Advertising intends to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners)to purchase or take some action upon products ,ideals or services. It includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade a target market to purchase or to consume that particular brand. These advertisements serve to communicate an idea to the public in an attempt to convince them to take certain action, such as encouraging environment friendly behaviors, and even unhealthy behaviors through food consumption etc. To advertise is to draw the public’s attention usually for the purpose of selling products, or services, through the use of various forms of media, such as print or broad cast and notices.
Advertising is not only used as a means to promote a company’s products and services and to drive sales but as a means to build a brand identity and communicate changes of new product /service to the customers. Advertising has become an essential element of the corporate world and it is also the best known mass communication channel. Advertising provides a direct line of communication to the existing and prospective customers about the product or service.
Classifications of Advertising
The classification of advertisement is directly related to the advertising plan. By developing an effective advertising plan, there is a possibility of increased positive return on advertising investment regardless of the amount spent.
1. Classification Based on the Media Used
Any medium can be effectively used for advertising. Based on this criteria there can be several branches of advertising. Mentioned below are the various categories or types of advertising:
1.1 Print Advertising: News papers, Magazines, Brochures, Fliers
The print media have always been a popular advertising medium. Advertising products through news papers and magazines is a common practice. In addition to this, print media also offers options like promotional brochures and fliers for advertising purposes. The news papers and magazines sell the advertising space according to the area occupied by the advertisement, the position of the advertisement (front page/ middle page), as well as the readership of the publications. The price of the print advertisements also depend on the supplement in which they appear.
1.2 Outdoor Advertising: Bill boards, Kiosks, Trade Shows and Events
Outdoor Advertising is also a very popular form of advertising, which makes use of several tools and techniques to attract the customer outdoors. The most common examples of outdoor advertising are bill boards, Kiosks, and also several events and trade shows organized by the company. The Bill board advertising has to be really terse and catchy in order to grab the attention of the passers by. The Kiosks not only provide an easy out let for the company products but also act as an effective advertising tool to promote the company’s products. Organizing several trade shows and events by the companies or sponsoring them, also makes an excellent advertising opportunity.
1.3 Broad cast Advertising: Television, Radio, and the Internet
Broad cast Advertising is a very popular advertising medium that constitutes several branches like television, radio or the internet. Television advertisements have been very popular ever since they have been introduced. The cost of television advertising often depends on the duration of the advertisement, the time of broad cast(peak time/prime time) and of course the popularity of the television channel on which the advertisement is going to be broadcasted. The radio might have lost its charm owing to the new age media, but the radio remains to be the choice of small scale advertisers. The radio jingles have been very popular advertising media and has a large impact on the audience.
2. Classification Based on Geographic Area
Marketers advertise to the consumer market with national and retail/local advertising which may stimulate primary or selective demand.
2.1 Global Advertising
International advertising is conceived as a response to global marketing enabling the agency to channelize advertising from transnational corporations into transnational media. The same product brand that was once sold nationally can now be sold to the whole world backed by the same advertising. E.g. Coke has been using the same standardized advertising in all countries. Pepsi adopts the common theme to the national culture.
2.2 National Advertising
National advertising is done by large companies on a nation wide basis or in most regions of the country. Most of the advertisements of well known companies and brands that are seen on prime -time television or in other major national or regional media are examples of national advertising. The goals of national advertisers are to inform or remind consumers of the company or brand about its features, benefits, advantages, or uses and to create or reinforce its image so that consumers will be predisposed to purchase it.
2.3 Retail/Local Advertising
Advertising is done by retailers to local merchants to encourage consumers to shop at a specific store, or use a local service or patronize a particular establishment. Retail or local advertising tends to emphasize specific patronage motives such as price, hours of operation, service, atmosphere, image, or merchandise assortment. Retailers are concerned with building store traffic, so that their promotions often take the form of direct action advertising designed to produce immediate store traffic and sales.
3. Classification based on Target Audience
3.1 Consumer Advertising
A very substantial portion of total advertising is directed to buyers of consumers products who purchase them either for their own use or for their household’s. The fact that the buyer of consumer items are generally very large and are widely distributed over a large geographical area enhances the importance of advertising as a marketing tool. The preponderance of such advertising can be seen by looking into any general print media, such as news papers, magazines etc. These advertisements are intended to promote the sale of the advertised products by appealing directly to the buyers/consumers. Such advertising is called consumer advertising.
