E-Portfolio on Contemporary Issues in Marketing Strategy & Advertising

This essay examines contemporary issues in advertising from a marketing strategy perspective, presented as an e-portfolio. It covers challenges such as attracting target audiences, advertisement blocking, and navigating the political and legal environment, using the Walmart ISIS cake incident as an example. The essay also addresses ethical considerations, exemplified by the Dannon Activia case, and the impact of social media on advertising, highlighting the erosion of trust in online platforms. The analysis underscores the importance of ethical practices, legal compliance, and adapting to evolving consumer perceptions in modern advertising strategies. Desklib offers a platform to explore similar solved assignments and study resources.

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Marketing and Strategy
Introduction
Fulfilling the demands and offering a high level of satisfaction to the consumers is the prime
motive of a business corporation and for attaining the same a firm is required to make
implementation of the varied range of plans and tactics (Posner, Williams and Posner, 2015).
Marketing strategy is one of the concepts that can be considered as a tool or mechanism for
developing and accomplishing the desired targets and objectives. The present scenario is based
on the concept of e-portfolio that can be described as an electronic evidence combined and
managed by the user by making use of online means. E-portfolio can also be defined as a digital
collection of documents and work that presents and showcases the skills and abilities and
prosperity over time. The below presented is the summary that has been extracted by analyzing
the concepts of marketing strategy and e-portfolio. The developed portfolio will be majorly
focused on the contemporary practitioner advertising issues
Contemporary practitioner advertising issues
Advertising has two prominent definitions and from that, the first is, advertising is
considered as any form of a paid non-personal method of communication about the business
entity or the product or service, or the thought for the identified sponsor (Sheth and Sisodia,
2015). If to be considered from the marketers' point of concern, it can be described as the ability
that can be utilized for addressing the needs and wants of the customers. A successful form of
advertising rests on its persuasive role of presentation of data reasoning and emphasis. Alone
exposure can be considered as enough, the business corporations are required to focus on
customer retention and increasing their repeat intention standing apart from the crowd and
developing a distinct image and guarantee proper stimuli such as by ensuring understanding
marketing communication and messages (Kotler, 2015).
Unable to attract target audience- for people to notice and follow the advertisement one has to
make sure to prepare the advertisement in such a manner so that the target audience can easily
follow what the former is trying to deliver (Pride and Ferrell, 2015). One has to offer something
that would leave a great impact on people and that too for a long time also conveying the
objectives effectively (Parente and Hutchinson, 2014). Nowadays it is in the hand of the users to
block or remove anything that they find not worth watching so while displaying the

Marketing and Strategy
advertisement one has to be very careful and present it in such a way that inspires the user and
also is in the interests of the receiver because it becomes very important to deliver the target
audience what they need despite delivering the useless content to them (Posner, Williams and
Posner, 2015). Instead of spending the unnecessary time and resources on any other thing such as
building the brand, a company needs to focus more on advertising their brand so that more and
more people will know about the brand and talk about it and a large number of group will be
attracted towards the content and advertising thus helping the brand to grow (Strauss and Frost,
2016).
Advertisement blocking- There is huge cost expenditure in this field, blocking advertisements
can cost up to billions of dollars to the advertisers, under this the company's ads get blocked
through a software or in easy words the software prevents the advertisement to even appear on
the screen it that costs the brand a lot because already they have spent so much on the
advertisement and blocking it makes it impossible to even present their cases in front of the
receivers (Nobre and Silva, 2014). But there are some ways through which the brand can make
their point and present it to the receivers there are several methods like presenting the ad like a
native ad they are designed in such a way that they look exactly like some editorial presentation
or content which can easily let the advertisement to go through all the defenses used by the
receiver, it helps the advertiser to save the money used in the advertisement from getting wasted
and using the advertisement in a modified way so that it becomes hard for the receiver to avoid it
as it is presented in such a manner that is in the interest of the user also making it hard for the ad
blocker software to detect the advertisement (Strauss and Frost, 2016).
Issues faced by the political and legal environment
Walmart (wmt, +0.52%) specialist in Slidell, La., in June baked a cake with the ISIS
signal on it, incredibly unconscious it was the pennant of the dangerous radical gathering that has
assumed control expansive swathes of Syria and Iraq. Turns out the cake was connected to
another contention encompassing Walmart the previous summer: its choice to quit offering any
stock with the Confederate banner on it (Wahba 2015). The Walmart client in Slidell was irate
when the store dismissed his demand for a cake with the Confederate banner, so he tried the
retailer by asking for one with the ISIS cake. The retailer later apologized for the ISIS cake. The
above presented example is an issue that will be affecting the business entity on legal and

