Definition
Advertising is the placement of announcements and messages in time or space (advertisements) by business firms, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and individuals who seek to inform and/or persuade members of a particular target market or audience regarding their goods, services, organizations or ideas.
The term advertiser refers to the company, organization, or individual who pays for advertising space or time to present an announcement or persuasive message to the public.
An advertising objective is a statement prepared by the advertiser (often in association with an advertising agency) to set forth specific goals to be accomplished and the time period in which they are to be accomplished. Objectives can be stated in such terms as products to be sold, number of trial purchases, number of repeat purchases, audience members reached, the frequency with which audience members are reached, and percentages of the audience made aware of the advertising or the product.
An advertising idea, concept, or theme serves as the organizing thought for an advertisement. Ideas are used to dramatize the product-related information conveyed in advertising.
An advertising claim is a statement made in advertising about the benefits, characteristics, and/or performance of a product designed to persuade the customer to make a purchase.
Advertising substantiation refers to the documentation by means of tests or other evidence of product performance claims made in advertising. Federal Trade Commission decisions indicate that it is a deceptive and/or unfair practice for advertisers to fail to possess reasonable documentation for product performance claims made in advertising messages before the claims are disseminated to the public.
The commission method of compensation is the traditional compensation method whereby advertising agencies have been paid on the basis of a percentage of the cost of media time and/or space they purchased for a client. The usual commission has been 15 percent of the total cost of the media space and time purchased. Recently, clients have been moving toward the negotiation of specific fees for the services rendered by advertising agencies.
National advertising is any advertising that is placed by a company, organization, or individual that operates on a national or regional (multi-state) basis. Some advertising may be placed directly with local advertising media, but it is more likely that this advertising would be part of a nationwide advertising effort.
See Also
Advertising budget
Advertising impression
Advertising manager
Advertising strategy
Advertising wearout
Bait advertising
Pay-for-performance advertising
References
- American Marketing Association, AMA Dictionary.
- Blair, M. H. “An Empirical Investigation of Advertising Wearin and Wearout,” Journal of Advertising Research, 1988.