What is Advertising?

    It sounds like a silly question, but it is a question that is often overlooked when planning a business and marketing strategy. Advertising does two things: 1) it influences a purchasing decision or brand choice in customers who are ready to buy. 2) It builds awareness and loyalty to a brand in consumers who have already or yet to have made a purchasing decision. A company can exist without advertising, but relying on word of mouth alone won't allow you to grow as quickly as an effective advertising strategy.

"Ok, so advertising is important to grow my company, but it's expensive. Don't I have to spend a lot of money for it to make a difference?"

    The short answer is no, but it can get a little complex. To fully understand the costs of advertising, you must understand how it is measured.
    Advertising is budgeted based on impressions, or how many times the ad is seen by a member of the population. Impression numbers are calculated by multiplying the reach of a medium by the frequency the ad is displayed. Reach is the size of the audience exposed to a particular medium, or how many people within a population will likely read the paper, watch the television, or listen to the radio during the time frame the ad airs. The reach of each medium can be measured and reported as a percentage of the total population. The following list shows the approximate reach of some local media outlets based on Portland's adult population of about 1.3 million.

Oregonian
Radio (top 20 local stations combined)
Television (all 8 local network stations combined)
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