A Detailed Report on Advertising Theory and Practice in Business

This report provides a comprehensive overview of advertising theory and practice, examining various strategies and models used by businesses to effectively market their products. It delves into media buying strategies, creative strategies, and key advertising theories such as the hidden message, the magic of meaning, imitative desire, shifting loyalties, and the mediation of reality. The report analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of these theories, offering recommendations for organizations seeking to implement them. Furthermore, it explores the importance of communication in advertising, highlighting how creative strategies are applied in daily business activities, including the use of celebrities in marketing campaigns. The report concludes with a discussion on ensuring successful communication channels and overcoming barriers to effective advertising, providing valuable insights for businesses aiming to enhance their advertising efforts. Desklib offers this and many other solved assignments for students.

Advertising Theory and Practice 1
Advertising Theory and Practice
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Advertising Theory and Practice 2
Executive Summary
Advertising has a lot of goals and objectives in businesses. Many organizations advertise
their products for various purposes. Advertising entails using potential communication tools and
theories and strategies to persuading the customers adopt a particular product and develop an
interest towards them(Shankar et al, 2010, p.111). This has been done by use of both traditional
and modern methods. In doing so, businesses devise strategies which vary depending on the type
of business an organization. Most businesses are employing the various modern advertising
strategies and theories in marketing their brands globally. The types of theories employed
include the mediation of reality, shifting loyalties, the magic of meaning, the hidden message and
imitative desire which have been discussed in this report
The purpose of this report is to It highlights how business persons and organizations can
succeed in a competitive environment by applied efficient advertising strategies using various
advertising models which have been shown in the work. We will investigate communication
advertising theories and explore also the processes which are involved in creation as well as
evaluating a business advertising campaigns. An aspect of this report will explore the role of
advertising strategy research, segmenting and targeting audiences and creative processes. The
report shall also explore the various advertising models and how they can be employed in
advertising, their advantages and disadvantages and recommendations for any business that
wishes to use the advertising theory in its daily business practice. This will be done by
investigating literatures published in advertising sectors. This study also has focused in
extending the theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge of how advertising usually works.
By evaluating various advertising strategies and models in an applied setting and in the
advertisers perspective.

Advertising Theory and Practice 3
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….….4
2.0 Media buying strategies…………….………………………………………………….….5
3.0 Creative strategies….………………………………………………………………….…..6
4.0 Advertising theories and practices…………………………………………………….…..7
4.0 How creative strategies apply in daily activities……………………………………….….9
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………..….11
Recommendations……………………………………………………………………….....…11
References………………………………………………………………………..…...12

Advertising Theory and Practice 4
1.0 Introduction
Over the past years, businesses have been employing various advertising techniques to persuade
customers to develop an interest in their products. These strategies have experienced a consistent
improvement as many theories and strategies have come explaining and challenging the currents
theories and practice. It has therefore been a difficult encounter for organizations in selecting the
most advertising theories and strategies that will work efficiently to make the organizations meet
their goals and objectives. This has been forcing companies to use many strategies as well as
employing a number of theories in their practices. According to (Bowen, 2013), advertising ae
the means of communication between a businessman and organization with the users of a
product or a service offered. These firms send advertising messages using various platforms and
techniques in making the potential and existing public be aware of the existence of certain
products in the market.
Advertising theory, therefore, is simply the strategies proposed and recommended, and
which are extensively used in day to day marketing of products by different organizations(Percy
and Elliott, 2016, p.46). The five theories which have been discussed in this theories have both
advantages and disadvantages. In this report, therefore, we will examine the various theoretical
advertising theories stating their merits and demerits and suggest recommendations for any
organization which wishes to employ the specific strategies.

