History of Advertising
Commerce has always been active in the United States, with trade promotions going on as far back as the Old World. Sellers would offer free samples to people in markets and on the streets to advertise. Many businesses and companies understand the term that “it takes money to make money.”
Advertising has been the best and most effective way to create awareness for a new product or service being offered to the public. The root of advertising stays the same even though advertising methods have changed significantly over the years – from word of mouth to print media, televised media, and now online media. With online media, there are more methods with advertising, such as paid advertising, social media advertising, affiliate marketing, and more.
The most significant factor in advertising today’s time is that there are more tactics and techniques than ever a business can utilize. In addition, today, the average person is exposed to more than 1,000 brands and messages every day. So, while there are benefits to advertising, there are also some disadvantages to consider.
Pros of Advertising
ALLOWS BUSINESSES TO REACH MULTIPLE DEMOGRAPHICS AND PLATFORMS SIMULTANEOUSLY
Digital media partners play a much more prominent role in advertising today. The part of digital media partners is consistently increasing in this digital age, so it is beneficial for businesses to incorporate media strategy within their programmatic budget. The experienced industry specialists at Pathlabs Digital Media Marketing add to the relevance of a digital media partner by playing a crucial role in the growth of advertising efforts and helps with the undertaking and promotion of launches and ad campaigns.
With today’s internet and technology advances, it can be very advantageous for businesses to reach out to multiple demographics. It can be helpful to do this if your company is launching a new product or has a service that is just beginning to gain traction in the market. The action allows your business to more accurately assess and understand who their primary customer is, which can help to focus future marketing efforts.
ALLOWS BUSINESSES TO NARROW DOWN AND TARGET SPECIFIC CUSTOMER TYPES
At the same time that your business can reach multiple target audiences, you can also perform analytics and cater more specifically to your ideal consumers. Campaigns and marketing strategies can be ultra-specific on just who they are targeting, which allows your advertising efforts to grow exponentially.
Customers have different preferences and ways to discover your product or service, leading to growth in traffic to your business website or landing pages. Therefore, your business has the advantage of understanding exactly the “what” and “how” of these things so that you can appeal directly to those customers.
ALLOWS BUSINESSES TO STAND OUT FROM THE COMPETITION
Setting your brand apart will boost your product or service value and allow your potential prospects the increased likelihood that they will purchase your offer. The methods of advertising and the types of customers you hope to attract give you the benefit to create more value and solve your customer’s problem.
Value in a product or service helps save people time and money and provides them with convenience. Advertising is a simple way for your brand to prove that there is value within your product or service and convey your message to develop loyal relationships.
PROMOTES THE ECONOMY AND CREATES JOBS
There is a direct correlation between increasing the amount of advertising on an industry level to the market Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increase. To put it more simply, industries that utilize advertising more often typically display higher growth than those that do not advertise.
Advertising also provides millions of jobs that contribute to the economy as well. Job growth occurs when your business can grow due to the utilization of more advertising avenues. With every new campaign or marketing strategy, businesses will often need more on their teams, bringing fresh perspectives, ideas, and ultimately producing more revenue.
Cons of Advertising
IT CAN BE EXPENSIVE AND TIME-CONSUMING
Advertising is not cheap; time and money are spent developing marketing strategies or pulling in a digital media partner to set up projects geared around advertising a new product or service. In addition, you will have to spend on creating content, video editing, utilizing other workflow tools or resources, and spend time analyzing and assessing your advertising performance.
Every business needs to ensure a budget for advertising and be prepared to address obstacles related to cost. If your brand is tight on money, that can limit your options for optimum advertising.
YOUR MESSAGES MIGHT GET LOST IN THE MIX
Since you can understand your customer and perform a deep dive to learn what’s relatable and compelling with your advertising, this means that other businesses can do the same. But unfortunately, even though you may craft an advertising campaign or marketing technique that stands out, it can still get lost in the millions of ads that consumers view.
Your results can never be guaranteed. Even though there is a lot of promise in advertising spend producing more growth, there is always the possibility that you will get $0 in Return On Investment (ROI). That is why it is so crucial to perform research on your demographic to clearly identify problems and ensure value in your product or service to solve it.
THERE ARE SO MANY OPTIONS TO CHOOSE FROM
Even though having digital options alongside other media options, the amount of them can be overwhelming. In addition, the platform that your target audience prefers could also differ in changing years and seasons, so you have to be ready to pivot costs and spend time understanding their preferences and creating the campaigns to draw them in.
With billboards, radio, television, the internet, word of mouth, and print media all in the mix, you should leave nothing out in your research. Of course, brand saturation is much easier to achieve, but it also provides the opportunity to be entirely skipped over in the process by your ideal consumer.
Advertising is Still a Necessity
Whether you find advertising a nuisance or your intended audience could miss your message, it is still relevant and necessary for businesses today. Businesses need to ensure that they communicate well within their marketing teams to understand the challenges and complexities they are up against so that more efficient and effective campaigns can be developed and implemented.
By evaluating all of the pros and cons of advertising, you can identify where your company needs to put its primary focus. Then, with some time, effort, management, and solid messaging, you can build your brand’s awareness with advertising campaigns that lead to growth and profitability while benefiting the economy.
