Everything you need to know about the benefits of advertising. Advertisement is useful not only for the business enterprises but for the community as a whole.
Advertisement generates awareness among the target group and the community as a whole.
The producer or manufacturer prepares plans and projections for long and short-term period after analysing the demand of the product, scope and necessity of the improvement of the product and possibility of the growth of the brand image and reputation.
Advertising broadens the knowledge of the consumers. With the aid of advertising, consumers find and buy necessary products, without much waste of time. This speeds up the sales of commodities, increases the efficiency of labour in distribution, and diminishes the costs of selling.
The benefits of advertising can be studied under the following heads:-
1. Benefits to Manufacturers 2. Benefits to Middlemen 3. Benefits to Consumers 4. Benefits to Salesman 5. Benefits to Community 6. Benefits to Wholesalers and Retailers 7. Benefits to Producers.
Benefits of Advertising: Benefits to Manufacturers, Middlemen, Consumers, Salesman, Community, Wholesalers and Others
Benefits of Advertising – To Manufacturers, Middlemen, Consumers, Salesmen and Community
In every walk of business and industrial activities, there is a throat-cut competition; therefore no business can survive without advertisement. Advertisement is useful not only for the business enterprises but for the community as a whole.
The economic utility of advertisement can broadly be divided into five categories:
1. Benefits to Manufacturers:
i. Helps in creation of demand for new products.
ii. Helps in stabilizing the demand for the product.
iii. Helps in increasing the demand for existing products.
iv. Helps in introduction of new products.
v. Retail price maintenance.
vi. Increase in profits.
vii. Creates a brand image in the minds of consumers.
viii. Reduces the cost of production.
ix. Helpful in establishing a direct contact between manufacturers and consumers.
x. Helpful in getting efficient, experienced and effective middlemen.
2. Benefits to Middlemen:
i. Increases the rate of turnover of stock.
ii. Convenient in selling.
iii. Stability in sales and profits.
iv. Reputation created is shared by the wholesalers and the retailers alike.
v. Ensures more economical selling.
vi. Increase in sales.
vii. Increase in goodwill.
3. Benefits to Consumers:
i. Provides knowledge of new products.
ii. Convenient in purchasing, i.e., where and when to buy.
iii. Provides opportunities to compare the merits and demerits of various substitute products.
iv. Saving of time and labour.
v. Helps in quick decision making.
vi. No possibility of cheating by sellers.
vii. Modern advertisements are highly informative.
viii. Increase in the standard of living.
ix. Elimination of middlemen.
x. Stresses quality and very often prices that forms an indirect guarantee to the consumers.
xi. Provides knowledge of alternative uses of products.
4. Benefits to Salesmen:
i. Makes the introduction of new products easy.
ii. Reduces sales efforts.
iii. Establish good and permanent contact with the customers.
iv. Helps in weighing the effectiveness of advertising.
5. Benefits to Community:
i. Creates more employment opportunities.
ii. Increases standard of living.
iii. Encourages healthy competition.
iv. Encourages research and development.
v. Helpful in industrial progress and prosperity.
vi. Encourages art and designing.
vii. Educative.
viii. Judicious use of resources.
Benefits of Advertising – Benefits to Manufacturers, Wholesalers, Retailers, Consumers, Salesman and Community
“People can be coaxed but not driven. Whatever they do to please themselves. Many fewer mistakes would be nude in advertising if these fact were never forgotten.” — Claude C. Hopkins
Advertisement generates awareness among the target group and the community as a whole. The producer or manufacturer prepares plans and projections for long and short-term period after analysing the demand of the product, scope and necessity of the improvement of the product and possibility of the growth of the brand image and reputation.
Wholesalers and retailers feel happy to deal with widely advertised product, the knowledge of which is already established to the prospective consumers. Expecting an increased turnover of stock, they will be interested to hold more stock which will ensure economical dealings.
The dealers shall be in a position to convince manufacturers to supply more products, which will lead to mass production. The growth of production will reduce the unit cost of the product, the benefit of which will ultimately reach the consumers.
