1.

Introduction to Advertising

Advertising facilitates large scale marketing. It is a medium of mass

communication. Manufacturers supply information about new products through
advertising. The fact that companies spend crores of rupees on advertising through TV,
radio and newspapers indicates its benefits in sales promotion. Advertising is within the
scope of promotion which is one element in the marketing mix. It is getting popularity in
the present highly competitive and consumer oriented marketing. All products old and
new, consumer and durable, cheap and costly need extensive advertising for sales
promotion and consumer support. New communication techniques are now used for
making advertising attractive and agreeable. The basic purpose of advertising is to give
information, to attract attention, to create awareness and finally to influence the buying
behavior of consumers. Advertising is certainly needed in marketing but is equally
important and essential in social, cultural and political aspects of our life.

The term 'Advertising' originates from the Latin word 'advertere' which means "to turn
the mind towards". The dictionary meaning of the term advertising is "to give public
notice or to announce publicity". This suggests that advertising acts as a marketing
vehicle and is useful for drawing the attention of people (prospects) towards a specific
product/service/manufacturer.

2. Definition of Advertising

Advertising is defined differently by different authorities and the institutions dealing with
the subject of advertising. The American Marketing Association defines advertising as
"any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services
by an identified sponsor." This definition suggests the following features of advertising.
Firstly, advertisement is paid for by the sponsor/advertiser. Naturally, he exercises
control over the advertisement. Secondly, advertising is non-personal selling. It is a
medium of mass communication for large scale selling. Thirdly, advertising acts as
important marketing tool for presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services.
Finally, advertising needs the sponsor of the message known. Advertising will be
meaningless if the advertiser is not clearly identified.

3. Features of Advertising

1. Advertising provides information : The basic purpose of advertising is to

provide information about products/services to prospective buyers. The details of
products such as features, uses, prices, benefits, manufacturer's name, and
instructions to be followed while using the product are given in the advertisements.
The advertising message and brand name are also given. The information supplied
 gives education and guidance to consumers and facilitates correct selection of goods
by them.
2. Paid form of communication : The advertiser has to pay to the media for giving
publicity to his advertising message. He pays for the advertisement and naturally he
decides the size, slogan, etc. given in the advertisement. Advertising is a form of paid
communication.
3. Non-personal presentation : Advertising is non-personal in character as against
salesmanship which is personal (face to face communication) in character. In
advertising, the message is given to all and not to one specific individual. This rule is
applicable to all advertising media including press. However even in advertising target
consumers or target market can be selected for making an advertising appeal.
4. Gives publicity to goods, services and ideas : Advertising is basically for
giving information to consumers. This information is always related to the features and
benefits of goods and services of different types. Advertising gives new ideas to
consumers as its contents are meaningful. The aim is to make the ideas popular and
thereby to promote sales. For example, advertising on family planning, family welfare,
and life insurance is useful for placing new ideas before the people.
5. Basically for persuasion : Advertising aims at persuasion of potential
customers. Advertising attracts attention towards a product, creates desire to have the
same and finally induces consumers to visit the market and purchase the same.
Advertising has psychological impact on consumers. It influences the buying decisions
of consumers.
6. Target oriented : It is possible to make intensive advertising by selecting a
specific market or specific segment of consumers (e.g. children, housewives, etc.) for
the purpose of advertising. This selection of a specific market is called target market.
Advertising becomes effective and result oriented when it is target oriented. The waste
in advertising can be minimized through such target oriented advertising.
7. An Art, Science and Profession : It is now universally accepted that advertising
is an art, science and a profession. It is an art as it needs creativity for raising its
effectiveness. Advertising is a science as it has its principles and rules. Advertising is
now treated as a profession with its professional bodies and code of conduct for
members. Advertising agencies and space brokers function as professionals in the
field of advertising.
8. Important element in marketing mix : Advertising is an important element in
marketing mix. It supports the sales promotion efforts of the manufacturer and makes
positive contribution in sales promotion provided other elements in the marketing mix
are reasonably favorable. This is natural as advertising alone is not adequate for
promoting sales. Many companies now spend huge funds on advertising and public
relations
9. Creativity - the essence of advertising : Advertising is a method of presenting
a product in an artistic, attractive and agreeable manner. This is possible through the
element of creativity which is the essence of advertising. Creativity can be introduced
by creative people (professionals) in the field of advertising. They introduce new
techniques for introducing creativity. Without creativity, advertising will be like a body
without a soul.
 Advertising objectives are the communication tasks to be accomplished with specific customers that a company is
trying to reach during a particular time frame. A company that advertises usually strives to achieve one of four advertising objectives: trial,
continuity, brand switching, and switchback. Which of the four advertising objectives is selected
usually depends on where the product is in its life cycle.

