Difference between Advertisement and Public Relations

One of the most important and most often used tools that business concerns employ is advertising. It is used to convey messages to targeted audiences. Advertising can be extremely costly to employ. The process of conveying messages to an audience which may be composed of present or prospective customers through a single medium or multiple mediums is called a campaign. 

On the other side the main role of public relations is to increase interest and awareness of the audience that you have targeted. This process or campaign as it is also called does not necessarily try to convince or persuade them to purchase the product. The public relations plan seeks to increase awareness and create a positive image of the company through messages that educate and provide information.

A combination of the two methods is generally regarded as most effective. A marketing strategy that is an incorporation of the two methods to produce the desired results would be the ideal process. Although advertising requires a bigger budget public relations is often considered to be the larger scale operation because advertising deals only with marketing and sales while public relations encompasses the total communications activity of the entire organisation.

Read More

What is an Advertising Agency?

An advertising agency is a firm that performs every kind of works related to advertising and marketing. It is a service based business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising for its clients. 

An ad agency creates new promotional ideas, designs print, radio, television, and internet advertisements, books advertisement space and time, plans and conducts advertising campaigns, commissions research and surveys, and provides other such services that help a client in entering and succeeding in a chosen market.

The first acknowledged advertising agency in the world was William Taylor in 1786. Some of the major ad agencies in India are Ogilvy and Mather, Mudra Communications, JWT, McCann Erickson India, etc.

Read More

Effects of Advertising on Children

The impact of advertising on children, either directly or indirectly continues to arouse a considerable amount of controversy all over the world. One of the most emotionally charged allegation against advertising is that it is harmful to children who are regarded as immature and totally gullible.

On the other hand, advertisers argue that the primary goal of advertising is to inform child audiences that will widen their range of choice in particular market rather than ending up with purchasing unwanted products. Moreover, today’s children have grown up with television and internet and they have learned to cope with these equipment. The anxiety is on the part of parents/grandparents/teachers/religious leaders for whom television or Internet are relatively new media.

The arguments against advertising to children usually claim that advertisement creates artificial demands from children which parents are reluctant to gratify. This will create additional family tensions. The specific arguments against ad are the following:

·         Television commercial suggests to children that without the product, they are inferior

·         Children between 4 -7 years cannot tell fact from fantasy from an advertisement

·         Advertisement make children nag their parents and this creates artificial demands

·         Advertisements encourages children to buy things which are too costly for the parents

·         Children in advertisements sometimes set a bad example

·         Junk foods, such as pizzas, burgers and soft drinks, are heavily promoted during children’s TV viewing time. This develops a craving for fatty, sugary and fast foods in kids, thereby affecting their health adversely.

·         Many advertisements include dangerous stunts, which can be performed only by experts

·         Even though the commercials broadcast the statutory warnings with the ad, the kids often try to imitate the stunts at home, with fatal results

Read More

Mass media and Advertisements

After the upheaval and widespread of the mass media, the companies have naturally used this means of communications to let a large number of people know about their products. After this the complexities of advertising methods and techniques have advanced. This resulted in the turning luxuries into necessities and intentional creation of needs and consumerism.

The new media gradually surpassed the traditional media as the audience shifted from television and newspaper to the internet for information and entertainment. The new media is a major mass media because of its ability to reach larger audiences for less money.

Advertising spend more money on various media. In the present time the favourite media are the T. V., the press, and posters along with radio and film. These have widest coverage. However other advertising media like posters, direct mail, transit media and electric and neon signs are by favoured a few top advertisers.

Read More

Elements of an Advertising Copy

1. Powerful headline

The headline of an advertising copy is said to be the most important element. The headline of an advertisement will normally present a selling idea or will lead people to read of the advertisement.

2. Sub-head

Sometimes important facts may have to be conveyed to the reader and it may require more space than what should be ideally used for the headline. In order to give prominence to such formation it can be put in smaller type than the headline, known as a subhead.

3. Body Copy

The body copy refers to the text in the advertisement which contains details regarding the functions of the product/service and its benefits. The body copy can be short or long depending on how much information the company is willing to tell the reader.

4. Captions

Captions are the small units of type used with illustrations, coupons and special offers. These are generally less important than the main selling points of the advertisement in the body copy and are usually set in type sizes smaller than the text.

5. Blurb

A blurb or a balloon is a display arrangement where the words appear to be coming from the mouth of one of the characters illustrated in the advertisement.

