What is Advertising?

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common. Advertising messages are usually paid for bysponsors and viewed via various traditional media; including mass media such as newspaper, magazines, television commercial,radio advertisement, outdoor advertising or direct mail; or new media such as websites and text messages. 0 Ways to Advertise your Business If you have a work at home business that you run over the internet with a website you will need to get the word out and attract people to your site. There are several ways to do this. Just remember to have a budget and stick to it. Make a plan and do something every day to advertise your work at home business. It is a competitive world out there so try to be unique and original. Your advertising needs to pop out at people to get their attention. If they’ve seen it a hundred times, they’re not going to pay attention to yours. Make your potential customers want to see what you have to offer and want to keep coming back for more. It can be challenging and hard work, but in the end it will all be worth it when your business is a success. These are some of the things you can do to advertise your work at home business. Advertising both online and offline can bring customers to your business. Here are some ideas 10 Ways to Advertise your Business – Make a unique†¦ (Page 2 of 4 ) Make a unique and exciting web page. If you are working online, this will be the heart and soul of your business. Make it as interesting as possible. You want potential customers to want to stay and read all the information you have to offer and buy your products. Write original articles and submit them to article directories. Use your website in your resource box and people will visit your website if the article intrigues them enough. Submit your website to link directories. The more exposure and back links to your site you can get, the better. Find link directories that are popular and have lots of traffic and you’ll have visitors in no time. Place online and offline classifieds. Find classified sites, there are paid and free, and submit eye catching ads. Make the title pop so people will instantly be drawn to it. Hand out flyers with your website address on them. Make flyers with a slogan or picture that will make people stop and look at it. Don’t be afraid to use some color. 10 Ways to Advertise your Business – Get some business†¦ (Page 3 of 4 ) Get some business cards made up with your website address on them. Hand these out whenever you get a chance. You can add color to these also. Make use of the many traffic exchanges on the internet. Find as many as you can and pick the ones that interest you. Use as many as you’re comfortable with because you’ll have to surf and click for an hour or so a day to earn views to your site. Post in forums. Giving people advise on the things you know is building a reputation for you and putting a signature with your name and website address may send people to your site. It’s also a great place to learn from others that are doing the same or similar business as you are. Tell everyone you know about your business and before you know it they will tell others. It’s like a chain reaction, word of mouth can be powerful. Make a capture page. Sometimes they are called squeeze pages or splash pages. Make it short and to the point to grab the attention of the person reading it. They will put their name and email in the opt in form and become a subscriber in your list. You can send them your offers for as long as they are a subscriber. About the Author: Tara Martindale specializes in helping people find the best work at home business opportunities available. Visit Tara's Work at Home Business Opportunities site for details. Print Advertising – Newspapers, Magazines, Brochures, Fliers The print media have always been a popular advertising medium. Advertising products via newspapers or magazines is a common practice. In addition to this, the print media also offers options like promotional brochures and fliers for advertising purposes. Often the newspapers and the magazines sell the advertising space according to the area occupied by the advertisement, the position of the advertisement (front page/middle page), as well as the readership of the publications. For instance an advertisement in a relatively new and less popular newspaper would cost far less than placing an advertisement in a popular newspaper with a high readership. The price of print ads also depend on the supplement in which they appear, for example an advertisement in the glossy supplement costs way higher than that in the newspaper supplement which uses a mediocre quality paper. Outdoor Advertising – Billboards, Kiosks, Tradeshows and Events Outdoor advertising is also a very popular form of advertising, which makes use of several tools and techniques to attract the customers outdoors. The most common examples of outdoor advertising are billboards, kiosks, and also several events and tradeshows organized by the company. The billboard advertising is very popular however has to be really terse and catchy in order to grab the attention of the passers by. The kiosks not only provide an easy outlet for the company products but also make for an effective advertising tool to promote the company's products. Organizing several events or sponsoring them makes for an excellent advertising opportunity. The company can organize trade fairs, or even exhibitions for advertising their products. If not this, the company can organize several events that are closely associated with their