Trial The purpose of the trial objective is to encourage customers to make an initial purchase of
a new product. Companies will typically employ creative advertising strategiesin order to cut
through other competing advertisements. The reason is simple: Without that first trial of a
product by customers, there will not be any repeat purchases.

Continuity Continuity advertising is a strategy to keep current customers using a particular

product. Existing customers are targeted and are usually provided new and different information
about a product that is designed to build consumer loyalty.

Brand Switching Companies adopt brand switching as an objective when they want customers
to switch from competitors’ brands to their brands. A common strategy is for a company
to compare product price or quality in order to convince customers to switch to its product brand.

Switchback Companies subscribe to this advertising objective when they want to get back
former users of their product brand. A company might highlight new product features, price
reductions, or other important product information in order to get former customers of its product
to switchback

4. Advantages of Advertising

The advantages of advertising can be divided into two main groups. One group denotes benefits to manufactures and other group denotes
benefit to consumers. Let's find out how each of them gets benefited by advertising.

4.1 Benefits of Advertising to Manufacturers

1. Large scale production and marketing : Advertising is useful as a sales promotion

technique. It gives information to consumers and encourages them to purchase more.
Manufacturers expand their production base due to higher market demand created
through advertising.
2. Introduction of new products : Advertising facilitates the introduction of new
products. Due to advertising, information about new products is given to the
prospects. This creates demand and the manufacturer is able to sell new products
along with the existing ones.
3. Creates new demand : Advertising spreads information and encourages consumers
to purchase new products. Such advertising leads to the creation of new demand.
Various concessions are offered to consumers in the initial period. This gives positive
response from the consumers. Thus, advertising creates new demand from non-
users.
4. Facilitates effective personal selling : Advertising creates proper background for
personal selling. It gives advance information to the prospects. They visit the shop in
order to purchase a particular product which they know through advertising media.
The job of a salesman becomes easy as consumers develop affinity to specific
products. In brief, advertising supports and supplements personal selling.
5. Builds brand image : Manufacturers introduce branding for making their products
popular with distinct personality. The brands are made popular through advertising. As
a result, consumers develop loyalty towards a specific brand. Advertising builds brand
image and this develops consumer loyalty towards a specific brand.
6. Reduces cost of production : Advertising creates demand and promotes sales.
This enables a manufacturer to conduct production on a large scale. This leads to
reduction in the cost of production and distribution. As a result, the profit margin of the
manufacturer increases.
7. Facing competition : A manufacturer can face market competition effectively and
can make his products popular through advertising. He can remove misunderstanding
among consumers about his products through appropriate advertising.
8. Sales promotion : A manufacturer can make his sales promotion campaign
successful by using the support of advertising. He can prepare proper background for
the success of such campaign as advertising facilitates direct communication with
consumers.
9. Goodwill builder : A manufacturer can build up goodwill and good image in the
business world and also among the consumers through advertising. The social
welfare programmes and community service activities can be given wide publicity
through advertising. Even the progress of the Organisation can be brought to the
notice of the public through advertising.

