BTL - what is it? BTL advertising - what is it? Main advantages of BTL advertising

What is BTL advertising

Television, radio and street advertising have lost their former power in the new decade. Advertisers are abandoning it in favor of cheaper online advertising. But online advertising also has a significant drawback, which is expressed in its excessive intrusiveness.

Banners that cover the entire screen, pop-up windows, and pop-up windows irritate users and sometimes damage the company’s image.

All these types of advertising represent one large group of ATL advertising. ATL is an abbreviation that stands for “above the line,” which means “above the line.” Indeed, ATL advertising is not hidden; it openly sells the product to the target consumer, which sometimes causes a negative reaction from the latter.

But there are other marketing communications tools - BTL advertising. BTL or “below the line” translated from English means “below the line”. BTL communications are under the line of the product it sells.

The purpose of BTL advertising is to convey to the consumer information about the product, its properties and characteristics, and to persuade the potential consumer to purchase at the final stage of the sale. The consumer must independently recognize the need for the product and make a decision to purchase it; there should be no pressure on him.

The history of “below the line” advertising began in the mid-twentieth century with the mistake of an American marketer who did not budget for sales promotion expenses. His boss did this for him and wrote down the costs below the budget line. This is how this direction of marketing communications appeared.

BTL advertising allows a company to solve the following problems:

• Strengthen the effect of ATL advertising;
• Attract new customers;
• Attract the attention of consumers to a new product;
• Differentiate from competitors;
• Adjust the pricing policy without changing the price;
• Create a favorable image of the organization;
• Persuade the buyer to buy at the final stage of the sale.

Thus, BTL advertising is aimed at creating a motive for making a purchase among the target consumer.

The following purchase motives are distinguished:

• Material motive, which is expressed in the price of the product. This includes promotions and sales.
• A motive expressed in the product itself. What we mean here is the buyer’s benefit to receive a free sample of the product, a gift for a purchase, to taste the product, or to receive complete information about it.
• Impression is a strong motivator. Participation in an exhibition or presentation of a new product can interest the target consumer and become a motivation to make a purchase.

It is on these motives that BTL advertising tools are formed.

Components of BTL

Indirect advertising includes areas of marketing that focus on earning the trust of potential and actual customers without imposing your opinion on them. The buyer must express his or her interest in the product or service. It's hard to imagine BTL without:

— Sales marketing.

Aimed at stimulating sales at points of sale. Includes coupons, prize drawings, promotions, gifts with purchase, tastings and tests.

— Trade marketing . These are ways to stimulate sales by influencing all links in the supply chain: distributors, retail outlets, sales team, end consumer.

— Loyalty programs

. They are needed to ensure that real customers return for a new purchase.

— Sponsorships

. This is helping others in exchange for indirect advertising of the product, mention of it and demonstration.

— Advertising at points of sale

. For this purpose, POS materials are used - various little things (postcards, key rings, cups, glasses, etc.) that help promote the company and its product.

— Event marketing.

Uses various events to introduce a product or announce a new offer. Requires the selection of a target audience that corresponds to the selected event.

— Direct marketing . It involves advertising a product to the end consumer without using the services of intermediaries.

BTL advertising tools

Today, BTL advertising has grown into an independent direction in marketing. He has a fairly large number of tools in his arsenal, which are aimed at solving a wide variety of problems. Let's look at each of them.

Special Events

Special events (for example, exhibitions, tastings, charity events) - this type of BTL advertising mostly relates to image advertising. It allows you to form certain associations in the minds of potential consumers about the company’s activities.

Sales promotion aimed at consumers

This BTL advertising tool includes:

• Competitions in both virtual and real space;
• Discounts, sales, larger volume at the same price;
• Gifts for purchase;
• Loyalty programs, such as club cards.

Sales promotion aimed at intermediaries

This is a more effective sales promotion tool. It is not aimed at the final consumer, but at the final link in the distribution chain, that is, the seller. For example, you produce natural homemade soap and sell it through a third-party online store. Your goal is to make it profitable for the online store to sell a larger volume of your products.

