Today it’s hard to find a place where there would be no advertising. It is everywhere - on the Internet, in transport, on the streets and even in our homes. Nowhere can you hide from this "engine of trade."
Such a wide distribution, of course, is a confirmation of the obvious fact - humanity needs advertising. Otherwise, there would not have been so many.
In this article we will talk about what are the functions of advertising, why it exists and, in the end, what benefit (or harm) it does to each of us.
We kindly request: if you are a person who is professionally involved in the development and distribution of advertising, keep calm! We do not pretend to be objective in this article - we simply post information that is the result of our own thoughts.
Story
Speaking about where the advertisement came from, one should probably turn to history. Even at the time of the emergence of trade as a craft, mankind noticed that it is easier to sell goods and services if a potential buyer knows about your existence and about the products that you are ready to offer him. In this regard, for many hundreds of years on shops, small shops and market points you can see advertisements - signs, information boards that list the range of goods or the specialization of the merchant who works here. The goals and functions of advertising of this format were quite obvious - the person who passed by knew: at this place he could acquire a certain type of product. What did he actually do.
Much later, the advertisement spread beyond the sign above the trading shop. To sell their products more efficiently, traders placed information sheets where more people could see them. Thus, the target audience expanded. Incidentally, the same principle is still used in advertising today - confirmation of this is the numerous advertising banners located on the streets of our cities.
The essence of advertising
It is undeniable that marketing was only part of the trade craft. Roughly speaking, advertising was the result of improvements that were applied directly to the technology of selling goods and services. Due to the fact that traders applied their marketing skills and guesses, increasing sales, the advertising business grew into a separate direction. If at the very beginning of its existence it was exclusively as an addition to trade, now marketing and advertising technologies have become a separate area. As before, it serves to increase sales and properly promote the brand, but approaches to this have seriously changed.
In modern realities, the tasks and functions of advertising have become more significant, due to which manufacturers are now forced to pay attention to service, production technology and marketing in equal shares. Such is the essence of advertising - from just a way to help establish sales, it has become a whole science.
Today, advertising operates within a whole separate industry. Annually, companies of various lines of business pay tens of billions of dollars to advertising agencies for finding a way to bring the product in a beautiful, attractive light to the market. If they succeed, the result is not long in coming - the product “shoots”, becoming popular.
However, no matter what they say about advertising and people who work in this area, in any case this is art. It is not so easy to explain to the buyer why he should make a purchase.It is also quite difficult to present the finished product in a form that will attract the attention of customers, force them to make a purchase, and so on. To successfully work in this area, you need to have active thinking, a sharp mind and, of course, a certain share of talent.
Destination
Accordingly, with such an “advertising evolution” its main purpose has changed. Nowadays, advertising serves not only the "engine of trade." You can verify this yourself - look at the billboards on your street - you will notice that they contain information not only regarding the goods that are sold. Advertising is often used to increase brand recognition promoted by a particular company. In some cases, advertising helps to inform the audience about upcoming changes in the market, for example, the merger of existing lines, the conclusion of a new one, and so on. Finally, very often the functions of modern advertising include the social component - the presentation of non-profit ideas and projects that have the goal of helping people, and not making a profit.
Thus, advertising is also a social tool for delivering certain ideas to certain groups of the population, as well as part of the brand image.
disadvantages
No matter how flattering words they say about advertising, there is still a massive hostility to this area. Many people despise advertisers, call the entire industry a complete hoax, and complain that they lure their money. Why it happens? What are the main disadvantages of advertising?
By and large, people in advertising do not like two things. The first is an illusion. Through the use of cunning tricks, advertising specialists bring the brand to the market, delivering it in one light - emphasizing strengths and hiding flaws, forcing a simple consumer to rush to the store instantly. At the same time, having bought this or that thing, you realize that it really was an exchange, but a little not the one that was promised.
Another point that most people hate in advertising is obsession. When you walk along the street, and suddenly a person appears in front of you, persistently explaining something about plastic windows that you absolutely do not need, nothing but irritation, this can not cause you. This approach is not very correct. Due to the fact that it is sometimes practiced by those who know little about advertising, other representatives of the industry have earned such an unflattering reputation.
Kinds
Here is such an ambiguity - it seems to be good, but it seems that the harm is inherent in advertising. In addition, today there are so many of its species that it is extremely difficult to understand. Let's try.
Let's start with the media. There is outdoor advertising, television, on the radio, on the Internet, in transport. These categories can be divided into subspecies. For example, the outdoor is divided into:
- citylights;
- billboards;
- stretch marks on fences and buildings, on asphalt and so on.
Internet advertising is divided into:
- contextual (search) and advertising on sites;
- banner and teaser;
- in pop-ups and stuff.
The advertising functions of any of these types are similar to the others - bringing some information to a specific audience. And depending on which site is chosen for these purposes or what exactly they want to tell the recipient, the goals are determined. They, too, by the way, are different.
Any advertisement can be diverse. The types of advertising, the functions of advertising, of course, differ significantly - we have already said this, but the essence remains the same. This is a tool by which some people bring something to the knowledge of others.
Functions
In the theory of marketing, it is customary to distinguish four main functions of advertising. Today we will talk about each of them in this article. Partially, what goals they pursue, we have already specified above - this is selling (economic), creating a brand image (marketing), communicating information to certain groups of the population (social) and banal informing, one-way communication with people (communicative). Now, studying the main functions of advertising, we will dwell on each of them in more detail.
Economic
This is the most basic and, one might say, basic function, which is to stimulate demand for goods of one or another category. As a result of advertising this or that product, buyers begin to acquire it.Due to this, the revenue of the manufacturer increases, which is invested in technologies and materials for the further manufacture of the best products. This process resembles a closed cycle, since the proceeds from the sale of products are returned to its further production and release to the market.
