Essay on ‘Advertising’. Find paragraphs, long and short term papers on ‘Advertising’ especially written for school and college students.
Essay on Advertising
Term Paper Contents:
- Essay on the Introduction to Advertising
- Essay on the Concept and Nature of Advertising
- Essay on the Objectives of Advertising
- Essay on the Classification of Advertising
- Essay on the Advertising as a Social Waste
- Essay on the Functions of Advertising
- Essay on the Criticisms of Advertising
- Essay on the Publicity of a Product
- Essay on the Benefits of Advertising
Essay # 1. Introduction to Advertising:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Advertising refers to a promotional technique of marketing communication that is used to target a huge number of geographically dispersed audiences. It is a cost efficient technique that requires less cost per head. The tools in advertising include television, radio, newspapers, magazines, signs, billboards, and posters and online advertising.
If an organization wants to target a small area, it can advertise in the local newspaper of that area; whereas, if an organization wants to target a large audience, it can advertise on television channel. Some examples of advertising can be seen on roads, streets, and shops, such as displaying advertisements on buses, benches, and petrol and gas pumps.
Advertising has few basic features, which are as follows:
a. Persuades customers to buy a product or service.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
b. Targets diverse customer markets.
c. Uses mass channels or media of communication.
Advertising is a cost-effective method to reach customers as it targets mass media. The effects of advertising can be measured by keeping an eye on increasing awareness and changing attitudes and opinions of audiences. It is not easy to calculate the contribution of advertising in the sales of a product or service. Advertising may involve the observation of advertising effects on sales over a long period of time.
Advertising is a kind of promotional element that differentiates same kind of products and services with the help of symbols and images. For example, soaps can be differentiated on the basis of their brands and features. Advertising also contributes in creating and maintaining brand equity that is an intangible asset resulting from a favorable impression or image of the brand or trademark.
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Brand equity also results in higher sales volume and profit margins to gain a competitive edge in the market. Brand equity is created and maintained with the help of advertising that focuses on the image, features, or other benefits of a product or service.
Advertising can be done with the help of advertising agencies or single-handedly by a producer organization. In any of these circumstances, there are certain elements that should be considered to ensure the effectiveness of the advertisement.
Essay # 2. Concept and Nature of Advertising:
Definition of Advertising:
American Marketing Association has defined advertising as “any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services of an identified sponsor.”
Advertising is the dissemination of information concerning an idea, product or service to induce action in accordance with the intent of the advertiser. 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, service or idea; this message, called an advertisement, is disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by the identified sponsor.”
Advertising is any non-personal promotion of ideas, goods or services of an identified businessman known as sponsor. The message which is presented or disseminated is known as advertisement. The costs of advertisement are borne by its sponsor.
What Is Advertising?
Advertising is dissemination of information concerning an idea, service or product to compel action in accordance with interest of advertiser. —John Myers
Advertising is controlled, identifiable information and persuasion to purchase the advertiser’s product by means of mass communication media. —Weight Winter
Advertising is any form of paid, non-personal presentation of ideas, goods or services for the purpose of inducing people to buy them. —Bay and Wheeler
The distinctive features of advertising are as follows:
(i) Payment-Based:
It is a paid form of communication. Advertisements appear in newspapers, magazines, television or on cinema screens because the advertiser has purchased some space or time to communicate information to the prospective customers.
(ii) Non-Personal:
It is a non-personal presentation of message. There is no face-to-face contact with the customers. That is why, it is described as non-personal salesmanship. It is a non-personal form of presenting products and promoting ideas and it supports personal selling. It simplifies the task of sales-force by creating awareness in the minds of potential customers.
(iii) Purpose:
The purpose of advertising is to promote idea about the products and services of a business. It is directed towards increasing the sale of the products and services of a business unit.
(iv) Identified Sponsor:
Advertisement is issued by an identified sponsor. The identity of the businessman issuing the advertisement must be disclosed. Non-disclosure of the name of the sponsor in propaganda may lead to distortion, deception and manipulation. Advertisement should disclose the sources of opinions and ideas it presents.
Essay # 3. Objectives of Advertising:
Modem business enterprises allocate huge budgets for advertising to attain certain specific objectives which are listed below:
(i) To introduce a new product by creating interest for it among the prospective customers.
(ii) To support personal selling programme. Advertising may be used to open customers’ doors for salesman done by Eureka Forbes.
(iii) To reach people inaccessible to salesman.
(iv) To enter a new market or attract a new group of customers.
(v) To fight competition in the market and to increase the sales as seen in the fierce competition between Coke and Pepsi.
(vi) To enhance the goodwill of the enterprise by promising better quality products and services.
