ATL and BTL are part of marketing activities. ATL is short for above the line, which is a marketing or promotional activity that is usually carried out by central management to form the desired brand image. While BTL is short for below the line, which is a marketing or promotional activity carried out at the retail level that aims to attract consumers to use or buy products, for example, discount programs and free trials.
Besides ATL and BTL, there is also TTL. TTL is short for Through The Line, which is a new term in the marketing world that combines BTL and ATL promotions. Because of the sophistication of information technology that makes ATL and BTL increasingly cryptic.
ATL is usually used to build a brand or brand, while BTL is used in the sales program why ATL and BTL are essential because, with brands in the business, a business consumer can find out our products and have the potential to buy them.
It can be said that ATL and BTL are essential in the process of promoting a product starting at the retail level that aims to attract consumers to want to buy their products.
Here are the differences between ATL and BTL
ATL or Above The Line
- Broad target audience
- More to explain a concept or idea. There is no direct interaction with the audience.
- The media used include TV, Radio, Magazines, Newspapers,
- Billboards, online media, the internet can be through websites, blogs, or social media.
BTL or Below The Line
- Limited Target Audience
- The media or its activities allow the audience to feel, touch, or interact even directly buying action.
- The media used are Event, Sponsorship, Sampling, Point of Sale
- (POS) materials, Consumer Promotion, Trade Promotion, and others.
What is TTL (Through the Line)
At present, the more advanced technology is, the ATL and BTL are increasingly biased. Some activities contain BTL elements, and vice versa, there are BTL elements that contain ATL elements. An example of ATL with BTL is advertising a brand in a magazine that is given a sample of its products. BTL is an event activity that is promoted through radio and SMS advertisements. The increasingly biased boundaries make a new term in the world of advertising marketing called TTL (Through The Line).
How to Implement ATL
ATL is usually used to build a brand or a brand that is very important to introduce products or businesses that businesses have. So that potential customers know our products, and even though they don’t buy it now, they can potentially buy it someday. The usual activity is to place advertisements in newspapers, the internet, yellow pages, or to sponsor local TV shows.
How to Implement BTL?
BTL is done to ensure potential customers buy products that are already known through brand building activities. And sometimes, the buyer does not immediately buy the product even though he already knows the details yet about the product. So the need for sales programs to trigger product purchases by consumers. An example of a sales program is an SME businessman who can carry out activities such as distributing vouchers to potential customers or creating discount programs in stores.
If it turns out, consumers have already bought our products. Make him a customer by caring for relationships with them. Make them feel comfortable and more confident with the products we sell. I even recommend your product to others. This BTL stage is a very important stage to strengthen the position of your product in the minds of customers.
How to promote ATL
ATL is promoted with strategies that attract attention. Of course, advertisements are interesting and provoke people’s curiosity to buy or try products that are promoted, although ATL has no interaction with the audience, this way to explain a product, concept, or idea to instill a strong branding image in the minds of the audience.
How to Promote BTL
In contrast to ATL, without direct interaction with ATL, BTL actually promotes by interacting directly with potential customers. You do this by encouraging prospective consumers to buy and try the products or services offered by activities that are carried out by involving and directly bringing together companies or sellers with the public or buyers.
Never saw the many Sales Promotion Model who took to the streets to promote cigarettes. And the price of cigarettes they will usually sell is much higher than those on the market. Now, this is also called marketing through BTL. BTL promotions also usually take advantage of certain events, for example, homecoming. They promote their products by allocating their Sales Promotion Model on the route of travelers.
You do this by using media or activities that give the audience to feel, touch, or interact directly. You can even directly buy products. Usually, the promotional media used can be various exhibitions, events, seminars, quizzes, contests, entertainment stage product sampling, sponsorship, Point of Sale (POS), and others.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of ATL
ATL in Print Media Ads
- Published daily, weekly, monthly, and can display ads in a row.
- Ads can be informative with a long narrative and, if necessary.
- Newspapers are read by most people and do not represent a certain class. Magazines and tabloids have readers who have special interests.
- High flexibility and can be read anywhere in anytime.
- It can get statistical data about the product.
- Products that have consumers can use print media that has the appropriate characteristics.
Weaknesses of ATL using Print Media
- Poor or errors in printing.
- The medium is passive and static.
- Requires interest in reading from consumers.
ATL in Radio Ads
- Has unlimited transmission time,
- More interactive with human voice and music. It can represent certain emotions.
- Listeners tend to be more relaxed when listening to the radio than reading a newspaper or magazine.
- The radio becomes a loyal friend of the listener.
- Emotional messages tailored to specific regions.
- Can buy certain broadcast hours so they can advertise more leverage
- Cheap advertising costs
- And a selective audience because radio broadcasts are presented according to the needs of the audience.
- Flexibility because you can submit material changes a few minutes before airing.
- Weaknesses in radio advertising, limitations in creativity, fragmentation, limited research because small companies are constrained by funds to conduct research on the competition for ad duration.
Advertising Using Television
It is a fairly popular entertainment media with a realistic impression. Besides that, the advertisement is done by repetition and is ideal for retail sellers. Another advantage of this ad has a broad reach and has the ability to demonstrate. But unfortunately, the advertisements on television are relatively expensive, the making of advertisements is also too limited in duration and material, the range of viewers is not specific and too many repetitions so boring.
Advantages of Promoting with BTL
- BTL usually uses the right moment even though it is short, so they usually immediately create sales. They are directly offering products to consumers without wasting time, offering them to supermarkets or markets that only stack their products without knowing when the market will sell.
- BTL is more cost-effective compared to ATL because it directly offers products to consumers.
- BTL allocations are usually right on target because usually, Sales Promotion Model are placed in strategic positions such as every toll gate, rest area, and others.
- Marketing with BTL is not always by selling a lot of ways that are used to promote a wider product. For example, with an educational seminar so that the promotion can be wider.
- Become more diverse because it invites other parties so that its market reach becomes wider.
BTL weaknesses
- Sometimes it is not on target, for example, concert events sponsored by cigarette brands. It turned out that when the event took place, the visitor ignored the importance of the sponsor of the event.
- Sales are not worth the capital spent on the event. Regarding events sponsored by cigarette brands, it turns out they incur greater costs for the event but did not return the capital when they sold cigarettes at the event.
- Sometimes marketing creativity is not matched by the quality of the products being marketed. Supposing to sell a product with a beautiful Sales Promotion Model so that people are interested in buying, but when only sold in a supermarket, the product is not bought anymore because the quality is not in accordance with the price.
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