For each of your products in MikesBikes Introduction you will need to allocate an advertising budget across up to five possible advertising channels. These decisions are found on the Advertising screen, under the Marketing menu:
The effectiveness of your budget and advertising mix determines the percentage of your target audience who are aware of your bike and why they should purchase it over your competitor’s products.
Advertising Budget: How much do I need to spend?
There are a number of factors to consider when setting how much to spend on product advertising:
a) How much are my competitors spending?
On the right-hand side of the Advertising decision screen is an information block displaying three Advertising key performance indicators (KPIs). One of which is the Market Average Total Expenditure:
If you want your Advertising expenditure to be competitive you should aim for at least matching the market average total spend.
b) Will my customers respond to Advertising?
The Advertising Information report, available within the Advertising decision screen, will let you know how sensitive customers for a given market are to Advertising. This means, will a competitive Advertising mix have a High, Medium or Low impact on demand and sales revenue.
c) How much cash do I have to spend?
A key question is whether you have the cash to fund a competitive or aggressive advertising campaign.
End of year cash balance: The easiest methods of locating this figure is through your company’s Home screen. This figure is also located on the Industry Benchmark Report, Cashflow Statement and Balance Sheet.
Live forecast cash balance: The top right of all decision screens displays your forecast cash balance based on currently entered decisions. This is a handy way of determining whether additional expenditure is affordable.
Keep an eye on the Product Contribution figures on the Product Summary report. This will help you identify whether you are seeing a return on investment (ROI).
Allocating your Advertising Budget
The Advertising Information report displays Media Viewing Habits of your customers:
You must then combine this information with the Media Reach data, shown on the same report and also below, to decide on an optimal Advertising Mix.
How do I measure the performance of my Advertising decisions?
The Awareness Index, displayed on the Advertising decision screen, is the resulting performance indicator of your product’s advertising decisions.
The Market Summary report enables you to compare your product’s Awareness Index against your competitors.
Your product’s Awareness Index includes a percentage carryover from the two previous year’s to simulation customer memory of previous advertisements.
Video: How to Promote your Product
