any paid form of nonpersonal presentation by an identified sponsor

What Is Advertising? – Examples, Objectives, & Importance

A 30-second spot, a catchy jingle, and a clever slogan. But there’s more to advertising. An average human is exposed to around 5000 advertising messages in a day .

Advertisements come in many shapes, sizes, and forms. But what exactly is advertising? Why is advertising important? What are its advantages and disadvantages?

What Is Advertising?

Advertising is the action of calling public attention to an offering through paid announcements by an identified sponsor.

According to Kotler –

Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation & promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.

According to the Advertising Association of the UK –

Advertising is any communication, usually paid-for, specifically intended to inform and/or influence one or more people.

Simply, advertising is a process of developing a paid communication message intended to inform people about something or to influence them to buy, try, or do something.

Characteristics Of Advertising

• Paid Form:  Advertising requires the advertiser (also called sponsor) to pay to create an advertising message, buy advertising media slot, and monitor advertising efforts.
• Tool For Promotion:  Advertising is an element of the promotion mix of an organisation.
• One Way Communication:  Advertising is a one-way communication where brands communicate to the customers through different mediums.
• Personal Or Non-Personal:  Advertising can be non-personal as in the case of TV, radio, or newspaper advertisements, or highly personal as in the case of social media and other cookie-based advertisements.

Types Of Advertising

Advertising activities can be categorised into above-the-line, below-the-line, and through-the-line advertising according to their penetration level.

• Above-the-line advertising includes activities that are largely non-targeted and have a wide reach. Examples of above-the-line advertising are TV, radio, & newspaper advertisements.
• Below-the-line advertising includes conversion-focused activities which are directed toward a specific target group. Examples of below-the-line advertising are billboards , sponsorships, in-store advertising, etc.
• Through-the-line advertising includes activities which involve the use of both ATL & BTL strategies simultaneously. These are directed towards brand building and conversions and make use of targeted (personalised) advertisement strategies. Examples of through-the-line advertising are cookie-based advertising, digital marketing strategies, etc.

Advertising activities can also be categorised into 5 types based on the advertising medium used. These types of advertisements are:

• Print Advertising: Newspaper, magazines, & brochure advertisements, etc.
• Broadcast Advertising: Television and radio advertisements.
• Outdoor Advertising: Hoardings, banners, flags, wraps, etc.
• Digital Advertising: Advertisements displayed over the internet and digital devices.
• Product/Brand Integration: Product placements in entertainment media like TV shows, YouTube videos, etc.

What Are The Objectives Of Advertising?

There are 3 main objectives of advertising – to inform about the brand or offering, to persuade to buy or perform a task and to remind and reinforce the brand message.

Advertisements are used to increase brand awareness and brand exposure in the target market . Informing potential customers about the brand and its products is the first step toward attaining business goals.

To Persuade

Persuading customers to perform a particular task is a prominent objective of advertising. The tasks may involve buying or trying the products and services offered, forming a brand image , developing a favourable attitude towards the brand etc.

Another objective of advertising is to reinforce the brand message and to reassure the existing and potential customers about the brand vision. Advertising helps the brand to maintain top-of-mind awareness and to avoid competitors stealing the customers. This also helps in the word of mouth marketing.

Other objectives of advertising are subsets of these three objectives. These subsets are:

• Brand building
• Increasing sales
• Creating demand
• Expanding customer base
• Changing customers’ attitudes, etc.

Importance Of Advertising

Advertising is important for all the parties involved – customers, business, and intermediaries (agencies, artists, etc.)

To The Customers

From a customer’s point of view, they get to know about a new product or an advertiser’s message majorly from advertisements. Besides this, ads provide them with –

• Convenience:  Targeted informative advertisements make the customer’s decision-making process easier as they get to know what suits their requirements and budget.
• Awareness:  Advertising educates the customers about different products available in the market and their features. This knowledge helps customers compare different products and choose the best product for them.
• Better Quality:  Only brands advertise themselves and their products. There are no advertisements for unbranded products. This ensures better customer quality and a good business model as no brand wants to waste money on false advertising.

