Advertising is a form of marketing to promote a product, service of idea. Companies spend lots of money on advertising to promote their products and services and in the end hope that the advertising will translate to awareness and profits.
There are many ways of advertising such as television, radio, emails, newspapers to the rising advertising darling which is social media. The main aim of advertising is to reach as big an audience as possible.
Television is one of the most expensive ways of advertising as companies may choose to run an advertisement to brand their product or services or even sponsor a drama to get viewers interested in the product by inserting the advertised product in the drama. Mostly big companies with great cash backing will choose this to advertise their product or services. Though this is an expensive method, it is almost foolproof as we see how sales of a certain product soared when the actors in a popular drama used it during their shoot.
Newspapers used to be one of the popular advertising methods as almost everyone reads the local major newspaper so advertising in it guarantees that your product or services will be seen and known by the readers. It still is one of the core methods for some industries even though the paper circulation is facing a decline no thanks to the internet.
Some of us are used to getting catalogues or brochures in our mail. This is also a form of advertising and regular mailers may translate into sales in the long run. There is a limit to the number of customers who walk into your store. However, when you choose to mail out to your entire community you are almost sure that a percentage will look at the various services or products you can provide.
Another popular advertising method these days is using the internet. Some companies have started to invest in autoresponders which regularly send emails of interesting promotions to their subscribers on their mailing list. Others have engaged social media such as Facebook or Youtube to blast to subscribers what they are providing. This is a relatively inexpensive method and the reach is massive. If your online advertisement is entertaining or interesting, it can turn viral where customers share the ad online to their friends and you have suddenly a large group of followers wanting your product.
Companies may choose to employ a mixture of ways to advertise themselves based on their budget and target customer group.