In modern marketing, the role and benefits of advertisements may be analysed from the following viewpoints:
1. Benefits of Advertising to Manufacturers:
1. Large demand and awareness will lead increase in sales and production. Mass production will reduce the cost of production per unit and the profit will be increased.
2. It will create confidence in the consumers. The reputation of the advertiser and the image of the product will be established through proper design and strategy.
3. It helps in introduction of new products into the market.
4. It provides a platform to generate direct contact between manufacturers and consumers.
5. It helps manufacturers to regulate the activities of the wholesalers and retailers and to maintain the retail price.
2. Benefits of Advertising to Wholesalers and Retailers:
1. The goodwill generated through advertisement will encourage the wholesalers and retailers.
2. The selling process will be economical.
3. It enhances the rate of turnover of stock.
4. It supplements the selling activities.
5. Consumers are aware of the quality of the product.
6. The feedback of the consumers are available through response method.
3. Benefits of Advertising to Consumers:
1. It provides consumer the information regarding the availability of the product, which reduces the shopping time.
2. It offers an opportunity to select the right product as per requirement.
3. It helps to compare the product with the products of the other manufacturers.
4. Reasonable price can be offered due to large acceptance through awareness.
5. Consumers become aware of the various uses of the product.
6. Regulatory information is helpful to the consumers regarding the uses and abuses of the product.
7. Any information regarding future projection is also available.
4. Benefits of Advertising to Salesmen:
1. Sales force is motivated to take part in the process of distribution of a product, popularly advertised.
2. It helps the sales person to introduce the product.
3. Reduction of sales effort saves time and more targeted prospects can be approached.
4. The effectiveness of the advertisement can be ascertained through direct contact with the consumers.
5. Benefits of Advertising to the Community:
1. Advertising essentially is a form of education.
2. The basic approach is to inform and to formulate an opinion on the matter advertised.
3. The mass attraction will generate the potentiality of mass production, to satisfy the consumers at a lower price.
4. Mass production will provide and generate more employment opportunities at different levels of production and distribution system.
5. It encourages better standard of living of the people within their means.
6. The mandatory information is available to the community at large.
7. It helps the economic development of the nation with the growth of the industry and services.
8. The paid form of advertisement helps to sponsor, different socio- cultural activities. Different information media or channels like newspapers, television channels are also benefited.
The benefits of advertising are also described by the different authors as follows:
1. Information:
Through advertisement the necessary information are conveyed to the prospects to induce them to make proper purchase decision. Without proper information the consumers will feel difficulty in finding the right product for the satisfaction of their needs.
2. Brand Image Building:
The consumers develop a brand image through the advertising appeals. This brand image along with the consumer satisfaction by using the brand, develops the brand loyalty. The brand name identifies the source and assures the quality, service and warranty of the performance of the products and services,
3. Innovation:
Advertising encourages innovation and introduction of new products and services. With the knowledge of the new improved products through exposures, the consumers’ decision process is enriched and the effective sale of the products are enhanced. This will-generate more employment and investment opportunities.
4. Growth of Media:
The generation of new products and demand for advertising through different media, will help the media operators to extend their business. The media will be immensely benefited in the financial matters by the larger demand of advertising space and time slot.
Benefits of Advertising
Advertising broadens the knowledge of the consumers. With the aid of advertising, consumers find and buy necessary products, without much waste of time. This speeds up the sales of commodities, increases the efficiency of labour in distribution, and diminishes the costs of selling.
It is an accepted fact that without market stimulus of heavy advertising, consumers might have waited another sixty years for the product evaluation that took place in less than ten years — it took after all over sixty years from the invention of the safety razor before the first acceptable stainless steel blades appeared in the market. These words are more than enough to testify the potentialities of advertising in the field of modern marketing system.
The main benefits of advertising may be narrated as follows:
(1) Benefits to Manufacturers:
(a) It increases sales volume by creating attraction towards the product.
(b) It helps easy introduction of new products into the markets by the same manufacturer.
(c) It helps to create an image and reputation not only of the products but also of the advertiser. In this way, it creates goodwill for the manufacturer.
(d) Retail price maintenance is also possible by advertising where price appeal is the promotional strategy.
(e) It helps to establish a direct contact between manufacturers and consumers.