To The Business

From an advertiser’s point of view, ad is the most important means to get their message to their target audience using ads. Besides this, ads provide them with –

• Increased Brand Awareness: Advertising increases brand and product awareness among the people belonging to the target market.
• Brand Image Building :  Clever advertising helps the business to form the desired brand image and brand personality in the minds of the customers.
• Product Differentiation:  Advertising helps the business differentiate its product from competitors’ and communicate its features and advantages to the target audience.
• Increased Goodwill : Advertising reiterates brand vision and increases the brand’s goodwill among its customers.
• Value For Money:  Advertising delivers the message to a wide audience and tends to be value for money when compared to other elements of the promotion mix .

Advantages Of Advertising

Advertising has several advantages of over other mediums of promotions. These include

• Reduces Per-Unit Cost: The wide appeal of advertisements increases the demand for the product which benefits the organisation as it capitalises on the economies of scale.
• Helps In Brand Building:  Advertisements work effectively in brand building. Brands that advertise are preferred over those which doesn’t.
• Helps In Launching New Product: Launching a new product is easy when it is backed by an advertisement.
• Boosts Up Existing Customers’ Confidence In The Brand: Advertisements boost existing customers’ confidence in the brand as they feel pride when they see an advertisement of the product or the brand they use.
• Helps In Reducing Customer Turnover: Strategic advertisements for new offers and better service help reduce customer turnover.
• Attracts New Customers: Attractive advertisements help the brand in gaining new customers and expanding the business.
• Educates The Customers: Advertisements inform the customers about different products existing in the market and also educate them on what they should look for in an apt product.

Disadvantages Of Advertising

Advertising comes up with its own set of disadvantages. These include –

• Increases The Costs: Advertising is an expense to the business and is added to the cost of the product. This cost is eventually borne by the end consumer.
• Confuses The Buyer: Too many advertisements with similar claims often confuse the buyer about what to buy and whether they should buy the product or not.
• Is Sometimes Misleading: Some advertisements use smart strategies to mislead the customers.
• Only For Big Businesses: Advertising is costly, and only big businesses can afford it. This puts small businesses out of competition with big businesses that get to enjoy a monopoly in the market.
• Encourages The Sale Of Inferior Products: Effective advertisements even lead to the sale of inferior products which aren’t good for the consumers.

Advertising Examples

We are surrounded by advertisements. From TV to our mobile phones, we encounter advertisements everywhere. Following are a few examples of advertising.

TV Advertisements Example

Coca-Cola’s ‘I’d like to buy the world a Coke’, aired in 1971, is the world’s most famous TV advertisement.

Print Advertisements Example

Jeep’s ‘See whatever you want to see’ is a perfect example of a great print advertisement .

Radio Advertisements Example

Radio advertisements get more attention among the target customers and are also played more often. Here’s an example of a radio ad by Dove.

Digital Advertisements Example

Digital advertisements are advertisements made especially for the internet and digital devices users. The primary objective of digital ads is to drive traffic to business’s URLs. These ads can be video, image, or text ads.

Digital video ads aren’t restricted to a 30-second or 50-second slot. An example of a digital video ad is this advertisement by Airbnb.

One might see digital image ads while visiting websites like Feedough, Facebook, and Twitter. Here is an example:

Outdoor Advertising Example

These include hoardings, banners, flags, wraps, etc. An example of an outdoor advertisement is this hoarding by Audi.

Advertising vs Public Relations

While both advertising and public relations are an essential part of the promotional mix, there are some key differences between them.

Go On, Tell Us What You Think!

Did we miss something? Come on! Tell us what you think about our article on what is advertising in the comments section.

A startup consultant, digital marketer, traveller, and philomath. Aashish has worked with over 20 startups and successfully helped them ideate, raise money, and succeed. When not working, he can be found hiking, camping, and stargazing.

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Definitions of Advertising

Everything you need to know about the definitions of advertising. Advertising does not involve only presentation and promotion, but an element of persuasion too.

Any advertisement devoid of persuasion is not the part of advertising and will only be considered as a communication link disseminating some piece of information to the masses.

W.J. Stanton definition of advertising is – “Advertising consists of all the activities involved in presenting to a group a non-personal, oral or visual, openly sponsored message regarding a product, service or idea, this message, called an advertisement is disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by the identified sponsor”.

Learn about the definitions of advertising as given by different authors like Albert Lasker, Burt Manning, Wheeler opines, Robert W. Sarnoff, John J. Myers, Bay and Wheeler, R. H. Colley, William J Stanton, R. V. Zacher, John E. Kennedy, Henry Ford and a Few Others.

Definitions of Advertising as Provided by Different Authors and Institutions  

Definitions of advertising – provided by american marketing association.

