Advertising - A catalyzer for consumers' never-ending hunger of wants

“A good Advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself”, an interesting and apt-to-Advertising quote by David Ogilvy, makes the purpose of advertising even more clear and concise. Before jumping to why advertising is done, it is essential to understand what is advertising.

Advertising is all about “persuasion”. It is the moment when a consumer is stuck in the middle of persuasion and choice or in much simpler words- Advertising is a mode of developing a communication between the advertiser and the consumer whose sole aim is to build a positive image of the product in the “solution-seeking” minds of consumer. It is used to encourage, persuade and manipulate the consumers so that he gets attracted towards the product, but to a pause, advertising does not end here. It further continues to engage the customer till he is persuaded to take a positive action regarding the product that eventually results in the unnecessary buying.

Advertising can mainly be classified into print Advertising, electronic advertising i.e., Radio, TV, internet, mobile and Outdoor Advertising mediums like hoardings and billboards. The three most common forms are detailed below:

Outdoor Advertising:- is regarded as a very effective tool of advertising which makes use of tools like billboards, hoardings, kiosks, tradeshows, events etc., having a high and immediate impact on the customers. Apart from this, Outdoor Advertising is considered to be an economical form of communication classifying further into posters, transits, bus stations, taxis, moving trains, terminal posters, POP (point of purchase) etc.

Print Advertising:- accommodates the advertisements printed on paper and handled by a specific potential audience. It is a very attractive and receptive mode of communication and poses a direct impact on consumer’s mind when he reads and makes a perception towards the written message. Print Advertising is considered as a very old form of advertising popular since 17^th century and includes- newspapers, magazines, brochures, fliers, direct mailers, yellow pages etc.

Digital advertising:- Digital Advertising is one of the fastest and advanced modes of convincing the consumers in which the information is communicated with the help of Internet and mobile phones. Internet being a very common medium is one of the fastest and cheapest medium which has a global reach. Digital Advertising majorly consists of the two most popular modes that are SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization). Both of these are online mode of delivering the marketing message with the help of ad servers and social networking websites. The ads may appear on the search engines, social sites, banner ads, text ads, online classifieds, e-mail promotions etc.

Being derived from a Latin word, advertising actually “turn the minds of customer towards” the final product which eventually makes them spend money on the unnecessary products they don’t even need. At the end, advertising can be considered as the lifeline of a business which is true to a great extent.