Advertising is paid, one-way communication through a medium in which the sponsor is identified and the message is controlled. Variations include publicity, public relations, product placement, sponsorship, underwriting, and sales promotion. Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including: television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and billboards. Advertisements can also be seen on the seats of grocery carts, on the walls of an airport walkway, on the sides of buses, heard in telephone hold messages and in-store PA systems. Advertisements are usually placed anywhere an audience can easily and/or frequently access visuals and/or audio, especially on clothing. Advertising clients are predominantly, but not exclusively, for-profit corporations seeking to increase demand for their products or services. Some organizations that frequently spend large sums of money on advertising but do not strictly sell a product or service to the general public include: political parties, interest groups, religion-supporting organizations, and militaries looking for new recruits. Additionally, some non-profit organizations are not typical advertising clients and rely upon free channels, such as public service announcements. For instance, a well-known exception to the use of commercial advertisements is Krispy Kreme doughnuts which relies on word-of-mouth.
Corporate Advertising
that would seem to mean that drivers who buy gas at the pump suffered a 10 billion loss. Not good publicity. Stockholders may feel the same way when Reliance makes 10 billion and declares a 23-cent dividend. Isn't that like running up a big restaurant bill and then leaving a three-rupee tip? A strong corporate brand can signal reliability, expertise, or commitment to a particular idea/ideology. It brings a sense of reliability to the company's individual products and brands. Once in a while, a large group or conglomerate comes out with advertisements both in print and in the electronic media where the emphasis is on the company and the range of interests it has, the number of industries it spans, its outlook, contribution to its employees, to the nation, and so on, and not on its products per se. Sometimes, the products or services these industries provide are not consumed directly by the common man, at least on a daily basis, such as shipping, or mines. For instance, the Aditya Birla group has one such commercial on air now. Who are these advertisements aimed at and what purpose do they serve, considering they are not exhorting you outright to buy their products? Why are they not seen very often? And how do they help the advertiser? advertising of the company' or corporate advertising, as it is referred to, brings to light a critical, though often under-emphasised aspect of business. While most companies pay attention to the branding and marketing aspects of the individual `brands' that they sell, few companies pay adequate attention to or indeed exploit the full potential of their `corporate' brands. 
IBM Corporate Advertising 1948-1954`Corporate' brands, simply put, tell us what to expect from the company as a whole. Corporate brands (and advertising thereof) can have several audiences: Consumers of the company's products, shareholders - who could be either present or prospective shareholders/investors, stakeholders - present and prospective employees of the company, vendors and so on. In theory, people often distinguish between the vision (aimed at the shareholders of the company), mission statement (aimed at the employees of the company) and the corporate position (aimed at the consumers). However, I strongly believe that all three - vision, mission and positioning - are closely related. While corporate advertising often addresses consumers as the primary audience, I believe it can have significant impact on the other two audiences also. Companies need to, and indeed do take into account all three perspectives while developing their corporate brand positioning. Let us see how the corporate brand affects these three audiences.
Consumers: While each individual product/brand has a unique position of its own, many brands that people consume also have a `heritage', i.e., consumers have an opinion of the company that manufactures and sells the brand. In certain categories such as health services, banking, food (which may be either high-risk or high-value), the heritage of the brand may play a key role in influencing consumer choice. Across all categories, a strong corporate brand can signal any one of the following - reliability, expertise, or commitment to a particular idea/ideology. The brands we know (and recognize) are the ones we trust. A strong and recognizable corporate brand brings a sense of reliability to the company's individual products and brands. In addition, a corporate brand may signal the company's expertise in a particular area, and thereby strengthen its individual brands' claims. Over and above all this, a corporate brand often stands for a strong idea, or principle that the company would like to stand for, which can then rub off on the perceptions of their individual brands/products. Even in cases where the products may not be consumed often, or directly, corporate brands can influence decision makers. Corporate brands can even play an important role in influencing social pressure groups, policy makers or public opinion at large. For example, companies that are seen to operate in categories that are environment-unfriendly (like oil exploration, mining) try to cultivate an image of being environment-friendly. Thus they try not only to positively influence consumer perceptions about the individual brands in respective categories (e.g. automobile fuel) but also try to positively influence any policy making in this regard through public opinion.