4.2 Benefits of Advertising to Consumers

1. Information and guidance : Consumers get information and guidance from

advertising. They can study the advertisements of competitors and select the products
which are profitable to them. This avoids their cheating and exploitation at the hands
of middlemen.
2. Acts as reminder : Advertising acts as a reminder to consumers. They
remember what is urgently required to be purchased through advertising.
3. Special attraction to consumers : Advertising leads to competition among
manufacturers and retailers. They have to offer something special in order to attract
consumers. Such attraction offers benefits to consumers. For example, manufactures
have to bring down the price in order to attract customers. They have to supply quality
goods in order to attract more customers. All this is beneficial to consumers in terms
of price and quality of goods.
4. Raises living standards : Advertising raises the standard of living of people by
supplying information about goods and services which can offer convenience and
pleasure to them. Advertising guides consumers in the selection of most suitable
goods for their daily life. Thus advertising provides higher standard of living to
consumers as a social group
5. Effective product use : Consumers get information about uses/benefits of
different products through advertising. They also get guidance as regards the right
manner of using the product. This avoids possible damage of the product purchased.
Even the product can be used for different purposes because of the information
supplied through advertisements.
6. Removes misunderstanding : Advertising helps consumers in removing their
misunderstanding about certain products. They change their attitudes towards certain
products and services due to advertising

8. Five Ms of Advertising
The Five M of Advertising Mission Money Measurement
The organizations handle their advertising in different ways. In small companies,
advertising is handled by someone in the sales or marketing department, who works
with an ad ageny. A large company will often set up its own advertising department or
else hire an ad agency to do the job of preparing advertising programmes.
In developing a program, marketing managers must always start by identifying the
target market and the buyer’s motives. Then they can make the five major decisions in
developing an advertising program, known as the five M’s, viz.

 Mission: what are the advertising objectives?

 Money: how much can be spent?
 Message: what message can be sent?
 Media: what media should be used
 Measurement: how should the results is evaluated?

The above mentioned can be explained by the diagram given below

The 5Ms of Advertising

Checklist for planning of a marketing or advertising campaign.

 What are the objectives?

 Mission
 What is the key objective?

 How much is it worth to reach my

 Money objectives?
 How much can be spent?
  What message should be sent?
 Message  Is the message clear and easily
understood?

 What media vehicles are available?

 Media
 What media vehicles should be used?

 How should the results be measured?

 How should the results be evaluated and
followed up?
 Measurement
 
 
 
 

An advertiser has to take decisions on the following aspects:

1. Mission : This refers to the purpose/objective behind advertising. The objectives
behind advertising are varied in character. They include sales promotion, information
and guidance to consumers, developing brand loyalty, market goodwill, facing market
competition effectively, making the products popular/successful and introduction of a
new product. Decision in regard to mission is a basic one as other decisions are to be
adjusted as per the mission or objective or purpose of advertising decided. For
consumer products like chocolate, tooth paste, soap, the mission/objective include
facing market competition, sales promotion and making the product popular in the
market.
2. Money : This refers to the finance provided for advertising purpose (advertising
budget). It means the budget allocation made by the company for advertising. Money
provided is a limiting factor as effectiveness of advertising, media used, coverage of
advertising, etc. are related to the funds provided for advertising purpose. Advertising
is costly and companies have to spend crores of rupees for this purpose. Advertising
should be always within the limits of funds provided. Naturally, decisions on
advertising package should be adjusted as per the budget allocation for advertising.
It may be noted that consumer products like tooth paste or chocolate are highly
competitive with many substitutes easily available in the market. Naturally, extensive
advertising on TV, newspapers, radio, etc. is required. These media are costly.
Naturally, the manufacturing/marketing company will have to provide huge money for
advertising purpose.
3. Message : Message is provided through the text of advertisement. The message
is given through written words, pictures, slogans and so on. The message is for the
information, guidance and motivation of prospective buyers. Attractive and meaningful
messages give positive results and the advertising becomes result-oriented. The
services of creative writers, artists, etc. are used for giving attractive message to the
consumers. Here, the advertiser has to decide the message to be given, the media to
be used for communicating the message, the extent of creativity, the specific
customer group selected for giving the message and so on. The message is also
related to the decisions taken as regards mission and money provided for advertising.
For advertising consumer product like chocolate, the message is important. The
buyers are mainly children and others of lower age groups or for the benefit (pleasure
and satisfaction) of younger generation. The advertising message should be simple
and easily understandable with the help of picture or slogan. It should be also
attractive and agreeable to younger generation. The pictures or slogans used should
be short and impressive.
4. Media : Media of advertising are already noted previously. The advertiser has to
take decision about the media to be used for advertising purpose. Media differ as
regards cost, coverage, effectiveness and so on. The selection of media depends on
the budget provided, products to be advertised, and features of prospective buyers
and so on. Wrong decision on media may make advertising ineffective and money
spent will be wasted. This suggests that media should be selected properly and
decision in this regard is important and critical.
For advertising popular and extensively used consumer items like chocolate, the
media should be selected properly. TV advertising particularly a cartoon channel,
advertising in children books or newspaper supplements for children, advertising on
radio programmes for children, etc.
5. Measure : Measure relates to the effectiveness of advertising. An advertiser will
like to make evaluation of advertisement in order to judge its effectiveness. If an
advertisement is not effective /purposeful, it will be modified or withdrawn. This is
necessary for avoiding expenditure on the advertisement which is not effective or is
not likely to give positive results. An advertiser has to measure the effectiveness of his
advertisement programme/ campaign and take suitable decisions. This decision-
making as regards effectiveness of advertising is equally important and essential.
Such testing facilitates introduction of suitable remedial measures, if required.
For measuring effectiveness of chocolate advertising, the post advertising sale is one
major consideration. Demand creation in new market segments or in new age groups is
another consideration for the measurement of advertising effectiveness. Even success
of sales promotion programme is useful for measuring advertising effectiveness.
In brief, like other areas of marketing management, decision-making is necessary in
advertising. This relates to Five Ms - mission, money, message, media and
measurement.
Agency Structure of Advertising Agency
Broadly there are 6 departments in any advertising agency

