What are the characteristics of a good advertisement? Suggest guidelines for designing an effective advertisement.

It is quite a tedious job to design an effective advertisement. There is no format for such a purpose. Important characteristics of a good advertisement are as follows:

Features Relating to the Message.It is important to take care of what is said about the product and how it is said in the message. Remember the following points while making a message:

Attractive: One should use such words or pictures in the message that may help in drawing the attention of the customers, creating liking for the brand etc. To leave an impact on person’s mind, create a catchy message.

Desirability: The message should be prepared is such a way that it arouses the interest of the customers to buy that product. Message should be designed is such a way that it reveals something interesting and desirable about the product.

Memorable and easy to recall: The words should be easy and the language should be simple so that the customers remember and recall it when ever they require. Choice of words is important and should be taken care of because whenever customers go out for shopping, the message is only thing that they remember about the product.

Believable: It should be made in such a way that one can easily believe it. Don’t try to make it a fake one otherwise you may lose the customers. Message should compare with the product and if it is provable and believable, customers can easily get convinced to buy the product.

Exclusive: Try to add something unique, exclusive and distinctive in your message if you want the customers to know why your product is better than the-other ones. Remember to reveal all the unique features of the product. Put your creative thinking and create an extra-ordinary message which may be absent in other products.

Features Relating to Consumer Reach:

Advertisement’s impact depends on how well it reaches the target audience. Remember the following points, while making the advertisement:

Appropriate media: An appropriate medium should be chooses in order to make the ad effective. Choose that media which covers a huge mass or is viewed by a lot of people. For example if majority of people are illiterate, a message should not be presented in newspapers. If majority of people do not have TV sets, it would not be fruitful to present a message on TV

Frequency: It means the number of times any ad is repeated within a given period of time. Frequency should be optimum because if it is less, one may not remember the message and if it is more, one may get irritated and frustrated and may even ignore or not listen to the message.

Timing: Make the timing proper if one wants to reach and convey the message to the majority of customers. For example to make the ad more effective, remember to make it appear on TV when a majority of people are watching TV programmes.