How Does Advertising Work

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Tom Fenton Studying the Media 1                                               Page

How Does Advertising Work?

INTRODUCTION

Definition

  • The original definition of advertising was “to draw attention to something” or to notify or inform someone of something (Branston 1996).  
  • A modern definition is the publication (in various forms) of facts or opinions concerning goods or services, to awaken the public’s interest and persuade them to purchase.
  •  Advertising is now big business – an industry with extraordinary cultural and economic impact.  
  • This is funded through the cost of the goods that consumers buy.  
  • Advertising is now the media form most often encountered, and is perhaps the most powerful and pervasive form of propaganda in history.  
  • It is found in various forms including on billboards, websites, “junk mail”, and commercially funds most television, newspapers and magazines.  
  • Advertising has the power to create brand awareness and loyalty as well as stimulating demand.  

Advertising is not a science

  • It is important to realise that advertising is not a science.  
  • An individual will interpret an advertisement using their own social networks, their own backgrounds and their own motivations.  
  • The way an advertisement is interpreted cannot be controlled or monitored by an advertiser, therefore it is important to realise that they do not contain a single meaning for all audience members.  
  • Advertising is much more effective when an advertiser understands their audience’s background and social networks as well as their ability to select media and advertisements that appear in those media.  
  • Therefore the challenge for advertising is to create a message that ultimately connects with a select group of people.


WHAT DOES ADVERTISING DO?

  • It has already been stated that advertising is created to help sell something.  
  • Therefore the ultimate goal of advertising is to increase the advertiser’s sales no matter who the advertiser is or the target audience, what the product is, or how the ad is delivered.  

Advertising Goals

  • The ultimate goal of advertising is to increase sales.  
  • However, in terms of functional aspects a more specific advertising goal is required.  
  • There are various advertising objectives, which can largely be generalised into the following eight areas:  
  • To provide product information, to convert product concept, to increase brand awareness, to improve brand attitude, to establish public opinion, to improve the advertiser’s image, to inform other promotion strategies and to create a new fashion.  

  • We can now examine what advertising actually does in greater detail.  

Advertising Communicates

  • Firstly, advertising communicates.  
  • All advertisements attempt to “say” something to the consumer about the product or service which is being advertised.  
  • The advertiser hopes to positively influence our thinking in favour of their brand by presenting a message in their advertising.  
  • Advertisers hope that when the time has come for consumers to consider buying a product or service of that type, that the message contained in the advertising will influence us to look favourably upon that particular product, over others which may be available.  

Advertising is part of a wider Marketing Process

  • However, advertising on its own doesn’t usually have the power to completely influence our decision to buy something.  
  • Advertising is used as part of a wider marketing process where other factors such as price and availability also exert an important influence.  
  • Therefore advertising has to work alongside the other aspects of marketing in an integrated fashion to communicate effectively with the consumer.
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Advertising Sells

  • As already mentioned, the ultimate aim of advertising is to increase sales.  
  • It is expensive to develop an advertising campaign, so advertising must therefore earn back the money spent by generating new sales which more than cover the advertising costs.  

Advertising Brands

  • Advertising is also used to create and modify brands.  
  • Branding refers to the creation of a special set of qualities for the product or service.  
  • This is a brand “identity” which consumers can recognise and identify with, and which will separate or differentiate the product ...

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