PART 3

What makes an advertisement effective?

There are a number of facts that makes an advertisement effective.
To begin
with, the advertisement on a particular product has to be absolutely
relevant and
specific on its message while also describing at the same time what
exactly set
the product apart from others in terms of its benefits. Besides, for an
advertisement to be effective, the language or the wording has to be
unique to the
target audience, based on their age, gender, race, culture, religion
and
geographic location. Finally, the advertisement should include a clear
“call for
action” such as asking to buy the product or contact.
What is the purpose of advertising?
For a given market segment, there are six main purposes of an
advertisement, which include informing the consumers about a
certain
product and convince customers, changing the belief about a certain
brand,
enhance the image of the company, point out and create a need for
products or services, generating new direct sales and announce new
products and programs. Some advertisements may also want to
demonstrate new uses for established products and send a reminder
to use
an existing product.
How have advertisements changed since you were a child?
Advertisements have changed significantly over the years since I
was a
child. For a starter, when I was a child, if I remember correctly, there
were
only radio, TV and print media to show us the advertisements, but
today
there are computers, smartphones, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
also
on which advertisements are being displayed continuously. We can
also
see billboards, neon signs, and other vibrant and visually captivating
printed designs, that are placed at strategic locations with high
volumes of
human traffic, which were not seen when I was a child.
Do you think that advertisements should be strictly regulated?
Yes, I do think that advertisement should be strictly regulated
because,
without it, misleading information on the products will keep deceiving
the
customers into buying wrong and defected products. Besides,
without strict
regulation, bigger companies will always have undue advantages,
because
of their higher budget for advertisements, over the smaller and local
manufacturers/companies even though the products of “bigger”
companies
are of inferior quality to those of smaller companies. In other words,
advertisement kills competition and gives larger companies an unfair
advantage over smaller companies.
How important is it for advertisers to tell the whole truth in
advertisements?
It is absolutely important for advertisers to tell the whole truth in
advertisements for
trust issues. Advertisers should tell customers exactly what they are
buying or
getting because if there is a discrepancy between the expectation of
the customers
and what the advertisers advertise, then the trust would be lost, and
the customers
most likely would never come back to buy the same products again
in the future.
Besides, some customers may also go as far as “suing” the
company, if they think
that they are lied to, which certainly is not good for the lasting image
of a company.