American Marketing Association recognizes the term advertising as – any paid form of non- personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor. This definition mainly explains what advertising is and helps in distinguishing advertising from other communication initiatives with which it is often confused. Advertising is not the same as publicity.

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Publicity is another form of communication like press releases or public relation {e.g. news conferences) that the media covers on their own. Advertising which make use of mass media, either in broadcast or in print form- as a vehicle to carry the advertising message to its audience involves some payment as a consideration by the advertiser for using media time and media space.

Moreover, advertiser (the one who wishes to initiate the advertising process) is a disclosed entity to the audience for his advertising initiatives. In the case of publicity the source of information is not disclosed to the audience and information spreads like news and not the promotional message.

This is an important point of difference between advertising and publicity as at times there are the instances of paid publicity also but without disclosing the identity of the sponsor. Advertising is a non-personal form of communication because it uses mass media forms. Personal selling, on the other hand, is a face-to-face communication with the target audience and is also referred as dyadic communication.

The AMA definition thus explains the typical characteristics of an advertisement rather than advertising as a promotional activity. An advertisement that we normally come across while watching television, reading newspaper or passing through the road is a form of announcement (a message) that has been paid for by an identified sponsor, has been sent through one or more mass media, and is directed to a specific group of individuals or organization (a market segment) with the explicit purpose of supporting the sale or purchase of a product, brand or service.

In nutshell, ‘advertisement’ is different from other forms of announcements and the message is actually the end result of the series of advertising related decisions. Thus, the AMA definition of the term advertising is limited in its scope as it does not suggests in any way the persuasive and creative aspects of advertising or indicate its functions and responsibilities.

As defined by Cohen, ‘Advertising is a business activity, employing creative techniques to design persuasive communications in mass media that promote ideas, goods and services in a manner consistent with the achievement of the advertiser’s objectives, the delivery of consumer satisfactions, and the development of social and economic welfare.’

Advertising does not involve only presentation and promotion, but an element of persuasion too. Any advertisement devoid of persuasion is not the part of advertising and will only be considered as a communication link disseminating some piece of information to the masses. Advertising as a persuasive activity is taken up around the knowledge of buyer’s needs and wants related to the product and creates favourable pre-dispositions in his mind.

It is expected that the product use will get translated into consumer satisfaction. Apart from referrals and good word of mouth, the parameter of consumer satisfaction is likely to be the immediate or future increase in sales volume. If the increase in sales volume is proportionate to the increase in advertising expenditure, the net outcome of advertising is generally profitability for an organization.

The reasons for the consumer and manufacturer to use advertising information are, therefore, compatible and mutually essential. Advertiser’s purpose for the use of advertising is to maximize profits and help consumers to maximize their satisfaction.

Advertising communication process-Advertising provides reassurances to consumers once they own or use the product and fits into pre to post purchase phases of consumer decision-making process. Advertising provides persuasive communications with intent to make the consumer aware, to create the feelings of familiarity, to generate the feelings for the brand, to create the image, or to provide reminder for trial purchase.

Due to such persuasions, it is expected that the consumer is likely to change both their attitude and actions. The advertising communication process as modeled by Batra, Myers and Aaker (1998). The model shows various effects of ad exposure leading to the formation of a brand attitude which is expected to result into favourable purchase behaviour.

Advertising decisions-Advertising, being a persuasive process requires planning and decision making for the development of an advertisement, i.e. an ad or an ad campaign. Some of the key decisions include ascertaining to whom the ad would be of interest (the potential buyer), what can be said in the ad and how can it be said, when the ad should be sent, and which mass media form among the many available would provide the best vehicle to carry the advertising message to the selected audience.

More precisely, concerning the development of an ad, the various decisions include:

1. The selection of advertising objectives.

2. The selection of target audience.

3. The determination of advertising budget.

5. 4. The designing of both message strategy and tactics.

6. The selection of media and determining the media use.

7. The evaluation of the outcome of ad exposure.

In short, these can be summarized as decisions about 5 M’s, i.e. mission, money, message, media, and measurement.

In consonance with overall marketing and business plans, advertising objectives provides clarity on the role of advertising and guide the strategic decisions on the media and message both.

These advertising decisions involve many people and activities, and are not merely restricted to inform or entertain. It must seek to change or reinforce the behaviour. The consumers, therefore, need to be aware enough of persuasive intent of the advertiser no matter how restrained and informative the message is.