(f) It leads to smoothen the demands of the product. It saves the product from seasonal fluctuations by discovering new and new uses of the product.
(g) It creates a high responsive market and thereby quickens the turnover that results in lower inventory.
(h) Selling cost per unit is reduced because of increased sale volume. Consequently, product overheads are also reduced due to mass production and sale.
(i) Advertising gives the employees a feeling of pride in their jobs and to be in the service of such a concern of repute. It thus inspires the executives and worker to improve their efficiency.
(2) Benefits to Wholesalers and Retailers:
(a) Easy sale of the products is possible since consumers are aware of the product and its quality.
(b) It increases the rate of the turnover of the stock because demand is already created by advertisement.
(c) It supplements the selling activities.
(d) The reputation created is shared by the wholesalers and retailers alike because they need not spent anything for the advertising of already a well-advertised product.
(e) It ensures more economical selling because selling overheads are reduced.
(f) It enables them to have product information.
(3) Benefits to Consumers:
(a) Advertising stresses quality and very often prices. This forms an indirect guarantee to the consumers of the quality and price. Furthermore, large scale production assumed by advertising enables the sellers to sell the product at a lower cost.
(b) Advertising helps in eliminating the middlemen by establishing direct contacts between producers and consumers. It results in cheaper goods.
(c) It helps them to know where and when the products are available. This reduces their shopping time.
(d) It provides an opportunity to the customers to compare the merits and demerits of various substitute products.
(e) This is perhaps the only medium through which consumers could now the varied and new uses of the product.
(f) Modern advertisements are highly informative.
(4) Benefits to Salesmen:
Salesmanship is incomplete without advertising. Advertising serves as the forerunner of a salesman in the distribution goods.
Sales is benefited by the advertisement in following ways:
(a) Introducing the product becomes quite easy and convenient because manufacturer has an already advertised he goods informing the consumers about the product and its quality.
(b) Advertising prepares necessary ground for a salesman to begin his worm effectively. Hence sales efforts are reduced.
(c) The contact established with the customer by a salesman is made permanent through effective advertising because a customer is assumed of the quality and price of the product.
(d) The salesman can weigh the effectiveness of advertising when he makes direct contact with the consumers.
(5) Benefits to Community or Society:
(a) Advertising in general is educative in nature. In the words of the late President Roosevelt of the U.S.A, “Advertising brings to the greatest number of people actual knowledge concerning useful things- it is essentially a form of education and the progress of civilisation depends on education.”
(b) Advertising leads to a large-scale production creating more employment opportunities to the public in various jobs directly or indirectly.
(c) It initiates process of creating more wants and their satisfaction and high standard of living. For example, advertising has made more popular and universal the uses of such inventions as the automobile, radios, the various household appliances. To quote Sir Winston Churchill, “Advertising nourishes the consuming power of men. It creates wants for a better standard of living. It spurts individual exertion and greater production.”
(d) Newspapers would not have become so popular and so cheap if there had been no advertisements. The cheap production of newspapers is possible only through the publication of advertisements in them. In other words, it is the advertising revenue that makes the newspapers live. It sustains the press.
(e) It assures employment opportunities for the professional men and artists.
(f) Advertising does provide a glimpse of a country’s way of life. It is, in fact, a running commentary on the way of living and the behaviour of the people and is also an indicator of some of the future trends in this regard.
Benefits of Advertising – Advantages to Producers, Middlemen, Consumers, Society and Nation
The role of advertising is very significant and vital for business. At present the area of advertising is not only limited to provide information but also it has become a widely spread communication channel through which new customers are brought up and old customers become permanent members.
Different media of advertising provide information to customers regarding the products and services. After winning the confidence of people and luring them to purchase goods, maximum sale is generated.
Marketing inspires customers to purchase products. Through advertising a manufacturer can make his products popular in new fields. In this way, he can generate their demand. Through advertising the customers of present area who used to consume those products can be tempted to purchase new products.
Advertising provides information about products generates their demand and maintains that demand. Its purpose is not only to generate the demand but also to sustain the demand of old products so that the manufacturer may not be worried about the sale of his products. Advertisement helps maintain demand and produces confidence in the public.
