Q.2 What are the advantages and disadvantages of TV advertising?

ANS:

Television Advertising

Television provides the ability to communicate sight, sound, motion and emotion. The viewer can instantly see the product, view it in a variety of situations, determine how it can be of benefit to their application and leave them with a lasting impression on the business.

• • Advantages of Television Advertising

1) Creativity: The interaction of sight and sound offers tremendous creative flexibility and makes possible dramatic, life like representations of production services. TV commercials can be used to convey a mood or image for a brand as well as to develop emotional or entertaining appeals that help make a dull product appear interesting. Television is also an excellent medium for demonstrating a product or service.

2) Wide coverage: Everyone, regardless of age, gender, income or educational level, watches TV at least for some time. Marketers selling products and services that appeal to broad target audience find that TV allows them to reach mass markets. TV is popular medium among companies selling mass consumption products. Companies with widespread distribution and availability of their products and services use TV to reach the mass market and deliver their advertising.

3) Selectivity: Proper slot must be selected to telecast the ad and it is due to variations in the composition of audiences as a result of programme content, broadcast time and geographical coverage. For example, Sunday morning TV caters to children, Saturday and Sunday afternoon programmes are geared to sports oriented male and week daytime shows heavily to homemakers.

4) Demonstration: The demonstration of the product can be shown through television advertisement. It will encourage viewers to purchase the product. Eg: Maggi is shown how it is being made in 2 minutes. Easy to cook good to eat.

5) Ability to create humor : Television advertisement generates humor among general audience. As it ads audio, video and jingles. It attracts the customer and thus they may take a decision of purchasing the product.

6) Can reach illiterates: The ads shown on television are in different languages and since it has audio effects the illiterates can also be attracted to see and understand the ad. Many of the social advertisements are shown on television to generate awareness among illiterates.

7) Low per person cost: As lakhs of people watch the ad at a time the per person cost is less. Eg: Doordarshan National Channel is watched by lakhs of people especially in rural areas.

8) Captures international market: Certain channels are shown at international level and thus the ad can be telecasted to other countries too. Therefore, Indian companies may get the orders and popularity from other countries.

9) Repetition: The same ad can be repeatedly shown on television. It increases the chances of people viewing the ad and hence the popularity of the product increases. It can also create top of mind awareness.

• • Limitations / Disadvantages of Television Advertising

1) Costs: Despite the efficiency of TV in reaching large audience, it is an enormously expensive medium to advertisement. The high cost of TV ads stems not only from the expense of buying airtime, but also form the cost of producing a quality commercial. More advertisers are using media driven creative strategies that require production of a variety of commercials, which drive up their cost. Even local ads can be expensive to produce and often are not of high quality.

2) Lack of selectivity: Advertiser who are seeking a very specific, often small, target audience find the coverage of TV often extending beyond their market, thus reducing its cost effectiveness. Geographical selectivity can be a problem for local advertisers such as retailers since it rates on the total market area it reaches. Audience selectivity is difficult as advertisers target certain groups of consumers through the type of programme or day and/or time they choose to advertisement.

3) Clutter: Like other media, television advertisement also suffers from the problem of clutter. Nowadays, there are too many ads on television and therefore many a times the audience is also confused and boredom with same. Therefore, though television ads are attractive they may not hold the audience for long.

4) Lack of clarity of message: The ad message can be lost in the maelstrom television. Viewers may change the channel or decrease the volume during commercial breaks is a common habit, losing the reception of messages. So, the idea may not be so clear and the objective is not reached.

5) Fleeting message: TV commercials usually last only 30 seconds or less and leave nothing tangible for the viewer to examine or consider. Commercials have become considerably short as the demand for a limited amount of broadcast time has intensified and advertisers to get more impressions from their media budgets.

6) Negative attitudes: Many consumers have negative attitude about TV commercials. A number of filters negatively impact the ad, even if it reaches a large audience. Leaving the room, talking to friends, texting, flipping channels, reading and simply spacing off are all things that can distract viewers from watching and absorbing commercial message.

7) Lacks flexibility: It’s not as easy as editing your print ad. Most times, a TV ad will need to be shot again, or at least that part of it will need to be re-shot, and it’s difficult to pick up action in the middle of an ad and to come away with the same feel of the ad as the first time.

8) Time consuming process: Even a 30-second ad or the 10- and 15- second clips of recent years, require a lot of effort. Advertiser needs to hire a script writer or an ad agency, actors and a director. Rehearsing, shooting and retakes consume an entire day or more. It’s time- consuming and stressful process.

9) Placement of ads: The advertiser may not get the right placement of ads during the TV programme. The ads of competitors may appear at the same time and in the same programme. Therefore, the audience may not be responsive to TV advertising.