Why ATL Marketing can sometimes prove to be an ineffective method

Marketing can be quite tricky especially if you are just starting off as a new brand. There are a lot of marketing strategies that businesses and brands use in order to advertise and promote their product, Above The Line or ATL marketing is one of them.

Let’s first get to know what ATL marketing is all about. ATL marketing basically means promoting and advertising the brand through the conventional and traditional means of communication. It includes television, print, radio and now internet as well. A lot of marketers include ATL marketing strategies in their campaign. It is a very commonly used marketing and also first choice for a lot of new brands that just want to get established in the market.

The main aim of the ATL marketing is to create a brand identity and brand image. But this can prove to be a big disadvantage for the new brands. Advertisements come and go and we as consumers don’t tend to notice it as much which is why these brands can easily vanish in the pool of already established advertisements. Consumers want attention and since ATL marketing is all about a wider audience, it may end up not making any connection to the audience and also not gain any loyalty which is a big disadvantage.

Another reason why it is proving to be an ineffective method is because of the wrong target audience. Since ATL marketing do not target a specific group of people and end up choosing a wider one, they may target wrong audience affecting their trust. For example, if you are marketing something that is not appropriate for children and it ends up showing on a children dominant channel like Cartoon Network, it can affect the way people look at the brand. It is important for the marketers to choose their platform correctly if they want to run a successful campaign.

Lastly, it is very expensive. ATL marketing if compared to some other means is quite expensive and a lot of times new brands cannot afford to spent so much on promotions. Also, the fact that it doesn’t guarantee success, it can be quite risky to invest in. 

ATL marketing, if done right can be quite successful. A lot of brands like Maggi, Amul and Cadbury use ATL as the means of marketing but it depends on how the product is and how well the audience connect to it.