Essay
Applicant: Anna Puchnina
The student of the 10 “A” form
Grammar School
Tambov 2004
CONTENTS
Introduction
The History of Advertising
Types and Functions of Advertising
Advertising in mass media.
Advertising agency
Domestic advertising
Conclusion.
It is impossible to imagine our television, newspapers, radio, Internet and even streets without advertisements. Nowadays advertising plays an important role in modern life and in the life of every person. We can’t imagine our life without advertising because every day we hear or see advertising, we try to find information we need in hundreds of advertisements. Even when we go for a walk or just shopping we see a lot of different advertisements in the streets. I think that “Advertising” is a very interesting topic, because in the XXI century every minute of our life is connected with advertising. It is hard to believe but the origins of advertising antedate the Christian era by many centuries. One of the first known methods of advertising was outdoor display, usually an eye-catching sign painted on the wall of a building. From this unsophisticated beginnings in ancient times advertising has turned into a worldwide industry.
The word “advertising” comes from the French word "reclame". Advertising if to speak a simple language, serves to notify in various ways (sometimes all available) the new goods or services and their consumer properties, and is directed to the potential consumer, paid by the sponsor and serves for promotion of its production and ideas. Advertising is a part of communication activity of a firm, alongside with publicity and stimulation of selling. Advertising unessentially imposes the goods on the buyer. Sometimes it simply forces to recollect the last concrete mark or the name of the goods or service when the customer makes the choice. At the beginning the consumer decides to choose from what, and already then what mark to prefer, on the basis of the representation about it, a stereotype or a developed image of concrete mark of the goods or service. There are a lot of definitions of the word “advertising”. For example, advertising is collective term for public announcements designed to promote the sale of specific commodities or services. Advertising is a form of mass selling, employed when the use of direct, person-to-person selling is impractical, impossible, or simply inefficient. It is to be distinguished from other activities intended to persuade the public, such as propaganda, publicity, and public relations. Advertising techniques range in complexity from the publishing of simple, straightforward notices in the classified – advertising columns of newspapers to the concerted use of newspapers, magazines, television, radio, internet and other communication media in the course of a single advertising campaign. In the US alone in the late 1980s approximately $120 billion was spent in a single year on advertising to influence the purchase of commodities and services.
Advertising has achieved the greatest blossoming in the United States of America. American advertising leads the world not only in volume of business but in the complexity of its organization and of its procedures. Modern advertising is an integral segment of urban industrial civilization, reflecting contemporary life in its best and worst aspects. Having proved its force in the movement of economic goods and services, advertising since the early 1960s has been directed in increasing quantity toward matters of social concern. The continuing cancer and antidrug abuse campaigns are only two examples of the use of the advertising industry as a means to promote public welfare.
The basic underlying advertising idea is the idea of human needs. Need is the feeling of shortage of something experienced by the person. If the need is not satisfied, the person feels like destitute and unfortunate. Unsatisfied person will do one of the following things: either will be engaged in search of the object, capable to satisfy his or her need, or will try to muffle it.
The second initial idea of advertising is the idea of human requirements. Requirement is the need which has accepted the specific form according to a cultural level and the personal features of the individual. Requirements of people are practically boundless,but resources for their satisfaction are limited. So the person will choose those goods which will give him or her the greatest satisfaction within the framework of his or her financial opportunities.
The inquiry is the requirement supported by purchasing capacity. So, for example, in Europe automobile " Volkswagen " personifies an elementary automobile, a low purchase price, and "Cadillac" - high comfort, luxury and prestige. Russian people choose "Zhiguli" as they have no opportunity to buy such expensive cars and "Zhiguli" gives them the greatest satisfaction for money available for them.
And, at last, human needs and requirements and inquiries suggest about the existence of the goods for their satisfaction. The goods are everything, that can satisfy requirements or needs and they are offered to the market with the purpose of gaining the attention of the consumers, purchasing, using or consuming.
The structure of advertising contains the following five basic moments:
The first one, it possesses the ability to draw attention. It is very important to draw attention of readers by headings and televiewers by a video series. It is necessary to find out whether advertising influences those categories of potential consumers for which it is designed.
The second one, the force of influence of advertising on the emotions of consumers. It is necessary to know what feelings are born in them under the influence of advertising, whether the advertising argument is successful and whether it is made correctly.
The third one, how strong is the force of influence. We should admit whether the consumer will run to buy these goods after viewing advertising or will continue sitting in an armchair in spite of the fact that he or she likes advertising it and there is a necessity to purchase the advertising goods.
