UNIT 1

Definition of Advertising:
Advertising is a paid form of non-personal presentation and
promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the body which

represents advertising agencies, defines advertising as –  “The means
of providing the most persuasive possible selling message to the right
prospects at the lowest possible cost”.

Diffrence between Advertising and Public Relation

Advertising and Publicity:
Advertising is a paid form of non-personal presentation and
promotion of good, services and ideas by an identified sponsor
whereas publicity is a non-personal stimulation of demand for a
product, services or business by planting commercially significant
news about it in published medium or obtaining favourable presenting
in media that is not paid by the sponsor. In publicity, the medium
passing the massage is not the actual sponsor like any kind of remark
appearing in newspaper about a product or service.
What Are The Objectives Of
Advertising?
There are 3 main objectives of advertising – to inform about the brand or
offering, to persuade to buy or perform a task and to remind and
reinforce the brand message.

To Inform
Advertisements are used to increase brand awareness and brand
exposure in the target market. Informing potential customers about the
brand and its products is the first step toward attaining business goals.

To Persuade
Persuading customers to perform a particular task is a prominent
objective of advertising. The tasks may involve buying or trying the
products and services offered, forming a brand image, developing a
favourable attitude towards the brand etc.

To Remind
Another objective of advertising is to reinforce the brand message and to
reassure the existing and potential customers about the brand vision.
Advertising helps the brand to maintain top-of-mind awareness and to
avoid competitors stealing the customers. This also helps in the word of
mouth marketing.

Other objectives of advertising are subsets of these three objectives.

These subsets are:

 Brand building
 Increasing sales
 Creating demand
 Engagement
  Expanding customer base
 Changing customers’ attitudes, etc.

Characteristics Of Advertising
 Paid Form: Advertising requires the advertiser (also called
sponsor) to pay to create an advertising message, buy advertising
media slot, and monitor advertising efforts.
 Tool For Promotion: Advertising is an element of the promotion
mix of an organisation.
 One Way Communication: Advertising is a one-way
communication where brands communicate to the customers
through different mediums.
 Personal Or Non-Personal: Advertising can be non-personal as
in the case of TV, radio, or newspaper advertisements, or highly
personal as in the case of social media and other cookie-based
advertisements.

Advertising – Features
1. Provides information – The main feature of advertising is to
provide information about the product to potential buyers. It
provides details like features, uses, prices, benefits,
manufacturer’s name and instructions for using the product
effectively.

2. Paid communication – Businesses select, assign and pay

advertisers for preparing advertisements that include the size,
slogan, etc. These advertisers are asked to prepare a design or
format of the advertisement as per the products and
requirements of the businesses.
3. Non-personal presentation – Advertisement is a non-personal
presentation, which means that media tools like television, radio,
newspaper, etc., are considered that reaches out to a large
number of people.

4. Publicity – As advertisement provides information about the

product; advertising provides publicity to goods, services and
ideas. Advertising provides flow and movement of information
with the aim of increasing public awareness of a subject. For
example, Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (HUL)’s Project Sunlight has
recently launched ‘Bright Future Speeches’ wherein the Indian
youth raises concerns about the need for sanitation and hygiene
through films and television advertisements (HUL, 2014).

5. For persuasion – The main feature of advertising is to persuade

and attract potential customers to new ideas that lead to
probable sale of products. This means that the information needs
to be believable and convincing that the product is better than
their competitive products.

6. Target oriented – Advertisements are developed that caters to

the needs and wants of target customers and markets.
Advertisements depict target customers and markets by relevant
characters, themes, props, slogans, select storylines and so on.
For example, protein health drinks like Horlicks, Complan, etc.,
are targeted towards children representing young urban India
and emotions are targeted towards excelling in studies, sports
and tackling competition.

7. Creativity – Creativity plays a critical role in advertising, which

involves presenting a product in an artistic, attractive and
agreeable manner.
Types Of Advertising
Advertising activities can be categorised into above-the-line, below-the-
line, and through-the-line advertising according to their penetration level.

 Above-the-line advertising includes activities that

are largely non-targeted and have a wide reach. Examples of
above-the-line advertising are TV, radio, & newspaper
advertisements.
 Below-the-line advertising includes conversion-focused activities
which are directed toward a specific target group. Examples of
below-the-line advertising are billboards, sponsorships, in-store
advertising, etc.
 Through-the-line advertising includes activities which involve the
use of both ATL & BTL strategies simultaneously. These are
directed towards brand building and conversions and make use of
targeted (personalised) advertisement strategies. Examples of
through-the-line advertising are cookie-based advertising, digital
marketing strategies, etc.
Advertising activities can also be categorised into 5 types based on the
advertising medium used. These types of advertisements are:

 Print Advertising: Newspaper, magazines, & brochure

advertisements, etc.
 Broadcast Advertising: Television and radio advertisements.
 Outdoor Advertising: Hoardings, banners, flags, wraps, etc.
 Digital Advertising: Advertisements displayed over the internet
and digital devices.
 Product/Brand Integration: Product placements in entertainment
media like TV shows, YouTube videos, etc.

