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What is advertising?

The desired action could be winning back lost consumers, by announcing some improvements in the quality of the product or service. This could be done through the announcement of new type of convenient packaging. The same purpose could also be served by offering gifts or concessional prices. It might be necessary to reduce prices to hold on to consumers against competition. Here too advertisements could be used. Advertising would be necessary also to motivate consumers to continue buying a product or service, even when there is rise in prices. The consumer-oriented advertisement could serve other purposes, such as persuading buyers to continue with the product or service against competition from a new brand. It is often necessary to keep the name of the brand before the eyes of the consumer, even when the sales are going well. This becomes absolutely essential when the sales are going well. This becomes absolutely essential when there is any shortage of the product. I can recall some war-time advertisements. One was of a brand of cigarettes, not available at that time, because of production restrictions. The advertisement merely said that the particular brand was worth waiting for.

In the system of mass production and mass consumption the relations between the producer and the consumer are no longer direct. The wholesaler and the retailer come in between. Hence, the desired action of the advertiser could be to secure and retain wholesalers and retailers for its product. An advertisement could thus invite enquiries about terms of trade from retailers and wholesalers. There are advertisements, which serve a dual purpose. Apart from attracting consumers, the desired action could be to help the sales force or the retailers to sell the product. Backed by advertising support the sales force can approach consumers and retailers. Advertisements would encourage retailers to stock the product, on the expectation that it would ensure consumer response and hence sale. Such advertisements also inform the consumers of retail outlets in their localities. You must have noticed advertisements which carry a long list of names of shops which stock the goods advertised or provide after sales service, where necessary, as in the case of electronic entertainment goods or electric domestic equipment, or even books.

There are some occasions when the advertisement provides a direct link between the consumer and the producer. When department stores or retail outlets advertise, especially when conducting sale, the communication link is a direct one and a direct response is sought. Similarly, an advertiser might want to find out how useful a particular newspaper or magazine is in reaching the right consumer. The advertisement might have a coupon attached to it for further information or even for securing a free gift. The newspaper or magazine, which brings in the largest number of coupons, would obviously be considered the most effective medium for advertising purposes. The desired action here is not merely a sale but also a response to a coupon.

The purpose of advertising could also be recruiting staff or trying to secure export orders or announcing trading results to build confidence among shareholders. There are also advertisements purely for information purposes, such as those announcing deaths, marriages and births or acknowledgement of services rendered and so on. Of course, one cannot forget that probably more marriages are made today through the classified matrimonial advertisement columns of the daily newspapers than in heaven, as it used to be said at one time. In this case, of course, a desired action is sought to be motivated. From all this one can come to a further refinement of the definition of 'advertising': "Advertising is the paid dissemination of information for the purpose of selling or helping to sell commodities and services or of gaining acceptance of ideas that may cause people to think or act in a desired manner."

This definition would cover first the different types of organizations that take to advertising. These would include business organizations, governments, financial institutions, educational institutions, social and cultural organizations, welfare groups, religious bodies and political parties. Secondly, this definition would also cover a wide range of different types of advertisement, with different motivations for desired action or thought. Advertisements could be persuasive, informative, institutional or for creating confidence in an institution, financial, classified and display, retail, cooperative or joint, industrial, government, trade, etc. It might help to explain one or two of the types mentioned here. Classified advertisements are those, which appear in specially designed columns. Then there are display advertisements, which take larger space, distributed on different pages and have distinctive designs, arrangements of types and also illustrations in some cases.