field. For instance a company that manufactures sports utilities can sponsor a sports tournament to advertise its products. Broadcast advertising – Television, Radio and the Internet Broadcast advertising is a very popular advertising medium that constitutes several branches like television, radio or the Internet. Television advertisements have been very popular ever since they have been introduced. The cost of television advertising often depends on the duration of the advertisement, the time of broadcast (prime time/peak time), and of course the popularity of the television channel on which the advertisement is going to be broadcasted. The radio might have lost its charm owing to the new age media however the radio remains to be the choice of small-scale advertisers. The radio jingles have been very popular advertising media and have a large impact on the audience, which is evident in the fact that many people still remember and enjoy the popular radio jingles. Covert Advertising – Advertising in Movies Covert advertising is a unique kind of advertising in which a product or a particular brand is incorporated in some entertainment and media channels like movies, television shows or even sports. There is no commercial in the entertainment but the brand or the product is subtly( or sometimes evidently) showcased in the entertainment show. Some of the famous examples for this sort of advertising have to be the appearance of brand Nokia which is displayed on Tom Cruise's phone in the movie Minority Report, or the use of Cadillac cars in the movie Matrix Reloaded. Surrogate Advertising – Advertising Indirectly Surrogate advertising is prominently seen in cases where advertising a particular product is banned by law. Advertisement for products like cigarettes or alcohol which are injurious to health are prohibited by law in several countries and hence these companies have to come up with several other products that might have the same brand name and indirectly remind people of the cigarettes or beer bottles of the same brand. Common examples include Fosters and Kingfisher beer brands, which are often seen to promote their brand with the help of surrogate advertising. Public Service Advertising – Advertising for Social Causes Public service advertising is a technique that makes use of advertising as an effective communication medium to convey socially relevant messaged about important matters and social welfare causes like AIDS, energy conservation, political integrity, deforestation, illiteracy, poverty and so on. David Oglivy who is considered to be one of the pioneers of advertising and marketing concepts had reportedly encouraged the use of advertising field for a social cause. Oglivy once said, â€Å"Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest – it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes. . Today public service advertising has been increasingly used in a non-commercial fashion in several countries across the world in order to promote various social causes. In USA, the radio and television stations are granted on the basis of a fixed amount of Public service advertisements aired by the channel. Celebrity Advertising Although the audience is ge tting smarter and smarter and the modern-day consumer getting immune to the exaggerated claims made in a majority of advertisements, there exist a section of advertisers that still bank upon celebrities and their popularity for advertising their products. Using celebrities for advertising involves signing up celebrities for advertising campaigns, which consist of all sorts of advertising including, television ads or even print advertisements. The advantages and disadvantages of advertising boils down to one aspect key aspect – cost. BENEFITS Advertising is generally costly, but has to be viewed as an investment and a cost that is going to pay for itself many times over. There are many different types of advertising and not all forms of advertising cost money. The most effective form is word of mouth – when previous customers make recommendations to others. This type of endorsement is invaluable and comes off the back of good service previously delivered. Word of mouth advertising however rarely delivers massive results, instead it is more likely to bring a steady stream of business and enhanced reputation. Media advertising through television, radio and newspapers is a reliable way of driving sales and results, but is an expensive venture. Selecting your target audience and the medium best suited to reach that audience is an art in itself, but when completed properly provides great returns. DISADVANTAGES The downside of advertising is that you have to have your business geared up to cope with additional demand, as well as targeting the right audience. If you spend money on a campaign and do not have the stock or manpower to deal with the demand that follows, it could end up being counter-productive. Being unable to match demand or meet promises can be very damaging to the reputation of a company. If customers are let down or not happy with the service they receive following an advertising campaign, it could be a long time before they consider doing business again. A well planned, targeted advertising campaign can revolutionize a company, bringing them to the public attention and creating a market that can continue to pay dividends for months to come. By keeping the message straightforward and simple a campaign can create a favorable impression, leading to inquires and orders, and giving the company the opportunity to maximize business and profits.

