Advertising consists of all activities involved in presenting to a
group a non-personal, oral or visual, openly sponsored identified message
regarding a product, service, or idea. The message, called an advertisement, is
disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by the identified
sponsor”-William
Stanton.
The world has become a global market. Modern market is more
dynamic, competitive, and consumer-oriented. Entire marketing process is aimed
at satisfying consumers more effectively than competitors. Consumer
satisfaction can be achieved by receiving information from market and sending
information to the market.
In order to inform, attract, and convince the valued customers,
a marketer undertakes a number of promotional means. Advertising is one of the
powerful means to inform about company’s total offers. Advertising is a
dominant element of market promotion. Many times, the entire promotional
efforts are replaced by advertising alone.
Major portion of promotion budget is consumed by advertising
alone. Advertising is so powerful and popular that it is taken as equal to
marketing!! Mass media are used intensively to advertise various products.
Marketing without advertising seems to be impossible. Advertising works like a
magic stick to actualize marketing goals!
Definitions of Advertising:
1. We can define term ‘advertising’ as:
Advertising is a paid form of mass communication that consists
of the special message sent by the specific person (advertiser or company), for
the specific group of people (listeners, readers, or viewers), for the specific
period of time, in the specific manner to achieve the specific goals.
2. More clearly, advertising can be defined as:
Advertising includes oral, written, or audiovisual message
addressed to the people for the purpose of informing and influencing them to
buy the products or to act favorably toward idea or institution.
3. Philip Kotler:
“Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and
promotion of goods, services, or ideas by an identified sponsor.”
4. Frank Presbrey:
“Advertising is a printed, written, oral and illustrated art of
selling. Its objective is to encourage sales of the advertiser’s products and
to create in the mind of people, individually or collectively, an impression in
favour of the advertiser’s interest.”
5. William Stanton:
“Advertising consists of all activities involved in presenting
to a group a non-personal, oral or visual, openly sponsored identified message regarding
a product, service, or idea. The message, called an advertisement, is
disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by the identified
sponsor.”
Characteristics of Advertising:
Above stated definitions reveal
following features:
1. Tool for Market Promotion:
There are various tools used for market communication, such as
advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and publicity. Advertising is a
powerful, expensive, and popular element of promotion mix.
2. Non-personal:
Advertising is a type of non-personal or mass communication with
the target audience. A large number of people are addressed at time. It is
called as non-personal salesmanship.
3. Paid Form:
Advertising is not free of costs. Advertiser, called as sponsor,
has to spend money for preparing message, buying media, and monitoring
advertising efforts. It is the costliest option of market promotion. Company
has to prepare its advertising budget to appropriate advertising costs.
4. Wide Applicability:
Advertising is a popular and widely used means for communicating
with the target market. It is not used only for business and profession, but is
widely used by museums, charitable trusts, government agencies, educational
institutions, and others to inform and attract various target publics.
5. Varied Objectives:
Advertising is aimed at achieving various objectives. It is
targeted to increase sales, create and improve brand image, face competition,
build relations with publics, or to educate people.
6. Forms of Advertising:
Advertising message can be expressed in written, oral, audible,
or visual forms. Mostly, message is expressed in a joint form, such as
oral-visual, audio-visual, etc.
7. Use of Media:
Advertiser can use any of the several advertising media to
convey the message. Widely used media are print media (newspapers, magazines,
pamphlets, booklets, letters, etc.), outdoor media (hoardings, sign boards,
wall-printing, vehicle, banners, etc.), audio-visual media (radio, television,
film, Internet, etc.), or any other to address the target audience.
8. Advertising as an Art:
Today’s advertising task is much complicated. Message creation
and presentation require a good deal of knowledge, creativity, skills, and
experience. So, advertising can be said as an art. It is an artful activity.
9. Element of Truth:
It is difficult to say that advertising message always reveals
the truth. In many cases, exaggerated facts are advertised. However, due to
certain legal provisions, the element of truth can be fairly assured. But,
there is no guarantee that the claim made in advertisement is completely true.
Most advertisements are erotic, materialistic, misleading, and
producer-centered.
10. One-way Communication:
Advertising involves the
one-way communication. Message moves from company to customers, from sponsor to
audience. Message from consumers to marketer is not possible. Marketer cannot
know how far the advertisement has influenced the audience.
Key Decisions in Advertising:
Advertising is one of – but popular and powerful – tools of market
promotion. It involves a several decisions.
Some experts explain
advertising decisions and activities in form of six ‘M’s as under:
1. The first ‘M’ stands for Mission – Advertising Objectives.
2. The second ‘M stands for Money – Advertising Budget.
3. The third ‘M’ stands for Message – Creating Advertising
Message and Copy.
