EarlGoose3206
Summarize this writing please Advertising since its inception…
Summarize this writing please
Advertising since its inception has always been about selling products or services, it has the power to influence our decisions on what to buy and shapes our view on companies. With advertising being so prevalent in billboards, social media, and TV, it plays a huge role on the economy and our daily lives. With this in mind, it is important to know how advertising works and how it affects consumers. In this essay we will explore the responsibilities of the marketing department, how societal influences impact advertising along with how this affects different groups of the population and comparative advertising.
For products and services to be sold to a large audience they first need to be introduced to the product or service, this is where marketing comes into play, the marketing department’s responsibility is to promote a product or service to a customer. Their responsibilities include creating marketing materials that promote a product or service in a way that captivates the consumer and promotes sales, data analysis to see what type of advertisement is best received and developing market strategies. They are used in a variety of ways using strategies such as finding the target audience. branding, and digital marketing
Finding a target audience is finding whom you are going to advertise to, what age group, male or female, income, location of residence, etc. They perform market research such as surveys and observing who buys similar products/services from the competition. A target audience is necessary as this is who you will be promoting to and hopefully get more of their attention with advertisements, there exist two types of audience, a niche, which means a very small group that you are trying to promote to, and a broader audience.
One example could be a business selling clothes, to appeal to a niche audience you would focus your advertisement on skaters in the demographic of 12 – 18-year-olds, and to appeal to a broader audience you would advertise to a bigger crowd selling clothes of popular brands such as Nike, Adidas, New Balance, etc. Knowing whom you are advertising to is important to reach a bigger audience and get the best of advertisement for a product or service. Laura Lake’s article “What is a target audience?” states, “identifying your target audience as a business can help craft marketing strategies and define your core customers. Instead of spending money and resources trying to cater to every consumer, defining a target audience allows for more intentional and personal outreach to those most likely to purchase your product or service.”
In other words, establishing a target audience helps you advertise your product to this audience, there is going to be consumers that don’t fit your target audience, and this is normal as having a target audience is not going to be all your customers but it most likely is most of it.
Branding refers to establishing an identity for your service/product. Why is it important? It’s important because it establishes a recognizable identity for your service/product. An example is Nike, the Nike logo is excellent branding because when you see the Nike logo even without the name you know what company it is. Navin Kumar & Rajeev Kumar Panda article “Place Branding and place marketing: a contemporary analysis of the literature and usage of terminology “states “American Marketing
Association defines brand as “a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.” With this definition we can establish that branding is what most advertisement departments strive to perfect with the products/services as this provides a identity which can make consumers more aware of your product/service and be a potential customer. Jordan Stokes on his article “The importance of Brand Recognition in the Consumer Purchase Decision” states, “Brand awareness and brand recognition play a larger role in the consumer purchase decision than one may think. Brand recognition is an asset that not only adds long-term value, but it can also lead consumers to an actual sale.” This supports the claim that advertising departments should implement branding in their advertising as a familiar logo can be the key to selling a product/service to a large group of people.
Digital marketing is the use of digital tools to promote a product/service, these tools include websites, social media, search engines etc. This is a popular form of advertising as it reaches the most people considering most people use social media every day. Articles highlight how social media companies use an algorithm that helps find a target audience and then show advertisements to that target audience, Indrajeet Deshpande article, “What Is Social Media Advertising? Definition, Costs, Best Practices, Benefits, and Examples” states, “Social media advertising is an offshoot of digital marketing where paid ad campaigns are run on social media platforms to reach target audiences.
Marketers and advertisers can promote their brands and inspire sales through the social channels that users frequently use.” This form of advertising is very popular as the price (usually from $15 to $200 per day) compared to the exposure of a product/service and the use of an algorithm to find the target audience is a great deal. Digital marketing is also the easiest way to collect data as you can see how many people saw your advertisement and the number of sales.
In summary, the responsibility of marketing departments is to promote to an audience to make as many sales as possible for a product/service. To achieve this, they need to have a good understanding of the product/service they are promoting, have a clear understanding of their target audience, and know how to brand effectively so the product/service is recognizable. A marketing agency should be able to provide measurable results and insights that help business grow by promoting products and services in a cost-effective using information that don’t deceive customers. Marketing departments also target audiences through societal influences.
Society has an enormous impact on our daily perspective and decisions when interacting in our communities. Influences such as entertainment, fashion, and social media determine our daily behavior and largely inform the views of the public. Businesses have detected the influence that society casts on consumers and examine them when strategizing a business roadmap. Business use social influences in a variety of ways such as determining how to operate, attract new consumers, and monitor trends. Herbert Kelman famously identified that social influence is present in three types of ways such as compliance, identification, and internalization. Compliance is the behavior modification for best interest such as benefits or detriments, identification is the behavior change for relationships such as conforming with someone or an association, and internalization is the behavioral change for an intrinsic reward such as principles or utilization. The public is heavily influenced, and consumers want corporations to engage in social and cultural discussions.
Businesses are increasingly constructing marketing plans to influence consumers towards products that are righteous and moral principles. According to Aziz’s “Global Study Reveals Consumers are Four to Six Times More Likely to Purchase, Protect, and Champion Purpose-Driven Companies,” the global study revealed that businesses and corporations with virtues and meaningful messages benefit greatly from the branding.
