Define advertising. What are its main features? Explain.
Advertising is an impersonal form of communication, which is paid for by the marketers to promote some goods or services. The common modes of advertising are newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and internet. The main features of advertising are as follows :
(i) Paid form of communication: It is a paid form, as the advertiser has to pay for the advertising media used, for space or time used to communicate the message tot he user.
(ii) Impersonality: Advertising presents the information regarding a product, service or idea in a non-personal form, as no face-to-face contact is involved between the seller and the customers.
(iii) Identified sponsor: Sponsor may be an individual or a firm, who pays for the advertisement.