Adverts are everywhere in the modern world, whether you’re watching TV, browsing the internet or simply walking down the street. On the face of it, the reasons behind the importance of advertising may seem fairly obvious, but there’s often a lot more than meets the eye. Here, we take an in-depth look at what it is that makes advertising so important.
Why is advertising important?
Whether you’re an international firm or a start up, how you advertise your brand is vital for the success of your business – whatever product you’re selling. Let’s take a closer look at why that is.
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Awareness
Advertising is important for brand awareness and memorability. Whenever we watch TV or browse the web, we’re bombarded by an overwhelming amount of content. Your brand needs to be able to cut through this constant onslaught of products, images and messages. Good advertising can help you to do this by raising your target demographic’s awareness of your brand.
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Appeal
Since there is so much competition these days, you need advertising to help your brand stand out and appeal to consumers. Advertising is important because it enables sellers to effectively compete with one another for the attention of buyers, by inviting target audiences to rate products or services against one another.
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Credibility
When consumers see the same brand advertised on various occasions, they’ll become familiar with it and see it as a credible business. Effective advertising through different mediums also enables you to reach a wider audience than you would from just manually posting on social media. Generally speaking, if companies can afford effective advertising – particularly on TV – they will seem me credible to customers.
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Repeat business
As well as attracting new customers, awareness, appeal and credibility all contribute to customer retention. Ongoing advertising campaigns can play an essential part in reminding bringing existing customers back to your brand. This means your regular clients will (hopefully) stick around and, better yet, recommend your products to others as well.
How to take responsibility for your advertising?
As well as designing adverts to attract consumers, it’s important to take responsibility for your ads and abide by regulations. Advertising that doesn’t comply with regulations can come with negative consequences, including potential penalties, damage to your reputation and even a dramatic drop in sales. So, how do you avoid getting into any advertising trouble?
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Regulations
False advertisement can be dangerous for you and your company. An example of false advertising could be claiming that a certain ingredient in a food product has lots of health benefits when, in actual fact, it has none or they are not scientifically proven.
There are laws against this kind of marketing behaviour to protect consumers from damaging or harmful advertising. In the UK, if you fail to comply with legal advertising standards, you could be reported to your local trading standards office. In the US, there are also state and federal false advertising laws that prohibit various types of deceptive or misleading labeling and advertising.
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Advertising in different markets
Different industries have different regulations to contend with, and advertising regulations will change depending on the product being promoted. Advertising alcohol, gambling or smoking – any products that could be potentially harmful to consumers when used in excess or by underage persons – are monitored more strictly. For example, if you take a look at the constantly evolving gambling regulations you’ll notice how much importance is placed on consumer protection.
Regarding alcohol, any UK marketing communications that include a promotion must not imply, condone or encourage excessive consumption of alcohol. As children and adolescents are prohibited from drinking alcohol, companies must avoid advertising that can be viewed to encourage underage drinking in any way.
So there we have it – why it’s important to get advertising right and the steps you can take to advertise your brand in the correct way. Following this advice should help set you on your way to advertising your brand effectively and responsibly.
