Author Name:   gadhre

This article deals with the basic concepts related with the advertising. It talks about the evolution of Advertising, the changes that has been taken place over the period of time and the effect of advertisement on the society.

Advertising – Its Evolution, Significance & Effects

Advertising is the commercial promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas, usually performed by an identified sponsor, and performed through a variety of media. Marketers see advertising as part of an overall promotional strategy. Other components of the promotional mix include publicity, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion. And advertisements are the representatives of their brand and producers which work for promotion of the product just like a salesman.

As we see the ads, we may also be able to “see through” them to broader social and cultural realities. We can note three contexts for these documents. First of all, they are selling tools and reflect the business needs of the corporations that pay for them. Posing the questions about purposes and methods will give us insights into the role of advertising in business. Second, advertisements are cultural indicators, though distorted ones. Finally, bear in mind that ads emerge from a professional culture of the advertising industry and suggest the aspirations and anxieties of the men who create them.

Advertisements are all around us today and have been for a long time. In this project report I am giving an overview of advertisements as historical sources and a brief history of advertising, questions to ask when interpreting ads as historical evidence, what the language of advertisements contain, how they work and what they work and also giving the effects of advertisements on the mind of people and also the society. Here I am giving a brief description of the impact of advertisements, changing ways of it and also informing that how they are the representatives of an era and what can be the future of advertisements in coming years. On basis of all these facts I am going to build a conclusion and also framing my opinion.

Evolution And History Of Advertisement:
We can not find a particular time period to which we can claim as the evolutionary period of advertisements because there are many actions which can be included in advertisements and this can also include the information by the king of the state to his citizens regarding his policies or benefits given by him, so this make them old as old the monarchs. But when the question of commercial advertisements came we can say it evolved during late 17th century.

In ancient times the most common form of advertising was by word of mouth; however, commercial messages and political campaign displays have been found in the ruins of Pompeii. Egyptians used papyrus to create sales messages and wall posters, while lost-and-found advertising on papyrus was common in Greece and Rome. Wall or rock painting for commercial advertising is another manifestation of an ancient media advertising form, which is present to this day in many parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. For instance, the tradition of wall paintings can be traced back to Indian rock-art paintings that goes back to 4000 BC. As printing developed in the 15th and 16th century, advertising expanded to include handbills. In the 17th century advertisements started to appear in weekly newspapers in England.

As the economy was expanding during the 19th century, the need for advertising grew at the same pace. In the United States, classified ads became popular, filling pages of newspapers with small print messages promoting all kinds of goods.

As far as the Indian history of commercial advertisements comes in question this also begins at the time when paper printing get started and there are various evidences where we can find advertisements of sarees, books etc. and also there are advertisements of various groups which make people aware of them.

So we can say the history of commercial advertisements begin at the end of 17th century and later goes on continuous change as the time changes and by this way they became the representatives of that particular era to which they belongs.

Changing Ways Of Advertisement:
We can see that the ways of advertisements changed with the time so that the presentation as previous advertisements were informative types with the information regarding product only and nothing more than that. But with the time ways of presentation of advertisements get changed. When we say ways of advertisements then we can see various methods as print media, voice promotions through radio and visuals by way of hoardings, billboards and street advertisements, also through TV commercials with the time. There are various new ways came with Internet and nowadays some persons are using their body for advertisements to fulfill their needs and for getting name and fame by way like this the advertisement industry is going through spontaneous change.

Early and mid- nineteenth-century advertisements rarely demonstrate striking changes in advertising appeals. Newspapers almost never printed ads wider than a single column and generally eschewed illustrations and even special typefaces. Magazine ad styles were also restrained, with most publications segregating advertisements on the back pages. Equally significant, until late in the nineteenth century, there were few companies mass producing branded consumer products. Patent medicine ads proved the main exception to this pattern. In an era when conventional medicine seldom provided cures, manufacturers of potions and pills vied for consumer attention with large, often outrageous, promises and colorful, dramatic advertisements. The 1960s saw advertising transform into a modern, more scientific approach in which creativity was allowed to shine, producing unexpected messages that made advertisements more tempting to consumers' eyes.

