Marketing / Creative > Advertising / Media

Advertising, done right, puts the marketer in control.

Advertising guarantees exposure. Building a brand starts with simple awareness, so marketers need to first understand who and where their consumers are. Then they pay to have their brand meet consumers in their world—in the papers they read, the mailboxes they open or the TV shows they watch.

Advertising controls the message. Once you know how to reach your consumers, the next step is to deliver your brand through messages, imagery and symbolism in a way that is meaningful and compelling. Here’s where advertisers are almost in complete control. After all, they write the script and select the music. The advertiser is controlling the consumer’s impression of their produce or service.

Finally, advertising controls the pace. Advertisers are limited only by their budgets. They are the ones who decide how often consumers see their messages. Advertisers can decide whether they want to blitz, saturate or simply sustain consumer’s awareness of their brand.

Love it. Hate it. Need it. Want it. Think about the brands in your life that fit these emotions. Chances are, advertising helped form those impressions.