Introduction to Advertising What is Advertising? - Advertising is any paid message by a sponsor that is designed to promote ideas, goods, or services for exchange. - Difficult to define because it encompasses a broad range of philosophies and viewpoints. - Advertising is a paid, mediated form of communication from an identifiable source, designed to persuade the receiver to take some action, now or in the future. - Shrimp 2013 Six Basic Components 1. Advertising is a paid form of communication, whether direct or indirect. Indirect payment includes donated space and time (pro bono) advertising 2. The sponsor (meaning the marketer or advertiser) is identified, although it may not always be obvious to the viewer or reader. 3. Advertising tries to persuade or influence the consumer to do something. Mostly, it involves positioning a proud, service, idea or organisation so that it builds a brand relationship but at a minimum it creates awareness of an idea, product or company. In other words, it is strategic communication driven by objectives, and these objectives can be measured to determine how far they were realised. 4. Advertising aims to reach the largest audience as cost-efficiently as possible and at the time or place most likely to induce a positive result 5. The message can be conveyed through many kinds of communication channels including the mass media which are largely non-personal, through more direct approaches, the internet and interactive media 6. The message can be conveyed in an ever-expanding range of ways. Roles and Functions of Advertising Four roles that advertising plays in business and society - Marketing - Communication - Economic - Sociocultural The Marketing Role - The process a business uses to satisfy consumer needs and wants by providing goods and services is called marketing. - The marketing department or manager is responsible for selling a company's product, which may be goods, a service, or an idea. - Products are identified in terms of their product category - The particular group of consumers thought to be potential customers constitutes the target market. - The tools available to marketing include: o The Product (what is it) o The Price (how much it costs) o The Place (where they can get it)
o The Promotion (methods of communicating this information) The Communication Role - Communication odes more than transmit market information to connect buyers and sellers. - It informs consumers and transforms a product by creating an image that goes beyond straightforward facts - It does this by using two techniques: o Hard-sell approaches: that use reason to persuade consumers o Soft-sell approaches: that build an image for a bran and touch consumers' emotions The Economics Role - Creates demand - Advertising is a vehicle for helping consumers to assess value through price and other information such as quality, location, and reputation. - Advertising is so persuasive that it decreases the likelihood that a consumer will switch to an alternative product, regardless of the price change The Sociocultural Role - Advertising adds value to