The enormous survey found that consumers were four times more likely to purchase from brands with strong purpose, six times more likely to defend during conflict, almost five times more likely to recommend to acquaintances, and four times more likely to trust. The companies who brand themselves with strong purpose and principles are linked directly to consumer’s likelihood to act favorably. In addition, the study provides clear evidence of the positive impact that purposeful companies will have on their reputation, loyalty, and core performance.
Brands such as Nike, have socially driven campaigns for standing against racism and advertisements have received very positive support. According to Ace Metric’s “Nike’s ‘For Once, Don’t Do It’ Rallies Strong Support, But Not Without Controversy,” the advertisement was found 98% more empowering than other advertisements by general consumers aged 16-49 but almost 2% found it exploitative.
The supportive sentiment was acknowledgment for conversations around the recent protests for the George Floyd’s death while others felt exploited to increase shoe sales in 2020. The previous campaign for the football player, Colin Kaepernick, garnered less support with a meek and careful response towards supporting Black Lives Matter in 2018. The willingness for Nike’s marketing to engage in conversations about racial tension increases the brand’s global support.
The psychographics and demographics of social influences also factor on the way that businesses market and strategies. According to the Nation Merchants Association, the population of millennials and Gen Z are largely influenced by popular social media platforms to shopping and purchasing behaviors while Baby boomers and Gen Xers are less influenced. Research states, “80% of Gen Z is influenced by social media when it comes to making purchases, compared to their next-oldest counterparts… millennials (74%) … these numbers drop quite dramatically when compared to Gen X (58%) and baby boomers (41%).” The explosion of social media with the arrival of the internet has greatly influenced young people and impacted the structure of business strategies. In today’s world, businesses must cross-channel market across multiple social media platforms to appeal towards all generations of shoppers.
The technological advancement of the internet and mobile phones has also allowed for the convenient window shopping of consumers to be persuaded and advertised daily. During the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was even more prevalent with the social distancing and closing of retail stores. In the United States and Europe, e-commerce and retail trends are projected to increase globally 50% in the upcoming years, exceeding $1.5 trillion in sales (Oberlo, 2021). Societal influences such as younger adults and technological advancements are increasingly pushing businesses towards marketing towards purposeful branding and cross-channeling.
Comparative advertising is a type of marketing where a company compares its product or service directly or indirectly to its competitor, often highlighting its advantages over them. A good example is Popeye’s, which created an advertisement showcasing that it is open on Sunday, unlike its competitor, Chick-fil-A. Another is the advertisement by Adidas that shows a man running in the desert wearing Nike shoes. However, the cameraman can keep up because he is wearing Adidas.
Comparative advertising carries a negative edge compared to other forms of advertising and is thus governed differently by each government. In America, brands cannot use the competitor’s trademark and must only compare objective attributes such as price, quantity, and operational hours. They must also be able to provide sufficient evidence to back up their claim. Most companies use a parody to represent their competitor to avoid legal action.
Social media is a strong advertising platform, especially among millennials and generation Z. Brands are shifting from mainstream marketing to social media advertising that arguably costs less and reaches a wider customer base (Thornhill et al., 2017). Companies have had to change their marketing strategies to take advantage of the social media wave. Using celebrities and public figures as brand ambassadors is one such move. These celebrities post about the product and update consumers on any giveaways, challenges, or changes the company makes on their social media pages, giving the company access to its numerous followers (Thornhill et al., 2017). The association is another motivator to shift into social media marketing, as people may buy a product simply because of the celebrity advertising it. Social media has changed the nature of marketing, especially competitive advertising.
Social media as a marketing tool has evened out the field regarding advertising costs and the number of people a company can reach based on a single advertisement. To maintain a competitive edge, more companies are utilizing comparative advertising. Social media is just a tool, and thus all advertisements aired on TV can also be distributed on social media (Simonov & Hill, 2018). Take the famous 1975 Pepsi challenge, for instance, that performs a street taste on its flavors and compares them with Coca-Cola. A Coca-Cola brand ambassador can retry this test using half the resources and post it on their social media page using the hashtags #Pepsichallengere-do and #Coca-ColaVsPepsi. The new challenge will likely have a wider customer base than the initial advertisement.
Comparative adverting has numerous advantages. It leverages the competitor’s shortcomings to appear as the better option, which makes the company appear good when done correctly. It creates brand awareness and boosts followers, especially when comparing a new product with a well-known brand (Simonov & Hill, 2018). Comparative advertising is also informational to customers as it teaches them what to look for when buying certain products. However, it has several disadvantages. The company may lose loyal customers that do not advocate for such a cutthroat strategy or cause brand confusion when several brands are named in the same advertisement (Simonov & Hill, 2018). They may also face legal action if the advertisement goes against federal laws.
Despite the shortcomings, comparative advertising is beneficial when done correctly. Coupled with social media, it gives a company the edge over its competitors. By playing with human perception, comparative advertising gives the illusion of superiority. On the other hand, social media ensures that this illusion influences many people.
