The Main Purpose of Advertising from a South African Perspective

The main purpose of advertising in the business world is to promote sales in order to boost profits. As such, advertising has three basic aims:

To inform To persuade and To remind

One of the most underestimated points is to REMIND. The cost of advertising is extremely high. One may therefore wonder if it is not a waste of money to advertise a product which is widely known and which has a good slice of the market. Take Coca-Cola for instance. It is known and is readily available in almost every city in the world and yet the company continues to advertise it. Why is this so, and is the company wasting profits?

As i have already said, advertisers aim to inform the public about new or improved products and services and to persuade them to buy or use them. However, once the company has a slice of the market, it needs to remind the public that the products or services are still available, or it may well lose out to its competitors. I would be willing to bet anything if Coca-Cola stopped informing the public about their products a company like Pepsi would be the next giant.

Many large companies have fallen into this trap, once they have their market they automatically assume people will carry on buying the products or services they offer. The ability to constantly inform consumers of a companies products and activities is an ongoing commitment that keeps major share holders in a specific line at the top.

People (consumers) are highly complex creatures and do not always behave or react as rationally as one would expect. Advertising and marketing companies realise that consumers DO NOT BUY COMMODITIES, there are only two things they buy, 1. good feelings 2. solutions. One does not need a degree in psychology to know that everyone wants to be accepted, that people fear rejection, and that most of us wish to be successful, wealthy, attractive and one step ahead of the Jones'es. Take for example toothpaste, the fact that oral hygiene is the most important 'feature' this alone won't sell the product. Constant advertising to inform consumers of the fact that toothpaste makes you 'nicer to be near', 'keeps your mouth tingling fresh', and gives you advanced breath freshness are the 'sell ilnes' used to sell toothpaste. Don't just sell me a suit, sell me a sleek look, a tailor made fit and custom label that will turn heads.

A product or service that has been around for a long time has to find new an innovative ways to sell their 'wares' as well as emerging products. How to inform potential customers of what they should be buying, or why they should be buying are as varied as mass of different products for sale on the global market.

The advertising industry is, of course aware of our desire to be as good as, if not better than, others and exploits this to their own advantage. By using all they know about consumer behaviour, advertisers manage to persuade the public to buy the products they are promoting. Powerful appeals to human nature are often hidden within the advertisment. The subtle way in which these messages are used to inform the consumer is what makes advertising such a fascinating study.

http://www.design.turtleherbestate.co.za South Africa's best marketing and design site. Top class articles, ebooks, online software, tips and strategies. http://www.marketing-weekly.blogspot.com your design and marketing expert

Advertising - Should You Be Advertising Your Services?
B2B Marketing Health and Elder Care Services
Make Your Business Cards Work
Media Savvy ? Media Skills For Rural Women
The Future of Voiceovers: Hold Your Tongue...Possibly Forever
Creativity and Getting Outside of the Box
Turn Your Ad Copy into a Goldmine!
How To Tame The Buying Beast Inside Your Customer
Should Your Small Business Hire an Advertising Agency?
Grab Your Share of Untold Amounts of Advertising Dollars
Humor in Advertising
Too Much Build-Up: Over-Zealous Ad Copy Can Break The Sale
15 Tips for Better Yellow Page Ads
The Only Bad Advertising Is No Advertising - Or Is It?
How To Make Your Advertising Work!
Fax Broadcast Services Get Your Message to Millions
Forgot The Ad Budget? Dont Panic!
Double Your Sales Potential With Double-sided Business Cards
How To Create Instantly Compelling Ads Every Time
Advertising Costs Getting Too High?
Yellow Page Advertisers: Your Calls are Going to Decrease - Heres the Remedy
Advertising - Does it Matter?
Raising Funds For Your Nonprofit Using An Annual Direct Mail Program
Consider These Pressing Facts Before You Renew Your Yellow Page Ad
When Times Get Tough... or When to Really Advertise
Cross Cultural Advertising
Electronic Display Signs
Graphical LED Display
Cinema Advertising is Big Business, So Mergers are a Natural
Push vs Pull Advertising
Custom LED Display