The popular media for advertising

E-C-404: Mass Communication and Media Studies

Hitesh S. Vaghani

Roll no. - 19

SEM - IV

Paper no. – E-C-404

Year – 2011-12

Topic: The popular media for advertising

Submitted to Dr.Dilip Barad

Department of English,

Bhavnagar University.

The word, ‘advertising ‘has it’s origin from a Latin word advertiser which means to turn to. The dictionary meaning of the word is ‘to announce publicly or to give public notice ‘. In other words, it may be interpreted as to turn the attention of the people concerned to a specific thing, Which has been announced by the advertiser publicly in order to information and influence them with the ideas, which the advertisement carries. In the business world, the term is mainly used with reference to selling the product of the concern.

Advertising, as Dr. Jones defines it, is “a sort of machine made, mass production method of selling which supplements the voice and personality of the individual salesman, such as in manufacturing the machine supplements the hands of the craftsman.”It is thus, a process of buying sponsor-identified media, space or time in order to promote a product or an idea. It is a vital tool or marketing goods, services and ideas.

The American Marketing Association has defined advertising as “any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor.”

We can say that Advertising may be defined in simple word as ‘the dissemination of information concerning an idea, service or product to induce action in accordance with the intent of the advertiser.’ In other words, it may be stated as an art of influencing human action by awaking the desire to possess the advertiser. It may be characterized as a specialized marketing activity to make the consumer aware of the company along with products and services it offers to sell.

Advertising Media

The channel is needed to carry advertising message to the prospective consumers which is referred to as advertising medium or media. The advertiser can choose from variety of media such as print, audio-visual, broadcast media and so on. The selection of a right medium is very important because the success of promotional activity depends upon it.

v The popular media for advertising are:-

Ø  Newspapers and magazines

Ø  Radio and Television

Ø  Outdoor and transit advertising

Ø  Direct mail point of purchase displays

Ø  Motion picture

Ø  Other media

Newspapers and magazines: - Newspapers carry the advertising to a large cross section of the society. They have been the oldest leading medium for advertising at local and regional levels. Newspapers are effective for local and retail advertising. They provide flexibility in advertising. Advertisement can be accommodated at the last minute to take advertage of some special marketing situation. This is a low cost advertising medium. The main disadvantage of newspaper advertisement is that they have short life as they are of local nature and once the newspaper is read, it is kept aside thus the repeated exposure to the advertisement is not possible. Many people read the newspaper hurriedly and do not spare time in reading the advertisements. Moreover, 60 per cent of the space in the newspaper is full of advertisement, so readers tend to not get attracted by the messages in the advertisements.

When the magazines are for special interest groups. The scope of advertisement becomes limited. The disadvantage of magazine advertisement is that they many times lack timeliness as magazine. Printing takes long time depending on the periodicity of the magazine. Compared to newspaper, advertising in magazine is expensive, so it does not attract local retailer.

Radio and Television: - Radio was successful in advertising mainly because of large number of illiterates in India, who could not take advantage of print media till the invasion of television to our living rooms. Even after the Television became the most popular medium for advertising, radio still is a broadcast medium with great outreach. It facilitates local advertising through it’s medium wave channels. The production cost of live radio advertisement is much low compared to print media and Television advertisements, as its production is mainly concerned with effective oral communication. It requires microphone and audio amplifier. When an advertiser wants different voice, sound effects and music in the advertisement, recorded radio commercial is preferable. In the recorded radio commercials, the recorded disc or tape is to be supplied. Retailers buy radio time for the advertisements of their products. This is called Retail Radio Commercial.     

Television advertising has grown tremendously in the last fifteen years. Television provides for action, motion, sound and effect, music and verbal messages in advertisements. Therefore, it has become a popular medium for advertising.

Radio and Television sell air time in three general classes of area; network, sport and local.

Network refers to television commercial on national broadcast on in prime time television programmers. Thus, the advertisers are able to have best time and reach to the national audience. It saves buying time on many local stations. Adverting during the prime time promotes the prestige of product as well as company.

Sport refers to advertising in a special or particular geographical area. Sport broadcasting time is given in the network programme during the affiliated Kendra’s breaks or during delinking period. It enables the regional advertisers to use television as advertising medium and leaves scope for producing the commercial according to the regional consumer characteristics, needs and practices.

Local television commercial refers to advertisements of retailers. They sponsor some programmes on TV. Many a times it is a cooperative effort of the retailers along with the manufacturer.

Outdoor and transit advertising:- It includes a variety of outdoor media such as hoardings, posters, information panels, bill boards, directional maps, mobile vans with loud speakers, and huge painted portraits. It also includes advertising on rail, bus and air terminals, building walls and highways. Advertising through wall displays, illuminated sky writings, electric spectaculars also come under this category. Outdoor advertising is the oldest and an important form of advertising medium. It is an effective medium of advertising in India, when illiteracy is higher. These are very effective and appealing, and create awareness and interest. These media draw the attention of the persons pressing through certain sports. These media offer long life. The details like contact addresses, names and addresses of local dealers, etc, can be given. Since they have large illustration with bright colours, they also make good impact. The major limitation of outdoor advertising is that. Since the message has to be in a brief, many times it becomes merely supplementary advertising. Detailed messages can be communicated through print media. The outdoor and front advertising offer sure exposure and repetitiveness.

Direct Mail: - It is a postal publicity. In this, the advertisements are sent directly to the prospective consumers by the advertiser himself. It could be through hand delivery, door to door distribution of advertisement or materials. It can be in the form of letter, leaflet, booklet, a catalogue, handout, circular etc. the main purpose of direct mail advertisement is to promote consumer interest and create a good will; obtaining direct sales, to have personal touch., to provide for reading and thinking about the product at leisure.

Point of purchase: - This method is also called dealer aids, dealer displays, or point of sale. In this method messages are directly communicated to the customers, inside outside and around a retail store. Window display, floor display, wall display, banners, samples, posters are usually used to promote sale at the store to attract the attention of the passers. These do not include labels, packages and containers. According to Rayudu, “The advertising materials at point of sale must be attractive, create interest, confidence, impression, education and of information value. It is the last state to remind the buyer to buy”.

Motion Picture: - Motion picture advertising is also called screen advertising. Movie theaters sell time for screening advertisement films as well as slides. These are shown before the main feature film, in intermission or between newsreel and feature film.

Other Media: - Advertising through other media includes advertising through telephones or any other directory. Bus or Train Time Tables, calendars, products such as key chains, pens, letter pads, appointment diaries, containers, and so on.