Advertising Introduction and Scope

“Advertising consists of all activities involved in presenting to a group a non-personal, oral or visual, openly sponsored identified message regarding a product, service, or idea. The message, called an advertisement, is disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by the identified sponsor”-William Stanton.

theintactone.com can define term ‘advertising’ as: Advertising is a paid form of mass communication that consists of the special message sent by the specific person (advertiser or company), for the specific group of people (listeners, readers, or viewers), for the specific period of time, in the specific manner to achieve the specific goals and objectives.

Philip Kotler: “Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of goods, services, or ideas by an identified sponsor.”

Frank Presbrey: “Advertising is a printed, written, oral and illustrated art of selling. Its objective is to encourage sales of the advertiser’s products and to create in the mind of people, individually or collectively, an impression in favour of the advertiser’s interest.”

Scope of Advertising

Advertising is often regarded as the most important means of marketing a company’s services and tools. The scope of advertising is to communicate a message to current customers or potentially target new customers. It helps a company get a message or a piece of information across to their customer base regarding a new product or special deal.

(i) Scope of advertising by budget

There is always a budget allocated for advertising and promotion within the marketing budget. The budget allocated should be in coordination with the type of advertisement the organization wants. The resources and other requirements are to be kept in mind for the budget allocation.

(ii) Scope of advertising by deliverables

Once the budget is decided, the marketing plan can be projected further. A detailed scope of work that deliverables require can be outlined. Agencies can now develop a proposed resource plan.

(iii) Scope of advertising by allocating deliverables

For creative work, allocating the type of deliverables (TV, online, mobile, press, magazine, etc) based on the previous campaign requirements can be more insightful after the previous plan.

(iv) Scope of advertising by strategy

Once the deliverables are allocated, advertising agencies can define the strategic requirements by brand or category and develop a scope of work based on past requirements and remuneration for similar strategic deliverables.

Objectives of Advertising

To Inform Buyers

This objective includes informing customers regarding product’s availability, price, features, qualities, services, and performance. Besides, it also includes informing them about changes made in the existing product and introduction of new products. Company also highlights its location, achievements, policies, and performance through advertising.

To Persuade or Convince Buyers

Company uses advertisement to persuade or convince the buyers about superior advantages offered by its product. Company communicates competitive advantages the product offers to induce customers buy it. Comparative advertising is used to prove the additional benefits of product at a given price.

To Remind Buyers

Marketer uses advertising to remind the buyers regarding existence of company, products, maintenance of quality, superior services, and chasing customer-orientation. Mostly, the existing firms aim their advertising for this objective.

Here, the purpose is to inform that the company is still in existence and serving customers in a better way. Due to huge information bombarded by a number of companies, customers are more likely to forget name of company and/or products and services it offers.

To Face Competition

Advertising is treated as the most powerful weapon to fight with competitors effectively. Advertising enables the firm to respond the competitors strongly. It helps the firm to distinguish its total offerings from competitors.

In brief, the firm can face competition, can prevent the entry of competitors, or can remove competitors away from the market. In competitive marketing environment, the firm cannot survive without an effective advertisement.

To Achieve Sales Targets

Increase sales volume is one of the major advertising objectives. A company can advertise its products in various media to attract customers situated in different parts of the world. National and international marketing is the result of advertising. Even, non-users can be converted into users and usage rate can be increased. Thus, company can achieve its sales objectives by advertisement.

To Build and Improve Brand Image

Advertising is used for brand recognition and acceptance. A company can distinguish its brand by magnifying major benefits the product offers. Advertisement attracts customers toward the brand; they try it and accept it over time. In the same way, bad image related to brand can be changed by systematic presentation of facts and scientific evidences, and removing misunderstanding.

To Help or Educate People

Advertising is not always used only for company’s benefits. It is meant for helping customers to make the right choice of product. It educates people about availability of new products, its features and qualities, price, services, and other related aspects. Such information is instrumental for purchasing suitable products. Thus, it guides customers to choose the most appropriate product.

To Build Company Image and Reputation

A company opts for advertisement to build prestige and reputation in the market. Most of the companies, though they are satisfied with the volume of sales, go for advertising to acquire fame in the market. Many companies advertise its policies, activities, and achievements to make a permanent place in the mind of people.

To Assist Sales Force and Middlemen

Advertising is an aid to middlemen and salesmen. Advertising also popularizes the name of dealers. Likewise, advertising provides necessary information to the buyers. Middlemen and salesmen are not required to do the same. It eases the task of sellers. In the same way, advertising encourages sales force.

Other Objectives

There are certain minor objectives of advertising, such as:

To promote new products.
To build long-term relations.
To remove misunderstanding.
To expand of market.
To gain confidence of buyers.
To request customers to compromise with unavoidable circumstances.
To seek apology of the buyers for any undesirable events, etc.

Company has to select one or more objectives based on its situations. It should be clarified that the list is not exhaustive. New advertising objectives may emerge as per change in situations. However, the main objective of advertising is to increase sales and earn profits. Company must define it advertising objectives clearly and precisely.