The fourth one is its informative value. We must be sure that the advertising is stated clearly, the utility of promoted thing is shown correctly and profoundly.
And the last, the fifth one, we should know for sure whether the person will want to read the message or to see an advertising roller up to the end. We must know how effectively advertising gains attention of the people.
Nevertheless, we should admit that advertising actually enriches our lives. Commercial television is able to provide us with free programmes thanks to its advertising revenues, local newspapers and magazines derive also much revenue from advertising, which allows them to exist. At least, advertising makes people mind go far in their creativity, generating over and over new interesting ideas.
At first when trade began to develop wide and fast advertising was oral. Traders, dealers and vagrant handicraftsmen offered their highly praised goods and various services in eager rivalry filling with shouts the streets of their cities and towns. The early advertising was carried out by the city heralds or town/city criers. "Golden Age" of ancient Greece saw many heralds who went along the streets of Athenes, proclaiming about sales of slaves, cattle and other goods.
One more early version of advertising was a brand which handicraftsmen put on their goods, such, as pottery. As rumours brought information of a skilful handicraftsman, buyers started to search for the goods with his brand. Today for the same purpose trade marks and branded names are used. In the process of centralization of manufacture value of a brand constantly grew.
We can see advertisements in the early documents of written history. During excavations on the territory of the countries belonging to the Mediterranean region archeologists found the signboards informing on various events and offers. The Romans painted walls with announcements of gladiatorial fights, and the Phoenicians painted rocks on routes of different trade processions, in every possible way praising to the skies their goods. One of the inscriptions on the walls of the house in Pompeii highly praised one outstanding politician and called people to give their voices for him voting that time. All these things are predecessors of modern outdoor advertising.
The first advertising in written form is considered to be information on Egyptian papyrus which tells about the sale of the slave and nowadays this papyrus is kept in the British Museum in London.
Advertising began long before the Christian era. One of the first known methods of advertising was the outdoor display, usually eye-catching signs painted on the wall of a building. Archaeologists found many such like signs, in the ruins of ancient Rome and Pompeii. An outdoor advertisement excavated in Rome offers property for rent, and one more found advertisement painted on a wall in Pompeii calls the attention of travellers to a tavern situated in another town.
Messages of commercial character were drawn on rocks along trading ways. Greeks engraved advertising messages on stones, copper, bones and they cut them out on wooden columns. The stone column with the inscription on it: “Here I live, Minos, from the island Cyprus. On favour of Gods I am allocated with the ability to interpret dreams for a very moderate pay” was found in the ruins of an ancient Egyptian city Memphis. A fine example of announcement: brevity and market capacity.
In medieval times word-of-mouth praise of products gave rise to a simple but effective form of advertising, the use of so-called town criers. The criers were citizens who read public notices aloud and were also employed by merchants to shout the praises of their wares.
A turning point in the history of advertisement was 1450 when a printing press was invented that allowed to multiply advertisements quickly and qualitatively. The advertizer did not need to produce extra copies of the advertisements. The first printed announcement in English appeared in 1478.
In 1622 advertising received powerful stimulus as the first newspaper in English began to be printed. It was called "Weekly News ". Later Edison and Stel started to issue a newspaper "Tatler",and they did a lot for spreading advertising. Edison printed the following advice to advertisers: " Great art of correctly written advertisement consists in searching correct approach in gaining the attention of the reader giving him the right kind of sales message, creating preference for it, persuading him to buy the advertising thing".
A major mark in the development of Russian advertising was 1703 when under Peter’s I decree the edition of the first Russian newspaper began. Many newspapers were published and a lot of advertisements were written in them. In 1878 in Moscow a businessman Mettsel put forward a slogan “Advertisement is a motive force and power of trade”. And he established the first advertising office.
In volume and technique, advertising made its greatest advances in the United States of America. In the early stages of American advertising nationwide promotion was impractical because the nation itself was underdeveloped and lacked transcontinental transportation, distribution, and communications systems. Eventually, however, certain types of manufacturer conceived the idea of bypassing wholesalers and retailers and reaching the consumer through direct advertising, mainly by means of catalogs. The pioneers in this field were seed companies and book and pamphlet publishers. Mail-order houses appeared in 1870s. To the present day they have continued to expand their business through direct-mail catalog and flyer advertising, although some of the biggest houses sell also through retail outlets.
Railroads and steamship lines were also among the early users of advertising in the United States, not only to praise the luxury and comfort of their ways of travel but also to publish their schedules and rates.
