Local and National Advertising

What does a marketing plan consist of? The marketing plan of any business or product contains the four P’s, namely product, price, promotion, and place/distribution. When looking at the advertisements around me on a daily basis, I find many national and local products being advertised to me. Many similarities and differences can be found between national and local advertisements.

Take newspapers for example. My local newspapers are The Springfield Sun and The Chestnut Hill Local. Occasionally we get The Wallstreet Journal, a national newspaper. I found that local newspapers tend to be less expensive to purchase a daily subscription to than national newspapers. This makes people more likely to subscribe to their local papers than to national newspapers such as The Wallstreet Journal. In addition to this, in terms of distribution, local papers are distributed business to business and also distributed by townships. Similarly, many national newspapers are distributed business to business. Furthermore, in terms of substance, local newspapers tend to primarily cover local news and events, whereas, national newspapers focus more on national and international events. National newspapers have to target the nation, which consists of many different regions and different people. National headlines have to capture the attention of all of these different people for the newspaper to survive. In addition to this, local newspapers tend to be distributed weekly, whereas, national newspapers tend to be distributed daily. National newspapers tend to have more up to date, current, and factual information than local newspapers.

Another example can be sports. Local sports teams and sporting events take place daily. Local teams such as the Phillies, Flyers, Phantoms, Eagles, and Sixers at the beginning of the season will use commercials to promote the team by offering family packages of a certain amount of tickets, food, and drink for a certain amount of money that is significantly less expensive then it would cost to purchase separately. These offers are also occasionally distributed in schools to encourage kids to read or do community service. National sporting events, such as the Superbowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup finals, etc. are often nationally broadcasted through commercials reaching far more people. These national events also tend to be significantly more expensive to attend than local events and they occur only once a season. Marketing directors of these sporting events have a difficult job to do in that they must not only appeal to the fans of teams who are in the finals, but also appeal to the fans of those teams that are not in the national sports finals.

The similarities and differences I find when comparing local advertisements and national advertisements are that national products, promotions, and events tend to be significantly more expensive than local products, promotions, and events. This is due to the fact that national marketing plans have to appeal to a larger number and variety of people than local marketing plans. Also, national products have to be distributed to more people in a greater variety of states and regions, whereas, local products usually do not have far to go to reach the intended consumer. Both national and local advertisers have to develop a marketing strategy that not only reaches intended customers, but makes these customers want to have their products.