Effective Advertisement: Print vs. Electronic Media essay paper

Abstract

This research paper examined which mass media, printed or electronic ones, can represent brand image more effectively. Brands were introduced through mass media advertising to increase the reputation and value of a particular manufacturer. An identified advertised brand often meant safety and quality and led to popularity. The advertisements in both media have utilized various devices to illustrate the brand image better. The advertisements have their own features, and lure customers to buy the products or service. Print advertisement is the simpler form; however, it can show customers the detailed information on brands through characters, photographs, and logos.

Electronic advertisement is multifunctional; it gives consumers a deep impression about a product by using images and sounds, and enchants consumers.

Table of Contents
â… . Introduction
â…¡. Literature Review
â…¢. Methodology
â…£. Result
â…¤. Discussion
â…¥. Conclusion and Recommendation
â…¦. References

Effective Advertisement: Print vs. Electronic Media

The modern world is overload with a huge amount of information, especially information stimulating us to buy some products or use some services. Many consumers try to gather information about a product before they purchase it and an advertisement is one of an effective way to convey the necessary information to customers. We can learn basic information about new products and services from advertisements. The advertisement is one of the tools that influence our decision which products to buy. The advertisement also encourages customers to buy. Even though we were not thinking to buy anything, we could buy something being influenced by an advertisement. The company tries to create a good brand image and to attract more customers. There are a lot of advertisements in different media, such as newspapers, magazines, television, and the Internet. The effect of advertisements also differs, depending on media because of the characteristics of each medium. Every method of advertising has different ways to attract consumers. Therefore, it is important to find out which media is more effective for its products and services is considered and which media can help reach the target customers faster and more effectively. The advertisement helps a company to advertise its products or services to the customer. The role of an advertisement is not limited by informing the consumer of the product only but also of the subtle effects of social influence and economical influence. Thus, we need to examine the influence the advertisement has on our society and its effectiveness for companies that launch advertising campaigns. In fact, it is very important to define different categories of customers different media attract the most that will reveal the extent to which advertisement will be effective in these media and which target audience it will reach.

Literature Review

The advertisement has been recognized as a tool of establishing the brand image.

Advertising is economically justified and it has brought substantial benefits to companies. The advertisement is one of the most important components of a company’s success since it can increase its profits if the advertisement in specific media reaches the target customers.

In order to better understand the role of advertisements for the success of a company, it is necessary to briefly dwell upon its history. In the seventeenth century, according to Wilson (2005), advertising as a discrete form was used in newspapers. It was very simple form: simple descriptions, plus prices, of products served their purpose until the late nineteenth century, when technological advances led to illustrations being added to advertising, and color was also an option. An early advertising success story in the U.S. is that of Pears Soap. Thomas Barratt, who made Pears’ advertisements, realized that the company needed to be more aggressive about pushing its products to survive. He launched the series of ads featuring cherubic children, which firmly welded the brand to the values it still maintains today. He took images considered as “fine art” and used them to connote his brand’s quality, purity and simplicity.

This company’s advertisement gave a strong impact on consumers. Therefore, this product was sold well.

Wilson (2005) pointed out in the latter part of the nineteenth century that advertising became a fully flourished institution, with its own ways of working, and with its own creative values. The growth of magazine advertising was bolstered at this time (Smith, 2003). The earliest magazines published were local journals that focused mainly on political opinions and issues. At this epoch, Smith (2003) noted that many consumers were seeking information and entertainment. They started to pay attention to magazines for new, entertainment, and other features that would enrich their lifestyles. The number of retail stores, products, and services proliferated in an increasingly competitive environment, and new markets were created. Magazine advertising soon gained respect and glamour. Moreover, the majority of the advertising agencies that dominate the global markets today were founded in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

