The second edition of Percy and Elliott's Strategic Advertising Management continues to deal with advertising from a strategic rather than simply a descriptive standpoint and covers all the main topics on an Advertising Management module. The authors look first at what advertising is meant to do, and then go on to provide an understanding of what is necessary in the development of effective advertising and promotion. The text has been fully updated and revised to now include expanded chapter introduction, explicit chapter objectives, and learning outcomes. The chapters on 'Communication Strategy' and 'Processing the Message' have been significantly expanded, as well as the material on Integrated marketing Communications in the final chapter. The authors use numerous examples of successful advertising images and a number of extended case histories to illustrate the application of the various theories discussed. Companion Web Accompanying the new edition will be a comprehensive companion web site containing, for Powerpoint slides and questions and exercises to test students; and for links to IPA case histories, web links, references to further reading, and questions and exercises.
I am reviewing this book despite being a novice to the business and advertising world. However, I can therefore speak to the helpfulness of this book for beginners. I found it very instructive as a novice. This book details the actual empirical data behind successful advertising strategy. Especially telling were the in-depth case studies at the end of each chapter. If you've ever wanted to know whether ads on social media or product placement actually lead to sales, I'd highly recommend this book!
While the theoretic aspect of advertising management is quite interesting, this book, is indeed not. You'd think someone in the advertising field would know how to 'sell' and make sure the consumers maintain interest in their product (here, the book and the theory), a lot better. What better way is there to make sure readers lose interest than keeping the entire book in black and white, with very few illustrations etc.? This might be an informational text, but a little colour and diversity would really make the text-presentation a lot more attractive, captivating and appealing. (This atleast goes for this version of the book, I think the newer versions looked upon this issue and partially fixed it) One positive thing about this book though, is that even though small cases are presented to the reader, they are not all-consuming, as they are in many college text-books. These cases give an understanding of what good campaigns are in reality, or what what promotion gone horribly wrong looks like, but without the cases being scattered at every possible page they can be, in the book. They provide a great link between the theoretical aspect and how it can be done in the real world.
I really feel for the students in my class for whom English is not their native language. This book is a slow slog. What I wouldn't give for some well-applied graphic design to enliven the text and ease comprehension!