Reasons and Forms of Advertising

Ever for once asked yourself reasons why companies spend money on advertisement. These are companies that are doing exceptionally well in the market and yet they still run adverts for people to see them often. Does it mean that they just have joy in wasting their money just in the name of advertisement? It is not so as they have good reasons for what they do. One of the reasons is because they want to protect their brands. They want to look new in the eyes of their customers everyday.

Advertising/advertisement; Photo design by Uzochukwu Mike P

What is Advertising and Advertisement

Advertising is the means through which existing goods or services are made known to the public or people in a particular environment or community. Also, advertisement a notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy. It is a powerful tool used by entrepreneurs to drive market.

Business owners spend huge money on advertising because of its importance. This is a means of telling the public about one commodity or the other. It is a powerful communication tool used by companies to achieve a promotional task. It is an impersonal form of communication or presenting of goods, services, or idea conducted through a paid media under open or identified sponsorship.

The impersonal means here means that the advertisement is run maybe by written means or through the mass media. The mass media can be through the television, radio stations. The written means can be through posters and newspapers. Adverts are run through this means on daily basis. Awareness is created through advertising. People know about newly introduced goods through advertising. It is a very important marketing tool used by companies in selling their goods or rendering of services. Adverts run through the television channels, radio stations and newspapers may be fun, but the main thing is to pass the needed information.

The passage of the information is the main idea. Once the information is conveyed successfully, the company that paid for the adverts is convinced. Many companies pay a good sum of money for adverts to be run on their goods. This can take the form of drama or play on the television or the radio stations. The longer the time taken for the advert, the more the company pays for the adverts. In the recent years, adverts are run through the internet. This is the biggest means of advertising as this runs globally. Advert that concerns a particular company in a continent is shown to the entire world through the internet.

The adverts are shown on social networks on the internet for people to be aware of an existing goods or services. Examples of the social media networks are Face book, Instagram, Eskimi, Pinterest, Twitter and their likes. People who chat on these websites know about companies’ goods and services while chatting.

Advertising has many purposes. Companies that show adverts of their products have their reasons for doing so. They do not pay for adverts just for paying sake. There is something that drives them to run one advert or the other. If I want to run an advert on my newly manufactured car, there should be a reason or reasons for doing so.

Advertising in the other hand has its many forms. These forms of advertising are categorized and explained properly in this article. We will do justice to that. It is a good educating article you will really enjoy. 

Companies advertising their products on the street of United States; Photo credit: Biz Fluent 

Reasons for Advertising

The reasons for advertising are seen in line with communication objective of the sponsor (Wright et al 1982) and they are:

• To introduce a new product;

• To sustain and establish product in the marketplace;

• To create floor traffic for retail store;

• To secure sales lead;

• To demarket a service;

• To promote a public cause

The above listed reasons are explained below for an easy understanding of advertising. The above reasons are just phrases, below are discussions under each heading.

To Introduce New Product

Advertising helps to introduce a new product by creating awareness to the costumers on the newly manufactured product. This is the means of sending messages to the masses on the introduction of the new product into the market system. Advertising encourages product improvement and modifications. With the help of advertising the newly manufactured products, the consumers give feedback to the producers or the manufacturers. This will make the producers enhance the quality of their product to meet up with the demands of the consumers. Any company that wants to excel in their newly manufactured product should advertise the products. The consumers will know about the goods through advertisement.

To Sustain and Establish Product In the Market Place

Through advertising, the commodity is made available in the marketplace. The products then stand to compete with the already existing products in the marketplace. With the help of advertising, the popularity of the product is then created around the market. This will make customers to buy the products manufactured by the company. When consumers see the products in the market, they will be convinced because they have seen adverts on the product.

To Create Floor traffic for Retail Store

Advertising of products in some cases go with a promotion. When the public is informed of this, the retailers buy more of that product. With this tactic, more of the advertised products will be bought by the consumers. When more and more of the advertised products are purchased, traffic is created among the retailers that sell the products. This retail traffic leads to competition between many companies because one company wants to sell more than the other. An example is when a newly introduced noodle manufacturing company reduces the cost price of their products than that of the already existing one. The retailers are forced to buy more of the new noodles because costumers buy more of the new due to some of the discounts attached.

