While listening to the radio, or viewing television, or reading a newspaper/magazine, or walking on a street, you must have come across a number of advertisement messages.
These messages mostly appeal to people to buy certain products or services. Indeed, advertisements are used by companies to communicate how their products or services may be of use to customers. In modern industrial economies, advertising plays a very important role acquainting the public with the nature and quality of products or services available in the market.
In this Unit we shall discuss what is meant by advertising, how it is different from publicity, the objectives of advertising, the role advertising in the society and the
features of an effective advertisement.
Let us start with an understanding of what is meant by advertising. The American Marketing association has defined advertising as "any paid form of non-personal presentation of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor". This definition includes the following four expressions:
i) Paid form
ii) Non-personal presentation
iii) Ideas, goods and services
iv) Identified sponsor
To understand the definition clearly, it is necessary to clarify these expressions. Let us discuss these expressions in detail:-
i) Paid form: For every advertisement, some money has to be paid to the medium which
carries the message. For instance, if the message is published in a magzine, payment must be made for printing and the space used in that magazine. If the matter is printed without any charge, it will not be treated as an advertisement.
ii) Non-personal presentation: When a salesman directly talks to the customer about any product, it is personal presentation. If the message is communicated through
mass media like radio, television, newspaper, magazine, direct mail, hoardings, etc., it is called non-personal presentation. In the case of advertising, the message is conveyed through non-personal media. In other words, there is no face-to-face communication by salesmen. It implies that if the message is presented to the customer by a salesman, it would not be treated as advertising.
iii) Ideas, goods and services: This implies that advertising may be intended to help selling not only goods but also ideas and saving. For instance, banks,.insurance
companies, airlines, restaurants, dry cleaners, and similar organisations advertise their services and ideas underlying the usefulness of savings, travelling, eating palatable food, etc.. just as manufacturers of automobiles, soaps or hair oil advertise the usefulness of their products. Thus, the phrase ideas, goods and services explains that advertising is concerned with much more than the promotion of only tangible goods.
iv) Identified sponsor: The sponsor of an advertisement is the advertiser. The phrase identified sponsor means that the producer or seller who advertises the product
should be known through the advertised message. In other words, the receiver of the message should be able to identify both of source and purpose of the advertisement.
If it is not sponsored by any l individual or institution, it would not come under advertisement.
Now look at the message presented in Figure 8.1 carefully. We shall analyse this message to find out whether it may be treated as an advertisement or not. First, the
message is printed in the newspaper which is a non-personal medium. Secondly, the payment must have been made to the newspaper in which it appeared. Thirdly, the
message is about the quality of a product OCM suitings the perfect fabric. Fourthly, the name of the sponsor or advertiser i.e., VXL India Ltd., is clearly mentioned. It is also
obvious that the purpose of the advertisement is to induce customers to buy OCM suitings. We may, therefore, conclude that the printed message in Figure 8.1 is an advertisement. The points to be noted in this advertisement are:
Product : OCM Fabric (Textiles)
Medium : Newspaper
Message : OCM Suitings the perfect fabric, A produce of VXL India Ltd.
Sponsor VXL India Ltd. Payment : The sponsor of the message paid for printing and space
used in the newspaper at the rates fixed by the publishers.