Perhaps each of us knows more about this function than about the others. In principle, it can be called the main one. Often, companies resort to this tool just in order to improve their competitive advantages over other manufacturers, increase brand awareness, reach a new level of sales, and so on.
Social
The information function of advertising (as it is also called) is the notification of certain groups of people. The term “social advertising” is well known to us - it is, as a rule, non-commercial information about important public topics. For example, this category includes the anti-propaganda of smoking, drug use, promotion of a healthy lifestyle, the use of contraceptives and so on.
The functions of social advertising are quite clear and simple - to make a person think, make the right choice on a particular issue, abandon a bad habit, before it's too late. Numerous studies show that social advertising works. At a subconscious level, it is remembered to a person in the form of a certain idea, which further determines the option of his behavior in a particular situation.
As a rule, the functions of social advertising have no commercial character. For this reason, the placement of such information is carried out at the expense of charitable contributions. Sometimes the production and distribution of such materials is paid by the authorities in order to realize some good idea in society.
Marketing
This function may seem similar in nature to the economic one. However, the difference between them is quite significant. The marketing function of advertising is that the product is not only offered for sale, but also explained why this should be done. In addition, this type of advertising makes it possible for the consumer to understand what advantages a particular product has, why you should turn to this company instead of some other company for services, and why a particular brand is good. These are the features of advertising in marketing. Of course, through an integrated approach, you can sell more and more efficiently. For the same reason, this model of work is generally accepted among many promotion studios and advertising agencies.
The marketing function allows you to create a platform in human psychology, on which information grain is subsequently sown, forcing you to buy a particular product. At the same time, of course, the creation of a proper brand image is being carried out in parallel. As you can see, this rather difficult task is also included in the functions of advertising.
Communicative
Finally, the communicative function of advertising involves the process of transmitting a message from a company that promotes its products and services to a buyer. The distribution mechanism of such a message can be called an advertising platform. It is worth saying that it can be anything: a billboard, television, radio, an Internet site and so on. The main thing is that the information embedded in the picture, sound, video clip or animated splash screen will be seen by the buyer (or we will say in general - “representative of the target audience”). This will be the goal, which are the main functions of advertising, in particular, communicative.
Members
In addition to the functions that we talked about in this article, we should also talk about the subjects involved in advertising relationships. Sometimes a person may not even know that he is one of those. In this case, he acts (most often) as an audience representative.
On the other side of the advertisement is the advertiser.This is a natural or legal person who is interested in placing advertising materials. Often, they are the manufacturer of a particular category of goods, which needs to increase sales of manufactured products at all costs.
There is also an owner of an advertising platform that leases the latter out. A typical example, easy to understand, is the owner of a billboard on the streets. They may also be the owner of the Internet resource. The relationship between the advertiser and the owner of the site is built in such a way that the placement of advertising materials is carried out mainly on a paid basis, payment is made for clearly defined periods. For example, renting a banner on the street can cost $ 500 a month. This means that between the advertiser (manufacturer of the goods) and the owner of the site is a contract for a certain period. The terms of such an agreement prescribe details designed to protect the interests of all parties.
Lecture hall
There is another interesting factor to which you should pay attention. This is the audience. As you might guess, that’s the name of people who see this or that advertisement. If, for example, we talk about advertising on a gaming site, then the audience of the materials posted on it, respectively, will be the people visiting it.
There is also another concept - “target audience”. These are the people that the advertiser would like to see among their customers. Simply put, these are those who would like to convey advertising information. For the owner of a computer club, for example, such will be local students interested in playing online games. The functions and roles of advertising shown to the target audience will be performed most effectively, since in this case the percentage of people who will use the service in the future will be much higher than if the advertisement was shown to those who are not interested in the product.
However, it should be remembered that the demonstration of advertising materials to a certain circle of people will cost more. This is explained by additional measures designed to "weed out" extra "visitors who will still not use the service.
Targeting
As part of writing an article about advertising, it’s also important to describe a category such as “targeting.” It is used mainly in the field of online advertising, but it is a useful tool that allows, as mentioned above, "weed out the excess." The essence of the procedure is to identify “low-quality” visitors at a technical level and redirect them to other advertising solutions. Consider a good example to make it clearer.
Suppose you are advertising tickets from city A to B. on the site. Moreover, people from city B often come to your resource for advertisements, to whom, of course, your tickets from A are useless. At the same time, you pay for these visitors as for those who came from A. What could be the solution?
Very simple - a script is created at the program level that distributes people from different countries and cities. Thus, when a person who doesn’t meet the previously set criteria comes to your site, the system redirects him, for example, to another site where tickets are sold from city B.
Most often, targeting is applied to the geographic position of the location of the person following the ad. True, there are other categories of "dropout", which include the age of the user, his gender, preferences. Another thing is that you can determine these parameters only if you have a visitor profile. For example, VKontakte and Facebook advertising networks work this way.
Development
Every year, advertising technologies are developing, becoming more and more adapted to the conditions of the modern market. Due to the crisis, for example, the total revenue of companies decreased, as a result of which it also became necessary to reduce advertising and marketing costs.This, in turn, cannot but affect the recognition of products, total sales and, as a consequence, the further level of income.
Therefore, instead of simply cutting the budget, creativity should be included. For example, you can try using a different type of advertising medium to apply a clearer targeting framework. Or, for example, resort to completely new advertising technologies (including those available on the Internet), which, for a lower amount, will provide a greater result.
The entire advertising industry does not stand still - the ever-changing concept and functions of advertising confirm this. This means that if you also work in it, do not linger. Experiment, “play,” and you will surely find new ways to promote goods and services that will be much more profitable than before.
