UNIT 3

Meaning: Advertising is a paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods,
or services by an identified sponsor. 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.
According to Stanton, “Advertising consists of all activities in presenting to a group a non-
personal, oral or visual, openly sponsored message regarding a product, service or idea”.
According to Kotler & Armstrong – “Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation
and promotion of ideas, goods and services through mass media such as newspapers, magazines,
television or radio by an identified sponsor”.
American Marketing Association defines advertising as “any paid form of non-personal
presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor.”
Characteristics of Advertising: Above stated definitions reveal following features:
1. Tool for Market Promotion: There are various tools used for market communication, such as
advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and publicity. Advertising is a powerful,
expensive, and popular element of promotion mix.
2. Non-personal: Advertising is non-personal or mass communication with target audience. A
large number of people are addressed at time. It is called as non-personal salesmanship.
3. Paid Form: Advertising is not free of costs. Advertiser, called as sponsor, has to spend money
for preparing message, buying media, & monitoring advertising efforts. Company has to prepare
its advertising budget to appropriate advertising costs.
4. Wide Applicability: Advertising is a widely used means for communicating with target market.
It is not used only for business & profession, but widely used by charitable trusts, government
agencies, institutions, & others to inform & attract various target publics.
5. Varied Objectives: Advertising is aimed at achieving various objectives. It is targeted to
increase sales, brand image, competition, build relations with publics, to educate people.
6. Advertising forms: Advertising message can be expressed in written, oral, audible, or visual
forms. Message is expressed in a joint form, such as oral-visual, audio-visual, etc.
7. One-way Communication: Advertising is one-way process. Message moves from company to
customers & sponsor to audience. Message from consumers to marketer is not possible.
8. Use of Media: Advertiser can use any of the several advertising media to convey the message.
Print media (newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, etc.), outdoor media (hoardings, banners, etc.),
audio-visual media (radio, television, Internet, etc.), or any other to address the target audience.
Objectives:
1. To Inform Buyers: This objective includes informing customers regarding product’s
availability, price, features, qualities, services, & performance. 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.
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.
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.
5. 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 in different parts of the
world. National & international marketing is the result of advertising.
6. To 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 & qualities, price, services, & other aspects.
7. To Build Company Image & Reputation: A company opts for advertisement to build prestige
& reputation in the market. Many companies advertise its policies, activities, and achievements
to make a permanent place in the mind of people.
Scope of Advertising:
1. Introduces New Products: It helps in introducing new products of companies in market.
Advertising management through managing all advertising activities induce people to know
about or try new products.
2. Create Wide Awareness: Advertising management enables in creating wide awareness of
brand products among audience. It is one through which company communicates all information
regarding features, uses and advantages of product in market.
3. Increase Sales: This process has a significant role in bringing up the sales of business
organizations. Advertising activities facilitates mass sales for companies by reaching out to large
customers and convincing them for buying it.
4. Enhances Goodwill: Managing of all advertisement activities results in improving the brand’s
image in market. It means companies show their presence among audience. Customers consider
those brands that spend more on keeping aware of their products.
5. Persuades Customers: It assists in bringing more & more customers to business. Advertising
focuses on attracting large people by circulating well defined promotional message among
customers. It convinces them to purchase the brand products by explaining them all benefits.
6. Faces Competition: Advertising management helps in facing the tough competition in market.
Advertising activities enables business in differentiating their products among customers by
explaining them all features and benefits over the other available products.
7. Generate Employment: It has also led to generation of large number of employment
opportunities. There are many people who are working in various advertisement agencies.
Companies pay fees to these agencies for promotion of their products.
Classification of Advertising: It is classified under nine heads.
1. Product advertising: A normal characteristic of advertising is to create primary demand for a
product category rather than for a specific brand. Most companies are successful in building the
product image by using the brand names (e.g., Dettol, Horlicks). When the company tries to sell
its product or services through advertising it is referred to as product advertising.
2. Institutional advertising: These advertisements are not always directed to consumers. Instead,
it is aimed at many of the various types of public (shareholders, creditors, etc.). It is not product
oriented but is rather designed to enhance the image of the company.