1. Advantages to Producers:
i. Increase in Sales:
Advertising helps increase sales. It helps a business-unit create demand for new products, increase demand for existing products and maintain the demand of products in all seasons and at all times.
ii. Lower Cost:
Both production cost and marketing cost can be reduced by manufacturing the product on a large scale because the demand rises through advertising and supply can only be fulfilled by manufacturing them in a large scale.
iii. Reduction in Production and Selling Expenses:
Selling cost per unit is reduced due to increased sale volume. Consequently, production cost and overheads are also reduced due to mass production and sale.
iv. Reduction in Distribution Expenses:
Due to large-scale selling distribution cost is also reduced.
v. Increase in Demand:
Advertising helps increase demand for existing products because it reminds the consumers of a product again and again.
vi. Creation of Goodwill:
Advertising helps in the creation of goodwill. It increases sales and increase in sales means the increase in the number of customers which is apparently the result of increase in the goodwill of the concern.
vii. Steady Demand:
Advertising helps stabilise the demand for a product in all seasons and at all the times. It is only because of advertising that people like to consume eggs, tea, coffee, etc., in summer as well.
viii. Preparing Ground for New Products:
Whenever a producer produces a new product, advertising helps him create demand for his product, because it is advertising through which a producer explains the merits of his products to consumers.
ix. To Employ Efficient Workers:
As the demand for a product is increased through advertising, the employees working with the firm are motivated. This helps in the recruitment of efficient workers.
x. Increase in Profits:
Increase in sales results in increase in profits as well. Thus the enterprise achieves the object of maximizing profits.
2. Advantages to Middleman:
i. Helpful in Selling:
An easy sale of the products is possible since consumers are aware of their quality through advertisements.
ii. Helpful in Searching for Middlemen:
Able middlemen can be appointed through advertisements.
iii. Helpful in Facing Competition:
Advertising helps middlemen face competition successfully. It introduces products into the market and creates demand for them.
iv. Earning Sources:
Advertising stabilizes demand. Customers are thereby available throughout the year which ensures permanent income to middlemen.
v. Increase in Goodwill:
The reputation created is shared by middlemen also because they need not spend anything on the advertising of already a well-advertised product.
3. Advantages to Consumers:
i. Increase in Knowledge:
Advertising helps customers to know about the existence of various products and their prices. They can choose from the various brands to satisfy their wants. Thus, they cannot be exploited by sellers. Advertising educates people about new products and their diverse uses.
ii. Easy Purchase:
Advertising makes it very convenient for consumers to make their purchase because they take the decisions well in advance about the commodities to purchase.
iii. Cheap and Quality Goods:
If the goods advertised are cheap and of standard quality, advertising induces the manufacturer to improve quality, otherwise the customer will switch to his competitor’s product.
iv. Increase in the Standard of Living:
Advertising stimulates the consumption of varied and new products. The more the consumption, the more will be the standard of living of the consumer. Advertising induces the manufacturers to improve the quality of his products through research and development. This ensures the supply of the products of better quality to the consumers.
4. Advantages to Society and Nation:
i. Rapid Economic Development:
Due to advertising, the sale of products increases in the market; it helps increase the scale of production. Large-scale production brings industrial progress and prosperity. Advertising also encourages art and designing in the country. Due, to advertising employment opportunities, research and development also help in the rapid economic development of a country.
ii. Increase in the Standard of Living:
Advertising promotes the standard of living of the people by increasing the variety and quality in consumption as a result of sustained research and development activities by manufacturers.
iii. Increase in Employment Opportunities:
Advertising provides employment to persons engaged in writing, designing and issuing advertisements. Increased employment brings additional income with the people, which stimulate more demand. Employment is further generated to meet the increased demand.
iv. Increase in Knowledge:
Advertising is very educative. It provides complete information about products and their uses to society. In the words of the late President Roosevelt of the U.SA., “Advertising brings to the greatest number of people actual knowledge concerning useful things- It is essentially a form of education and the progress of civilization depends on education.”
v. Good Quality Products:
The confidence of the public towards the product gets stability through advertising. This is the reason why the manufacturer is not inclined to end such confidence of the public and introduces only good-quality products in the market. It increases productivity as well.
