basic advertising

Introduction to Advertising

BACKGROUND

Advertising is the business of the people, for the people and by the people. The following is to give the readers the basic concepts, the role and nature of advertising as a constructive force in the modern business world of today. Eight pertinent questions are answered in this chapter. These are

1. What is advertising
2. Is it same as ‘Publicity’ and ‘Propaganda’?
3. What is the structure of advertising industry?
4. What is its role in the current business world?
5. What is advertising coverage?
6. Origin and growth of advertising?
7. What is the importance of advertising planning?
8. Is it a science, art or a profession?

WHAT IS ADVERTISING?

Today, the word ‘advertising’ is a very common term knows to us. It figures in each of our lives everyday. We see it on television, in the sky, on the match box, in the newspapers, on the trash containers, in the magazines, on our mail, on the vehicles, in the vehicles, on bill-boards; we hear it on radio, in the stores when we visit and so on. It is part of our daily life and every one is conscious of it. Yet we have failed to trace the exact meaning of the term ‘adverting’. This has two specific meanings: (1) It is a macro concept representing the entire advertising industry and is an institution. (2) It is micro-managerial concept standing for the specific managerial function of any organization intending to send the information to other members of the society.

The term ‘advertising’ is derived form the original Latin word ‘adverter’ which means ‘to turn’ the attention. Every piece of advertising turns the attention of the readers or the listeners or the viewers or the onlookers towards a product or a service or an idea. Therefore, it can be said that any thing that turns the attention to an article or a service or an idea might be well called as advertising. It is the power-packed process pertaining to the dissemination of information concerning an idea, service or a product to impel an action in line with the intention of an advertiser. Advertising is salesmanship in print. It is the magnate that motivates the world of business. It is the main stay of human civilization and the corner stone of culture. It is a tantalizing technique of popularizing a product. It is that magic force which turns an instinct into acquisition, a desire into demand and dream into reality by influencing the consumption, directing the production, diverting the distribution and affecting the very course of exchange. In the words of C.H Sandge and V. Fryburger, advertising is ‘multi-dimensional; a powerful marketing tool; a component of economic system; a means of financing the mass media; a social institution; an art form; an instrument of business management; a field of employment and paying profession”. In this ad world, advertising is advocacy.

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The most widely accepted definition is one which is given by the American Marketing Association, according to which is any “any paid form of non-personal presentation of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor” Put in other words, it is a sales message directed at a mass audience, that seeks through persuasion to sell goods, services or ideas on behalf of the paying sponsor. The distinct characteristics of advertising relative to overall marketing activity are: It is a competitive Act. It is not part of the product. It is the act of persuasion. It is the part of the total benefit that the consumer derives through use of product or service. It is paid for and is done by the identified sponsor.

In a nutshell, advertising is a mass communication process of persuading the prospects by convincing them to buy products or services with increased satisfaction to the consumers and profits to the sponsors.

IS IT SAME AS ‘PUBLICITY’ AND ‘PROPOGANDA’?

In our daily talks we use the words ‘advertising’, ‘publicity’ and ‘propaganda’ in a very loose sense so much so that we hardly make any difference between these. A layman can be excused for the same, but not the students of his highly developed science, art and profession. Each word has its own clear cut meaning and is to be used with the finest shade of meaning. Following is an attempt to distinguish each from one anther.

Publicity Vs Advertising

‘Publicity’ is an effort to make available certain information to the public. It is the sum total of all those activities that are directed to the flow of information to the knowledge of public. Perhaps the best definition is one given by the Association of Teachers of Marketing and Advertising of America. According to its terminology, “publicity is any form of non-personal presentation of goods, services or ideas to a group; such presentation may be or may not be sponsored only by the one responsible for it and it may or may not be paid for”. In this sense, advertising is only a type of publicity. That is, the term publicity is more comprehensive than the word advertising itself. Therefore, it can be said that all advertising is publicity but all publicity is not advertising.

Both the words are similar in three respects. First, they deal with the conveying the information regarding the goods or services or ideas. Secondly, both are the attempts to present the information impersonally. Third, both being the components of mass communication, they use mass-communication media. However, these terms can be distinguished clearly at least on seven grounds.