At this stage it is necessary to make a distinction between advertising and publicity and propaganda. Let us begin with dictionary definitions. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines 'publicity' as "being open to general observation, notoriety; the business of advertising goods or persons." According to the chamber's Twentieth Centaury Dictionary publicity in the sense of advertising is used especially in the USA. In reality, publicity might be considered as an umbrella word, which covers practically every activity that opens up to general observation or makes public. It would, therefore, include advertising. Let us take a very common experience. A political party takes a particular decision. It is carried in the media, free of cost, as news. This is not advertising. It is publicity. The decision may be about the candidates to contest an election on behalf of the political party concerned. Public meetings to introduce the candidates might follow this public announcement through a press conference. This would be publicity, not advertising. When the next step is taken to buy space in newspapers, put up posters and hoardings asking people to vote that would amount to advertising as part of a planned publicity effort or campaign.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines 'propaganda' as: "Association or organized scheme for propagation of a doctrine or practice; (usually derogatory) doctrine, information, etc." Further, 'to propagate' means: "Disseminate, diffuse (statement, belief, practice)." The Chamber's Twentieth Century Dictionary is a little more specific in its definition of 'propaganda': "Any association, activity, plan, etc. for the spread of opinions and principles, especially to effect change or reform." In some respects propaganda is like advertising, It is an activity designed to gamer support for an opinion, creed or idea. It also has unpleasant associations, such as political propaganda, which is associated with exaggerated or false claims and promises government propaganda too has a similar association. At the same time there is propaganda for social causes, such as blood donation, family planning, fight against AIDS and drugs, and so on. The government undertakes much of this propaganda.

All these activities are now covered by the concept of social marketing. It involves using the arts and science of marketing a product and service through advertising. Thus the distinction between propaganda and advertising is somewhat slight, but nevertheless it is significant. This becomes evident when we consider the official definition of advertising. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising in the UK defines advertising thus: "Advertising presents the most persuasive possible selling message to the right prospects for the product or service at the lowest possible cost." One could also add to it the idea of right time and right place for the selling message to reach the prospects. This definition emphasizes the main objective as 'to sell'. Advertising, however, does not sell directly, as a salesman or a hawker does. It only provides the most persuasive communication, information. At the same time the concept of selling has today been widened to cover more than goods and services. It includes ideas as well as political parties and individual politicians or religious personalities or god men. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines the word 'sell' as: "Advertise or publish merits of; give (person) information on value of something, inspire with desire to buy or acquire or agree to something."

In the world of commerce and industry the key word today is no longer selling, but marketing. This covers a very wide range of activities, from identifying a product or service to reaching it to the consumer with the main objective of realizing profits. The Institute of Marketing defines 'marketing' as: "The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumer requirements profitably." The marketing operation would include dissemination of the most persuasive information to enable a sale, or advertising. Advertising thus is a component of marketing. Unless the product or service meets a consumer need and is easily available to him or her, advertising would be of no use. That is why the late David Malbert, city editor of The Evening Standard of London defined advertising as an. agent of marketing. Marketing includes marketing communication.

In the final analysis, advertising is not selling a product or service; it is selling an idea. A consumer buys a product or service for the satisfaction it provides. The interest is not in the product or service for itself, but in the satisfaction it provides. The consumer is buying satisfaction. Advertising tries to convince a prospective consumer that a particular product or service would satisfy an actual need or even a latent need. This need might even be purely psychological. If one buys a soap which is advertised as the beauty soap of the stars, one knows very well that one would not become a film star by using the soap or even acquire the complexion of a film star. The psychological satisfaction is of the self-delusion that one uses the same toilet soap as a film star. Advertising also sells a lifestyle. This is very true of advertisements of such products as pressure cookers or gas stoves. These might be described as convenience products. They are very useful for families in which both husband and wife work; clean, speedy and easy cooking is a very essential requirement of daily living. These products are related to a particular lifestyle. They might also be said to have met a latent demand. Thus advertising creates demands for new products and hence new lifestyles. Advertising is not directly selling goods or services, nor is it marketing; it is marketing communication.

Having established the relationship between publicity, propaganda, marketing and advertising, it is also necessary to understand its relationship with public relations, another area of operation in this total complex of activities. Public relations too is related to selling. Only it sells, or makes acceptable to the public, an institution or organization that might be involved in marketing goods and services or even ideas. Once again let us turn to the Concise Oxford Dictionary for a definition: "(Especially good) relations between organizations, etc. and the general public." The Chambers' Twentieth Century Dictionary says: "Directing relations with the public, e.g. by promoting knowledge through advertisement." Here is one relationship established with advertising. Like marketing, public relations also use advertising to sell an organization or an institution. Just as advertising helps make marketing effective, so also public relations can help advertising by building a good image of an organization, by creating trust and confidence in it. Thus any communication about the goods or services provided by this organization or institution finds a sympathetic audience. The advertising message itself then carries credibility from the outset.

