Meaning Of Advertising – The term advertising is derived from a Latin word ‘advertere’ , which means to turn attention towards a specific thing. The dictionary meaning of the word advertising is to announce publicly or to give public notice . In other words , it may be interpreted as to attract the attention of the people concerned toa Specific message which has been announced by the advertiser . In this way , advertising is turning the attention of the people towards products , services , ideas by an identified sponsor .
Nature Of Advertising
(1) Non – personal Presentation – Advertising is a non – personal presentation. It is not done by a particular person for some other particular person but it is done for a large group of people. As a direct contact is not established to the consumers under advertising, so, their response cannot be known immediately.
(2) Paid by Advertiser – Being a task, advertising is not possible without a cost. An advertiser has to make payment to media for the advertising.
(3) Repetition – Advertising is such a means of conveying message to the censumers in which a repetition of advertising message can be made i.e. message can be repeated. As a result, the advertising will have a permanent place in the minds of the buyers and whenever they will feel a need to buy such a product, they will see and buy that one.
(4) Informative – The message given by advertising is informative. With the help of advertising, an advertiser may easily provide an information regarding his product to the customers. For example, when a new product enters the market, it is brought into the knowledge of buyers through advertising.
(5) Various Forms – An advertiser may opt for the most appropriate Form of advertising from its various forms. For example, advertising may be done through print media, electronic media, etc..
(6) Mass Communication Process – Mass communication refers to communication with a large group of people at a single time. Through advertising, a single person is not communicated at a time rather marketing communication is made with a large group of people. For example, millions of people are contacted with at a single time through television, radio, internet, newspapers, magazines, etc.
(7) Advertising can be Used by any Type of Organisation – Advertising can be used by any type of organisation. It can be used by non – trade organisations, social welfare organisations, political organisations, etc.
(8) Control – From beginning to end, the advertising is under the control of advertiser. An advertiser selects the message, media, time of advertising, etc. in order to make the advertisement effective so that the objectives of the organisation may be attained at the minimum cost.
(9) Advertising is Different from Publicity – Some people take advertising and publicity in the same sense but advertising is different from publicity. A definite price is paid for advertising whereas publicity is free of cost. An advertiser has a control over advertising but not over publicity.
Objectives Of Advertising
(1) To Increase Demand – Advertising creates the awareness about the product among the target audience. They are made to feel the need of the product. Advertising also make them feel that only advertiser’s product can satisfy this need. Thus advertising creates demand and helps in increasing the market share of advertiser’s products.
(2) To Sell a New Product and to Build New Brands – Advertising introduces a new product to potential customers. These potential customers are given information regarding features, contents, quality, price and availability of the new product. Advertising can help to sell a new product quickly, thus enabling the manufacturer to recoup the costs of developing the new product. Advertising is done to build brand familiarity and brand popularity.
(3) To Educate the Masses – Non commercial advertisements issued by government departments and social-organisations aim at educating the masses. For example, ads issued by health department about pulse-polio, AIDS, dengue fever, female-foeticide, etc. educate masses about these fatal diseases/problems and suggest the ways to prevent them. Similarly, ads issued by Electricity/Water Department educate the people to check wastage of sources. Ads issued by social-organisations help to overcome social problems like-dowry problem, female-foeticide, child-labour, illiteracy, etc.
(4) To Build Brand Preference – Advertising helps the manufacturers and marketers to build brand preference and brand loyalty of their products. It will help the manufacturers to stay in the market in long run and enable them to charge higher price for their products.
(5) To Remind the Customers of the Product and Company – The regular advertisements remind the product and the company to the consumers. Many customers are likely to forget the company and its products, but repeated ads on popular media help the firms to remain in touch with customers.
(6) To Attract and to Help Middlemen – It is easy to attract middlemen for the advertised products or services. Moreover, advertisements also help the middlemen to inform and persuade the potential customers, because it is easy to persuade customer regarding purchase of a product which is well-advertised and is already known to them.
(7) To Inform about Changes in Marketing Mix – If the company has made certain changes with regard to product, price, place, like it has introduced new product design, model or opened new retail outlet, changed price, launched new sales promotion schemes, then it has to inform about these changes to the buyers. Advertising is useful to inform about these changes.
(8) To Build Goodwill – Advertising helps to build corporate image and create goodwill among existing and potential customers, employees, shareholders, government, financial institutions and public at large.
(9) To Reach Customers Left Out by Salesmen – Some customers may be left out by salesmen either because they are not easily accessible or because they are too small to justify sales calls. Advertising helps to bring such customers within the purview of promotion.
(10) To Support Salesmen – Advertising provides great support to salesman. It becomes easy for the salesmen to sell the product that is well-advertised. People respond favourably to the call of salesman if the brand is popular. Advertising also makes the audience understand the product and its uses. So it becomes easy for the salesmen to convince the people to buy product.
(11) To Neutralise Competitor’s Advertising – Another objective of advertising is to neutralise competitor’s advertising so as to prevent any loss in its market share. For neutralising competitor’s advertising sometimes the advertiser has to follow the similar practices as are adopted by the competitors.
(12) To Enter in New Geographical Area – If the existing firm wants to enter in new geographical areas, then advertising is needed to inform the prospective buyers and middlemen regarding availability of product, entry in this area, features of product and of the product in other geographical areas. So advertising is needed to capture a new success market area
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