Advertising

Imagine a world without Advertising? World will go back to that ‘black and white’ image. Now we can not complete 100 meters without seeing an advertisement. It is acting as a connecting link between the we consumers and the producers.

What is advertising?

Advertising is the language of a business through which it communicates with its existing as well as prospective consumers.

Why do businesses advertise?

• To launch or introduce a new product in to the market
• To inform the consumers about the changes in the product like change in price, shape, quantity etc..
• To increase the sales of the product
• To increase the profit of the business
• To increase the reputation of the business
• To retain the image of the product
• To develop brand image
• To compete with its competitors
• To get dealers support, etc…

Who is the advertiser?

Normally advertisement is done by the producers or the agents appointed by producers. The agents are Advertising agencies. Their job includes the study the market, design an advertisement, casting the models for the advertisement, producing the advertisement, booking space for the advertisement in different media, market research to find out the effectiveness and drawback of the product among the public and to take corrective measures.

What are the types of advertising?

There are different types of advertising.

• Informative advertising
• Persuasive advertising
• Generic advertising
• Institutional advertising
• Sponsorship

Informative advertising is designed to give information about the product. It is done before the launching of a new product or when there is a change in the existing product. When there is a public announcement from the government, normally informative advertisement is used. It is done to create an awareness among the public regarding a product or service like “cigarette smoking is injurious to health”. It is not done for increasing the sales of the product.

Persuasive advertising is designed to attract or persuade the customers to buy the product. It is also known as competitive advertising. It is done to increase the sales and profit of the business. Here, the advertiser says that the advertised product is better than its competitive products. Here many techniques like the price reduction, free gifts, etc. are used to attract the customers to buy the advertised product.

Generic Advertising is done by the producers or dealers of similar products to increase the sales of their products irrespective of their brand name. It is also known as  collective advertising. All milk producers joined together to advertise “drink more milk”.

Institutional advertising is done by the companies or the dealers to increase the reputation of the institution.

Sponsorship is done by sponsoring a cultural or sports event. Here, whole or portion of the expense of the program will be met by the business.

An advertisement is done through one or different advertising media.

What is an advertising Medium?

Advertising medium is the channel through which an advertisement message is given to the public. It can be done through one or more media. There are different types of media and the advertiser will choose the medium according to the requirement of the product.

spare tyre is used as an advertising medium

Different advertising media are:

• Television
• Radio
• Press or Newspaper, local as well as national or metropolitan
• Cinema
• Telephone
• Magazines
• Hoardings
• Digital billboards
• Wall paintings
• Vehicles
• Pamphlets and brochures
• Posters and banners
• Souvenirs
• Direct marketing
• Internet/Web marketing
• Mobile marketing
• Exhibition or trade fairs
• Journals
• Emails, etc.

Effectiveness of an advertisement is decided by its chosen medium. Whatever be the selected medium, it should be cost-effective. Selection of a medium is influenced by the factors like,

• area of coverage
• cost of the medium
• nature of the consumers
• number of targeted audience
• number of exposure
• type of the product

The success or the failure of a product or service is depending on the method of advertisement used. The different methods used in advertisements are:

• Social acceptance
• Romance
• Success
• Economy
• Comedy
• Easy life

What are the advantages of advertising?

Advertising is beneficial to the producers of the product or service, consumers and the public in general.

Producers are benefited by:

• increased sales and profit
• creates reputation and brand image
• reduced cost of production

Consumers are benefited by:

• products or services at cheap prices
• wide choice of products or services

Public is benefited by:

• creates employment opportunity
• gets newspapers at cheap price

What are the disadvantages of advertising?

• Advertising consumes large amount of money, which increases the cost of the product
• Advertising exploits the sex appeal to endorse the product

Normally there is a belief that large sum of money is spend on advertising and it increases the price of the product. But it is a wrong belief because the advertising attracts more people to buy the product, increased sales leads to increased profit, and this increased profit cover the cost of advertising and which leads to the reduction in the price.

With all these criticism, advertising is the only aids to trade which  helps to grow a business bigger and faster and no business can survive the present day competition without proper advertising.