Definition of Advertising

According to the American Marketing Association, advertising is "any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor".

Not to be confused with the Definition of Public Relations

The official definition of Public Relations (PR) is "the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its publics".

Still, it exists the mass false conviction that PR and advertising are the same thing. Or even more false, that PR is a subsidiary part of advertising. Actually, there are some common things between the two methods - both are communication activities used for a private purpose, both research and evaluate target groups, both work actively with the mass media hence the confusion.
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Advertising and Personal Selling

Possibly the original form of all promotional activities. It can be defined as: "Interpersonal influence process involving a seller's promotional presentation conducted on a person-to-person basis with the prospective buyer". Advertising differs from personal selling mainly because it is a nonpersonal presentation - this means that even if the message sometimes appears to be directed at individuals, it is not made in person by the seller in the presence of the client but rather through a media channel.

Advertising and Sales Promotion

Sales promotion can be defined as the "marketing activities other than personal selling, advertising and publicity that stimulate demand and dealer effectiveness". Advertising and sales promotion are also frequently confused and really to some extent there is not a strict differentiation between them. Originally, sales promotion referred to the sales activities supplementing advertising and personal selling, like exhibitions, displays, demonstrations and other no recurrent promotional activities. However, today the trend is sales promotion to aim at long-term goals and to take a significant part in the promotional mix. The difference between sales promotion and advertising is that advertising, as well as personal selling, is still a more persistent and periodical activity, while sales promotion is relatively no recurrent and it usually includes a broader range of promotional techniques - not only point-of-sale advertising, specialty advertising and event advertising, but also samples, coupons, premiums, contests and other incentives.

Crigital Media develops campaigns that influence customers towards more favorable attitude to the promotional message and to the company itself and in this way not only to improve the likelihood that a customer will make a purchase, but also to build customer loyalty, maximize customer retention, to cause more repeat purchases, to ensure less vulnerability to price wars. We help you define your advertising objectives, a very important factor that must be considered is the degree of awareness of your product, company and brand among customers and their product or brand preferences. According to these criteria, the advertising process can be divided into four stages representing a hierarchy of effects. This is the oldest advertising formula AIDA (Attention Interest Desire Action):

• Attention - the primary purpose should be attracting and directing the attention of your target audiences towards your company.


• Interest - the primary purpose should be creating an interest among customers in the advertisement and the offer it conveys.


• Desire - the primary purpose should be provoking desire to make a purchase by stressing the advantages of the product.


• Action - acquiring an order, making a sale, or concluding a business transaction with the addressees.

Crigital Media will define the most appropriate advertising objectives to fit the level at which most of the customers are positioned.

In short: Only by achieving your communication objectives will your advertising succeed in its other goals and primary purpose - to sell to customers.

Contact a Crigital Marketing Team member today to discuss the effectiveness of your existing plan!

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