In the 19th
century two types of advertisement dominated: printed (calendars, lists, price-lists) and external (signboards of shops, taverns and warehouses).
In Soviet times such outstanding persons as V. Mayakovsky and V. Kustodiyev were engaged in advertising.
Here are some examples of advertising texts by Mayakovsky.
Всё, что требует желудок,
Тело ил ум, -
Всё человеку предоставит Гум.
Тому не страшен мороз зловещий,
Кто в Гуме купит теплые вещи.
Кооператор! Торгуй книгой!
Свет и знание в деревню двигай!
In 1925 in Paris Mayakovsky and Rodchenko were awarded with silver medals for advertisements at the International Art Industrial Exhibition.
After World War I advertising developed into a business so big that it became almost a trademark of America itself in the eyes of the world. This expansion was stimulated by many technical improvements.
The increased use of electricity led to the illuminated outdoor poster. Advertising was used increasingly by public-relations specialists as an important means of communication. The invention of radio in 1920s stimulated the development of a new technique of selling by voice.
The most significant development was television, a medium that forced the advertising industry to improve its techniques of selling by the use of visual devices as well as by voice.
Advertising is a kind of activity which purpose is realization of marketing or other industrial tasks of enterprises and public organizations by distribution of the information paid by them, generated so that to render influence on mass or individual consciousness, causing the reaction of the chosen consumer audience.
In the USA and other industrially advanced countries the word "advertising" means advertisements in mass media (in press, by radio, TV, on panelboard advertising) and is not distributed to the actions promoting sales, - “sales promotion ”, the prestigious actions aimed at a gain of goodwill of the public, - “public relations”, and also on specific area of advertising activity roughly developing recently, which essence in the directed communications of the manufacturer with the consumer - "direct-marketing".
In domestic practice the concept of advertising is wider. Exhibition actions, commercial seminars, packing, printed products, distribution of souvenirs and other means of stimulation of trading activity is included in it.
It is necessary to give the following definitions of advertising activity:
International - modern activity of firms of industrially advanced countries, focused on the foreign markets in view of their features;
External economic - activity of the domestic enterprises and the organizations in the foreign markets, reflecting modern practice;
Internal - activity of the domestic enterprises and the organizations serving a home market.
Proceeding from definitions of advertising, it is possible to allocate its main elements :
1. Advertising is paid.
2. It is carried out with the use of mass-media or special announcements.
3. The advertizer is precisely established.
4. Advertising informs and agitates for the goods or services.
Advertising has two basic functions:
Transfer information about the goods and services to consumers and acquaint potential clients with it.
Any advertising gives information about the promoted goods or service, a place of sale, the price to its customer. In the market the opportunity of choice of the most favourable offer is given to the buyer. Possessing this choice advertising has essential advantage.
For example:
The buyer has received a certain sum of money as an unexpected premium. He enters a market and searches for the goods or service which he can obtain for the money (or searches for a place where money can be put on storage). Having seen advertising in the morning paper he decides to buy the TV set. From advertising of the enterprises engaged in manufacturing of TV sets, he receives information on TV sets of this or that brand, their advantages. We admit the buyer has already chosen what he wants to buy. Having read a local morning paper, he can find out advertising about the existence and whereabouts of those shops which sell TV sets which are interesting for the buyer and about the prices for them. Having compared all the conditions of sale, guarantee repair, etc. he comes to the shop he has chosen and buys its brand of the TV. Thus it is possible to see that advertising is a very important source of information for the buyer.
Propaganda of the given goods or service for the benefit of buyers. This function consists of the influence on mentality of the person with the purpose to call in him a desire to buy the given goods or service. With the help of advertising the advertiser achieves that the consumer has a desire to buy such a thing, to make such charges which would not take a place under normal conditions, i.e. the latent requirements wake up.
Any advertising to some extent carries out the first function because always gives the information to the customer about the goods or service. Partly advertising is designed for propaganda of the goods or services, but this advertising also carries the information of the existence of the advertiser, his or her goods or service and the information for the benefit of the given goods or service.
Practically, all advertising is designed for such subject of the market, as housekeeping. It certainly does not mean, that only housekeeping use advertising because the object of the advertisement can be not only the user of the goods or services, but also industrial enterprises, and also the state. However advertisement most of all is used in housekeeping.
Advertising gives the information to the consumer about the seller or his goods, the prices for these goods, information about the place of sale. For many consumers local advertising became the assistant and the guidebook on shops. Also advertising often "tells" about improvements of the goods, changes in quality, etc.