According to Wilson (2005), World War I saw some important advances in advertising, as governments on all sides used ads as the means of propaganda. Advertising was used to enlist soldiers and enforce government policies. The British used advertising as the means of propaganda to convince its own citizens to fight, and also to persuade the Americans to join them. Advertising was a large, well-established industry in 1914 and it continued to expand after the World War I. Advertising quickly took advantage of the new mass media of the first part of the twentieth century, cinema and radio. Using cinema, and to a much greater extent, radio to transmit commercial messages. In addition, Wilson stated that after the World War â…¡, there was both a boom in consumer spending and a new medium, television. There was influence of a flow of the times, and the television advertising became one of the strategies that cannot miss for a company. With the combined impact of image and sound, it soon became clear that brand recognition was much more effective if compared with other method up to that time. According to Rutherford (2003), television advertisement was the most important aspect of the “creative revolution,” a brief, explosive moment. In short, advertisement became entertaining (2003, p.1517). Therefore, millions of dollars annually were poured into the coffers of advertising agencies as manufacturers sought to inform newly prosperous consumers of the dazzling array of new goods they could purchase, such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners, food mixers and TV set.

According to Taylor (2003), especially around 2000, the Internet advertisement started to attract customer’s attention. Internet advertising has become the new way to communicate with consumers, for consumers to communicate with one another, and a new way to sell products and services to consumers (Young, 2005). The Internet has all functions of the conventional advertisement method. The Internet can explain a product with detail like newspapers and can use an image and the sound like television. Furthermore, customers can buy a product or service on the Internet; this is a new feature of the Internet. Therefore, many companies pay attention to the Internet advertising now.

Thus, the advertising method has arisen through the history. Now since the main advertisement method becomes complete, companies think which advertising media to use to make the image of our brands better.

Research Question: Which form, printed and electronic media, presents brand image more effectively and what is the target audience of each medium?

Methodology

Because there is an increase in the amount of advertising in our lives, the topic of effective advertisement media logically arises. Various secondary sources from Meader Library, on-line databases, and the HPU Pipeline were used in the research. Headings containing such words as “mass media for advertising,” “impact of advertising,” “strategy of advertising,” “printed advertising,” and “electronic advertising” were used. To find some specific media, the words combinations, such as “newspaper advertising,” “magazine advertising,” “television advertising,” and “Internet advertising.” After collecting enough information, the Literature review was written by using this information. The next step was to analyze how printed media and electronic media advertising are used represent the brand image more effectively.

Results

Target Group

Print Media. Printed advertisement targets at appealing to all generations from children to adults. Newspaper advertisements have a large range of targets. (“Role of Newspaper,” 2003). Advertisers consider who tends to read which section, and they advertise accordingly. They target at different groups in different sections and with different types of advertisements. Looking through any newspaper, there are various kinds of advertisements: an advertisement for a supermarket and clothing in the classified page, a local news page has bank or hospital advertisements, and a sports page has watch and car advertisements. Because men look at the sports page more than women usually do, newspaper has car advertisement to appeal to the interest of men. In magazines, the targets are narrowed to a particular interest or purpose (Lee & Taylor, 2001). The magazine field is divided into various interests such as magazines for women, a fashion magazine, a politics magazine, or a car magazine. In business magazines, like Fortune, advertisements like travels, hotels, and banks can be seen. If it is a baseball magazine, the contents of the advertisement are related to baseball or sports. The magazine advertises an article and service in the same point of view to a person having the same sense of values (Oshima, 2007). Thus, each media and each advertisement has its specific target customers.

Electronic Media. Television is one type of electronic media, and target is wide regardless of age or sex. TV commercials are the most widely spread as an effective medium so far. (“Role of Television,” 2003) People, who do not read the paper, can still be influenced by television advertisements. Even children, at the age four years, can watch an advertisement on television. For a large amount of commercials are done on television, the contact time of people who watch television to its advertisements are longer than it is for other media (“Role of Television,” 2003).

When we watch one hour program, for instance, we frequently see the same commercials twice or more. In addition, television also uses different types of advertisement to fit the type of the program. We see beer and fast food commercials during American football, baseball and soccer games; and there are toy and snack advertisements during a cartoon program.

Another electronic media that has become popular in recent years is the Internet. The Internet is gaining power as the advertising media. In the Internet advertising, the target is narrowed down much more to fit precisely the interests of the web user (Okada, 2006). When people want some information about a product, a lot of people might use Yahoo or Google. The advertisements of on Yahoo or Google are seen by a wide variety of people. The advertisements on their pages have possibilities to be seen by many people. Moreover, the Internet advertisements can be a banner advertisement or email advertisement (“Role of Internet, 2003). The Internet with many advertisement methods has a lot of opportunities of obtaining the target further. The target of the Internet advertisement has been extending as the information society proceeds.

