Advertising, a myth or reality

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sterling, Virginia, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) June 21, 2011 --

In today's society, one must consider, is there any advantage of advertising In many cases, it is an annoying hindrance in our daily lives. It gets on our nerves, hides the truth, and adds to the cost of the product. Advertising is designed for one purpose - to sell. To achieve this goal, advertisers are willing to stretch and distort the truth, just to convince people to buy their product. For example, an advertiser may convince buyers to purchase their product by stating that it has been tested and found superior. In reality, the product is not likely to be better than any other product. The tests themselves are conducted by the promoting company and are conducted to ensure at least something is superior about the product, even if it is only the color of there packing!

Advertising is a method by which a product can reach to a wider audience or propaganda can be spread to a large TV viewing audience. But, the advertisers are simply abusing the medium. They just thrust us with advertisements and commercials which get on peoples nerves. These advertisers should visit my living room once at least during a cricket match, which is interrupted continuously by advertisements. They should listen to the kind of feedback they receive for their ads. Spreading the word or trying to popularize your product is one thing and trying to abuse the medium is another. Also some of the advertisements have no connection to the product. For example, the Micromax mobile phone ad that is aired at least a dozen times during an IPL match makes no sense at all. The guy has a irritating laugh and plays around with his cell phone in a kitchen! I really dont see the connection. The problem is that these advertisers use famous people to increase the reach of their product. My point is that by using famous faces they still make poor ads that have nothing to do with their product.

Advertising is for the people to know that a product exists. To buy the product is the prerogative of the consumer. But advertising has been converted into a sales and marketing medium where in the advertisers increase the awareness of the product to the masses and also pitch the product to the consumer in a very innovative way. Good and meaningful advertising will have a good effect on the consumer. The ad should be very clear and it should connect the target audience perfectly. The ad should aide the consumer in his buying decision. For example, the Havells ad for fire and heat resistant wires connects with the correct target audience and also gets to the emotional side of the consumer. The ad conveys the message to the target audience and also leaves a lasting impact on the consumer. There are other types of advertising where products are linked with countries rich and famous. If Shah Rukh Khan, advertises for a fairness cream, you can be sure that a good percentage of people will follow him. This is where the idea of advertising loses its meaning. From merely being a vehicle to promote or spread the word about a product or propaganda, it has become a primary vehicle for sales and marketing.

On the flip side, advertising and promotional activities linked to a particular product, increases its price and also in a country like India makes it unaffordable to the majority of its people. For, example the actual cost of a bottle of coke is about is just a little more than one rupee. But coke is sold at 9 rupees per bottle. In a poor country like India a good section of the society cannot afford ten bucks. These companies use the services of movie stars, cricketers and societys big-wigs in their ad campaigns, thereby increasing the cost on their product. Advertising also increase the chances of industrial monopoly. It reduces the opportunity of young entrepreneurs to make it big. Imagine another soft drink surviving in the market apart from coke or Pepsi. Advertisements, narrows the vision of a consumer. The consumers general tendency is to buy a known product which has a very high visibility in the market. Hence, new entrants unless and until backed by a good marketing strategy cannot really sell his/her product.

I personally feel that advertising is good as long as its not used to distort the truth and deceive the consumer. In case of deceivment, one can file a complaint in consumer court under consumer protection acts .

Complaint     Complaints     consumer     consumer complaint     consumer complaints     consumer court     Consumer Courts     Consumer Protection