In each market there are new buyers who know nothing about existing sellers, their goods, a place to sale, etc. These buyers require the information about sellers and their goods. Feeling necessity in the goods or service buyers begin searching for such information. Advertising represents for him value because it betrays already listed above information. "Having met" advertising, the buyer receives the message about the seller and his goods or service. It reduces uncertainty for the buyer and helps him to make the correct decision on purchase.
Division of advertising into three kinds is standard: informative, competitive and reminding. These kinds of advertising I will use as the example of advertising Non state pension fund "SOUTH".
1. Informative or initial. This advertising acquaints the possible buyer with the new goods in the market, a place of its sale. For example: "NSP" the SOUTH ” renders the following kinds of services:....................... The address:........ ”
2. Competitive, convincing or agitating. The advertiser with the help of various means and ways (skilful drawing up of the text, selection of expressive words, etc.) influences mentality of the person with the purpose to call, generate or wake up in him requirement for the given goods or service. He allocates the promoted goods from all similar goods and convinces the buyer to get these goods. For example: “ Having used services NSP "SOUTH" you will get confidence of tomorrow's day, you can save up the significant sums on the contribution, you will get additional education and a floor space........ Think of tomorrow's day. ”
3. Safe or reminding. Advertising reminds of earlier promoted goods, supports adherence to the brand, i.e. gives the repeated information on the goods because the consumer can quite "forget" about the existence of the goods and anew begin to search for the information necessary for him. “Confidence of tomorrow's day - NSP "SOUTH".”
Each kind of advertising carries out both functions of advertising, but everyone has the different purposes. So informative and safe advertising carries out mainly the first function as it is aimed first of all at transferring the information. Agitating advertising is created for propaganda of the goods, therefore it carries out mainly the second function, but also gives the information.
Therefore they also differ in each kind these functions are combined in different proportions. Such classification can be used by consideration of interaction of advertising and life cycle of the goods or service, development and the analysis of an advertising campaign, consideration of the process of formation of the consumer's requirements , but it is not absolutely approaches at the analysis of the contents of the advertisement because reminding advertising is inherently only brief information. Therefore classification of advertising is necessary for the analysis of the contents of the advertisement on the basis of its basic functions: Informing and Propaganda.
Informing advertising is advertising which overall objective is producing knowledge about the product or service.
Propaganda is agitating advertising, which overall objective is propaganda of the goods or services, belief in necessity to get promoted goods or service.
It is impossible to carry out the precise side between these kinds (as well as in the prevailing classification) because each kind carries out not the basic function as well.
In the basis of any advertising lays elementary information sent so that the buyer first of all has believed it and has chosen the promoted goods from all sets of goods.
While writing the essay I have made a public opinion polling among schoolmates and in the streets. The result of it you can see in this table.
| Questions | Answer | In % |
| Your attitude to advertising. | Good | 28 |
| Bad | 16 | |
| Neutral | 56 | |
| Whether you trust the advertising. | Yes | 2 |
| Sometimes | 80 | |
| Never | 18 | |
| What advertising you prefer. | Informing | 90 |
| Propaganda | 10 | |
| What advertising you notice more often. | Newspapers and magazines | 32 |
| TV | 100 | |
| Radio | 18 | |
| External | 26 | |
| Whether advertising is necessary in the society. | Yes | 98 |
| No | 2 | |
| Whether advertising is information. | Yes | 92 |
| No | 8 |
Thus, the attitude of the people to advertising is positive. As a rule they trust it, preferring advertising by TV. 98 per cent of people agree that advertising is necessary and they use it in their life. That’s why I’ve chosen a very actual problem to investigate nowadays, the problem which worries and interests a lot of people and many people are involved in the process of advertising.
Abroad advertisements are usually carried by mass media – newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and by outdoor advertising – signboards, standard boards, hoardings.
Advertising in popular editions is very expensive. Therefore, saving on them, the advertiser risks to lose broad audience of consumers. The advertising is usually bright and eye-catching. At the same time it should be understandable to the reader, the spectator, the student, where advertising and where an editorial material. The form of the advertising reference should correspond to culture and outlook of an advertising audience on which it is directed.
Creative approaches can be different. For example, while advertising the goods of mass demand, as a rule, we must use emotional motives, for products of industrial purpose - rational. But in any case advertising is effective only when meets the following requirements:
1. Market characteristics of the goods are precisely formulated – advertising contains specific information of its use, differences from the goods of competitors;
2.
