Advertising is one of the most powerful tools available to corporate management in its drive to build a profitable business operation, and to compete successfully with other comparable businesses.
The term advertising has been differently defined by different people. It is said to be salesmanship in print. It is also said to be a sort of machine made, mass-production, and method of selling.
Advertising is a form of communication, but a special type of communication. Advertising is a function, and basically a supportive activity, which enlarges the possibility of production and makes the selling process more efficient.
It does not produce direct sales, by physically impelling the consumer towards the purchase of goods. Its purpose is to create a state of mind conducive to purchase.
Learn about:-
1. What is Advertising 2. Evolution of Advertising 3. Definition 4. Concept 5. Nature 6. Functions 7. Economic Benefits
8. Testing the Advertisement 9. Distrust 10. Accountability 11. Client/Agency Relationship 12. Research 13. Media 14. Results 15. Goals 16. Advantages and Disadvantages.
What is Advertising: Definition, Functions, Economic Benefits, Research, Media, Results, Goals, Advantages and Disadvantages
Contents:
-
- What is Advertising
- Evolution of Advertising
- Definition of Advertising
- Concept of Advertising
- Nature of Advertising
- Functions of Advertising
- Economic Benefits of Advertising
- Testing the Advertisement
- Distrust of Advertising
- Advertising Accountability
- Client/Agency Relationships in Advertising
- Advertising Research
- Advertising Media
- Results of Advertising
- Goals for Advertising
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Advertising
What is Advertising
Advertising is an instrument of marketing which is applied in practice both as a science and an art generated by creative devices. The growth of an advertising process in a socio-economic environment is one of the most significant achievements in contemporary business era. Thus, advertising is identified as one of the most visible aspects fabricated with the values in the modern society.
There has been a variety of views offered; by the distinguished scholars on the analytical perspectives of advertising and its symbiosis with the growth of business. However, advertising is considered as an integrated component of the marketing-mix which refers to the promotional aspects along with the other components of product, place and price of the marketing-mix.
The process of advertising in business begins with market situation analysis conducted to assess the marketing opportunities for the product in the existing state of business in the market. On identifying the marketing opportunities successfully, the marketing strategies are formulated and supported by the communication linkages. Advertising strategies are developed in coherence with the marketing plan and the advertisements are released according to the media plan.
Hence, commercials (Ads) seen by the consumers are like the Lip of an iceberg, emerging from a situation analysis, trade goals and strategies evolved by the marketing and advertising managers. However, it is difficult to establish whether advertising is the first or last component in the entire process of marketing. Despite numerous research efforts about the functioning of advertising, no unified theory has yet emerged.
Advertising is one of the most powerful tools available to corporate management in its drive to build a profitable business operation, and to compete successfully with other comparable businesses. The term advertising has been differently defined by different people. It is said to be salesmanship in print. It is also said to be a sort of machine made, mass-production, and method of selling. In its basic meaning, Advertising is a form of communication, but a special type of communication.
We would, therefore, define advertising as mass, commercial or paid communication, the ultimate purpose of which is to import information, develop attitude and induce action beneficial to the advertiser – generally the sale of a product or service. It is paid for by a sponsor who expects to induce some kind of action on the part of the reader or listener, resulting in a sale.
It is essentially controlled communication about a product or service or the company. It is, in effect, a substitute for sampling. Through, symbols of language, written or spoken, and pictorial presentation, advertising conveys a sense of what a product or a service or a company, is, and can do.
Advertising is a function, and basically a supportive activity, which enlarges the possibility of production and makes the selling process more efficient. It does not produce direct sales, by physically impelling the consumer towards the purchase of goods. Its purpose is to create a state of mind conducive to purchase. In fact, advertising is, one of several communication forces, known as “total market mix”, leading to consumption of the product.
These forces, include the product itself, its distribution, styling, packaging, pricing, publicity, availability, display, personal selling and performance. Thus, the purpose of advertising is not to build sales, or establish brand preference or create a market for the product. Advertising can contribute to those desiderate, but cannot by itself, bring them about. Advertising cannot for example, for very long, build sales for an inferior product, or a product over-priced in comparison with a competitive product.
In fact, the most successful advertising is that which stems directly from the product itself. It tells people about new products, seeks to attract their attention to benefits which they may not be aware of or may have forgotten, urges them to try the product for the first time, if they have not yet done so, and urges them to buy it again, if it satisfied them.
Advertising is only one of the tools of marketing, playing a greater or lesser role than product policy, pricing, packaging, distribution, personal selling, or sales promotion, dependent upon the goods or services offered. Its function is to inform and enhance the value of the thing advertised.
What is Advertising – Evolution: Early Advertising, Early Printed Advertising, Development of Modern Advertising, Modern Advertising Agency and Electronic Media
Advertising evolved and changed in obedience to the needs of society and of the country. Advertisers have been attuned to public needs and have been engaged in the promotion of goods, services and ideas. The evolution of advertising has been discussed under various heads under early advertising, early printed advertising, the development of modern advertising, the development of the modern advertising agency, and the use of electronic media in advertising.