In all this generalization that we have indulged in, all advertisements seem to fit into a pattern of information, persuasion, motivation. In reality this is a very complex process of carrying the consumer from the level of awareness about the satisfaction offered by a particular product or service to the compulsion to go and buy it. This is because no marketing situation is the same. There are different kinds of motivations for different segments of the population, depending on a very diverse range of factors, which include geographical locations. Different products and services call for different responses.. If we consider different types of advertising, we shall get some idea of this vast and diverse range of advertising situations and desired responses. Advertising of branded products are usually on a national scale. So we would be first concerned with national advertising. The market for such products would be the entire country. The products or services could include textiles, manufactured foods, toiletries, banking, insurance, airlines, hotels, mutual funds, company shares, etc. Advertisers of such products and services and for such a huge market would naturally be the large producers or service organizations, many of them multinational corporations with operations extending all over the world. The desired response would be purchase of the advertised product or service. The advertising is also nationwide. One can easily imagine that in a country as diverse as India, this itself is a major creative challenge for everyone, whatever the area of the complex of activities one might be engaged in. This type of advertising could also be called consumer advertising, advertising of consumer goods and services.

From the national we come to the local level. After all, the impact of all advertising is felt ultimately at the local or retail outlet. That is where the purchase or the desired action takes place. Obviously the market is local. What the retail outlet -provides, however, can be more specialized. There was a time when both villages and cities had areas where only one type of goods or services was available. So we had the weavers' area or the barbers' area. We generally do not have such trading areas today, but different retail outlets provide a different range of goods, except for the large department stores, where we can buy practically everything, except maybe cars and of course, big machinery. So you have retail advertising for the local market. The products or services advertised naturally relate to what is offered by the retail outlet concerned. The advertiser in this case is the retail store or the local service organization: textile shops, bookshops, stationers, drug stores, super bazaars, department stores, eateries, furniture shops, electric goods shops, etc. The desired response of advertising would be purchase of the consumer's requirements from the advertised retail outlets. It is obvious that the approach of advertising would be suited to the specific requirements of the local situation. This has its own challenges in terms not only of creativity but even in the creative utilization of available media or even innovating new ones.

Industrial advertising is another specialized area. Here too the market is usually' countrywide. It could also be regional depending on how the industrial users of such products are concentrated or dispersed. The products advertised would include steel, chemicals, machinery, lubricants, intermediate products used in the manufacture of finished goods, office equipment and products or services used in the manufacture of these products or which can facilitate their manufacture. It is the producers of these goods and services who would advertise. The desired response would be the use of these products or services as in other cases. Advertising would be national or regional depending on the nature of the market. What is important, however, is the message to be communicated. The audience or the consumers would be very different from those buying goods from retail outlets. The satisfaction that they would look for would be very different. So would be the sources from which they would seek the information. As large sums of money are involved, advertising might generate an interest, but not necessarily determine purchase, as is often the case with consumer goods. At the same time effective advertising can make a difference. Let me give an example from my own experience. A steel plant had invited tenders for buying new machinery and new technology. There were two foreign manufacturers competing. I was involved in advertising for one of the manufacturers. We decided to release a full-page advertisement in the local English daily to appear on the morning the tenders were to be opened and a final decision taken. When there was a discussion about the quality and capability of the competing manufacturers, our advertisement was considered and the company I was working for was selected. The advertisement did help in the purchase decision.

Trade advertising too needs a specialized approach. In this case the audience is not the consumer. The market is the retailer and the wholesaler. The advertiser is the manufacturer of the products which the retailers and wholesalers are expected to stock as part of the entire marketing process. The desired response of advertising has to be the willingness to stock and even promote the products concerned. Such advertising is usually national as the advertisers are interested" in the national market, though there might be a regional emphasis at times.

