Advertising

• Purposes of advertising: to inform, to persuade, to launch a new product, to build brand awareness and image, to remind, to increase sales and to meet competition.
• Four types: informative, persuasive, collective (generic) and competitive, each with advantages and disadvantages.
• Media are traditional (television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines and trade journals, leaflets, packaging, direct mail, sponsorship, catalogues, posters, transport vehicles, window and point of sale displays, signboards, word of mouth) or digital (social media and other internet advertising, display and video advertisements, email marketing, digital billboards, influencers).
• Choice of medium depends on audience, cost, cultural and legal considerations, flexibility to change, local or international coverage, multi-channel advertising, timing and type of product.
• Methods of appeal: emotion, fear, humour, rational, ambition, social acceptance, romantic, adventure, music, celebrities and influencers.
• Sales promotion is a short-term incentive to buy. Methods and the factors that decide which to use.

Why advertise, and four kinds of advert

Advertising is an aid to trade: it removes the barrier of lack of knowledge between producer and consumer. Its purposes are:

• to inform customers about a product, its price and where to buy it;
• to persuade them to buy it rather than go without or buy a rival’s;
• to launch a new product and make people aware of it;
• to build brand awareness and a good image, and remind customers of an existing product;
• to increase sales and market share, and to meet competition.