Ofcom is a public body, which sets standards for all television broadcasters and every broadcaster must comply with these standards regarding any advertising they broadcast. Ofcom regulates everything from TV, radio and newspapers and has a duty to fulfill the tastes and interests of the consumers of television. The objectives of these standards include and are based upon protecting under eighteens, harm and offence, criminal activity, religious services, difference of view and opinions, elections and referendums fairness and privacy, which abide by the Communication Act 2003. People in the UK are protected from scams and harm from online businesses like www.wonga.com.
They make sure that on public service channels advertising must not exceed an average of seven minutes per hour for every hour and that other channels do not exceed an average of nine minutes of television advertising for every hour of the broadcasting day. Public service channels like the BBC do not have adverts, as they do not rely on others to fund it, it belongs to the public as it is owned by us and is funded by the payment for our TV license.
However, Ofcom have restrictions against advertising during programmes like: films, news, children’s programmes, religious service, and broadcasts of a formal Royal ceremony, parliamentary proceedings and live events. Ofcom help reinforce laws, which have recently been passed by the Government with the help of marketing and branding agencies.
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
Advertising Standards Authority takes action against misleading, harmful or offensive adverts and judge adverts to see if they abide by the UK advertisement codes and standards. If an advert is found to have broken a code of the standards then they must withdraw or make changes to their advert. Some of the general rules, which must be complied, are that an advert must not be misleading or offensive. However there are also some specific rules for children regarding alcohol and smoking adverts, which is the reason for why there are not any adverts selling cigarettes. These advertising rules and regulations are the same for all broadcasters and there are also regulations regarding advertising abroad.
Unilever and Diageo
Unilever and Diageo are two of the biggest names across the globe for their brands of products. Unilever own brands such as Dove, Vaseline, TRESemmé, Hellmann's, Comfort, Flora and even Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Whereas Diageo on the other hand owns a variety of beverage brands such as Smirnoff, Baileys, Guinness, Harp Lager, Rum and even Gin. Unilever targets the mass market as their products are aimed at families, which includes infants, children, teenagers, adults and the elderly. In comparison to this Diageo have a niche market audience as there targets psychographic and demographically are generally men, aged 18 or above and perhaps women. The social class that the target audience for Diageo products fall into are class A, B, C1 and C2. Diageo brands of beverages all vary in prices hence the more expensive beverages are targeted at consumers from a high social class, whereas the beverages which are slightly cheaper are aimed at consumers from a slightly lower class; as this is within their price range of affordable goods.
Unilever produces products which individuals use everyday, which add up to make a big difference. Their purpose is to sell their products and to promote an agenda as well as to raise awareness and brand loyalty. By aiming at a mass market Unilever is able to make profit, which in the long term will help them expand their business and make them able to widen their target audience, like Weight Watchers.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Advertising for Businesses
Some advantages of advertising to the mass market is that business clients are able to make direct connections with the community and its' members as well as only recruiting limited staff to promote the business. The money the business saves on recruiting can be invested back into the promotion of their product. Advertisements are produced to usually sell, promote or raise awareness of their product and it is specifically designed to fulfil the needs of the niche market target audience.
However, on the other hand, advertising also has its disadvantages. One of the disadvantages that advertising causes is that some adverts may not be as powerful as others and hence people are less likely to remember a certain type of advert than another. In reflection to this, people may refer to the business, which left a great impact on them. For example, ASDA has a master theme for all of it's adverts which include the same logo, slogan and colour throughout each advert which will impact the consumers of the product. Consumers are able too purchase a product, which is cheaper at ASDA if they have seen an advert. In order to create this effect, businesses adhere to the same house style for their adverts as it makes it easier for the consumers of the product to associate the product with the brand/company/business.
In the long run, advertising can also be a loss of profit for the business for if their business does not impact the consumers then they will not make any profit. Businesses spend a large amount of money on advertisements, however if consumers are not encouraged to buy their products then it is a disadvantage to the business clients.
Nevertheless advertising can also be used to educate the mass market. For example adverts can be used to educate the public about non-commercial issues such as HIV, AIDS, cancer, global warming and so forth. Another advantage of advertising is that it gives the clients the ability to choose where to place their adverts so that it has a better chance of reaching a mass market and can also be removed instantly if it does not gain the response as expected.
Some methods of advertising for various mediums include, specialty-advertising (advertising on mugs, key rings, computer mouse), telemarketing, direct mail, television, radio, yellow pages, newspapers, banners, social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter), pay per lick advertising and many more. Different types of businesses use various methods to create an impact on their consumers. Some example of business's and their advertising technique may be as follows:
Garage owners may use stickers applied to the back of vehicles to emphasise their business whereas a television production company may advertise their new product (movie) on the sides of buses and billboards.
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