Do we need generic advertising?

In South Africa, the major generic adverting programmes are run with very low budgets and the benefits probably exceed the cost of these campaigns, says.

- Dr Koos Coetzee

Farmers frequently query the effectiveness of generic advertising campaigns. What is meant by generic advertising?

In their book Advertising, Wright, Warner, Winter and Zeigler explain that the role of advertising is to inform consumers about goods that he or she would not otherwise know about, to tell the consumer where specific products are available, and what the purchase terms are.

Out of total advertising spend, the portion spent to inform the consumer is very small. The bulk of advertising spend is to shift the consumer from buying one product rather than another product.

Generic advertising differs from product promotion by manufacturers. Brand advertising tries to increase a specific brand’s slice of the pie, whereas the goal of generic advertising is to increase the size of the pie. Generic advertising can increase the demand for agricultural products, because they are not easily differentiated.

ATTEMPTING TO SWAY CONSUMERS