Shareholders: Several corporate undertake advertising just before going in for a public issue of shares, in the hope of positively influencing investor confidence in them. Individual investors or even financial institutions can be influenced by what the corporate brand (and hence the company) stands for.
Stakeholders: A strong corporate brand can act as a strong guiding force for the employees of the company. This is even more critical for multi-product companies or those operating in multiple categories. A strong corporate brand can unify employees across divisions/departments and tell them what is expected of them individually and collectively. More importantly, corporate brands help instill a sense of pride in employees and can help attract and retain the best talent. A company that is consistently portrayed as an innovative front-runner will have least trouble in attracting innovative talent! In the Aditya Birla Group's case, the corporate branding exercise tries to address audiences across this wide spectrum - to signal a change from being an old-economy, family-run group to a new, professionally-run and dynamic organization. This will influence not only potential consumers (even though all its products may not be daily use products), but also potential investors and employees.
Example of Aditya Birla Commercial
THE MAKING OF AN EPIC
The Aditya Birla Commercial 2006 is a film of epic proportions. The objective of this commercial is to depict that people from various ethnicities work for the Aditya Birla Group as a team. The creative challenge was to depict the Group, as the confluence of cultures. This year’s film has it roots in last year’s film, where VGC positioned the Group as the first Indian Multinational Company.
Product Advertisement
Advertising agencies all over the globe are always in search for new ideas and innovative concepts in order to push a product towards a specific market. Advertisements target viewers by classifying the strong selling point of the product. On this same foundation, advertisements are set to promote the said product by identifying their target market. Upon classification of the product and identifying its market, advertising agencies use several techniques and resources of different forms and then later apply them to the concept of their advertisement.
Consider the advertisement for Microsoft's X-Box game which talks about graphics and contents .It discusses the advertisement's target audience and its positioning. After seeing the advertisement, I analyze the message strategy and graphics strategy used in the advertisement and the brand identification strategy.
The overall assessment of the advertisement's success in reaching its intended audience is positive. The ad is targeted at the primary MAD audience - teenagers - and through 'comic-book' styled layout of graphics and minimal text, the ad entices their market into either wanting to play the game, or investigating the game at either their local retail store or online. The ad also utilizes a single picture of teenagers playing the game. This is interlaid within the comic-book layout of scenes from the game as well as 'comic' blurbs, like "Thwack!!!"."
On a whole comparing Corporate with Product Advertisements
While corporate advertising brands a company and its image, product advertising brands a certain product. The goal of product advertising is to target a special focus group by advertising a special product and increase the sales volume of that product. For example, see this product ad which clearly focuses only on Coke Zero and not on the whole Coca Cola Corporation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1VxrT1vDwU
There are three categories of corporate advertising: image advertising, financial advertising, and issue advocacy. Image advertising has the aim to reinforce a company's identity and to enhance its reputation. Especially when structural changes occur within companies, they frequently use corporate advertising to strengthen their identities.
For example, they need to explain their new vision and strategy when they merge with other
companies: the "Ask Dr. Z."-campaign was launched by DaimlerChrysler when the company was striking for a larger market share in the United States http://www.autoblog.com/media/2006/06/askdrz.jpg
In the campaign Dieter Zetsche, CEO of DaimlerChrysler, was a cartoon figure that answered questions of people. The goal was to inform constituencies about the new company and to strengthen DaimlerChrysler's image in public. Corporate advertising is an efficient tool for changing or establishing impressions about organizations if structural changes have taken place. Further, it allows companies to differentiate themselves from rivals. The users of corporate advertising are mostly larger corporations, and many of them operate in controversial industries like oil extraction and cigarette production. These companies try to improve their reputation with their corporate advertising. Other reasons for companies investing in corporate advertising are to increase sales and to recruit or retain good employees. Of course, the relationship between product advertising and sales is clearer than the one between corporate advertising and sales. However, companies try to draw out features about themselves which they think might appeal to the public and make consumers buy more products from them. Corporate advertising is also used to create a stronger reputation by letting constituencies know what a company is all about, presenting its beneficial actions, and to built credibility in public. Finally, organizations use corporate advertising also to attract and retain employees. The goal is to keep and get bright people by creating excitement among both potential and current employees. CIA's recruitment commercial is a good example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg4_MuV4MpY
With this ad, the CIA tries to convey its scientific and technological image in order to attract bright engineers and scientists as employees.
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