 Account Servicing
 Account Planning
 Media 

 Creative
 Production
 Finance and Accounting

Account service department

The account service, or the account management department, is the link between the ad agency
and its clients. Depending upon the size of the account and its advertising budget one or two
account executives serve as liason to the client. The account executive’s job requires high degree
of diplomacy and tact as misunderstanding may lead to loss of an account. The account executive
is mainly responsible to gain knowledge about the client’s business, profit goals, marketing
problems and advertising objectives.
The account executive is responsible for getting approved the media schedules, budgets and
rough ads or story boards from the client. The next task is to make sure that the agency personnel
produce the advertising to the client’s satisfaction. The biggest role of the account executive is
keeping the agency ahead of the client through follow-up and communications.
Media department
The responsibility of the agency’s media department is to develop a media plan to reach the
target audience effectively in a cost effective manner. The staff analyses, selects and contracts
for media time or space that will be used to deliver the ad message. This is one of the most
important decisions since a significantly large part of the client’s money is spent on the media
time and/or space. The media department has acquired increasing importance in an agency’s
business as large advertisers seem to be more inclined to consolidate media buying with one or
few agencies thereby saving money and improving media efficiency.
Creative department
To a large extent, the success of an ad agency depends upon the creative department responsible
for the creation and execution of the advertisements. The creative specialists are known as
copywriters. They are the ones who conceive ideas for the ads and write the headlines, subheads
and the body copy. They are also involved in deciding the basic theme of the advertising
campaign, and often they do prepare the rough layout of the print ad or the commercial story
board.
Creation of an ad is the responsibility of the copywriters and the art department decides how the
ad should look.
Production department
 After the completion and approval of the copy and the illustrations the ad is sent to the
production department. Generally agencies do not actually produce the finished ads; instead they
hire printers, photographers, engravers, typographers and others to complete the finished ad. For
the production of the approved TV commercial, the production department may supervise the
casting of actors to appear in the ad, the setting for scenes and selecting an independent
production studio. The production department sometimes hires an outside director to transform
the creative concept to a commercial.
Finance and accounting department
An advertising agency is in the business of providing services and must be managed that way.
Thus, it has to perform various functions such as accounting, finance, human resources etc. it
must also attempt to generate new business. Also this department is important since bulk of the
agency’s income approx. 65% goes as salary and benefits to the employees.

DAGMAR - Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results

Russell Colley (1961) developed a model for setting advertising objectives and measuring the results. This model was entitled ‘Defining
Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results- DAGMAR.’

DAGMAR model suggests that the ultimate objective of advertising must carry a consumer
through four levels of understanding: from unawareness to Awareness—the consumer must
first be aware of a brand or company Comprehension—he or she must have a comprehension of
what the product is and its benefits; Conviction—he or she must arrive at the mental disposition
or conviction to buys the brand; Action—finally, he or she actually buy that product. 
 
