LESSON - 12: Advertising

 

B A (JMC) (3-YDC), SEMESTER SYSTEM

SEMESTER –IV

SEC III: PUBLIC RELATIONS AND EVENT MANAGEMENT

Unit -1: PUBLIC RELATIONS

LESSON - 12: Advertising

           

Objectives:

1.    Understand and define advertising.

2.    Know the scope of advertising.

3.    Identify the roles played by advertising.

4.    List out types of advertisements.

5.    Learn about institutional advertising.

Introduction:

Advertising today is a worldwide phenomenon. It is a multi-dimensional form of mass communication, a marketing tool, a component of economic system, a means of financing the mass media, a social institution, an art from, an instrument of business management, a field of employment and a profession. Advertising is one of the four methods of promotional activities. They are advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and public relations, but it is a non-personal communication of a sales message unlike other promotional activities.

Advertising is a paid form of communication. It is different from “Publicity” & “Propaganda”. It has to be published in various newspapers and magazines, broadcast in radio and television, publicised through outdoor and transit media, showed in cinema and has to be placed in internet and circulated in social media for several products. All these activities are carried out through payments depending upon the space and time of placing the Ads. The advertisement is not aimed at a single individual but aimed at a group of persons. Here, the group of persons doesn’t involve entire public. They are again targeted audience who are habituated to make purchase of certain products and also aimed at potential customers who are willing to accept the new products.

The basic task of advertising is to communicate the message to groups of individuals effectively. In doing so, the advertisements help the audience to make their purchase decisions by informing them about various benefits, services and attributes of the product. Moreover, the advertisement is the primary and initial source of information which motivates and stimulates the consumers to purchase the product. If a new product or service has been launched people come to know only through an advertisement which comes across TV or Radio or Newspaper or Magazine or Internet or Social Media. Advertising is only one element of the promotional mix, but it often takes a special prominence in the overall marketing mix.

History

The history of advertising can be traced to ancient civilisations. Egyptians used papyrus to make sales messages and wall posters. Commercial messages and political campaign displays have been found in the ruins of Pompeii and Arabia. The tradition of wall writing can be traced back to Indian rock art paintings that dates back to several hundred years BC.

The major forms of advertisement existed during the pre-printing period i.e. before 15^th century were trademarks, town criers or public criers, street hawkers and signboards. In Europe, as the towns and cities of the middle ages began to grow and the general populace was unable to read, instead of text that read cobbler, miller, tailor or blacksmith would use an image associated with their trade such as a boot, a suit, a hat, a clock, a diamond, a bag of grain etc.

Modern advertising began to take shape with the advent of newspapers and magazines in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The very first weekly gazettes appeared in Venice in the early 16^th century. From there, the concept of a weekly publication spread to Italy, Germany and Holland. In Britain, the first weeklies appeared in the 1620s and that its first newspaper was published in 1702. In India, the Hicky’s Bengal Gazette weekly published its first advertisement on 29^th January 1780.

All these modes of communication paved way for drawing attention of the public thereby promoting the things, came to be known as present day advertising. It became a major force in capitalist economies in the mid-19^th century, based primarily on newspapers and magazines. In the 20^th century, advertising grew rapidly with new technologies such as direct mail, radio, TV, the internet and mobile devices.

Meaning

The word advertising originates from a Latin word ‘advertere’, which means ‘turn towards’ and an old French word ‘advertiss’ means ‘draw attention’. When a marketer or a firm has developed a product or a service, there is a need to establish a correct path to communicate the target audience about the product and ultimately motivate them to purchase it. Moreover, the marketer aims at reaching the maximum number of target audience with a minimum expenditure. Thus, advertisements are the ultimate communicating channels through which the product is exposed to the maximum number of target audience. Mere exposure is not the aim of the advertisements. Here the marketer, through the advertisement, tries to inform, educate and insist the consumers to accept the advertisement and thus make purchase of the product. As a means of forceful communication, advertisement promotes the sale of goods, services, images and ideas by using various attributes and features of the product. It also uses various kinds of visuals, messages, slogans and creative layouts, designs etc to arouse the emotional appeals of the consumer. Advertising is thus the practice of communicating with the public about a product, service, opinion, or cause with the goal of persuading them to respond in a desired way. Advertising can also encourage people to vote, drive safely, save water, protect environment, inculcate the habits of hygiene, support charities etc. The average consumer is exposed to around 1500 advertisements per day as per researcher Edwin Ebel.

