Core Concept
Advertising provides information about products and communicates with a target audience. The lesson explains that a lot of thought goes into creating even a small advertisement.
The chapter begins with a simple idea: people need information about products in the market. Advertising can therefore be a powerful medium of information. At the same time, the lesson points out that wrong advertising can reduce the sales of a product. Advertisers and ad agencies believe that customers have needs and desires which can be fulfilled through the sale and purchase of goods.
Basic Needs and Emotional Appeal
Advertising keeps basic human needs in mind. The lesson lists physiological, safety, love, esteem and self-confidence needs. Advertisements may appeal to emotions such as envy, fear and anxiety about one’s status and appearance. The aim is to connect the advertised product with what the consumer wants or feels.
From Attention to Conviction
Consumer needs
→
Gain attention
→
Stimulate desire
→
Impart conviction
The key principle is to gain the attention of the consumer. The lesson gives size, colour, visualisation and slogans as ways of doing this. After attention is gained, advertisements stimulate desire. They try to make people want the particular product and may make them feel special, exclusive or “cool”. Advertisements also impart conviction by putting on a show of certainty and surety. The example given is an advertisement that suggests using Fairglow fairness crème will make a person successful.
Important Advertising Terms
Jingle
A rhyming song used to advertise a product. The lesson notes that such jingles can be traced back to around 1923, when commercial radio came to the public.
Spot
An advertisement on audio/visual media such as television, radio, cinema or cable television.
Consumer
A person who uses any product or service.
i
Textbook Illustration
The chapter gives the Bajaj bulbs advertisement as a jingle example and asks learners to create a new jingle for tubelights. This illustrates how a short rhyming song can be used to advertise a product.
Why this concept matters in the chapter: The lesson’s first objective is to explain the principles of advertising, and the terminal exercise asks students to explain these principles.
Core Concept
Because the cost of making an advertisement is very high, advertising agencies need to plan advertising campaigns carefully.
Advertisement planning starts with a clear understanding of why a company wants to advertise. The chapter gives three possible purposes: increasing the number of people who buy a product, creating a good public image, or introducing a new product. The agency then has to identify the target group—the people for whom the advertisement is intended.
Questions that guide planning
The advertisement must have a clear message. The message may say that a product is the best in the market, the cheapest, or stylish to use because a film star uses it. The planner also asks where the target group is located: in metros, big cities, towns or villages. This affects the choice of medium and the way the public will be reached.
The agency must decide whether the campaign will use print, radio or television, and how it will reach the public—for example through FM radio, television or language newspapers. It must also decide when the campaign will run and for how long. The lesson gives examples such as six months, three months or one week. The length of an individual advertisement may be one minute, thirty seconds or ten seconds.
Language is another planning concern: English, Hindi, regional languages or a mixture may be used. Finally, planners decide what kind of visuals are needed, such as glamorous people, a middle-class home or foreign locations.
Planning Sequence
Purpose
→
Target group
→
Message
→
Location
→
Medium / reach
Campaign duration
→
Ad length
→
Language
→
Visuals
?
Textbook Planning Questions
The chapter asks planners to think about the company’s purpose, the target group, the message, the location of the audience, the medium, campaign timing and duration, individual ad length, language, and the visuals to be used.
Why this concept matters in the chapter: The stated objectives include identifying key concerns in advertising planning, and the intext exercise asks learners to list points to keep in mind while planning an ad campaign.
Core Concept
There are important guidelines laid down for ad makers and these should be kept in mind when producing an advertisement.
The chapter places restrictions on what advertisements may claim or show. Advertisements for cigarettes, bidis and other tobacco products, alcoholic drinks and other intoxicants cannot directly endorse the product. Advertisements for aerated water should contain a declaration that the drink contains no fruit juice or fruit pulp and is artificially flavoured.
Claims and Approval
Medicinal product advertisements need script approval of the Drugs Controller before broadcast. Advertisements cannot contain exaggerated, exceptional or misleading claims.
Constitution and Social Standards
Advertisements must conform to the Constitution of India and cannot offend morality, decency or the religious beliefs of people. They also cannot insult a race, caste, colour, creed or nationality.