Media specification to specific target customers

At the same time, it is necessary to point out that different media target at different audience. To put it more precisely, print media are traditionally focused on the audience of the middle age and elderly people. Basically, this trend is determined by the socio-cultural traditions and standards. In this respect, it should be pointed out that the print media are traditional media that older generations of people get used to. For many people, reading papers and magazines is just a habit or a kind of ritual they need to follow. This habit is naturally formed under the impact of the historical development of printed media.

In fact, not long time ago, about half a century, print media was a very powerful tool which could be used for a variety of purposes, including advertising. Print media was one of the major sources of information for millions of people. In this regard, it is possible to estimate that for a considerable period of time print media remained mainstream media in the US (Bagdikian, 2002). Naturally, in such a situation, the audience could not fail to get used to print media not only as the major source of information, but also as the most reliable source of information, especially compared to television which, at the beginning of its development, was basically viewed as a part of entertainment industry. As a result, in the past the advertisement in print media could count for the mass audience and could get positive results.

However, at the present moment, print media preserved its popularity and trust only among those categories of people that viewed these media as the most reliable and as the major source of information, i.e. those people who grew in the epoch prior to the epoch of television (Chomsky, 1997). This is why the company that attempt to sell some products and provide some services and needs to reach the maximum effectiveness of the advertisement within a particular segment of the market or among a particular category of people can use print media if the target audience is basically elderly people or partially people at the middle age. For instance, a pharmaceutical company can use print media effectively because the elderly people naturally have more health problems and, as they prefer and trust more to print media than television, then it would be logical to focus the advertising campaign on the use of print media.

The emergence of television, especially in 1950s stimulated the development of a totally new generation which viewed television as the mainstream media (Chomsky, 1997). Basically, people whose formation years lasted from the 1960s ”“ 1980s may be viewed as the generation that are mainly focused on television as the most reliable and trustworthy media. Unlike older generations, they are not so confident in print media, though they often tend to compare both print media and television. This is why, from the point of view of an advertiser, this target audience would prefer television advertisement to advertisement in print media. However, it does not mean that print media could not view this audience as target customers of advertising, but it is necessary to realize the fact that the television is the primary source of information for this audience, while print media are secondary. This means that television advertising may be more effective for this specific group of customers, i.e. people of the middle age born from the 1960s to early 1980s, and the person is the larger the impact of television advertisement will be because of the cultural habits of these people. Practically, this means that a company targeting at the specific audience of the middle age mainly should use television. Basically, the buying power of this category of customers is quite high because the overwhelming majority of these people are active and working. Due to the larger audience of television, the effectiveness of advertisement and financial revenues received in the result of television advertisement will be consistently higher compared to advertisement in printed media, especially if a company targets at the middle age customers. For instance, some car producers can use television to promote cars for the middle and upper classes since they are mainly constituted by people at the middle age, while there are not very significant number of young people, who have not gain financial independence from their parents or have not been working for a time long enough to be able to make such acquisitions.

Speaking about the younger generation, it should be said that this category of customers are basically focused on electronic media, while the advertisement targeting at these customers placed in print media will not be really effective (Klein, 2000). In other words, the younger generation is not the target audience of the advertisement in print media. Naturally, it is possible to launch advertisement campaign in print media to attract young people but it is only specialized edition targeting specifically at the young audience may be used. Obviously, a company offering products or services to young people should use only these print media.

However, it is necessary to remember about the fact that television and Internet are the mainstream media for this category of customers (Chomsky, 1997). Moreover, in recent years Internet became even more popular than television. This is why a company targeting at young customers should primarily focus their advertising campaigns on such media as Internet and television, i.e. electronic media. It is obvious that they are more popular compared to print media among young people. Consequently, young people will more positively react on advertisement in electronic media, including Internet than in print media, which are not very popular among them. For instance, a company selling some sports products, which basically targets at younger people, should focus on advertising in Internet, television, and other electronic media to reach its target audience because these media are the major source of information for young people. By the way, the role of Internet has increased substantially in recent years and increased the opportunities for advertising because it makes products and services more available to customers and they can maintain contact, ask information they need directly at the company using Internet.

