1.2 Advertising

Definition of Advertising

Most advertising textbooks define advertising as "paid, nonpersonal communication from an identified sponsor using mass media to persuade or influence an audience."1 This definition works well for understanding the basics of advertising. Let's break this definition down in a little more detail:

• Paid: Advertising must be paid for by someone. The client provides the money necessary to buy the media where the ads will run. Even Public Service Announcements (PSAs) are paid for – either by a sponsoring organization or through donated time or space.

• Nonpersonal: Advertising is not written for a specific person (although the good ones make you think they are written just for you), but rather is written for a large, mass audience. It feels so personal because members of the target audience all have similar characteristics that make them the ideal user of the product.

• Identified Sponsor: This is the purpose of the advertisement – to communicate sponsor information to the consumer so they will purchase the product. Advertisers always put their client's name on the advertisement because they want the audience to know who is doing the advertising.

• Mass Media: The mass media, which includes all forms of media, must be used to relay the sponsor's message to consumers.

• Persuade or Influence: Again, this is the purpose of advertising: to persuade or influence consumers to do something like purchase the product or respond in a certain way.

  Picture by TongCheung. via Shutterstock.

• Audience: There must be receivers of the message for there to be advertising. Someone has to hear or see the message.

  Picture by Jacob Lund via Shutterstock.

With all of the changes in media and advertising, the definition of advertising may be simplified as "Coming up with creative solutions to solve marketing problems." Today, advertisers have no limits—if you can think it, you can do it. In terms of messaging, media, and execution, literally everything is available to advertisers to creatively solve marketing problems. Advertising can be as simple or as elaborate as it needs to be in order to communicate the desired information to the audience.

Characteristics of a Great Ad

There are many great ads and advertising campaigns. Just check out these five ads on YouTube.

• Dove's Real Beauty Sketches

• Coka-Cola's Polar Bears

• Wendy's "Where's the Beef?"

• Old Spice's The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

• Mastercard's "Priceless" Campaign

For an ad to be truly great, it must have the following four components:

1. Strategy: The strategy is the central idea of the campaign; it's your blueprint, your game plan. The strategy is the foundation of your entire advertising campaign. To have a successful advertising campaign, you must have a strategy that takes into consideration the marketing objectives, the target market, the creative idea, and the necessary media.

   Picture by toozdesign via Shutterstock.

2. Creative: Creativity is key in communicating the message and getting the consumers' attention. Great ads must be new, exciting, attention-getting, and interesting so that the message sticks in the consumers' minds. Ads that use the same old boring techniques that have been used over and over are often ignored and fail to deliver the sales the client needs to stay in business.

3. Execution: The old saying, "The devil is in the details," is true. It's often the small things in the campaign that make all the difference. The graphics, photography, copy, print quality, layout, design, and all other aspects of the advertisements must be of the highest quality in order to have a winning campaign.

4. Media: Selecting media that will be viewed by the greatest number of people, especially those in the target market, is essential to the success of the campaign. It doesn't matter how good the strategy is or how creative the advertisements are–if the consumers never see the ads, the campaign will fail.

Types of Advertising

There are many types of advertising. Here are some of the most common based on their coverage, the audience they serve, and the media in which they are placed.

Advertising by Geographic Location

• Local Advertising: Also known as retail advertising, local advertising is used by retail and department stores (Safeway, Kohl's, and Target), convenience stores (7-Eleven, Circle K, and Kwik Stop), local franchises of national brands (Wendy's, McDonald's, FedEx, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Red Robin), specialty businesses or services (realtors, insurance agents, attorneys, and florists), and government and nonprofit organizations (United Way, Humane Society, the power or gas company, city or state events, or political candidates).2 This advertising is directed at local customers who live in a specific location near the reseller. The most common media used for local advertising includes local newspapers, magazines, direct mail, pamphlets, signs, billboards, social media, and promotions.3

  Picture by Sundry Photography via Shutterstock.