In view of these discussions, advertising is more appropriately defined as, ‘Controlled, identifiable persuasion by means of mass communication media’ Advertising is a persuasive communication, which is controlled in terms of what to say, how to say, when to say, where to say and whom to say.

Unlike both publicity and personal selling advertising persuasion is identifiable to the recipient both for its source and purpose. The use of mass communication media allows advertising to have a simultaneous reach to multiple audiences, thus making it different from personal selling.

A participant of advertising process-Advertising is a complex phenomenon. It involves a number of activities that form the part of process and advertiser, media, advertising and other support organizations and audiences  are the various participants of the process. Since each of the participants has specific characteristics and role related to different advertising activities, they make specific contributions in determining the effectiveness of advertising process. We will now discuss each of the participants of the process in detail to understand their nature and role in the advertising process.

Advertiser is the one who initiates the advertising process and sends some kind of advertisement through mass media. Advertiser decides about the need of advertising for product promotion, the level and type of advertising and the level of ad spend. Advertiser may belong to various categories.

He may be a producer, wholesaler, retailers, service organization, distributor, school, hospital, politician, individual, a business or non-business organization. Any government organization at local. State or national level may also be the advertiser. Each of the advertisers takes up advertising activity for selling purpose or for public relation purpose.

Advertising agency is defined as ‘An intermediary offering specialized services to some advertisers, so that they may presumably better reach (and influence) their potential customers.’ ‘Advertising agency is an independent business composed of creative and business people who develop, prepare and place advertising in media for clients seeking to find customers for their goods and services.’

The two key services that most of the agencies tend to perform for advertisers as their clients, the advertisers, are- (i) creative services and development of ads and (ii) the selection and placement of ads in the media. Both the services are fundamental to the success of an ad and they require high quality of creativity. Advertisers hire independent agencies to plan and implement in part or all their advertising efforts.

Advertising agency works in a client-agent relationship with an advertiser. It offers to the potential client a collection of specialists, e.g. copywriters, art directors, television and radio producers, researchers advertising planners and many more as per the needs of the clients.

There are agencies of varied types. Some are large agencies offering full length services to its clients; the others are small in size offering only limited services or some specialized services like media buying only. The number and size of agencies tend to vary quite often as mergers and acquisitions are a regular feature of agency business.

Support Organizations or vendors provide specialized research and other services to an advertiser and agency. Their services facilitate advertising process. Examples include freelance copywriters, photographers, market researchers, and others.

AC Neilson Company, Org-Marg are some such independent research firms that attempt to measure audience size for various media vehicles like television programmes. Some of these organizations also attempt to measure the effects of advertising in terms of its recall, recognition or attitude change.

Media in its print or broadcast form provides the channel through which advertising message is delivered to the target audience. Media providers are significant participants of advertising process as they provide media space and/or time and also assist in the selection of media type and development of an ad.

The advertising message is gathered by non-advertising content of a particular media type like television, radio or newspaper. Other media like direct mail, billboards, posters, car cards and point of purchase, however, rely solely on the advertising message to attract the attention of the target audience. In a nutshell, advertising is a form of mass persuasion and mass media is advertisers’ conduit to reach.

Target Audience is the recipient of advertising communication who uses information for decision-making purpose. On receiving advertising information, audience may decide to act if information is found suitably appropriate. Otherwise, the information may be recalled at some later date.

Advertisers necessarily need to identify and understand who the recipients of advertising message are. Their needs, preferences, media habits have direct bearing on the overall advertising strategy especially the message and media strategy.

Definitions of Advertising by Prasoon Joshi and Burt Manning  

Advertising is defined as the paid, non-personal form of communication about products or ideas by an identified sponsor through the mass media so as to inform, persuade or influence the behaviour of the target audience.

Advertising is directed to a large number of people and not to one individual. That is why we call it non-personal. Advertising is communication about products or ideas. It may inform us about the features of iPod or new smart phone or spell out the need to have a cancer check-up.

An identified sponsor is the advertising company or an NGO soliciting donations. The mass media channels are the newspapers, magazines, radio, TV which carry the advertised message so that it reaches the people at once.

The advertising message either informs about the product or persuades people to buy it. It may influence them to vote for a specific candidate. Sometimes, the message may influence us not do certain things, say drug abuse or wastage of fossil fuels.

