Advertising

Definition: Advertising refers to a marketing strategy wherein an identified sponsor pay for space/slot, so as to promote a product as it reaches millions of people in one time and gets the attention of the target audience which induces them to buy the product.

It is a form of communication, which aims at creating awareness, informing and influencing people. It is a well-known fact that whether we recognize it or not, advertising is present everywhere.

The main objective of advertising is to attract new customers, while retaining the existing ones, by specifying the target group and reaching them with a persuasive yet effective message. In this way, a simple ad campaign can have a drastic impact on the buying behaviour of the customer.

What is an Advertisement?

Advertising uses a publicly sponsored, non-personal promotional message, called as advertisement or ad, for boosting the product, service, people, event, or idea to increase viewership with the aim of drawing interest, engagement and sales.

Characteristics of Advertising

The salient features of advertising are discussed here in the points given below:

1. Paid Announcement: In advertising, the advertiser pays to the advertising company for drafting the advertisement message and also for purchasing the advertising media slot or space and to assess the efforts thereon.
2. One-way communication: There is only one-way communication in advertising, in the sense that the brands communicate their message to the customers, through various platforms, channels or media.
3. Personal or Nonpersonal: In earlier days when traditional methods (TV, radio, newspaper) of advertising is used, the advertising is highly non-personal. However, with the introduction of digital advertising, advertising has become personal since social media, content-based or cookie-based advertisement came into vogue.
4. Promotional Tool: Advertising is one of the elements of the promotion mix. Indeed, it is the highly used element, for boosting the sales of the company.
5. Wide applicability: Advertising is one of the highly used methods of mass communication. Not just businesses, but advertising is also used for serving other purposes by political parties for the campaign, charitable trusts for donations, an educational institution for admissions, states for tourism, government agencies for creating awareness etc.
6. Use of Media: One of the biggest challenges which the company encounters is the selection of the right media to communicate the message. Most commonly used media are television, radio, newspaper magazine, pamphlets, hoardings, wall printing, banners, internet, etc.
7. Difference in objectives: Not every organization advertises the product/service with the same intent. The reason for using advertising differs from one organization to another. Advertising can be used for increasing sales, improving brand image, build good relation with the public, creating a ready market for a new product, surviving competition or to educate people.

Types of Advertising

Advertising is classified into two categories, discussed below:

Conventional Advertising

• Print Advertising
• Billboards
• Cold Calling
• Radio Advertising
• Television Advertising

Digital Advertising

• Social Media Advertising
• Email Advertising
• Search and Display Advertising
• Mobile Advertising
• Popups

Advertising sponsors are those companies that wish to promote their product or service, by way of commercial advertisements as they draw the attention of consumers, which increase consumption.

Advertising Industry

The advertising industry includes advertising companies, advertising agencies, advertising media and host of people such as copyeditors, researchers, brand managers, creative heads, designers, visualizers and so on.

Advertising Department

The advertising department of a company may have one to hundreds of people and irrespective of the size of the company, they have similar responsibilities as to:

1. Formulation of the advertising program
2. Implementation of the advertising program
3. Controlling of the advertising program
4. Presentation of budget
5. Maintaining a relationship with suppliers
6. Setting up internal communications
7. Establishing professional standards
8. Selection of the advertising agency

Advertising Agency

Clients, i.e. sponsors take recourse of the advertising agency because they are of the opinion that advertising agency can produce high-quality persuading message for their products and place the advertisement on the right channel and right time so that it can have the maximum possible reach in one go.

That is why the relationship between the client and the advertising agency remain same for years, but when the client is dissatisfied with the services offered by the agency, they look for other agency to switch and get better services.

Types of Advertising Strategies

Advertising agencies use different types of strategies to get the maximum response from the target audience, which includes:

• Before and after strategy
• Advice strategy
• Empathy strategy
• Testimonial strategy
• Demonstration strategy
• Comparison strategy

Importance of Advertising

Upcoming points will discuss the importance of advertising:

1. Product Advertising: In the product lifecycle, designing advertisement is the initial step, which acts as launching the product and is one of the best methods of boosting the brand.
2. Creating Demand: Prior to the production of the product, the sales forecast is done to account for the cost of production. Once the product enters the market after the production process is complete, the sales turn into reality and powerful ads is a way through which companies can introduce their newly innovated product to the world.
3. Tracking: Digital advertising has transformed the way in which advertising is done previously. Sponsors can track audience engagement and conversion from an ad, through the click button.
4. Brand image: Effective advertising assists the companies in making the desired brand image in the minds of the consumers.
5. Product Differentiation: Advertising is a great way of distinguishing the company’s product from those offered by the competitors and conveying its features and benefits to the public at large.

Thus, we can say that any message created with the aim of instigating people to respond in a specific manner, i.e. buying the product sponsored, is called advertising.