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the introduction of cable television and particularly MTV. Pioneering the concept of the music video, MTV ushered in a new type of advertising: the consumer tunes in for the advertisement, rather than it being a byproduct or afterthought. As cable (and later satellite) television became increasingly prevalent, "specialty" channels began to emerge, and eventually entire channels, such as QVC and Home Shopping Network and ShopTV, devoted to advertising merchandise, where again the consumer tuned in for the ads.

Marketing through the Internet opened new frontiers for advertisers and led to the "dot-com" boom of the 1990s. Entire corporations operated solely on advertising revenue, offering everything from coupons to free Internet access. At the turn of the 21st century, search engine Google revolutionized online advertising.

Today, innovations as "guerrilla" promotions, which involve unusual approaches such as staged encounters in public places, giveaways of products such as cars that are covered with brand messages, and interactive advertising where the viewer can respond to become part of the advertising message. This reflects an increasing trend of interactive and "embedded" ads, such as via product placement, having consumers vote through text messages, and various innovations utilizing social networking sites.

And nowadays a trend is emerging that of ads on the body parts, as one student used his forehead for ad to fill his college fee and some pregnant women used their stomach for advertisement of infant meal’s ad.

So there are lot of developments occurred in promotion of product in the market and they are now entering directly to the society, home, family, mind and heart of the person.

Language Of Advertisements:
The most important part of any advertisement is its language. When we go for finding the language of advertisements then that does not mean by the use of languages like Hindi, English or any other but the language of advertisements mean its content and the way of presentation by way of which consumers correlate themselves to any product because it strikes the people’s mind and heart. We can show and divide the language of advertisements into several parts in following way they represents an advertisement and construct the language of an advertisement;

Components of advertisements: These are the basic part of the language of any advertisement because this is the decisive factor for any consumer during the time of choosing any product and it depends on the promoter that how he can attract the consumer to feel affection for his product. It depends upon the product and also the targeted consumers that to whom we are going to promote the particular product. As we can see the products for the children, definitely has the child artists or cartoon characters and similar is the various things used in the ad so that the parts of ad are very important for making a place in the market. This includes basic analytical concepts, presupposition, organizations, words and phrases etc. that will form a complete ad.

Basic analytic concepts: Advertisers always concentrate on the targeted audience and analyze their advertisements on various ground and find the answer that they are fulfilling the need of the targeted consumer or not. Hence they go for certain definite concepts and make the advertisement according to that.

Presupposition and relevance: Advertisements are always on the prior assumptions and also see the relevance of any advertisement and test it on the basis of certain criteria, like trends in society or the product is meeting with the needs of the consumer at the present time or not so advertisers can make an ad according to the present day scenario. As when Bisleri was entering the Indian market for the first time, they directly related their name with clarity because they know no body will come automatically to buy water, since till that time the sale of packaged drinking of water was like finding life on Mars.

Organization within advertisements: Since a criterion is decided for the components of advertisements so as for the institutions used in the advertisement and one cannot use unnecessary institution and organizations in an ad because in that condition people cannot correlate the ad with the reality.

Words and phrases used in advertising: The words and phrases are the main part of any advertisement because advertisements are not only visual but voice advertisements are also there on the radio and its reach is much more deeper in the society than TV and also another fact is there that a mind teasing word or easy to speak words and easy to understand phrases are more often used in advertisements so that everybody can understand what the promoter wanted to say and they can easily go for that product if they like the way of promotion. As the phrases used in absurd advertisements nowadays e.g. hum chlormint kyon khate hain and dobara mat poochhna.

Names used in advertising: Names are also playing an important role in promotion of any product because there are many products in the market and person want that one with which he can feel himself in ease, so according to the place and people to whom we are concerned are the deciding factors during the use of names in any ad. e.g. the new ad of Cadbury is totally targeting the rural part of India hence they are using Amitabh Bachchan with miss Palanpur who is a Cow in place of a girl.

Colors: Colors have their own language according to their own nature so they are used in ads for the presentation of various psychological effects as children like lot of colors i.e. a colorful advertisement can easily attract them.

