Three Main Advertising Objectives

Advertising includes messages that your company pays for, delivers through a mass medium and uses to persuade consumers to make a purchasing decision. The three general ad objectives are to inform, to persuade and to remind customers about the product and its benefits compared to those of competitors. Within these broad goals, companies normally have more specific, quantified objectives, as well.

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The three main advertising objectives are to inform, persuade and remind the audience about the product or service, and thus encourage the audience to make a purchasing decision.

An informative ad is used to introduce a brand new company, product or service to the market. Before you can convince customers that you have the best option, they have to know what your product does on a basic level.

Additionally, companies with complex solutions might benefit from informing customers of how their products work and how the products will help the customer. Informative ads normally have more copy centered on explaining features of the solution and benefits to the customer.

Persuading customers is a prominent advertising objective of companies in competitive markets. Once customers have a basic understanding of your industry and product offerings, you must show them why your brand is elite.

Companies use a variety of approaches, including emphasis on product quality, service, unique features, environmental friendliness, the cool factor, cutting-edge technology and low costs.

Emotional appeals are common in persuasive ads because you want to tug at the heart strings of customers by building up their experience.

Reminder ads simply reinforce your brand message to a well-established marketplace. The general idea is to maintain top of mind awareness and protect against competitors coming along and stealing your customers.

Charmin, for instance, comes up with creative ways to emphasize the softness and durability of its toilet paper, even though most consumers know about the brand and its quality. This keeps the brand and its central message in the forefront of the customers' minds.

Companies also use a variety of more specific goals.

Increasing brand awareness, developing more favorable customer attitudes, overcoming negative publicity, driving revenue, expanding the customer base and increasing sales volume are common examples.

For effective goal-setting, marketers should set quantified, measurable criteria. For instance, don't just say your goal is to increase brand awareness. State that your goal is to increase brand awareness by 25 percent in your primary target market within six months. Follow up with awareness studies to see if you met the objective.