Another type of specialized advertising is professional advertising. The approach in this case is to professional users or prescribes of products and services, such as medical practitioners, engineers, scientists, architects, teachers and so on. The products or services are those, which meet the professional requirements of these people. These could be drugs and medicines or medical equipment, building material, text-books and a whole range of products or services which might not be bought directly by these persons, but would be recommended by them. For instance, during a study, in which I was involved, we found that purchase decisions in the case of engineering products, such as machinery and equipment, are often taken by a number of persons. Among them are people who actually use the machinery in the factory. The people responsible for the actual purchase do so on the recommendations of the actual users. Such advertising is usually on a national scale, but demands a different kind of approach than that for consumer goods or even for industrial products, generally.

As we have already seen, advertising is not confined to providing persuasive information about products and services; it is also concerned with the acceptance of ideas not connected with the sale of a product or service. Such advertising could be described as concept advertising. It would obviously be part of what is known as social marketing. Such advertising would be addressed to all categories of citizens to persuade them to accept certain ideas and even act accordingly, such as communal amity, religious tolerance, environmental protection, family welfare and health care, mass literacy and so on. This could include advertising, which helps public relations as well. The advertisers would be social welfare groups, non-governmental organizations, various religious institutions, government, political parties, cultural organizations, etc. Advertising would be very specific in character and could be very limited in the exposure it provides. It could be local, regional or national in its exposure and would attempt to reach out both to a very wide as well as a very specific audience.

One could also consider a broader classification of types of advertising. One talks of selling advertisements. You might say that all advertisements are trying to persuade people to buy or accept something and in that sense all advertising is selling. True, but there are advertisements whose main concentration is on the consumer to persuade him or her to go and buy a product or service. The distinction is easier to understand when we relate it to what we call as informative advertisement. In this case an immediate sale is not expected. A typical example would be consumer durables, such as a refrigerator or a music system or a micro-oven. These items are not bought on an impulse.

They cost a great deal of money and, therefore, are purchased after a great deal of consideration. Much information is required to help the consumer make up his or her mind. In many cases the advertisement alone would not influence the decision to purchase a particular brand of the product. One might discuss it with friends. Even the salesman at the retail outlet might have some influence in the final purchase decision. This is again a very challenging area of advertising, where one has to choose between providing information in a highly persuasive manner or create a need. In some cases the selling message could be very indirect as when promoting a leisure product or service, such as a weekend stay at a hotel in a place of tourist interest. The whole concept of relaxation, lifestyle, and similar moods is roused.

We also talk of institutional or corporate advertising. This is exactly what the name suggests. This is public relations advertising, building the prestige of an institution or an organization. In building the image of a company one talks of its research skills, advanced technology, tradition of quality and service, pioneering role or serving the national interest, good industrial relations, efficient management, and today, one might even talk of collaboration with a well known multinational company or using imported material.

In recent years, financial advertising has become a highly specialized area. It covers banking operations, sales of shares, inviting company deposits and debentures, company trading results, chairman's speech at the annual general meeting and so on. Government advertising is in a special category. It varies from classified advertisements to display: from the tender notices, employment notifications, to consumer and industrial products produced in the public sector and such services, and on to concepts and ideas.

Export advertising too is in a special category. It can cover all the various types that we have discussed so far, depending on what we are exporting, to what type of a consumer and for what kind of a response. The challenge here is that we are dealing with audiences in a foreign country. In many areas, thanks to the operation of multinational corporations, common messages about consumer products and services are conveyed across national boundaries. The challenge often is to present the message in an easily recognizable environment to create a sense of identity. At certain levels of living, this distinction of separate identity is getting diffused. Even so, in the United States, for instance, advertisement of the same product and service might be different for Blacks from that for the rest. Some years ago, I had come across a lavishly produced journal, Ebony, which was a Black magazine and many well-known products and services were advertised with illustrations of Black people and their living environments.

It should be evident now that there is possibly more to advertising than a pretty picture, evocative words, music and dance. The demands of the product or service and of the market are very diverse and much thought, study, understanding and hard labor are necessary for an 'advertisement', what we have earlier defined as: "To inform, make aware, influence, persuade, motivate and finally ensure the desired action." It may be investing in a product or service, adopting a lifestyle or accepting and acting according to an idea or concept.