In a newspaper, you not only read news on current affairs, sports, etc, but you also come across different kinds of information or message about some products or services like air conditioners, hair oils, soaps, health drinks, cold drinks, etc. Journals, magazines, roadside hoardings, radio, television also provide us with such information. Learn more about advertising.

They draw our attention towards the positive qualities of the products or services in terms of their availability, price, and features. So, whenever you feel a requirement for such products or services you try to go to the place of their availability, look at the quality and features, and buy them if they meet your requirement.

For example, you come across a product called �Clinic All clear� on the TV. Then when you go to buy the shampoo, you ask the shopkeeper to show you that product. You like the fragrance and find the price reasonable and purchase it for your use.

The purpose of giving such information is to make the customers aware of a product or service and induce them into buying it. This entire promotional activity is called advertising, where the manufacturer of the trader or the service provider is called an advertiser; the message or the information supplied is called advertisement, and the medium through which such information is supplied like journals, magazines, hoardings, television, etc, are called the media of advertising.

You have seen above that the advertisements help to create brand values. In doing so it makes use of our personal emotions and social values. They often change our perception of how we see things and ourselves. Advertisements in this way act as a strong influence on our lives.

In the case of the toothpaste, we found that advertisements tried to sell us the freshness and quality of the product. The consumers are attracted by these claims and shift their preference from local toothpaste to the Colgate toothpaste. This might be because they begin to feel that the local toothpaste might not provide that amount of freshness as Colgate toothpaste.

In reality, there might be little difference in the quality of the local and Colgate toothpaste but the effect of advertisements is such that the consumers start believing the claims of the company.

The branded or packaged product is always costlier because of the costs involved in packaging and advertising yet it is preferred over the regular or loose products because of the advertisements which target our concerns for health and safety. Another example is of famous Airtel campaign launched in recent years. Airtel is a telecom company that saw an increase in its sale after the launch of the campaign called �Har friend zaroori hota hai�. The ad contains real-life situations involving the young generation.

Each advertisement in the series was aimed at addressing the needs of a new generation and creating a youthful image among the youngsters and advertised mobile schemes that were aligned to the requirements of the young generation.

The ads became a big rage among the college-goers, that the company saw a good amount of increase in its annual sales. As a result, people have started looking at airtel as a brand of the young generation. So, ads help in creating an impact on the targeted segment by projecting theme-based content. Advertisements, thus, play an important role in guiding our choices. Not only do we select products based upon the advertisements but our own lives are also affected by them.

For example, sometimes when people associate themselves with a particular lifestyle shown in an advertisement they try to imitate it in the real-life as well. However, one must view these advertisements critically as they depict only the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. Poor people seldom find a place in advertisements. Seldom are we shown the realities of the lives of people around us in advertisements?

Making an advertisement

Advertising, as we saw, is essential in getting people to buy a brand. The question now arises how the people who advertise decide on the type of images, text, and personal emotions to sell a product. To understand this, let us see how an advertisement is made.

First of all, the company or the manufacturer decides upon the product that they wish to launch. The company hires an advertising agency. It is the task of the advertising agency to find out a survey across various cities and sections of the society and comes up with a campaign to launch the product successfully in the market.

A marketing strategy is then drawn up by the company and the product is first tested among a small section of the target consumer along with the visuals and advertisements. Once the marketing strategy is considered successful, the advertising campaign is finalized. It is then released in media along with the launch of the product.

Read More: What are Brands? Understanding Advertising - Class 7