People: These are the characters of the advertisement that are playing different roles in presentation of the product so the customer can identify and correlate himself with the product. As in the ads of Pension Policies the characters are mainly old people and not the young ones.

Concluding words: this is also a very essential part of the language of any advertisement because what we have said in the whole advertisement should be recollected in minds of the consumer and that is why slogans are most frequently used in advertisements like; alpenliebe- lage raho, mint-o-fresh- bole toh ekdum fresh etc. so that people can remind the slogan in daily life also hence these concluding words must be catchy in nature.

Purpose Of The Advertisement:
The main purposes of any advertisement are as follows;
· Cultivating brand identity
· Convincing consumer to switch brands
· Introducing a new product
· Lobbying for a political issue, etc.

Usually the ad is trying to sell a product, but this is only an initial response to the question because now the purpose of an ad is not only to increase the sale but also to force the consumer to switch the another brand. Nowadays political parties and even Government is using advertisements for the promotion of their policies e.g. the campaign of NDA as “SHINING INDIA”.

How The Advertisement Works:
In more recent decades, however, marketing’s emphasis has been on segmentation—fitting a product and its marketing strategy to the interests and needs of a distinct subgroup. The historian Robert Wiebe has even suggested that the divisions—by economic, social, cultural and even psychological characteristics. So we can see that most of the advertisers are following these standards during promotion of the products.

The impact of advertising has been a matter of considerable debate and many different claims have been made in different contexts. According to many media sources, the past experience and state of mind of the person subjected to advertising may determine the impact that advertising has. Children under the age of four may be unable to distinguish advertising from other television programs, hence there are different advertisements for various age grouped peoples.

If an advertiser is able to correlate the ad with the targeted consumer then the product sale will automatically go up, e.g. the sale of Thumps-up was going down and producers find the reason that it is harder than its competitor brand then they decide to promote it in another way and they correlate the hardness with the power of man and his bravery and rough-tough character and the sale gone up.

After we have a sense of what the advertiser is trying to accomplish, we can ask how they go about achieving their marketing goals. Does the advertisement offer a “reason why” to buy the product? Or is it oriented more to emotional appeals? Does the ad feature the product or does it focus on the people using it? Does it address the reader directly with suggestions or commands? Does the ad offer a reduced price or a premium? Does a celebrity provide an endorsement? Does it play on fear or anxiety or make positive appeals? So the ad must be correlated to the need and mentality of the consumer, because if you will use the 70s trend at present time then definitely you are going to be failed.

So advertisers always concentrate on the psychology of the consumer, culture of the targeted consumer, trends in the society and yes the most important thing is the economic condition of the consumer and after getting the answer to these questions they tries to convert these worries into motives to buy.

Effect Of Advertisements:
There are various effects, which are imposed by the ads on the minds of people similar as the motivation to buy, and so they have a different kind of impact also and that may go in either directions right or wrong.

Positive effects;
In sense of the marketing and consuming the most important effect is the product reaches to a large no of peoples at the same time whether r he is in rural area or in the urban area, which was not possible previously.

Advertising, in its non-commercial guise, is a powerful educational tool capable of reaching and motivating large audiences, as it is capable of making the people aware of various governmental policies through their advertisements, ads can make the person smart if he takes it in different manner as in the ad of Chlormint the person is assumed to be aware of its necessity for eating Chlormint and similarly to be aware of current affairs in the world, ads also help the old people to feel themselves dignified as they were at their young age, as in the ad of a Pension Plan the quotation is Jiyo Sar Uthake, shows everything they wanted for the target.

The same advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and services can be used to inform, educate and motivate the public about non-commercial issues, such as AIDS, political ideology, energy conservation, religious recruitment, and deforestation.

Persons in need are advertising themselves for getting help e.g. advertisements for blood or body organs for the poor or needy.