• Regional Advertising: Regional advertising has greater coverage than local advertising. Typically, one or more states are defined as a marketing region (e.g., the southwest region of the U.S.). Manufacturers of goods, or large retailers with a number of stores throughout the region (WalMart, Home Depot, or Walgreens), will use regional advertising to reach a larger audience. In many cases, regional advertising is used in place of national advertising when the advertiser wants to concentrate advertising efforts on a specific location rather than the entire country. The media used for regional advertising include regional magazines, radio, regional TV, outdoor media, and so on. This type of advertising is considered ideal when launching a new product in a specific region.4

  Picture by Jonathan Weiss via Shutterstock.

• National Advertising: National advertising is used by brands that want to advertise their products to consumers throughout the country (e.g., detergents, soaps, toothpastes, cosmetics, potato chips, cars, and home improvement). Mass media with a national reach, such as television, radio, the internet and social media are often used for national advertising.

  Picture by 8th.creator via Shutterstock.

Advertising by Type of Audience

• Consumer Advertising: This type of advertising is directed to the ultimate consumers of the products, i.e., the individuals who buy, use, or consume the products or services. These types of products need continuous and extensive advertising to maintain and drive consumer purchasing.

  Picture by TimeImage Production via Shutterstock.

• Business-to-Business (B2B) Advertising: B2B is similar to consumer advertising but is aimed at other businesses and professionals (e.g., doctors, lawyers, dentists, architects) rather than consumers. The products that are advertised are typically for businesses and professionals to keep their businesses running (office supplies, phone services, computer software, manufacturing parts, and so on).

• Professional Advertising: This type of advertising is directed at professionals like doctors, professors, engineers, accountants, etc. who, in addition to using the products for their businesses, are expected to recommend or prescribe the products to consumers. The advertising used most often for this type of product is direct mail, pamphlets, the internet, magazine display ads and television.

  Picture by Syda Productions via Shutterstock.

• Institutional Advertising: Institutional advertising is designed to build a business’s reputation in the minds of the public. The advertising message describes the company, its people, its contribution to promoting social activities and consumer satisfaction, its achievements in technology, its philosophies, the economic progress of the company, and so on. Institutional advertising doesn’t provide benefits in the form of immediate sales, but it creates a strong base for future sales through an enhanced image.

  Picture by Chad Robertson Media via Shutterstock.

Advertising by Type of Media

• Print Advertising: Advertising that appears in newspapers, magazines, journals, handbills, and so on is print advertising. Even today, print advertising is a popular form of media to help retailers reach consumers in national and local markets.

  Picture by Niloo via Shutterstock.

• Broadcast Advertising: This type of advertising appears on radio and television. Broadcast advertising is expensive but can produce very large audiences.

• Digital Advertising: This form of advertising employs the internet to deliver advertising messages to consumers. It includes email marketing, banner and skyscraper ads, popup ads, video ads, producer-created media sites like YouTube and commercial sites like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.

• Social Media Advertising: This type of advertising uses social media sites, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and others to communicate advertising messages to consumers. Advertisers create messages that will attract attention and then encourage consumers to “share” the advertising message with their friends and others in their social networks.

  Picture by Twin Design via Shutterstock.

• Alternative Advertising: Alternative advertising includes all advertising that does not fall under any of the other types of media advertising. This would include, but certainly not be limited to, out of home, ambient (advertising on elevators, gas pumps, restrooms), sports arenas and stadiums, and transit (buses, trains, bus stops).

  Picture by https://www.shutterstock.com/g/chenws via Shutterstock.

Advertising Spending

With advertising spending at $2253.60 billion in 2019, the U.S. continues to be the largest advertising market in the world.5 The top 10 advertising categories in 2018 are shown in Table 1.1. The biggest spenders were the retail industry spending nearly $17 million and the automotive industry that spent $14.2 million. Kantar Media reported that the top advertisers in 2014 were Proctor & Gamble, General Motors, and AT&T (see Table 1.2).