Advertising started back in 300BC evolving to today’s persuasive, structured and nonpersonal classified advertisements. During the time advertising begun to evolve, the targeted population was limited to a small geographic area close to vendor’s operational location. Symbols were then used to represent a product or service offered by a vendor. As people moved to preindustrial age, there was more use of handbills, posters, and signs, with printing press playing a major role. In the mid-1600s, the printing press came up with major developments in the field of advertising including the Gutenberg’s inventions thus setting a platform for modern advertising (Evans, 2009).It was during this time that newspapers advertising emerged and manufactures and merchants took advantage. ‘Boston newspapers’ was the first newspaper in America that started print advertising.
During the industrialization age which begun in 1800, the increased production of goods and services forced traders to market their products and started being aggressive in advertising. The exiting advertisings forms were now done broadly. However, consumers were given the responsibility of advertising. In the post-industrial age from the 1980s to all through in 1990s, the society was becoming more sensitive, and this is how consumers won the war of advertising turning the focus of companies to creating consumers awareness on responsible manufacturing and supply chain. Today, consumers want to know more about a company and a company’s reputation is the key to winning a competitive edge. Consumers now get information about companies by word of mouth and also internet platforms like blogs.
Changes taking place in today’s advertising industry
Modern advertising is going through drastic changes with the advancement of technology. The consumer society in America is intensively involved with media, and companies are using this niche through media advertising. The reason media advertising is growing increasingly is that first, it is easy to access and affordable especially for medium and small sized companies. There is increasing oversupply of goods and services, and consumers are getting more sensitized thus striving to understand and evaluate products and the companies producing them. Companies are putting more effort to target their audience. They are therefore not only making use of media to advertise but further identifying their target market and then using every popular media to stand out in the competition. Savvy and advertisers are cultivating success from identifying right mediums to channel their money. By this, they ensure their message is effectively delivered to their target audience, and at the same time cultivate high investment returns from advertising. Blogs, professional networks, social media together with mass media outlets like cell phones and podcasts are becoming useful modes in today’s marketing process. There is no doubt that online social marketing and other forms of media outlets will continue to be a major means of advertising as consumers grow to be more selective in choosing products that best satisfy their needs (Kumar and Gupta 2016).
Use of target market in advertising plan
Target marketing is an important tool that can be employed by either new businesses looking for innovative opportunities or protecting an already established business. Managers can use a target market to beat the competition in niche markets. They can use target market to carve out their own space in the market place. The wireless industry is a good example of small businesses succeeding in the target marketing. The biggest wireless companies focus on what they can efficiently achieve, and this is by focusing on biggest markets. Since it is costly for them to employ multilingual employees in their support centers or offer best competitive rate on cell phone plans, they instead identify their target market and sell rights to wireless networks to small business who then easily run after niche markets. Identifying target market enables managers to be able to devise ways that appeal their customers more and even track down new customers (Percy and Rosenbaum, 2016). Managers can, for example, give free samples with orders and reward points for every purchase. They can market new products by changing the free samples where customers can choose new preferences. Satisfying interests of these customers help in building loyal customers who then spend more on your products. Learning the target market and giving them what they want is a sure strategy to building a loyal customer base and receiving high rate reviews.
Role economics in advertising
Economics is playing a major role in the modern advertising centered at people’s rising standard of living. As consumers’ incomes increase, advertiser’s functions of reaching the target market in increased since more consumers get to the bracket of targeted market. Companies work to develop a strategy that comprises a target market and marketing mix to ensure they maximize advertising returns on investment. By incorporating marketing mix in the advertising strategy, the market-oriented managers satisfy the needs of their customers without fully depending on providing best competitive prices, and this distinguishes them from their competitors. The marketing managers are identifying themselves with the growing selective and niche oriented culture among consumers and are responding by creating products that are satisfactory when it comes to consumer’s judgment.
References
Evans, D. S. (2009). The online advertising industry: Economics, evolution, and privacy.
The journal of economic perspectives, 23(3), 37-60.
Kumar, V., & Gupta, S. (2016). Conceptualizing the Evolution and Future of
Advertising. Journal of Advertising, 1-16.
Percy, L., & Rosenbaum-Elliott, R. (2016). Strategic advertising management.
Oxford University Press.