Role of the Advertisement

Role of the Advertisement

Apart, from the marketing function of the advertisement. It can also be explained in the terms of the roles played by it in business and society:

1.    Marketing

2.    Communication

3.    Economic

4.    Societal

THE MARKETING ROLE:

Marketing is the process a business uses to satisfy consumer needs and wants through goods and services. The particular consumers at whom the company directs its marketing effort constitute the target market. The tools available to marketing include the product, price and the means used to deliver the product, or the place. Marketing also includes a method for communicating this information to the consumer called marketing communication and promotion.

 Marketing communication consists of several related communication techniques including advertising, sales promotion, public relation and personal selling. The role of advertising, within the marketing, is to carry persuasive message to actual and potential consumers.

THE COMMUNICATION ROLE

Advertising is a form of mass communication. It transmits different types of product and market information to match buyers and sellers in market place. Advertisement both informs and transforms the product by creating an image that goes beyond straightforward facts.

Advertisement helps in:

·       Guiding

·       Educating

·       Informing

·       motivating

the consumers.

THE ECONOMIC ROLE

Advertising plays two important roles that affect the economy are as follows:

                          i.          In the first, advertisement is so persuasive that it decreases the likelihood that a consumer will switch to an alternative product, regardless of the price changed.

By featuring other positive attribute, and avoiding price, the consumer makes a decision on these various non price benefits.

                        ii.          The second approach views advertising as a vehicle for helping consumers assess value, through price as well as other elements such as quality, location and reputation.

THE SOCIETAL ROLE

§       Advertising also has a number of social roles. It informs us about new and improved products and helps us compare products and features and make informed consumer decisions.

§       It mirrors fashion and design trends and add to our aesthetic sense. Advertising tend to flourish in societies that enjoy some level of economic abundance, in which supply exceeds demand. In these societies, advertising moves from being informational only to creating a demand for a particular brand.

§       Advertising increase the competition among the manufacturer of the goods and thereby, it lead to cut in its cost. The fair and pocket friendly price of the commodity leads to the reasonable price.

But the question is: Does advertising follow trends or does it lead them? At what point does advertising cross the line between reflecting social values and creating social values?