Effectiveness of Controversial Advertising (Marketing Communications) Essay

Effectiveness of Controversial Advertising (Marketing Communications) - Essay Example According to Hosford-Dunn, et al. (2000, p.163), the basic functions of advertising are: to inform, persuade, or remind and reinforce customers so that information about the products and services will be disseminated and eventually sell themselves. Advertising is one of the marketing strategies that is used in communicating information with a purpose of influencing individual about a certain product or services in order to stimulate market demand. Advertising is considered as a business activity for it involves money and time; however, this activity is naturally visible, in fact, it is prone to public criticisms particularly when it did not meet consumer expectations and satisfactions, and when it delivered false advertising. Advertisements are considered to be successful if they affect people purchase power and consequently increase sales turnover, sales revenue and elevate brand awareness. All advertising efforts are expected to originate from genuine, unique and eye catching idea; however, marketers nowadays are crossing the traditional line and run controversial advertisements. The main thrust of this paper is to discuss the effectiveness of controversial advertising as a method of successfully selling a product. Controversial Advertising During the 19th and the 20th century when competition is becoming more intense, companies have increased their interest in using advertisements just to be competitive. There are billions of advertisements appearing in a day and this number is growing rapidly. This overwhelming information received by the viewing public had made them saturated and lessen their attention toward every advertisements because they go unnoticed and viewed in an unconscious manner. In order for advertisers to hold new chances in gaining public attention and awareness, they downplay shocking advertisements that are morally daring and offensive to the public. According to Jeurissen (2007, p.158), â€Å"for those who have the courage to publish a c ontroversial advertisement, there is a chance that their message will become the subject of a lively discussion: people will start to talk about it...† Adventurous marketers preferred to use controversial advertising as a method of successfully selling a product because they believed it will cause curiosity in people awareness and make everyone remember. However, a great percentage of consumers said that these kinds of advertisements leave negative consequences. The Effectiveness of Controversial Advertising Nowadays, advertisements are made to execute themes that are beyond the line of creativity and are sometimes exaggerated, eye catching and more controversial than ever just to capture the attention of the viewing public. The print advertisements below are some of the controversial advertising campaigns whose concepts are extreme and shocking just to promote products or services (see figure 1). Figure 1: Controversial and Disturbing Print Ads Source: Huang, 2010 This patter n addresses organizational message that is beginning to emerge wherein advertisers use gore, violence, nudity, sexual connotation, etc., which used to show social, political, and moral conflicts. However, according to Wright (1997, p.141), â€Å"the messages of other controversial ads might be less bland, such as

Business Continuity and Crisis Management Essay

Business Continuity and Crisis Management - Essay Example As the study outlines most comments that arise in the use of business continuity and crisis management is that people tend to confuse its role with that of insurance companies. The manner in which business continuity and crisis management are also explored by providing an example from the City of London Resilience Forum. Introduction Business continuity management helps to ensure continuity of a business by focusing on the critical business process within and outside the organization. Unplanned events have a very devastating effect on both small and big businesses and they range from fire, damage to illness of key staff, IT system failure that makes it impossible to carry the smooth running operations of a business. The negative impact of business crisis is that it can make business loose customers who make an important component of the business and prevent the closure of businesses. Good planning of the business process helps minimize the potential impact of disaster thus prevent it from happening and spoiling for the business. Business continuity is an all-inclusive management process that recognizes potential effects that impends a business and gives an agenda for building elasticity and the ability for the organization to safeguard the interest of various stakeholders. According to Blyth, business continuity involves the management approving a strategic and tactical approach to dealing with emergency disasters that are unforeseen and may pose a negative effect to the company. In addition, business continuity can be defined as a cost-justified method aimed at reducing risks that may hinder the continuity of a business in the event of a disaster. Elliot, Swartz and Herbane in their book define business continuity as responding to a business interruption in such a way as to achieve the lowest level of inconvenience possible for the continued stability of the business. According to Regester and Larkini business continuity involves identifying the potential issu es that threaten to interfere with the existence of a business and formulate a framework that can effectively handle such issues whenever they arise. According to Kadam, business continuity management aims at managing risks in order to guarantee that the company endures in operating at the lowest prearranged risk level. An organization applies business continuity and crisis management practices to ensure continuity in the ways a business handles various crises. From this paper it is clear that the need for businesses to apply business continuity and crisis management strategies is conceived from the need to provide assurance for the continuity of the business process. The management should ensure that their business continuity and crisis management framework is able to restore a business to its earlier position and preserve all sectors of the business. Business continuity management is thus more than a crisis management since it is a comprehensive program that helps a business react quickly and effectively when faced with unplanned interruptions.