Advertising is a type of commercial communication that is used to present, announce, promote or disclose some type of product or service. It is part of marketing and it is used so that companies, professionals, NGOs, individuals or others can make themselves known or offer some type of good or service that may be of interest to their potential clients, users, etc.
Advertising is considered the most effective means to attract the attention of the public within marketing. For this reason, it is customary to resort to professionals specialized in this for the development of campaigns.
It is disseminated through commercial advertisements that are published in both traditional and non-traditional media (newspapers, radio, television, internet), with the aim of persuading potential customers and thus making them feel encouraged to carry out a consumption action.
The beginnings of advertising
Advertising as it is known today was born at the end of the 19th century. With the advent of the second Industrial Revolution and the need for companies to publicize their products, advertising began to emerge, so that they could reach a greater number of potential customers in this way.
At that time, the media were enjoying great development, which at the same time led them to need financing. For this reason, advertising gave a way out of this economic problem at the same time that it also favored the companies that resorted to it.
After the Second World War there was a great growth in the world of advertising, since many techniques and media arose that are still used today.
Advertising phases
When talking about advertising, three main stages can be distinguished:
- Promotion. It is the initial stage, where the aim is to expose or publicize the new products created or the new services offered.
- Competence. This phase occurs when the product is already on the market but not in the place the company would like and works to try to increase demand. In this way, it uses advertising to find more customers.
- Image preservation. This stage comes when a product or service has been successful but is still promoted so that it does not fall into oblivion and continues to be present in the minds of buyers. In this way, it is sought to continue having customers.
Likewise, when an advertising campaign is launched, an analysis stage is carried out. It seeks to verify its effectiveness and know the acceptance of the public. In this way, important data can be obtained to improve future advertising actions.
Advertising campaigns
They are developed through advertising campaigns, which is the set of strategies, actions and communications that are carried out with the aim of drawing the attention of the target audience to a certain service or product. These types of campaigns can have several objectives, from increasing the number of sales of a product to publicizing a company or brand in the market, positioning the image, and so on.
To increase the effectiveness of the campaigns, the use of so-called advertising techniques is used. They allude to the emotions of the users, testimonials from other people, product demonstrations, and so on. Through them, the aim is to arouse the interest and desire of potential consumers for a service or product, so that they can be persuaded.
Advertising techniques
The so-called advertising techniques are used in advertisements, which, as we have already mentioned, are resources with which it is sought to attract potential consumers of a product or service. Some of the most used are the following:
- Some companies bet on the scarcity or limitation of a product or service. In this way, they create campaigns with limited stock that generates an urgency to purchase among users.
- Approval of other characters. Other people who are satisfied with the product are used. In this way, it is sought that the potential buyer feels identified with that person.
- Scientific resources. Other times it seeks to seduce the user by talking about clear and simple information and other times scientific figures are used to persuade.
- Slogan. Slogans are very common and can have a great power of attraction.
- On some occasions, companies take advantage of users’ fear of something to try to sell them a product, as occurs, for example, in the case of insurers.
Difference Between Advertising and Propaganda
It is important to know the difference between advertising and propaganda. They are usually confused and they are really two different concepts.
Both are responsible for promoting and disseminating a message, but advertising has a commercial purpose, that is, it presents a service or product and tries to generate a purchase action. Propaganda, for its part, seeks to convey opinions or ideas, whether they are political, religious, philosophical, social, non – profit, more related to morality.
Types of advertising
Within advertising there are different types, the most notable being the following:
Subliminal publicity
The so-called subliminal advertising is one in which the ads have messages that are not explicit or that are not consciously perceived by people. The purpose is to create a stimulus and influence the behavior of your target audience.
In this way, this type of advertising seeks to manipulate the subconscious of people without the person noticing. To do this, he resorts to different techniques such as hidden images, double meaning, etc.
Misleading advertising
Misleading advertising is one in which the advertisement carries a message that is contrary to the actual performance of the service or product being marketed.
It is a type of advertising that is considered dishonest, since it seeks to mislead potential customers, either by giving erroneous information or bypassing important aspects of the product or service that could influence the purchase decision.
ATL Advertising
The so-called ATL advertising is one that uses traditional mass media within its commercial communication strategy. To do this, it resorts to television, the press, the cinema or outdoor advertising.
It seeks to promote and disseminate a product or service and reach users with the greatest possible impact and repercussion.
BTL Advertising
BTL advertising, for its part, is the one that makes use of creativity to take advantage of opportunities to promote or disseminate a service or product. It is a type of non-mass advertising communication.
It seeks direct contact with the target audience and uses means such as merchandising, sponsorship, direct sales, internet ads or social networks, etc.
Digital Advertising
Finally, we must refer to digital advertising, which is advertising on the Internet or online. This makes use of digital platforms to promote products or services.
This can be seen in different media such as social networks, blogs, email, SMS, etc.