6. Boxes and Panels

Boxes or panels are, in fact, captions placed in special display positions so as to get greater attention. A box is a caption that has been lined on all sides and singled out from the rest of the copy. Boxes and panels are generally used in advertisements containing features such as coupons, special offers and consumer contests.

7. Slogans, Logo Types and Signatures

A slogan may refer, for instance, to the age of the advertiser’s firm, meant for inclusion in every advertisement. A symbol of the company name, seal or trademark is called logotype and is a typical feature of most advertisements. It is also referred to as signature, indicating identification of the company or the brand, address, phone numbers, websites etc.

8. Strap line

A ‘strap line’ or ‘tag line’ usually appears underneath the logo. The strap line summarizes the product’s benefits in a memorable way. Strap lines often make good headlines because they summarize a major benefit in a pithy way.

9. Extras

Some print ads may have additional special elements such as an attached business reply envelope, tear-out portion with a coupon, tip sheet, product sample.

10. Logo

A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises; organizations etc. to aid and promote instant public recognition. Logos are either purely graphic (symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization. Examples of well-known logotypes are the striped IBM design and Coca-Cola written in flowing red script. It is also referred to as trademark or brand.

11. Illustration

An illustration is visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or decorate textual information by providing a visual representation.

12. Jingle

A jingle is a memorable short tune with a lyric broadcast used in radio and television commercials, which are usually intended to convey an advertising slogan. They are also used for radio station, television channel and program identification purposes. The main role of an advertising slogan or radio jingle is to create an identity for the brand.

Read More

Principles of Advertisement

The basic principle of advertising is identification of market and spreading the word.

1.       Identification of brands

Products, services and ideas are sold through businesses that are differentiated by their brand identities. Brand identity is communicated to the public via advertising. Consumers build emotional relationships with certain brands with which they become increasingly familiar through the years, through advertising.

2.      Disseminating information

Advertising supplies the necessary information to consumers so that they know what is available and where to buy it. It broadcasts information on products, services and ideas sold on the open market through a variety of media portals. It reveals the special features being sold, what color and size the product is and which stores carry it.

3.      Persuasion

Persuasion is the core mission of advertising. Powerful, visual advertising presentations compel consumers to purchase goods, services and ideas as a way to achieve emotional fulfillment. Advertising tells you how the product, service or idea you are considering will improve your life.

4.      Pricing

Advertising displays consumer goods with competitive prices relative to the current market, thus educating consumers about what things should cost. Advertising lets you know what the competition is doing, when the next sale is, and how you can receive the latest coupon or rebate and seeks to assure you that you are receiving the best value for your money.

5.      Creating demand

The demand generated by advertising, public relations, and sales promotion pulls the goods or services through channels of distribution. One of the powerful functions of advertising is to generate consumer demand for specific products, services and ideas through ad campaigns that target the audiences that are most likely to buy them. Products, services and concepts are sold in volume, according to the consumer demand for them.

6.      Meets competition

The advertisements are also made to face to competition. Under competitive conditions, advertisement helps to build up brand image and brand loyalty and when customers have developed brand loyalty, be-comes difficult for the middlemen to change it.

7.      Enhancing goodwill

Large scale advertising is often undertaken with the objective of creating or enhancing the goodwill of the advertising company. This, in turn, increases the market receptiveness of the company’s product and helps the salesmen to win customers easily.

Read More

What are the major types of Advertisements

There are many classifications for advertising on the basis of business concerns, media and marketing strategies. These are some of the common types of advertising:

1.       Product Advertising

Product advertising communicates the features and benefits of a product to customers. Companies use product advertising when they want to launch new products, announce changes to existing products or increase sales of those products. Product advertisements must reflect the interests of the target audience. An advertiser developing a campaign for a food product would create messages and select media that appeal to a wide consumer audience. A campaign for a business product, such as a machine tool, would use media that appeal to different groups influencing the decision to buy, including plant managers, production engineers and finance directors.

2.      Broadcast Advertising

Broadcast advertising is popular all around the world. It consists of television, radio, or Internet advertising. The ads on the television have a large audience and are very popular. The cost of the advertisement depends on the length of the ad and the time at which the ad would be appearing. The prime time ads would be more costly than the regular ones. Radio advertising is not what it used to be after the advent of television and Internet, but still there is specific audience for the radio ads too. The radio jingles are quite popular in sections of society and help to sell the products.

