1

Advertisements: A waste of resources?

Answer 1 of 3
In a competitive economy, companies seek to persuade consumers to buy their
products or to avail their services. It is impractical to think that companies should
only stock their warehouses and wait for consumers to come knocking on their
doors. If this is what businesses did, there would be an economic waste in terms of
products being produced but not being bought.
The critics of advertising attack the form of competition it provokes by saying it
results in duplication and waste. It is equivalent to an arms race in the sense that a
certain pattern might exist within an industry or sector concerning the extent of
advertising. So if one competitor increases the extent to which it advertisers, others
feel it is necessary that they do the same or at the very least engage in some form
of advertising in order to maintain its market share or face the prospect of losing it.
The advertisement rates during the Indian Premier League (IPL) season 6 might be
an example to some advocates who believe advertising is a waste of resources. In
this case, the resource alluded to is money. A ten-second advertisement spot cost
between Rs 4-4.5 lakhs, while the associate sponsors of the event PepsiCo and
Vodafone shelled something between Rs 40-60 crores each. These are nothing short
of extortionate rates but companies must be having evidence to show that such
rates are justified. It should however make marketers ask themselves an important
question. Should they spend money on making a brand promise through advertising,
or should they focus on keeping their brand promise by means of delivering what
consumers want. However, although competition in advertising involves such waste,
it is also a driver of innovation and setting new benchmarks. Competition is vital as
it far outweighs its negatives with its positives and is a necessary requisite of a
successful economy.
There are some companies that literally manage to survive by spending almost
nothing on advertising. Zara uses this strategy and does it by employing a strong instore experience and keeping their shelves stocked with the latest fashion through
quick production methods. One might say Zara is more focused on keeping their
brand promise. Marketers would agree that advertisements should not be made
simply to create a buzz, but to help in the generation of sales.
An important point to consider is the brand life cycle, as the role played by
advertising depends on it. A new brand may find advertising a very important
function so as to target potential consumers. At this stage, brand recognition is
critical and advertising is the only way to build it when there are new products or
services to offer. A mature brand on the other hand might want to further its reach
through advertising or may even be trying to bounce back from a recent decline in
sales.
But is advertising a waste of resources? To answer this question, it must be kept in
mind that advertising doesnt exist in a vacuum. It has to be considered as one of
the alternatives available in the marketing of products and services.

The decision doesnt lie at the extreme end of whether to advertise or do nothing,
but is rather to either engage in advertising or in some other form of sales effort. It
is one part of the marketing effort which includes packaging, servicing, direct selling,
pricing and is generally undertaken when it can justify being the most effective and
economical method to appeal to customers.
It is a vital function if you consider its reach and ability to communicate with all
potential customers and is therefore used widely by many companies. If a company
decides to substitute advertising with another method that might prove to be less
efficient, it would result in economic waste. The use of resources for advertising to
differentiate products from competitors would not always mean that its use has been
diverted. On the other hand and quite frequently, it denotes the use of resources
that would otherwise be idle and thus avoids the waste that comes with such
idleness.
Answer 2 of 3
I want to start with the definition of Advertisement. It is something a promotional act
that a company does to convey a message about the product and quality. Moreover
sometimes company does the advertisement so that customer can recall the product
quickly while he goes to buy this. So I totally disagree with the thought that
advertisement is a waste. Indeed it helps the company to create brand value in
consumers minds.
Let me put through an example. Dove nowadays has a brand value. But it was
launched just 5 years back. Then they did advertisement and invested a lot of
money. They distributed sample through newspaper. And I am lucky I have got more
than 2 times. They may have wasted their resources at that time but now they are
earning it back. Now the same Dove is selling their in high price and placed itself
into a recognized and elite brand after they brought Katrina for the advertisement.
There are many examples. I can give examples from every company for every
brand. Now the question comes why advertisement again and again. So let me clear
this too. Lets take the example of Nokia Lumia. They run a huge campaign with
Windows Phone to promote their models. They invested a huge amount of money
and got positive response in Indian Mobile Market. Not if they stop promoting or
advertisement in India, their sales would definitely go down. We have a new model
every 2nd day. No one will remember Nokia Lumia after 3 months if they stop
advertisement. Some another company like HTC, Sony, and LG will take the
consumers mind and while purchasing a product consumers will recall Sony or LG
quickly. So Nokia would like to lose its royal consumers. So they have to keep
advertising. Though we do not have any machine or technique to calculate the profit
through advertisement but it is definitely a necessary tool to get into consumer
mind.
If you go to Indian Villages, you will find people asking for Colgate instead of
Toothpaste. They will ask for Lifebuoy instead of bathing soap. Why? Because the
advertisements have done its work. People can easily recall the product and
company gets its advantage. Colgate from last few years is in the top most position
2

