The purpose of this discussion on advertising is to examine the goals of advertising, the types of advertising, and various techniques used in advertising strategies. In addition, this paper addresses personal marketing versus mass marketing, and clarifies the roles of such marketing tools as sales promotion, publicity, and public relations, which are different from the role of advertising.
Advertising is "the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services, or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media" (Bovee and Arens, 1982). Key words in this definition that, when used together, separate advertising from other marketing tools are nonpersonal, paid, persuasive, and media. First, advertising is not personal because it lacks face-to-face communication, instead, it is directed to groups of people in a mass marketing effort. Personal marketing includes activities like door-to-door sales and seminars, which reach a limited group of people. However, advertising is designed to reach unlimited numbers of people, therefore mass marketing is used. Second, most advertising is paid for by sponsors, such as corporations or small businesses, but some advertising is free. Charity organizations and nonprofit organizations often do not pay for advertising, instead, their messages are presented at no charge, as a public service. Third, advertising is usually persuasive in nature as it urges people to do something and involves convincing people that the product, service, or idea advertised will benefit them. An exception to the persuasive rule might include legal announcements intended to inform, rather than persuade. The fourth key word in the definition of advertising is media. Media are the channels used to convey advertising (Ibid).
Most advertising is conveyed through eight principal media: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, direct mail, outd...