Early advertising was crude and mostly oral. It used medicinal plants as symbols for coinage purposes. The streets of ancient Rome were filled with bankers. Graffiti on the walls of Pompeii was an evidence of early sales promotion. The hawkers employed oral publicity – “Buy catifish, Wool rags”, and so on. Early advertising was employed in three forms, viz., town criers, signs and trademarks.
Town criers were herein for circulating the news about a king or a businessman. The spoken word was the most effective medium of advertising. Signboards were also used to advertise certain goods, and communicate news and messages. The wares and walls were the bases of advertisements. Different shops had their identities displayed on their fronts.
Trade marks were used to identify quality goods and products. The guild system gave legal protection to certain types of products. They were known as quality products. Non-members were punished if they used the trademarks of the guild. Production became increasingly centralised and the market developed a distinct identity with the use of trademarks.
Producers and marketers acquired these trademarks as assets of their products. Many products developed on the basis of oral announcements, signboards and trademarks.
The printed advertisement first appeared in 1473 in England. William Caxton printed and distributed handbills to potential buyers. The first printed English newspaper, “The Weekly News” was published in 1622 by Nicholos Bourne and Thomas Archer. The first advertisement of Mercurius Britannicus appeared in 1625.
The printing medium became an important vehicle for the gradual growth and development of advertising. Newspaper publications were in the form of announcements. The first advertisements were made for coffee in 1652 and for chocolate in 1657. Public advertisements appeared in the “Boston News Letter” in 1704.
Competitive advertising made its appearance in 1710. The advertisements attempted to convince readers of the quality and price of the medicine advertised. In America, advertising was resorted to on a major scale when Benjamin Franklin, known as the father of advertising, published the “Pennsylvania Gazette” in 1929 in which wine, tea, chocolate, quills and many other articles were advertised.
Franklin innovated newspaper advertising and developed it in his capacity as advertising manager, salesman, publisher and editor. In England, too, advertisements of coffee, tea, books, medicines, chocolate, etc., were very common at that time.
The government levied a tax on every advertisement in England. People were drawn towards advertisements. Printed advertisements appeared regularly from the mid-eighteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Samuel Johnson declared that printed advertising had progressed to a high level at that time.
He said that the public was in many cases deluded by these advertisements. Classified advertisements were inserted by experts in the different areas of production. Personal advertisement became common in the beginning of the nineteenth century.
3. Development of Modern Advertising:
English and American advertisers developed the modern form of advertising. Socio-economic development contributed significantly to the growth of modern advertising. The Industrial Revolution, the expansion of the communication and transportation systems and of education, the growth of newspapers and magazines – all these contributed to the development of advertising.
The invention of steam power propelled the wheels of development and mass production. Advertisers used sideboards as a form of advertising. Mass production called for extensive marketing practices, for which advertising became essential. Since several media of advertisement were available, advertising developed tremendously.
The development of communication media assisted in the expansion of advertising. New products were advertised in newspapers, communication vehicles, side boards and many other media of communication. Advertising also contributed to industrial growth because the cheapest and easiest mode of transportation, raw materials, machines, processes and new markets could be made known to the manufacturer, the marketer and the buyer.
The expansion and modernisation of railways, road transport, airlines and waterways facilitated economic development, which called for effective modes of advertising. Education and understanding of the people assisted in the development of communication and advertising.
The growth of newspapers and magazines contributed to the development of modern advertising. A large number of newspapers and magazines survived on advertising. There were 2,400 newspapers and magazines in the USA in 1880, which contributed to the development of advertising.
The modern advertising agency has developed because of the specialised demands of advertising. Communication has now become a specialised area of management. It requires specialised thinking, message, mode and management techniques. The earliest advertising agent was Volney Palmer, who began his business in 1840 in America. He was a prominent member of the advertising world, a skilled copywriter and a productive source of advertising.
Later, George P. Rowell joined the business and improved advertising methods. He developed a list of advertising newspapers and other media of communication. More agents entered the business and helped publishers and advertisers to arrive at fruitful agreements.
The end of the nineteenth century witnessed the development of the advertising agency, which assisted in the sophisticated development of advertising and marketing.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, advertising became bold and vigorous. In America, Walter Thompson and Wayland Ayer continued as advertising agencies because of their contributions to the advertising world. Psychologists developed their models to help advertisers.
In the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century, advertising developed as salesmanship. Advertising researches became important for a particular type of advertisement.
Advertisers adopted the electronic media for their functions in the beginning of the twentieth century. With the invention of the wireless by Marconi in 1865, radio advertisements became popular from 1920. The first commercial application of radio broadcasting was in 1920. There were about 30 radio stations by 1922, which increased to more than seven thousand radio stations in the USA.
Television became a major source of advertising in 1950. It has become a more popular medium of advertising today in almost all the countries because of its advantages of visual and oral presentation. Audiences are influenced by the sound and vision of televised advertising. The use of colour television in 1960 has accelerated the development of advertising.
What is Advertising – Concepts
Advertising is one of the four methods of promotion, viz., sales promotion, personal selling, public relations and advertising. Advertising is a non-personal communication of a sales message. It is also known as mass selling. It is not as effective as personal selling but it does facilitate communication with a large number of potential buyers at a time.
