Advertising

Advertising can be defined as commercial messages to the public designed to inform potential and established customer and to encourage sales for the advertiser. Advertising can be either institutional (designed to sell the firm’s name) or direct-action (designed to sell the firm’s product or service).

Types of advertising media. Among the media generally used in advertising are television, radio, newspapers, magazines, outdoor billboards, speciality advertising (distribution of such items as notebooks, pencils, calendars, blotters, gummed labels, telephone pads, shopping bags), public transportation, yellow pages, direct mail, other media (catalogues, samples, handouts, leaflets, etc).

Advertisements are all around us, not just on TV, the radio and the press, but also at sports grounds, on posters, carrier bags, badges, T-shirts, buses. Of course, there are plenty of businesses in all sectors of the economy, which advertise either very little or indeed, not at all.

The ancient Romans were among the first to realize the enormous potential of advertising. Their favourite way to advertise products was drawing pictures or displaying tools over the entrance of their workshops. In medieval times a more individual form of identification was used – symbols were chosen to indicate surnames. But it was the invention of the printing press that caused a revolution in the advertising world. In those early times, advertising was a simple process, but today things are different.

When a company wants to advertise something, it contacts an advertising agency. The people who work in it are highly skilled and every department of an advertising agency is responsible for a certain activity. For example, the creative department has to think up new ways of presenting the product to the public. The media department buys space in newspapers and magazines or on TV or radio. The marketing department is responsible for analyzing sales figures. The production department has the job of getting the ads printed and published on time. There is also a research department, which watches the consumer, noting public reaction to ads because an advertisement is a success if it gets results and that depends on the public.

Whether we like it or not, advertising is a powerful force. It can make people buy things they don’t really need or that are bad for them. That’s why all countries have rules about what is acceptable advertising. for example, in Britain, cigarette advertising I banned on television for health reasons.

Дата добавления: 2015-08-17