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When individuals want to sell items like an outdated computer or an old bicycle, they frequently put forth a 'small ad' in a newspaper or magazine.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

Advantages of advertising

Advertising is an important component of marketing. It has crucial role in todays competitive marketing world. Advertising entirely connected to the tasks of marketing, whose final aim is the full satisfaction of customer needs concerning goods and services.

Advertising is also one of the specific forms of communication. It is designed to perform an appropriate communicating function, linking together advertisers and consumer audience by the means of information channels.

*Advertising establishes contact.
Print advertising is instrumental in making contact with consumers and initiating the sales process.

*Advertising builds awareness and preference
Advertising generates awareness, which leads to brand preference and a predisposition to buy a specific product or shop at a specific business. Advertising and marketing are essential processes needed to ensure that products get to their target markets. Although thought by some to mean the same thing, advertising and marketing are different. Advertising involves more of communication as its focus is on disseminating information about ideas, goods and services. It involves making repeat and potential customers aware of a product or services.

*Advertising introduces a new product in the market
Advertising plays significant role in the introduction of a new product in the market. It stimulates the people to purchase the product.

*Advertising helps maintain and grow market share.
Goods and services are produced according to consumers growing and changing desires. Advertising serves as a tool for competition. In order to compete with others, companies use creative and appealing advertisements to lure consumers to patronize their brands.

*Advertising helps make the sale.
Advertising is a form of communicative activation. It can be informative and persuasive in nature; utilizing the mass or new media to persuade the consumers to purchase goods and services. Advertising generates store traffic and attracts a knowledgeable consumer who is ready to buy.

*Advertising frequently maintains presence.
People forget, and have new needs and wants every day. Consumers are constantly coming into the market at different times, and advertising keeps your company top-of-mind.
Advantages of advertising

Global advertising

The world is becoming a global market for an ever-increasing and varied number of companies with a common aim: to sell their products to as many consumers as possible. However, the globalization of markets also means that companies today are addressing an incredibly varied target group, with many different languages and, more importantly, cultures.

Advertising as a form of impersonal communication aimed at a wide and diffuse audience, is the ideal tool to promote products targeting large markets in which consumers are not strong differentiated in terms motivations, preferences, attitudes, etc.

The power of successful transfer of promotion campaign around the globe is a considerable advantage of a globally oriented company in term of competitiveness. To expand globally it must find markets for its products worldwide.

With the continuing trend towards globalization, multinational corporations (MNCs) are increasingly faced with the challenge of planning and executing global advertising campaigns.

Companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Dell, and Apple have used global advertising campaigns to build their global brands. Yet, in the international advertising literature, the concept of global advertising remains elusive, offering little guidance to MNCs' global advertising campaigns.

Advertising message for global markets, as both product and activity, is distributed through different means of mass communication; it endures strong competition and comes in contact with those to whom it isn't aimed. Such message should be repetitive, general and must stimulate recipient's behavior.
Global advertising

Advertisement classification by medium

In the context of advertising, the medium means the channel used to communicate the advertising messages, for example the broadcast media and the print media. Media selection is matter of matching the advertising medium with the product’s target market.

The media for advertising could be split between:
*Print advertising such as newspaper and magazines
*Broadcast/electronic advertising such as radio, cinema and television
*Outdoor advertising e.g. fixed sites and transit
*internet

The medium is the message. This means that an ad message is interpreted and influenced by the environment in which it is received and communicate an image that is independent of the message content.

Each medium has unique qualities with strengths and weakness. For example, newspaper provided mass audience coverage and reach reader who are in the appropriate mental frame to process messages, But newspaper suffer form high clutter, limited selectivity and declining readership, among other limitations.

An important element in any advertising campaign is the media mix, the combination of media to be used. Media mix decisions are typically based on several factors: cost per contact, reach, frequency, target audience considerations, flexibility of the medium, noise level and the life span of the medium.
Advertisement classification by medium

Advertising classification by purpose

An alternative way of describing advertising is in terms of its specific purpose. Most advertising takes the form of commercial activity designed to promote the particular products or services offered by the company.

