HOW DOES ADVERTISING INFLUENCE CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

In this competitive world, only the company that can influence consumer behavior can be successful in the long run. Consumer behavior refers to the study of the customer's purchasing behavior starting from choosing between different products till post purchase usage and evaluation. Now let us study in detail about how advertising influences consumer behaviour.

CREATES AWARENESS AMONG CUSTOMERS

Advertising makes consumers aware by communicating the latest products and their specifications to them. In addition, advertising also illustrates the USP of a particular product. In simple words, it tells the customers how the product is different from other products. Advertising also highlights the tagline or slogan of the product and that is retained by the customers for a long period of time. Through advertising, consumers become aware of the choices they have and this facilitates their purchasing decision. Advertising makes it easy for the consumer to choose between different alternatives as he can figure out through the advertisements that which product is more suited to his needs.

ADVERTISING COMMUNICATES VALUE

When a customer buys a product or service, he/she expects a certain value from it. If the product delivers the expected value, the consumer gets satisfied. However, if the product does not deliver the value the customer expects, the customer gets disappointed. Hence, the role of value delivery is very important. Advertising is the best medium to reach the consumer and communicate what sort of value your product or service offers. While making the purchasing decision, consumer considers a number of factors. Value delivery is on the top of them. Value can be in the terms of quantity, convenience, quality, maintenance cost, experience, design etc.

POSITIONING THE PRODUCT

Positioning refers to establishing the image of the product in the minds of the customer. It plays a vital role in every business as the consumer's perception about the product is very important. Advertising facilitates the desirable positioning of the product in the minds of the customers. Advertising makes sure that there is no misinterpretation by the consumer. In this way, the intended message is communicated.

ENTERTAINMENT AND CREATIVITY

Entertainment and creativity have always been two vital parts for creating an advertisement. Advertising aims to entertain the customers with its creativity so that the customers retain the product's message for a longer period of time. Hence, it has a direct impact on consumer behavior. Creative advertisements attract the customers and make the product more appealing to them. Entertaining advertisements have a long lasting impact on the consumer's mind. After seeing a creative advertisement, a consumer is tempted to buy and consume that particular product. Sometimes, such type of ads generate curiosity in the customer and then he/she desperately wants to try the product to find out if the product actually offers what it advertises.

CONVINCING THE CUSTOMER TO TRY THE PRODUCT

Netflix has come up with an advertising strategy of offering a free 1 month trial to its new users. These type of strategies convince the customer and he is tempted to try the product or service. Many companies provide free samples to customers as a way of promotion. These type of advertising strategies definitely influence the consumer behavior. They have a positive impact on consumer behavior. Whenever a consumer gets anything for free, he is certainly delighted and such a customer might become a regular customer of the company if he is satisfied by the free trial or sample. Free trials or samples are a sort of investment the companies are willing to make to capture the market share.

CONCLUSION

To sum up, companies must analyse what sort of advertising has a positive influence on consumer behavior and use that to their advantage. Any advertising strategy that has a negative influence on consumer behavior must not be adopted by the company.

HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF ADVERTISNG

The history of advertising goes back to ancient civilizations. Advertising acquired a crucial role in economies in the mid 19th century. In the 20th century, advertising grew at a rapid rate with the introduction of new technologies.

PRE-MODERN HISTORY

Papyrus was used by people of Egypt to make sales messages and posters. Lost and Found advertising was a common sight in ancient Greece and Rome. Wall Advertising is another type of ancient advertising which is prevalent even today in many parts of the world. ORAL was the most popular advertising method in ancient China which involved the use of bamboo flutes to sell candy. In Europe, sellers used street callers to promote fruits and vegetables. The street callers loudly announced the products and the location of the seller for the convenience of the customers. Sign boards and Trademarks were some other popular advertising tools apart from street callers in ancient Europe.

16th-18th Century

Newspapers and Magazines were introduced in the market in the 16th century. The first weekly journals originated in Venice in the early 16th century. Then it further spread to Italy, German and Holland. In those times, the advertisements in newspapers were mainly for books and medicines. However after 1650, the variety of products being advertised had increased remarkably. During the 18th century, trade cards gained a lot of popularity. Trade cards refer to the rectangular or square cards that a business gives to clients and potential customers. In the present time, trade cards have evolved into Business cards and are still popular.

