Advertising – SS1 Marketing Lesson Note (Third Term)

Advertising is any paid, non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. define advertising;
2. state the main features of advertising;
3. explain the objectives of advertising;
4. state the benefits of advertising to manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, consumers and salesmen.

What is advertising?

Advertising is any paid form of non-personal communication about ideas, goods or services, made by an identified sponsor.

• Purpose: it informs people, builds brand preference and educates the target audience.
• Another definition: any paid, non-personal presentation of ideas, goods or services to induce people to buy.
• Sponsor: the person or company that pays for the advertisement and can be identified.
• Advertisement: the message that is presented to the audience.
• Non-personal: the message reaches many people through media, not through one-to-one talk.
• Importance today: hardly any modern business does not advertise, so companies set aside money for an advertising budget.

What media are used for advertising?

Advertising messages are carried by two groups of media: traditional media and new media.

What are the main features of advertising?

The main features of advertising are that it is paid for, non-personal, identifiable and aimed at increasing sales.

• Aimed at sales: it is directed towards increasing sales.
• Paid: it is a paid form of publicity.
• Non-personal: it is directed at a mass audience.
• Identifiable: the sponsor or originator is known, which is not always so with publicity or propaganda.

What is the difference between advertising and personal selling?

Advertising is a paid message sent to a mass audience through the media.

Personal selling is direct, face-to-face communication between a salesman and an individual customer.

What are the objectives of advertising?

The objective of advertising is to sell a product, a service or an idea through effective communication between producers and consumers.

• Preparing ground for a new product: potential customers have never used a new product, so advertisement prepares the ground for it.
• Creation of demand: it creates a favourable climate for maintaining and improving sales.
• Reminding customers: it reminds buyers about the product and the brand.
• Winning new customers: it informs them about the product’s qualities, since some customers may change brands.
• Facing the competition: it builds brand image and brand loyalty, which makes it difficult for middlemen to change customers’ choice.
• Creating or enhancing goodwill: large-scale advertising improves the company’s image and makes the product more acceptable.
• Helping the salesman: goodwill helps the salesman to win customers easily.
• Informing customers of changes: changes in price, channels of distribution, quality, size, weight, brand or packaging must be passed on to the public.
• Neutralising competitors’ advertising: when rivals advertise heavily, a firm follows similar practices and creates a different image for its product.
• Barring new entrants: a strong image built by long advertising builds a kind of monopoly that new firms find hard to break.

In short, advertising benefits the producer, educates the consumer and supplements the salesman. It is a link between producer and consumer.

What are the benefits of advertising?

Advertising benefits manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, consumers and salesmen by making goods known and easier to sell.

• General benefit: it broadens consumers’ knowledge, so they find and buy needed goods without wasting time.
• Faster sales: it speeds up sales of goods.
• Efficiency: it increases the efficiency of labour in distribution.
• Lower cost: it reduces the costs of selling.

What are the benefits of advertising to manufacturers?

• Higher sales: it increases sales volume by creating attraction towards the product.
• New products: it helps the manufacturer to introduce new products easily.
• Goodwill: it creates an image and reputation for the product and for the producer.
• Price maintenance: it makes retail price maintenance possible where price appeal is the promotional strategy.
• Direct contact: it helps to establish direct contact between manufacturers and consumers.
• Steady demand: it smooths out demand and reduces seasonal fluctuations by finding new uses for the product.

What are the benefits of advertising to wholesalers and retailers?

• Easy sales: products sell easily because consumers know the product and its quality.
• Faster stock turnover: demand is already created by the advertisement.
• Support: it supplements their selling activities.
• Shared reputation: they share the reputation created and need not spend on advertising an already advertised product.
• Economy: selling becomes cheaper because selling overheads are reduced.
• Information: it gives them product information.

What are the benefits of advertising to consumers?

• Guarantee of quality and price: advertising stresses quality and often price, which acts as an indirect guarantee.
• Lower cost: large-scale production supported by advertising lets the seller charge less.
• Cheaper goods: it can reduce the need for middlemen by establishing direct contact between producers and consumers.
• Saves time: consumers learn where and when products are available.
• Comparison: consumers can compare the merits and demerits of substitutes.
• New uses: it is a main way to learn the varied and new uses of a product.
• Information: modern advertisements are highly informative.

What are the benefits of advertising to salesmen?

Advertising is the forerunner of the salesman, because salesmanship is incomplete without it.

• Easy introduction: the manufacturer has already told consumers about the product and its quality.
• Prepared ground: advertising lets the salesman begin work effectively, so sales efforts improve.
• Lasting contact: the customer is assured of quality and price, so the contact becomes permanent.
• Feedback: in direct contact with consumers, the salesman can weigh how effective the advertising is.

Evaluation

1. Define advertising.
2. State the main features of advertising.
3. Explain any four objectives of advertising.
4. State three benefits of advertising to consumers.

Assignment

1. Explain three ways advertising benefits manufacturers and three ways it helps a salesman in his work.