Advertising is simply an exchange of information, the same that occurs between the company and the consumer. Advertising is used in many ways by companies, the most common ways to use advertising are to advertise a new product, to share data about the product, to issue promotions, to inform about new points of sale, new services, promotions or simply to strengthen the corporate image of the brand, product or company.
The use of advertising is not a recent issue, since for some years now, advertising has always been of great help to companies to reach their consumers and establish more direct contact with them.
The primary objective of advertising is to let customers know that we have something to offer and that something is of interest and will satisfy a need. Advertising today is very versatile since it is used not only by companies, but it is also used in political campaigns, events, social causes and a host of other things.
But in all the uses that are assigned to advertising the objective will always be guided towards something in particular, in this case, to form an idea in the minds of consumers about that "something" and make them change their perception towards it. desired side.
Advertising and the mass media
General aspects of advertising
Philip Kotler, also known as "the father of marketing" proposes the concept of Marketing which tells us that today consumers acquire products and services that satisfy their deepest needs for community, idealism and creativity, that is why Brands should focus on offering products and corporate cultures that inspire them and that project their same values, so that they can feel identified.
So, beyond just offering something through advertising, what is sought is to reach the minds of consumers and sow in them the ideal idea of our product and / or service. However, making them feel identified with the brand or the organization is not a very simple task, it actually takes years of effort and dedication.
Now, it is also very important to know that advertising is not the perfect recipe for success, in fact, advertising can generate high costs for the organization, therefore it should not be assumed that using it in excess will make the client believe that the product / service is good, because it could be counterproductive for the organization.
Advertising is just one more strategic tool that the organization has to reach its customers, but it should not be trusted only. Advertising will help reinforce the idea or achieve that sense of belonging to the brand, but there must also be quality in the product / service.
The real heart of the matter is finding the right type of advertising for each product and using it in the best possible way. The importance of advertising has become so great that companies allocate a large part of their budget to campaigning for the brand; However, not only do they use advertising as a strategy, currently governments and even non-governmental organizations have implemented it for various purposes, which go beyond profit, for example, they frequently use it for disease and addiction prevention campaigns, family planning, smart use of natural resources, etc.
As mentioned previously, advertising is the best way to make a product or service known to customers or consumers, as well as an incentive to buy, consume or use. However, in order to achieve all this, it is not enough simply to advertise, but it will be necessary to use it properly, that is; make the right decisions.
For this, it is necessary that certain aspects are taken into consideration before using advertising, which will give a better overview of how to make good use of it.
Analyze and identify the target audience
It is very important that the company has well identified its target market segment, since each segment responds differently to marketing mixes, therefore it is important to know the conditions of each segment, some points to consider are access to advertising media, reaction to messages, etc.
Before doing any advertising or launching an advertising campaign, we must identify and analyze the media that our target audience uses the most, at what time and what they value the most about the product or service that you are going to launch. All this information is essential to be able to make the message, the medium and the other strategies effective.
Quality advertising
Advertising always projects the corporate image of the organization, therefore it must be good and of quality, a bad advertising campaign can ruin the image of a company before society, and a good campaign can enhance said image.
Therefore, it is necessary that the advertising is adequate, that is; that it contains the appropriate images, the necessary colors, that it is professional, that there are no spelling errors, that the message is clear, etc.
Discrepancies between what is perceived and what is offered
Although advertising seeks to highlight the benefits or qualities of something to enhance the image that it has, it is not healthy to exaggerate them, since for customers it can be very frustrating and even annoying that the product in the perceived message differs greatly from the obtained, here we must be very careful not to promise what cannot be fulfilled.
Build trust
To build trust, testimonials from satisfied customers can be included in the advertising, so that later you can draw a list of the main customers, suppliers and certificates that guarantee your product or service, such as those identified with ISO.
objective
The basic objective of advertising is to stimulate and increase sales either in the short term or in the long term. However, there are other objectives for which advertising can also be used, among which we can mention is:
Stimulate product demand
The importance of advertising in the demand for the product is very great, companies always need to maintain an optimal level of demand, which will help them meet their objectives, this means demand management.
Advertising creates opportunities by including a mechanism such as a telephone number, email or postal address that is used to request information. Organizations use the information given to create opportunities for sales forces.
Knowledge
For a product to be purchased, it must be known to customers, that is; They must have all the necessary information about the product, its characteristics, the points of sale, the benefits, etc.
Change of actitud
Advertising plays a crucial role in the minds of consumers, what is sought through it is for people to change their attitude towards the way they perceive a product, and that precisely this change occurs in the direction desired by the company.
Highlight attributes
Many of the times, the advertising used by organizations always has a particular purpose and this is to highlight the attributes and positive characteristics of the products, this in order to encourage their use and promote the purchase, in a certain way with this It seeks to make people see the potential of products and / or services to meet their needs.