3. Advertisement contains successful advertising idea - original, attractive, and at the same time easy for understanding and recognition;
4. Advertising creates and introduces in consciousness the clear image of the goods which is thought over in details - a stereotype increasing its value in opinion of consumers;
5. Advertising emphasizes high quality of the offered goods and at the same time itself associates with this high quality;
6. It is original and consequently it is not boring, does not repeat the known, bothered decisions;
7. Advertising has an exact target orientation, reflecting different searches, desires, interests of concrete consumers and informing them so that taking into account distinctions of a consumer, it demands certain advertising audience;
8. Advertising gains the attention of the audience that is reached by successful art and text decisions, placement of the advertisement in mass media using high reputation;
9. Advertising emphasizes new unique features and properties of the goods that is the precondition of its success in the market and the most working part of advertising argument;
10. Advertising concentrates attention on the main thing, not complicating, offers only that is important for the consumer, and addresses directly to him.
Advertising in mass media influences broad and consequently is expedient for products and services of wide consumption and mass demand. When there is a question of choice of mass-media the basic reasons "for" and "against" of accepting alternative decisions are: conformity of advertising to target groups of the population potentially interested in the promoted goods; popularity among them the edition, audience of spectators; a fare level for advertising areas or broadcasting time; geography of distribution or action. Naturally, features of concrete means of distribution of advertising are taken into account.
The complex advertising campaigns including the announcements in press, by radio, TV, on hoardings are under construction using the same advertising ideas and creative power so that opportunities of each means of advertising supplement each other.
Advertising in newspapers and magazines has received a wide circulation and on volume of expenses concedes only to advertising on TV. Advertising in newspapers is cheaper than on television. At the same time quality of reproduction of advertising originals in newspapers is usually low. The advertisements placed in them, as a rule, are less attractive, and each edition has simultaneously many such announcements, in this connection influence of any of them is separately reduced.
Specificity of advertising in press dictates the following special approaches for its creation and placement:
1. The heading should involve the consumer, allow to him the new information, contain the basic argument and the name of the goods;
2. It is not necessary to be afraid of plenty of words, if all of them are to the point, the long heading works even better, than the short one;
3. The consumer is quite often ready to perceive the information literally, therefore it is better to do without negative revolutions because in his memory the negative moments can be saved, associating with a subject of advertising;
4. It is necessary to use simple words, but positively working on all, for example, "free-of-charge", "novelty", etc.;
5. In illustrations the intrigue is very valuable;
6. Photos work better, than figures, especially when they compare a status before occurrence, using of the goods;
7. Simple breadboard model with one big illustration of a format of a journal strip is an ideal variant of the advertisement in press;
8. It is not necessary to be afraid of long texts because if the consumer is interested in more detailed information, he, involved with heading, will read all the text up to the end;
9. The text should be easy for recognition, without boasting, represent the facts, instead of mere allegations;
10. The trust to advertising raises, if the photo and the text reflect a picture of a real life, the certificate of eyewitnesses, authoritative experts;
11. It is not necessary to print the text light letters on a dark background - it is difficult to read.
Advantage of radio over other mass media is: a 24-hour announcement to many regions and a variety of programs. Radio is listened to in inhabited and industrial rooms, in the kitchen, walking on clean air, in the car. Therefore the advertisements placed in corresponding radio programs, cover significant percent of audience of consumers, irrespective of where they are - at job, on rest, in a way. The radio advertising is operative and has low cost. At the same time during recognition of the advertising references broadcast by radio, sight through which the person receives up to 90 % of information does not participate. Besides the radio advertising complicates an establishment of bilateral communications with the consumer. Often the consumer does not have a pencil, a paper to write down the information transferred in the announcement.
For increasing the efficiency of a radio advertising it is useful to follow the following advice:
1. Achieve, that the announcement includes imagination of spectators;
2. Accompany advertising of a concrete product, service by a remembered sound;
3. The result will be the best if to use "prime time" - time, when the number of listeners is the greatest;
4. If the advertising campaign on TV on the same goods or service is parallelly conducted, it is necessary to use the same signal, melodies, texts, characters;
The radio advertising cannot be estimated under the written text, it should be heard.
Television announcements include images, sounds, movements, color and consequently render on audience much greater influence, than announcements in other mass media. Advertising on TV becomes more and more interesting, informative and at the same time complex and expensive in manufacture, especially if it is based on computer's schedule.
For achieving effect of TV advertising, it is necessary to do the following:
It is necessary to gain the attention of the audience in first five seconds; verbosity is not necessary - each word should work.
