Advertising is only part of the total sales effort, but it is the part that attracts the most attention. This is natural enough because advertising is designed for just that purpose. In newspapers, in magazines, in the mail, on radio and television, we constantly see and hear the messages for hundreds of different products and services. For the most part, they are the kinds of things that we can be persuaded to buy——food and drinks, cars and television sets, furniture and clothing, travel and leisure time activities.
The simplest kind of advertising is the classified ad. Every day the newspapers carry a few pages of these ads; in the large Sunday editions there may be several sections of them. A classified ad is usually only a few lines long. It is really a notice or announcemaent that something is available.
Newspapers also carry a large amount of display advertising. Most of it is for stores or for various forms of entertainment. Newspapers generally reach an audience only in a limited area. To bring their message to a larger audience, many who want to put out their ads use national magazines. Many of the techniques of modern advertising were developed in magazine ads. The use of bright colors, attractive pictures, and short messages is all characteristic of magazine ads. The most important purpose is to catch the eye. The message itself is usually short, often no more than a slogan which the public identifies with the product.
The same techniques have been carried over into television advertising. Voices and music have been added to color and pictures to catch the car as well as the eye. Television ads are short——usually only 15, 30, or 60 seconds, but they are repeated over and over again so that the audience sees and hears them many times. Commercial television has mixed entertainment and advertising. If you want the entertainment, you have to put up with the advertising——and millions of people want the entertainment.
The men and women in the sales departmen are responsible for the company's advertising. They must decide on the audience they want to reach. They must also decide on the best way to get their message to their particular audience. They also make an estimate of the costs before management approves the plan.In most large companies management is directly involved in planning the advertising.