“It consists of non-personal forms of communication conducted through paid media under clear sponsorship”. Advertising is aimed at a group of persons and not at an individual. But it is not for the whole general public because all the members of a society do not make up the target group. Many may not be in the habit of purchasing advertised goods.
The message of advertising is designed to arouse the demand of the target group. It becomes specific to the group but is a general mass communication with all the persons in the group, i.e., and potential customers. The communication may take the form of visual or oral messages for the purpose of informing and influencing the public, i.e., the target group.
Advertising is a commercial transaction involving payment to a third party, i.e., one or more of the media. Advertising is paid communication because the organisation for whom the advertisement is made pays the fees and charges for the services rendered by various media.
What is Advertising – Nature: Element of Marketing Mix, Promotion Mix, Mass Communication, Messages, Target Group and a Few Others
Advertising is a process which gives information to the public about the product. It is an element of the marketing mix and a part of promotion activities. It is mass communication of messages bearing on goods and services. It is paid publicity sponsored by the advertiser. It is persuasive, controlled, identifiable, and influences the targeted audience.
Advertising is an important component of the marketing mix. It is a sort of marketing promotion. But many people consider it as synonymous with marketing. Price, product, promotion and physical distribution are the four main elements in marketing. Advertising is a part of the promotion mix, which is a significant tool of marketing management.
Unless the promotion mix is effectively done, the other elements of marketing, viz., price, product and physical distribution, cannot achieve their respective objectives. The target group is to be informed about the product made, its quality and price.
2. Promotion Mix:
Advertising is an essential element in the promotion mix. Personal selling, sales promotion, publicity and advertising are the four elements in the promotion mix. Advertising has been considered as the most effective method of promotion, for it creates demand, stimulates sales, and reaches customers quickly and effectively.
An advertisement is mass communication, while the other media of promotion are individual communication or face-to-face communication. Personal selling involves carrying the message of the product to consumers by individual salesmen with a view to influencing them to purchase the product.
Sales promotion includes the technique of motivating customers to purchase by way of cash discount, tax deductions, free items and other incentive prizes. Advertising carries only the message and creates demand. It touches the inner part of the desire to persuade people to buy the articles. Publicity is not paid for by the sponsor, but advertising is paid communication. Publicity is personal and is not always identifiable with the sponsor.
Mass communication is the basic purpose of advertising. It informs not one person but a group of persons who may be expected to purchase the article. The mass communication media such as – radio, television, newspapers, billboards and magazines, etc., are used for advertising purposes.
Print media have been adopted in many countries for mass communication. Electronic devices are now becoming more popular for advertising purposes. Television has been one of the most useful methods of advertising.
An advertisement carries a message which motivates and inspires customers to purchase a particular product. It gives information on the attributes of the goods and services advertised. The “voice” and “sight” combine together make the message very effective. Colour plays an important role in carrying the messages.
Advertising activity is undertaken by some advertising agencies which charge the price of advertising. Some advertising may be done on the basis of personal agreements, but here, too, payment is made, though indirectly. In other forms of promotion, the promotion mix is done generally by the producer or marketer. Space, time, language, etc., are sold by advertising agencies.
An advertisement is sponsored by some identified advertiser, disclosing ideas, messages and information.
The advertising message is persuasive and informative enough to motivate potential customers. It is only when it is persuasive and creative that it would increase sales. The advertiser provides information to the prospects who are willing to purchase his goods and services.
This is the most efficient means of reaching people. It has been pointed out that success in business depends on persuasion. Advertising informs, entertains and ultimately persuades a group or society to purchase the advertised products. Persuasion is an essential factor in advertising, for if an ad does not persuade, the message will be merely a piece of information.
The time, place, message and direction of advertising are controlled to make them effective and purposive. The selection of the medium, message and time is carefully done to achieve the most economical results. The controlled element distinguishes an advertisement from publicity because, in the latter case, the control technique is not adopted; but in the former case, the control function is a vital necessity.
Advertising is identifiable from the sponsor’s point of view as well as from the audience’s point of view. The message and presentation should be recognised by receivers or customers.
Advertising aims at a target group. Although it does not distinguish between target and non-target group, it is designed to influence the target group. The desire, purchasing power, status, entertainment elements and attractiveness to suit the target group are considered while framing an advertisement.
What is Advertising – 2 Major Functions: Primary Functions and Secondary Functions
Advertising aims at fulfilling a variety of different purposes which depend upon the needs of the particular enterprise as determined by a painstaking analysis.
