Knowledge management in the field of advertising: How advertising and media agencies manage knowledge?

Abstract

In order to survive and to become more competitive in today's business world, companies need to use knowledge efficiently and effectively. Knowledge has become one of the most valuable and strategic resources for companies aiming to distinguish themselves from their competitors. The better the companies manage knowledge, the more they benefit from a competitive advantage. Many companies tend to use knowledge management as data or information management since the knowledge management framework is very much a current issue in the modern business world. Although these concepts are related, they should in fact be considered and managed differently. Of the two, knowledge management is a much wider subject, consisting of data, organizational culture and information management. Business-to-business services, such as advertising, which generate much creativity, are highly intangible, competitive and carry high risks. Therefore, managing and selling knowledge are the essential functions of these services. Advertising and media agencies need to use knowledge management in order to win, provide value to and maintain profitable clients. Today's clients give greater importance both to specialization, and to processed, construed data and information knowledge. They require solutions based on knowledge gained from data specially analyzed and formed to meet their own needs. Information and data for the field of advertising is gathered from different areas, such as marketing, consumer behaviour, media, and communication technologies. It is the agencies' job to manage and sell the knowledge relating to advertising, consumer, media and creative crafts by using this information and data. The main aim of our research is to show how agencies gather information and data from these fields to use as knowledge for their clients. Our research is based on qualitative data obtained from leading advertising and media agencies (including both international and national companies) as published by the Turkish Foundation of Advertising Agencies.