vi. Development of Civilization:
Advertising may be called an element of civilisation. Advertising has wide exposure. It has impact on the values and lifestyles of society.
vii. Helpful in Foreign Trade:
In the age of globalisation advertising plays a vital role in foreign trade. Exports and imports are possible only due to advertising.
viii. Helpful in the Development of Newspapers:
Advertising provides an important source of revenue to the publishers of newspapers and magazines. It enables them to increase the circulation of their publication by selling them at lower rates. People are also benefitted because they get publications at cheaper rates. Advertising also encourages commercial art.
ix. Reduced Cost:
Cost of production is reduced due to large-scale production. Society also benefits from the lower rates of products.
Benefits of Advertising – Benefits to Manufacturers, Wholesalers and Retailers, Consumers and Salesman
The main purpose of advertising is to communicate. Its long term object is the profit maximisation of the firm. The basic purpose of advertising is to bring the advertised product as well as its future and present user to the notice of the consumers.
The main benefits of advertising may be narrated as follows:
I. Benefits of Manufacturers:
1. It increases sales volume by creating attraction towards the product.
2. It helps easy introduction of new products into the markets by the same manufacturer.
3. It helps to create an image and reputation not only of the products but also of the advertiser. In this way it creates good will for the manufacturer.
4. Retail price maintenance is also possible by advertising where price appeal is the promotional strategy.
5. It helps to establish direct contact between manufacturer and consumers.
6. It leads to smoothen the demands of the product. It saves the product from seasonal fluctuations by discovering new and new usage of the product.
7. It creates a high responsive market there by quickens the turnover that results in lower inventory.
8. Selling cost per unit is reduced because of increased sale volume. Consequently, products over heads are also reduced due to mass production and sale.
9. Advertising gives the employees a feeling of pride in their jobs and to be in the service of such a concern of repute. It thus inspires the executives and workers to improve their efficiency.
II. Benefits to Whole Sellers and Retailers:
1. Easy sale of the products is possible since consumers are aware of the product and its quality.
2. It increases the rate of the turnover of the stock because demand is already created by advertisement.
3. It supplements the selling activities.
4. The reputation created is shared by the wholesalers and retailers alike because they need not spent anything for the advertising of already a well-advertised product.
5. It ensures more economical selling because selling overheads are reduced.
6. It enables them to have product information.
III. Benefits to Consumers:
1. Advertising stresses quality and very often prices. This forms an indirect guarantee to the consumers of the quality and price. Furthermore, large scale production assumed by advertising enables the sellers to sell the product at a lower cost.
2. Advertising helps in eliminating the middleman by establishing direct contacts between produces and consumers. It results in cheaper goods.
3. It helps them to know where and whom the products are available. This reduces their shopping time.
4. It provides an opportunity to the consumers to compare the merits and demerits of various substitute products.
5. This is perhaps the only medium through which consumers could know varied and new uses of the product.
6. Modern advertisements are highly informative.
IV. Benefits to Salesman:
Salesmanship is incomplete without advertising. Advertising serves as the fore runner of a salesperson in the distribution of goods.
Sales are benefited by the advertising in following ways:
1. Introducing the product becomes quite easy and convenient because manufacturer has already advertised the goods informing the consumer about the products and its quality.
2. Advertising prepares necessary ground for a salesperson to begin his work effectively. Hence sales efforts are reduced.
3. The contact established with the customer by a salesperson is made permanent through effective advertising because a customers is assumed of the quality and price of the product.
4. The sales man can weigh the effectiveness of advertising when he makes direct contact with the consumers.
Benefits of Advertising – Economic Benefits, Political Benefits, Cultural Benefits and Moral and Religious Benefits of Advertising
Enormous human and material resources are devoted to advertising. Advertising is everywhere in today’s world, so that, as Pope Paul VI remarked, “No one now can escape the influence of advertising.” Even people who are not themselves exposed to particular forms of advertising confront a society, a culture—other people—affected for good or ill by advertising messages and techniques of every sort.
Some critics view this state of affairs in unrelievedly negative terms.
