is awareness. Above that is knowledge. Above that is liking. Above that is preference. Near the peak is conviction. At the very top — the narrowest, achieved by the fewest — is action or purchase. The pyramid shape is deliberate: many more people will be made aware than will ultimately purchase. And the communication and media investment required to build each level differs in nature and cost. For Indian FMCG brands like Surf Excel, Amul, or Parle-G, the pyramid base is already very wide — awareness is near-universal. The communication challenge is at the liking, preference, and conviction levels. For a new brand — say a startup Goa-based artisan bakery trying to establish a national presence — the communication challenge is at the base: awareness is zero and must be built from scratch. Let us also discuss the role of the Sales and Communication Objectives debate in India. Some marketing directors — particularly those with traditional sales backgrounds — insist on expressing all objectives in sales terms: 'This campaign must deliver Rs. 50 crore in incremental sales.' This is problematic for the reasons stated: advertising is one of many variables affecting sales, and short-term sales responses to advertising are often small relative to long-term brand equity effects. The research is clear that the most commercially valuable impact of advertising is on long-term brand equity — the accumulated goodwill that allows a brand to charge premium prices, retain loyal customers, and weather competitive attacks. Brand equity is built through sustained communication against attitude objectives. LIC's decades of advertising have built a brand that Indians trust with their financial security — that trust is worth billions and was built through communication objectives, not sales-response objectives. [40–55 min: Activity and Discussion] Activity. Work individually for five minutes. You are the marketing manager for Zomato in a city where they are experiencing strong competition from a new local delivery app called 'GoFast' that has grabbed 20% market share in six months by offering guaranteed 20-minute delivery. Zomato's awareness among your target 18-30 year old consumers is already high — 90% unaided awareness. The problem is that GoFast has created a perception that Zomato is 'slow.' Write two SMART communication objectives for a campaign response. Let me hear some answers. Objective one from several of you: 'Within three months, shift the proportion of 18-30 year olds who associate Zomato with 'fast and reliable delivery' from 35% to 60% in the target city.' Excellent — specific, measurable (you measure brand attribute associations in research), achievable, relevant to the business problem, time-bound. Objective two from several of you: 'Achieve 40% trial of Zomato's new 'Express' 15-minute delivery feature among existing app users within three months.' Also excellent — this is a behavioural objective, measurable through app analytics. Discussion question: Should promotional objectives ever include objectives related to the campaign's creativity or cultural impact — for example, 'win a Cannes Lions award' or 'generate national media coverage'? What is the argument for and against including these as formal objectives? The argument for: awards and media coverage are proxy measures of cultural relevance and creative quality, which correlate with long-term brand equity. The argument against: awards are not inherently connected to commercial outcomes — some of the most award-winning advertising failed commercially. Most serious marketers use commercial and communication metrics as primary objectives and treat awards as a pleasing side effect, not a primary goal. [55–60 min: Summary and Assignment] Today we established the critical distinction between marketing objectives and communication objectives. We identified the types of communication objectives: awareness, knowledge, attitude, and behavioural. We applied the SMART framework to communication objective setting. We introduced the Communication Effects Pyramid and discussed its implications for Indian brand communication strategy. Assignment: For any one of the following brands — Tanishq, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Zomato, or LIC — write three SMART communication objectives that you think that brand should currently be pursuing. For each objective, justify why it is appropriate for the brand's current market situation. One page total. Next class — Lecture 27 — we will examine the DAGMAR Approach, which is the most systematic and widely used framework for setting advertising objectives. DAGMAR stands for Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results. See you then.