Features of Advertising



The main features of advertising:

1. Provides information: Advertising's primary purpose is to provide information about products or services to prospective buyers. The details of products such as features, uses, prices, benefits, manufacturer's name, so on; are in the advertisements. The key message and brand name are also there. The information supplied educate and guide consumers and facilitate them to make a correct choice while buying a product.

2. Paid communication: Advertising is a form of paid communication. The advertiser pays to the media for giving publicity to his AD message. He also decides the size, slogan, etc. given in the advertisement.

3. Non-personal presentation: Advertising is non-personal in character as against salesmanship, which is a personal or face to face communication. Here, the message is given to all and not to one specific individual. This rule is applicable to all media including the press. However, even in it, target consumers or target market can be selected for making an AD appeal.

4. Publicity: Advertising publicizes goods, services, ideas and event events. It is primarily for giving information to consumers. This information is related to the features and benefits of goods and services of different types. It offers new ideas to customers as its contents are meaningful. The aim is to make the popularize ideas and thereby promote sales. For example, an advertisement for family planning, family welfare, and life insurance is useful for placing new ideas before the people.

5. Primarily for Persuasion: Advertising aims at the persuasion of potential customers. It attracts attention towards a particular product, creates a desire to have it, and finally induces consumers to visit the market and purchase the same. It has a psychological impact on consumers. It influences their buying decisions.

6. Target oriented: Advertising becomes effective and result-oriented when it is target oriented. A targeted advertisement intensively focuses on a specific market or particular groups of customers (like teenagers, housewives, infants, children, etc.). Here, the selection of a particular market is called a target market.

7. Art, science and profession: Advertising is art, science and a profession, and this is now universally accepted. It is an art as it needs creativity for raising its effectiveness. It is a science as it has its principles or rules. It is also a profession as it has a code of conduct for its members and operates within standards set by its organized bodies. In its field, AD Agencies and space brokers function as professionals.

8. The element of a marketing mix: Advertising is an important part of a marketing mix. It supports the sales promotion efforts of the manufacturer. It makes a positive contribution to sales promotion provided other elements in the marketing mix are reasonably favorable. It is alone inadequate for promoting sales. Many companies now spend huge funds on advertisements and public relations.

9. Creativity: Advertising is a method of presenting a product in an artistic, attractive and agreeable manner. It is possible through the element of creativity. The creative people (professionals) introduce creativity in advertisements. Without it, the Ads won't succeed. Therefore, creativity is called the ‘Essence of Advertising.’
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