Corporate Advertising

A corporation has to decide how to advertise. Do they want to advertise a product or the corporation? In many cases by advertising the corporation, the company will see an increase in sales. The ad may enhance the company's reputation, attract investors or influence opinions. During the war advertisers kept advertising their products and company even if they weren't making products so the public would remember them when the war was over. Therefore, the company could get back to business without losing customers.

By advertising the companies values, this makes the company more reputable. People may be more willing to purchase a product from a company they know values environmental issues compared to a company they don't have any knowledge about. This is a reason why it is hard to see how Corporate advertising effects sales. The advertising can also help with recruiting and retaining employees.

It was interesting looking at the different brands of vehicles and the different comments made by the class. When Ford's logo was shown, students thoughts were "junk", "unreliable" etc.... this is the reputation customers associate with the logo. When we saw McDonald's, everyone knew the golden arches. It's amazing how companies have developed a symbol that stands for the company and everyone recognizes that symbol. Another example would be Target. When people see the bulls eye they associate it with Target.

Personal Experience
I can see how corporate advertising can influence you to purchase items from that company. Seeing the Target, Walmart, and Kmart commercials you can see how it can be beneficial to a company. If it is done properly the company will benefit. However, not all corporate advertising is effective. Kmart tried to boost it's image thru corporate advertising and they did not succeed. They ended up being purchased by Sears. So just because you choose to corporate advertise does not mean the company will be successful.

References

For more information on Corporate advertising you can click on the following links:
http://ageofengage.com/?gclid=CLXq3LOm1pICFQurPAod6ksrnA
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE1D8173CF93BA25752C0A963958260
Here is an example of corporate advertising:
http://www.xlcapital.com/xlc/xlc/about_sub.jsp?sublobbyname=ad