The classification system by purpose overlaps with two other classification systems: by market and geographic area.

The categories normally covered by this classification are primary and selective demand advertising, product advertising, idea, corporate image, commercial, non-commercial, action/ response and retail adverting.

Primary demand is used to stimulate demand for an entire industry or class of product. Selective demand is used to create demand for a specific brand.

It’s not selling a product always. A company might advertise to build its reputation. A product is good or service for which customers will exchange something of value.
Advertising classification by purpose

What is guerrilla marketing?

Marketing is the art of getting people to change their minds - or to maintain their mindsets of they’re already included to do business with you.

Guerilla marketers know that success involves not only choosing the right guerilla marketing weapons, but also using them as effectively as possible. Appearance plays a major role in the effectiveness of guerrilla marketing.

From the appearance of the ads, brochures, business cards, newsletters, presentation visuals, and website, prospects will make instant decisions about marketers credibility and ability to satisfy their needs.

Guerilla marketers do not rely on the brute force of an outsized marketing budget. Instead they rely on the brute force of a vivid imagination. Today, they are different from traditional marketers in twenty years.

Guerrillas known that every company, regardless of the products and services they offer, is in the marketing business and prospects and customers will judge them on every single aspect of their experience.
What is guerrilla marketing?

Cooperative marketing

Cooperation can be thought of as exemplified by groups of independent businesses that recognized the advantage of developing markets jointly rather than in isolation, who are tied in a looses way.

Cooperative marketing can be defined as any agreement to combine marketing efforts, and thus it can appear in many forms.

Cooperative marketing presents the alliance or cooperation between two or more partners or companies in order to achieve common or distinct goals. The companies with related businesses are the ones which benefit the most from this strategy due to the sharing of marketing expenses, man-power, etc.

Cooperative marketing allows operators and trade partners to cost-effectively promote their product and extend their advertising reach nationally and internationally. Cooperative marketing program are far and away the most effective way to get new customers. Plus they will the most customers.

Small business marketers simply can’t afford the high costs of advertising and should do everything possible to form partnerships to cut their marketing costs.
Cooperative marketing

Advertising using television

Television possesses the unique capability to demonstrate a product in use. No other medium can reach consumers simultaneously through auditory and visual senses.

Viewers can see and hear a duct being used identify with the products suers and imagine using the product. Television proved to be an ideal free enterprise, persuasive information media allowing brand manufacturers to develop an even more intimate relationship with viewers.

Television advertising can be advertising at its very best.With the benefit of sight and sound, colour and music, action and special effects.

Television also has intrusion value unparalleled by other media. That is television advertisements engage one’s senses and attract attention even when one would preffer not to be exposed to an advertisement.

Television gave people free entertainment, news, and sports, in exchange for bringing advertising into their lives,a deal people did not mind.

The advantages of television advertising including:

*Greater impact

*Wide coverage

*Appropriate for illeterates

*Attractive and attentive appeal, also emotional appeal

*Geographical selectivity


What is the limitations using television for advertisement?

*Costly medium

*Limited appeal

*Short of life duration

*Lack of flexibility

*High production cost

*Not suitable of the target audience number is less.
Advertising using television

Modern Food Advertising

Before that late nineteenth century, food was not commonly marketed directly to Americans.

Shoppers at typical nineteenth century grocery stores would walk in, find a clerk and tell the clerk what they needed and the clerk would pass the order to other employees.

The goods then either delivered to the customer’s home or given to the customer on the spot.

The invention of modern advertising can be largely be credited to patent medicine sellers of the Reconstruction era.

They came up with all sorts of spurious and very dangerous cures for such ill-defined diseases as neuralgia and dyspepsia, which seemed epidemic in that unsettled time.

Early soft drinks were sold and marketed as patent medicine. An 1892 advertisement for Coca-Cola was typical of the genre the carbonated potion was recommended as “the Ideal Brain Tonic for Headache & Exhaustion.”

Coffee substitutes were originally promoted in much the same way. As late as 1951, the Federal Trade Commission was investigating the Post Company for running ads for its Postum beverage claiming that drinking coffee discourage marriage or that it results in “divorces, business failures, factory accidents, juvenile delinquency, traffic accidents, fire or home foreclosures.”