Thus, it is possible to estimate that each media has its own target audience. This is why advertisement in different media can target at different categories of customer. To put it more precisely, print media may be used to advertise products for elderly and partially middle age people; television is more preferable for middle age people and partially young people; while new media, such as Internet basically targets at young and young adults and partially middle age people. These facts should be taken into account by advertisers to reach the specific target customers.

Cost of Advertisement

Print Media. According to Japanese famous advertising company Dentsu report (“Cost for advertising”, 2007), newspaper was used $9,986 in 2006. This decreases by 3.6% compared with the previous year, 2005. In magazine, it was used $3,887 in 2006 and it also decreases 1.5% from 2005. However, many companies use a newspaper or magazine advertisement to present their products and services in the most appealing ways. Macy’s, a department store, uses newspapers, and it was ranked the first of those brands that spent the most money on newspaper advertising in 2003. They spent more than $303 million on newspaper advertisements and the catalogs (Nicholson, 2004). As part of the Thanksgiving campaign, Macy’s sent 54-page catalogs to 3.8 million customers costing more than $100 million. Louis Vuitton manufactures of luxury leather goods, fashion accessories, and jewelry are rarely advertised on television, but the company spends about $250 million annually on printed advertisement, such as a building poster, a direct mail, a catalog, and the most media that is used is a magazine (“Fashion News,” 2007).

Electronic Media. Since the number of people who watch television, compared to the past, has been declining, the cost for their television advertisements is also decreasing. (“Advertisement Rate,” 2006) According to Dentsu report (“Cost for advertising”, 2007), the television was used $ 20,161 for advertisement in 2006, however, it is 1.2% decreasing compared to 2005. In contrast, Internet was used $3,630 in 2006, it increase 29.3% compared to 2005. Budweiser is the company which uses money for TV advertising most. Their total advertising budget in 2006 was $509 million, of which more than a half, at $386 and spent more $30 million for their other electronic advertisements (Yamazaki, 2007). In addition, the company started own TV program, “Bud. TV”, on the Internet.

Toyota spent more than $ 1,000 million for an annual advertisement for TV, magazine, newspaper, and radio, and it was assigned $ 123 million on the Internet. (Fukuda, 2006 & “Online Ads Buyer,” 2004) According to the article “Advertising on Internet is Enough to Sell Cars” (2006), the model of cars best sold by Toyota Inc. in North America was advertised only on the internet and was not advertised on TV. The Toyota cars advertised only on the internet were as follows: Sion, bB and Ist that are marketed only in North America. Toyota understood the effectiveness and advantages of the advertising tactics of spreading the information about these three models through the Internet and then let it spread by itself from customers to customers. Toyota is cutting down advertising on the TV and they are raising the Internet advertisement budget by 20-50% Thus, the Internet is gaining power as the advertising medium.

Impact on Consumers

Print Media. First of all, according to the article The Role of Newspaper (2003), there are reliability and details in the newspaper advertisement. The newspaper can hardly be positioned as entertainment medium, and it is basically a news medium compared to other media. The advertisement recorded in media mainly composed of journalism might naturally have the aspect of journalism. Therefore, the newspaper advertisement can give the reader more reliability of the product. Smith (2003, p.977) described “A magazine usually contains written pieces such as stories, essays, editorials, news, reports advice columns, poems or reviews; and visual features such as photos, cartoons, or illustrations; and advertisements.” The magazine can know details like the newspaper, and also has the entertainment; as a result it gives the customer more positive emotions and impressions concerning products.

