Some years ago, traditional marketing communication was extremely popular for various business organizations. For instance, almost every person from the generation of millennials witnessed radio, newspaper, outdoor, and billboard advertisements. The thing was that traditional advertisement was the only way to promote different products. Nowadays, there are more and more digital inventions for promotion, for example, modern advertising screens, interactive advertisements, target promotion on the internet, and many other tools. However, it is doubtful whether traditional marketing communication is still alive. It is helpful to examine this question to understand the value of conventional communication in modern society.
It becomes evident that new tools rapidly substitute the traditional form of advertising. Traditional media is often referred to as an old form of marketing communication (You and Joshi, 2020, p.228). Indeed, it is vital to consider the instruments that comprise traditional advertising, what they contain, and their usage. For instance, radio advertising remains a perfect opportunity to promote the product or service for a mass audience. Moreover, radio advertisement is relatively cheap (Smith, 2021), and it allows many beginner companies to become famous. Concerning billboards advertising, it becomes an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the good or service to many people. Next, television and print media are methods that allow almost any company to show up for a big audience.
It can be useful to look at the advantages of traditional media. Many people are obsessed with printed media; they like to buy various newspapers, books, booklets. It might not only make use of the company’s image, but print media will become a memorable advertisement. In addition, people used to buy various picturesque calendars with the company’s logo, which were held the whole year (Dowd, 2020). In addition to this, some researches prove that traditional advertising makes a positive brand image (Morra et al., 2017). After considering this fact, it is possible to say that the old form of advertisement can make the promotion effective and memorable.
Traditional Media and Digital Advertising
It is also important to note that a significant percentage of the target audience for some companies (people aged 60-75) cannot visit various websites. Therefore, they utilize newspapers, radio, and television instead of various gadgets. It is a typical case when several older family members watch television or listen to the radio rather than use smartphones. Thus, organizations that reject traditional media might lose a significant part of a target audience.
Some companies may have a struggle with the cost of a modern advertisement. As mentioned before, traditional advertisement is not costly compared to digital media (Aukofer et al., 2021). For instance, to produce a worthy digital advertisement, the company should spend its budget on digital designers, sound producers, art directors, and other things. Moreover, the competition among decent modern advertisements is rather high; more and more goods are produced, and each organization wants to promote them. It might be not the case with traditional media; for instance, the company may spend less money to generate printed or radio promotion. This is beneficial because printed media does not require any sounds or video, and radio advertising does not need an image.
However, some people consider traditional media communication an old-fashioned form of media, and there are some reasons for this opinion. It is known that nowadays, media is everywhere; our smartphones might know our needs better than we ourselves. For example, there are many ways to approach a modern consumer, and one of them is a target. The significance of the target is that the advertisement is matched with the potential customer’s wants and needs (Masco, 2021). Modern digital advertising is generated on the principles of the target, and it makes their promotion more effective. McKinsey report states that more and more companies have become devoted to personalized advertisements (Boudet et al., 2019). Indeed, traditional advertising loses here; its audience is broad and is not selected by customer’s desires. Therefore, it becomes difficult to measure how effective conventional advertising is.
After moving further, it can be helpful to look through methods of modern advertisement to examine its effectiveness compared to traditional tools. Modern advertising methods often refer to online advertisements, various digital billboards, screens, interactive promotion, online games, and other devices. Indeed, this is much more costly, but these modern methods can be more entertaining and fascinating to watch for a customer. According to the WebFX report, traditional advertising is significantly cheaper than digital methods (Dowd, 2020). What is more, online advertisement is a very comfortable tool, because the potential customer can return to it or search it on the internet at any time.
However, this high level of comfort can be crafty for advertisers. In the digital age, people can hardly remember what they did on the Internet one hour ago. Usually, people do not reflect the information that slithers around them, and it can refer to the advertisement as well. Therefore, it comprises the disadvantage of digital advertisement – it can be forgotten. The competition among organizations has increased as everyone wants to make the most memorable advertisement (Othman et al., 2021). Thus, in comparison with the printed tool of the traditional media, digital promotion fails. Printed advertising is always tangible, and the potential customer can always keep it under his hand.
After considering these points, it is possible to determine what problems modern advertisers face when trying to promote their products. As it was mentioned before, there is an issue with high competition between current organizations. Trying to make their advertisement effective, some brands misuse the personal information of users. For example, the article by Mary Dowd, 2020 states that some companies spy and steal users’ private data. Certainly, it can undermine the confidence of the company and spoil the reputation of the whole brand. On the contrary, even though traditional marketing communication is widespread and does not cover particular layers of the population, it can be called safe for users. Thus, the traditional advertisement makes its promotion non-risky for potential customers.
Relevance of Traditional Marketing Communication Today
To sum everything up, it is feasible to conclude some points about the value of traditional marketing methods in modern times. First of all, traditional advertising is cheaper than actual digital promotion. It is beneficial for small companies that want to get effective advertising with a limited budget. In addition, it is clear that some people lack modern gadgets, and they are not a target for many organizations that promote their products via digital advertising. Therefore, traditional methods are more effective in this case. After considering these points, there is a struggle with the online safety used by digital promotion. Some companies might abuse personal users’ information in order to adjust personalized advertisements. Therefore, it is possible to say that traditional marketing communication remains an effective, cheap, and safe tool for promotion and is still a good way to approach the customer.
Reference List
Aukofer, M. et al. (2021). Good to great: boosting the efficiency of your TV spend. McKinsey & Company. Web.
Boudet, J. et al. (2019). The future of personalization—and how to get ready for it. McKinsey & Company. Web.
Dowd, M. (2020). Examples of traditional advertising. Small Business – Chron.com. Web.
Masco, J. (2021). 10 Target Audience. The future of fallout, and other episodes in radioactive world-making. New York, USA: Duke University Press, pp. 197-218.
Morra, M.C. et al. (2017). ‘Social vs traditional media communication: brand origin associations strike a chord’, Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 12(1), pp.2–21.
Othman, B. et al. (2021). ‘The effects on service value and customer retention by integrating after sale service into the traditional marketing MIX model of clothing store brands in China’, Environmental Technology & Innovation, 23, pp.101-784.
Smith, B. (2021). Is traditional media dead? CLM Northwest. Web.
You, Y. and Joshi, Amit M. (2020). ‘The impact of user-generated content and traditional media on customer acquisition and retention’, Journal of Advertising, 49(3), pp. 213-233.