Brand positioning
When we refer to positioning, we are referring to getting the brand into the minds of consumers and ensuring that it remains within it.
Attitudinal reinforcement
What is sought here is that the "good" image of the company is strengthened and that consumers continue to maintain their taste for the brand and are enthusiastic and take it into their lifestyle.
Image construction
At this point the efforts are directed towards achieving the image desired by the company, the advertising campaigns are carried out to gradually form the desired idea in the minds of the consumers.
Advertising helps create a favorable image in the minds of consumers and in their prospects, building a preference for the brand.
Types of advertising
Advertising and creativity
Bill Bernbach, Past President and CEO, Doyle, Dane, Bernbach have defined creativity as:
Advertising is always sought to be creative, but it is important to determine some points of creativity, firstly, it is very difficult to determine how creativity flows, secondly, creativity is a matter of art and not rules, there is no methodology to be creative; third, it is to give the right message, in the right way that really reaches others.
How does creativity work in advertising?
Generally, in the advertising area there is a creative team, which can be made up of a writer, a designer, a publicist, etc. The team must develop advertising based on the objective they want to achieve, so it is important that they determine what the message they want to convey will be, what group of consumers they want to reach, what medium (s) they can use, etc. Based on all these issues, a set of strategies or proposals are developed that are presented, it is important to clarify then that there are many ideas that give the birth of advertising. For example, the advertising of companies such as Coca-Cola, Bimbo, Telcel is the result of an arduous creative process.
Before the creative idea is communicated through the appropriate means of communication (such as television, signs, digital communication, etc.), several other steps must be taken. The communication is tested, republished, or adjusted to the point that the agency and the client truly believe that they have produced the best possible communication for the brand strategy.
Advertising in electronic media
Today we are increasingly immersed in the phenomenon of globalization, which has brought about a great technological revolution. The media have been undergoing changes, today there are more incredible ways to reach consumers with the message.
Companies have been adopting new forms of communication with their customers. Many media are no longer traditional, today, the inclusion of electronic media in advertising is on the rise, some of the most important are television, radio, the internet, cell phones, etc.
There are those who turn marketing into a social phenomenon and a whole culture for those who are passionate about its secrets, trends and concepts.
“The Nielsen agency conducted a study according to which the reliance on advertising in electronic media, both on the web and on mobile devices, has been increasing.
During the last 6 months, Guatemala (9%) read fewer magazines than Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico and Uruguay, but less than Colombia and Chile. Brazil is the country that most read "magazines" in the medium (38%).
On the other hand, in reading newspapers, Puerto Rico read more than the other countries (76%), followed by Panama and Guatemala; the countries that read the least newspapers were Uruguay, Brazil and Mexico (29%). According to IBOPE data ".
At present, the electronic media most used in companies' advertising campaigns are mainly television and radio.
Advertising in print media
In this type of advertising, companies use printed media physically, as the name implies, they are those media that the consumer has in their hands and can take a look and a quick read to find out about something.
In this type of advertising, the best known media are newspapers, magazines, brochures, brochures, sheets of paper, etc.
At present, the printed media are less in demand since there is a boom in the use of electronic media, this because electronic media have a greater reach. Today large corporations allocate more resources to the mass media than to the print media.
Among the most prominent we have:
- NewspapersMagazinesPosters
From the point of view of marketing, the choice of print media falls on the need to address a certain group of readers, that is; When you choose a print medium, you are narrowing down the target market that will read the ad, why? Well, because each newspaper or magazine has a certain reader profile, that is; not all people read the same newspaper or magazine, since each of them caters to a specific type of consumer.
How to choose the right type of print media? The media buyer must have an extensive body of knowledge if he wants to choose the right one, some of the issues that the specialist must know are the print media available, the terminology used in each of them, how newspapers are classified, the magazines, etc., the type of advertising carried out in each one, the seriousness and formality of each one, the content, the type of readers of each medium, etc. For example, it is not the same advertising in the public life magazine of celebrities as a specialized science magazine (TV and novels vs Very Interesting)
Advantages of advertising in print media
- Many of the magazines and newspapers that circulate in the country have a certain prestige which gives them credibility on the part of the reader, the more serious an editorial or source of information is, the more trustworthy the message will be for people. Access to the target market. Each print medium has a specific type of customer to which it is directed: tangibles and portables. Print media can be carried everywhere and information can pass through multiple hands.
Disadvantages of advertising in print media
- Many times the costs can vary from one magazine to another or from one newspaper to another, in this aspect many things influence such as the popularity of the magazines, the type of readers, etc. Advertising programming. In this type of advertising there are expiration dates and you must comply with the publication's calendar of the medium, as well as the days of circulation, etc.
