In this hall, we are going to be looking at ADVERTISING. Meaning of advertising, Roles of advertising, types and methods of advertising in Commerce.
Meaning Of Advertising
Advertising can be defined as any paid form of non-personal communication which is directed to the customers or target audience through various Media in order to present and promote products, services and ideas. It is a branch of Commerce which is used to create awareness for a particular product and it must be paid for. Advertising informs, educate and persuade people to buy the advertised goods and services.
See Also
- Television Advertising, Advantages and Disadvantages
- How to use social media to grow your business
- Digital Marketing Strategies For small business
Basic Concepts Of Advertising
- Theme: This is the essential message the advertiser wishes to communicate.
- Target: This refers to the target audience, i.e, people the advertisement is aimed at.
- Advertising medium: This is the medium through which the message is passed, e.g radio, television and newspaper.
- Frequency: This is the number of time an advert is delivered.
- Reach: This refers to the size of the audience that has seen or heard the advert.
Roles of Advertising
- To introduce new products: One of the roles of advertising is to inform customers about the existence of new product in the market, i.e, creation of awareness.
- To persuade customers to buy: Another roles of advertising is to help in arousing the customer’s interest and by so doing persuade them to buy the product.
- Creation of Demand: Advertising stimulate demand by constantly reminding potential consumers about the availability of the product in the market.
- To educate the people on the uses of a product: It educates consumers on the usage of the product and the benefits to be derived.
- It promotes the image of the firm: This is another roles of advertising because advertising builds a corporate image for a company.
- It increase the firm’s turnover: Advertising facilities sales for a firm, and as a result the turnover and profit of a business may be enhanced.
- Development of large markets: Advertising creates large markets segment which leads to the development of large markets.
- Provision of technical information about a product: Advertising provides information that are needed by the consumers. Such information as quality, price changes and special offers are provided by advertising.
- It helps to improve the quality of Goods: Research can be embarked upon to improve quality of products in order to outplay competitors, i.e, healthy competition can help to improve the quality of products.
- To create brand loyalty: The demand of the customers can be maintained by constantly arousing their interest on a particular product and this will ultimately create brand loyalty.
Types And Methods of Advertising In commerce
Types Of Advertising
We are going to be looking at the types of advertising in Commerce below:
1. Informative Advertising: This is a kind of advertising which is aimed at disseminating information that will let consumers know what goods and services are available. Informative advertising informs the public about the existence of a product. It also assist the customers to choose between alternative on offer. It supplies information which are useful to the consumers by calling their attention to a particular product. It also gives information about the benefit and uses of a product. Informative advertising is good for introducing new products or job vacancies.
2. Persuasive Advertising: This is a types of advertising which tries to persuade the customers to buy a particular brand of a product as being different from other brand. Persuasive advertising, which is emotional in nature, is used to induce or arouse customers interest in order to persuade them to buy a particular product. It sometimes lay emphasis on the distinctive characteristics of a product and appeals to people to buy and use a particular product, e.g, medicine and cosmetics.
3. Competitive Advertising: This is a types of advertising which is aimed at persuading customers to buy one brand of products in reference to another brand by another producer. It tries to woo customers to consume a product at the expense of another. Competitive advertising is good for products with close substitutes and it is associated with clear cut competition. It emphasises on the fact that a product is far better than another in terms of quality, e.g, 7up and coke.
4. Mass and specific Advertising: This is a types of advertising in which manufacturers of similar products or same commodity come together to jointly advertise their products to the consuming public. They will not lay emphasis on or mention a particular product brand. The major reason is to reduce the cost of advertising. Specific advertising provide information specially on some lines of goods or a particular brand which is unique in nature.
Methods Of Advertising
There are two methods of advertising in Commerce, these includes direct advertising and indirect advertise.
1. Direct Advertising: Direct advertising is a method of advertising which is aimed at providing information to a section, targets market segment or group of people with relatively similar needs. The market will be segmented and advertising will be directed to or targeted at a particular audience or group, e.g, youth, schools and hospitals. Advertisement on jeans for instance, must, as a matter of professionalism, be directed to the youths. This Methods of Advertising gives direction to the advertising process to avoid wastage.
2. Indirect Advertising: indirect advertising is directed to the totality or generality of the consuming public. It is not aimed at providing information to a session or a group but to advertise goods and services consumed by all categories of people, e.g, advertisement on bread, salt and sugar.
In this class on ADVERTISING, the key points to note is the meaning of advertising, basic Concepts of advertising, the roles they play, types and methods of advertising.