The simplest definition of an advertisement is that it is a ‘public announcement’. In earlier times to ‘advertise’ was merely to announce or inform some ads such as the ‘classifieds’ still do the same – announce the birth, death, engagements with little or no intention to persuade. Gradually, advertising evolved as a form of persuasive communication with the public.

In a free market economy, such communication is required to make intelligent choices. John E Kennedy, Lord and Thomas Ad Agency, described advertising as ‘salesmanship in print’. Albert Lasker endorses the same definition. Till the term ‘salesman­ship in print’ was coined, advertising was, viewed as information dissemination.

Salesmanship added a new dimension to the advertising process – that of persuasive skills of a salesman. It introduced the art of persuasion and made advertising a force to reckon with. Sidney Bernstein (1990) reinforces Kennedy’s definition by describing ‘advertising as a substitute for the human salesman’. Chris Jacques, chairman, BBDO Asia-Pacific thinks that advertising is the business of creative thinking for commercial advantage.

The following two definitions of advertising are also interesting:

Prasoon Joshi, Creative Director, South and South-east Asia, McCann Erickson asserts that as advertisers, we are in the communication business. Clients come to advertising agencies, though they can give a technical brief, to communicate their message in a consumer-friendly manner. The crux of advertising is effective communication. People who cannot communi­cate should not get into this business.

“Advertising is one of the important forces which serve the public interest. It is a form of open communication between those who 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

Definitions of Advertising   – Provided by Eminent Authors and Institutions

The term ‘advertising’ is derived from the Latin word ‘advertere’ which means ‘to turn the attention’. Every piece of advertising aims at turning the attention of the readers or the listeners or the viewers or the onlookers towards a product or a service or an idea. So, we can say anything that turns the attention to an article or a service or an idea might be well called as advertising.

Advertisement or commercial, often just advert, ad, or ad-film is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organisation that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product. Advertisement revenue provides a significant portion of the funding for most privately owned television networks.

When aired on radio or television, an advertisement is called a commercial. Advertisements of this sort have been used to promote a wide variety of goods, services and ideas since the advent of television.

Wheeler opines, “Advertising is any form of paid non-personal presentation of ideas, goods or services for the purpose of inducing people to buy.”

Advertising is defined as ‘mass communication of information intended to persuade buyers so as to maximize profits.’ (Littlefield) Advertising is “Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by business firms identified in the advertising message intended to lead to a sale immediately or eventually.”

Thus, advertising means any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor, intended to lead to a sale immediately or eventually. In short, ‘advertising is a paid form of impersonal, one-way mass communication for sales promotion.’

Salesmanship in print – Prof. Starch describes it as ‘selling in print’ i.e., presenting a commodity in print to the people in such a way that they may be induced to buy it.

Advertisement is a sort of ‘Machine made mass production method of selling.’

Definitions of Advertising by Several Authors

Advertising has been defined by several authors. Some of them are discussed here. “Advertising is paid, non-personal communication through various media by business firms.” It is always paid unlike the routine services of sales promotion, personal selling and publicity. Services for advertising are offered by advertising agencies which are experts in the areas of advertisement.

It is mass communication, for it informs and influences a large number of people. It is aimed at a big group of purchasers or potential purchasers. The medium of advertising is selected by the sponsor or the beneficiary.

Each medium of advertisement offers its own advantages, costs and drawbacks. Each is selected after due consideration of the potential market costs, expected benefits and availability. Adver­tising is aimed at a target group capable of purchasing the advertised goods.

The presentation of the sales message may be visual as well as oral. The sponsor has also been given importance under this definition. Advertising is an effective method of reaching people with product information. “Advertising is controlled, identifiable information and persuasion by means of mass communication media”.

It is considered controlled information because it has to use the time, space and content of the message effectively and economically. It is controlled because it is directed at a particular group. Advertising should not be haphazardly done to attract a number of persons without fruitful results.

It is identifiable because it identifies the product and the source of the product. The message should be definite and appealing to the target group. Persuasion is the main object of advertising. It is creative and information, and is designed to attract prospective buyers. It has been accepted by all the authors that advertising is mass communication.

Advertising management is different from mass communication by the producer. Advertising management is the main task of the advertiser who directs and controls the advertising activities. It covers analysis, and the planning, control and decision-making activities of the advertiser. Identification of markets and consumer behaviour are the vital parts of advertising management.