Awareness
Awareness of the existence of a product or organization is necessary before the purchase
behavior can be expected. Once the awareness has been created in the target audience, it should
not be neglected. If there is neglect, the audience may become distracted by competing messages
and the level of awareness of focus product or organization will decline.
Awareness needs to be created, developed, refined or sustained, according to the characteristics
of the market and the particular situation facing an organization at any one point of time.
Awareness grid
 
   Involvement
 
High Low

   
Sustain current Refine
levels of awareness
HIGH awareness
 
 
 
 
Awareness
   
Build awareness Create
quickly. association of
LOW awareness of
product with
product class
need

 
In situations where:
Buyer experiences high involvement:
Is fully aware of a product’s existence, attention and awareness levels need only be sustained and
efforts need to be applied to other communication tasks.
sales promotion and personal selling are more effective at informing, persuading and provoking
consumption of a new car once advertising has created the necessary levels of awareness.
The LG golden eye ads that are repeatedly shown inspite of high awareness to ensure top of
mind awareness and retain the existing awareness levels.
Where low levels of awareness are found, getting attention needs to be the prime objective in
order that awareness can be developed among the target audience.
Sahara Homes ad that features Amitabh Bachhan saying “ jaha base Bharat”. Awareness level is
low, however it is a high involvement decision. Thus adequate attention is required and
awareness levels are raised with use of well-known and trusted celebrities.
Buyer experiences low involvement:
If buyers have sufficient level of awareness, they will be quickly prompted into purchase with
little assistance of the other elements of the mix. Recognition and brand image may be felt by
some to be sufficient triggers to stimulate a response. The requirement in such a situation would
be to refine and strengthen the level of awareness so that it provokes interest and stimulates
greater involvement during recall or recognition.
Parle G ad that talks about it being the largest seller “ Duniya ka sabse Zyada bikne waala
biscuit”. Parle G as a brand already enjoys high levels of awareness and requires low
involvement decision, thus communication is mainly intended to refine awareness.
If buyers have low level of awareness, the prime objective has to be to create awareness of the
focus product in association with the product class.
When coils were popular in use and then the different repellants entered the market, awareness
had to be created about their benefits and use.
Comprehension 
 
Awareness on its own may not be sufficient to stimulate a purchase. Knowledge about the
product or the organization is necessary. This can be achieved by providing specific information
about key brand attributes.
In attempting to persuade people to try a different brand of water, it may be necessary to
compare the product with other mineral water products and provide an additional usage benefit,
such as environmental claims. The ad of Ganga mineral water, featuring Govinda, which banked
on the purity aspect. They related the purity of the water with that of river Ganga.
Conviction 
 
The next step is to establish a sense of conviction. By creating interest and preference, buyers are
moved to a position where they are convinced that a particular product in the class should be
tried at the next opportunity. To do this, audience’s beliefs about the product have to be moulded
and this is often done through messages that demonstrate the product’s superiority over a rival or
by talking about the rewards as a result of using the product.
Many ads like Thumbs Up featured the reward of social acceptance as ‘grown up’. It almost
hinted that those who preferred other drinks were kids.
Action
Communication must finally encourage buyers to engage in purchase activity. Advertising can
be directive and guide the buyers into certain behavioural outcomes,
Use of toll free numbers, direct mail activities and reply cards and coupons.
Tupperware, Aqua Guard, are famous in Indian cities as a result of its personal selling efforts.
For high involvement decisions, the most effective tool in the communication mix at this stage in
the hierarchy is personal selling. Through the use of interpersonal skills, buyers are more likely
to want to buy a product than if personal prompting is absent.
Characteristics of Objectives
A major contribution of DAGMAR was Colley’s specification of what constitutes a good
objective. Four requirements or characteristics of good objectives were noted
Concrete and measurable—the communications task or objective should be a precise statement
of what appeal or message the advertiser wants to communicate to the target
audience. Furthermore the specification should include a description of the measurement
procedure
Target audience –a key tenet to DAGMAR is that the target audience be well defined. For
example –if the goal was to increase awareness, it is essential to know the target audience
precisely. The benchmark measure cannot be developed without a specification of the target
segment
Benchmark and degree of change sought—another important part of setting objectives is
having benchmark measures to determine where the target audience stands at the beginning of
the campaign with respect to various communication response variables such as awareness,
knowledge, attitudes, image, etc. The objectives should also specify how much change or
movement is being sought such as increase in awareness levels, creation of favorable attitudes or
number of consumers intending to purchase the brand, etc. a benchmark is also a prerequisite to
the ultimate measurement of results, an essential part of any planning program and DAGMAR in
particular.
Specified time period—a final characteristic of good objectives is the specification of the time
period during which the objective is to be accomplished, e.g. 6months, 1 year etc. With a time
period specified a survey to generate a set if measures can be planned and anticipated.
Written Goal - finally goals should be committed to paper. When the goals are clearly written,
basic shortcomings and misunderstandings become exposed and it becomes easy to determine
whether the goal contains the crucial aspects of the DAGMAR approach.