Posters on boards of the outdoor advertising are usually placed along brisk highways and in places of a congestion of people and remind consumers of firms or the goods which they already know or specify to potential buyers places where they can make the purchases necessary for them or receive corresponding service.
The advertisement in outdoor advertising is usually brief and cannot inform completely about the firm or the goods, therefore acquaintance of potential consumers with the new goods with the help of this mass media is insufficiently effective.
The basic recommendations for outdoor advertising may be reduced to the following:
Hoarding advertising is under construction on advertising idea, which specificity is that it is instantly seized and remembered;
To use simple and clear fonts, such that the announcement could be read from the distance of 30-50 meters;
On a hoarding it is necessary to note the nearest trading and service places where it is possible to get the promoted goods or service.
Advertising messages are disseminated through numerous and varied channels or media. In descending order of dollar volume, the major media in the United States of America are newspapers, television, direct mail, radio, magazines, business publications, outdoor and transit advertising, and farm publications. In addition, a significant amount of all United States advertising dollars is invested in miscellaneous media, such as window displays, free shopping-news publications, calendars, skywriting by airplanes, and even sandwich boards carried by people walking in the streets.
In the United States a wide range of advertising media has been developed from sources which potential importance formerly was ignored. Delivery trucks, once plainly painted, now often carry institutional or product messages, as do many shipping cartoons. Some packages carry advertising for products other than those contained in them. Wrapping paper and shopping bags bearing advertisements are also means of advertising that are used widely by retail stores.
Newspapers have traditionally led all other media in the United States of America in terms of dollars invested in advertising; despite the popularity of radio and television, the daily papers have maintained a comfortable lead. Thus, in 1987 newspapers received about 27 percent of the advertising investment in the nation, totaling more than $29.4 billion from local or approximately $23.5 billion. More than $19 billion were invested in direct mail. Radio received approximately $7.2 billion, and magazines about $6 billion.
Direct advertising includes all forms of sales appeals mailed, delivered, or exhibited directly to the prospective buyer of an advertised product or service, without use of any indirect medium, such as newspapers and television. Direct advertising logically may be divided into three broad classifications, namely, direct-mail advertising, mail-order advertising, and nonmailed direct advertising.
All forms of sales appeals (except mail-order appeals) that are sent through mails are considered direct-mail advertising. The chief functions of direct-mail advertising are to familiarize prospective buyers with a product, its name, its maker, designed also to support the sales activities of retailers by encouraging the continued patronage of both old and new customers.
When no personal selling is involved, other methods are needed to induce people to send in orders by mail. In addition to newspapers, magazines, radio, and television, special devices such as single-product folders or multiproduct catalogs are used in mail-order advertising. Mail-order promotions are designed to accomplish a complete selling job without salespeople.
Used for the same broad purposes as direct-mail advertising, nonmailed direct advertising includes all forms of indoor advertising displays and all printed sales appeals distributed from door to door, handed to customers in retail stores, included in packages and bundles of merchandise, or conveyed in some other manner directly to the recipient.
With each medium competing keenly for its share of business, advertising agencies continue to develop new techniques for displaying and selling wares and services. Among these techniques have been vastly improved printing and reproduction methods in the graphic field, adapted to magazine advertisements and to direct-mail enclosures; the use of color in newspaper advertisements and in television; and outdoor signboards more attractively designed and efficiently lighted. Many subtly effective improvements are suggested by advertising research.
During the 19th
century it was possible only to approximate the effectiveness of various advertising techniques. Prospective advertisers were guided almost solely by estimates of magazine and newspaper readership. In the early days of broadcasting and outdoor advertising the industry lacked a reliable measure of the audience of these media. In 1914 the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), an independent organization subscribed to principally by newspaper and magazine publishers, was established to meet the need for authentic circulation statistics and for coordinated, standardized way of presenting them.
Eventually, greater scientific efforts to determine relevant facts about audience and readership developed as a result of competition among the media and the demand among advertisers for an accurate means of judging the relative effectiveness of the media. The media soon found ways of ascertaining not only how many people see or hear advertising messages, but what kinds of people and where they are located. Newspapers and magazines, either through their own research staffs or through organizations employed for a fee, go to great lengths to analyze their circulations to show where their readers live, their income, education, recreational habits, age, and number of children and to provide other guides to determining their readers’ susceptibility to certain classes of products.
Radio and television stations and networks similarly analyze their audiences for the guidance of advertisers. In this field, too, broadcast companies, advertising agencies, and advertisers subscribe to one or more audience-research organizations to determine how many viewers or listeners tune in regional and network shows at any given time. Special surveys of local broadcast programs can be arranged also. In a similar but less comprehensive manner, outdoor- and transportation-advertising companies have set up organizations to tally the numbers of persons exposed to their posters.
