Advertisement is not important for marketing !

According to the critics, advertising has the following disadvantages:

(1) Adds to Costs:

An organisation has to spend large amount on advertising. It increases the cost of the products. To meet this expenditure, price of the product is raised. No manufacturer pays for the advertising expenses out of his pocket. Advertising, therefore, leads to unnecessary rise in prices. In this reference it is said that advertising costs are passed on to the consumers in the form of high prices.

(2) Undermines Social Values:

Advertisement is a sort of day-dreaming for the people. These days it is taking the people away from reality and into the realm of artificiality. Through its medium people get information about new products. Only very few products are of any use for them. The brilliance of new products really gets on their nerves. They want to buy them but have no resources at their command. Consequently, they start feeling upset with their present status. Taking it as a social evil, it can be said that advertisement undermines social values.

(3) Confuses the Buyers:

Many a time distorted version of reality is shown in the advertising. Believing in advertising, consumers buy the product. On its use, they feel cheated. They come to realise later that the information given in the advertisement was something else whereas the actual product was quite different from it. Thus, people lose confidence in advertising because of wrong presentation. In this reference it is said that advertising confuses rather than helps.

(4) Encourages Sale of Inferior Products:

Every manufacturer projects his product as superior one in the advertisement. Therefore, the buyer is unable to decide as to which product is really good.

Consequently, it is difficult to get good quality product even after paying a handsome price for it. If a seller gets good price for some inferior product, it becomes a habit with him. It affects other sellers also. Therefore, it is said that advertisement encourages the sale of inferior products.

(5) Some Advertisement is in Bad Taste:

Many times, foul language and objectionable pictures are used in advertising in order to attract a particular class. They may be insulting to a particular class. It causes decay of social values.

Such kinds of advertising are generally opposed by the people as it hurts their feelings. In this reference it is said that some advertisements are in bad tastes.