These purposes or functions may be classified as:
1. Primary and
2. Secondary.
1. Primary Functions:
Among the primary functions the following purposes are more important:
i. To help increase sales – The chief aim of advertising is to make its contribution to the consummation of a sale of the advertiser’s product.
ii. To secure dealers – More dealers can be persuaded to stock the goods by advertising in trade press. This makes far wider distribution of goods.
iii. To help the dealer – Dealers are materially assisted by the manufacturer’s advertising. The very advertising which is designed to help the manufacturer also seem to assist the retailer by clearing his shelves and increasing his turnover.
iv. To increase use per capita – Constant repetition of the darable features of a product tends to increase the consumption per capita, and advertising if effectively used to increase the consumption per capita by describing the uses for articles of which the consumer is unaware.
v. To relate new products to existing ones – Advertising aims to relate a new product, or a new model or form of a familiar product to a name for which prestige has been firmly established.
vi. To create insurance – Advertising creates insurance for the manufacturer’s business. Through advertising of trade names or the general appearance of the package and so goodwill is established, and a kind of trade insurance is effected. This makes the manufacturer more independent of wholesalers and retailers.
vii. To create confidence in quality – The buyer of nationally advertising goods believes, because pf his past experience, that if the manufacturer advertises that his goods are of a certain quality, they will be found as advertised. Advertising also cultivates brand and company image.
viii. To eliminate seasonal fluctuations – Advertising has, in many- instances, eliminated or lessened seasonal fluctuations.
ix. To keep the customer sold – One who is satisfied with a particular product is kept “sold” by advertising so that when the time comes to replace it, he will most likely go in for the same make or brand.
x. To create more business for all – Competitive advertising of two or more manufacturers in the same field expands market; and creates more business for all. This is exemplified by the fact that not only the use of a particular brand of an article, say, a portable typewriter, is recommended but the use of the article is, vigorously suggested, with the result that more typewriters of different makes are being sold.
xi. To raise the standard of living – In the raising of standard of living advertising deserves some credit. It is helping to stimulate desire for better things. Many of the so-called luxuries of yesterday are today’s necessities, and the things enjoyed today exclusively by the wealthy may tomorrow be enjoyed by those of smaller incomes. Advertising, in spreading the news and increasing the desire for better things and, in many cases, decreasing costs, has rendered great service to humanity.
2. Secondary Functions:
In addition to the primary functions detailed above, many advertisers have come to attach importance to certain other functions which are classed as secondary although at times some of those may assume primary role.
The secondary functions are as follows:
i. To encourage salesmen and lend them moral support – Very often advertising supply the necessary encouragement to a salesman who finds himself face to face with a difficult buyer. It is much easier for a salesman to sell advertised goods, because part of the selling has already been done for him. Also, manufacturers who advertise can usually get salesmen of better calibre than those who do not.
ii. To furnish information to salesmen and dealers – Advertisements usually are mines of information for salesmen and dealers and many times serve as a check upon erroneous or extravagant claims. The printed word is the manufacturer’s guarantee.
iii. To impress executives – The effect on the executives and administrative staff of company may become important. While dealing with the public, the executives become more enthusiastic over the product every time they read one of the advertisements.
iv. To impress factory workers – There is often a good effect on workers who work in the factory producing advertised goods. The workers consciously or unconsciously take pride in helping to produce something that is known far and wide. The knowledge that what they produce has wide acceptance tends to make the work less grinding and monotonous.
v. To create a feeling of security – Goodwill gained by advertising is a present asset and an insurance for the future. It means steady work and consequent prosperity. There is a feeling that the job is permanent and that as the business grows the chances of promotion will be much greater.
vi. To secure better employees – Advertising tend to make it possible for manufacturers to secure better executives, better salesmen and even better factory workers. It is natural to be identified with a widely known company whose advertising is alert and aggressive.
To sum up, advertising at committing the producer, educating the consumer, supplement the salesman, converting the dealer to eliminate the competitor, but above all, it is a link between the producer and the consumer.
Properly used, advertising can perform the following functions:
i. It can bring down selling expenses by reaching large number of prospects at the same time and at low cost;
ii. It will go to prospects who usually refuse to see salesman;
iii. It makes the product known widely;
iv. It helps to create new markets;
v. It helps to keep up a steady demand;
vi. It helps to build up company’s reputation and give it an image;
vii. It helps manufacturers to recruit the best available talent;
viii. Advertising is a powerful weapon in the hands of a new manufacturer to establish himself in a market dominated by large, long-established firms who are too complacent to undertake systematic advertising.
The very essence of advertising is that it is an instrument of competition. Competition and advertising move together.
What is Advertising – Economic Benefits
Advertising is now an accepted power in the business world. It has become a great social force. While it involves Expenditure, businessmen all over the world have found that advertising helps manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to increase sales, and insofar as it does this, it helps to increase production.
Advertising helps to increase distribution. It brings before the public the advantages of buying the goods and services offered. It awakens new desires and inspires consumers to work harder to earn more money to satisfy these new desires. It spreads information speedily about new products and helps to enrich our lives.
But who pays the cost of advertising? The consumer, of course. In fact, he pays everything. Who else is there to pay? He pays the manufacturing cost, Central and State taxes, overhead, salesman’s remuneration, manufacturers’, wholesalers and retailers profits, transport charges and all other costs, including advertising.
Therefore, what the Consumer (and we are all consumers) would really be interested to know is, “Could I have bought my commodities more cheaply had they not been advertised”? Judged from the experience of everyone, the answer obviously is “No, Certainly not”! Advertising is an important factor which sets the virtuous circle in motion.