Philosophy and theories Essay

Different philosophers have different ideas and theories. This has always been true. In this course, we looked at a number of different philosophers, including Russell, Christian, and Wittgenstein. Each has a unique perspective. Russell looks at philosophy as a very broad field, while others don’t. His definition places philosophy as ideas which fall between science and religion, which he says means it gets attacked from all sides. He also believes that religion has given answers which are too definite without any proof, and science tells people only what is actually true, while philosophy examines questions, to determine what might be true. Christian agrees in some areas. He, too, looks at philosophy as a way to examine questions, to figure out what is possibly true. He extends on this to say that one must also look at the relationships between ideas. He does not mention philosophy as having anything at all to do with religion and science, at least not in the way that Russell does. Wittgenstein believe something much more simple than either Russell or Christian. He looks at philosophy as â€Å"untying the knots† in one’s thinking. He looks at philosophy as answering questions, much like the others, but he doesn’t describe it in terms of religion and science like Russell, nor does he outline several different points as does Christian. Instead, he looks at philosophy as simply a way of thinking in order to understand what is going on (which he is careful to explain does not mean it is simple). In general, all these philosophers agree that philosophy is a way of thinking and of answering questions. However, they each disagree exactly where it came from and how it relates to the rest of the world. That is where philosophy is open to continued discussion.

Cognitive Explanation of Gambling Addiction (10 Mark)

Outline and evaluate the cognitive explanation of gambling addiction (4 marks + 6 marks) The cognitive explanation of addiction focuses on the way humans’ process information, viewing addicts as people who have faulty thoughts/judgements. The faulty thinking that surrounds a gambling addiction, according to the cognitive approach, is the belief that we will win, or at least be able to control the odds of winning, for example, a gambling addict, using his/her ‘lucky numbers’ on the lottery gives them some control over the outcome of the gamble.According to the cognitive model, a gambling addiction may be maintained by irrational or erroneous beliefs. For example, some gamblers may misjudge how much money they have won or lost, or they may over-estimate the extent to which they can predict/influence gambling outcomes. Griffiths held a study looking into these irrational biases, using fruit machine gamblers. His aim was to discover whether regular gamblers thought an d behaved differently to non-regular gamblers.He compared the verbalisations of 30 regular and 30 non-regular gamblers as they played a fruit machine. Griffiths found that regular gamblers believed they were more skilful than they really were, and that they were more likely to make irrational verbalisations during play, for example, regular players may say ‘putting only a quid in bluffs the machine’, or they would treat the machine as if it were a person, giving it emotions: ‘this fruity isn’t in a good mood’. Regular gamblers also explained away their losses be seeing ‘near misses’ as ‘near wins’, i. . they weren’t constantly losing but constantly ‘nearly winning’, something that justified their continuation. The cognitive model also uses heuristics as an explanation of addictive behaviour. Heuristics are used to simplify decisions and justify behaviour, for example, some gamblers will have ‘hindsi ght bias’, saying after a gambling session that they knew what was going to happen. This makes gamblers feel empowered as it suggests they have some control over their wins/losses. Other gamblers may use flexible attribution; this is where they ttribute any wins to their own skill and any losses to other influences. Others may solely concentrate on how much they won ignoring how much they lost to get it. This is called absolute frequency bias. The theories of the cognitive approach are strengthened by the substantial amount of evidence that supports its general principles, for example, it has been shown that alcoholics, smokers, over-eaters, gamblers and opiate addicts were particularly likely to lapse when they experienced negative emotional states.A further strength of the model is that it has initiated implications for treatment, for example, the cognitive approach has made clear that the relapse prevention model must be tailored to each individual addict. However, the mod el is criticised as there have been claims that irrationality is an erratic predictor of addictive behaviour, irrationality does not appear to have a strong relationship with other observable assets of gambling, such as level of risk taking or reinforcement frequency.Therefore cause and effect of cognitive bias cannot be established. Cognitive explanations may also be limited to particular addictions, for example, it may be less relevant to chemical addictions like heroin, but is useful and effective explanation for gambling or video game addiction. It is also difficult to establish cause and effect over skill perception and gambling – beliefs about skill in gambling vary across individuals, such beliefs are not necessarily irrational either.

