Today’s World of Advertising and Promotion

Our tryst with advertising starts the day we are born, or launched in this world, the first cry declares we have arrived, and the team of doctors and nurses rush to assist the arrival, we advertise and cry loudly, whenever we are hungry, later we show our tantrums and cry and shout, the moment our request for kurkure, chips or chocolate is rejected. The show goes on….and perhaps die in a hospital, watching an ad.

Organizations have learned that the ability to communicate effectively and efficiently with their target audiences is critical to their success. Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali has succeeded in carving out a 5000 cr empire, and publicity and advertising has played an important role. Advertising and other forms of promotional messages are used to sell products and services as well as to promote causes, market political candidates, and deal with societal problems such as prevention of polio, alcohol and drug abuse. Consumers are finding it increasingly difficult to avoid the efforts of marketers, who are constantly looking for new ways to communicate with them, like face-book and twitter and other social media platforms, use of toilets in PVR’s and multiplexes to advertise or using toilet paper as a medium to send messages, in the quiet and peaceful environment. Professionals involved in advertising and promotion will vouch for the fact that there is nothing more dynamic and fascinating field to either practice or study, which is undergoing dramatic changes that are changing advertising and promotion forever.

Changing Advertising Scene

Clients: Clients are demanding better results from their advertising and promotional campaigns, better return on investment.

Ad agencies: The agencies are getting leaner and smarter, and highly creative

Consumers: They try to avoid ads and change the interacting medium, it was radio and papers at one time then TV was introduced, today its smart-phones and internet, tomorrow is a question mark. They don’t respond to traditional forms of advertising; and the evolving technologies that may change the way message is sent across, and perhaps change the character of advertising itself.

We are experiencing the most dynamic and revolutionary changes of any era in the history of marketing, as well as advertising and promotion. These changes are being driven by advances in info-technology and the growth of communications through the Internet.

Rise of the small: The advertising business was dominated by large, full-service –type agencies. The advertising strategy for a national brand included creating commercials for TV, a couple of print ads that would keep running in magazines, and complemented by some sales promotion. Things have drastically changed, with a plethora of avenues - print, radio, FM, cable TV, and the Internet—competing for consumers’ attention.

Going beyond the traditional things-Marketers are looking beyond the traditional media to find many new and better ways to communicate with their customers.

Modern day advertisers are redefining the concept of what an ad is and where it runs. Stealth messages are being woven into way of life and installed into motion pictures and TV shows. They create short films or commercials that are shown on their websites and you tube.

Marketers are also changing the ways they allocate their promotional budget. Spending on sales promotion activities focused at both consumers and the trade has surpassed advertising media expenses.

In his book The End of Marketing as We Know It, Sergio Zyman, the former head of marketing for Coca-Cola, declares traditional marketing is “not dying, but dead.” He argues that advertising in general is overrated as part of the marketing mix and notes that all elements of the marketing mix communicate, such as packing, some marketers regard it as the fifth P of marketing, brand names, packaging, pricing, and the way a product is distributed. The spread of Info tech is exposing consumers to all types of communications, and marketers need to better understand this process.

Factors impacting the way marketers communicate with consumers.

Fragmented audience. Most of the teenagers are glued to their smart-phones, with scant regard for TV or newspapers. Regionalized Advertising and promotional efforts. The readership of Hindi and regional language newspapers is growing at a much faster pace.

Powerful Retailers: Retailers have become larger and more powerful. Phenomenal growth of the Future Group (Big Bazaar), Reliance, Spencer’s etc have demonstrated the growth and power of retailers, forcing marketers to shift money from advertising budgets to sales promotion

Marketers expect their promotional spend to generate immediate sales and are demanding more accountability from their agencies. The Internet revolution is well under way and the online audience is growing rapidly.

IMC: Integrated marketing communications: Many companies are coordinating all their communications efforts so that they can send cohesive messages to their customers. It’s an amalgamation of advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity and direct marketing.

Building brands without traditional media advertising.

In many cases social media has to a large extent replaced traditional advertising tools.

Advertising- Nature and Importance

 “Advertise” originates from the Latin word "advertere” meaning “to turn toward" or “to pay attention”.

Ad is the stimulus, to seek the response of public at large, with the objective of influencing or persuading them to take a desired action, for e.g. purchase of the product. It is non personal and used to promote ideas, goods or services, by an identified sponsor.

Advertising is an impersonal form of promotion that is directed towards the public at large and is paid for. It is a communication tool used to influence or persuade specific group of audience to take a desired action during a particular period. It may also be other way, the response from the customer, may be the stimulus for the advertisers to advertise more and more, the product may sell for other reasons, for e.g. the solution it provides, or the gap it fills, and because the product is accepted in the market, it provides the stimulus to the sponsor to advertise. Advertising is a continuous communication process, to disseminate information about the advertising firm, its products, price, and distribution i.e., place of availability of its products, etc. Advertisement is a crucial ingredient for both the seller and the consumer. Advertising has become vital, as the seller’s market changes to buyer’s market and mass production churning out products in huge quantities is constantly looking for new customers, therefore cannot think of pushing sale of their products without promoting them. Advertisement supplements personal selling and other components of integrated marketing communications, to a great extent. Advertising has acquired great importance in the modern world where tough competition in the market and fast changes in technology, and other dimensions of business environment.