Negative Effects:
As there aresome positive effects of ads similarly some negative efects are also there,c ertain products use a specific form of advertising known as "Custom publishing". This form of advertising is usually targeted at a specific segment of society, but may also "draw" the attention of others e.g. the ads of Alcohol, Cosmetics, Gambling, Tobacco etc. these ads are made only for the elder ones but since TV is a common thing in houses so these can also be noticed by children and anybody can asses the results.

Sometimes a company can deliver some false information regarding their product that may affect the consumer badly.

Many a times ads play the role of Pragmatics, which is the trespasser in the field of your entertainment, though there is no such rule to stop such activities.

What It Shows About An Era:
In examining ads as historical documents, we should also look at what the ad seems to take for granted. As the ads are generally made according to the present day society and trend so we can get the answer regarding culture, society, economic condition, traditions etc. from different ads of that particular time period and hence we can say the ads are also represents a particular era, e.g. printed ads and visual ads.

Future Of Advertising:
As we are seeing right through the beginning that way of ads are on the path of spontaneous change and so we will definitely see the various new types of ads. But if we see presently the most newer concept is the Internet ads because with the dawn of the Internet have come many new advertising opportunities. Popup, Flash, banner, advergaming, and email advertisements and the body ads are only the acceptions because they are not able to reach large number of peoples. So we can see the ads will definitely develop by the way of Internet.

Another significant trend to note for the future of advertising is the growing importance of niche or targeted ads. Also brought about by the Internet, advertisers will have an increasing ability to reach narrow audiences. In the past, the most efficient way to deliver a message was to blanket the largest mass market audience possible. However, usage tracking, customer profiles and the growing popularity of niche content brought about by everything from blogs to social networking sites, provides advertisers with audiences that are smaller but much better defined, leading to ads that are more relevant to viewers and more effective for companies marketing products.

So the ads in coming years will definitely get changed but will definitely restrict themselves till a particular group of people.

Conclusion:
On seeing all the points of this project report we can conclude several things, as right from the evolution of ads they are focused and the history tells us that how they have developed with the time and hence become the symbol and representative of a particular era. We have seen that how the language of any advertisement has the importance in promotion and for reaching to the targeted audiences because that is the only way to attract your customer, so all the components are very important. We can see with the changing ways the language of advertisements also get changed.

After promotions the ad directly strikes the heart and mind of customer and it helps in selling, we have seen the purposes of any ad with its positive and negative effects, since they are also the representatives of a society hence indicate us regarding that particular era that is how we have found, what can be the future direction of ads and on basis of these several things I am forming my opinion that how the problems can be eradicated and what should we have to add in ads so that they can no more play the role of a Pragmatic.

Over a century ago, Harper’s Weekly commented that advertisements were “a true mirror of life, a sort of fossil history from which the future chronicler, if all other historical monuments were to be lost, might fully and graphically rewrite the history of our time.”

We can interpret this phrase in several ways. Most simply, we “see through” ads when we are oblivious to them—when we look right past them, as we do with most ads we encounter daily. In another sense of “seeing through,” we dismiss ads because we judge them to be misleading or dishonest.

Ads are becoming more Pragmatic nowadays due to lot of competition and hence government has already taken an action and banned the advertisements of alcohol and cigarettes, that mean they have already done a good work, which will definitely work in positive sense, and also in films they have banned smoking scenes so that the negative effect on people and most importantly on children can be reduced.

Public interest groups are increasingly suggesting that access to the mental space targeted by advertisers should be taxed, in that at the present moment that space is being freely taken advantage of by advertisers with no compensation paid to the members of the public who are thus being intruded upon.

Ads are not getting change only to manage with time but also to remove the typecasting and repetition because the new and odd concept will definitely attract the customer similar as the absurd ads. The brand can be overshadowed or get displacement due to a regular and similar pattern of advertising. Here I can suggest the way of advertisement must wlak with the taste of consumer and in such a way it should be promoted so that no one can claim them as the unnecessary interference in between viewer and entertainment.

Bibliography:
· Making sense of Advertisements; by Daniel pope.
Language of Advertisements; by Peter Sells and Sierra Gonzalez.
www.money.guardian.co.uk
www.etext.lib.virginia.edu

The  author can be reached at: gadhre@legalserviceindia.com

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