3. Primary demand advertising: It is planned to stimulate primary demand for a new product or
product category. It is heavily utilized during the introduction stages of life cycle of the product.
4. Comparative advertising: This is a highly controversial trend in today's competitive market.
Advertising play a role on comparative features of two or more specific brands in terms of
product / service attributes.
5. Direct action advertising: Advertising that persuades immediate buying of the product is
known as direct action advertising. It is capable of achieving immediate action to a large extent.
6. Radio Advertising: Radio advertising is an effective way for businesses to target a group of
people based on location or similar tastes.
7. Television Advertising: TV advertising is a popular way to mass-market messages to large
audiences. Although this medium has the ability to reach a high number of potential buyers, it
is also one of the most costly forms of advertising
8. Print Advertising: Magazine and newspaper advertisements are another way to spread the
word about a product or service. Print advertising also offers the ability to target specific
audience based on geography or common interests. Print advertising usually includes larger
display ads, as well as classified advertising.
9. Word of Mouth Advertising: Word of mouth is one of the best & priceless asset of any
business. Even if business owners cannot buy word of mouth advertising, they can encourage
their customers to tell their friends & family about the great product or service they purchased.
Steps in Advertising Process: The following steps involved in the process of advertising:
1. Briefing: the advertiser needs to brief about the product or the service which has to be
advertised and doing the SWOT analysis of the company and the product.
2. Knowing the Objective: one should first know the objective or the purpose of advertising. i.e.
what message is to be delivered to the audience?
3. Research: this step involves finding out the market behavior, knowing the competitors, what
type of advertising they are using, what is the response of the consumers, availability of the
resources needed in the process, etc.
4. Target Audience: the next step is to identify the target consumers most likely to buy the
product. The target should be appropriately identified without any confusion.
5. Media Selection: The target audience is identified; select an appropriate media for advertising
so that the customers who are to be informed about the product & willing to buy.
6. Setting the Budget: The advertising budget has to be planned so that there is no short of funds
or excess of funds during the process of advertising and also there are no losses to the company.
7. Designing and Creating the Ad: first the design that is the outline of ad on papers is made by
the copywriters of the agency, then the actual creation of ad is done with help of the art directors
and the creative personnel of the agency.
8. Place & Time: The place will be decided according to the target customers where the ad is most
visible clearly to them. The finalization of time on which the ad will be telecasted or shown on
the selected media will be done by the traffic department of the agency.
9. Execution: The advertisement is released with perfect creation, perfect placement and perfect
timing in the market.
10. Performance: To judge the performance of the ad in terms of the response from the customers,
whether they are satisfied with the ad & product, did the ad reached all the targeted people, was
the advertise capable enough to compete with the other players, etc.
Advertising campaigns: Advertising campaigns are the groups of advertising messages which are
similar in nature. They share same messages and themes placed in different types of medias at
some fixed times. The time frames of advertising campaigns are fixed and specifically defined. The
very prime thing before making an ad campaign is to know-
Why you are advertising and what are you advertising?
 Inform people about your product
 Convince them to buy the product
 Make your product available to the customers
Fundamentals of Advertising Campaigns:
1. Consider who you are targeting: Before one considers what type of advertising might work
best to reach your desired target, you first must settle on who your target market is. Are you
attempting to reach existing customers to inform them about improvements to your product? Are
you trying to reach potential prospects who should be interested in your products?
2. Make sure you measure: This will be a fundamental aspect of almost every tactic we’re going
to discuss in this series. It’s no secret that we are living in an era of accountability. Do not
accept the idea that advertising, including print advertising, cannot be measured. In fact, there
are numerous ways to track how your advertising campaign is performing.
3. Have an objective: Too often, ads appear in a way that can best be described as random, either
in terms of the ad’s design, the ad’s placement. Your objective will guide every important
decision you will ultimately make about the ads you use in your campaign.
