The Role of Advertising in Today's World

What is the most powerful function that advertisement performs today? What is advertising and communication in today’s world?

Advertising bears the burden of building brands.

What is brand building? How does advertising build a brand? By taking a simple product, what does advertising do to build it into a powerful brand and how does advertising do this?

Let us first understand what is a brand. A brand is a consumer’s idea of a product. This is a quote from the doyen of advertising – David Ogilvy.

Let us take a deeper look at the brand.

|Product |Brand |
|Exists on the shelf |Exists in the mind |
|Made of raw ingredients |Made of feelings & emotions |
|Belongs to the manufacturer |Belongs to the consumer |
|Eg. Bajaj Scooter |Eg. Hamara Bajaj |

So, let us now understand how does advertising make a brand strong?

The ‘fundamental equities’ of product, price, packaging and performance are only revealing one side of the picture. Today the consumer takes these elements of a product for granted and looks beyond performance of a stronger, value-addition to the brand.

Take a closer look at the consumer. Every human being is a combination of head and heart. Bill Bernbach once said “facts are not enough”. Added values of soft equities are now being focused on to get the core of the relationship between the consumer and the brand. It is a relationship marketing today.

It is the softer side that seems to carry the value in terms of personality, image and relationships. And it is a stronger “soft” side that makes a brand stronger.

Can you think of some examples of strong brands’ “soft” approach stirs up feelings and emotions? How about Garden Sarees?

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In the past brands were built on superior & unique