For this you can use:

• Discounts for large volume purchases . Any store has a need to fill its shelves with products. If you give the intermediary a discount on your product, he will be interested in quickly selling your product. Why will he use sales promotion measures: better placement of goods on shelves, promotional materials in the store itself, discounts from the retail store.
• Functional discount is a discount on a product for an intermediary, which is provided for fulfilling certain sales conditions: location on shelves, promotional materials in the store itself, discounts from a retail store.
• Discounts for regular purchases . If the seller purchases your product regularly, then he can be encouraged, this will allow him to achieve the following results: buyer loyalty, cooperation in promoting the product.
• Seasonal discounts - this type of discount is provided to the seller if your product is seasonal. For example, ice cream is a seasonal product; in order to ensure its sales during the winter season, it is necessary to provide a stimulating effect.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is one of the most effective BTL marketing tools, since it allows you to personalize the advertising message for each specific consumer.

Direct marketing is expressed in the following forms:

• Direct mail is the distribution of advertising messages via mail. At the moment, this form of direct marketing is losing its position; its place is being taken by electronic mailing via the Internet. However, mailing has its own advantage - you can send bulky parcels, which will set you apart from your competitors.

• Catalog selling is a direct marketing method using printed or electronic catalogs of products mailed to customers, sold in stores, or available online.

• Telemarketing is the use of the telephone as a tool for directly selling goods to customers. There are incoming (when you accept orders) and outgoing (creating an offer yourself and selling the product by a customer service manager).

Distribution of promotional products

Distribution of promotional products and samples (including printed flyers).

This BTL marketing tool is also associated with direct contact with the consumer. However, in the case of promotion, the promoter will be in contact with the target audience.

He will play a decisive role in the entire campaign. The promoter must be controlled by a supervisor. His responsibilities include providing the promoter with material for distribution, as well as monitoring his work.

The distribution of promotional products and samples on average increases sales by 20-25% during the promotion period, although this tool is not aimed specifically at sales. It is especially beneficial to conduct food tastings in stores; both the manufacturer of the product being tasted and the distributor will benefit from this.

Merchandising

Merchandising is the display of goods in a certain way. This tool is very important in a highly competitive market. If, along with your product, there will be several other brands on the store shelf, then occupying the “arm’s length” zone is very important.

About 70% of purchases are made for goods located in this display area. You can designate the “arm's length zone” simply by extending your arm and making a circular motion with it, at this moment you need to be one step away from the shelves.

Examples of BTL campaigns

• Most educational institutions conduct employment workshops and free tests for students. This allows you to establish relationships with potential service consumers.
• Ringtones and video screensavers in mobile phones are entertainment services that can help promote a movie or music album. The price of such promotion is relatively low compared to traditional methods. In addition, the mechanism of viral marketing may be involved here.
• Many companies sponsor various sports competitions or even organize sports competitions themselves. For example, Pepsi organized a cricket championship between 425 schools in 14 US cities, which was followed by a sharp jump in sales.
• Most pharmaceutical companies distribute their products and promotional materials to hospitals and clinics: medical advice is much more effective than any advertising - so the doctor's authority begins to extend to the medicine.
• Nike carried out an interesting BTL campaign. All day long, the athlete, dressed in clothing from this company, ran on a treadmill installed on the side of the highway.

Based on Wikipedia materials

How BTL advertising works

Planning a promotion program using BTL advertising includes the following steps:

• Determining advertising campaign goals.
• Defining the target audience . Here you need to clearly indicate the number of people you want to reach with your advertising campaign, as well as the share of those who purchased the product. In the future, this will allow you to calculate the effectiveness of the advertising campaign and decide on the advisability of its implementation.

Please note that in the case of BTL advertising, the company's goals and the consumer's goals must coincide. You should help your target make a choice, and not force him to buy an unnecessary product.

• Formation of a unique offer . At this stage, you should take a fresh look at your product and find the parameters that are most valuable to the consumer. Pay attention to the associations that your product may evoke among your target consumer. When making a purchase, a consumer in most cases is based on emotions; an associative series will play into your hands. However, this is not enough. It is also necessary to formulate rational arguments in favor of your product.
• The choice of BTL advertising tool depends entirely on the goals of the advertising campaign and the target audience to which it will be directed.
• Working out the details of the event . It all depends on which BTL advertising tool you have chosen. For example, if this is a distribution of promotional materials, then your task is to develop the design and informative part of the leaflets or create packaging for samples. If you are holding a special event, you will have more global work to do: finding and decorating the premises, developing the event program, sending invitations to guests.
• Working with clients . At this stage, the task of the contact staff is to most fully characterize the product, describe or demonstrate its positive properties, that is, to give the client the information necessary to make a purchasing decision.
• Making a purchase . The main goal of BTL advertising is to sell a product.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the best results are obtained by a combination of ATL and BTL advertising.

