According to the famous economic maxim: Consumption is the end of all production. Everything is produced to be consumed in the last resort. All, the producers, manufacturers, stockists, whole- sellers and the retailers are interested in creating outlets for goods and services. Their aim is to maximize profit or gain. The greater are the sales, the greater is the margin of profit.
Things and commodities are sold in the normal course. But we are living in a very competitive world. The sellers use special channels and aids for increasing the sales. The most common and forceful method of increasing sales in the competitive markets is through advertisements or Ads. Goods, services and ideas get a boost-up through advertisements.
The advertising companies sell ideas. Advertisements are said to be soul of Industry. The most popular methods for advertisements are though public media. The news papers, magazines and journals are full of advertisements. Then comes in the role of the Radio and Television. Most of the T.V. programs are sponsored by the advertisers. The programs and advertisements run side by side. It is rather unacademic, for advertisements break the continuity of story. It is very annoying and boring.[the_ad id=”17141″]
Another common way of advertising is through circulars, sales and sales – Promotion letters. The first two are direct and the third is an indirect method. They help in motivating and influencing the readers and prospective customers. The other methods of advertising and promoting the sales are Posters, hand bills, hoardings, neon signs and films scripts. They are commonly used in market places and on the highways of the main cities all over the country.
There are many advertising companies and agencies in the country. MNJ, Orient, Spectrum, Sunny and Link are famous ones. The producers and the manufacturers spend crores of rupees on ads. The noisiest are the Pharmaceutical industries, foodstuffs, electronic goods and Textiles goods manufacturers.
The other methods of advertising are participation in exhibitions and shows, use of brand models (PIA), lottery tickets, the offering of calendars and diaries and other incentives. The ultimate burden of all the money spent on advertisements falls on the poor consumers. In other words expensive advertisement methods increase the cost of goods, commodities and services. It is an ugly economic aspect of ads.
Advertisements have captured the local and world markets. In the western world, the business philosophy is Service first and profit afterward’. In Pakistan it is the reverse i.e. Profit first and service afterward. No doubt profit is a spur to industry. But it should be reasonable and honest. Our businessmen and advertisers should follow business ethics – services first. On the other hand they fleece the customers.
