Definition of Advertising – The understanding of what advertising is is not evenly understood by most people. Some of them even equate advertising with marketing. Even though in reality, every day we find lots of forms of advertising that are scattered everywhere. Whether it’s on social media, even in several shopping centers. What is the reason? Certainly because advertising or advertising is an important component in business development efforts. Where this advertising aims to increase brand awareness and attract more customers.
In this article, we will discuss more about what advertising is, types of advertising, and its benefits for a company. Advertising itself plays a fairly important role in the marketing strategy of every business and company today. Because, by using advertising, companies can reach the target market and build effective brand awareness.
The review below will invite you to understand more about the ins and outs of advertising and also its role in the marketing strategy of a business.
A. Definition of Advertising
Advertising is an effort or process of persuading the target market to take certain actions, such as buying a product or using a service, bringing awareness to something, and so on. In a business or company, advertising can be used for various purposes. Starting from increasing awareness of a brand, directing potential customers to your business, promoting sales of new products or services to the market, and differentiating products from competitors.
At first glance, this advertising resembles marketing. But it should be understood that the two are different things. Marketing is a big picture of the whole process or company strategy in increasing awareness of certain brands and convincing customers to take action. While advertising is the process of creating persuasive messages that support the goals of the marketing itself. In other words, it can be said that advertising is one part of the components in marketing.
B. Types of Marketing
In a business, advertising has the goal of attracting new customers by setting a target market and reaching them through an effective advertising campaign. For a wider reach, companies will usually implement more than one type of advertising. In general, now there are many types of advertising available. The following are several types of advertising that you need to understand.
1. Online Advertising
Online advertising or what is often referred to as online advertising is a type of advertising whose material is delivered to the target audience online. This type of advertising has become one of the most popular and effective forms of advertising to do in recent years. This online advertising will allow us to determine and target the target market according to our wishes, which can be determined by age, gender, location, and so on. Likewise with the price, which is relatively cheaper than other types of advertising. For now, some online advertising that is often used is through Instagram Ads, Youtube Ads, Facebook Ads, and also Google Ads.
2. Print Media Advertising
This type of advertising can be found in print media such as magazines, newspapers, brochures, posters, directories, and flyers. Although not as popular as online advertising, print media advertising is still used today to promote products or services. Generally, local print media are used by local businesses to promote their business while reaching more customers.
3. Television Ads
Before entering the digital era as it is today, television advertising was the most popular promotional medium for marketing a product or service. Many large companies use this type of advertising to reach the market within them. Even so, television advertising is still a type of advertising that is quite effective and is widely used by large companies. Although some of them have also moved to online advertising.
4. Outdoor Advertising
According to The Balance SMB, outdoor advertising is also known as advertising that will reach customers when they are outside the home. One form of this type of advertising is in the form of billboards that we usually find on the streets. Where this form of advertising is still classified as being used effectively as an advertising medium.
5. Product Placement
Product placement or product replacement is one of the activities of secretly promoting a product or service through films, soap operas, web series, and various other types of content. In other words, this type of advertisement is covert advertising. Meanwhile, the application of the example is like in a movie scene where there is a product in physical form. But the product is not explained directly.
C. Advertising function
The following are some of the main functions of advertising or advertising activities, including:
1. Source of Information
By using advertising, a brand or company can help people choose alternative products that are better or that suit their needs. That means, advertisements can provide more information than others. Whether it’s about the product, distribution, or where to buy it as well as other information that has benefits for the community.
2. Economic Activities
Advertising can encourage economic growth, because producers are encouraged to always produce and sell products to meet the increasing needs of society.
3. Cost Burden Divider
Advertising can help create large economies of scale for any product or service. So this can reduce production and distribution costs per unit of the product. In the end, it will lower the selling price to the community.
4. Sources of Media Funds
Advertising is one source of media funds that supports the media to exist. The emergence of many media makes the competition even tighter.
5. Producer Identity
Through advertising activities, the public will know the producers who produce these goods. There is a company that in its advertisement actually highlights its own company.
6. Means of Control
Through advertising or advertising, the public can distinguish legitimate products from counterfeit products.
D. Benefits of Advertising
After understanding what advertising is and some explanation about the types of advertising, this time we will explain the three benefits that you will get from advertising, including:
1. As a Tool for Promotion
George Felton, the author of a book entitled “Advertising: Concept and Copy”, states that the main purpose of advertising is to convey that your company has something interesting to offer. In order to be useful as an effective promotional tool, the content created can contain journalism that fulfills the what, who, when, where, why, and how elements of journalism.