The scheme of their collaboration is as follows:

• Forming a consumer’s first impression about the product and company using standard advertising;
• Forming a potential client’s need for a product using standard promotion tools;
• Leading the consumer to make a purchase when contacting or expressing interest in a product using BTL advertising tools.

TTL

Another term that, in fact, combines two approaches to segmenting communication channels: traditional (dividing all promotion costs into ATL and BTL) and integrated, which equalizes the rights of all promotion tools. Typically, TTL refers to the combination of several communication channels. Various methods of influencing the target audience, such as ATL, BTL and event marketing, together give the best results. An example of TTL could be, for example, an incentive promotion for customers with a unique code under the cap of a carbonated drink with information support through several media.

Example: The “GET READY FOR A PHOTO SESSION” photo contest from margarine not only offered an interesting mechanics of a photo contest with the publication of works on the website and the opportunity to vote for them, but was also actively announced on web portals and the pages of regional newspapers.

Calculation of the effectiveness of a BTL promotion

The first thing you need to do when assessing the effectiveness of BTL advertising is to determine the indicators by which you will conduct the assessment. These metrics will depend on the goal you set when planning your campaign.

For example , if the goal of an advertising campaign is to increase sales, then it is advisable to take changes in sales volume before, during and after the advertising campaign as an indicator for assessing effectiveness.

There are the following indicators for assessing the effectiveness of BTL advertising:

• Change in sales volume;
• Change in profit;
• Changes in the level of company/brand recognition;
• Costs for BTL advertising;
• Profitability of an advertising campaign;
• Payback period of the project.

Now all you have to do is compare the results achieved with your goals for the selected indicator and evaluate the advertising campaign. On average, BTL advertising is considered successful if it leads to an increase in sales by 20-25%

Examples of using ATL and BTL in promotions and marketing

The TOBLERONE company produces triangular-shaped chocolates. The company used outdoor advertising in ATL depicting a bicycle with triangular wheels. At the same time, TOBLERONE launched a BTL campaign: company representatives with bicycles on triangular wheels appeared in crowded places and in bicycle parking lots. The promoters themselves attracted attention to the products, in addition, they gave everyone the opportunity to ride an unusual bicycle and treated them to a package of TOBLERONE chocolate.

Another example with ATL and BTL events. The Daria trademark has released a new variety of dumplings in St. Petersburg. Promotion of the product included television and subway advertising, street billboards (ATL), as well as tastings in department stores and city stores (BTL).

Tastings were conducted by specially trained workers at 70 points of sale over 15 days. These BTL promotions included:

• cooking the product with further tasting;
• obtaining information about the preferences of the target audience;
• informing about the features and advantages of dumplings;
• sales promotion.

There are examples of the synergy of the two approaches and their separate use.

An example of BTL is the case when a person contacted your company on the recommendation of a friend. Or if an organization added a video to YouTube that went viral and provided a link to its website, the company ultimately receives millions of video views, thousands of clicks to the website, and hundreds of orders.

Another BTL option: you participate in a discussion of some problem of your target audience on social networks or on a forum. You explain to interested people some of the nuances on the topic, after which they either solve it themselves or turn to you for this service. That is, unlike ATL, in BTL the consumer chooses products on his own, and not because of a beautiful banner, but because of the presentation or reviews he liked.

How to hold a BTL event

To prevent image and financial losses, stick to the following plan.

• Study your target audience . A detailed study of your consumer is half the success of advertising. To do this, observe customers in stores, use the results of marketing research, as well as discussions on the Internet. It is important to understand: who is your consumer (this is your entire target audience or a specific segment of it) and where is the best place to hold the promotion.
• Estimate costs . To conduct a BTL promotion, you may need printing materials, a product for tasting, staff and, possibly, renting a small area at points of sale, a counter.
• Select format . Taking into account the goal and characteristics of the target audience, choose the most suitable format of the BTL event. So, for B2C email distribution or distribution of flyers is suitable, for B2B - distribution of a catalogue, conferences and exhibitions.
• Decide on the place and time . It depends on the company's goals and preferences. However, BTL projects work best during the holidays in places where the target audience gathers: in shopping centers, on the central streets of the city or on thematic websites.
• Formulate the rules for the promotion . You must clearly understand what, where, for whom, how and why you want to promote. Taking this into account, decide on the time and timing of the event. Decide what and how the promoter will do, prepare a script for his conversation.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the conducted BTL . Evaluate the following indicators: profitability, profit from the promotion, sales growth, payback period. An event is considered successful when the result exceeds the company's targets. On average, an increase in sales of 20% or more is considered a good indicator.

