Advertising (Wirtschaftliche Aspekt)
We regularly hear people saying that advertising is a waste of money as it makes products more expensive because of the huge amounts spent on advertising them. Another criticism is also that it creates “false needs and desires” as well as persuades and manipulates people buying things they don’t usually require. As a result many people have now learnt to simply ignore these irrelevant advertisements. Whenever it is possible they purchase items in local business. These products may cost more in the short term but the pleasure they give and the durability compensate for this. Why then is adverting necessary in our consumerist society?
According to my opinion our free market economy business and trade cannot function without advertising. In today’s rather strained economy, most people – because not everyone can afford everything - are trying to save money and searching for the great bargain wherever possible. Without advertising these and other facts would not be imaginable. Likewise, if the advertisement wouldn’t exist many manufactures wouldn’t make any kind of effort to develop new products. Moreover, sellers wouldn’t focus on customer’s demand and desires.
However, due to advertising manufactures attempt to develop better products than their competitors. Thereby they try to enhance their company’s image to gain the trust of their customers. By designing new products, advertisement helps to sell products in larger quantities which on the one hand results in good sales figures and on the other hand stimulates the producers to drop their prices as well as providing better customers’ services than their opponents and promoting discounts. Thereby the benefits of a whole economy and of the consumers are ensured. If these goods and services weren’t sold, turnover was affected and if profits fell, jobs were lost and companies sometimes even went out of business which would even decrease the number of competitors within the economy.
Providing information is one of the main functions of advertising. Goods and services simply do not exist for us nor can they be bought by us until we are aware of them. In short, advertising is the pipeline of communication that connects buyers and sellers. In our consumerist society customers want to be informed about products in order to buy the most up-to-date one, especially from electronic industries, in which products are developed new constantly. Furthermore due to advertising they can easily compare prices quoted by different companies just as well they can compare the quality of the products.
To sum up, contrary to popular belief, items are not more expensive due to advertising. In fact, if there was no advertising there would be no mass production and no increasing volume of sales which would make goods far more expensive. The small ads in media are also essential for offering services, jobs and second-hand goods. Plus, many newspapers and TV channels couldn’t exist without the money they receive for advertisements.
Finally, we live in a consumerist society in which one of the most important leisure activities is shopping. It is significant that people purchase things in order to flourish economy. If there were no such things like advertising we would have to have a different kind of society in which people consumed less and led simpler lives.