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When individuals want to sell items like an outdated computer or an old bicycle, they frequently put forth a 'small ad' in a newspaper or magazine.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

Referral marketing

Referral marketing is when a company rewards fans, customers, influencers, and affiliates - basically any defined contact - for referring their products/services.

Past research has shown there are two types of referrals:
1. Experience-based referrals come from an individual who has worked with the service provider they are recommending.
2. Reputation-based referrals are driven by a firm’s visibility and standing in the marketplace

Referral programs have three distinctive characteristics.
*First, they are deliberately initiated, actively managed, and continuously controlled by the firm, which is impossible or very difficult with organic WOM activities such as spontaneous customer conversations and blogs.
*Second, the key idea is to use the social connections of existing customers with noncustomers to convert the latter.
*Third, to make this conversion happen, the firm offers the existing customer a reward for bringing in new customers.

Major advantages of referral marketing programs as compared with traditional marketing programs include greater credibility of friend/family member recommendations over paid advertisements, access to new customers that traditional marketing programs may not reach, and better matching of referred customers’ needs to a good or service.

Creating referral marketing programs enables companies to develop a database of brand ambassadors and understand their behaviors. This allows for the opportunity to remarket to them with special promotions/offers, reward them for their activity, or simply say thank you for their help.

A high-quality website is essential to the success of any referral strategy. This finding is consistent with previous research showing potential clients often rule out firms based on the quality of their website.

Whether the company is in the B2B industry, a B2C brand, or represents a variety of clients, the use of referral marketing programs can dramatically increase existing customer engagement and new customer acquisition while spreading brand awareness.
Referral marketing

Characteristics of guerilla marketing

The idea of guerilla marketing originated in the 1980s. One of the pioneers who developed the idea was Jay Conrad Levinson with his book Guerrilla Marketing.

Levinson says it usually involves an in-person or on-location marketing stunt or tactic to raise product or organizational awareness.

The author used the term guerilla marketing to illustrate the process where marketing activities become a battle in which the marketer has to conquer the consumer’s mind.

Guerrilla marketing is also marked by inexpensive alternatives to mass marketing for specific reach and efficiency. Guerrilla marketing use public spaces as venue for advertising such as ads on buses or sub-way trains.

Program-length commercials: children’s television programs with program-length commercial create and used to sell products and series.

In guerrilla marketing people do not even realize they are being hustled to buy something.
Characteristics of guerilla marketing