Because of the nature of advertising, depending as it does on psychological and other variables difficult to ascertain precisely, the whole field of audience research is complex and controversial. Researchers have found it necessary to consistently refine their techniques and make them increasingly reliable.
One by-product of this widespread interest in, and dependence on, advertising and marketing research is the Advertising Research Foundation, sponsored, directed, and subsidized by advertisers, agencies, and media. This organization, founded in 1936, not only initiates and commissions research projects of its own but also establishes criteria and standards of procedure that tend to enhance the authenticity, reliability, efficiency, and usefulness of all advertising and marketing research.
One major type of research project is the survey of test markets. Advertisers and agencies frequently conduct extensive and expensive surveys to determine the potential acceptance of products or services before they are advertised nationally at costs that may aggregate millions of dollars. In one common procedure the advertising-marketing division of a company dispatches a crew of surveyors to do a door-to-door canvass in various neighborhoods differing in average-income levels. Householders are shown various versions of the product intended for market. If the survey convinces the manufacturer that one of the versions exhibited will attract enough purchasers, a crew then pretests and asking sales appeals by showing provisional advertisements to consumers and asking them to indicate their preference. After the one or two best-liked advertisements or basic appeals are determined, the advertiser produces a limited quantity of the new product and manufacturer can make a decision as to whether a national campaign should be launched.
The question of what motivates a consumer to buy challenges the imagination and ingenuity of the seller and presses research specialists forward into new fields of investigation. Motivational research, for example, attempts to probe the unconscious impulses that motivate buying decisions; advertising agencies then utilize these findings to influence the consumer and to attempt to break down sales resistance. Critical observe outside the advertising industry have assailed the motivational approach as unreliable and as unfair to the consumer, who should not, they feel, be subjected to such indirect sales attacks. Many researchers, however, regard motivational inquiry as only a means to delve deeper into the psychological springs of behavior than did earlier investigations. Through careful questioning and investigation it is often possible for an advertiser to trace a sale and learn what actually motivated the consumer to buy a product. Workers in motivational research try to explore these influences.
The choice of correct combination of means of promotion demands professional skills. For carrying out this work it is the best way to apply to of services of advertising agency.
The firms having own strong advertising departments also resort to services of advertising agencies . In agencies creative and technical experts carry out advertising functions better and more effectively, than regular employees of companies. Agencies may look on the problems facing the firm independently, and they have operational experience with different clients and in different situations. Advertising for the firms doesn’t cost too much because agencies give discounts for permanent customers. And as the firm can break off the contract at any moment, agencies have powerful stimulus to work effectively.
Usually the advertising agency consists of four departments
1. The creative department engaged in development and manufacture of announcements;
2. The department of advertising responsible for a choice of means of advertising and accommodation of announcements;
3. The research department studying the consumer psychology and requirements of audience;
4. The sales department engaged in commercial activity of the agency.
Very often agencies attract new clients in themselves due to their reputation or work. However, as a rule, the client is suggested several agencies to lead competitive presentations and the customer makes his choice on the result of these presentations.
Agencies with full services face a growing competition on the part of agencies with limited service which specialize either on purchase of means of advertising, or on creation of advertising texts, or on manufacture of promotional materials. Commercial managers win more and more authority in advertising agencies and they demand from personnel being aimed at extraction profits more persistently. Some advertizers have opened their own advertising agencies inside the firm, having stopped, thus, long-term communication with the former advertising agencies.
Experts believe that this year the share of Russian companies in the market will increase. In January, 1999, even the mini-sensation was fixed: for the first time the domestic company (it sells sheepskin coats) had more TV advertising, than such a champion in advertising, as Procter&Gamble.
Nevertheless, the general picture doesn’t change essentially.
Budgets of leading Russian advertizers in 2003 (on data Gallup Adfact), in dollars:
Procter&Gamble - 417225216
Nestle - 128608854
Mars - 104419627
Wrigley - 90844724
Stimorol - 89318497
Jonson&Jonson - 55872784
Pepsico - 51788233
Coka-cola - 51135747
Domestic advertising (Tambov region advertisements) has made a large skip during the last few years. When I was a child I could hardly see any advertisements in the streets, on buses, I couldn’t find price-lists in my post. But nowadays nearly once a week in my post I can find advertising commercial messages.