(vii) To improve dealer relations. Advertising supports the dealers in selling the product. Dealers are attracted towards a product which is advertised effectively.
(viii) To warn the public against imitation of an enterprise’s products.
Essay # 4. Classification of Advertising:
Advertising can be classified on the basis of four main bases these are on the basis of geographical spread, target group, type of impact and non-product advertising.
(i) Geographical Spread Based Advertising:
Advertising can be divided on the basis of geographic area covered by advertisement, coverage may be global, national or local. Most of multinational organizations have global advertisement planning. It also depends on marketing converge area, nature of product and objective of a business firm.
(ii) Target Group Advertising:
A company can focus one or more target group in their advertising campaign, if a company manufacture generators then the target group would be households, industry and institutions. For an airline company target group would be tourist and businessmen. Institutional advertising is advertising designed to enhance a firm’s image or reputation. It is to build good image of brand in view of publics.
(iii) Advertising on the Basis of Impact:
Primary demand advertising is aimed at increasing the demand for all brands of a product within a specific industry. Trade and industry associations are the major users of primary-demand advertising. For example: – advertisement for the promotion of gold and diamond jewelry, Advertisement for fuel efficient and ecofriendly vehicles whereas secondary demand advertising is advertising for a specific brand. Advertisement can be designed for the direct impact on final consumer or indirectly by the help of intermediaries like whole sellers and distributors.
(iv) Non Product Advertising:
Advertising of services like banking, transportation, insurance, hospitality, tourism and education is different due to lack of tangibility. Content and message carried by advertisement remain different as in advertisement of products.
Essay # 5. Advertising as a Social Waste:
This is an age of competition. To with stand this competition, the manufacturers are to think about new devices for their products. Retaining the existing market and expanding the market as far as possible is a need for the survival of a firm.
Advertising comes to the succor of the manufacturers. It helps to disseminate information to the prospects about the qualitative superiority of the product of the advertiser. This is usual and very common service that advertising aims at.
But it does not mean that advertising by rendering services to the marketing of products has elevated itself to such an exalted and un-assailable position, that critics are pushed to the background.
Simply speaking, advertising has made itself an unmixed blessing — only benefits and no drawbacks. This sort of thinking itself is unnatural. Nothing no system, can be without any defect but the defect or the drawback can be so insignificant that it can be overlooked. The advantages may far outweigh the disadvantages. One of the serious criticisms against advertising is that it is a social waste.
The upholders of such an adverse opinion base their arguments on the following line:
It destroys the utility of goods before the end of their normal period of usefulness. It is, therefore, a social waste. It is not uncommon at this age of technological advancement that a particular product popular in the market and quite in good use is replaced because of appearance of a new product with slight modifications — ‘improvements’ — as the manufacturers say.
This is done through advertising and thus the life of a product is cut short and social waste occurs in this way.
An automobile of new model is an example on the point. Furthermore, it can be said that we are quite aware of the fact that many products of new models are of inferior variety in the sense, their get- up is more attractive but they are fragile and delicate and definitely of shorter longevity. U.S.A. is a country where this is amply demonstrated.
Many essential utility goods are appearing in the market but they are less durable but more attractive. Advertisement attracts people to buy them. From the point of view of the community, it is a waste of resources. “The nature resources, capital equipment and labour energy which go into the production of new items to take the place of the discarded ones amount to waste when measured in terms of social well-being” — Sandage.
Essay # 6. Functions of Advertising:
Advertising has become an essential marketing activity in the modern era of large scale production and serve competition in the market.
It performs the following functions:
1. Promotion of Sales:
It promotes the sale of goods and services by informing and persuading the people to buy them. A good advertising campaign helps in winning new customers both in the national as well as in the international markets.
2. Introduction of New Product:
It helps the introduction of new products in the market. A business enterprise can introduce itself and its product to the public through advertising. A new enterprise can’t make an impact on the prospective customers without the help of advertising. Advertising enables quick publicity in the market.
3. Creation of Good Public Image:
It builds up the reputation of the advertiser. Advertising enables a business firm to communicate its achievements in an effort to satisfy the customers’ needs. This increases the goodwill and reputation of the firm which is necessary to fight against competition in the market.
4. Mass Production:
Advertising facilitates large-scale production. Advertising encourages production of goods in large-scale because the business firm knows that it will be able to sell on large-scale with the help of advertising. Mass production reduces the cost of production per unit by the economical use of various factor of production.
5. Research:
Advertising stimulates research and development activities. Advertising has become a competitive marketing activity. Every firm tries to differentiate its product from the substitutes available in the market through advertising.