The advertiser invests his money to tell you about his products. If what he tells you is helpful, you respond, and he prospers. But he gets his reward only to the extent he benefits you, the consumer. By spreading knowledge far and wide, advertising helps the manufacturer to increase his sale and reduce his cost of production through larger production per unit and lower price to the consumer.
In addition to those direct benefits, there are several incidental benefits of advertising. It subsidises newspaper and magazines and this makes them cheaper for the reading public. It makes the country brighter.
What is Advertising – Testing the Advertisement
There is necessarily a great amount of inefficiency in advertising. So many things are unknown and many cannot be found. Still the advertiser wants to know how far his advertising has been effective. Over the years a variety of measures have been developed and used for testing the effectiveness before and after publication.
There are indeed four stages of copy research, namely:
(a) Research prior to the development of the advertising;
(b) Research during the development of the advertising;
(c) Pre-testing of advertisements;
(d) Posts testing of advertisements.
The research prior to the development of the advertising concerns both the development of the advertising ideas and the evaluation of these ideas. There is continuous analysis of past experience in the search for guiding principles.
Secondly, the research during the development of the advertising essentially is the evaluation of the advertising idea in rough form. Scientifically planned consumer surveys make it possible to obtain advertising guidance through consumer contacts.
Thirdly, the pretesting of the advertising consists of research on a print advertisement or a commercial before it is run. This includes measurement of various consumer responses after new advertisements are prepared, but before money has been spent to circulate them. It is important to discover if there are any weaknesses and to make revisions in advance.
Fourthly, the post-testing of advertising is research on the effectiveness of the advertisement or commercial, or campaign, after it has run. Various techniques are used to check up on the effectiveness of current advertisements and to enlarge the rules to be applied to similar future advertising situations. Too many businessmen think that comparative sales results are the only check on advertising effectiveness.
If sales during and after a campaign are higher than before it is easy to assume that advertising had an effect on the increase in sales – and vice versa. But this does not distinguish between the success of advertising in different media or of different approaches used in campaign or of other variables affecting sales.
Post-testing of advertisement may be in the following ways – Direct Mail test, where large numbers of mailing pieces are to be sent out, only a small number is sent out first as a trial. If sales are satisfactory it is reasonable to suppose that they will be so for a large number. In Testing by window Display, the article is displayed in the windows of several stores for some time and sales are recorded.
Then the advertisement appears in the press or commercial and is tied up with the article in the window and on the counter. If the sales go up, the advertisement is successful. Another method is ‘split run’ test. Some magazines and newspapers allow the publication of different advertisements for the same product in different number of copies. In all split run tests, keyed coupons are used so that the advertiser can tell which advertisement pulled best. Keying up is a good method in mail order selling.
What is Advertising – Distrust of Advertising
Until recent times, advertising was looked upon with suspicion. This is because the patent medicine people, who were the first to advertise, sold rivers of tonics and mountains of pills, good, bad and indifferent. Some of these people were dishonest men and advertising got a bad start, and came to be adversely criticised. We give below the main criticisms and try to answer them.
It is alleged:
1. That advertising is unnecessary and wasteful. But if it were so, businessmen would have given it up in favour of some other selling aid.
2. That through it people are induced to buy worthless products and it promotes quackery, particularly in the sale of patent medicines and cosmetics. Now, the law takes care of such people under the MRTP Act relating to unfair trade practices.
3. That much advertising is misleading and untruthful. But this does not last long because of the MRTP Act.
4. That advertising causes people to want things they cannot afford. At times this accusation is true. But if we want civilisation to progress, then we must enable the succeeding generations to have more comforts, new forms of recreation and finer emotional experiences in life. New desires can best be met with the help of advertising.
5. That advertising just takes business from one concern and gives it to another. This criticism is based on the fallacious assumption that purchasing power is a static quantity like seats in a cinema hall. Actually, the quantity of goods and services that people can buy in a year depends not only on the quantity of purchasing power but also on the rapidity of turnover. Advertising speeds up the turnover of trade, and the result is a greater annual volume of individual purchases.
6. That advertising increases the cost of goods to the consumer. This allegation is not correct. The contrary is more true; effective advertising tends to lower the prices to the consumer.
7. That advertising tends to create semi-monopoly for branded goods. This criticism is baseless, because monopoly through advertising is not possible in a competitive market. Advertising, on the contrary, stimulates competition.
8. That the large sums of money spent for advertising are appalling. Although the total amount of money spent on advertising may be very large, the advertising expenditure as percentage of sales price is hardly more than one percent.
Advertising can be justified economically and socially. It needs defence only to those who do not appreciate its contributions and to those who do not understand many of the problems the advertiser is facing and sincerely trying to solve. The old code of business of caveat emptor does not govern advertising today. Caveat emptor has been replaced by Caveat Vendor, and the seller must beware of making promises in his advertising which he cannot fulfill.
Today, the right thinking advertisers are constantly striving to make the message truthful and believable. Advertising these days is made factual, informative and educative with a view to rendering maximum helpful service.
What is Advertising – Advertising Accountability
There is, of course, no room for dishonesty in advertising, and advertisers should be prepared fully to document any statements of fact they make about their product or service. Critics of advertising usually concede the importance of informational advertising, but attack persuasion strategy on the grounds that it talks people into buying things they don’t want or need or that it misrepresents the benefits one actually received.
