About Advertising

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Dictionary          

The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media.

1. The business of designing and writing advertisements.
2. Advertisements considered as a group: This paper takes no advertising.

Thesaurus          

noun

The act or profession of promoting something, as a product: promotion, publicity. See knowledge/ignorance.

Encyclopedia           

advertising, in general, any openly sponsored offering of goods, services, or ideas through any medium of public communication. At its inception advertising was merely an announcement; for example, entrepreneurs in ancient Egypt used criers to announce ship and cargo arrivals. The invention of printing, however, may be said to have ushered in modern advertising. After the influence of salesmanship began to insert itself into public notice in the 18th cent., the present elaborate form of advertising began to evolve. The advertising agency, working on a commission basis, has been chiefly responsible for this evolution. The largest group of advertisers are the food marketers, followed by marketers of drugs and cosmetics, soaps, automobiles, tobacco, appliances, and oil products. The major U.S. advertising media are newspapers, magazines, television and radio, business publications, billboards, and circulars sent through the mail. With the advent of the wide availability of electronic mail and access to the World Wide Web in the 1990s, the Internet has also become an important advertising venue. Since many large advertising agencies were once located on Madison Avenue in New York City , the term “Madison Avenue” is frequently used to symbolize the advertising business. The major criticisms of advertising are that it creates false values and impels people to buy things they neither need nor want and that, in fact, may be actually harmful (such as cigarettes). In reply, its defenders say that advertising is meant to sell products, not create values; that it can create a new market for products that fill a genuine, though latent, need; and that it furthers product improvement through free competition. The Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies, both founded in 1917, are the major associations.

WordNet           

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun advertising has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: a public promotion of some product or service
  Synonyms: ad, advertisement, advertizement, advertizing, advert

Meaning #2: the business of drawing public attention to goods and services
  Synonym: publicizing

American History           

Advertising as we know it today began during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. If an advertising agent working on the account of a product such as Quaker Oats cereal in about 1900 were to have been transported forward in time to 1925, the challenges, choices, and risks he faced would have been in many respects familiar. If the same agent had been transported backward to 1875, that could not be said. Advertising agencies were relatively unknown then, and those that existed had ill-defined responsibilities. The mix of products for which they were placing advertisements was quite different from that on the market at the turn of the century. Quaker Oats itself had not yet been invented. Thus, the history of advertising in America falls into two eras separated at about this turning point.

To begin with, we should define advertising. It is mass communication an advertiser pays for in order to convince a certain segment of the public to adopt ideas or take actions of benefit to the advertiser. During the past century, large American manufacturers have played a leading role in developing this craft, but in earlier years, leadership in terms of design and creativity lay elsewhere.

In the eighteenth century, Great Britain boasted the most advanced advertising. Handbills and trade cards proclaiming in extravagant terms the excellence of sundry products and services were common. Among the items being sold, few if any caused more excitement than the New World itself. Signs and handbills touting its wonders were so ubiquitous in London that Richard Hofstadter has observed that America was conceived amidst "one of the first concerted and sustained advertising campaigns in the history of the modern world." Daniel J. Boorstin believes that such promotion may have had a significant impact on the speed of emigration and has wondered about the impact on American civilization of the fact that "there was a kind of natural selection here of those people who were willing to believe advertising."

Advertising was a well-established practice in the late colonial and early national periods in America , but these advertisements were neither as appealing to the eye nor as cleverly crafted as were their counterparts in England . The type was so illegible that Benjamin Franklin observed: "If you should ever have any secrets that you wish to be well kept, get them printed in [the] papers." Moreover, the United States was a predominantly rural nation. Its farmers may not have been totally self-sufficient, but they produced more of their own food, clothing, and household items than did urbanites. Thus, more Americans focused on production for survival than on consumption for pleasure. With a sparse, predominantly rural population and without an efficient system of transportation and communication, the country had neither the need for nor the means of concerted national advertising campaigns.

Most advertising during the early national and antebellum periods was repetitious and unimaginative. Writing of the pioneer merchants on the middle border, historian Lewis Atherton observed that "in general the early advertising was dreary, matter of fact reading, served a limited purpose, and was completely devoid of ... customer appeal. . . . one advertisement was like all others."

There were advances in American advertising in the larger cities during the 1820s and 1830s with improvements in printing technology and a change in advertising philosophy. James Gordon Bennett, Sr.'s, New York Herald and other New York penny press newspapers prided themselves on speaking directly to the mass public in understandable and accessible terms, and they wanted their advertising to have the same appeal. In 1848, Bennett began changing the Herald's advertisements every day, making them news just like the editorial matter.

