Functional Aspects of Advertising

Originally, advertising was created to help someone sell something. That means the ultimate goal of advertising is to increase the advertiser's sales. However, in preparation for an advertising campaign, a more specific advertising goal is required to provide advertisers or advertising agencies a certain direction regarding how the campaign will be executed and how the campaign will be evaluated after the campaign period.
Although there are various advertising objectives targeting consumers, they can be largely generalized into the following eight areas:

To increase brand awareness To improve brand attitude To provide product information To convert product concept	To establish public opinion To improve the advertiser's image To inform other promotion strategies To create a new fashion
Beyond the above objectives, the external functions of advertising should be examined considering its impact on our society. Generally, they can be categorized as four major functions: Marketing Function Economic Function Communication Function Social Function The diagram and explanations of these functions will be shown in the following section.

The most effective way to increase the sales of a brand may not be advertising because other influential factors, such as price, product quality, or product distribution, can be more important factor in satisfying consumer needs and obtaining consumer acceptance for the advertiser's products, services, or ideas.
However, advertising sends the advertiser's message to as many prospects as possible through mass media. Therefore, advertising can solve the possible limitations that might be caused by geographic, time, or perceptual differences between consumer and advertiser.

Advertising stimulates the economy by informing many prospects about available products and services at a relatively low price. As a result, advertising helps advertisers decrease costs and increase profits, which can be distributed to more capital equipment and job offerings.
Furthermore, competitive advertising activities help consumers compare several brands with a lot of information, so it brings about the improvement of the overall product quality and the failure of inferior products.

All forms of advertising deliver messages to consumers. As the message sender in the process of communication, advertising can let people know about a new brand, make an impression on consumers' minds about the brand, build or maintain positive attitudes toward the brand, form a strong motivation to make consumers take action, and establish a strong brand loyalty for repeated purchases.

Advertising provides the opportunity to choose the most ideal products or services that best match consumers' social needs by identifying good products, teaching consumers how to compare each brand, and creating new trends.
Moreover, advertising is the largest financial source for mass media and has a powerful effect on our society. Nonetheless, advertising is sometimes subjected to wide criticism due to the fact that advertising is the most visible marketing activity of advertisers.