Marketing Fundamentals: Above the Line & Below the Line

Scope of Above the Line & Below the Line Techniques

The Art of Marketing explores ones creativity to advertise/ build a brand / sell a product or a service. And amazingly, there is a hypothetical line to distinguish between the kinds of marketing tactics one opts for.

Normally organizations market or promote their products in various ways. All these efforts fall under either of these two types:

• Above The Line (ATL)

• Below The Line (BTL)

Below the line (BTL) is an advertising tactic that is normally used in organizational business and marketing communications. This marketing technique uses less conventional ways to promote a product or service than the usual particular channels of advertising used in above the line (ATL). BTL may comprise of activities like direct email campaigns, building public relations and sales promotions for which one has to pay an agreed amount of fee and is charged up front.

Whereas Above The Line is an advertising tactic which is done through different media including TV, cinema, radio, print, banners and search engines.

BTL normally focuses on one-to-one communication which is mostly done through emailing campaigns or direct mails, a lot many times using the list of highly targeted customers to increase response rates.

Most of the marketing strategies fall under the categories of Above the Line (ATL) and Below The Line (BTL). Both these advertising techniques indicate the diverse nature of promotional activities performed by organizations.

In other simple words one can say that ATL marketing tactics are the promotional activities that performed with the help of mass media. In normal terminology advertising and all other remaining forms of marketing promotions fall under the category of ATL techniques and only direct marketing falls under Below The Line category.

Though there is another terminology that exists which is called Through The Line (TTL).  On the whole TTL points out all the activities that performed to integrate both ATL and BTL.

One will not find a clear academic definitions for both ATL and BTL terms in the marketing text books as these two techniques do not form a part of the core marketing concepts.

Bothe these marketing jargons Above The Line and Below The Line are focusing on one word and that is “LINE”. Thus it becomes important to realize the meaning of the word LINE used both these terms in order to see where these two marketing techniques differ.

Amusingly there is no clear meaning give for the word LINE and is taken as a hypothetical term as result there no clear demarcation boundary that prevails between ATL and BTL.

According to Mr. Michael John Baker, the term came into existence in the year 1954 when Procter & Gamble paid advertising agencies differently from the ones who undertook marketing promotional activities other than advertising. Since then marketers have started to demarcate promotional activities under a different head termed as Below the Line Promotion.

Below The Line marketing promotions comprise of consumer promotions, PR, sales promotions, events, point of purchase promotions and all alternative tools that marketers take up to promote their business or products.

Honestly there is no such requirement to create hypothetical boundaries like ATL and BTL as both these marketing techniques are needed to promote a business. In the current economic scenarios, ATL promotional marketing is used to build a brand with an objective to generate a mind share in the market whereas BTL is being used to generate customer loyalty and repeat sales. ATL promotions are designed for mass audience while BTL targets at an individual level of a customer depending on his requirements and liking. ATL marketing promotions are difficult to measure but on the other one can BTL promotions in terms of sales and feedback. IT also offers a valuable insight on return on investments to the marketers. BTL is more targeted and customer focused thus making it more cost effective and efficient for businesses.