Book Overview

Introduction to Advertising 1.1 BACK GROUND Steurt H. Britt (New York Herald Tribune, 1956) once said , “Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else”. This statement made by him highlights the importance of advertising in selling goods and services. The present day market is characterized by the existence of cut throat competition among sellers. It has reached the situation of 'survival of the fittest'. The competitors try to lure customers including children and students by adopting a variety of techniques. The market is a tough place to be in. Thousands of products are launched everyday. Advertising is an important tool in the hands of seller and is a social phenomenon. It stimulates economic activities, increases demand and consumption of goods, improves life style of the consumers, and inculcates certain values in them which are criticized as well as appreciated by different sections of society. Consumers are confronted with substantial daily doses of advertising through news papers, radio, TV and various other forms of media. Consumers have no escape from it. In fact, it has become an uninvited guest in our daily life. Of all marketing activities, advertising is the most visible and controversial. The role of advertising in business and in society at large has been studied, analyzed, defended and criticized by a large number of people representing a wide spectrum of professional groups, which includes economists, sociologists, politicians, businessmen, novelists, anthropologist, psychologists and historians ( Polley,1986). Most of the criticisms of advertising come from those who focus on advertising's social role, whereas most of its defence comes from those who emphasise its economic function. Present day economic environment has resulted in a fast life style among the younger group, making them updated modern persons which otherwise would have given them a feeling of being out dated among their peers. Advertising, on the other hand, is trying to exploit the immature mind of its customers. The deceiving advertising strategy together with young customers results in new demand for a product. Now 'whether the new demand' is genuine or not is a million dollar question and if the demand is not fulfilled, it has too many other repercussions. One of the strategies used by the marketers is targeting the young as well as inexperienced customers. The main purpose of advertising is to inform the prospect about products and services, but today it has been misused or rather abused by most of the business houses.