Examples of BTL advertising

Alfa Bank Express was one of the first companies to use BTL advertising in Russia. In the fall of 2003, several cars with Alfa Bank symbols drove up to one of the Sberbank branches in Moscow.

Promoters got out of the cars and began handing out booklets to passers-by describing the benefits of Alfa Bank over its competitors. Those who were interested in the offer were immediately offered to go to the nearest Alfa Bank branch. In just a few days, the company was able to literally lure away more than 100 clients from its competitor.

Another example of the use of BTL advertising is the promotion of private brands of retail stores. Please note that products manufactured under the “Red Price” and “Every Day” brands are not promoted in standard ways.

The only tool for promoting these brands is successful display on shelves. At the same time, a lot can be said about the low quality of these products, but one cannot dispute the fact that without the use of classical advertising tools, these products have surprisingly high recognition.

BTL industry

BTL - what is it? An English term that describes marketing communications depending on the principle of forming the target audience. The literal translation of “below the line” means “below the line.” It is a subtle marketing tool, including sales promotion, placement of POS materials, merchandising, direct mailing, incentives for customers and employees of the retail chain. It is believed that BTL advertising is more targeted and allows you to convey a call to purchase or any other advertising message directly to the final individual consumer. Usually the call is extremely individual, and BTL works, as a rule, directly at the point of sale or the area where the purchase decision is made.

BTL events: what is it?

We are accustomed to thinking that work is something connected with an office or factory, a permanent workplace and a strict, experienced boss. However, in a business like BTL events, everything is different. The presence of large stores and malls in your city provides an excellent opportunity to earn extra money from this type of advertising. This includes distributing booklets and product samples, conducting tastings, and consultations regarding the product. It doesn’t matter whether you have experience in this industry or not - sociable, active and smiling people are always needed in advertising. Age doesn't matter much either.

Employers prefer to deal with students and young mothers - this group of people is unpretentious and quite obedient. What do you need to do to participate in this type of advertising and how much can you earn?

Development trends

ATL and BTL advertising undergoes some changes over time. During economic crises, BTL suffers less than the traditional advertising market. This is due to the fact that BTL allows you to ensure maximum sales at a minimum of costs. There is also a trend toward increased individualization of customer service. The emphasis is not so much on the product itself, but on the needs of customers and demonstrating care for the consumer.

As a rule, the customers of BTL promotions are tobacco companies, FMCG companies, manufacturers of equipment, alcoholic beverages, mobile operators, and pharmaceutical companies. They don’t need to explain, what is BTL? These companies are familiar with targeted offers and promotional events firsthand.

A successfully executed promotion will not only fulfill its main function, for example, increase sales during the promotion period by 30%, but will also provide a number of other benefits. Since during the promotion there is contact directly with the end buyer, the promoter can create a positive image of the company in the eyes of the consumer, stimulate additional purchases, and increase brand awareness.

The successful implementation of an action is preceded by painstaking analytical preparation. First you need to choose the right event to hold. Having collected the necessary information base, it will be easier to decide on BTL tools. After collecting information, goals are set and emphasis is placed on the future project. Next, the estimate is approved and a detailed plan for the upcoming event is drawn up. The plan reflects a clear time frame for the implementation of the project. The right timing for the promotion will be one of the success factors. And the professionalism of the staff will allow you to implement the promotion successfully and achieve the desired results.

Reasons for the growing popularity of BTL

Consumers are becoming more demanding and informed; they need to independently understand the products offered, receive more useful information about them, and in some cases, try the product offered. Well-organized BTL events offer all this. BTL advertising is created directly for the target audience and is aimed at the end consumer of the promoted product. Obviously, the potential return from it will be much higher than from classic advertising in the media, where everyone receives the advertising message, regardless of whether a person needs this product or not.

BTL in Russia

The effectiveness of traditional advertising in the media is gradually decreasing, which leads to an increase in the activity of BTL events, an increase in the quality of this industry and an increase in the budget for promotional events. ATL and BTL advertising compete with each other for the client’s budget. Many Russian companies prefer to cooperate with network agencies and create projects together. Because maintaining an entire department on staff is expensive and impractical. And some don’t even know what a BTL project is from the inside and what is BTL in general? Corporate standards dictate requirements for agencies, including those relating to the uniqueness of the promotional events being implemented.