in India Brand Value. So in my opinion before launching the product company has to
invest huge amount to promote the product and after launching they have to put
money regularly for ads to keep the product alive in consumers minds. Thank you!
Answer 3 of 3
The major advantages of advertising are: (1) introduces a new product in the
market, (2) expansion of the market, (3) increased sales, (4) fights competition, (5)
enhances good-will, (6) educates the consumers, (7) elimination of middlemen, (8)
better quality products, (9) supports the salesmanship, (10) more employment
opportunities, (11) reduction in the prices of newspapers and magazines, (12) higher
standard of living!
The benefits derived from advertising are manifold. It is one of the most important
components of the marketing process.
This is beneficial to manufacturers, traders, consumers and society as a whole.
Advertising offers the following advantages.
(1) Introduces a New Product in the Market: Advertising plays significant role in the
introduction of a new product in the market. It stimulates the people to purchase the
product.
(2) Expansion of the Market: It enables the manufacturer to expand his market. It
helps in exploring new markets for the product and retaining the existing markets. It
plays a sheet anchor role in widening the marketing for the manufacturers products
even by conveying the customers living at the far flung and remote areas.
(3) Increased Sales: Advertisement facilitates mass production to goods and
increases the volume of sales. In other words, sales can be increased with additional
expenditure on advertising with every increase in sale, selling expenses will
decrease.
(4) Fights Competition: Advertising is greatly helpful in meeting the forces of
competition prevalent in the market. Continuous advertising is very essential in
order to save the product from the clutches of the competitors.
(5) Enhances Good-Will: Advertising is instrumental in increasing goodwill of the
concern. It introduces the manufacturer and his product to the people. Repeated
advertising and better quality of products brings more reputation for the
manufacturer and enhances goodwill for the concern.
(6) Educates The Consumers: Advertising is educational and dynamic in nature. It
familiarises the customers with the new products and their diverse uses and also
educates them about the new uses of existing products.
(7) Elimination of Middlemen: It aims at establishing a direct link between the
manufacturer and the consumer, thereby eliminating the marketing intermediaries.
This increases the profits of the manufacturer and the consumer gets the products at
lower prices.

(8) Better Quality Products: Different goods are advertised under different brand
names. A branded product assures a standard quality to the consumers. The
manufacturer provides quality goods to the consumers and tries to win their
confidence in his product.
(9) Supports The Salesmanship: Advertising greatly facilitates the work of a
salesman. The customers are already familiar with the product which the salesman
sells. The selling efforts of a salesman are greatly supplemented by advertising. It
has been rightly pointed out that selling and advertising are cup and saucer, hook
and eye, or key and lock wards.
(10) More Employment Opportunities: Advertising provides and creates more
employment opportunities for many talented people like painters, photographers,
singers, cartoonists, musicians, models and people working in different advertising
agencies.
(11) Reduction in the Prices of Newspapers and Magazines Etc: Advertising is
immensely helpful in reducing the cost of the newspapers and magazines etc. The
cost of bringing out a newspaper is largely met by the advertisements published
therein.
(12) Higher Standard of Living: The experience of the advanced nations shows that
advertising is greatly responsible for raising the living standards of the people. In the
words of Winston Churchil advertising nourishes the consuming power of men and
creates wants for better standard of living. By bringing to the knowledge of the
consumers different variety and better quality products, it has helped a lot in
increasing the standard of living in a developing economy like India.

In my opinion, agricultural subsidies should not be stopped. The subsidies are a

supporting pillar to the lacks of farmers in the country. Farming in our country is
primarily not as advanced and mechanised as in other developed countries.
Moreover, a large chunk of the Indian population is rural, and this sector directly
affects them.
The majority of farmers own a very small portion of land like 2-10 acres, and they
directly depend on the monsoon. Many of them lack the irrigation facilities and also
don't own a bore-well/well to support their produce round the year. The plight of
farmers in our country is very disturbing especially the small farmers. They can't
afford to buy the hybrid seeds, fertilizers, pesticides again and again if a continuous
drought/bad monsoon persists for a period of 1 or 2 years. Moreover, the investment
they put off this period of time goes in vain. The whole budget and economics of a
farmer crumbles, also if he has taken loan it goes on increasing year after year. The
farmer is crushed under the cycle of debt and drought and is completely helpless.
The farmer community in India is unorganized, unlike the trade unions/workers
union. They only can helplessly watch this happening and only the govt can help it
out.

Unless the agricultural sector is backed by the govt farmers in India cannot survive
for long. The Indian economy will get shattered once this sector starts to degrade.
Farmers should continue to get support from the govt by helpful programmes like
the subsidy, to keep this sector profitable for the farmers. Unless the agricultural
sector witnesses a complete makeover like the west it needs to be backed by govt.
Lastly it the govt moral responsibility to back certain aspects of the country like free
education, mineral sector, PSU etc for the goodwill of the public. And agriculture is
one of them of the Indian scenario.

Does India need smaller states?