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THE STRUCTURE OF ADVERTISING INDUSTRY

Advertising is a social and business process responsible for the mass communication of the information. Today, advertising is the faster growing industry that has come to stay so long as the forces of competition are at constant work deciding the destinies of the firms. The size of the industry of advertising can be measured in terms of amount spend on this creative activity of education and entertainment. American business firms spend more that the Indian budget.

Advertising industry is social institution born specially to fulfill the human need to acquire and send the information about the availability of products, services and ideas. It is the industry with a net-work of variety of divergent forces and elements. The structure of this industry gives us picture of the active participants in the widest range of advertising activities. The major components of the advertising industry are: advertisers, media-owners, advertising agencies, consumers and governments.

THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING IN MODERN BUSINESS WORLD

Advertising is an integral part of our social and economic system. Advertising as a powerful technique of sales-promotion has been doing wonders in the domain of distribution because it is quite capable of influencing the course of consumption, affecting the process of production, enlarging the exchange and diversity the distribution. That is why, it is said that advertising is the Archimedean lever that motivates the world of commerce and industry. It has the pride of place in the framework of dynamic marketing. The role of advertising in the modern business world can be analyzed from five distinct angles namely – Manufactures, Middlemen, Sales-force, Consumers and the Society.

ADVERTISING COVERAGE

Advertising coverage stands for the classification of advertising on the basis of differing levels of coverage or its impact on the prospects. Advertising coverage is seen from different angles by different people engaged in this vast vista advertising. The most common ways of classification bases are – Geographic – national, regional and local; Audience – consumers, industrial, trade and professional; Demand- primary and secondary; Action – direct and indirect; Target – product, service and institution; Medium-indoor, outdoor, direct and promotional.

ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF ADVERTISING
Though advertising, in its present form, is the product of the current century, as a business force it is not a news tool. It has the longest history taking us back to the history of mankind and human civilization. Though we fail to answer the question as to the exact age of advertising, it can be said that advertising began the moment the man discovered the art of communication Historical documents and archeological researches have confirmed the existence of advertising in the ancient times. Advertising by ‘word’ of mouth is probably the earliest form of advertising because, oral skills were developed

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well before reading and writing did. Advertising was given the commercial status the day he entered into the process of exchange. The colorful history of advertising can be divided into six clear cut periods consisting of centuries of growth and development. These are, Ancient times, 5to8 century, 9to15 century, 16to17 century, 18to19 century, 20 centuries.

ADVETISING PLANNING – ITS SIGNIFICANCE

Advertising planning is managerial responsibility of giving and advertising plan. An advertising plan is a statement about advertising for a particular product or a service or an institution for the future. The plan states the goals and describes in full the details and the nature of advertising programmer of a company. Though it is for the period of one year, may stretch over five years. Advertising plan and planning fall within the corporate plans and planning process because advertising is a specific activity of marketing efforts which is only an integral part of total corporate activities.

IS IT A SCIENCE, ART OR A PROFESSION?

Advertising has evolved, over the years a systematized body of knowledge. It is a science as it has its set principles and the rules and regulations framed out of both experiments and experience,. There are certain principles that one should know if he is to enter the fascination world of advertising. It is a social science and hence not exact like chemistry or mathematics. It deals with the human mind, to be very specific. For instance the volume of sale of a company is the outcome of the interaction of many variables-both dependent and independent. Thus, a manufacturer cannot control his competitor’s decisions, promotional activities, and changes in prices products, channels or the policies – which have far-reaching impact on the volume of sales. Further, the advertiser’s circumstances are never identical Neither he can predict with greater degree of accuracy what his future advertising efforts will produce for him, nor evaluate the efforts of his own very precisely. It is a science as it draws heavily from sociology, psychology and economics.

The above facts make it quite clear that advertising is also an art. Art is the knowledge made efficient by skill. There is considerable factor of creativity in advertising and it is essential to know when and how to use advertising principles for grater effect. One may study the science of advertising but one should go beyond this and develop through practice and experience the art of using it. It is accepted more as an art because the principles and techniques are not static. Advertising is lively exciting industry constantly involved in new developments. Hence, the advertising of today is not of yesterday and tomorrow’s not to-day.

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Of late, it is worthy of being considered as a profession as it is a specialized services for which personnel with rich experience and total training are required. It is one that involves definitive and predictive work. It has become now a profession fulfilling the significant requisite of having a high degree of general and specific knowledge derived from experience, experiments and empirical analysis. The very growth and development of advertising agencies is a clear indication of this worth calling a profession.