The precursors of advertising agencies also date from this period. By the 1840s, Volney B. Palmer was listing his "coal and advertising" agency in New York City 's business directory. The very description of the business--coal and advertising--illustrates how undifferentiated advertising was in those days.

Modern advertising really began in the 1880s, when new methods of manufacturing led to greatly increased output and decreased costs for the producers of consumer goods. Advances in packaging technology meant that products could be packaged at the plant rather than shipped to a wholesaler who traditionally broke bulk and put his own name on them. Moreover, the telegraph network was in place and the continent had been crisscrossed by a network of railroads, bringing its farthest reaches within the purview of the incipient consumer culture.

Prior to the 1880s, the American marketing system had been characterized by an intricate set of wholesalers, jobbers, and other middlemen whose most important function was to buy in large lots and sell in smaller ones. In this age, the wholesaler was king. But in the new era of the 1880s, the importance of the packaged goods manufacturer greatly increased. What manufacturers could package at their own plant, they could brand. What they could brand, they could advertise. What they could distribute nationally, they could advertise nationally. This, Daniel A. Pope has written, "necessitated the growth of advertising agencies and dictated their activities" and also "tipped the balance in advertising from information (however specious much of it had been) to persuasion."

National advertisers provided the media and advertising agencies with a new set of clients whose standards of conduct were far higher than those preceding them. The most widely advertised consumer products through most of the nineteenth century had been patent medicines--nostrums for which their purveyors made extravagantly false claims. But the new companies, although not always innocent of misstatements, depended upon repeat-purchase behavior and thus upon building a bond of trust with the consumer. To do this, they had to eschew blatant falsehoods.

As late as 1893, according to Pope, more than half of a sample of over a hundred firms spending more than fifty thousand dollars annually on advertising were patent medicine manufacturers, whose advertisements were often of the "cancer cure" variety. His list of the largest national advertisers some twenty years later showed a sharp contrast. Most of these firms were not "medical messiahs" but manufacturers of food, consumer chemicals like soap and cosmetics, and consumer durables like automobiles and auto accessories.

For these new firms, advertising served many purposes:

• The introduction of new products, ranging from inexpensive items like bottled cola to consumer durables such as the automobile.
• The introduction of products already on the market to new consumers, like those entering adulthood and immigrants.
• The suggestion of new uses for products already on the market and the repositioning of products. Coca-Cola, for example, began as something close to a medicine. It was said to "revive and sustain," and to cure headaches. By the 1920s, the beverage's quality as a refreshment and "fun food" was being emphasized.
• The management of the distribution system. Manufacturer advertising could pressure distributors into stocking products because advertising created consumer demand. A consumer might feel more loyalty to a heavily advertised brand like Coca-Cola than to a particular soda fountain and thus not patronize a fountain that did not carry Coca-Cola.

For the consumer product marketer, advertising became the marketing analogy to assembly-line production techniques. It was systematized mass salesmanship, which became a key weapon in the arsenal of companies seeking to create and build brands.

With the new mix of advertising clients and the new conception of advertising came a host of changes in the trade that sharply differentiated twentieth-century practice from the previous era. Among the most important changes were those in the areas of copywriting, research, and source of compensation.

Through most of the nineteenth century, the principal function of the nation's advertising agencies was to buy space in publications at wholesale and sell it to advertisers at retail. In 1892, the N. W. Ayer and Son agency in Philadelphia hired its first full-time copywriter to write the advertisement itself. Soon after, Albert Davis Lasker of the Chicago agency of Lord and Thomas greatly boosted the prestige of the copywriting function within the agency. He founded the "reason why" school, which held that an advertisement had to give the customer a specific reason (perhaps a more accurate description would be "rational-sounding excuse") to purchase a product. This approach contrasted with the bulk of previous copy, which had often consisted of an announcement accompanied by disconnected and incredible claims to excellence.

Modern business corporations and advertising agencies make a major effort to research the projected and actual impact of their advertising. Research at agencies dates back at least to 1879, when Ayer undertook its first such project. Since then agencies, their clients, and independent market research firms--often assisted by marketing academicians and economists--have spent large sums to determine advertising's effectiveness.

Advertising agencies have always been intermediaries between advertisers and the mass media. During much of the nineteenth century, it was unclear whom the agency represented. Was it primarily a seller of media space or a seller of a manufacturer's product? In the twentieth century, the answer has been the latter. Agencies sell products by buying space or time and are compensated by manufacturers.

