How advertising benefits the consumer

Image by Serena Wong from Pixabay.

Some of the simplest reasons why advertising is beneficial for consumers are :

• Increased awareness means more options to choose from: Consumers grow aware of brands that cater to their needs better, learning of them from the ads companies lay. They are able to find substitutes for the products they use easily. For example, there is a costly product made by a premium brand and there is another company that offers a cheaper substitute for the same product. Higher awareness helps the customer decide which one suits his/her needs. The main reason that insurance brands advertise too much is to grow brand awareness. Higher awareness and higher availability help consumers make better choices in terms of prices and product benefits and make more satisfactory purchases.
• Higher bargaining power: If the bargaining power of the consumers has increased over time then part of the credit also goes to advertising. Consumers have several options to select from and more information in their hands to weigh their options. So, it also gives them higher bargaining power as more brands fight to win the consumers’ trust and bring more profitable choices for them. The centrality of consumers’ role in business success has been driving customer-oriented advertising and promotions throughout the industry. More companies use testimonials as a part of their promotions which shows the customers’ clout.
• Saves time: While ads can sometimes be annoying, they can also be useful for consumers. A consumer comes across an ad that promotes exactly the product he wants to buy. You have been looking for the right flat and you suddenly discover it in an ad while you were going through the newspaper and it turns out you also found the best deal and need to look no further. The product is not absolutely the same as you wanted but it still closely fits your needs. The ad saved you from a lot of trouble since you would have spent a lot of time searching for the right product and the right deal. In recent years, shopping has become much easier and you do not have to spend a lot of time looking for the appropriate product or deal mainly because each one is promoted before you and the marketer tries to bring every important feature that might be useful for you to your attention. With the increased use of data and analytics, advertising is now more targeted, and finding the exact product that fits your requirement is not any more difficult.
• Higher convenience: Advertising is the tool businesses employ to invite the customers’ attention to the right product or brand. They lay ads online and on social media and even splash the walls of your locality with ads. Companies do not necessarily employ it to grow sales and profits only. The motive is also to offer a hasslefree and frictionless shopping experience by guiding customers to the right channels and appropriate products. Not all ads misinform and a lot of them save you time and money as well as a lot of hard work. So, one of the motives behind advertising is also to offer the customers higher convenience and overall superior shopping experience.
• Increased access to new products and services: Netflix was very popular in the US but internationally, without advertising and promotions, very few would have known it. Word of mouth works but an advertising campaign would still be necessary for a brand trying to grow its presence overseas. A large class of products and services have emerged in recent years that were previously unknown to the average consumer. Even in the case of products made for businesses or professional consumers, advertising informs them about the distinguishing features of a product or service. Consumers have access to a large range of new products and services many of which fulfill their needs better than the ones they have been using. So, advertising also works to grow our comfort zones. For example, you have two software that you are using together to achieve better results. Both have outstanding features but it is mainly the distinguishing or differentiating features of each that really makes the difference and together the two help you shine at your job.
• Well, there can be more advantages of advertising and I will let you know about more of them as I discover. However, many times a cool ad also offers a pleasant break from an otherwise boring schedule. This is an advantage that most consumers are familiar with. Companies create entertaining or thrilling ads since they do not just drive higher engagement but also because they last longer in people’s memories. Not all ads are as good, but some definitely are and they manage to stand out from the crowd of ads consumers come across daily. Some of them have background music that relaxes you and thrills your nerves. Consumers now come across a large number of advertisements daily and sometimes it gets annoying but the race to win space in the consumers’ hearts often also unleashes the creativity of brands in quite unexpected ways.