Posted: April 18th, 2015

Individual Assessment

Darla March loves to cook and recently developed a snack that she thinks will be fun and healthy for
children. It contains fruit and natural fruit juices, with no added sugar. Although she has contacts
with many of the smaller, speciality grocery outlets in London, she has been told that she must
invest in advertising the product before these shops will be willing to carry her new item.
In order to sell her new food through these local shops, Darla embarked on learning more about the
advertising business. The first thing she saw when starting her research was the following video,
with accompanying article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/children/10865263/Foodcompanies-play-games-with-childrens-TV-advertising-ban.html.
Although it is brief and mainly
focuses on advergames, Darla became very nervous after watching it. She realised there were
regulations that pertained to advertising her product and that the advertiser interviewed in the
video believed that there may be some advertising agencies that operated in a manner that she
found irresponsible. Essentially, she realised that developing effective advertising directed to
children was much more complicated than she thought and there were many more factors to
consider.
Your Task
Assume you are a marketing consultant and friend of Darla’s. Write a memo to her covering the
following issues:
A. What are the societal issues about advertising to children? Why are some people against it,
while others are not?
B. What are the pertinent UK regulations regarding food advertising to children? How might they
impact the advertising of Darla’s new snack?
C. What is the process for hiring an advertising agency? How can Darla avoid hiring an agency that
would behave like the firm shown in the video?
In preparing the memo, be sure to address the following points:
1. Begin with a very brief introduction to Darla explaining why you are writing the memo and what
topics will be covered. You may write in 1st person, since Darla is your friend, but the memo
should be formal and professional because this is a very important topic, and critical to the
success of Darla’s product.
2. Discuss the debate surrounding the issue of advertising to children. Be sure to discuss why some
people think it is good and why others think it is bad. You should focus on advertising in general,
not just television advertising, or just food advertising. You may find it beneficial to do some
research beyond the material covered in lectures and seminars.2
3. When considering regulations:
a. What agency is responsible for monitoring advertising and enforcing advertising guidelines
and regulations?
b. What are the key features of responsible food advertising to children that Darla should be
aware of?
c. Be sure to keep in mind that Darla may not be expecting much television advertising because
her product will only be sold locally. Further, this will help her stay within her budget.
d. Again, you may find it beneficial to do some research outside of the material covered in
lectures and seminars.
4. Regarding your advice on hiring an advertising agency:
a. Based on your memo, Darla should have a complete understanding of the process involved
in hiring an advertising agency.
b. What types of agencies are available to her and what type should she select?
c. What are some of the criteria she should use to choose one?
d. What relevant experiences would be most helpful?
e. How can she be assured the agency will behave in an appropriate manner?
f. What fee structure should she expect?
g. What are some of the key services that should be evaluated in the agency’s future
performance review?