The marketing series of articles have finally reached its last topic which is Advertising and will be covered in three parts.
Advertising is defined as non personal communication that is paid for by an identified sponsor opposed to promotions which utilize an organic word of mouth channel of communication that isn’t paid for by any distinct sponsor. Today, we spend roughly ten times more on advertising products than 40 years ago at an estimate of about $220 billion. Advertising is a means of selling a product’s differentiation which encourages a higher price as the value and demand for such product increases.
Altogether, there are two main kinds of advertising. The first is product advertising which is split into the three types of primary, selective, and reminder stages. During the primary demand of such product the company who is responsible for inventing the product must go through a stage of introduction to inform the target market of the product. During the selective demand of such product would then proceed into a stage of growth and the company should persuade the target market why they should purchase their product. This persuasion can be done through direct or indirect action. The reminder stage would then continue into the stage of maturity and the company must remind the target market why they still need such product. The other main kind of advertising is institutional which focuses on the name and prestige of the company or industry. Intel is a good example as they attribute their advertising towards the general advancement of computing.
A company should appraise the opportunity to make profitable use of product advertising when: 1. there is a favorable primary demanding trend for such product category such as healthy food; 2. the product can be significantly differentiated such as Apple products; 3. there are important hidden qualities concerning the product; 4. there are powerful emotional buying motives that are present such as life insurance; 5. and when your company simply has the money to spend towards advertising.
The next article will continue the topic of advertising focused on advertising campaigns.