To gain an understanding of the value of persuasion advertising, one must recognize that human needs are often conceptual in nature, not materialistic. Quoting Theodore Levitt – “The human audience demands” symbolic interpretation in everything it sees and knows. Without symbolism life would be even more confusing and anxiety-ridden than it is with it.
The product is not what the engineer explicitly says it is, but what the consumer implicitly demands that it shall be. Thus, the consumer consumes not things but expected benefits—not cosmetics, but the satisfactions of the allurements they promise; not quarter-inch drills, but quarter-inch holes etc.
Thus, rather than misrepresenting products or services, persuasion advertising should enable the consumer to perceive products and services as fulfilling various needs he might otherwise overlook.
What is Advertising – Client / Agency Relationships in Advertising
1. Compensation:
For the most part, clients compensate their advertising agencies on an illogical basis. Although the agency reports to the client and must gain client approval of all its recommendations, and is very often held responsible for the sales performance, the agency is paid for its services by the media. Furthermore, this compensation fluctuates with the media budget—typically 15% of space and time billings—which may or may not have anything to do with the agency’s performance.
The agency fee system is a more logical answer to this obviously unstable 15% media-commissioned system. The fee is a negotiated contract, usually based upon the historical compensation that the agency has expected, and is related to the tasks to be accomplished. Working under the fee system, the agency is free objectively to analyze a given marketing problem without biasing its judgment in favor of increased advertising spending.
2. How to Work with Your Agency:
Effective advertising is a unique combination of business science and art form. The agency will perform most effectively when the business aspects are highly disciplined by the client and the creative execution is left to the agency. This means that your agency should demonstrate a thorough knowledge of your business. The client, on the other hand, must make this happen by freely discussing both short- and long- range marketing plans and sharing all sales data regarding performances and projections.
The agency is then held responsible for a written statement of what the advertising should accomplish and how it will be done. This document is usually called the Creative Strategy and should contain the Objective of the advertising, the Target Audience, the Buying Incentive (or “Reason Why”) and the Totality of the advertising.
When this statement has been agreed to by the client and agency, all creative submissions should be evaluated only by the criteria of the written statement. Creative judgments should be left to the agency. In a similar manager the agency should prepare written strategies for media and sales promotion. If an advertiser needs only some marketing advice and a few ads and commercials, he can get high-caliber work at a reduced cost. However, most large advertisers will continue to require the range of services offered by large agencies.
In addition, the international advertiser will most often find his needs best served by the large international agency that can coordinate worldwide marketing efforts through a network of offices and local agency affiliations.
What is Advertising – Advertising Research: Development of Creative Strategy and Pretesting Individual Advertisement
The function of advertising research is first to provide maximum input to the creative people, and then to reduce the number of alternative strategies which inevitably develop as the creative process unfolds.
1. Development of Creative Strategy:
In the first stage, research can provide basic intelligence about motivations and needs. The research techniques used include qualitative analysis of competitive advertising, focus-group and individual depth interviews among consumers representative of the users of the product category, and thorough research of existing secondary source material.
Once alternative creative strategies have been developed, research aids in isolating the one strategy likely to have the greatest leverage with the consumer. The techniques typically include individual or group interviews, concept tests with or without advertising roughs, etc.
2. Pretesting Individual Advertisement:
The objective is to determine the strongest execution of a given creative strategy. For print advertisements, this is frequently accomplished through the placement of the test ad(s) in a portfolio of control advertisements, or in a dummy magazine. A sample of consumers is exposed to the portfolio or magazine, and subsequently questioned on a variety of criteria.
For television commercials, pretesting can be accomplished by substituting test commercials for regularly scheduled commercials in a number of markets, and then conducting telephone interviews with a sample of viewers of the respective television programs. Alternative techniques include the screening of test commercials with sample groups in theaters, in mobile vans or storefronts located in shopping centers, or by screening the commercials on portable motive projectors in respondents’ homes.
Frequently, tests conducted in shopping centers include the added refinement of distributing “cents off” coupons to the consumers exposed to the various test commercials. Subsequent coupon redemptions provide a behavioral measure of the relative effectiveness of the commercial tested.
What is Advertising – Types of Advertising Media: Television, Magazines, Newspapers, Radio and Media Buying Services
In recent years, media planning and media buying have become increasingly important and complex. During the past decade audience data have proliferated—specifically magazines and televisions. The major services, American Research Bureau (ARB) and Nielsen for TV, and Simmons and Brand Rating Index (BRI) primarily for magazines, have made it possible more clearly to pinpoint demographic target audiences and product users through media selection.
Thanks to computerization, it is now possible to retrieve these data and analyze them to select media. The computer has been used not only for the purpose of data retrieval, but also for simulation techniques (setting up a model that simulates the universe) and optimization in media selection (the combination of media elements that best satisfy the objectives). Because the costs of media are increasing, planning is critical to ensure a minimum of wasted advertising effort.