Definitions of Advertising   – By Famous Marketing Authors: W.J. Stanton, Robert W. Sarnoff, John J. Myers, Bay and Wheeler

The word advertising is derived from Latin root ‘Adverto’ meaning thereby ‘to turn to advertising’ i.e., anything employed to draw the attention of people towards any object or purpose. Definitions – It includes the whole process of promoting the sales. Personal selling and sales promotion get additional support only with pre-selling impact made by advertising.

It is the most common, deliberate and purposeful form of communication employed by an organization to inform, persuade and remind the target customers. A company’s message is carried by advertising media to reach the unknown group. It is a mass but paid form of communication through certain media to motivate people to make up their mind to buy the product or service to a number of potential buyers at a time. It is aimed at a group of persons and not an individual.

The communication of message may take the form of visual or oral messages for the purpose of informing and influencing the target group. The ultimate purpose underlying all advertising is increased awareness, which sooner or later turns the mind to buy the said product. It is a means of spreading the information.

This meaning is expressed by the scholars in their definitions as given below:

W.J. Stanton, “Advertising consists of all the activities involved in presenting to a group a non-personal, oral or visual, openly sponsored message regarding a product, service or idea, this message, called an advertisement is disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by the identified sponsor”.

Firstly, advertising is paid form, it is commercial transaction and it is this which distinguishes from publicity.

Secondly, it is non-personal in the sense that advertising messages, visual, spoken or written, are directed at a mass audience and not at the industrial users, (i.e., it is found in case of personal selling).

Finally, advertisements are identifiable with their sponsor or originator, which is not always the case with publicity or propaganda.

Robert W. Sarnoff interestingly says that an “Advertising is the foot on the accelerator, the hand on the throttle, the spur on the flank that keeps our economy surging a head”.

Bur Manning JWT flashes it as – “one of the important forces which serve the public interest. It is a form of open communication between those who 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 purchaser is a vote.”

According to John J. Myers, “Advertising is dissemination of information concerning an idea, service or product to compel the action in accordance with interest of advertiser”.

In the words of Bay and Wheeler , “Advertising is any form of paid, non-personal presentations of ideas, goods and services for the purpose of inducing people to buy them”.

Definitions of Advertising   – Provided by R. H. Colley and William J Stanton

Advertising is a major tool that a company uses to communicate with its target buyers. The communication is about the products and services of the company, the details being presented in a very attractive manner with the intention of selling these to the target customers. Advertising uses several media to communicate with the target customers.

Advertising is absolutely inevitable to sell goods, in the present scenario because of the intense competition. It is only through advertising that a manufacturer can inform the prospective buyers about his products, convince them and make them buy his products.

The word-advertise is a derivation of the Latin term “ad vertere” which means to draw the attention.

“Advertising is paid form of mass communication, the ultimate purpose of which is to impart information, develop attitudes and induce action, beneficial to the advertising in the sale of a product or service.” — R. H. Colley

“Advertising consists of all the activities involved in presenting to an audience a non- personal, sponsor-identified, paid for message about a product or organization.” – William J Stanton

Advertising is the form of paid, non-personal communication conducted to disseminate messages. These messages are usually persuasive in nature and are used to build a brand or create awareness about a product or service, or educate for a social cause. Advertisements are created in different ways as the writer can conceive, be written, modified and injected with every aspect that can appeal to customers.

Points to be kept in mind while developing an advertising programme:

(i) Mission – The objectives of the advertisements should be carefully and neatly framed.

(ii) Money – The budget that needs to be allocated across different media types should be determined.

(iii) Message – The message the company needs to send to the customers.

(iv) Media – The platform of media the company needs to select in order to target the right customers.

(v) Measurement – The Company must have an evaluation technique for the results.

Definitions of Advertising   – As Given by Marketing Experts: R.V. Zacher and William J. Stanton

Advertising is a combination of actions taken in order to draw public attention towards any particular product or service. It is a kind of ‘paid announcement’ which the company creates in order to inform, educate and tempt the public to purchase their products or services.

The word ‘advertising’ has been derived from the Latin term ‘advertere’ which means ‘turn to’ or turning the attention towards the product. Goods are always produced in anticipation of demand. Success of a business depends upon fast sales and repeated orders. Every businessman, therefore, tries to increase the sales. In order to obtain high turnover, business enterprises now use various methods of persuading the people to buy their products.