2. Increase Customer Awareness
Advertising can help companies increase awareness of their intended audience while educating them about the benefits that can be obtained through purchasing the company’s products or services. We can see a popular example of this method in advertisements served by the health industry. For example, when a customer watches an advertisement on television that describes pain or pain that is similar to that experienced by the viewer, the advertisement not only identifies the possible causes, but also suggests alternative treatments that can be discussed with the doctor.
3. In Comparison with Competitors
Quoting one of the words of Gerald Tellis, the author of a book entitled “Effective Advertising: Understanding When, How, and Why Advertising Works”, advertising can trigger consumers to evaluate a company’s products or services and compare them with similar competitors. Commercials for household cleaning products are an appropriate example to illustrate this point, as they can provide visual evidence that convinces customers about which products work more effectively and deal with stubborn stains faster.
E. Tips for Designing an Advertising Strategy
In order for the results of the advertising that you do to be more effective, then you need to do a few tricks in advertising that you can pay attention to below:
1. Use Storytelling
Story telling is one of the techniques that you can apply in designing and packaging your message and advertising strategy. This method can help you especially in attracting and influencing the target audience to take the actions desired by the company or brand.
2. Target Audience Emotions
The emotional response to this advertisement can influence someone’s intention to make a purchase of the product or service you are promoting. Therefore, try to create ads that can evoke happiness, sadness, or attract other emotions that can persuade the target audience to take action.
3. Focus On Benefits
Effective advertising should focus on the benefits that your product or service can provide to the target consumer. Therefore, instead of explaining about the features you have, try to talk about what positive benefits customers can get when using the products or services you offer.
4. Select the Most Suitable Channel
In order for the messages contained in the ad to be more effective, make sure you choose the right channel. Study your target audience first to analyze which channels are most suitable and impactful.
F. Terms of Good Advertising
The AIDA pattern (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action) is one of the most effective and popular advertising principles to use. Where this pattern becomes the framework used by marketers, copywriters, and also advertising strategists when developing content for advertising campaign needs. The following are some complete explanations regarding good and correct advertising requirements using the AIDA pattern.
1. Attention
The first step to advertising using the AIDA pattern is attention, namely ensuring that target consumers know about the existence of your product or service. According to the Corporate Finance Institute, creating surprises through creative visuals or attractive advertising content is one of the best ways to attract consumers’ attention. Not only that, unique ad placement will also affect consumer response.
For small business owners, another effective way to do this is through highly targeted and personalized direct marketing. For example, by sending a marketing email with the customer’s name in the subject line, of course this will attract their attention.
2. Interest
After the audience knows about your business and understands what it has to offer. Then it is time to interest them. To do this, of course, you first need to understand the challenges faced by consumers and use them in marketing materials to show that their product or service can help. For example, if your business is aimed at office employees who want to eat healthy easily, then you can attract their interest with messages about how difficult it is to get proper nutrition during a busy day at work.
One thing to keep in mind is that content must be easy for audiences to consume so they don’t lose interest. Written content should be easy to read in a regular font that is medium to large in size. Avoid using paragraphs of content that are too long as they can be difficult to read. Instead, include a short sentence or catchy slogan.
3. Desire (Necessity)
After maintaining audience interest, the next task is to make them want to buy products or use the services offered. At this stage, it is very important to focus on the benefits of the product or service compared to the features offered. Companies also need to build an emotional connection with the audience to create that desire. For example, if a customer feels overwhelmed before using a product, then you can use terms like “frustrated” and “anxious” in your marketing materials so they can identify with themselves. Then, you can also use emotional terms for how your audience feels after using your service or product, such as “relaxed” or “empowered”.
Companies can increase this emotional connection by reaching customers through different channels such as telephone, email or social media. Talking with a skilled company representative can also help customers build rapport with the company and encourage them to take the next step.
4. Action
The final step in the AIDA advertising pattern is to encourage the customer to take action. Even if the action is to make a purchase transaction, in most cases it can also be making an appointment, calling, or downloading marketing materials. The goal is to take the customer to the next stage. This process involves an invitation or what is often called a Call to Action (CTA).
Calls to action are brief prompts that companies use to tell customers what they should do next. Content and placement is very important to get the audience to take action. On a print ad, the CTA could be something like “Visit a store near you”, while on a website page it would usually be “Complete your order”. In an email, the CTA could be written as “Visit the website to find out more”, while on social media, the CTA could be as long as “Share this post”. Whatever the form of the CTA, the most important thing is that it is clear and actionable. So that customers can quickly solve it.
After understanding what advertising is, types, and some tips on designing an effective advertising strategy. Now you can consider the best way to apply it to support your own brand or company marketing. Try to analyze advertising techniques and strategies from other brands that have proven to be effective in attracting the attention of the audience to get insights that you can apply when designing advertising strategies in the future.
This is an explanation of what advertising is, its types, functions, and some tips on planning an advertising strategy for your company.