Advertising Theory and Practice 5
2.0 Media buying strategies
Media buying is the acquisition of media real estate for the most benefits spaces and
timeslots(Arul, 2014). Purchasable media options span from newspapers and ads to prime TV
slots. This happens through networking where media purchaser has to develop and nurture
relationships with different channels. It follows by investigation of appropriate venues for
distribution and negotiation of fair prices for media slots. However, in this strategy, finding
appropriate venues is not an easy task. Organizations end up hiring inexperienced agencies that
have not developed any network and industry. This strategy is one of the most expensive in
advertisements. Numerous stations which cover all areas and which suffer from poor listening,
difficult to monitor and non-tangible. Use of newspapers usually experiences a waste of
readership, non-target, reproduction limitations and lack of prominence. TVs also have long-
range media plans and are usually in demand making the cost to be higher than normal due to the
demand. For this case therefore many businesses prefer traditional means of advertising which
are less expensive and flexible(Hair, Wolfinbarger, Money, Samouel, and Page, 2015).
3.0 Creative strategies
Creative strategies usually give the results of a team of one or more copywriters, an art director,
and a creative director. Creative strategy explains how advertising campaign can be used to meet
the advertising objectives of the organization. These strategies can be found in any employee,
regardless of the job description when properly managed. Many of the existing strategies have
posed great challenges as advertisers have a range of less-than-ethical yet legal tools at their
disposal(Koinig, Diehl, and Mueller, 2017). A lot of subliminal advertising with emotional
appeals have taken advantage of the less civilized society by spreading propaganda. On the other
hand, the strategies used in advertising have been an area of concern. For advertising to be said

Advertising Theory and Practice 6
to have been effective, the tactics used MUST always bring the general organization goals to
fulfillment. This has made businesses fall into a dilemma of which is the best tactics to use and
whether to use traditional or digital advertising.
Consequently, with an increasing technology and introduction of social networking.
Organizations have devised social networks as advertising tools, these sites have many
challenges one of which include cyberbullying (Brandtzæg, 2010, p.1106). These strategies have
been explain with aid of various theories. The theories advertising suggests that the efficiency in
advertising is dependent on major practices which are usually carried out. These practices
include repetitive advertising and exposure towards the brands. The theories that have been
proposed have been aimed at decreasing the challenges organizations face during actual
advertising practice. These theories make the best use of content specification, competitive
actions, and the product/service characteristics and include the following:
4.0 Advertising theories
4.1 The hidden message
This theory states that ads are created in a way in which they have the ability to mislead and
unconsciously manipulate the minds of the customers or viewers. It states that advertising is a
dangerous activity as it utilizes psychology to create emotionally loaded and hidden messages.
Since this messages are hidden, the viewers cannot critically detect the bad side of the products.
For instance, when a doctor is used to advertise a certain drug and encourages the viewers that it
is the best people can use because he uses the same, people will tend to follow the message and
use the product since it is recommended by a specialist regardless of whether it is the best or not.

Advertising Theory and Practice 7
In this technique, the critical thinking of the users are greatly compromised with these ads and
have a great effect on the product purchases.
4.2 The Magic of meaning theory
According to (Kolko, 2011), advertisements are usually meant to influence the values and
fundamental beliefs of the viewers and consumers on various products. This theory describes
how and why ads have gone beyond the frontier of selling their products and services by
becoming involved in shaping the social values of customers. Ads are used to infuse meanings of
the products to users and are regarded as a kind of organized magic which conceals the real
nature of consumption of these products. This ends up affecting the social goals and public
attitudes. In this theory, advertising is what is put in the streets and has the power to command
the services and products which viewers ought to buy.
4.3 Theory of Imitative desire
This theory argues that ads tend to play a game with the tendency of people desiring what others
desire. Since other people have role models or person who they emulate, the will always tend to
become them. They will eat what they eat and dress what they dress. In this case, the viewers
desire are kept alive and influence them fully towards the products they purchase. Additionally,
these ads acts as interactive rituals rather than a mere one way message. This means that people
place themselves in groups that entirely depends on others lifestyles. Therefore, people end up
wanting specific product just because they are desired by other people who they know of.
4.4 Shifting loyalties
This theoretical work stipulates the way ads have an ability to play upon and also replicate
clashed loyalties which keep on changing. The ads in advertisements are used to cultivate a

Advertising Theory and Practice 8
strong sense and feeling of loyalty to an individual brand. They urge consumers to change their
loyalties from their old loyalty and make attempt to a rather new thing. Consumers therefore are
convinced to shift their allegiance from one brand to another basing on the fact that the ads can
utilize messages packaged in a manner that they psychologically implicate products to
negativity. This happens when an advertisement makes a consumer shift his consumption habit
from a brand to the recent advertised brand.
4.5 The mediation of reality
This theory states that ads are persuasive in nature, they utilize the media and setting which they
are entrenched in. Also, what makes the ads persuasive is the fact that they are able to make good
use of the media in eliciting world of fictions as well as that of actions. The media acts as a tools
of describing the excitement and addiction by extending and heightening customers’ neutral
responses. For example, hem an organization realizes that people like reading stories which they
have already witnessed, the media has a way of repeating the excitement that they have using
their wits.

