Advertising.

Anyone, living in the modern world bombarded by advertising, no doubt has opinions about advertising in general and the merits of particular messages. But what is advertising? Unlike publicity, it is paid for. Advertising is also impersonal in that it is done through television, newspapers, and the like, in contrast to the face-to-face contact of personal selling. But like other forms of promotion, advertising may be used to sell goods and services as well as promote ideas that may not be concerned with profit at all. Advertising is used to communicate with consumers and with other businesses. The great advantage of advertising over other types of promotion is its ability to reach mass audiences quickly at a low per-person cost. It is also the form of promotion over which the company has the greatest control. When a press release is distributed to the media, it may be edited, rewritten, or even ignored. In an advertisement, however, the company can say whatever it chooses to say, as long as it stays within the boundaries of the law and conforms to the moral and ethical standards of the advertising medium and trade associations.

Advertising is also an effective means of introducing a new product nationwide and generating sales leads. In addition, it can rekindle interest in a product whose sales have grown sluggish.

Little wonder, then, that businesses of all kinds spend large amounts of money on advertising.

Advertising is sometimes classified according to which of three promotional goals it serves. One type is generic advertising, which tries to increase the total demand for a type of product without distinguishing among brands. Trade associations are the most common source of this type of advertising, but industry wide unions also sponsor it. You may be familiar with the plea lo " Look for the union label, " for example.

Brand advertising aims at getting purchasers to use a particular brand of product. By far the most common type, brand advertising accounts for the major share of all money spent on advertising. An increasingly important subcategory of brand advertising is cooperative advertising; in which producers of nationally sold products share the costs of local advertising with local merchants and wholesalers. Depending on the industry, the producer may provide from 50 to 100 percent of the cost of the advertising. Producers support cooperative adver­tising because it helps to sell more of their products, not only by promoting them but also by telling consumers where they can purchase them.

Institutional advertising is designed to create goodwill and build a desired image for a company rather than sell specific products. Also known as corporate advertising, it is often used by corporations to promote an on tire line of products. High-technology companies, for example, conduct institutional advertising to build credibility for a changing array of new products. At the same time, the ads serve to remind investors that the company is doing well. Institutional ads that address hotly debated public issues are called advocacy advertising.