To Secure Sales Lead

Advertising pre-sells a product or service by providing information concerning a product, its attribute, and availability. It creates a favorable climate or induces a state of mental readiness for the sales person call. The product is made known to the public at first before the marketing of the product or rendering of service through advertising. This makes the consumers wait for the yet to be showcased goods. I mean that will make the consumers know that a particular product will soon enter the market. When this is done, the products then take the lead in the market system.

To Demarket a Product

Advertising can be used to reduce the sales of goods and rendering of services. A reader of this text may be a little bit confused. One may ask “I think advertising is used to encourage the constant selling of commodity? How can it be used to decrease sell of goods and service rendering? Example, a company that issue admission form to students in tertiary institutions runs adverts on the availability of the forms. When the demand of the forms becomes excess, the company advertises telling the public that there are no forms left.

To Promote Public Cause

Some none profit, charitable organizations and government departments are using advertising to a great extent in promoting a public cause. These companies use adverts to create awareness to the public on the activities they want to run. An example is when some organizations want to offer scholarships to university undergraduates. The companies’ engage in advertising, informing the public on how to apply. 

The eligibility is also mentioned through these adverts so that any qualified candidate can easily apply for the scholarship. Another example is when the government wants to address the citizens on the dangers of engaging in illegal activities. Through these adverts, the masses are warned to separate from illegal activities completely. 

This kind of advertising has the tendency of transforming the mindset of criminals. The reasons why many criminals indulge in illegal activities is because they are ignorant of what will be the consequences of their actions, but when these adverts are organized, there is a possibility for the criminals to change their old ways.

Forms of Advertising

What are the forms of advertising?

Advertising can be classified accordingly as stated below:

• Online advertising

• Email marketing

• Product advertising;

• Institutional advertising;

• National advertising;

• Retail advertising;

• Local advertising;

• Co-Operative Advertising;

• Trade advertising;

• Industrial advertising;

• Farm advertising; and

• Professional advertising.

These forms of advertising are explained step by step under the sub-headings below:

Online advertising

This is common in our today's life. Even as you are reading through this article, you may be seeing some adverts running on this page. That is called an online advertising which is one of the most recent forms of advertising. Online advertising is a form of advertising which is carried out on the internet. Online advertising companies are paid by individuals or companies to carry out these targeted advertisements. Example of such companies are Google Adsense and Click Banks. 

Online advert banner integrated in one design; Source: Uzochukwu Mike

Email marketing

Email marketing or advertising is another new generation form of creating awareness of new or existing products and services for people. In email marketing, adverts are showed to email account holders on particular products and services. Email marketing can also be classified as part of online marketing.

Product Advertising

This form of advertising is based on creating awareness on a manufactured product. It is aimed at promoting or pushing a product. This can be direct action or indirect action product advertising. It is direct action when the advertisement makes a strong bid for buyers’ immediate action. In direct action, the advertiser may seek a quick response with a coupon or a promise of a free sample. Indirect action advertising is structured to push the product or service over a long period of time. In indirect, adverts are carried out on the products for series of months. It is opposite of direct advertising. In general, product advertising is also called product reputation advertising.

Institutional advertising

This kind of advertising is carried out by many firms and companies. It is designed to promote the firm's overall image, quality, and reputation. The adverts that the firms partake in are also educational in some cases. Firms use this system of adverting to educate the public. The kind of education may be based on the product manufactured by the company. Also, it may be to promote the public cause. Example, when anti-crime agencies educate citizens of a country on the danger of indulging in crime. The advertisement can be to tell the public about the policy of the company. This form of advertising could be to sensitize the public on the kind of services offered by the company. William Stanton revealed three aspects of institutional advertising as Patronage, public relations, and public service institutional advertising. Patronage institutional advertising focuses on attracting consumers by appealing to patronage buying motives rather than product buying motives. Public relation institutional advertising may explain a firm’s position in the face of environmental matters. What the firm does is to comply with applicable environmental laws and regulation. The public service institutional advertising is aimed at promoting a public cause.