Definition

Advertisement is “The cave art of 20^th century” - Marshall Mc Luhan, 1960

Advertising is “selling corn flakes to people who are eating cheerios – Leo Burnett, 1993

“Every form of commercial promotional activity from concert sponsorship to telemarketing, is a form of advertising” – Schultz, 1995. 

American Marketing Association, defined Advertising as “Any form of non-personal presentation of goods, services or ideas for action, openly paid for by an identified sponsor”. Let us discuss various aspects involved in this definition

a.    Any Form: Advertisement can be visual, spoken, written or all together which conveys the ultimate idea or message. It can be a symbol or illustration in a magazine or newspaper or a commercial ad displayed on television or radio. It may take various forms like outdoor media, electronic displays etc

b.    Non-personal: It doesn’t include personal selling, or not even directed towards a single individual.

c.    Goods, services and ideas for action: An advertisement is designed to inform about the products and services, the basic idea thus insist the consumers to purchase the product. In many social ads like family planning, prohibition of tobacco, voter awareness etc neither product nor service is sold, but the idea for social action.

d.    Openly paid for by an identified sponsor: The advertising is a paid form of communication unlike ‘publicity’. The sponsor has to pay certain amount for designing the advertisement and buy the space in the media which motivates the consumers for buying the product or service or idea.

Overall, advertising has three basic objectives: (1) to inform the consumer about new products, product users, services available or other facts that need to be known by consumers (2) to persuade an audience to purchase a product, change brand preferences or perceive a product difference and (3) to remind consumers about the need for a product or where it may be purchased.

Scope

Advertising has a wide scope in marketing and social system. It can be described on the basis of various activities carried, their forms and systems, objectives and functions. The advertising usually is one sided and one directional i.e. from the Advertiser to the Public. It is not a two-way communication process like public relations although PR uses it as a tool. However, the public are free to respond the way they like and draw their own conclusion for the advertisement and allows them to make their own choices.

The advertising carries the message of the product. The message has to be constructed keeping in mind the psychological and behavioral patterns of the consumers. Though message is not brilliant, it should be the representative of the product and carry the basic idea and reach the objective. The success of the advertising depends on the effectiveness of the message.

Advertising selects an appropriate media suitable to reach target audience. Its flexibility has made advertising to use any kind of media either a wallpaper with limited reach or a television with a wide reach. But the selection depends on the nature of the product, market segmentation and target audience. Each media has its own costs, advantages and disadvantages. The advertiser should make proper media planning before advertising in any media. Advertising is bounded with the costs and budget. Small firms cannot afford to buy the space and time in costly medium like Television.

The advertising covers the attributes of the product. The talent of the advertiser lies in differentiating the product from other brands by emphasizing the special features also called as unique selling proposition and outstanding qualities of the product. This helps to avoid competition. With a larger volume of business, advertising will get more professionalised in terms of ad agency, professional manpower and excellent output. The art studios and emergence of graphic technologies has made the output more and more qualitative and creative. No producer can think of sales without advertising. It creates demand, promotes marketing system, helps middlemen, promotes the image of organisation and performs many more functions as well. Advertising has the flexibility to mould the marketing system for the benefits of the producer. The market for the new product is expanded when the potential customers came to know about the product and when they feel that the attributes are suitable for them.