There are five major media, all of which have experienced major changes during recent years:
1. Television:
Television trends are:
(i) TV is a nature medium, with penetration of 98%. The percentage of homes owning color TV sets has now increased until it is almost 83% of TV homes. The total number of TV stations exceed 750.
(ii) Greatest growth is expected in cable. There are over 4,000 cable systems now serving 14 million homes (19% of all TV homes). By 1990, cable penetration is expected to be 45%.
(iii) New technology like communication satellites that feed programming from distant points has already spurred the development of satellite networks and alternative program suppliers in competition with the currently existing three networks.
(iv) TV is moving to a more personalized medium with growing acceptance in the future of programming supplied on video cassettes and video discs. Pay cable may erode network TV viewing levels by 1990 by an estimated 10%.
(v) Despite pressure of increased costs to use TV, the basic advertising unit continues to be a 30-second commercial. No trend is discerned in the use of shorter length commercials because of fear of erosion of effectiveness.
2. Magazines:
Magazine trends are:
(i) Magazines increase cover prices to consumers and continue escalating space rates to advertisers because of inflationary costs of paper, printing, and subscription mailing.
(ii) Increased availability of small-circulation specialized consumer magazines to reach and segment upscale selective audiences.
These consumer magazines fall within three categories-
(a) Avocational magazines – Ski, Golf, Popular Photography.
(b) General Editorial, Harper’s, Atlantic, Saturday Review, Reader’s Digest.
(c) Metropolitan – New York, Chicago, L.A.
In addition to the above of course are the traditional specialized trade and professional publications.
(iii) Advertising flexibility in terms of shorter closing, regional and demographic flexibility to continue as magazines offer greater availability of standard size 7-in by 10-in page.
(iv) Trend toward reducing charges for bleed as more magazines move toward computerized printing using of set and gravure reproduction on lighter paper.
(v) Cost experimentation with alternate distribution methods, e.g., newspaper carriers, to help keep advertising costs down and in line with other media efficiencies. Greater reliance on newsstand and supermarket distribution.
3. Newspapers:
Basic trends in the newspaper industry are:
(i) Daily newspaper circulation during the past ten years has grown at a much slower rate than the general population.
(ii) Non-dailies (i.e., weekly suburban and shoppers) have increased circulation at a faster pace than metro dailies.
(iii) Ability to utilize color via ROP (Run of Press), Spot Color, HiFi, Spectacolor, is growing, but fastest growing segment of the newspaper medium is the pre-printed insert which now totals about 30 billion.
(iv) Newspapers are providing more opportunity to provide greater reader selectivity through special editorial sections on living, food, sports, etc., greater reliance on features, and emphasis on state and local news. Geographic flexibility via availability of zoned editions.
(v) Newspapers, in an effort to increase national advertiser usage, are now offering continuity rates and standardized fixed size ads to avoid increased production costs of material required by different newspaper formats.
4. Radio:
Trends in radio are:
(i) Radio has become a highly personalized medium because of the emergence of the portable transistor radio.
(ii) Radio has shifted from the all-family/all-entertainment medium to a “casual listening” background medium.
(iii) Eight thousand radio stations have become highly selective in appealing to different consumer demographic audiences by programming varied music offerings from disco, rock to classical music preferences, and all news.
(iv) FM radio has exploded into a mass audience medium with listening levels now exceeding AM.
(v) Technological developments on the horizon for radio include satellite transmission (RKO radio network), stereophonic (AM), and quadrophonic sound (FM).
Media buying services buy broadcast time for an advertiser or an agency’s client(s) and receive remuneration in the form of an agreed-upon fee, or the difference between an advertiser’s planned expenditures versus actual expenditures by the buying service in satisfying a client’s advertising support levels.
The services’ degree of success is dependent upon a number of factors:
(i) The ability of their personnel to negotiate for broadcast time.
(ii) The inability of agency media departments to get the most for their money.
(iii) The emergence of small agencies, specializing in creative output, that are unwilling to assume the financial overhead required by an in-house media staff.
The buying service phenomenon, like that of the in-house agency, has crested. Agencies have increased their buying capability and controls. The greater sophistication of advertiser and more agency accountability have enabled agencies to help sell their media expertise to advertisers. Additionally, financial failures such as those by Media Corporation of America and Air Time have served to remind advertisers of the fiscal responsibility of agencies and the risk of double liability.
What is Advertising – Results
Every advertising message has different results among its receivers. Each ad plays many different roles, simultaneously contributing too many of the firm’s goals. The roles of advertising as a means of attaining certain desired ends in a business enterprise. In this example, top management’s principal end is to increase profits by reducing costs or increasing sales. Here we shall concentrate on “increase sales.”
Marketing has four alternative means for reaching its end – the “Four Ps of Marketing”—product, price, and promotion. Our concern is with the fourth P.
The marketing means of improving promotion automatically become an end for the sales manager, the sales promotion manager, and the advertising manager.
Translated into their own areas of responsibility, the three ends are – (1) Improve personal selling, (2) Improve sales promotion, and (3) Improve advertising.
Five strategy areas are available to improve advertising – (1) Copy, (2) Media, (3) Budget, (4) Size Vs. frequency, and (5) Timing.
