Advertising Introduction and Scope

 
“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”-William Stanton.

theintactone.com can define term ‘advertising’ as: 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 and objectives.

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

Frank Presbrey: “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.”

Scope of Advertising
Advertising is often regarded as the most important means of marketing a company’s services and
tools. The scope of advertising is to communicate a message to current customers or potentially
target new customers. It helps a company get a message or a piece of information across to their
customer base regarding a new product or special deal.

(i) Scope of advertising by budget

There is always a budget allocated for advertising and promotion within the marketing budget. The
budget allocated should be in coordination with the type of advertisement the organization wants.
The resources and other requirements are to be kept in mind for the budget allocation.

(ii) Scope of advertising by deliverables

Once the budget is decided, the marketing plan can be projected further. A detailed scope of work
that deliverables require can be outlined. Agencies can now develop a proposed resource plan.

(iii) Scope of advertising by allocating deliverables

For creative work, allocating the type of deliverables (TV, online, mobile, press, magazine, etc)
based on the previous campaign requirements can be more insightful after the previous plan.

(iv) Scope of advertising by strategy

 Once the deliverables are allocated, advertising agencies can define the strategic requirements by
brand or category and develop a scope of work based on past requirements and remuneration for
similar strategic deliverables.

Objectives of Advertising

1. To Inform Buyers

This objective includes informing customers regarding product’s availability, price, features,
qualities, services, and performance. Besides, it also includes informing them about changes made in
the existing product and introduction of new products. Company also highlights its location,
achievements, policies, and performance through advertising.

2. To Persuade or Convince Buyers

Company uses advertisement to persuade or convince the buyers about superior advantages offered
by its product. Company communicates competitive advantages the product offers to induce
customers buy it. Comparative advertising is used to prove the additional benefits of product at a
given price.

3. To Remind Buyers

Marketer uses advertising to remind the buyers regarding existence of company, products,
maintenance of quality, superior services, and chasing customer-orientation. Mostly, the existing
firms aim their advertising for this objective.

Here, the purpose is to inform that the company is still in existence and serving customers in a better
way. Due to huge information bombarded by a number of companies, customers are more likely to
forget name of company and/or products and services it offers.

4. To Face Competition

Advertising is treated as the most powerful weapon to fight with competitors effectively. Advertising
enables the firm to respond the competitors strongly. It helps the firm to distinguish its total offerings
from competitors.

In brief, the firm can face competition, can prevent the entry of competitors, or can remove
competitors away from the market. In competitive marketing environment, the firm cannot survive
without an effective advertisement.

5. To Achieve Sales Targets

Increase sales volume is one of the major advertising objectives. A company can advertise its
products in various media to attract customers situated in different parts of the world. National and
international marketing is the result of advertising. Even, non-users can be converted into users and
usage rate can be increased. Thus, company can achieve its sales objectives by advertisement.
6. To Build and Improve Brand Image

Advertising is used for brand recognition and acceptance. A company can distinguish its brand by
magnifying major benefits the product offers. Advertisement attracts customers toward the brand;
they try it and accept it over time. In the same way, bad image related to brand can be changed by
systematic presentation of facts and scientific evidences, and removing misunderstanding.

7. To Help or Educate People

Advertising is not always used only for company’s benefits. It is meant for helping customers to
make the right choice of product. It educates people about availability of new products, its features
and qualities, price, services, and other related aspects. Such information is instrumental for
purchasing suitable products. Thus, it guides customers to choose the most appropriate product.

8. To Build Company Image and Reputation

A company opts for advertisement to build prestige and reputation in the market. Most of the
companies, though they are satisfied with the volume of sales, go for advertising to acquire fame in
the market. Many companies advertise its policies, activities, and achievements to make a permanent
place in the mind of people.

9. To Assist Sales Force and Middlemen

Advertising is an aid to middlemen and salesmen. Advertising also popularizes the name of dealers.
Likewise, advertising provides necessary information to the buyers. Middlemen and salesmen are not
required to do the same. It eases the task of sellers. In the same way, advertising encourages sales
force.

10. Other Objectives

There are certain minor objectives of advertising, such as:

 To promote new products.

