Expert: Peter Gabany - 12/8/2003

Question
Why should advertising objectives be established prior to making decisions regarding message selection and media determination?  Why are they important?

Answer
Laura,

Great question! If you plan a vacation, how do you know you got to where you were going if you didn't first pick a destination or at the very least a direction in which to head?

Meeting an objective is the reason for advertising, PR, Sales Promo, Direct Marketing, Event marketing etc.

If we do not first understand where it is the client wants to arrive or targets the client wishes to achieve by spending their marketing dollars  how will we know how to get them there, if it is realistic, and if we were able to help them reach their targets? And the OTHER most important question… How will we know that they will have us back if we can not clearly demonstrate that we have met or exceeded their targets?

The objective too is needed to develop a strategy and in turn tactics for delivering on the objective.

Feel free to ask more.

Pete