Advertising may be defined as one of the marketing activities in which the advertisement is produced with the goal to persuade audience to buy a product, pay for service or adopt an idea. Advertising audience varies depending on the medium on which advertisement is presented: viewers for advertisement on television, readers for advertisement in newspaper, listeners for advertisement on radio etc.
Purpose
The main purpose of advertising is to sell a product, so most of advertisements are commercial ones. However, they can be used in ideological and political campaigns in order to change the way most people think.
Types
Advertising comes in many different forms. There is no media that can’t show advertisements. Even places and products that weren’t meant to be media tools can carry advertisements, such as buses, walls, shopping carts, receipts and much more.
There are many available classifications of advertising. One of them says that there are two main types of advertising:
transactional – promotes sales, events and special offers
relational – promotes the brand itself and creates positive atmosphere about the company
The other classification offers 8 important types. They are:
broadcast advertising – the most popular type; ads on TV and radio
mobile advertising – using mobile devices as medium for ads; including social media
online advertising – every ad put on the Internet
outdoor advertising – those ads that people can see when they are outside
print advertising – any printed material can fall under this category: newspaper, flyers, direct mail and many more
product placement advertising – using certain brands in a movie or TV show
public service advertising – they exist mainly with the goal to educate and inform and they are not commercial
Importance
It’s very difficult to imagine the world without advertising. Many industries depend on advertising. Even the Internet wouldn’t exist in the form it does today if there weren’t advertisements.
The whole capitalistic society very much depends on advertising. Without the way to reach new potential customers, there would probably be no international companies, and even big national companies existence is questionable. If someone opens a hair salon, for example, and doesn’t promote it in any way, the chances are he will never have any business. Advertising is highly connected to the money, so any potentially commercial job has to be promoted in one way or the other.
