CONTENTS
F Introduction
F Building Brands and Brand Values
F Advantages Of Advertisement
F How Are Adertisements Created
F Advertisements Also Fail How And Why
F Social Advertising
F Luring the Consumers
F Advertising And Democracy
F Introduction
(i) Advertisement is a promotional tool. It is used to promote ideas, goods and services. Its purpose is to appeal
to a particular audience called customer by the advertiser.
(ii) An advertisement is usually done through various media such as, magazines, journals, newspapers,
television, radio, hoardings, posters and banners.
(iii) The technique of advertisement is chosen according to the need of the people, suitable for the product and
within the limitation of the budget.
(iv) The purpose is to reach the public as fast as possible and communicate information about the product so that
the consumer may be persuaded to buy that particular object, good service or product.
(v) Advertisement can reach more people, a bigger audience, a wider market, living in different parts of the
world. An advertisement is possible only through a selected media which are of different kinds.
(vi) In the process of selecting an appropriate media, certain factors have to be considered such as :
E The size of the audience
E The reach of the media
E The target market for a product
E The cost of advertisement
E The volume of sales
Types of media in advertisement
Advertisement is done through using print as well as electronic media.
Print Media Electronic Media
E Newspaper E Television
E Magazine E Radio
E Journals E Internet
E Newsletter E E-mail
E Banner E Film
Newspaper
There are dailies in regional languages like Anand Bazar Patrika in Bengali, Dinamani in Tamil and
Malayala Manorama in Malayalam.
English newspapers like The Hindu, the Times of India and the Stateman, etc. are some of the print media
used in advertisement.
Magazine
Advertisements in magazines reach only targeted audiences. They do not have a mass reach and are not
published daily.
Radio
Radio is in use for many years. It reaches maximum audience. Radio has an advantage which other media
does not have; we can listen to the radio while travelling in a bus, car or autorickshaw. The cost of a radio
advertisement is less but the disadvantage is that it has only an audio impact without a visual impact.
Television
Television is one of the best modes of reaching the public. It has audio-visual effect and helps in
dramatization. Television caters to almost all age groups especially the children who get excited at the visual
and audio impact during the commercial break of TV programmes.
However, even television has its own demerits. The cost of advertisement on television is high. It is based on
the time duration. When the duration is 10 seconds, the cost also goes high Due to high cost, the
advertisement is released for a short span of time hence, people tend to forget the message.
Commercial Advertisements
(1) The word commercial itself indicates that the purpose is for earning profit.
(2) Its aim is to satisfy the financial interest of the sponsor.
(3) The commercial advertisements are also done vide banners, hoardings, bus stand shelters, stage shows and
railway platforms.
(4) The advertisement also focuses on a branded product.
(5) People always look for a branded product whenever they go to a shop for buying a soap or tooth paste.
(6) They look for a brand of a company.
(7) Advertisement helps in popularizing a particular brand.
(i) Have you even heard of the word brand ? Advertising is all about building brands. At a very basic level
branding means stamping a product with a particular name or sign. This is done in order to differentiate it
from other products in the market.
(ii) Branding actually came from cattle grazing. Cattle of different owners grazed together in ranches and they
often got mixed up. The owners thought of a solution. They started marking their cattle with the owner's sign
by using a heated iron. This was called 'branding'.
(iii) Daals or pulses are usually sold loose in the market. We usually know daals by their different types like
masoor ki daal, urad ki daal, etc. These names are not brand names. When a company takes masoor ki daal
and puts it into a packet, it will need to give the daal a special name. It needs to do this so that we don't
confuse the daal in that particular packet with the daal that is sold loose. They decide on a name like
'Top Taste Daal'. This naming of the product is called 'branding'.
(iv) Similarly in the case of the soap, there are many soaps in the market today. In bigger towns and cities, we no
longer just say soap but rather refer to them using the different names of companies that make them. Given
the many soaps in the market, the company will have to give the soap a different and special name. By doing
this they create another brand of soap.
(v) Just naming the product may not make us buy it. The manufactures that made of the soap and the daal still
have to convince us that their soap and daal are better than the other available in the market. This is where
advertising comes in. It plays a crucial role in trying to convince us to buy the product that is advertised.
(vi) The task of creating a brand does not stop at giving the product a special name. For example, just when 'Top
Taste Daal' begins to be sold, another company decides to also sell daals in a packet and calls this 'Best Taste
Daal'. So, now there are two branded daals in the market. Both the companies are keen that you buy their
daals.
