Well, I do not think that this guestion is of the same significance as Hamlet’s To-be-or-not-to-be? question. In other words, sometimes you can survive even if you do not advertise as well. What are the reasons then for the popularity of advertising of all kinds among the marketing managers?These advantages of advertising come to mind at once:

– It addresses a mass audience.
– It has strong effects on brand awareness.
– It builds relationships and (hopefully positive) feelings towards your brand.
– It creates a picture of the promoted product and places it in people’s minds.
– It creates a unique selling proposition.
– It can enhance the value of the brand.

I believe there are many more of advantages to advertising.

But there are also a few drawbacks:

– Advertising costs money.
– Business leaders are often against high advertising budgets.
– It is hard to measure its effect.
– There is always a risk that the campaign will not be successful, that the audience will not be convinced by it.
– There are other more efficient means of marketing communication that will increase your sales with much lower expenditure.

Again there are certainly more disadvantages. So why we do not stop throwing money into the ‘advertising bin’?

There is one piece of advice on this. You should always make sure that what you do is effective, i. e. that any single cent you spend creates relevant value in terms of higher revenues, increased profits or at least more sales leads.

To achieve this it is strongly recommended to aim directly at your correct target market. If you sell language study stays abroad for example, you should aim at a particular group of people who you would like to offer your services to. Then look for ways how to attract them.

In some areas of business, especially in the B2B sector, advertising is often replaced by other more effective ways of creating new relationships with prospects, such as referrals, testimonials, speaking at conferences, publishing articles etc.

And the Winner Is…

Well, it depends on your business, your situation, the product you offer and everything and everyone you are dealing with and that is dealing with you. You are the only expert in your own business and you are responsible for its success. Nobody else can make the decision for you. I have just outlined several ideas you can follow on your way towards the correct decision. I hope this step will lead you to success!