Advertising

I

Introduction

Advertising, collective term for public announcements designed to promote the sale of specific commodities or services. Advertising is a form of mass selling, employed when the use of direct, person-to-person selling is impractical, impossible, or simply inefficient. It is to be distinguished from other activities intended to persuade the public, such as propaganda, publicity, and public relations. Advertising techniques range in complexity from the publishing of simple, straightforward notices in the classified advertisement columns of newspapers to the concerted use of newspapers, magazines, television, radio, the Internet, direct mail, and other communications media in the course of a single advertising campaign. From its unsophisticated beginnings in ancient times, advertising has burgeoned into a worldwide industry.

America is by far the largest user of advertising in terms of annual expenditure. In the United States alone in the late 1980s, approximately US$120 billion was spent in a single year on advertising to influence the purchase of commodities and services. By 2003 this figure had grown to a total of over US$132 billion and accounted for 41 per cent of the global spend on advertising. The United States was followed by Japan and the United Kingdom who spent over US$31 billion and over US$19 billion/£10 billion respectively on advertising that same year. As of 2006, total advertising expenditure worldwide was predicted soon to exceed US$400 billion.

Modern advertising is an integral segment of urban industrial civilization, mirroring contemporary life in its best and worst aspects. Having proven its force in the movement of economic goods and services, advertising since the early 1960s has been directed increasingly towards matters of social concern. Health awareness and anti-drink-driving campaigns are two examples of the use of the advertising industry as a means to promote public welfare.

Advertising falls into two main categories: consumer advertising, directed at the ultimate purchaser, and trade advertising, in which the appeal is made to dealers through trade journals and other media.

Both consumer and trade advertising employ many specialized types of commercial persuasion. A relatively minor, but important, form of advertising is institutional (or corporate) advertising, which is designed solely to build prestige and public respect for particular business concerns. Each year vast sums are spent on institutional advertising, which usually mentions products or services for sale only incidentally.

Another minor, but increasingly popular, form of advertising is cooperative advertising, in which the manufacturer shares the expense of local radio or newspaper advertising with the retailer who signs the advertisement. National advertisers occasionally share the same space in magazine advertising.

Advertising may be local, national, or international in scope. The rates charged for the three different levels of advertising vary sharply, particularly in newspapers; varying rates are set for differing classifications of advertising. At one end of the scale are display advertisements for expensive consumer items such as cars. At the other is classified advertising, which ranges from appointments and property advertising at the top, to relatively inexpensive charitable and religious advertisements at the bottom.

II

History

The origins of advertising lie thousands of years in the past. One of the first known methods of advertising was the outdoor display, usually an eye-catching sign painted on the wall of a building. Archaeologists have uncovered many such signs, notably in the ruins of ancient Rome and Pompeii. An outdoor advertisement excavated in Rome offers property for rent, and one found painted on a wall in Pompeii calls the attention of travellers to a tavern situated in another town.

In medieval times word-of-mouth praise of products gave rise to a simple but effective form of advertising, the use of so-called town criers. The criers were citizens who read public notices aloud and were also employed by merchants to shout the praises of their wares. Although graphic forms of advertising appeared early in history, printed advertising made little headway until the invention of the printing press. The trademark, a two- or three-dimensional design symbolizing a company or industry, dates from about the 16th century, when tradespeople and guild members posted characteristic symbols outside their shops. Among the best-known trademarks surviving from early modern times are the striped pole of the barber and the three-ball sign of the pawnbroker.

In terms of both volume and technique, advertising made its greatest early advances in the United States. In the early stages of American advertising, nationwide promotion was impractical because the nation itself was underdeveloped and lacked transcontinental transport, distribution, and communications systems. Eventually, however, certain types of manufacturers conceived the idea of bypassing wholesalers and retailers and reaching the consumer through direct advertising, mainly by means of catalogues. The pioneers in this field were seed companies and book and pamphlet publishers. Mail-order houses appeared on the scene as early as the 1870s. To the present day they have continued to expand their businesses through direct-mail catalogue and flyer advertising, although some of the biggest houses also sell through retail outlets. Nowadays, advances in advertising are international.

Patent-medicine companies loomed large in British newspaper and magazine advertising from the mid-19th century. They found a ready market because doctors and reliable chemists were scarce outside populated areas. The patent-medicine bottlers made a gross profit of between 80 and 90 per cent and could therefore well afford to spend money publicizing their remedies. Railways and steamship lines were also among the early users of advertising in the United States, not only to praise the luxury and comfort of their modes of travel but also to publish their schedules and rates.

Late in the 19th century many firms began to market packaged goods under brand names. This development initiated a new era in the history of advertising. Previously, such everyday household products as sugar, soap, rice, molasses, butter, milk, lard, beans, confectionery, candles, and pickles had been sold in local shops from bulk packages. As a result, consumers had seldom been aware of, or influenced by, brand names.

In Britain and the United States, soap-makers were early advertisers of packaged and branded products. The first “household name” soap brands, which date from about 1880, include Ivory, Pears’, and Colgate. Soon afterwards such brands as Royal Baking Powder, Quaker Oats, and Waterman’s Pens were nationally advertised. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century Americans began to be aware of such brand names as Wrigley and Coca-Cola.

