ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

Student ID: 0000278916

Course: Advertising (967)
Spring 2022
Assignment no 1

Question no 1:
Explaining the general objectives of advertising and different definition of
advertising.

Advertising:
“Advertising consists of all activities involved in presenting to a group a non-personal, oral or visual,
openly sponsored identified message regarding a product, service, or idea. The message, called an
advertisement, is disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by the identified sponsor”

Definition:
o “Advertising is a paid form of mass communication that consists of the special message sent by
the specific person (advertiser or company), for the specific group of people (listeners, readers, or
viewers), for the specific period of time, in the specific manner to achieve the specific goals”.
o “Advertising includes oral, written, or audiovisual message addressed to the people for the
purpose of informing and influencing them to buy the products or to act favorably toward idea or
institution”.

o “Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of goods, services, or
ideas by an identified sponsor.”

o “Advertising is a printed, written, oral and illustrated art of selling. Its objective is to encourage
sales of the advertiser’s products and to create in the mind of people, individually or collectively,
an impression in favour of the advertiser’s interest.”
 o “Advertising consists of all activities involved in presenting to a group a non-personal, oral or
visual, openly sponsored identified message regarding a product, service, or idea. The message,
called an advertisement, is disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by the
identified sponsor.”

Objectives:
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 towards 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.

Question no 2:
Describe different kinds of advertising. Explain with example.

Kinds of Advertising:
These different shades and variations of the message are actually different kinds of advertising.
Advertising can be classified from different angles.

Following are the various types of advertising:

National Advertising:
National advertising refers chiefly to advertising done by a producer to get people to buy his/her branded
goods, wherever they are sold.

The term national advertising has a special meaning. It is the advertising advertised directly to
consumers urging them to buy and consume the product. National advertising, as the term is commonly
used, refers not to the extent of the advertising, but to its purpose, which is to leave the consumer
favourably disposed towards buying the product.

The national advertiser has chiefly one product to sell over a period of time. The term “National
Advertising” is usually used to designate the type of advertising which is done by a manufacturer on a
nationwide scale to stimulate demand for his/her product among ultimate consumers.

As national advertiser speaks to a wide and distant audience, therefore it is difficult to trace the sales
effects of a single insertion of an advertisement. It could be possible if it seems exclusively one medium.

Regional and Local Advertising:

Regional advertising is confined to one region of the country. When a product is available and consumed
on regional level, the advertisement of such product takes place on regional level. Regional advertising
may come from the manufacturer, the wholesaler or the retailer.

Similarly local advertising is confined to one trading area or city, and usually is considered to be
synonymous with the term “retail advertising”.

Retail Advertising:
Retail advertising conveys the message of the local merchants or service organizations. Retail advertising
is addressed directly to consumers. It is the advertisement of merchant or dealer that is designed to
induce the consumer to visit and buy at his/her store. Chief among the retail advertisers are
departmental stores, discount stores and super markets etc. The retail advertiser wishes to sell his
product within a week, generating a great sense of urgency in the advertising department.

The retailer’s need for advertising can be explained as:

It does a selling job for the inefficient retailer

It gives the retailer a local personality

Advertising gives him/her a quick turnover.

Trade and professional Advertising:

Trade and professional advertising is directed at wholesalers or retailers and professional people.
Trade advertising may also be directed to the operators of service establishment. Some advertising
placed in mass consumer media may be directed to retailer or other special groups in order to get the
attention of the retailer, industrial user, or professional person when in a relaxed mood. Just as trade
advertising is addressed not to the consumer of the product advertised, but to the retailer who is to sell
that product to the consumer, similarly the professional advertising is directed by the maker or seller of a
product to someone who can either recommend its use to others or who specifies or buys its for use by
those whom he/she advises. Manufacturers advertise to physicians, dentists and architects, not
expecting the physician or dentist or architect to consume the product personally, but hoping that he/she
will prescribe, recommend, or specify it to those who will buy it on his/her recommendation.

Professional advertising in many ways is similar to trade advertising, except that the professional does
not buy goods for the purpose of reselling them to clients, his/her role is to prescribe or recommend to
the client the purchase of certain products. Personal selling also is very important in reaching
professional people. Manufacturer’s sales representatives go out into the field and talk about company’s
products to the professional persons.

Industrial Advertising:
Industrial advertising speaks to engineers and other technically trained people in their respective fields.
And this kind of advertising addressed to the men responsible for purchasing goods needed to make
products and render services is known as industrial advertising. Such advertising is designed to reach
purchasing agents, plant managers, engineers, controllers and others who have a voice in spending the
industry’s/firm’s money for material and equipment.

Personal selling is significantly more important in the distribution of industrial goods than in the case of
consumer products. As prospective buyers are fewer; they tend to be in concentrated geographic
locations, and their average purchase is considerably larger. Advertising is used to speed up the sales of
industrial products, to reduce the costs of personal sales efforts, and to improve sales effectiveness.