They condemn advertising as a waste of time, talent and money—an essentially parasitic activity. In this view, not only does advertising have no value of its own, but its influence is entirely harmful and corrupting for individuals and society.
We do not agree. There is truth to the criticisms, and we shall make criticisms of our own. But advertising also has significant potential for good, and sometimes it is realized. Here are some of the ways that happens.
1. Economic Benefits of Advertising:
Advertising can play an important role in the process by which an economic system guided by moral norms and responsive to the common good contributes to human development. It is a necessary part of the functioning of modern market economies, which today either exist or are emerging in many parts of the world and which — provided they conform to moral standards based upon integral human development and the common good — currently seem to be “the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs” of a socioeconomic kind.
In such a system, advertising can be a useful tool for sustaining honest and ethically responsible competition that contributes to economic growth in the service of authentic human development. “The Church looks with favor on the growth of man’s productive capacity, and also on the ever widening network of relationships and exchanges between persons and social groups…. From this point of view she encourages advertising, which can become a wholesome and efficacious instrument for reciprocal help among men.”
Advertising does this, among other ways, by informing people about the availability of rationally desirable new products and services and improvements in existing ones, helping them to make informed, prudent consumer decisions, contributing to efficiency and the lowering of prices, and stimulating economic progress through the expansion of business and trade.
All of this can contribute to the creation of new jobs, higher incomes and a more decent and humane way of life for all. It also helps pay for publications, programming and productions — including those of the Church — that bring information, entertainment and inspiration to people around the world.
2. Benefits of Political Advertising:
“The Church values the democratic system inasmuch as it ensures the participation of citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the governed the possibility both of electing and holding accountable those who govern them, and of replacing them through peaceful means when appropriate.”
Political advertising can make a contribution to democracy analogous to its contribution to economic well-being in a market system guided by moral norms. As free and responsible media in a democratic system help to counteract tendencies toward the monopolization of power on the part of oligarchies and special interests, so political advertising can make its contribution by informing people about the ideas and policy proposals of parties and candidates, including new candidates not previously known to the public.
3. Cultural Benefits of Advertising:
Because of the impact advertising has on media that depend on it for revenue, advertisers have an opportunity to exert a positive influence on decisions about media content. This they do by supporting material of excellent intellectual, aesthetic and moral quality presented with the public interest in view, and particularly by encouraging and making possible media presentations which are oriented to minorities whose needs might otherwise go unserved.
Moreover, advertising can itself contribute to the betterment of society by uplifting and inspiring people and motivating them to act in ways that benefit themselves and others. Advertising can brighten lives simply by being witty, tasteful and entertaining. Some advertisements are instances of popular art, with a vivacity and elan all their own.
4. Moral and Religious Benefits of Advertising:
In many cases, too, benevolent social institutions, including those of a religious nature, use advertising to communicate their messages — messages of faith, of patriousm, of tolerance, compassion and neighbourly service, of charity toward the needy, messages concerning health and education, constructive and helpful messages that educate and motivate people in a variety of beneficial ways.
For the Church, involvement in media-related activities, including advertising, is today a necessary part of a comprehensive pastoral strategy. This includes both the Church’s own media — Catholic press and publishing, television and radio broadcasting, film and audiovisual production, and the rest — and also her participation in secular media.
The media “can and should be instruments in the Church’s program of re-evangelization and new evangelization in the contemporary world.”
While much remains to be done, many positive efforts of this kind already are underway. With reference to advertising itself, Pope Paul VI once said that it is desirable that Catholic institutions “follow with constant attention the development of the modern techniques of advertising and… know how to make opportune use of them in order to spread the Gospel message in a manner which answers the expectations and needs of contemporary man.”
Benefits of Advertising – Benefits to Consumers, Manufacturers, Salesman and Society
1. Consumers and Advertising:
The ultimate aim of all marketing efforts is to satisfy the needs of consumers by transferring the benefits of productive efficiency to the final users.