Electronic Media. The TV advertisement appeals to the sense of the audience by audio-visual means and it gives people the feeling of being present at a live performance. (Berger & Bridgewater, 1990) If it is an image and a sound with a motion, goods can be made to understand within an instant. For example, Intel has a jingle, and this jingle is played at the end of all TV commercials and commercials of all radio. This “Dâ™­ Dâ™­ Gâ™­ Dâ™­ Aâ™­” (Intel Corporation, 2007 p.10) jingle has become very famous. The jingle is not long and sounds like an image of intelligent or high quality, so it helps people to recognize Intel and to give it a good image. Moreover, a brand name can be impressed within a short period of time by advertising repeatedly. Since television is seen together by several persons in many cases, audience shares a message while talking with other people; it can also expect a word-of-mouth effect. (Lee & Taylor, 2001) In Internet advertising, in addition, it is possible to narrow down a target and to carry out advertising distribution. By distributing the advertisement according to the audience interest, the degree of impression of an advertisement becomes strong. Furthermore, the point that the Internet differs from other media most has the property of interaction. That is, it is the point that media can get reactions from audience, not only send message one way to people like other media. (“Role of Internet,” 2003) By having an interaction, people can acquire more detailed information and get interested.

Discussion

Both print media and TV targets at people of all ages. They change the form of their advertisements. Different kinds of advertisements are used for children, for adults, and for older people. For example, TV advertisement attracts children with using cartoon, while the Internet advertisements target the teenager and adults. Newspaper advertising is familiar with older people more than others. Both media try to get more targets, but a different range of target is seen. Printed advertising is aimed at narrower segment of the population than it is for electronic advertising. Newspapers are divided into sections based on topic or category, like sports or classified. Magazines, another form of print media, are aimed for specialized fields, like computer, travel, and fashion. The company can focus on specific information for its customer according to the feature of print media. On the other hand, in electronic media, different advertisements related to various topic or interests are aimed at TV audience and the Internet users in general regardless of their interests. However, there is an exception – the Internet advertisement. Internet can also focus on a specific topic or interest like a newspaper and magazine. Overall, the consumption of print media is declining, and electronic media is increasing (Lee & Taylor, 2001). With the increase in the Internet advertisement, the number of enterprises that use the Internet for their advertising has increase 2.6% for two years.

Secondly, since the advertising informs consumers of newly improved products on the market and the companies spend a lot of money on it to influence the consumers. The advertisement costs that each media requires are different, but a company spends money for advertising with thinking, which media can give customers a better brand image. Most of companies spend a lot of money for their advertisements because advertisements have a big influence for customers. As discussed previously, advertising does increase sales and stimulates the economy (Hale, 1996).

In addition, advertisements are crucial in communicating the brand image by presenting their commodity or service.

The print media expresses the image of the brand usually using in a most positive picture or light graphs and words.

Thus, colors, logos, atmosphere and celebrity endorsements become important in communicating emotions and desires. The descriptions of advertisement are exaggerated increase the value of the product. The print advertising explains about the commodity in detail. As a result, the customer receives clearly the information product. On the other hand, in electronic advertisement both words and moving pictures are used to create the brand image. Moving pictures gives customers more real and better product’s image. On the other words, the electronic media is effective to give a strong impression, and the feeling of being at a live performance. In addition, the sound makes a deep impression to customers. The company name might be remembered by the music of the advertisement. The combination of the image and the sound makes people easier to memorize a company name or products. Moreover, the Internet advertising gets lots of attentions now because it has the characteristics of the both print and electronic

Conclusion and Recommendation

The question concerning the definition of the most effective media that can be used for the advertising is difficult to answer. It seems that the Internet advertisement is thought to be the best medium today. The diffusion rate of the Internet is increasing rapidly, and the rate of using other media is surely getting decreasing. It can be said that the electronic media has the best perspectives in the future, especially the Internet, which has a lot of functions compared to print media. However, each Media has different characteristics, and there is the special feature that only a certain media can do. Moreover, each specific media has its basic audience that may be the target audience for a specific advertising campaign. It is the most important that the company could use media to improve its brand image. In addition, each medium does not only work by itself, but it can also cooperate with other media. For instance, first, the company informs its product to many customers by using the TV advertisement, and then, the details can be put on the newspaper advertisement. This is one of the ways by means of which a food advertisement can put coupons on a newspaper and can report the news on TV. Furthermore, it is important to try not just to invent a new function, but also to focus on the feature that the media and use it effectively.