3.      Direct Response Advertising

Direct-response advertising is a method of direct marketing whereby a product is promoted through an advertisement that lets the customer purchase directly from the manufacturer. Direct response advertising has become very popular in recent years owing primarily to changing life-styles. The convenience of shopping through the mail or by telephone has led to the tremendous increase in direct-response advertising

4.      Online Advertising

Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for delivering marketing messages to attract customers. Online ads are delivered by an ad server. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads that appear on search engine results pages, banner ads, in pay per click text ads, rich media ads, Social network advertising, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.

5.      Outdoor Advertising

Outdoor advertising makes use of different tools to gain customer’s attention. The billboards, kiosks, and events and trade shows are an effective way to convey the message of the company. The billboards are present all around the city but the content should be such that it attracts the attention of the customer. The kiosks are an easy outlet of the products and serve as information outlets for the people too. Organizing events such as trade fairs and exhibitions for promotion of the product or service also in a way advertises the product. Therefore, outdoor advertising is an effective advertising tool.

6.      Covert Advertising

It is a form of indirect advertising through media. There is no actual ad, just the mention of the product in the movie. Actors using certain product like I phone, Ray-Ban, Yamaha bike, etc are examples for covert advertising. It is also known as product placement or in-film advertisement.

7.      Public Service Advertising

Public service advertising or PSAs are advertisements for the public causes. There are lots of important matters such as AIDS, social integrity, energy conservation, illiteracy, pollution, poverty and so on all of which need more awareness as far as general public is concerned. PSA’s are not aimed at financial gains. This type of advertising has gained much importance in recent times and is an effective tool to convey the message.

8.     Print Advertising

The print media has been used for advertising since long. The newspapers and magazines are quite popular modes of advertising for different companies all over the world. Using the print media, the com-panies can also promote their products through brochures and fliers. The newspaper and magazines sell the advertising space and the cost depends on several factors. The quantity of space, the page of the publication, and the type of paper decide the cost of the advertisement. So an ad on the front page would be costlier than on inside pages. Similarly an ad in the glossy supplement of the paper would be more expensive than in a mediocre quality paper.

Read More

Characteristics of Advertisements

These are some of the main characteristics of advertising:

1.       Paid form of communication

Advertising is a paid form of communication. An advertiser or sponsor pays mass media like TV, the Internet, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Hoarding, etc. for successful communication of an advertisement. Advertiser fully controls such a paid communication.

2.      Non-personal communication

Advertising is a non-personal communication of information. It doesn’t focus only an individual in the society. It targets all potential customers or the mass audience at once. Advertising overcomes the limitations of selling product though person to person communication. It is an effective non-personal sales tool.

3.      Creative process

Advertising is a creative process that involves imagination and innovative ideas for bringing out original ideas. Creative ideas can attract the customers. If such ideas are effectively utilized for a promotional purpose, it can persuade the potential buyers to purchase products. Thus, it helps in achieving the desired goal of an advertiser.

4.      Marketing tool

Advertising is presentation and promotion of ideas, products, services, events, etc. in the market. So it is an effective marketing tool.

5.      Identified Sponsor

In advertising, a sponsor or advertiser gets easily identified. An advertisement mentions the brand names and trademarks of goods and services. It also includes the name, contact details and related information of a sponsoring entity, which give additional information about its source.

Read More

History of Advertisement in India

The first Indian newspaper started by James August Hickey on January 29, 1780, was called the Bengal Gazette or Calcutta General Advertiser. It was full of informative advertisement. In 1785, The Bengal Journal published with Government advertisement free of charge. In 1790 Courier of Bombay carried advertisement. Though the newspaper was published in English, but advertisement was appeared in regional languages like Gujarati, Marathi, and Konkani. By the dawn of 19th century the pattern of advertising changed-and the power of advertising increased rapidly with the growth of trade and commerce. 

With the Industrial Revolution in India, the number of advertisements from British Business Houses rose considerably. The Times of India and The Statesman started their own facilities for layout and copy of the advertisement. The development of advertising agency was founded due to the development of Indian industries provided by the Swadeshi Movement of 1907-1977. The major advertising agencies were, The Calcutta Advertising Agency, Alliance Advertising Associates, Publicity Society of India, and J. Walter Thompson, Mumbai.

The 1970 was the important year of the growth of advertising in India. The Vividh Bharati and Doordarshan played a great role in the form of commercial broadcasting and telecasting. Now radio commercials made a real dent on the rural audience and urban working class. Besides these many periodicals and various film magazines made their appearance in Indian advertising. The role of tabloids in English and the Indian languages were very examples in the field of advertising in India.