19th Century

In the middle of the 19th century, newspapers started to focus on paid advertising to lower their price, extend readership and boost profitability. False advertising also became common during this period. Advertisements started promoting variety of products and this led to increase in demand in the market. The latest fashions also started appearing in the advertisements. Repeated advertisements allowed manufacturers to develop nationally known brands.

20th Century

The first radio stations were established in the early 1920s. The main source of funding for most stations was Advertising. The Great Depression during the 1930s led to the reduction in the number of advertisements as businesses incurred huge losses and could not afford advertising. Television arrived in the 1950s and it proved to be a major breakthrough in the field of advertising. With the introduction of automobiles, travelling became common and tourism industry invested huge funds in advertising. After some decades, cable televisions became popular during the 1980s and 1990s.

21st Century

In the beginning of the 21st century, number of websites especially search engines like Google redefined advertising. The focus shifted to relevant based ads based on customer's browsing interests. Digital advertising started dominating the market and also proved to be cost effective as compared to traditional advertising. Although traditional advertising has still not lost its relevance in the 21st century, but the companies aiming for expansion and a wide audience are preferring digital advertising. Tech giants like Google, Amazon and Microsoft have redefined the digital marketing.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded from this blog that advertising is not a new phenomenon in our world. It has been there since ancient times. It is quite evident that importance of advertising has grown with every passing generation and it would not be wrong to say that it will continue to grow in the upcoming years as well. The field of advertising is very dynamic. Hence, it is bound to experience changes with time. In the future, there will be new advertising means that will emerge and again change the whole scenario. Therefore, continuous scanning of the business environment is very important.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT ADVERTISEMENT FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Choosing the most effective media for the advertising campaign plays a crucial role in the success of the advertising campaign. The management considers a number of factors before choosing any one media. Some of these factors are- Target audience, Business Environment and Cost of advertising. The advertising field is very dynamic as new advertising means keep on emerging. Digital and social media have completely disrupted the advertising industry. Now let us discuss the factors influencing the advertising media selection in detail.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The first step in selecting the advertising media is that we need to identify our target audience. For instance, target audience for a beard trimmer would be males above the age of 18. The media planners need to find out when there target audience watches television or which newspaper or magazine they prefer to read. They need to prepare the audience profile and take decision accordingly. Consumers are considered the KING of the market. Hence, there detailed study is very important. If a business gives negligible attention towards its potential customers, it can never flourish.

COST OF ADVERTISING

Advertising requires huge amounts of funds. The management needs to evaluate all the advertising mediums and figure out the most appropriate one. The appropriate advertising media would be the one which fulfills the objectives of business and is also cost effective. The business needs to carefully choose the advertising media as it involves huge amount of money. Capital forms an important part of every business, hence, it should be invested in advertising with proper planning and precision.

SCALE OF OPERATIONS

The scale at which the business is operating also influences the advertising decision. Large scale and small scale businesses have varied approaches to advertising. A business operating at a small scale would prefer traditional advertising as its target audience is limited. It would rely on advertising methods like Posters, Newspapers, Radio, Hoardings etc. On the contrary, in the case of a large scale business, the audience is vast. Therefore, along with traditional advertising, it would also go for digital advertising. It would help the business to reach a wide range of customers in a short span of time.

INDUSTRY AND COMPETITION

The industry in which a business operates plays a key role in deciding the advertising strategy. The business needs to scan its industry and the advertising strategies used by its competitors. For instance, if all the competitors of a company are using digital advertising but the company is only using traditional advertising, then the competitors will enjoy a strong edge over the company. Whatever advertising medium is used by the competitors must be adopted by the company as well, otherwise, the company will not be able to reach a certain segment of the customers.

OBJECTIVES OF THE BUSINESS

The goals and objectives of the business also affect the advertising strategies used by the business. If the objective of the company is to grow and expand, it would opt for a variety of channels for advertising. On the contrary, if the company is going through a crisis and its objective is only to survive in the market, then it would certainly cut down the advertisement expenditure as it is having a shortage of funds.

CONCLUSION

It is quite obvious that the advertising strategies differ from business to business. A company must do proper market research to increase the effectiveness of its advertising strategies. The product and its target audience must be ascertained before formulating the advertising strategy. This would result in a better positioning of the product or service. There would be less confusion in the minds of customers and the advertising message will be communicated as intended.

TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING VS DIGITAL ADVERTISING

Traditional advertising refers to promoting the product or service by using offline channels like television, radio, newspapers etc. On the contrary Digital advertising refers to the use of the Internet to promote a product or service. Let us discuss each one in detail.

TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING AND ITS BENEFITS

Traditional advertising is a conventional medium of advertising that uses various offline channels to promote a product or service. The main components of traditional advertising are Print, Broadcast, Direct Mail, Telephone and Outdoor. The print component includes newspapers and magazines while the broadcast component involves television and radio. Direct Mail is further divided into catalogues, postcards etc. Telemarketing and SMS marketing are also forms of traditional advertising. Outdoor component of traditional advertising includes billboards, hoardings, posters etc.

Traditional advertising mainly relies on the 4 P's of marketing- Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Through traditional advertising, it becomes relatively easy to reach the local audience. Many people still do not use the internet, hence, to reach that group of customers, traditional advertising is the best method. It does not involve any complexities, therefore, it is easy to understand as well. There is no confusion in the minds of the customer. Another advantage of traditional advertising is that customers retain the hard copies of advertising materials like magazines which they go through repeatedly. In addition traditional marketing is much more interactive in nature as compared to digital marketing.

DRAWBACKS OF TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING

One of the main drawbacks of traditional advertising is that it involves huge costs. If you publish an ad in a newspaper, it will be effective only if it is seen by your potential customer on the day it is published. If you wish to reach your customers again, you will have publish a new ad and incur the huge cost again. Traditional advertising is not a sort of one time investment. You need to keep on spending huge amounts of money to advertise your product or service.Through traditional advertising, there is negligible scope of customizing your advertisements for a specific group of customers. Moreover, the results of traditional advertising cannot be easily measured and controlled. Hence, it becomes a troublesome task to compute the Return On Investment in Traditional Advertising.

 DIGITAL ADVERTISING AND ITS BENEFITS

Digital Advertising helps a business to reach a wide range of customers. In addition, digital advertising is very cost effective as compared to traditional advertising. You can pay per click and at the same time reach your target customers as well. Another benefit of digital advertising is that people spend a lot of their time online which makes it easy to reach them. The future scope of digital advertising is also immense as the role of internet is going to increase exponentially with the passage of time. Measuring the effectiveness of digital advertising is much easier. You can check the number of people who clicked on your ad and for how long they stayed on your website. In this way, you can figure out what is going wrong in your advertising strategies and take appropriate corrective action.

DRAWBACKS OF DIGITAL ADVERTISING

Digital advertising has certain drawbacks as well. For instance, the negative feedback given by unsatisfied customers are visible to the public. This has a negative impact on the future sales of the product. Another drawback of digital advertising is that it is comparatively less interactive. Many people still use internet rarely or do not use it at all, hence, you cannot reach such customers through digital advertising. There are also certain security and privacy issues associated with digital advertising. When you visit a website, it demands certain permissions to access your data, hence, your privacy is at risk in such cases.

PROS AND CONS OF ADVERTISING

Every coin has two sides and similar is the case with advertisements as well. Although it has numerous benefits, but it has certain drawbacks as well. First of all, let us discuss the pros of advertising.

ADVANTAGES OF ADVERTISING

Public Service Advertisements

There are certain advertisements who aim is not to increase the sales of a product, but to spread social awareness regarding a particular health issue or disease or any other societal problem. We see Akshay Kumar promoting the use of sanitary pads instead of simple cloth. This is nothing but public service advertisement. It is one of the main positive effects of advertising on our society. Advertisements related to women empowerment, avoiding cigarette and tobacco are also public service advertisements.

Economic Benefits

Advertisements have numerous economic benefits. First of all, it boosts the overall economy by increasing the consumption rates of consumers. Because of advertising, customers tend to save less and spend more. This facilitates the flow of money in the economy.

Job Creation

The field of advertising creates a lot of jobs every year. Public Relations Manager, Market Research Analyst, Brand Manager and Promotion Manager are some of the jobs under advertising. These jobs pay handsome amounts to individuals and the growth scope in such jobs is immense. In earlier times, very less people chose advertising as a career but with the passage of time, more people are aspiring to become successful in this field.

Company Image

Advertising helps to enhance the image of the company in the market. No consumer wants to buy a product that he/she has never heard of. In addition, distributors and retailers do not want to sell products that have no brand value in the market. The brand value of the product can be developed only through advertising.