Advertisement is the art of making yourself and your product known to die world in such a way that a desire for buying that product is created in the hearts of the people. It has been rightly pointed out that in order to fly the aeroplane of sales, advertisement acts as fuel. Advertising in fact, is a salesmanship in print. It is inevitable for increasing the volume of sales.

“Advertising is a means of communicating information pertaining to product or ideas by other than direct personal contact and on an openly paid basis with intent to sell or otherwise obtain favourable consideration.” —R. V. ZACHER

“Advertising consists- of all the activities involved in presenting to a group, a non- personal, oral or visual, openly sponsored message regarding a product, service or idea; this message called an advertisement, is disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by the identified sponsor.” —WILLIAM J. STANTON

Definitions of Advertising by John E Kennedy  

The marketing communication mix consists of five major modes of communication—(i) Advertising, (ii) Sales Promotion, (iii) Public Relations, (iv) Personal Selling and (v) Direct Marketing.

Advertising is one of the functions of marketing. Thus, advertising management is a branch of marketing management, which plays an important role in the realisation of the organisation’s objectives. Through advertising, one can attain short term objectives such as increase in the sales of a product, as well as long term objectives such as bringing behavioural changes in the attitude of the present and prospective customers.

Advertising management is made up of a system of interacting organiza­tions, with advertisers at the core of the system. Advertising management is heavily focused on the analysis, planning, control and decision-making activities of the core institution in achieving the marketing and organisation objectives. However, many other institutions are also involved in the process such as facilitating and control institutions—from advertising agency to research agencies, media, government and the competitors.

The word advertising has its origin from a Latin word ‘Advertise’ which means ‘turns on’. The dictionary meaning of the word is ‘to announce publicly or to give ‘public notice’. In the early days of advertising, people used to advertise simply to announce the availability of goods and services. It was in 1904 that John E. Kennedy dramatically changed the description of advertising to ‘salesmanship in print’.

For the first time, it was clearly stated that the ultimate win of advertising is to sell. “It is not good advertising unless it sells”. It was emphasised that advertising did not just denote thinking up with pictures or writing clear slogans, nor was the purpose of advertising to entertain. It was considered to be a serious business tool with the purpose of assisting the sales of a product.

Every advertiser pays the same tariff for a magazine or TV time. Yet a really good message can sell many times over a poor one. As an advertising professional one is expected to produce high return on investment, readership, action and sales.

According to John E. Kennedy – “Advertising is simply a way of selling something in the most effective method possible. Good advertising creates sales and not just attention”.

Definitions of Advertising   – As Defined by William J. Stanton, J. Thomas Russel and W. Roland Lane

Advertising is a form of communication. It is the presentation of an idea, image, message or information. It is objectively framed, addressing a target group to convey the theme desired to reach the specific objective and goal, designed by the advertiser. The idea behind any advertisement is to influence the target group, to generate interest and to act accordingly.

In other words, it is a process of developing an attitude and induced action, for selling goods or services. Advertisement plays the role of facilitator, to bridge the gap between the advertiser and the target group and to generate the brand image and loyalty.

According to William J. Stanton “Advertising consists of all the activities involved in presenting to a group, a non-personal, oral or visual, openly-sponsored message regarding a product, services or idea, this message is called an advertisement, is disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by an identified sponsor.”

J. Thomas Russel and W. Roland Lane defined advertising as follows:

“Advertising is a message paid for by an identified sponsor and delivered through some medium of mass communication. Advertising is persuasive communication. It is not neutral; it is not unbiased; it says- ‘I am going to sell you a product or an idea.’”

From the above discussions and definitions we may identify ‘advertising’ as:

1. Any paid form,

2. Non-personal presentation and promotion,

3. Sponsored by an identified individual or organisation,

4. The presentation of ideas, messages or information,

5. Communicated through mass media,

6. Developed for generation of awareness,

7. Repeatedly focussed for persuasion and conviction,

8. Generates brand image and brand loyalty.

In marketing there are four major elements known as four P’s. They are – Product, Price, Place (Distribution) and Promotion. The promotional aspects of the marketing activities are concerned with – Advertising; Sales promotion; Personal selling; Public Relations; Publicity etc.

The marketing activities can only be organised successfully, if all the components are integrated and co-ordinated effectively to achieve the organisational objectives.

Advertising is a part of promotional-mix. The other elements are sales promotion, personal selling, public relations and publicity. Any non-personal sponsored commu­nication designed with the objective to influence the buying behaviour is treated as advertising.