Advertising is a specific communication to meet particular objectives. The advertising is considered as “Art” and as well as “Science” forms. It is that creative field which uses all glossy input to make the advertisement more attractive and also effective. The effectiveness of the Ad depends on various professional inputs. Experts and professionals use several techniques and tenets to make it more suitable and relevant. The Ad is designed based on socio-psychographic factors which influence the purchasing decisions. It is based on the communication theory of socio-dynamic persuasion. Hence, advertising is also identified as “science”. Even the effectiveness of the art form of the advertising can be measured through scientific methods.

Role of Advertising

Advertising serves its role by providing information about business to community. People do need such information. But there is a criticism that the advertisers exaggerate, misrepresent and mislead the public to sell their products. The argument is that the modern advertisers are promoting “consumerism” by creating anxiety in the society. But in fact, no advertisement is wasteful, which contains nothing to tell the consumers or which creates no image in the minds of the consumer.

However, these controversial statements are made based on certain kinds of ads which compulsorily need exhibition of their product with superficial highlights. Some life style ads like cosmetics, food supplements, fashion collections, designer home accessories etc highlight their products and services in a boosting manner, providing very less useful information. Here they use permissible lies to arouse the consumerist values by using various illusions and images in the name of creativity. Even certain classified ads and matrimonial ads are often not trustworthy.

There is a code for self-regulation of advertising content in India. Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) is a creation of Govt. Its aim is to maintain and enhance the public’s confidence in Advertising. It seeks to ensure that advertisements conform to its code which requires advertisements to be legal, decent, honest and truthful and not hazardous or harmful while observing fairness in competition. On the other hand, Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) is a non-profit organisation that promotes the interests of advertising agencies in India.

Advertising plays the roles like Commercial role, Marketing role, Economic Development role and Rural Development role.

1.    Commercial: The role of advertising is to stimulate the demand for product at various market segments. This increases the competition thus leading for mass production. More competitive the market, more aggressive will be the advertising. This competition contributes to increase the quality of the product with cost reduction and thus allowing the consumer the freedom of choice to select the products according to their needs and tastes. Healthy advertising creates healthy competition allowing all the small and new competitors to enjoy their share of market. Advertising makes retail sales easier, by guiding the purchasing capacities of the consumers in their choice of products and brands. A direct relationship can be maintained by the manufacturer and the consumers with the help of advertising, skipping the retailers and wholesalers. Advertising plays a key role, keeping the public constantly aware of the new products, reminding of the existing products etc by informing them from time to time. The advertising keeps in phase with the potential customers by highlighting the attributes and thus attracting them towards the product and also with the existing customer by reinforcing their belief that their choice is right. The advertising builds and raises the reputation, image and credibility of the firm or company by creating a rapport between the consumer and the manufacturer. It helps to identify the firms through their brand image and brand loyalty. However, if the quality of product is not up to the expectations and reputation thus build-up, the consumer may turn away from the product.

2.    Marketing: Advertising has a vital role in the marketing of goods, services and even social messages in various localities. The primary role of advertising is to inform the public about various utilities of the product. But the style of informing and dissemination of the message depends upon the nature of the product, area of market segments and the target audience. For sale of a plot or letting a house on rent or lease, a small classified is enough. But for a product with international market criteria, the advertisement has to be aired all over the world through television or world wide web etc. It is the flexibility of the advertising which can be molded according to the needs of the marketer. Advertising with various elements of market mix make public aware of various goods and services. No one comes to know when a new brand of toothpaste or renewal of the old brand without an advertisement. It is with the help of the advertising, where the marketer grabs potential customers and guarantees the existing customers the satisfaction in use of their product.