The most visible change in advertising in the past hundred years has resulted from the new technology of broadcasting. Initially, many thought that advertising over the "ether" would never be accepted by the public because it would constitute an obnoxious intrusion into the home of the owner of a radio set. And even if it did not prove unacceptable on grounds of taste, many felt that radio advertising should be prohibited as a matter of public policy. When he was secretary of commerce, Herbert Hoover said at a conference on radio in 1922 that it was "inconceivable that we should allow so great a possibility for service to be drowned in advertising chatter." By the end of the decade, however, advertisers and their agents had come to realize radio's possibilities. With its drama and immediacy, radio could convey their message directly to the consumer who would not need to purchase a publication or even be literate.

In the 1950s came television, which was commercialized in the United States to an exceptional degree. American advertisers had more minutes to telecast more commercial messages to more market segments (including children) than anywhere else in the world. Through television, advertisers could demonstrate the use of their product and present well-known figures to praise it. As had been the case with radio, those companies that first exploited the commercial potential of television reaped lavish rewards.

Advertising has been heavily criticized on a variety of counts. Economists have charged that advertising distorts competition by raising barriers to the entry of new firms into an industry and by distracting the consumer from price. Sociologists have complained that advertising barges into the home with pseudopopulist rhetoric ("We do it all for you") that in fact encourages a starkly materialistic approach to the world and promotes an ethos suggesting that what one possesses is more important than who one is. The historian of the content of advertising copy Roland Marchand has shown how advertisements adopt various clichés and parables whose relationship to a sensible evaluation of a product's benefits is tenuous at best. Indeed, much advertising copy conveys a message that, if not false, is not really true either.

Consumer advocates have accused advertising of victimizing children too young to tell the difference between a sales pitch and disinterested advice, and they have assailed what they view as its offensiveness to the elderly, to minorities, and to women. Educators, journalists, and others have often voiced disapproval of advertising: a "torrent of mendacity, imbecility, and bilge" was how author Bernard De Voto characterized it some years ago.

Among advertising's critics are the corporations that pay for it. Witness the following complaint: "I know that half of my advertising budget is wasted. The problem is that I don't know which half." This quip, attributed to John Wanamaker, Frank W. Woolworth, and Lord Leverhulme among others, has gained a permanent place in advertising lore and illustrates the degree to which advertisers themselves, despite the vast sums spent on research, remain skeptical about how effective their advertising dollars really are.

It is, however, worth noting that disingenuous as it often has been, advertising is first of all about persuasion. It has, therefore, been historically far less important in command economies than it has been in market economies. For all its many faults, relative freedom to advertise is an emblem of a more general economic and social freedom. Perhaps it is part of the price we pay for that freedom.

Bibliography:

Paul W. Farris and John A. Quelch, Advertising and Promotion Management: A Manager's Guide to Theory and Practice (1983); Daniel A. Pope, The Making of Modern Advertising (1983); Richard S. Tedlow , New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America (1990).

Author: Richard S. Tedlow

Wikipedia           

Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of an overall promotional strategy. Other components of the promotional mix include publicity, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion.

History           

In ancient times the most common form of advertising was 'word of mouth'. However, commercial messages and election campaign displays were found in the ruins of Pompeii. As printing developed in the 15th and 16th century, the first steps towards modern advertising were taken. In the 17th century advertisements started to appear in weekly newspapers in England and within a century, advertising became very popular.

As the economy was expanding during the 19th century, the need for advertising grew at the same pace. In 1843 the first advertising agency was established by Volney Palmer in Philadelphia. At first the agencies were just brokers for ad space in newspapers, but in the 20th century, advertising agencies started to take over responsibility for the content as well.

Media           

Some commercial advertising media include: billboards, printed flyers, radio, cinema and television ads, web banners, Web Popups, skywriting, bus stop benches, magazines, newspapers, town criers, sides of buses, taxicab doors and roof mounts, musical stage shows, elastic bands on disposable diapers, stickers on apples in supermarkets, the opening section of streaming audio and video, and the backs of event tickets. Any place an "identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is advertising. Covert advertising embedded in other entertainment media is known as product placement.

The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format and this is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime during popular TV events. The annual US Super Bowl football game is known as much for its commercial advertisements as for the game itself, and the average cost of a single thirty-second TV spot during this game has reached $2.3 million (as of 2004).

Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of Web-based advertising space are dependent on the "relevance" of the surrounding Web content. E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited E-mail advertising is known as "spam".

Some companies have proposed to place messages or corporate logos on the side of booster rockets and the International Space Station. Controversy exists on the effectiveness of subliminal advertising (see mind control), and the pervasiveness of mass messages (see propaganda).

Unpaid advertising (also called word of mouth advertising), can provide good exposure at minimal cost. Personal recommendations ("bring a friend", "sell it by zealot"), spreading buzz, or achieving the feat of equating a brand with a common noun ("Hoover" = "vacuum cleaner") -- these must provide the stuff of fantasy to the holder of an advertising budget.

