Advertising Types

Advertising is the promotion of a company’s products and services carried out primarily to drive sales of the products and services but also to build a brand identity and communicate changes or new product /services to the customers. Advertising has become an essential element of the corporate world and hence the companies allot a considerable amount of revenues as their advertising budget. There are several reasons for advertising some of which are as follows:

• Increasing the sales of the product/service
• Creating and maintaining a brand identity or brand image.
• Communicating a change in the existing product line.
• Introduction of a new product or service.
• Increasing the buzz-value of the brand or the company.

Thus, several reasons for advertising and similarly there exist various media which can be effectively used for advertising. Based on these criteria there can be several branches of advertising. Mentioned below are the various categories or types of advertising:
Print Advertising –

Newspapers, Magazines, Brochures, Fliers
The print media have always been a popular advertising medium. Advertising products via newspapers or magazines is a common practice. In addition to this, the print media also offers options like promotional brochures and fliers for advertising purposes. Often the newspapers and the magazines sell the advertising space according to the area occupied by the advertisement, the position of the advertisement (front page/middle page), as well as the readership of the publications. For instance an advertisement in a relatively new and less popular newspaper would cost far less than placing an advertisement in a popular newspaper with a high readership. The price of print ads also depend on the supplement in which they appear, for example an advertisement in the glossy supplement costs way higher than that in the newspaper supplement which uses a mediocre quality paper.

Outdoor Advertising –

Billboards

Outdoor advertising is also a very popular form of advertising, which makes use of several tools and techniques to attract the customers outdoors. The most common examples of outdoor advertising are billboards, kiosks, and also several events and tradeshows organized by the company. The billboard advertising is very popular however has to be really terse and catchy in order to grab the attention of the passers by. It is also very common in any part of a major city. Though its life is less and it is very expensive, if used correctly, it can prove very effective.

Kiosks

The kiosks not only provide an easy outlet for the company products but also make for an effective advertising tool to promote the company’s products. Now-a-days kiosks are not hard to find at many a places like malls, college festivals and even railway stations.

Tradeshows and Events

Organizing several events or sponsoring those makes for an excellent advertising opportunity. The company can organize trade fairs, or even exhibitions for advertising their products. If not this, the company can organize several events that are closely associated with their field. For instance a company that manufactures sports utilities can sponsor a sports tournament to advertise its products.

Broadcast advertising –

Television
Broadcast advertising is a very popular advertising medium that constitutes of several branches like television, radio or the Internet. Television advertisements have been very popular ever since they have been introduced. The cost of television advertising often depends on the duration of the advertisement, the time of broadcast (prime time/peak time), and of course the popularity of the television channel on which the advertisement is going to be broadcasted. India is said to be one of the largest markets for consumers and advertisement revenues here are sky high. Just imagine that reportedly, Set Max earned more than a 20 million dollars just from the much controversial Strategic time out.

The Airtel Commercial, where cross country kids are shown playing football on the border is one of the most acclaimed television commercial in the world. It has won several awards and has touched the hearts of many. It has definitely worked in favour of Airtel.

Radio

The radio might have lost its charm owing to the new age media however the radio remains to be the choice of small-scale advertisers. The radio jingles have been very popular advertising media and have a large impact on the audience, which is evident in the fact that many people still remember and enjoy the popular radio jingles. With the number of radio listeners increasing day by day, it does not come as a surprise to know that they are pulling huge some from sponsors and other clients in form of advertisement.

These are the values available from January to April of 2006.

Covert Advertising – Advertising in Movies
Covert advertising is a unique kind of advertising in which a product or a particular brand is incorporated in some entertainment and media channels like movies, television shows or even sports. There is no commercial in the entertainment but the brand or the product is subtly( or sometimes evidently) showcased in the entertainment show. Some of the famous examples for this sort of advertising have to be the appearance of brand Nokia which is displayed on Tom Cruise’s phone in the movie Minority Report, or the use of Cadillac cars in the movie Matrix Reloaded.

In Bollywood too, a lot of covert promotion is practiced. For example, Siyaram Suiting’s, Bournvita etc were promoted in Krrish.

Surrogate Advertising – Advertising Indirectly
Surrogate advertising is prominently seen in cases where advertising a particular product is banned by law. Advertisement for products like cigarettes or alcohol which are injurious to heath are prohibited by law in several countries and hence these companies have to come up with several other products that might have the same brand name and indirectly remind people of the cigarettes or beer bottles of the same brand. Common examples include Fosters and Kingfisher beer brands, which are often seen to promote their brand with the help of surrogate advertising.

Public Service Advertising –  Advertising for Social Causes

Public service advertising is a technique that makes use of advertising as an effective communication medium to convey socially relevant messaged about important matters and social welfare causes like AIDS, energy conservation, political integrity, deforestation, illiteracy, poverty and so on. David Oglivy who is considered to be one of the pioneers of advertising and marketing concepts had reportedly encouraged the use of advertising field for a social cause. Oglivy once said, “Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest – it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes.”. Today public service advertising has been increasingly used in a non-commercial fashion in several countries across the world in order to promote various social causes. In USA, the radio and television stations are granted on the basis of a fixed amount of Public service advertisements aired by the channel.

Celebrity Advertising
Although the audience is getting smarter and smarter and the modern day consumer getting immune to the exaggerated claims made in a majority of advertisements, there exist a section of advertisers that still bank upon celebrities and their popularity for advertising their products. Using celebrities for advertising involves signing up celebrities for advertising campaigns, which consist of all sorts of advertising including, television ads or even print advertisements.

Celebrities like Aamir Khan and John Abraham don’t only involve in brand promotion but also for social causes which is very endearing.

Facebook   and Twitter in Marketing:

Author  of Social Media Marketing : An Hour a Day, Dave Evans was recently in the country and made some revealations such as  when he first tried Twitter, about ywo years ago, it didn’t make sense . But then , as he started using it he realized hoe easy was it to get connected with the people. Now it is one of the most important channels of marketing. He uses Tweetdeck, a Titter software client, to monitor in real time all mentions of his name and book which has proven effective from him.

THE INDIAN INSPIRATION KINGFISHER AIRLINES is using Twitter in much the same way-to reach out and engage with it’s customers.

One of the best examples is Tata’s use of social media supporting the launch of the Nano. The social elements allow nano enthusiasts to support and amplify the company’s marketing message, thereby actually reducing the required spend-per-vehicle for the launch itself.  This is very important for Tata, for two reasons :

First, any marketing expense reduction means that there are more resources available to further support actual launch and servicing of customers. This pays double dividend  which makes customers happier to further amplify social conversations.

Second because the Tata Nano is positioned on the combination of quality and affordability, lowering all expenses associated with the car, including marketing sends a very consistent message to prospective customers.

Aircel picked up on this recently with it’s Facebook”voice messaging system”

Popularity: 23% [?]

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