3.    Economic development: Advertising in India has played a vital role in the economic development process. It created an overall demand for the consumer products and enhanced the living standards of the millions of people. Advertising of various consumer products and services created severe competition and thus resulted in reduced costs and increased quality. No consumer is ready to adjust with a product with limited features. They are verifying the products of different brands and choosing the best among all. It is argued that the raising aspirations and expectations of the consumers have resulted in the economic and industrial growth. However, some critics argue that this may lead to consumerism rather than development. They say that certain advertisements of consumer products and durables create new wants, which are harmful. In certain poor, lower middle class groups, where saving and investment is very necessary, these advertisements are forcing them to make purchases other than basic necessities. We cannot justify this as increased purchasing capacity. This argument is not targeted at information-oriented advertising which really and genuinely informs the society. As mentioned earlier, advertising creates demand which results in raising competition, increases the production, thus reduces the raw material cost and lower the selling prices. The competition also leads to standardization of the product. A substantial amount of advertising expenses invested in consumer goods and services, capital and territorial goods will help to enhance investment, production and employment in various firms and companies. The advertising profession itself provides employment to thousands of artists like copy writers, painters, accountants, managers etc ranging from white collared officers to daily waged personnel, thus generating revenue and contributing to the economic development.

4.    Rural development role: Advertising has a definite role to play in rural development. The reach of advertising through various means of mass media to the nook and corner of the country including villages has raised the accessibility of various products. Many successful manufacturers have reached the rural market through appropriate advertising. The international brands are offering special reduced rates making them available even for rural consumers. Moreover, advertising is not just concentration on increasing the sales in rural markets, but also concentrating on various developmental aspects of the rural areas. Advertising helped the top manufacturers to extend their services to villages by producing various products useful for agriculture, dairy farming etc. The success of Amul dairy farm in India is a very good example for such cases. Many ads on micro irrigation, modern agricultural technologies, gobar gas plantation, solar power, storage of drinking water, drainage, health and hygiene etc are really helpful to the villagers. 

Types of Advertisements

Advertising is complex because it tries to reach different types of people in different ways. Think about the products journey, how it travels from one person to another i.e. from production point to consumer’s purchase point. There are different kinds of advertisements. The advertisements are classified (1) on the basis of product, (2) on the basis of audience, (3) on the basis of timing response, (4) on the basis of demand influence, (5) on the basis of geographical area, cooperative advertising and finally (6) on the basis of medium used. Among these, let us look at 3 important kinds of advertising i.e. product and audience based and institutional advertising.

1.     On the basis of product:

The main object of product advertising is to promote the sales and reputation of the particular product, brand or services. Manufacturers, middlemen or retailers give these types of advertisements and in these advertisements product features such as price, quality and services are highlighted. These are mostly designed for non-personal selling of the goods and services. Again product advertising may be classified as (i) Informative product advertising (ii) Persuasive product advertising and (iii) Reminder oriented advertising 

2.     On the basis of Audience:

On the basis of audience to which an advertisement is directed, it may be divided into (a) consumer advertising (b) industrial advertising and (c) trade advertising.

a)    Consumer advertising is directed towards the consumer who is the ultimate purchaser. Usually the producers who produce consumer goods use this type of advertising as they sell the goods through wholesaler, retailer, departmental stores, chain stores etc

b)    In industrial advertising the products of some industries like raw material, equipment or machinery for the other industries are advertised. These advertisements are published in the industry publications only.

c)    Trade advertising is addressed to the distributors, agents, wholesalers, retailers, mail order houses and service firms by the manufacturers. The object of trade advertising is to secure distribution. Manufacturer persuade the distributors and retailers to stock their products in the market by applying different trade promotions like introductory price reductions, discounts, display material, cooperative advertising etc  

