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What is Advertising?

Advertising can be defined as communicating with target audiences through paid, non-personal messages, usually placed in a mass medium. Advertising is the easiest but absolutely, more expensive alternative for marketing communications. That is, the initial outlay for an advertising campaign may be the most expensive option for promotion.

However, advertising may possibly provide the lowest ‘cost per contact.’ Advertising is the promotion of a company’s products and services carried out primarily to drive up sales of the products and services. It is also done to build a brand identity and communicate changes in old products or introduce new products/services to the customers.

Features of Advertising

Advertising has become an essential element of small-scale industries and hence SSIs allot a considerable amount of resources to their advertising budget. There are several reasons for advertising, some of which are as follows:

• Increasing the sales of the product/service.
  
• Creating and maintaining a brand identity or brand image.
  
• Communicating a change in the existing product line.
  
• Introduction of a new product or service.
  
• Increasing the buzz-value of the brand or the company.

The main features of advertising are as under:

• It is directed towards increasing the sales of business.
  
• Advertising is a paid form of publicity.
  
• It is non-personal. They are directed at a mass audience and not at the individual as is in the case of personal selling.
  
  
• Advertisement is identifiable with their sponsor or originator which is not always the case with publicity or propaganda.

Functions of Advertising

The purpose of advertising is nothing but to sell something a product, a service, or an idea. The real objective of advertising is effective communication between producers and consumers. The following are the main functions of advertising:

1. Preparing Ground for New Product
2. Creation of Demand
3. Facing Competition
4. Creating or Enhancing Goodwill
5. Informing Changes to Customers
6. Neutralizing Competitor’s Advertising
7. Barring New Entrants

Preparing Ground for New Product

A new product needs introduction because potential customers have never used such a product before and the advertisement prepares the ground for that new product.

Creation of Demand

The main objective of the advertisement is to create a favorable climate for maintaining or improving sales. Customers are to be reminded about the product and the brand.

It may induce new customers to buy the product by informing them of its qualities since it is possible that some of the customers may change their brands.

Facing Competition

Another important objective of the advertisement is to face to competition. Under competitive conditions, advertisement helps to build up brand image and brand loyalty and when customers have developed brand loyalty, becomes difficult for the middlemen to change it.

Creating or Enhancing Goodwill

Large-scale advertising is often undertaken with the objective of creating or enhancing the goodwill of the advertising company. This, in turn, increases the market receptiveness of the company’s product and helps the salesmen to win customers easily.

Informing Changes to Customers

Whenever changes are made in the prices, channels of distribution, or in the product by way of any improvement in quality, size, weight, brand, packing, etc., they must be informed to the public by the producer through advertisement.

Neutralizing Competitor’s Advertising

Advertising is unavoidable to complete with or neutralize competitor’s advertising. When competitors are adopting intensive advertising as their promotional strategy, it is reasonable to follow similar practices to neutralize their effects. In such cases, it is essential for the manufacturer to create a different image of his product.

Barring New Entrants

From the advertiser’s point of view, a strongly built image through long advertising helps to keep new entrants away. The advertisement builds up a certain monopoly for the product which new entrants find it difficult to enter.

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