Advertising

Types of Advertising

If you ask most people what is meant by “type” of advertising, invariably they will respond by defining it in terms of how it is delivered (e.g., television ad, radio ad, etc.).  But in marketing, type of advertising refers to the primary “focus” of the message being sent and falls into one of the following four categories:

Product-Oriented Advertising

Most advertising spending is directed toward the promotion of a specific good, service or idea, what we have collectively labeled as an organization’s product.  In most cases the goal of product advertising is to clearly promote a specific product to a targeted audience.  Marketers can accomplish this in several ways from a low-key approach that simply provides basic information about a product (informative advertising) to blatant appeals that try to convince customers to purchase a product (persuasive advertising) that may include direct comparisons between the marketer’s product and its competitor’s offerings (comparative advertising).

However, sometimes marketers intentionally produce product advertising where the target audience cannot readily see a connection to a specific product.   Marketers of new products may follow this “teaser” approach in advance of a new product introduction to prepare the market for the product.  For instance, one week before the launch of a new product a marketer may air a television advertisement proclaiming “After next week the world will never be the same” but do so without any mention of a product or even the company behind the ad.  The goal is to create curiosity in the market and interest when the product is launched.