It’s not the 20th century anymore when the advertisers were limited by the number of options, which they could employ as the advertising media for the promotion of their brands. With the change in time, the ways of doing business have changed rapidly and so have the means to promote a brand. But the main point that concerns most of the advertisers is still the same and that is the choice for the most cost-effective medium for promoting a brand that could help the brand to achieve a particular set of objectives and exposing their business to target audience. So, to help such advertisers, we have compiled this article which lists the most important types of the media which can surely give them a clue about the type of media that can hold the secret to their success.
Types of Advertising Media
- Direct Mail
One of the oldest types of advertising media, which is still an effective method for the companies to spread the message about their products in the market. For the purpose, the hard copy of messages, like regular mails, brochures, calendars, catalogs, folders, circular letters and any other type of document that hold the logo of your company can be stuffed into the mailbox of the customers is used.
The main purpose, here, to send such letters to the customers is to turn their attention towards the brand and creating interest for the company in in their minds. Since for a person, who has never seen or heard about your company, these letters act as the face of your company. Therefore, it is necessary that these letters look attractive and interesting to get the attention towards them and should be convincing enough to turn the readers into potential buyers.
The effectiveness of the method lies in its ability to keep both customers and the brand in direct contact while keeping this entire thing in secrecy, and that’s something which leads to the atmosphere of trust between the both.
There’s also a drawback to it and that’s the limitation of the reach. Since every message is conveyed in secrecy, so they will just be limited to the receiver. Therefore, to counter this, you will have to send messages to each and every customer either who is relevant to the field of business or interested in it which makes use of further more paper or relevant material and that’s where the process gets costly.
- Newspaper Advertising
It’s the age of the internet where digital world has greatly replaced print media in most of the daily fields of life. But despite that newspapers are still one of the most powerful and effect advertising media because it belongs to that medium which is read by many people and has widest circulation. Another great thing about using newspapers as the promotional tool for the brand is the choice of the size of the target market. Since some newspapers work locally while others’ reach can go up to provincial as well as national level. So, the greater is the access circle, the higher are the chances for the ad to be seen and receive purchases.
Newspapers offer a high level of flexibility to advertisers since any campaign meant for advertisement of a company can be undertaken and stopped quickly. Moreover, it is also important to note that advertisements, which are put in newspapers, cost much less as compared to other means of promotion of businesses. Furthermore, these ads are repetitive in nature and prove themselves to be quite helpful in the promotion of a product.
Having only positive points for something is just too good to be true and the same goes for newspapers. The most effective among all those drawbacks is its limitation to just black and white color advertisements, so those ads, the idea of which cannot be delivered clearly without properly colored images, will have to go somewhere else. Moreover, they have shorter life spans and are unsuitable for illiterate people.
- Radio Advertising
For last 80 years, radio has been quite a well-functioning advertising option for most of the advertisers because of its extensive reach. In simpler words, radio connects the listeners from far off places, even where there is no television or internet access, to a common point, the broadcasting station.
The usage of radio as advertising media is based on the idea of “word of mouth” and, therefore, is totally independent of the educational status of the listener. That’s what makes it a great choice for educating the customer base about a particular issue and providing the solution to them in the form of the company’s product. With the capability of ensuring quick reputation, this method is quite helpful in popularizing a company and its product.
Since in radio, every message moves on with a flow and unless paid, every newer message will quickly replace an existing advertisement and that replacement can take place on daily, weekly or monthly basis depending upon the costs and that newspapers release cycle. In other words, they have a shorter lifespan and provide lesser flexibility as compared to newspapers. Moreover, because of the lack of personal touch, ads are limited to memory and the possibility that one may listen, to the advertisement or not, depends on his personal interests.
- Television Advertising
Using television as the advertising media lets the businesses to get their hands on a large number of customers in just a single exposure. Thanks to the hard work and efforts of fiber optic connections, cable operators, and dish connection companies, it is not just a mean of entertainment anymore; instead, it has gained quite a strong position as a powerful means of promotion of the brands.
Being a powerful combo of both picture and sound, it proves itself to be far more impressive and effective than radio advertising. So, the impression left on the viewer is a long-lasting one. Furthermore, television advertising is gaining huge popularity among masses and so, the coverage is also increasing rapidly.
The main thing that throws most of the smaller business away from using television as the advertising media is the huge cost involved in the advertisement of brands. Just like radio, the ads based on television are also short lived just like its duration. Furthermore, the task gets difficult to reach to the company when they can’t give reference to any advertisement.
- Outdoor Advertising
This method involves the usage of a combination of different media like electric displays, placards, posters, bus, skywriting, train, trams and neon signs advertising and is meant to gather the attention of passersby. The main idea behind the outdoor advertising is to use such means of promotion at places where hundreds and thousands of people could see them like bus or train stations which are used by many people to go here and there. The tactic goes more effective when a brand uses multiple means for the promotion of its products.
Outdoor advertising is suitable for any type of product ranging from consumable to daily household products like pens, fans, medicines, soaps etc. Because of wider coverage and long-lasting impression, it is quite helpful in creating a brand’s image right from the scratch and letting a product gain popularity in short time. It’s the flexibility of this advertising media which makes it known by the name of “powerhouse of advertising”.
Even though, it might be that the advertisers are impressed with the features, which it provides, but for customers, it is equivalent to the destruction of the beauty of the walls of their houses and shops. Involvement of high-cost media like balloons, electric displays, sandwich men, and skywriting, makes it harder for smaller businesses to strive for gaining the same advantage as that of large companies.
Hello everyone! This is Richard Daniels, a full-time passionate researcher & blogger. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics. He loves to write about economics, e-commerce, and business-related topics for students to assist them in their studies. That's the sole purpose of Business Study Notes.
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