Mass media 's (television, radio, magazines, etc) role in the promotional mix is advertising. In particular, television commercial advertising is a paid form of non-personal communication. Companies use commercial advertising because it is an effective means of mass-marketing as indicated by the "Friends" series finale. The objectives to advertising include: informing consumers of a new product, persuading the consumer to remain with or switch to a particular product, or remind consumers of the value of a product or where to locate it. The objective of mass-marketing is to reach out to as many consumers in one fail swoop to create brand awareness, brand interest, brand equity, to obtain competitive advantage, and to increase market share. The advertiser 's ultimate goal is to accomplish the company 's marketing objectives.
In regards to advertising, companies use a pull selling strategy, to "build up consumer demand." A typical commercial is comprised of the source (the company/distributor/retailer) whose product or service is featured) that encodes the message using symbols such as words, illustrations, or images; the message (the
Cited: Evans, Joel R. and Berman, Barry. (1994) "Marketing," Sixth Edition. Macmillan Publishing Company. New York, New York. Page 584. Charity Organization Pays Telemarketers Big, Police Little Wegert, Tessa. (2003) Four Online Media Mix Essentials. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 7 May 2004: http://www.clickz.com/experts/media/media_buy/article.php/2209781 Wellington, Elizabeth