MAILER: FEATURES, PARTS, ELEMENTS, EXAMPLES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

An advertisement aims to publicize a product, event or service to an audience to promote it and thus increase its sales. Your main challenge is to convince that audience to buy your products or services.

In other words, an advertisement is characterized by informing a person or group of people about the availability, price, characteristics, qualities and positive effects derived from their use of a product, service or idea. It can be used by many types of institutions both for profit and non-profit.

Advertisements seek to achieve various objectives that can be of a social or commercial nature. In this way, they are issued with specific intentions in mind, thus seeking to influence the people who receive their message.

One of the main characteristics of an advertisement is that it is a mass and paid means of communication that can be broadcast in different media (print, audiovisual, sound).

It is the most expensive mass communication and marketing medium that currently exists, for this reason, its exposure to the public is controlled and is given for a limited time (Jaideep, 2016).

You may be interested Differences between advertising and propaganda.

Main characteristics of the messages or advertisements

1- Mass communication

An advertisement is a form of mass communication that focuses on delivering a message to a specific audience. This audience can be made up of a group of people or a specific individual (listeners, readers or viewers).

There are various tools used by a banner ad to communicate, such as promotion, one-to-one marketing, and guerrilla advertising.

In this way, an advertisement becomes a massive element of mixed expression and popular reach in any context (Kokemuller, 2017).

2- Presence for a limited time

Being a paid form of mass communication, its exposure is only given for a limited time. In this way, an advertisement is only issued for a specific period of time that is chosen depending on the objective to be achieved.

An advertisement seeks to promote goods, services and ideas that come from a sponsor who pays for their presence to take place in different media. Being an impersonal and paid form of communication, it tends to disappear in a short time.

3- Includes different types of communication

An advertisement can be given orally, written or audiovisual. It is present in different media, including newspapers, magazines, flyers, television, cinema, radio, among other mass media.

That is, an advertisement is broadcast by any channel that can ensure its exposure to the public.

In this way, its main purpose is to place itself in the minds of people individually or collectively in favor of the interests of the promoter.

4- Informational purpose

Some advertisements are issued as expectation campaigns or launching of a new good or service. Regardless of what an ad is about, its main purpose is to inform the public about a chosen topic.

An advertisement contains a specific message about a product, service or idea, in this way, everything that carries with it a message destined to be broadly broadcast to a person or a group of people, fits into the category of advertising (Advertising, 2016).

5- Seeks to influence the purchase decision or opinion

An advertisement seeks to affect a user's purchase decision and orient it towards a specific good or service.

In this way, institutions and companies use advertisements to modify the idea they have of them, making people more likely to have a favorable opinion about their products or services (Creative, 2015).

6- It is impersonal

An advertisement is a type of impersonal and one-sided communication that aims to reach an unknown audience, where there is no contact between the sender and receiver of the message.

The way to ensure that it reaches the expected audience is through the channeling of the ad, investing in a space that is generally consumed by individuals with the same target.

7- Paid media

An advertisement is not a free means of communication, it must always be paid for.

The person who publishes an ad is known as a sponsor and must invest money to prepare the message they want to convey, buy the space in between, monitor their ad and the final results of all this effort.

This type of communication is the most expensive means of promoting a product, service or idea in the market.

For this reason, companies that use advertisements always allocate a budget to cover the costs related to this issue (Marketing, 2013).

8- It has a component of truth

It is difficult to determine whether the message conveyed by an advertisement is completely true. In fact, in many cases, there are components that are exaggerated in the ads. However, due to certain legal provisions, there is always a component of truth to the broadcast of these advertisements.

In any case, there is no guarantee that the statements made in an advertisement are completely true. Most advertisers focus on engaging, materialistic, and even erotic messages to attract public attention in a disinformative way.

9- Applicable to various industries

Due to its potential, this type of advertising is not only used by private businesses, since it can also be used by museums, non-profit organizations, educational institutions and even the Government, as well as other entities that want to attract the attention of their target audience (Characteristic of an effective advertising, 2013).