 To build long-term relations.
 To remove misunderstanding.
 To expand of market.
 To gain confidence of buyers.
 To request customers to compromise with unavoidable circumstances.
 To seek apology of the buyers for any undesirable events, etc.
 Importance of Advertising
in Business
 

1. Advertising helps to introduce a new business, a new product or service

When a business is just starting or when a new product or service is being launched, the fastest and
most efficient way to introduce it to the community and to people is through advertising. A good and
high-quality advertisement will help to introduce the business to a large population of people within a
short period of time. Advertising is one of the major keys to the survival of a new business, product
or service.

2. Advertising gives breakthroughs to businesses

Advertising produces quick and dramatic breakthroughs. Over the years, most businesses have
experienced breakthroughs with the help of advertising. When a business or a product is not doing
well, advertising is one of the ways to boost its position. A qualitative and quantitative advertisement
helps both new and old businesses.

3. It helps to create awareness about a business or product

Advertising helps to create awareness about a product. Advertising is done over a particular period of
time. So, it makes people constantly aware of a product or a business.

4. It helps consumers to differentiate products

Companies and businesses use advertising to show consumers differences between their product and
other products. The advertisement is not done by necessarily comparing and differentiating products,
but in such a way that it shows the uniqueness and benefits of a particular product and imprint it in
consumers mind.

5. It helps to promote and convince consumers about a company, product or service

Promoting a product is the primary objective of advertising. Letting people know that you have an
exciting product to offer. Advertising can also be used to promote sales and upcoming events in a
company.

6. It helps to draw customers to a business and keep existing customers

The more people are aware of your product, the more they will want to patronise it. When you do a
good advertisement, consumers want to try the products. Also, good advertising builds the morale of
existing customers to keep using your products. When they see the advertisement of your product,
they are impressed and want to keep using it.
 Advertising is the key to the success of a business in today’s world. It tells people about your
business, where it is located, and what you have to offer. Invest in advertising today and take your
business to the next level.

Role of Advertising in Social and

Economic Development of India
 
Advertising is a business, an art, an institution, and a cultural phenomenon. Advertising helps
consumers see the possibilities and meanings in the things that they buy. Advertising also liberates
meanings that lie below the surface. Advertising is part of our everyday culture as it is omnipresent.
On an average, we see close to 1,500 ads per day. Therefore their influence on the cultural
consciousness and behavior of the public can’t be denied. In Indian scenario advertising has a very
large influence in the mass media market place as it pays most of the bills and thus plays a major role
in shaping the content and operation of the mass media in India. Advertising also plays an important
role in the popular Indian culture because it shapes and reflects our life styles. It is usually the first to
reflect social trends.

Example: The print advertisement of Scooty/Bike, AMUL.

Advertising promotes a higher quality of goods through the ability of the consumer to identify a
particular manufacturer and thus creating a need for that manufacturer to maintain quality.
Advertising also gives business the ability to roll-out new products fast enough to offset the costs of
creating such products. Advertising protects industry from government and special control as it
democratizes information to consumers as to what products are available. Advertising plays two
following broad roles in the socio-economic landscape of a country:

 Economic roles
 Social roles

1. Economic Role of Advertising

Advertising performs an economic function for an advertiser, affect economic decision of the
audience and is an integral part of the whole economic system. Advertising stimulates demand,
educate consumer about new product, policies, programmes services and organizations, increase
competition and improve standard of life-style by helping to bring new product to the consumer.
Advertising boosts the economy by helping to introduce new products faster and more effectively to
consumer by supporting to achieve the economies of scale faster and by helping to remove the
monopoly of the product.

2. Social Role of Advertising

Advertising reflects society and society reflects advertising. At social level advertising plays upon,
derives from and contributes to the social texture of a country. Various social changes are brought
about or helped by advertising. Adult education, family planning and pulse polio campaign are the
examples of few successful social advertising campaign. It makes role models who can create
societal change. Advertising are efficient source of information for product quality, new material or
merchandise, new technology and cost. ƒIt reduces distribution costs, encourage competition and
increases product quality through brand identity. ƒIt supports mass media to maintain independence
from government, political parties and other special interest groups.

Negative Role of Advertising in the Society

Objectionable and in bad taste – Some critics feel that advertising is objectionable because the
creative effort behind it is not in good taste. Intrusive, repetitive, unreal, offensive and depressing are
some of its unpleasant features.Excessive fear appeal – The fear appeal in advertising creates anxiety
that is supposed to be subsidized by an available product. Such appeals may create emotional
disturbances in some audience members. Products like fairness cream, insurance or a germ killing
toothpaste all tries to play with the fear factor. Intrusiveness – An advertisement campaign moves
with repetition from a period of effectiveness to acceptance, to a period of irritation. Manipulation
– Advertisements have the raw power to manipulate consumers. Many companies have the capacity
to obtain large numbers of advertisement exposures, which is not good for healthy competition.

