Origination of Advertising

Advertising traces its roots back to the Christian era. The very first medium of advertising was outdoor signs, painted on the walls and was considered to be very attention-grabbing. In the middle of 1400, movable-form of advertising was invented and in the 16th century some organizations had a trade mark which was a two or three dimensional picture or sign.

Advertising is a medium through which companies boost up their sales and profits. It is also 'mass communication', and the advertiser pays for it in order to convince a certain segment of the public to adopt ideas or take actions of benefit to the advertiser. Early in medieval times a simple but effective form of advertising was when popular merchants employed 'town criers' who shouted out praise about the company/advertisers.

In the 1920s, advertisers and their agents had come to realize the possibilities of advertising on the radio. With its immediacy, radio could convey their message directly to the prospective consumer who would not need to purchase a publication or even need to be literate. In the 1950s television became the most influenced media. Now advertisers could demonstrate the use of their products and present well known figures to praise it.

In recent times, advertisers spend huge amounts on ad campaigns, although they don’t even know how valuable their money would be. Frank W. Woolworth once said, ''I know that half of my advertising budget is wasted. The problem is that I don't know which half''.

Different advertisers bring into play numerous strategies while designing an advertisement to grab the attention of as much consumers as they can. In order to be effective, advertisements must have, 'stopping power', make an impression, be easily understood, and have 'locking power' to make a big impact on the reader to want to make them read the more detailed information included in the advertisement.

Three most common reasons for the dislike of an advertisement by the public are,

• The irritation factor of it being everywhere
• The product being advertised
• The message it gives out

Four main things that interest advertisment readers' are,

• Story telling
• Suspense
• Drama
• It being narrative

The notion of target marketing and partitioning is about the positioning of the advertisement very carefully to where it is most effectual and being vigilant not to place it where it may do harm, e.g. not for children's viewing. Partitioning variables can be demographic, geographic, psychographic or geo-demographic.

It is quite clear that advertising is a high-priced business which has been around long before people can imagine which will go on to be successful until people know what they want and what they are being made to buy.

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