There are many industrial publications containing different industrial advertisements which are designed
to reach the persons who make purchasing decisions for the production of goods by business enterprises.
These decision makers read industrial advertisements with critical verbosity. Institutional and Public
Service Advertising:
Institutional advertising is designed to give the whole store a lift in the esteem of the public, over and
above its reputation for good merchandise. It may be designed to help me community project or through
it the store may be trying to bring pride to the . community. Institutional advertising, as a rule, is a one-
shot advertisement, created only when there is something to say, or it may be a series of occasional
advertisements devoted overall theme. Generally the institutional advertising sells only the name and
prestige of the company. This goodwill advertising is used frequently by large campaigns with divisions,
whose various products are well known.
Public service advertising is a public relations approach advertising. Any organization may present its
view point and services about a national cause, say, prevention of blindness and the efforts it has made
to promote that cause. This kind of advertising aims at the social welfare of a community or a nation and
at times appears as an appeal for raising funds to help some needy section of the community.

Direct-Response Advertising:
Direct-response advertising is designed for direct marketing of products. The seller sells the products or
services directly to the end user, without reaching to a retailer or dealer. It includes in-home selling, mail-
order selling, catalogue selling.

This kind of advertising includes any advertising that calls for the readers’ prompt response to the
advertisement, with his/her name and address. Typical uses of direct- response advertising are:

selling merchandise or a service directly;

soliciting inquiries that will be followed up at home or in the office by a salesman or by mail;

soliciting requests for a catalogue;

selling subscriptions or enrolling members in a club, i.e., book, magazine or record club. Direct-response
advertising uses a great variety of media such as newspapers, magazines, television radio, paperback
books and direct mail.

End-Product and Service Advertising:

End-product advertising is aimed at promoting the sale of such products which cannot be used directly. It
is the advertising process of such products which can help in the smooth and efficient functioning of
other equipment’s in the industrial organizations or in houses, such as stabilizers, regulators, electric
motors, pumps, wire, batteries etc.

Question no 3:
What role does advertising play in the contemporary society? Also explain its
advantages and disadvantages.

Advertising’s Role in Contemporary Society:

Advertising is paid publicity. It is a commercial message that offers a product or a service for sale. It is
controlled and paid for, by the initiator, at the rates set by the medium used. Advertising may appear in
any of the standard medium, such as newspaper, magazine, radio, TV, bill board, or handbill. Usually the
name of the product, its description and price is highlighted in the advertisement. In the last few years,
the influence of advertisements has grown to this noticeable extent that any medium of communication
nowadays is replete with advertising.

We people belong to a global village where everyone known about others and the news of latest
happenings spread throughout the world within short span of time. So the innate desire of the man to
get socialized now takes place through the modern technological aids like computer, internet, dish,
cable, radio etc. through which awareness and knowledge is gained. All of our daily aspects of life –
education, work, health, entertainment to relationships, travel etc all require information and direction
which is now available through media where every common person checks TV, newspapers for updates,
or uses internet. So this all clutter has a silent impact on the society e.g. it is a known fact that on an
average scale, a child is exposed to about 40K ads a year.

Advertising by its very nature receives wide exposure. Furthermore, it presumably has an effect on what
people buy and thus on their activities. The key issues are values and lifestyles are to be encouraged as
healthy, which to be avoided, and what relative impact or influence advertising has on them. The issues
like (1) relationship of advertising to materialism, (2) role that advertising has played in creating harmful
stereotypes of women and ethnic minorities, and (3) possible contribution of advertising in promoting
harmful product; have been seen.

People are giving an undue importance to material interests. There is a corresponding lessening of
importance to non-material interests such as love, freedom and intellectual pursuits. The accusation that
advertising have contributed to the role stereo typing of women and ethnic minorities has been
supported by several studies. In 729 advertisements, appearing in 1970, the authors concluded that the
ads reflected the stereotype that women do not do important things and are dependent on men. And in
addition, there is a national concern with the problems of alcohol and cigarettes. Local legislatures have
increased taxes to around 45% of total alcohol sales and toughened drunk-driving laws. Happy hours
have been banned in several states.

However besides these silent impacts, the practical benefits of advertising are:-

Economy: Generation of new jobs – higher incomes, comfortable and humane way of living.

Culture: Contributes positively in decisions about media content for betterment in society.

Politics: Significant contribution for informing people about candidates and the party etc.

Moral and religion: Faith messages etc.

Advantages and Disadvantages:

 The advertisement informs the consumer about qualities and price of goods and this makes
purchasing easy for the consumers.
  As the prices are already advertised, the consumers cannot be over charged.

 By regular advertisement, the manufacturer can sell the goods directly to the consumers without
depending on middlemen this eliminates the Middleman’s charges and profit. It means higher
profit to the manufacturer and lower prices to the consumers.

 It helps in improvement of the quality of the goods.

 The consumers are attracted by the quality of the products that are advertised. If the consumers
are convinced that the quality is the same that is advertised, they continue buying.

 It helps the consumer to save time. As the consumer has already been the consumer is not
required to spend time in getting the products.

 It raises the living standard of consumers.

 It provides knowledge about the new designs of the commodities to consumers and thus
consumers consume those commodities and increase their living standard.