Definitions of Advertising   – According to Russel H. Colley, Samuel Johnson, Albert Lasher, Stanley Resor, Leo Burnett, Claude C. Hopkins and David Ogilvy

“Adverting has become the second largest item in our corporate budget. The chips are getting so blue that top management can no longer afford to be uninformed — naive, if you will — about advertising”. — Russel H. Colley

Advertising and promotions are the avenues for the marketers to communicate with the consumers in a meaningful manner. Now a days, with the generation of myriad media outlets, marketers are looking beyond the tradi­tional methods of exposures.

Advertising and promotions are considered fastest growing dynamic and fascinating subject, for the pur­pose of study and practice. It was stated by Samuel Johnson “The trade of advertising is now so near to perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvements.”

The advertising activities encompasses multi-disciplinary aspects, like product at­tributes, knowledge of the market, role of competition, segmenting the market for targeting the audience arid knowledge of media. Consumer’s behavioural pattern, socio­economic and regulatory framework impact of globalisation, changing national and international scenario govern the advertising planning and strategies.

In the field of advertising, the exponents developed different innovative strategies. In 1900, Albert Lasher a pioneer in the field of advertising, owned the renowned adver­tising agency Lord and Thomas. According to him ‘a good advertising person should possess a sense of detail combined with a gift of grasping the big picture, and should have the potential to predict the reactions of consumers.’

Stanley Resor the head of J. Walter Thomson advertising agency, believed that an ideal agency should act ‘University of Advertising’. He hired three professors – a psychologist, an economist and a historian. Another renowned person in the field of that period Raymond Rubicam of Young and Rubicam agency, believed in the research process associated with the creativity in advertising. He inducted Dr. Gallup from North Western University to measure the readership of advertisements. Rubicam used to say, ‘The way we sell is to get read first.’

Leo Burnett , being a pioneer generated immortal campaign for ‘Marlboro’.

His few suggestions regarding creative process are as follows:

“There is an inherent drama in every product. Our No. 1 job is to dig for it and capitalize on it.”

“Steep yourself in your subject, work, like hell, and love, honour and obey your hunches.”

Claude C. Hopkins joined Lord & Thomas as a copy writer, and created famous ad campaigns for Pepsodent, Palmolive etc.

A few of his viewpoints may be cited, as follows:

“In every ad. consider only new customers. People using your product are not going to read your ads.”

“Ad writers forget they are salesmen and try to be performers. Instead of sales, they seek applause.”

“Brief ads are never key ad. Every traced ad tells a complete Story.”

Hopkins perceived the importance of brand images, long before it was actually practiced by the industry. Another exponent in the field, Bill Bernbach developed wonderful ad campaign for Volkswagen. His headline for AVIS car rental company “Avis is only No. 2 in rent a cars. So why go with-us?” proved simply overwhelming. An approach of hard confession generated a strong positive appeal among the audience targeted.

David Ogilvy the founder of Ogilvy & Mather agency believed on creativity in ad­vertising, and generation of ‘Big Ideas’. According to him ‘no idea is big unless it works for atleast 30 years’. He stressed on positioning a product in an exclusive manner to create an impact. In the advertising of ‘DOVE’, he positioned the toilet soap for dry skin, and used a promise which had won the test ‘Dove creams your skin while you bathe’.

Regarding advertising business and profession, he believed in professionalism and considered that specialisation different activities can turn the business to perfection. In his book ‘Ogilvy on Advertising’ he expressed the different diversified activities involved in the profession like, the role of ‘Copy-writers’, ‘Art Directors’, ‘Account Executives’, ‘Researchers’ etc.

Analysation and Synthesis of the opinions and views of the scholars, if summed up throw light on the various work fields of advertising agencies.

In India the advertising business took the shape of a professional stream only during 1990s. The growth of the business was recorded around 50% from 1990 to 1995, due to economic boom of the country, liberalisation process and influx of media opportunities. Economic policies opened the opportunities of global entries.

Considering the economic environment, advertising and other promotional strategies have now become the integral part of our social and economic system. The innovation of new technologies have led to the scope of introduction of new media for effective reach and exposure of the messages which in turn is developed by the dynamic marketers.

The developments of the marketing strategies have widened the range and the scope of marketing, to encompass different groups and segments of consumers advertising as a systematic and dynamic process, has generated the interest of the marketers.

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