Violence, Crime and Public Interest
Advertisements cannot provoke violence or crime, cause disorder, present criminality as desirable or admirable, or adversely affect friendly relations with a foreign state.
Other specific limits in the chapter
Advertisements cannot be presented as news. The chapter also states that advertisements cannot portray women as passive, weak or submissive. These points form part of the guidelines to be considered while producing advertisements.
| Area | Guideline stated in the chapter |
|---|
| Intoxicants | Cannot be directly endorsed through advertisements. |
| Medicines | Script approval of the Drugs Controller is needed before broadcast. |
| Claims | No exaggerated, exceptional or misleading claim. |
| Social sensitivity | No insulting treatment of race, caste, colour, creed or nationality. |
| Violence and crime | Cannot provoke violence/crime or present criminality as desirable or admirable. |
| News presentation | Advertisements cannot be presented as news. |
| Portrayal of women | Women cannot be portrayed as passive, weak or submissive. |
Why this concept matters in the chapter: One objective is to list the guidelines governing the ad industry, and the terminal exercise asks learners to explain the key guidelines for good advertising.
Core Concept
Advertising offers a range of careers, from executive work to creative roles such as copywriters and visualizers.
People can work in television companies, radio stations, newspapers or magazines and sell time or space to companies that want to advertise products or services. They can work in a manufacturing company as Brand Managers, who plan, develop and direct marketing efforts for a particular brand or product. They can also work with an advertising agency.
Structure of a Small Ad Agency
Owner / President
Creative Director
Media Planner
Market Research Team
Copywriter
Visualizer
Production in Charge
The chapter explains that an advertising agency employs people with different skills. Copy means material such as texts, songs and slogans written by copywriters. Its main purpose is to encourage consumers to buy the goods or services being talked about, and a good copy is an important part of a successful ad campaign.
| Role | Function described in the chapter |
|---|
| Creative Director | A senior position that coordinates copywriting and designing and supervises production of the advertisement. |
| Copywriter | Also called a wordsmith; produces the wording, including taglines, slogans, jingles and dialogues. |
| Visualizer | An artist who creates images from the copywriter’s idea; may work with graphics, photographs, moving image and sound. |
| Freelancer | Works independently without a long-term contract; may work as a copywriter, jingle writer, radio announcer, artist, visualizer or technical writer. |
| Production-in-charge | Heads Production, where people skilled in printing technology, DTP, photography, typography, videography, and video and sound editing work. |
| Media Planner | Prepares and allocates the ad budget, selects media, and decides frequency, size and position of an advertisement. |
| Market Research | Systematically gathers, records and analyses customer data and information about likes and dislikes. |
What Market Research Helps With
Market research can support creation of an ad campaign, the launch of a new product or service, improvement of existing products and services, and expansion into new markets. It can also help determine which part of the population may purchase a product or service using variables such as age, gender and income level.
★
Textbook Example
The chapter recalls the Dhara oil advertisement to show how a copy can become memorable through text, messages and images, and notes that copywriters have a flair for language and can produce emotion through words.
Why this concept matters in the chapter: The lesson objectives include describing the main components in the structure of an ad agency, and the terminal questions ask students to describe its structure and functions.
Core Concept
Advertising and public relations are not mass media as such; they are means to get a message across to potential consumers.
The chapter says that advertising and public relations are different from mass media such as television, radio, cinema, press and folk media. They are not mediating technologies. Instead, they are means of communicating a message to potential consumers.
| Advertisement | Public Relations |
|---|
| Paid for |
Not paid for directly |
| Direct and explicit |
Subtle and indirect |
| People will know immediately what is being advertised and who is behind the advertisement. |
People may not immediately know who is behind the public relations exercise; in community service campaigns, the company’s name is publicized. |
Easy Recall
Advertisement
→
Paid
→
Direct
→
Explicit
Public Relations
→
Not paid directly
→
Subtle
→
Indirect
Why this concept matters in the chapter: Differentiating between advertising and public relations is one of the stated learning objectives and one of the terminal questions.