Advertising is a form of
marketing communication used to persuade an audience to take or
continue some action, usually with respect to a commercial offering,
or political or ideological support.Advertising is the best way to
communicate to the customers.
Primary objectives of
advertising are:
Increasing Sales and
Profits: One of the major objectives of
advertising is to increase sales and profits. Some companies, like
Internet businesses, only use advertising to apprise people about
their products and services. These companies don't have sales
departments. Hence, they can only sell products and earn profits if
they are actively advertising. Some forms of advertising lend
themselves more to producing immediate profits. For example, direct
response advertising, which asks consumers for money in the ads, is
specifically geared toward building sales and profits.
Building Brand
Awareness: Small companies also advertise to
build brand awareness, which is when people know a particular brand
is yours. Brand awareness is usually calculated as a percentage. For
example, if 1,000 people out of 10,000 in a market can identify your
brand, your brand awareness is 10 percent. Your primary objective in
building brand awareness is to make people think of your brand first
when they are ready to purchase.
Creating or 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.
Informing the Changes
to the Customers: Whenever changes are made
in the prices, channels of distribution or in the product by way of
any improvement in quality, size, weight, brand, packing, etc., they
must be informed to the public by the producer through advertisement.
Neutralizing
Competitor’s Advertising: Advertising is
unavoidable to complete with or neutralize competitor’s
advertising. When competitors are adopting intensive advertising as
their promotional strategy, it is reasonable to follow similar
practices to neutralize their effects. In such cases, it is essential
for the manufacturer to create a different image of his product.
Trial: The
companies which are in their introduction stage generally work for
this objective. The trial objective is the one which involves
convincing the customers to buy the new product introduced in the
market. Here, the advertisers use flashy and attractive ads to make
customers take a look on the products and purchase for trials.
Continuity: This
objective is concerned about keeping the existing customers to stick
on to the product. The advertisers here generally keep on bringing
something new in the product and the advertisement so that the
existing customers keep buying their products.
Brand switch: This
objective is basically for those companies who want to attract the
customers of the competitors. Here, the advertisers try to convince
the customers to switch from the existing brand they are using to
their product.
Switching back: This
objective is for the companies who want their previous customers
back, who have switched to their competitors. The advertisers use
different ways to attract the customers back like discount sale, new
advertise, some reworking done on packaging, etc.
Problems of advertising
in India:
- Attrition rates are as high as 30 per cent, which is catastrophic in a people-oriented business.The client-agency relationship has degenerated. Crucial strategic decisions are outsourced to consultants and agencies have been relegated to the status of suppliers.
- Agencies are unable to agree upon some standard practices-e.g.: The pitch fee-which can help safeguard agencies' ideas, strategies and interests.
- The industry does not have a single unified body, yet. There's the AAAI and the AdClub.
- Agencies have fallen lower on the value chain due to their lack of relevance in the eyes of the client, and are having a tough time standing their ground, upping their value addition and getting back up there.