Objectives           

One of the purposes of advertising is to stimulate demand for a product, service, or idea. Other factors influencing demand are price and substitutability. A major way advertising may stimulate demand is to create a brand franchise for a product. When enough brand equity is created that the brand has the ability to draw buyers (even without further advertising), it is said to have brand franchise. The ultimate brand franchise is when the brand is so prevalent in people's mind (called mind share), that it is used to describe the whole category of products. Kleenex, for example, can distinguish itself as a type of tissue or a label for a category of products. That is, it is frequently used as a generic term. One of the most successful firms to have achieved a brand franchise is Hoover , whose name was for a very long time synonymous with vacuum cleaner (and Dyson has subsequently managed to achieve similar status, having moved into the Hoover market with a more sophisticated model of vacuum cleaner).

A brand franchise can be established to a greater or lesser degree depending on product and market. In Texas, for example, it is common to hear people refer to anysoft drink as a Coke, regardless of whether it is actually produced by Coca-Cola or not (more accurate terms would be 'cola' or 'soda').

A legal risk of the brand franchise is that the name can become so widely accepted that it becomes a generic term, and loses trademark protection. Examples include "escalator", "aspirin" and "mimeograph". (See genericized trademark.)

Other objectives include short or long term increases in sales, market share, awareness, product information, and image improvement.

Techniques           

Advertisers use several recognizable techniques in order to better convince the public to buy a product. These may include:

• Repetition : Some advertisers concentrate on making sure their product is widely recognized. To that end, they simply attempt to make the name remembered through repetition.

• Bandwagon : By implying that the product is widely used, advertisers hope to convince potential buyers to "get on the bandwagon."

• Testimonials : Advertisers often attempt to promote the superior quality of their product through the testimony of ordinary users, experts, or both. "Three out of four dentists recommend..." This approach often involves an appeal to authority.

• Pressure : By attempting to make people choose quickly and without long consideration, some advertisers hope to make rapid sales: "Buy now, before they're all gone!"

• Association : Advertisers often attempt to associate their product with desirable imagery to make it seem equally desirable. The use of attractive models, a practice known as sex in advertising, picturesque landscapes and other alluring images is common. Also used are "buzzwords" with desired associations.

• Advertising slogans

• Controversy, as in the Benetton publicity campaign.

• Subliminal messages : It was feared that some advertisements would present hidden messages, for example through brief flashed messages or the soundtrack, that would have a hypnotic effect on viewers ('Must buy car. Must buy car.') The notion that techniques of hypnosis are used by advertisers is now generally discredited, though subliminal sexual messages are extremely common, ranging from car models with SX prefixes to suggestive positioning of objects in magazine ads and billboards.

It is important to note: During the past decade, advertising has increasingly employed the device of irony. Aware that today's media-savvy viewers are familiar with -- and thus cynical about -- the traditional methods listed above, advertisers have turned to poking fun at those very methods. This "wink-wink" approach is intended to tell viewers, "We know that YOU know we're trying to sell you something, so bear with us and let's have fun." The ultimate goal of such advertising is to convey a sense of trust and confidence with viewers, by essentially saying, "We respect your intelligence, and you should respect us because we're not trying to fool you." Common television examples include most beer advertising and the commercials of the Geico insurance company.

Public service advertising

The same advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and services can be used to inform, educate and motivate the public about serious non-commercial issues, such as AIDS, energy conservation, and deforestation.

Advertising, in its non-commercial guise, is a powerful educational tool capable of reaching and motivating large audiences. "Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest - it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes." - Attributed to Howard Gossage by David Ogilvy

Public service advertising, non-commercial advertising, public interest advertising, cause marketing, and social marketing are different terms for (or aspects of) the use of sophisticated advertising and marketing communications techniques (generally associated with commercial enterprise) on behalf of non-commercial, public interest issues and initiatives.

Regulation           

There have been increasing efforts to protect the public interest by regulating the content and the reach of advertising. Some examples are the ban on tobacco advertising imposed in the USA , and the total ban on advertising to children under twelve imposed by the Swedish government in 1991. Though that regulation continues in effect for broadcasts originating within the country, it has been weakened by the European Court of Justice, which has found that Sweden was obligated to accept whatever programming was targeted at it from neighboring countries or via satellite. In Europe and elsewhere there is a vigorous debate on whether and how much advertising to children should be regulated. This debate was exacerbated by a report released by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in February 2004 which suggested that food advertising targeting children was an important factor in the epidemic of childhood obesity raging across the United States .