Advertising in Marketing Communication
Advertising is a type of communication through mass media, the firm will usually pay for this type of communication. Advertising is a ‘paid for’ communication. It is used to develop attitudes, create awareness, and transmit information in order to gain a response from the target market. We generally come across hundreds of advertising messages every day, which tell us about various products such as toilet soaps, detergent powder, soft drinks and services such as hotels, insurance policies, etc.
Advertising is perhaps the most commonly used tool for promotion. It is an impersonal form of communication, which is paid for by the marketers (sponsors) to promote some goods or service. The most common modes of advertising are ‘newspapers’, ‘magazines’, ‘television’, and ‘radio’.
The important distinguishing features of advertising are as follows:
(i) Paid Form: Advertising is a paid form of communication. That is, the sponsor has to bear the cost of communicating with the prospects.
(ii) Impersonality: There is no direct face-to-face contact between the prospect and the advertiser. It is, therefore, referred to them as the impersonal method of promotion. Advertising creates a monologue and not a dialogue.
(iii) Identified Sponsor: Advertising is undertaken by some identified individual or company, who makes the advertising efforts and also bears the cost of it.