Outdoor advertising
Today we find advertising everywhere, it is not simply found in the mass media such as television or radio, but we also find it in our environment.
Outdoor advertising refers to precisely the type of advertising that we find day by day in our surroundings, the great importance of this type of advertising is that it facilitates the contact of the messages with the entire public, that is; it is a good opportunity to reach as many people as possible.
Every time we walk through the streets, when we use public transport we come across many advertisements for a myriad of products, the possibility of people seeing them is very high and in most cases they perceive it without any type of effort.
Then, outdoor advertising will be defined as all types of advertising that we find on the street.
Internet publicity
The internet has boomed in recent years and companies have not been left behind by incorporating it among their advertising tools. Nowadays, advertising on the Internet is usually very high, because people use part of their time to surf the net, so this is an opportunity to reach them by that means.
Advertising on the internet is usually very varied, some types of it are:
- Rectangular ads and links (Banner Ads) Advertising buttons Ads and text links Search engine advertising Windows that open automatically Floating advertising (You enter the page and you must close it) Advertising that expands and contracts (You pass the mouse and it expands) Video advertising (Youtube) Advertising on social networks, among others
Advantages of using internet advertising
- Cost benefit relation. The cost does not depend on how many people visit the website or how many more see an ad. Messages update fast and easy. Online ads are interactive. Websites can store information on customer tastes and preferences and offer a similar type of advertising. They can be targeted to specific audiences depending on the type of visitors to a certain website. It has a coverage of 24 hours / 7 days a week. The internet can cover many parts of the world. Fast and direct access at prices of your products and / or services for consultation, purchase or sale. Link with other sites and interact with other companies.
Disadvantages of using online advertising
- It is a new method therefore there are still doubts about the real benefits of this medium. It is very difficult to verify the credibility of an advertisement because it is always mistaken for viruses or undesirable software. Costs vary.
Direct response advertising
This type of advertising differs a bit from traditional advertising, since when implementing it, what is sought and as its name indicates is to have immediate behavior on the part of consumers.
This type of advertising is present in the media such as television, radio, internet, telephone, among other channels, here the message you are looking for is to highlight the fact of buying the product at that time.
It is mainly characterized by having these four elements:
- An offer (from the advertiser) Clear and precise information about the advertised offer. A call to action, "call to action". In other words, a stimulus (need) that encourages the consumer to make a decision A means to contact (phone number, a web page to access, a payment form, etc.)
There are some principles that could be used in a type of direct response advertising, this in order to improve its impact.
- Encourage the customer to make quick decisions, with a sense of urgency, because if he does not do so he will lose something magnificent Use graphics that help the message Foster desire more than logic in consumers Generate needs, leave rationality behind
Examples of this type of advertising are:
- TV ads that show promotions that will only be valid for a certain time and only on television. Promotions offered by restaurants that apply at a certain time. Product trials.
conclusion
Advertising is a means of transmitting information by companies to their target market. However, beyond just transmitting a message or an idea, advertising campaigns have another purpose, which is to establish an emotional bond with the consumer, that is; For the customer to connect with the message presented, if this is achieved, it is more likely to develop brand loyalty which in the long run translates into benefits to the organization.
So, the truly important purpose of advertising is not only to position the brand, but also in a certain way to inspire and project values, ideologies, customs so that consumers feel identified, it is something like a type of unstructured education.
Advertising has an incredible capacity to reach the masses, whatever the medium used or the type, advertising can impressively influence the masses and promote the desired behavior of the masses. That is why currently advertising has been used in many areas, not only in the business field but also in the social field, for example to raise awareness about the environment, animal abuse, violence, discrimination; in the field of health, for example, in campaigns against obesity, tobacco or alcohol consumption; on political issues, for example in political campaigns, in reports of government activities; even governments use advertising to promote tourism.
One thing is for sure, advertising campaigns involve a large investment, however if the strategy is creative and professionally executed, an experience worth remembering in the minds of consumers will be achieved, with a positive impact for the company reflected in the increase in sales.
Bibliography
2.0, Merca Editorial Board. (26 of 09 of 2013). Merca2.0. Obtained from
Arens, W. (1996). Advertising. Mexico: Mc Graw Hill.
Bigné, E. (2003). Commercial Promotion. Madrid: ESIC.
Linton, I. (nd). The Voice of Houston. Retrieved 03/15/2016, from
Business World. (02.12.2013). Obtained from
Negocios, C. (June 1, 2012). Business grows. Obtained from
Media planning. (05 of 04 of 2013). Media planning. Obtained from
Taveras, O. (sf). Obtained from
Thompson, I. (June 2010). Intensive Marketing. Obtained from
www.merca20.com/publicidad-traditional-vs-publicidad-electronica/
Download the original file