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political aspects. There are countries and nations, and in those nations, there are central
authorities as well as legal bodies which govern the area (Piercy, 2014). According to those
parties all the framework of how to operate and proceed with any type of activity whether in
business or in daily life, such that there are some rules for the advertisements of a product which
has to be followed by companies while promoting their product (Agency management Institute
2016). For example promotion of controversial products such as cigarettes and alcohol are
restricted by many of the countries which have to be followed as soon as the political bodies do
not permit. Such that rules create issues in preparation of the product advertisement in today's
world which creates a huge problem further for the companies to actualize as to how to advertise
and what to advertise (Parente and Hutchinson, 2014). In this case, a company has to make other
ways to promote its product so that the people are made aware of the products (Hunt, 2014).
There are set of rules which are formed by the constitution of a country and those rules are
imposed to be followed by each and every business of the area. There're many types of permits
and licenses which have to be obtained by companies in order to promote their products in a
particular nation. This is important for every firm to have set of rules according to the legal rules
in the company's operations. Such that there are rules for advertisement which are mandatory for
the companies to be followed. These play a significant role for the sustainable development or
otherwise, a company may face any type of legal actions against it which are more badly in case
of a large firm operating for a particular product in a nation (Angell and Kraemer, 2017). Huge
penalties for not following the regulations are imposed on businesses while they exploit any type
of rules regarding advertisements. There are set of rules such as advertisement must not include
any type of criticism such as racism, castes or any kind of exploitation and even some companies
are not allowed to promote their products in some markets which are also a rule of a particular
market which has to be followed (Open Forum 2014). Such these rules are important and have to
be followed.
Making use of un-ethical means
Advertisements for Dannon's mainstream Activia mark yogurt handled the organization
with a class activity settlement of $45 million out of 2010, as per ABC News. The yogurts were
advertised as being "clinically" and "logically" demonstrated to support your insusceptible
framework and ready to manage absorption. The Activia promotion crusade, fronted by on-

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screen character Jamie Lee Curtis, asserted that the yogurt had extraordinary bacterial fixings.
Subsequently, the yogurt was sold at 30% higher costs than other comparative items. In any case,
the Cleveland judge directing the case said that these cases were problematic. The claim against
Dannon started in 2008, when purchaser Trish Wiener held up a grumbling. Over the fine of $45
million, Dannon was requested to evacuate "clinically" and "experimentally demonstrated" from
its names, as indicated by ABC (Helpern 2016). Expressions like "clinical investigations appear"
were considered admissible. Dannon denied any bad behavior and guaranteed it settled the claim
to "evade the cost and diversion of case." A set of rules which are basic and inherent for a
business which has to be there at every level and every operation for the right proceeding of
business activities (Nowak and Paton, 2018). Ethics completely justifies the explanation of what
is right and what is wrong. Every country has some or the other specified rules which are good
for it and some rules which are not good for it. If a company does not follow these rules it faces
problems regarding acceptance of the products by the people of the society as if the company
will not follow the rules it will do wrong activities which will result in more problems for the
firm. For example, charging a particular amount form one area and another amount from another
in a door to door selling is not ethical and it has to be taken-care by the company (Babin and
Zikmund, 2015). This creates retention problem for the company in long term. These issues are
contemporizing which occurs while positioning of a product in a market and this is important for
the development of business to have a proper goodwill in the market. Fraud and
misrepresentations always cause huge disliking amongst the public for the company which is a
huge problem for the company and has to be solved by following the right way of doing business
by following all the rules which have been implemented by the legal bodies of a nation (Sheth
and Sisodia, 2015).
Impact of social media on contemporary advertising
Web based life organizations have lost a lot of trust from the British open over the ways they
gather information and the negative practices they empower, as indicated by advertising
organization Edelman (Cross 2018). Edelman's 2018 Trust Barometer, which measures
worldwide trust in governments, organizations and media, finds a lion's share in the UK trust
online life organizations take part in shady practices around information, and might want to see
more done to direct them. The Trust Barometer overviewed more than 3,000 respondents in the

Marketing and Strategy
UK to check their trust in an assortment of organizations. The information for web-based social
networking organizations was featured by Edelman as the most critical in the UK this year as
results found a large amounts of doubt in the business. The study featured different issues for
web based life as well, with recognizable reactions around counterfeit news and fanaticism
springing up of course. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they stress in regards to being
presented to counterfeit news via web-based networking media, and seven of every ten said they
don't think web based life organizations do what's necessary to counteract sharing of fanatic
substance on their stages. Edleman's UK CEO Ed Williams anyway trusts that internet based life
organizations can enhance their picture themselves on the off chance that they invest the
essential exertion. "It's chance these organizations sat up and tuned in. The general population
need activity on key issues identified with online assurance, and to see their worries tended to
through better direction. Disappointment on their part to act hazards promote disintegration of
trust and along these lines open help," he said. On the basis of the research it has been executed
that there are number of issues that come up by making use of social media. Nowadays, an
advertisement is the basic tool used by a company to address their target audience and to let them
know about the products launched by the company and to convey the brand story (Nobre and
Silva, 2014). To make this happen there are so many ways through which an organization can
spread awareness among the consumers but social media leaves a greater impact on the people
because billions and trillions of people are using social media currently and it becomes easy to
contact this amount of people on a single and huge platform but despite all these benefits,
advertising on social media comes with some drawbacks too (Ernst and Dolnicar, 2018). For
instance, when a company decides to advertise their product on social media then the first and
the most basic thing that they would require will be a qualified person who can manage their
social media handle and the whole brand marketing but it is not as easy as it sounds because first
of all the company requires to find a person who is qualified enough to fit the criteria and then
they have to manage the budget issues because social media experts cost a large amount to do
their work (Babin and Zikmund, 2015). And if all the previously mentioned issues are resolved,
then there comes another issue related to managing the advertising content by the expert and the
pressure on them to design a creative content which will attract more and more customers and
then be put on social media according to a schedule (Fornell and Wernerfelt, 2013). For example,
the experts have to make sure that they post the advertisements according to the season of sale