4. The forth ‘M’ stand for Monitoring – Managing (organising) of
Advertising Efforts.
5. The fifth ‘M’ stands for Media – Advertising Media Selection
and Media Scheduling.
6. The sixth ‘M’ stands for Measurement – Measuring and
Evaluating Advertising Effectiveness (MEAE).
However, most of experts agree that advertising consists of
mainly eight decisions as shown in figure 1. Manager concerns with taking
decisions on these areas of advertising.
Advertising Objectives:
Introduction:
Advertising is aimed at achieving various objectives. Objectives
may be commercial or social in nature. Prof. Kelly gave the concept of DAG MAR
– Defining Advertising Goals for Measuring Advertising Results – in relation to
advertising objectives. Broadly, advertising objectives can be categorized into
three classes, such as informative objectives, persuasive objectives, and
reminder objectives.
Prof. Sew and Prof. Smith have
classified objectives as:
i. Sales objectives
ii. Aiding sales force
iii. Competition-related objectives
iv. Brand loyalty and reputation-related objectives
However, we will consider
following objectives:
1. To Inform Buyers:
This objective includes informing customers regarding product’s
availability, price, features, qualities, services, and performance. Besides,
it also includes informing them about changes made in the existing product and
introduction of new products. Company also highlights its location,
achievements, policies, and performance through advertising.
2. To Persuade or Convince
Buyers:
Company uses advertisement to persuade or convince the buyers
about superior advantages offered by its product. Company communicates
competitive advantages the product offers to induce customers buy it.
Comparative advertising is used to prove the additional benefits of product at
a given price.
3. To Remind Buyers:
Marketer uses advertising to remind the buyers regarding
existence of company, products, maintenance of quality, superior services, and
chasing customer-orientation. Mostly, the existing firms aim their advertising
for this objective.
Here, the purpose is to inform that the company is still in
existence and serving customers in a better way. Due to huge information
bombarded by a number of companies, customers are more likely to forget name of
company and/or products and services it offers.
4. To Face Competition:
Advertising is treated as the most powerful weapon to fight with
competitors effectively. Advertising enables the firm to respond the
competitors strongly. It helps the firm to distinguish its total offerings from
competitors.
In brief, the firm can face competition, can prevent the entry
of competitors, or can remove competitors away from the market. In competitive
marketing environment, the firm cannot survive without an effective
advertisement.
5. To Achieve Sales Targets:
Increase sales volume is one of the major advertising
objectives. A company can advertise its products in various media to attract
customers situated in different parts of the world. National and international
marketing is the result of advertising. Even, non-users can be converted into
users and usage rate can be increased. Thus, company can achieve its sales
objectives by advertisement.
6. To Build and Improve Brand
Image:
Advertising is used for brand recognition and acceptance. A
company can distinguish its brand by magnifying major benefits the product
offers. Advertisement attracts customers toward the brand; they try it and
accept it over time. In the same way, bad image related to brand can be changed
by systematic presentation of facts and scientific evidences, and removing
misunderstanding.
7. To Help or Educate People:
Advertising is not always used only for company’s benefits. It
is meant for helping customers to make the right choice of product. It educates
people about availability of new products, its features and qualities, price,
services, and other related aspects. Such information is instrumental for
purchasing suitable products. Thus, it guides customers to choose the most
appropriate product.
8. To Build Company Image and
Reputation:
A company opts for advertisement to build prestige and
reputation in the market. Most of the companies, though they are satisfied with
the volume of sales, go for advertising to acquire fame in the market. Many
companies advertise its policies, activities, and achievements to make a
permanent place in the mind of people.
9. To Assist Sales Force and
Middlemen:
Advertising is an aid to middlemen and salesmen. Advertising
also popularizes the name of dealers. Likewise, advertising provides necessary
information to the buyers. Middlemen and salesmen are not required to do the
same. It eases the task of sellers. In the same way, advertising encourages sales
force.
10. Other Objectives:
There are certain minor
objectives of advertising, such as:
i. To promote new products.
ii. To build long-term relations.
iii. To remove misunderstanding.
iv. To expand of market.
v. To gain confidence of buyers.
vi. To request customers to compromise with unavoidable
circumstances.
vii. To seek apology of the buyers for any undesirable events,
etc.
Company has to select one or more objectives based on its
situations. It should be clarified that the list is not exhaustive. New advertising
objectives may emerge as per change in situations. However, the main objective
of advertising is to increase sales and earn profits. Company must define it
advertising objectives clearly and precisely.
