The Evolution of Advertisement and the Advertisement Industry
Introduction
Advertising is communicating to the public with the intention of persuading them to buy or take certain actions on services, ideals and products. Advertisements include brand names of products or services and information on how they could be of value to the consumers. They may also include information on pricing and availability of products or services. Advertisements can also be used to communicate ideas to the populace with an aim to coerce them to take certain actions such as the encouragement of environmental friendly habits or discouraging of unhealthy habits fostered by consumption.
Advertising can be traced far back in time to the ancient Egyptian era. The Egyptian people used papyrus in the making of wall posters and sales messages. Ancient ruins’ discoveries in other regions such as ancient Rome, Greece and Arabia indicate that posters were the first form of advertising. According to history bill boards and out-of-home advertising were the oldest form of advertising. Other old forms of advertising existing in this era included the use of street callers (town criers) who would make loud announcements. These early forms of advertising were limited in terms of the number of people they could reach. The inability to read also greatly hampered the use of written forms of advertisements. Businesses tried to overcome the problem by using signs that used images that represent the kind of goods or services offered.
Modern day advertising developed as a result of rising mass production in the late 19th and 20th centuries leading to the development of mass media. Mass media refers to any communication media that can be used to reach a large number of people. These forms of media include television, publications, radio and the internet. Advertisements may be placed by product or service producers, sellers or by an advertising agency procured by the advertising party. The four most influential inventions which have greatly transformed the advertisement industry include television, internet, radio and the printing press (Jackson, 1999). Development of the printing press led to widespread dissemination of messages on paper by text. These were in form of magazines and newspapers. The need for creation of selling material led to development of advertising agencies. In 1841 the first advertising agency was opened in Philadelphia under the name of Volney B. Palmer. Later on more agencies developed with New York having an estimate of 20 agencies by 1861. The increase in literacy and development of the printing press led to increased printed advertisements which included handbills. The 17th century had a large number of advertisements appearing on the weekly newspapers of England (Masaki & Helsen, 2004).
The expansion of the economy in the 19th century led to growth of advertisement. In the early 1920s pioneering radio stations were opened. This furthered advertisement by allowing people to hear about products and services without reading. Programs were sponsored by businesses that paid to have their products advertised before or after programs. The introduction of television added an advantage to advertising because it enabled products to be not only heard but also viewed. Televisions were invented in the 1920s, however; they did not impact advertising till the 1050s when they became affordable to many people.
The introduction of audiovisual advertisements improved on radio’s audio advertising. The Du Mont Television network started selling advertisement time to many sponsors. This was also furthered by the introduction of cable TV that offered more channels. Introduction of mobile telephony and the internet (World Wide Web) opened new frontiers for businesses and it can be attributed to the dot.com boom experienced in the 1990s (Masaki & Helsen, 2004). Companies began issuing coupons and free access to the internet. In the 21stcentury interactive advertising was introduced, and this allowed consumers to participate and be part of the advertising process. On line and mobile telephony advertisements employ the use text messages, e-mails, pop up advertisements and many other various forms to reach the people. All these forms of advertising are coupled with other physical forms of product or service promotion.
The dawn of the internet has brought about new forms of advertising trends using pop under, pop ups, advergaming, flash banner and e-mails. The advertisers have also developed new trends that make advertisements more entertaining to watch so that people wish to continue watching them. This avoids the old time phenomenon whereby advertisements were regarded as monotonous and boring. Other significant trends in advertising include niche marketing. Unlike old advertising methods that try to reach as many people as possible, niche marketing specifically targets a certain market or class of consumers (O’Quinn, Allen & Semenik, 2008). This has been made possible by use of sites or programs that reach a certain class of people. Another famous trend is crowd sourcing-this has led to the interactive user generated advertisements.
This trend actively involves consumers in advertising products and services making them more true and real. These new trends tend to make use of the consumers in advertising. These targeted markets help the marketing managers to understand the particular needs specific to a group. Analysis of the target market not only helps in trying to understand and satisfy needs, but to also design advertisements that can reach that particular group and influence it. Therefore, the target groups also help in the design of advertisements tailored specifically for those groups (O’Quinn, Allen & Semenik, 2008).
The rise in economy is characterized by a rise in advertisements. A high performing advertisement industry can be associated with a booming economy. Advertisement encourages greater spending and this leads to a rise in the performance of the economy as a whole.
References
Jackson, L. (1999). Fables of Abundance: A Cultural history of advertising in America. Basic Books.
Masaki, K. and Helsen, K. (2004). Global Marketing Management, 3rd Edition. John Wiley & Sons Incorporated publishers.
O’Quinn, T., Allen, C., Semenik, R, J. (2008). Advertising and Integrated Brand Promotion. Cengage Learning Publishers.
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