(vii) The consumer is confused because you really cannot tell the difference between 'Top Taste Daal' and 'Best
Taste Daal'. The manufacturer has to give the consumer a reason to prefer a particular brand of daal. Just
naming a daal does not help sell it. So, advertisers begin claiming certain special values for their brand. In
this way, the try to differentiate it from other similar products. Look below at how the two daals try and do
this.
(viii) From the advertisements, you can now see that the two daals are saying different things. 'Top Taste Daal' is
appealing to our social tradition of treating guests extremely well. 'Best Taste Daal' is appealing to our
concern for our children's health and that they eat things that are good for them. Values such as treating our
guests well and making sure our children get nutritious food are used by brands to create brand values. These
brand values are conveyed through the use of visuals and words to given us an overall image that appears to
us.
Brand Values and Social Values
(i) Advertisements are an important part of our social and cultural life today. We watch advertisements, discuss
them and often judge people according to the brand products the use.
(ii) Given that advertisements are such a powerful source of influence in our lives, we need to be able to
understand the ways in which they work.
(iii) Often several of our cricket heroes and our favourite film stars also try and sell products to us through
advertisements. We may feel tempted to buy these products because persons whom we consider our heroes
tell us that they are worth buying. In addition, advertisements often show us images of the lifestyles of rich
people and seldom show us the reality of peoples lives that we see around us.
(iv) Advertisements play a big role in our lives. We not only buy products based on them, but often, having
certain brand products influences the ways in which we think about ourselves, our friends and our family. It
is, therefore, important to know how advertising works and understand what it does before we choose to buy
the products that advertisements sell. We need to be able to critically understand why they use particular
images, the personal emotion that they are appealing to and the ways in which this affects how we think
about ourselves when we use the product or are not able to buy it.
(v) The telecast rate for a 30 second advertisement on a major TV channel is
Rs. 1.65 lakh. The cost of bringing out a quarter page colour advertisement in a leading newspaper is Rs.
8.36 lakh.
(1) Advertisement influences our lifestyle.
(2) We change our taste, style and preferences after seeing an advertisement.
(3) Most of the things we buy, eat and drink are decided after seeing the advertisement.
(4) Advertisement helps in promoting the qualities of a product.
(5) It also tries to help customers to understand the differentiation of the product which helps in giving
recognition for a product.
(6) Advertisement appeals to our emotions. It inspires and influences us in many ways.
(1) Advertisement copies are created by agencies.
(2) The agency consists of people with creative ideas and other effective methods to launch the new products.
(3) This team first develops an propaganda for a new product.
(4) They give a name to the product, then create visuals to bring out the features of the product after which they
choose the target people.
(5) The product is tested on them followed by a feed back.
(6) Once they find the test successful then they choose the media through which advertisement is launched.
Advertisement is the easiest and most economical means of tapping the wide market, but all advertisements
may not be successful. It may fail because of the following reasons :
E Lack of consistent advertising policy
E Making exaggerated claims which make people lose confidence
E Unimpressive appeals
E Wrong layout of advertisement designs
E Selecting wrong medium
E It indirectly increases the price of the product by adding the cost of advertisement.
Social advertising is done when no financial gains are expected by the firm. This is meant for educating the
public and to create awareness e.g. advertisement regarding energy Saving, Nature conservation, Pollution,
Public Health and National Integrity, etc. This is a powerful tool capable of reaching and motivating the
people. Celebrities also participate in social causes and government at times uses media to educate public.
In the democratic countries like India where we have multi parties, Political advertisement is done by
political parties to highlight their programmes and agendas and it is otherwise called Manifesto.
Advertisements also encourage consumerism. It makes people forget the reality and fall prey to both
positive and negative sides of advertising. We should always check and find out more about the product
before we buy it.
To protect the interest of consumer's government enacted the law called the Consumer Protection Act in
1986. This act provides protection to the consumers interest through consumer courts at district, state and
national levels.
We have around 500 district consumer courts in India. The government has also created the awareness on the
rights of consumers which are as follows :
E Right to safety
E Right to be informed
E Right to choice
E Right to be heard
E Right to seek redressal
Consumers can be protected only when they are aware.
(i) There are various ways in which advertising links to issues of equality in a democratic society.
(ii) Advertising a product costs a lot of money. Usually, crores of rupees are spent advertisement a brand.