4. Understand the importance of selecting audited publications: When considering the print
part of your campaign, remember the importance of selecting audited publication where
possible. Audited publications (BPA Worldwide and ABC are the two leaders) provide the
confidence of knowing that the target audience you are trying to reach actually qualify for and
receive the publication.
Advertising Appeals
Definition: Advertising appeal is defined as strategies for grabbing the attention of people to
persuade them to purchase your product or service. Many advertisers commonly use appeals to
influence their customers. Appeals are customized for the target audience, and they speak to the
interests of individuals and in their words or interest. The primary purpose is to attract them to take
the action that is desired by the seller.
Types of advertising appeal
1. Brand appeal: Brand appeal is for the customers or people who are brand conscious and have
an individual preference towards a particular brand. The primary objective of the brand appeal is
to motivate people to buy a product has an excellent brand. It gives the feeling of differentiation.
Apple is an example of brand appeal.
2. Sex appeal: Sex is an attention catcher. It can be rarely used to promote your product. Sex
appeal ads are used to convey a particular message to a selected group of audience. These days
even deodorant ads and fragrant products also use sex appeal in them to convey that women find
those men attractive who use aromatic products.
3. Adventure Appeal: Some advertisements appeal to the sense of adventure and excitement of a
person. The primary objective of these advertisements is to appeal to people that enthusiasm will
be enhanced after they buy or use the product or service. The advertisements of energy drink use
adventure appeal in them.
4. Fear Appeal: The fear appeal shows that adverse outcomes can happen because a particular
action is not taken. Advertisements often use fear as a motivator to promote change. Many kinds
of toothpaste, deodorants, and anti-dandruff shampoos are advertised. It is shown that if people
do not brush with their toothpaste, it will result in bad hygiene and foul mouth odor, which
would lead to social isolation for the person.
5. Humorous Appeal: Some advertisements appeal to a person’s sense of humor. The marketing
or advertising strategies often try to build a positive association with their product or service. In
many insurance advertisements, it can be seen that the customer is often shown the benefits of
having insurance with the help of humor. Usually, humor works for everyday products such as
cell phones, alcoholic beverages, or fast food.
6. Rational Appeal: When the marketing or advertisement strategy wants people to use their
practicality & functionality for a product. These advertisements are focused on the features of
the product and the cost of the product. For example, advertisements for a car would focus on
the efficiency of gas, price, and mileage that it offers so that it can reach the customer who
wants reliable as well as a cost-effective car.
7. Gender Appeal: Gender appeals are used to create an ideal man or woman. It is expected that
the target audience will buy the product; it may be clothing, beauty products, or any other
product. Buying that product will increase the male or female appeal of the user and it will make
them more attractive which is commonly associated with genders. Watches, luxury goods, all
use gender appeal by showing a conventional male or female.
8. Music Appeal: Music appeal is used to appeal to the taste of music and the sound of a person.
The primary objective of music Appeal is to encourage people to feel and emotion and
associate their product after hearing a particular tune, song, or sound.
9. Emotional Appeal: The emotional appeal is to make the customers feel emotions towards a
particular product. It may be a positive or negative emotion. The customer may feel angry, sad,
happy, proud, or any other related feeling so that it encourages the customer to buy the product.
10. Social Appeal: Social appeal strategies target the sense of belongingness in the people. These
appeals states that, when they buy the product or use their service or take action as directed, it
would make them feel respected, recognized and accepted, with society or a particular group of
people. It gives a feeling of status is yet having a unique appeal.
11. Scarcity Appeal: This marketing strategy appeals to the customers that something will run out
of stock which is why they should purchase the product or take action immediately. The
objective of this appeal is to make people hurry to choose the desired effect. Special offers &
discounts or sales are often with the aim of scarcity appeal.
Advertising Agency
A firm engaged in providing services of advertisement for clients to create awareness and market
for them is known as advertising agency. These agencies involve people with specialized skills &
knowledge who are well versed in marketing, advertising and consumer behavior. Therefore, an
advertising agency is a specialized organization helping its clients to adopt advertising for
marketing their goods and services in most effective manner.
