An introduction...
Advertising is the business of selling a product, service or idea to an audience. Huge advertising agencies make vast amounts of money creating adverts for companies and then distributing or broadcasting them. One of the largest advertising corporations is Saatchi & Saatchi.
Brief definition
Advertising is a persuasive way of communicating a message to a large number of people, known as a mass audience. For a communication to be advertising it has to be:
• paid for
• communicating to a mass audience
• trying to persuade that audience to buy or do something.
It is in the manner of the persuading that is important in advertising. In order to be effective advertising has to communicate a message successfully, and there has to be an interactive process with the audience. If the message is effective, the audience receives the message. The purpose of advertising is to communicate an effective message which stimulates the desired action – usually a purchase of some sort.
Advertising is a non-personal form of promotion that is delivered through the media. The effect of advertising as a method of mass promotion is that a single message can reach a large number of people. There are two types of advertising:
1. Mass Market Advertising
Mass market advertising is aimed at reaching the largest number of people, but does not always reach the desired target audience. This is can be an efficient use of promotional resources, if the message needs to communicate to a mass audience.
2. Niche Market Advertising
This is where the target market is carefully selected for age, gender, social status and other relevant factors. The advertising is aimed just at that target audience.
The importance of advertising...
Advertising is important throughout the world because a great deal of money is spent marketing products, and the advertising industry supports a lot of jobs. An often quoted statistic by market research firm ZenithOptimedia estimates that worldwide spending on advertising exceeds (US) $400 billion. Well over £13 billion will be spent by the advertising industry this year in the UK in making advertisements and by the media in buying them.
This level of spending supports thousands of companies and millions of jobs. In many countries television, radio and newspapers are in business because of revenue generated through the sale of advertising.
The purpose of advertising...
Almost every business needs to promote itself in some way, reaching out to customers and potential customers. For businesses with large numbers of customers in well-defined market areas, advertising is often a cost-effective way of communicating with them.
The aim of most advertising is to increase sales. Advertising includes promotional activities, and these may focus on intermediate objectives which make sales easier at the end of the day.
The promotional objectives of advertising can be summed up in the acronym SMART: Specific - Measurable - Agreed - Realistic - Time Limited.
The effectiveness of promotional campaigns can be measured against these objectives. In other words it is possible to see if the advert works.
Advertising needs to be specific in what it is trying to do. It should be possible to measure the response to the advertisement , perhaps by increased sales or increased interest in the product.
The objectives of the advertisement must be agreed by everyone involved. In a big company this means all department associated with the product. In a small company it means that the person answering the phone must know about the advertisement, and that it is airing on television or radio, so that any questions can be properly answered.
The expected results of the advertising campaign must be realistic.
The campaign has to run for an agreed length of time, so that it is time–limited.
Advertising can do many different things...
1. It can create awareness of something, or change customer attitudes
2. it can create a reputation as the market leader for a product which may eventually allow the company to increase prices
3. It can create and build brand awareness – for example Coca Cola – which makes the product easier to sell and makes consumers feel good about the product
4. It can send out a specific one-off message to a particular market such as informing people of a special offer or a sale
5. It can prompt a specific action such as stimulating the customer to visit a website or car showroom. The customer leaves their contact details and this helps to build a customer database.
6. It can keep ‘front-of-mind’ awareness of a product which encourages customers to keep this product in mind – the AA does this with its advertising campaign about ‘you need a friend’. You do not need a car break down service very often, but when you do the advertisement encourages you to think of the AA first
7. It can inform the market that a new product is available - this is probably the oldest form of advertising.
8. It can hard sell a product – ‘come down to this furniture store now for amazing deals’.
All media carry advertising except the BBC. In other countries like Australia the public service broadcaster does have limited advertisements.
Where to advertise...
A company has to decide what media will best reach the target market for the product they are advertising. Advertising is only cost-effective if it reaches an audience which significantly overlaps with the target audience.