Explain Advertising – definition, nature of advertisement, its advantages and disadvantages.

Advertising is an audio or visual form of non-personal and paid marketing communication about an organisation or its products directed towards target audience through mass medium. It is also sometimes referred to as “ad”.

The communication is through non-personal, paid media. The audience clearly know the source of the message – which organisation or company the message is from.

From the above definition we see that it encompasses the following aspects-

1) An audio or visual form – the communication with the audience is through audio or visual form.

It may be a message-
– in a newspaper, flier, magazine, symbol, billboard ads, packaging logo, or a sign.
– a commercial on a television, radio, internet video ad, etc.

2) Non-personal –the communication is not person-to-person. It is addressed to masses. This aspect leaves out the personal selling form of promotion.

3) Paid communication – advertising has to be paid for.

4) Organisation or its products (Identified sponsor) – the audience can trace the message back to the sponsor. The sponsor pays for the advertisement and the audience can easily track the organisation which communicated the message.

Therefore, advertising is a marketing communication directed towards masses to convince them to buy the products and services of the sponsor. The objective is to drive sales among masses.

Role and objective of advertisement –
Through advertising an organisation communicates with its target audience through mass communication to persuade buyers to buy its products. The intention is to maximise profits and increase market share.

Below is the nature of advertising –
1) It is a mass communication tool directed towards a large audience

2) It is a non-personal communication. It is not delivered in person and is not meant for an individual

3) Because of large audience influence, it helps an organisation to produce a similar product for a large audience by generating demand. It helps in mass production and not tailor made products for individuals.

4) It is economical as a single message is delivered to large audience.

5) Besides being economical, it is also efficient as it targets a large audience within the same time frame.

6) It gives identity to the organisation. The sponsor can be easily traced via brand logos and company’s name on the advertisement.

The advertising role differs from organisation to organisation. In many organisations, the advertising expenditure exceeds the total expenditure of all other marketing functions. An organisation has to clearly define the role of advertising as part of its promotion strategy. It should compare the capabilities of alternative promotion tools. Advertising has its share of advantages and disadvantages-

Advantages of Advertising –
• It can reach large number of audience at low cost.

• It helps in the pull strategy. The advertising message creates demand, and buyers regularly inquire for the product from the middlemen. The middlemen are forced to stock the product instead of organisations asking them to stock the products.

• It enhances and creates awareness about the organisations brand, name, etc.

• It is beneficial to both seller and buyer. The seller can highlight the product features as much as possible to educate buyers.

• It helps organisations sales people by creating awareness.

• Gives organisations options to utilise visual as well as audio tools.

• It helps consumers in making right decisions.

• It saves consumers time that is usually wasted comparing similar products in stores, websites, etc.

Disadvantages of Advertising –
• The cost for advertising can go high in case of national as well as international media. For advertising on premium magazines and TV programs that have large audience, the advertising charges are generally high.

• A single message is communicated for all buyers. It requires analysis of the entire market and an appropriate message. For example, there cannot be contents in advertisement that are not suitable for children, etc.

• Difficult to analyse the feedback from the audience and the process for receiving feedback is also slow. The resellers can ask for feedback on forms, etc. and from people who visit the store but not from the people who don’t visit the store or shops.

• It is less effective than personal selling in persuading consumers.

• Advertising in newspapers, etc. can be easily overlooked by buyers because of advertisement
clutter.

• Regularly changing channels on television, lack of attention on the advertising media also result in the advertising effort lost.

• From consumer’s perspective, advertising creates needs and wants. It creates a desire for products that are not actually necessities of life.

• Not every organisation can afford advertising, hence it sometimes creates monopoly of large manufacturers. Consumers are at loss because a similar product of good quality may be available at a cheaper price from a small manufacturer.

• Many times misleading claims from manufacturers are done to push sales.

• Hoarding, neon lights, electronic displays at busy streets and cross roads often distract drivers that have proved hazardous.