Philip Kotler: “Advertising agency is a marketing service firm that assists its clients in planning,
preparing implementing & evaluating various activities of advertising campaign.”
Rozer: “Agency is a group of persons who have a specialization in advertising. It includes ad
copywriters, ad designers, media selectors & advisors for various advertising issues”.
Important Functions of Advertising Agencies
1. Advertising Plan: Advertising agency prepares advertising plans & programmes for its clients.
Preparing an advertising plan needs concerted efforts & investigative information. The agency
should have full information about the products. It may relate to the product’s positive aspects,
past record, its position in the market, & competitors’ strengths & weaknesses. Information on
what people buy, why they buy it, where they buy, how they buy, how frequently they buy etc.,
are very important and useful.
2. Creation & Execution: An advertising plan, prepared by the advertising agency will be sent to
the advertiser for approval. Once approved, its execution is normally assigned to the agency.
The agency enters into contracts with the suitable media and creating an effective advertisement.
Copy will be written, layouts are made, illustrations are drawn or photographed; advertising
messages are prepared. Billing for service space is done.
3. Co-ordination: Coordination is an important function of an agency. It has to ensure a proper
coordination between the clients, sales force & the distribution network to ensure long-run
success. The goal of the advertising programme must be to assist the efforts of sales persons,
distributors & retailers to maximize sales for the client. Many agencies also render special
services like market research, publicity, preparation of product literature.
4. Research: Research may enable them to make stronger presentation to their clients. It may help
the copy and art personnel, to create better advertisements for their clients.
5. Accounting: The common assignments of the accounting department of an agency include —
checking the appearance of advertisements in media, to check media invoices against release
orders; to pay media bills; to bill clients and collect from them; to look after such matters as
records, book-keeping, and other office routines.
6. Public Relations: The objective of this department is to build & maintain goodwill with the
cross sections of public. The tools used in communicating with the public are corporate
advertising & publicity. The main job of this department is to build stronger relations with
various sections of the public like customers, employees, & shareholders.
Importance of advertising agency includes 6 various points like:-
1. Nature of Product- This is the first importance and it means when the product is a form of mass
media then advertising agency can use print media while when the producers want a
demonstration. The nature of a product plays a very effective role because it helps to define the
target audience related to their product which is sold in the world.
2. Advertising Budget- Advertising budget is the expenses of an advertising agency. Thus, the
advertising budget defines the estimation of total expenses which are related to the
advertisement. It includes various estimations like it includes expenditure relating to advertising
programme, advertising material, media expenses, and so on.
3. Potential Market- The third importance has to conduct the market surveys and identify the
changes in consumer preferences so that these agencies can satisfy the consumers in a proper
manner. Thus, the potential market produces potential customers.
4. Reputation of Agency- The reputation of the agency attracts the companies to higher than for
various purposes such as copywriting or media planning. Agencies like mudra are employed by
large organizations. Reputation establishes working opportunities.
5. Selling Message- This is the fifth importance and it means that the selling message that is used
by the companies can be employed by the advertising agencies in order to gain the attention of
the consumers. It can be an emotional message or rational.
6. Media Alternatives Available- The advertising agency has to decide which media alternatives
are available in the branding of a regular product. For Example– If a company wants to advertise
a product on T.V. then the timeslot should be available.
Role of Advertising Agencies
 Creating an advertise on the basis of information gathered about product
 Doing research on the company and the product and reactions of the customers.
 Planning for type of media to be used, when and where to be used, and for how much time to be
used.
 Taking the feedbacks from the clients as well as the customers and then deciding the further line
of action
All companies can do this work by themselves. They can make ads, print or advertise them on
televisions or other media places; they can manage the accounts also. Then why do they need
advertising agencies? The reasons behind hiring the advertising agencies by the companies are:
 The agencies are expert in this field. They have a team of different people for different functions
like copywriters, art directors, planners, etc.
 The agencies make optimum use of these people, their experience and their knowledge.
 They work with an objective and are very professionals.
 Hiring them leads in saving the costs up to some extent.