Marketing to the Masses

If you were to create a self-cleaning textile, the world may want to beat a path to your door to acquire some from you, but first of all they will have to know that the textile exists, that it is available for purchase, and they have to know where your door is. This requires advertising.




There are two classifications of advertising: institutional and product. Institutional advertising markets the name of your company in general and product advertising promotes a product or range of products or services. The type of advertising that a company requires, depends on the products or services that it provides.



Moreover, some types of advertising lend themselves better to institutional advertising rather than product advertising. For example, a shop sign, a sign-written van or a promotional calendar are better suited to institutional advertising, while a newspaper or magazine advert would be better for advertising the latest special offer.



There are few facts and figures available that bring to light the extraordinary growth of the mass consumption society as well as those dealing with the expansion of the advertising industry. For example, prior to the Second World War, US average annual expenditure on advertising per year had been about $2 billion for decades.



In 1950, as the post-war economy started to recover, American businesses spent $5.7 billion to advertise its goods and services. By 1960, that amount had doubled to $12 billion. By 1970, American business was spending $20.



Between 1970 and 1990, as the children Baby Boomers became adults and started earning and spending, advertising expenditure went through the roof, so that by 1986, it had reached $100 billion.



That extraordinary rate of increase could not be maintained, but by 1999, total expenditure on all kinds of advertising exceeded $215 billion. The latest available figures are for 2007 and they stand at $280 billion.



In 1999, nearly 60% of all advertising dollars were spent on adverts in newspapers, magazines, on the radio and on TV. By 2007, that figure had fallen to about 54% as the Internet started to have an impact on advertising trends. These trends are expected to continue as every firm is expected to have its own website these days.



The nation's largest advertisers are the manufacturers of cars, food, soft drinks, tobacco and beer and they filter most of their expenditure through about 13,000 advertising agencies., who usually make the ads and buy the space or air time from the media too.



These agencies have been transformed over the last decade by mergers. The most lucrative advertising agencies these days are huge international concerns. WPP, the largest advertising agency in the world, billed $37 billion in 2008 and had this to say about itself:



"Our total revenue in 2008 surpassed that of all our competitors, regaining the No.1 worldwide position for the third time".



Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching promotional wall calendars. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars.



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