Advertising as an important element in this process of transfer helps consumers in the following ways:
a. Advertising adds perception utility to the product – Advertising adds perception utility to the product just as manufacturing adds form utility, transportation adds place utility and warehousing adds time utility. Advertising influences the perception of the consumers about the product by pointing out the various benefits to be derived from its use. Thus it creates a desire in the mind of the consumers to purchase the product.
b. Advertising helps the consumer in making the purchase decision – Advertising through its various forms gives out useful information about the relative merits and features of the products and services in terms of price, quality, utility, quantity, durability, convenience of use etc. so as to guide the consumers to select a product or service of a particular sponsor. As advertising brings to the fore the various features of the various available products, the consumer can compare the merits of the various products and come to a purchase decision. Thus the process of decision making is made easier.
c. Advertising ensures a better quality – Advertising ensures that customers are drawn to the product at least for a trial order. However repeat orders are placed only due to the satisfaction received through the use of the product. Thus if the product is not good repeat sales will not take place and if the product proves to be good, it will imprint an image on the minds of the customers and earn a long-standing reputation for the manufacturing house.
Such an image is possible by effective branding. Manufacturers are desirous not only of this image but of repeat sales and hence advertising ensure better quality products to the consumers.
d. Goods at reasonable prices – Advertising enables firms to sell goods on a mass scale. This has made it possible for producers to increase his production so as to earn economies of scale and thus he can offer goods at reasonable prices to consumers.
e. Better standard of living – Advertising reduces the prices of products and thus more and more products are affordable by a larger section of society today. Thus it increases the standard of living of the people. Further advertising creates a demand for new products and thus increases the standard of living of the masses.
f. Time saved in shopping – Advertising increases the knowledge of the consumers about the availability of the various brands in the market. He knows about the products and services of the different producers and as such it saves his time which would otherwise have been spent in locating, identifying and deciding about the products and services.
g. Advertising contributes to consumer welfare – Advertising helps consumers in a variety of ways. It tells him what to buy, how to buy, where to buy and why to buy. It also gives valuable price information. Advertising also promotes consumer welfare by encouraging competition, which leads to improvements in product quality and reduction in prices.
h. Advertising makes consumers think – Advertising makes consumers aware of many socially relevant causes like dowry, energy conservation, environmental pollution, child marriages, eye and blood donation etc. Advertising thus not only makes a consumer think, but acts as a friend, philosopher and guide to the consumers.
2. Manufacturers and Advertising:
Manufacturers, who make available their goods with the clear intention of disposing them at a profit to themselves and satisfaction to the customers, take full advantage of advertising as a major tool to popularize their products and services. Manufacturers spend a lot on advertising because it pays to do so. Advertising establishes a link between the manufacturer and the consumer. It is a form of mass communication. Through this form, the manufacturer makes his product offering known to the consumers.
Advertising helps the manufacturer to get the following benefits:
a. Advertising creates customers – Even if the producer manufactures the best product he cannot sell it without advertising. Even though it is said that “A good wine needs no bush”, information about the product should reach those interested in buying it. Thus it is advertising that informs the people about the product and creates a demand for it.
b. Advertising increases the sales – In a highly sensitive and competitive market, the profits of the firm can be maximised not only by reducing the costs but by increasing the sales. Sales of the firm can be multiplied by advertising. Thus advertising increases sales.
c. Advertising helps the producer in informing the market about the changes in the product or service – In our competitive system it is important for a manufacturer who has innovated a new product or service, to tell the public about the same quickly in order to reap the advantages right from the start before the competition can develop a similar product. Advertising helps the manufacturer to do this.
d. Advertising controls product prices – Through advertising, it is possible to control the prices of the products, specially the retail prices. Very often greedy retailers exploit needy consumers by charging higher prices. Advertising stops this exploitation by disclosing the maximum retail price of the product.
e. Advertising acts as a salesman – What a travelling salesman does for the manufacturer, advertising does at a lesser cost. Salesman have to be fed, paid a salary and provided with an expense account. Contrast this with the cost of selling through advertising. A national advertisement, once the original cost has been paid, may reach millions of prospects. There are no expense accounts and an advertisement carried by radio or television reaches into every remote corner of the country. Thus advertising not only acts as a salesman, but also reduces the selling cost of the manufacturer.
f. Advertising widens the market – Advertising is an important tool that can open the doors of national and international markets. Intensive advertising programmes conducted by a manufacturer gives him wider markets for his products.