National Advertising

This type is different from retail advertising. The main idea of this category is to bring about customer demand for the product by emphasizing the benefits to be derived from using the product. National advertising usually exists for products with national sales potentials and it is usually carried out by manufacturers that had been into manufacturing for quite a long time. The advertiser uses local media for National advertising notwithstanding the name “National advertising”. This is because the purpose of the advertisement is to bring costumers to purchase the products at any retail shop.

Retail Advertising

This is the advert placed by retailers. The main goal of the retailers is to inform the public on the nature or kinds of goods or services they render. They do this so that they can sell more goods to the public and make more gains in their businesses. Any retailer that engages in adverts makes it more than the co retailers. In this kind of advertising, he gives the location and the cost of the individual products that are obtainable in his shop. Retail advertising can be carried out through the television channels and radio stations nationwide.

Local Advertising

As the name implies, this is the kind of advertisement that is placed locally. It is an advert that is shown in a specific geographical area. It is not a global advert. This can be seen in local newspapers, local radio stations, and local television stations. Examples of this class of advertising are the adverts placed by community banks, local bookshops, bicycle repairers and fruit sellers.

Co-Operative Advertising

This is used to describe adverts that are not sponsored by a single person. It is adverts that are sponsored or shared by a group of persons or organizations. Manufacturers may be interested in identifying retail outlets for the consumers of their nationally advertised products. Co-operative advertising is used to facilitate this goal and bring it to accomplishment. The manufacturer usually provides all the necessary tools needed, but the cost of advertising is shared by the parties involved.

Trade Advertising

This is advertising used to encourage the retailers to buy more of the manufacturer's products. It is used to induce retailers to stock manufacturers’ products. It is also used to encourage the manufacturers to increase the inventory of the products advertised. The principal channels of trade advertising are direct mail and various business publication journals, magazines (the economists) or newspapers. Personal selling by the company’s sales persons is used to compliment retail advertising.

Industrial Advertising

It is adverts sponsored by various industries in the globe. Many industries spend a lot of money in this because they deal with mass production and the gains that will realize at the end will be huge. Some of the goods that industries advertise on are raw materials, unfinished goods, heavy duty machines, components of automobiles and so on. Industrial advertising reduces the personal selling cost and makes the task easier and more effective. This appears in industrial and business magazines. In these magazines, the costs of the industrial products are included.

Farm Advertising

A farmer is a producer. Some people may be surprised to hear that farmers also pay for adverts on their farm produce. Farm advertising is adverts based on farm products. These adverts are carried out to promote the sale of crops that farmers harvested from their farms. This makes companies that manufacture other products from raw materials harvested by farmers to be aware. There are specialized farm publications designed to reach farmers more effectively. Such publications as farm journals, successful farming, the big farmers, etc are examples of farm advertising publications.

Professional Advertising

It is not morally right for professionals like doctors and Lawyers to advertise on the value of services that they engage in. Imagine how it will be for a doctor to advertise his hospital services or a lawyer to advertise for clients to come and hire them. This is the advertising aimed at the professional person and not by him or her. A doctor can prescribe the kind of drug that a pharmacist manufactured for his patients. This is how professional advertising is for the doctors. He may build a relationship with the manufacturer of drugs and prescribe the manufacturer's drugs to the sick ones. Also, a dentist can prescribe a particular kind of toothpaste to his patients. By doing this, he advertises for the manufacturer of the product.

Conclusion

It is believed that this topic answers what you are looking for.

Most people who are not into business most times ask: why do companies go for adverts? Some get so much worried because those who have already succeeded in their businesses still advertise their products or services. Advertising cannot be done without in the world of marketing and business. This is the basic tool needed to balance and promote sales. The reasons and forms of adverting have been explained in details to the understanding of readers. There are many sponsored adverts by business owners that are carried out online on daily basis. These business owners do this because they understand the power of advert campaign.

References

• American Marketing Association, Chicago, p. 9.
• Nicky LaMarco (2018), Ten Kinds of Advertising, published by Biz Fluent, United States
• Principle and Practice of Marketing II by Adirika Ernest Okey, Bona Chuks, and Nnolim Dorothy