10- One way communication

Advertisements involve a one-way mode of communication. The message moves from an organization or business to an audience.

Consumers have no way of getting the message back to backers. In this way, advertisers do not know to what extent they have exerted any kind of influence on their target audience.

Parts and elements

Bullet

Popularly known as "bullet" among Spanish-speaking advertisers, it is a short phrase that hooks the public.

For example: "The best apples."

It is the introductory part of the ad and should be commercial, attractive, personable and, if possible, catchy. To achieve this, advertisers have their tricks. In the press they use striking and colorful letters, while in the audiovisual media it is common for it to appear with music.

Photographs / images

They are the most attractive part of the ad and the one that arouses the most sensations in the consumer. A good image or photograph can be key for the company's product to end up in a consumer's basket or abandoned on any shelf.

In general, the visual is impressive and, in many cases, it says more about the product than the rest of the elements of the ad (bullet, content).

They are one of the most creative parts of an advertisement, so advertisers put a lot of emphasis on working on them and getting them to attract the largest number of viewers.

Slogan

The slogan is an identifying phrase that makes it unique with respect to the competition. It is short and creative, developed so that it is registered in the mind of the consumer and cannot help but remember the company that uses it. They are usually placed at the end of the advertisement

An example of a slogan would be: "Just do it" by Nike or "Doesn't abandon you" by Rexona.

Content

Text or words that develop the information about the product (characteristics, utilities, benefits, competitive advantages, etc.). Its mission is to give the last support to the ad so that the potential client is convinced that they need the product.

For this, in recent decades the copywriting technique has been developed. This is in charge of capturing a credible, honest message that inspires confidence in the consumer in the ad. You could say that copy is the seductive figure of the ad.

Among his skills is the call to action or creating the sense of urgency in the audience.

Logo

It is the signature of the company. In any advertisement it must be clear who is selling the product or service and make it clear that they are the best within the competition. It would not make sense for a computer company to invest a lot of money in making us believe that tablets are the best work tools without stating that they are the ones that sell the best.

The logo usually appears at the end of the ad, and may appear with your slogan or contact if necessary (telephone, social networks, web link, email, etc.).

Types of banner ads

Printed

Printed advertisements are those that are printed on paper, that is, in newspapers, brochures or magazines. Except in magazines, their trend is downward, since they are media with less and less circulation and, therefore, with less capacity to reach more people.

In the case of magazines, there is the appeal of color photos on coated paper, as well as those that specialize in a specific sector.

Top one page ad and bottom double sided. Vanity fair magazine.

Television

It is still the favorite platform for advertising companies. Although other media have emerged that can better quantify the reach, it is still believed that TV has the most potential to impact the viewer's retina.

Radial

The spots continue to maintain their space within the radio programming. They can be pre-recorded or live, having a slight duration and with a message accompanied by catchy music.

On-line

They are Internet advertisements distributed between web pages, social networks, apps, email, or search engines. They are the most accurate system, since it is capable of quantifying the number of people who have viewed the ad.

Facebook ad

Exterior

Also known as street marketing, the ads of this type of advertising are billboards, canopies, posters, neon signs, terminal blocks and other exterior elements that can be found on streets, avenues, highways, etc.

Source: pxfuel.com

References

1. (August 28, 2013). Obtained from Characteristic of an effective advertising: pradipgharpure.wordpress.com.
2. Advertising, O. (July 10, 2016). Obtained from Characteristics of Online Advertising: knowonlineadvertising.com.
3. Creative, E. (June 24, 2015). Obtained from Characteristics of great print adverstising: ellaecreative.com.
4. Jaideep, S. (2016). Your Article Library. Obtained from Advertising: Its Definitions, Characteristics and Objectives: yourarticlelibrary.com.
5. Kokemuller, N. (2017). Hearst Newspapers. Retrieved from Characteristics of an Effective or Persuasive: smallbusiness.chron.com.
6. Marketing, I. (June 10, 2013). Obtained from Insight Marketing: insightmrktg.com.