3. Salesman and Advertising:
Sales of an organisation happen because of the active involvement of two functions. First the salesman makes sales happen through his direct personal efforts, and secondly advertising leads to sales through indirect efforts. Which of these two is more important cannot be said, as a company has to match the efforts of both these so as to achieve maximum sales.
However, salesman benefit from advertising in the following ways:
a. Advertising creates a colourful background for the salesman – A salesman is nothing less than an actor who by his skill and mastery over the art of selling, tries to win over the consumers for the products of his company. All his selling skills are more effective when they are performed against a good and colourful background. Advertising creates this background for the salesman and thus his job is made more effective.
b. Advertising makes the salesman’s job easier – In the absence of advertising the salesman has to perform a double job. That of introducing the product to the consumer and then creating a need, want and desire in the mind of the consumer for the product. But because of advertising the customer is already aware about the product and to a certain extent need, want and desire have also been created. Thus the work of the salesman becomes much easier as advertising sells between the sales calls.
c. Advertising instills confidence in the salesman – Advertising creates an image and goodwill for the company, which in turn instills a feeling of pride amongst the salesmen that they are working for such an esteemed organisation. This feeling of pride instills in them self-confidence and makes them a dynamic and intrinsically motivated workforce.
4. Society and Advertising:
Advertising is not just a business activity that results in only profits and losses, but affects society at large. In fact everyone in society tends to be affected by it.
Following are some of the benefits of advertising that are reaped by the society at large:
a. Advertising Increases the Standard of Living of the Society:
The standard of living of the society is conditioned by the amount of National Income and its distribution on the one hand, and the consumption pattern and the disposable income on the other hand. The generation of National Income is deeply influenced by advertising.
This is because, effective and faithful advertising creates a demand, which in turns puts pressure on the wheels of production not only to produce more but also to produce better and cheaper products keeping an eye on the quality standards. Improvement in standard of living implies increased production, better production and cheaper production, thus making more and more people from the lower income brackets to enjoy the products they could not in the past.
b. Advertising Provides Employment Opportunities:
Advertising creates opportunities for gainful employment, both directly and indirectly. Directly employment opportunities are available in the various branches of this ever-growing field of advertising. This profession requires the services of various specialists and talented people like artists, painters, photographers, singers, musicians, executives, agents, researchers etc. Indirectly it stimulates the production of goods, which in turn creates employment opportunities.
c. Advertising Reflects and Affects the Culture of the Society in which it Operates:
Culture stands for the values of life and living. Each race has a different culture. Culture is always changing and is guided by the dynamics of the social, political and ethical dimensions of the people. Advertising simply reflects the culture of the people; it does not create it. It simply responds to the prevailing value system. The advertiser has to know very minutely the attitudes, beliefs and motives of the target audience.
He then selects the appropriate, media, advertisement messages etc., advertisers are interested in a favourable response from the target audience, and this would be possible only when they offer, in the form of advertisements, products, and services that fit into the existing value system of the audience.
Not only does advertising reflect the culture of the people, but it in its turn also affects the culture. It does not create culture but definitely is responsible for changes in culture. Advertising is a very dynamic and influential force. In fact, the current world is moving on the lever of advertising. With its educative value, provoking force and invoking tinge, it affects thoughts, gestures and behaviour of the people caught in the spotlight of advertising. Consumers’ attitudes, habits, likes and dislikes, fashions, actions, in every walk of life are deeply influenced by advertising.
d. Advertising Provides Information to the Masses:
Advertising educates the public. Each advertisement is a piece of information because each advertising copy has a definite theme behind it. Advertisements carry messages to different sections of society. They carry the ideas, views and opinions of different people and thus provide information to the masses. It is through advertising that an employer fills the vacancies in his firm.
An unemployed applies for a job, parents hunt for brides and bridegrooms, the govt. appeals to the public to pay their tax dues, various NGO’s appeal to the public about various socially relevant causes, film producers speak of their films, cinema houses remind us of regular and special shows. Thus, advertising definitely informs the masses.