Since 1970s and the latest presents a picture that hasn’t change much. But two thirds of the TV commercial on Saturday morning TV were foods.

Over half of these commercials were for breads cereal, rice and pasta and the next largest category (28%) were fast food outlets.

The strong rise of food advertising was closely related to the emergence of brand names and the transformation of the retail sector.

In pre-industrial society the production and purchase of consumer goods were mostly locally oriented.

The range of available goods was limited and their quality depended on their region and the preferences of the retailer. From the second half of the 19th century onwards, industrial mass production of consumer goods, including food products, increased rapidly.

Producers needed to sell to a wider market and to provide the customers with information about the product.

Advertising offered the obvious means to this end. This led the manufacturers to package their products and complete them with a brand name.

Advertising are major influences on American food consumption patterns. Food marketers are the nation’s largest advertisers, with around $30 billion per year is for food products after automobiles. About 70% of food advertising is for food products, principally packaged foods, snacks and soft drinks and another 28% for food service especially fast foods.
Modern Food Advertising

Advertising, what it can and cannot do

Advertising, what it can and cannot do
Popular opinion often credits advertising with a wider range of effects than is reasonable.

In fact its key characteristics, that it delivers massages via advertising media, means it has a more distant relationship with its target audience than do several of its relatives in the marketing communications mix.

As a result, it is unlikely to be able to clinch a sale, except in the special case of direct response advertisements. A more realistic role is longer term brand-building, which it can do by:

• Building awareness
• Conveying information
• Telling a story
• Establishment an identity
• Creating a predisposition

These are, of course, generalized common aims; more specific objectives must be set for individual advertising campaigns.

In practice those all too often include the requirement to ‘increase sales’ within the period of the campaign, which is normally comparatively short-term.

Such an objective typically places an unfair burden on advertising management and advertising agencies by ignoring:

• The crucial gap between responding favorably to advertising and being persuaded to take up the product.
• The time lag between being convinced and deciding to act accordingly
• The concurrent positive or negative affects of the advertiser’s decisions about other elements of the marketing mix, such as price
• Entirely external; determinants, such as personal economics, social norms or the activities of the advertiser’s competitors
  

Advertising, what it can and cannot do

Advertising and Marketing Communication

Advertising and Marketing Communication
Advertising is one of the best known and recognized areas of the marketing communications mix.

Unfortunately, it is a term widely used, mistakenly so, to refer to all types of marketing.

To avoid confusion with other promotional tools, it is best to limit its definition to highlight its essential features, which are that it is paid for, non personal and uses the mass media (TV, radio, cinema, press, posters and internet).

Communication via a recognizable advertisement placed in a definable advertising medium, guaranteeing delivery of an unmodified message to a specified audience in return for an agreed rate for the space or time used.

Advertising is also known as above the line promotion because it uses the mass (or above the line) media.

It is a phrase used because the mass media pay published commission rates to advertising to advertising agencies and these are seen as being ‘above the line’ on contrast to all other forms of promotion in which the mark-ups are unknown or ‘below the line’.

How advertising actually works is something that is hotly debated, some believing that it has direct effects on sales and others who believe that the effect is significant but more subtle by primarily influencing awareness and predispositions.

In this way, sales are achieved by advertising working with the other elements of the marketing communications mix.

It is best to think of advertising as having a number of roles and effects and working differently in each.

It can be simplified to three:

• Persuasion (to take action, to buy)

• Publicity (to make familiar and remind)

• Association (to increase the perceived value through semiotic associations)

Advertising and Marketing Communication

Advertising Account Planning

Advertising Account Planning
One of the services offered by many ‘full service advertising agencies’ is to bring a form of research and development to bear on the progress of converting guidelines in the client’s brief into a formal creative strategy.

The prefix ‘account’ is misleading in two ways.

First, it has nothing to do with financial accounts, but is explained by the fact that advertising agencies have always used it to describe one discrete project handed over by a client; ‘the Fairy Liquid account’, for example.