Importance Of Advertising
To The Customers
  Convenience: Targeted informative advertisements make the
customer’s decision-making process easier as they get to know
what suits their requirements and budget.
 Awareness: Advertising educates the customers about different
products available in the market and their features. This knowledge
helps customers compare different products and choose the best
product for them.
 Better Quality: Only brands advertise themselves and their
products. There are no advertisements for unbranded products.
This ensures better customer quality and a good business
model as no brand wants to waste money on false advertising.
To The Business
 Awareness: Advertising increases brand and product awareness
among the people belonging to the target market.
 Brand Image: Clever advertising helps the business to form the
desired brand image and brand personality in the minds of the
customers.
 Product Differentiation: Advertising helps the business
differentiate its product from competitors’ and communicate its
features and advantages to the target audience.
 Increases Goodwill: Advertising reiterates brand vision and
increases the brand’s goodwill among its customers.
 Value For Money: Advertising delivers the message to a wide
audience and tends to be value for money when compared to other
elements of the promotion mix.
Advantages Of Advertising-:
Others are
 Reduces Per-Unit Cost: The wide appeal of advertisements
increases the demand for the product which benefits the
organisation as it capitalises on the economies of scale.
 Helps In Brand Building: Advertisements work effectively in
brand building. Brands that advertise are preferred over those
which doesn’t.
  Helps In Launching New Product: Launching a new product is easy
when it is backed by an advertisement.
 Boosts Up Existing Customers’ Confidence In The Brand:
Advertisements boost existing customers’ confidence in the brand
as they feel pride when they see an advertisement of the product
or the brand they use.
 Helps In Reducing Customer Turnover: Strategic advertisements
for new offers and better service help reduce customer turnover.
 Attracts New Customers: Attractive advertisements help the
brand in gaining new customers and expanding the business.
 Educates The Customers: Advertisements inform the customers
about different products existing in the market and also educate
them on what they should look for in an apt product.
Disadvantages Of Advertising
 Increases The Costs: Advertising is an expense to the business
and is added to the cost of the product. This cost is eventually
borne by the end consumer.
 Confuses The Buyer: Too many advertisements with similar
claims often confuse the buyer about what to buy and whether they
should buy the product or not.
 Is Sometimes Misleading: Some advertisements use smart
strategies to mislead the customers.
 Only For Big Businesses: Advertising is costly, and only big
businesses can afford it. This puts small businesses out of
competition with big businesses that get to enjoy a monopoly in the
market.
 Encourages The Sale Of Inferior Products: Effective
advertisements even lead to the sale of inferior products which
aren’t good for the consumers.
Advertising Examples
We are surrounded by advertisements. From TV to our mobile phones,
we encounter advertisements everywhere. Following are a few examples
of advertising.
TV Advertisements Example
Coca-Cola’s ‘I’d like to buy the world a Coke’, aired in 1971, is the
world’s most famous TV advertisement.

Social and Economical Aspects of

Advertising

Economic role of Advertising

Value of Products:
The advertised products are not always the best products in the market. There are some unadvertised
products also present which are good enough. But advertising helps increase value for the products by
showing the positive image of the product which in turn helps convincing customers to buy it. Advertising
educates consumers about the uses of the products hence increasing its value in minds of the
consumers. For e.g. mobile phones were first considered as necessity but nowadays the cell phones
come with number of features which makes them mode of convenience for consumers.

Effect on Prices:
Some advertised products do cost more than unadvertised products but the vice versa is also true. But if
there is more competition in the market for those products, the prices have to come down, for e.g.,
canned juices from various brands. Thus some professional like chartered accountants and doctors are
not allowed to advertise.

But some products do not advertise much, and they don’t need much of it and even their prices are high
but they are still the leaders in market as they have their brand name. e.g., Porsche cars

Effect on consumer demand and choices:

Even if the product is heavily advertised, it does not mean that the demand or say consumption rates will
also increase. The product has to be different with better quality, and more variety than others. For E.g.,
Kellogg’s cornflakes have variety of flavors with different ranges to offer for different age groups and now
also for people who want to loose weight thus giving consumers different choices to select from.

Effect on business cycle:

Advertising no doubt helps in employing more number of people. It increases the pay rolls of people
working in this field. It helps collecting more revenues for sellers which they use for betterment of product
and services. But there are some bad effects of advertisements on business cycle also. Sometimes,
consumer may find the foreign product better than going for the national brand. This will definitely effect
the production which may in turn affect the GDP of the country.
The economic aspects are supported by the Abundance Principle which says producing more products
and services than the consumption rate which helps firstly keeping consumers informed about the options
they have and secondly helps sellers for playing in healthy and competitive atmosphere with their self
interest.

Social role of Advertising:

There are some positive and some negative aspects of advertising on the social ground. They are as
follows.

Deception in Advertising:
The relation between the buyers and sellers is maintained if the buyers are satisfied with what they saw in
advertise and what they got after buying that product. If seller shows a false or deceptive image and an
exaggerated image of the product in the advertisement, then the relation between the seller and buyers
can’t be healthy. These problems can be overcome if the seller keep their ads clean and displays right
image of the product.

The Subliminal Advertising:

Capturing the Minds of the consumers is the main intention of these ads. The ads are made in such a way
that the consumers don’t even realizes that the ad has made an impact on their minds and this results in
buying the product which they don’t even need. But “All ads don’t impress all consumers at all times”,
because majority of consumers buy products on basis of the price and needs.

Effect on Our Value System:

The advertisers use puffing tactics, endorsements from celebrities, and play emotionally, which makes
ads so powerful that the consumers like helpless preys buy those products.

These ads make poor people buy products which they can’t afford, people picking up bad habits like
smoking and drinking, and buy products just because their favorite actor endorsed that product. This
affects in increased the cost of whole society and loss of values of our own selves.

Offensiveness:
Some ads are so offensive that they are not acceptable by the buyers. For example, the ads of denim
jeans showed girls wearing very less clothes and making a sex appeal. These kinds of ads are irrelevant
to the actual product. Btu then there is some ads which are educative also and now accepted by people.
Earlier ads giving information about birth control pills was considered offensive but now the same ads are
considered educative and important.

But at the last, there are some great positive aspects which help

 Development of society and growth of technologies

 Employment
 Gives choices to buyers with self interest
 Welcomes healthy competition
 Improving standard of living.
 Give information on social, economical and health issues.