Marketing and Strategy
that is if there is the high level of sale going then the advertising should be done at a high rate as
compared to rest of the year of the time during there is a minimum sale going. All these things
and complex issues make it tough for a person to handle the company's social media and that is
why the social media experts charges a large amount of money to manage the advertising content
on the social platform which gives rise to another issue that is budgeting issue. With the
increasing demand of social media the web developers are nowadays charging a good amount of
money from the advertisers and over expanding can lead to a poor business because a company
cannot put all its money only on the advertising and marketing campaign (Mokwa, 2017).
Because there are other issues that need to be handled financially so it becomes quite difficult for
the company to come up with the new solution to handle all these problems.
Another issue is to convey the brand story to the target audience and it is the crucial stem
and the most important step (Friedman, 2018). Although it is easy to get connected to millions of
people over social media and convey the brand story the problem arises at how to convey the
brand story and when? Different people have different choices and this thing is what makes the
process complicated, advertises are required to first evaluate and examine their customers then
design the advertisement according to their needs and then present the advertisement displaying
all the objectives of the company on it that can easily convince the receiver and will leave a good
impact on the consumer the key to this is being creative and innovative and come up with
different new ideas that can attract the consumers because if consumers are happy then the
company automatically will be successful as consumers play the major role in the marketing so
the company need to focus more and more on them. if the advertiser gets success in making a
creative advertisement then there comes another hurdle which is ad block (Hatheway, Kwan and
Zheng, 2017). Because of ads people cannot browse the sites normally so they try to get rid of
all the ads with the help of some software and they can choose what they want to see and this
costs a great amount to the company because the advertisement got blocked and consumer is not
able to see the company’s objectives so to overcome this issue a lot of efforts are to be put in the
advertisement (Liu, Liao, Huang and Liao, 2018). For instance, the advertisement should be
designed in such a format that the user is not able to resist it, the advertisement should be short
and attractive, displaying all the objectives clearly and would be able to get through all the
defenses used by the users.

Marketing and Strategy
While connecting to the consumers over social media the advertiser is required to
establish a contact with the consumers regarding all kind of complaints as well as queries and
also be able to always available for them when needed, but it is quite impossible it costs a lot of
time and money and also the major issue is week servers (Hunt, 2014). Because whenever
servers are down it becomes very hard for the advertisers to establish a connection with the
customers which can create so many issues and if consumers cannot contact the advertisers
directly then they will loose interests in the products and try to go somewhere else which can
cause major loss to the company although nowadays this is a basic thing for any company to be
in touch with the customers but it is very hard to manage and not at all easy as it sounds and
causes a lot to the company to employ this amount of employees and then paying all these
people. maintaining and ensuring trust is essential as people are just watching the advertisement
before checking the product so the company has to make sure that all its objectives are displayed
in the advertisement (Jaworski, 2018). And also should be better than the competition because if
the company's campaign is good then the company will get a competitive advantage over its
rivals and attract more and more people to join the brand but to make sure that they are best than
the rivalries. The advertiser needs to use the best and latest technology which again raises the
financial issues and affects them, with all the modern technologies each and every brand is trying
to present their website or social media handle better than others. So this is another one of the
challenges faced by contemporary advertising over social media (Kotler, 2015). To make the
website attractive the advertisers need to come up with creative content that requires a good team
of content writers and qualified person who can represent the objectives of advertisers in a new
way and is good at telling stories because this is what needed for an amazing content that will
influence a large crowd. Another thing is to come up with a great tagline, so that just by reading
it people will know the company’s objective and about their products leaving a strong impression
on the target audience (Keegan and Rowley, 2017). However it is very easy to use social media
for advertising but all these issues make it impossible slightly and the advertisers face all these
challenges but the major challenge, as discussed earlier are budgeting and contacting the target
audience.
Financially it becomes quite impossible to spend a large amount of money only on
advertising rather than the betterment or production of the products and also when it comes to the
customers (Kitchenham, Mendes and Travassos, 2007). It is very important to maintain the

Marketing and Strategy
contact with them in case of any troubles faced by them or if they want to inquire about anything
and maintaining the trust between the customers and the company as all these issues can affect
the company’s progress adversely and can lead to low progress.
Conclusion
After analyzing the above-presented essay it has been inferred that the concept of advertising is
considered one of the most crucial and empirical tasks for any of the business corporation. But
due to fluctuations in trends and business environment, increasing globalization and
intensification of a competitive environment has developed the varied range of challenges for
advertising. The above essay is focused on the contemporary practitioner issues with the
advertising.

Marketing and Strategy
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