Today we can see many hoardings in the streets of Tambov too. Walking along the main streets we carry our eyes from one signboard to another. I think that their placement is very successful. First of all, they are situated at the entrance of our town. People can learn information about Tambov goods on the way to Tambov. Secondly, the most essential part of hoardings are situated along two main streets: Sovetskaya and Internationalnaya. These are two the most busy streets of the town. In rush hours thousands of people look at these hoardings. To my mind, that is why outdoor advertising in Tambov is well-developed and successful. All the hoardings are bright, effective, colorful and capturing.
Advertising in mass media is also very popular in Tambov. Ads in the Internet is the youngest kind of advertising, may be of this, it is not the leader of mass media advertising. There are some sites with Tambov advertisements but they are not numerous. There are some newspapers containing advertisements such as “Vse Dlya Vas” and “Iz Ruk v Ruki”. I think advertising in press shoul be more well-developed. Many adverts in press are not colourful, there are no interesting ideas, only what and where to buy. I think that it would be better to print advertising newspapers on the paper of higher quality, using more colours. I know the price of such newspapers will rise and the price of adverts too. But we are really interested in such like information, we are interested in qualitative information and we will not mind the price. If advertiser is interested in promoting his goods qualitatively, brightly, effectively, he will pay any money he has, in case it will help in promotion of his products among the audience.
Advertising on TV has changed a lot. A few years ago it was just a “running line” consisting only of words. Nowadays it is not the same “running line” but it consists not only of words but also of emblems and logotypes but also rollicks. There are some interesting rollicks. For example, advertising of Tambov GSM. I think it is one of the most successful because it is true to life, easy for understanding, and I am sure that every person was in such like situation in his or her life. But these rollicks are not ideal. There are some drawbacks. They are too long, some people can zap during it, and it wouldn’t be so effective. It is also a little bit unattractive because the situation is common. I think if the end of this ad would be another it would be more powerful. This is the only example of advertising on TV. But it needs to do much in the development of TV advertising in Tambov and I hope that soon it will be a lot of professional advertisers with creative skills and individuality. Only after that every advertisement would be smart, expressive, unexpected, exciting, creating and individual. Another kind of advertising is samples. It is not well-developed. I think it is so because of the character of Russian people – to have as much as possible if it is free of charge. But sometimes we can meet young girls in the streets or in the supermarkets giving us samples of this or that product.
All in all ads are popular but not well-developed and not of high quality in Tambov. That’s why advertising in Tambov is the sphere which greatly needs to be changed and to be mastered.
I think it is not occasionally that the department of design and
advertising has been set up in Tambov State University named after
G.R. Derzhavin.
I would like to finish my essay speaking about new advertising techniques: endorsement and product placement.
When you watch a TV programme or a movie, you expect to see advertisements in the commercial breaks, but you are also probably receiving a large number of commercial messages during the film or progremme as well, thanks to a marketing technique called “product placement”.
For example, why do the “men in black” wear Ray-Ban sunglasses? The answer is that Ray-Ban did a deal with the film’s producers and followed it with a $ 10 million advertising campaign.
Also many advertisers ask famous, glamorous or successful people to give their approval to a particular brands or products – a technique known as endorsement.
After the end of her marriage to the UK’s Duke of York, Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson was asked by the American company WeightWatchers to appear in an advertising campaign for their range of slimming methods and products.
There is another example of endorsement. Sun Advertising, the Japanese advertising agency, has beaten its main competitor Top Ad, to win a contract to promote Tora’s new soft drinks range. They are going to launch a 10 billion yen TV advertising campaign – one of the biggest ever seen in Japan. The campaign includes an ad with the best baseball player from every major baseball team in Japan. Tatsuo Tokunaga, the director who dreams up Sun Advertising’s campaigns, says that the firm tries to capture people’s attention.
To my mind, they are more expensive than simple advertisements but more powerful. I think so because we usually trust outstanding persons, we want to look like them, we even copy them to some extent.
Advertising is an essential part of business. Ads are necessary either for the manufacturer or for the buyer. They are necessary for the manufacturer because they produce knowledge about it, create preferences, stimulate thoughts and actions about the product. Advertising is one of the most important factors in accelerating the distribution of the products. And it is necessary for the buyer because we learn information about the product from ads. Adverts are trustworthy because advertising cannot turn a poor product into a good one. But what it can do and it really does is to create an awareness about both old and new products.
So, civilization has made a great step in the development of advertising. It has turned into a powerful global network from primitive cries. I think that we can also name our present day era “the era of advertising”, because everything is advertised and everything can be found in adverts.