This compels every business firm to do more and more research to find new products and their new uses. If a firm does not engage in research and development activities, it will be out of the market in the near future.
6. Education of People:
Advertising educate the people about new products and their uses. Advertising message about the utility of a product enables the people to widen their knowledge. It is advertising which has helped people in adopting new ways of life and giving- up old habits. For example, Kellogg’s, Maggie’s, etc. are thriving upon the new life-style of Indian consumer. It has contributed a lot towards the betterment of the standard of living of the society.
7. Support to Press:
Advertising provides an important source of revenue to the publishers and magazines. It enables to increase the circulation of their publication by selling them at lower rates. People are also benefitted because they get publications at cheaper rates.
Advertising is also a source of revenue for TV network. For instance, Doordarshan and Zee TV insert ads before, in between and after various programmes and earn millions of rupees through ads. Such income could be used for increasing the quality of various programmes and extending coverage.
Essay # 7. Criticisms of Advertising:
Advertising is often criticised as a wasteful activity and an unnecessary evil.
Its critics offer the following arguments to prove their contention:
(i) Multiplies the Needs:
Advertising multiplies the needs of the people by inducing them to buy even those things which are not required by them. Since an advertisement is continuously repeated, it creates a desire in the mind of the public to buy the advertised product.
(ii) Makes the Product more Costly:
The amount of money spent by an advertiser on his product’s advertisement is added to the distribution cost of the product. Thus, the customers have to pay more for the product advertised.
(iii) Increase in Demand at the Cost of another Manufacturer:
Advertising does not always increase the demand of the product. When the demand is inelastic, advertising shifts demand from one producer to another. That means a large amount of money spent on advertising by the manufacturers goes waste.
(iv) Creates Brand Monopoly:
Advertising may lead to monopoly of a brand. It is argued that big manufacturers who can afford large amount of money on advertising can create brand monopoly and eliminate the small producers.
(v) Every Advertisement is Not Creative:
A large number of advertisements either escape the attention of the people or are ignored by them. This leads to waste of money spent on advertisement.
(vi) Undermines Moral Values:
Sometimes, advertising undermines ethical and aesthetic values. It may make the people start bothering for appearance and design of the product rather than the physical utility. Some advertisers also use indecent language and photographs to advertise their products which is highly objectionable from the society’s point of view.
(vii) Corrupt the Minds of Youngsters:
It is felt that advertisement can corrupt the minds of youngsters. Young minds run the risk of being carried away by the advertisements promoting smoking, wine, etc. In some cases, advertisements have promoted the youths to commit crimes and undertake ventures at the risk of their lives.
Despite its drawbacks, advertising is a necessary marketing activity in the present business environment. It is not a social waste. It enables a manufacturer to introduce his products in the market and sell them. Advertising helps in educating the people regarding new uses of various products. It also strengthens the freedom of choice of the people. It sustains the press and gives employment to people.
Advertising increases the standard of living of the people by informing them about the availability of new products. Thus, we can say that advertising is a useful marketing activity. Its drawbacks could be removed if the people and the Government keep a watch on the advertisers.
People should satisfy themselves about the claims made by a producer before they purchase his products. The manufacturers or the advertisers should also avoid wasteful advertising and keep advertising expenditure within limits. They should also follow the ethical standards while advertising their products.
Essay # 8. Publicity of a Product:
Publicity is an effective non-personal promotional tool which has very high credibility. It is any non-paid mention of an organisation and its products in the mass media like newspapers, journals, radio, T.V., etc. Any organisation can come to the attention of the public by doing something which is newsworthy. For example, Tata Motors got wide publicity when it introduced the cost effective Nano Car.
The unique features of the car were highlighted in every media, both in and outside the country. Similarity a company can get coverage in the news media by sponsoring some sports or cultural event. It need not pay anything to the media for publicity, but has to supply the necessary information to the media.
Publicity has the following salient features:
(i) Publicity is a non-paid form of dissemination of some important information. It does not involve any direct payment as in the case of advertisement.
(ii) It is a non-personal form of communication by the media.
(iii) It does not have any sponsor as the information is passed on to the general public as a news item.
Role of Publicity:
Publicity plays an important role as a promotional tool as will be clear from the following points:
(i) Credibility of Message:
In publicity, it is the media which shares important information about a company and its products and activities through news stories. People consider such message as more credible than compared to an advertisement which contains a sponsored message.
(ii) Mass Reach:
The public media like newspapers, radios and TV channels have mass reach. Therefore, the business information comes to the attention of a wide spectrum of audience. In many cases, people pay more attention to publicity than sponsored advertisements because of the credibility of the media.
(iii) Indirect Appeal:
In publicity, the message goes in the form of a news which services as an indirect form of communication. Many people would like to act on the message because it is disseminated by an independent source.
