This is beneficial to manufacturers, traders, consumers and society as a whole. Advertising offers the following advantages.
(1) Introduces a New Product in the Market:
Advertising plays significant role in the introduction of a new product in the market. It stimulates the people to purchase the product.
(2) Expansion of the Market:
It enables the manufacturer to expand his market. It helps in exploring new markets for the product and retaining the existing markets. It plays a sheet anchor role in widening the marketing for the manufacturer’s products even by conveying the customers living at the far flung and remote areas.
(3) Increased Sales:
Advertisement facilitates mass production to goods and increases the volume of sales. In other words, sales can be increased with additional expenditure on advertising with every increase in sale, selling expenses will decrease.
(4) Fights Competition: Advertising is greatly helpful in meeting the forces of competition prevalent in the market. Continuous advertising is very essential in order to save the product from the clutches of the competitors.
(5) Enhances Good-Will:
Advertising is instrumental in increasing goodwill of the concern. It introduces the manufacturer and his product to the people. Repeated advertising and better quality of products brings more reputation for the manufacturer and enhances goodwill for the concern.
(6) Educates The Consumers:
Advertising is educational and dynamic in nature. It
Different goods are advertised under different brand names. A branded product assures a standard quality to the consumers. The manufacturer provides quality goods to the consumers and tries to win their confidence in his product.
(7) Elimination of Middlemen:
It aims at establishing a direct link between the manufacturer and the consumer, thereby eliminating the marketing intermediaries. This increases the profits of the manufacturer and the consumer gets the products at lower prices.
(8) Better Quality Products: Different goods are advertised under different brand names. A branded product assures a standard quality to the consumers. The manufacturer provides quality goods to the consumers and tries to win their confidence in his product.
(9) Supports The Salesmanship:
Advertising greatly facilitates the work of a salesman. The customers are already familiar with the product which the salesman sells. The selling efforts of a salesman are greatly supplemented by advertising. It has been rightly pointed out that “selling and advertising are cup and saucer, hook and eye, or key and lock wards.”
(10) More Employment Opportunities:
Advertising provides and creates more employment opportunities for many talented people like painters, photographers, singers, cartoonists, musicians, models and people working in different advertising agencies.
(11) Reduction in the Prices of Newspapers and Magazines Etc:
Advertising is immensely helpful in reducing the cost of the newspapers and magazines etc. The cost of bringing out a newspaper is largely met by the advertisements published therein.
(12) Higher Standard of Living:
the customers with the new products and their diverse uses and also educates them about the new uses of existing products.
(7) Elimination of Middlemen:
It aims at establishing a direct link between the manufacturer and the consumer, thereby eliminating the marketing intermediaries. This increases the profits of the manufacturer and the consumer gets the products at lower prices.
According to the critics, advertising has the following disadvantages:
(1) Adds to Costs:
An organization has to spend large amount on advertising. It increases the cost of the products. To meet this expenditure, price of the product is raised. No manufacturer pays for the advertising expenses out of his pocket. Advertising, therefore, leads to unnecessary rise in prices. In this reference it is said that advertising costs are passed on to the consumers in the form of high prices.
(2) Undermines Social Values:
Advertisement is a sort of day-dreaming for the people. These days it is taking the people away from reality and into the realm of artificiality. Through its medium people get information about new products.
Only very few products are of any use for them. The brilliance of new products really gets on their nerves. They want to buy them but have no resources at their command. Consequently, they start feeling upset with their present status. Taking it as a social evil, it can be said that advertisement undermines social values.
(3) Confuses the Buyers: Many a time distorted version of reality is shown in the advertising. Believing in advertising, consumers buy the product. On its use, they feel cheated.
They come to realize later that the information given in the advertisement was something else whereas the actual product was quite different from it. Thus, people lose confidence in advertising because of wrong presentation. In this reference it is said that advertising confuses rather than helps.
(4) Encourages Sale of Inferior Products:
Every manufacturer projects his product as superior one in the advertisement. Therefore, the buyer is unable to decide as to which product is really good.
Consequently, it is difficult to get good quality product even after paying a handsome price for it. If a seller gets good price for some inferior product, it becomes a habit with him. It affects other sellers also. Therefore, it is said that advertisement encourages the sale of inferior products.
(5) Some Advertisement is in Bad Taste:
Many times, foul language and objectionable pictures are used in advertising in order to attract a particular class. They may be insulting to a particular class. It causes decay of social values.
Such kinds of advertising are generally opposed by the people as it hurts their feelings. In this reference it is said that some advertisements are in bad tastes.