Defining Characteristics of Advertising

Advertising stands apart from various forms of 'marketing communications' due to its extensive presence in the daily lives of the general populace. People often come across job opportunities and homes through newspaper ads. They can effortlessly remember commercials for products such as the breakfast cereal they consumed in the morning, the brand of toothpaste they used, and the car they drove to work.

When individuals want to sell items like an outdated computer or an old bicycle, they frequently put forth a 'small ad' in a newspaper or magazine. Consequently, the notion of 'advertising' is widely comprehended, and people typically do not seek a formal definition for it.

Nevertheless, over time, as the fields of management science, media technology, and economic development have advanced, formal explanations of advertising have grown in number. These explanations mirror the viewpoints of diverse authors from domains such as communications, marketing, economics, and sociology.

Bernstein (1974) famously asserted that 'advertising is advocacy,' and one could additionally observe that it imparts advice, albeit with a biased perspective. Two more traditional textbook definitions are as follows: 'the practice encompassing any compensated approach to presenting and promoting ideas, products, or services in an impersonal manner, sponsored by an identifiable entity,' and 'a form of mass communication that is impersonal and financially supported by a recognized sponsor.'

These four distinctive characteristics that define the output of an advertiser were formalized in the early phases of marketing as a quasi-science: it encompasses an impersonal message aimed at endorsing something, officially funded by an identifiable source.

From these characteristics, the ensuing criteria are derived to differentiate advertising from interconnected forms of mass communication, such as publicity, sales promotion, teleselling, or even beyond the scope of marketing, propaganda. Advertising always involves:

~An identifiable advertisement
~Presented through definable advertising channels
~Ensuring the conveyance of an unaltered message
~Targeting a specific audience
~Accompanied by payment of the published rate for the used space or time
Defining Characteristics of Advertising