ADVERTISING

1. The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business through media: paid announcement, in
the form of print, broadcast or electronic.
2. Advertising is the attraction of attention, arousing interest, and creating desire that stimulates action to buy
a product or service.

TYPES OF ADVERTISEMENT
Informative Advertising
This is where the organisation provides information about goods and services available e.g. new products,
fares, types of services available and timetable.

Persuasive Advertising
It is aimed at customers to buy a company’s goods at the expense of competitor cross elasticity e.g. the use of
rail over road, citing advantage of rail over road.

Collective Advertising
This is where products in the same industry advertise together. Names of products or services are not
mentioned e.g. advertising the use of road transport this is usually done by trade associations.

ADVERTISING MEDIA
Advertising can be through the print media, electronic media and location media.

Print media – Print advertising describes advertising in a printed medium such as a newspaper, magazine, or
trade journal. This encompasses everything from media with a very broad readership base, such as a major
national newspaper or magazine, to more narrowly targeted media such as local newspapers and trade
journals on very specialized topics. Classified advertising allows private individuals or companies to purchase a
small, narrowly targeted ad for a low fee advertising a product or service.

In newspapers, an advert can occupy a certain section within the timeframe covered by the advertising fees an
advertising client pays. Normally, newspaper readers believe the adverts they pick out are authentic.
Newspapers are cheap and offer broad coverage. However, newspaper adverts are short-lived and do not cater
for the illiterate consumer. Adverts may easily be associated with the newspaper’s reputation.

Magazines and journals are passed along many interested readers and their form lasts a long time. Therefore
adverts contained in them can be revisited several times, still proving effective in capturing interest. Adverts in
magazines and journals are printed on high quality paper and appear so attractive to readers. They are easy to
reach the target market e.g. women’s lifestyle magazines. The demerits of magazines and journals are that
magazines and journals are expensive. Adverts are restricted to those target groups catered for by this kind of
print media. Potential customers are excluded.

Broadcast media - broadcast media covers radio and television. Both radio and television provide wide
coverage and ensure that adverts become available to various potential markets. Television creates lasting
impressions and the targeting and timing, as for excellent programme schedules by broadcast services, is to a
large extent, very effective. A common flaw of advertising via TV and radio is that the less fortunate proportion
of society cannot afford TV and radio sets. Also the broadcast reception of certain areas is sometimes obscured
by a combination of natural and man-made structural barriers (mountains and skyscrapers), and the
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oversubscribed broadcast airspace in busy urban establishments. This hinders adverts from reaching intended
areas. Furthermore, radio appeals to hearing sensory thus, the deaf are discriminated from experiencing the
spur of advertisements.

Direct mail and mail order – adverts may accompany publications such as telephone directories, pamphlets,
catalogues and booklets.

Location media – e.g. placed or handheld posters on sides flanking busy streets, neon and electronic
billboards, and the practice of in-store advertising. The bright colours attract attention. Transit adverts ensure
broad, network coverage daily. Statistics over the years have revealed how posters and billboards along
highways have successfully facilitated the outreach of adverts, while contributing to road accidents. They
obviously distract motorists. In-store advertising is any advertisement placed in a retail store. It includes
placement of a product in visible locations in a store, such as at eye level, at the ends of aisles and near checkout
counters, eye-catching displays promoting a specific product, and advertisements in such places as shopping
carts and in-store video displays.

FACTORS THAT AFFECT CHOICE OF ADVERTISING MEDIA

 Cost of media
 Target market e.g. children, adults, female, male, students, practicing professionals, etc.
 Coverage required
 Nature of products
 Urgency of message
 Method of appeal

CRITICISM OF ADVERTISING
While advertising can be seen as necessary for economic growth, it is not without social costs. Unsolicited
Commercial Email and other forms of spam have become so prevalent as to have become a major nuisance to
users of these services, as well as being a financial burden on internet service providers. Advertising is
increasingly invading public spaces, such as schools, which some critics argue is a form of child exploitation. In
addition, advertising frequently uses psychological pressure (for example, appealing to feelings of inadequacy)
on the intended consumer, which may be harmful. Criticism of advertising is closely linked with criticism of
media and often interchangeable.

Advertising and growth are directly and causally linked. As far as a growth based economy can be blamed for
the harmful human lifestyle (affluent society) advertising has to be considered in this aspect concerning its
negative impact, because its main purpose is to raise consumption.