Read More

Brief History of Advertisement

The concept of advertising dates to early civilization. It had to undertake a long journey through the centuries, before it attained its present form. Actually advertising is directly related to the need of man to communicate his message and attract to each other. Our knowledge of advertising in ancient times naturally is fragmentary.

Early advertising can be traced back to the archaeological evidences available in Greece and Rome. In 3000 B. C. Babylonia merchants hired parkers to hawk their wares to perspective, customers and placed signs over their doorways to indicate what they sold.

The use of hand bills, posters and newspaper advertisements emerged after Gutenberg developed movable type in the 15th century. When Benjamin Franklin established the Philadelphia Gazette in 1729, it soon became a favorite medium of advertising. But all early advertisements were basically only announcement.

The Industrial revolution, discovery of the growth of transportation facilities, advent of radio and television and revolution in printing technology discovery of the steam power in England and America had a keen role to play in the development of advertising. With the beginning of 21st century, the advertisers themselves became more serious and their approach becomes more sophisticated. Print, Radio, T. V. and Internet Commercials have created deep impact on Indian advertising. Indian advertisement has no doubt to register a rapid growth and has acquired a certain amount of professional character.

Read More

Introduction to Advertising

The word advertising came from the Latin word ‘advertere’ which means “to turn the mind toward”. Advertising covers all kinds of non-personal presentation of ideas, goods, services, events, etc., conveyed to potential customers at large. It includes promotion of ideas, goods and services performed by an authorized advertising agency to fulfill the expectations of an identified sponsoring body, i.e. a company or organisation.

Advertising is a function of marketing. It is an advance skill of creating a result oriented non-personal communication of information. It is done by making systematic plans which involves creativity and innovation. It has a remarkable ability to make a positive mental impact on the majority of consumers, to buy an idea, product or service by appealing and impressing them. Advertising campaign that is done creatively with some unique memorable presentation always makes a place in the minds of consumers. All kinds of business and corporate bodies relay on advertising to gain profit and goodwill for their business concern. Advertising practice is done on certain code of ethics that controls falsification of facts and unlawful promotion techniques.

Advertising Definitions

Advertising is a means of communication with the users of a product or service. Advertisements are messages paid for by those who send them and are intended to inform or influence people who receive them. - Advertising Association of the UK

Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. - Courtland L. Bovee

Advertising means any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. - American Marketing Association 

Read More

Terminology/ Glossary - Advertising

General terms used in Advertising

1. Ad Space – This is the space reserved for ads.
2. Advertising Manager – The person who oversees the sales representatives who sell space to advertisers, and ensures that ads are in the appropriate section.
3. Caption – Copy which accompanies a photograph or graphic.
4. Classified ads – Short, direct text ads which clearly indicate what is being advertised, the price, where, and how the advertiser can be contacted.
5. Client – The people who pay you money to work for them.
6. Commercial – An advertisement that is presented on television, radio, or film.
7. Consumer – People who buy your goods and services.
8. Display ads – Ads that include a visual image to advertise a product or service.
9. Coverage – In advertising, ‘cover’ refers to the number / percentage of people within a target audience who see or hear your advertisement.
10. CRM – Customer Relationship Management is a strategy / software that enable a company to both organize and optimize its customer relations.
11. Design – The most successful design is all about style and content working in perfect harmony.
12. Door-to-Door Ads – Street-by-street delivery of advertising material through daily newspapers or letter boxes.
13. Incentive – Free gift offered to consumers to encourage purchase / response.
14. Networking – Meeting with fellow business types and clients for business advantage.
15. Peak – the time of day when the audiences are highest – also called prime time.
16. Sales promotion – Promotional idea used to increase sales of a product.
17. Special Build – Outdoor advertising site specially constructed for a particular campaign.
18. Target Audience – The people/ group/ type of person you are aiming your campaign at, the people you want to buy your product, the people you are talking to.
19. Viral Marketing – Viral Marketing or Viral Advertising are term referring to marketing techniques that use – pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives.

Read More

What is an Advertorial?

An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of an editorial article. It is a newspaper or magazine advertisement giving information about a product in the style of an editorial or objective journalistic article. The term advertorial is a combination of the words advertisement and editorial. 

Advertorial is written in the form of a news article which is designed to look like a legitimate news story. A reader can be confused by the form of these types of advertisements. The style of a news report gives more credibility for an advertisement. The infomercial is the television counterpart of an advertorial.

Read More