Advertising Manager: Types and Responsibilities

One of the many organizations consists of persons responsible for advertising, publicity, sales promotion, marketing and public relations of commercial, public and other undertakings. The persons may, in fact, be business proprietors, directors or executives who have to wear several ‘hats’. They may be called advertising or publicity manager, but equally they may be sales or marketing managers who include advertising as one of their duties. And it is becoming increasingly common for public relations officers or managers, communication managers and public affairs managers to embrace advertising. This means that whatever the title they may happen to have in an organization, they will be responsible for advertising.Main Types of Advertising Manager:Despite the proliferation of titles and ‘hats’, there are three distinct classifications.i) The advertising manager who is chiefly an administrator acts in liaison with advertising agents and other outside services.ii) The advertising manager is one who leads a creative department which may or may not use an advertising agency.iii) The brand or product manager is one who is responsible for advertising, sales promotion and merchandising for one or more brands or for particular groups of products, such as foods, household goods, pharmaceuticals, etc.Responsibilities of the Advertising Manager:i) To work closely with those responsible for shaping future policy whether it concerns new or modified products, rationalization or diversification, changes in distribution methods, or entry into new markets or market segments. In other words, it is unlikely that a company will go on making and selling the same product in the same old way, and the advertising manager must have the confidence of those in the board room, drawing office or laboratory who will influence his future work. He should also be able to contribute to the future developments. He may become involved in setting up product pre-tests and test marketing exercises to decide whether the product, the marketing strategy or the advertising media and techniques are likely to be successful or are capable of improvement or amendment.ii) To interpret the company policy to advertising agents and other outside services so that their work is produced in accordance with the policy of the company. This is a delicate operation, a matter of clear communication to others who do not have the benefit of his intimate inside knowledge gleaned over a period of time. Unless he is able to convey his company’s requirements in easily understandable terms, time, money and patience can be wasted on producing unacceptable campaigns, copy, layouts, photographs, print films, exhibits, and so on.iii) To determine the appropriation or advertising budget and to make allocations for different media and purposes.iv) To control expenditure. With monies spread over a diversity of campaigns, media and techniques, the advertising manager has to be a master of budgetary control.v) To co-operate with the advertising agency. This is absolutely essential, and it is a very good saying that an advertising agency is only as good as the client allows it to be. Agencies are not miracle workers. While their ingenuity must be encouraged they cannot work in a vacuum, and the advertising manager must be responsive in feeding his agency with all the facts, samples and other background material on which the agency can go to work. The advertising manager also has to remember that agency personnel are not always in direct contact with him, but have to work through departmental heads.vi) To control or undertake ‘product publicity’, that is press relations for his products. He may have his own press officer or use the services of a PR consultancy. If his company has a separate public relation department, he will work with that department.vi) To assess the results of advertising, doing this where possible by means of conversations from inquiries to sales, shop audit results showing shares of the market held in relation to advertising expenditure and other methods.These responsibilities indicate something of the breadth of the advertising manager’s job. It calls for a liberal education, business experience and sound training in advertising.