Effects on Values and Life-Style

Advertising receives wide exposure as it is disseminated through mass media. It has an effects on
what people buy and thus on their activities. It is a persuasive vehicle which has an impact on the
values and life-style of society. The impact of advertising has its negative as well as positive side.
The relationship of advertising to materialism – Advertising create or foster materialism. Materialism
is defined as the tendency to give undue importance to material interests. People buy high-end luxury
products for social status. It reflects changing values and attitudes that are created by more
significant sociological forces. Advertising plays role in creating harmful stereotypes of women and
ethnic minorities. Contribution of advertising in promoting harmful products – The harmful products
like tobacco, alcohol are promoted through surrogate advertising.

Ethics and Truths in

Indian Advertising
 CCSUTHEINTACTONE8 SEP 2019 1 COMMENT
Ethics means a set of moral principles which govern a person’s behavior or how the activity is
conducted. And advertising means a mode of communication between a seller and a buyer.

Thus ethics in advertising means a set of well defined principles which govern the ways of
communication taking place between the seller and the buyer. Ethics is the most important feature of
the advertising industry. Though there are many benefits of advertising but then there are some
points which don’t match the ethical norms of advertising.
 An ethical ad is the one which doesn’t lie, doesn’t make fake or false claims and is in the limit of
decency.

Nowadays, ads are more exaggerated and a lot of puffing is used. It seems like the advertisers lack
knowledge of ethical norms and principles. They just don’t understand and are unable to decide what
is correct and what is wrong.

The main area of interest for advertisers is to increase their sales, gain more and more customers, and
increase the demand for the product by presenting a well decorated, puffed and colorful ad. They
claim that their product is the best, having unique qualities than the competitors, more cost effective,
and more beneficial. But most of these ads are found to be false, misleading customers and unethical.
The best example of these types of ads is the one which shows evening snacks for the kids, they use
coloring and gluing to make the product look glossy and attractive to the consumers who are
watching the ads on television and convince them to buy the product without giving a second
thought.

Ethics in Advertising is directly related to the purpose of advertising and the nature of advertising.
Sometimes exaggerating the ad becomes necessary to prove the benefit of the product. For e.g. a
sanitary napkin ad which shows that when the napkin was dropped in a river by some girls, the
napkin soaked whole water of the river. Thus, the purpose of advertising was only to inform women
about the product quality. Obviously, every woman knows that this cannot practically happen but the
ad was accepted. This doesn’t show that the ad was unethical.

1. Pharmaceutical Advertising

Companies in the pharmaceutical industry employ advertising strategy as a way to create awareness.
The main point in the adverts which is emphasized upon by advertisers is that medicines cure;
however, they rarely give information regarding the side effects or associated risks. This obviously
shows that most advertisers talk of positive values while neglecting the negative effects associated
with the product.

2. Children

The main sellers in product advertisements are the children. The reason is that they have a
convincing power to lure buyers to purchase a product. The thing is that in case children are used in
ads, they should not be casted handling activities independently, for instance, holding milk bottles,
toy playing and teeth brushing. These should be shown when an adult person is assisting them to
handle the activities. It is logical for parents to be shown getting involved with their children when
advertising certain products and services.

3. Alcohol

Up to the current market place, no advertisement has been shown with a person practically drinking
the actual liquor. In these ads, the demonstrators usually use sodas and mineral water which pose the
actual liquor brand name. For such ads, they are referred to as surrogate adverts. Practically, whether
there are alcohol advertisements or not, it is highly possible that loyal consumers will continue
drinking alcohol.
4. Cigarettes and Tobacco

In the real sense, tobacco and cigarettes need not be advertised because people consuming these
products are likely to suffer severe health issues and cancer. Practically, such adverts are banned in a
number of countries namely Singapore, Finland, India and Norway.

5. Ads for Social Causes

Adverts associated with social causes are classified as ethical and should be acceptable among
people. Nevertheless, advertisements associated with condoms and pills for contraceptives should be
controlled because they exhibit unethical nature. Basically, such activity may compromise the
decency and morality particularly in areas where education and knowledge of the product are limited.
Based on the approach mentioned above, it becomes vital for advertisers to be responsible for
ensuring that ads are self regulated.