Organisational culture and the scandal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Organisational culture and the scandal - Essay Example This was the second write-down due to EDS. HP also revised its restructuring plans and changed the estimates based on the fourth quarter revenues and asserted that the company would be experiencing lower revenues from the software segment due to alleged fraud by Autonomy. HP recorded an estimated $ 8.8 billion write-down in the acquisition. According to the author, the company had made a poor hiring decision after another since it failed to stand behind CEO Mark Hurd who was keen on corporate governance (Saintvilus 2). HP business performance after the exit of Hurd began to fall, and no one could have predicted what his departure would hold for the future of HP. Hurd who is currently a president at a rival company (Oracle) was ousted from the management of HP due to allegations of sexual harassment that were attributed to Jodie Fisher who was an outside contractor. But surprisingly, Jodie Fisher who has appeared in many movies like ‘sheer passion† interestingly expressed sympathy for Hurd’s firing accusing HP of quick and sudden decision. Fisher’s attorney also claimed that the two had no sexual relationship, but the board went ahead to fire Hurd. The board failed in due diligence in the internal investigations since the board rushed the decision without attributing any evidence of managerial misconduct to Hurd (Svensson 3). Hurd had actually steered HP stock performance from $ 21 to $ 42 due to strong strategic leadership, but the share began to fall soon after Hurd’s departure. The share plummeted to a 10-year low of $ 11.35, but the board has been adamant in acknowledging that it made a wrong decision. After Hurd moved to Oracle, HP feared for its survival in the market and started legal wars citing non-compete agreements with Hurd thus leading to more business rivalry that included Oracle’s termination of porting software than runs on HP’s servers that uses Intel’s Itanium chips. The HP segment eroded $ 275 million in revenues. The above HP situation relates to lack of due diligence, corporate ethics and poor corporate culture since the Board has consistently failed in its decisions. Before HP finalized the acquisition, Jim Chanos, a short seller also issued detailed reports highlighting loopholes in Autonomy’s disclosures and financial records. Of particular note is that the entire management did not support the deal since the Chief financial officer who oversaw the acquisition was against the deal. Cathy Lesjak, the CFO had cautioned the management that the acquisition was expensive and was not in the best interests of the company (Wall Street Journal 2012). Organisational culture and the scandal There are many corporate governance requirement and financial reporting requirements that should be followed by all corporations. This means that the board of directors must exercise due diligence when dealing with other stakeholders or when reporting the economic performance of t he company. The management of HP is tasked with safeguarding the welfare of the shareholders who provide capital for the company. The board of directors at HP did not see the need of impartial investigations before acquisition of Autonomy. According to corporate governance issues, stronger companies like HP will acquire other