PROMOTION MIX
Promotion is an important part of marketing mix of a business enterprise. Once a
product is developed, its price is determined the next problem comes to its sale i.e.,
creating demand for the product. It requires promotional activities. The activities are
technique which bring the special characteristics of the product and of the producer to
the knowledge of prospective customers. Promotion is a process of communication
involving information, persuasion, and influence. The term 'selling' is often used
synonymously with promotion. But promotion is wider that selling. Selling is concerned
only with the transfer of title in goods to the purchaser, whereas promotion includes
techniques stimulating demand. These techniques include advertising, salesmanship or
personal selling and other methods of stimulation demand.
Advertising and sales promotion techniques are indirect and non-personal whereas
personal selling or salesmanship is a direct and personal technique. All these
techniques, however, should be integrated with the marketing objective of the
enterprise. The salesmen can report about the differentadvertising and other
promotional appeals as they are in close touch with the consumer public and market
conditions.
Promotion is essentially the sales efforts of a business enterprise and includes the
function of informing, persuading and influencing the purchase decision of the existing
the prospective consumers with the object of increasing sales volume and profits.
Promotion is the efforts of the seller to sell the product effectively. Promotion is the
communication with the customers to pursue them to buy the product. It is the duty of
the marketing manager to choose the communication media and blend them into an
effective promotion programme. These are more than one type of tools used to promote
sales. The combination of these tools with a view to maintain and create sales is known
aspromotion mix. Promotion mix is the name given to the combination of methods used
in communicating with customers. There are four tools of promotion mix viz.
advertisement, personal selling, publicity and sales promotion. These are called
elements of promotion mix.
Elements of Promotion Mix

There are four elements of promotion mix:

Advertising
Advertising is a non-personal presentation of goods, services or idea. In advertising
existing and prospective customers are communicated the message through impersonal
media like radio, T.V., newspapers and magazine. It involves transmission of standard
message simultaneously to a large number of people. The message transmitted is
known as advertising.
Personal Selling
Personal selling is the process of assisting and persuading the existing and prospective
buyer to buy the goods or services in person. It involves direct and personal contact of
the seller or his representative with the buyer.
Publicity
Publicity is a non-personal non-paid stimulation of demand of the product or services or
business unit by planning commercially significant news about the services or business
unit by planning commercially significant news about in the print media or by obtaining a
favorable presentation of it upon radio, television or stage.
Sales promotion
Sales promotion consists of all activities other than advertising, personal selling and
publicity, which help in promoting sales of the product. Such activities are non-repetitive
and one time offers. According to American Marketing Association, sales promotion
include, "those marketing activities other than personal selling, advertising and publicity
that stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness, such as point of purchase
displays, shows and exhibitions, demonstrations and various non-recurring selling
efforts not in the ordinary routine."
The main aim of sales promotion is to increase sales and profits of the firm but it is quite
different from personal selling and advertising. In personal selling, customer is
persuaded by a sales person face to face. Advertising is a non-personal
mass communication media. Sales promotion, on the other hand, is a non-recurring and
non-routine method. Its main aim is to supplement and coordinate the personal selling
and advertising. It is a supporting and facilitating element of promotional strategy. Sales
promotion bridges the gap of advertising and personal selling.