Public Relations:
In simple words, public relations means relations of an organisation with the public. It is practically a self-defining term. It aims to create and maintain confidence. It is a system of communication to create goodwill. It produces an intangible quality or asset or asset known as goodwill, and earns credit for achievements.
Definitions of Public Relations:
“Public Relations is an attempt by an organisation to provide information to the general public to seek support for an activity, cause, movement or institution.” —Edward L Bernay
“Public Relations includes all efforts by an organisation which lead to a fourble opinion about the organisation in the mind of the public” —George F. Meredith
Public relations is a marketing function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an organisation with the public interest, and plans and executes a programme of action to earn public understanding and acceptance. It measures, evaluates and interprets the attitudes of the related publics. The term ‘publics’ means the people around the organisation, who affect what it does or are affected by what it does.
The British Institute of Public Relations has defined public relations as the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.
From this definition, we can get the following features of public relations:
(i) Planned Effort:
The concept of public relations is based on the premise that ‘nothing happens by accident’. Public relations activity has to be deliberately planned to achieve specific objectives.
(ii) Sustained Effort:
Public relations activity attempts to implant a thought or an idea that will remain with the person at whom it has been aimed. Such efforts must be sustained or continued for a considerable period of time to have the desired effect.
(iii) Creation and Maintenance of Understanding:
Public relations is a sort of communication where creation and maintenance of understanding is of utmost importance.
(iv) Parties:
There are two parties in case of public relations. The first is the organisation which wants to project its image or that of its products, policies, etc. The second party is the ‘publics’ which include the people who matter for the organisation such as customers, investors, suppliers, bankers, society, etc.
(v) Specialist Job:
Public relations has been recognized as a specialized discipline. That is why, most of the big organisation engage public relations experts to plan and implement their public relations programmes.
Role of Public Relations:
The significance of public relations is obvious from the fact that most of the big business houses have separate public relations departments to achieve and maintain good relations with the publics.
The role of public relations is discussed below:
(i) It conveys to the concerned publics the policies and programs of the organisation.
(ii) It collects information about public opinion about the organisation, its top management and its activities.
(iii) It moulds people’s attitudes in favour of the organisation by disseminating appropriate information.
(iv) It establishes and maintains goodwill and understanding between the organisation and the concerned publics.
(v) It overcomes people’s prejudices, suspicions and dislikes about the organisation.
Essay # 9. Benefits of Advertising:
Advertising is beneficial for various groups, individual and economy. It helps in marketing activities, it is an essential part of marketing communication.
Following are the benefits of advertising:
(a) Benefit to Producers:
(i) It increases the sale and profitability of a business firm by which producers get revenue for expansion of business.
(ii) It stabilize sale at the time of recession and off-seasons.
(iii) It helps in creation of new markets.
(iv) Advertising creates high brand image and reputation of manufactures.
(v) High volumes of sales enable producers to reduce the cost of production.
(vi) It adds more dealers to buy the products due to good will earn from public.
(vii) It increases the net profit of producers by increasing the total sales volume.
(b) Benefit to Intermediaries:
(i) Advertising helps in demand pull, therefore it is easy for wholesalers and retailers to sell their products.
(ii) It helps in quick sale of products which in turn increase the profitability of intermediaries.
(iii) Advertising communicates information about attributes of a product, its utility and availability, attract more customers.
(iv) It reduces the cost of distribution and ensures economic selling.
(c) Benefit to Customers:
(i) Advertising inform customers about features of product, like price, quality, warranties etc. it is easy for customer to select a product and service.
(ii) It educate customer about the use and availability of products.
(iii) It helps customers in selection of a brand and to buy a product at fair price.
(iv) It helps the customers to get products directly from the producers through telemarketing and internet.
(v) Customers get information about availability of a product or service at a particular place easily, therefore, it helps in decision making and save time.
(d) Benefit to Sale Force:
(i) It helps in the process of selling by informing distributors and customers about brand, attributes of product and its utility.
(ii) Advertised products can be sold easily. It saves time and effort of salesmen, and they can convince prospects more easily.
(iii) Advertisement increases the confidence level of salesmen.
(iv) It supports salesmen in achieving their sales targets, the sales work is made easier and more encouraging by the advertisements.
(e) Benefit to Community:
(i) Advertising uplift the standard of living, it motivate and stimulate people to buy products and services.
(ii) It increases the employment opportunities in various fields like photography, media agencies, writers, media etc.
(iii) Social advertising helps in improvement of environment and social life.
(iv) Advertising educate people about use of products and benefits, they can understand merits and demerits of products they come across.