Second, the focus of planning is not the account itself but development of an advertising campaign. It is therefore no surprise that the description is nowadays more usually just ‘planning’.

Account planners are, the intellectual wing of business. Their goal is to understand consumers, audiences, market and society and to use that knowledge as a basis for the development of effective advertising message.

They do not play any part in the craft of converting those messages into the words and images that make-up actual advertisement, but are generally responsible for any comparatively pre-tests of alternative treatments.

In practice, even that modest level of involvement in the creative process can bring them into conflict with key people in the agency’s creative department, who may maintain that making advertisements is an intuitive skill, not amenable to design by committee and only inhibited by research based theorizing.

For that, the most logical job description would in fact be ‘creative planning’, clearly complementing the long-established ‘media planning’ discipline.

Account planning seems to be in prolonged adolescence at the turn of the century, not yet really widespread in smaller or less sophisticated advertising agencies. It originated in London, and remains something of a British specialization.
Advertising Account Planning

E-mail Marketing

E-mail Marketing
E-mail advertising is a controversial topic. No one likes to receive unsolicited e-mail (junk mail or spam), therefore make sure you do not send spam. Only send e-mail to people who have already agreed to receive e-mail from you or your website, blog, forum, etc.

With a quality list of opt-in email address, you can market directly to people who you already know have an interest in what you are sending them. There are many ways of acquiring opt-in e-mail address; you can obtain them form your blog, forum, groups and Web sites. You can also get them from polls and comments posted about your media files or Web sites.

If you have something you are giving for free, you could make it a prerequisite that downloaders supply their e-mail address, and a reply confirmation via e-mail; before making the download available to them. This is useful of you are supplying a Web applet or application. You could also use this technique for the download of music, video and images.

Overtime, you will amass a large database of e-mail address. Send regular updates, promotions and seasonal greetings top the opt-in email subscriber. They are a great source of repeat business and ongoing promotions.

Use social media and social networking Web suite tools to give the apt-in e-mail subscribers media that they can share, pass on to friends and comment about in their social network profiles; always making sure your Web site link is included.

Where you do not control the e-mail address, or they are hidden from you as is the case in most social media sites, you still can send people you site link. By using humorous, controversial or interesting media files and links, stories, reports, articles, forum posts, etc., it is easier to send promotional material en-masses. Using the internal messaging service of the social networking site, you can send such e-mails to your network of friends and their network of friends.
E-mail Marketing

Directed Advertising Gets Results

Marketing Strategy
If you're the only product/service provider in a consumer's time of need, you may get a sale based on that even if you haven't established firm trust.

How can you set this up this kind of advertising? It depends on your business. But I'll give some examples of advertising based on benefits.

An appliance dealer can give/send magnetic advertising specialties for people to put on their appliances. To supplement this, the dealer can establish a program of getting information about the specifications people will want/need in a replacement appliance, such as measurements, capacity, gas/electric, color, etc. Then when an appliance breaks down, the customer can call for a price quote without having to supply the necessary information. (During a stressful time, people aren't apt to want to hassle with this information; they just want a solution NOW!)

I still have a business card for a lock-out service in my wallet.

I got it at a gas station. I never met the owner of the service but if my keys are locked in my car on a cold winter day, it doesn't matter that I haven't met him, I'll call him.

We know that people tend to hate advertising.

The whole truth is that people hate advertising that intrudes on them without giving them a benefit.

Entertainment is a benefit; it may not induce anybody to buy the advertised product but it may get them to pay attention to the ad. Since people are more cure oriented than prevention oriented, it's necessary to fully describe the undesirable effect.

This is something an appliance dealer can use but can be adapted for other businesses. "Did this ever happen to you or to somebody you know? The freezer breaks down and all of the food in it (possibly $200 worth) is going to spoil if it isn't put into a new freezer SOON! Now besides all of the other things you have to do, you have to buy a freezer NOW! Pre-shopping for a freezer will limit the hassle you go through at a stressful time like this. We can deliver the new freezer right away and take away the old one."

Then it's just a matter of introducing what I wrote above. Just think, "Why or when would a consumer want my marketing message?" Then base the marketing message on the answer.
Marketing Strategy