Copy as used here refers to all of the physical elements in the finished advertisements—not only the words in headline, text, and script, but also layout, artwork, photographic and film techniques, animations, and sound effects. Media strategy variables are the alternative offerings of magazines, newspapers, broadcast stations or networks, outdoor and car-card representatives, and direct-mail services. Budget strategy may be varied in absolute amounts or by share of product-class or industry advertising expenditures.
Within a given media mix at a given cost, the advertiser must decide such size-frequency strategy questions as – Shall he use ten daytime sixty-second TV commercials per week, or fewer, more expensive commercials in prime evening time? Double spreads every other issue, vs. a full page in each issue? Timing or continuity strategy determines the period within a year during which the advertising shall be exposed.
What is Advertising – Goals: Advertising Memory Response, Brand Image Response, Marketing Environment Response, Sales Response and Profit Response
It is impossible to assign to advertising specific communications tasks that are separate from marketing goals. Thus, rather than having its own goals, advertising has a continuing responsibility to learn more about the ability of advertising to serve as a means of attaining higher-order company goals.
For example, can advertising be used to increase distribution? Will a consumer contest increase market share? Is it possible to change the coverage or frequently of the media schedule to increase incremental profit? For every product or brand there are literally hundreds of unanswered questions such as these.
A complete marketing plan calls for an integrated marketing attach, with advertising, personal selling, and sales promotion all striving for the same goals (e.g., more distribution more displays, more shelf facings) as a means for marketing management to attain its end of increased sales.
One of the ways of varying promotion strategy is to vary advertising strategy.
The resulting marketplace outputs may be conveniently classified under the following “response” headings:
(1) Advertising Memory Response,
(2) Brand Image Response,
(3) Marketing Environment Response,
(4) Sales Response, and
(5) Profit Response.
(1) Advertising Memory Response:
The most frequently measured result of advertising is the memory of the advertisement itself. This may be measured by the recognition method in which the ad itself is used to stimulate memory of it, or measurement may be by the limited exposure tachistoscopic technique or the aided recall method.
(2) Brand Image Response:
The differing mental pictures of the company, brand, product, or service form a continuum running from awareness through beliefs to intention. A prospective customer can have brand awareness of high or low saliency. High saliency is tough to be indicated by the response to a question of the type, “What brand to you think of when I mention ‘cigarettes’?” This response, or top-of-mind awareness, is a composite effect of all previous message received about the brand, plus the experience of use, if any.
Beliefs may be expressed as specific product attributes stated by respondents or classified by the interviewer’s assessment of the amount of information possessed by respondents. Beliefs can also be expressed as semantic differentials along a peasant-unpleasant scale. Intention may be defined as a “predisposition to act”—to buy or recommend a product.
(3) Marketing Environment Response:
It is in the changing of the surrounding conditions or influences that lead to sales, that advertising can often make its greatest contribution. Sales miracles can occasionally happen when a product is offered for a different end use (as occurred dramatically when Listerine advertising was switched from offering the product as a household antiseptic, to advertising it as a mouthwash to prevent “halitosis”.)
Similarly, pricing, packaging and display strategies, and the advertising of special offers can often cause larger units of sale, with a consequent increase in consumption rate. Advertising can affect timing of purchase. Consumer desire for the newest model or current fashion is a powerful environmental effect. Upgrading is an important response to advertising, e.g., buying the new car with accessories that have been made essential.
Other environmental responses afflicted by advertising are increased distribution, increased product display and dealer promotion, and increased store traffic. (Examples of the last-named are sweepstakes which only require visiting a dealer to qualify for a chance to win a prize, and contests which call for getting entry blanks at the point of sale.) Inquiries developed through advertising are important sales leads.
(4) Sales Response:
Variations in total sales volume and in sales share are widely used measures of marketing success. Two specific sales effects of particular interest are variations in trial purchases and repeat purchases. The former should be a focal point for advertising management’s attention. Repeat purchases are primarily the result of satisfactory product experience, although the reminder effect of advertising does influence rebuying.
(5) Profit Response:
The profit contribution of advertising expenditures is, of course, the most difficult to measure of all marketplace outcomes. The most appropriate measure is some form of incremental profit caused by advertising, i.e., the difference in the firm’s total profits with and without the advertising cost. This is difficult to do, but not always impossible.
What is Advertising – Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages:
(i) It helps the manufacturer to introduce a new product smoothly by providing information to the target audience.
(ii) Improves the sales of the product.
(iii) Leads to increase in demand for the product.
(iv) Creation of goodwill and build brand image.
(v) Acts as a vehicle of communication between the producer and the consumer.
(vi) Many employment opportunities have been created in the advertisement field.
(vii) The advertising industry is rapidly growing and contributing to the national progress.
(viii) Helps the customer in making purchase decisions by providing him information about various goods.
Disadvantages:
(i) It is a wasteful, expensive and unnecessary activity that does not create any tangible good.
(ii) Some advertisers mislead the public by providing wrong information.
(iii) Advertisements encourage materialism and lead to loss of moral values.
(iv) Advertisements restrict competition and encourage monopoly.
(v) It increases the cost of the final product.
(vi) Advertisements have a negative impact on youth and children.