What is meant by advertisement? From Understanding to Purpose, Complete!

What is the meaning of advertising, and what type, purpose and medium is it used? You will find the answer in this article. 

Definition of advertisement

Advertising is a message conveyed with the aim of introducing a product to an audience through certain media. Advertising is an important instrument in the marketing process and is part of the promotion. In the digital era, advertising has undergone a transformation to become more diverse, such as advertisements on social media platforms or creative billboards. The main goal of advertising is to make the audience aware of the product and interested in buying it.

In addition, there is also an advertising process that includes costs that must be incurred by sponsors to carry out the promotion of ideas and products. Advertisements must be persuasive in nature in order to attract the audience's interest in buying the product through various media.

According to Supriyanto in his book "Making Profits from Printed Billboard Banners", advertising is a form of promotion of goods, services, companies or ideas that must be paid for by a sponsor. This sponsor is usually a certain company that becomes a client.

Ad Type

In the book "Marketing" by Charles W. Lamb and Joseph F. Hair, there are two main types of advertising:

1. Institutional Advertising

This type of advertising aims to build the image of a company rather than campaigning for a particular product. Institutional advertising can be in the form of support to create perceptions about core issues or respond to issues faced by the media.

2. Product Advertising (Product Advertising)

This type of advertising focuses on promoting products to a functional audience. Advertisements for this product are often found on both conventional and digital platforms.

Advertising Function

Advertising has several objective functions that are massively promoted, including:

1. Provide information to target consumers: Advertising serves to convey information about products or services to audiences or potential customers. Through advertising, companies can inform the features, benefits, prices and advantages of the products offered.

2. Persuading the audience to buy the products offered: One of the main goals of advertising is to influence the audience to be interested and encouraged to buy the product. Ads use persuasive strategies such as customer testimonials, unique claims, discount promotions or other special offers to convince them that the product is worth buying.

3. Maintain consumer memory and recollection of a particular product: By displaying advertisements consistently and repeatedly on mass media or digital platforms, advertising helps create brand awareness and keeps product names and images in consumers' minds.

4. Adding value to the products being marketed: Advertising also serves as a means to highlight the added value of a product. For example by emphasizing the uniqueness of the design, the high quality materials used, superior customer service, or the company's commitment to certain social-environmental issues.

5. To be a means of assistance rather than the company's other efforts: Advertising can also act as a tool in supporting overall product marketing and sales efforts. Advertising helps create consumer trust, build a positive brand image, and increase product visibility in the market.

Advertising Purpose

There are three main objectives in advertising which can be viewed from three different contexts:

1. Commercial Ads

The purpose of commercial advertising is to support the marketing campaign of a product being sold. There are two types of commercial advertising, namely strategic advertising and tactical advertising. Strategic advertising aims to build a brand by analyzing brand value and product benefits. Meanwhile, tactical advertising is formulated to encourage the audience to make a product purchase.

2. Corporate Advertising

Corporate advertising aims to strengthen the image of a particular company. Involving various marketing strategy instruments, the goal is to help create a positive image of the products offered by the company.

3. Public service announcements

This type is a social campaign whose aim is to market ideas or ideas in the context of the interests of the wider community. Ser often used by state institutions and invite people not to do corruption, stay away from drugs, and other things.

In conclusion, advertising can be interpreted as a tool to provide information and promote products or messages to audiences using various strategies and platforms.

Hopefully this article adds to your insight.