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Advertising Ideas

Advertising is impersonal, usually paid communication intended to inform, educate, persuade, and remind.

Advertising is a sophisticated form of communication that must work with other marketing tools and business elements to be successful. Advertising must be interruptive — that is, it must make you stop thumbing through the newspaper or thinking about your day long enough to read or hear the ad. Advertising must also be credible, unique, and memorable in order to work.

And finally, assuming the actual advertising is built upon a solid positioning strategy, enough money must be spent to provide a media schedule for ad frequency, the most important element for ad memorability.

History of Advertising

1. Introduction

Marketing is more than just distributing goods from the manufacturer to the final customer. It comprises all the stages between creation of the product and the after-market which follows the eventual sale. One of these stages is advertising. The stages are like links in a chain, and the chain will break if one of the links is weak. Advertising is therefore as important as every other stage or link, and each depends on the other for success.

The product or service itself, its naming, packaging, pricing and distribution, are all reflected in advertising, which has been called the lifeblood of an organization. Without advertising, the products or services cannot flow to the distributors or sellers and on to the consumers or users.

2. Early forms

Advertising belongs to the modern industrial world, and to those countries which are developing and becoming industrialised. In the past when a shopkeeper or stall-holder had only to show and shout his goods to passers-by, advertising as we know it today hardly existed. Early forms of advertising were signs such as the inn sign, the red-and-white striped barber's pole, the apothecary's jar of coloured liquid and the wheelwright's wheel, some of which have survived until today.

3. Effect of urban growth

The need for advertising developed with the expansion of population and the growth of towns with their shops and large stores; mass production in factories; roads and railways to convey goods; and popular newspapers in which to advertise. The large quantities of goods being produced were made known by means of advertising to unknown customers who lived far from the place of manufacture.

Advertising grew with the development of media, such as the coffee-house newspapers of the seventeenth century, and the arrival of advertising agencies nearly 200 years ago, mainly to handle government advertising.

4. Advertising and the modem world

If one looks at old pictures of horse buses in, say, late nineteenth-century London one will see that they carry advertisements for products famous today, a proof of the effectiveness of advertising. Thus the modern world depends on advertising. Without it, producers and distributors would be unable to sell, buyers would not know about and continue to remember products or services, and the modern industrial world would collapse. If factory output is to be maintained profitably, advertising must be powerful and continuous. Mass production requires mass consumption which in turn requires advertising to the mass market through the mass media.

16. Advertising involvement

Although advertising is listed as a single element it is associated with almost every other element, borrowing from them or interpreting them.

(a) The volume, emphasis and timing of advertising will depend on the product life cycle situation. For instance, at the introductory or recycling stages, the weight of advertising will be heavier than at the maturity or decline stages.

(b) Marketing research will provide evidence of motives, preferences and attitudes which will influence not only the copy platform or advertising theme but the choice of media through which to express it.

(c) Naming and branding may be initiated by the advertising department or agency, and clearly plays an important role in advertisement design.

(d) The product image will be projected by advertising.

(e) The market segment will decide the tone or style of advertising, and the choice of media.

(f) Pricing can play an important part in the appeal of the copy. Is the product value for money, a bargain or a luxury? Pricing can be a very competitive sales argument. People are very price conscious.

(g) The product mix has many applications. In advertising, one product may be associated with another, or each brand may require a separate campaign.

(h) Packaging can be a vital aspect of advertising, as when pack recognition is sought. It is itself a form of advertising, especially at the point-of-sale, as in a supermarket when the package often has to identify the product and literally sell it off the shelf.

(i) Distribution involves trade advertising such as by direct mail, in the trade press and at exhibitions.

(j) The sales force has to be familiarised with advertising campaigns which will support their efforts in the field.

(k) Market education is a public relations activity aimed at creating a favourable market situation in which advertising will work.

(1) Corporate and financial public relations often uses institutional advertising in the business press.

(m) Test marketing requires a miniature advertising campaign simulating the future national campaign.

(n) Advertising research includes copy-testing, circulation and readership surveys and statistics, recall tests, tracking studies and cost-per-reply and cost-per-conversion-to-sales figures.

(o) Sales promotion can augment or even replace traditional advertising.

(p) The after-market calls for advertising to make customers aware of post-sales services.

(q) The maintenance of customer interest and loyalty may be achieved by advertising which promotes additional uses and accessories, or simply reminds.

ADVERTISING

Advertising is used to create consumer interest in a product and also to increase the sales of that product. It may be described under three headings:

1 descriptive advertising;

2 persuasive advertising;

3 both descriptive and persuasive advertising together.

Descriptive advertising

This type of advertising gives the most: important facts about the product. It is the cheapest form of advertising and is used a lot by the small trader selling through the local paper. It will usually say:

1 what the product is;

2 how much it will cost;

3 where it may be obtained.

Example: 1972 Ford Escort £500. Telephone London 1234.

Persuasive advertising

This type of advertising tries to persuade people that the product which is being advertised has a special quality or usefulness which makes it much better than other similar products. It is used a lot in television advertising where consumers arc persuaded to think that if they buy that product they will become very popular or very happy. This is a psychological approach, and it is hoped by the advertiser that people will be persuaded to buy the product. The method uses 'association of ideas'. Brand names such as Guinness and Oxo are used in persuasive advertising.

Example: 1983 Ford Capri £2000 - good condition - low mileage, a bargain, first to see will buy this attractive car.

Advertising media

Newspapers

There are both national newspapers and local newspapers. Advertising in the national press is usually much more expensive than advertising in the local press. Both types of advertising are sold by the column centimetre, the half page and the page. A page in a national newspaper may cost many thousands of pounds for one day. This is because national newspapers have very large circulations (they are read by a lot of people).

Television

Television advertising in Great Britain is controlled by the Television Act 1954. It is the most expensive kind of advertising and costs many thousands of pounds (on a national network) for just a few seconds of television time. Charges are made by the second. If the advertisement is shown at a time when relatively few people are watching, then it will be cheaper. If it is shown - at a time when many people are watching (peak viewing time) then the charges are much higher. Television advertising is mostly used by large organizations and the nationalized industries.

Radio

This kind of advertising is much cheaper than television advertising. It is very popular in the United States. The most popular radio station in Europe is Radio Luxembourg, which carries a lot of commercial advertising. In Great Britain radio advertising is usually carried by local independent radio stations.

Hoardings

Hoarding advertisements are usually put up in eye-catching positions at the side of the road. The cost of the advertisement will depend on where the hoarding is and how large it is. If it is in a very good position and near the centre of the city where it will be seen by many potential customers, then it will probably be quite expensive. The sites are usually rented out to clients on a monthly basis by an advertising agency.

Handbills

These are quite often used by local traders to advertise their goods and services. They are expensive in labour