3.     Institutional advertising:

Institutional advertising is also known as prestige advertising or corporate advertising or institutional promotion. The main aim of this type of advertising is to promote or create favourable image or attitude towards the institution or business in the eyes of shareholders, employees, distributors, legislators, suppliers, consumers and general public. It does not attempt to sell the product or services but tries to portrait the institution as a responsible entity and is patriotic in the eyes of the general public. It is different from public service advertising which promotes an idea or calls for a social action rather than a product or image. Institutional advertising is designed to -

a)      Enhance and maintain the company’s reputation or good will among the specific public or business audiences;

b)           Enhance company’s image by promoting good causes with advertisements for social empowerment;

c)      Establish or maintain a level of awareness of the company’s name and nature of business;

d)       Provide a unified and supportive marketing approach for a combination of present and future products and services;

e)            Educate the audience on subjects of importance for sake of company’s future;

f)             Establish the company’s concern for environmental or social issues; and

g)            Bring about a change in specific attitude of the audience towards the company or its products.

Institutional advertising is also (i) informative (ii) persuasive and (iii) reminder oriented.

Summary

Advertising is a paid form of communication unlike ‘Publicity’. The basic task of advertising is to communicate the message to the target group, persuade them to make purchase of their products. The advertiser helps the audience to make their purchase decisions by informing them about various benefits, services and attributes of the product. It is the only one element of the promotion mix, but it often takes a special prominence in the overall market mix. The criticism is that the Advertisers exaggerate, misrepresent and mislead public and it is promoting “consumerism” and “commercialism”. However, the advertising is playing crucial roles in various ways to promote development of Indian market. The advertising stimulates the demand for product at various market segments, thus increasing the healthy growth of competitive products with mass consumption, enhanced quality and reduced costs. This provides the consumer a freedom of choice for purchasing the goods. The advertising profession itself provides employment to thousands of artistes like copywriters, designers and managers etc providing them the life bread and thus enhancing the gross national product of the country.    

FAQs

1.     What do you understand by advertising?

2.     Explain the definition of Advertising as given by American Marketing Association.

3.     Explain the role advertising in rural development.

4.     What is the criticism on advertising?

5.     Describe Institutional advertising.

Model Answers

1.   Advertising is a worldwide phenomenon. It is a multi-dimensional form of mass communication, a marketing tool, a component of economic system, a means of financing the mass media, a social institution, an art from, an instrument of business management, a field of employment and a profession. Advertising is one of the four methods of promotional activities i.e. sales promotion, personal selling and public relations. It is a non-personal communication of a sales message. Advertising is a paid form of communication unlike “Publicity”. It has to be published in various newspapers and magazines, broadcast in radio and television, publicised through outdoor and transit media, showed in cinema and has to be placed in internet for several products. All these activities are carried out through payments depending upon the space and time of placing the ads.

 

2.    American Marketing Association defined Advertising as “Any form of non-personal presentation of goods, services or ideas for action, openly paid for by an identified sponsor”. Any form means Advertisement can be visual, spoken, written or all together which conveys the ultimate idea or message. It may take various forms like outdoor media, electronic displays etc Non-personal means it doesn’t include personal selling, or not even directed towards a single individual. It is designed to inform about the goods, services and ideas and insist the consumers to purchase the product. In many social ads like family planning, prohibition of tobacco, adult franchise etc neither product nor service is sold, but the idea for social action. Paid for by an identified sponsor means that the advertising is a paid form of communication unlike ‘publicity’. The sponsor has to pay certain amount for designing the advertisement and also to buy the space in the media.

3.     Advertising has a definite role to play in rural development. The reach of advertising through various means of mass media to the nook and corner of the country including villages has raised the accessibility of various products. Many successful manufacturers have reached the rural market through appropriate advertising. The international brands are offering special reduced rates making them available even for rural consumers. Moreover, advertising not just concentration on increasing the sales in rural markets, but also concentrating on various developmental aspects of the rural areas. Advertising helped the top manufacturers to extend their services to villages by producing various products useful for agriculture, dairy farming etc. The success of Amul dairy farms in India is very good example for such cases. Many ads on drip irrigation, modern agricultural technologies, gobargas plants, utilisation of solar power, tapping wind power, storage of drinking water, drainage, health and hygiene etc are really helpful to the villagers.