3.2 Business-to-Business Advertising
Advertising targeted to individuals, who buy or influence the purchase of industrial goods or services for their companies is known as business-to- business advertising. Industrial goods are products that either become a physical part of another product(raw material or component parts), or are used in manufacturing other goods(machinery), or that are used to help a company conduct its business (eg office supplies, computers) business such as insurance, travel services, and health care are also included in this category.
3.3 Professional Advertising
Advertising targeted to professionals such as doctors, lawyers, dentists, engineers, or professors to encourage them to use a company’s product in their business operations. It might also be used to encourage professionals to recommend or specify the use of a company’s product to the end-users.
3.4 Trade Advertising
Advertising targeted to marketing channel members such as wholesalers, distributors, and retailers are regarded as trade advertising. The goal of trade advertising is to encourage channel members to stock, promote, and resell the manufacturers branded products to their customers.
3.5 Industrial Advertising
Advertisements directed towards industrial users(buyers of raw materials, component parts, machineries etc) are regarded as industrial advertising. i.e. consumers who purchase goods for their industrial use and advertisements directed towards these consumers are known as industrial advertising.
3.6 Agricultural Advertising
Advertisements targeted towards the farmers for the purchase of seeds, tractors, and other agricultural implements are regarded as agricultural advertising.
4. Classification based on Purpose
4.1 Product or non-product
A product is a thing or service for which customers will exchange something of value. The purpose of product advertising is to sell the advertisers goods or services. Services are intangible products. They include financial, legal, medical and other recreational services. Non-product advertising constitutes institutional or corporate advertising in which the advertiser tries to polish its image or influence public opinion about an issue. Here the aim is not to sell something, but just to let the public know that such an organization exists.
4.2 Commercial or Non-commercial
Commercial Vs Non-commercial advertising is very easy to understand. If the idea of advertising is to make profits then it is commercial advertising. If the idea of advertising is not to make profits then it is non commercial advertising. Most of the advertisements we see are commercial.
4.3 Primary-Demand and Selective- Demand advertising
Primary demand advertising stimulates the need for a particular category of products and the aim is not to sell one brand. Diamonds forever was used to arouse the need for diamonds and not to sell the brand of De Beers. Once the need for particular category is established, selective demand advertising comes into picture. These advertisements concentrate on a particular brand of a product and try to promote it. De Beers, after it made diamond jewellery popular, went on for selective demand advertisements.
4.4 Direct Action or Indirect Action Advertising
Sometimes advertisements are designed to get the audience response immediately. These types of advertisements are called direct-action advertisements. Typically these types of advertisements carry a toll free number and sales promotion incentives. Indirect-action advertising is done primarily to build awareness of the product.
5. Other types of Advertising
5.1 Covert Advertising
Covert Advertising also known as “guerrilla advertising” is a unique kind of advertising in which a product or a particular brand is incorporated in some entertainment and media channels like movies, television shows or even sports. There is no commercial in the entertainment but the brand or the product is subtly (or sometimes evidently) showcased in the entertainment show.
5.2 Surrogate Advertising- Advertising Indirectly
Surrogate Advertising is prominently seen in cases where advertising a particular product is banned by law. Advertisements for products like cigarettes or alcohol which are injurious to health are prohibited by law in several countries and hence these companies have to come up with several other products that might have the same brand name which indirectly remind people of the cigarettes or beer bottles of the same brand.
5.3 Public Service Advertising- Advertising for social causes
Public Service Advertising is a technique that makes use of advertising as an effective communication medium to convey socially relevant message about important matters and social welfare causes like AIDS, energy conservation, political integrity, deforestation, illiteracy, poverty and so on. David Oglivy who is considered to be one of the pioneers of advertising and marketing concepts had reportedly encouraged the use of advertising field for a social cause. Today public Service Advertising has been increasingly used in a non-commercial fashion in several countries across the world in order to promote various social causes.
5.4 Celebrity advertising
Using celebrities for advertising involves signing up celebrities for advertising campaigns, which consists of all sorts of advertising including, television and print advertisements. Though the audience are getting smarter and smarter and the modern day consumers are getting immune to the exaggerated claims made in a majority of advertisements, there still exist a section of advertisers who still bank upon celebrities and their popularity for advertising their products.
Modern Advertising Methods
Advertising and marketing have become an essential part of the business world. If a person has a good product or an efficient service to offer, he has to master the art of selling it. Some advertising agencies stick to conventional advertising methods; most of the leading players are resorting to fresh and modern advertising methods. There is a new cult of modern advertisers who are experimenting with ideas that are truly modern and innovative. Newspaper advertisements and colored fliers are so old-fashioned. It is the era of saying hello to instant, quick, smart and out-of-the box ideas instead of associating advertising with the newspaper advertisements, television advertisements and radio advertisements.
