Characteristics of Advertising that you need to Know

As an advertiser and a consumer, we have seen a lot of ads that astound us and ads which are flops. People are presented with hundreds of ads per day and most of them don’t even look at them. An effective ad would stand out from its competitors as it would use various formats and resources to outclass its competitors. It is generally used by businesses and corporations to help boost sales and bring profits, as well as inform and persuade customers about their products. Advertising typically includes a mixture of advertising messages, which are aimed at a particular target audience. 

Companies use advertising to create brand awareness and loyalty, differentiate themselves from the competition, and build relationships with customers. So what does make a good advertisement, there are a lot of characteristics of advertising that greatly depend on various factors some of which are mentioned below. 

What is an Advertisement?

An advertisement is a marketing communication that typically seeks to persuade potential customers/consumers to purchase a company’s product or service. Advertisements may appear in many media formats, including television, radio, print, outdoor, digital, and more. The reason why advertising is important is that it is a  form of imparting awareness that informs and influences potential customers to purchase a product or service. 

Advertising is pivotal in modern business, expanding market reach, enhancing brand recognition, and driving economic growth through targeted campaigns. It also serves as a platform for social advocacy, leveraging creativity, precision targeting, consistency, measurability, and adaptability to influence consumer behavior and promote positive societal change. Ultimately, advertising is an indispensable tool for organizational success and broader societal advancement.

What are the Characteristics of Advertising?

To understand the various factors about advertising one must first recognize the general basis of advertising. Some of the below-mentioned general attributes are to be considered when advertising your product or service. 

• Transparency: To clearly communicate the message and offer a unique value proposition to the target audience. 
• Relevance: To appeal to the target audience’s needs, desires, and interests.
• Creativity: To stand out from other advertisements and capture the target audience’s attention.
• Consistency: To reinforce the brand’s image and value over time.
• Measurable: To include clear goals and methods for determining the success of the advertising campaign. 
• Versatile: To be adaptable to changing market conditions and customer preferences.
• Collective: To integrate with other marketing channels, such as social media, email marketing, website design, etc. 
• Legal and Ethical: To coheres with advertising laws and ethical principles, avoiding false or misleading claims and respecting the privacy of all customers. 
• Appeals to emotion: Advertising seeks to create an emotional connection between the product and the consumer.
• Creates competition: Advertising helps companies create competition with other similar products in the marketplace.

Paid Promotions

Paid promotion is a form of marketing strategy in which companies or businesses pay to have their products or services promoted, usually in the form of paid advertising. It is also referred to as PPC( Pay Per Click) advertising and involves using platforms such as search engines, websites, social media, and other mediums to reach potential customers. Most paid promotion campaigns are designed to increase brand awareness, increase sales, and boost website traffic. 

Different Companies may use different tactics such as keyword-targeted campaigns, display ads, remarketing, and sponsored content to get their message out. Additionally, businesses can use tools such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads to track the performance of their campaigns to identify the best and the worst ads which is an important characteristics of advertising. 

One-way Communication

One-way communication is a type of communication in which the sender in this case the brands and the advertisers transmits a message to the receiver without essentially any response from the receiver in this case the customers/ consumers. An example of one-way communication includes television and radio broadcasts, and print media such as newspapers and magazines. 

A flaw of one-way communication is that it has a relatively low level of engagement because it does not require any feedback from the receiver. This can be beneficial in circumstances where the message is designed to provide information quickly and efficiently, without generating a lengthy dialogue.

Personal or Non-Personal

Personal advertising is related to the direct promotion of a product or service to a particular individual. Examples include direct mail, email, SMS, social media, and telemarketing. Typically, Brands and advertisers use personal advertising to target potential customers and build awareness of their brand. 

Non-personal advertising focuses on the product or service instead of marketing to a particular individual. Examples include print, TV, radio, and digital advertising. These forms of promotion enable companies to reach a wide range of audiences and create brand recognition more quickly than with personalized advertising.

Promotional Tool

One of the most important characteristics of advertising includes various factors of the promotional mix such as  

Social Media: Using social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., to reach target audiences with tailored content, can help you promote your business. 

Email Marketing: Building an email list and consistently engaging with your subscribers is one of the most cost-effective promotional tools. 

Content Marketing: Creating interesting and relevant content is an effective way to attract attention and build trust with readers. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Improving your website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) can increase your organic traffic and lead to more conversions. 

Website Optimization: Optimizing your website for search engines can help boost organic search results and attract more customers. 

There are other promotional tools as well such as Influencer marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Event marketing, etc. which could be used to promote a brand’s product or service to its target audience.  

Wide Applicability

This could be one of the characteristics of good advertising as brands and advertisers majorly use it to communicate to a specific group of people in a specific group of manner and methods to achieve a specific goal. However, advertising is also used for other purposes by museums, charitable trusts, government agencies, educational institutions,  political parties for their campaigns, and others to inform and attract various target publics.

 Use of Media

This is a huge challenge that most brands and advertisers have which is choosing the right media to advertise their products and services. Brands utilize media to improve and extend their reach and influence customer decisions and opinions. Social media and other digital tools are also used to interact with both current and potential customers. 

These various digital tools also help brands and advertisers monitor customer feedback and measure customer satisfaction. Moreover, media can be used to create awareness for causes or events, shape public opinion, and inspire action.

Difference in Advertising Objective

Most companies’ objectives for advertising their product or service will not be for the same intent. Advertising will vary depending on the purpose of the campaign. Generally, the objectives of advertising can be broken down into three main categories: to brief, to Convince, and to Prompt. 

To Brief: To build awareness of a brand, product, or service in order to generate potential customers or educate existing customers on a particular topic. 

To Convince: To encourage people to purchase a product or service by highlighting the benefits and features in order to create a positive image. 

To Prompt: To encourage existing customers to keep using a product or service and to remind them of any advantages they may be missing out on.

FAQs on Characteristics of Advertising