Question no 4:
“Folk media can play a vital role in advertising”. Do you agree? Answer with
example.

Folk media:
Folk Media is the creative dissemination of information through cultural and performance arts. In
traditional societies, folk media: drama, skits, poems, stories, riddles, songs and dance have been
popularly and successfully used to disseminate messages and even to pass on wisdom of older
generations to the youth.

In different societies the use of folk media as advertisement is seen in circumcision, betrothal and
marriage ceremonies and in all forms of entertainment and festivals. Today the same media can be used
for community motivation, mobilizing support and participation in programmes and at the same time for
entertainment.

Besides, print and electronic media, folk media also play a crucial role in advertising. Here we will first
discuss the salient features of folk media and later give an account of some of the common folk media of
the Pakistani society useful for advertising.
Salient Features:
They belong to the community.

o Very useful for community development;

o They belong to the community and not to individuals, state or private industry ;

o No threat of cultural colonialism and foreign ideological domination.

o Local talent and localized message-would have more credibility than those centralized ones.

o These media are comparatively cheap.

o Acceptability, cultural relevance entertainment value, localized language, legitimacy, flexibility,

message repetition ability, instant ‘two-way communication etc. are among their virtues

o It poses no threat to the local culture.

o Involve local talent for localized messages which have more credibility.

o It does not involve cultural communication hurdles.

o Their appeal is at personal and intimate level.

o Cross cultural communication hurdles are not encountered here.

o Its impact is much deeper.

Folk media of Pakistani society:

Fair:
Fair is a periodical festival for the general sales and purchases. Fairs are localized in nature. Besides sales
and purchases of goods it also serves entertainment purposes. It is a very effective medium for
advertising but its access is limited to a particular area and limited people.

Cultural Shows:
Every nation loves its culture dearly as in fact it is its identity. People not only want to preserve their
culture but also like to see it having firm roots in other parts of the world too. For this purpose cultural
shows are held. These shows are not only participated by the local folk but also by others. Advertisers
can find these shows very suitable for advertising their products.

Theatre:
Theatre is one of the most watched and effective folk media. Basically it is an entertaining medium, but
also touches every aspect of human life in a very interesting way. It is also local in nature and is very
useful for advertising products and services in a specified area.

Folk media also have some shortcomings as media of advertising. For example, folk media have very
limited reach, and accessibility. They are not good for national advertisers.

Question no 5:
Describe the development of advertising in Pakistan. How is it similar or
different from rest of the world?

Development of Advertising in Pakistan:

Big organizations in Pakistan had a restricted spectrum of advertising alternatives for a substantial
number of years and electrifying original media frequently obtainable all through the globe were as good
as unheard of. However, al that became the past in the late nineties as the need for unique types of ads
grew as a bigger number of organizations competed for a portion of the spreading market. One such
form was digital printing that could be employed for many indoor and outdoor purposes.

Outdoor ads and store signage in Pakistan were mostly oil painted and were challenged with different
concerns such as fading of colors and mediocre composition, with most hoardings and shop frames being
manufactured with low gauge metal sheets or plastic. A number of sign manufacturers offered top
quality signs with accurately painted visuals, but the effort it consumed to construct these signs was
huge because of the physical process.

One other established type of outdoor advertising was neon with significant visual effects, like lighting
several colors, shown on signs. The neon sector was flourishing prior to the start of digital print media in
Pakistan in spite of numerous integral difficulties. Neon displays were most valuable at nighttime and
provided little in terms of thrill through the day and were fairly high on repair expenses with neon tubes
needing replacement pretty regularly.

The third largely prevalent type of advertising in Pakistan comprised offset printed posters, which were
mostly consumed indoors or applied in huge quantities on municipal walls. Offset posters were however
inadequate in height and width and were challenged with issues such as color fading and damaging too
easily. Even the finest quality displays did not sustain their originality for more than a tiny number of
days.
Screen-printing for posters was also well established in Pakistan. While automated techniques were
utilized everywhere on the globe, Pakistan’s sector was still essentially a labor-intensive process. Screen-
printing was convenient and widely attainable in the major cities. However, the quality was critically
below average and much the same as the other established media faced issues like color fading and
regular theft.

Similar or Different from rest of the world:

Advertising is an expression and part of an economic system. Each economic system has an interesting
relationship with the social system, political system and cultural value. Whatever be the character of the
economic system, there are three basic features which are common to all:

 Determination of goods and services and the quantities to be produced or offered;

 Allocation of resources according to priorities of production-mainly land, labor and capital; and

 Distribution of goods and services among individuals and groups. We are not concerned here
about the relative importance of state intervention and market determination of these three
processes.

These three processes condition the development of every society. Advertising is a major component of
each one of these three processes. If advertising is a process of mediation between the producer of goods
and services and the consumer, to that extent it contributes to the development not merely of the
economy but also of society. If we look at development as the overall transformation of society and not
merely as the statistical growth of the economy, or the gross domestic product, or the per capita income,
then all advertising is socially relevant.