Mass Media

The main source of revenue for television, radio, newspapers and magazines is advertising. In the absence of advertising, these mass communication channels might not even exist as it would be difficult for them to cover the costs. Advertising is the reason behind the cheap services we enjoy from mass media. For instance, the cost of a newspaper is around Rs 5. But the fact is that it has around 30 pages and its value is much more than 5 rupees. We get it cheaply only because of the advertisement sections in the newspapers. The newspapers decrease their price so that the advertisements can reach maximum number of people.

DISADVANTAGES OF ADVERTISING

Misleading Advertisements

There are a number of companies that make misleading advertisements to boost the sale of their product. These type of products do not offer the same quality, quantity or satisfaction as advertised. It is an unethical way of earning profit. By cheating the customer, a firm may reap short term profits but it will definitely suffer in the long run.

Unrealistic Expectations
Many products create unrealistic expectations in the minds of customers through advertising. Advertisements like Increase your height in 30 days or loose weight without exercising are simply impractical. These kind of products make false claims that they cannot fulfill in reality. If the customer tries the product, he is disappointed after using it as he does not get the desired results.

Effect on youth
Advertisements are mostly given by popular celebrities who have a strong influence over society. These celebrities are shown with perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect body. After watching such advertisements, youngsters also seek this perfection. They are deviated from the real world and they start living in their own fantasies.

Conclusion
It can be concluded that advertisement has both merits and demerits. It is the duty of the marketers to use advertisements for the true presentation of their product and not for misleading the consumers. Companies should practice ethical advertising and never indulge in unethical advertising.

ONLINE ADVERTISING

ONLINE ADVERTISING is an advertising tool used by companies to promote their product or service through internet. In recent years, online advertising has gained immense popularity. People spend a significant amount of their time surfing the internet. Therefore, the companies have started using the online platform to reach their potential customers. Let us discuss the types of online advertising in detail.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

Search engine marketing is used to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages. When you search the best sports shoes, you will find after your search is loaded, on the top there will be some SPONSORED shoes of certain brands that you didn't even mention in your search. These are the sponsored ads for which brands pay a lot of money. GOOGLE is the primary reason behind the rise in popularity of search engine marketing. Search Engine Optimization improves a website's organic search rankings by increasing the website's content relevance with the help of keywords.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

It refers to the promotion done through social media websites. People spend most of their leisure time on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter. To reach the customers, companies advertise their products on these platforms. Sponsored posts are also a part of Social Media Marketing. For instance, you search for a new set of headphones on AMAZON and after surfing for some time you exit the website. After some time, you will discover that the product you viewed or added to your cart will follow you everywhere. Whenever you open Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or SNAPCHAT you will see that product under the category SPONSORED.

EMAIL ADVERTISING

It is another form of online advertising in which promotional emails are sent to potential customers. In most cases, the marketer seeks permission from the recipient prior to sending the emails. One can also unsubscribe from such emails at any point of time. Advertising through emails presents great business opportunities as a large part of the world population has an email ID and even checks it frequently.

DISPLAY ADVERTISING 

Display Advertising communicates its message through text, photos, videos, animations. Web banners displayed within a web page are an example of display advertising. Pop-ups and floating ads are also types of display advertising. Marketers collect the data of a user from different websites and they identify the user's interests to display the ads accordingly.

AFFILIATE MARKETING

When third parties generate potential customers for a brand, it is called affiliate marketing. The third parties are called affiliates. The affiliates receive a commission on  the basis of number of products sold through their promotion. The affiliate recommends a product or service through his blog, social media account or website and he earns a commission every time a customer purchases the product from the unique link of the affiliate.

CONTENT MARKETING

It refers to creating and sharing online material such as blogs and videos to acquire and retain customers. The information can also be in the form of news, e-books, case studies etc. Content marketing does not explicitly promote a brand but is aimed at stimulating interest in its products or services.

CONCLUSION
To conclude, it can be said that online advertising is the present and future of advertising. The businesses that do not have online presence in today's era find it difficult to survive in the market. Although online advertising can prove to be expensive at times, but the numerous benefits it brings to the business overshadow that drawback. Online advertising is the best means to reach a large audience in a short span of time. With the help of online advertising, companies can easily identify their target customers and promote their product.

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