FUNDAMENTALS OF ADVERTISING

Advertising is present everywhere. The television, newspaper and magazines bring it to our residence, the hoardings and kiosks stare us out-of-door, the trade journals and professional magazines find place in our offices. We hear ad messages on FM frequency while driving our favorite car from home to office and back. It is a matter of deep satisfaction that advertising has now acquired respectability deserved by it. Advertising talks to a very wide audience. Hence it is called mass communication, as against the individual communication such as letter or the talk of a salesman. Advertising is one way to promote products and services. It is thus a part of promotion. In marketing, we have to establish a relationship between a brand and our consumer. Advertising helps to establish this relationship. Advertising though contested, has spread all over the world because it works. Companies have realized that it pays to advertise.

ADVERTISING WORLD: 

Earlier, advertising was confined to announcements, and its role did not go beyond informing. Even today, many advertisements are created just to inform. e.g., classified. These days advertising is regarded as any paid form of nonpersonal communication, of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor.

Advertising is of various forms. It can be a sign or symbol or illustration or message. As advertising is non-personal and thus excludes any face to face communication. Advertising is openly paid for by an identified sponsor. Advertising just tries to influence the behaviour of the target audience.

Definition of advertising: Advertising is one of the important forces which serve the public interest. It is a form of open communication between those sell and those who buy. It is a form of advocacy open to any company or cause that wants to argue its case. The jury is the public. Every purchase is a Vote.(Burt Manning, JWT ).

Advertising and communication: Though advertising is used as a part of marketing mix, basically it is a communication process. The aim of this communication is to improve sales or make the customers aware of our products. The customers for whom the message is meant are the receivers. As advertising makes the receivers favorably inclined towards the product, it is called marketing communication. Since the message is put through the mass media for a large number of people, it is mass communication. Advertiser has to identify exactly who his customers are, where they are, and why they behave the way they do. He has to understand his target audience to be effective. The way the target audience reacts to the message is feed back.

STAGES IN ADVERTISING COMMUNICATION: 

It is informative and persuasive. It guides the consumers to take action. The whole process of marketing has a large content of communication. Marketing communication is thus a broader term. But the most important element of marketing communication is the promotional mix which is also called communication mix. Marketing communication is the process of sending promotional messages. It is called the AIDA stages of communication where A stands for attracting attention, I for rousing interest, D for building a desire and A for obtaining action. Advertising, as a communication strategy, has to perform the first three functions, only direct action advertising leads to action of buying. 

Another communication model gives six stages, 

1. Awareness 

2. Comprehension 

3. Acceptance 

4. Ownership

5. Reinforcement 

6. Purchase

The continuum is called hierarchy of effects. The first stage of attention is cognitive stage the interest and desire stages are affective stages and the final action is the behaviour stage. We assume that the audience member passes through sequential steps and is called hierarchy-of-effects model.

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION (IMC): 

We find that marketing communication gives the customers a fragmented and hazy picture. It happens because there is no integration amongst marketing efforts on the one hand and the communication efforts on the other. IMC makes a single minded focused communication. Its consistency and cost effectiveness are its main merits. There are separate direct marketing and PR functionaries. It involves two major dimensions_ consistency of positioning, message and tone across these different media and simultaneous achievement of several specific communication goal and leading to behavioral action.

DRAMATIC CHANGES IN BRAND COMMUNICATION: 

This model is highly simplistic. Consumers do not meekly accept everything directed towards them, they challenge the proposition and sometimes even dispute it. They can interpret, modify or reject brand messages. The consumers also form their opinions about the brands in a number of ways.

ADVERTISING AND MARKETING: 

Marketing is the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of products which satisfy the customers. Advertising as a tool of marketing is employed to highlight the benefits of these products. However, advertising never determines how a product will be designed, how it will be distributed and at what price. The decision about product, distribution and pricing must be made before advertising is allowed to play its role. Marketing has to keep the needs and wants of consumers in focus. It has to assess these needs through marketing research.

MARKETING MIX: 

Product, Price, Place (distribution) and Promotion, these four variables make the marketing mix. Marketing has to have different permutations and combinations of these four Ps to achieve consumer’s satisfaction.

Product: A product can be a physical product or a service. It includes all the accessories that go with a product. It is something that offers value to the customer by making available the benefits to satisfy the needs and wants. To distinguish from the competitive products they are converted into brands, packaging a brand suitably is also a marketing task. 

Price: Price is the value offered in exchange of products in terms of money. Price covers the cost of manufacturing, office and administration, distribution, promotion as well as markup over costs which is called profit. 

Distribution: The movement of products from the producer to the customer is called distribution. And it is made possible by using a marketing channel. Physical distribution involves transportation, warehousing, and inventory management. 

Promotion: Advertising is used along with personal selling, public relations, direct marketing, and sales promotion. Direct marketing is selling direct to the customers either by direct mail, or telephone or TV ads.

ADVERTISING WORLD: 

It consists of organizations that put the advertising messages through advertising agencies in different media. They have their own advertising departments who interact with the advertising agencies which conceive and execute a campaign on their behalf.

TYPES OF ADVERTISING: 

The ads are classified on the basis of their targeting, geographic selectivity, media selectivity and advertising objectives.

TARGET AUDIENCE: Advertising is directed to a particular group of consumers. Industrial advertising is directed to institutions and other business organizations. Trade advertising is directed to the distributors, retailers as well as wholesalers. And professional advertising is directed to the professionals like CAs, Doctors, and Engineers etc.

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE: Those firms who do business on a global basis prepare international ads; firms having business on all India basis do national advertising, whereas regional advertising is restricted to regions only. Retailers do local advertising.

MEDIA USED: Advertising is in through the Print Media, Electronic Media, Hoardings, posters are the outdoor advertising, ads on buses trains are transit ads when advertisers contact the buyers directly it is direct marketing.

AIMS: Advertising can be classified depending on its objectives. Product advertising aims to stimulate the sales of products. Non product advertising aims to create a favorable image of the organization as a whole. It is alternatively known as institutional or corporate advertising. Advertising can also be used for non business purposes e.g. anti- dowry campaign.

FUNCTIONS OF ADVERTISING: Informs the buyers about the existence of the products, its features, benefits and availability and incentive to buy. Advertising provokes us to try the product, and once tried reminds us to buy again. Advertising builds brands, gives an image and personality to the brand, while working with other elements of marketing mix create brand equity. Advertising helps us to choose the brand out of several brands available. Advertising persuades people to act.