Advertising in Kolkata

Advertising can easily be called a major segment of business building and branding. It is a form of communicating with the crowd and leaving an impact which is more psychological than physical in nature. A good advertisement can help the customer identify the brand and remember it for years to come, for example, do you still remember the Nirma washing powder advertisement? Many of you still do and that is the kind of impact advertising agencies aim on achieving through their advertising.

What is Advertising?

Advertising is a paid form of marketing technique or tool. It is a creative process and aims to form a bridge between the company and its customers. In simpler terms advertising helps you in gaining attention for your product and building your brand.

Main purposes of Advertising?

The main purpose of advertisements are:

• It aims to build brand awareness - let people know about your product or service
• It tries to persuade people to buy a product or service - it can be like a lifestyle change; if a famous person is advertising for your product then you will also think about using the product.
• It tries to inform the customer about a new product and how to use it.
• It helps in increasing the sale of your product.

Different types of Advertisements:

• Print advertisement - It is one of the oldest forms of advertising, and one of the most influential too. Print advertising includes -
• Newspaper and Magazines
• Brochures
• Flyers and Posters
• Letters and Postcards

• Broadcast advertisement - This type of advertisement has gained a lot of popularity in recent years, in broadcast advertising your advertisement is played on television or radio. It can cater to a large audience at once.
• Outdoor advertising - It is also known as out of home advertising. In this type of advertisement billboards and signs are placed near your company or on highways. The main objective of this type of advertisement is to gain brand awareness as you can't read much while driving. These are placed at strategic locations so as to gain maximum popularity.

Benefits of hiring an Advertising agency?

Hiring an advertising agency can go a long way, it can benefit you in a lot of ways like -

• You can earn more than you invest - It can introduce new products to the market and gain awareness fairly quickly and increase sales.
• Lessen your employee burden - To save some money we tend to burden our employees with more tasks and this in turn decreases their performance quality, hiring an agency will take care of your needs and your employees can work at their full potential.
• Expertise and Experience - You cannot match up to the level of expertise and years of experience an agency has, they will be able to provide you with creative solutions and inputs so that your products and services are put into the best light they can get.
• Accountability - If you are taking care of the advertising business by yourself or with the help of your in-house employees, you cannot blame anyone but yourself if you are not getting the desired results. But if you hire an advertising agency then they will be answerable to you and will work on a change of strategies if the present one is not giving up to mark results.
• Expand your business - You can concentrate on all other aspects of your business after hiring an agency to take care of your advertising needs. You can be rest assured that a professional team is handling it and is trying their best to deliver the results.

Different types of Advertising Agencies:

There are different types of advertising agencies available, some of them are -

• In-house Agency - Some employees of the company working for the marketing department but do not specialise in it.
• Creative Boutique - This type of agency specialises in creating ideas and strategies which are creative and artistic in nature.
• Full-service Agency - This type of agency provides a variety of services which can cater to all your requirements.
• Media Buying Services - This type of agency specialises in buying media space and time like television and radio.
• Interactive Agencies - This type of agency specialises in helping clients to prepare interactive advertisements.

Which one is better, Print Ad or Broadcast Ad?

This depends on a few factors like:

• Cost - If you want to advertise your product or service at a lower rate then go for Print Ads because the cost of production is quite low but in Broadcast Ads the cost of production is comparatively higher which makes it more expensive.
• Target audience - Both print and TV offer the chance to focus on a specific crowd, yet both have limitations. You have little control over where your Ads would be put up in the newspaper or magazine whereas in broadcast Ad you can discuss where you want your Ad to be played, but there is no guarantee that your target audience will be watching it at that time.
• Impact - Broadcast advertisements have a higher impact rate than print media. Whenever audio and visuals are combined as in broadcast ads it is always more eye catching and interesting. But in print media people may skip reading the advertisement section when they find it boring.
• Speed - The time in which you want to commercialise your advertisement may be a deciding factor. In print media the ads can be sent out quite quickly and can be changed as and when needed, but in broadcast media the time taken to produce one ad is quite long especially if your budget is low and it's difficult when the market needs changes rapidly.