How Does Advertising Work? Essay -- Business Management Studies

How Does Advertising Work? INTRODUCTION ------------ Definition  · The original definition of advertising was â€Å"to draw attention to something† or to notify or inform someone of something (Branston 1996).  · A modern definition is the publication (in various forms) of facts or opinions concerning goods or services, to awaken the public’s interest and persuade them to purchase.  · Advertising is now big business – an industry with extraordinary cultural and economic impact.  · This is funded through the cost of the goods that consumers buy.  · Advertising is now the media form most often encountered, and is perhaps the most powerful and pervasive form of propaganda in history.  · It is found in various forms including on billboards, websites, â€Å"junk mail†, and commercially funds most television, newspapers and magazines.  · Advertising has the power to create brand awareness and loyalty as well as stimulating demand. Advertising is not a science  · It is important to realise that advertising is not a science.  · An individual will interpret an advertisement using their own social networks, their own backgrounds and their own motivations.  · The way an advertisement is interpreted cannot be controlled or monitored by an advertiser, therefore it is important to realise that they do not contain a single meaning for all audience members.  · Advertising is much more effective when an advertiser understands their audience’s background and social networks as well as their ability to select media and advertisements that appear in those media.  · Therefore the challenge for advertising is to create a message that ultimately connects with a select group of people. WHAT DOES ADVERTISING DO?  · It has already been stated that advertising is created to help sell something.  · Therefore the ultimate goal of advertising is to increase the advertiser’s sales no matter who the advertiser is or the target audience, what the product is, or how the ad is delivered. Advertising Goals  · The ultimate goal of advertising is to increase sales.  · However, in terms of functional aspects a more specific advertising goal is required.  · There are various advertising objectives, which can largely be generalised into the following eight areas: . To provide ... ...nt methods and models.  · Consumers go through a complicated mental process when they make a decision about even simple purchasing which helps explain why advertising can be such a complicated subject and difficult to perfect.  · Consumers learn from advertising by acquiring knowledge about products that are available and figuring out which products can satisfy their needs.  · Consumers base their decisions on rational, informational aspects of advertising based on logic, as well as emotional aspects based on feelings and attitudes.  · All adverts stimulate these responses to some extent.  · It is the job of the advertiser to create an advert which will make the best use of these possible responses to affect an increase in sales.  · All brands have functional attributes, personality and salience as underlying brand dynamics.  · However, any given piece of advertising will only stimulate one primary response and one driving brand dynamic.  · Methods of and responses to advertising have changed much over the last 100 years and will continue to do so in the future as society continues to change, and new technologies are developed.