Promotion of Products and/or Services

The most common application of advertising is the promotion of products and/or services. For example, pick up a newspaper and 90% of the time there will most definitely be an advertisement on the front page introducing a product or a service. Turn on the television and there will definitely be one such advertisement on either one of the channels. Advertisements can also be found on public transport services like busses, the Mass Rapid Transit and even taxis. They are everywhere, so entrenched in our daily lives that their presence is no surprise.

The main reason for this is that advertising is the main driving force of profit. Without advertising, the public has little knowledge of the particular product and therefore limited sales will be a likely result. Advertising used to promote products and services is one of the most effective and simplest of applications. For instance, ancient Egyptians used advertisements on papyrus banners while Indians in the past used cave paintings to inform others of the availability of certain products.

New media of advertising have been developed since then on the wave of competitiveness in sales of products. Radio and television commercials only erupted as a result of this advancement in technology and sales motivation.

Due to the desire for more sales in an increasingly profit-driven society, companies tend to advertise aggressively to entice the targeted customers. Even famous brands are required to come up with more attractive advertisements to continue to increase sales. (Bear in mind that displaying a product at the window of a retail store is also a form of fundamental and direct advertising.) More often than not, advertising is one of the major factors that contributed to these brands’ reputations.

Similarly, services, that in some cases may be called products of a different kind, are also aggressively advertised. The most common advertisements for services in society today that is mainly influenced by popular culture are those of slimming centres. Their advertisements tend to focus on how their customers look before and how much better they seem to appear after, emphasising the effects of their service offered, applying contrast to achieve attractiveness and gain the viewers’ attention.

In conclusion, the promotion of products and/or services has always been at the forefront of advertising technology, and continues to be the driving force behind new forms of advertising.