Producing and showing advertisements in the media is very expensive. Because there are so many
advertisements in the market today, companies have to show the advertisement again and again to have it
stick in people's minds.
(iii) What this often means is that only large companies can advertise. If you own a small business you will not
have the money to show your product on TV or national newspapers and magazines So, persons who sell
papad, pickles, sweets and jams that they have made at home are not considered as fashionable as brand
products. They often have to sell their products in weekly markets and neighbourhood shops that you will
read about in the following unit.
(iv) It also makes us believe that things that are packaged and have a brand name are far better than things that do
not come in packets. We forget that the quality of a product has little to do with the packaging that it comes
in. This shift to packaged products negatively affects the sales of several small businesses forcing people out
of their livlihoods.
(v) In a democracy in which all people are equal and should be able to lead a life of dignity, advertising tends to
promote a certain lack of respect for the poor. They are not faces we most often see in advertisements and so
we tend to dismiss their lives as worthless.
(vi) Advertising, because it appeals to personal emotions also tends to make people who cannot afford certain
brands feel bad. They feel that they are unable to give their loved ones the best care that brand products
appear to offer.
(vii) Advertising by focusing on the lives of the rich and famous helps us forget about issues of poverty,
discrimination and dignity, all of which are central to the functioning of equality in a democracy. More than
just selling us products, advertisements tell us how we should live our lives, what we should aspire and
dream for, how we should express our love, what it means to be smart, successful and beautiful. As citizens
of a democratic society, it is important for us to be aware of the strong influence that advertising has on our
lives.
(viii) By critically understanding what advertisements do, we can make better decisions about whether we wish to
buy a product or not.
EXERCISE
3. Political parties bring out their policies and
plans in their ………….
1. Advertisement : To inform and persuade. (A) Pamphlets (B) Manifestos
2. Trade mark : The name or symbol (C) Constitution
4. The special identification or name that is
3. Slogan : A word or phrase that creates
associated with a product is –
awareness.
(A) Life-style (B) Product
4. Public service : A service which is provided
for the benefit of the people. (C) Brand (D) Social standar
5. Advertising focussing on the lives of rich and
5. Commercial : Related to buying and selling
famous helps us to forget about –
of goods.
(A) Rights (B) Equality
(C) Fraternity (D) Justice
1. Media provides a forum for discussion. 6. Showing advertisement in the media is –
2. A free press is not a good asset for any (A) Expensive (B) Cheap
country. (C) Both of them (D) None of them
3. Mass media helps only the educated people. 7. In democracy all people are equal and lead a
4. In social advertising financial gains are not life of dignity and advertising promote –
focused. (A) Lack of respect for the poor
5. Commercial advertisement aims at the social (B) High respect for the poor
welfare of the people. (C) Special care for the poor
(D) None of the above
8. Packaged products negatively affects the sale
1. …………. is an important part of the mass of several –
media. (A) High class business people
2. ……………. is a daily newspaper in Bengali. (B) Low class businesses
3. ………………. includes newspaper, (C) Middle class businesses
magazines etc. (D) On the whole business class
4. Energy saving campaigning is a type of 9. Advertising tends to appeal to –
……………. (A) Professional emotion
5. A ………….. wants to sell his product to the (B) Elite emotion
maximum number of people.
(C) Personal emotion
(D) Loved ones
10. What are social advertisements –
1. This is not a media of advertising -
(A) Advertisement made by state
(A) Cinema (B) TV
(B) Advertisement made by private agencies
(C) E-mail
(C) Have a larger message for society
2. Advertisement relating to deaddictions is
……….. advertisement – (D) All of the above
(A) Social (B) Commercial
(C) Ordinary
1. Advertisement
2. Trade mark
3. Slogans
4. Commercial advertisement
5. Public service
1. What is an advertisement ?
2. What are the various media through which
advertisements are done ?
3. Define Social advertisement.
4. Why do sometimes advertisements fail to
impress ? Give reasons.
5. What is consumerism ?
6. List out the consumer rights.
7. How is the consumer confused by
advertisements Give one example.
8. What are the ways in which advertising links
to issue of equality in a democratic society ?
9. Discuss the role of media in a democracy?
10. Explain the link between media and big
business with a diagram.
11. Discuss the function of advertisement in
building brands.
12. Examine the role of advertisements in our
lives.
13. How does the media decide on
newsworthiness of daily events in the society.