Advertising Theory and Practice 9
5.0 How Creative strategies apply in daily activities
Communication is very important in advertising before any business or organization sets
up a strategy or theory which it ought to use, they MUST always know the objectives why they
are advertising the products and the expected return. In order for an organization to have an
effective advertisement, there must be a successful communication channel. The following
diagram illustrates what an effective communication entails.
The organization for this case is the sender, it sends the message which is the advert
which communicates about the product in the market. This message is transferred through a
channel, this may be for instance media where it gets through to the receiver who is the intended
customer or consumer of the advertised product. After a while, the customer usually has a way of
reacting to the ads, he may be convinced and will, therefore, look for the products and buy them.
If this occurs, then we say advertisement was successful. However, if the buyer is not influenced,
there may be some barriers which may have hindered him. This barrier can be for instance noise
or any other factors that have to do with the brand type.

Advertising Theory and Practice 10
Similarly, in daily business practice, firms can utilize creative strategies just like the
simple communication model is used in business(Varma, McCandliss, and Schwartz, 2008).
For example, in the current marketing world, celebrities have been on target, they have been used
to promote the various products. These celebrities may be artists or athletes or even footballers
who many people are well conversant to, their skills in whatever they do have an influence on
the rest and people tend to wear what they wear, eat what they eat and drink what they ought to
drink. These celebrities are paid for advertising products. They can wear a shirt or t-shirt bearing
a label of the brand advertising or taking a drink let’s say Coca-Cola company drinks. This
strategy reminds of how the imitative desire theory can be used to ensure customers are
influenced to purchase certain products. Additionally, advertisers have also employed the hidden
message aspect where products are regarded to be number one. In a real sense, there is no
product which has been tested either by scientific methods and proved to be number one. This
propaganda usually is used and influence the purchasing f various products which are advertised.
A good example is an advert which promotes Sensodyne products where a doctor is used to
advertise the product. When this specialized are seen recommending the product, many
customers will be convinced to change their consumption behavior in favor of that particular
product. Advertisers also can hide messages about the products and only convey the positive side
of the products being advertised. In doing so, and by using effective communication tools, there
is a high chance of winning more customers.

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Conclusion
In this report we have discussed the main problems faced in advertising, we have clearly
seen how tactics have become an issue to companies in the process of advertising. This issues
can be solved by employing the various advertising theories. Theories in advertising apply in day
to day business practice and organizations should use all the theories for best results. The main
objective of advertising is to convince customers irrespective of which strategy is used and
therefore communication is very important in bringing advertising messages home.
Recommendations
From looking on the analysis of this report, it has just discussed a few challenges and
issues in advertising, however, there are a lot of issues that affect advertising rather than brand
type, tactics and the truth in advertising. It is therefore recommended that the reader goes ahead
to look for more factors and gauge if he can employ the various advertising theories to deal with
them. Also, models are very important aspects of advertising, these models, for instance, AIDA
model have not be highlighted in this work. Organizations should at least use all advertising
theories and apply them to daily business practice for best performance.

Advertising Theory and Practice 12
References
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Through TV Channels. Amity Global Business Review, 9.
Bowen, H.R., 2013. Social responsibilities of the businessman. University of Iowa Press.
Brandtzæg, P.B., Lüders, M., and Skjetne, J.H., 2010. Too many Facebook “friends”? Content
sharing and sociability versus the need for privacy in social network sites. Intl. Journal of
Human-Computer Interaction, 26(11-12), pp.1006-1030.
Hair Jr, J.F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A.H., Samuel, P. and Page, M.J., 2015. Essentials of
business research methods. Routledge.
Koenig, I., Diehl, S. and Mueller, B., 2017. Responses to CSR Appeals in Non-Prescription Drug
Ads: Evidence from Brazil and the United States. In Corporate Social Responsibility and
Corporate Governance: Concepts, Perspectives and Emerging Trends in Ibero-America (pp.
133-155). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Kolko, J., 2011. Exposing the magic of design: A practitioner's guide to the methods and theory
of synthesis. Oxford University Press.
Shankar, V., Venkatesh, A., Hofacker, C. and Naik, P., 2010. Mobile marketing in the retailing
environment: current insights and future research avenues. Journal of interactive
marketing, 24(2), pp.111-120.
Varma, S., McCandliss, B.D. and Schwartz, D.L., 2008. Scientific and pragmatic challenges for
bridging education and neuroscience. Educational Researcher, 37(3), pp.140-152.