After World War I, advertising developed into a business so big that it became almost a trademark of the United States itself in the eyes of the world. This expansion was stimulated by many technical improvements, and the expanding American industry inspired innovations and improved techniques that benefited other facets of business in the nation.

The invention of electricity led to the illuminated outdoor poster; photoengraving and other modern printing inventions helped both the editorial and advertising departments of printed journals. Advertising was used increasingly by public-relations specialists as an important means of communication. In the United States, the advent of radio in the 1920s stimulated a whole new technique of selling by voice, but commercial radio was not to begin in Britain until the 1970s.

Commercial television advertising began in Britain in 1955. The combination of sound, movement, and colour that modern television offers can provide greater scope than most other media. It is generally regarded as the most powerful and persuasive of all media and has the capacity to build brand awareness rapidly among a high proportion of the population. However it is also very expensive, both in terms of airtime and production. Today, the increasing number of channels now available through the development of satellite, cable, and digital television present new challenges and opportunities for media planners who have to schedule airtime in a manner that will provide the greatest number of viewers from within the target audience (coverage), as well as the greatest number of opportunities to see the commercial (frequency).

The proliferation of the Internet and digital television since the 1990s has opened up many new avenues for advertising, for a discussion of which see below III Media.

III

Media

Advertising messages are disseminated through numerous and varied channels or media. The major media in developed countries are newspapers and consumer magazines, television, direct mail, radio, the Internet, business publications, and outdoor and transport advertising. In addition, a significant amount of advertising is invested in miscellaneous media, such as window displays, free local newspapers and shopping-news publications, calendars, and even sandwich-boards.

A wide range of advertising media has been developed from sources whose potential importance was formerly ignored. Delivery trucks, once plainly painted, now often carry institutional or product messages, as do many shipping cartons. Some packages, for example, takeaway food cartons, carry advertising for products other than those contained in them, as do telephone credit cards. Wrapping paper and shopping bags bearing advertisements are used widely by retail stores to advertise their own products and services.

In recent years, the use of ambient media has become more widespread. The term “ambient media” refers to advertising media that exploits the use of common objects or materials that the audience will encounter within their everyday environment. To a varying degree, these objects or materials become part of the advertisement themselves. Some of the very earliest examples of ambient media were found in petrol stations where advertisements were placed on the nozzles of petrol pumps. More elaborate examples have involved the use, manipulation, or utilization of buildings, architectural fixtures, furniture, animals, and even people in order to convey the advertising message. Ambient media can be particularly effective as it tends to take the audience by surprise.

The proliferation of electronic and various digital media has also had a profound impact on the channels of communication being used by organizations to promote their brands or services. Digital television and the Internet have permitted a greater level of interaction with audiences, and as more households embrace the new technology, both of these media are beginning to converge. WebTV is perhaps the ultimate manifestation of this as it combines the key functions of both the Internet and television, enabling viewers to access Web sites and order products online through their television sets. Online advertising tools include company Web sites, Web communities (Websites that provide a channel for people with similar interests to exchange information), online stores, banner ads, pop-up ads, e-mail newsletters, and unsolicited e-mails (sometimes referred to as spamming). Not all online advertising is welcomed by its recipients, and pop-up ads together with e-mail “spam” has the capacity to be intrusive and annoying. While the full potential of digital television and the Internet has yet to be reached, they are both certain to expand the scope of interactive advertising in the future.

IV

Direct Advertising

Direct advertising includes all forms of sales appeals posted, delivered, or exhibited directly to the prospective buyer of an advertised product or service, without use of any indirect medium, such as newspapers or television. Direct advertising may be divided logically into three broad classifications, namely, direct-mail advertising, mail-order advertising, and unmailed direct advertising.

All forms of sales appeals (except mail-order appeals) that are sent through the post are considered direct-mail advertising. The chief functions of direct-mail advertising are to familiarize prospective buyers with a product, its name, its maker, and its merits, and with the product’s local distributors. The direct-mail appeal is designed also to support the sales activities of retailers by encouraging the continued patronage of both old and new customers.

When no personal selling is involved, other methods are needed to induce people to send in orders by post. In addition to newspapers, magazines, television, and radio, special devices such as single-product folders or multi-product catalogues are used in mail-order advertising. Mail-order promotions are designed to accomplish a complete selling job without salespeople. The success of direct mail rests on the quality of the database from which advertisers and their respective agencies draw up their mailing lists. Up-to-date, accurate databases enable advertisers to target the recipients of the advertising in a precise manner.

Used for the same broad purposes as direct-mail advertising, unmailed direct advertising includes all forms of indoor advertising displays and all printed sales appeals distributed from door to door, handed to customers in retail shops, included in packages and bundles of merchandise, or conveyed in some other manner directly to the recipient.

With each medium competing keenly for its share of business, advertising agencies continue to develop new techniques for displaying and selling wares and services. Among these techniques have been vastly improved printing and reproduction methods in the graphic field, adapted to magazine advertisements and to direct-mail enclosures; the use of colour in newspaper advertisements and in television; and more attractively designed and efficiently lit outdoor signboards, which are sometimes even three-dimensional. Many subtly effective improvements are suggested by advertising research.