Chapter 14: Advertising

Chapter 14: Advertising

The Evolution of Advertising

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• Mass advertising required the technology of printing and the Industrial Revolution.

• There was a 3rd requirement – people who could read (literate).

• During the 1800s laws were passed both in England and the United States that required children to attend school.

• These laws were important to advertising because they raised the literacy level of the general population to the point at which printed advertisements could be understood.

• The technology of printing was not a mass medium until the fifteenth century after the invention of the Gutenberg printing press.

• Only with printing could the shoemaker make handbills to pass around the village.

• Before printing he would have to rely on a town crier or perhaps a strolling minstrel to sing a jingle about his shoes.

• Modern advertising had to wait for a surplus of goods. A surplus of goods came about only with machines that could turn out more than one item at a time – not until the Industrial Revolution.

• Only after the Industrial Revolution were there enough products and money to support mass advertising.

• Printers were quick to see that handbills were a profitable source of business.

• By combining handbills with news, printers produced what would eventually become the modern newspaper and magazine.

• Printers realized they could make money both by selling their paper to readers and by charging merchants to print advertisements.

• Printers soon found that they spent too much time asking for ads from merchants, so they hired agents to sell advertising space.

• These agents were not paid a salary. They were paid a commission on each ad they sold.

• The size of the commission became standardized at 15 percent of the cost of the ad and often remains that way today.

• As more newspapers, newsletters, and magazines were printed, merchants were besieged by advertising agents.

• The agent knew most about advertising and became a kind of selling consultant.

• As long as goods were supplied locally, handmade as needed, there was little need for advertising beyond an occasional announcement or sign.

• For example, a shoemaker would hang a sign outside his house, but had no need to advertise. All he could do was make a few pairs of shoes a week.

• Each shoe was custom made for a specific person – there was no back room filled with inventory. There was no surplus of shoes to be moved before the new fashions could be introduced.

• Even if a shoemaker could hire workers to turn out a surplus of shoes, how would he advertise?

• In 1870, two competing agents, J. Walter Thompson and N. W. Ayer, realized that they could best serve their clients by writing effectively and by planning and advertising campaign. These agents created the age of modern advertising.

• Advertising changed as new media – color posters, radio, and television – became available.

• Advertisements transmitted via broadcast media are called commercials.

• The purpose of advertising changed as well.

• Advertising went through a series of refinements, each representing a new approach to selling.

• For instance, at first advertising was only information. Later, advertisers saw the value of capturing the reader’s attention before presenting the information.

• There are 8 stages that have emerged since the beginnings of advertising.

• Advertising exists to solve a problem: the presence of more goods/products than are needed by society.

• In a society of shortage, where there is not enough to go around, there is no need for ads. Everything that is grown or made is put to immediate use.

• Advertising requires a surplus of goods or services.

• Advertising exists to create a demand from consumers. There is no need for advertising if the demand already exists far beyond the supply.

Why Advertising Exists