Advertising Case

I. Introduction

Recently, there has been a growing interest in print advertising and its effects on both local and international businesses today. Advertising, in general, is the public promotion of a business to a specific market through newspapers, radio, television, and the like. Print advertisements, specifically, is the use of print publications to raise awareness about a specific activity, service, or product, In the business world, companies, whether past or present, big or small, use print advertisements to reach out to their target market and, consequently, encourage them to support their product and raise revenue. However, as time passes by, businesses have continually changed their marketing strategies with regards to print advertisements because of the continual change in the trends among humans. Advertisers mostly use their instinct, knowledge, and observations regarding how their consumers think. Through this, they are able to reflect, and consequently, use in doing what they believe are effective advertising and marketing strategies (Weilbecher, 1979).

University of Sto. Tomas (UST), print advertisements are seen throughout the academe promoting their 400 years of existence. The phrase "400 years of unending grace" is seen in different UST merchandise like fans, posters, mugs, umbrellas and so on (UST website, 2011). Other than that, print advertising is also used in promoting the school's entrance examinations to incoming freshmen students. The school gives out brochures and booklets, which contain the requirements and the dates of the examinations. With Ateneo de Manila University, on the other hand, their application folder comes with a magazine, which contains information about the school. Furthermore, they also give a small brochure containing necessary information about the courses offered by the Ateneo (Office of Admission and Aid, 2011). But, some schools like University of the Philippines are not able to offer a lot of print advertisements to incoming freshmen students. This is probably because of the lack of funds of the said university.

However, in De La Salle University-Manila, print advertisements are still abundant and are still almost always used by several organizations and offices inside the school. Different organizations, both student and professional, still use different print advertisements, despite having a good number of technological resources within the academe. Organizations strategically place these advertisements around places in De La Salle areas where a lot of students, teachers, and school employees pass by every single day. Examples of these places are Saint Joseph Walk (SJ), Miguel Walk, Bro. Andrew Building Lobby, and so on. But, people don't really know if print advertisements are still effective and if it still entices its targeted audience to support its endeavors. With that said, the paper aims to answer these questions by researching and knowing the effects of print advertisements within DLSU to College of Business Freshmen Lasallians in terms of belief, awareness, and decision making.

II. Body

First, the constant exposure of these print advertisements in DLSU affects College of Business Freshmen Lasallians in terms of belief. Students have different perceptions towards certain advertisements. Some advertisements appeal to certain groups of people while it does not for others. Because of this, advertisers try to group their probable consumers, and then target their advertisements for their market. An increase in sales through advertising will occur after changing or influencing the belief of the consumer regarding a product (Lavidge and Steiner, 1961). Advertisements tend to be persuasive to some people; thus, its purpose is achieved. These advertisements make it known to the viewers and tell them to patronize what they banner. Selling of the products will be more lucrative when the advertisements are designed to look appealing to its target customers. Moreover, the advertisement, to be effective, needs to be important to the customer. Certain situations are there wherein the customer is just looking for information rather than looking at the aesthetics of the advertisement (Farbey, 1994). For the Business Management Society, a DLSU student organization, they believe that their print advertisements - if designed and located strategically - give out information about their publicized activities, thus affecting the beliefs of their specific target market about it. Furthermore, they believe that their advertisements will give their market clues as to what their projects are about (Lato, 2011).

However, according to Welbecher, a lot of consumers believe that advertisements have the tendency to be untruthful and misleading (Weilbecher, 1979). These deceptive advertisements are defined in the allbusiness online dictionary as endorsements with false claims and statements that attract consumers by making false impressions. Some examples of deceptive advertising are incomplete descriptions, false testimonials and comparisons, partial disclosure, and visual distortion of products. Mcneal believes that most consumers buy products because they want it and they need it, not because of print advertisement manipulation (McNeal, N.D.). In DLSU, based on recent survey conducted by the researchers, students are halved when it comes to believing print advertisements within the Lasallian community (Figure 1.1). But, after purchasing products or supporting activities, most of them believe that not everything the advertisements have stated are true, as survey results has shown. Nevertheless, they were still satisfied with what they have bought and supported (Figure 1.2).

Second, Print advertisements also have a huge effect on the awareness of Lasallians. The purpose of advertising is to deliver messages to its target market, and can potentially have a very strong impact