4.       Advertising serves its role by providing information about business to community. But there is a criticism that the advertisers exaggerate, misrepresent and mislead the public to sell their products. The argument is that the modern advertisers are promoting “consumerism” by creating anxiety in the society. But in fact, no advertisement is wasteful, which contains nothing to tell the consumers or which creates no image in the minds of the consumer.  However, these controversial statements are made based on certain kinds of Ads which compulsorily need exhibition of their product with superficial highlights. Some life style Ads like cosmetics, fashion collections, designer accessories etc highlights their products and services in a boosting manner, providing very less useful information. Here they use permissible lies to arouse the consumerist values by using various illusions and images in the name of creativity. Even certain classified Ads and matrimonial Ads given are often not trustworthy. These kinds of Ads made certain class of critics to avoid the advertisements.

5.      Institutional advertising is known as prestige advertising or corporate advertising. The main aim of this type of advertising is to promote or create favourable image or attitude towards the institution or business in the eyes of shareholders, employees, distributors, legislators, suppliers, consumers and general public. It does not attempt to sell the product or services but tries to portrait the institution as a responsible entity and is patriotic in the eyes of the general public. Institutional advertising is designed to (a) Enhance and maintain the company’s reputation or good will among the specific public or business audiences (b) Enhance company’s image by promoting good causes with advertisements for social empowerment (c) Establish or maintain a level of awareness of the company’s name and nature of business (d) Provide a unified and supportive marketing approach for a combination of present and future products and services (e ) Educate the audience on subjects of importance for sake of company’s future (f) Establish the company’s concern for environmental or social issues (g) Bring about a change in specific attitude of the audience towards the company or its products.

 Multiple Choice Questions

 1.      Who said “Advertising is a cave art of 20^th Century”

a.       Ivy Ledbetter Lee

b.      Andrew Carnegie

c.       Howard R Bowen

d.      Marshall Mc Luhan

 

2.      Egyptians used __________ to make sales messages and wall posters.

a.    Copper plates

b.    Rocks

c.    Papyrus

d.    Iron sheets

 

3.      __________ seeks to regulate the advertising content in India

           a.  AMA

b.    ASCI

c.    IMA

d.    AAAI

 

4.      The three basic objectives of advertising are

a.       Inform, persuade & remind

b.      Entertain, educate & insist

c.       Inform, analyze & impress

d.      Advertise, insist & sell

 

5.      Advertising is a ____________ communication of a sales message.

a.    Non-personal

b.    Personal

c.    Public

d.    Commercial

Keys to Multiple Choice Questions: 1. (d)  2. (c)  3. (b)  4. (a) 5. (a)

Glossary:

Advertiser: An advertiser is a company that pays for air time or space to promote the products or services.

Advertising: Advertising is the business of drawing public attention to products and services

Communication process: It is the relaying of information the sender to the receiver.

Consumer behavior: It is the study of how individuals or groups act when buying, consuming and disposing of goods and services.

Consumerism: The term consumerism may refer to two contractor phenomena (1) the efforts of advertising and marketing in creating consumers or (2) a movement seeking to protect the rights of consumers against the interests of businesses and advertisers.

Medium: A medium is a vehicle used to convey information, news, entertainment and advertising messages to the audience. Popular media include, print, radio, television and billboards etc

Publicity: Publicity is the dissemination of promotional material to draw interest or generate sales. Publicity generally comes for free by way of events and either by sending press notes or by coverage by the media persons.

Target audience: They are a section of population that is identified as likely to be most interested in buying or being associated with a product.

The promotional mix: It is the blend of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations that a firm uses to reach its target market.

Key words: Advertiser, Advertising, Advertisement, Publicity, Sales Promotion, Customers, Consumerism

 

Y. BABJI

Academic Counsellor, Public Relations (since 1989)

AP Open University/Dr BR Ambedkar Open University

Editor, Public Relations Voice