Visual Rhetoric Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Visual Rhetoric - Case Study Example Visual rhetoric is the use of images in order to further an argument, and encompasses the analysis of the visual images and text as well as their arrangement on a page. (www.owl.english.purdue.edu). Through the nature and form of the visual images as well as the corresponding text that is used, the two images which are the subject of this essay, both convey differing, contradictory messages on the same issue of gun control. The first image is a black and white cartoon image. Editorial cartoons are communicative tools because the cartoonist makes use of visual symbols for the purpose of communicating with his or her audience. In order to be classified as a visual rhetoric, an artifact must possess three elements (a) it must be symbolic (b) it must involve human interaction and (c) it must be presented to an audience for the purpose of communicating. (Foss, 2004: 304). Both the images qualify as visual rhetoric because they are utilized to symbolically convey a message on gun control and both images involve human characters. The first image is entirely in black and white and utilizes black text on a white background which shows high contrast levels. Since this image is purely in black and white, it utilizes shading in order to heighten contrasts. Lines are clean and simple and the drawing creates the effects of light and shadow through strategic shading. The image utilizes approximate symmetry, whereby the figures are organized around the central fulcrum point on the street, with the family arranged on one side and the odd looking man on the other. The element of stunned surprise and shock of the family of four at the sight of the man with the gun is conveyed through the backward slanting lines that are used. The larger size of the odd looking man is counterbalanced by the varying sizes of the family. The picture maintains an overall balance with the houses and playground in the background appearing smaller, thereby conveying the impression of distance. The use of dots and shading on the gun toting individual highlights the impression of general scruffiness, while the clean faces of the family suggest their contrasting nature. The text size is proportionate to the other figures in the image, and has been capitalized in order to make it more distinct and readable in black against a white background. The focal point of the image is the family of six and the odd looking man, however the greater amount of space devoted to the gun toting character suggests the relative importance of this character as the focal point to the whole image. In the second image however, it is color rather than shading that provides elements of contrast. The figure in the image stands out in stark contrast to the pitch black border, which also forms the backdrop for the text. The use of white text on a black background is however, not ideal. This image is focused almost exclusively around the gun, especially by pushing it directly into the foreground and lighting the area around it. The background is notably stripped of any distracting elements and is a plain gray background. The picture has been taken in such a manner that it is designed to draw attention to the gun, which is the subject of the message. The man's hand that is holding the gun is disproportionately large as

Art Criticism Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Art Criticism Paper - Essay Example It stimulates different parts of our brains to act in a particular way and it gives us a way to be creative and express ourselves.Basically, art plays a very significant role in our daily lives. It is a form of communication that uses the aid of symbols and pictures that depict various meanings in our social lives. A critical analysis of the first picture, (brothers of fire) depicts that there is an element of unity and love in various images shown. However, it must be noted that different meanings of symbols are culture specific. They mean different things depending on the cultural values of any given society. In the picture given, the images of clasping hands which are symbolic to different cultures are the most captivating and they depict different meanings. In most cases shaking of hands is a sign of greeting each other and is symbolic of love and affection. There is an element of unity and brotherhood whenever different people greet each other. People often greet each other in many different ways using their hands and it may vary from one society to the other. Greeting each other with a sign of bringing to contact clenched fists is typical of Rastafarians and is often associated with the notion of â€Å"one love† and â€Å"peace† which characterises their religion. There are however, different interpretations that are often associated with this gesture depending on the cultural background that often determine moral values of a particular group. Normally, in the world of Christianity, clasping both hands in the upward direction is a sign of offering a prayer to the lord while in some sections of the society it is a sign of paying tribute to someone. It is a sign of showing respect and honour. On the other hand, a sign showing only one finger and thumb pointing in the front direction is often associated with paying homage to someone and

The Onion News Network Reader Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Onion News Network Reader Response - Essay Example Such range of awareness has been evoked by such satirical stories highlighted like that of the Japanese tsunami relief, which was followed by serious comments from its viewers. On the other hand, satire news exposes the rot in the government as well as the shortcomings witnessed in most public offices. In the absence of such arenas, the failures and contradictions in many institutions would go unnoticed. Such has been the advocacy of such programs like The Daily Show, which highlights recent ideas and topics of issues that inform the society. Viewers who highly understand the aspect of humor in the satirical news are able to understand situations better than the way they are given in the normal news broadcasts. In this light, the shows of Colbert Report have provided useful insights to its viewers (Amarasingam 62). For example, he named a Hungarian bridge after himself in one of the shows, a silly but insightful portray of the political situation at the