Advertising is an effective medium of communication that is used to inform, influence and attract individuals, or specific groups to subscribe paid services or to purchase certain goods. Over period of time advertisement methods have evolved significantly, now advertisement can be two way and customize. Different types of advertisement mediums such as social media, television, and print media attracts different categories of target market. Advertising is used by companies as a marketing method to address specific group of people or mass market at a larger scale with a motive to get benefits of their purchasing capacity. This paper discusses advertising, its impact of consumers and how it has been utilized to link products or services with individual identity.
Advertising is a medium of customize or mass marketing to address, persuade or manipulate people in order to sale products or services. Companies in order to promote their products or services use several modes of communication like television, movies, radio, newspapers, and magazines. Advertising has been used since a long time ago but it has emerged in a new form in nineteenth century. Companies are now using social media such as Facebook, Twitter to advertise their products to specific group of people; people can share their experiences or write comments on the products. Social media has evolved as very cost effective and interactive medium of advertisement. Interactive websites are also considered by companies to bring uniqueness and concept of their products forward (Belch et al.). Advertising has affected markets and economy and due to its impact on consumers, it has also been in debates since a long time. Different People have different opinions about advertising and its impacts on people.
Since the origin of marketing, consumerism, and aggressive campaigns, advertising has been profoundly used by companies to sell products and to promote services. When advertising was merely a way of informing people about its benefits, it did not create any problem but when advertising became aggressive and companies started selling their products cleverly, it created enormous amount of confusion among people. Companies now play too smart and make very focused advertisings to tap different categories of people. They make different advertisings for youngsters, old people and kids in order to attract them towards their products. Today Advertising, due to tricks used in it, has become a much debated issue irrespective of some of its benefits. People are now very easily relate themselves with the advertisements and buy product out of influence. For example companies are hiring influential celebrities to promote their products so that consumers easily establish a link between those products and celebrities, and purchase those products out of belief that their favorite actor or cricketer is using same products.
It has been an established fact that today Advertising plays a vital role in making of a brand identity and influence consumer behavior. People have a propensity to go after what they read in newspapers or watch repeatedly on their television channels without considering much of its effects, aspects, pros and cons. If people are made to see a particular product on Television or on any other medium of advertising, they purchase that product without bothering much to explore other products which are not so popular but have same worth. The power of advertising in making brands is undoubtedly increased. Advertising helps in establishing new brands and identity construction while in case of established names, advertising helps them in keeping their names in consumer’s mind. Advertisement not only helps in creating a brand recall but also create a relationship with the consumers, so that consumer can associate themselves with the products (Belch et al.).
Advertising has influenced the brains and thoughts of people and through advertising their products, Companies decide what is good, bad or suitable for consumers. The advertising tactics force consumers to wear particular brands to be a hero, smoke particular cigarette to look cool, to use a particular bike to be popular among girls and people at a large scale are actually using these products in the same way that has been designed for them by the advertisers of these products. Perhaps using advertised products gives consumers a pleasure of being a hero or satisfies them of using a popular product.
Amazingly, advertising has reached to the last standing person and now each and every person is aware of advertised products. People make an image of low quality, high quality, cheap and costly product as they are persuaded to make by the advertisements. When these people see somebody using that product, they categorize the user as per their impression made by the advertisement. People, those use costlier advertised products are considered well off in the society. Advertisement is one of most useful tools of companies in order to get the money out from consumer’s pockets. Companies, through their luring advertisements, have made a frame and a consumer has to be within the frame in order to be famous in the society.
Advertising has such impacts that a smaller company turns into global and people start using its services or products across the world. Advertisement has defied the boundaries of countries and today multinational companies have become more powerful than governments. Today it is not difficult to find individuals to flaunt caps, underwear, and shirts of a multinational company in a small village or in a suburb. Advertising is so powerful that it has made its reach to the places where governments have no access due to lack of roads, but branded products are available. Now imagine how elite an individual is who wears a branded shirt, smokes branded cigarette or uses advertised products in such places.
There are People who say that advertising has affected the interests of consumers in a negative way. It has confined consumers’ existence into hands of certain companies that advertise their products with motive to sell their products. If such allegations are inspected, these are not baseless and it has been observed in a number of cases where people products merely on the advertised claims of companies but after purchasing products, these claims were proven wrong and consumers felt cheated on the other and there are people who advocate in the favor of advertisements. People who are in favor of Advertisements say they are a strong medium of awareness and inform consumers about right and good quality products. If their claims are inspected, they are not totally wrong; advertisements inform consumers about their quality, price and quantity (Belch et al.).
After having observed the abovementioned detailed analysis of the subject, it can be concluded by saying that advertisement is a strong medium of brand making or identity construction. Advertisements developed a strong bonding with the viewers which influence their buying behavior. People also associate themselves with the brand or products due to the brand image developed by advertisement. People connect themselves with the models, celebrities, themes or situation depicted in the advertisement. Relationship developed by advertisement between brand and consumers affect consumer’s senses and results in purchase of products.
Works Cited
G. Belch, M. A. Belch, G. Kerr and I. Powell. Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective. Australia: McGraw-Hill, 2008.
