What is Your Ad Worth Without Data Insights?

?Misrepresentation of Facts:

A major drawback of advertising is the misrepresentation of facts regarding products and services. Advertisers usually misrepresent unreal/false benefits of a product and make tall claims to excite people to indulge in actions leading to their benefit, but opposed to consumer’s self-interest.

?Consumer’s Deficit:

Advertising creates desires as consumers have low purchasing power. It leads to discontentment. Such discontent is obviously not very desirable from the point of view of society, particularly if it affects a large majority of people. But it is important if it acts as a spur to social change.

Barriers to Entry:

Advertisements promote industrial concentration to a greater or lesser degree. The extent of such concentration may vary with the character of the individual trade, the advertising ability of the product and the technical conditions of its production. Although, studies on this subject are not conclusive. The evidence of a positive association between advertising and concentration is weaker than can be expected.

Wastage of National Resources:

It is objected that advertisement is used to destroy the utility of goods before the end of their normal period of usefulness. Now models of automobiles with nominal improvements are, for example, advertised at such high pressure that the old models have to be discarded long before they become useless, not that merely, the most-advertised products are delicate, fragile, and brittle.

vi. Increased Cost:

It is much debated whether advertising induces additional costs upon a product which the community has to pay for. In a sense, it is true since expenses on it form a part of the total cost of the product. But at the same time, it would be unjust to infer that if the advertising costs were cut down the goods would necessarily be cheaper. Advertising is one of the items of costs but it is a cost which brings savings in its wake on the distribution side.

vii. Product Proliferation:

Critics state that advertising encourages unnecessary product proliferation. As it leads to the multiplication of products that are almost identical, resulting in wastage of resources which could otherwise have been used to produce other products.

viii. Multiplication of Needs:

Advertising compels people to buy things they do not need as it is human instincts, to possess, to be recognized in society, etc., are provoked by advertisers in order to sell products. At times, various types of appeals are advanced to arouse interest in the product. Sentiments and emotions are played with to gain customers.