There are different types of advertising and advertising techniques that are available for promoting products and services. However, here are some of the latest and hottest trends in advertising that are gaining popularity. Advertisers are looking for new types of advertising appeals that they can target. Many of the new-age advertising methods are a result of the advent of the Internet, while some of the trends are just novel ideas that have transformed mundane advertising media into brilliant and witty advertising methods. Internet advertising is a vast concept and it entails several sub-types, many of which have been recently introduced. Email advertising is one of the earlier trends, while the new ones include banner advertising, pixel advertising, blog advertising, keyword advertising and contextual advertising. The following are some of the most widely used modern advertising methods:
Web Banner Advertising
Unlike the billboard advertising which is used on roads, a similar type called banner advertising is used on the web. The horizontal advertisement strips that are seen at the top of almost every web page are nothing but the web banner advertisements. Web banners are usually constructed using images, or JavaScript, or any other multimedia objects and animation. Web banners are usually linked to web pages that are related to the content on the existing web site.
Bandwagon Advertising
This is a propaganda advertising technique, which aims at convincing the user that everyone else is using the products or everyone in the customer base, is in favor of the brand and so he/she must do so. This compels the consumer to at least think about buying that product and check what everyone else is raving about and in turn ‘jump on the bandwagon’. Bandwagon advertising is a strategy that is based on consumer psychology and hence, is an effective advertising technique which can be used via any media print, electronic, or broadcast.
Promotional Advertising
Promotional advertising involves the use of promotional give-away items or promotional media events, which help to garner public attention and an effective way of advertising. Handing out promotional freebie is a modern advertising technique that is innovative and very effective.
Testimonials and Endorsements
An endorsement from a celebrity or a public figure is reason enough for certain customers to try a particular product. Such testimonials or endorsements are a great way to advertise particular products and services. Another evolved version of testimonial and endorsement is a new type called covert advertising which involves the use of brand names or actual products in movies or television shows.
Contextual Advertising
Contextual advertising is a very specifically targeted form of Internet marketing in which the advertisements are selected by automated systems based on the content being viewed by a particular user. The automated system scans the text of a website for keywords and sends advertisements that match the content which the user is viewing. Many search engines also make use of contextual advertising for displaying advertisements on the search result pages, that the advertisements match the things that the user is looking up on the web. Google Adsense was the first 74 contextual advertising venture. After Google started this trend, there were many others like Yahoo! and Microsoft who followed suit.
Keyword Advertising
Keyword advertising refers to any advertising that is linked to specific words or phrases. Keyword advertising is also known as pay per click advertising or cost per action advertising. Although Yahoo was the first company to venture into keyword advertising, it is Google Ad words program which is now most popular for its keyword advertising. Some of the popular search engines, which are into keyword advertising, include Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, Miva and Look Smart.
Blog Advertising
Blog advertising is simply placing advertisements on one’s blog. This has existed as long as blogs have existed. It consists of running banners and text advertisements on the top, sidebar and footer of one’s blog. Owing to the tremendous popularity of blogs, advertisers have wisely used blogs as effective advertising and marketing tools. Corporate blogs are an excellent way for companies to reach out to their customer base on the Internet. Advertising blogs often make use of Search Engine Marketing techniques which ensure better results on the web.
Bathroom Advertising
Bathroom advertising is nothing but placement of advertisements in public restrooms. A research was carried out, in which a test group of people visiting a restroom were asked whether they noticed the advertisements in there, and surprisingly, a major percentage of the group were seen to have a high retention of the advertisements. This led to the conclusion that people visiting the restroom are a good target audience. Bathroom advertising is soon catching up as an effective advertising tool.
Mobile Advertising
Most of the time, advertisers have a data of mobile numbers of their existing customer base as well as a list of phone numbers of people who might be potential customers. An advertising message will be sent to these mobile numbers which is nothing by the mobile advertising. And on the mobile phone these advertising messages rarely goes unnoticed and hence, qualifies as an effective marketing or advertising tool. It is now a fact that mobile advertising or cell phone advertising is one of the most effective ways of advertising.
Public Relations Advertising
Maintaining and developing good public relations is one of the most important marketing tools for companies to maintain goodwill amongst employees as well as clients. It is not only a way for companies to be in the public eye, but also a great way to build and maintain a particular brand image and identity. Public relations is thus a great advertising tool which is used by companies to reach out to their investors, employees and of course, their existing and potential customer base.
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